On Despair - orig. 07/27/05

Here is an excerpt from an email I wrote today regarding despair:

“In the course of this process there are going to be plateaus and moments of despair, but I believe that overall this process is going to be uplifting. The despair is a reflection of the status quo trying to suck you back in. Humans have a tremendous need for belonging. Aspects of your mind are going to do whatever possible to get you to conform to the situational ethics in which we are mired such that you will return to the fold. I am here... You do belong.

I think the despair may actually be a good sign because it lets you know that you're values are changing. Bear in mind that you have been conditioned from birth to be a consumer. Know that the moments of despair will pass. If you want them to pass more quickly then when they come up you can take some action. Call a friend. Let them know what you are doing and why? Write an email. Strike up a conversation with your landlord. Strike up a conversation with someone at work. You are always welcome to call me. The quickest way to get through the moment is to help affect a change. (These suggestions are a reminder for me as well.)

In regards to sharing the message with others I recommend sharing your experience, hope and strength... Let people know what you're experience has been and what you are doing to make changes. Let them know what your hopes are and that there is hope for the future. Your strength is that you have chosen a path that is ethical in regards to a global morality. Always promote solutions and actions. When despair strikes and you take some positive action and the despair passes that is strength. Share that strength with others.

It's a beautiful process. We can't know the outcome of our actions, but at the end of our lives when we evaluate how we lived, we will know that we did our best to live in a manner that supported life, love and hope; not just for those close to us, but for all life and for the future of all life on this incredible planet...”

-----

I needed to make a correction to an earlier blog and on the message board. I had said,”I believe that the last day I drove my car was June 16, 2005.” I meant to say July as opposed to June.

-----

Here are a some quotes from a couple of different emails:

OH! One more thing I wanted to mention - get off the junk mail lists. I have written to several companies in the past, asking them to remove me from their mailing lists, and in general, it worked. Here's a site I found yesterday which helps you figure out how to do this: http://opt-out.cdt.org/

Remember I told you about the doc I saw on PBS about home funerals/burials? Here's the link if you are interested: http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2004/afamilyundertaking/

Apparently in Washington if you want to be buried other than in a cemetery you have to have a private piece of land and declare it a cemetery then put $25,000 in a trust. I think that I would like to be buried in a town cemetery not a commercial one. There is a really beautiful old cemetery in Roslyn, Washington. Maybe I will see what it takes to get in there. I would prefer to not have my body filled with formaldehyde. I would like it to decompose naturally.

If I don’t have the chance to build my own casket I will have to talk to my brothers and see if they will build one for me when the time comes. I would like something very simple that will break down relatively quickly.