Responses, Part Three

Sunday morning, Feb. 19, 2006
Pisces Sun, Scorpio Moon (and Aquarius rising in Paris)

Dear Readers,

Your responses to my question on anger continue to come in. It's interesting to see your different ideas, and some people accounting for where they got them. It is true that something has to motivate you in the world. And if it's not anger, then it would pretty much have to be love. Is your love for humanity and the world strong enough to motivate you to action? To actually do something, rather than wonder what you can do?

Hmm, but what CAN we do? If you start to make a list, I think you would find it would be a pretty long list. And it can include any act of helping another person; of building community; of working to solve any problem that may or may not directly affect you; of taking responsibility for your world, and translating that responsibility to action and response (as the world implies).

There are a lot of ways to join what is, in truth, a resistance movement. Since you're the type who sits and reads the Internet, can propose a plan. Choose one issue...pick an issue...civil liberties...the ice caps...the World Oil War (by the way, the situation in Nigeria has not made much press in the USA)...and become an expert on that issue. By expert, I mean, read 25 articles and see where you learn.

Part of the inertia that we experience is a sense of powerlessness that comes from feeling like we do not know anything. With the Internet that is no longer an excuse. It used to take me a day to drive to Albany to search a database and pull a few articles...that I can now do the equivalent in .03 seconds.

Anyway -- here are a few more comments. Please keep them coming. Please stay in touch.

e

Dear Eric -

I live in Italy, where swans and fowl are being mass slaughtered at the moment, in response to a possible epidemic of bird flu; where a government minister (Calderoni) is about to resign because he wore a t-shirt with the offending satirical cartoon, which provoked blood shed; where the country's Prime Minister appears on TV all day, every day, in the run up to the April elections.

Everywhere you look, all over the world, there is ignorance, fear and violence. But there is the other side of all this too. Have you seen Crash? If you haven't, I really recommend it. It says it all. Anger is its central theme.

Love

Liz

Dear Eric,

I feel I am no more or less pissed off about the last six months than I have over the last six years of the Bush administration, but that's just me! I've been sick & tired of George W. since he was elected & have hated him for years. But I think more people, those who did vote for him, have had a loss of faith in his presidency within the last six months & that's a very good thing to see happening.

I think as soon as he started campaigning for President, I began to avoid any & all TV & audio footage of George W. & have tried to minimize seeing any footage of him ever since. He is NOT my President & I have never trusted a thing he has said! There are many people I know who did vote for him. And now there are becoming more people who now feel cheated & lied to by him, including some soldiers who went to Iraq.

Many Americans live with a false sense of an ideal American 'way of life' that isn't real & is full of illusion & waste & greed. Their homes are McMansions filled with wasted space or crammed with clutter they don't really need but cling to desperately. Their cars are giant gas guzzlers they bought by wasting money with depreciating value & money trickles out of the gas tank the instant they drive out of the car lot. Their jobs are likely overpaid & underskilled, if they are like some managers & executives I know, who get all the bonuses but don't really know how to do the simplest computer programs.

I've worked with many co-workers who have a false sense of faith in our corporate executives, in these days of Enron etc, that they can get our companies through any bad times. So that even when a company declares bankruptcy, fellow employees can have such blinders on & think it's a good thing & have such a false sense of hope & safety when suddenly the rug gets pulled out from under them & they are laid off. What a shock!

But I digress. I like to believe that in the grand scheme of things, that there will be a final punishment for these politicians & greedy corporate people. Like their souls burning to a crisp once they die or their karma will pile up like camel dung. Because what can I do to fight against them here & now? I am too tired to fight against them. I am apathetic. I am cynical about any & all politicians. There will be no politician to 'save' us from Bush. There will be no other kind of 'savior' to rescue us. I don't see any aliens likely coming down from the heavens to fix this earth!

I'd like to believe that we need to fight with spirit, that only spirit can save us, but how can we get the rest of this earthly community, that's so obsessed with the surface, the physical body, the material world, to focus on the spiritual to change the world? I do not know just yet. I'm working on it…

JLO

Jamie Olson
Eagan, MN

P.S. Hey, I'm pretty new to reading your blog regularly, but it's been really interesting. I get your horoscopes by email & I loved your 2/17 edition [of Planet Waves Weekly] discussing Pluto squares. Really amazing stuff! I was 33 when 9/11 happened & it affected me deeply at a soul level. I had to make changes in my life, tear down some walls I had up, & kind of align my life closer to what my true purpose was, even though I'm still searching for that purpose.

Eric,

I am of course angry with the political scene, but what do you do?? This isn't the first time any of this has happened for God's sake. We just have more access to information now so we don't have to wait 30 or 50 years to see the picture. There is nothing new in this picture and that is what I don't understand about where you are coming from. You are an in the know guy................you know the ways of the world............what you see is what you get..............open minded in your approach and vision of the world, so why would you see this time period as different than others??? I am real curious about that.

I am not happy at all with what is going on, but it is not different than before. Do you think because Bush admitted to the spying that is wasn't happening before?? Sure it was..........maybe not to the degree, but perhaps that is just what needs to happen so that the Americans realize the freedom that we do have. We think we have it better than any other country, maybe we do and maybe we don't. I love it here and don't want to be anywhere else forever.

Personally, this aspect has certainly had me focus on who I am and where I want to go, but I can't see any physical progress and I am always looking at who I am and where I want to go.

How do we change a "power" that has always gone awry??

Thanks Eric
Rox

Mars in Taurus--- aka "love in action"

While getting pissed off or just maintaining an intense level of emotional passionate speaking out- (be it bumper stickers- letters to the editor-or a monologue about the pathetic prez while perched on an art model stand) does serve a purpose- I have also discovered holding on and maintaining anger for this Sun Scorpio in the last degree- can be down right hard on the body.

Heard of shingles? Stress connected reactivation of the chicken pox virus. I am now very familiar with it. And don't want to be. So - Mars in Taurus has another message- stay calm while changing the world. That's what I thought on while having the acupuncturist stick me with needles.

Fight the good fight- keep the energy up-but do it with love or suffer.

I just read last week something that Coretta King said- "you can't do this work with anger" - that's a from memory quote- I can't seem to locate the source where I read it- who knows maybe it was on your blog!! :0 I believe it was in one of the speeches at the funeral- perhaps it was Rev. Lowery.

Anyhow- she speaks the truth-

Living it is however another matter that I have yet to master.

Peace be upon us all-

Parker

"don't make me get out my flying monkeys"-www
http://www.stelliumproductions.com/peace

Note: Sam is a violinist from New Orleans who has had a few rounds of '15 minutes of world fame', as he seems to be a media darling, and also keeps appearing in my inbox. Please see my other note at the end.

Dear Eric-

Lessons from 2001 until now:

1.   Love is never enough - trust is important, too.

2.   Be very careful with whom you share information.

3.   Trust those who believe in you, advise you, and keep you humble, productive, and striving for greatness.

4.   Believe everything that Eric Francis writes.

5.   Don't go your way without regard to others, particularly those mentioned in #3.

6.   Trust those over thirty.

7.   Pay attention to those under thirty.

8.   The revolution will ALWAYS be televised - as was the antiwar demonstration that took place in Houston, Texas in September 2001, in which I and many of my friends were participants. *wink*

9.   As the teachers have said (referring to #3), keep you eyes and ears open to all that the universe has to offer - and your mouth shut.

The biggest question, however:

What happens when two lives intersect and one person chooses to walk in another direction?

Both lives continue and yes, destinies change - but that change can and probably will include the horrific day when the one who chose to walk away wakes up and realizes that the one from whom he walked was his destiny and he (pronoun in specific to gender) threw away his chance at happiness. So, I guess the lesson in that question is that everyone has a "destiny" to fulfill, even if that means waking up with harrowing regret later in life.

Love to you and thank you for your great work and spirit,

Sam the mad fiddler

Hi Sam, you can believe anything I write if you want as long as you remember that I screw up plenty. For example, to name a trivial one, according to Friday's Planet Waves horoscope, Mars just went into Virgo when it really went into Gemini...and so on. So feel free to check my facts in Google and let me know when I get it wrong...it's always a good thing when somebody does. Thanks for your letter!

"Are you pissed off? Why or why not?"

Eric,

As I look back over the last Mars Retrograde month a few things seemed to stand out starkly, and they are in sequential order, but they may be random:

The sense that my calling is to be an everyday mystic became overwhelming;
That the hunger in my soul, a pining, and the increasing desire for a deeper God-experience grew;
A greater desire for the experience of compassion (receiving, giving, and being it) began to stir in almost mystic-like fashion;
My sense of needing to be more connected to the welfare of the city to which I have felt called for 16 years: Washington, DC (or more aptly I was called to "DC." For in DC there are two cities, one that is "Washington" which is the politicos, the lobbyists, and the monuments and then there is "DC" which is the neighborhoods, the community, and the flavor). And specifically a deeper connection to and with the marginalized, the broken-hearted, the most vulnerable;
A rising anger that has Activists proportions as I watch just how hubristic and blatant the arrogance, the lying, the deceiving, and the thievery has become and yet I only seem to hear whispers of outcries and closeted outrage;
My growing sense of "instability" – being one bad event or one bad day away from the streets or catastrophe. And this goes back to the first point, as I realize that security is a lie and privacy is a hoax, I am finding refuge in taking care of my soul and not putting my trust in a system that is crashing and burning. As I said to my step father the other day when he asked why I've gone back to working with the homeless, to which I replied, "the only difference between the people on the street and me, is one bad day!" I've seen lives change for the worse and the better in a matter of days…
Many days of panic attacks and deep, intuitive living: all stemming with the ebb and flow of the planets;
A deepening of connection to the people who are seeking Awareness, Awakeness, and fighting the tide of cynicism (like the community of us at Planet Waves);
That the Bushies are going to lead us straight into an Armageddon like holy war (Which by the way is crazy synchronicity when the Battle of Armageddon spoken of in the Christian Bible has to do with the battle between Gog and Magog and that those areas are I believe close to present-day Iran and Iraq…and the President's right-wing inner circle comes from a theology base that knows that…);
I'm continuing to learn that curiosity is a far better god than control;
That if we do not get angry, we (almost) deserve everything we get…cuz the late, great Audre Lourde was right when she said two things: "If you're not angry, you're not paying attention!" and "Your silence will not save you."

And my sense of spiritual intuition has been rising steadily since my 38th birthday on the 1st of November (I'm a Scorpio with a Leo Rising and the Moon in Libra…). Those are just a few my fine soul-full friend…I've been more sensing things truthfully now than at any point in my life. I feel like the mystic in me is awakening. And the "prophet." I define a prophet as someone who speaks truth to power and runs interference against injustice.

Those are just a few of my observations about what has gone on inside me as the world turns.

Yours in gratitude,
--Niles (Washington, DC)