Earth Day

It’s a quantum thing. That’s what we say around our house. I’m not really sure what it means, but that might be the point. It might even be the definition.

As far as I can tell, it means that observation of an object affects its condition. Observation affects or changes its reality. That means that, just by reading this, you are changing the very nature of these words.

Let me try to make that clearer. As a result of what your beliefs are, in combination with your intention and the intensity of both, you can affect the reality of an object or a person or a situation.

At first, I thought, sure. Little old me. How can this be? My wife, whose curiosity knows no bounds, has been reading about this, searching the literature, and has gone to great lengths to find out about this stuff and to acquaint me with enough of it that, in conversation, I can do more than just look at her like a dumbbell.

It must be her belief, and her intention, that I can learn something and be able to understand her, at least in this context. What I have learned, with her help, is that, through rigorous experimentation, this quantum kind of activity has been proven true. In fact, it revolutionizes our scientific understanding of reality.

Scientists know this stuff, and have for a while, but it is just now making itself known to the public. Guys, like myself, who had an understanding of physics based on shooting pool or trying to fix things around the house, are finally becoming acquainted with these ideas. And, about time, my wife says.

It’s wonderful. Just when things were beginning to seem incredibly bleak, dark, and despairing, we find out that each one of us has the power to affect whatever we turn our thoughts to. Saints and sages have told us this from the start, but I always thought it was wishful thinking, a matter of faith, more than a little beyond my reach. Now, with this scientific corroboration, a wider, more brilliantly lit set of possibilities is revealed.

I’m not going to use this knowledge for trivial things, like toasting bagels or making my television larger. I’m not even going to use it for personal gain, although I am going to use it for personal loss. As in, the pounds I have to carry around and the inches that mark a small and recent expansion around my waist.

No, I want to use it for the big stuff. The things that affect all of us. The things I have, up to this time, felt were out of my hands. War, peace, disease, poverty, ignorance, and disastrous climate change. It has now been proven, by hard-working people in white coats, toiling in cramped office space at our great universities and in garages everywhere, that optimism and a directed intense visualization of a desired outcome can actually make things change.

The past 300 years of scientific assumption is incorrect. We, each of us, have a part to play in this life. A part that has meaning and actual effects. That is an amazing thing and, understanding it, creates an opportunity and responsibility we never knew we had.

There are many areas and issues that are in need of our attention. To me, the most timely and most crucial seems to be the state of the Environment. The health of our planet, this wonderful world we all inhabit. It is generally recognized now that we are in a dire situation. To mention just a few areas of concern, we have melting ice caps, pollution, radical changes in weather patterns, a declining supply of fresh water, and the disappearance of bees. I don’t want to look up at the sky and feel afraid. I want us to have the peace of mind to think about other things like how beautiful the flowers are or how we might help someone not as lucky as we are or how we can assist our kids’ imagination, compassion, and forward momentum.

What I wanted to say, at the beginning of all this, was that we can use this quantum stuff as one way to affect our world with our hearts and minds, applying our intention and energy and emotion to make things better for all of us.

This Earth, this big old ball of blue, this beautiful whirling dervish that we live on, needs our help. We’re smarter now. We understand the situation. And, we’re not powerless. That’s the lesson of Earth Day. We can realize a consciousness we didn’t have before and resolve the shortsightedness that has been causing us so much pain.

I’m going to try it out. And, keep trying until I get it right. Happy Earth Day! Go outside. Take a deep breath. Celebrate. It’s difficult to deny reality, but we can change it.

Take A Number

I wouldn’t have believed it, but I read it in the newspaper: one of every hundred Americans is in jail. That’s a lot. That’s about a third of the audience of American Idol. Many diseases aren’t even that common.

Prison. The big house. The hoosegow. The tank. The clink. The pokey. The slammer. It’s always figured large in our thinking. This is just taking it to the next level.

Prisons are big business. They are private, profit-making companies. They have lobbyists. Lobbyists saying, "The laws are too lenient. It’s scary out there, just look at CSI. Not only terrorists, but everyone. Let’s put more guys in prison."

Hey, it’s their business. And, we respect business.

Have you ever been in jail? It’s not a nice place.

Everyone, as babies, starts out okay. But then poverty, lack of education, neglect and abuse as kids, begin to take their toll and, one way or another, a lot of guys end up in prison. We may not take very good care of each other, but we are really good at putting people in jail.

What if someone like Donald Trump decided to forgo condos in favor of prisons? He really understands real estate, construction, and trends. We could see new developments springing up everywhere. It would be great for the economy. And, no sub-prime for Donald.

Why not enact more laws that will feed this development? Everyone, over a certain age and with insufficient funds, could be deemed an outlaw of society and be sent to the Lawrence Welk Memorial facility in Northern Minnesota. Or, why wait? Let’s put all the kids in jail, too.

We’ve already got the Patriot Act. Why not enforce it? Anyone who disagrees with what’s what goes straight to jail. Do away with the courts and save all that time and money. Just think of it. Tax offenders, demonstrators, dreamers, artists, surfers, those with insufficient imagination to pull off really big crimes, all of them, off to jail.

The economy will pick up. There will be more opportunity for the rest of us. And, who knows? Someday, it will just be us. The good guys. Everyone else will be safely behind bars.

Gas Up and Go

I don’t want to be a wet blanket, but NASCAR? How did this happen? All of a sudden, it’s everywhere. On TV. Commercials. Guys in suits with a bunch of tags and patches and bright colors, selling stuff. Walking advertisements. Their cars are the same way: every inch of surface is covered with some brand name. No stickers saying anything about their middle schoolers. No peace signs. No fish symbols. No Jerry bears. It’s all business, all the time.

These guys are roaring around in a circle and thousands of people are following them, watching them go around and around, risking the health and mobility of their necks. The word is that this is the most popular sport in America. What about March Madness?! What about Wrestle Mania?!

Okay. They’re going around in circles. They’re really loud. They’re using gas at an unimaginable rate, at a time when we’ve got kids dying in Iraq and we’re paying $3.20 a gallon. They are putting out a lot of exhaust and pursuing exactly the habits – driving around, wasting gas, and polluting – that we’re trying so hard to change.

There are kids who look up to these guys. There are even racing dynasties. That could be wonderful: sons and daughters following the path blazed by their parents and grandparents, but it seems so Twentieth Century. Kind of primitive and limited.

I know there is considerable skill involved in going that fast and keeping the car on the track, but I worry about these guys. They may become lop-sided or unable to go in a clock-wise direction ever again. What about those people in the stands? How can they hear themselves think? And, I certainly don’t want to be around when they’re driving home after a race.

I’m sorry, but this seems like a dinosaur activity. Are they kidding? Sure, it’s something we all can relate to and even fantasize about from time to time. Speed and waste and danger are in our blood, but that doesn’t mean they're our destiny.

Now, I have to say that Talledega Nights is one of my favorite movies, but that just shows how easy it is to laugh at someone else’s sincerity. But, what about progress? What about Earth Day? What about Exxon’s $40 billion profit?

It’s not that I don’t get it. Every now and then, while I’m racing through the channels on TV, I’ll pause and watch a few laps. It’s similar, in some ways, to hypnosis. But, ultimately, I find I have to slap myself and try to do the right thing: something else.

I mean, NASCAR? America’s Sport? I thought it was fishing.