It brought to mind the racism that necessitated the formation and work of "Heathens United Against Racism" (my apologies, but they appear to only have a facebook page), the gender stereotypes that plague some forms of Wicca, and the incredible social backwardness and small mindedness of some people I encountered on my drive up and back to Queensland.
It was a lovely drive in terms of scenery, the peace of being out of the blasted city, the enjoyment of travelling, and the refreshingly crisp weather - and a few examples of human decency to offset the problems.
Staying on the drive for the moment, I saw an unusual number of kites (or maybe they were kestrels?), hawks and eagles, along with the usual many crows and other birds (and I have been listening to a few magpies here at "home" * in the last few days, so maybe they have moved back into the neighbourhood). I know that 'roos are active around dawn and dusk, so for a few decades I've had a rule about stopping before dark, and not starting again until it gets light (unless I'm on a major freeway, with lots of traffic). There are other animals out and about and on the roads at night, too - some of the them what you would expect, such as wombats ** , but others not ... such as the cattle who liked to enjoy the residual heat of the bitumen in inland Queensland where, when I was working there in the 1980s, not all roads had farm fences along them. The first time I came across that was when, one night, two stars disappeared and reappeared - and I realised I was face to face with a black steer, and I discovered I was OK at doing high speed manoeuvering ...
I don't recommend that form of discovery to anyone. At the time, if I had braked, I wouldn't have had enough stopping distance, but the conditions were dry, I had new tyres, and I could brake enough to slow down enough to dodge the steer without rolling the car. I have always made sure my car's headlights are strong, too, ever since then: that was the only bad thing about that particular type of car (which is no longer available), the poor headlights.
I had a director of the company I worked for in the car at the time, too, but he seemed to be OK ... at least, I wasn't sacked :) ***
Going back to my recent drive, I saw three live 'roos: two greys one night when I was thinking of stopping for the night, who crossed the road ahead of the car and confirmed that I should, and what looked like a small wallaby when I was coming back, early one morning, who was actually waiting by the side of the road and appeared to be watching the traffic - as if she/he was waiting for a break, as I hope was the case (and as I asked my BPLF Guides to help with). Sadly, however, traffic takes a terrible toll of native wildlife. In fact, there is a terrible nickname some highways get from this: the Scented Highway ...
On this drive, I also encountered a few scents, but this time from trucks moving live cattle - which surprised me, as I've not encountered that as far east and south as the Newell Highway. There's also a few other thoughts there that I will save for another post ...
Going back to small-mindedness, one of the tests I put on places I think about living in is how they handle LGBTIQ people. Although they were never in consideration, some towns in NSW have ruled themselves out of any potential future consideration - again, no names.
On the other hand, I left my drink bottle in a motel in Wagga Wagga, and when I realised and rang them, they were happy to hang on to it for me, until I could pick it up on the way back home - they were very nice people, as was another couple at a motel I stayed at in Port Macquarie on a work trip, the husband of which had formerly worked at the bank my father had for most of his life, which led to a few yarns about the old CBA.
In that town, a work colleague talked about his experiences there as a kid, where he was the butt of, in effect, racism - and I could relate to that because of my experiences as a teenager in Mackay, where my experiences of discrimination and small-mindedness led me to decide to not transition as a kid when my father asked me if that is what I wanted.
And we're back to my father again.
The biggest frustration is that the medical profession is not listening to my sister: Dad has Parkinsons, and his memory is now going - it has been for some time, but because he has done well in spot checks in a hospital environment, the medical profession has not taken proper notice of my sister telling them that Dad does not have an adequate memory to cope with everyday life. Still, I think they're finally starting to get that, and there are things underway now which will, hopefully, take the load off my sister, and ensure our father gets the care he sadly needs.
I can rationalise about why the medical professionals were sceptical, just as I can about bigots, but there is a major post in me as a result of that trip - it will take some time to write, however, and I may submit it to a website for publication.
There were a few situations resolved as well, and some good time spent with my father (who, incidentally, does not have the Internet - and I refuse to have a smart phone or use unsecured wifi, and hence the lack of internet activity by me). Dad also has a great garden - much of it the legacy of my (adoptive) mother, who passed away some years ago now (I think Dad will actually enjoy the social contact if he does go to a nursing home - as was the case for a grandmother from my birth family - and I was also able to visit my birth mother on the way back, so all round, including some work clearing my adoptive sister's new house, a good family trip).
Going back to the view, it was great to look out the sliding doors and see a wall of green - it was a bit like the front garden of our current rental, which is good despite the idiotic attention of our landlord. Dad also has an interest in bird life, so he showed me the nest some Willy Wagtails had made in his backyard, birds who were very accepting of Dad ... until they had eggs :)
There were also a few geckos there, as usual, with their angry sounding "tk-tk-TK-TK-TK-TK-TK" at night.
I was also going to write that Dad had some freeloaders who would turn up and demand bread, but (a) I would probably need to explain, for those under 50, that, once upon a time, "bread" was a slang term for money, and (b), I didn't wind up getting any good photos of the freeloaders with bread in their beaks.
In fact, at one stage, I recall thinking how fortunate the world was that it was David Attenborough at the BBC, and not I :)
Still, I've got a few photos, and here they are - with apologies for the poor quality.
First off, the bird's nest, which is smaller than my thumb:
Next, the "freeloaders", the group of Ibises which came for the bread (along with myriad other birds and, on one occasion, a neighbour's dog):
I had thought of taking my camera, but with the focus being on Dad, I didn't think I'd get any chance to do much photography, and I have been kicking myself ever since.
On a minor note, I found the lack of connectivity a nuisance, but, as I don't spend a lot of time on the net outside of work, I didn't miss it in the sense of missing something I am addicted to. It was, however, peaceful to have an excuse not to check my emails - not that I do that too often, either.
It is, incidentally, possible that I will have to go back to Queensland in the near future: so, if I stop posting for while, that could be why ...
I started this post with a reference to small-mindedness in various spiritual traditions/paths. Such small-mindedness has cause me to change my path in the past, beginning with neochritianity's claims, when I was attending sunday school, that animals didn't have souls. More recently, I left Wicca for Paganism - as I've written about elsewhere. Well, I've been doing some thinking about labels yet again (I can hear the groans from here :) ), and:
- I don't like using the term light worker, because it has been so thoroughly commercialised;
- I am very much aware of the Goddesses, Gods and other Deities, and so I really cannot identify as anything other than Pagan (or perhaps polytheist ...);
- when I have used the term energy psychic, I get bogged down in explanations;
- Wéofodthegn is a pretty accurate description of PART of my work;
- I do a lot of work on and with energy;
- I cannot go back to using the identification of Wicca, as I have some specific differences with that path over gender;
I have concerns with Asatru and, to some extent, heathenry over racism;
and I do not feel drawn to the label "polytheist", despite the shamanic elements I incorporate into my work.
Doesn't mean much to anyone except me, but it is just part of what I resolved on that recent trip.
I'll end with a thought that I had somewhere in the Great Dividing Range:
Some people compare earth to a school; others dispute this. If it is a school, it is a school in a rational Universe, one where the schools with the greatest need get the greatest resources - such as the best environment.
* "Home" is in quotation marks because we plan on moving when we can.
** I had a friend from New Zealand with me on one trip, and she was keen to get a photo of a wombat.We finally saw one, and my friend whipped up her camera, took a photo, and then found the flash had bounced of the side mirror and hidden the wombat on the image.
*** We all drove long distances - up to 1,000km in a day, and, sadly, driving accidents were too common. I had a colleague who woke up sliding down the road, upside down ... A sales rep I met bragged about taking corners at 180 kmh! After I helped at my first accident, I bought the biggest and best equipped first aid kit I could get - and I won't write about some of the experiences. (I also travelled with two spare wheels [I knew someone who used three spares in a day], a 12V soldering iron [which I've never found one of again], a hand pump for tyres [if you get bogged, partially deflate the tyres, which spreads the load over a larger area, and then drive our and re-inflate them - and NEVER drive in to floodwater], a good tool kit, pantyhose [for the old replacement of broken fan belts], and the various standard items such as jumper leads, water, oil, etc.) I also made sure I stopped if I was tired. We also had a few lighter incidents, such as the engineer who hit a big pothole, and had to drive in reverse, the only gear he had left, for about 20 km to get help :)
[2] Please
see here, here and my post "The
Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons
I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2,
although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather
engagingly - to be the Earth edition of
"The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").
[3] I apologise for the formatting: it seems Blogger is
no longer as WYSIWYG as it used to be, and there are a lot of unwanted
changes to layout made upon publishing, so I often have to edit it immediately
after publishing to get the format as close to what I want as possible.
Love, light, hugs and blessings
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix
Lux … aka Morinehtar … would-be drýicgan or maga
... )
My "blogiography" (list of all posts and guide as to how to best use this
site) is here, and my glossary/index is here.
I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue
(see here and here), and it grew ... See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "Pagans for Peace" project (and join me
for a few minutes at some time between 8 and 11 PM on Sunday, wherever you are,
to meditate-clear for peace), and here
for my bindrune kit-bag. I also strongly recommend
learning how to flame, ground
and shield, do alternate
nostril breathing, work
with colour, and see also here and be
flexible.
- Neither eloquence nor inarticulateness inherently indicates correctness, but, as words can kill, the right to freedom of speech comes with a DUTY to be as well-informed, objective and balanced as you can be.
- Gnwmythr's Stropping Strap: Occam's Razor only works if the simplest solution is actually recognised as being the simplest, rather than the one that best fits one's bigotries being labelled 'simplest'.
- I mourn the desecration of the term 'Light Worker' by commercial interests, and the warping of the word 'Light' away from 'Clear Light' by the "(Fluffy) White Lighters".
- Presuming that everyone has, or wants, a smartphone is discriminatory, unspiritual, and downright stupid.
- Obsessive love may be a cover up of guilt.
- Proxy embarrassment is both a form of control, and an internal barrier to truth, honesty and perspicacity.
- Our entire life experience, with all the many wondrous and varied people, places and events in it, is too small a sample for statistical reliability about Life.
- Notwithstanding the greatness of exploring the world and humanity, the greatest exploration is of mind, spirit and Soul.
- May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
- Life is not a struggle for status.
- Being accustomed to interacting via certain rules makes those rules neither right nor universal.
- Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master.
- The means shape the end.
- My favourite action movie of all time is "Gandhi", although I've recently come across "Invictus" and might put that one in to that category. However, I loathe the stereotypical action movie - and, for similar reasons, I loathe many dramas, which are often emotionally violent, more so in some cases than many war films.
- All of the above - and this blog - could be wrong, or subject to context, perspective, or state of spiritual evolution ... and blogging has been described as graffiti with punctuation :)
Human dignity is
the inherently cumulative holistic
combination of human rights, wellbeing and potential, and all actions or
interaction which promote, realise or facilitate same. The converse also
applies: whatever degrades, diminishes or robs humans of dignity, is inherently
undignified.
Gnwmythr
The “purpose” of spiritual evolution is not
the attainment of “spiritual perfection” - not in the sense of not having to
evolve further, at any rate, since there is no such thing. We need to evolve in
order to grow - but we can take rest breaks (hopefully well earned :) ) along the way. No, the “purpose” of evolution is,
rather, to perfect our ability to learn, and thus grow.
Gnwmythr
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Females, get over 'cute'. Get competent.
Get trained. Get capable. Get over 'cute'. And those of you who are called
Patty and Debby and Suzy, get over that. Because we use those names to
infantalise females – we keep females in their 'little girl' state by the names
we use for them. Get over it. If you want to be taken seriously, get serious.
Jane Elliott
The only thing necessary for the triumph of
evil is for good [people] to do nothing.
(based on
writing by) Edmund Burke
We didn't inherit the Earth from our
ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children
Antoine De Saint-Exupéry
There are risks and costs to a program of
action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable
inaction.
John F. Kennedy
Tags: about me, attitudes, discrimination, family, labels, medicine, nature, paganism, paths, society, spirituality,
First published: Manadagr, 20th July, 2015
Last edited (excluding fixing typo's
and other minor matters): Monday, 20th July, 2015
