CUTTING BACK ON BLOGGING - FOR A WHILE

Neighborhood Trees

Copyright 2018 Silver S. Parnell

The eye doctor tells me that my macular degeneration is rapidly progressing, and she is handing me over to a "retina specialist" for future care. It is expected that I will be functionally blind at some point.

Multiple physical disabilities necessitate the purchase of expensive hardware, software, systems and services so that I may function independently. I need to shift my focus to the only work I am physically able to do, which is the writing and art, neither one of which is a reliable income producer for anyone, but I do have prior experience in each field.

For the foreseeable future, I will be concentrating on finishing my book and resurrecting my painting career. I do not have the physical stamina to do this AND write a blog.

I have hidden all my previous posts because I have had some issues with harassment from internet trolls, as well as some copyright infringement of my original intellectual property.

This blog will remain in place until such time as I have the leisure to write for it - if ever again. The donation button will be active, as will comments on this blog post. Anyone that wishes to contact me may make a comment to this blog post. It won't be published, but I will read it and respond. Leave your email address for reply.

Please pray for me, as I pray for you.

Silver

Post Script: The following is the latest update to my gofundme page:

The only specialist I can afford to see is at the hospital where the indigent are served, but the clinic is BLOCKS away from where I might park my car, and I am unable to walk that distance. (The distance from the lobby to the clinic is impossible.) On the other hand, the hospital does not have any system in place to take me in a wheelchair, except for the occasional volunteer. (I waited once for nearly 2 hours, in AGONY, for a volunteer to show up and take me to my appointment, which I missed, of course. It took a week to recover from that day of stressful physical challenge.) It is critically important that I resolve this transportation issue, not only for these hospital visits, but also for other issues of mobility necessary to my independent operation. I DO have a mobility scooter, but in order to use it outside of my residence, I need to get a vehicle in which to transport it, and a padded ergonomic seat that will allow me to remain seated for a longer period of time. While I am researching the cost of the necessary vehicle and equipment, I need to somehow accumulate the necessary funds. Many Americans are under the mistaken impression that disabled and poor people get all their needs met through the government, and it is not true. Only the bottom third of poor people get any needs met at all, and there are many needs for which there are no remedies at all. One of the social workers I've talked to about this transportation problem tells me today that she has seen many disabled people struggle with unaddressed mobility issues. She will try to find some other avenue of assistance, but she was careful to make me understand that she does not hold out much hope for finding anything to help me. Without family to come to my aid, I am fairly well stranded. I ask that you please share this update and my gofundme page. I would also be most grateful for any information anyone may have with regard to the best van and lift arrangement for a mobility scooter. Thank you, and God bless, Silver Parnell

STAY CALM AND CARRY ON

Jesus Meditating in the Astral World

Available on innerpath.com

Many of my readers, friends and acquaintances have had their customary calm disturbed by the chaos and lies blasting out from the White House. It has knocked us off our pins, ruffled our feathers, triggered us, etc. However each of us chooses to label it, the general agreement is that it has not been good for our collective psyche.

After spending some time trying to insert some healing Truth into this miasma of unscrupulous politicians fronting as religious crusaders, I have come to the conclusion that the people who would most benefit by the perception of Truth in their lives are the very people who reject it.

Donald Trump, as the point man for billionaire oligarchs, has touched upon deeply significant motivators within a segment of the population that is both angry and resentful that the course of human history is bypassing them and going in a direction that they believe is not right. I am not going to discuss the details or relative merits of their collective beef(s) because my purpose lays elsewhere in this blog post. I am just giving background on my decision. I am describing it as it appears to me.

Please, for the love of God, do not write me an angry email claiming that I am insulting you individually for anything I say about Trump or the other politicians or the people who have harassed me. If the shoe fits, wear it, but if not, don't. When talking about large numbers of people there are variables. I should think that would be obvious, but for some people, intent on having an excuse to feel offended, they ignore the straightforward benign nature of the thing so they can huff and puff and stomp around on social media. This is my disclaimer.

I have determined to give up trying to reach the unreachable. I am not thereby abandoning any mission for which I am responsible because I am not an original source of facts about politics. There are journalists and investigative reporters whose job it is to get that information out into the public. Previously, I have provided a list of those sources, as well as the names of fact checking outlets from which everyone is free to gather data, should they have any interest in exploring the True, actual things that have been said and done on planet earth.

No vow is being made that I will never comment on this topic ever again. I am not saying that. It is just a shift in focus that I am taking.

The only reason I stepped into this mess is because there were (and are) people saying that "the hand of God is on Donald Trump" and that God had ordained him to be president. In doing so, these "Christians" were misrepresenting the Christian faith, and I felt duty bound to step in and defend our poor Jesus, whose message was being adulterated beyond all recognition . Surely, I reasoned, if these people only knew the Truth about what was happening here on Planet Earth, they would want to know! Instead, I have managed to embroil myself in a war straight out of the Twilight Zone.

All of us who are of good faith, and there are many, have experienced this disturbing break with reality combined with spiteful, unreasonable, illogical attacks against us. Trying to have a conversation with many of the "true believers" has been like stepping in front of an oncoming train. They do not listen. They have a continuous loop of lies running in their heads, and they're going to throw it all at us, regardless of what we say. It is best to just get out of the way.

It appears that there are some honest people on The Hill. There are jurists and officials still blessed with integrity. Somehow, they will sort this out. As much as he would like to be "president for life," (which I heard him muse, at one point), Trumpism is a temporary feature on the political stage. I hope to live long enough to see us return to some sort of calm equilibrium where facts, statistics and experts are respected, but, in the meantime, I intend to join with anyone who is interested in remaining connected to spirit while the chaos swirls around us.

I regret being unable to correct the record, so to speak, with regard to Trump's claims to Christian values, but I am being guided to a better-lit path that is more authentic to my mission.

It is my belief that those of us who are committed to Truth need to spiritually link together, so that we can become a dynamo that generates our Lord's Love, beaming it wholeheartedly into the world so that everyone may be touched with it on the mystical plane. It is an ambitious goal, but probably more attainable than trying to convey facts and statistics to people who do not want them.

In asking this of you, dear readers, I am falling back on my contemplative tradition, which is what I know and love best. It has served me well in the past, and I hope it does the same for you.

In future posts, I plan to concentrate on the mystical life and to assiduously ignore current events, except inasmuch as we may pray for them to become more peaceful and sane.

God bless, guide and protect us all.

Silver Rose

FRIENDSHIP

"I understood that every flower created by Him is beautiful,

that the brilliance of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do

not lessen the perfume of the violet or the sweet simplicity 

of the daisy. I understood that if all the lowly flowers wished

to be roses, nature would no longer be enameled with lovely

hues. And so it is in the world of souls, our Lord's living garden."

~ Saint Therese of Lisieux ~

My standard of friendship is the same for others as it is for myself.  Honesty, kindness and other signifiers of good character are important to me, as well as a sympathetic nature. I mourn with those that mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice, and I appreciate the same treatment from those I gift with my friendship.

Social status, wealth or poverty have no bearing on whether or not I would choose to befriend a person.

In response to Jesus' commandment to love my neighbor, I actually try to exhibit love and friendship toward whomever comes into my field  of activity. I am not perfect, and I do fail to do as well as I might toward this goal, but it does remain a goal of mine.

I firmly believe that the motives of other people should not be impugned without significant evidence, so I make a practice of assuming that, with the exception of a small percentage of sociopaths and misanthropes, no one deliberately chooses evil.

Believing that someone is wrong about a topic is not the same thing as attacking their character.

"Nothing is sweeter than to think well of others."

Saint Therese of Lisieux

Even with regard to the current political climate, I do not reject friends because they voted for Donald Trump. Adherence to my political views is not essential for friendship because I do not live on that plane of existence.

I do not impute evil motives to people who voted for Trump. Because I am pro-life, I almost voted for him. Then I researched the matter. I believe that most of Trump's supporters, if they understood the truth about him, would no longer support him. I credit most of them with being well-meaning, but misguided. They believe what he and his representatives say. I cannot account for why they are unaware of or discount the facts that are reported widely by professional journalists. I often find this frustrating, but it still is not enough to dissuade me from being friends.

A category by themselves are those who are "one issue voters" who choose to ignore or avoid knowledge of Trump's defects because they feel that the abortion issue is more important than anything else and they believe he will appoint judges to the Supreme Court who will make abortion illegal again.

I don't believe this method will accomplish the hoped-for aim. I also don't agree with the assumption that making abortion illegal is more important than anything else, but I certainly understand why some people come to that decision. These issues are complex, weighty and difficult. I choose to believe that people of good faith are doing the best they can to do the "right" thing.

Although I have never rejected a friend because of their support for a political figure or party, I have been rejected by friends and acquaintances who are mad that I don't support Trump. They are mad when I write about his lies and criminal activities. They accuse me of hate, and they break off the friendship, even though it patently obvious that Trump's words and actions are hateful. Objecting to hate is not hateful.

It has surprised me that many of these fair-weather friends have been Christians of various stripes. I perceive that what Trump does and says is the opposite of what Jesus said to do and say, and yet some Christians tell me "the hand of God is on Trump."  I am flabbergasted by the cognitive dissonance. I really don't understand it, and probably never will.

While most people around the world are disgusted by our "president," there is an Irish reader of my blog, who has several times donated toward it, who has suddenly started writing me unpleasant emails, from Ireland, of all places, where she is a big "supporter" of Donald Trump, which puzzles me. She's known since 2016 that my research has garnered my disapproval of the liar-in-chief. She can't vote for him, and his policies will not affect her, but she is so invested in him that she is mad at me for not being likewise inclined and feels insulted by what I have written about him. The whole thing is very odd.

I suspect that my so-called "Irish" reader is actually an American posing as an Irish person to hide their identity. I don't assume that my suspicion is a fact. That would be wrong. But I HAVE often wondered why that person has such a strong investment in the president of another country on the other side of the planet.

We have written to one another, off and on, for the last few years, and I was enjoying the spiritual friendship, but I really don't know who she is, whether she has given me her real name, or even if she really is Irish because, while I am pretty much transparent, here in blogland, she is using a phony email address through a service that disguises your real one. Who is she, really?

I wasn't about to take back what I said about Trump, but she was disingenuously claiming those comments had insulted her so that she could lambaste me, on the one hand, with criticisms of Democrats (with whom I do not identify and to whom I feel no loyalty) and self-congratulatory digs about having donated money, on the other hand. The chastisements were exhausting.

While I won't drop a friend because of some political affiliation, I will send someone packing who is dishonest with me or harasses me, which is what I had to do with this "Irish" woman.

"One measure of friendship consists not in the number

of things friends can discuss, but in the number of things
they need no longer mention."

Clifton Fadiman

Stepping back from this particular situation, I note that this phase in our political life has created an overall atmosphere of harsh dishonesty I find alarming, because it is fracturing relationships and sowing a general discord - apparently, around the entire planet and not just in America!  I thank God that I have a handful of kindly well-wishers remaining who, though they may disagree with me on one issue or another, are people of sterling character who do not abuse me.

If I have anything of value to offer readers about this topic, I would encourage everyone to consciously develop a criteria for friendship, based upon the values that you hold in common, rather than befriending someone because they voted for the same guy you did last time around or because they have a pleasing personality.

Silver Rose

Sannyasini Kaliprana