302. When We Fall Apart...

STAT-VIEWS @ 20,700

Do we know who we really are? If so, are we content with our inner selves? Or, are we vulnerable to others' input, at times questioning our choices, our behaviour?  

As an outspoken individual I am constantly challenged by others who fault me for being 'me'. They show this in a variety of ways. Either there is no response at all (mostly) or there are signs of awkward hesitation. The western world does its best to lean towards the 'considerate' - polite response, while often hiding its true identity.

As a bird lover, feeding Humming birds their sugar-water hit (no ill effects I'm told, it's energy, not food) and supplying other song birds mostly a staple of sunflower seeds + a mixture of smaller seeds,  I notice birds being mostly nasty little critters - not a lot of 'sharing' there. "I'm here - so - F - Off!"

This clearly suggests that in our 'developed' world, as humans, with our acquired religions to suit our bewildered wonderings, when it comes to the nitty gritty world of 'being' an individual, there are all the tell-taling signs of: Color, Status, Gender, Religion, Origin etc...to tell us apart and pigeonhole.

How does one reach the stage of total acceptance? Is there even such a stage? ... I thought I had come close, until my neighbourhood 'folk' posed an issue about one local who had applied for a permit to run a gravel pit, with trucks, empty uphill, then full scuttling downhill our already badly maintained pot-holed gravel roads. The sheer practical madness of it. Still, better connected, higher politics may well allow the permit. The 'person' apparently has government connections.

The point is, how much can we absorb, without freaking out and falling apart ? Where does the need for more - stop? When is enough enough?
We, here, are fortunate in that we, as individuals in a free world, managed to interpret our personal niches.

Still, while living as neighbours on our various properties, there continue to be boundaries of allowances. When the collective feels those boundaries are being crossed, the fight is on!
When all are ignited to respond to the common circumstances, individual idiosyncrasies of character are forced out of the closet, and not all is copacetic. (Israel v. Palestine > and the myriad rest of it....)

We realize (at least I do) that we are all hypocrites, even in the so-called FREE world. As long as each is allowed their own implementations of whatever they want, all is dandy. However, let someone suggest a wanted business that feels obnoxious by potentially affecting others negatively...  woe-NELLY, then, the buck stops there!

Then the 'gathering of the clan' sets in. For 'The Greater Good' you will 'give in' and seek to negotiate with your not so pleasant neighbour to achieve to STOP a greater dislike from becoming a reality.  And in the doing, in order to discover who is on board and comes from what angle, we are prepared to be swayed away from our former principles.

Thus we realize (at least I do) that we are all hypocrites....

301. To my 'ZERO' ('O') FOLLOWERS....

Stat-views @ 20,623

Hello Russia (Its many parts) ; Hello North America - both Upper (Canada and its provinces) and Lower (USA and its States) ; Hello Zero 'Followers:'
(see below stat)...



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follower |ˈfälōər| noun1 an adherent or devotee of a particular person, cause, or activity: a freethinker and follower of Voltaire.• someone who is tracking a particular person, group, organization, etc. on a social media website or application:she remains an immensely divisive figure, but she has a million followers on Facebook.====================================================================
 (Shakespeare)  Romeo and Juliet: Act II, scene 2:  "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet" 
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SO! To clearly understand - while my 'Mother-Tongue' was Dutch, not English, I constantly check the actual, given, definitions of many of the words I use; at times to realize I have a completely wrong idea of their actual meaning. Then, it's 'WHOOPS' good thing I caught myself, thank you Dictionary (or Google - 'GOD')

This then takes me to our general and Global world, of 'Communication'.

Watching the News of late, I am beginning to question?  Is freedom of 'Thought and Speech' leading us to chaos?
Present Statistics are showing democracies are failing; that it 'appears' there is a returning movement towards the 'acceptance' of what can only be interpreted as 'Dictatorship,' with its obliging 'Police State' controlling the masses. ..... You do the Math, Zero Follower!

Below is a scenario that's unfolding in our small Community. A neighbour is wanting to create an open pit sand and gravel mine (a Quarry) in our quiet neighbourhood. The 'person' (individual) feels to be communicating with us all in a most open, honest and caring way. The 'others' do not agree. So each of us feels entitled to our interpretations, holding the 'other' to be responsible.

At an earlier point I publicly commented (as did others) by responding to the text in a flyer the person had circulated through the community. The 'person' responded, indicating I had 'threatened' them. Though 'others' felt I had not. Today I was motivated to send out another response.  To retain personal safety, here's my somewhat 'adjusted text' between my own, and certain quotes from the other party.

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Hello Neighbours: 

Like most of us, I have spent a lot of TIME trying to digest, then interpret, then communicate the "different perspectives and different needs" by the many individuals who both live in the neighbourhood and our greater community. 

And 'YES' every individual digests information in their own inimitable way. Each of us INTERPRETS the same presented text in their own personally idiosyncratic manner. This then can either become 'a beautiful and differing way of viewing life,' or, as 'X' states below:  

Our (...) farm boundary was 100 feet from that active open pit mine at (...)  It was a living nightmare. 

Because I cared, I took pains to try and understand "X', and sojourned to interpret the very text in "X's' FLYER. I took pains to read and re-read my responses, wanting to make certain I was being FAIR in my assessments and comprehension of 'X's' very words. Like 'X's' words: "farm boundary" (versus our quiet, rural (...) neighbourhood); "100 feet from that active open pit mine at .(....)"; "a living nightmare."     

TIME has since indicated that ultimately, all is 'In the eye of the beholder.' Some agreed I was not accusing and or 'threatening,' while 'X' felt I had been. 

All goes to prove, that although we use the same words (and this language is called: English) being subjective by nature, each of us interprets the same text rendered - very differently. We use the same words, have the same concerns, the same realities, are in the the same circumstances, and YET, we are often not aware of what we are saying, or for that matter, maybe not even really know who we truly are, by failing to realize that in the end we might all be much the SAME?! .... 

This then is what creates the stalemate, and makes communication and TRUST 'neigh'- bourly impossible. :)

So! WHY this email?.... After I had indicated I was 'done' with my public input. 

I have become a big fan of the online TV series: TED.COM

Last night I watched the below entry (some 10 minutes long) and, hoping it can, and WILL do something positive, I am motivated to send us all its link:

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How to build (and rebuild) trust (Frances Frei | TED2018)

https://ted.com/talks/frances_frei_how_to_build_and_rebuild_trust?utm_source=tedcomshare&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tedspread

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So, again, dear 'Zero Followers' - from wherever you are? Or NOT are, being or not reading this. ...

Life is constantly unfolding: Here to-day/ GONE to-morrow. 

Once up-on-a-time a Dictatorship, Oligarchy, Police State or Capitalist Democracy, with some fairness but much hypocrisy and pretence, while being taken advantage of, or gassed, killed, or raped, burned at the stakes or plundered, what's REAL?  What is acceptable? What are we bothering to be? 

Maybe a Benevolent Dictatorship? If ever just the RIGHT individual could be found? ... an ALIEN who's been there - DONE that maybe? .... Are you still out there E.T?'  

No matter how righteous and all-caring, WE the Earthlings are in trouble......we are messing up badly.......we need you.... Surely we are in need of SOMETHING!

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