To a kind soul that said, when I get tired I think of you, James, you inspire me. I replied: I'm glad if I can be an inspiration because what I value in my life has come from being inspired by others. I remember one hunger strike in Washington DC when on my several mile walk to Capitol Hill on no calories for many weeks it was all I could do to put the next foot forward, and I would think of my brother the man Jesus, and his face would come to my imagination, and he would smile, and I would smile, and I would take the next step.
9.12.2016
9.06.2016
***** What the Buddha said: "Even as a mother at the risk of her life watches over and protects her only child, so with a boundless mind should we cherish all living things...."
***** What the Buddha said: "Even as a mother at the risk of her life watches over and protects her only child, so with a boundless mind should we cherish all living things...."
9.05.2016
If these are not extreme times, if they do not need extreme partners, then none of us should be. If they are, then all of us must be.
If these are not extreme times, if they do not need extreme partners, then none of us should be. If they are, then all of us must be.
When you find people suffering enough, that you love enough, you can do, you do attempt, pretty much anything.
When you find people suffering enough, that you love enough, you can do, you do attempt, pretty much anything.
9.01.2016
Thank goodness that the sick crippling inebriating delusion that my life is my own is long past. No credit to me my life is the joy of knowing that it belongs to my neediest sisters and brothers. I regret every moment that I denied what my soul always knew.
Thank goodness that the sick crippling inebriating delusion that my life is my own is long past. No credit to me my life is the joy of knowing that it belongs to my neediest sisters and brothers. I regret every moment that I denied what my soul always knew.
***** To the core of 6 or so individuals in DC government and nonprofits that I see working so honestly, courageously, humanely , intelligently, selflessly, in solidarity with the homeless and or poor in the DC region: I remain with you in spirit and gratitude, but my body, not so much. I'm called to Explorer For Life, Spirit, Humanity, reverence for life, Wonder, awe, willingness to stand for the next Generations... I'm called to explore and see if this exists in sufficient quantity in US to give........
To the core of 6 or so individuals in DC government and nonprofits that I see working so honestly, courageously, humanely , intelligently, selflessly, in solidarity with the homeless and or poor in the DC region: I remain with you in spirit and gratitude, but my body, not so much.
I'm called to Explorer For Life, Spirit, Humanity, reverence for life, Wonder, awe, willingness to stand for the next Generations... I'm called to explore and see if this exists in sufficient quantity in US to give the next Generations a future. Sadly it is clear to me that it absolutely is not available in sufficient quantity in Washington DC, present company I hope, excepted.
I really have no hope that it's out there but it's the only thing that can save us if kindled or rekindled and I need to go give it a shot. My primary Mentor, the man Jesus, said, love as I have loved, and I shall continue to try to do just that, for the nowhere else to be found joy of it. For the nowhere else to be found piece of heart of it. For the nowhere else to be found Hope of it.
It has totally absorbed me these recent weeks preparation including technical leading-edge enhancements to the Free Palestine Solar Fusion Bike Car Sailer. Hence my absence from the otherwise very important meetings.
Tomorrow morning as early as 3 a.m. to avoid the murderous DC traffic I expect to be pedaling My Way South. Plan A currently within me is to return by mid-november from the most southern portions of Florida before the weather gets too bad up here, for a few months rest, to briefly rejoin you, and to prepare for a year or so Journey.. But Plan B also seems to be quite active and that is to continue around the country for a year or several years doing what I can.
Again, as I reflect on this call with in my chest, the words of my brother Jesus come to mind, I came to bring a fire and oh how I wish it were raging. That's how I feel. I've got to continue to try. LOL. Yes, it is absolutely ridiculous. But I cannot not try.
It has been a privilege to work with each of you. You might think that I'm abandoning ship, or was never serious to begin with. I've never been more serious than in the work that I attempted to do alongside of you and it is exactly because of how important that work is that I am called to go do what I'm called to do.
I have come to think of what you do as sort of the mash unit in the middle of the war. Unless some folks cause the war to stop the mash unit cannot succeed.
And stopping the war, stopping the war of soon terminal to all life on Earth mindless greed that we all in this culture consider virtue, will require an anti-violent army. I must go see if one can be raised.
James
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/startloving1
Blog
http://jesusgodgoodetcnjay.blogspot.com
Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3DDF5850288D67EA
8.24.2016
Extremely meaningful work, an extremely meaningful mission, is the one and only element that is necessary and sufficient to the highly gratified life, this contrary to all of our cultural toxic wisdom. As with every life-form we........
Extremely meaningful work, an extremely meaningful mission, is the one and only element that is necessary and sufficient to the highly gratified life, this contrary to all of our cultural toxic wisdom. As with every life-form we are inescapably designed to serve the neediest around us, but unlike every other life-form we are f****** clever enough to convince ourselves of the opposite. Hence we are the most medicated species, the most medicated generation in history. And with breathtaking insanity we do all in our power to escape the opportunities to devote ourselves, to meaningfully contribute, to the neediest Among Us. I don't have the time to cite the studies that most clearly point to this other than to say that Victor Frankl's, man's search for meaning, presents the truth clearly for those who are able to see it.
8.23.2016
As I spoke of the upcoming 3000 mile fishing Expedition the elderly man began crying. His soul got it. His soul was moved. Any hope for a habitable planet requires moving the soul.
As I spoke of the upcoming 3000 mile fishing Expedition the elderly man began crying. His soul got it. His soul was moved. Any hope for a habitable planet requires moving the soul.
8.20.2016
My friends, my family, my fellow Wagers of loving, are those that support my mission, and those whose mission I support.
My friends, my family, my fellow Wagers of loving, are those that support my mission, and those whose mission I support.
8.17.2016
I see no hope. I have no hope. But I see needless suffering. So I fight on.
I see no hope. I have no hope. But I see needless suffering. So I fight on.
8.08.2016
8.07.2016
To a young friend deciding to pay all to the revolution: ☺ I am afraid I may never have the wisdom to counsel any individual beside myself. But........
To a young friend deciding to pay all to the revolution: ☺ I am afraid I may never have the wisdom to counsel any individual beside myself. But I constantly drive myself to understand collectively where our opportunities are. That tens of millions of us have not quit our jobs and planted Our Lives squarely in the way of the destruction of all creation, of all that is good, is clinical mass suicidal insanity. If every breath you hold yourself to the standard of being unconditional tough loving incarnate, I am so glad for you and anyone that finds that path. It is the only sanity. It is the only hope although I really see no hope, but I fight anyway, because that's the kind of person I want to be, and that's the kind of life I want to experience. James
8.04.2016
***** To a young activist worthy of the name, musing over several outlets she is considering now: Not that you asked, but I think it is more important how we do, than what we do. The only true Revolution is the Absolute, Total, every breath, embodiment of the spirit........
***** To a young activist worthy of the name, musing over several outlets she is considering now: Not that you asked, but I think it is more important how we do, than what we do. The only true Revolution is the Absolute, Total, every breath, embodiment of the spirit of unconditional loving by whatever words or none at all. I find almost none of that anywhere including in Progressive actions whose ideas I support but whose spirit I do not. Bernie has the spirit, I see it in few of his supporters. Those on the 10 day March from Philly to DC had the spirit, and then lost it almost immediately upon arrival. That spirit is all hope. There is no hope besides that spirit. Everything we detest is symptom of the spirit of unconditional loving, serving from the soul in solidarity, being missing. James
8.03.2016
***** After all these years I think I figured out how to offer a way that I don't waste people's time. For those who find a deep Envy for the quality of life of a Martin Luther King jr., a Gandhi, Malala, Jesus..., and yearn for such a quality of life for themselves and those who they love, I think I have ideas and example to offer. For those who do not feel such deep Envy for the quality of life of the likes of these I think I have nothing of value to share.
***** After all these years I think I figured out how to offer a way that I don't waste people's time. For those who find a deep Envy for the quality of life of a Martin Luther King jr., a Gandhi, Malala, Jesus..., and yearn for such a quality of life for themselves and those who they love, I think I have ideas and example to offer. For those who do not feel such deep Envy for the quality of life of the likes of these I think I have nothing of value to share.
7.15.2016
### In case you would like to understand how I am investing my life these days. This rough submission at this link, rather lengthy, has been turned into a two-part article in an........
### In case you would like to understand how I am investing my life these days. This rough submission at this link, rather lengthy, has been turned into a two-part article in an extremely admirable local publication called Streetsense which is a vehicle for raising issues of the poor and homeless in the DC region and providing ethical source of income for the homeless who sell the papers after buying them at a hefty discount.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Jxl9xoHVT-o4d0qkONPJ1cIh3vefxD1fNyHMugw6HOE/edit?usp=drive_web
7.04.2016
What I fight for, I don't fight because I think I can win. I fight to win, but I don't fight because I think I can win. I fight because it needs to be fought. All throughout history that I admire have done the same.
What I fight for, I don't fight because I think I can win. I fight to win, but I don't fight because I think I can win. I fight because it needs to be fought. All throughout history that I admire have done the same.
6.30.2016
### There's really only one obstacle to Justice for our homeless sisters and brothers. We as a culture quite broadly want every Justice for our homeless sisters and brothers. Every Justice except for the only one that matters, economic Justice, because economic Justice requires the redistribution of wealth, and the best Among Us are unwilling to have more than a penny or two Avail wealth go to those in need. I'm not condemning us. Although I think we are condemning ourselves.
### There's really only one obstacle to Justice for our homeless sisters and brothers. The obstacle is not greedy corporations. The obstacle is not the government. We as a culture quite broadly want every Justice for our homeless sisters and brothers. Every Justice except for the only one that matters, economic Justice, because economic Justice requires the redistribution of wealth, and the best Among Us are unwilling to have more than a penny or two of our wealth go to those in need, let alone the substantial if not massively distribution that conscience, that Humanity, that heart requires. I'm not condemning us. Although I think we are condemning ourselves. Personally my life is devoted to restructuring this value system Within Myself, and I recognize that in doing so I fashion of my life my only possibility for so influencing others in the same direction. And I do so not for any Noble goal. I do so because there in lies the only life of joy and true meaning. I do what I do for the ultimate greed of it.
6.26.2016
### Yes, I am usually so scathing , so critical , so pessimistic about the future. Yes. But I think I am seeing a level of Citizen work that I certainly have not seen in fifty years or more. Millions.......
### Yes, I am usually so scathing , so critical , so pessimistic about the future. Yes. But I think I am seeing a level of Citizen work that I certainly have not seen in fifty years or more. Millions of citizens here and abroad turning attention away from selfish short-term pleasures to matters of Greater importance to the collective. This is important at least for themselves and for those around them. Joy is in the attempt to reduce the world's suffering. The individuals devoting more of their lives to this task become a demonstration of the path to those around them.
6.11.2016
***** Eureka! The missing proof that justice is a necessary but entirely insufficient anti violent goal: throughout my life I have wanted Justice to be a sufficient goal. 15 years ago I was.........
***** Eureka! The missing proof that justice is a necessary but entirely insufficient anti violent goal:
Throughout my life I have wanted Justice to be a sufficient goal. 15 years ago I was told by someone that didn't like me so much, an African American female pastor in a prestigious completely White Main Line Philadelphia Church, ''James, you love Justice more than anyone I have ever met.'' ''No,'' I respectfully replied. ''Thank you, and I can't explain just why, I know what you're referring to in me, but that isn't it. I think what you're seeing is that I may love living beings, all of creation, more than anyone that you have ever met.'' I couldn't explain why better than that. I couldn't explain why to myself, but I knew it deep in my spirit.
Several years ago in an extremely deep study of the theological scholar Dominic Crossan on the historical Jesus I almost became persuaded he was correct, when he asserted, as later has also done Harvard African American Scholar Cornel West, that Justice is loving made publicly manifest. Subsequently I realized that that is sometimes true but not necessarily true. Think of those that wield Justice, True Justice out of hatred, out of blind self-righteousness, arrogance, evil. Think of Inspector Javert in Les Mis.
But that was not sufficient proof that justice is an insufficient goal of the anti-violent warrior.
The proof, not the proof to you, the proof to me, just clicked into place as I pedaled this 200 lb ELFusion vehicle from the Washington Monument to my abode 3 miles away. In the 90-degree heat, dehydrated, mostly uphill and with a debilitating chest cold in its third day.
Several pieces clicked into place.
1. Gandhi said that physical force is a superior choice in the case where one's wife is being raped and the only way that the husband can stop the rape is with physical Force. Gandhi cited this example many times. What clicked into place is that he never said that physical Force was justified in protecting oneself, and he always behaved as though it absolutely was not. This may be an oversight but I think not. Why would that be?
2. Gandhi was not about his own life, ultimately he was not about the life or even the Dignity of the wife being raped, nor of the husband. He was about achieving an infinitely larger good, a prevailing Justice for All of humanity, indeed for all of creation. In being about winning that greater good it is necessary to tap into the ultimate power in the universe which he described as Soul Force, truth Force, the love of a mother for her child. He cited the love of a mother for her child as the ultimate power that he tried to tap into. He never said the love of a mother for justice. He never said the love of a mother for herself. Why? Because neither of them are as powerful a moral Force for the engagement of the mass of passive onlookers as the love of a mother for her child, which involves self-sacrifice.
3. That shows the third proof which you can prove to yourself I suspect. Ask yourself which moves you more, the mother protecting herself, or the mother sacrificing her life for her child? I did not ask if you were unmoved by the mother trying to protect herself. Of course you are, of course you should be as am I. But which moves you more? The Mother Out of Love sacrificing or risking her life for her child! The Ultimate Force in the universe that the anti-violent, loving, nonviolent Warrior devotes their very being to embodying for the joy of it, because they can't do otherwise, tapping into is that Force which can only be activated in the onlookers, you in the question I asked you a moment ago, can only be tapped into in the onlookers when they witness someone offering or giving their life for a cause Beyond and greater than themselves equivalent to a greater good for another or a greater good for others. The Selma Marchers were putting their body In Harm's Way for their children, for their race, for their brothers and sisters. The Freedom Riders, Alice Paul and her sisters, the tens of thousands of Egyptians in Tahrir square, Malala, the school children in Soweto. And finally, number
4. The anti-violent Warrior the loving Warrior, cannot tap into the ultimate power within them self for justice, neither Justice for everyone, or just just for their self. We don't work that way. We're not built that way. It's a function of our DNA. Justice is a motivating force. It is not as motivating a force as the heart connected to the well-being of another(s) and thereby being engaged to protect the life or the Dignity of the other. 'Man hath no greater love than to lay down his life for his brother.' The ultimate need, the ultimate motivating force, of the healthy human being is meaning, the potentially great meaning to the life of another. The definitive work on this is Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for meaning. Whether one got out of the death camp alive in Nazi Germany he observed was not a function of how healthy and strong the individual was coming in. It was a function of how desperately important the inhabitant perceived it to be that they survive so that they could get out to help someone else, the wife, or in the case of Frankel, a much larger Community by publishing his psychological treatise.
The ultimate motivation that mother nature gave us was not the desire for self-preservation, or for justice, even for justice for the larger group. It is to protect the very lives and dignity of others. Yes, she gave us the desire for justice, and the drsire to protect oneself. But if that's all she gave us, we essentially socially dependent species from the very beginning, then we would not have survived through the Millenia. She gave us the ultimate motivation of caring more about the group then about our own lives. This is the only Force sufficient to enable the anti violent Warrior to go as far and as deep with as much courage and selflessness as an Alice Paul, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali, and the others that we Revere have to go. This is a huge step for me.
In part I departed from the Democracy spring action a month ago because I sensed it was only about Justice. I do love justice, immensely, but I knew even then Justice is not enough. It's too little too late. Part of my long hesitation to get involved in support of what Bernie Sanders was doing was because although my soul realized that he was going for a much greater good for and all of creation , many most or near all of his followers were simply pursuing Justice and in large part Justice for themselves. I'm not opposed to that per se. I don't deny their right to do so. But I knew deep in my soul it was too little too late.
Now I have the proof I was looking for. The pursuit of justice as an end goal now is way too little way too late. These are the final nanosecond on the clock and they are ticking down.