The Big Holiday Deal

Right at this very moment, peeking around the corner of our lives, is a Beauty that could start a rEvolution! You just have to be willing to see...

Virtually all of us have no real idea of the vast difference between the very few at the top of the world's economic food-chain, and the rest of us... likewise, there are very, very, few among us who have any sense whatsoever of the incredible poverty that marks the lives of billions of people at the very bottom of that same food-chain: most Americans like to believe that the differences between the "top" and the "bottom" can be overcome with a little bit of go-to-gumption... they further like to believe that the few at the "top" have the best interests of everyone else at heart... but there really is a better deal out there just waiting for us to snatch it up...

Take the pictured child as an example: what, to you, is she worth? Be honest! What is she worth? Is she worth less than the children that you know personally and perhaps love? Would this child's mother agree with whatever value you might -- out of the blue -- place upon her? Understand: this is not at all about me trying to cultivate guilt in you! This is all about Reality and Value: very basic philosophy, economics, and religion: you don't need a degree in philosophy, economics, or in theology to participate -- indeed, it's much better for you if you've skipped those studies altogether! (Or at least skipped the Institutionalized and Technologized Courses of the Dominator Paradigm). So, what do you think?

Here's what I think: the child pictured in the above photo is worth, exactly, 27 cents! I really shouldn't kid about something so important -- I'm just curious if you are actually giving attention to these musings! This child is actually worth: are you ready: exactly your value! Not a single cent of difference! So then, what are you worth? I don't even know most of you who will be reading this, but all of my life experience of serving the homeless for thirty years, all of my very human breakings, and all of the insights my shattered heart has revealed, point to this certainty: you are worth the very best! She is worth the very best! And everyone is worth the very best! This is the true, One Reality, that lurks around the many doorways of our lives: this the Beauty calling into the too-often quiet fields of our hearts and our consciences: "I am waiting for You! I am waiting to Welcome You Home! I am waiting to hold and caress Your every ache and pain, Your every lost dream, and Your every secret anguish! I am waiting to re-create You in my compassion and mercy! I am waiting to help You polish Your mirror so You can see that I am You! I am waiting to re-create this entire precious blue Planet, and every life upon it, into the Beauty of Kindness, Justice, and Peace! I am waiting to help You cultivate again the Garden of Eternal Delight!" ... So the One Love Consciousness, our Beloved Friend, says...

Talk about the Big Holiday Deal! What must we do to hear the Voice of the One ourselves? Well, it sure helps if you go and "spend" a bit of time stirring the soup pot in a Soup Kitchen... or become a volunteer at a Domestic Abuse Crisis Center... or take some serious environmental action... or organize for Equality and Justice... or begin to work for nonviolent alternatives to the military-industrial-technological-complex... or volunteer in campaigns to elect women political leaders... or attend inter-faith alternative worship services... or read a book by Andrew Harvey, Matthew Fox, Riane Eisler, David C. Korten, Frances Moore Lappe, bell hooks, Thich Nhat Hahn, Alice Walker, or Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, and perhaps the most important thinker / activist of our times, Vandana Shiva, (just a few suggestions)... but most of all, begin to make connections between everything that you buy or sell: all religion and politics is as local as your wallet: reduce the divide between your buddingly explosive conscience and everything that you think, say, and do... when we only spend our money and donate to businesses or non-profits that actually put into practice "love your neighbor as yourself", we will begin to see substantive change all around us...

So to re-cap: what are you worth? What is your neighbor -- even if she lives on the other side of this precious blue Planet -- worth? And the Big Holiday Deal is? Ah, beautiful are you... beautiful are you... beautiful are you... so, go ahead! With your heart now broken wide open and leaking out all over the place, buy this! 

---