Ego, Smeagol

I know, it's supposed to be ego, schmego but I do things my way. You got a problem with that?

Actually, I have a problem with it.

How can something so big and cumbersome be called something so small. It shouldn't be called ego, it should be called Supercalifragilisticexpiladociousgo. Wait, wouldn't that be what we would call the Superego? Freudian slip I guess.

My ego is 'my Precious' and I am Smeagol. My Precious tortures me but I must have it. It owns me and I can't set it aside, although I am trying. Life would be so much easier without it.

I had a dream last night that I walked through a spider's web. I have these dreams occasionally, and typically, they are no big deal. But this one was a little different. In this dream I spent the next few minutes looking for spiders crawling on me and found nothing - no big deal. Then all of a sudden, a few minutes later I see this huge juicy black widow shaped spider attached to my left arm. Except it wasn't black. It was a bright fluorescent blue and about 3 times the size of a black widow. I couldn't bare to touch it so I asked my friend to flick it off. As he tried to flick it off, it doesn't even budge, it just squishes a little, like it is fat off of my blood. Then, he tries to peel it off from the back and as he starts to do so, I see this long barbed fang protruding into my skin and I am freaking out, screaming at him to get it off my arm. "Get it off!, Get it off!"

And that is why I am posting this blog at 4:00 AM. The ego topic popped in my head after the cold sweat dried from my body.

These are the thoughts that crawl around in this mind of mine. And you wonder why I don't want my ego in charge?

By the way, if you judged me, or labeled me while reading any of this, say hello to your little friend. I like to call him Precious.

Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite.

Red Dragon Rising: China Consumes the World

The Russians used the scorch and burn technique against Germany in World War II. I think we are having a similar effect based on the need to fuel our economic growth and consumerism.

Were you ever curious about seeing some tangible evidence of what we are doing to the environment?

Check out this short video presentation of beautiful but troubling pictures captured by Edward Burtynsky of Canada at www.ted.com - http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/edward_burtynsky_on_manufactured_landscapes.html.

As China starts to join the ranks of high consumers, similar to ourselves, they unwittingly provide clear examples of what is being done to the environment in order to support their ever expanding economy.

Many of Burtynsky's photos show what is happening in China, but they can easily be extrapolated to what we have done and what we continue to do to our own environment right here at home. Of course what we did happened over a much longer period of time which made it potentially less noticeable. Or perhaps people just cared less or no one thought to capture it in photographs. Of course technology has accelerated the speed at which we can defile things as well.

Whatever the reason, if we don't make changes soon we may pay some high costs to recover what we took for granted. That is assuming we even can.

For additional information, check out the documentary, Manufactured Landscapes, which followed Burtynsky along on many of his shoots in China.

"Gunga Galunga" - Dalai Lama

As the great Carl Spackler once said, "It's in the hole!"

Okay, okay, that quote doesn't have much to do with this entry, but it does highlight three important things you should know.

1. Golf is a great sport.
2. Caddyshack is a great golf movie.
3. Historically, in great literature, the fool (our friend Carl Spackler in this case) can always be counted on to say some very intelligent things.

Carl also says the following in Caddyshack:

"So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald... striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one - big hitter, the Lama - long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga... So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, how about a little something, you know, for the effort." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice."

See it on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkLH56VlKT0

I guess I could say I was on my deathbed and received total consciouness last Sunday morning while watching Eckhart Tolle's DVD - Finding Your Life's Purpose.

Let me try to explain.

I used to be such a worrier, always deferring happiness into the future using Now as a means to an end. 'The end' being some point in the future where happiness would exist for me. Except, when would that point be? How long would that happiness last? Would I be happy forever after having gotten to that point? Or, would I only be happy temporarily and thus start looking for the next thing to make me happy again? Why not just be happy now?

I learned something watching and listening to Mr. Tolle. The future only exists in the mind, just as the past exists only in the mind as your memories of Now. When we experience the future it will be experienced as Now.

I will leave it at that for Now?

If you are intrigued check out Eckhart Tolle's book The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment.