To Flog or Not to Flog

With the weekend at its beginning, Han-ee-kah dinners, date-nights, more travel flights and shopping galore, let’s pause for a moment to ponder the concept of flogging vs. dancing on magical clouds of accepting all that is as it is with no complaints. That’s right: the difference between living in an energy field of constant positive energy or snarking through life hissing and dissing.

First of all, there is a middle ground between walking on air and digging into the compost bin. Even when you catch that falling star and put it in your pocket, something usually pops up to rip that darling star from its comfy home in a silk-lined safety net. Or cotton. Maybe wool. It doesn’t matter, really. You may be living on a material high, following a spiritual path of one sort or another that provides uplifting feelings and thoughts that have attracted good fortune your way - and yet, that dark little moment, thought, feeling or incident, will slam you against the ropes until you no longer see lovely stars in the sky but stars swirling through your head and in your eyes from the unexpected punch.

Whoa…. I just felt punched. I glanced over to the TV only to see another politco “talking head” from the GOP indicating that America is “rotting” from “dependence on the government” - meaning, of course, Social Security and Unemployment Benefits. Sure, Mr. GOP, that’s why we’re a bankrupt nation, right? A corrupt administration/Wall Street/Investment bankers/Ponzi-schemers/War-mongering leaners, had absolutely nothing to do with where our economy now sits? Or squats? Or plops?

Social Security became the “law of the land” in 1935; unemployment benefits also began in 1935 as part of the Social Security Act to balance the nation’s suffering during “The Great Depression” in order to stabilize the economy. The US of A had its ups and downs before and after these “perks” were set in motion, but it’s only NOW that these extremely helpful benefits are “rotting” our nation? It’s only NOW that the obstructionists want to send more people to the streets while the other half feasts? Shall I faint or paint or shrug my shoulders and slink away in oblivious ignorance to the potential demolition of a system that has saved millions of lives for over 80 years?

Was the well-seeded amnesia of who and which administration brought the economic mess into the country “in the first place” brought on by the stinging realization that there is a man of colour at the helm, not to forget that he’s also a Democrat? Sour losers they are. Worse, they are devious hypocrites.

Let’s go get him! Damn national security. Damn how dumping unemployment extensions will create more crime, more emotional and physical hardship to those who least need the stress. Damn those who have no money. Too bad. It’s their fault they lost their jobs and can’t get work because we say NO to everything the president wants to do to boost the economy and avoid deeper chasms in our nation’s structure.

Ahem.

Believe me, the minor rant was not planned although it does serve my purpose in the overall point of today’s post. Anger may not be an energy most of us care to live with every day, but it exists in the best and worse of us no matter how kind, loving and forgiving we may want to be. To ignore this truth in our human nature leads to illness of the mind and body. To live in constant anger is also not healthy. I would prefer to travel on a beam of golden light leading to the pot of material and spiritual gold at the end of the glowing and glistening rainbow - it can happen. In my life, at times, it HAS happened. I truly believe in miracles; I also know that repressing a supposedly “negative” emotion/attitude can be a very deadly force.

To Flog or not to Flog? There is no question.