Dog Poet Transmitting…….
May your fur always be smooth and sleek.
I like it when something comes up and gives me an opportunity to talk about it. Today I have a great chance to discuss something of real importance. As angry as this fellow may be with me at the moment, I am in debt to this, Jeff, for giving me a chance to engage a serious issue. One of the worst things anyone can be is… unforgiving. Depending on the degree of antipathy being experienced by the unforgiving, it can turn to venom and hate and it can seriously injure you as a person. IF… you are unforgiving, your chances of being forgiven are none too great.
Probably time for a little musical reflection to set a better tone, a rough effort but I think the point is there.
The back and forth can be seen in the comments section of the recent Petri Dish. It has to do with Michael Vick, who is the backup quarterback for The woeful Jets (now the replacement for the number one who has proven to be not up to the task) and who got arrested for being involved in dog fighting a few years ago down in Atlanta (I think it was). He spent around two years in prison for this and was widely censured. It’s still a hot button issue and you see people continuing to rage about it here and there.
To say I was disappointed in him would be an understatement. At the time though, it crossed my mind that this is what comes from having bad companions. A young black man suddenly finds himself with a whole lot of money that he never had before and without the necessary discipline he should have had but didn’t have. My love of dogs is pretty intense. The biggest thing troubling me about my departure from here is about having to leave my faithful four footed companion, Poncho. I know that we will be parted in any case at some point. I know that you and I and everything familiar to me will go away at some point, in the not too distant future. There is nothing I can do about this. I accept it. You either accept this or you are compelled to accept it. I prefer the former.
Earlier in my life I made any number of mistakes. On the one hand I was rash and impulsive. I was also very, very gung ho about storming the celestial gates. I don’t know anyone who threw themselves, without regard for life or limb, against the battlements like I did and I don’t know anyone at this point who is still as relentless. All of my companions from former times; some of them possessed an impressive zeal, are now integrated into the mix. Sometimes we communicate and what I hear from them is about the disappointing routine of their existence. Life just kept throwing them up against circumstance and they eventually acceded to their condition. You either NEVER give up or you come to terms with it all. If you've been committed at any point for any length of time, you never feel good about arrangements you felt forced to make and which have deposited you in your present pass.
My impulsiveness and refusal to compromise has cost me greatly over the course of time. In some cases I am sure I have not been forgiven by others for not going along with the program and allowing people to confer a status upon me that is undeserving. My Anti-Guru 2.0 software is cutting edge and simply won’t allow it. I have forgiven myself and I have forgiven those who remain unforgiving. Recently I received some horrific treatment at the hands of some selfish and conniving types, whose behavior lacks any justification whatsoever. I could have continued to this point, consumed by resentment and thoughts of revenge. These thoughts will still seek to raise their heads in my mind at odd moments. I must stand as the guardian at the gateway of the mind and forbid them entrance. I have no choice. Others, who are dealing with similar conditions, handle or do not handle them. If you do not handle them, they will handle you.
Scripture is very clear on certain points. If you do not forgive; you WILL NOT be forgiven. This is not your only concern. It will take your youthful spirit. It will turn your heart and mind into a battleground. It will act upon your health. It will impact on your state of being. It will cost you dearly AND… it’s not worth it. You cannot undo what people have done to you and only the divine can undo what you yourself have done. I lost assets for my work and other things of value in these recent events; given how little I have to begin with, the losses were considerable. In both cases, the principal offenders laughed at me. I was on crutches at the time and I could have gone all sorts of ways about this. Thankfully… thankfully, my first thought was about the injury they had done themselves. I was extremely grateful that this was not me. I am powerless to reverse or change these things and THAT is a very important consideration. What are you going to do? Are you going to fume and seethe? What possible good can come of that? Let the purpose of the demonstration be in your favor.
Forgiveness does not mean you embrace the viper back upon your chest, where the former injury took place. Stupid is still stupid. Learn from the mistake but do not carry the burden of ongoing impotent rage in your heart. It serves no good purpose. Let it go. There is no telling what good might await up ahead. Expect it AND… let go of those things that would cosmically prohibit its arrival. In both cases I was spared an ongoing relationship with common criminals that would have cost me far more, further on. Things can be replaced. The world is filled with things. There is, regardless of the economic climate, endless riches and all manner of ‘stuff’ all over the place. If you need something, the divine WILL provide it! Life abhors a vacuum. If it takes away, it also replaces. You can lose on the material plane and then gain on the spiritual. What is worse, that I lose some of the tools of my trade, or that I lose my talents to utilize them? What good are the tools without the ability? Uh huh.
You may not want to forgive others but… you must. You must. This is a matter of life and death. It may not seem to be but it is. I refer you back to The Greatest Commandment and the other admonition that followed, after it was stated; “love one another as I have loved you.” Regardless of how it may seem, life is long much of the time. We do not know how it will all turn out up the road. What we can know is that everything we do and do not do now, will surely impact upon what happens to us ‘then’. It is not necessary to set up the conditions for you to learn a lesson, IF… you are willing to learn that lesson without the need of having it impressed upon you.
Yes… we rail on about things here. We discuss man’s inhumanity to man and we point the finger at gargantuan offenders. How far could these blogs proceed without variable copy? Is what we say true? So be it. Jesus Christ, whose status ‘is’ far beyond my own, railed against many things. He didn't mince words. He went full bore after the moneychangers. He set the precedent for this sort of thing so… it’s okay to rail against injustice. Is it true? Is it so? Alright then.
As with Caesar, I do not come to praise Michael Vick. I said nothing about that. I merely referred to a transitionary state with his team and how that factored into a certain turn around, as it did. But… you don’t have to speak in praise of someone; merely mentioning their name is sufficient to bring unknown entities howling out of their caves.
I am not a Vegan. I consider a lot of Vegan thinking to be off the wall, such as, “eating honey is stealing from the bees.” That’s just more political correctness run riot and many Vegans are terribly judgmental about other people’s diets. This transfers over into other areas of life and you become a very unhappy and conflicted person; nothing is right and you are in this self-justifying, self righteous minority where you are right and everyone else is wrong. It’s like fundie Christians and that phrase, “I am the way and the truth and the light and no man cometh unto the father save by me.” That does not mean that every other religions is wrong or that God damns everyone who is not an elitist, fundie Christian, wallowing in a self defined exclusivity. The Christ light station of awareness is resident in EVERY authentic religion. It is generic and universal. It is the light of the father in the human mind, along with the cosmic love in the human heart.
The more exclusive you make yourself, the more deluded and eventually… unhappy you will be. I make commentary about PORK on occasion but… it’s none of my business what others eat. That’s their affair. My thing with pork is not physical. It is spiritual and there’s plenty precedent about that. That precedence is there for a reason. I see certain trends with Vegans and New Age practitioners, my way or the highway, Christians and Muslims. That’s how they see it. I don’t see it that way. Let’s not digress too far here; learn to forgive. Learn to forgive. You will be glad you did.
End Transmission…….