grassroots

I don't own a television and three years ago, that was a lifestyle choice. When the old one died and I dutifully troddled off to K-Mart to replace it but, as I was considering which model and what size I thought, "how much of this crap do you watch anyway?"

The answer came back, "not so much. . ."
An episode of The West Wing on Wednesday night, a dumbed down documentary on the History Channel every once in a while and, in the mornings, with the sound down and NPR on the radio simultaneously, FoxNews. . . (not for content but to catch the occasional long shot of short skirts, hose and heels twitching around in uncomfortable chairs - a hangover from my younger life in the corporate sector). But even though that was all I was "watching" I had to face the fact that even when I wasn't watching, the damned TV was on all the time, like a gloomy, inane soundtrack. So, to make a long story short, I left the store sans TV with a couple of hundred dollars that was destined to be better spent, over the next few weeks, at B.O's Fishwagon and Schooner Wharf.

Sure, there were a few weeks of withdrawal (mindless habits are hard to break) but after a while something wonderfully unexpected started to happen. . .
I was spending more time with my cat, my plants began to prosper and I got to painting and writing a lot more. My energetic focus was shifting more toward my world and away from the chaos the TV had been telling me was so important.

Don't get me wrong, I am not one of those folks with their head in the sand. I like being informed but I refuse to be inundated (and let's face it, TV is an avalanche of information). These days an hour of WLRN's Morning Edition gives me the broad stroke on what's happening in the world and if something catches my special interest, I can find it on-line or in print and read more about it. (I'm an educated older guy and I read quite a bit - no need for a Murdoch manipulated media interpretation).

Here's my point. . .
Everything - you, me, the moons of Mars and even Rupert Murdoch (though I doubt he'd believe it) are all connected. Nothing in the universe is anything but one total energy field. Every thought we think, every action we take, effects every other one of us and the realities we perceive.
So here's the picture. . .
Imagine the world at large is this palm tree. Governments, corporations, media outlets and organized religions flailing like palm fronds in a wind of special interest, greed, fear and negativity. Now imagine that you and your day to day reality are the stalk of seagrass. You might not like the way that damned tree wags in the wind up there and it might even scare you a bit. But what can you do, the thing is fifty feet tall and you're ten inches small. . .
You can change the focus of your thoughts and actions and, in the doing, change the energy field more to your liking.

Close, or at least moderate, the window through which the world at large reaches you - your TV. Draw your own conclusions, say yes to peace rather than no to war and when you cast a ballot, vote for something, not against something.
Get positive!
Sure, at first blush, my proposal seems a bit absurd but our ability to direct energy is scientific fact and there is far more seagrass on the planet than there are palm trees. (By the way, the "palm trees" know that and fear it.)
Our combined positive thoughts and positive actions can effect the energy field of which everything is a reflection. We can clean up the mess they've made and avoid the disasters they're planning. We can change the world.