The Beginning of a New Age

To those who have been paying attention to the diversity beyond the traditional and customary -- of sex, race, age, status -- a new form of life (being), has clearly emerged in the last twenty years to a razor-sharp focus. Life has changed -- not for the worse as many believe, but undoubtedly for the better -- as the obvious conclusion one would have to come to in seeing increasingly many more, who now reach "retirement," with little signs of aging in the traditional expected pattern, in which they obviously have entered a period of steady decline and deterioration -- rather than the improvement that is still possible at any age.

Of course, many still regard that suspension of reality as "unnatural" -- as well as not unaided -- as though one has no right to the use of anything possible, to maintain their survival and greatest fitness -- at all times. Overlooked, is that some are gifted at birth with traits that favor their survival and success, while many more, have to overcome their unique handicaps -- on the path to optimizing their own greatest health and well-being, and therefore, have a greater control over their fate as a consequence of that original disadvantage but learning to overcome them -- which many gifted people, do not. While young and vibrant, it is easy to mistake natural aptitude for a hard-earned one, but as the years play out and those initial advantages are taken for granted and wasted, those who have earned their right to a better life, begin to take a lead.

So while the news is about the many more who now live to be 100, the real milestone, is the first person to reach that age, with no visible and obvious signs of aging. Many others, have written about the possibility that in this century, someone will conceivably (or even certainly) live to 150 -- but as most people know, in order for that to be meaningful, one has to first slow down or reverse the deteriorative process for that to be a desired outcome, because they can already keep a person in a vegetative state alive indefinitely.

But that is not the quality of life, most thoughtful people will want to prolong indefinitely -- mainly for the benefit of the health care industry and workers. So that measurement, is not the most significant yardstick by which to measure, but whether that quality of life is improving or hopelessly deteriorating -- and what can be done about that on the many levels besides expanding the health care system -- and the nightmare vision of people kept alive indefinitely with no other signs of life indicating a greater consciousness or responsiveness -- because certainly, the former has already been attained into the quandary of these times.

I don't think anybody has an argument that one has a right to live as long as they wish and can provide themselves for that life. But when it begins to take a whole village, to sustain a person in that state of indefinite deterioration -- at the expense of everything else, responsible decisions have to be made. At that point and stage, life at any cost, costs all the other lives -- that are being dedicated and sacrificed for those ones -- just like they were at the dawn of civilization -- for the pharaohs and kahunas. The young were sacrificed, so the old could live just one more minute -- and so they required unending sacrifices to that end.

It's not a pretty vision of the future -- so those who can blaze that path to an unprecedented health and self-sufficiency, are truly the pioneers of these times -- and not those merely calling for greater sacrifices from everyone else, so that we can continue the present status quo forevermore -- or certainly, one will face the horror of seeing a person deteriorate to the age of 150 in a vegetative and completely dependent state -- as is already happening.

Making Exercise Easy

Any genius' great contribution to society, is that they make the inaccessible -- accessible to many others, and not just keep all that advantage just for themselves.

And so the great wisdom of great intelligence, has always been to make the difficult and hard -- easy.

That was the genius of Steve Jobs, while the dominant cultural trend at that time, was to maintain data processing (computing), just for the few professional I(nformation) T(echnology) professionals -- and at its height of dominance and power, required all the information to have to flow and be processed by their their (mainframe) computers, administered by a few self-selected technicians (professionals) -- to be the One Thing everybody had to know.

So up to that time ('60s), the monolithic (monopoly) power, always made it more difficult to access the computers and the information therein -- until the young heretic represented by Steve Jobs, challenged the rule of Big Brother, as the only option there was -- and would be forever more. That was not the only rebellion and revolution of its time, but is a fitting and well-documented emblem of its time -- and age, that with his passing, asks the question, "Whither now?"

But even geniuses do not grow up in a vacuum, but are the product of their time and age -- of which many others are also seeing the "writing on the wall" in the fields of their own interests -- because all things are connected to everything else. Obviously, the music of that time underwent a revolution that more people were aware of -- because more people plug into those interests -- while art was only beginning then to merge into life, as the integration of form with function -- that many credit the iPhone/iPad with being this manifestation/synthesis of art with technology.

The new paradigm, is making it easy -- and not harder, to access information, music, health, etc., and not in the old mode, of making things harder -- which implies costing more time, energy and money, to the benefit of the new priests and gatekeepers of their time, and those who wish to be, and always remain so. But the lesson of history, is that nobody stays on top for ever -- but that epochs and ideas come and go, and that flow is the rightful process, evolution and progress of life.

We can choose to become more aware of this or not -- but now it is easier to do so.

The Video: Understanding Conditioning II (Making Exercise Easy)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1mMH98uObQ&feature=youtu.be

The Quality of Life is Change

An individual's ability and power to change -- is the quality of life they experience. Implied in this, is that they are very much aware of their environment -- which is the context in which they live their lives, and successfully adapt to their specific and unique challenges, so that whatever arises, they are fully capable of meeting those challenges, and especially, to grow from them to even greater capabilities of expression and actualization.

That is what the schools were originally conceived for -- and not as they have become, merely to continue the status quo -- of not responding to the present circumstances and challenges, but to enshrine the past and previous responses, as the only ones still possible -- even though they are obviously not working and not responsive to the challenges of the present time -- only hoping that if they stall long enough, the old "normal" will return again.

Thus, there is really no belief and conviction that what they do really and actually matters, but if they keep on doing what they've always done before, that is what matters. So there is this disconnect between cause and effect --in favor of going through the motions as a ritual they hope will produce favorable results -- just as primitive people once danced to the gods, hoping to be favored. But that they could directly effect and influence any outcome, was an aspiration that was beyond belief and expectation; they were in fact, heretical and sacrilegious, and could even get one burned at the stake, or tortured in other ways until they capitulated to the futility of it all -- in God's master plan to keep humankind subservient, humble and powerless (despairing) -- as many still think is the way it should be.

That state of powerlessness and hopelessness, we now refer to as the Dark Ages -- in which few even thought to question authority, lest they face The Grand Inquisitor, which was that day's version of political/social/moral correctness -- as determined by the Church and its handmaiden, the universities, which was the training ground for the Church -- and not its antithesis modern scholars will now have us believe. They were rooted in the same institution, the same status quo -- of which anything else, was the excommunication from the society of the right-thinking brotherhood. Beyond was only the wilderness, perdition, hellfire, and unthinkable horrors.

So the thinking that any individual could control their own destiny and fate, is a recent development -- in the history of humankind, that once it got out, grabbed hold and accelerated in modern and contemporary civilization to where now, it doesn't seem far-fetched for those who want to, to custom-design their own best world -- without having to wait for it as the reward in the afterlife. But it is not just a matter of going out and buying it -- as the only thing available in the marketplace of ideas, goods and services, because it is out there with a million other things competing for one's time, attention and money.

The value of money, is the greater good one can exchange it for -- and not just because one has infinitely more money, but nothing of greater value they can exchange it for. In that case, their money is worthless, because they cannot exchange it for any greater good -- but like old King Midas, just have more gold -- and everything they touch, turns to more gold. But man does not live by gold alone. At some point, they have to be able to convert it to satisfy other needs -- like food, shelter, clothes, tools, etc. Sometimes, it is even the air, water, and sunlight -- that we take for granted, but is essential to life, and the very foundations of it.

But the hardest things to see, is that which is all around us -- as the premises of our existence. That, of course, is the obvious.