Inner Michael » A closer look at Michael Jackson's life and work

 
Michael Jackson was not who "they" told us he was. A minister and metaphysician takes a look at Michael Jackson. "Inner Michael" is a metaphor and Inner Michael website is a research project into a man, his life and his work and how it influenced the world. Read More...

Black Man Walking

The Oscars was the last straw. The “white” Oscars.

The Academy Awards don’t just determine who is the “best” in a category, the winners see more new moviegoers and as a result, inform mass consciousness– of a nation and the world. “The Oscars” show an appreciation for art that conveys pathos like no other medium; pop culture tends to reflect what’s “trending” and the Oscars dictate trends. The snub to “Selma” is more than I can bear.

I’ll admit it. I’ve been avoiding this. I’ve avoided coming to this space to discuss recent events regarding Ferguson, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, 12 year old Tamir Rice, John Crawford of Ohio, the N.Y.P.D. disrespecting Mayor de Blasio,the Indian man, now partially paralyzed because of an over zealous officer in Alabama, all the dead black men…

In other words… Racism.

I’ve written my fair share about this 21st century scourge. Much of it witnessed through the lens of and surrounding, a particular black artist bludgeoned relentlessly after a stellar success that propelled him into superstardom and hence throughout his career– by his own and the whites who came to accept him and particularly by those who didn’t and the media. Much of what happened to Michael Jackson was because of racism. Michael Jackson was an enigma. A proud black man born in the mean streets of a black forgotten neighborhood in a house the size of a garage who became the most famous man on earth, who held a unique and powerful position in history and who deliberately and repeatedly addressed black/white relations and marginalization vs. unity in his art.

I have wondered, more than once, what Michael Jackson would think and say today about what is going on with race relations particularly between citizens and police. What might he say about Ferguson? “Ferguson” doesn’t mean just the city of Ferguson, but has come to mean a mindset about African Americans in society in general and the killing of black men by law enforcement.  It’s a mindset that makes assumptions about the intrinsic “goodness” of people based on their skin pigmentation. Whites have privilege that assumes basic goodness or at least adopts the idea of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ while blacks, and especially black males, are assumed guilty of something (even if it’s just “intention”) that does not represent “goodness.” A black male is much more suspicious in the neighborhood than a white one. He is assumed to be “lurking” instead of just walking or “up to no good” instead of just benignly present. Likely a “thug.” And “thug” has come to mean code for an African American male who appears menacing and makes whites feel uncomfortable.

That’s a lot to extrapolate because of skin color! The history of that attitude goes back a long, long way. There is a real but completely irrational fear of dark skinned men. It comes from the assumption that blacks are not that far descended from apes and are unable to contain their “animalistic” and brute desires and behaviors. When the slaves in the American South began to show evidence of Vitiligo, it set off a panic. It led to digging up graves, the dissecting of bodies and even experimentation on live men to find the cause.

Michael Jackson, it seems, would be more sensitive to race and skin color than most having been an African American with his own skin issues in the form of autoimmune inflammatory diseases like Vitiligo and Lupus. “Ferguson” and what it has come to mean in the context of culture, would make him cry. And not little silent tears, but large, loud crocodilian tears. No stranger to his softer and feminine side having integrated it solidly unlike many of his contemporaries, he would cry– unashamed and unabashedly. Jackson was particularly sensitive to the difficult navigation of boyhood with all its double messages, nuances, taboos and generalizations. He was sensitive to the ceilings youth have to contend with on their way to adulthood imposed arbitrarily because of being black. He was sensitive to street kids and even gang members, having tried to humanize them to each other by incorporating rival members into his video.

As an artist who worked so hard and funded so much of his own work, and after being pummeled by the media, I think he’d be openly mortified about today’s headlines regarding black men. While there’s a great deal of history to be depressed and disillusioned about, and add to that the reality that so little has changed or advanced, I doubt Jackson would be numb or indifferent. So much of his own villainization was because of the color of his skin, and the changing color of his skin. Of all the people who might have gotten Vitiligo for symbolic reasons, Jackson was fated to have the disease and be viewed as deliberately changing his skin color– for status. That skin color should be connected to status is a dark and archaic tenet; unfortunately, it has not been left behind to fade into history.

Jackson had his own encounters with law enforcement in his neighborhood, part of the jurisdiction of Santa Barbara and the county run by “Mad-dog” Thomas Sneddon. In the light of new prejudiced encounters between police officers and black men, one is left to wonder if the same attitude was rampant during Sneddon’s reign as District Attorney. Santa Barbara is considered an affluent white community. Police arrest records seem to bear out an intrinsic bias as most of the arrests list the names of many men who are clearly minorities. Michael, a student of black history and a native of Gary, Indiana would have been aware of such discrimination. His elevation to wealthy superstar would have insulated him from much, but to an officer of the law operating under a “Ferguson” mindset, his blackness would not be forgiven.

It was an issue in the hood then and it’s an issue in the hood now. Only the size of the hood has changed. The world, having shrunk because of the reach of modern communication, is now the hood. The world is our hood today. Economies and tragedies link us in an interdependent web. Media– mainstream, 24 hour coverage and social media, have made the ordinarily invisible, visible. Knowledge is instantaneous in a world that values connection more than at any time in history.

That connectedness has revealed to us, an issue that until now, was well known inside the hood but not generally known by society– the challenges of being African American and particularly an African American male facing an encounter with law enforcement in the hood. As a person with white privilege, I never had to be aware of “the talk.” My brother never got “the talk” because he is white and it’s therefore, irrelevant.  “The talk” is what every African American family must discuss with its male youth– just because they’re black and particularly because they’re male. My brother never had to be indoctrinated about how to behave when (not if) stopped by a white majority police officer. He never had to be trained about how to stay alive when encountering the police. Our white privilege insulated us not against just the reality of the life of black males on the street, but insulated us against the knowledge of it.

Not until my foray into black music because of an accidental defacto role as a Michael Jackson biographer and as the founder of “Words and Violence,” a program that examines bullying in all its incarnations, did I know the real implications of growing up black and black male as that relates to law enforcement. In studying “the arts” and “performance arts” as messenger, antidote for bullying and instrument for social change, I stumbled into the Hip Hop culture with its vast, and global, underground. It was there and under the mentoring of a popular Hip Hop artist and activist, that I learned of “the talk” and the contemporary realities of “the hood.” And I was a civil rights activist in the sixties and seventies!

I, like my peers, went on with life and just assumed that the civil rights work that ignited awareness and demanded change in that decade, lived on as legacy and necessarily evolved, as all things do. Not true. There has been very little evolution. Spike Lee’s brilliant and powerful editorial film “Do the Right Thing” resonates and is just as relevant today as it was in 1989. I have Spike Lee to thank for my education about urban life and Black History, not my high school (or even college!) textbooks.

My apologies to the black community for not paying close attention; I thought the marches, the protests, the stand against discrimination all those years ago solved it. I naively believed the issue was evolving and we were close to being post-racial; hadn’t we elected a black president? But it was the election of that black president and the Republican and societal response to it and the reports by the Southern Poverty Law Center that alerted me to a serious gap in my knowledge. I had assumed we were more progressive than we were.

I suddenly had to deal with not only being shocked, but weary. All that work… all the social justice work… in all those trenches… for all those years… was it for nothing? I had been so engrossed in dealing with the tenure of George Bush, the resurgence of war over vague and inflated issues, the dumbing down of the presidency and failed American policy, that I missed what was going on. I was so disgusted over the empathy and lack of will (and protests) by Americans, that I emotionally cashed my chips and left the place under cover of darkness.

While I was glad to see “Occupy” come along, I knew it wasn’t enough. But I saw it more as political than racial. Until I had a black president and a new teacher– Mr. Jackson. And until I had Jackson African American fans who became friends and colleagues. Pardon my drowsiness. I’m awake now. Racism is still very much alive. It’s not because of indifference or even my white privilege (or maybe it is somewhat) that I went to sleep. It was the weariness. It was the disbelief I staggered from that kept me groggy because I didn’t want to face it– the reality that minority oppression and discrimination is alive and well after all that work and all this time.

I didn’t want to pick up and wield the warrior sword again. The fight for rights that should have been givens was long and arduous. I didn’t know if I had it in me to carry that sword; it was heavy the first time. And I’m not so young as I used to be. I’m not so idealistic. I’m not so sure I still believe in the human race; I’m not so sure there is enough to believe in.

But here it is in my face.

More and more videos appear of encounters with cops and ordinary citizens where the treatment of a citizen and the use of force by cops is a serious cause for dismay. The most recent ones I watched showed a traffic stop and a passenger was removed from the car and searched without probable cause. The driver sustained injuries in a takedown; in another situation, a man from India who was visiting his relocated (American) family to help with a newborn and was accosted while taking a walk down the street. He is suing the police department and is now partially paralyzed at their hands. In another video I watched a young cocky police officer make an assumption about a black man because of the number of keys on his key-ring. It was obvious the officer assumed the number of keys was equivalent to criminal intent. The gentleman had left his car running and parked outside a store after fetching his ID for the cashier in order to make a purchase. He was understandable upset at being manhandled as the officer with too much swag told him to “calm down.” Of course as officers escalate instead of diffuse a situation, the “suspect” is going to get more agitated– cops are killing unarmed people!

For selling cigarettes on the street.

For playing with a toy gun in a park.

For picking up a gun off the shelf in a store that sells guns in a state governed by an open carry law.

For walking while black.

My avoidance is not because I’m not deeply affected; I am. I’m not distant or indifferent. That’s the farthest thing from what I feel and think about this current (and historic) cultural dilemma. The fact is, I feel too much. It’s too much. And it’s…. again.

Tamir Rice was 12- a baby. A kid playing with a toy gun! As a child, I played with guns. I had BB guns, cap guns and we played cowboys and Indians before I understood how racist that was. We simply emulated what was on TV! We emulated the stereotypes. Until we got wise– decades later. How ingrained those cultural stereotypes can be!

My white privilege allows me to easily push race to the side for my white privilege is dominant. I don’t look part Native American as my ancestry reveals, so by default, I’m white. My daily life permits me to go about my business without a consciousness of my color or a nagging intuition that something is very wrong here. I don’t have to think how my skin color may affect the trajectory of my day; I just get dressed and go out. I don’t have to consider whether I will have to avert my eyes or shuffle invisibly through my day to avoid any unpleasant encounter with strangers holding assumptions and judgments about me without knowing me. And I certainly don’t have to think about my mortality or life and death– daily.

For black history month, I attended a Martin Luther King program and a program by a motivational speaker. But I still am an outsider because of my color. The smallish midwest place I live is relatively free of the violence or threats one might encounter in a bigger city. It’s a pretty safe place except for the perpetual “alarm” cocked and hair-trigger ready for women, particularly when alone, and especially after dark. It is part of our hardwiring to be on high alert that there may be a male stranger (or not) lurking just out of sight. Mostly, though I don’t need to be on alert. I could easily walk to the campus building where the events take place– mostly at night. Women must, like an invisible knapsack, carry the outrageous burden of potential rape and have to unreasonably take on their own rape prevention by being conscious of location and safety at all times. It’s a crock, really. And my whiteness doesn’t prevent assault, but statistically it diminishes the threat.

Mixed race women are far more vulnerable and black women in Africa and Afghanistan face the most danger. One in 6 women have been the victims or victims of attempted rape. One in 3 women will be assaulted in their lifetimes and almost 18 million American women have been the victims of rape. Child brides of forced marriages are beaten regularly, disfigured, burned and have their noses amputated should they misbehave.

Rape is a life sentence for a woman, but it’s not a sure death sentence. For black men the statistics about the kind of violence they face daily, are sobering. An African American male is about 66 times more likely to be stopped by police and about 21 times more likely to get shot by an officer than a while male.

Yes, Ferguson made me mad. New York made me madder. But Cleveland sent me into orbit. The gentleman who was in the Wal-Mart store in Ohio and who picked up a gun off the very shelves of the store and was shot point blank instantly by police was in a store that sold guns in a state that is by law, “open carry.” That means that you could take your AK-47 assault rifle into that Wal-Mart and not only avoid being stopped or questioned, but there is no justification for law enforcement even approaching you. A gun is not even probable cause. The open carry law makes that encounter in Wal-Mart a murder. Given the recent huge FAIL of the justice system, is it likely that anyone will be indicted?

I wore a hoodie to the Martin Luther King celebration and reception. Everybody noticed. They wondered. Nobody asked. It was time to step up and make a statement– some statement. Any statement. I wore the hoodie for Trayvon, Michael, Tamir, Eric and all those other men and families destroyed by corrupt attitudes, morals, ethics and actions. It was only a gesture. It’s not enough. But I did it for Martin Luther King and to feel solidarity; it was a reminder that black lives matter. It’s only a beginning. I have been writing about racism, black men and black music. But I have not lifted the sword again. Do I have the strength, I wonder?

I took issue and resisted the whole “black lives matter” meme because not only do I feel “all lives matter” (I always have) but I feel ALL LIFE MATTERS- the life of the very planet itself and its inhabitants. And to hear it said that it’s not about me and about being white is.. just… disingenuous. It is my race that is the problem. It’s my educational system and education that was, and is, inadequate. But I understand the insistence and I see the rants and protests as part of a process. The process is grief. I understand the “Black Lives Matter” insistence because historically they haven’t mattered much. How do you arrive at a calculation of 3/5 person? What formula could you possibly use? White privilege prevents many from understanding the reasoning behind “Black Lives Matter.” When some lives don’t matter and life itself matters so little, we are on our way away from, not toward, civilization. We are all affected by the values that surround us. We cannot witness this kind of thing and willful, systematic and systemic violence without being affected and particularly without contracting PTSD. We all have it– those who were there, those of us who witnessed and our families whom we interacted with during our brokenness. We are the walking wounded.

I know what prevented me from commenting on the current climate. I was part of the civil rights movement in the sixties and I was an activist even then. I was a Motown fan and frequented the North side of Milwaukee, sometimes the only white girl in the place. I was a dancer and the best dancers and clubs were on that side of town. I had no fear. I went to all the shows at “the scene” in Milwaukee and most of them were Motown. I saw all the greats– Four Tops, Temptations, Aretha, Count Basey, James Brown, Sam and Dave, and more… and of course I was a Jacksons fan.

The sixties saw the death of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Robert F. Kennedy, the war in Viet Nam and the civil rights movement.

I’ve been wounded by it. And I’m weary. I’ve got this sword here and I don’t want to lift it alone. “I can’t do it by myself.”

______________________

Some things to think about…

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/arrested-sit-friendship-9-convictions-be-overturned-n294146

http://perceptive.kinja.com/sony-hack-re-ignites-questions-about-michael-jacksons-p-1672116301/+laceydonohue

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-messenger-king-

 

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Haunting and the Creative Impulse and an Inner Michael Update

Announcement and Update:

Hello and welcome back. Sort of. I am saying “welcome back” because Inner Michael has been experiencing technical difficulties. My web host had some security issues and then upgraded the security. Meanwhile, the comments didn’t work and nobody could leave a comment. A reader suggested I let you know what has been going on and why I haven’t been here and the site has not been operative. There are still problems uploading images, so bear with us while we work on the glitches.

The other announcement is that I will not be posting as frequently as have for the last 5 years. Twice a week Inner Michael has featured a new post which was especially important just after Michael Jackson died because people were deeply and surprisingly touched and reached out to me after I wrote a review of “This Is It” for a magazine. That article was shared and many people who were suffering the loss of an old icon who had graced most of their lives, or a new icon just discovered that elicited a mysterious deep grief. Some of those in the throes of grieving never gave a thought to Michael Jackson until his death. They were inconsolable and they were puzzled. Sometimes there is no (earthly anyway) explanation for the rise of a phenomenon. And this certainly was a phenomenon. Coincidentally (or not) a year earlier I had completed my study in “Spiritual Emergency” at seminary. This “phenomenon” had all the earmarks of a spiritual emergency but it was taking place on a global scale. People from all over the world began to contact me.

I was dumbfounded. It seemed strange but in the messages I read from people all over the world was a longing to understand, to connect, to hang on to something or someone tangible and hopefully grounded, because their experience was anything but ordinary. I had no experience with this kind of thing and was a relatively newly minted minister ordained in 2006, a mere 3 years before Jackson’s death. And my knowledge and training in spiritual emergency was tailored to counseling an individual finding themselves mired in a dark night of the soul– a common and eventual juncture for those on the spiritual path. A dark night of the soul is like a crucible that refines the soul of the seeker by presenting them with a difficult and dark time in life where one experiences an existential crisis. A true existential crisis causes one to question everything including the existence and influence of any deity, the self and even the reason for existence– one’ own and existence itself. The ultimate dark night (so far as my training and experience) is the experience of “no self.” The ego simply dissolves. I had gone through such a transition during my empty nest adjustment after the emancipation of my children. The inner dialogue called “monkey mind” by many disciplines went silent. A later trauma provoked a high pitched frequency tone that burst through the silence and mimicked tinnitus until I assimilated. There are stages that are part of the death of the ego or its submission to the higher faculties of the divine self or soul.

I had never seen it or even heard of a dark night or spiritual emergency happening on the kind of scale I was encountering. I didn’t know what to call it and I didn’t know anything about a collective dark night in mass consciousness triggered by the passing of a particular soul. Certainly the events of nine-eleven in America triggered a collective dark night as seemed reasonable given the wide dissemination of news about what occurred in New York City on that day. Anyone who witnessed it– first hand, second hand or any kind of hand, was deeply affected by it. And it also seemed to set something intangible but powerful in motion. It may have benchmarked the new initiative toward building another kind of world community. Everything points to that.

But the deep grieving over Jackson’s loss, especially by some who were never fans or followers, was if nothing else– unusual. I contacted experts in these matters to find answers for what was happening and how to address the many souls who were mysteriously and unreasonably devastated by the loss of a man they never knew or never paid attention to. I spoke to psychologists, to clergy, to my teachers and nobody had an explanation for me. I even spoke to those who call Spiritualism their religion. Known for communication with the beyond and the afterlife, they could only say that yes, this was a phenomenon they had encountered in their historical readings, but they could not name it or define it for me. It had some of the characteristics (and asanas) of a Yogi or Avatar who has gone on to another realm but continues to impact this one. I had, of course, read about such benevolent beings but had no direct experience with the phenomenon. In a workshop with Ram Dass, I learned of someone who had experienced such direct communication with a once worldly teacher.

I still didn’t know what to make of it. And I wasn’t sure that exploring “Michael Jackson” was something I really wanted to do. While it’s true that “when the student is ready the teacher appears,” and I have had many teachers, I wasn’t sure I wanted one who was a controversial figure on a global scale. Not at this stage of my life, anyway. Couldn’t my soul have called a less polarizing figure? Someone who was not a lightning rod for controversy? A man who was hated as much as he was loved?

In studying with my shaman for the last decade or so, I have learned that there are some things that one just does not question. I have learned that yes, Spirit works in mysterious ways and I have learned that there are realms (and realms) beyond this one. When I was inexplicably and involuntarily drawn back to the movie “This is It.” I went the first time to sort of pay my respects to someone who influenced a culture and was at one time a bright star and who may have fallen because of human foibles. My study has taught me that nothing is accidental and the soul chooses to go through human incarnation as a means to expand itself and move closer to enlightenment. It’s been a comfort to know that the crucifixion of Jesus had a soul purpose and was not just random violence for its own sake. Even the most enlightened beings had missteps in their journeys and I went to the theater alone to watch “This Is It” as a way of say goodbye and to wish Jackson’s battered soul comfort and Godspeed. I knew something was up, however when I found my feet making their way back to the theater to see it multiple times. I knew there was something there and I could only hope it would reveal itself to me. I recognized it as shamanic and I’ve learned not to question such impulses for they always lead somewhere.

I saw “This Is It” on many levels. The first time I saw Jackson and his talent. During subsequent viewings, other things began to be revealed. And in one unpeeling of the layers, I saw something in the movie I had missed before. Even though trained by teachers to see and know the spiritual infused in the material, I had completely missed the moment where Jackson connects with the otherworldly and begins to embody something else. The realization hit me like a baseball connecting with the side of one’s head. That wasn’t coming from Jackson; it was coming THROUGH him!

Well, that flash of insight changed everything. It meant that his work, his music, his talent and even his fame–was Inspired. (Capital I.) His was an inspired work. I had glimpsed something significant but I had to make sure. So I went looking through his videos and his life for clues that would confirm my finding. I began with watching the videos which were all over the Internet and I got a copy of “Dancing the Dream.” A spiritual seeker and student of the Divine Impulse in creation, one gets to know the language and images that communicate the origins of someone’s imaginings. When one reads the works and biographies of the mystics and religious devotees throughout time, the clues come in patterns. The experiencers tend to use the same descriptions and the same language that to one who has studied many students of the divine, is immediately recognizable.

The only way to explain this for someone who has not embarked on this journey is to liken it to buying a red sports car. As you set out on the highway in your new vehicle, suddenly red sports cars stand out everywhere in places where you never noticed them before. It’s a kind of faculty that is ignited and set aflame that shines a light on all that is even remotely related to that original fire. The fire, it is noted can come in many forms– a match, a candle, a lighter, a forest-fire, lightening… but it’s all still made of the same element– fire. It’s a kind of awakening to something that previously went unnoticed. It’s like swimming all your life and waking up one day to realize the water is wet! it has another faculty! It’s– oh my god– wet! Before it was just a medium that allowed an experience– the medium through which your body glided– but now it is the experience appreciated on a whole other level. And off you go– to explore wetness and what it means. Next you’ll wonder what else you may have missed about water. And suddenly the awareness of its buoyancy and weightlessness sends you off on a exploration of gravity and anti-gravity. You’re off to another world. And that’s how awakening or awareness works. Suddenly you’re in a place that has always been there but you never noticed before.

As I read “Dancing the Dream” I marveled at how connected Jackson was– to his personal and to universal spirituality, how aware he was of the spiritual realms and how his inspiration was driven from there. Who knew? He had remarked many times (and it was dismissed or mocked by biographers or reporters) that his music came from somewhere else. He couldn’t take credit for it, he said because “it’s created in space.” He spoke about how the universe was a symphony of creation created out of sound and vibration and that music was a stepped down form of that same energy– kind of like a transformer steps down electricity before its consumed because the higher frequency would burn and destroy not just the bulb transforming it to light, but the person turning on the switch. Sound in fact, was Jackson’s obsession. In scripture from many cultures, creation arises from a sound– in some traditions singing into (and out of) being (singing the spirit home) and in some, “the word” become manifest, created the Universe.

Once that level of spiritual vibration is achieved, it is maintained only through a practice or discipline. The West was introduced to Transcendental Meditation by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the sixties and seventies and many describe reaching bliss through their practice. Kirtan, a chanting discipline where the different names for god are chanted repeatedly, can cause a kind of ecstacy. This is called in theology the “ascending gesture” where humans long for union with the divine and “send up” that longing in thought, chant, prayer, meditation, etc. For Jackson, the ecstatic state came in the form of dance. He entered a numinous state during his performances, resulting in an inspired work emanating from the stage. Dance has the power to produce that hypnotic and intoxicating state; whirling dervishes attained it through spinning dance.

The fact that Jackson attributed all his work to the divine indicates an egoless kind of humility that recognized he was not the originator but simply the messenger. In speaking of the Universe as a symphony, he acknowledges that his music is not his own nor did he create it but that it exists in that other realm (“in space”) and he simply plucks it from it’s original residence and brings it into this realm. Many have spoken of the “music of the spheres” and Jackson saw himself as the transformer– or vehicle through which the music flowed. Since a spiritual discipline is necessary to keep that ability going, his meditation and by all accounts of those who knew him, his constant prayer, would have kept him in that state between two worlds. By all accounts of his spiritual life, he was a Jehovah Witness in childhood and a voracious reader, he studied all the traditions calling upon gurus like Chopra and others to teach him the disciplines. It is clear from “Dancing the Dream” and from his portrayals of Siddhis (Hinduism) in his videos, he knew of the advanced states humans may achieve with spiritual disciplines. An example of an advanced ability achieved by a human is, for example, Jesus’ ability to walk on water. Walking on water involves having a command over the atoms of that substance. He was also able to calm a storm– another example of mind over matter by an advanced disciple as we know Jesus was.

An avid reader with 10,000 books in his library, Jackson, possessed of a ravenously curious mind, read about these subjects and their advanced counterparts regularly. One visitor described him as having several books lined up with pages open to different places. This same visitor explained how Jackson didn’t think in terms of individuals or events, but in planets. That is a testimonial to someone who is a cosmologist and likely an empath who not only thinks in worlds but feels in them. That evidence too, is in his vast body of work. How does one know pathos intimately at the age of an elementary student?

Many of these concepts and experiences are difficult to put into words and escape defining in understandable terms. For a language major or orator, it would be difficult; for a boy home schooled and who speaks through his music– a transcendental medium– it would be nearly impossible. It can sound really corny to say: “my music is created in space” and when that is distilled down to everyday language, it can make someone seem “wacko,” but that’s because there are no words for some things or some spiritual experiences don’t translate well into words. And the percentage of the population seeking and living spirituality as their prime directive is tiny. Most people don’t live that way. Most people don’t pray “thank you” for everything they experience– from a beautiful sunrise to a spontaneously occurring melody in your mind. Jackson did say “thank you” all the time. That knock on the door of his heart from an otherworldly place occurred when he was a child. He never knew anything else. Perhaps that is what made him seem untouchable, otherworldly, mystical, an enigma and… threatening. Loyalty to the Source of one’s Inspiration, misunderstood and un-translatable can appear as “madness” to the uninitiated.

His close friends have described to me a man haunted by pre-creation (something that wants to come into material form- the “unmanifest.”) One artist told me “he heard the music in his mind in perfect form; the entire process of honing, recording it, and all the way to releasing it was always his attempt to get as close as possible to that original perfection– what he heard in his mind.” That explains his stubborn perfectionism; if he saw it as God’s work, duplicating it with anything but precision would be to disrespect the creator. He once said to Kenny Ortega who encouraged him to rest before the “This Is It” tour, that he was downloading (my word) a new song from the creator and if he didn’t capture it with diligence, God might give it to Prince instead. As a writer I can understand that mindset from my perspective– a piece or a story that needs telling– no, demands telling– will haunt a writer until it is put to paper. It will not leave you alone until it is born in some form– a poem, a feature article, a book… The creative impulse and from whence that originates, can be a slave master demanding to be set to pen, to music, to image– in a musical composition or score, a painting, a poem, a performance, a dance, or expressed somehow in whatever medium the artist is gifted in. Art is, in my thinking, God’s way (by whatever name that god, through whatever cultural door) of speaking to us.

He knew this. He revered the process of creation from galaxies to guitars. He acknowledged it as holy. He worked hard to be worthy of his gift. He persevered even though few understood and many mocked.

And I think what allowed him to survive was that he knew that “Michael Jackson” was just the vessel.

 —————–

As more and more people wrote to me of their distress and need after Jackson’s death, I got behind in answering because I couldn’t keep up. That frustration provoked a meeting with my mentor and minster who told me it sounded like a “calling” to her. She viewed Jackson as a true innocent who was misunderstood and mistreated. She didn’t know how she knew this; she just knew.

My response was that I might agree but why me and why now? And why a figure who was such a lightning rod for controversy?

“You’re the perfect person,” she responded, or it wouldn’t call to you. “Will you answer the call?”

There were too many messages to answer individually. Too many people asking for explanations. Too many people who obviously could intuit that I might be able to give them some answers. So the research began and “Inner Michael” website was born. Liz Taylor began to send people who wrote her for solace to Inner Michael. They needed a touchpoint. They were obviously in distress and “Spiritual Emergency.” I had the training and I could write. How could I not?  “The rest is history” as the cliché goes.

The original article that started it all : http://www.onewordsmith.blogspot.com/2009/10/michael-thank-you-for-mirror-gift-from.html

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Aliza Hava: New Artist working With MJ Grammy winner colleague.

Aliza Hava is an amazing artist and an amazing individual. I met and spent time with Aliza in San Francisco during Compassion Week in November.

Aliza is a singer songwriter who has dedicated her life to changing the world through songs and lyrics with a message and as a social justice activist.

She has caught the attention of some Grammy winning producers who include Stephen George– producer, engineer and mixer who once worked with Michael Jackson. George supports Aliza and asks that you too, show her some love and support this project.

Will you go to the link and check her out and if possible, donate so we can get the record made?

She is exactly the kind of new artist that Michael Jackson would love. She uses her stage presence and platform to make the world a better place with her social activism through music. She believes music is both medicine and message. Sound familiar?

Check her out and if you’re moved by what she does, like I was… make a contribution

Aliza’s Project Crowd Funding Campaign:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/aliza-hava-is-a-musician-with-a-mission

 ~Rev. B. Kaufmann

Visit her website:
http://www.alizahava.com/

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When they say “why why?” Tell ’em That it’s Human Nature

Or, “We welcome only what we can cope with.”

WE WELCOME ONLY WHAT WE CAN COPE WITH.

This may be the most important thing you will ever learn or know about Human Nature: “We welcome only what we can cope with.”

George Santayana said “All living souls welcome whatever they are ready to cope with; all else they ignore, or pronounce to be monstrous and wrong, or deny to be possible.”

We mistakenly identify with our beliefs so much that we think our beliefs are part of us. They are not. Beliefs are indoctrinations, usually from sources outside ourselves that were introduced from a person holding a place of power or “power-over” us. We acclimate to many beliefs without examining them for their truth, rationality or usefulness. When beliefs are bestowed from a place of power, especially when we are children, we accept them as without examination because then come from someone we trust or see as powerful.

As an example, ask yourself: “How did I come to my beliefs as/in ___________________? (name your religion) Christian, Catholic, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jewish, Moslem, Quaker, Mormon, Jainism, Animism, etc.

Think for a moment “How did I come to be that religion?” Likely it is a religion that you inherited from parents or other authority figures and never questioned. You likely accepted it to be truth because others said it was true. With initial indoctrination and repeated indoctrinations based on doctrine and dogma of your family’s religion, you may have come to accept it as your religion and the final authority on your spirituality. You may not have questioned the belief(s) of your faith. It may be a belief that you “inherited” from parents or authority figures.

There are other beliefs that are just as strong and assumed to be true while they go unexamined. They may have been instilled, taught, dictated, indoctrinated, forced or even appear to be “chosen.” As a child you haven’t the maturity in your brain to question if beliefs are truth or if they work for you. It’s a kind of blind acceptance of what parents, authority figures or those you relied on for sustenance or survival required of you and since they represented your continuation of existence in some way, you accepted their beliefs based on fear that you might lose your support if you rejected their beliefs. Children in particular are very vulnerable to beliefs and indoctrination.

Another way you inherit beliefs is through cultural or tribal doctrines, traditions and mores. In your family touch may be easy and traditional but in other families, it is forbidden territory. Some families eschew violence and some accept and even embrace it. Some parents allow their children to watch most of what is on TV and some monitor their children’s viewing habits. Many children incorporate the beliefs demonstrated on television because that is what they are consuming and it becomes their reality. If the content of television is perpetually violent, children come to believe the world is not a safe place and that they must protect themselves at all times. That sets up a “them against me/us” scenario and instills fear in a child.

If you grew up in the South in the United States, you may be more predisposed to racism because people may still cling to the beliefs that accompany racism such as inferiority or predisposition to violence or savagery. You may think black people and Indians are different somehow from whites and your behavior may reflect these beliefs. There may be beliefs that are invisible (most are) because we are believing through them while they are not evident to us. We may not even realize they’re there.

There are many kinds of cultures. There is a societal culture with the tribal mores of that particular band of people. Nudity may be perfectly normal and acceptable in other cultures while being seen as vulgar in yours. In some cultures women are seen as possessions and must obey the dominating beliefs that surround the inferiority of women– no voice, no vote, no power. In some cultures women are seen as leadership and authority. In some cultures it is OK to dance and some it’s not. In some cultures it is traditional to pray openly and in others prayer is traditionally reserved for private times or in gatherings or locations specifically for worship.

No matter your upbringing or culture or social status there are “rules” that apply to you based on prevailing beliefs. There are even organizational cultures which determine the climate of the workplace. Sometimes they are written and sometimes not. Some dare not be spoken about but are completely understood by all.

The bottom line is that beliefs, however they are acquired, are layered over a once clear mind and body free of any and all beliefs, traditions, mores or rules. A mind is born free of indoctrination– a clear, bright empty vessel. A child’s mind is pure and undisciplined and free of opinions and beliefs. Each child that’s born is completely unique and empty and interested only in being-ness with its extraordinary and fascinating lure to a mind completely unfettered by limiting beliefs.

Beliefs are almost immediately layered over this pure and untouched being recently come from the womb of physical embrace, weightless suspension, and clear and carefree existence. Beliefs are like cellophane that are layered on one after another that eventually renders the clear being changed, limited and defined. It’s these definitions of “I am” which get us into trouble:

“I am less than you” … “more than you.”
“I am worthy” … “I am unworthy.”
“Life is unique and precious” … “life is meaningless/lives are meaningless.”
“All people are equally deserving” … “I deserve more/they deserve less.”
“Life is an adventure” … “life is difficult”
“We are all one/together” … “every man for himself.”
“My female body is holy” … “my female body belongs to others to exploit.”
“We are all brothers” … “get what you can in any way necessary.”
“Tribe/family/society is important” … “I am more important.”
“Kindness, empathy, care and compassion are the prime tenets of society” … “wealth, status, power are the prime tenets of society”
“My ‘tribe’ is one of many groups and kinds of peoples” … “my tribe is superior, more deserving, stronger, more powerful”
“The Earth is a beautiful and abundant source/being” … “man has dominion over the Earth- to take whatever he wants for his survival or pleasure”

As we look at just a few beliefs, we realize that much of how things are structured and how they work come from held beliefs. And we know beliefs are an overlay on reality. That might mean that to fundamentally change a painful, non-nourishing and threatening reality, we may have to change fundamental beliefs.

We have all been watching the events in Ferguson, Missouri and we can see that much of the behavior that accompanies that circumstance is based on long-held beliefs. The police believe they are superior humans with certain rights that allow them to violate the rights of others. Part of the citizenry of Ferguson find that the status quo is unfair and is not working for them.

In our heart-of-hearts, we know what is life-giving and what is death dealing. Our inner compass knows if we would only listen to that intuition or voice of reason. Unfortunately we argue and override that compass and end up in trouble.

“WE WELCOME ONLY WHAT WE CAN COPE WITH.”

If something challenges our prevailing beliefs or doesn’t comport with our reality, we can’t accept it. The human ego likes to think itself in charge and whatever threatens the ego is interpreted as life threatening. Some of us can’t cope with being challenged about our beliefs because of our ego. Some of us don’t like to be “wrong.” Some of us find comfort in predictability because it feels safer than uncertainty.

So when confronted with something that shakes the foundational beliefs that we have built our lives upon, we balk. We can’t cope with having the structural beliefs that form the foundation of our lives threatened. When our beliefs are threatened, we read it as a threat to our very existence. We also in our heart-of-hearts want to believe in people, in humanity but we don’t because we couldn’t cope with being let down so we relegate all humanity to the status of “other” so that we don’t ever have to confront our disappointment.

The opposite is waiting– when we develop our own goodness (empathy, compassion, nurturing, embracing, allowing the humanity of all including self, kindness, forgiveness, equality, humanness) we attract that same vibe or frequency to ourselves and we open the door to a comfort of shared humanity and new collective reality. In our heart-of-hearts we know this. And in that same place, we know we are not living that way.

So that piece of human nature (“We welcome only what we can cope with”) explains a lot. It explains why Michael Joe Jackson threatened so many people. It explains why some people found it necessary to dismantle his power and silence his voice through the “guerilla decontextualization” that Aberjhani so eloquently defines and conveniently provides us with– that describes the human impulse to destroy a human being. Guerilla decontextualization is a way to fiercely reject what goes against the indoctrinated and ingrained beliefs or belief systems constructed to form the foundation of (“each” and the “collective”) life and reality. It’s a way to use transference or projection that lands on the being who represents the irritant in the first place. The more something (someone) irritates and threatens the coping field (reality) and resources (tools for coping) of the human, the more murderous the impulse to retaliate.

In Michael’s case, the tabloids provided a platform and made it easy.

Nobody wants to admit they’ve been doing it wrong; they sure don’t want the mistake pointed out. They don’t take kindly to someone coming along who rattles their carefully constructed reality. And if they’ve been wrong all along, they know that other thing about human nature– forgiveness isn’t considered natural and easy and is awfully hard to come by.

What a “shame.”

What if you called a man a “monster” because you weren’t prepared to cope with him or his Avant garde`ideas? With the challenges he brought? With the failings and feelings he evoked? What if you discovered that in your fear and human weakness, you called someone a “monster” who was really a good man and a shining soul? Is  the shame of your realization enough punishment? Is punishment necessary for those who confess egregious mistakes? What if forgiveness was generously given instead of rare? Would people confess how their inability to cope dictated their beliefs and actions if they knew they would be forgiven?

Could you cope with such confessions?

“People welcome (embrace) what they  can cope with. All else they ignore, or pronounce to be monstrous and wrong, or deny to be possible…

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Tabloid Update and Another Kind of Earth Song

From an educator in the UK:

“Regarding tabloids: We sit back, read and revel in it today – and you can be sure that one day, it might well be us, our loved ones, our children tomorrow. Excellent piece, Barbara. (She is speaking here of a previous post.) However, coming from the UK and having see the shocking treatment of Michael by the tabloids over decades, it is undoubtedly the Daily and Sunday Mirror that has been the worst and more grotesque in its treatment of this gentle man, and others. In fact, The Mirror is the only tabloid that Michael sued, so this gives you an idea of just how bad it truly was – and is.

Up until recently, the Sunday edition was edited by none other than Tina Weaver (the UK’s answer to Diane Dimond) who – unsurprisingly and ironically – also sat on the Press Complaints Commission, overseeing complaints about media intrusion and inaccuracy. She used to edit a now defunct tabloid called ‘Today’, and used every opportunity in the 1993 case to produce front page headlines condemning Michael to prison and swaying public opinion against him in the most vile way. She too, was recently arrested on phone hacking charges, but will likely glean sympathy due to the fact that on arrest, she was pregnant. Of course, there was no such dignity for an innocent man with three children dependent on him. Michael’s life and the way he was vilified will go down in history as one of the most shocking and horrendous acts of mass bullying we might ever witness.”

She is right. There has never been a case of bullying the magnitude of the one suffered by Michael Joe Jackson. People are starting to get it. But he had to die to get any humane treatment. This must never, ever happen to another human being. And it’s important for the world to not just understand but feel the truth of it.

Is one tabloid is more damaging or worse than another? Their practices go far beyond “free speech” or anti-censorship which was Murdoch’s excuse for what he was doing (and still is.) It goes far beyond innocent “reporting” and “journalism.” This is a concerning trend for humanity. What the tabloid business (and mainstream media following the trend to get eyes on the page, readership and market share) does is focus on the shadow side of the ego to the detriment of the other side– bright shadow and the potential within the inner self (Inner Michael) which engages the soul and compassion.

Social scientists tell us that humanity is hard-wired for compassion and science proves that we are all one and that reality from the quantum to the cosmos is one huge interconnected web. Targeting people for dehumanization and bullying conscripts the dark side of human nature. When we compare the number of words and images dedicated to destroying and semblance of “humanity” in favor of divisiveness, marginalization, humiliation, separation, and bullying, with the dedication to compassion, empathy, kindness– it’s obvious that the destruction of “humanity” individually and the collective, devolves instead of evolves the human being. Making people “other” and deriding them by labeling them less than human and undesirable has caused most of the problems on this planet from the beginning of time– colonization, genocide, ethnic cleansing, joy killings, slavery, racism, war…

We are now a global community. We have “colonized” the planet to the brink of our own extinction, so dehumanizing is not a trend that is helping to move the species forward in evolution. Exploiting people for sport and profit diminishes all of humanity– those who are targets, those who observe and those traumatized directly or indirectly by the practice as well as those who justify their own bullying behavior by thinking or citing it as “normal.” It makes all of us less. It makes us value self and others less and ultimately diminishes the value of humanity and the planet. The slope is very slippery. Humanity is in trouble. The planet is in trouble. We did that.

There is an antidote: Compassion for self, for others, and for the planet. THIS we can do. Will we?

The one thing Michael Jackson said over and over was we, humanity, if we can believe in ourselves, we can make the world a better place. He wanted to save us from ourselves (“Earth Song”) and save the planet. He said time and time again “my fans are my legacy.” What are you doing to be his legacy? Are you living and propagating compassion?

Compassion is a beautiful thing. As an artist and writer myself, and founder of “Words and Violence” with a 4th Edition at “Voices Compassionate Education,” I am keenly aware of images and words and how they impact an observer, having studied it steadily for 5 years now. The fourth estate (media) which garners the largest audience in the world, is biased toward the negative and tends to highlight the shadow side of humanity. It’s easy to forget there’s another side; social scientists find that we humans are actually hard-wired for compassion, but empathy and acts of compassion don’t regularly make headlines.

Google “compassion” and take a look at what you find. There are very few dynamic images. Many symbols but it is all static. If you try “empathy” and “kindness” they’re not much better. Why are good and evocative images of compassion-in-action far too scarce? We know humans model what we see both consciously and subliminally and emotions and behavior then follow. Our brains are awash with images that stimulate corresponding neurons and chemicals that can foster despair instead of hope and easily send us into grief and overwhelm at the state of the world. This deer-in-the-headlights monotony leads to despair and inertia.

A deliberate focus and activity toward positive human imaging of compassion promises to fundamentally change the brain and its chemicals and will condition people to see with their hearts—the attitude which fosters humane behavior and compassion—something the world urgently needs. Dynamic and prolific compassion-in-action illustrations would be life changing. We observe them emulate and contribute to the world what we learn and know. Cynicism does not help. Overwhelm paralyzes. We are impacted by what we observe and the world and our worldview is based on our beliefs. Whatever you believe, your consciousness will select out of all the field of possibilities what will support your worldview.

We make the world. We are the world. We are the singers and we sing the song.

Here’s a new kind of Earth Song.

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Dead Man Walking – DS

There is no celebration in this death. Death is not a punishment. Nor is cancer. Cancer is not karma– for good people die too and young children without any opportunity to create karma die of cancer every day. It is a usually slow and painful ending to life. But it is not reserved exclusively for those thought to be evil.

While there are some studies that link emotion and particularly negative emotions to some diseases (including cancer) it’s not wise to blame the patient for contracting a disease. That would mean that all children who die of leukemia are guilty. There is simply not enough evidence or fortitude, for that matter, to support that. They used to call it “consumption” because it does consume. Nobody would deliberately choose to consume themselves.

Death is a journey we will all take one day. Some view it a release or rebirth or an entryway into another dimension of life. What matters at that portal is what we did and how we treated people while we were here. Those who make short journeys to that place beyond the veil all come back with the same mantra: “life is about LOVE.” Loving in a big way. Loving others, loving self and loving the planet and having gratitude for it all. And for life’s opportunity alone.

What is sad about this death that for now shall go nameless, is that the confessional is now closed. At least that is what the Catholics believe– and this was supposedly a “good Catholic man” whom at least one person thinks a “man of integrity.” Thieves have integrity too– if only with each other. There is camaraderie in the sad little minds that unite in theft- in whatever the form. Sadly now, the closed door slams shut on redemption too and any chance to do-over or set the record straight. However, it wasn’t likely to happen.

Any confession or vulnerability would have been impossible anyway for a narcissist. They would never overcome the crusted pride nor allow for the vulnerability required to confess mistakes. So was it a choice to live in that way? Well, the proverbial “jury” (a  bit of cynical and bitter irony there) is still out on that.

Are people driven by conscious desire? Sometimes. Can they be driven by unconscious motives? Oh yes, much of the time. “Little men” are not conceived; they are made. Perhaps by abuse. Perhaps by bullying. Maybe by life. Men become “Napoleonic” for good reason. But it’s their reasons, not the world’s reasons, yet they often push the responsibility onto the world around them. If you’ve ever felt cheated of confidence in yourself, then you know what I’m saying about externalizing your pain. But the problem there is that the ego sometimes gets so large that it must hold the world hostage to compensate. (“The whole world has to answer right now, just to tell you once again…”) In other words, once again the world must offer you a boatload of something you privately and secretly don’t believe yourself to have.

Examples of that are everywhere in a world imbalanced and tipped toward patriarchy. The world is full of “little men”: Lee Harvey Oswald, Timothy Mc Veigh, Mark David Chapman, Charles Manson, a few “brawny” football players– men who wanted to matter so badly, needed adulation or fame or control so much that they would go to any lengths to get it. When really threatened, they will in fact, take away autonomy, sovereignty or even life from someone too visible, too admired. A greatly admired man (especially) is threat because he is a constant reminder of one’s own lack, unimportance and impotence.

There is nothing so dangerous as a big fish in a little pond when he (or she) needs a bigger presence and a bigger pond to feel adequate. A puffer fish is poisonous, you know. And some fishes need to puff themselves up to appear bigger… if only to themselves. A small fish in a small pond can be envious of a big fish in a big pond. Fame is a kind of reinforcement that ” I matter.” And if the “I” that needs to matter is so tiny that it needs to suck in everyone around, the “I” must be inflated no matter the cost. Such is the torture of the man with those inner demons of inadequacy and self loathing. And that vacuum will be projected onto an unsuspecting and unfortunate target. Where have we seen that irony before…..

We all project our shadow. It’s human nature. But most of it, while unhappily negative, hopefully it’s not irreversibly destructive to another human being. Hopefully we have no need to destroy life. It’s better to believe in the natural good of people than to have to search for the ugliness that’s required to damn them in order to feel superior. Imagine the tortured soul who must keep that up for a lifetime! (They know not what they do, or must do.) They must find evidence in the world to prove themselves right so imagine what it’s like searching for darkness your whole life. It has to be miserable. The world cannot seem too friendly or safe to such a miserable soul. (They don’t know who they are.)

Some minds inhabited by little egos have delusions or illusions of grandeur. They have to. They have to “prove” themselves. When one is so needy and feels such a hunger to be seen, recognized and to be the center of attention, its origin is the black hole. Black holes, as we know, are event horizons that suck everything into them. Nothing can have autonomy. Nothing can be left withstanding its influence. All must succumb. All must be attracted to join the spectacle and the sucking influence that swallows all that nears its corona. A back hole must control gravity. And all things and beings must obey the law.

For people who are black holes feeling incomplete or unworthy or inadequate, the world seems to mock such emptiness. And it can never be escaped, that kind of emptiness.

That shadow part of the ego, particularly when male (or a woman afraid of her feminine nature) must necessarily conquer the internal impotence. A malignant need for power and power-over comes from a deep place– a place of cold emptiness. There is no voracious need to wield power or power over others unless there is a dark and deeply embedded inner life of emptiness– a feeling that one, and one’s life does not matter.

That state is unbearable. The ghostly haunting of one’s own inadequacies must be quelled by the ego’s shadow overcompensating for repressed impotence. A kind of pathological compensation is accomplished by over-reaching of the offending part of the ego. For men, it can be accomplished by a puffing up of self through machismo, aggression, power or politics. Those who feel powerless seek power, sometimes for its own sake. They seek positions of power. And they use corrupted power. How can it be otherwise? When one is wrestling with inner demons who proclaim one’s unimportance, and power soothes and becomes the salve, anything goes except to be upstaged.

In your face, upstaged.

Everybody wants to be loved. It comes in the form of unconditional affection, mental or physical caressing and caring– a feeling that one is important to the schematic of life. The quest for power when narcissistic, holds no regard for others, for the world revolves around self and ego and the need to be seen and to control. Narcissists make their own rules. And that is why they are so dangerous in positions of power. Power can corrupt and when it’s wielded to fill up one’s own empty ego, it is ugly and indiscriminate. The hunger for power feeds power; and power feeds its own hunger for more power. Inflated egos demand attention. They demand unquestioning allegiance to their twisted definition and command of power. And they often develop an arrogance of invincibility. God help anyone in their way.

What is often described in the domain of influence of this man is a “mad dog” hunger for the spoils of the “champion’s” position. Often people who felt the crushing overreach and the cruelty of a narcissistic approach to enforcing law describe a trampling of civil rights, an overzealousness unquenched by conquest, a kind of anything goes old west approach to law and order.

It’s a long-standing tradition.

And there is evidence of prejudice in matters of race, ethnicity, class and status. The tradition of the unwelcome non-white is also a long-standing one. And an affluent and white community wishing to preserve its legacy would allow the running off of riff raff for that is the arrogance of privilege. The snobbery of “wine country” and managing pristine areas whether land or beaches welcomes a kind of discrimination that invites invisibility for the sake of preserving a commonly embraced cultural mythology.

The man was dead long before he stopped breathing. Dead man walking. So I am not going to wish for an eternity in hell. I am not going to wish for retribution. I am hoping compatriots will join me in welcoming with open arms and a sincere reach to embrace those willing to become bold with a new courage. I promise to offer unconditional acceptance and embrace no matter the past deeds.

I will exchange a wish for hell with something much, much more productive… a finality, an ending, that brings…  the clean air of lies named and at long last, swept clean. A cracking open, a bursting of the abscess that has lain putrid, festering and particularly un-cleansed in the popular narrative. The crisp and pure and fresh texture of… TRUTH.

I invite those who have been silent about the festering stink of corruption to now feel empowered enough to speak it.

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Bullying the Earth: Earth Song in Another Key

A SLEEP OF PRISONERS

Dark and cold we may be, but this

Is no winter now. The frozen misery

Of centuries breaks, cracks, begins to move;

The thunder is the thunder of the floes,

The thaw, the flood, the upstart Spring.

Thank God our time is now when wrong

Comes up to face us everywhere,

Never to leave us till we take

The longest stride of soul we ever took.

Affairs are now soul size.

The enterprise

Is exploration into God.

Where are you making for? It takes

So many thousand years to wake,

But will you wake for pity’s sake!

~Christopher Fry

It may be more important to know your enemies than your friends. But above all… know your bullies.

Another unlikely voice singing Earth’s Song…

Russell Brand takes on Rupert Murdoch:

 

Another place singing Earth’s Song that makes sure the credit goes where it’s due:

This is the fourth year that Voices has compiled a new edition of Words and Violence

The emphasis in this edition is on Mother Earth, and how resilient she has been in the wake of our endless “bullying.” We’ve all heard stories of climate change, deforestation, global warming, pollution, and the misuse of our natural resources. This new edition helps concretize the planet’s reality, and offers hope for a new beginning, providing ways to take our concern and move us to action.
Who will save us now?” is Rev. Kaufmann’s invitation to examine the problem of “Bullying the Planet” and to find the antidotes for becoming the solution. As we consider this poignant question we come face to face with a trilogy written by environmental journalist, Richard Schiffman. Schiffman introduces us to the “Five States of Environmental Grief,” forces us to consider still another question, “Are the Oceans Failed States?” and concludes with exposing us to the issues of “Hunger, Food Security and the African Land Grab.”
In a second trilogy, this time written by Chicago Tribune columnist Robert Koehler, he unmasks his life mission and invites us to join him in undoing the mythology of violenceWalk Softly, speaks from the Indigenous voice and looks at what the earth’s marginalized peoples may have to teach us about balance and how to protect the context from which we live. He explains why We Can’t Afford to Lose Another Decade and why and offers a reasonable request in asking us to grow up and act In Partnership With Mother Earth.
Poet and author of Harlem Renaissance Encyclopedia, Aberjhani, contrasts the philosophy of shared community with guerilla decontextualization—the insidious and deliberate art of manipulation in order to discredit and nullify, in Creative Flexibility and Annihilated Lives.
We enter a day-long healing chamber where we begin Awakening the Dreamer, a process of waking from the modern trance, healing the grief, and creating an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just world.
Artist and storyteller Carol Hiltner, who works with the Altai of Siberia guides us on a journey with those who have been pushed aside in favor of modern progress and with Maia Rose, we learn their story from the inside out in Mother Earth Cannot Be Bullied.
Thanks to Rupert Murdoch, there is something you casually do every week and more often, that graphically demonstrates bullying to your children– from the time they are toddlers until they become adults. You personally escort them through a gauntlet of bullying that illustrates, in living color, precisely how to brutally bully someone, humiliate them, dehumanize them, and sometimes even dismember them publicly– for sport and entertainment. This demonstrates to your children how to take this bullying public by publishing it to a wide audience. And you do this a minimum of 500 times before they graduate from school. Your silence gives them permission. You may then wonder, “where do these kids get these ideas?” And when the principal calls to tell you that your child has been involved in an incident of bullying– and not as the victim– you may be shocked and asking yourself how in the world your child learned to be so mean. How? You taught them how and your silence was permission. You exposed your child freely and willingly to this toxic environment and you never once complained. Did you Teach Your Children Well ?
In this edition, educator, author and admitted tree-hugger Kate Trnka takes us on a fanciful journey with her students as they explore the magic that awaits them in the forest as they communicate with trees and get to know them intimately in If These Trees Could Talk, Park I 

Lesa Walker, M.D. leads us through some classroom exercises, antidotes and compassion games in Bullying the Planet: Is There an Antidote? Community Activist and Environmental Guru Karen Plamer shares ideas for organizing a community and teaching kids about eco-responsibility with her game “Let’s Save the Earth” as she finds out Can Educating Them to Be Stewards be Easy, Educational, Engaging and Fun?


We then discover HIStory’s mystery person: Michael Jackson…
Someone Who Was Singing Earth’s Song Long Before It Was Fashionable To Become Her Voice.

The Charter for Compassion has invited me to the Compassion Week Conference in San Francisco next month. I have written a book of what is included in the Words and Violence Project. Will you help me print it so that we can distribute some copies?

“Words and Violence” is dedicated to Michael and Lady Diana– the two more prolific humanitarians this world has ever seen– both of whom were bullied on a global scaled. And it could be argued– bullied to death.

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Thank you for your help publishing “Words and Violence” for schools and civic leaders!

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Will You Be There for “Words and Violence?”

When Michael Jackson died, what died with him was redemption. Any chance of him being publicly redeemed was gone with him. And even if by some miracle he would be magically redeemed from the dark projections of the world, he would not be here to see it. His passing left a lot of questions. What the heck happened? How could Michael Jackson die? Michael Jackson! This larger than life figure who had been here forever and whose music we grew up on couldn’t die! No!

The shock threw many into nostalgia, some into remorse, the world into disbelief. But those who knew Jackson, really knew him, found themselves staggering, navigating waves of weeping uncontrollably alternated with waves of malignant anger. How dare they? And oh yes, they dared. For weeks they dared. All the putrid media propaganda was dragged out into the open… yet again. So acquaintances, friends, family and fans not only had to deal with the overwhelming grief, but the media spectacle and myth that took years to build and drill into the collective psyche. All the old same old, same old came back to haunt an already untenable circumstance.

And as the initial tears dried, instead of process and solace, those loyal to Jackson found themselves examining feelings they didn’t know they had in magnitudes never before encountered. Never before this painful. Not even for friends who passed. Or even family. What was this? Whatever it was, it was unprecedented and well… weird.

It was then that I began to get letters. I had written a couple of pieces about Jackson and people resonated. They said I had put their feelings into words– words they couldn’t find themselves. And they wanted more. They needed a touch-point. The needed to understand their grief. They needed to know that the transition they were attempting to process had all the hallmarks of a spiritual emergency. Now, I’d seen spiritual emergencies before and I was trained as a minister in how to counsel those in the throes of a dark night of the soul and a spiritual emergency. But never had I seen it on this level and with this many people. Something was very wrong here. And it was also very right. And it can continue to be right. At the end of this article I will ask you to help make it right-er.

Only a special person and special circumstances could trigger this kind of widespread spiritual emergency. I decided to look into it and bring to it my knowledge and background as a healer– in the many incarnations that has manifested in my life.

This was grief upon grief. And spiritual questing on top of that. People asked and I responded. My own minister and  spiritual director said it was a calling. My shaman said the same thing. What I realized was that fans needed something to honor a man who had influenced their lives and for some– saved theirs. For them, it was hard to imagine a world without Michael in it. And those sensitive to energies felt the vacuum of a world without him. And they didn’t understand the grit of their own grief.

A spiritual emergency occurs to those who are ready to transition to a different kind of existence. A dark night of the soul carves deeply and the pain feels as if it will leap out of the chest and leave a gaping hole. It crushes the heart because a new heart has to be born. What a magnificent gift Jackson had given the world! A spiritual gift. So there was nothing to do but look into it because it is so rare and because that kind of gift defines an entirely different kind of person than the media had presented. It didn’t add up. Metaphysically it didn’t match.

What the admirers, loyalists, friends and fans needed was to go to work. The first step was a collective soul retrieval for Michael because everybody, it seemed, took a piece of him. The soul healing was imperative. And he was the most bullied human being in the world. And the most undeserving of it, it turns out. So, the admirers and fans needed do honor him and themselves with something spiritual having a ubiquitous impact on behalf of Jackson. Something in memory of him was in order. So I sent out an invitation. They came. The fans who wanted to be a part of building something wonderful from something ugly and sad came and we went to work beginning with case studies. It took 9 months to put together all the case studies and to gather the materials, write, edit, invite writers and biographers, and solicit permissions and to make films for the program.

That program is “Words and Violence” which addresses bullying in all its incarnations and features a great deal of information about Michael, about tabloid journalism and all the way in which bullying harms while featuring to it can be healed. The program is in its 4th edition and is released every year on the anniversary of Michael’s birth.

Last year we featured the arts as healer, particularly the performing arts. This year we look at the ways in which we bully the planet:

This is the fourth year that Voices has compiled a new edition of Words and Violence

The emphasis in this edition is on Mother Earth, and how resilient she has been in the wake of our endless “bullying.” We’ve all heard stories of climate change, deforestation, global warming, pollution, and the misuse of our natural resources. This new edition helps concretize the planet’s reality, and offers hope for a new beginning, providing ways to take our concern and move us to action.

 

Who will save us now?” is our invitation to examine the problem of “Bullying the Planet” and to find the antidotes for becoming the solution.

 

As we consider this poignant question we come face to face with a trilogy written by environmental journalist, Richard Schiffman. Schiffman introduces us to the “Five States of Environmental Grief,” forces us to consider still another question, “Are the Oceans Failed States?” and concludes with exposing us to the issues of “Hunger, Food Security and the African Land Grab.”

 

In a second trilogy, this time written by Chicago Tribune columnist Robert Koehler, he unmasks his life mission and invites us to join him in undoing the mythology of violenceWalk Softly, speaks from the Indigenous voice and looks at what the earth’s marginalized peoples may have to teach us about balance and how to protect the context from which we live. He explains why We Can’t Afford to Lose Another Decade and why and offers a reasonable request in asking us to grow up and act In Partnership With Mother Earth.

 

Poet and author of Harlem Renaissance Encyclopedia, Aberjhani, contrasts the philosophy of shared community with guerilla decontextualization—the insidious and deliberate art of manipulation in order to discredit and nullify, in Creative Flexibility and Annihilated Lives.

 

We enter a day-long healing chamber where we begin Awakening the Dreamer, a process of waking from the modern trance, healing the grief, and creating an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just world.

 

Artist and storyteller Carol Hiltner, who works with the Altai of Siberia guides us on a journey with those who have been pushed aside in favor of modern progress and with Maia Rose, we learn their story from the inside out in Mother Earth Cannot Be Bullied.
  
There is something you casually do every week and more often, that graphically demonstrates bullying to your children– from the time they are toddlers until they become adults. You personally escort them through a gauntlet of bullying that illustrates, in living color, precisely how to brutally bully someone, humiliate them, dehumanize them, and sometimes even dismember them publicly– for sport and entertainment. This demonstrates to your children how to take this bullying public by publishing it to a wide audience. And you do this a minimum of 500 times before they graduate from school. Your silence gives them permission. You may then wonder, “where do these kids get these ideas?” And when the principal calls to tell you that your child has been involved in an incident of bullying– and not as the victim– you may be shocked and asking yourself how in the world your child learned to be so mean. How? You taught them how and your silence was permission. You exposed your child freely and willingly to this toxic environment and you never once complained. Did you Teach Your Children Well ?

 

In this edition, educator, author and admitted tree-hugger Kate Trnka takes us on a fanciful journey with her students as they explore the magic that awaits them in the forest as they communicate with trees and get to know them intimately in If These Trees Could Talk, Park I 

 

Lesa Walker, M.D. leads us through some classroom exercises, antidotes and compassion games in Bullying the Planet: Is There an Antidote? Community Activist and Environmental Guru Karen Plamer shares ideas for organizing a community and teaching kids about eco-responsibility with her game “Let’s Save the Earth” as she finds out Can Educating Them to Be Stewards be Easy, Educational, Engaging and Fun?

We then discover HIStory’s mystery person:
 Someone Who Was Singing Earth’s Song Long Before It Was Fashionable To Become Her Voice.

…….

I am convinced the antidote to bullying and the way to ensure that what happened to Michael never happens to another human being– is compassion. And specifically to introduce compassion in a big way to mass consciousness: compassion for self, for others and for the planet. “Words and Violence” at Voices Compassion Education, sister project to the Charter for Compassion is a movement toward creating a more humane narrative on the planet and a more compassionate world.

The Charter for Compassion has invited me to the Compassion Week Conference in San Francisco next month. I have written a book of what is included in the Words and Violence Project. I would like to get some copies published to take with me to San Francisco to spread the word about a program dedicated to Michael and Lady Diana– the two more prolific humanitarians this world has ever seen– both of whom were bullied on a global scaled. And it could be argued– bullied to death.
WILL YOU PLEASE HELP ME PUBLISH SOME COPIES OF “WORDS AND VIOLENCE” SO THAT I CAN DISTRIBUTE THEM AT THE CONFERENCE?

I promise I will update you from the conference about the interest in this program.

Will you help distribute this comprehensive program about bullying and how to heal it on behalf of Michael? Use the button below to make your contribution to get this program published and distributed to schools, civic leaders and social justice advocates. Michael would be proud. Thank you for your help.
~Barbara

 
Log in with your own paypal email account or credit card.
Thank you for your help publishing “Words and Violence” for schools and civic leaders!





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Your world -Your Neverland

What is an innocent?

What does that mean?

When I think of a person who is “an innocent,” I think of someone pure of heart who hasn’t let the world taint him. I think of someone who still believes in magic.; someone who hugs trees because he or she knows they love hugs; maybe he’s someone who hears music in his head all the time, hums it and then makes a song and shares it; I think of someone who always sees the glass as half full and sees the world the same way. And when the world doesn’t appear half full, she rolls up her sleeves and does what she can with the gift she is given.

Everyone is given a gift. Everyone is given their own dharma (reason for being here and trajectory of their life.) My dharma is not your dharma and likewise yours is not mine to do. But it IS yours to do.

I imagine that should that someone find the world needing in some area, he would find a way to share his vision of a unified and peaceful world and would do everything in in his power to paint that world for others– with his words and his actions.

“We Are the World”

I think of someone who, instead of being cynical, believes in humanity’s potential to determine its own evolution toward a kinder and more enlightened being that thinks from the heart of plenty and not from the shadow of scarcity.

I think of someone who would…

“Jam.”

 

Does anybody come to mind?

 

 

https://community.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Jessica-Ashley-2/Neverland

 

 

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Myth of The “Tortured Genius”

“No artist is ahead of his time. He is his time, it’s just that others are behind the times.”
~ Martha Graham

A romantic myth keeps “crazy” linked to “artist” and genius.

What neuroscience has to say about it…

From the Huffington Post:
The Myth of The Tortured Genius by Sarah Klein, Senior Editor Health and Fitness

 

Every suicide leaves behind mourners grasping for answers, but when the person in question is a high-profile celebrity known to have struggled with mental health issues, it’s tempting to fall back on the age-old trope of the “tortured genius.” It’s an idea deeply embedded in our culture: the artist, musician, poet, novelist or comedian who excels in his or her field, but is tormented by inner demons. By this logic, the coexistence of creativity and mental illness is not a coincidence: The talent and the demons are thought to be inextricably linked. The torment is part of the gift.

The World Health Organization estimates there are 350 million people on the planet living with depression. And the recent death of Robin Williams has stirred up the old question of whether creative genius carries with it an elevated risk of mental illness. “It stands to reason that some of those people are going to be creative,” Harvard University’s Shelley H. Carson, Ph.D., author of Your Creative Brain, told The Huffington Post. “Certainly enough to form public opinion.”

The idea that “great art comes from great pain” has long-standing roots in public opinion, rumored to date back to ancient philosophers and poets, but our modern idea of the tortured genius likely stems from a glamorization of mental illness that took hold during the Romantic Era. At that time, so-called “madness” was seen as “voyaging into new planes of reality,” according to psychiatrist Allan Beveridge. And while it’s easy enough to believe that pain helped to fuel the work of Kurt Cobain, Sylvia Plath, David Foster Wallace or Alexander McQueen — to name just a few of the brilliant, creative, successful people who took their own lives after battling mental illness — there is also great art that comes from no pain whatsoever.

“There are plenty of geniuses who are not mentally ill, and there are plenty of mentally ill people who aren’t geniuses,” said HuffPost Mental Health Medical Editor Lloyd Sederer, M.D., medical director of the New York State Office of Mental Health.

“Sometimes you have the two combined. When you have geniuses who have such prominence, like Philip Seymour Hoffman or Robin Williams or John Nash, they make you think that this is more common than it is,” said Sederer. “One in four people annually in this country has a mental illness that impairs their function. That’s pretty common. The illness is pervasive. Genius is much more rare.”

The cognitive-neuroscience community is divided on whether a scientific link between creativity and mental illness actually exists. The earliest cited investigation into the issue came from the Italian clinician Cesare Lombroso, who argued in 1888 that “genius and madness were closely connected manifestations of an underlying degenerative neurological disorder,” according to the Psychiatric Times.

In recent decades, there have been a number of attempts to find a firm empirical basis for that idea. Some correlative points have emerged: There is research suggesting that people with bipolar disorder, as well as the healthy siblings of people with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, are more likely to have creative occupations. People with certain genetic risk factors for schizophrenia have been found to be more creative. In 1989, Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., who herself has bipolar disorder, found a high prevalence of mood disorders among a group of British writers and artists. And in 1987, Nancy C. Andreasen, M.D., Ph.D., found a higher rate of mental illness among 30 creative writers than among 30 equally educated non-writers.

Past research, like Andreasen’s, relied heavily upon hours of interviewing and application of the diagnostic criteria of the time to identify mental illness. Today, researchers have moved toward administering creativity tests to subjects while monitoring their brain activity with a procedure known as fMRI, or functional magnetic resonance imaging.

But other experts say that results showing a link between creativity and mental illness are unconvincing. They point to small sample sizes and a dependence on self-reported biographical data from subjects. In fact, even research with large sample sizes is routinely called into question for failing to establish objective measures of creativity.

DEFINING CREATIVITY

Part of the problem in determining whether or not this link exists is that creativity has proven difficult to quantify in research. Andreasen, director of the Neuroimaging Research Center and the Mental Health Research Center at the University of Iowa’s Carver College of Medicine, acknowledged that limitation in a recent column for The Atlantic. Measuring creativity is “a necessarily controversial task,” she wrote, “given that it requires settling on what creativity actually is.”

The general consensus in the field is that a creative idea or product is new or original and useful or adaptive, Carson told The Huffington Post, and that a creative person is able to take pieces of information and “recombine them in novel or original ways that are somehow useful or adaptive.” Carson’s research explores what she calls the middle ground between the researchers who believe a link exists between creativity and mental illness, and the researchers who don’t. She espouses what she calls a shared vulnerability model — the idea that a person’s chances of mental illness and her chances of being creative may stem from the same place, but that neither one causes the other. The outcome — creativity, mental illness or both — ultimately depends on other factors, like high IQ or strong memory.

Recent research from Austria builds upon this idea. A 2013 study found that people who scored high for creativity and people who scored high for schizotypy — that is, behavior suggestive of schizophrenia but not diagnosable as such — “share an inability to filter out extraneous or irrelevant material,” Fast Company reported.

This would allow more information into the minds of both creative people and people at risk for mental illness, and “if you have more bits of information [coming in], it stands to reason you may come up with more connections,” said Carson.

But the problem with defining creativity in this way, argues Keith Sawyer, Ph.D., professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation, is that “usefulness” and “adaptability” also need to be defined — meaning researchers often have to use other measures to determine who or what is creative. Some studies administer creativity tests to subjects, while other studies choose participants according to their occupation, like writer or artist, or their achievements, like Nobel or Pulitzer Prizes.

Another challenge in studying the link between creativity and mental illness is that it’s difficult to pinpoint where creativity actually “happens” within the brain. Researchers once thought that each of us had one dominant hemisphere of the brain, and that right-brained individuals were more creative while left-brained thinkers were more analytical. But while certain functions do take place in particular regions of the brain, research now shows that one side is never entirely dominant.

“Imaging studies typically focus on the precise brain region where some activity is located, but there doesn’t seem to be just one with creativity,” Sawyer wrote in a 2011 review of creativity research. “It follows that associating [creativity] with the area in the brain affected by mental illness would be difficult.”

Andreasen told HuffPost that she is currently working on an imaging study using fMRI. She emphasized that the idea of the “tortured genius” is oversimplified, and not one she’s pursuing. “People who are highly creative are intrinsically curious, exploratory, risk-taking, adventurous, and they’re also persistent and somewhat rebellious or unconventional,” she said. “When you have all of those traits, it makes you more vulnerable to rejection … There’s an underlying fundamental way of approaching life and the world that leads to both creativity and vulnerability to mental illness. But things like innate resilience and social support are what help these curious, adventurous, exploratory people not develop mental illness.”

In fact, Andreasen’s own 2008 review of creativity research acknowledges many of the same problems with the body of literature supporting a potential link that Sawyer’s does, including poorly defined measures of both creativity and mental illness and heavy reliance on self-reported data.

POPULAR PERCEPTION

In Sawyer’s mind, the case is closed: There is no link between creativity and mental illness, and researchers should stop looking for one. He wonders if perhaps researchers are still searching for a link so they’ll be able to provide a patient with at least a bit of good news. “I think if you’re treating people it can be helpful in therapy to tell your patient that their mental illness has a silver lining” — namely, the gift of creativity, he said. “[I think] that’s where their willingness to believe in a link comes from.”

Still, outside of the research community, many remain open to the idea, as seen in the weeks following Williams’ death. The bigger question now, says Sawyer, is why the general public is so receptive to this belief.

The trope of the tormented artist is so widespread that for some people, it’s almost something to be taken for granted. “As an artist in an artsy community, in some ways it seems intuitive that there is that correlation,” said Ellen Forney, an artist who detailed her diagnosis with bipolar disorder in the graphic memoir Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me. Maybe, she hypothesized, artists can be more outspoken about mental illness than is accepted in other professions, or maybe mental illness somehow gives an advantage to people who work in creative fields.

Historically, there have been creative thinkers who spoke about mental illness giving them their edge. “My fear of life is necessary to me, as is my illness,” the artist Edvard Munch, thought to have had bipolar disorder, once wrote, according to Smithsonian magazine. “Without anxiety and illness, I am a ship without a rudder … My sufferings are part of my self and my art. They are indistinguishable from me, and their destruction would destroy my art.”

Forney said she had similar reservations about treatment when she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder shortly before her 30th birthday. “I was terrified to go on any sort of meds [and] even questioning if I wanted to be a stable person, because I had the same romantic idea that a lot of people do about artists,” she said. “That whole ‘crazy’ artist was definitely part of my perception of the field, and what I thought was creative in myself.”

Stability sounded “bland” to her, and many medications had a reputation for “flattening” creativity, Forney said. But after falling into a deep depression following the manic period during which she was diagnosed, she realized she needed help. Today, her treatment involves medication, therapy and lifestyle changes, and even stability has become important to her. “I found that stability was good for my creativity, because a part of creativity is productivity,” she said. “When I was manic, I didn’t have enough focus. When I was depressed, I was so squashed.” In both cases, she said, “I couldn’t get much done.”

It’s important to remember that in no way do cultural beliefs, anecdotal interviews or rigorous research suggest that being creative is cause for concern. Andreasen said that most of the creative thinkers she has studied — with and without mental illness — have spoken of the joy they derive from their creative pursuits. In fact, there’s plenty of research indicating that creative endeavors can boost happiness and promote relaxation.

“The more I’ve studied [creativity], the more I’ve realized we all have these amazing creative capacities in our brains,” said Carson. “The ability to imagine things, to be able to see things in your mind that don’t actually exist — everybody can do that. You don’t need to be mentally ill for that to occur.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/02/creativity-mental-illness-health_n_5695887.html?cps=gravity

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