Diversify, Cooperate, Go inside - A meandering thought stream.

I have been thinking a lot about diversification and, on the other side, specialization (what our educational system has been pushing people to do) and single industry economies. Many years ago, as I looked into the dilemma of the forestry industry, I realized that it is a very fragile system. But these "single industry" economies are ubiquitous. The situations are further exacerbated by what happens to the environment and to the social conditions of the people's who are working, essentially as slaves, for the companies.

I had never looked at my own home state (Iowa), with mono-culture systems (primarily corn, soybeans and now pigs) with the same lens until last week when I saw some farmers, with their big fancy trucks, tractors, combines and wagons come in to "mow" the cornfield down. I realized these are just toys for these guys. The old adage, "the difference between the men and the boys is the price of their toys".

In any case, any examination of these types of systems will reveal, in the long run, they do not work. The only way that they do is within the economic system as it has been put forward - where "externalities" are a cost not assumed by the companies, but are a cost that society must bear. In the case of agriculture in Iowa these relate to things like environmental damage and health costs.

Collectively we need to start looking at these systems that are going on. We are not really growing food anymore, we are growing fuel for factory animal slaughtering facilities, and to burn in our cars (ethanol). A very cursory examination of either of these can reveal that they are just a bad deal all around. We eat the meat, which comes from animals that are being fed garbage, with genetic alterations. The animals are obviously not happy. Do we not know that if we eat "sad animals" we are very likely absorbing that energy? This idea is contained in the first law of thermodynamics, "energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it just changes form". Also, the factory workers are miserable, and likely have serious soul, or spiritual issues that they have to deal with.

Do you think we Americans are happy? I don't know, we should look in the mirror once in awhile and ask the question. Yes, we apparently have a lot of stuff. And there is an abundance of "materials" to eat, but what is this stuff doing to us? Which is more important, health, or owning a bunch of stuff that we don't really need? Stuff that ends up needing all of our attention to take care of - and at the end of the game, doesn't really amount to anything, because we don't take it with us.

Don't get me wrong, this is not about another "blame game". And "guilt" doesn't get us anywhere either. These are old modems of thinking that only serve the purpose to further imprison us in our own minds. What we need to do is take a hard and fast look at what is going on. And then examine how we can re-create this "reality" into one that we prefer.

We are not victims. We created this. We have allowed our lands, our communities, essentially the world to become like the old mining company towns. Our agriculture has been mono-polized. Single industries are easy to control, and our "collective bully", the corporations, have us all cornered, while we have been mesmerized, not knowing the game that we are in. These bullies don't play fair, because they don't have any respect for themselves, or the Divine Laws of "Free Will" and the "Golden Way" (do unto others as you would have done to you). But these corporations, these "entities", are not someone to fight with, to try to subdue.

This is not an us, or them situation. The key factor is to recognize that these Entities, this situation, is simply a manifestation of our "collective consciousness". In other words, these "bullies", these "monsters", these corporations, governments or anything else we might try to blame our situation on, are simply a manifestation of our collective psyche. And the way to deal with them, is simply to love them and start taking our world back, peacefully.

You see, they (part of us) have created an elaborate game, have implemented a bunch of "rules" (called statutory laws in government) and other things that have us totally mesmerized. Essentially, they are sucking out our energy - they live on this energy - and it is primarily fear, frustration, anger. But the energy moves by us giving our attention - to these things. And it does not matter whether our energy is "positive" or "negative" - whether we love them or hate them. In fact, "victim" energy is very powerful - and it provides some of the strongest shackles of the mental and emotional prisons that we find ourselves in.

Now, how we get out of this situation may seem to be incredibly difficult - and at some level it might be. However, maybe, like the great spiritual teachings have been pointing to, almost, forever it seems, it is not so difficult.

Maybe it is like the old adage "one person at a time". If we go inside ourselves and discover what it is that is going on inside ourselves, we will begin to see how we continue to support and sustain these "scary monsters". It is like the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. We have this "split personality" thing going on. But, is it possible, that it is not Mr. Hyde that is the "bad guy", but Dr. Jekyll? The establishment. In our modern society we definitely overlook the fact that the medical industry is not as noble as it seems. These days the industry is much more in the business of disease and sickness than it is about health. Disease and bad health is sure good for business. What would happen to hospitals, insurance, the pharmaceutical industry if we don't stay sick? And "doctors" are seen as the pinnacle of society - in a way we worship them, and yet if we look at the underbelly of what is going on, it is kind of seedy. (and don't get me wrong, there are great things happening with some doctors, and the healing industry, and many great people go into medicine with the most noble of intentions).

So what of this internal "scary monster" the battle between my hidden "shadow", the fear-based character that I might "battle" with, and try to hide from? (in actuality there is no hiding, I know all of my secrets). I personally have been dealing with these issues for at least 30 years. In order to overcome problems with drinking and drugs I had to look at the underlying causes for my propensity to want to escape. The drugs and alcohol were merely a coping mechanism for survival. These "personality dis-orders", or frailties were simply a symptom of deeper issues.

I think these issues stem from a very basic flaw in our understanding of the nature of life (on this world and cosmically). Whether we know it or not, this was a self imposed situation. And this is ultimately why we came here. It has to do with our belief of being separate. Feeling separate. Being separate from Divine Love. And in this experience we end up seeking all kinds of "forms" and connections to "things" and people, but at the core of our beings we still have this "secret fear" - that we really are not loved. We do feel alone, so we believe we are separate and alone - disconnected from each other and from our God. (an essay on my realization of Self-love)

Now, this idea is so contrary to what all the great teachers have told us (Jesus, the Buddha, Krishna, etc.), but we have expounded on this to such a degree, and have ourselves so distracted, and busy with our day to day life, that we never take the time to really examine the foundations of our existence. For me, this process is not so mysterious, difficult or mystical - it can all begin with asking some questions - beginning to step back and examine what is going on - in our individual lives, and for the collective of humanity and the world.

We can begin by asking the question of whether we are happy with the way our lives are going? What are we doing? Where do we want to go? Is it really possible that everything is a manifestation of love? Is it possible that we really are an extension of God, Source, Infinite Mind, and that we created "a game" where we forgot our connection to love, in order to learn and experience more about love? What would it be like to not know we are loved? How would it feel? How would we act? Is this why we are here, to answer these questions, to experience this "unknowing" - this disconnect from All That Is? - One Love?

Maybe, just maybe this world is the result of this experiment? What do you think? I have for years imagined, and used the metaphor, that life is like a video game. And we simply have gotten so wrapped up in our characters that we think the game is the only thing going on. But in actuality, as we begin to connect to "real reality" - that we are the consciousness of God, that agreed to come to this sphere of creation, to contribute a whole new set of experiences to the collective, ONE experience.

These ideas are not just "mental meanderings" on my part. If one begins to seek understanding, with a strong desire to discover the Truth of love, a great deal of supporting materials will show up. I have discovered some very powerful books that will begin to open the doors of perception, towards a greater understanding (I will provide some links below).

My process really began to open up when I found myself unable to earn money. For most of my life I had been driven by this idea that "I make the money". To this end I worked two and three jobs for most of my life - almost to the point of being a workaholic. Where this belief came from, I am not totally sure. But I suspect at one level it likely came from my parents. I suspect when I was just a little boy I watched (2 years old), and felt, them stressing and arguing about money. My father was a graduate student and I know that they struggled financially. Then, as I grew older, there came to be a "love / hate" relationship with money. My parents helped put in me ideas like "money is the root of all evil". However, it is also necessary to have money to survive (for the most part). So, here I was living my life not trusting. Yes, I trusted that the sun would shine, there would be oxygen to breathe, the molecules would hold together - but I didn't trust God to supply money. I had to earn it.

Somewhere along the line, I guess in my 20s, I had this idea come to me that I would have to face all of my fears in this lifetime. Mainly because I was a person who was seeking to "know God", and for me to truly know God, I would have to come to have absolute faith, or trust in God. If there was a place that I experienced fear, that was a place where I didn't trust the "One Infinite Creator". And, at some point in this life, which I have a feeling is a very important one (by the way, I know we don't die - we live many, many times), I was going to have to face all of my fears.

Facing my fear of "money" did come in 2008. No matter which way I turned, and avenue I pursued, projects and plans just wouldn't work out. Many ways that I had previously been able to "make it happen" - just came to a dead end. So, after really, really difficult emotional upheavals (almost literally feeling a threat to my survival), I invoked the following prayer "God, PLEASE, I want more". This sounds like a simple, unclear, prayer. But behind it was the most earnest desire that I have ever had for greater understanding, clarity, answers to questions that had been with me for much of my life, in one form or fashion.

I wanted to know what the hell is going on. When we speak and have been taught that the world and universe is based on Love, why do we have so many difficulties? Why is there so much suffering? What is going on? Why in my lifetime have I seen the world get crazier, and crazier - more war, more environmental degradation, more people suffering?

What I realize now, is that I invoked the immensely powerful prayer of Jesus from his Sermon on the Mount - "Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and it will be opened for you."

What I was led to was first what people call "conspiracy theory" materials. Then I was lead to ancient teachings, books, materials from all types of sources about the "Law of One" as well as instreaming messages - almost from a cosmic radio station (another idea that I had in my 20s - if we can make radios signals, wouldn't God possibly use the same tools or methods?).

Now, I continue with this process. Coming to realize that, like my experience of 30 years ago revealed, that we are "all in this together". We can't just "take care of our own" - just take care of my immediate family and everything will be fine. We must "work for the world" as I learned from the Bhagavad Gita.

Now, how I work for the world, is almost more internal than it is external. It is a process of me realizing that, by my knowledge, beliefs, opinions, feelings, I hold this "reality" in form. Essentially, as I wake up each day, and as I continue to define my reality in the NOW by my prior beliefs, prejudices and opinions, that the world will reflect that back to me.

I have learned (or remembered) that how God, or the Universe, teaches me is by being a perfect mirror. To bring to me experiences where I can see how I need to learn how to be more loving. And how to face my fear that I am not loved. Pain has been a wonderful motivator for me to want to learn more about love. I have seen at different times, that all the pain and suffering I see in the world, is simply an invitation for me to love more. To extend my love, to Be love, in every situation. And at this point in my experience, to continue to seek the Truth of Love, and to work for the world.

So, at this point, how I see to rectify this situation where "the bully" has taken over in our collective human experience, and monopolized our agriculture, and communities; where Wal-marts have gone into towns and caused small businesses to go out of business, and then left those towns when "profits" didn't suit them. To a world where it seems that a company, like Monsanto, wants to take over all of our food systems, and poison us with chemicals; pollute our waters; where companies cut down all of our trees, and fill in our wetlands to build factories and Wal-marts; where all of these, apparently, horrific things are happening. We, I, simply need to do things differently.

I see the solutions about people coming together and learning who and what we are - really! To learn that compared to the power that these apparently "evil and cruel" corporations and governments (soul-less creations) have, that We, I, Us, we - the God created Living Beings, who can tap into the Love of the One Infinite Creator, have immense powers. But we have to remember and experience these capabilities and powers. We have to re-direct our attention to "what we really want to have and experience". And how we do this is with our "thoughts", feelings and attention.

How the process begins, is actually quite simple. Breathe. Breathe consciously. And maybe even invoke Jesus's prayer. Begin to notice where your "attention" is going.

When we tap into these powers. And begin to find others, of our "Collective Oneness" we can make great changes. We can take our food systems back. We can feed all of the hungry people. We can clean up our waters, and begin to reduce the number of trees we cut for useless purposes. We can end war. We can create governments that truly accomplish what we created them for - to Serve us. We can find that there are many amazing technologies that have been developed already for us to transform our infrastructures, energy and transportation systems. What has happened is that our "collective bully" has simply hidden them from us, even though they have already been invented.

As individuals we have immense powers, but even more so, if we come together we have vast capabilities - remember "when two or more of you gather in my name". We can take things back. This video captures the idea well The Tiny Dot.

The solution is to fire the human spirit, initiate creativity, innovation, cooperation, collaboration, to diversify and realize a knowing of who and what we are. Change is coming, but it is our responsibility - the key is to find the power within. There is no savior coming to save us, we will get help - but we have to help ourselves.

If you are wondering "how do I start?" here are some great resources that I would recommend This can also provide evidence that great things are going on. We are not alone. God, Source, Infinite Love is here NOW, all we have to do is start tapping into it. And where we tap into it, is not somewhere "out there", but also inside of ourselves, and all around. The Spirit of Love sustains us, through our breath, through the sunlight, through the trees and animals, and elements of this world. Love is all around, and as more and more of us tap into this KNOWING, the process of transformation is accelerating.

Wondering where to start? - I suggest here.
The Global Citizenship Passport by Desmond Green
Here is a Summary of The Practice with a diagramatic interpretation
A wonderful book which provides "a context" for the "Game".
Spirit Guides: We are not alone by Iris Belhayes with Enid

Evidence of the "Spirit of Oneness" emerging from our Collective Consciousness
Awakening to Oneness

A set of ideas and questions that I proposed for initiate awakening. This also, to an extent, cataloged some of the first sources that have lead me to this point in time.
Light Star Study Group

An incredible book that can awaken you to the greater Truth of your power, and who and what we are. The Master Key, by Hanaal

Still, one of the best books to assist a person to begin "opening their eyes", and with a Source of ancient Wisdom, to build a foundation for "How to Think".
When Love Guides Your Thoughts, edited by Andrew Skadberg

A classic! Many of the predictions of this 100 year old book are coming to pass.
The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles

Finally, a project many years in creation, is coming to fruition - this is "first run" version - the Vision Excelerator - a Dream Incubator

Love, Peace and Abundance,
Andy

Homelessness, Bulk Mail, Corporations, Change

Just Thinking – Pondered Observances
– Empty buildings and Homeless People

I grew up in Ames, Iowa. I don’t remember seeing or even hearing about homeless people. Ames is a small town that was kind of an island. No poverty to speak of, no crime, very low unemployment. I am not sure if that caused me to be naïve.

The first time I thought about homeless people was when I moved to San Antonio, Texas in 1989. I remember seeing people standing on major intersections with signs saying “will work for food”. I have heard that some of these people actually do this for a job. It is not my concern. My thoughts were that there are thousands of people in any single city the size of San Antonio that do not have adequate housing.

I lived in the northwest part of the city and there was a very large eight story building that, for all the years that I drove in and out of this part of the city, sat empty. Nothing, no activity, just a very large building that could have housed hundreds of people. Throughout that one city I saw, and would imagine, all of the empty buildings that could provide some type of shelter for homeless people.

I know we can come up with all kinds of reasons why this shouldn’t be done. The homeless people will damage the building, etc., etc. I suppose if you think along these lines you can surely come up with all kinds of reasons.

As for me, I just can’t rectify the fact that people need places to stay, and there are nice empty buildings sitting around, in some cases for years, not being used.
To me, it would be an opportunity for “landlords” to get some good karma, and in my experience they need it. Have you ever thought of the word “landlord”? In my experience they are some of the unhappiest, frustrated people I have ever known. I can understand why.

Another thing that I have thought about is the hungry. Have you ever tried to imagine how much food is thrown into the garbage every day from all of the restaurants and grocery stores across the world? It seems to me we shouldn’t throw food away when there are hungry people on the streets. Surely if we can figure out how to get a plastic bottle of Coca Cola or a bag of Frito Lay chips to every small shop in every country of the world, we can figure out a way to distribute locally this food being thrown in the garbage to the hungry people of the world. Or, maybe not . . . maybe I am just crazy.

Postal Service – Delivering Garbage to Your House & Economic “externalitites”
I had never really thought much about the postal service until sometime in 2006. I actually liked the postal service as a concept for a long time. It and the railroad is what made America become the country that it did. But somewhere along the line the postal service changed. Instead of delivering personal letters and other critical types of information, extending lines of services to all peoples, it became a broker of “junk mail”. I think there is even a stronger word that we might use, but that would be a digression.

I had thought about inefficiency though when I was working with a mail order catalog business in the mid-1990s. I was pretty astounded by the amount of waste in that industry, even though the project was for a very good cause, to increase revenues for Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. to protect more wildlife habitats and support small Texas artisans.

The major costs of printed mail order catalogs are design, but especially printing. Another major cost is postage. However, as it works, if you mail enough pieces (individual letters or publications) you can get “bulk rate” through the US postal service which is a significant drop in cost per piece of mail. But it was still a very expensive part of the business. Now, for me this is the evidence where our economic system fails. It is called “economy of scales”. The more pieces that are created, or mailed in this case, the cost per item goes down.

The eye opener for me was what I learned from experience in mail order business. In mail order the key word to success is “return rate”. “Return rate” means that people purchased something from the catalog. This means the number of people who make a purchase, which is represented by the percentage of responses to the catalogs you mail out. If you get 2% return rate you are doing a good business. TWO PERCENT! That meant that 98% of all of those beautiful catalogs that we produced went straight to the garbage can. Imagine the waste of energy in that process. That would be like cutting down 1000 trees and only using 20 of them. Think, in all of the world, all of the energy being expended in this process. Trees are cut down. Huge amounts of money are being spent to kill trees, and convert those trees to “slick” paper. Expensive design and printing is being done. Hundreds of hours of effort is expended for each catalog that is produced. Exorbitant amounts are being spent on postage to deliver to individual houses, but by far the majority of these people do not want it.

In looking from a very real perspective, the postal service delivers garbage to our house, and we have already paid for that because we pay “taxes” to subsidize the postal service. The time honored “Postman” is a garbage man, but he is delivering the garbage to our house.

But that is just the beginning. Then we have to pay garbage men to haul the garbage away. The garbage is taken to a “landfill” which then we have to pay another company, or municipality, to figure out how to keep this mountain of garbage from polluting our soils and water systems. If we don’t, the natural environmental, and human health costs are incredible. And it isn’t working. And I can show you a picture of how well these “landfills” control “toxic seepages”. That’s another funny concept to think about the word “landfill”. Sounds kind of nice right? But what is actually happening is that we are creating mountains of garbage, or just dumping them into the ocean.

In our economic system, as it is developed under Adam Smith’s model, is that most of these things are called “externalities”. These are “costs” or “impacts” that fall out of the realm of responsibilities of the companies that are making the “profit”. The “externalities” of impacts to our environment, that we pay through having to clean up this pollution, or otherwise “health costs”, is incredible. In this case example, I have not mentioned many other factors such as those connected to the fuel costs, and impacts, associated to delivering the garbage to our house, and then taking it away. I won’t even follow the trail of costs and impacts of using fossil fuels. That becomes a whole other stream of similar effects as what was described above. And these effects are also not necessary because other options to petroleum exist. Very few people take the time to investigate that many alternative technologies for energy and transportation exist, but have been suppressed by oil interests. How this happens and has been accomplished is a whole other story.

So what is the solution? Well to start we need to have a way to look at the situation from a different perspective. One of my favorites is called “systems thinking” which was conceived back in the 1920s by scientists looking at natural systems. Using “systems thinking”, or even common sense, one would have to question these processes that have become a part of mainstream society. Why do we allow this kind of waste to continue? If we look at nature, which is where systems thinking was derived from, we never see a system where only 2% of the energy expended is used. There is an organization called Zero Emissions Research Institute (ZERI) which looks at developing systems that more closely match the efficiency of natural systems, which are perfectly efficient. As we know, natural systems do not waste anything.

So now you ask, ok Andy, how do we address this? Well, I could figure something out if given enough time, and I have a few ideas, although not all of them for sure. One possibility, just stop using this system, or this economic model that sustains “economies of scale” and “externalities”. In any case, I know I could come up with something that would perform much better than 2%. Today I am not writing to propose the solutions although I am sure there is someone out there who has proposed a model that will work much better, for example ZERI. However, we must look at this system and go back to the source of the skewed nature of the model, and I am convinced it is connected to our existing economic system. I think we could quickly alleviate, or eliminate, many of these incredibly wasteful systems, that usually serve a few corporate interests in the end, by placing into the cycle the additional costs which are pawned off as “externalitites”. If we included all of the additional costs that are incurred in this “system” of bulk mail, the costs would eliminate it as a viable option.

We must, in my view, also look at the foundation principles of corporations. Who and what are they? How do they conduct their business? What is their legal basis for existence? In reality, it is a paper reality”. It is not “really”, real. But they have convinced us, and have us totally buffaloed into believing the “systems” that they have created. And they are abundant, and they require an immense amount of energy to try to operate within. But they have no souls. They are not living beings. And, there is no one within them that takes “personal” responsibility for the impacts and actions, even though they probably should. Information is starting to come forward about the true nature of this incredibly elaborate “shell game” that has totally taken the creative and immensely powerful collective human consciousness into a realm of existence that is absolutely unsustainable, except maybe for a select few. In many respects I have recently realized it is like a really elaborate “Monopoly” game, intermixed with “Risk”. Do you like the game? Do you want to step outside of it? Well, the first thing you need to do is see that it is a game, and that in this game you have diminishing freedoms.

There are some very encouraging events happening in certain circles where people are starting to wake up. Recently I saw a news item where a number of communities are finding “loopholes” in the legal system which are allowing them to deny corporations “personhood”. Denying the companies to dispose of toxic wastes or to purchase the communities water rights. However, I feel that these methods might be a temporary solution because the legal system is one of the primary elements of this imaginary “game space”. It all falls under England’s model of government called the “Commonwealth”. And if we stay in the game, and just manipulate the rules of the game, we are still stuck in their game. Wouldn’t we prefer to create a new game? Or better yet, stop playing games and start just living life? I don’t know, but it seems a good question to answer.

In any case, my purpose here is not to suggest that I know how to “fix” everything. I just bring this to people’s attention. So, I want to ask, have you ever thought about something like what I mentioned in this little essay? If not, isn’t it surprising? What should we do? – ignore it? Or, maybe we should do something?

How many of these processes are going on as we go about our day to day business? If we observe what we are doing as collective groups is like we are pretending, as we have blinders over our eyes, that everything is just fine. Just as long as we don’t see or think about what is going on, we aren’t affected in any way. But is this the case? We just go about our daily lives, busy, busy, busy, taking care of our own families and everything is just fine? Well, for me, this is not the case. Ever since an experience in 1979 I have seen that we really are all one family. Thus the quote “we are all in this together”. As one species on this world, being genetically, and ancestorally tied, we are really one big family. And everyone knows that we should take care of family, right? We just need to expand the definition of our family. I have come to understand that it is our responsibility to do our best for the benefit of all. Great people have shown us this by their demonstrations (e.g. Jesus, Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Mother Theresa, Norman Borlaug, etc.). But it is also written into the texts of the great religions and teachings. I could provide a number of great quotes, but won’t now. You can find many in the Bhagavad Gita.

In the world it is like we are warring over little pieces of “turf”. Creating imaginary boundaries that we fight over is really ridiculous considering that there is really the possibility to venturing out to the cosmic neighborhood. Religion, science and some select interests have severely limited our understanding of the possibilities of venturing out to the stars, not to mention what we believe and know what life is about. These possibilities have been entertained and presented as “science fiction”, as if our imaginations will not get satisfied. But this is not the case. Imagination is the catalyst for realizing those things dreamed about. Why would we be able to see and contemplate this grand universe but not be able to venture out into it? This would be similar to getting a house and knowing that you had a dozen rooms, but could only stand in the entry vestibule.

However, it is quite apparent to any thinking person, that if we can’t get our act together on this little world, then the likelihood of venturing out to the stars as a greater humanity is severely limited. And by the way I do believe that there are certain interests connected to certain governments or corporate interests that have access to travel in space much more than what most of us know about.

Hiding our heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich is not acceptable. Do we have brains bigger than the ostrich? We are responsible for what is happening in the collective human experience. Really. We cannot just pretend and it will all fix itself. The interests that have gotten us into this situation are actively working to maintain things the way they are, and the results is a continued degradation of the human and natural condition. Each day more and more “systems” are put in place to limit our freedoms, to travel, to go about our business without being watched. Do you have any idea how many cameras are watching us? (there was one in the charter bus I drove in 2008, taking images both inside and outside the bus, funded by the Office of Homeland Security). Why? Do you know what happened in East Germany after WWII? Did any of you read the book 1984 by George Orwell which was written in the 1950s? That was someone’s imagination.

Which do you prefer, a world where people are all fed, there is peace, abundance and “true” freedom? Or one which continues along the lines of where we are headed – that is as you open your eyes to see what has been happening? Is this going to change by magic, or will it require some effort on our part? And, this is not about another “war” or “battle” against these “powers that were” (very important word choice). As long as we see there is a battle ground, we will maintain that enemy, with our own consciousness, thoughts and emotions. This idea is contained in the quote from Carl Jung “what you resist, persists”. Again, will these situations magically be rectified? Not likely. As long as we continue with our “eyes wide closed” the situation will continue along the same path. We have to open our eyes, and then determine a new path based upon what our imaginations have introduced to us. Then take the actions to begin to introduce new modes, systems and methods to create that new “reality”.