Finding the CENTER

"Strained by the mad pace of our daily outer burdens, we are further strained by an inward uneasiness, because we have hints that there is a way of life vastly richer and deeper than all this hurried existence..."

"Within, is the beginning of true life."

"...a dynamic center, a creative life...a Light Within which illumines the face of God and casts new shadows and new glories upon the face of humans."

"Life is meant to be lived from a Center, a divine Center."

"From this holy Center we love our neighbors as ourselves and are stirred to be the means of their awakening..."

Wise words from Quaker Thomas Kelly,
A Testament of Devotion and The Eternal Promise

The central difficulty though in finding this CENTER and
living in the CENTER and becoming more and more who we truly can and ought to become
is
the contradictory points that humans, even Quakers, declare about whether the CENTER even exists.

In so many ways, finding and CENTERING is like the story the Jewish prophet told about a seeker of fine pearls who found a wondrous pearl. One first needs to seek!

Then one needs to use her/his reasoning ability to identify and discard fake pearls and fraudulent ones that at first looked genuine.

Then one needs to compare average pearls to fine pearls--average facts to transcendent oughts and great truths.

And then comes the most difficult of all--when finding the ONE pearl of perfection,
we humans need to focus on that central wonder.

Each of us needs to give all in order to acquire the perfect gem.

Let us, in this dark time of suffering and confusion and delusion--

Seek that CENTER--seek what is true, what is reasonable, what is wise, what is good, what is just, what is beautiful, what is kind...

Live in the Reason which spangled the universe into becoming.



In the Light, in the Center,

Daniel Wilcox

Rescuing Ex-Muslims: Leaving Islam

https://youtu.be/O1lnxUXWGgE


"Around the world, people who leave the faith of Islam face state persecution, imprisonment, torture, and even execution, as well as violence, death threats, and ostracization from their own communities."

In many Muslim families the father or older brother or relative will even kill a family member who rejects the faith.

I'm a theist and against atheism, but this insightful video is a heart-breaker showing the evil of religion, particularly Islam.

--

Syrian Woman

Let us open our hearts and wallets to help those persecuted and impoverished, those escaping from the horror of war and religious persecution.

Please write your U.S. Senators and Representatives to support the acceptance of Syrian refugees and other refugees escaping from the Muslim slaughter in the Middle East.

President Obama's commitment to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees deserves praise, but that isn't near enough. Germany has accepted almost 1 million refugees!

Please urge the U.S. Government to admit at least 250,000 refugees (anyone who will agree to support human rights and freedom of religion for everyone, even for those who reject Islam).

For those desperate refugees (who are strict Muslims, who oppose human rights and oppose the freedom of apostasy), even they need help, so seek to send basic aid to them in the Muslim countries where they are stranded and in need.

Reach out to all in the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

The Seductive Nature of Subjectivity in Ethics

The acceptance and use of subjectivity in ethics by humans almost always leads to the escape clause by which "we" and our actions are the just and necessary exception to traditional moral rules. Often those who adopt this way of ethics even claim their actions are the most loving.

Yes, lying is usually morally wrong, but in some cases, it is necessary and the most loving act to do. For instance, I needed to lie...because...

Yes, suicide is sometimes good, because my act will bring about good for others.

Yes, torture is morally wrong for the enemy to do, but because we, the Americans, are the good guys it may be necessary for us to do this to those who are bad.

President George W. Bush: "Another technique was waterboarding, a process of simulated drowning. No doubt the procedure was tough, but medical experts assured the CIA that it did no lasting harm."

"Had I not authorized waterboarding on senior al Qaeda leaders, I would have had to accept a greater risk that the country would be attacked. In the wake of 9/11, that was a risk I was unwilling to take."

Merriam-Webster Dictionary: torture-- “the act of causing severe physical pain as a form of punishment or as a way to force someone to do or say something.”

UN Convention Against Torture: “torture” means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession… when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public office or other person acting in an official capacity.
U.S. Constitution: no “cruel and unusual punishment”
And it is against the Geneva Conventions.

Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz: “Under the definition of torture, no it’s [waterboarding's] not” [but] I would not bring it back in any sort of widespread use.”

"His sufferings must be that of a man who is drowning, but cannot drown." -Lt. Grover Flint, Philippine-American War
waterboarding.org
--

Suicide:

“The self-immolation of Norman Morrison had been a violent act of love
that brought
diverse people together in strange and unexpected ways. It connected them
through a bond of unimaginable sacrifice that reached from Washington to
Vietnam, from the heart of peace to the heart of war.

Moreover, there must have been many more, including in Washington, whose consciences were
awakened by Norman's self-immolation, even in the Pentagon."
Norman’s Triumph: The Transcendent Language of Self-Immolation
by Nicholas Patler
Quaker History, Fall 2015

On the contrary! Violence can never be an “act of love”!

Especially not lethal violence--the intentional killing of others or one's self.

Violence even in its denotative meaning is to “violate” whether the violence is against others or self-inflicted.

What a misuse of linguistics! War isn’t peace, suicide isn’t a "violent act of love"…

Remember Martin Luther King Jr.'s powerful spiritual words, that one seeks peace by doing peace, never by lethal violence.

A Quaker stating that suicide is a "violent act of love" sounds like the absurd language of the U.S. government, “we had to destroy the village to save it.”
"'It became necessary to destroy the town to save it', a United States major said today.
He was talking about the decision by allied commanders to bomb and shell the town
regardless of civilian casualties, to rout the Vietcong.
Major Describes Move."
New York Times. 8 February 1968

And consider the horrific thinking of Joseph Fletcher, professor
of Christian Ethics at Episcopal Divinity School, who even advocated
the slaughter of many thousands of civilians including children
by atom bombs as a loving act!

Furthermore Fletcher had this to say about killing Down’s Syndrome children:
"People [with children with Down's syndrome]... have no reason to feel guilty about putting a Down's syndrome baby away, whether it's "put away" in the sense of hidden in a sanitarium or in a more responsible lethal sense. It is sad; yes. Dreadful. But it carries no guilt.”

“True guilt arises only from an offense against a person, and a Down's is not a person."
Bard, Bernard; Joseph Fletcher (April 1968). "The Right to Die".
The Atlantic Monthly: 59–64.

Fletcher supported abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, and eugenics.
Wikepedia

ALL in the name of "love," of course....


Work against this "ocean of darkness,"

Daniel Wilcox

What Is Wrong with This Picture?

New Hamphsire Combined campaign/SuperPAC spending
$36M Bush
$18.5M Christie
$15.2M Rubio
$12.1M Kasich
$3.7M Trump
$1.8M Fiorina
$580K Cruz
from Stephen Hayes

New York Times
From “…Competitive in Fund-Raising”
By Nicholas Confessore and Eric Lichtblau

"Outside groups have stockpiled tens of millions of dollars on behalf of establishment candidates such as Mr. Bush and Mr. Rubio, most of it destined to be spent on television advertising. But those groups cannot cover the candidates’ core expenses, such as staff salaries, plane tickets, polling and office rent."

"Mr. Cruz and Mr. Carson lead...with about $12 million for Mr. Cruz and $11 million for Mr. Carson...Mr. Bush and Mr. Rubio each appeared to have about $10 million."

"The billionaire real estate mogul Donald J. Trump...raised about $4 million...Mr. Trump is no longer a self-funding candidate...with money from his supporters."

"On the Democratic side, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who secured commitments from many of the party’s biggest donors...barely outraised Senator Bernie Sanders...bringing in half as much money...Mrs. Clinton began October with more than $31 million...compared with about $27 million for Mr. Sanders [who] raised more than 3/4 from donors giving less than $200 each..."

"Mr. Carson has relied heavily on expensive direct mail and telemarketing consultants to raise money...Of the $14 million he spent during the third quarter alone, fund-raising costs totaled $11 million...But Mr. Rubio and Mr. Bush spent at an even higher rate..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/16/us/politics/outsider-presidential-candidates-prove-competitive-in-fund-raising.html

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

Political advertising, fund-raising, staffing, meetings, rallies, travel, etc.--they all take money.

That's been true for many years, dating back at least to the early 1800's.

Election campaigns have spent and misspent billions over the years.

So what's the problem?

THAT is the problem. How commercial politics is, especially those of a presidential election! How so much wealth is squandered! In contrast, those billions could be used for real problems, for specific future goals.

I admit there is no easy answer to solving the bloated nature of election campaigns in the U.S.

But, maybe, several first steps would be to:

#1 Limit the time of the election campaign to 2 months.

#2 Require each candidate to offer a concrete 20-page proposal of his/her key plans for the U.S. future,
10 pages outlining domestic issues, 5 pages on foreign policy, and 5 to wrap up his/her overall outlook.

#3 Outlaw ALL ad hominem attacks, the constant emphasis on personalities, political "reality-show" interviews, one-liner debates, propagandistic ads, etc.

Of course in this real world, some of the current bloated political sludge would still seep into the clean pool.

But hopefully, multi-millions of that smog money would, instead, be spent on actual specific problems--acceptance of desperate refugees, ending cycles of poverty, education, police and fire-fighters, the environment and so much else.

NO MORE ANIMAL FARM!

No more war is peace.







In the Light of Goodness and the True,

Daniel Wilcox

To Other Sentient Species

The Canine Trail Memorial

Our yellow pup pulling on her collared leash,
In the verdant high rolling hills near Fairfield,
We wind along a ribbon of gravel,

Two humans and their best friend, at a dogtrot,
Our weaving trail sequestered
In the intertwining valleys of centered Cal,

Between rustic farms and suburban homes,
Below the cattle-grazing heights.
Yes, we fast-pace this pedigreed path

As it lolls through lush withered grass near sunset,
The corona of Sol's glow on the coastal range cresting, lowing
With scattered cattle on the heightened bluffs to the west.

We take a 'paws' at a cross path to hug and brush
Our Golden Lab pup who pulls and rushes off
To chase a stick, "Atah boy, Yellow."

At this juncture, stands a large pole stump
Banded with 33 canine collars in various rainbow
Shades and dangled metal ornaments like some modern totem;

It's a pooch memorial for the deceased barkers
Of the past who have sniffed this trail month after month.
And now we new dog-carers, hurry past,

Out for another sunset dog-pulled stroll,
A couple yanked along forward by their hound;
But as we leave from this canine shrine

Headed into the descending spread
Of the suburban shaded dusk,
Yellow noses along the trail.

I, in a muttering, 'tailing' mood,
Reminisce about those collars,
Lean over to my wife and whisper low,
"Doggone it."


Daniel Wilcox


First pub. in vox poetica
in different form

--



Clammy Chops

I scooped in one huge mouthful of savory chowder
Swimming with succulent salmon reconnoitering

Wild from Alaska—my taste buds buzzed into singing,
But the stupid phone in the kitchen rang yanking me.

I dropped my creamy spoon and rushed through the open door--
Wrong number! Frustrated, I slammed down the white thing,

Tended to nagging errands clanging for attention;
But then came a loud slurp...slurping 'round the den corner.

Oh, no! I rushed back to the aromatic room
And there crouched Fizzy, our calico, her cream-rootbeer

Mugged head half-buried in the scent-wafted white bowl,
Just fin-ished--her pink tongue wiping those smiling chops.

Daniel Wilcox

First pub. in vox poetica

--





The Indy Pacer

Taking it easy, zooming down 101,
California-coasting on a 3 dog night—

Howling down, outrunning the moon

Suddenly screeching brakes and red tails;
I jam my stop pedal, scanning,

Muttering dog words,
The sluggish crawl of tires n’ metal ahead,

Doing under 10 in the fast lane;
Where's the eye-goggled wreck?

Howling down, not running the moon

Lo and hold; up ahead, a small mongrel,
Only a small blurred bush of fur

Paws down the lighted pavement
In front of a Honda Civic lady;

Howling down, outrunning the moon

The rest of us, ‘paused’ gas-guzzlers hank
Down until a Ford trucker swerves

Off the un-freeway, jumps out
And grabs for the pacing pooch,

Howling down, outrunning the moon

But the small canine switches lanes,
Into the dogged night, an Indy pacer,

Ahead of our growl on the paved terrain
--One lone whelp, our night’s highway terrier.

Howling down the highway, outrunning the moon



:-)


Daniel Wilcox

First pub. in The Write Room
in different form






In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

The Wonder of Our Finite Species

Many factors influence human choices including our evolutionary past, our temperament, our family background, our culture/worldview, etc., but we aren’t determined fatalistically
by any God or Allah or the Cosmos or Nature or the Big Bang.

As aware humans, (homo sapiens, reasoning and creative primates), we have the amazing ability to choose among various alternative thoughts, plans, actions. We have alternative choice. Our decisions change the world around us and change us.

Homo sapiens aren’t like some modern thinkers claim—only “wet robots,” “puppets,” “bags of chemicals,” or inanimate “bowls of sugar” only being acted on, with no choice.

Existence (space and time) isn’t a cosmic block of amber with all sentient life including humans’ finite lives only petrified termites within.

On the contrary, the cosmos is in creative flux and has at least one species which has rational and creative ability--US.

According to many humanistic thinkers, every human has at least 5 abilities:

#1 Self Awareness:

We primates, unlike many more basic life forms such as a clam;-), are aware that we exist, and aware that we are aware. Also, we are aware to one degree or another of our own eventual ceasing to be in death.

And if each of us becomes a student of history, each “I” can become aware that millions of years existed and billions of humans before this finite “I,” came into being.

We have great ability to learn about our environment from our backyard to far-flung galaxies beyond the Milky Way, and from this present moment in February 2, 2016 to back to the beginning of time billions of years ago, and to speculate about the eventual demise of the cosmos many billions of years in the future.

#2 Ethical Sense of Ought:

NOT only do we have those amazing learning skills to learn facts of what IS
and what was,
we also have a deeply embedded sense of conscience of what OUGHT
to become—
what is transcendent, what is essential
what is ‘beyond’ the basic facts of matter and energy.

Our conscience doesn’t tell us precisely what is right and what is wrong, but that we ought to do right and to reject wrong.

However, as all humans usually learn, growing into a reliable sense of ought ‘ain’t’ easy.

Not only does one need to guide, even restrain impulse and instinct, one needs to question the basic assumptions of one’s ethnic, cultural, and national background.
But then all difficult learning takes time and much effort.

Think of learning calculus to build bridges and skyscrapers, or how to perform brain surgery, or to play multiple musical instruments well.

Why should ethics be any simpler?

For more details on this, read a good philosophical book like the skeptic Martin Gardner’s The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener.

#3 Ability to Reason:

Using our thinking ability, we rationally think through possible future actions. We can observe our self, our situation, “stand apart from our self,” in order to make as objectively accurate decisions as possible.

"To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead."
Thomas Paine

#3 Imaginative Reflection/Empathy:

Furthermore, before acting, we can project in our mind how our actual action may affect others. We can seek to understand the feelings of other individuals and understand why they are different in their views and behaviors.

#4 Creativity:

Even when a human is aware, can trust his conscience, uses reason, and engages in empathy—even then everything isn’t solved.

Sometimes much creative thinking needs to take place in order to figure out how to implement good ideas, especially in situations with conundrums and in dilemmas.

#5 Free Choice (opposite of determinism)

Lastly, then we can use all of these qualities to act. Finally!

Of course, usually, we won’t have enough time to do each of these steps for most daily choices. But if we practice these skills regularly, then a shortened method can take place even when hasty decisions and actions have to be made in the moment.

For instance, if I am at the grocery store standing in front of the meat and fish cold bin trying to decide between salmon or crab for supper, and another person walks up and grabs the last filet of salmon, I can respond ethically rather than instinctively or impulsively.

Then if the lines are long at the cash registers, rather than tapping my fingers impatiently, thinking how this is going to make me late for my next appointment, I can be aware in the present, think empathetically about others in the line and the clerk, and smile, even carry on a 30 second positive chat.

The wonder of human consciousness, reason, and alternative choice.

In the LIGHT,

Daniel Wilcox

Start with Questions: Is it TRUE?

Is it TRUE?

Do we speak truth to power?

Are we transparent, open?

Is this news report, religious claim, political ad, history book accurate?

Is it RIGHT?

Is that new law proposed by the government fair?

Do our actions stand for human rights everywhere in the world, for everyone?


Is it PURE?

Are we innocent, clear, lucid, authentic?

Is that show we are watching,
that thought we are focused on,
that song we are listening to over and over,
that novel we like,
those words we speak--are they polluting our minds, smogging our perspectives?


Toward others are we EMPATHETIC AND COMPASSIONATE?

Is it HONEST?

Is it GOOD?

Is it JUST?

Is it KIND?

Is it HOPEFUL?

Is it COURAGEOUS?

Is it GENEROUS?

Is it CREATIVE?

Is it EXCELLENT?

Is it PRESENT?

and?


In the LIGHT,

Daniel Wilcox