Drawing by Dakan – panther closest to the Lion – see Reading
The Highway Shaman Wisdom
for September 28, 2020
I woke up this morning engaged in a reoccurring dream. The previous night’s dream let off where I needed to get the names and positions of our team noted in the contract. This is what I was engaged in this morning, before realizing that none of those people had anything to do with my waking reality. We weren’t working together on this plane of existence. While it my dream state, my engagement seemed so important and real.
Could we actually be living in multi-dimensions of reality, simultaneously?
I got up and started listening to the morning news. It all seemed like another dream. I want to believe that Donald Trump is moving us much closer to Love and Light, and at the same time my old best ex-friend (because of this) equated Trump to Hitler, leading us into an evil darkness. I listen to both sides and study and yes it is confusing.
I lived in Thailand for nearly eight years. The first three were run by what many believed was a corrupt government, so there was a coup where the also corrupted Military took control. It seemed like Thailand was being run by a bunch of incompetent out-of-their-league soldiers, making shit up. As time went on they began behaving like the former corrupted government, but still making shit up. New laws were simply crazy, like the one which drove me out of the country. And yet everyday life in Thailand was fine. The people were happy and doing well. The Chiang Mai economy, pre-covid, was flourishing because of the wealthy Chinese tourists. How did these people get wealthy in a suppressed Chinese Communist society?
I traveled several times to Vietnam, which is considered a Communist country. The evils of communism are what the Trump followers are warning against, warning with the Democrats in charge we will lose all our personal freedoms, becoming a dreaded Socialist or Communist country. Vietnam is communist and I love Vietnam. The people there are happy and friendly and as the years pass, they are becoming more prosperous. I spent a week in the old Colonial district of Hanoi. The elder soldiers still in uniform would wave at me in a most friendly way, People gather in the most beautiful colonial park in the evenings, especially on Sunday evening and play, enjoying games and family gatherings. The people appear to be healthy, innocent, happy and loving, certainly not appearing to be lost in tyranny and suppression. I never saw police or soldiers anywhere. I visited the resort city of Nha Trang twice. It is growing with prosperity; luxury hotels and the nights aglow with neon street art, great restaurants and cafes; full of richness and beauty. I’ve never seen a city more overflowing with an abundant cornucopia of fresh vegetables, year around, than DaLat, Vietnam. Is the freedom of everyday life in the USA more of less rewarding? From my moving from one to the other, especially with the prevailing fear of catching a virus (which is impossible), I would say the USA is less stable.
So, we are being told that we must protect the USA from socialism and communism at all costs, so we doesn’t end up like Vietnam. As an expat world traveler, I think the current US political angst blows the reality of “we’re greater and everyone else is lesser” out of proportion. Like thinking your Texas high school football team is the biggest deal ever. Most expats like me will agree – the many countries of the world, even China, aren’t such bad places to live – if like in the USA – you can meet the requirements to be there. Why I live in Mexico.
Almost all the people of the world want to be happy and prosperous, to feel safe and secure in their homes and cities. They will defend their security; defend that which is in their best interest, whether they are brainwashed or not. If a government tells them to surrender their precious child, almost all parents will object and rebel.
I survive on a form of socialism. I gratefully receive my social security check every month. Franklin D. Roosevelt was a Socialist Democrat, establishing things like the CCC, where the federal government created jobs, in willing states, and hired millions of people to rebuild the infrastructure of the US. While unemployment is going down, we still need job opportunities for people of all ages, especially seniors.
Trump is working to get lower drug prices, and like Obama, still not doing much to change the cost of medical care in the US; which is about the highest in the world. 84,000,000 working Americans have inadequate or No health insurance. Without health insurance they are victims to the scam of inflated medical expenses. In 1999 I lost my credit, had to go to collection, because I didn’t have health insurance and couldn’t afford to pay the hospital cash on demand; $6000 for seeing a doctor for 15 minutes. True story.
The cost of medical at age 73 and housing has everything to do with why I have chosen to be an ex-pat; why I’ve lived outside of the US for most of the past 9 years.
Another example: When I broke my arm in 2014 in Seattle while visiting my sons, not one hospital or “free health clinic” would treat me for less than $2000. With no insurance, I wrapped my arm and waited a week, flew back to Thailand (with the pain of a broken arm) where the whole X-ray and casting on and off procedure cost me $150, all in a hospital as modern as any in the USA. If other less wealthy countries can afford to do this, why can’t the most wealthy USA restructure insurance and hospital costs so everyone gets free and near-free medical treatment? In Thailand I could consult with a medical doctor, who may have graduated from a US medical school, for 20 minutes, and my bill for his or her time would be $15. Not $150. A complete physical in Thailand was $200, X-rays included. In 2019, in Vancouver Washington, I wanted to get a physical exam. I was told it starts at $500 just to see the doctor and each test is at least $100 additional cost. And I needed to see another doctor to refer me to see their doctor. That’s nuts. I had to pass. Later, with my brain injury, I had to see two Neurologists who charged me $500 an hour each, for a total of $7000, almost all my life savings, out of pocket. I don’t care what either political party says – they’ve lost the priority of taking care of their people first. The cost of health care in the USA is beyond insane.
As I sit here in my lovely little home in Todos Santos, Mexico, which would rent for at least three times what I pay for it, in Seattle, I’m really not convinced the USA is the best place in the world to live, that its the greatest place on earth, that it’s leaders of either party offer the best quality of life for the people. Thailand, Vietnam and Mexico are places where a low income expat like me can afford the cost of renting a decent place, and find inexpensive food and medical treatments, with the ridiculous small amount of Social Security the US government pays me each month. My $10,000/year payments are $2,700 a year below the official individual poverty level in the US. There was no way I could possibly live the life I have here in Mexico, in the USA, on $836 a month.The USA has discarded this 73 year old.
So in the end I have to take all that political mumbo-jumbo with a grain of salt. If the so-called “greatest country on earth” can’t take care of their low-income seniors, there is something way amiss with that statement.
THE READING
Osho Zen Tarot – CONDITIONING (The Devil) –
Unless you drop your personality you will not be able to find your individuality. Individuality is given by existence; personality is imposed by the society. Personality is social convenience. Society cannot tolerate individuality, because individuality will not follow like a sheep. Individuality has the quality of a lion; the lion moves alone. The sheep are always in the crowd, hoping that being in the crowd will feel cozy. Being in the crowd one feels more protected, secure. If somebody attacks, there is every possibility in a crowd to save yourself. But alone? – only the lion moves alone. And everyone of you is born a lion, but the society goes on conditioning you, programming your mind as a sheep. It give you a personality, a cozy personality, nice, very convenient, very obedient. Society wants slaves, not people who are absolutely dedicated to freedom. Society wants slaves because all the vested interests want obedience.
It is a time to take a look at your own reflection in the pond, and make a move to break out of whatever you have been conditioned by others to believe about yourself. Dance, run, jog, do gibberish – whatever is needed to wake up the sleeping lion within.