A don of another day

"I have murdered sleep."

I read these words so many years ago I hate to consider how time has changed me, changed the world, and changed how time itself treats us both. Though there are many interpretations of this now hallowed line from Shakespeare'sMacbeth, I received yet another one today.

During a discussion this evening at a spiritual class, a nice lady asked the teacher who or what decides justice? Who makes that final, fateful decision? "God?" she asked. Our teacher is a funny man, but a very, shall we say, straightforward man. His brow ruffled and everyone knew there was a major dissertation coming down the pike.

I'll spare you the details, but it came down to this: the ultimate judge and jury is the tandem of cause and effect. For every cause, there is an effect. In the case of Macbeth, in a figurative sense of course, he murdered his own sleep even though he vaulted to royalty by murdering another. He can no longer rest peacefully. He will always feel the burden of guilt. He will always be dead even when he is alive. Cause and effect. Whether we like it or not, our actions today will face an increasingly hard or beautiful action at some point. Our ignorance of and desire for peace throughout the world will nullify much of the good that we sow. Our demand for things will far outstretch our ability to provide for those things. Our tradition and ritual only take from the earth and from each other time, energy, and intellect with the resulting reality only wanting more. "Chasing the high," as Tony Schwartz, CEO of The Energy Project, puts it, will get us nowhere but to the next high and the next one.

As the discussion climaxed, our teacher explained that we were, indeed, very lucky. Though we may not have much, as say compared to a mafioso, we had peace knowing we could get up, walk gingerly to our vehicles, and drive home in absolute safety. A don does not have that peace. That simple bit of heaven on earth is gone. "Even sitting here, under this window," teacher said, pointing to the transom above, is too much. Who has his aim on me, thinks the don? Who wants me dead? He has murdered sleep, too. His peace is gold-plated, perhaps, but it is fleeting.

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for peace and bounty for all. Abundance thinking is a good thing.

Troubling week

Did you think, for one moment, they wouldn't raise the ceiling? Did you sense that the political bordellos of DC were out to milk the limelight yet again? I watched the debt ceiling debacle unfold from afar. No, I don't have cable TV. Yes, I'm just a little eccentric. I digress.

At the end of the day, the shogunate in our heralded capital got nothing accomplished that could not have been accomplished by just deciding to cut the this year's budget immediately. We have cemented that it is quite alright in this country to live beyond one's means and then celebrate jubilantly afterwards. The political cranes did very little heavy lifting this past week. They simply pushed the mortar around. You know it. I know it. Sadly, they know it. So what's new?

• The tea party folks certainly stood their ground. As a libertarian, I'm a little put off by the tea party crowd. But that's just me as many in my party appear to be moving in that direction. I do see their influence growing, not ebbing, as we approach 2012. That spells danger for centrist Republicans. Splinters in the offing?
• Obama further distanced himself from his core, or did he? He managed victories in the weeks and months prior: gays in the military (what a waste of breath...like we didn't already know that to be the case) and Osama's demise. Though the latter is not a core ideology closer, it certainly doesn't detract from Obama's role as commander-and-chief.
• There seemed to be very little noise from Republican presidential candidates. They all pretty much said the debt ceiling raise was dead on arrival, but then, well, even they had to relent when their fellow Republicans voted for the increase or shuck and jive to kowtow to the tea leaves.
• Tim Geithner continues to leave me unimpressed. Well, perhaps that one's not really new.

At the end of the rainbow (and you thought I'd let the gay rights issue alone), we all have a government that's running and will be able to pay its bills. Awesome. There's still very little discourse on moving heaven and earth to lower our expenses, passing along more of the people's hard-earned income to, wait for it, the people, and limiting the role and power of government in our daily lives. It's a glass ceiling if you ask me. You and I, well, we are, tragically, the rats in the hold.

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for peace and bounty for all. It's far less expensive than regime change.