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Now let me think
Perchance I may be
Missing something
We have a law that
Makes an action illegal
Then we need a law
That makes the illegal
Act illegal again
How illegal is illegal
Illegal wow that sounds
Very illegal indeed
Then we have those
Who would make illegal
Legal instead of illegal
Illegal
Sounds like someone
Needs to rethink this
As for me I have a headache
From Observations of a
Storm clouds over Worldonia
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FROM: PIZZAONIAN NEWS SERVICE (PNS)
Contact: Publicio Relationio at the
SUBJECT: PORTALIZATION OF WORLDONIAN IMMIGRANTS TO PIZZAONIA
In a surprise announcement the Pizzaonian Office of Portalization said they were removing all restrictions to portalizing to Pizzaonia.
Youri Welcomi. Pizzaonian minister of Portalization, said the recent events in Worldonia prompted the decision to open the portal between the two worlds.
Recent dysfunctional events in Worldonia, such as having all major sports playing at the same time, has created increased stress in the average Worldonian’s lifestyle. Add that to the 100 or more repetitive and dull broadcast television channels available to the average Worldonian household and you have the formula for complete emotional exhaustion.
Mr. Welcomi said the general consensus was this emotional stress explains the recent bizarre behavior of Worldonian politicians and the leaders of Worldonian financial markets. “The overwhelming majority of Pizzaonians want us to reach out and offer help to our suffering cousins.”
The Pizzaonian Council for Greater Empathy met in an emergency meeting and concluded they had to reach out to their Worldonian cousins and offer them the bliss of a Pizzaonian life.
The one criterion for Worldonian portalization is the pervasive feeling that your life feels like you are in a Woody Allen movie. The moment you are aware of this feeling you can expect an invitation to come to Pizzaonia.
All others also may apply for portalization. They will be received with well-known Pizzaonian hospitality.
“Seeing to the light”
Heroic empathy is the miracle emotion.
You can imagine my surprise when I “portalized" to Pizzaonia to discover a culture that had evolved to a state of “heroic empathy.” It is so startling to experience this directly you are not sure what to make of it at first.
As you slowly assimilate this phenomenon you find yourself reflecting and rethinking the process of what empathy is. This is more difficult than it may seem, since I, like you, was a Worldonian. You are not sure it’s genuine. So much of this feeling stems from the fact that the Worldonian world would consider empathy in Pizzaonia as very naïve.
Without empathy there is little if any human compassion. In its place we have good intentions based on an intellectual desire to be a good person. This may work for a while; however it is doomed to failure since it has no emotional content to sustain itself.
The type of empathy I am referring to I call heroic empathy. Heroic empathy allows you put the needs of others above your own – not in words or thoughts but in sustained and consistent action.
This is possible when you can emotionally and intellectually feel what others around you are actually experiencing as if it were happening to you. Most of us experience occasional moments of heroic empathy with those we love and whose existence is emotionally important to our world.
All cultures have their version of the “golden rule.” We see the results everyday how the actual application of this rule fails. Yes, we occassionally see people acting heroically, individually or as a society, in a way that expresses heroic empathy. However, these exceptions are sporadic and short-lived.
Imagine a world where everyone is capable of heroic empathy with each other. If you were capable of universal heroic empathy the tragedies of Worldonia would cease. Unfortunately, you can only imagine it since it does not exist in your world. All of this begs the question, why?
Brother Giovanni, Supreme Pizzaonian
As the years go by you realize so much of your life is shaped by accidental events that require you to react to them, the notion of planning and shaping your life into something meaningful becomes a non sequitur. If this be true, then what is left? The answer to the question is for a lifetime to reveal.
We hear so much of goals and how important they are to finding success. Secretly, I sometimes think that so much of our stress is grounded in chasing goals for which we have neither the inclination nor aptitude.
We humans have so much difficulty in accepting the natural talents we were given in our
Why? The question has perplexed me for years.I suspect it starts with the early impressions we are all left with from our childhood. The need for acceptance teaches most of us early on that the affirmation we need comes from fulfilling the wishes and needs of the prominent adults in our lives.
As we grow older the need for affirmation transfers to the adult institutions in our lives: our cultural values, our work place, our church, our select group of friends and always present, the imprint within us shaped by our early years with our families.
By this time the need for survival takes hold and the imprints are too grounded to change into what should have been. Of course all of this creates the filter by which we judge and view all of the feelings and activities we experience in our journey to the end.
This filter shapes our particular prejudices and perspectives, both individually and collectively. While this seems so obvious, it also remains so obscure. Primarily because it is the subtle, but always present, static that plays in the background of our thinking process.
It numbs us into submission and deludes us with its seeming virtuous resignation. We grow so use to its presence we ignore its significance. However we do so at our own peril.
There is a noted exception to this model. There are a few amongst us who see correctly and know what they do to survive is essentially meaningless to them other than providing a means to and end. They do not embellish, or try to justify their activities in “service for society” or other grandiose terms.
A means to an end becomes their justification, and stoic acceptance of this fact creates its own type of begrudging affirmation. Though not completely free, they may be the freest among us. And that is worth a great deal.
Brother Giovanni, Supreme Pizzaonian
“Reaching for the light” Symbol of Pizzaonian optimism
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FROM: PIZZAONIAN NEWS SERVICE (PNS)
Contact: Publicio Relationio at the
SUBJECT: Third letter to the Pizzaonians - Expanded
My greetings to all Pizzaonians everywhere, actual or merely in spirit,
Since we have decided to expand our news service through our beta world Pizzaonian News Service I have had many friends call and ask why we are doing this since we came to Pizzaonian to live a more private, peaceful and focused life. They believed the expanded news service would draw more attention to us and threaten our current lifestyle.
I am in a unique position to answer this since I am, as many of you know, a portalized Pizzaonian. For those who don’t know, a portalized Pizzaonian is an immigrant from your world who was allowed to pass through the portal that separates our two worlds.
The fact that I became the Supreme Pizzaonian is unique since I am the first portalized Pizzaonian to reach this position. Many said this could never happen, but this is Pizzaonia and things just happen here sooner than in other places.
Certainly, the notion that we can actually exist without governments or wars is received with much skepticism by most everyone in the Worldonian world. (that’s your world) And the reality is that we do exist very well without wars or governments. As hard as it is to believe, we have no need for governments and as a result we have no wars.
Which brings me back to the question, why an expanded news service? Well, without seeming to be too presumptuous, you might just learn something from us.
You will learn from our various news reports about events in our world that we are very much like you. What is different is our expectations about human behavior. We expect people to be both kind and cantankerous, and occassionally plain mean. So we are not surprised or hurt or need revenge to make up for our actions. Our response is always to seek the solution in a spirit of goodwill no matter how serious the differences.
Pizzaonians, I suspect, have developed a more advanced evolutionary response to end the aggressive violence that plagues your entire world. It is simply a different way of seeing things. Much too simplistic for most of you, I am sure. But then again, most of the great truths are. However, in case any of us forgets, the devil is always in the details. I hope to share more with you later.
Brother Giovanni, Supreme Pizzaonian
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FROM: PIZZAONIAN NEWS SERVICE (PNS)
Contact: Publicio Relationio at the
SUBJECT: Pizzaonian News Service to expand its coverage
Publicio Relationio, editor of
Beginning this week
The five new bureaus will be current affairs, business and customer service, government, food and drink, and religion and spirituality.
Mr. Relationio pointed out while many of these subjects are currently covered by
Since the affiliation between the international pizza conglomerate, Pizza digogo diVinci, and the Pizzaonian Monks, the need for more news service to all of Pizzaonia had become evident. The rapid growth of the Pizzaonian beta-world and the many changes that have since occurred as a result of the merger created the need for expanded news services.
The names of the bureau chiefs will be released later this week after a careful review of PNS priorities.
At night when no one else knows my name
I hear a voice that calls me a strange voice
A voice I have heard before
It asks me to be what I am meant to be
I asked What is that
It said As the stars are named by me
So are you that is all you need to know
Pizzaonian cave dweller
How does one make a life commitment to a set of religious principles based on the life and teachings of one man who claims to be “the son of God” or for that matter on the life and teachings of any prophet who claims a divine relationship?
If you are trying to work this out on a rational basis you are going to come to the inevitable abyss that can only be crossed by an act of faith. So proceed with the warning and with caution.
Within every religious tradition you find an oral history that was told to each succeeding generation until the means to transcribe that history on a permanent basis became available. And since humans were involved in this endeavor there has always been within each tradition conflicting versions of which oral history was authentic creating more confusion as to which written history is valid.
We are left with the inevitable conclusion that one of the most important life directives religious people believe and accept as their primary motivation for living a life of “faith” is purely a matter of faith and little else. Since this is a rational and reasonable conclusion, why then is there so much intolerance for accepting other religious traditions when no one can rationially prove they have the “Truth?”
When one chooses to live a life based on assumptions that can not be proven and then is confronted with the rational notion that what you believe may not be true, it is logical to presume you are going to see the effect that is created when these two conflicting realities meet. Unfortunately, history has shown us how violent and tragic these reactions can be.
What are we left with? Can there be a rational basis for faith or is the idea an oxymoron? More later.
Brother Giovanni, Supreme Pizzaonian