A PERSONAL EXPLORATION OF THE CREATIVE EXPERIENCE - HTTP://GIOVANNIANDFRANCO.INFO -
We consider ideas that people often think about but seldom explore - ideas on how to remain authentic and be your real self. We define success as the realization of what you need to be and having the courage to become that person - this is what creativity is about.
Conjectures of a recovering dillettante while traveling the road to Utopia..
Why do we believe what we do with such conviction?
When I ask people what proof they can offer to substantiate their strong feelings about a given subject, you would think they would offer, easily and quickly, substantial historical facts to prove their point. Strangely enough, few can.
I am not suggesting you should not believe what you do, but go easy. It is possible that the best you can offer for the validity of your position is an assumption.
That’s okay, but stop selling it to the world with such vigor.
Here is an idea, Why talk about it at all? Why not make your actions speak for your beliefs? Let what you believe be who you are. Now that’s a thought for the ages.
We live in a time when the concept of faith has lost its luster. Faith by today’s rules is consigned often to the unsophisticated. As a result when someone declares a belief or activity as “a matter of faith” it is immediately suspect.
This presents a major problem. If faith is suspect, than most of our assumptions must also be suspect since so much of what we believe is based on faith-like assumptions.
A major assumption we make everyday is the world as we know it will continue to exist. This is an assumption based on faith.
The odds may be with us, but nonetheless, we don’t know what’s going to happen in the next minute and must assume we will still be here.
This obvious assumption should give us pause. Our arrogant supposition regarding the stability of life keeps us from changing many things that need changing.
The notion there will be a tomorrow may give us hope, but how many important things never get done because this assumed hope is part of our belief system. This implicit hope is the “mother” of all procrastination.
Be careful – the next time you find faith suspect - make sure you are not living most of your life based on assumptions rooted in faith.
Submitted by Sister Veronica and Brother Franco for Pizzaonian Newsertainment Network, PNN
It occurs to us here in Pizzaonia that much of what we write about is obvious. What is strange is how the obvious eludes us. I guess that's because it's so obvious we no longer pay attention to it. That seems to be the trap that gets us every time.
It takes a certain amount of discipline to pay attention to what is in front of us. What a shame since most of the answers we seek are always there -- right in front of us, waiting, waiting.
Maybe if we paid more attention, life would cease being a series of interruptions from birth to death.
The problem with our present wars is that they are not really our wars.We are willing to let them be someone else’s wars -- the selective few that choose to volunteer.Because they volunteer, we can rest easy in our willingness to let someone else’s sons and daughters die for us.
That is why these wars stink.Not because they are good or bad wars or politically necessary, but because we are not willing to pay the price that all wars should demand – equal sacrifice from all of us.
So most of us live our daily lives without need to worry about the price.And, of course, we are all too ready to honor the service of those who sacrifice, since they insulate us from having to honor the need for our sacrifice.
An American perspecitve from a portalized Pizzaonian's point of view............
There is a general belief that abundance will always be available if you think and act positively. This may be true, but often what is omitted from this platitude is there is no greater creator of bad karma then to waste or squander the abundance you have acquired.
It is an easy jump to conclude this is now happening in the United States. The abuse of our country’s incredible recourses and environment to sustain its power, comfort and pleasure permeates our senses at every turn. We could argue when this point was reached, but does anyone still believe we haven’t?
This reality can be masked very easily by our concentration on the “have nots”, those people through no fault of their own who find themselves at the vagaries of life’s miseries. By concentrating on our virtues and good intentions to help others, we allowed ourselves to go blind to our enormously wasteful lifestyles.
This will seem offensive to those that believe we live in the “promised land” and abundance is our providential and given birth right. Perhaps it is, but that still does not change what we see happening around us everyday. Something is out of whack and we better figure it out soon.
But in the meanwhile, the beat goes on. We retreat to the islands we have created for ourselves and wait for the problem to be solved. I suspect the only reason we haven’t disintegrated into space is because of the good works of the few saints that sustain us all with their good karma. Unfortunately, too many of us think we are those saints.
Frank John Franco commenting for "Musings" a division of the Pizzaonian Newertainment Network, Diverti Mento, editor
September 2014 At the heart of most problems we create for ourselves and for others is when we conveniently become convinced that our vested interest is also in the interest of everyone else.
It is why so much selfish behavior is practiced by “good people.” Most of us wouldn’t think of doing harm. And how can we do harm when what we are doing for ourselves is also good for everyone else.
If what’s good for me is good for everyone else, who can find fault?
So the next time you are convinced you are doing good – think again. Make sure your not entertaining a convenient delusion to get what you want.
Reflections for a summer afternood - Pizzaonian Newsertainment Network
"Reaching for the light" Courtesy of the Pizzaonian Art Institute, Abe Straction, curator (C)2010)
MAY 2014
In both our business and personal lives, we seek successful relationships. Much has been said and written on the subject. And yet, for many of us, successful relationships seem to elude us. The question is always, why?
At the heart of every human dilemma is the need to connect to other people. When we are in touch with each other, we find ourselves fulfilled, life seems worth living – experiencing and sharing with others completes us as human beings.
Many of us, other than the most cynical, would agree with this. Then, why is it difficult for us to find this kind of fulfillment? I suspect our problems all revolve around the concept of trust. To reach out to other people, you are going to have to trust them to accept you.
And many times, the people we reach out to seldom respond in the way we want them to act. We can be offended and hurt by their response.
Some things to think about the next time you reach out to another person, and they do not respond to you as you expected.
1. When you believe yourself to be an open-minded person, think about it – you are probably not as open-minded as you think. This is an area of great, personal self-delusion - the notion that we are open-minded and right is an insidious state of mind that can destroy most relationships.
2. We can be patronizing and condescending without realizing it. Make sure, when you're reaching out to someone it is not done with a sense of your superiority. This is easy to do. Be aware of this glaring fault most of us have from time to time.
3. Make sure you are reaching out for the right reasons. Often we reach out to satisfy a need we have rather than trying to help someone else with a need they have. Often we refuse to accept another person as the person they are; we expect them to be the person we need them to be. When we do this we are both narrow-minded and selfish.
Most of these problems are caused by a lack of trust in others. However, just maybe, the lack of trust we fear is in not trusting ourselves rather than the lack of trust we anticipate from others.
To have faith in yourself is to be a complete human being. This means we embrace our wisdom and practicality along with our foolishness and inconsistencies.
To see the absurdity in life and in ourselves is a gift from heaven - to be able to do this is to embrace yourself as fully human. By accepting our inconsistencies, we become compassionate and more open to those around us.
Then and only then do we become valuable to other people for we can accept them as the rich fabric of life they really are - not as we want them to be.
Vera V. Veronica, commenting for "MUSINGS" a divison of the Pizzaonian Newsertainment Network, Diverti Mento, editor
Is it possible that today’s soldier enjoys being at war more than keeping the peace? If that is true, we see the reason why an all volunteer army is wrong.
For years the pride of the military was maintaining the peace. It was this strength of will and arms that kept the peace through many turbulent years.
It’s hard to make keeping the peace a worthy goal if there is no peace to keep. Now that we are engaged in endless wars that have vague objectives and no end, it seems that being at war is what motivates our current military.
So we find some soldiers lamenting that our current wars may end. With out a conflict they will no longer face deployment in an actual war. This apparently is coming from soldiers who have already been deployed before.
Can you imagine our soldiers and marines who landed at Normandy or Iwo Jima lamenting the fact that they could no longer do that again.
The scary part is that a military looking for a war will inevitably find one.