Ruhala Performing Arts Center

The History Lesson - A New Play

2011-10-06T06:30:00.001-07:00

The History Lesson

Written By Mark Ruhala

Cast of Characters

(in order of appearance)

Mr. Mitchell – 50, professional dance instructor, affable, strict, penetrating

Scott Walker – 17, handsome high school senior, independent thinker, self-contained

Tom Pence – 32, high school history teacher, open-minded, compassionate

Frank Walker – 60, ex-marine, conservative, strong, old-fashioned father, engineer

Mrs. Saxon – 40, elegant, composed, all-business, singing teacher

Gabrielle Granger – 17, charming, pretty, intelligent, self-confident

Whitney Gates-Pence – 33, administrative manager, grounded, loving, assertive

Father Joe – 50, catholic priest, open and easily accessible, affable

Setting

Ann Arbor, Michigan

January, 2011

Scene 1

(in a dance studio/private ballet lesson

(Scott executes degage combination at barre, finishes )

Mr. Mitchell: Think! …other side.

(Scott executes other side and struggles through it)

Mr. Mitchell: Think Scott! What is the pattern?

Scott: Front side front side side front…

Mr. Mitchell: Side

Scott: Side

Mr. Mitchell: Side side side

Scott: Side side side, three side

Mr. Mitchell: Front back, close

Scott: Right, okay.

Mr. Mitchell: Say it.

Scott: Front Side…

Mr. Mitchell: With your hands

Scott: (using hands) front side front side side side front back close

Mr. Mitchell: reverse

Scott: (using hands again) back side back side side side back front close, detourne.

Mr. Mitchell: Right. Do it again.

(Scott does combination correctly this time)

Mr. Mitchell: So what was your problem?

Scott: I couldn’t get my leg to go side three times.

Mr. Mitchell: Why?

Scott: I was thinking it was two.

Mr. Mitchell: So your thinking was the problem.

Scott: Yes.

Mr. Mitchell: Now then, investigate your thinking. Why did you think like that? What mechanism in your thinking took you in the wrong direction?

Scott: I’m used to two side cause we normally do it that way.

Mr. Mitchell: There is no normal.

Scott: (humorously) I should know that.

Mr. Mitchell: Neither of us are normal, normal doesn’t exist. There are norms we follow but they are far from normal. The only norm worth looking into in dance is the freedom of movement that is the norm all great dancing emerges from. Your thinking mechanism was an old idea that needs to be replaced. Rephrase the thought.

Scott: Stay true to the moment, move from what is.

Mr. Mitchell: Think independently of norms. To dance from your heart you must think for yourself. Without independent thinking dance has no vibrancy. Okay, rond de jambe par terre. (Mr. Mitchell demonstrates) Preparation open, rond de jambe front, front, front, front, chasse en avant, temps lie, reverse back, back, back, back, chasse en arriere, temps lie. Battement passe plie (back) battment passe plie (back) releve arabesque, rond de jambe en l’air, tendue en avant. Reverse back, through, back through, back side front close fifth. Cambre forward, up sous-sus back, tendu back, slide lunge down, up, arabesque, ponche, stretch, bring it up, plie arabesque, releve and balance, attitude balance, posse balance, sous-sus, plie. Got it?

Scott: After the rond jambe is the battments?

Mr. Mitchell: Yes.

Scott: Okay.

Mr. Mitchell: (music starts0 Preparation one, open two…(Scott executes combination) eyes, up…turn out…stay on top of the leg…use your back with your port-de-bras…extend…opposing energy…that’s it…perch…control. Better, why the mistake?

Scott: I wasn’t counting.

Mr. Mitchell: Do you need to count?

Scott: How else will I know?

Mr. Mitchell: How else…feel it. Feel the music and movement phrasing. It’s all right there. Your body knows when the phrase is over. Just listen with your whole being, feel your music, and let it occur; don’t force. Over zealous dancing is boring no matter what the intention. Rather than muscle through it and count, open to let the movement move you and let the music tell you when to change.

Scott: I feel like if I let go of counting I won’t know where I am.

Mr. Mitchell: And?

Scott: And that doesn’t feel good.

Mr. Mitchell: Is it required to feel good?

Scott: Well feeling lost is not staying on the beat.

Mr. Mitchell: Maybe until you feel that lost feeling you might never know the beat. The beat, the pulse, is there for you to feel. You can know intuitively where you are and if you let go you can let your body lead you.

Scott: I end up lost though.

Mr. Mitchell: Better to be lost and feeling than on the beat and in your head.

Scott: Didn’t you teach me to count the music Mr. Mitchell?

Mr. Mitchell: Now that you know how, it is time you throw it away. Everything you learn, if you really learn it, becomes second nature. Trust your unconscious knows even as you let it go consciously. You must constantly throw away your knowledge and move on into doing it without thinking. Dance cannot be a thought experiment like it is in university departments where you are graded on politically correct tangible things. Dance is lived in the intangibles; the nuances are limitless. But you can only get there by learning the technique and then throwing it away so you can simply use it to dance.

Scott: But in school they want us to memorize every little fact, nothing can be thrown away as you say.

Mr. Mitchell: Remembering is not learning

Scott: Don’t you have to remember to learn?

Mr. Mitchell: What is important will always be remembered. The heightened emotion that accompanies an important experience will always create an intense memory; no work needed.

Scott: It doesn’t work that way in school.

Mr. Mitchell: Eventually schools will catch up with brain science that shows this truth; even though it is common sense. But schools want you to become good citizens and that is something different.

Scott: Dance is more like living.

Mr. Mitchell: Dance is living; all performing arts are; living in the moment on stage; really living, not pretending. To live is to move; infants who don’t move die. Infants grow in relation to their movements; the brain develops through movement. Do the other side.

(Scott does the other side)

Good, extend…reach…feel the energy…yes…indulge in the beauty of the movement…better, good, pull up, send the energy down…okay, much better.

Scott: I felt freer.

Mr. Mitchell: You were. You had your mind under control and you let it go so you could just feel it and do it…nice.

Scott: Thank you.

Mr. Mitchell: Okay frappes…(starts to think of combination)

Scott: Can I ask a question?

Mr. Mitchell: Sure.

Scott: In men’s class yesterday, Tim brought his foot back to coud de pied every time rather than flexed, which is correct?

Mr. Mitchell: What do you think?

Scott: I’m not sure; we do it flexed so I’m thinking that is correct.

Mr. Mitchell: Tim comes from another school of ballet, sometimes there are varying ways to do the same step.

Scott: What school do you teach?

Mr. Mitchell: Mostly Russian, but I teach from my experience which is eclectic.

Scott: How many schools are there?

Mr. Mitchell: How many do you know?

Scott: Well Russian, I know there is English…

Mr. Mitchell: Royal Academy.

Scott: Bourneville…

Mr. Mitchell: Danish.

Scott: Ah…what else?

Mr. Mitchell: I don’t know; what else?

Scott: I don’t know…oh French, it’s taught in French.

Mr. Mitchell: Okay for the next lesson please give me a report of the different ballet methodologies and their distinctions.

Scott: Since the beginning?

Mr. Mitchell: Yes, where was the beginning?

Scott: You told us this before…Italy, right? (Mr. Mitchell nods yes) and then king Louis the fourteenth developed it right? (nods yes again) Its really another elite art form made by the rich.

Mr. Mitchell: Can’t get much richer than Louis the fourteenth, he was one of the richest men in the world in the seventeenth century.

Scott: Why did he develop ballet?

Mr. Mitchell: Okay, add this to your homework; research Louis’s development of ballet. A clue though was it was part of a bigger agenda for power that led to a cultural explosion.

Scott: Kill armies by day and dance the night away (laughs).

Mr. Mitchell: Not much has changed has it? Okay frappes,; when I hear your homework I will explain the different approaches to frappes; you may discover for yourself in your research. For now, flex your foot as we do in class. Preparation, flex…(begins to demonstrate combination as…) [LIGHTS FADE]

Scene 2

(Scott catches Mr. Pence {Tom} in hallway of school)

Scott: You flunked me you son of a bitch.

Tom: You did it to yourself.

Scott: I wrote the freakin’ paper. I did the work.

Tom: But you didn’t write an accurate paper.

Scott: I wrote the truth as best as I see it.

Tom: Well that truth is sacrilegious and heresy.

Scott: Since when is history an entrance into heaven?

Tom: Do you have no regard for your country?

Scott: My regard is exactly what I wrote.

Tom: Well then you flunked my class.

Scott: Because you are so dogmatic you can’t even entertain another point of view other than the sanctified official version of history which was fed to you.

Tom: Your half-baked claims that America is the most criminal country in the world don’t even need inquiry. They are wrong. Dead wrong. And will only create trouble for you.

Scott: What the hell do you care? All you care about is keeping the status quo. Keeping your rosy-eyed version of history so that you can keep your job, so that you can continue to delude your students, go home to your poisoned manicured lawn, eat animals you would never have the nerve to kill your self and screw you wife every Saturday night.

Tom: Get out of my face. You flunked. Live with it.

Scott: This is not the end of this.

Tom: What you wanna make more trouble for yourself?

Scott: Who gives a shit? Really, do you care? Does anyone care beyond their own self-interest? Fuck it.

[BLACK OUT]

Scene 3

(In father’s {Frank} woodworking studio)

Scott: He flunked me! He fucking flunked me!

Frank: I’m not surprised.

Scott: Do you care?

Frank: About what?

Scott: That he flunked me for nothing but bullshit!

Frank: You call that bullshit? That’s where you go wrong son. You think its okay to do whatever you want and you’ve yet to understand the consequences of…

Scott: Don’t start that shit, I understand…

Frank: If you did you wouldn’t make the choices…

Scott: Maybe I make choices based on other criteria.

Frank: And then you flunk.

Scott: And then I learn! And that’s the hypocrisy of it all. I think differently, I do my research, I investigate for truth, and I get punished for it.

Frank: You aren’t punished, you’re receiving a grade. You’re not home schooled anymore Scott.

Scott: Bullshit. It’s a slap on the wrist. It’s a pressure to put me back in line. It tells me that to pass I need to write what everyone else writes.

Frank: In your own way.

Scott: What’s the point of my own way if its just another version of the same thing?

Frank: What’s wrong with that?

Scott: Everything! You think the shit we live is great. We are the freest, the richest, the most powerful, the most advanced, the most of the most, the best of everything.

Frank: This country has kept the world safe and prosperous.

Scott: How safe and prosperous are the native Americans that are dead? You are blind to the truth…

Frank: Son, would you like to live under communism, under a dictatorship which would…

Scott: We already do! You just can’t see it! You think you are free but you are a prisoner of this system which keeps you a slave to the economy.

Frank: I work freely and by choice and I make enough of a living to maintain a standard of living that has given you all you need so that you could grow up and be smart enough to challenge your teachers.

Scott: Smart enough? I don’t believe that.

Frank: You’re right. I think its dumb. But you’re a smart kid if you would just…

Scott: What? If I would just behave, fit in, be like everyone else? What’s smart about that?

Frank: What’s wrong with that?

Scott: The whole thing, it’s sick. I wanna be myself and I sure as hell can’t be in this house or that school.

Frank: Then why don’t you take your ungrateful ass somewhere else and live in your dreams. And take your “F” with you.

Scott: That’s how much you care?

Frank: Son, I can’t take your negativity much more. You complain and criticize everything. You have no fun in your life these days and it’s driving me crazy! Hell you didn’t even smile at Christmas.

Scott: Fine. Keep your blinders on. You’re right, there’s no point in my being here. (walks out)

Frank: Son just be happy…that’s all I want. [BLACK OUT]

Scene 4

(in voice studio)

Mrs. Saxon: Hello Scott.

Scott: Hi.

Mrs. Saxon: How has your week been?

Scott: Okay.

Mrs. Saxon: Just okay?

Scott: Yeah, not the best week.

Mrs. Saxon: What happened?

Scott: I flunked my history final.

Mrs. Saxon: That’s not like you, what happened?

Scott: I wrote about history in a different way.

Mrs. Saxon: What did you do tell the truth about the genocide that Americans committed to start this country.

Scott: Worse.

Mrs. Saxon: Ooh…so you flunked?

Scott: Yeah, I thought my teacher was more open but he’s just as rigid as everyone else.

Mrs. Saxon: That’s why you study arts, to find open inquiry into life.

Scott: But school is the opposite; education is the boring path to become successful.

Mrs. Saxon: School may be boring; education though is exciting and open.

Scott: Not in school it isn’t; I don’t see the point. My mom unschooled me, she let me live and learn naturally.

Mrs. Saxon: Educate yourself Scott. Get through school, play the game, but educate yourself like you are.

Scott: That’s how I got in trouble.

Mrs. Saxon: You’re not in trouble; you got a grade, a judgment from someone, that’s all.

Scott: Yeah but my dad is not happy with me.

Mrs. Saxon: Your dad wants you to succeed that’s all.

Scott: Yeah but his success is just as boring as school.

Mrs. Saxon: You’re smart, play the game. Give the school and your dad what they want and you’re much more likely to get what you want.

Scott: I know, I used to do that, but lately I can’t bring myself to kiss everyone’s ass anymore.

Mrs. Saxon: Well, let’s sing, singing always makes life better…

Hands on your navel, inhale, exhale, use your belly, faster

Inhale, hold your breath, pull your muscles in, arms up, one, two, three, exhale hinge

Inhale, hold your breath, pull your muscles in, arms side, one, two, three, exhale hinge

Inhale, hold, pull it in, arms overhead, hang from the waist, up, exhale hinge

Collapse your chest, inhale expand, hold your breath, hear roll around, relax your jaw, other way

Base of the ribs, in and out

Hands above the navel, inhale, pull muscles in, kick it out gee, gah, gee, …gee, gay, gee,…gee goh gee

Hands below the navel, inhale, pull muscles in, kick it out gee, gah, gee, …gee, gay, gee,…gee goh gee

Inhale, lunge, gee, gah, gee, …gee, gay, gee,…gee goh gee

Other side, inhale, lunge, gee, gah, gee, …gee, gay, gee,…gee goh gee

Inhale, blow pull it in, exhale and bellow, hinge

Inhale, blow pull in, collapse your rib cage, exhale and bellow

Inhale, blow, gee, gah, gee, …gee, gay, gee,…gee goh gee

Inhale, blow, collapse your ribs, gee, gah, gee, …gee, gay, gee,…gee goh gee

Jaw, up and down, side to side, massage, yawn

Finger on your larynx, swallow, gulp, gulp, gulp, open wide drop the jaw,

Tongue, in and out, side, other side, roll it down in and out, side, side, twist, other way, circle it, reverse

Eyes, cross your fingers, in, out, up left, around down, up right, around down, repeat, follow the eyes, in

Okay, ears…

Scott: Can I ask a question Mrs. Saxon?

Mrs. Saxon: Sure.

Scott: Why do we do this with the eyes?

Mrs. Saxon: Why not?

Scott: Well why in singing class?

Mrs. Saxon: Why not?

Scott: What does it have to do with singing? We don’t do this in choir.

Mrs. Saxon: Do you use your eyes when you sing?

Scott: Yes.

Mrs. Saxon: How so?

Scott: Well, you read music.

Mrs. Saxon: Right, and what about when you aren’t reading music but are performing?

Scott: You look at your audience, or wherever…

Mrs. Saxon: Yes, your eyes are very significant to your performance. If they are focused and relaxed, your singing will be too.

Scott: Why don’t we do it in choir?

Mrs. Saxon: Ask your teacher.

Scott: In choir we just sing, we don’t do all this warm up stuff first, we sing scales.

Mrs. Saxon: Singing is a full body activity. It’s a performing art. The whole body is your instrument. You want your whole body to be strong and flexible, controlled, and relaxed. Your eyes are the main vehicle of expression. Brooding eyes creates brooding singing. Open alive eyes create open alive singing.

Scott: Yeah, that’s what I like about this, it always feels so invigorating.

Mrs. Saxon: What makes it so invigorating?

Scott: I guess the breathing and the movements. After singing with you I can hit high notes, in choir I feel tight.

Mrs. Saxon: When the whole body is freely moving life is easy.

Scott: You sound like my ballet teacher.

Mrs. Saxon: The body is where truth resides. The eyes are where we look to see if someone is telling the truth. The body experiences and holds truth. The mind experiences and then can manipulate and play tricks and alter the truth of your real experience.

Scott: Yeah…no matter how much I say I’m feeling better and I’m moving forward, my body won’t let me.

Mrs. Saxon: Trust your body, it knows. If there is more grief in your body, accept that, don’t fight it.

Scott: But then I can’t move forward and everyone doesn’t like that.

Mrs. Saxon: Live for your truth, not others.

Scott: I don’t know how. Maybe when I’m done with school and can run my own life I’ll know how.

Mrs. Saxon: Right here, right now, practice…run in place…BAH…BAY…BIH, BOH, BOO

[LIGHTS FADE]

Scene 5

(in classroom as Mr. Pence prepares for class)

Tom: Did you come here to argue some more? Because if you did I won’t tolerate it.

Scott: I came here to find out how I can change my grade, no, your grade.

Tom: It’s too late. You’ve shown your work. I graded it. It’s done.

Scott: What if I rewrite the paper?

Tom: Your damage is done.

Scott: I can rewrite it exactly how you want it.

Tom: It’s that easy?

Scott: Yes.

Tom: Then why didn’t you do that in the first place?

Scott: I wrote it according to what I know and believe. This time I’ll write what you want to hear.

Tom: It’s not what I want to hear it’s the facts of history.

Scott: Don’t you realize that your textbooks are part of a system that’s designed to promote the official version that’s slanted and not factual.

Tom: It’s that kind of thinking that will get you nowhere.

Scott: What is the Logan Act?

Tom: What, now am I being tested?

Scott: Who are the Bilderbergs?

Tom: Do you need to compound an already tense relationship?

Scott: I am presenting a piece of history left out of your politically correct textbook.

Tom: For what reason? Why aren’t you focused on your work rather than wasting your energy snooping for irrelevant information?

Scott: Wouldn’t it be historically relevant if our heads of state, our top CEO’s, our central bankers, and many other wealthy elite met with other elite persons from around the world every year to discuss world issues?

Tom: They do that all the time, so what?

Scott: Do you know about the Bilderberg meetings?

Tom: I confess I do not, enlighten me.

Scott: Every year, since 1954, the wealthy elite and powerful people of the world meet in secret and discuss their plans for the world. Barrack Obama and Hilary Clinton were there in 2008.

Tom: Wouldn’t we know about that? They were presidential candidates that year; the press was following them as much as they do now. Where do you come up with this stuff?

Scott: They ditched the press, which was reported, but then the press did not mention that they were in Virginia, exactly where the Bilderberg meeting was taking place.

Tom: They had a secret meeting, I remember that. But it was between them.

Scott: If it was just between them why did it need to be secret?

Tom: Okay, let’s say they went to this meeting, what was discussed?

Scott: Only they know, it’s a secret meeting.

Tom: Who else attended?

Scott: Officials from the IMF, the World Bank, government officials from all governments around the world, - usually about a hundred twenty people.; always David Rockefeller, and always Henry Kissinger.

Tom: Do you think there is something wrong with this?

Scott: Do you think the Logan Act is important?

Tom: If U.S. citizens are unofficially representing the U.S. foreign policy in significant ways, then the Logan Act ought to be used and the actions stopped.

Scott: If the Logan Act is used, people go to jail.

Tom: And so they should. It is dangerous to have U.S. foreign policy divided and conflicted with two different strategies, one official and one unofficial. Influencing a foreign government without being an official representative of the U.S. could lead to all kinds of messy situations. Logan himself was lucky to have had a good outcome with the French. But congress knew it was a bad precedent and wrote the Logan Act.

Scott: Well isn’t that exactly what is going on in the Bilderberg meetings?

Tom: I don’t know.

Scott: Do you want to know?

Tom: Maybe this is not as important as you think. If it were I am sure the press would cover it.

Scott: This is where you lose credibility with me. C’mon, you know as well as I do that the news corporations in this country are owned by a very small handful of individuals and they are all a part of the wealthy elite. We even talked about that in class.

Tom: They may slant their news coverage towards a certain ideology, and maybe omit things damaging to their advertisers, but they cover the news. Journalists would love this kind of scoop, they’d cover it. And this kind of scoop would sell papers which is their main goal. They have to make a profit just like everyone else. You’re unrealistic.

Scott: Well what if they lose money if they print what the elite forbids them to print? What if their very existence is threatened by reporting on these meetings?

Tom: You are sounding crazy and paranoid.

Scott: Prove me wrong; find out if it is true that David Rockefeller said he thanks the press for promising to keep discretion about the Bilderberg meetings for forty years.

Tom: And how is this going to help your grade? Isn’t that why you’re here?

Scott: If I’m right, then you’re going to reread my paper and judge it on a larger view than your narrow textbook; how’s that?

Tom: If you weren’t such an interesting and intriguing person, I’d throw you out. I wouldn’t necessarily say you’re likable, but you could be if you would work on it. But you do have persuasive passion. I’m going to keep an open mind and look into what you are saying. If its garbage, I’m going to report your paranoia to your counselor and it will be the last time I consider your arguments.

Scott: I’ll be out of here soon anyway.

Tom: You have to pass my class to graduate don’t forget.

Scott: Use the internet. True liberty and democracy live there.

Tom: So why is it called Bilderberg?

Scott: After the name of the first hotel in the Netherlands that hosted the first meeting.

Tom: You really think this is important.

Scott: This is just the tip of the iceberg. [BLACK OUT]

Scene 6

(the Walker’s dinner table)

Frank: Why don’t you eat your food?

Scott: I’m not really hungry.

Frank: Son, you let life get to you, you should lighten up.

Scott: Dad, please don’t lecture me.

Frank: If you want to stay miserable and miss the good times, be a fool.

Scott: I’m not miserable.

Frank: Then why are you acting so unhappy all the time?

Scott: I’m working things out in my mind that’s all.

Frank: Well you could do it with a smile on your mug once in awhile.

Scott: Why can’t you just accept that life is shit sometimes?

Frank: Life is what we make it.

Scott: Yeah, with a lot mixed in from “out there”.

Frank: So you deal with the hand you’re dealt.

Scott: Can’t you just allow me my feelings?

Frank: Its time to shift son. You’ve got to move into a happier way of seeing things.

Scott: Happier?

(silence)

Scott: Happier?

Frank: You can’t brood day after day. Christ its starting to infect your school work. How the hell did you flunk your history final?

Scott: (explodes) What the fuck do you want?! I can’t just close my feelings off like you can, you’re a fucking marine! I’m a goddamn human being, and my mom is dead! You can go about your life like you are a big strong guy, nothing can beat you, but I am not you! Sometimes I wonder if you even loved mom!

Frank: Son, I just want our lives to move forward so we can go on living.

Scott: Maybe we can’t! Maybe we’re stuck; stuck in the incomprehensible fact that some drunken asshole took mom out. Stuck in the goddamn pain I feel every time I think about it!

Frank: (explodes) Then stop thinking about it!

Scott: How can I??!!

Frank: Shut it off!

Scott: Like you?! I am not a robot! How the hell do you do it! How can you just accept it and move on?

Frank: (calmly) Son I have seen the worst of human beings. I have picked up friend’s body parts blown off for reasons I could barely understand. I have been to the worst hell and lived through it. I made a decision: I will survive.

Scott: Well sometimes I’d rather be dead.

Frank: (shocked) You are strong son. Your mother is gone. You will meet her again later, when it is time. Until then you will get through this and make your life.

Scott: It just feels like life is one big lie. It’s not what everyone thinks, we are living a bullshit life of pretending.

Frank: No son, its people just trying to get along in life as best they can.

Scott: Get along? People are killing each other more than anything else. They teach us its wrong to kill, “thou shall not kill” but how do we get along? By killing each other! Its bullshit hypocrisy, no one believes it.

Frank: Your mother was killed in an accident…

Scott: I’m not talking about mom right now I’m talking about the idiocy of teaching kids it is wrong to kill and then sending them to war to kill!

Frank: War is not the same.

Scott: Oh so in war we can do whatever? We can become killing animals and break all the rules and laws like it’s a different reality?

Frank: It is a different reality.

Scott: It’s the same planet and people are people. Just because you live “over there” doesn’t mean your life is less important.

Frank: Sometimes son you have to accept the imperfections of life. If you want change make it happen.

Scott: How? There is no changing in life. What’s done and is done and I can’t change that! Mom is dead! Like everyone else! Dead! The real history of this country and the world hasn’t changed ever, its war. The only change is that we get better at it and we cover it up with words that lie. You think these guys are heroes. School puts these guys on a pedestal as if they are fucking super heroes and we worship them like they are gods. But all they are are killers. Just like Hitler, there’s no difference.

Frank: Wars shaped the world that is true. But also great accomplishments took place. Look at the technology we have, the freedoms in this country, the high standard of living…

Scott: Who’s high standard of living? Go ask the kids in the ghettoes! And just because you have THINGS doesn’t mean living is high. The Rockefellers know what a high standard of living is. The rest of us are just serfs to that kind of wealth. We still live in the real world where drunk people kill others. Is that a high standard of living? Is that person really happy?

Frank: Probably not but that is someone who is irresponsible.

Scott: Who isn’t? When you drink and drive like everyone else are you responsible? Just because you haven’t killed anyone, at least on the road, is that responsible? Was it really responsible when you killed all them “gooks” over there?

Frank: I was fighting for my country!

Scott: Your country was using you!

Frank: My country needed me to…

Scott: Your country couldn’t give a damn!

Frank: Son that’s enough!

Scott: No it’s not enough! It’s not enough that we fund both sides of war; that won’t convince you! That we made bin Laden and Hussein and the rest - we made them who they became. We funded them, gave them millions, gave them guns, tanks, and even made money off them while your tax dollars, under “freedom fighters” were spent to create the enemy that we went in to destroy years later and make even more money from that, all financed by your tax dollars! If that isn’t enough what is? Nothing! You just wanna be blind and kiss your country’s imperialistic ass! And I don’t want Father Joe’s religion!

Frank: My goddamn years in Vietnam were hell but I did it for my country. I did not question my mission I did my job! Christ you sound like your mother! She never liked my service and I’ll tell you there is nothing worse than doing your duty and coming home to an ungrateful country, especially your family!

Scott: Well maybe you should have thought about that before you went.

Frank: Before I went I was finishing high school and trying to get into college. I didn’t think about that stuff, I was a kid, and I was enjoying my senior year. Kids don’t need to think about these things.

Scott: Well I do, you and mom let me be a self directed learner without school. You taught me to think about my actions and mom taught me to love all life. And when I think about these things I can’t forgive people for how dumb and hypocritical they are…(starts to cry)

Frank: (takes Scott’s shoulders) Son, you are thinking too much. … (pause)Why don’t you see Father Joe again?

Scott: I don’t want Father Joe’s religion dad, it’s just another escape.

Frank: Scott, you have to let go and just live life a bit. Enjoy the simple things and…

Scott: What the fuck is so simple in watching your mom die?! (runs out)

[BLACK OUT]

Scene 7

(in classroom at computer)

(cell phone rings)

Tom: Hi honey/Yes I’m doing some reading/Yeah I’ll be home shortly/Yes, I have to talk with him tomorrow morning/I just can’t blow it off honey, he’s my student/I’m not taking on any more than I should, he’s a smart kid and he needs help/Yes I know I have a smart kid too honey. Just give me a little more time, I’ll be home soon/It is. He’s right about this Bilderberg group. They meet every year and they are planning our futures/They’re the highest of all classes and they have power individually and as a group even more so. They seem to want to dominate the world/I’m not exaggerating. They have plans to depopulate the planet and make a one world government/Honey it makes sense to me. It’s easy to see how national sovereignty is already eroded with NATO, the European union, The World bank, The United Nations programs that…/Yes they are fighting for peace, but they have international power that often trumps a country’s sovereignty/Yes I know but how is it that they have been meeting for half a century and we didn’t know about it? There’s a piece of me that feels betrayed. You know how much I despise lying and for all my life I have been lied to and kept in the dark about this. How many more lies does the government have behind the scenes?/Yes people meet in secret, but these powerful people meet and discuss our foreign policy and relationship to other countries and their desire to create a new world order. He’s right they are breeching the Logan Act/No this is not a conspiracy; if anything, they are conspiring. Once you start looking, it’s in plain view for anyone who cares to read about it/Because the media are part of the group. The same reason the media cooperates with the military. Like the secrecy of the HARRP program we just watched and never knew about, the media cooperates with the Bilderbergs because they are a part of the group and are sure to find trouble if they cover it to the public. Remember when Obama and Hillary Clinton ditched the press and had that secret meeting that we thought was rather bizarre? They went to the Bilderberg meeting/ No I’m just taking it seriously/ I will keep it light/Okay, see ya soon. (hangs up and stares into space, then returns to his computer screen)

[BLACK OUT]

Scene 8

(the Walker living room – Scott playing music as Gabrielle enters)

Scott: Hey.

Gabrielle: Hey. (kisses and hugs Tom excitedly) Guess what I just read about?

Scott: What?

Gabrielle: I was listening to an interview with Prince and he brings up Dick Gregory and chemtrails – it’s what they’re spraying out of…

Scott: Airplanes to control the weather.

Gabrielle: That’s what they say but that’s not what it is.

Scott: It’s never what they say it is.

Gabrielle: How come you know about this already? I thought I might enlighten you.

Scott: I’ve been reading about this stuff for a while now; remember, I was unschooled.

Gabrielle: You are lucky, I had to attend Catholic school for seven years while you were home schooled, or unschooled, whatever you want to call it. Well I’ll find something to enlighten you about. (teasing and kissing him)

Scott: So what did Prince say about it?

Gabrielle: Nothing really, he drops this bomb and moves on, just says people need to know about these things. But I read about it and its freakin’ crazy – barium, cadmium, aluminum…

Scott: Yeah, wonder why their doing it?

Gabrielle: Its part of a plan isn’t it? Part of the Bilderberg plan to sicken everyone, make them into simple idiots and use them for their purposes.

Scott: Oh C’mon that’s just conspiracy theory! (teasing her back and kissing her) How could they kill everyone, make them all sick but not get sick or die themselves?

Gabrielle: I don’t know. Do you? I wondered that too.

Scott: My guess is that they’re psychopaths so fucking bent on getting power…

Gabrielle: And money…

Scott: No it isn’t money they’re after, not for the real elite. They have all the money they need or want. What they really want is power.

Gabrielle: To control everyone.

Scott: Everyone and everything including nature. Shit they have plans to live in outer space.

Gabrielle: That’s ridiculous we can’t do that, how could they survive?

Scott: Isn’t there already an international space station-people staying up there for long periods of time already. Shit there’s underground cities all over the world.

Gabrielle: Yeah but to live there?

Scott: The technology is already there, the plans are ready. They just need to implement it. Problem is governments have stopped spending money on space programs. Its out of vogue now.

Gabrielle: What about the Star Wars program, is that still funded?

Scott: Now, that’s what HAARP is, similar program, different name.

Gabrielle: Isn’t that connected to the chemtrails too? I read that.

Scott: It’s hard to know exactly what is what; it’s all so secret, like all the government/military programs throughout the years.

Gabrielle: Eventually the truth comes out though, like the secret government radiation program or the syphilis experiments of the Tuskegee guys. Now with the web there’s easier ways to get the information. HAARP even has a web site, I saw it.

Scott: Yeah but you only get what they want to show you.

Gabrielle: Well I know its Army/Navy and they are using Tesla’s ideas about shooting low frequency energy into the stratosphere…

Scott: Ionosphere…

Gabrielle: Right, higher, smarty pants, into the Ionosphere and then sending it back down to earth to create weather patterns. Seems it’s a front for military action.

Scott: Sure, all armies would love to control the weather right? Shit, then you might not even need to go to war. Create the earthquake, the hurricane, the tsunami, do the damage, and then go in and make money cleaning up and reorganizing how you want and take control where you want.

Gabrielle: God this stuff is so scary; part of me doesn’t even want to know about it.

Scott: No! That’s fuckin’ crazy. If we just turn away they will control the world! They’re close but they’re not there yet. We have to stop them.

Gabrielle: You’re sounding a bit paranoid again now. What if you have to go to jail?

Scott: Why would I have to go to jail?

Gabrielle: For talking about this stuff. Maybe they would call you a terrorist or a conspiracy nut…

Scott: What the fuck, just because I think differently doesn’t mean I’m a fuckin’ terrorist! I’m not trying to hurt anyone, I’m not a criminal.

Gabrielle: Yeah but you’re unpatriotic. You’re accusing your government of treason.

Scott: You sound like them now, like everyone else! Then go watch your movie and eat your popcorn and be like everyone else, dumb and dumber because you’re either afraid or convinced that the experts know better than we do.

Gabrielle: God, sometimes you are so cold.

Scott: No the fucking government is cold. The police are cold. The fuckin’ military are cold, cold blooded killers sent by the government to do the dirty work of the gangster bankers!

Gabrielle: What, if I don’t agree with you I can’t be with you?

Scott: What’s the point?

Gabrielle: Love?

Scott: Love is just an excuse to get hurt. Everyone you love dies anyway.

Gabrielle: But I’m here, not dead and I love you.

Scott: Then don’t live in that bullshit fear, that’s what they want and there’s no fear in love.

Gabrielle: What do you mean?

Scott: How can you love and fear at the same time?

Gabrielle: It’s called mixed feelings.

Scott: No when you’re afraid you’re not feeling love. Think about it it’s common sense.

Gabrielle: Okay but maybe I flip from one to the other.

Scott: Fine but life is too short to waste. While you’re sitting in fear I could be dying.

Gabrielle: No…(goes and hugs him) I love you..

Scott: (slowly) …I’m sorry I’m so worked up.

Gabrielle: It gets to me too. I’m just not as strong as you are.

Scott: I don’t feel very strong. Sometimes I feel crazy.

Gabrielle: Don’t we all sometimes? You’re not crazy, you’re grieving.

Scott: Everyone thinks that should be over now.

Gabrielle: Don’t listen to them, its okay.

Scott: I just feel so angry all the time now.

Gabrielle: Well maybe you should just accept that. I’d be angry too if my mom was killed like that.

Scott: But I get so angry at the world. I can’t just say things calmly anymore.

Gabrielle: What about Father Joe?

Scott: He’s a good guy but I don’t really believe in his God anymore.

Gabrielle: Make God what works for you Scott. It’s the only way I got through St. Johns.

Scott: But do we really need God or is it just to feel better and make sure there’s’ hope so we can endure dying?

Gabrielle: I don’t know, I ask myself too. At church everyone seems so happy and certain, but I wonder…because so much is guilt and hypocritical. I love the idea of Jesus but I don’t see many Christians living it.

Scott: Jesus would cast all the war believers to hell. He said turn the other cheek, he said to forgive others, he said we are all brothers…

Gabrielle: He would also say we are sinners cause we are having sex without marriage (teasing him)

Scott: I don’t think he would care as long as we love each other.

Gabrielle: Yeah, the church is always changing its rules, how is that Gods’ word?

Scott: Gabrielle you really help me, thank you.

Gabrielle: You know Scott, everyone is trying to help. They just do it in their own way.

Scott: Well you make me feel sane; I can be real with you.

Gabrielle: Yeah, it’s so hard to be real. School is the same as church, it’s like to be real you have to hide away first.

Scott: Let’s hide away at Göbekli Tepe.

Gabrielle: Yeah since nobody wants to believe it because they’d have to rewrite history. We could hide in ancient glorious city in Turkey, and no one would care.

Scott: I could have you all to myself (teasing, flirting) we could escape (more teasing) we could be free (they kiss and embrace)

[BLACK OUT]

Scene 9

(in classroom at desk, knock at door, Scott enters)

Tom: Hello Scott.

Scott: Hello Mr. Pence.

Tom: You seem tense today.

Scott: Life is tense.

Tom: Why is that?

Scott: Did you read about the Bilderberg group?

Tom: Yes I did.

Scott: Doesn’t that make you tense?

Tom: Why should it?

Scott: Do you like living in the dark?

Tom: No honestly I don’t. But I know the world has its secrets and I’m not going to change that, as much as I would like to. Is that why you’re tense?

Scott: Maybe you’re okay with secret groups running the world but I’m not. You can go on with your life, do your daily duties and talk about nothing but last night’s game or this weekend’s movie and ignore the truth and you can keep teaching the view of history that is naïve and blind to the real history that has shaped our world. I’m out. (walks away)

Tom: Hold on. You were right about this Bilderberg group. And I am going to re-evaluate your paper but I need a bit of time to do so. What seemed so crazy and far-fetched originally seems to have some merit. But let me ask you, why do you believe these people are evil? They are highly skilled and educated men and women who are very successful in this world and have given the world a lot.

Scott: So did Hitler.

Tom: These are not Hilters.

Scott: How did Hitler become Hitler?

Tom: He rose to power and ruled a dictatorship of tyranny.

Scott: He believed in eugenics and became powerful enough to win the support of the Bilderbergs to carry out his plan, which was their plan, which became all of their plan.

Tom: The Bilderberg group wasn’t even formed yet, it started…

Scott: In 1954 I know, but the same families were running the puppets in government, and the Council for Foreign Relations was already formed and the Chatham House. Hell the Rothchilds themselves have had power for hundreds of years. Rockefeller, Morgan, Warburg-they all would have been happy to see a superior Aryan race with everyone else slaves.

Tom: Hitler was an exception; these people live in another world today.

Scott: An exception? Was his lust for world domination any different from the British Empire’s, or the empires of France, or Rome, or Egypt? Hitler and his third Reich were simply continuing what has been going on since civilization began. Look at Cleopatra, who was fighting Caesar AND Marc Antony for world control and ended up taking her own life in defeat.

Tom: It is true isn’t it; there have always been those rulers who want to take control of the world.

Scott: Stalin and Moa are just current names for the mad men who kill people ruthlessly to have more power and take over more territory.

Tom: You do know your history don’t you? You make it a challenge to argue with you, but also a pleasure. But just as no one has ever succeeded in world control before, even if the Bilderbergs try they will fail too.

Scott: Do you really believe that? How? They will control it all in a very different way because they will have the one world organizations that have ultimate power because every country is giving over their sovereignty to these global organizations. Isn’t that what has been happening? Iraq fell because of an International force, not because of war with another single country. Now we’re in Libya doing the same thing.

Tom: You’re right but even with an international army there are large portions of the world not a part of it.

Scott: Not really, the Islamic countries really, that’s it. The façade of Russia and China is antagonistic but behind closed doors they are making deals and planning the future cooperation. Once these countries become central banked, which is happening at an alarming rate and is not even talked about, they’re intimately intertwined with the power base and really can’t fight.

Tom: What do you mean central banked?

Scott: You know as well as I, at least I hope you do, that every country that gets “rescued” and “saved” by the “international coalition” is forced to join the global central banking system. That’s where the real power lies, in controlling our most feared fate, the fall of our economy.

Tom: We do go in and make loads of money remaking the country don’t we? We send in Bechtel and Halliburton to rebuild and the money comes right back to those who did the destruction.

Scott: Who is Halliburton? I’ve heard of them.

Tom: That’s Dick Cheney’s corporation, he was head of it.

Scott: Oh right, then of course we confiscate all the country’s resources and gold supply.

Tom: Just as in merchant times. The Dutch were notorious at this. But isn’t it better that an unstable country like Iraq, run by a tyrannical dictator, become part of the global system which will prohibit it from acting unilaterally?

Scott: Isn’t it a country’s sovereign right to act unilaterally if it wants to?

Tom: Not if it’s a menace to society.

Scott: Like the United States?

Tom: The United States isn’t perfect but we are policing the world, a tall order; there are bound to be mistakes.

Scott: Who gave the US power to police the world?

Tom: After the Second World War there were two super powers, the Soviets fell, and we are still standing.

Scott: Sure the US backs both sides of the war, hidden of course to the public, FDR lets Pearle Harbor happen, just like we let the Gulf Of Tonkin happen and 9/11, all to give us reason to invade other countries with the support of the people. We use all the pressure of embargoes, economic hit men, CIA covert missions, and inside banking and market strategies to strangle a country and then we go in and take over with the military if we need to. The old money of Europe has built a world that swallows everyone else slowly and completely. The US got the police role by plans that started long ago.

Tom: Where do you get these ideas?

Scott: I read.

Tom: What do you read?

Scott: History books that tell a different story than your official propaganda. Iconoclastic books like The Renegade History of the United States, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, or Tragedy and Hope – that’s been around for a while, have you read it?

Tom: Quigley’s book?

Scott: Yes.

Tom: How did you hear about that book?

Scott: I was home schooled when I was younger, actually it’s called unschooled.

Tom: You mean you had no set curriculum?

Scott: Yeah, my parents let me decide what I wanted to learn about and how I wanted to learn it.

Tom: Yeah, I’ve heard of this but I’ve never met anyone who has done it.

Scott: Well when I decided to try school I read about school and education to see how it started. And one of the books I read is by John Taylor Gatto.

Tom: Teacher of the year in New York, who thinks kids need to be home scooled.

Scott: Right. Anyway he talked about Quigley’s history. Have you read it?

Tom: No I actually haven’t.

Scott: Why not? Aren’t you interested in more than your text books?

Tom: It’s just one book. His interpretation isn’t the end all.

Scott: So you agree history is how you interpret it. But how do you know whether it is the end all, you haven’t read it?

Tom: What makes you think it is?

Scott: I didn’t say that it was, but it is a unique book with otherwise unavailable information.

Tom: How did he get this information, isn’t it just his own different interpretation of the same facts?

Scott: He had access to the archives of the Council for Foreign Relations for two years, no one else has, that’s part of why they took the book out of print immediately after it was published. He told the truth.

Tom: Well maybe I’ll read it. He is a respected historian of great reputation.

Scott: Then maybe you’ll understand me more.

Tom: What is it you want me to understand?

Scott: My thesis that we are doomed by the Bilderbergers or whatever you want to call the elites is based on history not just personality.

Tom: You mean you’re not just negative?

Scott: Maybe you’re just too conformist.

Tom: You don’t want to lighten up do you?

Scott: I want to be real.
Tom: How about real light.

Scott: Why? What is light about our world that is real? Everything that we’ve created is based on mindless entertainment, artificiality and unnaturalness.

Tom: Now you sound like me; my students would prefer to be entertained than to actually read.

Scott: They’re brainwashed.

Tom: They watch too much TV.

Scott: The main brainwashing tool.

Tom: How did you become so different?

Scott: A military father and an artist mother.

Tom: You lost your mother last year just before you moved here I heard…I’m sorry for your loss.

Scott: My mom (tearing up) was a painter. She painted in yellows and blues and beautiful shades of white. She expressed herself with grace and intelligence.

Tom: I see her son following her footsteps.

Scott: Her husband doesn’t think so.

Tom: We all find our ways to cope in this world. Life ain’t easy.

Scott: But how will I follow my mother…(breaks down) I’m not a marine…(Tom hugs him)

[LIGHTS FADE]

Scene 10

(in the Pence kitchen)

Whitney: It just isn’t reasonable. You are unavailable to your daughter while you are so consumed with your debate with a student. This is an important time, you know it, Debby is adjusting to first grade and it isn’t going easy for her; she needs you here.

Tom: I am here.

Whitney: No not here physically, here emotionally. She needs your attention. If she gets enough of our attention whenever we can, we will see her through. If not they may win and prove she’s ADD.

Tom: She is not ADD!

Whitney: I know that but she is acting out in school! She doesn’t want to be there, she doesn’t like it. The kids are not nice to her and she’d rather be home with us.

Tom: Doesn’t she need to experience this transition? Isn’t it okay that she’s going through a rough time? Why do they have to complicate things and label her and maybe medicate her?

Whitney: Because they are idiots! The school has become a pharmacy outlet. Next thing you know we’ll be able to fill all our prescriptions at the school. They are out of control. They have been hijacked by the bio-psychiatric industry and just like parents, they are abdicating responsibility for the children’s behavior and well being, and sloughing it off to an inborn brain chemical imbalance. If that isn’t the biggest crock of bullshit I don’t know what is. Our daughter needs our attention that’s all. And when we shower her with our attention again her attention will be calm and consistent.

Tom: Maybe we should take her out of school.

Whitney: How?

Tom: Home-school her.

Whitney: Who?

Tom: Whoever wants to quit working.

Whitney: Sure both of us would but how do the bills get paid?

Tom: If we lose one salary we would need to scale down and cut our expenses: we’ve done it before.

Whitney: And we went into debt which is why we are both working now since she is in school. Tom, we have too much debt to pay, we can’t afford this.

Tom: Then what do you think?

Whitney: I think we have to give Debby all the time we can when we are not working. Instead of coming home and wanting some R & R and time to ourselves, we need to be much more involved with Debby.

Tom: Involved how?

Whitney: Emotionally engaged and enjoying life with her by doing things together and just being together talking and playing.

Tom: You think that’s all she needs?

Whitney: The four years I was home with her were great years. (gets choked up) Debby and I were like Mutt and Jeff, we had so much fun together playing and eating and shopping and watching birds and going to the park…

Tom: I think you need that too.

Whitney: Why do we give our kids to strangers to raise them after we have bonded and are so attached?

Tom: Don’t we give them to be educated, not raised?

Whitney: As much as I love the idea of education, maybe schools aren’t the best way. They almost do more damage than good.

Tom: Well of all ironies, one of the things that’s taking my time, which I see needs to go to Debby, is the history of schools and how they were designed to create the next generation of workers for the factory. It’s a dehumanizing endeavor and planned deliberately by the Rockefeller Foundation to teach children to conform and punch the clock. It isn’t at all about optimizing education. And now the factory model is out of date. And the teaching to the test is more dehumanizing conformity; there is no room for individuals to think and learn their own way and their own knowledge. It is really force fed.

Whitney: Debby was fine until she went to school. She has learned how to defend herself with cruelty and to play personality games to be liked and she is not her loving self she used to be.

Tom: So what’s our solution?

(pause)

Whitney: Shit. Maybe the only solution is to keep her home schooled.

Tom: We’ll have to sacrifice. (staring into space)

Whitney: We’ll have to eat like birds, maybe rent out our nest, sell a car, and then try to pay back our debt.

Tom: Where there’s a will there’s a way.

Whitney: Who?

Tom: Who?

Whitney: You.

Tom: Me?

Whitney: She needs you right now.

Tom: Why?

Whitney: She needs her father to love her actively (is affectionate and playful with him). She knows I love her and would do anything for her. She needs your gentle masculine heart to engulf her in loving education. You’re an educator at heart and you need her to help sharpen your skills.

Tom: You are amazing.

Whitney: You are exactly what she needs.

Tom: You know, this is exactly what Scott needs too only there’s no way he’s going to get it.

Whitney: Why not?

Tom: His mom died last year. She was killed by a drunk driver. And his dad is a marine; doesn’t sound like he’s available.

Whitney: Well don’t think of taking him on too. You can’t save the entire world.

Tom: I’m concerned for him.

Whitney: Did you finish Tragedy and Hope?

Tom: A few pages left but it’s sent me in all kinds of other directions to research that I haven’t finished yet. He’s right, it’s a history we don’t teach and it paints a very different picture of our history…and it’s more truthful.

Whitney: Another reason to educate at home.

Tom: That’s what this is about really. Scott is educated but he won’t be schooled.

Whitney: Where does he get his education from?

Tom: He’s a fiercely independent minded kid. Seems he’s got the discipline and confidence of a marine combined with the open mind and compassionate heart of an artist.

Whitney: But where does he get his knowledge from?

Tom: He’s right again about the internet. It’s an incredible model of democratic flow of information. I’ve found websites and information I never would‘ve dreamed were there. And from there it’s easy to get to the library and read books to go deeper. The whole world is on the internet.

Whitney: Well isn’t that why it’s called the World Wide Web? (teasing) But I hear Google and others are trying to tier the net and make it hierarchical: essentially making it available to only those who can pay for it.

Tom: It’s scary. I’m feeling very uneasy about what I’m learning. The world isn’t what we think it is. It really is dominated by these elite money people, the international banking cabal or what Quigley calls the “Anglo American Establishment” of Western civilization. They rule from behind the scenes.

Whitney: Why behind the scenes?

Tom: That’s how they can get things done. Hell every government knows that if it works covertly it can do what it wants much faster and more efficiently.

Whitney: So the people in the news are what, the spokespeople?

Tom: Exactly.

Whitney: Puppets.

Tom: Every presidential candidate regardless of what party they come from is hand picked by the Bilderbergers which basically represent the Anglo American Establishment broadened out to include European and Asian money elite. They can never stray too far from their expectations. So we get Obama’s promises in the campaign and then see the opposite in office. Just like conservative George W who ran up more spending and debt than any president. They do what they gotta do, they don’t care if it follows their party.

Whitney: That’s why I vote third party. I’ve been trying to tell you that for years but you support the system.

Tom: You’re right.

Whitney: But you couldn’t learn that from me you had to learn it through Scott. Maybe next time you’ll listen to me more. (teasing and kissing)

Tom: Right again. On both accounts: Debby and I are lucky people. Being married to you is a wondrous adventure. (hugs her tight)

Whitney: Well let’s hope we can pay for this adventure. (they kiss)

[LIGHTS FADE]

Scene 11

(Frank watching TV in living room)

(Scott enters)

Frank: Hello son.

Scott: Hello.

Frank: Did you see the game last night? What a fourth quarter!

Scott: Naw I missed it.

Frank: Son you’ve been missing a lot of games this year.

Scott: Yeah, I just don’t feel the same, I kinda don’t see the point.

Frank: How about some fun? Good competition, sportsmanship…

Scott: Yeah it’s just not the same.

Frank: Well I’ll be damned to let those tickets go to waste. Why don’t you give me your tickets and I’ll give them to some clients. If you want to go just let me know in advance.

Scott: Dad, I wanna quit school.

Frank: (pauses, looks at him) You’re serious.

Scott: Yes… (pause) I think it’s best.

Frank: And how is that son?

Scott: Dad I’m wasting my time there.

Frank: What are you going to do instead?

Scott: I’ll get a job.

Frank: Where at McDonalds?

Scott: Playing and teaching music.

Frank: Where will that lead you?

Scott: Doesn’t need to lead me anywhere.

Frank: Son if you don’t keep direction in your life you are doomed to fail.

Scott: I’m tired of direction.

Frank: Tired of direction? You’re seventeen years old, about half a year away from a diploma, on your way to college. On your way to freedom and an independent life and you want to throw it away because you’re tired of direction?

Scott: Dad stop! You know , if you could take me more seriously, talk to me like a client maybe, maybe you’d hear me for what I really think and maybe you’d give me some cred for my thinking. I’m not a dumb kid so stop treating me like one.

Frank: Then don’t act like one!

Scott: I’m not, I’m fucking smarter than most of my teachers. They’re idiots who have pretentions that they teach, but all they really do is treat everyone like children. All they know, is how to deal with sarcasm and condescension cause they can’t think beyond their need to be a good teacher, which means giving students A’s so they can look good and keep their stale ass jobs – problem is, they know deep down that they’re not teaching.

Frank: So you think they only do it for money? Isn’t that exactly what you’re going to do?

Scott: When I told my counselor I was going to quit school…

Frank: So you’ve already told him…

Scott: All he could focus on is that the school will lose money with one less head. He didn’t even care what I think. They don’t care about me or anyone else. They just want the image of the school to be good so they can keep their jobs. And no, if I wanted to make money I can think of a lot of other ways to do that better. I play music for other reasons.

Frank: Well what reasons are so important to throw your life away?

Scott: The same fuckin’ reasons that mom painted but you wouldn’t have a clue.

Frank: Is that what this is, your way of honoring your mother?

Scott: I’d rather make music than kill people for some asinine reason called patriotism!

Frank: If it wasn’t for my patriotism and everyone else’s who’s ever fought for this country you wouldn’t have the goddamn freedom to even consider loafing around playing music.

Scott: You can’t brainwash me with that shit, that’s exactly what the school does! Teaches us how to believe in the sanctity of war because we are better than everyone else! They make the next generation of egotistical killers ready to destroy the enemy. But not me, I don’t buy that shit and never have! “I pledge allegiance to the” What? A flag? That represents the hypocritical declaration of independence which starts: all men are created equal. It’s a fucking lie!

Frank: Goddamn it son, life has always been this way! Men are evolving and its getting better all the time; we’re not in the dark ages anymore. Change takes time!

Scott: We don’t have the goddamn time! Can’t you see the world is coming apart? Hell you and everyone else are like Nero singing and fiddling while Rome burned.

Frank: Change takes time. Maybe the burning is part of the purging that is in fact the change.

Scott: Well I’m changing my life now. I’m not going to follow everyone else and live the dream of a good college education, a good job, and a good life of kissing everyone’s ass who is above me, treating those below me like shit, and working all day doing something I don’t care about so I can go shop and spend my money on shit I don’t need while half the fucking world has nothing! All for the holy god of the empire: the economy- Which is the bondage we are all in to the only people with true freedom- the bankers who bankroll our government and the rest of the world with their worthless play money they create out of thin air! Independence hell, what kind of independence does our government have when it is in constant debt to the bankers? And who pays that debt? You do, but you think you’re free.

Frank: I am free! I don’t have debt and I hope I have taught you that.

Scott: Then why can’t you see how fucked your government is?

Frank: I can. Our debt is a real problem and the politicians are playing games, but sooner or later we will have to face it and we will and we will get out of debt.

Scott: It’s impossible, it can’t be done.

Frank: Great men have accomplished great things in this country. It can be done.

Scott: No it can’t! You have no clue. You have no idea of how our monetary system even works. You’re just as ignorant as everyone else.

Frank: Son you better back them words with facts or I will teach you a lesson about name calling that you will never forget.

Scott: Don’t threaten me with your shit, if you kill me I’d be happy! How does the government get its money?

Frank: You tell me.

Scott: First of all taxes which is the stealing of citizen’s property. Second from the Federal Reserve when it needs to do things like bail out its friends. Where does the Federal Reserve get its money from? It makes it up – a group of private citizens- many not even American, get to print money when they want to and dish it out to the US government, but with a catch we all know – interest.

Frank: Well why would we expect to borrow money without interest, nothing is for free.

Scott: Exactly but where does the money come from to pay the interest? They do not print that. It doesn’t exist. So in order to get more money to pay for the interest it has to take out another loan – with interest, and so on and so on like a great big Ponzi scheme we are forever in debt. If you had to do this personally you would be outraged, but you think you are free. Well I want out of this game. My freedom is my music. But you wouldn’t understand that cause you think it’s a luxury not a calling.

Frank: A calling? You’re talking in idealism again. You’re so idealistic you can’t see practicality. Maybe you think you’ll be free by quitting school and playing music but you’ll wake one day to find you lost your way. Problem is it will be too late, opportunity will be gone. You’ll have to live in your idealistic idea of freedom because you missed the chance to be practical. You live in this life, like it or not. Maybe our government is corrupt sometimes- they lie to us you’re right. I’m still outraged at the unnecessary lies about Pat Tillman’s death – all for propaganda, that was indecent. But sometimes people need to be lied to. You can’t trust certain information with the masses of the people.

Scott: Now you sound like the elite! This is exactly what Quigley says – the power establishment knew it had to conceal and mislead both people and the government because they were too weak to handle the truth.

Frank: Most people need to be told what to do, hell look at all the idiots on welfare, they’d rather live off of everyone else then get off their asses and work. Look at the teenage pregnancies that bring all these kids into the world that don’t have a chance and will grow up and become criminals and fill up our prisons which are already overpopulated. People need to be controlled otherwise we’d have rapists and criminals joining the terrorists destroying the world. That’s why we sacrifice a bit of freedom here or there – that’s what prevents the world from being destroyed.

Scott: No it isn’t, it hasn’t done anything but escalate the problems because no one is looking at the root causes of why these problems exist!

Frank: You think you know it all, there’s no talking to you. I’ll tell you one thing son. I will not help you. I cannot stop you from quitting school, I know the laws but if you want to push it I will not help you. You will not live here, drive my car or eat my food. And I will not bail you out when you realize what a mistake you made.

Scott: Father…I will find my real freedom.

Frank: There’s no freedom in poverty son, you must have money to have any freedom.

Scott: You always taught me to have inner character but I see now how conditional it is. Character without money is what?

Frank: If you can’t make a living and you live off others or off the government there is no character in that.

Scott: Does that mean that every bank or institution that survived only because they got free money from the central bank has no character?

Frank: Son, business and banking have their own ways, like it or not. If we hadn’t bailed out those banks the result would have been catastrophic for everyone.

Scott: What, the result now isn’t? Can’t you see how catastrophic our situation is? Did you see the fed audit of the financial crisis?

Frank: The fed saved the world from a horrible depression!

Scott: The fed gave out sixteen trillion dollars during the crisis to its chosen elite, and three trillion went to foreign banks and companies!

Frank: It was necessary! Imagine if we let those companies fall; millions of people would have lost their jobs!

Scott: And then the ones left standing would be the companies that had real value and solvency; maybe then we’d be closer to the truth about what is real!

Frank: You and your Goddamn real philosophy! What is real Scott!

Scott: These guys are criminals and no one cares!

Frank: Who are you, almighty God, giver of judgment?

Scott: Why can’t you see how rigged the world is for these guys?

Frank: Who Scott? Which guys? Where exactly is this conspiracy? You are so paranoid and seeing things…

Scott: The upper elite of money, it’s not hard to…

Frank: Who exactly Scott?!

Scott: The top one percent of the rich!

Frank: Who Scott?!

Scott: Like Warren Buffet who bailed out Goldman Sachs to save his own investment and then got preferred stock which has netted him billions more!

Frank: You are so far out there in left field son, shit, this is the way of the world, get out of your negativity! You are better than this Scott!

Scott: I’m doing my best dad, I’m sorry you can’t see that!

Frank: Quitting school is not doing your best! Playing music is nice but not a career!

Scott: Mom wouldn’t say that!

Frank: Well mom wouldn’t know what a career is!

Scott: What the fuck does that mean?

Frank: I bankrolled her painting! Artist’s leech of other people’s money, your mother didn’t have a dime to herself!

Scott: She had a heart and that’s more than you have!

Frank: Then follow her all the way to the grave.

Scott: Keep your fucking things and stuff ‘em up your ass!

Frank: (slaps Scott hard across the face)

Scott: (is shaken and regains his balance)

Frank: (is shaking)

Scott: (walks away deliberately)

Frank: (is frozen)

[BLACK OUT]

Scene 12

(in park, at tree where mom and Scott used to hang out)

Scott: (calmly and carefully) Mom I can’t take much more of this. I’m lost in my life trying to find truth, its impossible because the groupthink is too much. I know you’d want me to live and find the beauty in spite of it all, find the nectar of good, but mom…(breaks down) I want out of here, please come take me, I’d rather be with you now. I don’t believe in this world any more. I can’t take it seriously; I just don’t get what everyone else gets. They all seem so content and almost happy even as they walk through their lives blind. Why do I see it all so differently? Since you died and we moved from Detroit everything changed. I can’t stand Ann Arbor. I hate school. Why can’t I enjoy the games anymore? I want to live my own life and I’m so sick of watching other people’s lives but that’s all they do. They watch their favorite TV personalities and celebrities, or their favorite teams and athletes and all this reality TV junk that is so fucking empty and useless –everyone is becoming idiots unable to talk about real things. It makes me want to hide and get away from it all. It’s all so artificial, like life everywhere, we have taken anything natural and turned it into something they think is better, but were destroying the world at the same time. I don’t want to quit school, I want to quit life. I don’t fit in; I don’t give a shit about the latest fashion or video game or movie or anything else that excites people. Hell I can’t even talk with dad anymore, he’s just in denial and is holding up strong and he doesn’t want to hear how hard (breaks down) it is to deal with life without you. I can’t talk with anyone really. My teachers and counselors try to talk with me but they only want to tell me how to move on and let go, they don’t really hear me, and I can’t stand the bullshit they are teaching which means nothing to me. Gabrielle and I get along fine, she loves me I think, and I think I love her, but really, it doesn’t mean much to me. I don’t want this life, I don’t like it. I’d rather be there with you mom, I can’t find my inner strength like I tried to …

(Gabrielle walks in, pauses)

Gabrielle: Hi.

Scott: I came here to be in private.

Gabrielle: Do you mind if I’m here?

Scott: Why did you come?

Gabrielle: I needed to talk to you; your dad didn’t know where you were.

Scott: What do you need to talk about?

Gabrielle: Oh now it feels just stupid. You’re here talking with your mom and I’m worried about unimportant things.

(pause)

Scott: I was ready to go anyway; sometimes talking to my mom is a stupid thing.

Gabrielle: She loves you Scott…she loves that you come.

Scott: I can’t give her anything but her energy is always so clear and full – I know that’s all we are, why can’t people see that? They are blind to energy.

Gabrielle: People don’t want to see it Scott.

Scott: Gabrielle why do you get it? Why are you so curious and seeking the truth? You could be really successful if you would just be popular and have fun with everyone.

Gabrielle: I used to lay down in the grass. When I saw the world from that angle I could feel the secret of my heart that felt so much a part of what I saw; the littlest bugs on the single blade of grass…the patterns in the tree that seemed to repeat forever… the open sky that went forever into a mystery…and when clouds were above me I felt their suspension like a thought in my head. There, on the ground, I felt whole. I felt complete. I didn’t need anything else. Joy would fill my heart, peace honestly resided in me and I felt, well even if I weren’t in this world anymore it would be okay…but then when I would get up to go I could feel worry rising in my stomach and throat. I didn’t know how to articulate it then, I just felt it, but now I see that my body would lose its comfortableness and fear would tighten me up.

Scott: Fear kills us all.

Gabrielle: How can we live without it though? I’m finding secrets.

Scott: Do you think life is a secret and we have to figure it out?

Gabrielle: I think we are so covered up, from the beginning, with stuff others give us like the blue boy and the pink girl, that we can’t see the truth. What is it to just be a person? What if we didn’t live this way and we were really like babies who just look around, explore and discover what is without the need to label it all?

Scott: The worst is that the labels get handed down as if their presents. Like it’s gonna be okay now because we know what you are cause we gave you a label.

Gabrielle: People are afraid to see things for what they are. It’s scary to accept that life is all we know, that after life, what we call death is totally unknowable to us. The only real truth is that we don’t know. It’s a mystery, that’s all it is. We have all these ideas and we kill each other over them, and we don’t even know if they are true. We believe, but we don’t really think. We are handed beliefs to believe in but we don’t even take the time to think them through. We believe boys are blue and girls are pink, heaven is up there, the devil down there, doctor’s know best and everyone should get a good education, the enemy is out there, only men and women belong in marriage, the economy has to grow to be good, you must get a good job, drugs are bad, Prozac is good…

Scott: I could use some Prozac right now, maybe that would help.

Gabrielle: You, on Prozac, would be murder.

Scott: That’s okay.

Gabrielle: There are ways that things work. When we look deep enough into just really what’s there, nothing else, just what’s there, we might find how to live in the way life exists.

Scott: The natural laws of the universe…

Gabrielle: Where is greed in nature? Does it exist?

Scott: I dunno where?

Gabrielle: It doesn’t it seems to me. It all works together and there is room and enough for everything until it is time to go extinct.

Scott: When is it time to go extinct?

Gabrielle: When you are no longer useful, after aging has made you less able and whittled you down to just a breath; when the whole has no need for you, when you serve no purpose anymore. Or when something so big devours and destroys you, all of you, your whole species…(silence) kinda like my dad, he got fired today. He’s no longer needed. He is extinct to General Motors. The big storm came and destroyed it all.

Scott: The big storm was planned.

Gabrielle: I know, I see that secret now too. They set everyone up with easy money, easy houses, easy purchase, easy credit, easy luxuries that made everyone feel so good and so happy with all their stuff, and then they took it all away.

Scott: But they got to keep theirs and even get more of ours. They stole our property and kept theirs. Sorry bout your dad.

Gabrielle: He’s so mad; he’s finally seeing a different view. He knows exactly how it happened. They bailed out the big boys while the little guys are dead meat.

Scott: And so it goes…

Gabrielle: But no one is doing anything about it, no one is saying anything. I mean the Tea Party is but they are just fighting for one half of the system. They are just another party that divides us all. Why can’t we come together-we’d be so much stronger that way? Divided between Democrat and Republican we are fighting each other rather than the guys that really run the system.

Scott: People are afraid to see things like they are, just like you said. They can’t see that the two party system is a game used to distract us and keep us away from the bigger picture.

Gabrielle: I read about the Fed this week; it’s nothing but a front for the bankers. It’s amazing what they don’t teach us. We get the simple supply and demand econ 101 while the truth is that they are running a system that is rigged, hedged, leveraged and corrupt, and full of insider dealings. The small guy can never win in this system; all the advantages go to the ones with capital. We’re taught to live within our means but the system wants us to live big and borrow and stay in debt so they can continue to own us and take our property.

Scott: You sound like me now.

Gabrielle: No I did my own investigation. I may agree with you but I am speaking my own truth.

Scott: You are beautiful.

Gabrielle: You make me blush…you are too Scott.

Scott: Let’s go live on a mountain somewhere and get away from it all.

Gabrielle: There is no getting away from it all. (pause) We are interconnected; the rain falls everywhere the same, the air is planetary, the economy is global. We can’t escape.

Scott: I guess we can’t. Your dad is unemployed so are millions of others, but the banks are making record profits. My dad believes in the system enough to kill for it. Obama is keeping up the dirty work for the Bilderbergers; three wars, an economy that is killing the middle class, health care that will eliminate more individual rights and will cost a fortune in money and lives, maintaining the status quo for the death industries which pretend they are helping people-big pharma and Mansanto. And no matter if it were McCain they’re all the same underneath. And the TSA is growing into the army that will kill its own citizens and secure our nation when people revolt. Meanwhile my little paper of revolt which tells more truth than all the phony textbooks all together gets me an F and a wall of resistance with people trying to fix me. It’s all a big lie and no one wants to admit that.

Gabrielle: Lying has become the way of the world. The public knows that the government lies to us but they rationalize it. Only when they are directly hurt by it do they say something. Like my dad, now that he’s lost his job he’s freakin mad as hell; you should of heard him today, you would’ve been proud. But until he lost his job he defended the status quo lies. The only lie that got people riled up was Clinton getting his dick sucked. Why did he have to lie about that in the first place, who cares?

Scott: Exactly, who cares? In the end the sun will burn out and all life will perish, unless we kill it all first. Human beings will be a blip on the animal chart that no one will read and means nothing. We all end the same, back into carbon just as we started. So who fucking cares, were all gonna die.

Gabrielle: Well I hope that before it all ends people wake up and realize that if we want true peace and happiness all we need to do is share. Weren’t we taught that as children, sharing? We’ve got enough for everyone to live with plenty of food and shelter and safety. It’s idiotic that we aren’t living that way now.

Scott: Maybe one day people will evolve and stop acting like barbarians. But I know I won’t be here to see it. But you could be a force of change Gabrielle, you really could. You’re smart and beautiful and you could use your knowledge to make change.

Gabrielle: You too, we can do it together.

Scott: Naw, I’m gonna hole up somewhere and put my blinders on and tune it all out.

Gabrielle: Yeah right! You’ll be fighting for right till the end.

Scott: The end may stop me. I can’t change what has been done.

Gabrielle: Come here you trouble maker (grabs him over) make trouble for me (kisses him and they continue).

[LIGHTS FADE]

Scene 13

(in living rooms of Walker/Pence)

Frank: Hello, Mr. Pence?

Tom: Yes?

Frank: Frank Walker here, Scott Walker’s father.

Tom: Yes of course, how do you do?

Frank: Fine, thank you. May I talk with you a few minutes?

Tom: Yes, just let me turn the radio down (turns down NPR) Okay, how can I help you Mr. Walker?

Frank: I’m concerned about Scott. My son is not acting like himself these days. I know this is still a difficult time for him; he is taking more time than we thought to overcome his mother’s death…

Tom: Yes, I am very sorry for your loss.

Frank: Thank you. We just passed the first anniversary and I thought Scott would be able to move on and find some happiness again.

Tom: Grieving is an unpredictable process sometimes.

Frank: In any case, I wanted to get your view on Scott. I know you recently flunked Scott on his final; what exactly happened there?

Tom: Scott wrote a paper that did not cover the material we learned in class; therefore I gave him an F.

Frank: Why do you think Scott did that?

Tom: Scott seems angry these days. His anger probably stems from his loss, but I am beginning to feel his anger at his country and the world runs deep and for some justified reasons.

Frank: How do you mean?

Tom: Scott knows a lot Mr. Walker. I’m not sure how he does but you have a very well informed young man who is looking deeper into issues than the news we hear.

Frank: Scott has always been this way.

Tom: Well when you see and learn about what he knows it’s easy to get angry. Personally, in my own world, with the deep budget cuts at school, I get angry myself at times. Our economy is putting many of us on edge these days.

Frank: Yes we are taking salary cuts at my firm as well, and the folks in Washington aren’t talking common sense anymore but we need to turn this thing around and a little austerity is good for all of us.

Tom: Scott wrote about how all of this is planned and he challenged me to review what he wrote and not just disregard it because it is different from what we learned.

Frank: I’m sorry Mr. Pence, Scott can sometimes forget his place and…

Tom: No need to apologize Mr. Walker. Your son is a smart student. I listen to my students especially when they’re smart. Its part of what I love about teaching and I’ve learned that young people do not always carry formalities.

Frank: Scott ought to be more polite.

Tom: Scott is polite Mr. Walker, aside from a bit of angry swearing. What I’m trying to say is Scott has got me interested in his way of viewing things in the world and in my research I see he is accurate with his facts. I may not interpret things the way Scott does but he is writing seriously about my subject and he is bringing certain facts of history into light when they have been discreetly hidden. I’m not sure how he got to all this but once I started looking its easy to find.

Frank: Scott never liked it that I kept military secrets to myself. He could never understand there are good reasons to do so to protect your family and your country. So Scott started trying to find out information on his own many years ago, and his mother home schooled him and she let him learn whatever he wanted.

Tom: That explains a lot.

Frank: I sometimes wonder if we made a mistake letting Scott try school. It has only made him more defensive and rigid. What used to be fun is now a chore. I used to take Scott to the library in fifth grade and he would drill the librarian to find books about what he wanted; hell even she liked his curiosity. And we allowed him to use the internet freely as long as we could see where he was going.

Tom: You’ve raised a smart and independent son.

Frank: I always wanted Scott to be independent. I’ve seen too much in my life that is not what we think it is and I wanted Scott to be aware of how things work. I always thought he’d follow me into engineering but he seems to have no interest and now he wants to quit school.

Tom: What?

Frank: Yes, he’s talked to his counselor already and he told me last night.

Tom: That would be a huge mistake.

Frank: Yes it would, that’s why I’m calling you. Is there anything you might do to persuade Scott to stick it out?

Tom: I don’t know…Scott has a strong mind. I’m not sure if changing his grade will make a difference…

Frank: Oh no don’t change his grade, I don’t want a handout, Scott has to be responsible for his actions. I just want you…

Tom: Mr. Walker I’ve already decided to change his grade; I made that decision yesterday. He is passing, and he deserves to. I should have talked to him before I ever graded his paper, that might have avoided all of this. It’s just not the norm to…

Frank: Mr. Pence Scott has had a rough year; it has been escalating more and more. This incident is only a part of it. You do what you feel is right, I do not want to interfere; it’s between you and Scott. I have always let Scott live his own life unless he really needs me. What I am really asking is whether you think talking to him will help and if so, I would greatly appreciate it. If I can get Scott through the next half year I am sure he will come out looking forward to college.

Tom: I will do what I can. I have a meeting scheduled with Scott and I will talk with him then when I tell him I am changing his grade. I can let you know how it goes.

Frank: Please do, and please do not let Scott know I’ve called you.

Tom: Why not?

Frank: I don’t want Scott to feel I’m interfering.

Tom: He’s your son, isn’t that okay?

Frank: Yes but it may cause more harm than good for him to know.

Tom: Mr. Walker, in all due respect sir, I believe this is exactly what Scott gets angry about; secrets, and lies. He sees no reason not to be told the truth.

Frank: Well part of maturing is understanding that harming others unnecessarily is unwarranted.

Tom: Scott would say that more harm is done by deceiving.

Frank: Well what do you think Mr. Pence?

Tom: I think this is a complicated matter sir. These are questions we must all answer for ourselves. If you want me to not say that we spoke I will honor that.

Frank: Thank you, I think it best. I appreciate your time Mr. Pence. If you can help Scott, that’s all I’m asking.

Tom: I want to help Scott; I will see how it goes.

Frank: Thank you again. Goodbye.

Tom: Goodbye…(hangs up phone and stares into it and then into space)

[LIGHTS FADE]

SCENE 14

(in the Pence’s living room)

Tom: Holy shit. (silence)

Whitney: I don’t understand how it happened….it wasn’t that time. I wasn’t fertile I know I wasn’t.

Tom: Maybe you were fertile twice last month I don’t know.

Whitney: Actually there’s a doctor researching that idea.

Tom: What?

Whitney: That women can be fertile twice a month.

Tom: How?

Whitney: He thinks that the lunar cycle you are born into stays with you throughout your life.

Tom: Like astrology?

Whitney: Yeah kind of. If you are born under a full moon, or a crescent moon or whatever, you will be fertile at that time whether it falls into your monthly cycle or not.

Tom: That’s a bit far-fetched.

Whitney: Seems so, but how can you explain all the pregnancies like this one that clearly seem out of the blue?

Tom: Are you sure you were charting accurately?

Whitney: I’ve been doing this for twelve years and successfully except the one time. I know my fluids, I know my body, I know when I’m ovulating, my temperature follows a consistent pattern each month…fuck(explodes impulsively)! How did this happen?

Tom: Not the best timing uh?

Whitney: How could we possibly afford another child?

Tom: Well one of us was going to be home anyway to home school Debby, maybe it could just be you.

Whitney: How could I home school Debby and nurse, change diapers and do everything else?

Tom: You could.

Whitney: I’m not ready for that emotionally. Nor physically. Hell I just stopped nursing Debby a year ago.

Tom: Well there’s no way I could do both.

Whitney: Not unless I pumped milk from the beginning.

Tom: Is that fair to the new child?

Whitney: Is it fair to me or us to rearrange our lives?! God what am I saying? I didn’t mean that.

Tom: I know but I was thinking the same awful thought.

Whitney: How is it that life comes down to this?

Tom: Sex brings babies.

Whitney: But why do the economics decide what we do? Or at least is the major concern…

Tom: We’ve created a god that must be prayed to and obedient to in order to get benevolence.

Whitney: It’s sick. It seems that way. If our economy isn’t growing its like life can’t be happy and keep going.

Tom: The sick part is that it has to be a dead end street. It is impossible to have an economy grow endlessly. Common sense tells you it would deplete all resources.

Whitney: We can’t just keep growing babies either.

Tom: That’s what the Bilderberg plans to depopulate are about. You wouldn’t abort would you?

Whitney: Do we want to take this on?

Tom: I love you; I’ll do whatever it takes.

Whitney: But do you want to?

Tom: I know this wasn’t our plan, but here we are.

Whitney: I can try home remedies to end it.

Tom: What do you mean?

Whitney: There are natural ways to interfere and stop the pregnancy.

Tom: How?

Whitney: Different herbs, mega-doses of vitamin C…

Tom: Vitamin C? I thought that was for flu prevention not…

Whitney: If you are diligent in the first few days you can cause a miscarriage sometimes.

Tom: How do you know about this?

Whitney: I also do my research (teasing) and I use the web. Most OB/GYN’s are boxed in in what they do. Like most doctors they do well at what they know but they don’t get a well rounded education.

Tom: Specialization has made us ignorant. That was a warning Quigley makes at the end of his book.

Whitney: Doctors seem to focus more on controlling a woman’s body then learning from it.

Tom: Well do you wanna try it, is it safe?

Whitney: Some of the herbs are riskier than others. You need constant awareness of your body when taking them to notice adverse effects immediately. The vitamin C is the safest. The worst side effects are terrible diarrhea and stomach ache.

Tom: Does it really work?

Whitney: I’ve read about many women who have done it successfully.

Tom: Is that what you want?

Whitney: I wanna be rich so I have other choices.

Tom: In the end rich or poor are just outer conditions.

Whitney: I know but it sure would make life easier.

Tom: Maybe. Maybe not.

Whitney: How not?

Tom: Once you have more money and more stuff you need to keep it and to keep it you have to maintain it and make it secure-all of which takes more time and energy and responsibility.

Whitney: So you hire more people.

Tom: More responsibility.

Whitney: Well hiring a nanny or two would help.

Tom: Give them to more strangers?

Whitney: A good nanny becomes part of the family.

Tom: What about mom and dad?

Whitney: Yeah I know I’m just teasing. We need another lifestyle to really be available and present for our children.

Tom: Hell I can hardly find enough time for all my students even.

Whitney: You invest too much for this system; you have too many students to give time to.

Tom: But they need it just like Debby, they need real attention.

Whitney: How is Scott doing?

Tom: I’m meeting with him today.

Whitney: What did you decide?

Tom: I’m giving him an A.

Whitney: Wow, really, why such a change?

Tom: Because he was right.

Whitney: About what?

Tom: About his information in his paper. It’s another way of interpreting history but it is accurate.

Whitney: Really? So he really knows what he’s talking about?

Tom: Listen, anyone who can paraphrase Quigley and at such a young age knows what they’re talking about. It’s not by accident he was President Clinton’s mentor in college. His alma mater is Harvard, and he taught there and Princeton and Georgetown. He was even a consultant to the Department of Defense.

Whitney: Why doesn’t everybody read him then, why don’t we teach his work in schools?

Tom: What he wrote is anathema to most historians who have a conservative bent. Quigley was actually in accord with the secret society he wrote about, was a part of the network and felt too that the masses should be ruled by the elite. But he wanted it out in the open, not secret.

Whitney: Textbook publishers are beholden to profits like everyone else.

Tom: Like the Texas Board of Education?

Whitney: Exactly.

Tom: So they want to sell books and the Board of Ed says this is the kind of book we want and …

Whitney: Then we get a conservative text of history, politics and economy rather than the facts, just because there are more Republicans on the board and they feel the curriculum is too far on the Left.

Tom: History is written by the victors as Churchill said, and the victors always have the most capital.

Whitney: What about you, can you use his writing to teach with?

Tom: It would make eyes roll and probably get me fired. But I can grade Scott’s paper based on it and validate his sense of individualism which is in fact the bedrock of this country.

Whitney: Good for you, I admire that. You’re actually learning from your student.

Tom: Scott is unlike any student I’ve ever had; he has taught me a lot. I would be proud if Debby were to follow his footsteps.

Whitney: Debby is already independent and that’s part of her “problem” in school. Let’s talk more tonight, Gotta run, work calls. Slave to the economy that I am, I must leave you (teasing). Bye my love (kisses him)

Tom: (kisses her) Bye sweetheart, see you tonight.

Scene 15

(in classroom Tom at computer waiting for Scott to arrive)

(SILENCE)

(Tom looks at watch, and stares out into space)

(SILENCE)

(Tom checks his cell phone)

(SILENCE)

(restless, Tom starts to clean his computer screen)

(SILENCE)

(Scott does not show up)

[LIGHTS FADE SLOWLY AS TOM SITS AND STARES OUT IN UNEASE]

Scene 16

(Scott’s funeral)

Father Joe: Scott Walker was a child of God and like all of God’s children had to find his way on this earth. For some of God’s children this is not an easy pilgrimage. For us left behind, we feel the utter incomprehensibleness of an act that creates such a hole in our lives: a loss beyond words. But the spirit of God is yet with us, in us, and is the guiding force that will allow us to forgive, accept, and move forward.

Scott had an independence about him that gave him strength of character even while it often separated him from others. When Scott lost his mother, not so long ago, God was testing him. God does indeed work in strange ways. We cannot know his ways we can only submit. Scott kept a vibrant spirit and harbored no ill will towards God. Scott sorted through his questions with integrity and the searching of a true soldier of God.

In the end Scott took his life for his own reasons. Let us not judge nor condemn an act we cannot understand. Let us pray to the Almighty for peace in our hearts to allow time for healing; in time we find healing. In keeping the fire of love in our hearts we will walk the path of Jesus. In Jesus Christ we find the answers to our earthly condition; Jesus is the way.

Dearly beloved, walk hand in hand through these troubling times; remember to forgive as you struggle through your daily duties without Scott. Stop and breathe and bring God into your hearts. Pressure youselves not. Go slow. Take time. Do the things that make you happy. Sitting in pain is like locking yourself in a straight-jacket. Get out, see a movie, watch a game, be with others, even as it is difficult. Know that you are not alone. Seek counsel with the angels of God, bring them into your hearts; they are everywhere and filled with light.

Scott Walker was a good son, a fine student, a friend who shared his love. May he rest in peace. Amen.

[BLACK OUT]

THE END

A Violent Beginning

2011-09-11T12:12:00.000-07:00

My son’s first movie

I took my son to the big screen for the first time the first day of the 2004. Jordan is two and a half now and I felt confident that he would enjoy the experience and be able to stay with it for a reasonable amount of time. I didn’t expect him to sit for two hours. But under three is free and my admission was six dollars for the afternoon matinee of Peter Pan. Why not, Peter Pan is a lovely children’s story which would make a wonderful first movie.

On the drive over we listened to an audio tape of the Disney film ALLADIN that was given to him in Michigan over the holidays by Anna, who had given him a haircut and thought he was so well behaved. She wanted to give him a cookie for his reward but I talked her out of that and didn’t bother to explain that he doesn’t eat refined sugar. Some days I think I could simply let the world feed him and save much money by taking him on my errands and actually allowing him to accept what is offered: a lollipop at the gas station, a candy cane from the bank, a soda from the neighbor, and various other goodies from other good-hearted people who are doing something nice. How ungracious would it be to tell them that their kindness is actually very harmful especially for such a young body that needs all the help it can to grow strong and healthy? For two years now I’ve just taken the offering and said thank you and then find a way to avoid letting Jordan get it. But Jordan is getting big enough now to know exactly what is going on and I fear I am going to have to be more direct with these nice people and feel their unsettledness when I graciously decline their sweets.

But I am digressing. Back in the car, listening to ALLADIN, I find suddenly that there is much violence on this tape that I had forgotten about in the movie. Forgotten is not really accurate, I hadn’t even noticed because I didn’t have a child when I first saw it and like most people it wasn’t an issue.

But now, listening with Jordan I realized he was being exposed to violence in a way he never had. My wife and I have been watchful to delay his exposure to violence until as late as possible in his growing. Knowing it is inevitable in our violence-crazed culture, we hope to let his brain develop as much as possible before we give it images of violence to take in and process. I believe if his brain is developed to appoint where we can talk intelligently together about the violence he will see for the first time, I will better educate him regarding the utter dehumanizing consequences of violence. It is shown that young infant brains take in learning without any questions or filters and accept things as is. Once the personality is formed with the older brain it is a different process. In fact it is easier for an infant to learn to read than a three year old for this very same reason. Fortunately we have been able to keep his infant brain from violent images.

Surprised at the violence of ALLADIN, we stroll into Peter Pan. How excited Jordan was to enter the dark theater exclaiming “dark in here, dark in here!” As he sat on my lap and was dazzled by Tinkerbelle’s flying and sound effects he would turn back to flash his big smile to me. Both checking that I am still there and enjoying the experience together by sharing his reaction with mine. Much to my surprise the first image of Captain Hook’s ship is filled with gun fire. It spirals down from there into full out violence from all.

What struck me is, why must everything in our culture be defined through the dualistic prism of good guy/bad guy? What would change if we exposed children to the good in every person, giving them learning that all people have good inside? The dualistic good vs. evil is a primer for later development of judging and condemnation. What would one world with all kinds of different people, all doing the best they can at any given moment look like to a child? Rather than, you are good but there are bad guys and you must kill them before they kill you.

I want my son to be non-violent in action. I want him to know it is never right to do violence to another, not even in self-defense. I want him to learn of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and Buddha. I would like him also to know of Jesus of Nazareth but so many wars have been fought in his name and justified by God that I will explain that one later.

It is clear to me that if a child is not exposed to violence he will not know violence. Therefore, he cannot be violent. Those impulses he has to bang or strike out are so easily marshaled in and controlled even at his age. Jordan is already capable of certain self-control, in spite of his fantastic energy of exploration and learning that often appears out of control.

But how to keep him from being exposed to violence? He has never watched the violence of cartoons because he hasn’t been exposed to them. He spends his time engaged actively in life not passively in front of the TV. He has no toy guns although he has seen them from his cousins, girls, who like to shoot each other and others all summer long from their squirt guns that look like AK-47’s. He didn’t know what they were or how to shoot them when exposed at two years old. He hasn’t seen guns since, except for a group of four year olds playing with toy guns in the park one day in the fall.

He hasn’t witnessed violence except for the hitting and fighting he has seen other children do with each other. And he sure picked that up like a sponge. But with some firm explanation of my dislike of hitting others he quickly dropped it.

It is nearly impossible to keep a young child unexposed to violence in our culture. How much of this exposure, so early imprinted on their impressionable brains is responsible for violence committed late in life? Why not show a different image from the start rather than trying to undue it later with all the conflict/resolution so popular in schools today?

LET'S GO PLAY! by Celina Ruhala

2011-09-11T12:08:00.000-07:00

Hey let’s go play, let’s find my toys

You know, the ones that are made for boys

Certainly not any dresses or dolls

And definitely no pink ponies in stalls

Boys need tanks and soldiers and trucks

Pistols, rifles - you better duck

‘Cause one shoots water and I’ve got good aim

I’ve had a lot of practice playing this game

When I‘m not playing shoot-em-up I watch a lot of cartoons

The really really good ones come on around noon

You know Jimmy Neutron and Dexter’s Laboratory

I love the ones that are really gory

Could you guess that I’m only two

And my eyes are stuck to the television like glue

You can barely tear me away. Is it any wonder

That I hardly flinch when it starts to thunder

I’m so engrossed with the images on the screen

That I don’t care about nature and this world that’s so green

Hey, I wonder if my parents realize

That my brain is numbing and not growing in size

That every time I watch TV

The little neurons in my brain flee

And along with them goes my imagination

Well, I’ll be ready for my first Play Station

Surely me demeanor will quickly decline

You better hurry. You’re running out of time

To save me from a life of violence

Who will stand up and break the silence

Or will my mom and dad be just one of the crowd

Soon they’ll be wearing a black shroud

To mourn the death of their son, or daughter

Who’s become the victim of the next school slaughter

It’s a sorrow to see my young mind swayed

To hatred. Please do not delay

This so called great nation

Needs to save the next generation

And all the rest yet to come

From wars, terrorists and guns

Lead me, your child, with active care

And don’t give in to the eyes-glazed stare

Tumble & tickle & dance & shout

And for heaven’s sake, take me out

Explore the trees and birds and bugs

Give me many, many hugs

Teach me to be strong and proud

To stand up for what I believe and shout it loud

Please don’t be deaf and blind

To how the media undermines

The truth of how life should be

Full of love and unity

A 30 Minute Scene - An Artist's Nightmare

2010-09-01T06:38:00.000-07:00

AN ARTIST'S NIGHTMARE:

A professional theatre artist returns to the small town

A new playlet by Mark Ruhala

Setting:

A trendy upper-middle class kitchen in a small town, circa 2010

Characters:

Janet (1) & Marybeth (2), sisters, 30-somethings, small town residents

[As the curtain rises it should feel like we catch the middle of conversation between two women gossiping. Janet (1) throughout the scene makes coffee and prepares some nuts & raisins, and some apples & cheese. Both sisters enjoy the food and drink while they sit and discuss the protagonist who is never seen.]

1: Well why did he return here to this small town?

2: Like the prodigal son, it was time to return home.

1: But why, was he not happy in the big city?

2: I think he was ready to move on. His life was changing.

1: Or did he have something he was running from? Why would anyone return to our little town after having experienced the jet-setting life? Except maybe to escape something.

2: If he was escaping anything, it was the grandiosity of one of the wealthiest suburbs in the country.

1: But he was making good money, right?

2: A six figure salary, complete with benefits, a job in the company for his wife, and thirteen weeks paid vacation. The only thing he lacked was a 401k. Yet he owned his own performing arts center.

1: Again I ask you, why did he return?

2: Listen after more than a quarter century in the big pond, he was ready for a change. He had done what he wanted in show business…then he started a business…

1: He was on Broadway by twenty I heard.

2: Yes he had a very successful performing career, touring the world, working with stars, celebrities, Tony -award winning actors, directors and choreographers, and able to move through TV, film, Broadway, cabaret, ballet, video…

1: So why did he return?

2: He grew tired of the “business” of show long before he returned. He exited a very successful career which was short lived, especially when you consider he was out for two years with a knee injury.

1: Yes he even came back here to have one of his four surgeries. We were scoped by the same legendary knee doctor here in town. He was the one who finally fixed his knee I think.

2: Yes it was his last hope to dance again and his knee doctors in the big city sent him here because they knew how legendary our good doctor was. But even though he got his knee fixed he bad mouths western medicine, only seeing the side effects and not the cures.

1: That’s what I don’t understand. He seems to lose touch with the great things our society offers, while he stubbornly remains countercultural. Although I too have had enough of doctors sometimes.

2: After four surgeries and two years to think about it he realized that he had had many unnecessary procedures, performed by expert doctors who only could relate to his knee. As he discovered alternative ways to heal and repair he simply chose less intrusive and more holistic ways to deal with his health. He…

1: What, does he think eating organic foods is going to help his knee? I hear he even teaches about organics.

2: He reads voraciously and he is an autodidact. He has his life experience behind him and he realized that every choice he makes effects the entirety of his being.

1: Did tofu make his knees better?

2: Actually he stays away from most soy.

1: And why is that?

2: Soy can cause over production of estrogen and can cause cancer.

1: Give me a break. How does he know? Does he think he knows better than experts?

2: He reads a lot. He always has. And he finds the most obscure books and researches his doubts.

1: But he never even went to college! He barely got through high school for God’s sake! Right? You told me that.

2: Einstein struggled in school too.

1: Oh now he’s an Einstein.

2: No, far from it. But he is well read and he does know that history is written by the victors of the latest war, and education itself is manipulated to serve the elite. Truth is hard to come by. He thinks for himself.

1: He sounds very eccentric.

2: He is as far out there as anyone I know.

1: And you want to go into business with him?

2: And why not?

1: Okay. So why did he leave performing in the first place?

2: When he realized he didn’t fit into the politics of show business he left.

1: What did he do?

2: He worked in a four star French restaurant.

1: Really. Why? Did he like it?

2: He likes almost everything he does, as long as it’s his choice. Which it has been since he left here at eighteen. He lives on his own terms.

1: So what did he like about a French restaurant?

2: He met more worldly people, he experienced gourmet French cuisine and he made good money. But mostly he liked being out of show business.

1: Why? Wouldn’t he rather be on Broadway than serving Bordeaux?

2: He felt that he had to sell out, kiss ass and be what Broadway wanted him to be. After years of feeling like a whore he decided to put his money where his mouth was and get out.

1: Unbelievable! What does the guy believe in?

2: Well he went on to create a school, as I was about to tell you earlier.

1: I thought he didn’t do well in school. Actually, you said he hated it.

2: He did hate it. But he’s always believed, to answer your question, that the only way to help people change is to educate them.

1: Yet he criticizes schools and the way they educate.

2: Schools are conformist factories to him. He sees his students rarely working to their potential.

1: Well I always felt too that my kids weren’t learning at their potential.

2: Un-huh…

1: So he decided to make his own school within his performing arts center?

2: Yes now he’s on his second one. And he teaches independent thinking skills.

1: So he must really like it. What happened to the first one?

2: It’s still going strong. They’re celebrating their twentieth anniversary this year.

1: So why did he leave, if it was so successful?

2: When he left he had been directing it for thirteen years. It was time for something new.

1: Oh c’mon, you don’t leave a company you start, making good money with all those benefits just to do something new?

2: Well by that time the school was a not-for-profit organization and he had to work with his board of directors. And let’s just say they didn’t meet eye to eye.

1: I can imagine! Who does see eye to eye with him? I heard he took advantage of the girls he taught. Maybe the board found out.

2: Hardly…actually it goes back to your second question. He was disgusted at the inexplicable sense of entitlement his wealthy students and families demanded.

1: Like what?

2: Well when you teach the children of celebrities, high powered Wall Street executives and other wealthy VIP’s you are working with people who are used to having things their way.

1: So how did he get to teach those people in the first place?

2: Because he’s good.

1: But aren’t there lots of good teachers like that in the big city?

2: Yes but not like him.

1: What do you mean? What makes him different, Besides being critical of main stream thinking?

2: He was trained as a triple threat. He is equally adept at teaching singing, acting and dance. He also teaches like an old school mentor - he demands excellence from his students and holds them accountable.

1: Sounds like a good fit for the wealthy elite.

2: Until they had to deal with race and class.

1: How so?

2: He was inclusive in the school; the board was only paying lip service. Once they had to actually show their inclusiveness they acted with prejudice.

1: So he left because of that?

2: That was heart breaking for him. And when they pushed their agenda of artistic choices on him he resisted.

1: Why? Couldn’t he work with them? Maybe educate them if that’s what he believes in?

2: Patience is not his strong suit. He has little tolerance for ignorance. And when they asked him to add lines to a play to keep a student happy he could not stay. He knew the chasm was too wide to bridge. He gave them his school.

1: After thirteen years he just gave it to them.

2: Yup.

1: He just resigned.

2: Yup.

1: He let them do it their way.

2: Yup.

1: And it’s still going strong after twenty years.

2: Yup.

(PAUSE)

1: So why did he return here?

2: He and his wife talked it over and they decided to start a new center in big city again.

1: So why did he return here?

2: Two days after resigning from the center there he got a call from his father.

1: His father wanted him to come home?

2: No his father informed him he had stage four lung cancer.

1: So that’s what brought him back here.

2: Yes and when he told his dad he was moving back home, his dad tried to persuade him not to.

1: I guess he should’ve listened to his dad.

2: He always had to learn things for himself.

1: Hard headed?

2: You bet.

1: Sounds like he was a loyal son.

2: He loved his dad.

1: But to move back across country and uproot his family.

2: He was ready for a change.

1: Did his dad live long?

2: Six more months.

1: Not much time.

2: Time enough for him to move back and help nurse him for three months.

1: Nurse him? Why?

2: Well his dad was somewhat radical himself.

1: How so?

2. He too sought out alternative medicine for his cancer treatments and wouldn’t take chemo.

1. I heard he was also an Aids counselor.

2: He was a highly regarded professor of social work at the university, and a principled man who spent years in service to the community. Although he took unpopular positions as well.

1: Like what?

2: Well he too almost didn’t graduate from college because he refused to sign McCarthy’s US Loyalty Oath which he considered un-American and had to instead spend two years in the army to get his degree.

1: I guess he is a lot like his father was.

2: In those ways yes.

1: It must’ve been hard to lose his father.

2: Yes, but his participation in his father’s Hospice care helped him have closure and finality.

1: Was his father’s Hospice care in the hospital?

2: No his father wanted to die at home.

1: How did he help his dad?

2: He and his wife and son moved in with his folks and he helped to the very end.

1: His father died at home?

2: Yes, he found his father dead early one November morning.

1: Meanwhile he was starting his school?

2: Yes it was a very intense time. On top of this his wife was surprised to discover she was pregnant the first week of their return.

1: A new child coming while his father was passing.

2: His wife impulsively named their son after his father.

1: Why impulsively, didn’t they talk about it?

2: The birth was three weeks early and they had a natural home birth so they didn’t know the sex of the child. When the baby boy appeared, in their hot tub, she named him right there.

1: Sounds like they had a full plate.

2: And yet one of the patriarchs of theater in this town criticized him that first year for not being at other local theaters!

1: Did he set him straight?

2: No, he’s still gay!... but he did explain his extenuating circumstances.

1: How did he manage to do all of this? I mean he relocated, created a performing arts center, nursed his dad while dying and took care of his pregnant wife and his three year old son.

2: He comes from a large family and they are all close and they all help each other.

1: They helped him with the center too?

2: He could never have done it without them.

1: So why didn’t he expand the center and create the dream he wanted of a large consortium of the healing and performing arts in a bigger complex? Isn’t that what he wanted?

2: Well you know this town as well as I do.

1: So why did he return?

2: Naiveté.

1: He really thought he could build it here?

2: Naiveté.

1: Didn’t he know he’d face small town mentality?

2: Naiveté.

1: Did he really try? I mean did he reach out and try to connect with the community? Seems like had he really tried, that the theatre community would love to have a person with his success and experience here to work with and learn from.

2: Perhaps they were intimidated.

1: Did he offer to work with them and collaborate?

2: He offered a lot. He wrote to every school in the area and offered to work with them.

1: What happened?

2: Not one responded.

1: Did he try the local theatres?

2: He spoke with all the local theater directors.

1: What happened?

2: Only the university director, himself from the big city, collaborated with him.

1: What did the others say?

2: One now defunct professional theater said they would collaborate, but then didn’t return his calls afterwards.

1. I know that one – seems all too common today.

2. The other professional theater directors blew him off. And then both of those theatres copied his programs and began to offer the same kind of summer camps and theater classes with their own people, actually creating competition.

1: No kidding.

2: No kidding. He thought they would be a perfect match to partner because they dealt mostly with older people and he dealt mostly with younger people.

1: Makes sense. Pool the resources and both organizations benefit - fewer expenses, expanded audiences. Then farm the younger performers into the established theatres.

2: Makes sense. Actually they are starting to do this now, just not with him.

1: Nice. What about the community theaters?

2: One community theater director started to become friends with him. He does edgy plays and musicals, often with homosexual themes, pushing the envelope himself.

1: What happened? Sounds like a good fit?

2: Well when he had the director over to his house for coffee one afternoon he expressed his idea to merge organizations and partner up with space and resources yet leaving each organization as a separate entity. They both loved the idea. The director said he would talk to his executive director and board and get back to him.

1: I don’t imagine it ever happened. I don’t recall this partnership.

2: He never heard back from the director again.

1: You mean the director just dropped it?

2: Yup.

1: He just left him hanging?

2: Yup.

1: Not very nice.

2: Nope.

1: Small town mentality.

2: From the moment he began, he faced it.

1: I’m not surprised, only surprised he didn’t anticipate it.

2: Yup.

1: Didn’t his dance teacher also face the same mentality when he returned here in the seventies and eighties after a thirty year career to take care of his mother?

2: Yup.

1: So why didn’t he anticipate this?

2: Naiveté. Hard headed… Stubborn.

1: Yup.

2: His first Open House at the center should have been a warning.

1: Why?

2: There was a local woman in the audience who went off on a rant about how he was beginning a cult here. She took a quote from his spiritual teacher’s website and completely took it out of context and used it to make her point and then spread poison.

1: I see, ok, I think I’m getting it…I remember when he first came to town…

2: Un-huh…

1: A prominent dance teacher’s family here in town bad mouthed his reputation remember, because he didn’t have a teaching degree in dance. Telling his students they shouldn’t study with him.

2: Uh-huh…

1: And a local voice teacher who told his students that they shouldn’t study with him because he had no certification in vocal training.

2: Yup.

1: Completely ignoring his real world experience and success.

2: Yup.

1: Only giving credit to academic experience.

2: Completely ignoring that he was taught by some of the best world class teachers here and abroad.

1: Yup. Well if it’s any consolation, this is going on everywhere. The universities are an elite club with ties to every industry. And their endowments are littered with the money elite’s agendas as well as their donations.

2: Isn’t it a way to dominate and control society from behind the scenes?

1: Yup.

2: Isn’t it further conformist structure and pressure?

1: Yup.

2: And isn’t it anti-art in its squelching the independent thought and action of the individual?

1: Yup. It creates a cookie cutter approach so that each performer now must pass through the state controlled and constructed curriculum to be an “accredited” artist.

2: But do these folks understand that art is self-expression and the more unique our “selves” are, the richer our expression and art is?

1: Nope.

(PAUSE)

1: So why did he return here?

2: Why did he?

1: But wouldn’t it be the same anywhere?

2: To a degree yes.

1: But I suppose the big cities are a bit more open minded and sophisticated.

2: It does seem easier to pave your own way there.

1: But globalization is homogenizing everything.

2: Yup

(PAUSE)

1: So how has he managed to stay here and work?

2. His work is good, and he knows that art is transformational. And I know I can help him transform his business.

1. Okay. But how does he survive in this economy?

2: Well the first few years he was a novelty – “the guy from the big city”.

1. And everyone came out to try it right?

2. Right. But most didn’t understand the “seriousness” and the work ethic he demanded.

1. Does he still demand it?

2. No, eventually he caved in to survive. Right from the beginning actually, people didn’t get his demand for attendance.

1. What!? How can you not understand attendance is a must for good work.

2. Small town mentality. They wanted to be able to do their high school musical.

1. He wouldn’t let them?

2. He was totally fine about it. The problem was the students had already committed and registered for his program long before they brought this up.

1. And now he accepts poor attendance?

2. What else can he do?

1. Doesn’t that create mediocrity?

2. Uh-huh…

1. So how does he survive?

2. His frustration, or his work?...He’s good, he’s adapted.

1. So there must be people who believe in his work.

2. Many – and many of them have found ways to get his work known. He does work out in the community thanks to them.

1. Like who?

2. Ironically the Catholic schools love his work.

1. Good Lord in Heaven!

2. He’s also got a great musical director and tech director he’s created long lasting relationships with.

1. And you said he worked for the university?

2. He’s had fruitful collaborations, again with the big city artists who teach in the theater and vocal departments.

1. Not dance?

2. Not dance.

1. As experienced as he is…

2. As experienced as he is…

1. Art councils?

2. Only in the big cities, where they used him often to be a guest artist in residency and to adjudicate grants, even for the federal government.

1. Ironic…he can work for the federal government but his work isn’t accepted here.

2. Ironic…the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts collaborates with him.

(Pause)

1: What about the media?

2: Nowhere to be found.

1: C’mon. They must give him press.

2: Nope.

1: One of the most experienced professionals in town and they just ignore him.

2: Yup.

1: C’mon. I see stuff all the time about theater in the papers. Especially that weekly paper.

2: Yes but do you see the center mentioned?

1: Now that I think about it - almost never.

2: Do they preview his shows?

1: Nope.

2: Do they review his shows?

1: Nope

2: And does the weekly paper include his center in their local theatre awards?

1: Nope. Well actually yes he did win an award for best choreography a couple of years ago didn’t he?

2: Yup it was the one time he was asked to choreograph for another local show.

1: But not for his own shows?

2: Nope.

1: How ridiculous. What is their reasoning?

2: Which day?

1: What do you mean?

2: Well there is no consistency to what they say.

1: Really?

2: One day it’s because he has a school with paying students.

1: Aren’t the colleges schools with paying students also?

2: Yup. But they’re included. Another day it’s because the performers are too young.

1: But kids get reviews in other community theatre shows.

2: Yup and sometimes the same kids.

1: And doesn’t he work with adults also?

2: In almost every production, and his actors have actually won awards, but when they performed for other theater groups.

1: How come they don’t know he has adults in his productions?

2: They don’t come see his shows.

1: Never?

2: The weekly paper has not been in many years. Ironically the A&E director did come to two shows in the early years and gave them rave reviews.

1: What the hell? Has he talked to the publisher?

2: Many times to no avail. He even sent a letter signed by fifty local families asking the paper to include the center in its coverage just like the other community theatres get.

1: And?

2: The publisher refused to publish it, threatening to bring up the demand for coverage through advertising in the publisher’s paper

1: You mean he advertised his center in that paper only to be covered?

2: So the publisher says. But it doesn’t hold water.

1: But doesn’t that paper have all kinds of partnerships with other local businesses and theatre folks already, anyway?

2: Yup.

1: I suppose no one cares.

2: Fits right in with the mentality doesn’t it?

1: Has he asked for support?

2: Just recently he asked all the local theater directors for support. A local director had emailed him about marketing the center at the theater awards, even though his work is excluded.

1: How absurd is that?

2: So he asked the theater folks in the email to support the center and ask the paper to include them or to share their thoughts about how they felt about the center being discriminated against.

1: Nothing. Right?

2: Nothing.

1: Not one reply?

2: Not one reply.

1. Well small town politics.

2. And an incestuous club.

1. Really.

2. Judges, actors, reviewers, all intertwined in a network like a good ‘ol boys club.

1: But you told me earlier that a local author wrote to the paper in support of his center?

2: Yup. Didn’t get published.

1: No?

2: The publisher’s reasoning was that she was a nobody, and has no relevance to this town.

1: Isn’t she also a nationally renowned author of books, and writes for a major metropolitan newspaper in the capitol of this country?

2: Yup. But the publisher of our little weekly had no respect for her employer saying it was a joke – owned by a high profile reverend who buys journalists paid for by his groupies!

1. Ouch!

2. That’s exactly what she said.

1: What about the other paper?

2. Oh, our “big city” paper? They ignore him too.

1. I guess there’s some kind of cohesion to his exclusion. No wonder he is so critical. They deserve it don’t they?

2. Yes, it’s just absurd. And maybe its happening everywhere and not just in our small town.

1. And from what I understand the judges of these paper’s theater awards have mostly little if any real professional theater or dance experience.

2. Yet they have the responsibility of critiquing the professionals.

1. Kinda like the high school coach judging the professionals.

2. Worse even. One of his students became a judge and was in charge of critiquing local shows. Imagine if he was included.

1. The student judging the professional…what are we coming to? They do the same thing in colleges now – the student’s evaluations of their professors now affect the professors employment.

2. Absurd isn’t it?

1. Mediocrity abounds.

2. When he first met the journalist of the big paper, he did his homework…

1. Sounds like he always does.

2. And he knew the journalist had no experience in his field. So he asked her what made her think she had enough knowledge to critique his work.

1. Did she reply?

2. Only that she had her own opinions, that she had seen some theater and that she was interested in learning.

1. Not very convincing.

2. But like many of the others, they have become friendly even though he feels slighted by them.

1. I’m surprised he doesn’t scream at the top of his lungs to be heard.

2. He rises above. The other long standing theater guy at the paper wouldn’t even include the center in the season previews of local theater.

1. Do they not even consider the fact that he produces theater all year round.

2. They don’t really know how to label his work so it seems they simply leave it out.

1. What’s so hard about labeling his work?

2. He produces ensemble repertory work. No one else does in town. He also casts in colorblind, ageless, and gender bending ways. And most of his work is minimalistic.

1. What about the TV guy who now does radio?

2. Same ‘ol story.

1. Nothing?

2. He throws him a bone once in a while.

1. I see, they throw him a bone every once in a while to make him feel included. Yet no one really covers his work while he produces shows all year, brings in artists from Broadway and Europe, and all the while he’s excluded from the free publicity that all the other local theaters get.

2. And there’s no consistency to it. The big paper actually gave him an award for choreography a few years back but most of the judges didn’t even see his show.

1. Ok, let me get this straight. The judges voted on the award but did not see his show. Absurd…well at least he won.

2. He could care less.

1. You mean he didn’t jump for joy?

2. First of all he considers awards antithetical to the arts.

1. I always thought the same thing! How can you judge a work of art better than another one? Art is self-expression; to make it into a competition is hypocritical.

2. Rather than getting wrapped up in the competition thing, he just simply speaks and writes his truth.

1: It must be very frustrating.

2: Yup.

1: A bad review is better than no review.

2: Yup.

1: All theatres know this.

2: Yup.

1: So how do you grow your theatre if you can’t get covered by the local media?

2: Good question – how the hell do you?...But I have a plan and the media is not needed.

1: Can I see your plan?

2: When it’s ready.

1: So what is he doing in the meantime?

2: I think he is devising a scheme to get arrested so they will finally cover him!...Actually he’s very Zen about the whole thing.

1. Go with the flow…

2. He has always felt that life has its own purpose and he follows the winds when needed.

1. Even when the shit hits the fan uh?

2. What else can you do, fight it?

1. Fortunately he’s good, as you say, and he’s still surviving.

2. Amazing isn’t it, when he’s up against so much adversity?

1. It’s just ridiculous. This town could be so much better with a really great thriving arts scene.

2. But don’t we have that already? Send him back to the big city where he was so successful!

1. But if we exclude the professionals out of jealousy or fear or intimidation…what is it anyway? What does he think causes them to treat him so poorly?

2. He has no idea whatsoever because they won’t talk to him.

1. Well this town could be a much better place if they included everyone, most especially professionals who bring something worldly and sophisticated to the scene.

2. I can only imagine what a contribution he could make if the media covered him and he had the support of the theater community.

1. Oh well, if that were to happen we’d no longer have our safe little lives in the provinces.

2. That’s the crux isn’t it?

1. Well art is made in madness. Art is the deepest, rawest self-expression springing from the unconscious.

2. It has to be made from the guts – from the pure impulse.

1. But that just scares most people too much. We are scared of children for the same reason and we condition them out of their impulsiveness and teach them they must think before they act and not trust their impulses.

2. In acting it gets reversed, one must act before one thinks.

(Pause)

1. Well, he’s a song and dance man right?

2. One of the best.

1. He can just whistle a happy tune and kick-ball-change until something else happens.

2. Oh, he does. He gave up the frustration years ago and he loves the people he works with. Actually he is meditating and enjoying the UNITY consciousness of the Mayan calendar.

1. Uh –huh…

(PAUSE)

1: Well, maybe he should leave the provinces, and maybe you should go with him.

2: A true renegade doesn’t belong here.

{THE END}

Christmas View

2010-08-08T06:14:00.001-07:00

Tradition or Obligation

Reflections of Christmas 2003

Step outside the snow falling bubble

To see what is really there.

Take away the story that few believe in

And see what is really there.

Turn off the idiot-box-noise-in-your-face

See what is really there.

Participate in none of the celebration

See, what is really there?

Step out, take away, turn off, don’t participate, look from afar, like a scientist, study the event, ask into the phenomenon, and wonder for the first time: what is this?

As my son is two and a half and old enough to begin to understand what we do at Christmastime, I question what I am passing down to him. I feel obliged in my tradition and look for what this mean for him.

Christmas is a religious holiday that begins with children “learning” – being told, or being told to read about- the story of God’s son Christ being born. This is part of a tradition and a belief that is handed down. Children do not get a say in the situation. This is part of their education.

Funny thing is in all the massive preparation for this birthday celebration, you don’t see or hear this guy’s name very often at all. It’s not like when we are celebrating Gershwin’s 100^th birthday, or Sinatra’s, where we see their names everywhere reminding us what we are celebrating. No this guy Christ is not in the store windows or in the newspapers or in the Kohl’s advertising supplement. They only speak about him in churches. But in church you can’t speak back, it’s a lecture, so its hard to find out more. But most people I see celebrating Christmas don’t go to church anyway.

The preparation for the event is of a magnitude that is hard to believe. And it all has to do with SHOPPING! Huge stores begin planning for next Christmas as soon as this Christmas is over. They plan all year for their fourth-quarter strategy. Most stores depend so heavily on Christmas sales that if they have a bad season of sales they suffer very much.

Meanwhile, most people don’t think of Christmas all year. They let it go when it is over for at least six to nine months except for the occasional eureka moment where that perfect gift jumps out at you in April for your loved one. Although I should mention that I’ve seen banks offer special accounts just to be ready for Christmas. But it seems few take advantage of this smart and generous bank offer because most of America goes into debt to celebrate Christ’s birthday. As a matter of fact, some people repeat this cycle every year without question.

So after Labor day, the marker that allows us a final big summer party and reminds us that the fall is imminent, the spirit of Christmas begins to slowly creep into conversations. “What are you doing for Christmas?” is a common refrain that begins the thoughts and plans are made and arrangements secured.

But the real activity that moves the whole country begins while we celebrate the pilgrims and the Indians friendship at Thanksgiving. The only problem is that you must have a newspaper to see the first Christmas-at-Thanksgiving-sales, or own a TV to feel the stirrings of the first Christmas jingle complete with snow-white horses coming down your street. No problem, everyone, well almost everyone, has a TV and a newspaper. Those who can’t afford it don’t count anyway cause they can’t get in the celebration without money to buy Christmas presents and paraphernalia.

At this point something bizarre happens. Like an ancient hormone surging through the body people get in a trance to go shopping. Often they wake at 4 AM to open the first Christmas sale at 5 AM and fight others to for the first new Christmas doll, or stuffed animal, or video game.

For the next five weeks it is almost impossible, no it is impossible to avoid the Christmas party. Everyone puts Christmas lights up all over their houses and building and offices, and parks, and streets, and everywhere using lots of energy for very little brightness. But it is not for practical or utilitarian purposes that these lights are lit. It’s for fun! Radio’s tease us into the Christmas spirit with their first Christmas song, from the biggest pop star of the year, nowadays from a TV talent show. Stores are green and red and sales all over. Newspapers bask in the biggest advertisements of the year. TV is bursting with Christmas programming- “Friends” celebrate Christmas, “Specials” make the season special, and the “news” is a-buzz with the market results of the day. Movie theaters are chock-full of Christmas goodies. And everywhere you turn someone is there to offer you advice on how to make Christmas better. Better shopping, better Christmas dinners, better Christmas entertaining, better relationships during the holidays, and better ways not to get upset, anxious, angry-at-the-relatives, overwhelmed and undernourished. All the tips you’d ever need, “A better Christmas?” just sit and read. But who reads anymore?

Well finally, after all the planning, shopping and Christmas office parties, the big birthday comes. It’s so big in fact that most people celebrate the eve and the day. I look for Christ again, since I did not see or hear of him through the din of preparation. But mostly the guy is absent. A few still go to church and hear from the expert lecture. And fewer still raise his name at home. Certainly not during presents- no “Christ sent you this” or “in the name of Christ I give this to you” or even “for Christ’s sake this is from me”. No presents for the guy either. But once in a while, for those who still remember to offer thanks for the giving, his name is uttered at the table before the feast-of-abundance.

Now some say that Christmas is not about celebrating Christ’s birthday at all, in spite of the name and the origin. They say it is about tradition. It is simply a time to give to loved ones. To buy tons of presents, wrap them in tons of paper and boxes, cut down millions of Christmas trees, and enjoy telling children the fantasy of Santa Claus-an old man from the north pole who rides a sleigh in the sky, pulled by reindeer, and delivers presents to all the children of the world-or is it the ones who believe in Christ? But first he checks who’s naughty or nice; if you’ve been naughty you’re out of luck. Meanwhile millions of children are starving and can’t get in the game at all.

The tradition, they say, is not about materialism, it is about family and the “spirit” of Christmas. You see this time of year is the time people are nice to each other. Or is it that everyone wants Santa Claus to give them their presents and so they try to get on the “nice” list?

In any case, what is strange about this tradition of families is that most families celebrate in tension of some kind. In fact this Christmas many people chose not to even celebrate with their families. So what the tradition is now is up for grabs as far as I can see.

The families that are together eat massive dinners, drink, watch football, drink some more for some, watch more football, or go to the movies to escape the football, drink some more perhaps, play games, read, maybe talk. In short, I looked for what is different or special in this tradition of family gathering from others but only found the trimmings to let me know its Christmas. Oh, and the mistletoe, doesn’t anyone hang mistletoe anymore? Now that was different.

And then I saw something very troubling. Some people wanted out of the game! But boy did the others try to stop them. They got so mad, or sad, they couldn’t even talk about it, but kept peer-pressure on to help them not veer too far. Some people lost the “spirit” of Christmas altogether as people tried to change traditions.

But these people opting out of Christmas went too far in their convictions and sensitivities. They were just over-sensitive and over-reacting to the harmless fun. They felt that Christmas became an empty holiday focused on fourth-quarter-profits, consumerism of extravagance, meaningless gift giving devoid of interpersonal richness. They became disgusted at the power of the media and mega-corporations to persuade, brain-wash, and control people’s lives through select news stories and featured articles, and intense pressure to buy that perfect gift that no one should do without.

But these dissenters of Christmas had it all wrong and traditional celebrators shunned their ideas and said they were out-of-step, or some other non-validating response.

The only thing I can say really, what I saw was really there, is the fact that this tradition runs so deep that it will definitely continue through my lifetime and my son’s as well.

The New American Macho

2010-08-01T08:22:00.000-07:00

The New American Macho: a chauvinistic path to humanity

A manifesto

A man’s spirit exudes the inner life of the child within. The child is and was the father of the man. A man is born of the cloth of his childhood. The interior forces at work are body, mind and spirit in co-operating. This amalgam of being can be harmonious, aligned in action, and powerfully united, or it can be conflicted, confused, and discordant. The former good fortune is born of the integration of childhood experience with the reasoning adult executive mind and the understanding of natural laws, while the latter is caused by the dysfunction of unused intelligence coupled with an unquestioning faith in the early conditioning of which each man is exposed to: machismo.

No man in this country is saved from the overarching demand that he be macho. Even men who have achieved something different did so in relation to, flight from, and in disagreement with, the macho picture and creed of the American male. In short, this old macho, for it does come to us through ancient times, asks men to image themselves in brute strength with a desire to go to war, a strong face that will disallow tears, and a superior attitude over women that will sanction despicable abuse of thought and deed. This macho is the bread winner, the head of the household, the tyrant of discipline and punishment and the great reasoner undeterred by affect and effect.

The new macho is born from one quality: compassion. Compassion guides the man toward the ancient dictum “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” -The Golden Rule. Or go to any religious philosophy and extract the concept of brotherhood from the faith and know what it is to live in that spirit and find the new macho. You can also find the new macho anywhere you are asked to “do no harm” - from the Hippocratic Oath to Buddhism. To do no harm is a compassionate stance. To live in brotherhood, treating others as you would prefer to have them treat you with an eye to do no harm is a compassionate philosophy which allows men to be virile in their humanity. The new chauvinism is imbued with glorious masculine power – a testosterone driven high of bonded attachment to protect life! At any crossroads, whenever the moment calls for it, the new macho will lay down his life in combustion-able compassion. For the protection of life itself – for her nature, her beautify, and her all powerfulness. His bandwidth of compassion streams far and wide at frequencies of lightening quick instantaneous singularity.

The new macho body is lean and clean, flexible and strong, balanced and open. Without the exaggeration of strength, the body can be strong and flexible. Brute strength is no longer necessary. The brotherhood of the new macho calls for co-operation which requires a workable body, not an imposing body. The lean, muscular body can work with other bodies to accomplish great feats. The balance of strength with bending, of firmness with soft pliability, of tension and relaxation, carries the new macho into each situation in utter confidence. The clean body; imbued with raw, organic nutrition while parsimonious in functionality is both respected and intelligent. This capable body trusts itself. The inner forces of the body are wielded with compassionate virility.

The new macho mind is integrated, whole, and fired from executive reason. It is open and as intuitive as it is imaginative. This mind is directed by its owner/operator and is committed to excellence. It excels in judicious use and thought. It can reach heights and plumb depths here to fore unrealized. As compassion is the guiding attribute of the new macho, his mind is in service. To know another’s experience requires an open and available mind which knows how to perceive and witness without judgment and with an eye towards connectedness. The mind’s eye is virile in just equanimity. The new macho mind abhors losing effectiveness and is a stranger to intoxication which numbs and paralyzes. The new macho mind is fed powerful meals of contemplative smorgasbords. Brute meditation raises consciousness and creates laser like seeing. The old macho mind is changed by the habits of thought which are fired with intense intentionality. The new macho mind knows it is the brain at work, and knows the brain works through association. Thus it is directed towards associations of compassionate thought and action, which is cultivated in the soil of isolated mental rehearsal.

The new macho spirit is ecstatic. In a compassionate spirit of service to life, the new macho is present to the other. His spirit is exalted with each thought and deed of macho co-operation and compassion. He protects his spirit with a defense that disarms the violence which brings the spirit down. His spirit is secured in right action which is guided by doing no harm as he lives the Golden Rule in compassionate faith.

The new macho looks like every man and changes the world one day at a time through daily practice of virile living in accord with humanity.

Why the New Macho?

Look around at the failing sectors of society: consider the breadth and depth of the ailing economy, sub par education, dismal health care, and corrupt politics. Now add the homeless, the hungry, crime, and the environmental degradation and consider what the root of these problems is? We can each come up with individual ideas of solutions, Americans are good at that. Yet our solutions have solved very little as we spin our wheels from one administration to the next, from one generation to the next. Think of the last time you heard a law-maker speak to the root of a problem, it doesn’t happen frequently. We are so busy defending our positions that we neglect real solutions and continue to arrive back at failure because we are only superficially addressing our failures with band-aids. Our economy has historically cycled itself through boom and bust in artificial growth that wreaks havoc to the fabric of our society for the past hundred years. Our educational system has become outdated as it focuses on testing and rote memorization in a rigid classroom of homogeneous students whom understand clearly that one can get “A” s and still learn very little. Even as we have more and more college graduates the country gets dumber and dumber. Our health care system has excluded millions, while over pricing its services and products as litigious opportunities are taken advantage of in hospitals, which are a primary cause of death in this country. Our political system has abysmal participation as lobbyists buy our congress and the hierarchical ladder is steeped with corruption on the way to the top. In every city we have poor and hungry people draining the resources rather than contributing. Our jails are full, further draining resources as criminals continue to scare us into defensive maneuvers. The pollution and destruction of our earth’s environmental balance races into the future with unprecedented speed and toxifiction. And our new war on terror makes the enemy abstract enough to argue for any absurd solution because we can’t see the enemy and out of our blind fear we can be fearfully manipulated into submission all the while ignoring our shrinking liberty and freedom.

What all these problems have in common is a lack of humanity. It is very possible to move to real solutions by simply bringing a compassionate humane attitude to these challenges. If it sounds too easy, it is, if it feels unrealistic, it is. If it is an idealistic pip dream, so be it. It is whatever we think it is. Our beliefs, our thoughts, and our attitudes create our reality. To look at the above societal circumstances and to believe this is the way of the world, that this is always going to be the case because this his human nature, will not change a thing – it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. To believer we can do better is prerequisite to our changing our ways.

A humanistic philosophy embodied with compassion would not accept inhumane practices and conditions for any person. This is self evident. No economy, no education, no political system, no nothing, can harm its people if built upon the basement of humanism. If the soil is treated with care, fed only the minerals of a compassionate humane fertilizer the growth of crime, corruption and inequity has no chance. If we examine how a new macho compassionate sense of reason can re-vision our individual sectors of society we can then begin to see the gestalt of a new world order that fulfills the new macho agenda of brotherhood and just treatment for all, and a compassionate world.

A New Macho Beginning to Life

It is known and it is clear that the earliest part of life is a most fragile time of development. On one hand we are growing more cells faster than at any other time of life. On the other hand we are so unformed that we are susceptible to the many adverse conditions that can interfere with our development. It is a time in which the utmost care and awareness must be taken to assist the new life. In the human world we have the profound responsibility of care-taker for the newly born. And unlike most animals our extended dependence reaches into years (the fact that we actually extend this dependence artificially into teen years and beyond is another story that we will look at later). There is no way around this absolute life and death dependence the child is born into. How this child is related to makes all the difference. The genetic blueprint is always secondary to the environment of the child. To make this clear consider a child of the most musical family, say a musical genius like Mozart. If Mozart’s child is born into and lives in poverty out in Siberia with no music whatsoever in his life, his musical inheritance will be useless, for his genetic potential will not get turned on and it will remain latent. Even if exposed to music as an adult this child of Mozart will be unable to know music as a native language. Only a young person can create a native tongue or sensibility. On the other hand if a child from a war torn illiterate environment is raised from day one in a loving family with excellent education and abundance of technology, she will most certainly rise above her genetic potential of her war torn, illiterate origins. In all cases the environment will shape and mold the development of the child. It is essential that the new macho male recognize this and act in accord with this truth to bring a new perspective and participation to children and their worlds.

To demonstrate this dramatic influence of the early beginnings of life it is made clear by imaging a young fetus having divided and multiplied into say sixty four cells as opposed to a three year old with trillions of cells. Now if both beings were exposed to a toxic substance, which would be equipped to fight this toxin more effectively? If both were affected by the toxin which one would be more permanently affected?

The brain cells that form become the basis for the future growth, for the brain works by association. If malformed brain cells create poor neural networks because of toxic interference this will be the familiar brain workings out of this familiar (known) knowledge. All other new development will be in relation to it. Brain cells that fire together wire together and will always want to fire again together and strengthen in the process. Once we create a neural network we must live with it. To change it takes great effort. When we are in the womb we form our first orientation to our lives. Either rocked by cocaine driven destructive interactions or comforted by a nutritious and calm environment coupled with interactions of love.

The new macho male takes responsibility for his part in creation. Although he cannot directly interact with his baby - he cannot carry it, nor feed it, nor feel it directly - he can do all of this indirectly and make a huge difference on the life of his child and most especially in the life of his lover.

For to feed his lover nutritious and delicious food he also feeds the child. To comfort, console, and care for his lover he does so also for his child. His voice and all its intonation of tenderness or hate will be felt likewise by his child as well as his lover. In these ways the new macho male will deeply experience the interconnectedness of life as women do so naturally still. He will understand that he is connected profoundly to life he cannot see, cannot feel and cannot know for sure is there or is whole. (The new macho will not be reliant on ultrasound unless it is essential for this procedure to be executed. The damage of ultrasound interference is already known for anyone who investigates.) In this small experience the new macho male can sow the seeds of compassion of life unseen and unknown. From these seeds can grow a forest of compassion for the unknown and unseen, weather life two houses down, or in another city, or in another country or even out into the deeply mysterious cosmos and the possibility of life we cannot yet imagine.

As this little life grows the new macho takes great care in offering the best to his lover and hence, to this child, he is there everyday to nourish, to comfort, to play and to connect with him to serve the development of his new child and hence, his lover and himself. He learns that he in fact is healed from his original alienation and separation by loving his child so deeply. For when he was in the womb his father was only to a degree present and loving and often times not present, indifferent, or worse yet, sometimes cruel and abusive. Yes, he realizes his actions towards his child and lover are actions toward himself, affecting himself as deeply as others.

When it is time for the new born to leave the womb, enter this new outside world it is no longer looked at as “delivery.” For nowhere is anything delivered. This baby is instinctually looking to follow its genetic lineage and to be born in a natural process. Even as there is a genetic piece which evolved from the recent history of hospital births, the continuum of millions of years of natural birthing is exponentially more compelling. The baby wants to have gravity help it enter the world and immediately go home to mama’s breast. Anything short of that will overwhelm the new born - rather than releasing the wondrous hormones of oxytocin there will be stress hormones and fear.

The new macho male will learn about the origins of his loneliness as he educates himself and investigates his own birth. He will learn how well it is known that these first few moments of life outside the womb, the original entry and welcome of this world, is significantly crucial to set the stage of one’s orientation to life that will be carried for a lifetime. He will realize how utterly desperately strung out a new born feels in a hospital while waiting for mama’s breast, the nipple, which he expects will nourish him for years as his home base. Instead he experiences the cold, unfeeling hands of hospital workers taking him away immediately, cleaning him off as if he is dirty, giving him shocking shots as if he were sick and pouring liquid in his eyes which already struggle to see. All executed in the most artificial setting of bright unnatural light completely covered in toxic chemicals to disinfect the room because we are in a place we do not trust.

By the time the baby is “put” to its mother’s breast the world is already known as a terrifying, fearful place. What was in fact minutes were felt as an eternity as the baby only knows “now.” The comfort of mama’s breast now is used to heal the original wounding of the child’s psyche. The first thing that must occur to heal this original anxiety is that the baby must trust mama enough to let go of the stress and overwhelm and release the chemicals of love and connection. In this one singular moment, more than anytime in one’s life, one has the opportunity to experience the great well-being of the original flood of oxytocin – the same chemical we experience in orgasm. In the hospital, we interrupt nature’s intent to have this new born immediately suckling on mama’s nipple. Indeed we have interrupted this ontological expectation of both mama and baby, having instead given the baby an orientation to life of stress and alienation while depriving mama of the bonding she needs to fulfill her mothering.

The new macho will not let this happen and will insist that his child is born in his home, where the advantage of a calm and natural setting can be created in dim womb-like light where few interferences and interruptions can occur. Where responsibility for the birthing act is in the hands of the two collaborating in the process: mama and child. The wise midwife will assist without interfering. And the new macho will be the sure hand and heart of confidence and love that will encourage mama in her process. Having understood through his educational research that his baby’s immune system will develop via its environment, he will know that the tiny microbes his baby will be exposed to in his home will be exactly what is needed to foster a strong constitution to thrive in - he will develop the exact immunity he needs to live well in his home. He will not be considered and thought of an incomplete person needing medical intervention to make him healthy. He will see his midwife and his pediatrician for “well baby” visits, and he will be trusting as a whole person.

The new macho male will offer every possible advantage for his child to reach his optimum. He will assist his lover in the process of breastfeeding in any way needed for he will understand that it is an everyday responsibility to nurse. Armed with all his knowledge of the great benefits and advantages of breastfeeding he will appreciate the bonding his lover and child are doing as they gaze into each others eyes while nursing, heart to heart, in a calm and reverent nursing moment that shuts out the outside world for the time being.

The New Macho Father

Parenting need not be the end of life as many feel because of their approach to this exclusive gift. The new macho father recognizes he has a child of his making, from his being, born from who he is. He is the only father, the one to parent, the best choice to raise his child. Although any man could do this job, the gift of life giving has been deeply moving and inclines and propels him to, like a magnetic pull, stay close and closer to his child.

Most of all, important to the core, the new macho male knows his son or daughter came of him, through him and yet is not him. He is awed by the truth that his child is his own father or mother. The son is the father of the man as has been advocated by that great radical child observer Dr. Maria Montessori. In other words, what that child lives and becomes will be exactly what the adult will be. The new macho male knows this from experience, from his own glances back into his childhood forces that shaped who he is. He is versed in the connections of his early experiences to his later patterns. He has done much work already to understand himself, to evolve his being beyond his early experiences, to know himself.

Out of his self knowledge the new macho father will not mistake his life for his child’s. He will keep the distance that two separate lives require while paying close attention and care to observe his child’s needs and experiences. He will never treat his child as a possession. He will at all times work with his child as he does with his co-workers, in an effort of co-operation. He will not assume his child must and will do what he says but will relate in ways that will create a harmonious partnership where each wants to please the other.

What is the difference between a child whom obeys and a child whom co-operates? An entire world! The new macho father understands this and knows the child who obeys is the child who rebels when older. Young children will obey more easily and can be coerced into obeisance easily. The same child, older, will resist and fight and use all its might to break the strangle hold of obeisance which feels like slavery to him.

From the beginning the new macho father will be looking at the baby’s needs. Listening, sensing, observing, anticipating, and troubleshooting, he will allow the child to direct his own life: eating when she wants to eat, sleeping when she wants to sleep, playing when she wants to play and crawling where she wants to go. The role he will play will be more like a guide than a dictator, an assistant rather than a director. He will know that the child’s natural inclination is her best teacher and he will facilitate his daughter’s instinct to explore, always supporting the direction she wants to go - even into danger. For it is in that moment, which the child is self interested, that a meaningful experience that will educate the child can take place. What better time to teach about the danger of electricity than when the child is naturally curious and at the socket?

Now the difference between parenting a son or a daughter will have little, yet some necessary relevance. The new macho father sees that gender roles are something conditioned in children and less natural and true. The sex of a child is given at birth, the gender behavior developed. While sexual desire is a complex combination of the two. He will take the child for who it is, even if it turns out to be a rough and tumble girl or a sensitive and soft boy. It matters not. What matters most is for life to unfold as it wants. This does not mean the child rules the roost. Not at all. This is all experience within a relationship built in trust and love within the value system of the home and community. Yet the new macho male sees laws for what they are: a societal norm made punishable, not inherently right nor good. So the laws will be taught for the boundaries they intend to keep. Yet laws will be looked at and investigated together, questioning their effectiveness in achieving the goal they set out to achieve. If the law is obeyed it will be from a conscious choice to act in accordance. It will not be blind submission.

This is the way of the new macho father with his child. He will rely on teamwork and partnership to achieve his goals in raising his child. He will create his teamwork and partnership by being present for his child. Not present when he wants only. Present at every turn, every day, he will, regardless of his schedule, give time, and plenty of it daily, to his child. For only in giving time, and hence dealing with all the complexity that the relationship will present, will the father be present enough to create a meaningful relationship. If the father remains only marginally a part of the child’s life, there will be no true partnership formed. To be a partner one must be a part of the team and at all practices. The new mach male will be relentless in his pursuit to parent well and better.

When the father spends time, or rather gives time, for he is not spending anything really, the father gets into the trenches. Now, because he is deeply present, he will face the true challenges to living with his partner child. Out of these experiences he will forge a relationship – and that relationship will be in co-operation, or in one-sided, unfair “do as your told” authority. In co-operation the father has offered his child a path of healthy development that will allow the child to think and act independently. That child will have a chance at true happiness and inner contentment.

On the other hand, the “do as your told child “will develop along a path of learning to obey effectively and to swear behind the father’s back when it wants to do something other than what it is told. This child will get to an age, by the time around puberty, where it will begin to rebel. This child will grow in conflict. This child will not know itself. This child will not know its true inclinations and impulses, loves and desires. He will be lost in the conflict of following orders while trying to be himself. He will not know himself – the worst of all outcomes.

The new macho father does not want to raise his child as he was. He wants today to direct his parenting choices, not yesterday. He understands that life evolves and is emergent, constantly renewing itself in a sea of change always unpredictable. He wants his child to grow and develop in ways better served than he had. One day, he wants to see his child off in the distant horizon, exploring life in ways he himself can learn from. For the natural progression of generations is that the child evolves beyond his parent’s growth, just as the student ought learn beyond the teacher knowledge.

The New Macho Child

In a free thinking compassionate home lays fertile soil for children to develop into their own selves. So different than the compassionate home with fixed thinking. The new macho male recognizes that children can be conditioned into virtually anything one chooses. In essence we are all conditioned by our upbringing and the values, morals, and experiences thereof. He recognizes further that morality is a conditioned reflex of whatever indoctrination a child has been subjected to. Adults can and do change their moral choices, yet the new macho male understands the conflict created in the rigidly conditioned child and avoids this prison.

From the examples of the historical record, it is clear to the new macho male that the prison of the conditioned mind is worse that any standing prison. The Mandelas, Frankls and Wiesels of history lead us to an understanding of mental independence and freedom. Although in prison, in spite of inhumane treatment and conditions, these men remained free. Free in mind, free of hatred, free to be compassionate and forgiving. Free of the prison of which they endured and free of the captive body they inhabited.

A childhood of free thinking is an imaginative and intelligent journey. The new macho child is open to experience his world, asking all questions in spirited enthusiasm. None of his thoughts need be censored or felt shamefully. This kind of parenting will revolutionize the dogmatic and outdated practices of the old fashioned need to teach children morals.

Right and wrong and good and bad will be unnecessary in raising a child. No longer are they relevant, as they were always, and will always remain, relative. What was once was right is now wrong (slavery, e.g.), what was good is now bad (smoking, e.g.), and the changing arbitrariness of laws (drinking age et. al.) - all make for impossible justification of any true reasoning of these moral practices. When a child confronts the hypocriticalness of morality, for example regarding not killing others and the fact that we go to war in good conscience, there is no intelligent and reasoned thought that can align the two. The child loses respect for the adult world of hypocrisy and indifference to the hypocrisy. The new macho male has worked through his own conflicted morality and has come to independent ideas of his own as to what works in his life. He has examined his conditioning and come to understand which part of it he actually thinks useful and which he wants to discard as useless. He has investigated the laws and has decided which to follow and which to ignore, and is open-eyed about the consequences of his choices. He has come to realize he is actually, in practice, more compassionate, considerate, and aware of doing little harm as a free thinking man than he ever was from his conditioned belief system he was indoctrinated into while a boy.

Out of his experience the new macho male desires to raise his children in an open way that will keep questions coming and challenges appreciated. Even as children must be taught and raised within a home which will have values and beliefs, the new macho male will not profess it is the only way or even the way it must be. He will teach his kids and will at the same time inquire if they too belief as he. If not he will reason with them and out of this smart talk they will all learn. The new child will be free to make decisions on their own and they will be made aware of the consequences and ramifications of their choices. The child will have the freedom to live out his ideas and see for himself if they are useful.

Useful, in fact, will be an idea he will come to know well, for he will not be asked or taught about right and wrong. He will be asked what his goal is and then asked if his actions are aligned with this goal. If so they will be useful. If not they will be seen as un-useful and therefore let go of.

Right and wrong will be irrelevant for when a parent actually takes the time to intelligently explain why something is right or wrong, he will be addressing the root of it all – right and wrong were created by man to serve his goals. These moral beliefs all served his goals at one time. The old way of saying this is right and this is wrong without any intelligent reasoned backing makes a mockery of a child’s intelligence and simply conditions him until one day he wakes up to this fact and resents it. Too often in the past children became adults and did not question any longer as they became workers in the economy. Then they became parents and their ways did not change because their brains fired only what they knew from experience. In this new era of the changing consciousness of all people, the new macho male is aware and investigating these inherited ways with a keen mind and an open eye.

The New American Macho Worker

Men recognize that devotion to work exclusively is empty. To give all you have to your work, collect your paycheck, and then turn around and do it again, is a cycle of dissatisfaction. Life is not about work as we have believed, which implies drudgery. Work as the center of life is missing meaning. Most importantly men are sensing the need to be in a job they are passionate about, a job where they can bring their virile energy to create and enrich. A job that does not require that they separate themselves from their heart energy - “you gotta have heart” goes beyond baseball. It is time for the vocation to be aligned with the calling.

Generations have passed where men did “what they had to do” and this brought us to the understanding that life is lackluster and dull without heart and soul. The soul of the man wants to be in the work. Soulless money-driven employment keeps a man a slave to the economy. Not only will the new American male raise his children to explore and get to know their true passions, he will also discover his deeper passions in himself in this process.

Work will always be secondary to the new American male’s personal life. A life, a personal life, will be his source of meaning and joy and his work will integrate and support this. Men are hungry to feel they are contributing to something bigger. Punching in a time clock, looking for the day to end, finishing the life of each day in alcohol has run its course and dulled the power of men into rusty scrap metal. The precise, pointed, clear-headed male’s mind is hungry to give itself over to real work that somehow improves life; his own and others. By serving others he finds his own. By being in service man grows. With his attention on others man finds himself renewed and vital.

Money will not control and rule the day. Money will not be the ultimate. Money will serve. Money will be a consideration to be considered along with the rest of life’s equations. There are times when money will be sacrificed for the deeper priorities in men’s lives - like wives, partners, children, parents and other folks whom are in need of his time and energy. The old ways of having one’s life submit to one’s work will be seen as a hindrance to real joy and meaning.

Man, having realized the interconnectedness and interdependence of all things and people, and life, will live in this spirit of co-operation, co-dependence, and co-operation. This humanistic view will bring a much larger and significant role to work. Work will be a continuum of a man’s life, not an aberration. As man discovers more and more of what it is to be human, and how to develop the unique aspects that make us human, man will live in the center of being human. Human beings are awesome in their ability to work. The inherent joy and excitement of being a live human being will foster a community of brilliant people interacting in play: work will simply be an extension of this play.

Even as men will continually feel pressured by society to consume, work, mindlessly entertain themselves, consume, work, and entertain more, the new macho male will always go back to square one: what is my goal and does my action serve my goal? In the new American society men will desire to contribute in meaningful ways to his community: his work, his home, and his larger network of friends and neighbors. In this passionate, virile desire, he will work doing things he is in love with, he will consume what he needs and whatever little extravagance that does not interfere with his larger goals, he will entertain and be entertained with intelligence that will foster thinking rather than numb his mind and senses.

Imagine the excitement of going to work to do exactly what you want. Eager to do his work and fully into it, his work will not only be effortless and joyful, even in the struggles, it will be efficient as hell because when we want to do things and are stimulated by it, tasks are accomplished fast! As the lean and agile new American male realizes these truths from hard won experience, he will move forward, with no return from the drab past, into a bright future of shared joy of living, with his colleagues.

New Macho Competition

The new American male will be a top competitor. All this compassion and selflessness and service in his open mind will not make him a wimp. On the contrary it will propel men into a deeper level of competition which will be most satisfying.

Competition in a human male biological system is as natural as the rings in a tree. It is built into the development we inherit as animals and more specifically as testosterone-driven men. Our virility and love of life stem from a physical orientation: to the earth and to ourselves. We are in touch with our body’s need to move and be fit. We understand the invigorating experience of competition and work with it wisely.

Competing to be our best, to push our current limits and to reach new potential is the aim. Doing so with others makes the experience that more fun. Competing against others only heightens these aims. For the true competition is to be our best, individually and as a teammate. In our new American humanity, competition is an adrenalin rush of connectedness. Even as we try to crush our opponent, we never lose our wholeness. We still do no harm. Playing fair and square is our only strategy for in our understanding of our true unity, to cheat to win is to harm ourselves as well as our opponent.

To cheat is to deceive, to lie, and to compromise our integrity. The new American male is more concerned with his legacy of integrity than his legacy of being number one. The old ways of competition bred from greed will not work as new ways of being in the game emerge. But do not be deceived. When the focus is clear and all men are honestly competing with clear conscience, the game will become fiercer and more cut throat. When men no longer look outside themselves for that extra inch they will double their efforts to dig deep inside, thwart their opponent in intimidation as well as skill, and emerge the victor.

Victory will be sweeter than ever, shared by all, and a celebration of the game in a spirit of sportsmanship. Losing will be just as celebrated even as being a winner is the true desire. But when the game is over the immediate shift of post game mentality levels the field and unifies the opponents.

Games, sports, and activities which drive our mutual and physical abilities are life’s play. They bring health and vitality and a keener mind and body. To know your competitor in the game is a way into deepening life. To at once have the killer’s instinct and compassion is to exude a wholeness and respect that lifts the game to a new level of human greatness.

New Macho War-less-ness

The future cannot sustain wars for long. We are at a crossroads: either we live in nonviolence or we open ourselves to the possibility that we may all perish in war and violence. Technology spreads to cover the field of humanity in our digital information age of instant and thorough communication. The chance of our science of war destroying us is unquestionable. It is simply a matter of if it does and when. The new American male knows this, thinks about this, and is changing the odds one man at a time.

By bringing a new consciousness to issues of violence and war, the new American male is shining a beacon of heart radiation to the world - a heart radiance of love and compassion. As America has been the violent force of the world for the recent past, flexing its super muscle, relying on intimidation, threat, and weapons of destruction (mass and minute), the new American male will change the tarnished image of freedom back into its original sense of hope and better living.

In a radical departure from the old thinking, the new American male follows those who trod the path of non violence in spite of the violent world they inherited. Under no circumstance is war a justification for violence. Self defense will be viewed from a prison of the long view, which has shown that violent self defense begets more violence which cycles nature in violence, more violence and even more violence, ad infinitum.

Knowing the idiocy and unreasonableness of war and violence for those who wish to live, it is time for a huge side-step into something new, a new way of thinking. This brave and courageous change will take sacrifice and steel nerves. To face down an enemy with the armament of heart energy requires great training and skillful execution.

Training in non violence is essential and the new American male trains daily. The boot camp workout engages mind, body and spirit in brutal regimes of overcoming the violent impulses we have inherited. By making the violent impulses open to examination the new American male gains awareness and clarity of his nature that he is trying to change. By brining up his violence he works with it. By acting it out in non harmful ways he gets to know it, makes friends with it, and takes charge of it. Violence is in his control and he harnesses the impulse for constructive energies toward his goals.

Daily mental rehearsals of violent situations give him an experience to change his brain. By mentally rehearsing non violent ways of action he practices new choices, firing new neural connections and forging a new neural network that will be there to fire in the real world circumstance that confront him.

Daily kick ass workouts that put him in touch with his masculinity and virility, he pushes himself to physical exertion that tests his stamina and endurance of which he transforms into the nonviolent warrior. Through cross training workouts of strength, flexibility, agility, balance, stillness and emerging functionality, he develops his wholeness, his infinite possibilities of movement.

These workouts are infused with awareness of violent energies. At times the violence is subdued and integrated and at times the violence is full of power, anger, hostility and the need to be expressed. In either case, the violence is worked with toward an eye on his goals. The goal of becoming the hard nosed non violent animal man he envisions, the new American male is vigilant in mindfulness of non violence.

Workouts are completed with a daily practice of gratitude through meditation and affirmation of life’s reverence. Using heart-centered practices, meditating on the unity and harmony of nature, and cultivating a love of life, the new American male is as soft as he is hard, as tough as he is malleable, as enlightened as he is primitive.

In his radical re-visioning of his choices, the new American male opts for the antithesis of his violent ancestry he has inherited. He becomes fully integrated in his being as a humanist when he chooses to die rather than to kill. Like other non violent warriors before him, he is fully at peace with himself as a living example of non violence. Through excruciating workouts of mind, body and spirit, he has achieved the ultimate in courage. To walk in the valley of death with eyes open, one foot-fall at a time, willing to be transformed into the next energy.

From his training in natural laws the new American male knows there is a unified field we exist in and of, there is a chording harmony in the larger view of all things, and that all energy is, was and will be, through transformations, transmutations and transfigurations, forever more into the mystery.

Having meditated on his own morality, having seen his death and the mystery of his energetic shift, having contemplated his final breath of his reality, the new American male is a human being par excellence willingly transformational. Breaking the cycle of violence at every turn, he knows full well the ultimate challenge is to give his life rather than take another.

Connected to all of humanity he knows the only path to save himself is to not kill himself. Killing another is the same as killing one’s self. We are all of the same, of the one, of the essence before we became separated and we cannot harm another without harming our selves in some way. Unity consciousness will guide the day.

This same attitude of wholeness and reverence for this life applies to all of nature. And what is there except nature? It all came from nature and it will all return to nature no matter how man-made.

New Macho Treatment of Animals

Depending on one’s perspective, the history of our collective treatment of animals can be either one of domination of the survival of the fittest by the smart species we are, or a dismal lack of concern for the life of the animals we share our planet with - a slaughter of life for our needs.

The new American male understands that problems of un-sustainability in feeding billions of people billions of cows and pigs and chickens. He also knows of the terrible conditions and horrors these animals face from the start of their lives until the day they are slaughtered on the factory farm. He has looked into the truth and found the destructive reality of our farm factories, from the inhumane treatment of the animals to the massive destruction of the land and environment. The new American male is armed with this knowledge and has a macho concern for his fellow friends of nature.

While looking into our collective history, the new American male asks questions, investigates and reflects, like a detective, on the givens he was born with: given that we enslave animals for our benefit, given that we are the higher-up on the food chain and therefore justifiably kill our meat to eat, given that animals are pets.

Upon explosive insight, he has realized what has been ain’t necessarily so. Animals are wild and are a vital part of our system. Animals have lives with families and feelings as well. That is easy to deduce by connecting his dogs intense feelings he experiences every day. His dog is loving, lonely, afraid, excited, hurt, and full of expression which he has come to know through his relationships with man’s best friend.

Once this realization takes place he wonders how did he ever accept the hypocrisy of calling his dog mans best friend while enslaving it – what best friend to we enslave and not let live freely?. For even as his dog would now, many years later, probably choose to stay with him, he knows by memory the terrible trouble it was to keep his dog from running into the wild when he was young and untrained. It took great strength to restrain his big dog and he only succeeded with a shock collar and a cage. Sure, we call it “kenneling our dog” but if we treated our best friend that way we would not only lose our friend, we could very easily end up in jail. The absurdity of these realizations caused hysterical laughter which quickly turned into embarrassment and shame. Like so many other givens he was born into, the new American male is seeing how conditioned his society is and how often these givens are a catastrophe for his essential masculine development.

Further, upon making changes based on these virile insights, the new American male, striving to live the golden rule, realizes that we have subjected animals to violence in ways that have seeped into our lives without question, keeping even the most avowed peace loving folks guilty of harm through the unconscious and unaware nature of the harm of enslaving their pet.

No pet, when first brought ‘home’ will stay unless coerced. Often we use force of all magnitudes to quall the natural instinct of our pets. After time they become ‘tame’, ‘docile’, ‘domesticated’ but that is only after intense training out of their instinct. And some animals never lose their instinct and die in captivity having never been ‘tamed’.

Macho More?

After decades and centuries of the ‘big’ man, the ‘big’ company and the almighty corporation, the new American male is going small. Small and intimate, the new macho male is unafraid of the ‘eyes that know you’. On the contrary, having seen the ubiquitous ‘eyes of the camera’ and ‘eyes of the corporate watch dog’, small and intimate invites him into the comfort of a community - a true community that re-discovers the older social systems and business models of small connected community. There is no replacement for knowing your customers and for the customers to know their community business people.

Only this is not your normal chamber of commerce where luncheons are about ‘networking’ and power. The chamber hierarchy is not community but a power positioning façade that covers the intent of many business men and women’s need to climb the ladder. In the humanistic living of the new American male, there is no room for exploiting others, deceiving friendships, and soulless ‘business’ connections.

In the new paradigm business and life are one in the same. The virile attitude of honest dealings replaces the propped up boner of power, rules are consistent and pervasive throughout. The golden rule guides the day, guides the action, and protects the integrity of the profit. Profit takes on new meaning. Profit is only what benefits the whole. If it benefits one, without the other, a part and not the all, it is not valued as ‘profit’ at all but rather ‘not-fit.’ When ‘No-fit’ here is realized that road is closed. ‘Pro-fit’ now reflects the ‘fit-ness’ of the ‘pro’-“.

Profits have deranged our minds and actions and caused false admiration for those mind-numbing heart-closing deals that generate money while bankrupting the soul. Profits, and profits alone, have driven man to build corporations, where anonymity resides and heartless relations abound. The old macho need to climb the ladder of success no longer applies, for the truth of ‘growth’ at all costs as a measure of success is a dead-end road. Emerging qualities always combine a remaking of the old, which we call destruction, which is really evolution. The ‘evolving growth’ of a company is one that evolves the whole system: the community as well as the company. The old ways of haves and have-nots must be replaced by a macho insistence on just and equitable growth and abundance for all.

The rich man now recognizes that life would be far better if everyone were rich and not just he and his few buddies. For he spends exorbitant amounts of energy, time and money on protecting his wealth from those who do not have it, suddenly it dawns on him that if everyone has then there wouldn’t be the need to stay separated and locked in a mind-set of ‘guardian’ of his stuff.

Each new understanding brings a richer humanity to his life and to others. That is where the real benefit comes from. It is not enough to simply believe that if you ‘employ’ others you are making a better community and serving others. It must go beyond this concept and tackle larger issues like the poverty and crime that exist in his community.

Poverty can certainly become extinct now, in this age of superb technological abundance. And when we redistribute our wealth to include everyone, we will have everyone with survival needs met. Watch the crime drop. It is easy to realize that when people have a lifestyle of abundance, they are little motivated to risk going to jail.

The new American male sees the relationship of the small business owner to his local community, the medium-sized business owner to his region, and the corporation to its whole customer base and resulting communities and the mega multinational corporation to its global community. In this way, the growth of the company always includes the relating community. The ‘pro’ is ‘for’ everyone and it ‘fits’ the needs of the whole. Pro-fits now are judged in this context and maximum growth of profits is now meaningful and for the betterment of all.

Globalization and the New American Macho

As you can see, the new American male is a man of the world, and is only American in the smaller view. The diversity of national cultures is not to be erased in the agenda of the twisted ‘new world order’ where Home Depot, Wal-Mart, and the other mega multinational conglomerates monopolize the cultures with one-size-fits-all products. The unique characteristics of geographic locales, nuances of languages evolved by a distinct people of a distinct region, customs and traditions born of the rich history of a people finding meaning in their clan ways: all are part of the fabric of the evolution of man in the delicious variety that exudes the obviousness that there are many roads to Mecca. To lose this tapestry of cultural wealth now would simply follow the path of history; the destruction of what came before as the new ‘haves’ implement ‘their’ ways and eradicate all connections to the ‘old’ ways which kept the earlier ‘haves’ thriving.

The virile new American male stands up to the ‘globalization’ that strips cultures, borders and verity in order to make a ‘one world’ doctrine complete with one product and only one product for the world. With strong and warrior-like focus the humanistic new American male declines to participate in the mind-numbing super structure of the world banks which are maintaining the old “profit” for shareholder goals - or in bed with their supporters as so many not-for-profit organizations are.

Even as this leaves little choice in the external world it opens infinite possibilities in the inner life and the most human of all actions, the social inter-action of humans to nature and all her splendor – other humans, plants, animals, and the Earth herself – the mothership we ride each day which carries us as we hurtle through space.

In short, the new American male is truly a “world male”. In the humanistic tradition that compels us to see our brother and sisterhood, the new American male is a man of the planet, of the cosmos, of the mystery of which we cannot escape.

Full of love and joy, he rushes boldly into the light of day with heart motivation and contemplates the night energy with moon struck awe.

The new American male, a world model of masculinity, which will be stripped of his American label when it is no longer necessary, will be a significant agent of change. The masculine dominance of the past thousands of years brought us to this juncture and one solution to taking the “high road” (the humanistic road) is for the masculine to find a new and rightful consciousness of fierce humanity as espoused above. Males can be a most virile and potent initiator of change because of the male’s power in our societal structure. From his shift, and change thereof, he will affect change in everyone he interacts with, a changed person always affects change in others as the natural law of cause and effect would stipulate. Change your own actions and reactions and watch the change in others as they see their old ways no longer fit, work or are even needed.

This is not to say that women and children are not in this primary picture of change. As we have focused exclusively on the new male, we also have left unwritten the new female and the new teen. Both of these new energies are equally significant in creating the changes toward a more humanistic world of unity consciousness.

The new female will bring a wholly different set of awareness to this change and the new teen will be a leader of the humanistic revolution. What is left unwritten is not to be misunderstood. In the end, it will take all human beings to live in accord and in harmony with nature to live and understand the humanistic ways of cohabitating our planet. Yet when the males of our world defend till death (of oneself) nonviolence, the humanistic virility will finally have fertile soil from which to discover new choices of actions in conflict resolutions. We simply cannot make new choices in a same ‘ol violent world.

The criticism and dismissal of these ideas as utopian and unrealistic will require bravery and courage like men have never known before. It will need powerful leadership and vision to walk this path in the face of adversity as the masses will do all in their power to discredit this vision as impractical.

The new American male will make the difference. He will stand so tall and so grounded in his unbreakable confidence that he cannot be undermined. His gentle manner combined with his charismatic machismo will ignite this humanistic furor of caring and stewardship of all life in ways that will simply disarm the nay-sayers.

In the end we either change, or, it will be forced upon us.

March 2009

The Whole Tree and Apocalyptic Ideas in Apocalyptic Times

2010-04-14T06:03:00.000-07:00

Looking into the most highly realized persons who are aware of their participation in this chaotic and insane world where we are dysfunctional at every turn from the barbarian decisions and actions of war to the financial freefall of counterfeit money made from thin air, to the sicknesses and diseases that swallow us whole, I see we are all broken mature (i.e. adult) trees and we are fixing ourselves as best we can to become more whole again. Again is the key word here, for we were whole once: as children. As Jung stated the child is an image of wholeness. But where do we go to fix our broken selves? Would it not be prudent to go to the source of the problem, the root? If so, then we must return to the issues of childhood. For childhood is where are the wiring of our behavior gets fired. The root is there. If we want our forest to be wooded with whole, healthy trees, we must find out what is the proper environment to facilitate this wholeness from the seedling, and not simply repeat the cycle of fixing the broken mature trees.

I turn to Dr. Maria Montessori, a much neglected source of light regarding personal (child) development, and her SECRET OF CHILDHOOD, 1966. She continually repeats and shows that "the child is the father of the man."

"Childhood constitutes the most important element in the adult's life, for it is in his early years that a man is made. The well being of the adult is intimately connected with the kind of life that he had when he was a child." Dr. Montessori knew exactly what we are learning from contemporary brain research and the axiom “neurons that fire together wire together”.

"The startling blindness of adults, their insensibility with regard to their own offspring, is something that is deeply rooted and of long duration. An adult who loves children but unconsciously condemns them inflicts upon them a secret sorrow which is a mirror of his own mistakes." We would all do well to contemplate her profound accusation of unconscious psychological maiming of children by adults.

"A child cannot develop and expand as it should because the adult 'represses' it. But this word 'adult' is in itself an abstract term. In reality a child is isolated from society; if an 'adult' influences him, it is a specific adult, the adult closest to him. And ordinarily this would be first his mother, then his father, and finally his teacher. Society, however, attributes to adults a completely different role: it credits them with the education and development of the child. But now, after the human soul has been probed to its depths, there arises from it an ACCUSATION against those formerly regarded as the guardians and benefactors of mankind. But since nearly all adults are either mothers, fathers, teachers, or guardians of children, we may say that all adults stand accused, that the society responsible for the welfare of children has been put on trial. There is something apocalyptic about this startling accusation: it is mysterious and terrible like the voice of the Last Judgment: 'What have you done to the children I entrusted to you”? - Devastating and alarming words from Dr. Montessori.

People who are young (rather than calling them children) have a psychic development that is all their own, yet can only be developed in the proper environment. Rather than mature as broken and unwhole, it is for young people to show us the way to wholeness. Wounding is part of that wholeness, as is gaining conscious awareness of patterns, callings, and nature, with all her mysteries. Our view of the developmental needs of the child has been skewed toward the adult needs and is therefore biased in a way that does not contain the suchness of what really is. In reality, children not only have no rights (including the rights we enforce with protective service agencies which are the adult rights to do what they want with the child), children are the most discriminated persons of society. Montessori’s words of apocalyptic warning ring truer today than one hundred years ago as “children” are drugged into oblivion by the adults in charge.

Richard Edinger, in Archetype of the Apocalypse: A Jungian Study of the Book of Revelation, points out that if enough people bring to consciousness the apocalyptic coming of the self along with an ego that is open and cooperative, this can lead to Jung's "broadening out of man to the whole man" and away from the more catastrophic manifestation of the apocalypse. Shall we include people who are young in this experience or keep them relegated to "not ready for, inappropriate for, too fracturing, and without resource to handle?"

Many people around the age of six already understand, experience, and question the repressed ways of the adults around them. By puberty many people today are not only fully equipped to deal with the dark side and shadow, they are longing for it. If we take a look at what they are really calling for, we will see a hunger for something deeper, psyches desiring redemption and development through the dark forces that have already made themselves known. The coming of the self to the adolescent is serious business. When nobody listens to their needs, they act out the more catastrophic manifestations of the apocalypse rather than the "broadening out to the whole man."

Until we allow young people their innate, self-evident right to decide for themselves, we will continue the repression that seeds the adolescent rebellion. We will repeat the accusations of their ineptitude and blame the young persons for their idiocy rather than understanding that they have been hard wired to make these destructive decisions because of our keeping them powerless for far too long. As Rollo May has pointed out, the powerless will make perverted decisions as they strive to attain power. The cycle repeats itself endlessly as we grow into broken mature people and then spend all our time consumed with making ourselves whole.

If we start to allow children their inalienable right to make decisions for themselves, from eating what they want, dressing how they want, learning and going to school how they want, etc…and simply start aiming to keep our “children” in their innate wholeness from the beginning and learn from their connectedness to truth and innocent wisdom, we will begin to reverse this destructive and inefficient cycle and find ourselves with whole mature trees that have time and energy to be creative and life affirming.

HEALTH CARE RE-FORM - A DIFFERENT VIEW

2010-02-02T07:18:00.000-08:00

Honest Holistic Scientific Health Care Re-form

Care of health nature-ally

Care of health has been idiotically skewed toward a perverse idol worship of the modern medicine man, the DOCTOR. No longer a personal experience and responsibility, care of health is now intimately involved with the cold steel of an industry awash in self-interest, greed, corruption, and hidden agendas. No end is in sight for the ills of modern man; we don’t even pretend to see an end game, for the industry perpetuates the game to extremes of which the vicious cycle of health care hurts the one it aims to heal. The public at large is hoodwinked into the dogma of the official line and people, or shall we say patients, dare not cross that line for fear of the doctor’s wrath. We turn our keys over to the doctors and breath a sigh of relief as we abdicate personal responsibility and accountability knowing of course that the “expert” is now in charge and will tell us what to do.

What he tells us to do will focus on the symptom and will not address the root cause. What to do will be dosed or surgical or will be terminal, or may contain all three. What to do will not aim at prevention. And why should it? In our capitalistic system the doctor is a money maker like everyone else and abides by the rules: make profit, make more profit than the next guy, for this is your right and your privilege. In this system, if the doctor heals the patient and no longer needs to treat him, then the status of his career diminishes. He no longer is making his largest profits, he no longer has a waiting list of patients-to-be, and he no longer will be able to compete with other medicine men. In this system, to keep the patient in health does not pay. Hence, massive multitudes of sick people accruing astronomical medical bills firing the kiln of interconnected health care costs until the oven overheats and nothing whole is made nor left.

Health care reform as we know it has two main goals: one, to get each and every individual insured, and two, to reduce costs. Lets really look into and investigate these goals which seem so noble and worthy on the face of it. Since, in the view espoused here, the latter will make the former goal shift into a new focus through our investigation, let’s deal with the money side, costs, first in this discussion.

The question to ponder, to dream about, to look deeply in and around, thinking as absolutely open-mindedly as possible is: how do we lower health care costs? If we only look at our current ways, our present system of health care, we limit ourselves, box ourselves in and will not discover if there are other ways to approach health care. Perhaps our system itself is the root cause of the escalating and exorbitant costs of health care. Unless we ponder all our imaginations can come up with, we will lack the creative fortitude to re-form.

So, how do we lower health care costs? Why do health care costs reach such expensive levels that employees and employers cannot afford them?

Health care is designed overwhelmingly by the “experts”: doctors, politicians, and health care business executives. It is not difficult to see that these “experts” depend on each other for their livelihoods. The incestuous policy making of these experts has been written about and studied enough for me to need not extrapolate or cite here. Short to say there is a conflict of interest in the very same experts who create health care policy! This root problem must be changed to re-form.

How do we create a health care system that will not reflect the authors need to make profits and get elected and reelected? How do we create health care that has a ring of truth to it – to care for the health of the people? In our current system, the expert’s inherent conflict of interest cannot be avoided. It is how our politicians get elected and legislation for the doctors and the industry executives get written and made into law. So where do we turn? Universities? They too are part of the incestuous club of back scratchers. This too has been shown and need not be taken up here. Lay persons? Would they know enough, have enough knowledge to make intelligent decisions? Doubtful. And might they also have self interest as a primary motivator?

Well what about a consortium of all the above? Would a balanced group of individuals from varying sectors of society provide checks to the conflict of interests inherent in this group?

Perhaps we need to explore letting society make its own health care policy; a true free market industry where the market demand creates the product without the interference from government regulations. Do not dismiss an idea such as this simply because it is not of present thinking or ways. Look very deeply into it, map out the path of this hypothetical re-formation and like a good chess player anticipate the moves as far out as you can see. Often what seems at first and immediately reckless and destructive, will turn out efficient, safe, and extremely productive and constructive after the initial birthing and growing pains have subsided.

People in a free market act. People in a spoon-fed regulated government market listen and obey and give up their power. Our government regulated market has helped make our citizens fat and unhealthy, sick and lazy. Our government food pyramid has been shown a fallacy, our medical cures do not exist even after billions of research dollars, the drugs we are prescribed hurt and kill us, and the foods we eat are regulated to be poisoned and modified which makes us unhealthy. The air, water, and land we breathe, drink and eat from, are poisoned and dying from the food industry among others. We are fed TV screens twenty four hours a day everywhere which ask to be used and watched and we listen, watch and get “entertained”, give up our independent thinking as we are radiated while watching advertisements which convince us that health is found outside ourselves. Reform what is on our screens and reform the masses.

How about creating a federal campaign, if we have to have government involved, to educate the masses to think independently and to discover the vast wealth of health to be found outside our current health care system and motivate people to be responsible for their own health. Of course this is a pipe dream that would ruin the profits of the status quo which government is a part of. Even still, if we put all our money into this kind of campaign it would work and re-form.

The true cost reduction and savings in health care is barely mentioned in this current cyclical debate. Nothing would reduce costs more than not needing these services because the population is healthy and well. Of course this would ruin corporate profits and would not be tolerated let alone considered!

Begin to educate five year olds in kindergarten and carry on through out their years in school. If we must have schools why not have healthy schools? Why do we have such unhealthy cafeterias complete with food that is toxic, and environments that are toxic, and a paradigm of man made chemical toxic living? We can create a generation of healthy people if we attempt to and see the long view.

Meanwhile we can give sick people in hospitals HEALTH food and educate them about healthier ways of eating and living. How about a new philosophy of parenting which fosters, supports and values breast feeding as the best start of a healthy life? Even better, how about the huge savings on giving birth responsibilities back to the mother and women and keep the birthing in the home where costs are cheap and the environment actually boosts the immunity of the new born? When we have a population of individuals taking responsibility for their health we will finally eliminate the root cause of health care spirally costs: unhealthy people!

Yet let me remind readers that a health care system without unhealthy people is an industry failure in our business model! No profits can be made without need or demand. An entire industry would need to create new jobs. Of course the logical shift would be towards a well-care industry: caring for well people just like the well baby visit to the doctor.

People would now turn to the well-care industry for maintenance just like they do with their cars. We schedule our car visits precisely so we do not wait until the car breaks down to get it fixed. We wash it and make sure it gets good gas and good oil to burn daily. We keep tires rotated and replaced and we change out filters and belts. In short, we maintain the machine so it will not break down. If we neglect this maintenance we suffer the consequences.

Now the key with our car’s maintenance is that we do not treat one part while hurting the other. We would never tolerate our mechanic damaging the hood while working on the engine. Nor would we allow the transmission to be hurt while we fix the radiator. Or break the windshield wipers while fixing the headlights or radio. Yet this absurdity is exactly what we do with our bodies. We destroy our lungs while treating our hearts! We poison and destroy our livers while treating joint and muscle aches and pains and headaches! We go psychotic while fixing our depression! Ad infinitum…all drugs have side effects that hurt us. This means escalating health care costs and it must end to bring costs down.

If we must spend tax dollars, let the government spend on a national juicing, fasting and a raw food program, organic only, that would motivate people to participate by offering free health care for those who achieve optimal health: optimal weight, optimal blood work levels, optimal cardio fitness, optimal strength and stretch, optimal mental health and fitness, etc. THIS IS A NO BRAINER WIN/WIN EQUATION! Once people are in optimal health, free health care is giving almost nothing away, it costs nothing! When folks are healthy, like myself, we can easily go without health care because we do not need it nor use it as I haven’t for twenty five years. How much savings is that? Oh, add into that all the savings of my two sons, ages four and eight, having never had a hospital stay, never receiving vaccinations, having no need for a doctor and never had insurance. Yet both are as healthy as can be.

Meanwhile as the unhealthy work in the government program toward optimal health they will learn first hand, through experience, the drug free approach to a healthy lifestyle and body. We would rid ourselves of all kinds of ill conditions like allergies, asthma, auto-immune dis-eases, cancers, heart dis-ease, and more.

People would learn that our bodies are a system based in health through balance of energies, proper PH levels, interrelated equilibrium of regeneration agencies and the proper balance of mental perspectives that keep us stress free.

If, as is clearly shown, ninety five percent of our health care is from stress related conditions, then we must address this primarily and most stringently.

We know the stressors, they have been documented, now think how they not only cause health care costs to rise, think how they also lower productivity in the work place and cause extreme depletion of resources and profits. Perhaps that will motivate us to change our ways if nothing else.

If all of this seems too easy and logical that is because it is. It is easy to find studies on the multitudes of stressors that keep us unhealthy, from physical to environmental to mental. Our health care debate ought to be directed towards the elimination of these stressors that cause the ninety five percent of all ill health conditions! To do less is foolery.

The studies on drug free approaches to health care are abundant, from homeopathy to chiropractics, to acupuncture, meditation, organic raw whole foods, juicing, fasting, raw food diets, hands on healing, prayer, dance, yoga, etc.

Once these ideas are debated and actions are taken and we create a healthy population, health care costs will be extremely low and our desire to have each and every individual covered will be easy due to the rare need for health care and insurance thereof.

A final warning: these health care reforms will eventually be so effective that the population will need to fill the vacuum that doctor, hospital and pharmacy visits consume us with now.

To avoid this dilemma keep the health care debate focused on its current list of concerns that do not even pretend to get to the root cause but only encourage the reorganizations and rearrangements of the systems that presently keep us unhealthy.

Education, Learning, Training, Performing and Living in Ecstasy

2010-01-27T17:57:00.000-08:00

MAIN STREAM EDUCATION

Main stream education is set in a hierarchical power structure, starting with the federal government and the state, working down to the superintendent and the board, working down to the principal and assistants, down to the teachers and aides, down to the students. At each and every step, one has a set limit of power over others. At no place is there egalitarianism. Hence the lack of dignity students like myself feel in their second class status which offers lack of power in decision making or constructing one’s own life.

All the work in schools is based on a reward system. You do not have to really learn to be rewarded, as is evident with many athletes’ education, or when alumni pull strings, or when wealthy persons use their money to buy positions, and by the cheating scandals that expose all the cheating that goes on that we do not know about. The rewarding of gold stars, grades, awards, scholarships, and degrees becomes the driving motivating source for students to climb the ladder. And schools have an intense pressure to give these carrots out because their funding and reputation is contingent upon it. In this system, cheating is common place and rampant, I have been hearing about it from my students for twenty years.

In our schools the pressure to conform, which is the antithesis of development, is felt by every single student, and felt intensely. Independent thinking is not encouraged. To stand out is dangerous and its punishment starts with simple humiliation and progresses to sanctioned suspension and expelling or worse still, violent verbal and physical abuse, which is sometimes fatal. Our schools have one way to educate and are rigid without a diverse set of educational approaches that would serve other kinds of learners. Most learning takes place from memorizing information from text books not from having real life experiences. This kind of learning is short-term and only rarely gets into long-term memory – just think about how much you learned in school that you have forgotten. I have heard many parents shy away from home-schooling because they are afraid they couldn’t teach past fourth grade math. Advanced math becomes part of the short-term knowledge we learned that for most of us, is not necessary or relevant to our adult lives. Even if we developed those neural networks back then, we have lost them from lack of use. Our brains require that we use it or lose it.

The homogeneous setting of same age students from similar economic backgrounds, often racially segregated, does not reflect our world or community, and rarely opens minds by offering new experiences and new kinds of people.

The cutting of arts programs has kept the arts out of the core curriculum and relegated their stature to an unnecessary elective part of education. Often students take these courses only because it is an easy class from which to get a good grade. I have had two students here, both academically well suited, who wanted to create an independent study program to work more in depth in the arts. One student’s principal could not even comprehend the idea, and the other students’ guidance counselor pressured the student to take more classes and stay in school so the district would receive more money.

Often we have really good teachers and administrators whose hands are tied behind their backs by the system. This system advances some students and holds back others. And the artist, who lives and breathes life from a sensuous, aesthetic, irrational, intuitive, processed oriented outlook, will never succeed in this kind of environment.

A contemporary ideal of our educational system pushes students to become involved in many extra-curricular activities. This idea, I believe, has two basic thoughts behind it which we have accepted without thinking. (Much has been written about how we accept rules, laws, regulations and restrictions without thinking. This too, I believe comes from our conformist ways of educating and the loss of independent thinking.) We are led to believe that the more we are exposed to, the better. I hear parents constantly tell me how important it is for their children to be involved in many activities because it is good for the children to be exposed to as much as possible. This, like so much of our ways of living has to do with the economic paradigm we live in: as long as the economy grows, it is good! And just as we have not yet woken up to the fact that all this growth is destroying the quality of our lives through stressing our environment and our selves, we have not seen that the doing of so much activity is too destroying the quality of our lives by stressing our families, our relationships, and ourselves.

The other basic thought behind this ideal to do everything is that it will help you get into a better college and help with admissions. Although in some cases this might be true depending on what one is doing, the stress caused by the overextension of activities will null and void any benefit that is to be had. Even summers, our break from the academic setting which could be full of trying new things, are often taken up by school in the hopes of attending better colleges and taking less college classes through the intensive reading required for many AP classes. And now, some educators are asking that teenagers stay in school two more years before going to college because they simply cannot learn all the information there is to know in twelve years. If you want to see the extreme of this kind of planning for the future and forgetting about the present, look at the private pre-schools in New York City. Families pay $20,000 a year for pre-schools that have long waiting lists, just so their kids will have a jump start to their academic careers. Those kids, like the kids here who are being pushed, either by themselves, their parents, or the systems, are not happy when they are stressed and they are clear about it.

THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF OVEREXTENDING ONESELF

When we stop and consider what is going on it is clear why these kids are not happy and how damaging this stress is to our physical, emotional, and spiritual being. In short it goes like this: First we overextend ourselves, taking on more than we can manage, committing to too much, with the thought that we must do these things or that “we can handle it”, not seeing the pitfalls about to devour us. Soon we realize we are buried, which brings stress, then we begin to anticipate the stress which creates more stress, and soon we are not really doing much of anything very well. Then the people in our lives who are expecting more from us get frustrated or disappointed, and we compound this with our own frustration and disappointment, and especially the need for it to go away so we can enjoy our lives again. By now, our bodies have dealt with stress on many different levels: usually starting with emotional, moving into physical, and on to spiritual and psychological. The stress response in our bodies is a specific physiological process designed by nature to protect us short-term from dangers. It releases very important hormones and chemicals, corticoids that activate our muscles, respiratory system, and cardiovascular systems for action. In the short-term, we can live with this. In the long-term, as with chronic stress, we create hypertension that stresses our systems into dis-ease. Our immune system stops functioning well, and the body begins to break down. We usually are so worried at this point that we do not sleep well, if we get enough sleep in the first place, which most teenagers do not. And sleep is a most important time for the body to repair and regenerate itself. We all know what it is to be sleep deprived and we all know the ill effects it has on us. It is said that 70 to 90% of Americans have a stress-related disorder and end up in a health care facility thereof. And yet we continue to push ourselves and our children with little regard to these ill effects, all in the name of getting into a better college or simply because we need more. The idea of more, in and of itself is a costly frame of mind, more will never be satisfied, it will never end.

One solution is to appreciate what we have, and to want only what we need. We will have less activity and fewer toys, and we will have more health and more happiness.

AN EXPERIENCE OF EXCELLENCE

On the flip side of this picture is the experience of excellence in one activity. To experience excellence is to have true accomplishment; no reward necessary. The inner life that accompanies the experience of excellence is one of exaltation; no person on the outside can offer this. No grade or award can come close to the true inner feeling of self esteem. For deep down we know that the grade, even the wonderful A+, is an artificial construct that we experience given from the outside. The grade can be taken away as easily as it is given. The inner exaltation and self esteem of accomplishing excellence cannot be taken away at all. And this creates radiance: radiance of being, radiance of health and vitality. And this creates a wonderful rapport and relationship with one’s self which always extends out to relationships with others as we are less defensive and more compassionate and confident when we feel well inside. When we experience this excellence we raise our standard, even if only once, and we will forever measure our future accomplishments by this standard until we raise the bar again. For from this experience we have created new neural networks in the brain which will be there for us to activate again. And through the repeated activation of these new networks we will strengthen them and the older networks of lesser excellence will fall away as we stop using them. In short, we will become addicted, through the familiarity and repetition, to the chemical rush of excellence, the rush of endorphins that feels so delicious.

WHAT BRAIN RESEARCH TELLS US

Our brains create intense chemical reactions, and our experiences of these chemicals are our feelings. We relate to these feelings as if they are permanent and unchangeable. Yet, in truth we have choice of which feelings we want to experience. Our reactions are ours, and no one can make us feel a certain way unless we choose to. As performers we learn very specifically how to change our feelings and tap into feelings we desire. We do this through intention. When we repeatedly use the same intention we strengthen that neural activity in the brain. Building a character on stage is the same process as building character off stage. It is, in short, the process of taking control, directing our thoughts, and our actions. When our thoughts and actions follow certain desired paths, we develop character. Our brains are our on board computers that allow us to develop in any direction we choose: towards becoming more fully who we are, following our natural developmental impulses, inclinations, and calls, or towards becoming what others want us to be, conforming to norms and standards set by other people. When we are brain washed we submit ourselves to forceful indoctrination of a fixed set of beliefs that destroy our basic convictions and attitudes. Our brain no know such difference; it simply takes in the information and creates connections thereof. Only with a watchful, vigilant awareness of the vast power of persuasion that the media and corporatacracy indoctrinates us with daily, can we become masters of our own fate and resist the terrible pressure to conform. If we conform, we develop our brains more or less like everyone else and lose the opportunity to think for ourselves.

Our brains will be uniquely ours by developing them with independent thinking. Independent thinking and brain development require deep focus and concentration. Brain research shows that strong concentration and attention create deeper learning. The performing arts channel exactly this kind of focus, with one main difference from text book learning; performing requires movement and emotion. And kinetic movement and deep emotion deepen the learning process into long-term memory. For knowledge without experience is philosophy whereby knowledge coupled with experience becomes wisdom.

Performing arts cannot be learned from a book very effectively, even as it can be a supplemental form of learning. For real learning a studio is required and an expert instructor must impart the knowledge and offer the appropriate experience for the students to progress and develop. For the end result of performing is a bodyful experience not a mindful one. Yet, we have lost touch with our bodies in part because Descartes implored us to separate the body from mind in saying “I think therefore I am” and we bought into it. Even my computer spell-check acknowledges mindful as correct and bodyful as incorrect. Dr. Maria Montessori knew that to force children to sit in chairs to learn was a mistaken idea because she knew that movement created learning. Movement is the basis of life: stop moving…and die. Movement is mandatory for a child to develop fully. Through movement we discover our world. The performing arts begin with movement and doing. It cannot be passive, it must be active. And this is exactly how our brains develop. If our brain is passive it will degenerate and will not grow. Take the passivity out of your lives- stop sitting in classrooms and stop sitting in offices, stop watching TV, stop surfing the internet, stop the video games, stop the chat rooms and blogs, and see what happens. I encourage anyone who wants to grow to do this exercise for your self and experience what life gives in return for your attention to it. The addiction to TV in our culture is a great example of uncritical thinking which facilitates groupthink. Turn your TV off and see how your life and thinking changes.

Neurons that fire together wire together, this is a basic axiom of brain activity. And neurons that fire together repeatedly create stronger neural networks. So be careful and pay attention to what you fire. In our performing work, we develop our ability to change ourselves actively. Our bodies, minds and spirits are our instrument to play and express with. We work with this instrument every day and discover the means to retrain our thinking. We use Brain Gym or Educational Kinesiology, meditation, intention, mental rehearsal, and deep emotional experiences to train and retrain ourselves. All of this kind of work is scientifically documented to create neural vitality, deeper learning and stimulate new brain activity. Beyond this science we embody and experience quantum principles in our ensemble training.

QUANTUM PRINCIPLES AND ENSEMBLE TRAINING

We live in a holographic universe where every cell contains the universe. Separate and isolate each cell and discover the universe inside. Divide each particle as far as you can and the whole is contained within. We are all connected in the whole and the artificial separation we have constructed is an illusion that tears at the fabric of our existence. In ensemble training we experience, viscerally, this truth. We become part of a whole in such an integrated way as to feel the fusion of our self with the group, with other individuals. The role of each player is egalitarian. There is no hierarchy, although admittedly a few students and many parents do not understand this way of thinking. Their brains are wired to see more lines as more power and more importance. This is embedded in our economic model of the more the better. It does not matter that more building and construction means less natural ecosystems and that eventually the end result of this thinking is that we will have no natural habitat for the thousands of species we share the planet with, of which we are but one minor species in a huge array of biodiversity on our tiny planet in our galaxy. And if we all want more lines in our plays we will destroy all the smaller lines that are integral to the whole of the play.

When we boil it down to the lowest common denominator we are all composed of the same thing and that thing is energy. Waves of energy, and when observed the very same wave energy becomes particle and mass. Energy is everything and everywhere. When we work with energy and become sensitive to it, verbal communication is less necessary to express what is already known. Performing work teaches this kind of awareness and sensitivity. We learn to shift our energies with the blink of an eye. We learn to express the energy of different character. We know that time is an illusion because we experience, if we are lucky, the timelessness of good performing. Physics shows that time does not exist as we know it, that in the whole is everything: past, present, and future. In our performing arts work we explore this concept and are privileged to see it, every once in a blue moon until we understand it, through the synchronicities, synergies, premonitions and telepathic communication that ensemble members cultivate by working so closely together in trust. It is known that in this kind of collaborative environment our hearts entrain together, and our physiological processes fall in sync, like when the females begin to follow the same menstrual cycle. These are but a few of the gifts offered in ensemble training.

The riches of great stage work begin with ensemble interrelatedness and interaction, just as the quantum principles elucidate. Even a one person show will not exist unless it has an audience to make it real through the interface of interaction. It is the interrelatedness of partners working off each other and the reactions that ensue which create the fireworks that make a great performance. We do not sit in an isolated lonely chair by ourselves answering questions while learning. We are collaborating with other persons. We are gaining sensitivity and compassion towards others through the trust we work to develop in the process. We live and die together. We succeed or fail together. We are responsible to the whole through our individual actions. Just like the delicate balance of family life, finding just the right amount of individuality combined with sensitivity to other family members is a key to harmonious family life. This takes generosity.

Performing is an act of generosity. It is not the attitude of look at how great I am which our TV shows along with many unknowing teachers and directors espouse. It is not the simple act of taking the stage with no prior training and performing to show off which High School Musical depicts. Performing is an offering of one’s heart and soul to an audience. The development of this comes from training the instrument.

WHY TRAINING MATTERS

We have established that training one’s instrument in the performing arts means being in a studio and with an expert teacher. It simply cannot happen from a book, an instructional video, or a computer. The live interaction is paramount to training. For training in this regard implies a person in the know instructing and coaching a novice towards the desired proficiency.

In a developing young person performing arts training offers an experience to engage all of one’s senses and imagination and actively develop one’s self by reaching beyond what one has already accomplished, delving deeper into the self, uncovering what lies beneath the awareness.

Training, through routine and repetition, develops a strong mind and body. The old Russian expression in ballet for instance, is “the first day you miss class you feel it, the second day you miss class everyone sees it”. What they see is what everyone sees, that you are not as sharp or fit to master the class work after missing two days of class. And every dancer knows this truth. But why is this, why is it required to practice so much and so hard to achieve becoming a performing artist? One answer lies in the extensive studies done about what makes the difference between being good at something or being great and achieving excellence. They data and results are surprising: it has nothing to do with talent and has everything to do with practice. The more practice put in the greater chance of achieving greatness. It is estimated that is takes ten thousand hours of practice to get to the level of expert. That is approximately twenty hours of practice every week for ten years. Or four hours of practice a day, if you take weekends off, for ten years straight. This takes unyielding commitment. To stay with an activity that long requires perseverance, dedication, concentration, endurance, love, talent, enthusiasm, sacrifice, awareness, and self-reliance. It offers all the highs and pitfalls of a long marriage. Complete with the vulnerability of being hurt in the process.

Hurts are bound to happen. And how valuable they are when they happen. To be wounded from a poor performance, an undesired casting role, a humiliation or embarrassment due to one’s ignorance, etc, - all of these experiences offer chances of growth. For growth only happens through the discomfort of the unfamiliar and unknown. Often it brings pain. If we do not allow our selves or our children the good fortune of staying with their pain and facing their fears, we have most certainly done a disservice to them. We have interrupted their development. So often I see adults and parents thinking they are helping a child or young person when in fact by making a choice for them, for instance, they are robbing them of the opportunity to practice decision making skills. Or by speaking to the teacher for them, they are enabling the child to be dependant. Or by giving into their hurts and taking them from the pain they are interrupting the natural process of growth. Or by buckling their seatbelt because it takes too long to let them figure it out themselves, they lose an opportunity to practice important motor skills. We have teenage kids now who do not know the most basic of skills of cleaning, cooking, etiquette, etc. that all teenagers are most certainly capable of. We have a new psychological term called post-adolescence to label those twenty and thirty somethngs who still live at home. We have postponed adult self reliance into the twenties when it used to be that puberty signified a transition into adulthood. In training, we cannot baby our children: the challenges are too tough, and the sacrifices too extreme. The rewards of accomplishment means we have faced our fears alone, through introspection and making new choices. No one can do this for us. And we do it if and only when we are ready. Some folks are never ready. The younger one starts the more hard wired this process is in the brain. The more familiar it is and the less difficult it is each time we practice it.

The joy one discovers from training and accomplishing is ecstatic. Early training, if in a balanced life of wholeness, not the frantic overextended life, creates an orientation to life of joy and hard work. Training offers ecstasy, which is instinctive when one accomplishes great things like new growth. This is an inner journey taken alone, even as we work with others in the process. In fact, having others witness and support our accomplishments and inner joys validates our worthiness and lovability. This is a key component to ensemble training. We grow together, we laugh together, we scream together, we cry together, we fail together, we get up together, we argue together, and we love together.

HOW TRAINING IS FACILITATED

Now to get to this wonderful experience, there are prerequisites. First and foremost, there is attendance. One cannot gain anything if one isn’t participating. Talent is second to attendance. Full participation must be offered to the work. There is no commitment when one knowingly misses the training. And it is a mistaken idea to think one can be dedicated to a genre, say theatre for example, and commit to five or six theatre programs all the while not being one hundred percent committed to any of them. If you do not make it a point to be available for your classes and in good health for each training session, you are not exercising full commitment. The great things you will gain from true commitment require you have those dreaded days of not wanting to attend class and not wanting to see your director. Sticking to something and overcoming hardships can only come if one is truly committed. To intentionally miss classes is to not know the depth of the work. Depth is only known through completeness and fullness, seeing and experiencing it all.

Once one is committed to full attendance, preparation for each and every class further facilitates training. In performing arts work there is work to be done outside class each and every day. If one fails to do this work one holds one self back. To have the time and energy to do this outside homework one cannot be overextended. I have seen my best students fall by the wayside and lose leadership skills because they did not prepare for class or rehearsal. Their work takes on an air of mediocrity. What was once special is now average. And I have seen students with little talent demonstrate great preparation for their classes and succeed wonderfully. Training is facilitated when one is enthusiastic, committed, and healthy. Performers, like athletes, have a responsibility to maintain health. And we learn in our classes and training how to stay healthy. It is a vital part of the training in fact.

All of this work is terribly demanding, which I am sure you are seeing. It requires great vulnerability. And we haven’t even touched on the deep emotional honesty that is necessary to do this work. Students who live in households with open, honest, and direct communication will have an advantage as they will be used to acknowledging their true feelings. Students will work with vulnerability when they are in an atmosphere of trust and support, and every training center must offer this. By trust and support I mean that the students trust they will be treated with dignity, even in the rough and tumultuous times of struggle and growth. And they will feel at all times the director is on their side, even as they are hearing a barrage of criticism. Students learn how to take notes, what we call criticism, without defensiveness. They learn that the notes are for their growth and not to be taken personally. This training facilitates maturity.

Where we do this work has a large impact on the work. A training facility must be professional in standards. Everyone has probably had the experience of walking into a building and instantly feeling that the facility is sub par. The work space should be considered a sacred place and should be treated accordingly.

Of course one of the most important aspects that facilitates training is the level of the director and faculty. How can you know who is an expert teacher or director? Find out the background and experience of the teacher. How many years of real life experience in the career has the teacher had? Going from learning in college to teaching is a sure dead end in the performing arts. First of all, many of the highest professionals do not consider college training very good. Colleges are interested in all the exterior rewards and motivations I have listed above. College training is chock full of teachers who have little profession experience or experiences in the lower levels of the profession (although this may be changing as more artists are taking up the secure positions colleges offer and the college programs are expanding rapidly – we will wait to see how it unfolds). And lastly, colleges are corporations that are part of the corporatacracy that breeds conformist ideals. I know many talented performers that have left colleges, even prestigious institutions like Julliard because of their limited boxed-in attitudes that stifled the artistic instincts of the student.

Secondly, if one learns in college and goes right into teaching all one can teach is from the limited knowledge and experience one gained in one academic institution; which is not the same as learning from the experiences of working in the real world and gaining from the diversity and variety of other directors, choreographer, musical directors, teachers and cultures. Nothing can replace the training and learning from the real world experience.

Besides working in the real world, look to see how many years and what kinds of experiences does the teacher have in training students. Certainly a seasoned teacher will have more to offer than a green one. Also very important to look for: can the teacher demonstrate the material taught, especially if a young teacher. An older teacher must be able to impart the knowledge without always demonstrating.

Does the teacher have a proven track record of accomplishing their mission? This would be an indication of reliability.

Is the teacher open to discuss the work and answer questions with students and parents? Inevitably there are misunderstandings and miscommunications that are part of any relationship because we all filter our perception from our own unique neural networks which leads to different interpretations. So having a teacher that will explain him or her self and discuss the work is an indication of generosity and open mindedness.

Even after you look into all these area and find a teacher that fulfills these qualities, it is still a matter of chemistry. You must find the right teacher for you, and sometimes, for me always, intuition is the best source of knowing.

KNOW YOUR GOALS

In your training you must keep in mind your goals. You must revisit them and reevaluate them as you grow. Goals change and evolve. Staying true to your goals is paramount. Get to know your goals, and careful not to have a goal to have something to fall back on. Performing is too demanding to try to prepare for another career as well. Medicine is a demanding and competitive career choice and many pre-med students do not make it. Yet we would never dream of asking a pre-med student to have something to fall back on.

Write out your immediate goals in the performing arts. Write your 1 year goals and then your 1-3 year goals. And write your further goals be they in college or career. Write other goals you have in other areas as well. Now under each goal write your resource for fulfilling those goals. See where your priorities are. If you are in a quandary about a decision to do one thing or another write out what advantages and disadvantages each choice would offer in regard to achieving your goals. Usually doing this will make the decision clear, not easier, but clear as to what is to be decided. The hard part of following through with your decision is part of your training.

If you want to perform in the school play, for example, and yet you want to perform at a training center like The Gate, do this exercise. I hear students wanting to do the school play because of social reasons, for social relationships. This is a wonderful reason to do a play in school. Yet it will not get you the training you need to compete in the larger arena of getting into the college of your choice. Also, do not neglect the relationship[s with your friends at the training center. In fact, they may be longer lived because of your common career goals and the deeper commitment you share with them to the work. Always ask yourself: what is the best way for me to achieve my goals. Performers who perform without training are at a distinct disadvantage to performers who train and also perform.

We help our students and children perform better when we allow them to be self-directed. This is the path to true development. Doing what others want of us, taking orders, pleasing others, are all ways to sabotage our own development. Young people learn responsibility by practicing being responsible. It is learned experientially, not conceptually. When kids are treated as adults they almost always rise to the occasion and act as adults.

When teenagers are working along side adults, like they have for ninety-nine percent of the history of mankind, they cultivate adult tendencies and choices. When teens are only embedded in teen culture, they act like teenagers. The gifts of the multi-age learning environment are well documented and are demonstrated here at The Gate.

Children are natural learners. They only need a guide once in a while to jumpstart their work, or assist in the process. They do not need to be coerced into practice, attending classes, or any other facet of learning. All that accomplishes is taking the natural learning instincts out of them. Nothing can replace being really listened to and the feeling of worth a child feels when an adult heeds what is told to them by a child.

WHY YOUNG PEOPLE ARE SHORT-CHANGED IN OUR CULTURE

Yet in our culture, children are discriminated by their age at every turn. Rarely can they practice the responsibility they desire and actually need to grow by. They are overwhelmed by the ever growing restrictions we place upon them. And they are over extended in their activities because we have not pointed out the ill effects of stress and instead have impressed upon them that they should be doing it all.

The corporatacracy aims their consumer strategy at young kids and robs them of their inner dreams as they become driven to be cool. The arts are not cool in our culture, sports are. The arts are made into competitions, we learn to dance to win, not to experience they joy of dance. We sing to win, not to enjoy the freedom of vocal and musical expression.

In our result driven culture, process becomes something to get through as fast and as easily as possible to get to the end – the joy of doing is unknown.

The arts are transformative because they offer experiences of irrational, demanding commitment. In this work we are trained to follow our impulses, be available for our partners, work off our partners, open our hearts and minds and every pore in the body, be specific, work in soft focus seeing nothing in particular and seeing everything, honor what others bring to the work through an enthusiastic “yes”, listen to our bodies, let the work do us, plant seeds and work organically allowing the creative process the time it needs to develop fully and naturally, be in the moment, development character with our actions, and offer all of our work in a spirit of generosity.

Life is to be lived in ecstasy and the arts are a door in. Children embody the secret of our nature and are our best teachers. The dark material that is inevitably part of growing is to be celebrated and valued. There is no right or wrong, good or bad, it is all an illusion we have created through dualistic thinking and dividing up what is whole. The child is indeed the father of the man, as Dr. Maria Montessori pointed out.