Thanks giving; for...

Yes, we each have things to be thankful for.  At the least - most of us - for a roof over our heads.

But not for all of us .  And what's with that??  Why are we living this way???…

This late afternoon, in a bit of a side street of my old home town (of Long Beach, California), coming back from having purchased some things in a store (another thing to be thankful for) I came across an elderly black man who had no shoes on.  Or socks; except one, barely hanging on - or to say, more halfway off - the toes of one foot, as though he had tried to put his socks on but found it too difficult a job, and gave up on it.  Too difficult, because his feet were swollen.  He said, plaintively (two or three times), "I don't have no shoes;" but it's a tossup as to which is the truth: the swollen nature of his feet, or the lack of shoes themselves...I commiserated with him a bit, and gave him some money, and wished him well, and went on my way, as he did his.

But the encounter set me to wondering, about a lot of things.  First of all, came the wonder: Why isn't there a social structure in place that can deal with this sort of thing?  Why don't 'we' - society - do something about it??  For example, establish a place where this fellow could go to, to get help for his plight; whether that be for a pair of shoes (even just second hand; there are a lot of those around), or some medical help for his swollen feet, or some assistance to find such help??  I could only offer him some help in the form of some money.

Which brought up the second thought for me; to wit: Had I just been the 'victim' of a con job??  What if, say, a black woman happened to come along at that point - as I was leaving the interaction - and said, crossly (not to/about me): "Sorry for that.  Old Joe is al it agin.  He comes down here every so often and pulls that same trick on the tourists.  Not sayin' you are one; but you're obviously new to the area, not to know about Ol' Joe and his tricks."

Now, why would such a thought enter my head??

Because I, we, have been conditioned to think that way.  Because that sort of thing goes on every day, in our society.

Take the recent elections.

No; let's back up a bit first, to the 2004 presidential election year.  Over in Scotland, I was following the election results; which were proving to be very close between the incumbent, Bush II, and the contender, John Kerry.  The BBC station that I was watching, when I was about to go to bed, showed very long lines in some downtown section of some city in Ohio of voters waiting patiently to cast their votes, pictured by the BBC as that state was shaping up to be a key state in the election.  Kerry was 'winning' the exit poll 'vote' by about 3%; when I checked in on the election results the next day, the BBC reported that Bush had taken Ohio by about 3%, and that was it - he won the nomination in large part on the strength of that state's outcome.  Something didn't smell quite right to me about that result - nor, it subsequently turned out, did it to a lot of Democrats, who began demanding a recount, and such.  And so, that matter was over to them; was their business.  But then, I discovered that the matter had been quietly dropped.

Why, I wondered….and I think I know why, now, with the results of the 2012 elections; where Romney was in a good position in Ohio - according to the polls; and which was, again, a swing state - going into the election; and came out a loser there.  One of a number of surprises out of that election.  One of a large number of 'surprises' out of that election…for which reports of voter fraud, in many ways, still continue to come out, all this time afterwards, and from many parts of the nation.  Major fraud.  Enough to have turned the election/affected the outcome.*

Surprise???…

I won't belabor the point.  ('Turn about is fair play'; two can play at this game'; etc. etc. etc.)  Let me just ask:

Who wants to play a basketball game that has been fixed - or watch it?

Who wants to play a baseball game that has been fixed - or watch it??

Who wants to play a football game that has been fixed - or watch it???  

I don't.  And I would hope that more and more of 'my fellow Americans' would do something about the matter, of 'fixing' elections, so that  a decent 'game' can be made of it.  

Could be; if we were going to continue on the same level of consciousness that contains such iniquity and injustices.  

Most of us are now - soon; very soon - going to leave this level behind, and move up a 'league', to another level, closer to the pinnacle of success: back to total Oneness with our loving Creator.  Some of 'us' still have a little more seasoning left to engage in, in the minor league of 3D play.  Hopefully we will all have learned a lot from this present experience of such a life, to see us through to more positive outcomes than we Americans are experiencing - for example - in our elections today; and most other nations in their elections, I would presume.  Based on this nation's level of deceit in such matters.

What a letdown it is, from such a promising start as the one that we were bequeathed by the Founding Fathers, and that generation, of the first Americans.  But - there you go  That's 3D life for you: to separate the sheep from the goats.  As it were.  But you know what I mean; in your own life, and with such sorts of decisions to make.  In the same club that we are all in.

And I 'wonder' where, or even if, I'll ever meet 'Ol' Joe' again.  He could have been the real thing.  (He sure seemed like it.  Or is it 'acted' like it??…)  Or, a con artist.  Or, one of God's Tricksters; sent  in my path in life to 'check me out' - see what I would do, how I would respond to the 'test', the particular presenting situation.

I chose to respond in a somewhat helpful way.  (I could have brought him back to my apartment, e.g., and given him something to eat, and looked up a phone number or two for him.)  But the key question is: Could I have handled that 'little' interaction better??  And if so, how???…

There is a lot of this sort of thing that goes in in my neighborhood.  I live in a part of town, near downtown, that is a touch 'seedy', with a lot of panhandling going on.  What do you do??  I try an instant tune-ln: Does this one feel legitimate?  And if so, how much do I help him/ (there are some 

'hers', but not nearly as many) out with??  If he wants - says, he wants - to buy a sandwich, do I give him the whole enchilada (as it were), or do I just help out a little, which causes him to have to go up to others as well and, hopefully, helps him give up on the easy handout, and do something to make his life situation more viable for himself……

And I'm sure that some of the locals don't want panhandling to be encouraged in their neighborhood.  (It is fundamentally a 'nice' neighborhood.  I'm basically happy living here.)  What to do…

Answer: Your best, in each given situation.  And take each as an exercise in developing your powers of discernment.  Your level, to say, of consciousness.  Which is the key thing - the key ingredient - to progress on the stairway to the heavens.

Happy Thanksgiving, to you and yours.  Whoever all that encompasses.

For me, it encompasses (and in part because I have no really close family left) the whole world.  And it is one hell of a job, tuning into that being, to attempt to know its true needs in any given part.  

Although, there is one basic need, that encompasses the whole ball of wax.

And that is Love.    

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footnote:

* The country doesn't know, have proper feedback on, how it really voted.  That is a crime of major proportions.  It deserves a major investigation - and, like, now.