Copper Chronicles

I’ve experienced some wrath and animosity in the course of my years which is disturbing. Right? If one is the object of hate, contempt, and ridicule, it’s natural to want to know the origin. But, also it’s human nature to prefer to stay ignorant as well. But head buried in sand is no longer an option.

There’s been two things happening, I realize, during the course of my life-time. In an earlier post, I observed that there’s a power drawing me to itself, that is love. That is the Almighty. Then, there’s the derision, distraction, and confusion of this world that tries to capture me, trap me. Up-end me. Sort of how hunters try to trap lions in the wilderness in noose nets. They use deceitful, tricky, and camouflaged mechanitions to capture my soul. Rrrrrrrrr.

The good news is: The key I learned to escape the derision and distraction is to understand that I am not being pursued like a prey animal because of my worthlessness. Rather, the opposite.

I’ve wrestled most of my adult life with the Adversary of my soul. The Bible calls him a predator seeking to devour his prey!

I know this is true -that we have an adversary of our souls- because he lets us believe any fiction, any delusional ideas about ourselves, and our importance. He will allow us to entertain any fancy, no matter how depraved, and pet us and coo at us, as if he is quite pleased with his perverse ‘creation.’

I know this is true – that we have an adversary of our souls, because a soul cannot live in a net of lies. Remorse cannot be disguised no matter how much we drink. Shame cannot be extinguished by any running.

I have been being chased by love and pursued by shame simultaneously. Both things are happening to us all, I believe. It’s like the energy of the world is at odds. Two forces, two wills opposing, in our selves as well as in our harm-scape. That’s a word I use now for ‘landscape’ since the world has changed dramatically for the worse in the last thirty years.

The Almighty pursues with love, the Adversary pursues to entangle and trap us: Prevent us from knowing what is true.

What a revolting prick! A Coward, for he subtly insinuates so as not to be seen. A wretch, who cannot even face the light of day for his countenance will be known by all. A Villain.

Imagine being so insecure and perilous in intention, you live in terror everyday. You’re only object is to disguise yourself in darkness. Hide yourself in shame?

It isn’t easy to know ones self, or see darkness in our minds and hearts. But, it’s important to understand the source. We can be full of darkness and ill-intent if we do not recognize we have choices.

We don’t have to live in darkness and peril anymore, as cowards before the Almighty. Bound by fear and shame like animals in the Adversary’s trap. Jesus died to set the animals free!

I mean us. Jesus won the war with the Adversary to reclaim ownership of all creation -including human beings that may have so long rejected Him! The Adversary is an Interloper on the world scene. A Crook, a Criminal. Doomed.

Hurray!!

Lyle and I are experiencing another upheaval of ordinary life. Life for me hasn’t been normal since as long as I can remember. The Barbie and Ken doll dream of a little house in the suburbs with a white picket fence always seemed implausible. Now it’s dead.

Now that I know Barbie was a knock off of a German sex doll in the last century, pieces are falling into place. We were sold an idea of happiness by our televisions, supposedly an ideal human condition we can buy at United States.Inc. Eventually we’ll find out why and when our nation was “incorporated.”

I suspect Britain did not just ‘give up’ it’s dreams of global empire after the Revolutionary War. Doesn’t that seem unlikely? Rich men, powerful people, Masters of the Universe (so they call themselves.)

Jesus didn’t say the normal course of things is for rich men, powerful people just give up there wealth, status, and pursuit of earthly glory. It was recommended, because we possess nothing that wasn’t given to us. But, they fight to the death to keep power.

So, having lost America in the Revolutionary War, they decided to continue their empire building under the guise of United States.Inc. We pay for their wars and empire building now. I suspect. The plan was: Drug Stores, McDonald’s, Walmart, Planned Parenthood, and transgender sex shows in every neighborhood on the planet!

That is the empire planned. That is the empire falling apart.

A beloved childhood friend often said to me when I mused my observations and concerns: “Who cares?” I did not understand his innate confidence that everything would be ok in the end. I didn’t see how that was possible.

“I don’t know how it will work out- but it does. It’s a mystery,” insists the lovable rogue/theatre owner in the film, Shakespeare in Love. Brilliant Geoffrey Rush performance.

I can honestly say to this big event, that cannot be stopped, Who cares? The enemies of our souls, the Masters of the Universe wearing masks and playing the role of beloved politicians (or not) and benefactors: this is the World they had planned for us.

Sex dolls for children. If that were their only crime, they should be put in jail.

Lyle and I are going to the wilderness. It has to be safer place than this world is right now.

For a large part of my life I’ve been wearing something like a helmet: a set of ideas and beliefs I now understand to be erroneous.

The Helmut is how I interacted with the outside world. Like a user interface enables me to access internet activity, it’s a mental and biological system of thoughts and behaviors developed over time by interactions with my environment.

The Helmut is programmed with false ideas and wrong perceptions. It’s stuffed, too. Internet technology enabled me to do things that are problematic: like access thoughts, ideas, and concerns of millions of people.

That operating system is oppressive because it exposes me to suffering, violence and chaos that humanity experiences. But, it doesn’t enable me to effectively take action against the heavy emotional turmoil. It’s like being a hostage. Neither do the old ways of thinking supply any form of judgment by which I may gage my actions.

The whole system is outdated. What we’ve been taught to believe has failed to produce humans capable of coping with the world that is fast approaching!

Technology is creating sociopathy similar cities. The Bystander Effect on steroids. Someone may be murdered outside in the street. But, viewers may respond as if it was a staged event in a Hollywood production. So?

Human beings don’t have the emotional or mental capacity to care about the needs of millions of human beings. This is scientifically true, not just my opinion.

The average person doesn’t have the mental or emotional capacity to foresee how their behavior impacts ten people nearest and dearest to them. How can anyone possibly care effectively about thousands and millions?

Sociopathy is how Stalin said to cut off millions of people from their food supply. It’s for the greater good, he claimed. “Give us the power to do all the good we intend!” The Sociopaths say, I mean the Socialists say. 🤨

Ai is a tool that gives people god-like power. But, those most likely to err employing it are those enthusiastically blinded by its indefinite possibilities. Tech geniuses are effectively not-able-to-care about millions and millions of people and the infinite unintended consequences of their actions.

No matter what size helmut I am wearing I still may not be safe in the world that’s coming. That’s why I am exchanging my helmut for a crown instead.

Jesus says he gives a crown of life to those who overcome. A crown is like a ring of power in the film, Lord of the Rings. However, it comes with a prerequisite pact with the Almighty. The agreement is that I trust Him to help me from now on.

The circular shape surrounds my mind and is made of gold. It protects my thoughts from haunting memories of my past. It’s forged with love and reminds me I am loved. The crown helps me choose what is truly wise and truly good.

The old me is dead. The New me wears a crown instead with all the benefits and privileges of access to the Almighty! Only He is effectively able to care about millions and millions of people. Something Ai, Big Tech gurus, or Socialists will never achieve even on their best days.

Lyle and I have been through some stressful times together. Since Lyle grew up in the wilderness of Northfield, MA, he’s fairly skilled at survival. As I’ve acquired skill deterring predators with Copper, my favorite hen, and her friends, I am certain camping together is not a terrible idea.

There is always a balance between security and liberty. So I’ll try to avoid building a compound for us, like I did with my hens.

I was concerned about predators in the wilderness location. So, short of an 18′- high cage surrounding them with barbed-wire topping, my hens were in a maximum security prison.

Lady, the beautiful hen, peered at me with piercing displeasure like my mother did growing up. I recognize disapproval when I see it.

Prisons are bad! I don’t want to live in a prison. Of course, rarely people want to be without their natural ability to do this or that, enjoy fresh air, or seek out a friendly chat with a neighbor.

I didn’t realize I have been living in a compound of sorts. A hellish one- where everything is decided for me. Who I am, what I can do, what I may think or believe. Or, not believe.

That explains why my automaton-like programming isn’t winning any acclimation with my new neighbors in Virginia. I try to be relaxed and friendly like people here. But, sometimes I can’t speak, think, and form sentences.

Having escaped the confines of a hyper-systematized and controlled environment, my neighbors here often look at me like I am, well, a malfunctioning escapee from a hellish, hyper-controlled environment.

I am not incorrect when I say Massachusetts can be a stressful, hyper-controlled environment as I grew up there. I lived my whole life there.

It’s sketchy, however, when everything I’ve been told to believe starts falling apart. Like, UMASS? The “Starship” of Public University so-called partners with Coca-Cola. The Athletic Arena looks like a shine to the great god, “Coke.”

Sugary, highly-caffeinated beverages, that are also addictive and dehydrating?? Don’t the professional educators at UMASS know soda is bad for you? I guess you can’t bite the hand that feeds you.

Franklin Medical Center. Try finding something not toxic and addictive to drink there. But, if you express displeasure with any small amount of human emotion, the security team will be ready “to assist” you outside the building.

The Dartmouth Health Care Center in NH, supposedly highly-rated, created a healthcare “Mall.” Several services of healthcare varieties upstairs- Addictive foods substances like greasy pizza, fries, Coke, and other stuff people claiming to be on the front-edge-of- human health should know are not good for human health!

Dartmouth Mall looks like a highly-expensive spa. But with no actual health benefits of green tea, nutrition, fasting, and relaxing that human health requires. It’s like the system is run by sociopaths.

I Am an escapee from a hyper-controlled, hellish environment. That explains why when I talk, I sound like a prisoner pleading for his life on the grounds of his good behavior. 🤔

Please, please don’t give me a vaccine touted as “safe and effective” when your whole healthcare system is neither safe nor Effective. I won’t tell anybody!

{Sigh}

Camping sounds like a good respite. Nature, relaxing, and fresh air. Fresh water. I am not certain I will find fresh, clean water anymore. But, Coke is the beverage of choice at the Federal Park System!

I’ve been searching my soul to identify and describe dehumanizing effects of the modern world. Every effort at devaluing my inherent worth as a human being has left behind an orphan- an idea, hope, or dream of who I may become- that was avoided or forgotten. My soul is a sea of orphans, sacrificed at the altar of “Progress.”

Jung described a childlike part of the self he called Shadow. I believe he means: shadows of people we may have become with concentrated effort directed toward our well-being as children. Where who we are matters. And what we may become – the best version of ourselves- is the goal of parenting.

Public schools cannot replace parents. At school my major take away was: I am only one of many. I have no right to anything but what I have in common possession with the group. That is, the teachers’ attention mostly. As one of thirty, how shall I justify my own needs and questions above so many others?

That is the goal of “socialization,” to inculcate into future citizens of the world “you are not distinct, you are not special.” This is how to “engineer equality” according to 20th public education philosophy. John Dewey’s school of thought, I believe.

The individual, a sovereign being possessing inherent dignity, was not to think critically anymore. Or, independently – for the greater good of humanity.

Perhaps the less-than-genius idea of last century’s educators was: if everybody thought the same, believed the same, had one identity and one communal experience (carefully planned by the social engineers in public education and reinforced by television programming, like PBS), then there would be no wars, ethnic feuds, or rivalry or competition between anyone.

Anyway, I didn’t have an identity when I arrived at school. Living in an environment where I must subjugate my own needs to that of the group constantly proved very destructive. So, that is the path I chose as a young person- one of nihilistic self destruction.

One may claim it was sort of a ‘revolution’ or ‘protest’ of the modern education system on my part. But, people with little to no identity as children can’t claim such sophisticated agendas. At home, I was the last of several children with very little attention. At school, there were 30 more children with whom I shared space. That I did not matter very much at all to anyone seemed a factual reality.

But, I have found sufficient proof that my claims to the universe calling me or drawing me home is true. Henri J.M. Nouwen in his book, Life of the Beloved, says that each of us starts in the heart of God, before our existence in this world. In in his heart, then, we find our home, and who we truly are.

I am free to explore all those hopes, dreams, and orphaned ideas that never were free to emerge before. It’s a crowd, to be sure. But, I am part of the “In” crowd, now!

My long search has led me to realize that happiness is a desirable and achievable state, not rooted in the ceaseless pursuit of material wealth. When Jesus spoke about not pursuing material well-being as a life’s goal, He meant that Truth, Meaning, Purpose, is available to all. And, that He desires us all to experience abundant life.

Living in the materialistic underworld- craving this, that, and the other thing endlessly- does not satisfy the whole person. That is not abundance as defined by the kingdom of God. Living by one’s worldly appetites is slavery actually, Jesus implies. Not a desirable state.

What Jesus offers the woman at the well wasn’t an addictive substance like Coca-Cola- that makes her more thirsty in minutes. The Lord is not tricky, deceitful, and craven like materialistic creatures ruling this current world. What He offers, he says, is Eternal Life. Pure, life-giving water, no strings attached. No red dye #2.

So, the kingdom life Jesus invites us all to enjoy requires respect for and cooperation with His principles. It takes a rewiring of my mind and thoughts, away from creatures-comforts-only lifestyle. Then, Up, up, and away to the greater things He has planned.

I can start cutting loose things I don’t need, like thoughts that demoralize. And, possessions that hold sad memories- and tether me to unhappy places in the past. Bitterness, criticism (from the religious quarters particularly) has no place in my future.

I guess that is why Jesus had to come to earth Himself, so people can see the real deal. The religious people were messing things up with their long faces and demoralizing unbelief.