Change Is Coming

The universe is all about change.

Change happens.

It can't be stopped.

Slowed but not stopped.

It is why it is simply irrational, plainer still, stupid to believe that anyone or anything will stop change.

Who, by their will or through violence, can stop the sunrise?

It's impossible.

Yet humans' fear of change is so deep that they will believe fairy tales told to them, which claim they can prevent change from happening.

Remarkable.

Humanity will always let you down.

Two steps forward, one, sometimes three steps back.

The fear and reluctance to accept change are why we don't all have a better world.

A world where fear is not the driving force behind all decisions.

But a world where love and compassion direct our interactions.

Where sharing, not hoarding, is the rule.

Wouldn't it be nice if our leaders would do the right thing for the right reason before a disaster happens?

Change is coming.

An axiom of this universe is as follows…

The more you attempt to prevent change from happening, the faster it will occur.

You can put a dam up and stop the water.

But that water will find a way to the sea.

It can't give up.

It is inevitable.

Freedom, like water, keeps flowing to the sea.

The sea, in this instance, is the people everywhere.

What one man enjoys, all humanity will enjoy.

Freedom has never been exclusive.

Freedom, justice, and love are universal truths.

Trying to prevent them from happening, or securing them just for a minority of self-proclaimed elites, only makes the pace of change quicken.

We need to encourage our brothers and sisters who fear change to let it go.

Their yelling about the changes they hate in our American society will ironically bring about the day when those changes are permanent.

The day of love for all humanity is upon us.

This is what it looks like and feels like when fear has its last night before dawn.

Change gonna come.

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Out of Control

Why haven't you written as much lately?

My writing has slowed due to drawing a graphic novel entitled Highway.

Since there is only one of me, I've been concentrating on that to get it done as soon as possible.

One holiday after another, a birthday party, an urgent sizzle reel, and a broken-down car all hamper the graphic novels' advancement.

Just like you, we can't control everything in our lives.

Life gets in the way of our plans.

How far does your control extend?

What are the boundaries of what you believe you are in control of?

A person should know their limits.

Although some of us appear to ignore them.

Like, I can't control my family.

My 30-something children stopped listening to me when they realized I was human like them.

My wife doesn't listen to me.

But that's the secret to a good marriage.

Don't listen too closely if you want to stay married.

My friends sort of listen to me while I'm with them, but as soon as I leave, I know they are doing what they want to do.

As for strangers…

I'm asked at Disneyland a lot where the restrooms are…

That's because I wear all black and a sports jacket, which makes me look like security.

How far does your control extend?

I don't even listen to myself.

I tell myself I'm going to do this or that, and I generally do, but not on the schedule I thought I would.

Some of us just don't realize we control nothing.

We've built up elaborate stories telling ourselves we are in control and that everyone should think and behave just like us.

Why?

Because we're right and they're wrong.

Fascinating, isn't it?

They believe they are right and you are wrong.

Yet the history of truth is on our side.

When the false curtain of control is lifted, time reveals the truth.

Our beliefs form the foundation of a compassionate and loving human society.

Like when we believe that racism is wrong.

When we believe that fascism is wrong.

When we believe that power for the sake of power is wrong.

We believe in justice.

We believe in freedom.

We believe in the brotherhood of mankind.

These things, these truths, are in our control.

We can exercise these truths, take control, or we can let them go.

I hear my wife calling me…

Love and peace to you.

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Compassion

The world has never valued kindness.

Kindness in this world has always been perceived as a sign of weakness.

To be kind is stupid.

Ignorant.

You care for your own first.

Blood is thicker than the welfare of the stranger.

If you don't know, I'm an empath.

I was diagnosed late in life after years of suffering at the hands and words of everyone around me.

Their anger, their hate, their ignorance, their prejudice, their racism, their bias wore me down to the breaking point.

It broke me.

What kept me from taking my life?

Love.

Compassion.

Caring.

A simple act that cost the person who saved my life absolutely nothing.

But what it did was allow me to be here today talking to you about it.

There is redemption.

There is hope.

There is reconciliation with those who deserve it.

I'm not here to say that those who commit egregious acts upon you are to be forgiven and forgotten.

No.

Never.

I'm here to say that you need to forgive yourself first and foremost so that you can heal.

You're not responsible for their evil.

That's why you forgive yourself first.

Not the criminal mind that acted against you.

Hurt you.

Never forget.

Never forget the cruelty.

The heartless acts of violence and selfishness meant to hurt, to punish, to destroy you.

Compassion is about a standard of morality.

Compassion does not need a religion.

Compassion does not need a doctrine.

Compassion is the act that love tells us to do.

Compassion is stronger than hate.

Stronger than anger.

Stronger than fear.

It can heal the deepest wound.

It can bridge the distance between minds.

It can accomplish the impossible, even in the hands of the smallest, most overlooked person.

Compassion.

Compassion resonates through the centuries.

The love that men and women once shared is why we are here today.

They fought the good fight.

They stood up to the intolerant.

They ignored the impossible and made it possible.

Compassion is defined as weakness by evil.

You will learn that those who fear a thing call it out as weakness.

Evil fears compassion.

Just as the child who is afraid of the dark calls out, telling the darkness they are not scared of it…

BOO!

They are.

I have learned that my empathy is a two-edged knife.

It cuts to the truth, but it also cuts me.

It's hard every day to feel the pain all around me.

It can bring me down.

Yet, it can spur me on, too.

To find a way to lift every voice.

The importance of just one life.

To push for that day when hate is seen for what it is.

Weak.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Wokeism.

Bad side of town.

Freaks of nature.

Infecting our Democracy.

New York values.

Our country.

Our God.

Coincidence.

Poisoning the blood of our country.

Make America great again.

Take our country back.

These and more are what is being said out loud in Conservative America.

Have you asked yourself, does it matter?

What does it mean?

What does it mean?

It means that the idea put forth by our founding fathers that America was created for White, male protestants who owned the land they took, and it was this Manifest Destiny that guaranteed that from sea to shining sea, the White man would always and forever be in control and dominate was established by their White Christian God… forever…

The concept of White Manifest Destiny remains prevalent today.

There is a group of our fellow Americans who both believe in the sanctity of their religion, having a metaphysical control on their lives, the lives of the non-believer, and the nation as a whole, as well as the real expression that Jesus Christ established this sanctity that White males are in charge no others need apply.

Any lapse of control is a sin.

These expressions are code to the true believer who is willing to fight for their Whiteness as ordained and established by their White Christian God.

It doesn’t matter if Donald Trump is scum.

They could care less.

He could be the worst human on the planet, but he has two things going for him you don’t see.

One, he’s a White land-owning male.

Two, he’s fighting for White America to re-establish a White-male patriarchy.

He can actually do anything, have sex with goats; none of it matters to these Maga supporters because he’s ordained by the White Christian God to save the White race.

Do you hear what I hear?

The media really ignores this point.

History.

I am constantly reminded of South Africa.

The White peoples of Europe, specifically England, discovered South Africa and declared it White.

Declared South Africa White?

Think about how screwed up inside and out you have to be to be in such a mindset whereby you deny reality that much.

The British were White and in control.

But, on the horizon, their hold on the country was going to slip out of their hands.

The White British population knew it was coming to the end of their lease.

However, that didn’t stop them from descending into a brutal police state.

White Apartheid.

It got far worse for non-whites as the day approached as the White demographic minority grabbed and killed to keep control.

The U.S.A. is slipping down the same slope.

That hardcore group of conservative Americans is not fighting for a political party.

Are you kidding me?

They are fighting for what they believe is their White race.

They will not go away without a fight.

Words are a gateway drug to actions.

When somebody tells you what they believe, you better damn well believe them.

So listen up!

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

To See Too Much

Imagine seeing germs.

Imagine being able to see the germs on the people around you.

Imagine those germs as the untruths, the myths, the self-deceptions, the stories, the lies — both big and small — that people tell each other and themselves every day.

That is what it's like to be an INFJ empath like me.

For the first 55 years of my life, I suffered under the delusion that everyone was like me.

I couldn't fathom why people were so...

So inhuman and inhumane to others and themselves.

The casual untruths, the blatant lies, why did it only seem to affect me and not everyone else?

I had no idea that my psyche was missing a fourth wall.

That fourth wall that the 97% of humanity has and I don't.

That fourth wall that keeps them disconnected from life.

From feeling.

This fourth wall allows them to act independently without regard to how their actions affect others.

This fourth wall, which I didn't have, brought me to the point of screaming, "Let me out!"

After 55 years of taking on the sins of the world, I had painted myself into an actual black pit of darkness.

I saw no relief for the world or myself.

I couldn't take it anymore.

The suffering, the pain, the hypocrisy, the betrayal, the lies, the anger, the hatred, the anger everywhere.

Like a dark black rain, it poured every day non-stop.

A ghost kept screaming in my ear I was useless.

Unloved.

I needed to end it.

As the day approached, a fairy light appeared in my dark oubliette and asked me to believe in love one last time…

If you know an INFJ empath, you know, even in the end, I couldn't refuse to listen.

I found out that empaths do exist.

It's not a fairytale.

I found out it wasn't science fiction as I had thought it was.

I discovered that all the lies I saw were real.

People, all people everywhere, casually lie to each other every moment of each day.

My depression was caused by real-life circumstances, like losing my job, dreams, family, and love.

Those were real; any normal person would become as depressed as I was.

However, being an empath made it incomparably worse than for a normal person.

Who doesn't feel.

I couldn't separate other's emotions from my own.

I fell into an empathic spiral of doom.

I also discovered that I needed to establish healthy boundaries in my psychology to regulate the flow of pain in this world.

I learned that everyone needs to have a mental health check-up at least once a year.

Even the ones who don't feel especially.

You probably don't realize how screwed up you are and how many people know you're screwed up but won't tell you because they think that's the way you are an asshole.

Now, I'm 63.

Now, I have built back love and restored hope.

I still see too much.

I feel too much.

Being an empath is not a blessing unless you feel seeing everyones darkness is a happy thing.

But I'm here to say to fellow empaths it can be managed.

I learned it late in life.

But I learned.

Peace

Daniel J. Frey aka Toby

Shoes

When you walk in another's shoes…

You will gain a deeper understanding of that person's life.

Been told that ever since I can remember.

But what happens when you try on another person's shoes and find out they fit?

What happens to that story you told yourself about your place in society?

What happens to that ego you have believing in your own entitlement?

What happens when the shoes fit?

Somehow, since before the American Revolution, the People convinced themselves that they were exceptional.

Disregarding the French, who had already overthrown their Aristocracy, Americans told themselves a story that they were first.

They were the first to stand for liberty, for freedom.

But they weren't the first, no far from it.

They weren't the first White people who carved out for themselves a special place in the hierarchy of the universe.

American Exceptionalism is a unique kind of myth.

There are many kinds of myths that we encounter every day.

A universal myth that cuts across all cultures, ethnicities, races, and religions is that my myth is the only true myth and all the rest drool.

American exceptionalism is everywhere.

You can't see the forest for the exceptional trees.

It's a human thing.

Humans convince themselves of a lot of nonsense.

It's what keeps us from all having nice things.

What happens when the shoes fit?

When we find out the person we thought was foreign to us is just like us.

What do we tell ourselves?

What excuses do we narrate to ourselves, still believing we are different?

Those people don't feel pain; that's why they don't need health care.

Those folks don't know how to cut their lawn, so take away their property.

They buy stupid things; don't give them a bank loan.

These people are animals; they don't deserve justice.

It's all bullshit.

People and I'm telling it to you straight because I've been raised with a lot of White racist people, they tell each other whoppers every time they are together how bad everyone else is.

They are never the problem.

White racist Americans see themselves as the solution.

White people in America have an exceptional problem imagining being in another person's shoes.

Why this self-imposed ignorance?

Why the hate?

It's fear.

Fear of losing exceptionalism.

It is, quite literally, the fear of standing in line with everyone else and not being able to cut to the front of the line.

A fear that someone will catch on to all the exceptionalism bullshit and force you to the back of the line.

First come, first served.

No cuts.

What happens when the shoes fit?

When that day comes, what rejoicing there shall be.

When young and old embrace the fact that none of us are getting off the earth alive.

When we understand, we realize that we all bleed.

We bleed for the sake of love.

To love and be loved.

We bleed for respect.

We bleed for freedom.

For justice.

Take a look at your shoes.

Peace

Daniel J. Frey aka Toby

The Rain Is Here

All around us, the rain is falling.

Since Dylan put it into lyrics, by the way, that was 1964, the American public has been at odds with learning how to swim versus sinking like a stone.

It appears most of us ignored that piece of wisdom.

What I'm talking about is leaving ignorance behind and learning we can do right.

The rain falls…

The rain falls, and what it's doing is revealing Truth.

In the 20th Century, the rain fell, revealing fascism.

The rain fell, and segregation was revealed.

The rain fell, and we discovered the poor were in need.

We discovered that women had rights.

The rainwater rose, and White nationalism was thrown into the spotlight.

If, by the 1980s, you didn't understand you needed to learn to swim, you were sinking.

Why?

The rain kept falling.

The rain washed away our delusion that authority figures and our leaders always told the Truth.

The rain fell.

The rain fell, revealing a rainbow of gentle souls wanting to live their lives without fear.

It revealed that religious leadership preyed upon its followers' hearts, minds, and bodies, taking their innocence.

The 21st Century has arrived, and the weather forecast suggests a storm is on the way.

The rain fell.

They're hiding in plain sight; our social servants charged with protecting us instead abused us.

The rain fell.

No justice, no peace.

No justice, no peace.

The rain fell, washing away the delusion that justice was applied fairly and evenly in America.

You are gunned down in the streets, the schools, the churches of the U.S.A., and a majority are not moved to do anything about it.

We rediscovered that some people believed themselves more equal than others.

The rain falls.

It will continue to fall.

At the same time...

Love rises.

Because love applied will never give in.

Love applied will open the eyes of the self-ignorant.

Love applied will openly ask, will you change and join us in a great community?

Or will you prefer to sink like a stone?

Wish you love.

Peace

Daniel J. Frey aka Toby

Last Thing

Feeding yourself.

Buying that new pair of shoes.

Ordering online.

We'll do that.

Flipping someone off.

Talking behind a friend's back.

Getting high.

We'll do that.

Not stopping hate.

Not comforting the lost.

Not smiling.

We'll do that.

We will do many things, too numerous to count, in our lives.

And we will do them gladly.

Not out of a sense of duty but of pride.

What is the last thing you would never do?

Is it love?

The last thing too many won't do is to love ourselves and the world.

Why?

It's too hard for too many of us.

We don't know where to begin, so we never start.

Too many of us lack the foundations of love.

We don't love ourselves.

If we don't love ourselves, then loving others, including strangers, represents a danger to our existence.

If we don't love ourselves, we are handicapped, unable, and unwilling to reach out and restore hope.

Not just to be sympathetic but to attain the highest human ability: Empathy.

If we don't love ourselves, we are doomed to be consumed by our own desires, focusing inward at the expense of all life around us.

What is the last thing you would do?

Love to be effective must be exercised.

Love is not something to keep locked away.

If love is locked away only for ourselves, then it is a wasted expression.

Love to become real, to grow, to mature must live in the light of life and grow.

What do you represent?

Selfish desire or giving love?

What is the last thing you would do?

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Heavy Lift

Some of our brothers and sisters believe that the law is up for debate if it is not explicitly written in the U.S. Constitution.

It's even up for debate whether it applies to you and whether you will obey it.

This is why there is a job ahead of us all.

There is a heavy lift.

The Constitution has to be amended.

What does 'amended' mean?

It means that our society has grown more complex than when the Constitution was initially written.

In 1787, the Constitution was written by and for White Protestant male landowners.

Period.

That's a fact.

However, in their wisdom, the founders put in a contractual clause.

An exception, a clause, in case the minds and consciences of Americans changed in the future.

This clause stated that as the American Society evolves, it will be recognized that this document will be inadequate to meet the needs of future citizens.

The Constitution can be rewritten, amended, or repealed if a majority of States see the need.

Many of our conservative citizens believe that the Constitution is the same as their Christian Bible.

It is not.

Understand that the Constitution of the United States of America is a civil document that states the rights and protections of its citizens and outlines how they are to be governed by their elected officials.

It is not a religion.

It is not the holy book of any one religion.

It is not a book of poems.

It is not a belief.

It is not a fiction.

It is not.

Consequently, the irony is that too many of our conservative brothers and sisters believe that if it ain't written in the Constitution, that right doesn't exist.

These Constitutional absolutists are akin to the character George Costanza from Seinfeld.

When his boss fires him for having sex with his secretary, George laments, "If I had known, if it had been written down, I would never have done it."

This is the Conservative mindset: You have to have the law explicitly written down in one place, and in one place only —the Constitution.

If it's not explicitly written down, that law, that right, doesn't exist.

What about local laws?

Laws created by local governments, States, and at the Federal level are all up for debate.

They are covered in the conservative mind by the 'all-holy' States Rights clause, which is again believed to protect and exempt States from obeying Federal laws.

The Law.

Again, the debate is whether I will obey that law.

Suppose there is no sentence in the Constitution saying there is a right to privacy between a woman and her doctor. 

In that case, that right doesn't exist in their belief.

No amount of legislation will convince them.

No amount of protest.

It must be explicitly written in the sacred document ordained by Jesus Christ himself.

Yes, Conservatives believe that the Constitution was dictated by Jesus Christ to Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Constitution…

Yes...

Yes...

Yes...

Jefferson "did not write" the Constitution; he wrote the Declaration of Independence.

People with a belief have no room for facts.

Fact.

Jefferson was not a Christian; he was a Diest.

A Deist is a person who believes in logic over mythology.

The mythology of Western Religion in which he was born into.

What do we have to do to make a change...

Our heavy lift, if we can get the resolve together to do so, is to convince people who believe in mythology to develop the ability to reason.

It won't be easy.

Nothing good ever is.

Some people have to be dragged into the light for their own good.

I can attest to this from personal experience.

Just like a Lifeguard… 

We who understand and believe in the greater good, for justice for all, are being called to come to the rescue of our brothers and sisters.

Our brothers and sisters are drowning under the weight of their myth.

A myth that keeps them spiritually oppressed.

A myth that overlooks their economic and social sacrifices.

A myth that forces them into servitude that cares nothing for their welfare.

A myth that keeps the power in the hands of the few, not the many.

This is the good fight.

This is the good work.

This is why you and I are here, in this place, at this moment.

Peace.

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

True Believers

Racism is a religious movement.

Racism has no room for compromise.

This is why we stand and fight this enemy of humanity.

Purity is the product of minds that believe there can only be one solution to a problem.

I was raised by racists.

My extended family, growing up, were racists.

Family friends were all racists.

They ranged from the card-carrying openly hostile bigot to the meek and mild "Go along to get along" varieties.

I am well versed in the lore, the beliefs, and the practice of racists.

What they say openly to each other and what they say in private at the birthday party.

At the picnic.

At the seasonal Christmas gathering.

Racism is a religion.

It is born of religion.

Inherent in every religion, our focus, the three Western religions, is the foundation of the believer versus those who do not believe.

It is there in black and white, transcribed for all to see.

When told, many of us want to deny what's written in the holy texts of the three religions that claim Jerusalem as their holy city.

It's challenging to introduce facts to those who only need to believe and discount facts.

The fact that Jesus was a Jew.

His parents were Jews.

His followers were Jews.

The initial religious groups, fanboy clubs that formed after the death of Jesus, were two Jewish cults, factions, that understood the teachings of Jesus in two different, fundamentalist views.

They both fought each other in a "true believer's" Thunder Dome.

I'm on the right side of Jesus.

I'm on the left side of Jesus.

Two cults entered, and only one emerged.

Both cults of Jesus, these two Jewish cults, had their origins in an inherited belief that the world and humanity's relationship with the only God was an absolute worldview.

One God, one faith in opposition to a pantheon of deities and cultural traditions.

At the time and place of the fighting between these two Jesus Jewish cults for supremacy, the Eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea was packed with religions that all believed in a pantheon of Gods.

The Jews broke with the millennia of tradition.

There can only be one God.

There can only be one People.

The Jews are chosen by God as his people.

Everyone else needs to fill out a form in triplicate.

In a twist of historical irony, White Europeans, upon first hearing of the Jewish cult story of Jesus, believed they were the chosen people of the new Christian God.

Somehow, someplace ironically, they didn't comprehend that the Jewish book of faith they 'retconned' was about the journey of the Jewish people's faith.

The Jewish cult of Jesus was based on the historical beliefs and prophecy that the oppressors of the Jews would be destroyed and the Jewish people would become kings of the earth.

Jesus was the prophesied answer, the Son of God, who blew the whistle, starting the countdown to the end of the world.

The early Christians and to this day present-day Christians maintain that the chosen people of God are people of the White race.

God has to be white because that's how he's painted on the ceiling of the Vatican, right?

To tamper with the ordained order of the universe is to put yourself ahead of God almighty.

You have to be a Communist to believe that all people are equal.

Equality = Communism

There is no room for compromise.

So it is written, so it is so.

These believers in White supremacy cannot, in good faith with the Jewish God they stole, allow for any deviation from who God favors as the best race on the planet.

Racists can't allow Whites to be second-class citizens.

Again, in a crazy piece of human irony, the White racist has pitted their population minority world against the population demographic of the whole world.

I still can't understand how a minority population, White racists, convinced themselves that they are superior to the rest of the world?

At best, Caucasians in population only represent 15% of the world's population versus all the other races.

The White race is not a majority.

However, the White racists still tell themselves every day that they are the majority.

Listen to them.

This is why we, the majority who stand for justice, who stand for freedom, who stand for what is right, are in a battle with this enemy of humanity.

Consider...

Racists are like rocks in the stream of life.

They will not move.

They will not change.

Only the flow of life will eventually wear them away to sand.

We cannot and should not allow a group of people who do not want to join life to dictate how our lives should be.

Birds don't wait for someone to allow them to fly.

We can't wait for racists to allow us to be free.

There can be no negotiation with evil.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Change Happens

Standing in the doorway of the schoolhouse.

Putting up a fence between countries.

Between neighbors.

Going to war.

Stopping people from voting.

From living free of violence.

As soon as you stop progress and implement conservative ideals, you actually put into motion a cascade for change.

The conservative mind has never grasped this fact.

For every action, there is a reaction.

Stopping change will have the exact opposite of the initial intent.

No part of this universe doesn't operate around the physical reality of change.

Everything is cooling down.

Eventually, everything in our universe will reach the temperature of absolute zero.

Minus 273 degrees Celsius, or for those who resist change, minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit.

It's the temperature at which atoms no longer vibrate.

The temperature of the universe when it is absolutely dead inside.

Human beings have the unique ability to hold two opposing thoughts at the same time.

I love my mother, but I hate what she does.

I love eating ice cream; I'm lactose intolerant.

Human beings can appear alive and active, yet inside they are dead.

Their hearts, their minds have reached absolute zero.

They no longer move.

They stay where their God has intended.

Their God can be ancient in its adherence to resist change or new.

The old Gods of prejudice, racism, elitism, religion, and nationalism all preach and inoculate their believers to the ideal of not changing.

Keeping the social order dictated and carved in stone by their founding fathers.

Given the benefit of the doubt, the White man is on top of the pyramid and deserves a free lunch while everyone else below him pays cash.

The human irony.

There is real irony here.

The reality is that those who stand in the public space and declare there will be no more change forever… 

They have fired the first shot, the starting pistol, that will bring about the change they so desperately want to prevent.

Like a dam in a river, the water behind the blockage begins to build.

Through age and poor construction, the dam, no matter how large, how thick, how deep, cannot withstand the pressure of change that builds behind it.

You can't stop the merry-go-round of life.

Life will find a way.

Life will pour over that dam standing in the doorway of progress.

And what is this progress that change in our society is pushing for?

John Lennon said it… 

Imagine no heaven, no countries, nothing to kill or die for, no religion, no possessions, no greed, no hunger, no hell.

Just earth below and sky above.

A brotherhood of man where we all live in peace, sharing the world and this universe together.

As one people in tune with the true nature of life.

Change happens.

I know I'm not the only one who knows this.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Pant Load

Are you walking about with a pantload on?

And don't know it?

As an empath, I speak from direct observation of our society.

Are you like the average three-year-old walking about with a loaded diaper?

Totally unaware?

Totally unaware of the stink left behind?

Like a child with a pantload who comes to the dinner table, making everyone gag.

I liken being an empath to being able to see germs.

I see germs.

I see the germs when you're self-absorbed.

I see the germs when you disregard safety.

I see the germs when you neglect to care for others.

I see the germs when you don't care about yourself.

Our society wading in the wave pool with a pantload on.

They are unaware of the wake of suffering, of pain left behind them.

As Joseph Campbell observed, all of Western Society has lost touch with those rituals that tell a person they are no longer a child; they are now an adult.

Children only think about themselves and don't give a shit about anyone else.

Children don't think about the pantload they have on.

Adults do.

Adults can smell the problem and take action.

They clean it up.

Adults take responsibility for themselves as well as their community.

The person who blocks the sidewalk, the person who runs you down in the crosswalk, the person who gives you the finger, the person who doesn't pay taxes, the person who doesn't vote, the person who lies to gain power, the person who kneels on your neck all have a pant load on.

They suffer from not having empathy.

They suffer from not even having sympathy.

No one told them they needed to wipe their ass.

Showed them how to wash their hands after wiping their ass.

How to share and be a part of society.

The world.

Life.

Told them about love and charity.

Especially love.

Like children left to raise themselves, they have no concept they are the problem in our world.

They have no touchstone of what it means to be an adult.

They're bopping from one self-centered interest to the next.

They're making it up as they go.

Those of us that can see and smell have an obligation.

Our privilege is to tell society to wash up.

Wipe your behind, grab a bar of soap and a towel, and get to scrubbing.

Be a teacher, not a preacher.

Demonstrate what an adult is not.

Get clean.

Drop hate.

Then, join us at the dinner table, where love is the meal, and hope is the dessert.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

What Is Myth?

Myth is a corruption of truth.

Simply, I use the term 'myth' to describe lies that we believe, which give us comfort from reality.

Need it put more plainly?

A myth is a fairy tale we believe is true.

With the added complexity that our fairytale is true and everyone else's fairytale is a lie.

Myth is a large umbrella that shelters many a human belief.

Under the umbrella of myth, you will find, yes, all the religions of the world.

Both past and present.

But you will also find under that shelter of self-delusion prejudice.

You will find racism, entitlement, apartheid, segregation, urban legend, intellectualism, science deniers, liberals, conservatives, family, and friends all seeking shelter under the umbrella of myth.

You will even find yourself.

The umbrella of myth is a human invention.

It was not given to us mystically.

We created it for a specific reason.

Fear.

Fear of the unknown.

Myth gives us a reason why bad things happen.

Myth gives us control over things we can't control.

Myth tries to remove the random nature of the universe.

Our greatest fear is death.

Consequently, the greatest stories we ever made up to tell ourselves are those stories about life after death.

Those stories give us comfort from the inevitable termination of our existence.

If we believe in them, we get a coupon to "live after we die for free."

It's obvious why we created such stories.

Fear is the motivation behind all myths.

An example is the fear of the stranger, which motivates racism.

The endless storytelling occurs worldwide and in our homes, businesses, and places of worship.

Those people are not like us; they don't believe like we do, we're better.

There is a common theme underlying all the fear that shelters under the umbrella of myth.

That common theme is self.

Selfishness.

I am good, everyone else is bad, I deserve everything I want, and I don't care who I harm to get what belongs to me.

Selfishness.

Selfishness shelters under the belief that it is good to sacrifice the lives and well-being of the other to keep intact the myth.

At all costs.

The sacrifice of family, friends, happiness, but most of all truth, truth is the first and most important thing to destroy to maintain our personal delusions.

Fear will always be with us.

There is only one power in this universe that can overcome it.

Love.

Love lifts the chokehold of fear so we can see the world as it is and not through our personal expectations.

Love will allow you to see the need in the world, hear the cry for peace, and feel the urgency of now.

Love will let you understand we only get one chance at life.

That's why every life is essential.

Love makes clear that today is the day we do right, not after we're dead.

Love is the only power that can drive back the night terrors of fear and allows us to live together as we should, not as we imagine.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Denial

I'm not fat.

Did I do that?

I don't have to pay taxes.

It's not my problem.

Those people are why I don't have a job.

I have good genes; I can't get cancer.

The weather will get better.

I'm a winner.

Nobody is looking.

My husband has a second job, that's why he works late.

She's just in a mood.

Rehab will help.

That charity does good.

My pastor would never lie.

Covid is a hoax to take away my freedom.

Truth makes everyone who can hear it uncomfortable.

Too many of us prefer to be comfortably numb.

So many issues plague us daily. 

From personal to national, it is understandable why some of us want to shut it all out.

There is a wolf at the door.

Unlike the big bad wolf, this creature will be with us all for the rest of Time.

Denial.

The creature I'm referring to is denial.

Denial is the effect.

The cause of denial is the willful ignorance of fact.

No democracy, no nation, no people, no community can peacefully exist when ignorance is put into a place of honor.

The burden of a healthy society is to care for the sick.

The sick include not only those with failing physical health but also those with failing ethical health.

Our brothers and sisters suffer from anxiety of uncertainty.

They fail to consider their responsibility for their suffering.

They fail to consider that their health, happiness, and freedom are born out of securing those rights for others and themselves.

We rise together.

We fly together.

We reach together.

We overcome together.

Walk away from the dark comfort of denial into the bright community of truth.

It's your choice.

If you can see it.

Denial.

Peace

Toby aka Daniel J Frey

Why I'm Not Grateful

Is the ocean grateful that the river runs into it?

Is the sky grateful for another cloud?

Is a lion grateful for the hunt?

Are you grateful to be able to vote?

What does it mean to be grateful?

To be grateful implies something was given to us.

Something that was not expected.

Something that we could not achieve on our own.

Something that goes beyond our expectations.

Is the bird grateful it can fly?

No.

It flies because it can.

It is expected.

It doesn’t owe anyone or anything for its rightful ability to take flight.

It’s what it does.

As humans, we should expect to be fed and have shelter, safety, justice, freedom, and love.

These rights of life are not given.

These rights are part of the expectation of life.

Freedom is an inalienable right.

We are all born free.

Our rights as humans.

To be grateful implies these rights are given to us.

By who?

Show them to us!

This is the argument stated in the Declaration of Independence of why our founding fathers were not “grateful” to the King of England.

Since the foundations of civilization, men have corruptly manipulated the weak.

The most insidious is the evil that men do to the minds of the innocent.

The most hateful is the idea that we should be grateful to them.

Grateful that we are allowed to exist.

To whom?

To White racist men in the White racist world, in White racist pulpits, in White racist places of power.

They want us all to be grateful to them forever.

They want us to owe them for allowing us to exist.

They want us to be on credit until they say we are paid up.

They want us to be grateful that they allow us to have our sustenance, shelter, safety, justice, freedom, and even our love.

Who we love.

There is no end to this mortgage of suffering.

I get fired up when I’m asked to be grateful for the air I breathe.

I get fired up when I’m asked to be grateful I’m allowed justice.

I get fired up when I’m asked to be grateful I’m allowed to live.

If you want me to be grateful, give me something I don’t have on my own.

Give me an equal opportunity to work.

Give me a chance.

Give me financial credit.

Give me the freedom of the vote.

Give me respect.

See me.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Original Fear

Children have a fear of the dark.

It is a rational fear to the child because they are still children.

The fear is born out of the belief that the world will change when the child closes their eyes.

A world that changes cannot be predicted.

Not being able to predict the future is an innate, fundamental fear response.

This fear is genuine for all of humanity.

To survive in a hostile environment, regularity and predictability allow for a relaxation of awareness.

Allows rest.

Allows sleep.

Removes fear.

That is why the parent puts on a little light in the child’s room.

This little light illuminates the room and the environment.

The child can peek out from their shut eyes and see the room is still the same.

Sameness allows rest.

Sameness allows sleep.

Removes fear.

That little bit of light of truth allows the child a space of comfort in a hostile world.

We, as the carriers of light, it is our privilege to hold up that little light of truth.

We hold that light of truth up in a hostile world.

That light seen by the fearful gives them comfort.

Gives rest.

Gives peace.

Removes fear.

Sweet dreams.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

The Deep

What do you see?

What do you know?

What do you believe?

The surface of the ocean tells you nothing about what takes place below.

When you live on the surface, the tides are out of your control.

The waters below hide things moving there.

The sun burns to the horizon.

The gulls gossip with each other.

Above the seas, life there has no contact with what moves below.

Deep water.

To those who live deep under the surface, what takes place up top has nothing to do with their reality.

No matter how much the winds of change may blow up top, the people of the deep are not moved.

They are insulated from the critique of weather.

Life below is steady.

Predictable.

Below the seas, life there has no contact with what moves the above.

What do you see?

What do you know?

What do you believe?

The people on both sides have chained themselves to an ideology that says they are special.

They are the chosen.

They will rule over their enemies in life and after death.

They are in love with their conflict.

It fills them with purpose.

It feeds their prejudice.

And they are hungry.

How do you find a compromise between two opposing people who believe the total destruction of their opposition is required so they may live?

The thousands of children on both sides that have died have not moved them.

The destruction of their community on both sides has not moved them.

The thousands upon thousands who have died on both sides are ignored.

Only the point of contact between the two sides of the conflict has ever been addressed.

The window dressings, the easily understood issues, the things that can be whined about without touching the sea monster at the bottom of the ocean or the dragon circling in the sky.

What aspect of this conflict remains unaddressed?

What is it in the deep waters and in the sky that brings fear to the peacemakers?

Something so profound that, if talked about, would shake the foundations of society?

That which shall not be named.

God.

Religion and its structure are at the core of the conflict.

Either one is right, the other is wrong, or both sides are wrong.

And there's the rub.

The three religions of the West all claim the same spot on earth as theirs and theirs alone.

There has never been any room for compromise within these three groups.

King of the hill or ruler of nothing.

Like blind fish and birds, the faithful follow the voices of hate they were born into.

There can be no compromise with those who oppose us as rulers of humanity.

It's written in the holy books of all three faiths.

The problem is now defined, so what do we do?

We send a message of hope.

We let the people of the deep know that life is possible on the land.

We tell the people of the land that life is possible in the deep.

It's a different life than what they have known, but it is life.

We must ask them as many times as needed to understand we share this world with them.

The people on the land and the people of the deep can live together.

There can be peace only if those who live in the deep want it as much as those on the land.

Otherwise, the oceans will roll, and the sky will thunder.

The storm will continue.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Permanent Record

Guilt.

Guilt is a powerful force in human society.

Guilt will build cathedrals.

Guilt will jump from a bridge.

Guilt keeps the innocent under control by the guilty.

This guilt is not because the person, the society, has committed a crime.

It's not for killing, or stealing, or destroying.

This guilt is used by those who wield it as a hamstring.

A way to stop progress of the emotional and intellectual development of a society and the individual.

It began long ago.

When the gods had to be appeased.

When the gods had to be paid off or, they would get angry and do bad things to you.

A formula was given to mankind by the Gods through the priests.

You can't want a thing for yourself unless you give up something of equal or greater value.

Simply, you can't have your cake and eat it too.

You can have a birthday, but you can't enjoy it.

You can have a career, but you must sacrifice your love life.

You can have the pleasures of earth but give up the pleasures of heaven.

Hogwash.

Bullshit.

We must peel back the layers of guilt to find the origin of the species of guilt.

This kind of guilt was created by the ruling class, the aristocrats, kings, and queens.

Guilt kept them in power.

FYI...

The aristocracy of Europe believes themselves to be the children of Jesus.

They are in his family tree.

Direct genetic inheritance.

They are the physical embodiment of God on earth.

There are not many other positions in our society where change is more of a threat to their existence than to the aristocracy.

You can count on that list the current Republican Party.

Change of awareness, of the removal of the blindfold of ignorance, becomes a direct threat to their power.

Guilt.

Guilt is the weapon of the powerful.

You don't want that because you're not good enough to appreciate it.

That dress won't look good on you; you're fat.

You can't handle the truth.

Your vote doesn't count.

You are not a man.

Not worthy.

Guilt is the slow bleed in the side of hope.

The truth that destroys guilt is that there is no outside bookkeeper.

There is no one keeping track of your guilt.

Only you can measure your guilt.

There is nothing wrong or evil about wanting a better life.

You can have a good job and a living wage.

You can vote for a government that serves all the people.

You can have love and happiness too.

There is no permanent record.

No file keeper is checking off if you sacrificed sufficiently to get your heart's desire.

Have you suffered, bled enough, or died enough to get a better wage.

Who keeps guilt alive?

Who keeps pouring it out?

People whisper dark thoughts into innocent minds, making them hate themselves.

People who enjoy pushing people into the mud so that they can walk on their backs with self-righteous, clean minds.

Break the cycle of guilt by keeping your eyes on the truth.

Truth is a fire, a light against the darkness of ignorance.

It will lead in unsuspected directions.

Truth sets the innocent and the guilty free.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

The GOP Today

What controls the modern Republican Party today is hate born of fear.

The hate is directed at anything, anyone, who represents change.

This child called hate is not responsible for its own birth.

This hate is not an immaculate conception.

This hate was born of parents called fear and ignorance.

Fear is the name of the mother of the child of hate.

Fear of the other.

Fear of the stranger.

Fear of sharing.

Fear of truth.

Ignorance is the name of the father of the child of hate.

Ignorance of empathy.

Ignorance of justice.

Ignorance of freedom.

Ignorance of truth

Together, fear and ignorance met long ago in the human story.

Fear, ignorance, and their child hate have been why we don't have nice things in our American society.

Universal health care, a living wage, high-speed rail, paid sick and vacation days, child care, clean food and water.

Fear, ignorance, and their child hate have been the roadblock, the hurdle, the moat, the barbed wire, the wall that has kept society from reaching the promised land.

They have been the crab in the barrel of life that keeps pulling those back who want to escape the cycle of violence.

Fear and ignorance didn't produce just one child.

Every generation, another abandoned sibling of hate is added to the orphanage.

This generation's child of hate finds its refuge in social media.

There, it feeds upon the prejudice with relish and abandon.

Before today, the children of hate had to gather in secret, in the woods, with hoods.

Hide who they were.

Now, they take pictures of themselves as they desecrate the House of the People.

Fear finds refuge in the pulpit.

Every Sunday in America, it is taught that God ordained the White man to be on top of the social economic pyramid.

Every Sunday in America, fear is given shelter when it's declared that the mixing of the races is an abomination in God's eyes.

The White race must stay pure and faithful to God's word.

Every Sunday in America, fear sees the browning of America and the world as the end times.

The time when their savior Jesus will return and kill all the enemies of the White man and make him ruler of the earth forever.

Whites are the chosen people.

Fear finds companionship with those who hate other religions.

The babysitters of fear, like Putin and Trump, use the fear of the Islamic religion to incite violence.

These fearmongers, people who sell fear, create a problem so they can declare themselves the only ones who can fix the problem they created.

The children of hate.

It's what unites the Republican Party, this fear both politically and financially.

The fear that White people and their God will be replaced by brown people and their brown God.

This understanding of the world based on fear is reinforced every time they tune into the news.

The child of fear knows it's right when it sees Black Lives Matter marches.

The child of fear knows it's right when it can't make jokes about a person's race anymore.

The child of fear knows it's right when they can't get a job at a living wage.

Those people took my job.

This fear knows they are doomed if their White savior is not re-elected President.

Is there a way to stop the hate from multiplying?

No.

No, there isn't.

That's the truth, no matter how hard it is to hear.

The child of hate is not the source of the problem.

The source of the problem that threatens to destroy American democracy is fear and ignorance.

The parents of the children of hate need to attend a family planning session.

Their fear needs to be listened to.

Fear needs compassion.

Fear needs to feel safe.

Ignorance is the harder of the two parents of fear to help.

Ignorance will deny they need help.

Ignorance cannot be told what to do or that it's wrong.

If you do, it will lash out and destroy anyone or anything that comes to tell it the truth.

Ignorance can only learn through example and consequence.

Love, compassion, and sharing have to be lived and demonstrated as a path to happiness.

Ignorance needs a step-by-step guide on how to achieve happiness.

Through living a life of love, ignorance will eventually catch on; there is a better way than nihilism and destruction.

It is up to every generation to pick up the torch of freedom and carry on the fight.

Drop hate be love.

Peace.

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Immune

Walking by a local restaurant, I see people enjoying their immunity. 

Apparently, they are immune not only to the COVID-19 virus.

Our brothers and sisters are immune to society.

Immune to community.

Immune to compassion.

Immune to brotherhood.

Immune to love.

How did these people get their vaccine?

The answer is 'Blowing In The Wind', written by Bob Dylan.

He asked, how many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?

How many years can some people exist before they are allowed to be free?

How many times can a man turn his head and pretend he just doesn't see?

The answer is that hate is reborn generation after generation.

By people, humans who believe they are doing good work.

Mothers and fathers.

Brothers and sisters.

Churches, schools, governments, police.

All keep the story of hate alive.

The Great White Myth.

I'm telling you here and now if you don't know this in your heart of hearts already.

This is a cold fact of life on this planet.

People have been making up stories to keep them from seeing reality since before recorded time.

Even before there were written languages, people told each other myths about the world.

They have told themselves these stories so many times that these tales are deeply ingrained in human psychology.

In The Hero's Journey by Joseph Campbell, "Myth is much more important and true than history."

Human's capacity to believe in their own myth is limitless.

They will believe in ghosts.

In Leprechauns.

In Golden Gods.

Their team will win a sports championship.

The 2nd Amendment can't be amended.

Tom Hanks eats babies.

White people are ordained by God to rule the earth.

Humans believe their own bullshit.

The only balance to myth is truth.

Yet truth is harsh, and myth is smooth.

Truth sticks in our throats.

Myth goes down like candy.

Truth goes against our expectations, and myth feeds our prejudices.

Some of us are lucky to be born able to see the beauty of the world.

While others have turned down that privilege and have focused their sight inward.

People who only help themselves are selfish.

They don't want to know about the cannonballs flying.

They don't want to see the man beaten down in the street.

They don't want to hear people cry.

Just as hate is seeded every generation, so too must love be grown in every generation.

Any gardener can tell you it's a continuous battle against the weeds.

We have to tend the garden of truth to keep out the weeds that would choke it out.

If you have hands, lift; if you have ears, listen; if you have a voice, speak up.

If you have a mind, love.

Peace.

Daniel J Frey aka Toby