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

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

Labor Costs

American businesses have been living in a fantasy world where labor and material costs are negligible…

The root of the fantasy, the belief, comes from the story of slavery.

The belief in the value of one person.

Business has always fought for a discount.

Slavery eliminated the long-term cost of labor.

Slavery maximized profit.

Profit is the God of business.

What does it profit a man to own the whole world and lose their soul?

Ask the average billionaire if they ruined anyone getting to where they are now.

It's all easy money when you don't believe souls exist.

The world over has been manipulated, coerced, beaten, killed, cajoled, bribed, and marketed to believe what's right for business is good for the people.

Unfortunately, for the sake of the welfare of the People, they have bought what the business has sold.

Slavery teaches that some people have more value than others.

Those at the top of the pyramid, the leaders, have more value than those who support them in their positions.

The needs of the few, the one, outweigh the needs of the many.

Without me, you wouldn't survive.

This sentiment echoes down the hallways of tyranny generation after generation.

This economic slavery has dominated mankind's history.

Capitalism, the pursuit of wealth unregulated, has been at war with the People economically, socially, and morally since the beginning of time.

What has every war been about?

Who has power over wealth creation.

The Punic Wars, The Crusades, the French and American Revolutionary Wars, the American Civil War, the First and Second World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, the Drug War, the Immigration Crisis, civil rights, women's rights movements are all about who pays the cost of production.

Or who doesn't have to pay.

Or better…

Who profits.

In America today, the Republican Party has purposefully transformed itself from a conservative, unregulated capitalist business party to a white nationalist fascist party.

They've seen the future, and they don't like the idea of the old business model.

They are done sharing the profits.

They believe in the business model that their white, blonde, blue-eyed God has sanctioned as how to make America great again.

The rebirth of a White America only to dominate the world.

They tell each other this online on social media, at work, at play, and from their pulpits.

They are no longer comfortable with sharing the profit.

They are fighting and willing to burn the American ideal of freedom to the ground.

Who dares constrain the rulers of the earth?

They foment violence, they kick a shit pile, so they can point to the problem of their own creation, telling us they are the only ones to solve it.

Freedom for all means freedom for all.

Suppose we are to turn the corner on this fight for economic and personal freedom in this nation.

In that case, it's up to all of us to make Americans deal with reality.

The fantasy has to stop.

We can no longer indulge the morally bankrupt that there are no costs to labor.

To justice.

Freedom isn't free.

Put the coffee on, walk around the room, stretch, and rub the sleep of indifference out of your eyes.

A new day is upon us all right quick.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Help Not Wanted

Start with the British Red Coats.

They believed they were the good guys.

The Confederate States believed they were the good guys.

The German and Japanese fascists believed they were the good guys.

The Red Revolution in China believed they were the good guys.

The Klan believes they are the good guys.

Today, the Proud Boys, Boogaloo, Q believe they are the good guys.

The Republican Party believes they are the good guys.

Every one of these groups, organizations, and clubs has a sign in their window.

That sign says, help not wanted.

What does that mean?

To want help, you first must come to realize you need help.

You get a flat tire, there's no spare, and you call AAA to get help.

The storm blows the roof off of your house.

You call your insurance because you need that roof repaired.

You have a toothache.

Do you knock it out of your head like Tom Hanks in the film Castaway?

No, you go to a dentist because they have the knowledge on how to help you.

Help not wanted.

Most of us can recognize when we need physical help.

We have a broken bone, a cut, an illness.

However, a significant portion of Americans remain unaware of the need for moral guidance.

They can't see the fairy tales of the 'white hood' have become ingrained in their culture.

They can't feel the emotional temperature rise around them as selfish, tyrannical voices shout allegiance to their great leader.

They can't hear people cry as they deny them the right to exist.

They don't need any help because their god is on their side.

They know power makes right.

They are defending their race.

They are defending their belief.

This is why they can't be helped.

Help not wanted.

The only way to change the course of a river is through real effort.

To redirect to control floodwaters, civil engineering takes decades of continuous effort.

To have a civil society takes decades of continuous effort.

You can't just brush your teeth once and think you're done.

The waters of strife, of dissonance, of anger and hate will always be with us.

The rain will fall on a sunny day.

But we are not predestined to drown in a flood of hate.

We have the ability to control the political climate.

We can build dams of justice so everyone feels safe.

We can build bridges of compassion so everyone feels love.

We can bring the ideal of the big tent to life, making it a welcoming space for everyone.

Not just hope it will happen.

But remember, our help is not wanted.

Many of our brothers and sisters are comfortable like ducks in the rain.

We who live in the sun just have to keep on getting on.

The lost will come to dry off of their own free will.

When they are ready.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby