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  by David Truman |
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Yesterday we remembered September 11, and all that we think it stands for. Today, let's remember our recollection of September 11 -- and what IT stands for.
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And ALSO:
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So now, let's take a minute and remember our memories of September 11. That is, let's reflect on our reflections.
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Let's not forget ANY of the dangers
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| When September 11 came around, there was a great cloud of fear over the country. Many people simply accepted that the fear was a valued lesson from the events of this day last year. It can be useful to remember the dangers in life, they say. Never forget what Hitler did! Always remember the World Trade Center! And what about our own bad personal experiences? Never forget those, either -- or else it'll happen again. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| But I think smarter people KNOW what that fear is really about -- it is about NOT having learned the REAL lessons from September 11-- and what it means NOT to have learned them. And it is about not remembering all of the dangers of remembering. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| We've heard so much about the danger of forgetting: What about the danger of NOT forgetting, the danger of REMEMBERING? We should always keep our guard up against real and present dangers. Now, so we don't forget ANY dangers, I think it's time to remember the dangers of remembering September 11! There are MORE things to learn from history: | ||||||||||||||||||||
| The devastating dangers of "remembering" | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Here is one of the most important unlearned lessons of history: over the centuries, thousands, probably millions of people have brought about their own pain and destruction simply by their effectiveness at remembering history. Think of the peoples who have done such an excellent job at remembering wrongs perpetrated against them by other nations -- for example, the Arabs and the Jews. Think of the Hindus and the Moslems, and the African nations who have been at war literally for centuries! | ||||||||||||||||||||
| What great memories such people have for the injustices they feel themselves to have suffered at one another's hands! What great sufferings they have created, and are STILL creating, as a RESULT of those memories! And now we, as a nation, are joining them. Our national negativity -- particularly the militant spirit of blame that is part of our new tradition of "remembering September 11" -- is deadly (just as the war-mongering of this administration is deadly). | ||||||||||||||||||||
| When "forgive and forget" is not part of your vocabulary, and the best you can do is be a memory machine, then you ARE, for all practical purposes, a terrorist yourself. At the very least, you live in terror. But look: terror TERRIFIES! And when we are terrified, we invariably terrify others with our terror. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Our leaders now want to rush out and decimate nations who could, potentially, in the future, do us harm. Our angels of death, sending hell fire down on the lives of innocent people. Is THAT terrifying, or what? Thus, intoxicated with fear, we become the world's WORST terrorists. We had better think better of our remembering, and its results. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| The dangers of war and military spending | ||||||||||||||||||||
| While we're remembering the lessons of history, let's remember other recent history: Only a few years ago, it was fear-driven military spending, in large part, that sank all of Russia into bankruptcy. It was said, we outlasted them in the ability to spend. "Wonderful!" we cried. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| And now, with no money to live on, and no government to support them, Russian families have broken up, Russian children are sniffing glue and selling themselves for pennies in the streets, the Russian mafia is growing worldwide. These are results of unbridled military spending. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| How does that apply to the United States? America has limited resources. Every year, our country goes deeper in debt, and so do its citizens. Every year, human services and education are reduced. Every year, there are more and more homeless and hungry on our shores. The question is, how many more billions can we afford to spend on wars before we ourselves are financially bankrupt AS WELL AS morally bankrupt -- and before poverty and homelessness become our national NORM? | ||||||||||||||||||||
| The dangers of grievances on a personal scale | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Now let's look at the dangers of remembering on a personal scale. As everyone knows, people who are BEST at remembering their bad experiences in love are toxic and dangerous. Their obsession with fear is hurtful to everyone -- to themselves, to others, and to all of their relationships. People who carry grudges for long periods of time are psychologically unhealthy -- they are incapable of having healthy relationships. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| For example, how does remembering grievances help married people? How many couples do you know who split up because the partners would NOT let go of old grievances, and thereby ruined the relationship? | ||||||||||||||||||||
| The cost of remembering adds up fast. Remembering offenses brings marriages to ruin every day. It creates battles, and breakup, and additional spending -- all of which lead to impoverishment. Think of the thousands of divorces that literally result from grievances and grudges. Think of the tremendous cost of splintering families, even on the financial level: two separate houses; two TVs -- two of everything! And then, of course, lacking in adequate parenting, the latchkey children get their own apartments -- as soon as possible. Eventually, in the effort to pay for extremely inefficient ways of living, a lot of people sink WAY below the poverty line. ALL this because people cannot forgive and forget. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Remembering is a tool of the ego, not a support of love. The ego's favorite position in life is BLAME. Ego loves to use memory to displace its troubles on someone else -- scapegoating, we call it. Notice how the ego LOVES to exist in blame and fear -- FOREVER, if possible. "You MUST remember everything that happened to you, so it won't happen again," counsels the ego. "You should ALWAYS be afraid," the ego so proudly declares. "You should always be cautious. There is cause for fear, but not for love." | ||||||||||||||||||||
| But, what if what happened before happened precisely BECAUSE someone remembered some awful thing? What if one spouse, just to be safe, carefully remembered a wrong perpetrated by the other? And what if, on the basis of that recollection, they perpetrated another wrong? And what if their spouse carefully remembered THAT wrong -- and thereafter, responded and reacted accordingly, creating MORE memorable disasters of the kind that "no one can safely forget." Certainly, their great memory is putting their marriage onto the endangered species list. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| The dangers of blame | ||||||||||||||||||||
| The lesson of BLAME is: blame is toxic and dangerous. So, in the macrocosm as in the microcosm, it is a real and present danger, right now, when we do anything whatsoever to reinforce fear and blame. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Imagine terrorists looking at the US, and blaming us for so many things that are wrong in today's world -- and indeed in their LIVES. Inarguably, the United States HAS been, in many respects, an absolutely HORRIBLE influence in the world, there is no question about that. When children in third world nations -- at least those who can afford it -- go from traditional lives and religious beliefs to MTV and Reeboks, that can't be good. And, to be plundered by American business has turned out to be economically disastrous for third world nations. It has helped considerably to bring many people to the point of starvation. In those respects, it is hard to blame people for blaming us. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| But, blaming the United States and engaging in terrorism is NOT going to solve the problems. Clearly, the tendency of people all over the world to persist in blaming our country -- no matter whether their blame has some justification or not -- is quite obviously DANGEROUS. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| The bright side | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Fortunately, this September 11, a lot of people saw the danger of remembering. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| The women in Muslim garb in New York certainly felt the danger of it. Once again, they felt like the targeted "potential terrorist" class. But more than that, many ordinary Americans dipped into fear and depression, and felt the sickening effects of the poison of fear flowing in their veins. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Indeed, only the most clueless Americans feared SOLELY the past danger of terrorism, or even PRIMARILY that. Many if not most Americans felt the present danger of the very act of "remembering September 11." They could just FEEL the extent to which the American people, by remembering September 11, were in fact poisoning themselves -- NOT protecting themselves -- with their own fear. Bravo! At least we are beginning to see real danger for what it is. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Fortunately, as the Americans got ready for their ritual fear-bath, bright people and Divine agents anticipated the danger of that bath, and took measures to offset the damage. Did you notice, as many people did, a great wave of energy that seemed to fill the air immediately PRIOR to this recent September 11 (yesterday, as this is written)? It was as if the heavenly agents knew this day was coming, and prepared us for it -- not unlike getting the body in top shape as a preparation for the stress of surgery. Beautiful! As a result of that influx of higher energies, we are better able to survive our own collective dip into the toxic wasteland of fear. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| September 11: the real lesson of fear | ||||||||||||||||||||
| The real LESSON of fear is this: Don't get stuck in fear. GET OVER IT! LET IT GO! MOVE ON! Don't get killed by your safety system! | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Human beings tend to respond to negative emotional experiences in the exact same way. "I should ALWAYS remember this. I should fear this bad possibility FOREVER." How TRAGIC that is! How foolish! GET OVER IT! | ||||||||||||||||||||
| To learn from experience is to learn from ALL experience, not just part of it. Part of our experience happens to us -- the other part is how we react or respond to the experience. ALL of that -- not just the INITIAL experience, but all of our reactions to it, both short and long term -- is something we can learn from. We need to understand, very simply, that a negative and fearful reaction to any experience MAKES MATTERS WORSE. Almost ALL the terrible things that happen in this world happen because someone FAILED to GET OFF IT. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| What we need to do is to take the REAL lesson of September 11 -- that fear is poison -- and carry it into our hearts, and into the heart of our relationships on every level. by David Truman Please feel free to share copies of this article. |
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occupants of the World Trade Center, and the pain
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