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LOOK AT THE BIG PICTURE

“When you say ‘YES’ to something, you include something you do want in your experience. When you say ‘NO’ to something, you include something you don’t want in your experience.” ~ Abraham-Hicks

This concept applies to the Middle East, your family, the world – at least the way you perceive it. Change your thinking and the world changes, or your experience does, and this is what we are looking for, a trend for the better.

Think of all of us in America as being on a great ship. With patience, vision and quality thinking (done in a calmer, more focused low-key way), we can gently steer away from the icebergs of war and tele-hyped traumas. This belligerent lockdown in our thinking has been way too costly to keep ignoring. We need to refocus, degree by degree.

Think about the way a good part of the world perceives us. If your next-door neighbor ransacked your house, sending immature 19-year-olds with guns to smash down your doors and windows, how would you feel? You wouldn’t like it. You’d be terrorized, then cowered and soon filled with hatred for your oppressor. One of your kids might even become a terrorist, possibly with your inadmissible acceptance.

Obama needs to quiet the fires in the Middle East instead of reacting to the Republican Party as our actions are traumatizing the rest of the world. It closes down airports, puts us further into a corner of fear, attracting rigged market industries. “They” are angry with us and wish to cause mayhem. Airport searches are degrading, people bitterly line up like slaughterhouse cattle. Our freedoms are painfully slipping away. A warning, we are giving up freedom in order to control the uncontrollable “others.”

The world cannot heal by perpetually ignoring a seething problem which is – how to find a virtuous solution to the Israel-Palestine situation. When I observe the energies from that part of the world . . . and I’m not 70 for nothing . . . it is obvious that we are moving toward something highly destabilizing, much worse than the Holocaust. Who knows, maybe in the grand scheme of things, the Middle East can break through to a better world out of such chaos. But my gut feeling is to say, “Hold on to your seats . . . the financial meltdown will seem minor.” We’ve been following a false premise and remain stubbornly blind to the root cause of 9-11. It’s not Al-Qaeda, it is us. We see narrowly, by seeing only the other, not ourselves or our actions. We are too small in our thinking, we don’t see the BIG PICTURE.

The delegitimation of the American character began 45 years ago with the Vietnam War. Our manners, schools, institutions, even our language coarsened. The harm we did to others boomeranged back on our own society and it has upset us. Here we are, this bright, energetic nation in a swamp, losing opportunities to truly shine as a society. We can’t see the forest for the trees. We need better clarity, with all the chips on the table.

I have noticed trends or areas of light. Those who see above the trees. Those whose ideas are able to step beyond “reality.” Who are they? What are they telling us? The media guides us unhelpfully, focusing on the wrong and the wronged. It’s no wonder there has been a back-splash of the mega churches and primitive religious belief intuitively seeking to rise above unworkable formulas.

One of the better minds in the American sub-stream is Abraham-Hicks (www.abraham-hicks.com). I prefer not to proselytize, although every action and word reveals us even to where our thoughts become physicalized toward wellness or illness. I have noticed a substantial improvement in my health and overall well-being since incorporating the Abraham ideas into these my later years.

There is no one way for everyone. I would be fascinated to learn more from others by finding out about your experiences and ideas. Write back. What has brought you out of all this so-called “reality” into successes you could tell others about?

NEXT:  OLD, WISE AND BEAUTIFUL
 

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Julie Newmar
Catwoman, ‘Batman,’ 1966-67

Some actors are identified with a particular role because they played it for years, in a hundred or more episodes. It took Julie Newmar only a handful of appearances in the original “Batman” series to be forever known as Catwoman. The slinky sexiness of her portrayal certainly helped, especially with male viewers.

“Whenever I’m stopped on the street,” Ms. Newmar said, “men tell me, ‘Ms. Newmar, did you know that you were my first turn-on?’ I would ask the next question: ‘How old were you?’ ”

The answers that have come back — some of the admirers said they were as young as 4 — led to one of her current writing projects, a book on first fantasies. (She is inviting submissions at julienewmarwrites.com.) Ms. Newmar, now 76 and still with that purr in her voice, has no problem being a fantasy object to so many, or being asked to autograph some odd things. “I’ve seen some interesting flesh,” she said.

But one fan in New York did surprise her when he pulled up his pant leg, not for her autograph, but for her to admire the Catwoman tattoo he had on it. She had seen plenty of tattoos of the comic book character, of course, but the face on this one was different.

“It wasn’t just the Catwoman,” she said. “It was me.”

Does that kind of identification with a character bother her?

“It’s an honor — it really is — that something stays for so long with people in the sweet depths of their feelings,” she said.

Click here to read the full article at NYTimes.com