The Most Radical and Rebellious Choice

No sleeping lions! 

We are LIONS RAMPANT.

The Most Radical and Rebellious Choice You Can Make Is to Be Optimistic

By Guillermo DEL TORO

"OPTIMISM IS RADICAL. IT IS THE HARD CHOICE, the brave choice. And it is most needed now, in the face of despair—just as a car is most useful when there is a distance to close. Otherwise it is a large, unmovable object parked in the garage.

These days, the safest way to appear intelligent is to be skeptical by default. We seem sophisticated when we don’t believe and disingenuous when we say we do.

History and fable show nothing is ever entirely lost. David can take Goliath. A beach in Normandy can turn the tide of war. Bravery can topple the powerful. These facts are often seen as exceptional, but they are not. Every day, we all become the balance of our choices—choices between love and fear, belief or despair. No hope is ever too small.

Optimism is our instinct to inhale while suffocating. Our need to declare what needs to be in the face of what is. Optimism is not uncool; it is rebellious and daring and vital.

The writer Theodore Sturgeon once said: “90% of everything is crap.” That also means “10% of everything is worth the damn effort.”

And so it goes time after time, choice after choice, that we decide to leave behind a biography or an epitaph. Look around you now and decide between the two. Inhale or die."

Bodhisattva Vow

Ye stalwarts,
Old soul companions
Warriors from most ancient times
Rampant lions bold.
Those of great heart and keen feeling
Will you Hoplites stand with me?
This concrete plain is foolish in fury-
These machines, all they can do is kill.
Soldiers from long before,
We who know dust from Troy and Babylon, Hydapses, Belleau Wood, Little Bighorn and Byzantium-
We are well trained in any form of hell.
We who have walked the fields of God,
Looked on devil-fire and laughed,
Toasted Hades in silence below
Raised mead horns in Valhalla,
We do not fear this postmodern malice.
Stand with me friends,
Forsake nirvanic bliss.
Once more to the eternal breach,
With hearts as spears, we face all fears
Once more, once again,
Play the man, Master Rip, well played, Amen!
Women and men, bodhisattvas
Light the candle, keep it lit!
While we exist-
It shall not falter,
Though millennia seek to intervene,
One by one, we pass the torch
We shall always go back in!!

Bodhisattva Vow

As long as there is suffering
As long as there are sentient beings in the 6 realms
May I never attain Enlightenment
And never cross over into Nirvana.

May I be a guard for those who are protectorless,
A guide for those who journey on the road;
For those who wish to go across the water,
May I be a boat, a raft, a bridge.
May I be an isle for those who yearn for landfall,
And a lamp for those who long for light;

For those who need a resting place, a bed,
For all who need a servant, may I be a slave.
May I be the wishing jewel, the vase of plenty,
A word of power, and the supreme remedy.

May I be the trees of miracles,
And for every being, the abundant cow.
Like the great earth and the other elements,
Enduring as the sky itself endures,
For the boundless multitude of living beings,
May I be the ground and vessel of their life.

Thus, for every single thing that lives,
In number like the boundless reaches of the sky,
May I be their sustenance and nourishment
Until they pass beyond the bounds of suffering.

-One of the most beautiful prayers ever composed for those who have the choice to enter bliss, but reject it. Why? Because the team matters more than them. They choose to keep going back until no lone survivors remain.

A Star Wars mediato and daily soapbox proclamation for the GOOD.

This documentary and the narrator's insights are well-worth your ten minutes, whether you are a Star Wars fan or not. I've always said that Rogue One carries one of the most important messages for our time. It provides a crucial example of our role in this timline for the Light Warriors of my generation. Taken as a metaphor, it is one of the most accurate and compelling illustrations of our marching orders and how we turn the tide.

Some people have said Rogue One is sad because almost all the good characters die.

I think they're looking at it wrong. They didn't die- they sacrificed their lives for the GOOD. In fact, Rogue One is the foundation story of all the other Star Wars stories.

There are no Jedi in Rogue One, and the heroes are flawed, average people. Without the heroes of Rogue One, there would be no Alliance. Most importantly, before Rogue One, the struggle was grim. There was no hope. The redemptive sacrifice of the misfits who took responsibility upon themselves to do what was right, led to birth of HOPE & subsequent victory over overwhelming utter evil.

We live in that decision point time. Our society stands astride the terminator, one foot planted in the light, the other in the dark.

Right now, we're tilting towards the dark, but all we need is a strong push to light and goodness.

I challenge you and you and you.... all of us... WE who stand in the light every day, to make that decision for GOOD. Live for others, be kind. Tilt the weight towards sunrise- throw your shoulder into it!

Governmental agencies, billionaire public personalities, or extraordinary geniuses like Elon Musk are not the folks who are meant to transform the world.

The world shall change by the sacrifice of the few misfits, united in solidarity for the common Good, who still get up despite the challenges, and keep shining their light. We are in the Light, and the Light is in us. Hope is born when responsible initiative culminates in redemptive sacrifice. Solidarité!

Time to Re-engage

I am picking up where I left off... 

Stand-by for new and regular entries.