Hmmm…not sure what to make of the latest little goody to be laid in our mailbox.
Elaine was a bit perplexed, too.
It was a copy of the latest GameInformer which was delivered by mistake to us.
Which kicked off one heck of an interesting conversation, since the intended recipient is a single dad who plays video games with his kids.
Great dad, too: A couple of tours in the Sandbox (poppy fields areas) and working IT for a local outfit.
Still, it was cause to reflect for a moment (or 10) on how parenting has changed.
“You know, dear, I can’t imagine my dad getting a book about video games. People back in that generation were busy…you know…doing REAL work. And when they did something with the kids, it was always something more…er…practical, I guess would be the word.”
I thought back on it: My dad wasn’t much of a “toss the ball around” guy. But I could name (and effectively use every tool in the shop before age 12. I’d started shagging tools on weekend projects about age 7, or so. By 12, I was looking at “easy A’s” to come in junior and senior high metal shop, wood shop, and gas engines shop. I’d done it all before. Couple of times, in fact.
They were easy (like everything else in school) and consequently, I managed to go through high school without having to read two books. One was a history book – which I found fascinating and still read whenever I have time – while the other was the German book because after four years and reasonable grades in it (B’s) the language is still difficult.
Fortunately, none of my neighbors are German, so it’s a non-issue.
But the question remains: What is parenting?
When I had time with my kids, I was showing them how to do this, how to do that. And everything was put in a “When this happens to you…as it will…how will you fix it?”
To my way of thinking that is parenting. Playing video games with kids?
I mean sure, especially in first person shooter games there are hints and tricks, but is that a durable good?
I’ve been very critical of common core type curriculum development because it doesn’t do a good job of preparing “whole persons” to come out the other side of it.
The “con a ship, cook a meal, perform surgery, build anything needed, forge a shoe for a horse…” kind of education.
And perhaps that is a sign of aging.
I’m sure my parents had no idea was single-sideband was being built in my basement bedroom when I was a kid. And maybe today’s kids down being script-kiddies and writing PERL or PHP are the modern analog.
The the matter of the frontier still holds importance to me. Especially because if the West keeps pressuring Russia hard enough, they will respond with EMP over the US, but legally out in space,; and we could be back into an agrarian society in a flash.
So that’s the matter of great concern. Not that I can do anything about it…and I’ve done what I could to teach my kids about the basics and they’re into their 30’s now.
But it haunts me: Are we bringing up a generation of kids (as in baby goats) that will not be able to fend for themselves if the lights ever go out?
I’m not certain about this, but I wonder if back in America’s pioneering days whether knowing how to unlock the cheats in Zelda would have helped build the foundation we’ve been coasting on ever since?
Woo-Woo: Second Sight or Projection?
Seems like the best dreams I have about future events come when I’ve wakened at my usual time, but then his the snooze button and go back to sleep for another hour. Like this morning – which is why the column is less wordy than usual.
But I know it won’t matter because for so many people, this is a three day weekend.
Unless you’re in Louisiana…
A 3 day weekend ? You must not be living in the right place! It’s Mardi Gras in Lafayette, LA. Most people have a 4 or 5 day weekend.
I apologize…I missed that little detail. With good weather, it’s tempting to pop down for a quick overnighter this weekend…
Back to point…
This morning after I went back to sleep, I “pre-experienced” a meeting that may take place on our cruise ship ride that begins a week from Saturday.
In this dream, Elaine is off doing a spa treatment, and I get talking to people who have come up with a new way of financing vehicle this and that’s, and what did I think about it?
Not much apparently, as I excused myself from the meeting and went wandering off around the ship, but this is the second cruise-related dream I’ve had.
In the first one (before the cruise was even proposed) I knew that there would be some kind of issue about being on a cruise and at our first stop, some people who got off to do shopping and shore excursions wouldn’t make it back on.
Another aspect of that dream? I remember being on the second floor of a shop at one of the shopping ports…it was like a kind of balcony around the edges of one of the shops…but not on all sides… I want to say a couple of east-west balconies off the north and south walls.
There was also a prominent channel with islands on either side of it…which I didn’t bother thinking about too much, until after our friends announced the cruise plans and we decided to go along.
In that one, it was obvious: When you get a dream of islands on either side of a channel going south on the cruise it should have hit me: This was the Houston Ship Channel!
But it didn’t because what was “islands” in the dream aren’t visible until you look at a nautical representation of what’s underway on either side of the ditch.
It gets me thinking back to our Arizona trip where I “pre-dreamed” the road closure, lane closure, and detour on a trip to Payson, AZ.
Not sure what the mechanism is or how it works. All I know is that if people get left behind at Cozumel and meet back up with the ship in Belize, that will be totally “baked in” as will this chit-chat at a consulting kind of level…all very strange.
Analytically, the question is: Is this phenomena just “mind projecting” that I would be doing a cruise a year in advance and that there will be this meeting, a week and a half in advance?
Or, is it a variant of “second sight” which Wikipedia discusses:
“These phenomena may be classed under clairvoyance, precognition, and telepathy. There is no scientific evidence that second sight exists. Reports of second sight are known only from anecdotal evidence given after the fact.[4] A famous book with documented alleged cases of second sight was the two-volume Phantasms of the Living (London: Trübner, 1886) written by the psychical researchers Frederic William Henry Myers, Edmund Gurney and Frank Podmore. The book claimed that visions of apparitions were telepathic hallucinations.[5]
The two-volume Phantasms of the Living was criticized by scholars for the lack of written testimony and the time elapsed between the occurrence and the report of it being made.[6] Some of the reports were analyzed by the German hallucination researcher Edmund Parish (1861–1916) who concluded they were evidence for a dream state of consciousness, not the paranormal.[7] Charles Sanders Peirce wrote a long criticism of the book arguing that no scientific conclusion could be reached from anecdotes and stories of unanalyzed phenomena.[8] Alexander Taylor Innes attacked the book due to the stories lacking evidential substantiation in nearly every case. According to Innes the alleged sightings of apparitions were unreliable as they rested upon the memory of the witnesses and no contemporary documents had been produced, even in cases where such documents were alleged to exist.”
Remember now, there’s nothing particularly “foreboding” about this dream content. There wasn’t in the precognitive dream about the road closure, lane closure, roadwork signs and all that. Elaine admitted it was strange to “know” the details ahead of time.
Just like it’s odd having this “handle on cruise” ahead of time. Everything will be fine, but here’s the “channel” and here’s this shop with a balcony around it with an open center. Oh, and the people chatting about finance.
Just interesting to me, I guess. I’ll pass along anything that comes along in the way of confirmation as we head south.
By the way, you’ll be pleased to know that a couple who read this column daily have advised us that they will be on a US-Mexico-Hawaii 15-day cruise while we’re doing our 7 days in the western Caribbean on the Jewel.
This, UrbanSurvival may be the most arcane method of ship to ship communication ever developed. Maybe that’s what Universe is laughing about…the absurdity of that must be hilarious from the Ultimate Zoomed-Out’s perspective.
A Woo-Woo Follow-Up
Yesterday we were talking about the allegorical crab-like psychical thingies that attach to people and the more useful advice I got back was…
“For the “non-material entities” and headache related problems mentioned in the Woo-Woo section today, I highly recommend the book “Spirit Releasement Therapy” by William J. Baldwin (a dentist!). It is quite good, and is directly related to getting rid of those types of parasites. Amazon has the book in stock today, but at times it can be 6 months or more where the book is unavailable.
Not an inexpensive book: Spirit Releasement Therapy: A Technique Manual is over $40 bucks.
Also, a reader advised that Edwin Steinbrecher passed away back in 2003 and no one seems to know what happened to the D.O.M.E., group after that…So any additional details are invited. Great fellow, great work, he will be missed.
He was one of those people who – when he comes into your life – turned on lights and then went on to turning on lights for others. Reminds me of a story I don’t think I’ve ever told publicly which is possibly of interest.
The Man from Tibet
Back in 1975, or so, we had just moved the radio station in Seattle from “scenic Harbor Island” where we lived amidst a sea of cargo containers to the Pike Place Market. The station had been acquired by the Boston Globes media unit.
Anyway, great place, old building restored and just below the Pike Place Market. Down the huge set of stairs past a kite shop and a really good book shop, under the Viaduct and you could walk up or down the waterfront.
So there I am working away in radio and the front desk buzzed me.
“There are some people here to see you…”:
I went up and met them, a bit perplexed…as I didn’t have any more interviews scheduled that day.
The people explain they are with an obscure religious order, and their leader would like to meet me.
He was in a huge (Greyhound bus sized) personal RV outside that was double parked.
So I went out and met this fellow who must have been in his 60’s and he said it was important that we go for a walk.
Over the course of this walk, he told me he was from the Himalayas near, but not exactly Tibet and that he needed to tell me a few things.
We walked down the stairs – and he explained how power moved between dimensions of being and such and I could ask anything I wanted and he would explain, as best he could.
Believe me, the limiting factor was not his ability to explain, but rather my ability to comprehend.
After an hour, or so, as we were walking back toward the stairs, still over on the waterfront, though, he told me that I needed to learn a particular chant and say it often and when the time was right to share it.
“Beloved I am presence bright, round me seal your tube of light.
From ascended Master’s flame, called for now, in God’s name.
Let it keep my temple free, from all discord sent to me.
I am calling for violet fire, to blaze and transmit all desire
Keeping on in Freedom’s name, till I am one with the Violet Flame.”
That was it.
“You must remember it. Now, say it again.”
Which I did…over a dozen times as we walked. It was an instruction…No interview, no nothing. We just walked back up the stairs, and this fellow who looked like the martial arts master in the movie Remo Williams, got back on his huge personal bus, attended to by three aids in dark suits, and simply drove off.
The huge bus had what looked like tinted windows and medium brown heavy velvet curtains, and I’m sure there was a driver, as the bus was running the whole time. Yet there were no tickets, despite being double-parked…
Leaving me scratching my head at what was one – perhaps THE – strangest thing that has happened to me in all my news reporting days. Truly a “What was that about?” moment in life.
Thought you’d get a kick out of it. No idea who he was, except from the big mountains over there and I was to do this odd chant now and then.
That, my friend, is some serious Woo for you.
Yes there will be a column Monday, although perhaps a bit abbreviated due to the holiday. Until then, weekends are when you can invest in sweat equity. Remember, we are not defined by what we do for a living, but how we live when we’re doing…
Write when you break-even…
George george@ure.net
The chant:
http://violetflame4u.com/karma/decrees.html
Next time a “master> shows up with the secret to manipulate time and space, ask for a demonstration before bothering to listen. Sorts out the BS.
Re your question about bringing up kids who won’t be able to fend for themselves if the lights go out –
to that I say a huge – yes!
Spent 15 years working in retail management in positions where I was hiring. And my first hand experience presented me with now two generations of youngsters who cannot do simple math in their heads (i.e., 10% of $100 is…… or if someone gives you $7.00 for a $6.50 purchase – how much change is returned), cannot spell simple words (due to overabundance of texting abbreviations), nor can they problem solve simple life problems or prioritize life’s challenges that are in their lives. Forget about more ‘complex’ skill sets that might have to do with survival, because if it involves manual labor in any shape, manner or form, they haven’t had exposure to it, nor do they want to do it. Because, as they told me – “why should I learn how to do that when you can hire someone to do that”.
I finally left the world of retail management when I found myself having to deal with not the kids/employees, but instead, their parents, who felt it their mission to talk to me about what days and hours their kids could work, what their kids would or would not do as part of their employment (forget that there were very clear printed job descriptions provided even prior to hiring – I mean you HAVE to have these legally in today’s highly structured work environments), that their kids would not work weekends or holidays because of family ski trips or other vacation plans; and when review time came around, the parents were the ones engaging in the discussions while their kids sat next to them….and these were 18 -23 year old kids!!
But, it is a different world out there, and these same kids had great computer and high tech gadget skills. Just not life skills.
Hi George,
On your cruise, at the ports you stop at, the shops closest to and the most convenient are owned by the cruise line. If you and Elaine attend the “shopping briefing”, they will tout those shops, usually give you coupons (girls can’t resist coupons)to those stores. We have found it better to walk a little further and shop the stores owned by locals.
I know you will enjoy your cruise, we have met the most interesting people and had wonderful times.
We are planning a family cruise to Alaska this August. Three years ago, we took our kids and grandkids on a Disney cruise, it was a most wonderful time.
Bill Jackson
A Video game dad here…
My boys are 6 and 11. With my eldest we play 1st person shooting games like Halo and Destiny. (Kill the Aliens!) With my youngest we (or with both) we play Lego but mostly Mine Craft (building worlds).
When I was younger, I don’t recall my parents playing very many games with me. There was the occasional toss the ball and some mechanical episodes fixing cars and a lot of garden work. My wife essentially has the same memories, but along the female related themes.
I am young enough to recall Atari and Intelevision. My parents never played those games with me… always too busy. One of the realizations I have come to is that my parents did a good job of training me for the future of hard work, but I missed the tips and tricks along the way. I also feel like they never “knew me”. And I don’t mean “poor me” kinda thing… but they were too busy struggling with their own issues. (Money/jobs/broken stuff that needed fixing)
I don’t want to miss the opportunity to know my boys and what goes on in their heads. I want them to come to me with problems and trust me. But in order to trust someone you have to like them… in order to like them you have to know them. Its really easy to slip in a question or two while playing a game about whats really going on in their lives. Just like the best conversations I have with my friends is when we are working on a project together. (tile/fence etc)
In order to help with the life skills, my eldest is in cub scouts and will graduate into boy scouts next week. My youngest will follow suit. They both also play sports (boxing/jiu jitsu/gymnastics/baseball), and they have homework on a regular basis (yes even in Kindergarten). My point is that there isn’t a lot of time for interaction. We always do “sit down” family dinners and that’s our family time, but then after that its homework time. The little free time we have, its nice to sit and play something they enjoy and have a little male bonding time.
I came across this chant many years ago while doing research on Tesla’s Violet Ray Machine which today is an antique and works quite well for its intended purpose which is healing the body … like cures like. I’ve always wondered if it would make the machine more effective by reciting this chant. Purple Plates which is another Tesla invention is also very effective in healing the body. I have used one for a number of years now and frequently ge them out to others.
Purple flame is generally associated with the Ascended Master, St. Germain. [The St. is part of his name, not a designation of sainthood.] You can find out tons of information on both St. Germain and the violet flame just by googling either term. As for his appearance, generally he is shown as a man of middle age; however since he is ageless, it is not unlikely that he appeared at an age that you [at that point in your life] would associate with “wisdom” in order to share his teaching with you.
As luck would have it, for about a week now I’ve been doing “auricular therapy” by shining a violet-blue laser pen on acupuncture points on my ear. Maybe if I recite your chant I’ll get even more benefit? thanks & have a wonderful trip!
Time is the most valuable thing you have, time with you kids when they still are kids comes with bonus points. Bonus points are hard to come by in real life…
Time spent with your kids is time spent with your kids.
“A 3 day weekend ? You must not be living in the right place! It’s Mardi Gras in Lafayette, LA. Most people have a 4 or 5 day weekend.” It’s at least a 4 dayer here in Lake City, Florida where the ONLY battle fought (and won by the south) took place a few miles to the east – kids out of school today 1 – 12 for a “field trip” down the marketing strand of booths that block off main street – tomorrow there is decent parade, for a small town, with guys and gals all dressed up like confederate soldiers or plantation guys and gals on horses, carrying old fashioned six shooters and real rifles from the period, then it’s off to the battle field for a reenactment – you who aren’t frozen solid in the north can feel some pleasure in knowing that many of those reenactors are not staying in a posh hotel/motel – but truly roughing it in tents out at the battlefield – the temp this morning hovered at freezing and tomorrow in the early morning slated at 27º F. I’m sure the Yankees will be smiling at them warm blooded southern boys and belles.
My guess about the man from Tibet is you met your spiritual teacher from a past life, who caught up with you in this life. He probably did more for you inwardly than you realize, even today. Most likely he ‘initiated’ you to his inner guidance and leads you about nightly in the dreamstate. Most mystics tell students to remember their dreams and practice to ‘wake up’ within your dreams whereby you can gain control and with practice travel where you wish. Prophetic dreams are almost automatic once you are initiated. Many times initiates ‘work out’ their karmic debts inwardly in the dreamstate, saving much wear and tear on their physical bodies, a hugh benefit of the innner master guidance and initiation. You are blessed.
“What is parenting?” Our son and his wife raised a boy who became a man too soon, but what a man he became.
My wife and me had much time with our grandson. Weekends at Grandma’s and Poppy’s was a pretty regular thing all the way through his eighteenth year. He loved helping me with my oddball prepper projects. When he was 4 years old we took him to Disney World. Twice on that trip he showed us the character that he would become known for. A little girl who looked to be about his same age had got her foot stuck the railing of a long line we were waiting in. Corey saw her predicament before any of us and ran over to help her regain her freedom. He returned to us with applause from those standing around who had witnessed his heroic act. Not long after, we found ourselves standing in Minnie’s House, once again waiting in line. It was a hot day, so we three indulged ourselves with a cold ice cream cone while waiting. Another little girl was once again waiting in line close to us. She had dropped her ice cream cone. Corey, in a totally selfless move offered to give her his. This was the way he lived his life.
Twelve years later, Corey was diagnosed with leukemia. He beat it … the first time. All through his treatment when he was not sick he was counseling others in his hospital with good cheer and a strength and wisdom beyond his years. In the fall of 2014 at the age of eighteen it returned with a vicious twist. It was of a sort that the doctors said they had no treatment protocol for. He was submitted for an experimental protocol at St Judes in Memphis, Tn and accepted into a small group of 100 who had seen an eighty percent success rate. All was going well until an undetected virus had invaded his liver. His new immune system kicked into override and destroyed his liver too quickly to afford the doctors the time to turn things around. God took my grandson home on January 27th, 2015.
Our grief is unspeakable. But we are left with the knowledge that much discovery was made by his doctors that even now, I am certain is saving lives. Things were tried that were never tried before. Some equipment was modified and tweaked to replace some of the function of his liver that showed promise. His death will help many in the years to come.
It took a week to bring him home and make the funeral arrangements. On the day of his funeral, our grief was mitigated by the support of friends and loved ones who came with hugs and tears. We were there for two hours before the ceremony as person after person came to pay their respects. It was a beautiful ceremony with the testimony of friends and family put to video recording. On that day, 170 people signed the attendance book. We don’t even know that many people. The entire funeral home was filled, people were standing outside just to be there. It is estimated that over 200 people came. Over two hundred people that my Grandson’s life touched in a positive way. And, many more families in the coming years who will never know that he saved them the grief that our family has gone through.
Parenting? My son and his wife raised a hero. I am so proud of them and I feel so privileged to have been a small part of the man, the hero they raised …
This is what the tube of light looks like in the mantra. \http://www.summitlighthouse.org/connect-energy-higher-self/
I want to introduce you to “The I AM Discourses” which were given to Mr. & Mrs. Guy Ballard by Ascended Master Saint Germain in the early 1930s. St. Germain speaks of his Violet Flame and its usage/purpose throughout these discourses. Given your position and St.Germaine’s, I would not be the least bit surprised if your unannounced visit was actually St. Germain—–seems just like his style to me. Thank you!