Speak: The Now Exspirientuality Blog

Posted By Alice the Canine Messiah on April 3, 2013

I heard the story ninety-six times.  Maybe more.

“I had a dog just like that when I was little.  And once when I was walking her she slipped away and you know that dog ran…” – and she would slow down, raising her high-pitched old lady voice – “…8 city blocks!” – and the cadence resumed – “…And I chased her for…” – again – “…8 city blocks! And the only reason I caught her is because this lady was coming outside and my dog ran right into her house.  When I got there she asked if I lost my dog and I said Yes ma’am, and she brought Missy out.  And I said There you are Missy.  Now I can stop worrying!  And whenever Missy would run off I’d go to that house and I’d say There you are Missy.  Now I can stop worrying!”

Alice, my red miniature pinscher, triggered the story twice a month for maybe 4 years when I played music and she played therapy dog.  We’d walk into the dining room and the old lady would see Alice and turn to her friends and… “I had a dog just like that when I was little.  And once when I was walking her she slipped away…”

I soon tired of it, but no one else seemed to.  I’m sure they’d heard it a lot more than I.  The photograph enlightened me.  One Thursday she offered it to me, smiling proud.  “Missy.”

Only it was magazine slick, and clipped recently by steadier hands. And Missy was a Dachshund.  Alice isn’t.  Missy’s ears drooped.  Alice’s don’t, except the tips.  Missy was black and tan.  Alice isn’t.  And I realized, humbled, that every dog that visited Heritage Hall triggered the story.

She beamed at her table-mates, held up the photograph, pointed to Alice.  “I had a dog just like that when I was little.  And once when I was walking her she slipped away…”

And she was off and running.  “…8 city blocks!”

One Thursday – five songs into my performance, Alice settled into her soft crate – Emily the activities assistant appeared.  “We were wondering if Alice could come see Mrs. Summerfield.  She’s…” – Emily’s tear-stained voice softened – “…failing.”

“Sure,” I said.  I didn’t recognize the name.  I don’t know them that way.  “Now, or after the show?”

“Either way.”  She pointed.  “Second door down.”  I played on.

*

Shortly we found the room, indirect sunlight quiet.  The A-side resident sat alone, continued reading.

I scanned the B-side.  Nurse.  Holding Mrs. Summerfield’s hand, softly one-way chatting.  Emily. Two other folks.  Nightstand.  The photograph.  Chair.  Mrs. Summerfield’s daughter sitting bedside.  She stood, smiled.  “Thank you.”

I lifted Alice to the bed and the nurse whispered as she lifted Mrs. Summerfield’s hand to stroke her fur. “Alice is here.”  Nothing.

I raised Alice to the pillow.  Her front paws touched down, she sniffed around then started in with soft, carefully placed dog kisses on her temple.  Mrs. Summerfield’s eyes flickered.  A collective gasp whispered behind me.  I helped Alice down and the nurse helped Mrs. Summerfield’s hand to her neck.

Her eyes opened wider, her head turned towards Alice.  Faint smile.  Difficult breath.  Easy sigh.  “There you are Missy.  Now I can stop worrying.”

Her eyes closed, and within the hour Mrs. Summerfield slipped away.

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Posted By Alice the Canine Messiah on November 6, 2012

I live in Albemarle County, VA.  So did Thomas Jefferson.  That’s the guy who wrote the Declaration of Independence, and that’s the founding document of our country.  It begins by stating that we clearly recognize Human Equality, and goes on to say that we now declare our independence in order that we might govern ourselves in the light of this recognition.  Equality.  Independence.  Self-Governance.

And I learned recently that Charlottesville, which is in Albemarle County, was the first town in the Commonwealth of Virginia to adopt Prohibition – the first to willingly relinquish its independence to self-govern with respect to alcohol.

If you threw a banjo from a bus in Charlottesville today it would very likely strike a musician.  It is said we have a thriving music scene here.  But to this day our Community Venues sit mostly silent, thoroughly and systematically ignored by this music scene.  Community Venue is a term I made up during the decade I advocated locally for the idea of Making Music More Accessible™.  The simple idea was to rally this extensive pool of musicians to be the change they sing of seeing in their world.

But I learned that most musicians mostly believe they do not have time to be the change; to walk the talk; to live their lyrics.  Their time is for something else.  And I learned that they mostly do not recognize Equality in Community Venue audiences, for the folks in these venues are old, and some of them are disabled mentally or physically.

And I learned that many musicians don’t believe in their own Independence, their freedom to self-govern.  They believe someone else is doing it for them; to them.  And I noticed that mostly they do not help community build very much or very often, but run quickly to and scream loudly for their rights within the community when they sense a threat.  …even when they bring a threat upon themselves by ignoring the community.

And it occurs to me that this backwards notion of putting the Constitution and Bill of Rights before the Declaration of Independence may well shine a light on the most immediate Opportunity we have as a nation to get back to the Art of Humanity.

If you throw that banjo from that bus in our town and it glances off a musician, it will then likely land within a few feet of an artist of some other persuasion.  Writers, moviemakers, painters, poets – we have them all here.  And we have lots and lots of complaining about a lack of and need for arts in our schools, and much of this comes from artists.  And I have dared to suggest on many occasions that again the Opportunity is ours.  If every one of us volunteers just a few hours each year there will be gobs of arts in the schools.  The simple idea is to rally artists to be the change they envision in their world.  And I have mostly been ignored.

And I learned that most artists claim they do not have time, and demonstrate that they do not have the desire to be the change.  They want someone else to do it, and they argue that the government should do it for us, as though taxes should purchase arts in the schools from a vendor.  And again I say it is thus our Opportunity for we are the government in a land of the self-governed.  But so many disagree, and see the government as separate from the people.  Even Mr. Obama thinks that the people do not build the country’s infrastructure.

And I have come to wonder about the Woodstock generation, and the musicians and their fans from the 60’s and 70’s and all that peace and love and let’s change the world talk.  I have come to wonder what our world would be like had those folks all gone home and actually begun to volunteer in their communities; had they begun to be the change they bitched for.  I wonder what if they had raised their children to slow down and be the difference?

And what about the musicians themselves?  What sort of music scene would we have if those big stars had set the example by entertaining in Community Venues as they toured around the world for the last 4 decades?  What if Dave Matthews did a 45 minute set at an area Community Venue?  What if the stars chose to be the change, and not just send money in its direction?  What if they did more than write insulting lyrics?

And I have come to wonder about social responsibility and the simple day to day things, like the way we drive.  The way we interact with bicycles and pedestrians, and the way they interact with cars.  About the way we rely on the government to monitor our speed instead of governing ourselves, and how so many of us complain when we get caught.  And what sort of country would it be if we each could honestly wear a sticker every day with a little flag that says “I Drove the Speed Limit”.

Then there are the countless other social agreements we refer to as laws.  What if we could wear stickers for those?

And I know I’ve been fooled, voting for this idea that change is the opportunity of other; the government’s opportunity.  And all I can hear is that song by The Who.

So this year, for the first time in my life, I am voting Republican.

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Tags: artists, change, democrat, opportunity, republican, vote

Posted By Alice the Canine Messiah on August 2, 2012

The judgment of our fellow man is a subject that occupies a rather important place in many major philosophies.  “Walk a mile in another’s moccasins” before judging that person; “Judge not, lest ye be judged” There are others.

In the spring of 1998 I experienced the scope of this subject as an observer walking innocently into the aftermath of a tragic situation.  I arrived at Forest Lakes Shopping Center on a Wednesday night to stock up for the Memphis round of the WERA National Endurance series.  I arrived about two hours after the accident.  Southbound near Sam’s Club earlier, I had heard the northbound sirens – sadly pointless wailing in hindsight.  Yellow “Police Line – Do Not Cross” tape still marked a forbidden zone.  The center was busy, the scene looked serious.

Out of the car now I approached two female onlookers.  “A child died here tonight – he was hit by a car.”  The older lady had chosen her words carefully.  The younger lady had a look about her – freaky came quickly to mind.  Obviously she had been crying.

I bristled a little, thinking of past and present jerks zipping down the hill into Albemarle Square, rounding the Circuit City chicane at 30 mph with little regard for the possibility of human presence.  I thought of the idiots from Barracks Road to Seminole Square to Rio Hill – drivers who drive too fast and don’t let walkers cross.  Naturally I said “It’s no wonder, the way people drive in parking lots around here!”  When I heard a pin drop, I knew something was up.

“That’s not really the way it happened,” the older lady said quietly.  The young lady with the look had stiffened – I’m not sure she was breathing. The older lady said more.  “The child ran out.  I don’t think there was much the driver could do.”  She breathed then.  “Oh,” I said.  When the going gets tough, the stupid get back to their original purpose, which for me was buying groceries.

Five minutes later I was in line trying not to read the tabloids, and there she was – the young lady.  I think she was waiting for change to buy smokes or something.  Once she walked away and began sobbing into her hands.  Then I noticed her shirt: blood smeared from side to side, from the chest down.  I was afraid to ask, but I did anyway, and the cashier told me that the girl was in the vehicle that struck the child.  My knees sort of buckled.

Emotions flowed with the fury of Niagara: shame, sadness, doubt, pain for the girl, fear for the driver, shock and loss for the mother, and compassion for them all.  I was angry at myself for adding to the girl’s pain.  Judgments like mine were the last thing she needed.

I tucked tail, threw my groceries in the truck, and headed for the girl – leaving was no longer an option.  My heartbeat was out of time and my mouth was a little dry.  I opened with a lie, “I don’t know if you heard what I said before.”  She nodded.  “I’m sorry.  I had no right to say that when I knew absolutely nothing about what happened.  I’m sorry if I hurt you.”

I knew I was forgiven when she opened up to me, eager to tell her story and let go of some small part of the awful thing she was now living.  “It wasn’t like that – Dad was driving real slow, and suddenly he was just there.  I held him, and I tried to save him – I tried so hard to save him…”  She started to cry as I had been doing.  I was feeling pretty empty now, shot down by my own doing and trapped in a situation that defied reason.  A child had died, and no amount of reason or logic or blame would change that.

There was no comfort, and it was clear that these situations would not be so cut and dry again.  My convenient method of summing up the situation with an erroneous judgment and a cliché had imploded, its utility forever lost.

I was reminded to write this by a Washington Post article reporting a fatal head-on crash.  “Hope” and “despair” had met on the highway, and the writer seemed to want to fire us up a bit because “despair” had taken away “hope” on that fateful day.  I was not surprised to find that the family of the “despair” vehicle was offended by this approach.

Taking sides, passing judgment – what’s in it?  It’s the stuff that arguments, fights, wars, hatred and mistrust are made of.  Thankfully it’s also a choice.

I realize now that I could have been the driver:  I have been in accidents before and sat there afterwards wondering how this could have happened.  I could have been the girl:  I have tried to help in helpless situations.  Or the mom, or the “hope” vehicle, or the “despair” one, depending on which day of what year.

I now see that the important thing is to mourn the loss of human life and potential and to do what I can to avoid a recurrence.  Through quiet reflection on that which I honestly know about the situation, the useful truth will make itself evident.  “It could have been me.”  If I’m a driver or a parent, I’ll be a better one if I realize this.

I walked into a situation that wasn’t mine, but the problems are mine as well.  They aren’t just that of some generic guy or girl who I can quickly dismiss in a passing judgment.  There’s an opportunity in that, I just know it.

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Posted By Alice the Canine Messiah on July 19, 2012

I am truly impressed with the number of Americans who are standing up for the things that they have built to make our country great.

It’s been a great learning experience for me, and likely speaks to why my businesses have had limited success.  You see, I had no idea that to be truly successful I had to build all that.  The roads I mean.  The bridges and highways.  I had no idea I was supposed to be my own great teacher.  So I went at it with help from lots and lots of people throughout my life.  I feel so stupid…

But the silver lining is that I am humbled and awed by so many of my fellow Americans.  You not only built successful motorcycle dealerships, but you built the roads and bridges that lead to your dealership doors, and that your customers ride upon.  You build the motorcycles; you extract and refine the petroleum to make gasoline, racing fuel, chain lube and oil and who knows what.  Yes, you have a business, and you built that!

You not only built successful bakeries, you grew all of the raw ingredients.  You refined them, packaged them, shipped them to yourself, and baked them into your goodies.  You built the planes and trains and ships and trucks the stuff traveled in.  You drove them and flew them.  You grew the trees and made the paper to build those cool little cardboard boxes you put cakes in!  Yes, you have a business, and you built that!

Not only a successful gun shop did you build, but you build the guns!  You mine and refine and cast.  You build molds and mold things in them.  You build bullets.  And you sell it all from the cash register you built.  Yes, you have a business, and you built that!

Yes, you raised yourselves, educated yourselves, built the school buildings that you went to school in – all by yourselves!  With no help.

Yes, you did!  You have a business, and you built that!

You built the postal service, UPS, the banks. You grew the trees, made the paper, printed and bound the checkbooks, and then you wrote checks to build your business.

Yes, if you have a business, you built that!!

And if you have money in offshore accounts, you built those banks, and you staff them. You handle your transactions to get your money to those banks you built!!  You need no help.

Yes, you have a business, and you built that!

How did the Prez miss that?

Category: Greg Allen Morgoglione | No Comments »
Tags: Obama, roads & bridges, you didn't build that

Posted By Alice the Canine Messiah on June 10, 2012

Imagine a young man born of wealth.  A young man raised with every imaginable pleasure; lacking for nothing.

29 years he lives in luxury, shielded from the horrors of the world, for his father wants him to become a king, and not a holy man.

And he marries at age 16, and by age 29 has a child.  And by now he has begun to see the horrors of the world, and he feels a calling to seek resolution to them.

And he names his child “Fetter”, for he fears the child will tether him to this life of luxury.

And he leaves.  At night.  Sneaks out.  Abandons wife and newborn, father and kingdom.  And he goes off to solve the problem of suffering.

And one day, many many years later he realizes something.  It is something he had known all along, ever since a young childhood experience.

“There is no problem.”

And so, does he choose to go back to wife and child?  Does he choose to say “I am sorry?”

No.  He goes and pretends that other people have a problem, even though there is no problem, and he pretends he has a solution.  To a non-existent problem.

Ladies, is this the sort of man you want your daughters to marry?

Even if he is going to become known as The Buddha?

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Tags: Buddha, Buddhism, hero

Posted By Alice the Canine Messiah on June 8, 2012

Today a friend on facebook commented on someone’s post regarding the practice of eating meat.  It began with the well worn argument that “most people I know who eat meat would not do so if they had to kill and skin and clean and butcher” and etc the meat, in order to get it on their plate.  The writer’s reasoning was that most meat eaters are actually kind people who could not kill.
But the purpose of the writing had to do with the establishment/maintenance of a sense of writer superiority, and to instill a sense of both self-doubt and fear in the meat eating reader.  The writer claims that these “meat eaters who could not kill” are ignorant, and thus blissful.  Superiority.  And then he warns that “make no mistake, all that bad karma from torturing & killing innocent living beings is gonna come back to bite you”.  Fear. Self-doubt.  Sounds like a wanna-be guru…

It occurred to me as I sipped my coffee after reading the post that most people on Facebook would not be if they had to build their own computer.  Extract the materials from the earth and process them and create chips and program them and…

And most people who drive cars likely would not if they had to come up with raw materials, manufacture the components, and then build them.

And most of us responsible for pollution by virtue of consuming electricity and fossil fuels would not so be if we had to extract and convert them ourselves.

Most of us would not wear shoes if we had to kill an animal and skin it to get leather and then… well, you get the picture.  And what about clothing?  Now there’s a scary image.

And it occurs to me that if this argument about killing is true, then most people who eat vegetables would not do so if they were sensitive to their death throes – the ones the scientists have measured with their highly sensitive equipment.  And what about fish?  Have they no feelings when caught and slung in a bin to suffocate on the way to market?

At best the argument is ignore-ant, for it ignores the truth that “eating meat” is not directly related to animal abuse.  But more importantly for me is the fact that the writer abuses the idea of spiritual awareness by jumping to a place of superiority – I am more aware than you.  It’s an argument that ultimately both confirms and seeks to ease the writer’s personal sense of self-doubt; his fear of the consequences if he is getting the tenets of his vegetarian religion wrong.   He seeks strength in numbers of followers; self-appointed spiritual warriors prepared to feign superiority and take up the battle of rightness and wrongness that he is stirring up.

Well, go ahead, dear guru sir.  But, uh, bullshit!  (Stated with greatest respect, and peace and kind intention, of course)  Your engagement of the meat issue and continuation of it as an argument is ultimately both superficial and subservient – a ploy to allow self-appointed guru to test the waters and see how many people want to follow such a leader.  How many of you wish to follow divisiveness and superiority, fear and threats, in your quest for Unity, your quest for Peace?  In the quest for a better Now, who will join me in employing threats of Later?  I am guru.  Follow me.

It is a divisive argument that brings nothing to the table of Unity.  It’s the same old disdain for Now employed by spiritual thieves for centuries.  And it lends further evidence to Alice’s idea that

Spiritual teachers don’t want you to be happy.  

Spiritual teachers are vested in your blues. 

They want you thinking life is pretty crappy

And Hey! … they sell a way to fix it up for you.

**

Alice says that if anyone is going to follow her they better watch where they step.  Happy trails!!

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Posted By Alice the Canine Messiah on March 12, 2012

Once upon a LifeTime shared lived EverySelf, SomeSelf, NoSelf, and AnySelf.

When EverySelf was busy doing the Important Thing (IT), SomeSelf was sure that NoSelf was doing IT.

NoSelf was doing IT, convinced that “AnySelf can do IT if I can. I am NoSelf. I admit I am doing IT, but I am hardly doing IT. SomeSelf does IT far better, and I am NoSelf compared to EverySelf. Won’t things be grand when EverySelf does IT!”

NoSelf kept an Image of SomeSelf that AnySelf was sure to Aspire to, for SomeSelf, according to legend, had done it like NoSelf would again. Books had been written and handed down through Time.

“EverySelf wants to be like SomeSelf,” said NoSelf. “If they’re AnySelf, that is.  One day I will be like SomeSelf, doing IT as well as AnySelf. When EverySelf does the Important Thing like SomeSelf once did, life will be heavenly.”

And so it never-ends: EverySelf is doing the Important Thing, arguing that IT is not getting done because NoSelf is doing what SomeSelf has done better than AnySelf ever will again.

From The Now Exspirientuality: the Way of Unity – Conversations with Dog, Book I

Category: Alice the Canine Messiah, Book Excerpts | No Comments »
Tags: alice the canine messiah, enlightenment, opportunity, spirituality, The Now Exspirientuality, Unity

Posted By Alice the Canine Messiah on March 2, 2012

This year hundreds of thousands of well-meaning citizens will once again be involved in a widespread form of election fraud.  Okay, perhaps fraud is a bit strong – how about Election Deception?

Regardless of the terminology, it’s true; countless American voters will leave the polls naively thinking that their vote will make a difference in how the country is governed.

But it doesn’t, and it won’t, for the promise of America is and always has been the freedom to self-govern, a freedom based upon the recognition of the inherent equality of every human being, as stated clearly in the Declaration of Independence.  Indeed this is the recognition that at once set us apart from the world and united us as a nation.  Indeed this recognition and the willingness to self-govern both from it and in the bright light of its truth is the cornerstone of true, enduring individual freedom.   (Which may explain a great deal about how you are experiencing your country these days, my fellow Americans…)

Don’t be fooled America, for politics and government are not the same thing.  The government of our nation is not up to “them”, it’s up to us!  We the individuals; we the people!  (Thank goodness, for the politicians have certainly demonstrated their perpetual inability to govern.)

Let’s evolve beyond election fraud – Let’s Govern before we Vote!  …and after.

It’s the only way.

Category: Greg Allen Morgoglione | No Comments »
Tags: election, election fraud, govern, government, primary, vote

Posted By Alice the Canine Messiah on February 20, 2012

For those driven by a sense of spirituality/religion…

For those who believe the US is a “Christian nation”, or a religious one, or one with a sense of “God”…

For those who believe that in the end what matters is the spiritual stuff…

Where do you imagine we would be – the United States and the World – if, as individuals and as a country, we had practiced what we preach in response to the events of 9/11/01?

where would we be had we simply ‘turned the other cheek’?

where would we be had we Forgiven, in the moment?

why is the process of Forgiveness reserved for centuries and generations, if at all?

What If...

I’d appreciate your insights…

Category: Alice the Canine Messiah, Greg Allen Morgoglione | No Comments »
Tags: 9-11-01, forgiveness

Posted By Alice the Canine Messiah on February 19, 2012

Alice and I are thrilled to announce that our cd It’s Time That Time Was Overthrown is being picked up for distribution by Emphasis Entertainment Group from Naperville, IL!!

Big thanks to our friends Hunter Wolfe and ARE for their help, and to the fine folks at Emphasis Entertainment Group!

Greg Allen Morgoglione

02-19-2012

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Tags: cd distribution, Emphasis Entertainment Group, It's Time That Time Was Overthrown