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

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.

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…

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

In the ‘for what it’s worth’ category, and while I am aware that many musicians do indeed want to be paid in cash…

The “music venues” being discussed here are non-traditional.  One of the ways this truth plays out is in consideration of what sort of “draw” a local/regional band or musician with a following would have for a marketplace venue where the main feature is not the music. Of course they might draw folks, but is it realistic to think they would draw a crowd similar to the one they’d draw for a Friday night performance at the local music venue? May be…  Ask around…

But my point has to do with creating a win/win situation, which is indeed a very valuable form of ‘pay’.

In my experience over the years when musicians are asked to support a non-traditional venue one of the selling points has to do with ‘what music adds’ to the event; aka ‘the importance of music’s presence’. And of course we all agree on this, music does make a difference and live music perhaps more so.

But what seems to happen so many times is that when the actual event begins to ‘go down’ the importance of the music often gets diluted. Suddenly the advertising is incorrect, and either forgets to mention the music, or the musician, or it mentions the wrong one.

And the music is mentioned so often as an ‘also ran’ – a little side note about “Oh yeah, and so and so will be there too…”

And of course we smile and we do understand the challenges of coordinating and advertising an event and how many details there are to pull together, and so we suck up the mistakes, the lack of promotion, the sudden seeming lack of importance of music to the event.

So….

My first suggestion is that we can be ‘paid’ in many very meaningful ways:

- Timely promotion
- Correct promotion
- Enthusiastic Promotion
- Equal Promotion, as we are event vendors too, not also-rans

- Goods from the vendors (the Nelson Farmer’s Market stands out in my mind, where EVERY vendor has always brought me and my bandmates some token of their gratitude – a glass of their special tea, a bamboo guitar pick, flowers to take home to my loved one, green beans fresh picked, a tomato.  It should also be noted that when we played there we were paid an amount of cash that worked out to less than a $5 contribution from each vendor.  If music is so important to the event, is a few dollars a vendor really that huge?  Really?  We’re talking about the same sacrifice many vendors make when they grab a latte on their way to the event.  Latte?  Music?  Latte?  Music?  Hmmm….  The proof, I suppose, is in the “putting”.)
As I write this I begin to wonder – “What if you promoted a Music Event in your venue?”

Not a retail sale event with music as a garnish, but a Music Event where folks can conveniently browse, shop, and get to know new businesses in their town? You know, instead of coming out on Friday night and paying a cover and sitting in a chair and maybe drinking for two hours in the presence of live music, they can… well, you know… buy your stuff. Get to know you.

Now you are in different territory. You are promoting culture, which includes not only music but goods. Vendors. Shops. Relationships.

The competitive aspect is gone, and the cooperative aspect of culture evolves. Here Now.

One other thought: IF a musician or band IS so important, then WHY are we left to both entertain AND vend our music? IF we are so important to the mix, then how about each vendor come get 5 copies of my cd and promote them at their place of business? I will be happy to cut you in on 15% of my sales, and your only investment is… uh, well really nothing. No risk of unsold merchandise, no up front costs, and pretty much your same ROI except you had no Investment.

Now maybe 15% is the wrong number, I don’t know. But I hope I have planted some seeds…

Best of Now, always,

Greg Allen Morgoglione

02-18-2012

~ Alice the Canine Messiah

*                    *                    *

Social responsibility.  It’s an idea that has been on my mind a great deal lately.  There is a vague idea in America that voting is an important social responsibility.  I choose the word ‘vague’ because it seems to be an honest reflection of the voting reality in our country.  Statistics show time and again that most eligible Americans do not vote, hence I think it is fair to refer to it as a vague idea in the practical sense.  And there seems to be a related idea that if one does vote then one is free to point a finger and call for others to change so that the voter’s experience will improve.

In the course of contemplating social responsibility in this context something quite fresh has occurred to me.  What about driving?  In other words if it is socially responsible to vote, then it would seem that it is also socially responsible to obey the traffic laws that our elected officials have indirectly set in place and maintain.

And this contemplation set me to imagining a world wherein each American embraces their social responsibility every time they drive a motor vehicle, every time they ride a bicycle on the road, or every time they are a pedestrian interacting with the roadways.  I mean if voting every two or four years might make such a profound theoretical impact upon our society, what might be the impact of every driver choosing of their own free will to routinely obey every speed limit every time they drive?  What if we proudly affixed “I Drove the Speed Limit” stickers to our sweaters the way we do when we vote?

Driving is of course just one example of a very important larger point that has occurred to me, a larger point that continues to be ignored in the mainstream/media dialogue of how we might ‘fix up’ our government and hence our daily experience of life in America.  The larger point is that in America we are as close to being as entirely free to govern ourselves as anyone has ever been upon this planet.  And the recognition of this truth radically alters the idea of what might be ‘wrong’ with American government these days, for the focus now shifts to the three fingers pointing back to any of us who point at “Them” or “That” as somehow being ‘the problem’.

Quite some time ago I began to dismiss opposing dualities from both my view of the world and my choice of words.  I no longer see or refer to “Problems” in need of “Solutions”.  I see and refer to Opportunities.  Life itself is an Opportunity, and as human beings we have been gifted the ability to respond to life’s Opportunities.  In America we have great freedom of choice as to how we respond; unprecedented individual and social response-ability.

Speed limits are posted and we are able – free – to respond to them as we choose.  We are free to speed whenever we choose.  140 miles an hour if we have the right car, which we are free to own.  Indeed there may be consequences, but we are free to do so.  Given a speeding conviction we are free to continue the habit of speeding and risk further consequences.  Given a license suspension, we are still free to drive, and even speed, if we so choose.  If you doubt any of this go spend a morning in just about any traffic court anywhere in the country.  One has to go pretty far to get locked up and have this response ability restricted in America.

The elephant in the room that is our current American Opportunity has nothing to do with politics, parties, or who is President.  It has nothing to do with That or Them.  Our Opportunity is to honor the clear majority and pay closer attention to the three fingers and whence they point; to get back to true self-governance, the moment to moment choice of how we exercise our individual response-ability; of how we ‘vote’ in every moment.  It’s an Opportunity ultimately based in respect for the idea of equality, which is the stated origin of our country as well as a pillar of many (most?) religions and spiritualities.

Truly there is no problem to be solved in America with respect to government.  There is only Opportunity, and it is the Opportunity to engage the concept and exercise the practice of true social response ability.  It is, truth be told, the Opportunity to self-govern, which is and always has been the American Dream.  If you doubt this, just spend a few moments with the American Declaration of Independence.

No one, including followers. ~  Alice the Canine Messiah