Be safe! And other such advice.

My good friend just told me that no vaccine is safe! Especially the various COVID vaccines and boosters our government rushed to the market. He is a proud Southerner, bless his heart, and a Republican, but don't hold those against him. He is a good man. He wants the best for his kids, grandchildren, our country (whichever country it is you hold dear, US of A, US of E, China or Turkey) and our world. But, you can tell he doesn't trust the government. And, if you think twice about it, you wouldn't blame him. BTW. Trust is a wonderful TV series that tells the morbid story of Paul Getty the third who lost an ear for a billion dollars. Check that out on Hulu, you know the streaming service rivaling Netflix. Or, just read on trust here.

My friend is also very informed. He reads books -- e.g., a wonderfully realistic and scientifically solid one called Factfulness by Hans Rosling -- newspapers, watches TV channels and follows news on social and not-so-social media. Well rounded you could say. He is also retired and has time to do all that research. Yet, when I asked him: is driving a car safe? a trick question, he fell for it and said, yes! All 900 people who die every year in traffic accidents just in the state of Georgia, USA must have missed his attention on the local news he also peruses. 

Of course, I tell my kids, especially my daughter to be safe. She is sweet sixteen with a provisional 6-month license and is in traffic! Are you a parent of a teenager who wants to own a car and drive around? Well you know about my concerns, strike that, my worries, oh, strike that too, my paranoia that traffic is gonna get her!

Here is my quick advice to all parents like me and non-parents, too. The only place we can be safe in is in our heads. The world is not a safe place. We all watch out. Right? But, take another look at your mind and make sure you are safe within it. What does that mean? Thoughts can't hurt me, you say. Do you? Is that true? What is trauma? Not just shell-shock. After all, we all know that sticks and stones can break my bones, but, words can't hurt me. Why do we insist about that adage, drill it into our kids? Well, because words, too often, do hurt. Of course, it's not the words themselves, but the mind(s) behind them. Heard about the guy who gets up and disagrees with the guru who just gave a talk to a big audience on the basic moral that we take words too seriously and we better change our ways to get along with people, to have some peace in the world. So, the guy says: I disagree. Words don't mean that much. It is reality that hurts. The guru replies: "sit down you son of a b." The guy of course goes livid. He shouts: you call yourself a teacher, how dare you say that? And on and on.. The guru waits for him to finish up his diatribe. And then says, I am sorry. I didn't mean it. It was a mistake. Pardon me. The man, now calmer, says thank you. The guru follows up, do you see now that it took only a few words to bring up a whole big tempest in you and another few words to calm you down. Words do have a big impact on us. 

If you are curious about the source of this beautiful short story, please check out the wonderful "book" called Awareness by Anthony De Mello. 

So, be safe. Watch the minds around you. You will see, if you've not yet, that they hurt. They hurt their masters, people around them, as well as you, if you let it. So, watch, first, your own mind. And if you do, you will see, you'll come to realize that it's benign. It only tries to help. Actually, it doesn't even have a will. It's our tool to use. And, sadly, we misuse it. We abuse it. And then we get a monster of a mind that is almost out of control, totally. And, it's not only those historical figures like Cortes, Leopold the second, Wilson, Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Loyd George, and many more with too much power to wield, but also the latest ones like Putin, Erdogan and Trump, just to name a few, who all need our prayers to come out of it. Lose their minds and come to their senses. Will they? Oh, well, don't hold your breath. As the famous physicist Max Planck famously said, progress happens in physics, and I add in the world, one funeral at a time. Yes, death, even though we sometimes fear it, and so never want to think about it, could actually be a very good thing. For those in the after-life to move on from those old and failed ideas. We might get a new mind, and a new earth. The onus is on us who live the afterlife of all those we love and don't so much.