Grab Bag of Random Thoughts From My Mind Today

Some random thoughts on this Sunday from the head of Jim:

• I wish they would stop making those commercials using the scenario of a military man coming home to surprise mothers and children. Pulling at heartstrings for the sake of some marketing agenda? Sick! But what's sicker is the fact they don't ever provide the balance of scenario where mothers and children are surprised with the return of military men ... in a box. Now that surprise would pull at the heartstrings, but may be bad for the business being promoted and the business that is called "war."
• For all my dark thoughts, I'm actually quite a silly person. I believe the silliness saves my seriousness, and my seriousness saves my silliness. 
• When you have two independent clauses with a joining conjunction such as "and," there should be a comma in-between. Just think: "could these two sentences stand alone?" If yes, add the comma before the "and." Trust me.
• When our hearts are flowing love outward, it's hard to have our feelings hurt. Not to say the lack of returned affection and love doesn't suck. 
• Beware of the smokescreens. The distracted public is too much like the baby with wild eyes observing the dancing mobile above a crib. Look to alternative media and the black-and-white facts for what's really going on. Old-time journalism, prior to the opinionated "hearsay journalism," was a beacon for such truth. 
• Imagine if you had a friend that had the same personality that comes from the TV news. Gossipy, showy, focusing mainly on depravity, death and negative drama. See ya dude!
• Do the baseball coaches who pull a starting pitcher ever do so in order to get themselves and their ego into the game as managers? If so, booooo. Greinke was throwing a 3-hitter you dumb-ass. 
• It's raining. Thank you cloud. 
• I had another random thought, but damn it - it got away. That's why they call them thoughts and "random."
• It's so much easier to jot short notes and thoughts rather than a full-blown article, even though it takes the same amount of keystrokes. 
• How many random thoughts constitute a full article post? What? Less than this? Ok.
• Happy Sunday. A great day to remember the freedom ... from what humans have created.

"The Rascal" - And Other Proud Moments for San Diego

It was reported recently in an online Patch article that our own San Diego was living large in the area below the belt. Woohoo. Ranking third behind only New Orleans and Washington DC, America's Finest City (now we know why) was ranked by Condomania.com as one of the top cities with the most well-endowed citizens.

Hurray for the San Diego for having the - ahem - balls to just let it all hang out.

With much embarrassment coming from the downfall of the Chargers, Padres and fallen mayor Bob Filner, it's good to know that our city has something to be proud of.

Penis pride!

Now, I realize this isn't your normal community ... um ... initiative people normally reveal in appreciation. And sure there will be those who find such achievement and such reporting as inappropriate if not exaggerated. And yeah, other cities may scoff at such prowess, with what could only be called "penis envy."

But I say let's stand proud. Stand tall. Standing fully ... well you know. Let's hold pride in being at the top of our game at something. This city has been through some tough times; it's time to celebrate this huge accomplishment. 

It doesn't matter that the source for this news story is also promoting the Liquid G Spot Erotic Vibrator (at $10 off), bad boy buddies, bath time fun, dirty dice, sexy edibles and "The Rascal," the latter aptly named I bet. What matters is that this fine city is packing some power where it matters most.

Let our city stand as an example. Honestly, I am actually proud, not of a simple body part or parts, but of a local Patch online newspaper - however lighthearted at heart - that could take on a topic normally reserved for giggles behind the palms, adult websites, and schoolyard shenanigans. Why not dilute the over-exaggerated puritan agitation that shadows something as natural as the human body?

Yes, satire and silly allusions aside, perhaps the defusing of the whole sexual mystique can help heal a community of any shame surrounding the sexual act or sexual organs. As funny and shameful as a National Geographic centerfold, penises and all well-intentioned, well-lubed benevolent body parts can be freed to have their place in the sacred natural world.

Something of which to truly be proud. 

James Anthony Ellis is a writer and filmmaker living in Lemon Grove. He can be reached at www.LegacyProductions.org

The Fourth of July: A Day Like Any Other Day ... In Hell

Ah, the Fourth of July, a wondrous day that rekindles the scent of sparklers and firework fountains and picnics and some burnt barbecue burgers. Oh and the delectable tastes of corn on the cob, apple pie and hot dogs and beans. It's a day that rings in the glorious recollection of our forefathers who stood strong in the face of tyranny and chose to draft and stand behind a Declaration of Independence and later a Constitution, which would protect the American people from censorship, oppression, suppression, and - in a word - government.

• It's not just a date - July 4.
• It's not just a holiday - Independence Day.
• It's not just a celebration - With banners and fireworks. 

It's a day to remind us of the incredible work done in the mid to late 1700s and how a lot of that work has - of late - gone straight to hell.

The author taking a stand with some cardboard cutouts, circa 1776.

Ironic that.

It was "hell" these pioneers escaped when recounting the atrocities of the King of Great Britain George III. It was also most likely "hell" taking a stand for another way of governing a nation. And now, on this 239th anniversary of some brave men grabbing sack and saying "fuck this" ... that hell is back. And it's a hell that is back in full force. Oh, it may be taking place with men (and women) wearing different sorts of facades and masks, and taking different types of stances, but in the end, it's all the same.

Once again we could "let facts be submitted to a candid world." The list could include:

• For searches and seizures without probable cause - as our police take liberty with our persons, cars and property, and our phone companies cave in to a government that must protect us all by suspecting us all.
• For spying on the American people.
• For forcing its own method of healthcare and vaccination without our self-determination.
• For limiting people's freedom of speech and the right to assemble peacefully.
• For allowing the Executive Branch to call for acts of war without declaration by a Congress.
• For threatening the people with laws to remove our ability to arm and protect ourselves from such tyranny. 
• And in the words of the original document: "for imposing taxes on us without our consent" and "for depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury."

Talk about deja vu.

Is the United States presently as bad off as other countries with purely tyrannical and controlling governments? No, but that doesn't mean we aren't in danger of sliding fully into the darkness we once escaped so long ago.

What is the result of a collective that has one man (or a group of globalists) at the top as “king” while the people are not the ones in the power? What is the result when a nation has law enforcers with entitlement and special privileges above the public’s best interests? Where does equality and freedom go when laws are made to reward specific special interests? What happens when a REPUBLIC designed so all would live under one all-encompassing law – free and equal – becomes a nation that is ruled and controlled by an elite? What happens to a nation in which truth-tellers or whistle-blowers are shushed in ways we don’t even know, where a country not based on the objective standard of its time, a Constitution, experiences the effects of random rule?
 
Such diseases to the very fabric of a country can only lead to conflict, unrest and the death of a nation. That is the hell. So then, what is the heaven? What is the solution?

At the root of the heaven would be something called "natural law," a philosophical and legal belief that all humans are governed by basic innate laws, or laws of nature, which are separate and distinct from laws which are legislated. In Plato's Republic, the ideal community is "a city which would be established in accordance with nature." Philosophers such as St. Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke expanded the Greeks theories of natural law, and these ideals found their way into Thomas Jefferson's writing of the Declaration of Independence.

Here then, with natural law - adhering to basic human rights, inalienable, given by a higher power and not by men and their egos - we find the principles of fairness, self-determination, autonomy, freedom and equality. From the first days on the playground, a young soul understands when natural law is broken, as some boundary is completely busted by the bully overtaking a swing set or a sandbox. Whenever a boundary is crushed and torn asunder, there is a crime against a natural way of being. These come in the forms of physical abuse, thievery, murder, rape, trespassing. We all feel it on a visceral level; there is no denying the crime has taken place, no matter how a mind may legitimize the invasion.

And, so how do we maintain a law that is so very basic to all our needs, and one that may have been broken so many times we may not even notice any longer? Well, whenever a government does what it tends to do - overstep its bounds by controlling and taxing a populace - it is up to the people to once again stand up strong and reclaim a power that never should have been relinquished. As it says in that original document I keep bringing up: "whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

Not the newest idea. It's as old as, say, the boundaries guarding our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. It's as American as fireworks, a barbecue, the taste of corn on the cob and apple pie. It's as necessary as a natural law that keeps the elitist egos at bay and keeps the power of the people at the forefront. 

And ... it is something to truly celebrate, today, the fourth of July. 

James Anthony Ellis is a writer and producer who - though not a historian - really knows natural law residing right there in his gut. He can be cited for treason at LegacyProductions.org.

The Past Revisited Forever

In her blog a friend recently posted a piece with the title: "Why is it so &#%$ difficult to leave the past where it is?" Laura had some wonderful insight in her blog (Check it out LINK)

I figure, too, everyone should have their shot at answering the question. Do you have an answer?  

Here is mine:  

Why is it so &#%$ difficult to leave the past where it is?
Because the past is right here.

It hasn't gone anywhere. It's where it resided when it first transpired, and it will forever be there. 

And it will forever be here for us, whenever we need it.

Like a movie that is always running in a back room, we can visit it. We can go into Theater 1 and observe our first date and what a mess that was, and then into Theater 2 and see that punt that we ran back for a touchdown right there in front of our dad. Then Theater 3 for the laugh attack when driving our girlfriend cross country relating funny tale after funny tale. And also Theater 4, the last day you saw your mother alive, as you kissed her on the forehead as she lay there on the hospice bed.

It's all there. It doesn't go anywhere. We won't be able to leave the past behind because it is what has formed us into the person that we are. It resides in an infinite storage house called the "subconscious mind." From this humoungous storehouse, from these rows upon rows of theaters, we can access what is needed at certain times.

The main questions about our past we must ask include:

1. Are there aspects of the past that bother us? 
2. If so, why?
3. Does it make us happy to review the movie of our past? 
4. If so why is that?

Since the past definitely happened, and since it won't - according to this writers' theory - not actually go anywhere - what can be done to make peace with all that will be with us for the rest of our lives?
 
I recall many times in my work in the "healing" field, working to regress clients back into the "past," as well as times of my own healing being regressed back there. In my regression various memories would pop up in order to be observed, confronted, felt, integrated and transformed into my own oneness of experience - beyond good and bad.

In what could be termed a sacred embrace, we can call forward that aspect of the past that still hides in the shadows of acceptance and sit face to face with it. And simple BE with it. And cry. And scream. And feel what could not be expressed the FIRST time it came around. Did you get hurt? Did someone break your boundaries? Were they in fact obliterated? Were you ignored? Did someone overlook you? Were you witness to some heinous act of crime, rape, murder? Did you get hurt?

The more harsh the past, the more we want to "let it go." But what is this "letting go?" Can we truly erase those life experiences? Or is it more healthy to find safe, non-judgmental environments where such experiences can trickle up to the surface in order to be encountered ... where we can sit face-to-face with a past we have been hiding, where we can feel all the emotions surrounding it and express the sentiments that have, as yet, been left silent.

As Laura so eloquently suggests in her post, we can re-frame the negative aspects of the past by using them in a learning opportunity: gaining a lesson, finding a way to use it to help others, holding it in a sacred place of rich history.

Such re-framing is indeed healing for the soul, which is infinitely wise enough to know we do not "let go" of the past. We don't let it go because it is a gift to our personal growth. It will also be with us forever ... positive in minds that hold it positive and embraced into a positive for those who can see the past in a way that rounds out a soul's sojourn.

And the final reason we don't leave the past where it is?
Because the past is right here.

James Anthony Ellis is a writer and producer who uses his past to write a bunch of plays and movies and stuff, happily. He's found at www.LegacyProductions.org.

You CAN Handle the Truth - A New Look at "Forgiveness"

OK people. It's official, we are discontinuing the old, worn-out, BS version of "forgiveness." Drop it! It's fake; it doesn't work, and it doesn't help. Never has.

Not as long as the person is still alive who screwed up.

No longer will you use the phrase "I forgive you." You didn't mean it really deep down; it didn't mean anything anyways, and it actually sells out the person who did the misdeed ... whatever that was. 


Those who say they "forgive" another person without telling that person what happened, the emotion experienced, and the impact incurred is selling out that person and selling out themselves. There is too much value in our observation, our expression and the act of clearing-the-slate to pretend that it's sufficient to go silent, quit on the process of relationship and offer a hand-waving blanket "forgiveness."

First off, can we really "pardon" someone from their apparent "sins?" If you have to pardon some act, doesn't that reinforce the negativity of that act, rather than truly dismiss it? And if you get real and label it the "negative" experience it was, how would a wave of the hand counterbalance it?

Second, if there is such a thing as cause/effect (karma) - and oh yes life-fans there is such a thing as the law of karma - then even if you pardoned some lamer from their lame actions, they would STILL need to DO something to balance out that lameness. Cause ... effect.

Right?

So.... starting now. No more "I forgive you." Got it?

If the person doesn't have the consciousness to automatically say, "What can I do to make it up to you?" - and yes life-fans only 1 percent of the population EVEN RECALLS that honorable statement - then you have the chance to do one of two things once someone blows it with you:

1. Ask the person: "Are you willing to do something to make up for what you did in order to bring balance to this situation?"
2. If the person does what 99 percent of the population does - act defensive, naive, indignant or self-righteous - then simply tell them the truth: your thoughts, feelings and ideas about their actions.

If the person does do a "balancing act" (hey that's a cool new term) to make right what they made wrong, then show the gratitude for such class and care. If the person simply opts for hearing your truth instead, leave the truth out there and leave that person alone with it. If he or she returns to you, follow up with 1."Are you willing to do something to make up for what you did in order to bring balance to this situation?"

Then rinse and repeat.

This new behavior will do five things:

1. It gives the offending person a chance to balance out, consciously, their misstep in a conscious step in the right direction. This will empower your friend to know they don't have to wait for the Lords of Karma to balance out all in the Universe. They can be a responsible force in this scenario.
2. It stops the farce of forced or fake forgiveness, which never did relieve your soul TRULY or help bring responsibility to the other person. 
3. It empowers us all to speak up and deliver our heart, mind and soul to another, knowing that these sentiments aren't harsh judgments but rather gifts of observation that can serve another in expanding their own level of consciousness. 
4. It gives us a proactive action in our endeavor to find peace, overturning a passive "giving up" that serves NO ONE.
5. It makes real the act of "atonement" - bringing true oneness to our relationships.

Some may say that we can't really know who is right or wrong in a situation, and some may believe that all is "right" in the universe as it plays out. Those beliefs won't get in the way of the very fact YOU CAN deliver your truth whenever you believe you have been slighted or let down. The act of "letting go" in your "forgiveness" won't be you turning from your friend or acquaintance, but your letting go of your hesitancy and avoidance and simply telling the other person how you feel, what you observed and what you believe was the impact of another's action or lack of action. Perhaps, just maybe, the "letting go" within forgiveness is the simple revealing of the truth.

Ok people - do you got it?

It's time for a new way of doing relationships and screw ups.

We are all human, it's OK. We will make mistakes. So what! It's how we respond to our mistakes that will make all the difference. It's how we respond to other people's misgivings that will also make a difference.

Remember the magic phrase - "Are you willing to do something to make up for what you did in order to bring balance to this situation?" And then remember too, the idea that will be your backup if this phrase falls on deaf ears ... the truth.


James Anthony Ellis is a writer and producer who does not forgive you ever, but does hold certain expectations that you can be a responsible adult. He can be reached for atonement at LegacyProductions.org.

Go Ahead And Spy On Us - We'll Be Good

Had to comment on this topic, since it keeps arising in the media, in the news and - sadly - in some of my friends.

When people respond to the idea of government surveillance or warrant-less police searches with "Well, if you're not doing anything wrong than why have a problem with it" we have to consider something very important to all of us whether we reflect on it or not: Natural Law.

In short, there are natural boundaries we all hold. 

• Our locked front door
• Our private journals
• Our territories of auto, home and body

"Go ahead and search if you want. I have nothing to hide."

These boundaries keep our autonomy intact, create a state of respect with neighbors, and basically honors our freedom and equality. To give that up, no matter what logic the invader reasons, is to give permission for that person, group or nation to use their leverage and will over our own. In the breaking of this law (which is natural to all living beings requiring self-determination) we open the door to the invader who will never truly respect our boundaries moving into the future. No matter how slight that door is cracked open and how supposedly "minor" that over-step reaches, the Natural Law is broken, and the final outcome can only reside in an owner/slave relationship.

The Founding Fathers knew this clearly, and therefore the writing in the Constitution reflects on no uncertain terms the sort of Natural Law that would keep us all safe, self-determining and free. 

Don't let any lazy logic steer you away from these principles.  

James Anthony Ellis is a writer and producer living in a free society of Lemon Grove. He can be reached at www.LegacyProductions.org

Bowing to the Truth - The Face of Love

As many in our society have been programmed to bow to the almighty systems in place, we all may want to take another look.

So far, those necessary societal giants, self-proclaimed, include but aren't limited to: 

• The medical industry 
• The pharmaceutical industry
• The police departments
• The military
• US political leaders breaking with "Constitutional Law"
• The IRS
• The FDA
• Religions that lack a unifying spirituality 
• The banks

As an idea, bow to the light that comes from within.

Now, this is all a matter of opinion of course. But, hell, this is my blog, so here is my opinion. We must not bow to any sort of posers but recall what is deeply true for us at the deepest levels.

A good example of the facade parading as truth came clear to me a couple months ago. I remember I was in a CVS drugstore, and I saw this 20-something-year-old dude walk in, and I recall thinking he seemed like a pretty mopey and dopey kid. I then watched as he walked up to the pharmacy, and I was thinking, "Oh poor dude, he's probably depressed and is coming in for some anti-depressant medication." He then walked through the little door of the pharmacy, and I was alarmed and hoped he wasn't going to rob it or cause some sort of commotion. I wasn't sure if I should say something in that split second, as this dude was obviously invading a secure space. A moment later I watched in surprise as the mopey, dopey dude picked up a white jacket and then put it on.

Oh. He works there. It all became clear. No, not that I misjudged an obvious upstanding and wonderful "doctor." No, it wasn't a realization that my preconceived ideas were so off-base, and not a thought that we shouldn't judge a book by a cover. But rather it was an awareness about the need to read the entire book and throw out the cover. It was a clarity about how much of a collective unconscious play is at hand with the darn white jacket of the "medical" industry. I instantly saw how much bullshit is sold and bought through the programming of minds that are hypnotized to "ask your doctor, ask your doctor, ask your doctor." So many commercials, so much daytime and nighttime programming builds up the image of the most dopiest of dudes just because they know how to put on a fucking jacket.

So in this instance with this kid, all of the sudden he's reputable because he put on a freakin' white jacket? Since I am not enrolled in being trained to think like all the sheep following blindly. I'll stick with what is true for me - not medication that cures nothing. Not jackets selling the latest drug. Not anyone selling anything. I will listen to my own body and my own intuition. In terms of trust in the medical community, I will stick with my humble doctor of eastern and Chinese medicine any day, even though he doesn't wear jackets and actually wears brown corduroy pants!

Yes, I bow to the truth, from whatever source it arises.

• The physicians and politicians who stand out to truly care for the bigger picture rather than selfish and small-minded agendas. 
• My men's support team that challenges me to be my best, telling the good, the bad and the ugly truth. 
• My wife as she pulls for my and everyone's best. 
• My niece Grace as she smiles. 
• My dog who approaches me with a toy to play with when I arrive home. 

The face of love in all its forms. I bow to that.

I bow to that. 

I bow to you, the truest identity of you, of which I am united ... in care, in peace, in love.


James Anthony Ellis is a writer and producer living in San Diego, California. He can be found at CVS mainly for greeting cards and at his website www.LegacyProductions.org.