World of Jonathan berman

Awareness of other people's issues must be used as a lens for us to look back at ourselves. What we focus on out there is generally a magnified version of that speck which we found within ourselves but do not see... Phoenix Shadel got a drawing for you... I want you to draw a boy or girl holding up a telescope not a long one just like a fat short one ie small but wide lensed, and have it pointing outward and the person's arms are around it, and it's shining a light into the darkness... and a ghostly whisp is trailing from him to a lens in the sky far away and another version of himself, more ethereal is there holding it with a smaller telescope, maybe even a kaleidoscope back at himself...

Ok where was I? Oh ya... so when we recognize a trait in others, we should be compassionate, because (of many reasons), but one being that we need the clarity to connect to the distant self that looks back at us with mindfulness... which helps us to solve these problems, not just for ourselves, but for others.

So with this particular issue, I believe the solution is that when you recognize the trait in others, realize it's possibly a magnification of your own issue, so that instead of judging them for a perceived judgment of you, you ask for clarification... because what happens is we come to our conclusions through what we believe is a logical, and clear process,, and their disagreement can sound flippant and closed-minded, because we don't hear the process they went through, we just hear the conclusion... so the simple solution here is to ask for them to follow up, to expand on their conclusion, because that in turn will stave off judgment, and further explore your own process as well.

Faith is the belief in things unseen... that must be why so often women are seen most desirable when fully clothed, and men's chins look best when obscured by a beard. We fill in the blanks with what we think looks best... and we tease the world, exploiting others for this in order to get ahead... we create the world in our mind. But, "we do not see the world as it is, we see it as we are." -Anais Nin. And we create the hell realms of desire and repulsion through expectation of what we see conflicting with what we dreamed. Again, if you go back to the Bible, to the story of the Garden of Eden, before mankind felt shame for their bodies, after eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, aka the discerning mind... it is once we begin to judge this and that, qualities of good and evil, of desirable and undesirable, that we lose our innocence, our lens of love becomes clouded, and lost in the mud. And all the while our senses cling to the desirable in an effort to avoid the undesirable... "and we run and we run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking, and racing around to come up behind you again. The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older. Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death." ~Time, Pink Floyd.

And that I think introduces us to our first album of the day... Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

Remember to love yourself, flaws and all, because you have flaws the way diamonds have flaws... in the end, they're still diamonds.

Don't worry about what you should have done, or what you don't know... you can't change what's been, you're still learning, and being true to the moment is what's really rewarding.

People suck at social alchemy
and I'm so good they think I'm stupid.
I just don't waste the energy on this pretty shit like you did.

So sweet so fine and find me the fool.
But while you're stewing in the first grade, I already graduated school.

One thing millennials do I never used to understand... posting love letters directed at one person publicly on their facebook page for everyone to see. I thought, we have phones, emails, text messages, private messages for that reason... these are all tools at your disposal... use them. But then I thought, Oooh wait, maybe they're subconsciously practicing wedding vows... either way it seems like we have become addicted to attention, and should keep some things... private and magical between two lovers...

Don't let life pass you by. I enjoy seeing boats as I sit on the shore; it's beautiful, I know. Remember to make one of those boats your own

I'm all for the American Dream, but instead of a white picket fence in my yard... I want a rainbow picket fence. I'm not gay, I just believe in the bouquet.

The words of one who has lost so much, and gleaned wisdom in the passage of great suffering... comes a pride that does not boast, a love that does not war, and a light that fears no darkness.

When I choose between a TV and a Turntable, the turntable wins every time. I know where the keys of the kingdom lay hidden, between the rocks and growing between the cracks, where the music stirs the heart like slowly moving clouds in a sky pregnant with rain. So end the conflict now, and take the road that rises above the city limits and white noise, even if you stand on that ledge alone, your voice and your dreams shall be realized in the glassy surface of the post war, in the puddles that are no more, off the leaves, and in my eyes. Build a passion that endures, a love that lasts, and lifts up humanity and crosses a new bridge from death, choose life, choose love... be an artist. Your breath is paint, your heartbeat paint. Your world a canvas. What sort of message shall we paint today? I set the needle down on the record and close my eyes... you see everything I longed for, it's already here.

Blood is the poet which brews within us, we simply translate what it says as it experiences the world.

That's kind of extraordinary then... no matter what speculation implies or hopes for... we are all there is that we know of, like us.

People try to convince you you're not special, okay go find another species of humans from another planet and get back to me... can't do it, okay, we're pretty special.

The bountiful beauty of earth, and the boundless, barren wastes of endless planets revolving around silent stars...

We are a starting area
This is where love finds purchase from the heavens
To overlook eternity
And to bring living light out of the void.

We reflect our mind off the universe because we have no idea it's extent, so there's nothing to attach to... but if someday we do figure out the edge of the cosmos, I'm curious how that will impact the way we process information.

Waiting for others to help you is like thinking the sun is going to make you breakfast in bed... no, it's job is to heat and light, after that its job is done. The only help you can count on in this life has to come from within. Everyone else just heats and lights. After that, their job is done.

Everything happens for a reason. If you can't sleep, you're up because the universe (your reflective mind) has something to show you. If you feel too tired to post something, or think you'll be misunderstood or ridiculed for your thoughts, they're not for anyone else to understand but you. The universe is a sounding board and intuition can sound a little crazy to the uninitiated. All is a wave and you are the shore, feeling it caress you all day... then call it all a shiny coin and throw it back into the sea, knowing you did your part. Remember, everyone around you is getting theirs, you deserve to get yours. Shine.

I don't understand how cam girls make money, it seems to me it would be like paying to window shop at a store you really really really like.

I can't wait for the day everyone has their own little drones to ship packages... I want to give my package to my drone I named Little Pigeon... and send it off to deliver my albums...

And then two drones will meet midflight, fall in love, and create Steven Spielberg's movie Batteries Not Included retroactively.

In court you're innocent until proven guilty, but in the real world, no matter how much you compromise, no matter how reasonable you are, some people just want you guilty. They live on self-righteousness, it numbs them to their deeper feelings. When you've got someone to blame, it's not your fault, so the guilt and regret must just all be in your head, right? Except, on some level they know that isn't true, so the pain just gets buried deeper and deeper, and the gulf between people grows ever wider... we become islands to each other, unable to hear through the cacophony that is the storming atmosphere of our thoughts we've become chained to. Then one day, we release the Kraken, and it is ourselves... and we burrow even deeper to escape a monster that is nothing but a reflection of ourselves. And then one day we choose to face this monster, this illusion, and we begin our heroes journey out of the darkness....

The Kingdom of God is within you, open the gates of the heart, the spirit of the eyes to see each moment is a communion, the conversation endless... we stop listening that is all... Embrace Love and Love will embrace You.

If you want to understand someone, not in their entirety of course, just think of them as a magnet, and look at what people it attracts.

If you don't put black food coloring in your egg whites, you're racist. The poultrycaust must end. ‪#‎BawkLivesMatter‬.

If you smoke cigarettes in 2016 you should be embarrassed. This is like if a German ran around with a little Hitler mustache in the '50s.

Some of us go through our entire lives thinking people care because we're always the ones to initiate conversation... but what happens when we test the waters by stopping, only to find no one reciprocates, or notices our absence? Most people can take or leave us, so they take us for granted, and take whatever we offer... but they don't notice when we need them, and if we mention it we're expecting too much, we are in a lose-lose situation so much of the time... and we start to see the full beauty of our tree is really just a Charlie Brown Christmas, with tiny branches, and maybe one or two meager ornaments, but that's okay, because we cherish those things, because we know there are those who have even less, and we want to help them just get a little tree of their own...

I've said everything I'll ever have to say. I apologized to those who needed apology. I've told the people that I love that I love them. I've explored every philosophy and poetry, dream journey and comedy routine. I've offended, explained, reconfigured and rearranged. Adapted and translated, numerologically and musically transposed. I've seen the truth in words, the painting and the breath. I've seen life tumble on the fingertips of death. What is there to say? What utterance could be left? Just the living goodbye that leaves no trace... perhaps those words alone will I never be ready to embrace.

PC Culture is the soil within which extremism grows. Once all comedy and freedom of expression is stunted, tyranny rules, fear wins, and free thinkers become martyrs.

I need to grow my own Mullein, it truly is the stuffed animal therapy of foliage.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Otherwise you will fall for any bullshit that's out there, and desperate people who want money, will exploit that naivete.

Painful scrapes really don't start hurting until they're well on their way to healing... I bet there's an important lesson or joke in there somewhere, or both.

If you don't like the way I respond to you, don't say the type of shit that warrants my type of response.

Here's my theory for what wiped out the dinosaurs and how it will likely be the same thing to wipe us out as well... it's pretty out there, so keep that in mind...

What happens is we heat up the planet through various means, some natural, ie endless lava flows pumping out methane, underwater flows killing off the crucial O2 giving life in the sea, some a forced hand through over-industrialization, and this causes a rubberbanding effect with our atmosphere which results in the moon slamming into us and then bouncing back into space, causing not only major craters we find on Earth, but on the Moon, and causing an extinction event... that's why we have never been able to trace a asteroid back that could have wiped out the dinosaurs, because it's been right in front of us the whole time... shining in our nighttime sky...

The worst horror movies are actually the best, because they're so bad you forget you saw them, thus every time you see them is like the very first time!

I always talk about the silent vibrational beacon of our intentions in our environment... and part of that is being responsible for what we kill, so I catch and release all living creatures, but it has to go further than that... when I eat meat I do broadcast an aggressive, superior message to my environment, and my guess is my cats pick up on this which makes them in turn more aggressive... so I am going to work on stopping the cycle of aggression by stopping eating flesh, and see what happens... I want my beacon to be of love, on all the levels I can master.

Some research is of course mandatory for such a life style change, but I'm sure I can do it if I really feel strongly about it.

For some reason I find watching any movie from the Final Destination series is best in the morning... nothing like waking up to a good dose of flipping off Death... albiet respectfully.

If you think about it, the premise behind the film series Final Destination, is VERY similar to the ideas I talk about concerning synchronicities, these connections with our lives, those things i call "Cupid's Arrows" pointing us to the truth, that there is an inherent design to all things, that these glimpses of connectivity, are really all there is, but we simply aren't ready to experience every thing as so truly One, that we only allow ourselves these brief glimpses at true reality. Like stars in the night... the stars are the truth, peeking through, and the darkness is merely our ignorance.

Now, I hate when people point out race in movies because it's usually bullshit, and this is absolutely the first time I have ever pointed such a plot point out, but it's definitely interesting in this case.

Something I noticed about the Final Destination series... and please don't think me racist for noticing this, I just find it intriguing that all the white characters are clueless excerpt for the one who has the premonition. Question, has a Black character in this franchise ever had the premonition? I don't think so, but the Black characters are always the most wise about what's going on concerning the big picture from the jump.

They explain everything to the others in a creepy way, that I find peculiar... if anything the movie might be using race a little more than people realize.

Anyway, just something to think about. I'll be watching the rest of the series to see if that trend continues...

People throwing prayers out when anything happens is not believing in God's plan, it's playing whack-a-mole with Heaven. A better solution for those who pray: Pray for the whole world. Sit in quiet meditation praying for the world... really spend some time with it in quiet contemplation. Focus on each place specifically, and really spend the time to encompass every place and person and thing that comes to mind... the earth, the people, the creatures, the sky... pray for it all.. leave no stone unturned... after all, didn't Jesus say, lift a stone, break wood, I'll be there?

Taking responsibility even in the face of injustice means we recognize a course with undesirable destinations were conceived within oneself. And for those imposed by others we learn to establish safeguards to avoid pitfalls in the future so that we become stronger. Wiser. And not victims of circumstance.

I am curious what decade people are thinking of when they say Make America Great Again with such vigor... perhaps they mean the early '80s when the rich actually paid their fair share of taxes and we built the UC school system, or when no one had to fear for their lives just going to school, or when only one spouse had to work so one could raise the children properly and keep a nice home, or when monopolies were illegal, we didn't have the Patriot Act, Citizens United, Corporations as People without accountability for murder and ecological disaster, Money as Speech, when starting jobs were held by 16 year olds, but honestly when was America great for everyone? Ever? We've never had profit sharing, which is how we got trickle down, we never had mandatory relief wells on drilling, which is how we destroyed the environment, we never demanded proper regulations, corruption at the highest levels always existed, the poor were always downtrodden, veterans have been treated poorly throughout our history, we are all immigrants, yet we continue to treat all immigrants like Jews in the Holocaust, unkind, uncompassionate, and unwise.... when did we ever act like Jesus?

When did we ever as a country spark truly great ideals by caring about the healthcare and education of the people? These aren't even national security issues, and we haven't ungraded infrastructure sewer lines and pipes in 100 years... When was America ever truly great? We've always had the potential, but we squandered it, and by we I mean a govt we did not put into power, but who put themselves there through entitlement, wealth, and egomaniacal and unchecked enterprise and ambition...

America has never been great, but most of us are simply naive and ignorantly blissful children living in the fantasy of a narrow world view, who grow up into a nostalgic and overly-romanticized false reality.
America has never been great, but it's always had the potential, and it's always had its proud moments which could inspire future greatness. Seeds have been planted by good people, but under nourished by a cruel and uncaring system.

Greatness is an ideal, but so far America has only fallen for the marketing campaign, the followthrough of those in power, of politics and industry to help heal and create a better world, is yet to happen, and greed will destroy us before it ever does. Bleak? Yes, but human nature is unavoidable... people will always want more... we need a new age of enlightenment... before we doom ourselves by annihiliating our home through reckless and wanton industrial abandon.

We must return in ways to a simpler way of life, smaller communities, love and family... and industry must play a part to preserve these treasures, or they will be snuffed out assuredly as day follows night and death follows life... is there time? I truly hope so.

If the New Testament is God chilling out after having Jesus, Final Destination is a horror series about Rube Goldberg before he has a kid.

It has always been my joy to bring light to others through self sacrifice, and it has never felt like a sacrifice when it is met with joy. This is why I was put on this Earth. To ease the burden of others, and it has always been my biggest failing to expect others to ease mine, especially in a way that I thought I was owed or needed through the exercise of my own misdealings... after all, what is more rewarding than the unexpected and unforseen beauty of the album you find in a thrift store, or that moment you look up and see the myriad depths of a sunset that stops you in your tracks, or the touch of someone who loves you?

In each moment is a cupful of blessings, and we can choose to look to the shadow or the substance, but we must remember how good we have it, when so many have it worse. And we must strive to be a blessing for them.

Been saying for years, they should make a Final Destination sequel that delves into where the premonitions come from and why... someone who truly masters them and comes face to face with Death only to take Death's place as the Grim reaper... sort of a take on Final Destination meets Peirs Anthony's Incarnation Series with Ingmar Bergman's 7th Sign.

Cuteness is the ability to perceive the beautiful in the fragile bird. To vow to protect it, but not impede its flight.