Archive for October, 2007

>    Have you noticed the political dialog beginning to “ramp up” with each day we come closer to the 2008 Presidential election? Panic is already beginning to set in as both parties, Republicans and Democrats alike, realize their message is simply not working. As more and more of them awaken to the reality that they have lost the public trust and don’t know how to regain it, they are becoming more and more desperate and, therefore, more and more hateful of speech towards one another.
    What neither of them realize is that their “opposition” is not the other Party, but their own refusal to let go of old systems of belief, behavior and thought that serve neither themselves nor the people they were elected to serve.
    As I look at the Presidential field in both parties, I have but one overriding thought. I don’t know if Barack Obama is “The Man” but I can tell you for certain he is carrying “The Message.”
    The Constitution upon which our government was formed does not begin with “Me vs. You the People…” It begins with “We The People…” for a reason. Enlightened men (and I am certain, women), having left behind nations that were constituted by class and social division, knew the necessity of Oneness. They understood, and passed down to us, the fundamental principle of co-existence that we have ignored and attempted to defy.
    That principle simply stated is this: We Are All One.
    The Democrats would have us believe that the enemy is here at home, in the form of corporations and wealthy individuals who take advantage of the majority for the benefit of the minority. The Republicans would have us believe that the enemy is on other shores, and of other cultures, with the sole purpose of destroying us.
    Both are wrong.
    There is no enemy, domestic or foreign, other than Humankind’s willful refusal to accept its inherent interconnectedness and interdependency. We are branches of the same tree. One branch, diseased and left untreated, will eventually eat away the health of the whole. It’s our continued, self-imposed, delusion that somehow we can hate each other and kill each other and think of ourselves as disconnected from each other that is eating away at our future.
    There are those who say we need a President who understands the economic realities and can manage our fiscal life. There are those who say we need a President who understands the threat of global terrorism and can manage our military and foreign policy to meet that threat. There are those who say we need a President who is sympathetic to the healthcare “crisis” and the environmental “crisis” and will tackle these issues head on, while taking on the lobbying industry which exists solely to prevent progress in these matters.
    I say we need a President who understands that we have had, over time and repeatedly, Presidents who understood some or all of these issues and yet we have none-the-less arrived Here and Now in the condition we find ourselves.
    We need a President who understands and has the courage to state and implement policies that support our Oneness. We are more than “One nation under God.” We are One Humankind under God. We are each and all created equally, regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin, political affiliation or spiritual belief system.
    It’s too late for politics as usual with Hilary Clinton or the fear-based message of Rudy Guliani. John Edwards is perpetuating separation and division with his “Two Americas.” And while I think Mitt Romney and others probably “get” the economy, we are so much bigger than that.
    The time for small thinking and division is passed.
    Barack Obama, by his words, is showing that he understands the immediate need to speak to our commonalities and connectedness rather than our differences. I think he understands that same commonality and connectedness to other nations and cultures, as well. Whether or not he can walk the talk will only be known in deed.
    Never the Pollyanna, I do not think this new way of seeing the world will be an easy path to walk. It is fraught with land mines, figurative and literal alike. What I do know, and what you can hear the Republicans and Democrats desperately scrambling to resurrect, is the unmistakable sound of an era, dying. There is no time to tend to the corpse.
    Let’s put our energies into co-creating a reality where we honor our Oneness and our diversity.
    Look out any window. This principle is at work everywhere else in Nature. And Nature has been around a lot longer than Humankind.  It’s Humankind that has yet to learn how to be kind to humans.
    I remain an optimist. For every caterpillar that dies a butterfly is born. This is the natural, evolutionary process of things. Humankind has entered into its “lifetime of the butterfly.”
     As we spread our wings, let us spread the word.
   
   

>    There’s enough national news this morning around personal responsibility to write about…Britney Spears and her children, or the woman who “introduced” the rapist to the child he later videotaped raping. Lack of personal responsibility is everywhere. And so, for the past week, I’ve had my own lessons in it and think they’re worth sharing.
    We had the hardwood floors re-finished in our home this past week. After obtaining 3 estimates, we chose the one who’s price was “in the middle” of the three, not just for price but because the young man seemed reputable and straightforward. He began the job a week ago yesterday. The first day was sanding off the old finish. The second day began the staining process.
    That’s when I began to feel sick.
    On the third day, the first of three coats of polyurethane sealant was applied.    
    That’s when I began to feel sicker.
    It was very hot on the third day so by early evening my husband wanted to close up the windows and put the air conditioning on. I didn’t want to because I wanted the ventilation to stay open to dispersing the awful smell but the contractor said that would be fine.  My breathing soon became labored, my throat burned and my chest hurt. I was also very tired. I told my husband how I was feeling and said it was the product. He said I was being an “alarmist” but agreed, reluctantly, to open the windows. By the next day I was much worse.
    I told the contractor he could not apply any more of the sealant and I wanted the toll free number for the manufacturer whom I then called and was told we should have been warned to vacate the premises for the first 3-5 days following application. When I told the contractor, he called the manufacturer and had that confirmed.
    My family and I moved to a hotel immediately and have lived there for the past 4 nights.
    On Saturday I called the contractor who had given us the highest estimate. He uses a dust-free system and eco-compliant products. Although booked through November, he graciously agreed to have his cousin Nick (a school teacher who works for him in the summers) come to our home the next day (Sunday) and strip the floors, re-stain and re-seal them. Nick worked from 8AM until near midnight and the job was completed in one day.
    We moved back into our house yesterday. My lungs still hurt.
    The first contractor is returning our deposit and paying for our hotel and food expenses. I guess so. He’s very angry at both his distributor and the manufacturer “for not educating” him on the product’s hazards.
    Lot’s of lessons here.
     1. The manufacturer should have labeled the product with adequate warnings. The container had no such warning.
     2. The distributor should know the hazards of what he/she is distributing.
     3. The contractor should have educated himself, and advised his customers accordingly, concerning the hazards of the products he elected to use.
     4. My intuition is the best advice I can get. If I feel something is harmful to me or my family, I should act on that feeling and not acquiesce to another’s perspective (even if the “other” is my husband).
     5. My mother is fond of saying “cheap is dear.” While not always true, it’s important to be educated, as a consumer, as to the basis for significant discrepancies in price.
    On my last call with the original contractor, he said he was thinking about suing the distributor and the manufacturer for “failing to educate” him in the dangers. Well, maybe he has a case and maybe not. I’m a former lawyer and if anyone would likely be thinking about suing anybody it would be me.
    But here’s the thing.
    It’s easy to sue because that mitigates personal responsibility. And that makes us feel better about ourselves. But in the end, if there were no lawyers, (and many live for that day) there would be no choice but to learn form our mistakes and become the wiser for them.
    I could sue. Especially if my health continues to be a problem. But those of you who read my blog regularly know that I’m all about finding the highest message for all concerned. And there is one here, as well.
    It’s in all of our best interest to take our time (a challenge in this hurried world) and be thorough in our choices, trusting in our perceptions, and bold enough to follow them through when the message is clear.
    The second contractor, who used products that were not harmful, that comply with the strictest environmental standards, who helped us out of a difficult and dangerous situation on a days notice, and who did an outstanding job by working on a Sunday from almost sunrise to midnight is an example of the right way to approach personal responsibility, integrity and commitment to excellence.
    Instead of a lawsuit, why not a commercial? It’s so much more positive.
    If you need hardwood floors installed, or refinished, and want it done right, contact Joe Stone’s Hardwood Floors at 856.478.0022
    I love his business logo.
    “A Step In the Right Direction.“
    Now doesn’t that say it all.