Standing on a roof

Standing on a roof, nail gun in my hand, fighting with incompetence, enjoying the day.

a peaceful man

8 years ago Daniel still had $50 in his back pocket... insurance... then he sent $25 to his sister and left the other $25 on a picnic table... and he was free.

I just spent two days with him, at his cave. He claims that he eats better now then he did while he had a full time job as a social worker. He does not get anything through any kind of exchange... I call him an urban hunter gatherer.

For dinner we had oranges, Juniper tea, wild onions, potato chips, mozzarella cheese, all provided culled from the planets plenty.

He is a college graduate, peace corp graduate... does not accept any form of government assistance, and is a productive member of society... giving more then he takes.

We took two hours of video, and plan on getting more

a happy man

In the tree house met a man:

Daniel stopped using any form of money 8 years ago. No cash, no barter, no overt exchange of value of any kind.

He lives in a cave. He loves his life. He is happy.

Breakfast

Not as warm as I wish,
but blood oranges wild from the neighbors yard
cinnamon toast
Black tea

but I want to swim in the ocean

I've got pie

Apple pie as I wait for my 11:45 flight I've never noticed it before but the restaurant here at the airport has a panoramic view of the mountains I think they want us all to miss this place.  But I'm turning right around and driving back with my new to me Sprinter home... 

I was afraid that I would not be able to catch a plane because I do not have valid ID,  but here I am waiting for my plane

the GPS doesn't know the truth

The sun poked up over the Book Cliffs and I didn't stop to watch,

 a 30 dollar a night motel with it non water conserving shower stall, no tub, old hard bed blank white wall and a TV.

$1.29 a gallon for Gas and the car gets 48 MPG

  dodging  slow moving Semis ,  passing one on its side, sometimes the wind in Wyoming wins

Money is a universally accepted fiction or 2+2= anything you want, if you can dictate the value of 2

Not believing in money confuses people, but I wonder how people believe. Yes it is clear that that we all have to use it but believe?

   See if two people can and do the same exact same work but receive different amounts of money, then work is not the key element.  And if two people can buy the same object for two different prices with the possibility of one of the prices being something other than money, then it clear that money is not the key to getting the object.  

Is money a surrogate for barter?  In a barter system the bargaining power of all the players is crucially important.  In 2006 a man traded a red paperclip for a fish shaped pen then thirteen trades later  for a house. a lot of value sure came from somewhere.

money is interesting and convenient but really nothing more than a way to turn bargaining skill into an easily transacted commodity.

In other words money is a representation of bargaining skill or power.  Work, skill, time, looks, things, even ideas can all be used as bargaining chits but really all of the value is determined by the people making the deals.  Nothing has any value except in relationship to something else.  That reckoning of value is controlled by the player with the most skill.  This applies to everything relating to money.

 

oatmeal

steam rising from oatmeal trailing my topless car, passing honda with ice on the inside. 

both sorry for the other and I have oatmeal to warm my hands and the world around me

more comfort

sitting in Village Inn not ordering cherry pie and coffee but turkey and gravy.  Bus Boy trying so hard but his 45 degree off center hat does not counter the message he is screaming, it would be easy to laugh, his posture says he is used to it, maybe not used to it.

Ok I'm ordering pie... for the cold... with cream

ln a cottonwood

Snow and ice on ladder steps is forcing me to the ground.  It's still not cold while sleeping thanks to Farmers sleeping bag.  

I met a man in New York who liked to sleep on construction site scaffolding, no one looked up, the cottonwood affords the same conspicuous hiding.

he had to get down before work crews arrived, I just like to avoid neighbors .

but what is better then getting above it all and sleeping.

The Drunken Monkey and the Inner Dog

If people are animals why are we so different? I mean really, we make airplanes and watches.  

Something happened long ago, we developed the ability to think separately from our instincts, we got really good at it and language which came along for the ride made it so we could easily keep our innovations generationally.  

But really we were still just animals that could do lots of tricks.  And one of the biggest tricks was to begin to set up systems, which some call culture,  and these systems sometimes made up rules that tried to take the place of instinct... the the silly part is that we still have the animal inside.

Humans aren't really all that fast on foot, and look at your hands and feet, lousy claws, and try to smell for the deer behind that tree, yea can't do it.  Now there are lots of things we do really well, but in order to be the predators that we became we needed help, cue mans best friend... yea dogs were right there from the start, great match synergy even.  But see we started to talk and then thought we were better and started thinking of dogs as pets rather than co-workers.

We started wearing fancy clothes and making fire, and forgetting that we were a lot like dogs and our dog nature got hidden inside and forgotten about.  But the inner dog didn't forget about us.  

Most of the time the inner dog runs the show, we just don't realize it.  It's hard, nearly impossible to see some things that are so close... strange.

The part of us that we can see, the language part, the part in our head that we can hear and communicate with, the trained monkey that does great tricks, really is just drunk with power, thinking that since it can talk and make wheels and fire, it thinks it is in control of what the rest of the animal does.

The inner dog, like all dogs just has a few needs, food sex and play.  It does everything to get those things.  The drunken monkey on the other hand thinks that it is rational and can control what it needs and wants, makes fake rules, comes up with strange excuses and explanations as to why why it does what it does.  But really often the inner dog just want to 

hump that girl or boy (inner) dog.  

The drunken monkey does have some control... but so does the inner dog

2+2=5 for large values of 2

The Tree house and

Which house to choose

The Sprinter Home:

Best gas milage, most incognito, most convenient

The shack on the back:

Can be dropped off leaving a useable truck for work.

This Littlest house :

Bigger but less mobile

 

I'm looking for help on the decision 

Prop 8 in California and polygamy

History... to remember the past and learn is such a rare thing.

In the fairly recent past, Mormons lost their right to marry who they chose to marry. This was a tragedy that destroyed many families. Now it seems that Mormons want to do this to another group of people, and destroy their families too.

There seems to be much fear around Prop 8. But it also seems that all of the fear is unfounded. All of the "factual" arguments given by the pro prop 8 crowd are totally bogus. What they fear is not going to happen, isn't, California law already protects them.

Ignorant Homophobes and Mormons (two separate groups) seem to be supporting this issue.

The first groups motives seem to be clear, but the second? I wonder if Mormon authorities are afraid that after gay marriage, polygamy will follow, and since there are revelations that say that Mormons have to do it, and no revelations that says that they shouldn't, only those that say to follow the law of the land, that Mormons will have to be polygamist again.

Part two: believe half of what you see and none of what you hear

... I realized that I was Mormon and always would be, It had nothing to do with what I thought, just who I was. I did not have to think about any of the “problems” ‘cause they did not matter, what mattered was my family and I did not and could not really know anything with 100% confidence. If the church wasn’t true then I’d still live a good life and if it was...

So I was a practicing non-believing Mormon, went to BYU, had church callings and told my bishops how I felt... Two of said bishops confided in me that they were in a similar boat... this made me feel better, well sort of.

I learned to cope with church meetings by finding interesting people to talk to, sleeping through many meetings and just leaving rather than wrestle with the crazy talk and dumb headed beliefs that lead to conclusions I was not willing to embrace i.e.. that the the church and all of its beliefs were a thing made up by people.

Then one day my girl friend, who I planned on marrying, asked me what I thought of the church and the Book of Mormon. I couldn’t give just my cover story of “good leaders good plan for life” and had to vocalize what I really thought, something I’d never really done, I would tell people about my concerns... but what I really thought...

I put it all into words... “the Book of Mormon was written by Joseph Smith and is not a record of ancient America, Church leaders are good people but what they are teaching in not what they report it to be.” it felt good to finally get it off my chest.

... more later

believe half of what you see and none of what you hear

I sometimes write about what I believe, but really it's simple, I believe what is real.

Ah you ask how does one know what is real?

This is the rub, I've always believed what is real, and I think everyone does the same. Yet my beliefs have changed over the years. So what has changed?

Growing up I was told to pray and get answers, that those answers were real. My mother would pray to find her car keys and she would find them. We prayed for my father to return from Vietnam safely, and even though there were times that it seemed that his plane should've been shot down, he returned home safe.

As a teen i read the scriptures, was a good kid, Deacon and Teacher quorum president then assistant to the Bishop as a Priest and prayed to know if the Book of Mormon was true.

I've heard "believe half of what you see and none of what you hear". I've also heard "believe what you feel."

I was successful at getting my friends to stop swearing and we talked about religion
but I was always ashamed to bring them to church because the kids there were not good examples. It was always the same no matter where we lived.

At 16 an older girl at the kitchen I worked at talked to me about evangelical Christianity, she was born again and wanted to "save" me. I listened to her, discussed the scriptures and was sorry that she was so lost.

One day she brought a sheave of papers for me to read, proof that Mormonism was false. I took it home confident in my faith. It said crazy things that I knew were lies, evil oozed out of it.

I had been praying for years for a testimony of the Book of Mormon, this book was the answer for me. If this was so evil that i could feel the evil radiating off it and through my bed, then what it was fighting against must be true.

I still prayed for a more clear answer. In the MTC preparing to go to Georgia on my mission i met missionaries that knew nothing about the church, none of the doctrine or history, yet had strong testimonies. In Georgia I met a return missionary who had a burning testimony, but only in Spanish, the church did not feel real to him in English.

We met a Church of Christ minister who accepted our invitation for a discussion about the Church. During that meeting he bore his testimony about the truthfulness of his belief and that after her read the Book of Mormon he knew that Joseph Smith was not a true prophet. His Testimoney was one of the most pure and honest testimoney I had ever heard.

I still had not recieved a testomoney as strong as his. I had been telling people to pray and believe what they felt... yet this guy did just that and got the "wrong" answer.

This started turning into a crisis of faith... so I went to my mission president who told me "the church is not true, but it is divine" that the path that the church lays out for people to follow is the path that will lead to the greatest happiness. I believed him.

There were other crisis's of faith for me but I wanted to believe, felt that belief in the church was tied to my family and i clearly was "a chosen one."

Imperfect members, general authorities saying racist things, church policies that were dangerous were all excusable because it was the path that was good.

but then

Reason over came me

This morning while I was eating my "Southern Skillet" and strawberry crepe at village Inn I over heard a conversation that kept me thinking all day.

Two slightly stocky men dressed in work dirty jeans and tee shirts sat in the booth next to me. I don't know when I started listening, but was probably paying attention to their entire conversation because my newspaper wasn't very interesting. Any way I heard



he made millions in software and was going to open a restaurant in France but received a message from God that he was to build the biggest church in Utah and bring the truth to this state full of good people that are being carried down the road to hell.

how big?

something like 4500 seats...

He told me that God want me to be wealthy and that if I believe I will be.

Two days later I got a contract for (I could not hear how much money)...

I do not want to be skeptical but how do you explain that?



I wanted to jump into that conversation and explain ... but instead I just listened...
a little later in the conversation

My new guy slammed my new trailer into my new backhoe, wrecked it ...


I wanted to ask the guy why god likes him so much one day and hates him the next. But thought better of it

June 1844

In 1844 June 1, Joseph Smith recorded in his Journal that he had a glass of beer at a tavern in Nauvoo.

If Joseph Smith would openly drink a beer in public and then record the event he must have seen it as a non event, this makes perfect sense because the Word of Wisdom recommends beer. Apparently Joseph enjoyed beer.

Beer- the recomended drink of the Mormon Church

So what is PBrrrr? PBaghrrr might be a better spelling. PBR or Pabst Blue Ribbon beer...


The Word of Wisdom of the Mormon church as contained in Section 89 of the Doctrine and Covenants only recommends one thing to drink, verse 17 says "barley for all useful animals, and for mild drinks, as also other grain"

All of the references to drinking anything in the word of wisdom are as follows:

5 That inasmuch as any man drinketh wine or strong drink among you, behold it is not good, neither meet in the sight of your Father, only in assembling yourselves together to offer up your sacraments before him.

6 And, behold, this should be wine, yea, pure wine of the grape of the vine, of your own make.

7 And, again, strong drinks are not for the belly, but for the washing of your bodies.

9 And again, hot drinks are not for the body or belly.

17 Nevertheless, wheat for man, and corn for the ox, and oats for the horse, and rye for the fowls and for swine, and for all beasts of the field, and barley for all useful animals, and for mild drinks, as also other grain.

If you have not noticed yet this is about alcohol so verse 9 will be left alone.

There are basically three types of alcoholic beverages. spirits which are made by distillation, 20% alcohol and greater (strong drink). Wine which is fermented once from fresh fruit then aged about, 12%- 20% alcohol . Mild Drink from grain which is fermented multiple times from cooked grain, .5% to 12% (mild drink).

"Strong drinks are not for the belly, but for the washing of your bodies" This is clearly distilled spirits because they are the only forms of alcohol that would have any success cleaning anything. Mild drink and Wine would only make stained sticky mess. It is clearly not talking about mild drink or wine. Wine and mild drink are mentioned separately.

Beer, is a generic name for many types of mild drinks made from grain (and even a few other things) . Ale, Kolsch, Lager, Bock, Porter, Stout, are just a few of the specific names. In the 19th century Root Beer, Ginger Beer, and yes Sarsaparilla were all alcoholic.

Yes the W of W does not say specifically "and thou shalt drink beer"

But the Word of Wisdom does say to drink mild drink made from grain... which is beer.

And if you are wondering, Yes Beer does make the world a better place.

International talk like a Pirate Day

In honor of International talk like a Pirate Day I'm enjoying a
PBrrrr, the beverage of choice for Pirates everywhere. Which happens
to also be an example of the only beverage recomended by the dietary
code of the Mormon church.

See a little known fact is that Joseph Smith was a Pirate... Think
about it look at his clothes...he dug for gold... Well a land pirate.