CrankyBuddhist   the learning never ends …

How do you feel about it?

For some reason I assume that if someone takes on the cape of Buddhism, they would be for Universal Healthcare. It’s the compassionate thing to do. I don’t like hearing about someone else’s pain due to a corporation’s greed. It’s like one of my Canadian acquaintances said on twitter:

The biggest benefit of our system is that you don’t have to think about it. Sick or hurt, just go and get fixed up. [also] compare it to the zero Canadians with no debt due to health care. Your country is kind of fucked up that way.

Yes, I think so too.

So how do you feel about healthcare in the US? I’d love to hear everyone’s POV.

MySpace Celebrity and Katalyst present The Presidential Pledge

In less than 24 hours we will have a new President. In all of my years I have never felt the changing of the guard at all, let alone as strongly as this. It’s like we’ve been asleep for eight years. People are starting to wake up and look around. It’s like everyone is holding their breathe waiting for tomorrow, Noon EST, so that we can heave a collective sigh of relief and begin living again.

Here’s another celebrity filled video. I think it’s amazing that throughout the last year, everyone has come around to trying to think and act collectively. I don’t think videos like this would be being made if the other guy had won the election.

Again … After those last two posts, my head is swimming with tangents to follow, limbs to go out onto. It’s like a spaghetti fest of blog posts in my brain.

That mother and her bagel obsession has become somewhat of a trigger for me. So maybe she did do her job …

Manners. I was raised to have impeccable manners. And I always assumed that everyone else was raised with them too. Open doors for people. Make people a cup of tea when they don’t feel good. Clean up after myself so that others don’t have to live in my crap. Help friends when they need help. Listen to what people are saying. Pay attention. Say Please and Thank You. Don’t talk with my mouth full. All of them. I have them. I don’t always use them. But they are all stashed in my brain. I pull them out when necessary. And the French love me for it.

Merit. I don’t help people so that I can accrue merit points with the karma police. Merit is an odd thing. It’s like doing something only because I will be paid to do it, not because I see that it just needs to be done. I help people because I happen to be there in the moment and I can. It’s just my nature.

Compassion is developed by using Manners and thinking about accruing karmic Merit. True Compassion in a person arrives when doing something for someone else is done just because. There is a need for something to be done. I have the means to do it. So I do. I did not need to pull either the Manners or Merit folder out of my RAM. Merit has a place as a learning tool, but at some point it’s not an issue. True Compassion flows without intention.

Or not.

My ex-longterm boyfriend who is now my friend left the US in December, pretty much without a penny to his name, to go live out the remainder of his life in his home country on the other side of the planet (South Africa). He emails me on occasion (like today) when he needs money. His theory on this is that I have more than he does, so I should share.

Unfortunately for me, I think the same way. I have more than he does, so I should share.

I have thought this way all of my life. And practiced this all of my life. Which is why my life is in the crappy state it is. I share to my detriment. I share to a fault. I have given not only to the worthy, but to the little ingrates as well. I was never taught by my ‘good Christian family’ that I should share only when I have excess, or when I had a system in place for taking care of myself. I was taught to share when anybody asked. Something that has taken me many years in adult life to get over.

But unfortunately for him, I have decided not to share.

And even though I question the effect of the karmic ripple of this decision, I have finally learned that sharing beyond my means is just plain stupid. It may have gotten me karmic brownie points on some level, but it’s not worth my little personal sacrifice.