Starve or be Eaten

Most of us Earthlings still depend on rule by less than 2% of our number. Such tiny oligarchic rule can work in certain times of abundance and calm. In most times it does not work very at all,  well except for the very small ruling class. Times of change or scarcity call for more participation. Even in times in times of abundance that 2%  oligarchy relies on the support of armed power to keep them where they are. That 2% takes wealth from most of us, to arm some of us, to keep the rest of us consuming and serving.

Few, even of the 2%, plan this arrangement. Of course, there are those who do. However, mostly it is the result of our being too lazy to educate ourselves, or organize ourselves to participate.

In times of want or great and rapid change 2% cannot rule. If they cannot rule well enough, they do not rule well enough. The middle does not hold and society moves towards chaos. Sometimes it rushes or falls to chaos.. You know what a governor is, right? It is the mechanism which keeps the engine from stalling or from speeding up in such a way as to causes it to fly apart.

I believe that we need and active 20% or more of us to govern ourselves well enough. To secure a practicing ruling group of 20% it is probably necessary for 50% of us to be well trained to govern.

What happens to kingdoms, empires, nations? Why do even our public schools still teach the lessons of history? Why have the ruling classes of  Persia, Rome, China, England, France, Japan taken such pains to use their best schools to teach their sons to rule? Why did the king secure the the best tutors to prepare his heir to rule. Institutions of higher learning in most nations, kingdoms, and empires were not used to teach workers, merchants, or servants. The purpose of those institutions was, and is, to teach rule and governance.

If you would be well governed, if you would have the good of our culture survive and thrive you will help your sons and daughters learn to rule and govern. Those who would rather not see much of the best of our technology and culture dead and buried or slowly withering have much to do. You can begin to teach children to identify and use the tools of governance in about the 2nd grade. You can help them to continue learning the skills of governance as long as those offspring of yours will let you. If they do not learn to cooperate to govern well they may find that thinks like medicine, health care, schooling, and shelter from the storm may be beyond the reach of their children. Much of the good things of life will be out of their reach. Rights and justice will not be their.

In the end, those who do not govern because they have not learned to govern will starve or be eaten.

There is lively satisfaction in self rule.

Islamic Ways

There is strength in our understanding of the past to help one from the present to a better future. There are Islamic men of the past pointing to an Islamic way to thrive in the present Islamic reality. There is Mohammed and the Qur'an. There is also much more.

Europeans stood on Islamic learning to get where they are. I have a Spanish friend who said that Europeans wouldn't have pants if it weren't for the Uma. The very word for word for pants may be of Islamic origin.

Learning is needed. Learning that enhances deep understanding is needed. It is needed by and for all equally. Equality of personal value is an important and a very Islamic concept. Am I wrong?

I'm just 'this guy.' I'm not Islamic. I look to be a secular person; yet I can say that God is everything to me. God is greater.

People of much of the world learned the value of the understanding of history from people of Islam.

Europeans' knowledge of trade, mathematics, medicine, chemistry, philosophy, geography, seamanship, navigation, politics, law, banking, agronomy and more began with people of Islam.

It is not wrong to feel pride in Islamic learning of yesterday and today. We know, of course, that learning is much more than memory.

Wisdom

Some outside occupation is good. To be occupied with some outside lazing is good. Finding some intriguing learning is good.
Developing clearer thought and communication is good.
Meditation helps.

There Are Secrets

There have been secret museums and collections. There have been secret galleries and secret knowledge. Mysteries have been guarded. Place have been forbidden. History has not only been edited, but also didactid. Mystery schools have been closed even to elites. There are still school for ruling elites.

I'll repeat an open secret here. For each learning you accomplish new secrets are opened to you.

When I am awake and my eyes are open, a vision is available to me that allows me to see good little doors. I can see a door that I can open and look through. Through those doors I see new perspectives, new worlds. It is possible to pass through such doors.

Learning renews.

A Christian is Good

Being a true Christian begins with love.


Being a true Christian continues with learning more of love.


A true Christian comes to know that this love, which has come to be called Christian love, is more.


He knows that the love he is charged to learn contains, but is more than:
~ admiration and benevolence,
~ unselfish acceptance of one's humanity and the seeking of that one's welfare,
~ cherishing,
~ man's adoration of God,
~ strong desire, prise, trust, belief,
~ perhaps even more than the fatherly concern of God for man.
~ motherly, sisterly, brotherly, fatherly.


He finds learning this lesson of love a difficult one, but not a complicated one.


He learns that he is apply this love to:
~ one and all,
~ his neighbor,
~ his self.


He applies his life to learning to:
a) love himself and to how he loves himself,
b) love his neighbor and who Jesus Christ includes as a neighbor,
c) love All and One and One and All.

UAR Notes Continued

In earlier notes I wrote of the ancestors of the peoples of the Emirates before Muhammad and Jesus.


In later times the offspring of these special people were known for protecting their waters and tending to deal with others with respect and honor. Many of  them had used the sea far and long their roadway for trade. They contacted a great many different peoples and were know by those others as competent and trustworthy. They were navigators, seamen,  merchants and traders. They carried news and learning along with their cargoes and goods. They could tell a good story too. Let me add that their ships tended to be small, but technically advanced and their cargoes tended to be precious.


Most of them became men of Islam at an early date. To this day most of them pray to the One five times.


They had not knuckled under to Rome in the days before the Prophet nor afterward, but the did accept its gold. When the Poruguese and then the Dutch and then the English came to their waters and began to to trade along their long establish routes they were not please. These Frankish Europeans did not seem to understand how to treat others with honor and respect. They seem ignorant of the ways of dealing diplomatically with others. They were neglectful of simple diplomatic courtesies, but their guns seem to get better year by year.


The Europeans, though seemingly ungrateful, had learned from Semitic peoples. From men of Islam they learned of numbers, medicine, philosophy and more.


The ancestors of the men, and women, of Fujairh, Abu Dhabi, Sharjish, Ajman um al Quwain, Ras al Kaimah, Dubai and beyond are learning of new happenings and doings today. They are remembering the best of their past and learning the bes of the present. Hopefully, they are giving all of their children to learn well, for they are not many.


Please feel free o save me form my ignornce. Feel free to correct my errors. I know ittle and have much to understand. In these post I am noting bits and pieces that come to my aging mind. For example, it comes to me that there is an oud. There is an oud that could well be the most popular musical intstrutment of this land. I have not visited this land. Has it been called Khaliji? Then I imagine that there is an oud of haliji. My ears are not so old that the oud of Khaliji could not bring some of the spirit of Khaliji to my mind and heart.

What Is This Blog About?

I've said, "Its about that which pops into my mind and catches my imagination." Not very informative.

By considering tags just to the left, my posting interests, in order of strength, seem to be:
~ happenings or history
~ popular political philosophy
~ places of the world
~ informing, learning, teaching
~ like enduring wisdom(reading between lines)
~ my personal growth
~ some other things like health and desert


Maybe when I grow-up my focus will be finer.

Maybe as I age less will pop into my mind and less will fire my imagination

Learn from One Another

I have been thinking about us.


Lots of things about us have come to mind. Learning has come up most. Thoughts of instruction, education, and teaching have arisen.I've thought of ways of knowing and understanding.


I have consciously and unconsciously resisted learning from time to time. Most often I have been pleased to learn, pleased to be taught. I think that often man of us would be pleased to learn, to be taught, to be educated, to be instructed.


We desire the power, the knowledge, the understanding, the skill.


Many a husband could learn to better educate his wife about a thing or two. I think that he could learn to do it in a way his wife found acceptable, perhaps even a pleasure. I am sure that a father has a skill he can help his child to develop. The child would love to receive the father nurtured skill.


A wife can find an area in which her wants instruction. She is capable of learning to instruct him in a way that honors him. A mother can learn to teach her child something in a way that is pleasing to her and to the child.


A father and a mother can learn to more appropriately applaud a child's respectful attempt to help a sibling learn.


A family member might learn to encourage a grandparent to share skill or knowledge wit another family member.


You have some willingness to learn, so do I.


Like brothers and sisters we can help each other to the power, knowledge, understanding, and skill.

Believe, Be, Do

~ I am ready, willing, and able to learn to believe that I can positively effect this important aspect of my life here and now.
~ I am ready and willing to learn to be a bit more gracious with my friends here.
~ I am ready to learn to be a bit more gracious with another here.
~ I am ready and willing to learn to do that which is energizing for me now.
~ I am ready and willing to learn to do that which is best with a bit more grace here.
~ I am ready and willing to learn to ask another question here.
~ I am ready to learn to get a better answer here.
~ I am read and willing to learn to ask for that which I need here.
~ I am ready and willing to learn to ask for that which I desire now. 

Goals

I note that a significant number of tweeters and bloggers speak of attention to goal setting.


I have developed some skill at setting goals, even though I practice them less often than I might.


My mother told me that what one thinks is a goal might not be one. She said that a goal, for her, had to be realistic and that she had to be pretty darn sure that she could accomplish it. She had to believe she could and would carry it through to completion. If she did not so believe it was not a goal for her. I have found her words to be helpful.


A present goal of mien is to begin a World History class at a local community college this month. This may not be a complete goal, but it does say what, where, and when about my intentions. Mom, I can do it.


The plan is to complete the class with an 'A,' but I may not. I may quit if I don't enjoy the teacher, the class organization, or whatever. I have not researched the class or the teacher. For me, entering the class begins a process of exploration and discovery.


Speaking of exploration and discovery, at the end of this class or before, I may set a goal for a bit more world exploration and discovery.
I may travel by sea; hopefully with companions or a companion. I am too old to enjoy walking the roads of Siberia carrying my suitcase. I expect my explorations to be slow with and it may take me well over a month to recognize a discovery.


If you know of anyone who might enjoy taking all or part of a 'trip' with me or who might enjoy having my company on a part of their travels or visits, please let me know.

First Meditation on Education: "Common Core"

Upon what is our ability to communicate built
Our grandparents learned.
Our parents learned.
We have learned.
Our children are learning.
Its likely that their children will learn.
Our learning over time is what gives us the power to communicate over time.
Our history tells us that we are capable of a high level of literacy.
The nature of our literacy allows us to make and to preserve a modern nation.
What had makers and preservers of a modern nation best learn?
What part does teaching play in our learning?
What did they teach our grandparents?
Who were they?
How did they know that which they taught?
What would you like to learn about communication?
With who might it be important that you communicate?
What do you wish others knew about communication?
What are a couple of communication skills?
What is one to talk about?
What are two to talk about?
What are many to talk of?
What might it be important to talk about?
How long might our numbers and letters remain important?
How might our attitude toward current media obliterate literature?
What would you like the nature of our education and culture to be?
What happenings most effect our ability to communicate?