James Robert Kitson

Yes, in nature and in human life, there are winners and losers. But …

The Sickness

There is a diseased mindset happening on a world scale. That which is causing havoc and unnecessary misery globally exercises this terror on the assumption that any who oppose need to be humiliated and destroyed. Those who dare to oppose or even criticize are tagged to be a a disgrace, to be imprisoned or even executed.

On the Issue

There are indeed always going to be winners and losers. You may be justified or even obligated to oppose your fellow town council or board member on some issue. There will at some point be a winner and loser on the issue. The ‘loser’ need not be personally devastated and destroyed with an epic fury the likes of which the world has never seen. The mindset that requires this may have erupted into pandemic level from a distorted worldview that has been metastasizing just under the surface (but not far under) in a culture of insecure, fear-riddled minds, hearts and relationships.

But Then Come the Playoffs

Anyone who plays or even watches a sport knows there are of course going to be winners and losers. And yes, in a more general sense that is the way of things. But there is an an important example from the world of professional sport that shows how that winning and losing can be handled—an example we would do well to observe and learn from. There be honour here.

What Is Wrong with Them?

It comes from playoff time in hockey. At the end of a series, there is a team with fans, and business office, that are all deliriously joyful, and there is a team with fans, and business office, devastated in defeat. So what do the losers do? Do they shamble away in utter disgrace to live the rest of their lives in doom, gloom and shame? No. They patiently line up at centre ice while their foes crazily whoop and holler and jump up and down in joy. What are the losers lining up for? To get in some futile last licks? No. It’s to shake hands, pat on the shoulder—so unlike anything normal and how the world works. And these humans actually seem to like and respect each other. What is wrong with them?

Nothing. The wrong is with the way the world works. The reality of winning and losing does not preclude mutual respect. Unless that is the way of things you take as inevitable.

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Musical Addendum: Vamp Until Ready
(Title is a direction in musical theatre—a “winner” the world can always use more of.)

YouTube

Spotify

Or search “Vamp Until Ready” on your preferred platform.

The plea of Hegseth for spending on military resources appears to me as being like the drunk draining the last of the bottle while knowing a life-threatening withdrawal is coming. The bravado is just sad.

At the same time, a protocol office displayed Australian flags (thinking they were Union Jacks?) along with the Stars and Stripes to welcome King Charles III. 

The thing is, they were not entirely wrong, just as they would not have been entirely wrong had they displayed the red maple leaf Canadian flag. The “King of England” (as American media refers to Charles) is the head of state for Australia, Canada, and numerous other places, along with the U.K., consisting of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. He’s a big deal.

He represents much of the world.

Canadians, from where I sit,  seem to figure it’s OK to have a king, or queen, as long as they recognize they have influence, but not actual power. Kind of like celebrities. Speaking of which:

Katy Perry’s boyfriend’s father, Pierre Trudeau, espoused a policy that was known as “The Third Option.” That option promoted a lessening of dependance on trade relations with the U.S. and U.K. and building ties with Europe. Sound familiar? See what a guy named Carney is doing?

Hopefully, the visit of King Charles to America can rekindle a connection of the real America to the rest of the world. We miss you. Meanwhile, Americans should please not be offended by Canada’s reaching out elsewhere. We love you. We just hate your choices. 

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Musical Addendum: The Threshold

Apple Music

Spotify

YouTube

https://youtu.be/968mgPysphU?si=EjwvDC7DjtZZ72rd

Global real estate agency Knight Frank LLP is predicting there could be 4,000 billionaires in the world by 2031, up from 3,110 in 2026 (from the Financial Post). The biggest growth is expected in Saudi Arabia. Here in Canada we’ll have, apparently, an increase from 49 to 63. Full disclosure: I won’t be one of them. 

While there are those who are insanely rich beyond all reason, I do not consider it innately evil to have a lot of money. One might ask, however, “What are you doing with it?” I suppose that might be considered rude. So would: “How are you managing your stewardship of wealth?” 

Nevertheless, I think it’s fair to question the morality of wealth if the presenting mantra is just “Mine, mine, mine,” and “More, more, more.”

You sometimes hear the misquote: “Money is the root of all evil.” The quote is from the Bible, and it’s actually “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” It’s fair to recognize you don’t have to have a lot of it to be afflicted with that love.

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A recipe for true riches: Just Add Sunshine

Apple Music
https://music.apple.com/ca/album/just-add-sunshine/1842205622?i=1842205623

Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/track/0LEMtM9dpdVgljH35Ugb8r?si=8Xpg-iKcT9yNrEV5ihBHlw

YouTube
https://youtu.be/hkEZZ7ScRkA?si=aVwzdeY21pJi9TdC

Are you tired of being taken for a fool?

The stark reality is that the front persons of the ultra-immoral elite know exactly how to push human buttons—either building up those predisposed to their depravity, or making life especially miserable for those whose hearts and minds, and often relationships, are ravaged by their lies. Whatever that was in Washington, D.C. yesterday, April 25, it brings out key elements of what the crap Americans have been going through is about, in my humble view.

Consider your own setting

I’m no sociologist, psychologist, or expert on anything, but I presume to think an element or two of my own experience suggests how this manipulation works, and how it can be countered.

If you have a master manipulator in your life, say, at work, one of their key tools (among many) is coddling of the impressionable, together with character assassination for others—those who might put blocks up against their self-elevating and ego-stroking designs.

Their strategy against rivals:

Step 1: Identify a character flaw that can be hung around your neck. At some time we all have acted defensively or taken something personaly. That gets generalized and elevated into being a defining component of who you are.

Step 2:—and here’s the key, and transition to the larger political picture—They know the buttons to push to elicit the characteristic/s they have chosen to highlight in you—to destroy your credibility and clear their way, whatever that might be, in your group/org/project.

Your plan: Have the self-awareness to identify what your “buttons” might be and don’t let anyone push them.

Some things are clear

Re what happened at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner:

1. Trump, as President, has always boycotted this event, castigating the media. The event is intended to be fun and light-hearted.

2. This year he announced his plans to come, and brought a significant entourage from his Administration.

3. Very shortly after the incident, a composed Trump, surrounded by a weirdly cheerful entourage, helpfully pointed out that what had just happened underlined the need for a White House ballroom.

Something is seriously off here. Worst case: This was a sick ploy to push a lot of buttons.

Summary

There is one key element on which the designs and actions of oppressors and tyrants depends. That’s the buttons in us that can be pushed. We all must have the humility to identify the buttons on our personhood, buttons that have to do with our fears, our flaws and delusions—whatever—and refuse to let them be used. Let’s just acknowledge them and, probably with help and support, deal with them. That, I believe, is the real key to shutting down all the crap.

Bottom line: Don’t let anybody push your buttons.

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Musical Addendum: For Emerging

Apple Music
https://music.apple.com/ca/album/for-emerging/1824860872?i=1824860873

Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/7i1XTzIf0LE1msbIFMQ7Rq?si=9XxpitJrThOhqbRWjVN72Q

YouTube
https://youtu.be/QZDkpQVyC2c?si=zH8V_9LuBeeAvqtg

To those who say, “Move on”: Whenever what is dark and ugly is suppressed, it does not go away. The forces involved go deep, further under cover, and gather strength. Moving on invites even greater disaster. The magma of that ugliness and destruction will break through, worse than ever.

There must be justice. And by justice I mean punishment. No matter who it is.

The survivors? My mind seizes up on knowing what can be done for them. Apologies? For sure. From the abusers. From the system. From a people—all of us, beyond borders.

Other than that? 

Electoral change of course is essential, but insufficient. Transformation is needed at the cellular level, and this isn’t just on you, America. People are damaged, all over. Whatever else, let’s look to simple things. Sing in the kitchen. Paint. Write silly poems. Read a book with someone.

Listen.

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Recent music, For Emerging (possibly for reflection):

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/7i1XTzIf0LE1msbIFMQ7Rq?si=CgACAvB_QFCnZ-jXpC_6Uw

Apple Music:
https://music.apple.com/ca/album/for-emerging-single/1824860872

YouTube:
https://youtu.be/QZDkpQVyC2c?si=Oy_QqwSI5CxDKWtW

I am having distinctly medieval vibes around the Epstein revelations, and much that we have already known about the crowd involved. Raping, pillaging the people. Ludicrous wealth. People feeling powerless. How can we move beyond incoherent bewilderment-becoming-rage? And not just ‘move on’—which would make us complicit with the evil.

It makes sense if we find something of feudal order here, and deep rot. In medieval times, people lived with a reality that those with power were without any such thing as accountability. The elite could act with impunity. All the rest were just to endure. What’s different now? We’re having the curtain pulled back to see the reality, and sense there can be a difference.

We’re not stuck with incoherent rage; we are capable of moral clarity. We can overcome the narrative of inevitability. We can can support those working to pry open the doors that powerful people are desperate to keep shut.

It is appropriate here to speak of apocalypse—not the B movie kind—but in the sense of ‘unveiling.’ What has been hidden becomes visible. The powerful are revealed as fallible, even monstrous. The king is seen as a fraud. The order of things is revealed as an elaborate stage set for the elite.

The current apocalypse isn’t the end. Just an end to the lie.

I’ll have more on this.

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Some let’s-get-moving music: It’s Thirds Day

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/2XERrGMvOz8ZkftMOu8l1W?si=TQp3M-3qSMGBH-aAQuEKrw

Apple Music:
https://music.apple.com/ca/album/its-thirds-day-single/1876665297

YouTube:
https://youtu.be/7xZ4YSgAtrg?si=rNzD0gpy8m8AU5rz

I have seen some reaction to Bad Bunny’s expression of America as a hemispheric entity. The reaction has concern for the history and character of America the nation, America being a short form of United States of America. I get that concern (It would be hypocritical of me, as a Canadian, with some of our recent elevated concerns, not to get that concern for national identity).

But let’s look at it this way, from say, lower Earth orbit. We see, as we always hear, no borders. But we know that, in reality, there are definitely individual countries. But zoom in and you see that those individual countries have distinct jurisdictions, regions, with their own identities and character. They are not dissolved by being part of the country. Zoom in further to individual communities. I’m in Toronto. Toronto, like any city, has individual neighbourhoods, rich in character. But that character is not threatened by being part of the larger community.

Can we not agree that, born out of history, there is an entity referred to as America that is both an individual country and a larger hemispheric reality? We have had, it seems, no trouble referring to that larger grouping as The Americas: a bi-continental reality that is distinct from, but part of and (hopefully) integrated with a larger reality called Earth.

Someday, we may have the further opportunity, and challenge, of seeing our Terran life and character as part of larger cosmic neighbourhood.

In short, along with Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, let’s broaden our perspective, not shrink it.

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Latest music release, In the Fullness of Timing:

Spotify:

Apple Music:
https://music.apple.com/ca/album/in-the-fullness-of-timing-single/1872571704

YouTube:

 

Making Boxing Day Chilli. It’s the chilli I usually make, but it’s Boxing Day, so … Actually, it’s Boxing Day 2021, so it’s BD21 Chilli. After all, we really only ever do anything once, just once. Everything is once-for-all. Even chilli.