***** Important FB dialog. Pls read: "Ah Loving, but your judgments come across very harshly sometimes...." (DETAIL)

S:   

Ah Loving, but your judgments come across very harshly sometimes. As in this little discussion. Pushing people to act more boldly, more deeply, actually effectively - I hear you and am with you. Commenting as if the people who don't go far enough are doing more harm than good - I'd like to see you win them over instead.

Loving:

S, thank you for your honest and thoughtful comment.  'Winning people over' is not my job, never has been, never will be. It may be someone's job in this, but it is not mine.  My mistake is in forgetting that.

Did you ever see 'An Officer and a Gentleman?'  Officer Foley, one of the greatest icons of Loving I've ever seen in literature, media.... He trained naval aviators, and if he failed, they died.  He had only weeks with them to get the job done. Like me, he didn't go after these recruits, he didn't invite people in.  But he was there for those who came; and he was the quintessential HARSH.  I don't try to emulate him, but he comes to mind in dialogs like this, which many, many times I've had throughout my adulthood, and my last decade in full time advocacy.

I try to warn folks that come near me, as anyone that knows me would have to acknowledge.

My calculation is that the kids of today will NOT thank the environmental 'adults' of today for being so nice, encouraging, kind, patient... as they are.  They will scream at us, in their minds if only there, WHY DIDN'T YOU WAKE US THE F UP, OR DIE TRYING???  WHY DIDN'T YOU GET THRU TO US HOW HARSH IT IS????  WERE YOU AFRAID OF HURTING OUR FEELINGS, WHEN OUR LAST CHANCE SECONDS TO SAVE AN EARTH FOR US AND OUR CHILDREN WERE DWINDLING???!?!?!?!?  YOU AFFORDED YOURSELVES THE LUXURY OF IGNORING THE SCIENCE, JUST LIKE THE FOLKS ON THE RIGHT - THE SCIENCE SAID NOW OR NEVER, YOUR BEHAVIOR TO US SAID - OH, IT'LL ALL WORK OUT - IGNORE THE PLAIN AS DAY HISTORY OF THE TERRIBLE PRICE THAT CHANGE COSTS THE ACTVISTS....  JUST 'DO YOUR BEST,' DO WHAT IS CONVENIENT, SAFE, PAINLESS.... YOU WEREN'T OUR FRIENDS, YOU WERE OUR ENABLERS.

There is really 'nasty' stuff said by the left regarding the right.  I'll guess my friends on the left aren't horrified by much of that.  Why?  Because they see in those missiles a prayer that it will 1.  wake up some on the right; and 2. it will heighten the alarm felt by some on the left.  What I do is allow myself to discover, LIVE and speak the historically unprecedentedly HARSH Truth as best and honestly as I can, where those who may want to hear can hear it, which so far is a rapidly dwindling, miniscule few.  What I do is not really so different from what the left does as a mainstay to the right;  I'm not so much more harsh, than what I see the left offering the right; but the left has such a deadly, cowardly, double standard - they dish it out but reject it coming at them, at any price.  I ALLOW NO DOUBLE STANDARDS IN MY LIFE; NO ONE SHOULD.

S, this is an old, old, old... dialog with me on this subject, going back years before we met.  OF COURSE I may be entirely wrong in most or all I've said here.  I am convinced by a life dedicated to being a catalyst for high-stakes change,  I am not wrong.

The right is clinically insane in this country.  The left is no less so. That is a clinical judgement on my part, not a taunt, jab, attempt to be nasty....  The deadliest disease on earth is on the left, because it is on the left that any remaining shred of hope lies. That disease is unrecognized self-centeredness, cowardice, self-protection... no matter what; and by comparison to any and every major rights struggle in history that is glaringly, BLARINGLY, true.

I'll not stop studying, Living, and speaking the Truth on that as best I can.  I expect to make no difference.  I expect to die friendless, literally, I'm pretty close to that now (the one place I make unerring progress.  LOL).  I'll not stop trying to do my part, the tip of the spear part, of what is lacking, to the best of my ability.  (((((((HUGS))))))

ps.  What amazes me is when folks travel near to me, and don't leave; AND PERIODICALLY I PREEMPTIVELY WARN THEM.  At first, (and second and third...) they don't understand my warnings.  But finally, near all, do, and leave..  My Loving is unconditional, including when they leave.  I don't invite folks in. That is for the spirit, not me; or for others to do, which they pretty much never do.

pps:  It is NEVER my place to try to 'push others to do more.'  NEVER.  BUT IT IS MY ULTIMATE RESPONSIBILITY AS A BROTHER TO OFFER THAT OPPORTUNITY, WHICH I WILL DO, WHATEVER IT COSTS ME, WITH MY LAST BREATH.

ppps:  YES, I don't know ANYONE THAT AGREES WITH ME ON ANY OF THE ABOVE.  But know that it is totally clear to me that I'm in the right ball-park.  Occasionally, on FB and elsewhere, don't we each love the posts talking about the lone seeker that bucks the trend, and stands for the truth, no matter what?  Come on, we all love that one.  But we on the left, never think that it could be that we as a group are wrong, and that anyone could rightly be that individual standing apart, and Lovingly against, what we are doing, not doing, thinking, saying.  NO, NOT US?  Really?  "The world will not be destroyed by people who do evil, but by those who watch it and do nothing."  Who do we think Einstein was referring to as the 'the good people!??!?!"  The right wingnuts of his day?

---------------------

S:

Yes, Einstein was referring to us.

No, it's not everybody's job to win people over. It's not my job either... except that since I say my job is consciousness change, I guess it is. And you are attempting to change the consciousness of the Left - and I agree with your direction. I just don't see it happening. The thousand hunger strikers would have been effective. Well, maybe. Maybe 100,000 would be required. Why didn't I join you? Maybe because I thought it would be impossible. Maybe because I wanted things I would have lost.

The fact that people keep hanging around you proves that you are less alone than you think. Your opinions are more shared than you think. We all differ a bit in how we think it ought to be presented - strategy.
Could we form an alliance perhaps, of those who did read this note, to support each other in actually making the change?

I'm perhaps doing the least of anyone here. Sure, something could have happened on the Walk, but we minimized risk by minimizing confrontation. Now I'm going to grow food - small and local benefit - and asking myself what next to do to stop the climate from changing.

S:

I commented on the web page. Thank you for respecting me enough to listen and reply.

Loving:

S, there will never come a day I don't respect you, or any person, or any creature; unless and until I Die as the person I strive to be. I read your comment on the website, of course. 

WHAT WE ARE DISCUSSING HERE IS THE HARDEST THING IN THE WORLD - MOVING FROM THE HEAD TO THE HEART. I KNOW THAT IT IS THE ONLY THING THAT CAN SAVE US. I KNOW IT HAS NEVER HAPPENED EN MASSE, FOR OTHER THAN BRIEF MOMENTS IN HISTORY. I KNOW THAT THE LIKES OF THE BEST WE'VE EVER SEEN HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO MAKE MORE THAN A DENT - EVEN THE LIKES OF JESUS, BUDDHA.... WHY? BECAUSE IT IS THE HARDEST THING IN THE WORLD FOR HUMANS. BUT NOTHING LESS CAN SAVE US. 

I AM NOT SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW WHO CAN MAKE THE JUMP, WHEN. IT ISN'T MY BUSINESS, NEVER WILL BE. 

It is TOTALLY my business to make the jump myself, every day, every breath, as pitifully and ineptly as I may do it, and thereby do the most I can to help others make a similar choice. The only thing in the world I can change is me, and that, I'll pay any and every personal price to do.

WE'RE TALKING ABOUT THE HARDEST THING IN THE WORLD. Please know, I totally get that. 

And I have ZERO illusion that I'll ever really be any help to anyone in this. But I'll give my every and last breath to the attempt, of that I am certain. Nothing else matters. 

Introjection: "Example is not the major thing in influencing people; it is the only thing." Albert Schweitzer, maybe my favorite quote of all time. "My life is my message," is Gandhi saying it a different way. Our heads know there are dire emergencies. BUT OUR LIVES DO NOT SHOUT THAT. AND OUR LIVES, NOT OUR WORDS, ARE WHAT THE ONLOOKERS, THE BENCH SITTERS, THE UNDECIDEDS LEFT RIGHT AND CENTER... ARE WATCHING. SO ALL EVIDENCE TO THEM IS - THERE IS NO EMERGENCY! 

The only thing I know is that stopping Global Warming (in time, by definition) WILL COST AN UNGODLY PERSONAL PRICE BY THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE. THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH. AND A SMALL PRICE BY MILLIONS WON'T DO IT. THERE MUST BE A FIRE OF INTENSE HEAT, AND ONLY INDIVIDUALS UNMISTAKABLY BURNING CAN DO THAT. 'She who would give light, must endure burning." Eleanor Roosevelt. 

There is no ideal strategy, approach, idea, campaign... that will stop this. BUT IF THERE ARE EVER 2, THEN 10, THEN 100, THEN 1000... INDIVIDUALS PAYING THE PRICE, ONE OF THEM, ALL OF THEM... COULD START THE BLAZE. 

 ((((((HUGS)))))) to you all, forever. 

Loving:

I owe you all to be more of a Sgt Foley, not more approachable, not more gentle, kind, encouraging... but less. I confuse those around me otherwise. I am not here on earth to be 'friends' with anyone. I am here to be a friend TO EVERYONE, starting with the neediest, born, and to be born. Sgt. Foley, over and out.  

S:

I'll have to watch that film. When you write like you did above, you inspire me to do more.