Chapter 66: Imagine

Today was a good day. I woke up at 11:30am and was kind of dragging, considering it was nearly 5am when I went to bed last night. I got up and made myself some breakfast, which consisted of eggs with cheddar cheese and ham. While eating breakfast I watched last night’s “Saturday Night Live,” but since it was delayed for football, I only got 30 minutes or so of it on the DVR. I didn’t really care all that much because Charles Barkley was hosting, and I can’t, for the life of me, think of a single reason why. Still, Alicia Keys was the musical guest and I would have liked to see her second performance. Plus, I am hearing that she did a pretty funny Digital Short that happened later in the episode. This is yet another reason I am glad that football season is almost over. I am also ashamed that I even know that football season is almost over. After breakfast, I got in the shower and got myself ready to go down to Barnes & Noble for the Yehuda Berg signing/discussion.

My sister and her girlfriend picked me up around 1:45pm, which is not quite as early as I had hoped to get there. It worked out for the best, though, because there was a very large turnout, larger than I expected from this area, and a lot of older people who needed to be seated. When I got there the seats were all already filled, and I found a spot towards the back of the crowd with a good view. This was better for me because I would have felt bad if I had gotten there early and taken a seat that could have gone to somebody who wouldn’t have been able to stand for the whole hour or so. The crowd there, aside from all the old people, was mainly made up of rich, downtown types who all happened to know each other. This is another reason I was glad to be standing at the back. These people all kind of eyed me up and looked at me like I was horribly out of place, which then made me feel horribly out of place. This was exceptionally disappointing, considering the content of the discussion we were there for. Once Yehuda Berg actually came out he gave an extremely inspirational talk about his new book, “Kabbalah: The Power To Change Everything.” When I heard the title of the book and such, I kind of assumed it was going to be more of a Kabbalistic version of “The Secret,” because Kabbalah does teach something similar to “The Secret,” except with a conscience and a sense of social responsibility, (which is the main thing “The Secret” is severely lacking.) It turned out to be something much greater, though. The discussion, and the book, are actually more about how our decisions and actions effect the global community and how the terrors taking place on the other side of the world effect our quality of life here, and how we have got to take a certain amount of responsibility for both the chaos in our own lives and the chaos in the world as a whole. One really great example he used in this discussion was Child Trafficking. Child Trafficking is a $22 billion industry across this world. There is $22 billion being made in this world by the sale of children. Sadly, I think in 99.9% of these cases, we can be pretty certain that these children are not being purchased by lovely couples who are having trouble conceiving or GLBT couples, who are still not allowed to adopt in a lot of places. These children are not being sold into loving homes, but into the workforce in sweatshops or into the sex industry. I’m sure the natural instinct we have upon hearing this is, “That’s terrible, but what does it have to do with my day to day life?” Well, consider the children that are being sold to work in sweatshops across Cambodia, China, India, etc. What do you think they are making in these sweatshops? What are you wearing right now? The answers to these questions are, sadly, probably one and the same. The whole concept of “Kabbalah: The Power To Change Everything” is about being conscious of the little things we do and how they have a lasting effect on more than just ourselves and those around us, but the world as a whole. Essentially, the book is teaching something that I have been saying for a long time, and have even written a number of songs about: We can create change in the world as a whole, and we can do this by creating change in ourselves. All we have to do is live our lives being conscious of the world we live in and how our decisions, attitudes and energy affect it. If we can create real changes within ourselves, we are creating Light in this world. The people around us will see that Light and may be inspired to try to become that same type of Light. Others will see their Light, as well, and do the same. Adding this much Light to the world is a HUGE way to make a difference in the world. Madonna said in her documentary, “I’m Going To Tell You A Secret,” something to the effect that the majority of the world is sleeping or unconscious, and it is the responsibility of those who are conscious to wake them up. Yehuda Berg also discusses, in the intro of the book, the fact that one of the most important steps in gaining wisdom is sharing that wisdom with others. In order to be truly wise, we have to actually teach what we have learned to others. It makes perfect sense, because what is the use of having knowledge if you are not going to share it with others? There is none. I kind of feel like I woke up back in 2007, when I had this initial rush of information and awareness come to me. It’s like that moment when you wake up from your sleeping state and become rapidly aware of your surroundings; light coming through the window or the time if you have a clock near you, and you start realizing all the things you have to do that day. I also feel, though, that I have spent the past couple years in that strange waking stage where you are only half awake and trying to fall back to sleep; that period in the morning where you’re kind of bargaining with yourself and thinking things like, “Well, if I skip breakfast I can sleep 10 more minutes, if I skip a shower, too, I can sleep 20 more minutes.” Yehuda Berg’s discussion today was kind of like my alarm clock, after I had hit snooze a few times already. It was the alarm that says YOU HAVE TO WAKE UP NOW. In fact, there is a passage in the book that says, and I will actually quote here, “Many believe that on December 21, 2012 – which marks the end of a 5,126 year era, according to the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar – this planet and all its inhabitants will experience a positive physical or spiritual transformation, while others believe it is the beginning of an apocalypse. We cannot wait any longer.” While I may fall into the first category, I can certainly still recognize that so many people believing some sort of apocalypse is a very powerful thing and could easily bring on that very apocalypse. This is the time for changing people’s minds, before it is too late. I am a firm believer that the world around us is of our own creation and we have the power to create things in this world, both good and bad. With so many people out there with these terribly negative mind frames, what with the economy, healthcare and so many other issues bringing people down, it only makes sense that this can only bring on more negatives. We need to change these people’s minds. We need to wake these people up.

Let me also take a moment to talk about Yehuda Berg himself, as he came as quite the surprise to me. I had seen pictures of him in the backs of his books and such, but never realized what a small man he really is. He came across as kind of awkward, almost nervous, which is fascinating considering the work that he does all over the world. He is very funny, though, and once he got going with his discussion he really picked up more and more. He just seems to emanate Light, and I found that hugely inspiring. Last week I was talking to one of my friends on Twitter about the fact that I was attending this signing/discussion, and he saw this discussion between the two of us, (we were referencing him with is screen name, so it went to him, as well,) and tweeted to me, “You’re coming to signing in Sarasota? Make sure you stop by and say hi.” I thought that was very nice and was impressed with his taking the time to do that. In fact, after the signing ended, while he was still in the building and so was I, I tweeted that the signing had been very inspirational and I was really glad I had gone, and he responded to me just afterward saying, “Thank you very much.” I know it’s not a lot, and I have been tweeted by celebrities and such in the past, but it just seemed like such a sweet thing to do, especially while he was still in the building. I went back over to where he was after seeing that response but he was kind of surrounded with people, so I didn’t approach. I don’t know how to explain it, exactly, but the man is just a huge inspiration to me. I am really glad that I managed to get to the event, because I think it was exactly the wake up call I have been needing to get myself back onto the right track and back into consciousness. I am extremely grateful, and I did tell him this in our brief meeting, that he came to do an event here. I kind of feel like the Universe heard me crying out for something to remind me of what is important in life, and it sent him to me. Once again, the Universe is working in my favor, and I could not feel more grateful to it at this point. I know without a doubt that everything is going to work out exactly as it is meant to. If, by some chance, moving to California were to go out the window, or if I never wind up learning the keyboard better than I do now, no matter what happens I will keep moving forward and keep pursuing my dreams, and I will make them come true one way or another. No matter what may happen, I will make this happen because it is simply what is meant to happen. I know that with absolute certainty and I will make it happen no matter what life sends my way.

After the signing, my sister and her girlfriend were in a grocery store and I had to hang around the store a while until they finished. Aside from Yehuda’s book, I picked up a new sketchbook and a really cool set of colored pencils with more colors than the ones I have now. This whole drawing thing has really grown on me a lot, especially since I came up with the idea of using them for fashion. I don’t know what will come of it all, if anything, but I am getting considerably better at it than I was before so it only makes sense to step it up a notch, with better paper and more colors to work with. Once my sister and her girlfriend picked me up they had asked me if I wanted to come hang out at their house, but they also sounded like they had a lot going on so I decided to just come home. I still needed to do laundry, and I was tossing around the idea of washing some dishes so that they wouldn’t just be left for my Mom when she came home. I really hate doing dishes and don’t really know how to operate the dishwasher, so I wasn’t too keen on that idea. I threw in some laundry and sat down to read the Yehuda Berg book for a while. I guess I lost track of the time, because the next thing I knew it was 8:45pm. It was almost time for “Desperate Housewives,” and I had yet to eat dinner and hadn’t touched the dishes. I thought about just skipping the dishes altogether, but then I thought about my Mom coming home tomorrow and seeing a big pile of dishes in the sink still and stressing herself out about doing them even though I KNOW she won’t feel like it when she does get home. So, I did that whole thing where you wash them before you put them in the dishwasher and loaded up the dishwasher, that way I can just leave a note in the morning saying that the dishwasher is loaded if she wants to start it. That way she can check it and make sure that it is loaded properly, because I am really not sure if it is. It is sad how inept I am when it comes to housework. I am fine with the laundry, although when we first moved here with the washer/dryer in the house I had to be taught how to do it. I’ve just never been one to do these things and never really had to do them for myself, so I never actually learned how to do them. My Mom just has always done them before I could get a chance to. It only seems fair that I take this opportunity to do them before she gets the chance. I know that it will make her feel good to come back and find the dishes done… or done-ish.

It is now 12:30am, and I have been sitting here writing this blog and listening to the music of “Glee,” for the past couple hours. The more I listen to the music from “Glee” or watch the episodes on my DVR, the more I am so upset that the show isn’t coming back until April. It really is, as far as I am concerned, the best thing on television right now. It is also some of the best music coming out right now, as well. They are breathing new life into so many classic and current songs, in many cases doing them much better than the originals. One great example of this is one of my favorite songs from the series, “Taking Chances.” There have been three different versions of this song out there, the original by Kara Dioguardi’s band, Platinum Weird, the Celine Dion version and the Glee version, performed by Lea Michele. Lea Michele really does that song better than either of the others, and that is really saying something. The cast also does my personal favorite version of the song “Imagine” by John Lennon, which is a song that I am really feeling a connection to today, after Yehuda Berg’s inspiring discussion. That is really what it is all about – understanding the connection between ourselves and everyone and everything around us. This is a sentiment that we all could use a reminder of. I often make jokes and such about feeling like I’m better than other people and things like that, but I am really reminded that I am no better, or no different, from anybody else. I am a part of everyone else, and they are all a part of me. That is an extremely profound concept and one that I am dedicating myself to remembering from this point on.

I really should get to sleep. Today was a good day.