copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2013
All of us at Bettina Network, inc. wish all of you a very Happy New Year!
Our wish for you in 2013 is for much joy – the company of caring people – problems which are immediately solvable – new friends and experiences you would not have dreamed about – the discovery of great books, an increasing knowledge of the past to understand and learn from our ancestors mistakes – and the very best food with dishes from other cultures infiltrating the list of what you consider ‘comfort food’. All organic – of course.
We have dealt with myth vs truth all year. This has been a counterpoint in the business, at breakfast, meeting friends, from the media. Wherever we have gone we have had to counter the over-romanticized sayings, misinterpretation of feelings, bad advice from our store of mythology that we give to others and more.
Each time we encountered such, it required us to have a bit of a conversation to work through the why of such passings along and what it achieves for us as a society.
Not having great wisdom to pass along to you we will just wish that in 2013 you will be able to instantly see myth for what it is ; to understand the function it is serving at the moment and can keep it separate from reality – both the established myth and myth in the making.
For Example: the ‘myth’ or ‘wish’ that we heard frequently this year was “I hope God gives you roots and wings. Roots so you are firmly anchored and Wings so you can take flight.
That always struck us as strange. We now use it as a joke. When we want to wish someone ill – we wish them roots and wings. Why? Because if you receive that gift you will be torn apart the way the soul is torn apart after death in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Roots anchor you and the deeper and stronger the roots the more excruciating is the tearing apart of the body and the soul when you sprout those beautiful wings. Is that what keeps us away from one another?
So, we have roots, then we grow wings – huge, beautiful, elegant wings. When you use those wings and you are fully anchored with your roots deep in the soil where they have been nurtured by generations of ancestors, comes the incredible tearing apart. We see it all over society. Those who have tried to soar, but were held back by their ‘roots’. They become dysfunctional, confused, a caricature of who they could be. They have sprouted wings, but their ‘roots’ have them totally anchored to the earth. As human beings it is only a short jump from our own cultural ways to our own cultural ways which are better than anybody else’s and therefore we are better than those who are different, who hold different values, look different, relate differently.
We wish for you a year of understanding the intent of those who pass along these kind of myths – and the reality of what they are saying.
The media has contributed greatly to our being totally ‘rooted’ in these sayings which become mythology – their cute headlines, like ‘we are about to fall off the cliff’ – really? If I hear that one more time when I turn on the television or read the paper or magazine I will probably throw up. There is no cliff to fall off – the financial matters which they have created into this ‘cliff’ image will be resolved in time for the disaster they are predicting to be averted and the media can then to go back to reporting on real news. Well, sort of real news. The media has begun to repay its debt to the politician for bringing their publication into a more profitable position by the money the politicians spend on ads, etc. during campaigns. They have had good exposure and have had time to posture in front of the cameras for quite a long period of time.
This is not the politician and their funders total pay back – you will see more of this media-covered and promoted grandstanding as the year progresses.
We have heard this ‘falling off the cliff’ image before – especially as it relates to something Congress is or is not doing and the dreaded disaster never happens. When the whole story comes out and we realize what they have turned into this ‘cliff’ never was a threat and we have been “taken to the cleaners” – this is never a great and glorious moment.
Have you noticed that this kind of constant non-stop reporting on one topic for days and sometimes weeks always seems to come when there are traditionally no headlines to grab your attention as the media fights to be the first with the flawed story? Remember Y2K? That was reported on endlessly with talking heads going on ad nauseum and then the story died because the time came and went and the disaster they were predicting didn’t happen AND if you listened closely you knew it was not going to happen. It was a flight into nothingness that would occupy lots of air time, thousands of pages of paper and endless photographs which didn’t match the story. The ‘talking heads’ make out quite well because they are always in demand to keep the story going around the round table – or horseshoe shaped table – or rectangular table, depending upon which show you watch.
We wish for you the ability to see truth every day of your life. We wish for you the ability and the need to strip away all of the maudlings, the overly romanticized, the propaganda, the flights of fancy meant to take your mind off what is happening, so power and control is not diluted by John and Jane Q. Public.
We wish for you the ability to be able to stand on your own two feet where you see truth even if you are the only one speaking it – in a crowd going along with the program.
We wish for you the inner strength to endure all of the pain and agony of this life and the ability to use the lessons and turn that pain and agony and those hard times into something beautiful which you can share with us all.
We wish for you such joy that when you enter a room it lights up and fairly glows because you are there.
We wish for you total involvement in LIFE – in which you are a very integral part of what is happening and not a bystander watching the lives of others march past, totally missing your own.
We wish for you the wisdom to know that you are human and what that means with its strengths and weaknesses, its joys and sorrows, its ups and downs, its truths and lies.
We wish for you a turning away from seeing yourselves as greater than the homeless on the street with the need to turn towards them and not away from them because they and you are the same – only on a different journey.
We wish for you the ability to see others, who may look and act differently from you, as one with you.
We wish for you the ability to create businesses, families, communities, political structures which are inclusive and which unite rather than divide.
We wish for you the knowledge and love of a great God who has created all of us even though we call God by different names and give God different attributes, and sometimes even try to create God in our own image.
We hope 2013 brings you closer to yourself -able to see and live with your flaws, your greatness, your talents and to see them as gifts – given to you by a great God, who gives gifts to others, different from but just as important as the gifts given to you.
We hope 2013 will bring you closer to being able to accept yourself without needing a scapegoat to project onto and to blame when things don’t go the way you think they should. Such a need for escape through the use of a human scapegoat created the Holocaust – we hope you will be one of those who does everything they possibly can to bring this universe to a different place. We can’t all be God, we can’t all be gods, but we can all be warm, loving, caring, giving human beings – all equal, all different, and all accepting of the good, the bad and the indifference of others.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
From All of Us At Bettina’s
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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.
Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.
Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.
Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net
This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com
TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com
IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!
1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.
Martin Luther King Day at Bettina’s
Tuesday, January 20th, 2015copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2015
Hate murdered a man, at 39 years of age, who preached love.
It has been amazing and humbling to watch the progress of the Martin Luther King holiday over the years. We watched from the beginning, when there was much conflict, confrontation, opposition, loud voices of angry protest at the very idea that such a man, with his history and achievements should be honored. We watched until today when the determination and love of those who were going to make sure Martin and the work of the Black Civil Rights movement was recognized. This 2015 year we celebrated and recognized a man and a movement with time out of school for our children, to the closing of banks, the post office and some of our corporations. To get even this far, has been a long, hard, painful, but very rewarding journey for many.
How do we treat greatness when discovered or suspected in African Americans?
We attended and participated in events which recognized Martin Luther King and the movement of which he was one of the leaders. The events, their venues, the people participating were a cross section – not only of America – but across parts of the world where the work of the Civil Rights Movement was remembered.
There was much “breakfast table talk” about the history which brought us to this day. We hope it continues throughout the year. I thought we would share some of that conversation with you:
“We had a fantastic breakfast – I would have to call it a ‘breakfast seminar.’ Only one person at the table had been through the Civil Rights Movement which created this holiday. The rest of us were either not yet born or were on the other side. I was one of those on the other side at the time because, to me, what was happening with the protests, the disruptions, the dogs, the hoses aimed at the hurting of even young children was something I couldn’t abide. I didn’t think there was anything wrong with life the way we were living it. My point of view was not that of those who were willing to die for their freedom and were looking to the future at their children’s future, but of someone whose life was being disrupted. Not seriously disrupted, but enough to be inconvenienced and I just wanted it to stop and things to go back to the way they were. I don’t know when God took hold of me to shake me up and to shake those attitudes out of my life, but somehow it happened and I am now a part of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations. My grey hair can be seen among all of those young people and I hope somehow, even though it is a very little and very late, my efforts will matter to those who come behind me.”
Are you listening out there in Simi Valley? How diverse is your neighborhood!
WOW!
“What a history lesson! I remember studying the Civil Rights Movement in school. We learned about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and what that time was all about, but I had never talked to someone who was a part of that history before. This was a very different perspective. I think of history as being about the study of dead people and past times. Here I was in the middle of a conversation with someone who lived that history and those past times are still with us today. I have never been a part of a demonstration of any kind. Never talked to anyone who had. Didn’t intend to talk to anyone who was a part of something like that and here I was in the middle of breakfast deep into a conversation that changed my life. Thank you to my breakfast companions for putting up with me. My responses must have been horrible to you, yet you were so kind – well almost kind, after you got over the shock of my being at the breakfast table. I don’t know what I expected, but certainly not what happened. I have never even thought twice about the Martin Luther King holiday. No different from all those other holidays I don’t celebrate. Maybe it is the newness of this one – with the pain still being felt by those who experienced the events which led up to this being important enough to remember once a year. This is, however, a holiday I am bringing back to my family to celebrate every year by learning something new about that time in history and by trying to be a little better about dealing with my prejudices which have caused so many people pain. But – is ‘celebrate’ really what I want to say. I almost feel as though we should all be in sack cloth and ashes for what we’ve done, but ‘celebrate’ is what I feel.”
A truth the world needs to hear! From the world’s elite, the corporate billionaires, the religious aristocrats, the homeless on our streets, no one is immune from the need to be silent so we can be accepted. “I am sorry, but I can’t get involved. Only when my earthly masters signal their approval.”
“A small group of us (women all) get together every year on Martin Luther King day to try to continue to work through our conflicting thoughts about the Black Civil Rights Movement. It was a difficult time for us. Women – who were discriminated against, not only by the wider society, but also by the Black Civil Rights Movement. It was very male oriented and some, in the movement, felt embarrassed if women were perceived as being in any leadership position. We withdrew, but still supported what was happening with our money, by marching and by being a part of. At the same time, we gathered together to fight for the equality of women and here was an example where those discriminated against were discriminating against us. That is so the human condition! Flawed, full of sin, dragging our own history and almost blind to that of others. Our time together, each year, is to try to reconcile and acknowledge our being human and to root out our separateness to be able to embrace everyone and not feel victimized as we work with those also fighting for their freedom in a society which seems to need to have a group on top and a group less than and which needs to manage and continue their being on top by playing one ‘less than’ group against another.”
“I love Bettina’s. It is a safe place to be able to express whatever and you never know who is going to be at breakfast. May you all live long and prosper.”
Ed Note: We had a lot more expressions of breakfast at Bettina’s on Martin Luther King Day. We shared just a few. The places where people came from, knowing the history of King and the Movement amazed even us. We could put this all together in a book, but we will stop here. Hope this gives more meaning to your day and information to your life.
________________________________________________________________
Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!
[give_form id=”3763″]
______________________________________________________________
Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.
Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.
Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.
Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net
This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com
TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com
IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!
1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.
Tags: African American history, bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Information, breakfast table talk, Martin Luther King, Racism
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