Ho Hum Homeland

Now that Quinn (the most exciting character since Brody) is on a black-ops assignment somewhere very dangerous, what will “Homeland’s” writers decide to do next?  

Carrie’s psychotic episodes may be endearing to the men in her life, but are boring, boring, boring to this viewer. Saul may re-assume some importance in the next season – we certainly hope so. And a potential volatile relationship between Carrie and long lost Mom may (or may not) rev things up a bit, but with Sunday’s episode and the (hopefully) temporary departure of Peter Quinn, who seems to be the moral compass of the show, the season finale seemed almost moribund. 

And a word to the writers: not everyone in the world drops the “F-bomb.”  It is certainly in Carrie’s high maintenance character to do so, but I would think “out of character” for someone like Saul and some of the other operatives, technicians, and directors at Langley, who appear to use the word two or three times in a single sentence. Just because you may be comfortable with it, it does not necessarily follow that everyone in the CIA uses it – on TV or in real life.   

The word has lost its shock value, having been flung at us by new and liberated cable networks.  But how many of us actually use the word in everyday conversation? C'mon! 

Cuba and the Twenty First Century

Regarding the on-going discussion about relaxing sanctions with Cuba: it is my belief that had this "normalization of relations" been done decades ago, the Castro regime would be long gone. There is nothing like  a wave of fresh air to sweep out a repressive regime with dictatorial tendencies. Once the Cuban people get a whiff of an uncontrolled Internet and social media, their beautiful Caribbean skies with open wide with gifts of free speech and creative thought. Of course, time is also a factor and nothing will come about in a day.  But the process has begun. Bravo to Obama.
I intend to be one of the first tourists to visit the island after we get a U.S. ambassador settled in Havana.

The Biology of Belief - By Bruce Lipton, PhD - A Review

This book confirms everything that I believe but says it far more succinctly and elegantly than I ever could.

We learn that the quantum theory proponents may finally be gaining a foothold in the traditionally entrenched scientific community and their stubborn adherence to a material concept of physics (Newtonian). Dr. Lipton sees us as part of a whole (the metaphorical drops of water in the great cosmic ocean); we are a universal melting pot, (ie, the planet, the stars, the earth and all living creatures dependent upon it, are all made up of energy AND matter), and that this knowledge may ultimately save our planet and our species from extinction as we begin to move toward a more spiritual understanding of our place in the universal order.     

In his discussion of Western medicine vs. Eastern energy healing, he rightly suggests that Western society has ignored the benefits of Eastern healing techniques to our detriment for centuries:  “For thousands of years,” he writes, “. . . Asians have honored energy as the principal force contributing to health and well- being.” (Lipton 108)  

He talks about the dangerous and adverse effects of drugs and how belief can heal or harm, how fear and anxiety can kill. Most informative in this section is the discussion of parenting—how important parenting is -- even before birth.

Our universe and everything in it, Lipton says, is made up of energy – a fact that Einstein recognized but the medical profession has ignored until recently. Thus, in the quantum universe, knowledge flows holistically   rather than linearly, as in the Newtonian paradigm.   It is therefore incumbent upon us to learn to live in harmony with the “natural order” rather than to impose dominion over all living things.

We are in the midst of a mass extinction says Dr. Lipton, the last in a series of six and created by greed for natural resources and material things as well as an early abandonment of “spirit” in our evolutionary history.  This loss of “connectedness” to spirit was caused, he says, by a desire of the scientific community to create distance between itself and the controlling factions of the early church.  If human kind acts to reverse our trend towards the earth’s destruction, we may avoid another planetary catastrophe.   

The book was an engaging and enlightening glimpse into the changing views in the scientific community.