My "wafer-thin" Piece of Poisoned Pie

Responsiblity.

The ability and liablity to respond; this implies choice. That is, when one is responsible one has the ability to choose from a menu of possiblities and theoritically one has investigated each choice and considered potential outcomes of each decision/possiblity. Ownership is implicit. "The buck stops here". Even the Buddha, the awakened one, has chimed in on the topic: My actions are my only true belongings. And yet, to add more cliches to the mix, the road to hell is paved with the stones of good intentions.

The tricky wicket in all of this is how do we know the potential outcomes of our actions. A man worked very hard at his job. He put in lots of hours and worked overtime often. He used most of the earned money to pay hospital bills for his sick child and with the rest he kept his family fed, clothed and housed. It was remarked in his town that this man was quite noble and filled his obligations to the best of his abilities and with tireless effort. Not once was it heard that he complained of his lot. He had only good words for all of his relations. He was the train conductor that shuttled between Munich and Dachau. Or perhaps he was the IBM salesman who sold punch cards used to count the gassed ones. Or perhaps he was the New York stockbroker who bought the shares of IBM in 1938 based on their overseas sales growth potential. Or perhaps the sickly pensioner with rheumatiod arthritis whose monthly checks (needed for minimally efficacious medicine) were largley derived from IBM stock dividends.

Are we culpable? Is ignorance or just plain ignoring (because our "plates are so full") a good enough excuse?

We, as a society, have given up on our own individual morality by signing it over to the, by definition, amoral corporate charter. We make/process/create/administer etc. one tiny slice of the pie and have very little idea what that pie is for, who it serves, who it harms. We take our paycheck home and then give it right back to the same amoral corporations. These corporations are not faceless. They are made of up individuals, such as ourselves, who are just doing their job. Yet under the corporate charter of amorality, the individuals are not responsible for any of the harm they created. How convenient, we can contribute to innumerable human and earthly ills and still sleep sound at night. The bottom line is a rope which we are using to strangle ourselves and plunder our own homes. And no one among us is responsible; its the corporations that pollute, abuse and plunder and will render useless the Earth in just 5 generations time. Not us, just doing our jobs and feeding our families and paying hospital bills.

I write this as an employee of a corporation on corporate time.

In-situ Salutations and Greetings invivo

Hello Friends and Strangers and Curious types,

What gives with the title?

One, I am singular, alone (mostly and hopefully, not infused with loneliness). I have in the first statement created the duality. The first sentence and the first paradox. As in one with everything. (no, not how you order your hotdog) . If I am one with everything then I am part of everything and the quality of oneness is non-sensical and no longer an appropriate descriptive attribute.

Two. Paradox. One needs two "things" to create the conflict inherent in paradox. I have gained much experience in the healing arts. Perhaps fifty thousand times over the last fifteen odd years I have asked, "Hello, I'm Dr. Doyle, how can I help you?". Performing (as) healing artist, indeed, one on one, soul to soul. And yet, I find myself as one slightly frayed cog in a giant self-aggrandizing/absorbed/perpetuating machine known by some and felt by many as the "medical-pharmaceutical-insurance-industrial-complex". Ergo a pair of doctors - me the artist, me the cog yes-man.

Script: now and here is a place for my oft conflicted musings, non-sequiters, etc.
Dispense: as much as you and I can take
Sig: take with a huge grain of salt, tongue firmly planted in cheek and perhaps on an empty stomach.

"The art of living is letting paradox be" - Richard Freeman, Astanga Persona Extra-ordinaire, in some yoga workshop somewhere at sometime.