CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE. THE POWER OF LOVE

Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on Sep 4, 2009 8:50 AM PDT

This essay is dedicated to Mary Sue Evers, pastor of the UCC church of Cedar Hills in Beaverton, Oregon.

Jesus was the greatest rabbi ever, in the minds of millions of believers all over the planet. In two years of ministry, he changed human collective consciousness forever. In the centuries since his passing, the collective power of those who believe that people of good will can change the course of human destiny has grown into a potent force for good. Those who believe in the power of universal love that comes from the recognition of our interdependence keep alive the hope that we may yet be our own saviors.

The popularity of Jesus and his message is such that it has become common for cynical and selfish individuals to pervert his words into those of anger, war and the cult of greed. It is a measure of the power of love that true believers in its redemptive power can forgive these self-deluded individuals, who know not what they do. Seeing the signs that freedom may be lost forever without our collective efforts to salvage it, it is clear that Judgment Day is at hand. We must not judge those who abuse us nor those who unwittingly support their own abuse lest we be judged and found guilty of hypocrisy ourselves. It is only our faith in the essential goodness in each of us that allows us to love everyone unconditionally. This faith is what makes democracy possible. Taming our tendency toward judgment and our own selfish impulses are the only things that will save us from self-destruction. That will be the fate we ensure if we allow the dream of democracy and freedom to die.

Imagine what Jesus or Buddha could have accomplished had they come today and had the power of the Internet. They could have brought their message to all people of the planet at once. The question is, would anyone have listened? In the Babel of voices crying out to be heard in this day and age, how would they be recognized as ones who had found the simple answer to the riddle of how we can recreate the Garden and experience Heaven on Earth?

To love one another as we ought to love others as we would want to be loved ourselves seems so simple today that the message would be ignored among the senseless ramblings of narcissists who have no sense of the profound. It seems that it was necessary that each deliver his message personally, so that others could witness the miraculous transformation that occurred in those with whom they shared the awakening each experienced wandering alone in the wilderness.

Soldiers For Peace is the Medical Corps of doctors who would heal the world. We must draw on this reservoir of hope and strength to accomplish our mission. There is a worldwide Army of believers in our collective power to change the world that is already in place. Together we can successfully wage asymmetric warfare against the corporate forces aligned against us. When we win the war to Take Back America for democracy, Soldiers For Peace around the world can join forces in the fight to save humanity from the ravages of the radical individualists who seek to subjugate us even as they destroy the planet. As surely as every person yearns to be free, we will prevent them from realizing their nightmare vision of enslaving us all in a fascist New World Order. We need only follow our hearts to find how to direct our collective will toward action to accomplish our mutual objective.

We should not reject followers of religion merely because the blind faith of some has been misused by the self-interested for their own personal gain. Those whose faith are abused are sincere in their desire to live according to the principles of justice and equality based on the teachings of all the great prophets. In this they are no different from atheists who consider themselves secular humanists. There are those among them who have no faith in our essential goodness in the face of all the evidence to the contrary, while others are true to this belief. These are those who recognize that the selfish behavior of some is the product of societies driven mad by the delusion that each of us is the master of our own fate rather than subject to the selfish whims of those who we are taught to revere.

The acceptance as truth of that which is unknowable has the danger of leading to delusionality, whether one believes that he knows the mind of God, or whether he accepts as fact that God does not exist. I can have no more respect for the atheist than the religious fundamentalist of any faith. It is in doubting ourselves that leads us ever closer to true knowledge. The role of faith is that of providing a lens through which we may choose to focus on the negative or the positive in Man and the world.

In a democracy, we must not accept as fact the opinions of others. We must be careful that we do not accept our own prejudice as truth, which can lead us into dangerous error. If we do not choose to believe in God or Man, we should blind ourselves to the possibility that there is some source of ultimate good. Only by keeping our minds open can we see all possibilities for a better future. We can only make that possible future a reality if we believe that we are good enough to rule ourselves. That requires independence of thought but a healthy respect for the opinions of others.

With faith in our ability to forge a world in which universal love is seen as a virtue rather than an idealistic notion, we can confidently work to make democracy a reality. Universal love cannot be found by those who assume that it does not exist. Those of us who have experienced it ourselves know the meaning of true equality, which is the basis for democracy. When we accept that some individuals are worthy of ruling others, we tolerate injustice. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Democracy cannot exist where injustice is allowed to persist. Universal love is the source of compassion that compels is to seek liberty and justice for all.

In the immortal words of Huey Lewis:




The power of love is a curious thing,
make a one man weep, make another man sing.
Change a hawk to a little white dove.
More than a feeling, that's the power of love


Tougher than diamonds, rich like cream.
Stronger and harder than a bad girl's dream.
Make a bad one good, make a wrong one right.
Power of love that keeps you home at night.


You don't need money, don't take fame.
Don't need no credit card to ride this train.
It's strong and it's sudden and it's cruel sometimes.
But it might just save your life.


That's the power of love.
That's the power of love.


First time you feel it, it might make you sad.
Next time you feel it, it might make you mad.
But you'll be glad baby when you've found.
That's the power makes the world go 'round.


And it don't take money, don't take fame.
Don't need no credit card to ride this train.
It's strong and it's sudden, it can be cruel sometimes.
But it might just save your life.


They say that all in love is fair.
Yeah, but you don't care.
But you know what to do
when it gets hold of you.


And with a little help from above
you feel the power of love.
You feel the power of love.
Can you feel it?
Hmmm…


It don't take money and it don't take fame.
Don't need no credit card to ride this train.
Tougher than diamonds and stronger than steel,
you won't feel nothin' till you feel...
you feel the power, just the power of love.


That's the power, that's the power of love.
You feel the power of love.
You feel the power of love,
feel the power of love.






Rick Staggenborg, MD


Coos Bay, OR

CHAPTER FORTY FIVE: FOR THE LOVE OF A WOMAN

                                             





Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on Oct 28, 2009 7:28 AM PDT

This chapter is dedicated to my loving, wise and long-suffering mother. May God grant her soul the peace she never knew in this life.

I recently saw a cartoon in The Funny Times illustrating what life would be like without woman. It depicted two guys sitting in lawn chairs in a tropical paradise, drinking beer and watching sports on TV with pizza boxes spread all around them. I wish I could remember the caption, but the picture itself left an indelible image on my mind and reinforced my idea of the misplaced priorities of too many men. 

Of course the idea was ridiculous, since if there were only two men they would be at war with each other if history is any guide. They would have to be immortal to ever sit down together between fights. Even then, they would probably be fighting over the remote control while watching their fellow men simulate battle on the gridiron. More fundamentally, such a society would not be the happy one depicted in the scene.

I cannot imagine existence would have a point without women. What would be the motivation of men in such a world to invent TV, beer, football and pizza? If men did not have the love and comfort of women and the joy of raising children together, life would not be worth living. On the other hand, perhaps in the absence of competition for the most desirable mates there would be no purpose in war either. Work and material things would hold no interest for me without children and a family to share them with. 

A life of hedonism, especially without women, strikes me as a good description of Hell. Siddhartha was born into wealth and luxury and soon realized this as a young man. This was his motivation to dedicate his life to understanding its purpose and becoming Buddha, the enlightened one.

Woman in all her variety is the spice of life that gives it its wonderfully complex and delicious flavor to men. Even most gay men enjoy the company of women, unless their minds have been perverted by the anger and abuse of an unhappy woman with power over them in childhood. 

In America, women grow up in a world in which their ability to bestow physical pleasure on a man is coveted. This is their gift and theirs alone to both give and receive. It is also their curse because the covetousness, anger and at times psychopathy of men is the source of most of the pain women endure. This pain is most hurtful when it is experienced at the hands of their own fathers.

To be sexually abused in childhood is to experience potential soul death, even when the father loves the child. In this case his betrayal of their special relationship can be even more devastating, creating conflicts in the identity of the child at a critical stage of her development whenever it occurs. Such a betrayal is usually driven by desperate loneliness, even when the father has a loving wife.  

Sexual abuse is also the result of ignorance on the part of the father who fails to understand the importance of his role in nurturing his daughter’s development. The daughter's love of the father perpetuates his ignorance and her pain, as she will most often suffer in silence to please him and out of shame or fear of consequences to both of them.  More often than not she lives with pain and self-doubt until later in life. Only then if at all does the average woman risk re-experiencing her shame by telling a counselor or an especially trusted friend about the unspeakable acts she has endured.

It saddens me to think of the suffering of our women at the hands of men who fail to appreciate the gift of God in creating woman. Women bear the pain of childbirth willingly in order to experience the love of their children and the strengthening of the bond between husband and wife. Children are our only hope for a future worth striving toward. Giving them the future that they deserve is our burden. We will be rewarded in the end if we remain motivated by our love for the most defenseless among us. 

How sad that many men do not respect themselves enough to value their role in the perpetuation and advancement of our species. These lonely, unfulfilled and often angry men suffer their own Hell of a purposeless existence. As for myself, I never forget to be grateful for this gift, the miracle of sexual dimorphism and of life itself.

In the immortal words of  George Harrison:




Something in the way she moves
attracts me like no other lover.
Something in the way she woos me...


I don't want to leave her now.
You know I believe her now


Somewhere in her smile she knows
that I don't need no other lover.


Something in her style that shows me,
Don't want to leave her now.
You know I believe her now.


You're asking me will my love grow.
I don't know, I don't know.
You stick around now it may show.
I don't know, I don't know


Something in the way she knows
and all I have to do is think of her.
Something in the things she shows me,


Don't want to leave her now.
You know I believe her now.





Rick Staggenborg, MD


Coos Bay, OR

I had considered using I am Woman for the lead in video of this essay but thought it too dated. However, since it was my mother's favorite song, here it is: