top of page

Summer School: Touch of Grey

Updated: Jul 29, 2023

Join me for some summertime DEADucation...Classes available in art, music, paleontology, psychology, driver education, Eastern studies, finance, sex ed, and MORE...


"SYLLYBUS" (1)



(1`) See "Extra Credit Classes..." for more on this famous and not-so-silly "bus".


Driver Education


A few days ago I was on the Southern State Parkway heading for the Bayard Cutting Arboretum to meet with some of our Baha'i Fellowship friends.


I was driving in the middle lane when I found my 2012 Grey Prius surrounded by a new Black Mercedes SUV on my left and a new White Mercedes SUV on my right.


A road trip metaphor started forming...BUT, I was also trying to pay attention to my driving...not wanting to unintentionally wander into someone else's lane...


black plus white makes GREY...they combine to produce something NEW...


My 11-year old car gets me to my destination the same as the others...


This "oldtimer's" hybrid power plant is friendlier to our shared planet...


and, gets FAAAARRR better gas mileage. See, I'm mindfully using my ancestors' remains...





Paleontology 101


Let's meet our instructor:



Here's our lead singer and his back up group:




"Zacchaeus, come down...we're goin to a party tonight at your joint..." - Jesus


...in today's parlance, this like going from the nosebleed seats to backstage with the band...Cool, huh?


West Coast Pre-date-ors...


Dick exits the set in style...




Children's Church





This tax-collecting dude was a real Robbing Hood...taking from the poor AND the rich...a real equal opportunity OFFENDER...



Music History


Early music delivery system...



Art Class: Animation


"Everything Class": Everything we ever needed to know...We learned from Saturday morning CARTOONS


--post includes this classic: Let me know if the opening music triggers memories...




SEX Education class...clASS...CLASS!!!


This warning is only being posted for those who have not yet met this dynamic duo...





Eastern Studies: The Middle Way





I chose to screenshot this part in Robert Thurman's video (third image below) because of where I AM NOW...RELATIONSHIPS are very important to me...FIRST, the one I'm developing with myself ("love my neighbor AS I love myself")...then with Eileen...and then will all y'all...






Art Class: Mixing Colors



...something new emerges from our UNION...a middle way...


Paleontology 102: Not All Dinosaurs are Extinct






Mortuary Science: Take my advice, you'd be better off DEAD...





If you're ready to join the tribe, raise your right hand and repeat after me..."I will be KIND"


...That's it...That's all we need to practice...We can throw away those HIM (hymn) books & HER books & THEIR books and practice KINDNESS.


Because of early programming (i.e.; "thought control"), a part of you might still be worried that a guy in a red suit or sitting on a judgement seat up in the clouds...is makin' a list and checkin' it twice...This next tip is for you:


Here's the final test question/entrance exam question:




...Congratulations! Your two-good eyes will now be able to see anew...






Includes:


This next one is a meme for all seasons...all parties...



Psychology 101: Deprogramming/Reprogramming


Still afraid because of all that early thought control to let go and trust all that's good in us?


Step 1: Become aware of the reason for our fear...Repeat this lesson if needed...







Step 2: Repeat after me: "LORD,...



Step 3: Replace our subservient bowing and scraping with this next song's self-empowering posture:




Psychology 102: "creatures" of "habit"


Love how in the context of this post, these two words take on new meanings...


I wear the same BLUE jean shorts every day...


...so, to get into the flow of this post, I CHING'd...I CHANGED and wore ALL GRAY...from Head to Toes...


"A touch of grey suits me any way..."



Eileen, my "Sugar Magnolia," is my paparazzi...



...it all flows together...


Touch of Grey






She was not like other girls...





Women's Studies



Leader of the pack...




Our timekeeper...







The UNITIVE WAY: It's a collective effort...WE will get by...





Post-Graduate Studies...Everything Belongs:

Moving beyond B.A. (behaviorally adequate)



[Hyperlinks take us to each day's full-strength medication...meditation...Added emphases are mine.]


Sunday Everything belongs. No one needs to be punished, scapegoated, or excluded. We cannot directly fight or separate ourselves from evil or untruth. Evil becomes apparent when exposed to the Truth. —Richard Rohr


Monday Oneness is even an easy thing to profess, until we realize that it must include not only the people we like and agree with, not only those to whom we are sympathetic, but also those whom we view as abhorrent (whatever side of a political position we may hold). We don’t get to choose who we are one with—it’s everybody. —Liza Rankow


Tuesday Exclusion operates by the same rule of mutuality as welcome, for it harms both the excluded and the excluder. —Cole Arthur Riley


Wednesday Human existence is neither perfectly consistent, nor is it incoherent chaos. Instead, life has a cruciform pattern. All of life is a “coincidence of opposites,” a collision of cross-purposes; we are all filled with contradictions needing to be reconciled. —Richard Rohr


Thursday Francis of Assisi, like Jesus, refused to exclude things from the garden of grace; there is no exclusionary instinct in either of them—except toward exclusion itself! —Richard Rohr


Friday It seems that simply allowing ourselves to be here, to recognize the sacrament and the grace of the present moment, is enough to allow God’s loving gaze to happen. What we are doing in the allowing is returning the gaze. That’s it. We are completing the circuit and saying it’s okay. —Richard Rohr


Belonging to Every Moment

At the age of thirty-four, Buddhist author Sebene Selassie was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. The experience offered her the freedom to find love, joy, and belonging in every moment.  


Belonging is an expression of life. I would have done anything to belong to the living. Also, everything is relevant when we talk about belonging. The challenge with belonging in these times is “everything” includes a whole lot of things….We live in a world where previously isolated languages, cultures, and beliefs have been melded into each other. Each of us has a multitude of influences, various identities, and countless experiences….In any moment, we may feel like we belong to one thing and not another. I belong to this community, to which others don’t. I belong to this statement, definitely not that one. I belong in this space way over here. Or perhaps I belong nowhere. The truth: we all belong to it all. Also to death….  


I don’t wish cancer on anyone else, but I wouldn’t change a thing about my experience. That doesn’t mean it was easy: I wasn’t always open to what was happening while it was happening. But the challenges I faced—the challenges you face, the challenges we face collectively a this time, any place in the world, …any challenge in life (even cancer)—all are invitations to belonging. And belonging is our true nature. 


Belonging is our capacity to feel joy, freedom, and love in any moment. As the late Zen teacher Charlotte Joko Beck [1917–2011] said: Joy is exactly what’s happening, minus our opinion of it. She made a distinction between joy and happiness—Happiness has an opposite: unhappiness. [1] Joy is not about happy or unhappy, liking or disliking. Joy is accepting each moment for what it is without contention. We belong to any moment simply by meeting it with joy. This is freedom. Love is the ultimate expression of joy and freedom. Joy, freedom, and love could be considered synonyms for each other, and for belonging.  



Extra Credit Classes [not just for brown noses :))) ]





--Well-written "peace" about this social influencer...He surely affected my life...






...In case you still have some doubts about the power of simple kindness...



bottom of page