A Bridge, A Tavern, A Legacy.

You know time’s zipping around when you walk into the first ever Walmart Super Store (Rogers, Arkansas) and note how “old” it seems.  We spent a couple of days recently in Northwest Arkansas (thanks to I-540, beginning in Ft. Smith, it’s a doable 6 ½ hours from Bossier City) to pay homage to Walmart and the simple but effective philosophy of Sam Walton.

The original Walton's 5 & 10 store in Bentonville is now the official Walmart Visitor’s Center and museum.  Artifact rich and telling an interesting story, the museum is U.S. of American to the core.  I mean, presidential museums often display the presidential vehicle.  In Bentonville you’ll find Sam’s Ford Truck on display (who needs a limousine to carry the dogs hunting?)

Not far from downtown is the reason for the journey – the just opened Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.  The Walmart gift to America.   This is a world class display of art about American and art by Americans.  I was expecting to be impressed.  It was more like my one and only (and brief at that) visit to the Louvre – breathtaking.  The galleries bridge a central lake and move from Eighteenth century art to contemporary.  Being a history guy, the earliest works are my favorite.  Favorite in the sense that  the images that have illustrated so many history books, documentaries, and articles are now on the wall eighteen inches in front of me.  (There are no barriers, just a caution not to get closer than eighteen inches.  No gum chewing, either.)

Upon entering Charles W. Peale’s portrait of Washington greets me. 

Guiseppe Ceracchi - Alexander Hamilton

Awesome.  But that’s a tease.  The works never cease - 400 plus over three centuries.

John Chapman - David Crockett

The atmosphere is relaxed, at ease, and curious.

Norman Rockwell - Rosie the Riveter

Gilbert Stuart - George Washington

Hiram Powers - Proserpine

This is only a sample.  There's three hundred years of art to explore.  A return trip is in order.  (Photos by the author do not do justice to the works!  But, sans flash, photographs are welcome.)

Since we were so close, half-a-day was set aside to learn more about the important Civil War battle at Pea Ridge near the Missouri border.  The March, 1862 fight was a near-run thing (as Wellington said, earlier) and the Union victory kept Missouri in the Union and much of Arkansas occupied.  The National Military Park is impressive – virtually the entire battle field is public land.  A seven mile road tours the pivotal points – the overlook of the field (bad news for exhausted confederates sheltering among the big rocks) and the Elkhorn Tavern (astride the telegraph road both sides wanted).

Grand view of the battlefield.  Union artillery tore up hunkered Confederates among these rocks.

Neither a ghost, nor a Reinactor.   Is yours truly.

Elkhorn Tavern from the road the Confederates charged.

 Well worth the trip.

Adventures in Thinking!

The Louisiana Association on Compulsive Gambling's Dan J. Talley Memorial Institute will present Adventures in Thinking Friday, March 9, 2012 at the Broadmoor branch of the Shreve Memorial Library.  The presentation, by yours truly, begins at 10:00 am and runs about ninety minutes.  Everyone is welcome and there is no charge.  Anyone who needs CEU's can register in advance for a small fee (email address on the flyer.)

No matter who you are, what you do, where you come from, or where you’re going, you think.  From the moment of birth you’re processing the energy fields around you.  Soon you’re able to distinguish your specific niche in the thought process.  You learn how to direct your thinking.  That never stops.  The knack is managing thinking to create a better life – right now.

Before anything is the thought.  Although self-evident, many people can become so wrapped up in their immediate environment that they’re unaware of this fundamental order.  The thought comes first.  The condition, thing, action, or situation follows the thought in time.

This workshop takes a look at some historical concepts regarding thinking and suggests a contemporary application – reducing complaining.  Now that can be exciting!

Problems? "We ain't got no stinkin' problems..."

Indeed, a picture is worth a thousand works.  Real time video of unprecedented natural disaster is beyond words - it is a shift in perspective.  Thanks to our digital age, we are able to benefit - in a perspective and appreciative manner - from the terror these folks experienced.  It'll take a few moments and gets scary.  Hollywood could not do this.

Just in case...

...you've been thinking about thinking, God, Source Energy, Hermes Trismegistus, Thoth, and such, I've posted the text of my talk on such matters.

A Walk on the Moon

For so many people, this is history, something that happened before they were born.  Perhaps this marvelous clip will revive the thrill and excitement of an exceptional USA:



Thanks to Alexis Madrigal at The Atlantic.

An Old New Look at Health

“The universe is a great advancing life, and the purpose of nature is the advancement of life towards perfection, towards perfect functioning.  The purpose of nature is perfect health.”

 I like Wallace D. Wattles.  His direct, no-nonsense, explanation of the realm of consciousness is refreshing. Wattles' books inspired Rhonda Byrne's The Secret which introduced the Law of Attraction to millions.

Okay, 2012 is here!

It seems that many folks are happy with the new year.  Part of that is a “thank God 2011 is over!” since many people found that calendar period to contain a number of challenges.  2012 offers unparalleled prosperity, health, delight and all around good feelings.  Yet, as with any potential, a person must be able to accept it into their experience.  That acceptance invariably means a shift in thinking and perception.

For instance, nothing can be brought into being (or experience) by thinking about its opposite.  Everything has two ends, two sides, two points – a “higher” and a “lower” manifestation.  Which manifests, appears, depends on attention.  Is health obtained by constant thinking, discussing, and studying about disease?  Not really.  Studying “disease” only reveals (drum roll) more disease.  “What’s wrong with me?” reveals more of what’s “not right” with me.  Attention to anything means more of it, whether desired or not.  Therefore, thinking about the “opposite” of what you want cannot produce what is desired.  The desired manifestation is on the other end of the scale.  The solution is always different (vibration) from the “problem.”  Granted, many of us perceive a “solution” to be for a problem to stop being a problem.

A lot of challenges can be avoided by paying attention to your still, small voice.  Also known as a hunch, an intuition, a feeling – you know the many subtle ways someone is trying to get your attention.  Invariably you get a hunch to give your attention to something other than where your attention is going.  For instance, I know of someone who went to a lunch with friends over the Holidays and shared an appetizer with one of them, who was recovering from a respiratory struggle.  Don’t do that¸ said the quiet voice, as the person reached for the tasty treat.

Days later – when the person was beset with a nagging illness – came the remark “well, I should have listened to my hunch, but I never do…”  And I must ask, why, oh why, do we NOT listen to the hunches, the intuitions (George, take a sweater to that football game…Nah, I won’t need it…)  We know better, but still we refuse to listen to our own counsel.  That is the source of such quiet guidance – our higher self that hovers beyond our physical senses.

So, a few things to make 2012 a great year (maybe that’s what the Mayan’s meant…):

·       Pay attention to yourself and follow your hunch/intuition.  If it’s a good thing to do, you’ll have good results.  What have you got to lose by not doing so?

·       Focus your attention on what you want and desire, not what you fear or dislike.  This takes practice because anything out of “ease” (dis-ease) gets our attention because we inherently know it to be the exception rather than the rule.  Giving something you don’t like more attention only brings more of the same into your life.  You know this already although you may not have been aware of it in 2011.  Make 2012 the year you are aware of where your mental and emotional attentions are focused.

·       To insure prosperity, give everyone more in use-value than you receive in “cash” or money value.  Think about this one and it’ll make sense.

·       Appreciate something every moment. Heck, post something you appreciate on Facebook every day, or Tweet, or whatever expressions you like (silent prayer is a pretty good one.)

·       All of the above reinforce the simple but effective game plan for living:  What I want for myself, I want for everyone.

Now that’s a plan for 2012!  Check the results December 21, 2012.