The Holy Bible

On The Bible

When someone says to me that the Bible was divinely inspired I answer them by saying everything is divinely inspired; that is if you believe in divinity.

“It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get into heaven.” What modern readers don’t realize is that ancient walled cities had smaller tunnels called the eye of the needle.  Camels had to be stripped down of all their belongings, or what they were carrying in order to slip through the tunnels.  So instead of it being impossible for a rich man to reach heaven, the rich man needed to be stripped down of his worldly possessions. But this is only one of COUNTLESS misinterpretations we modern readers of the Bible have come to believe.

What are my thoughts on the Bible specifically? Do I find it strange that the Bible has claimed for two thousand years or more that we all hail from one lineage and that there was a first woman and a first man and that this has been recently confirmed by DNA science? How would the ancient Hebrew writers have known that? The religious person answers that God inspired them with the truth. Perhaps so, but not in the way we traditionally think of it going down, with a white bearded God whispering into wise men’s ears. It could have something to do with my earlier post about the Zero-point field; if eternal knowledge is imprinted on the fabric of the universe and is to some extent accessible to those in tune with it.  But I would also add that these men filtered this cosmic knowledge through their own biases, imaginations and cultural contexts. They filled in the gaps that they didn’t understand with their own mythologies.

To deal with the Bible we first must define the Bible. The Bible is a collection of writings authored by mostly anonymous men over hundreds of years, after having been passed down orally for generations before that.  Most of the early books can trace their origins to older civilizations like the Sumerians and the Babylonians.  There is no accurate estimate as to how many books were written in the vain of the biblical books, but this brings us to the political decisions that created the modern Bible.

Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity to unite his empire, though he was still a pagan long after his supposed conversion. But when he took over the faith, he reorganized it.  A pagan took over Christianity and made it a pagan religion in disguise.  A council decided what books should and should not be included in the Bible.  The books that didn’t fall in line with the new direction of the faith were lost to time.  The Romans, still pagans at heart, reformed the church to be designed like the Roman legions and power was given to one man above all, the new Pope.  The theory contends that the pagan gods were actually powerful demons that, some time in the past, appeared to ancient man, created civilization and demanded to be worshipped.  They required blood sacrifice.  That certainly falls in line with demonic ideology. Jesus said that when two or more people are gathered in his name then he is there. That’s because our thoughts and our emotions are physical waves of energy that effect reality. Together large groups of people worshipping anything, feeds that thing with divine power. It’s all about directed energy. Emotions are the most powerful thought waves we produce. That’s why there is a thing called home-team advantage. It’s why momentum is a true phenomenon that can be physically felt.  The demons knew this. They lurked in the shadows after Jesus came to deliver us from their oppression but it only took a few hundred years for them to take back their power. They turned Jesus’ message against itself. It’s why there’s so much hypocrisy in religion.  It’s why things don’t make sense. Why so many religious people come from a place of fear. Not all religious people, granted, but take a look at religious fanatics and there lies real fear inside of them. They own a lot of guns and are scared of their own shadows. They worry that the world is doomed.  But what about faith?  Now Rex Mundi (the king of the material world) still rules from on high. He feeds on our fears and profits from it.

That is not to say that good men haven’t come along and tried to do good things through religion.  The light prevails but against great odds.  And most people who practice religion are trying to do good things and get in touch with God.

But back to the Bible… People who take the Bible word-for-word and completely literally, have no idea how far those words have had to travel and how they’ve had to take on new forms along the way.  From the extensive game of telephone, that is the oral traditions of a wandering people, to being captured in first clay tablets in Babylon, to Aramaic, to then being converted by the early Hebrew writers to fit the culture of the Israelites to then being translated into Greek and later Latin and Middle-English, to finally Modern English.  A lot of what people assume are in the Bible are actually Christian traditions that came later.  Take the idea that Mary, Mother of God, was a virgin.  The text didn’t originally use the word virgin.  In Hebrew the word was almah which means simply a young woman of marrying age.  When it was translated into Greek the word became virgin. Think of how steeped into the mythos of Catholicism the idea that Jesus was of a virgin birth. Now, can it be argued that if she hadn’t been married before she was still a virgin? Sure.  But there are endless examples of the original texts saying one thing and their subsequent translations meaning something slightly different.  The inspiration of the virgin birth comes from Greek and Roman mythology.

Here’s where I think the Bible could be an instrument of positive power. It goes to the faith people put in it.  It’s their faith, or positive emotions being projected toward it that gives it it’s power.  It’s not the holy object that has power; it’s the collective belief in it that does. We are divine, we’ve just forgotten. Were we all to awaken to this fact and actively work together and forget all those things that divide us, then who knows what we could accomplish.  We could banish these demons from this planet all together and live in harmony with each other.  But that will never happen, I’m afraid.  We’re too addicted to fear.  There’s too much money to be made from it.  But who knows? Something to think about, I suppose.

The translation of the Long Lost Writing of a Shaman

On The Long Lost Writings of a Shaman of the Potawatomi Tribe.

Here’s an excerpt from the lost writings of Tecompa Red Foot, that I found buried in my yard last spring.   As translated into English by a professor of Potawatomi Studies who’s name shall remain anonymous for legal reasons.  The ownership of these lost manuscripts still remain in question.  But I felt that the writing was too interesting to allow to be stifled by lawyers.  The professor in question has taken some liberties with some of the terminology, like Atlantis and others, because he is uncertain how else to translate the name of the ancient culture other than Atlantis; as he is certain that is what he is referring to.   Radio carbon dating of the manuscript reveals it to be between 150 to 200 years old. 

SOUL GROUPS AND THE FALLEN ONES

And so it was, I ventured into the spirit realm and found my forgotten guide, the elder brother spirit Ra Ott Tov.   I asked him if I were dead. 

He smiled and said, “Death is but one of many possible states.  But this is not the state you’re in.”

Then I knew that I had reached this place while still my body remained unharmed. It was possible, as the great Shaman Occum Black Bear had told me when he taught me the ancient secrets.  He had said one could reach this place while still attached to your earthly vessel, but it took a pure soul and an open heart, and extreme peace of mind.

I had no eyelids to close and so I couldn’t blink.  I surveyed this place.  Bright lights glistened all around me.  I was surrounded by all the colors of nature and then colors I had never seen before.  I have no words for them.   I saw beings in the distance as if across a bridge, the kind built by white men in their cities, curved and ornate.  It was brighter across the bridge.  It appeared to be a garden and there were beings there and they played as small children, giggling and chasing and frolicking.  But I was forbidden to cross the bridge.   I asked Ra who they were.

“They’re from your soul group.  That’s your clan,” he said to me without using his voice, but instead spoke silently to my inner ear.

“My ancestors?” I asked.

“Some of them are, yes.  Some of them have been your brothers and sisters, and some have been your wives and children.  These are the souls that detached from the source together in your earlier state.  When the universe was much younger and closer together.   As your original clump of the divine energy shot away from the explosion that created this universe, you were propelled further into the void and you began to splinter and drift apart into smaller pieces until you became an individual.  Your clan all comes from the same original clump that broke off and flung out into space. You remained together for millions of years, observing the early universe through one collective consciousness. From there you began to explore the universe and search for wonders to report back to the source what you had observed; because the universe can’t exist without observers to bare witness.  We were all just watchers for a billion years.  Content to report what we’d all beheld to the greater knowledge banks of the divine source.  Then there came something that astounded us all.   We called it life.  Some of the smaller fragments of divine energy had found a way to exist in the physical realm. They came from the stars, out of them, transformed from divine energy into usable radiation and heat. 

“It was the larger clumps that had tricked them into using their energy for life.  They wanted to see what would happen.  It mirrored the complex system that makes up the entire universe.  Large powerful clumps of the divine source, that had yet to completely splinter as you had, began to manipulate this life and to direct it and experiment with it.  They had the power to affect the reality of the living dimensions.  This emboldened some of the more powerful clumps and fed their egos, making them large powerful individuals. They severed their connection to the collective love source and sought to become powerful entities with their own freewill.  They marveled at their own creations.   And some were ghastly.  It was all based on the concept of competition for energy.  The strongest and most adaptable survived while the weak were eaten for their energy stores; energy being the same name for the divine source.  In the days of early life, it was some of the smallest, mindless fragments of divine energy that began to inhabit the physical realm. The larger clumps of energy would splinter off tiny fractions of themselves and send them into the living dimensions to see what would happen.  But as life became more complex, larger fragments of the divine energy became entangled. For it takes this divine energy to have life.   And more of this energy concentrated requires larger spirits to inhabit and maintain it.   These became the animal spirits.  Other spirits who had lived and died and were reborn and died again, decided to linger in nature like nymphs and fairies.  Tired of being eaten, they instead chose other paths.  Some were used to inhabit the trees.  But this did not satisfy some of the powerful beings, which had been called the Fallen Ones by the larger clumps that still held their connection to the divine source and served the Will of One.   The Will of One is another name the ancients gave to God.  But the Fallen Ones learned they too could gain power by converting smaller fragments away from the divine and fooling them into worshipping and serving their ways instead.  They use fear and lies and false promises to achieve their means.  And thus evil was harnessed and used as an alternative energy source from the divine; because there is balance in the universe of good and evil.   Dark energy exists and the Fallen Ones have turned to using it, along with the power they gain by feeding off of smaller beings that they have convinced to serve them.  They maintain their power over these smaller beings by keeping them believing that they are alone and they are only tiny individuals.  They feed the egos of these smaller beings.  They keep them distracted and fighting among themselves so that they will not unite.  Once united they will realize their collective power over the Fallen Ones.”  My elder brother spirit guide, Ra, took a moment for me to process this all.  I felt a warm embrace as I floated inside of a large blue sphere some where out in space, as the entire night sky was now surrounding me in all directions.   I need only wave my arms and I floated as if underwater.  But I had no need to breathe. 

“And all of this is being played out in the spirit realm?” I asked finally, returning to his side at the mouth of the gilded bridge.

“And now it has manifested itself into the physical world as well.  But the larger battle is being waged in the spirit dimensions, yes,” he said, holding up his right hand as if making an oath.

“But this battle has been playing out on every world that holds life,” he continued.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because life is the resource they value and hope to control.   So powerful entities are being held in check by powerful deities that still serve the Will of One.  They have placed regulations on these evil ones.   But the Fallen Ones are cunning.  The rules are in place but there are ways around them.  The ones who have chosen to exist in the physical world are the players in their game.  They can open doors for these evil ones to enter. ”

“So there is life throughout the universe?” I asked, looking up into the starry sky.

“Yes and they’re all involved in this spiritual battle.  Each planet is a battle-field.   Because once life became so complex that a spirit that had enough energy to be self-aware and conscious came into being that is when the battle took on a new perspective and that’s when it became possible to rule an entire planet.  When humans arrived on this planet the stage was set for a final confrontation on this planet, between the Fallen Ones and those who serve the Will of One.  Humans were the final experiment of the Will of One, but also the Fallen Ones too saw them as potential.  Humans were going to be the weapons used by both sides for the collective soul of the planet.  The Fallen have closely watched and manipulated human development.  They brought the early humans into contact with another race of being [presumably the Neanderthals] in Europe that was older and wiser.  When these two beings mixed their genes, the newer more evolved human with a brain able to understand more of the secret truths emerged.

“The Fallen Ones appeared to early man and proclaimed to be gods to these more evolved creatures.  They were the ones who first painted their experiences on cave walls and made more complex tools.  The Fallen Ones manipulated the early humans into worshipping them.  Many times the Will of One intervened and drove the Fallen away, but always they returned to wreak havoc. They preyed on human weaknesses and the baser emotions.  They drove wedges between people. They fooled them into worrying about material possessions and power. By then they decided to introduce the humans to civilization and to remove their connection with the natural spirit of the earth.  This had been done on other planets and it had served the Fallen well in the past.  They taught the humans to become specialists and to depend on society so that without society they could no longer exist.   Then all they had to do was control the rulers of this society and they controlled the entire population.   Though the humans always had a choice, but were tricked into making the wrong one.  It was human freewill that the Fallen Ones manipulated.  They made them think they had freewill, but they left them little choices but the ones they had guided them to. 

“A powerful Fallen One, who has had many names throughout time, became the most powerful ruler of Earth and all the other Fallen Ones fell in line behind him. They called him their Master.  He has been called The Devil, Samyaza, etc.  The white men call him Satan and Lucifer.

“He came to be born in the flesh nearly twenty thousand years ago.  This shocked them all.  He retained his powers and came to bring his chosen tribe to rule the planet.  This was done when the ice was still over most of the planet and winter lasted for years on end.  Things were out of balance in those days.   But Satan’s people created a mighty empire and their civilization made many enormous advances.  His civilization was based on the earlier notion that the strongest survive and advance the race.  Satan found a balance between science, logic and reason and removed the spiritual aspect, convincing his people that he was the one true god, while hiding the truth from them.   But from time to time a human would open his heart to the Will of One and try to speak out against Satan but they would be burned alive for heresy.   The civilization of [Atlantis], founded by Satan, came to use science and mathematics to solve many riddles of nature and to advance to great heights.  But the Will of One intervened and sent a comet into the ice above the American North.  The result of the shock sent the earth off of its axis and melted a good deal of ice at once.  The steam rose into the atmosphere and rained down for months, as the melting ice fell into the seas and caused fantastic waves to destroy all the cities across the planet, as by that time the great cities were on the coastlines of the world.  The [Atlanteans] had created a sea-faring civilization and it was destroyed in a matter of days.    The continents were transformed over night and all was lost, save a few pockets of survivors scattered across the planet.   They were left to rebuild and start over.  Many saw it as divine intervention and the gods punishing them for worshipping Satan instead of the Will of One.   They returned to nature and once more were harmonious and at peace.   But of course the Fallen Ones returned to find those they could exploit and manipulate and they found a way to rule over mankind once more by creating new gods for them to worship; these were the gods of the ancients, the pagans.  And once again the Fallen guided mankind back to civilization and to worshipping them as their gods.  And when a prophet would come to speak the truth, the Fallen would manipulate the message and convert it to fall in line with their ways.  This was done when the Romans turned to Christianity and they retained their evil influence over the Christians, and they were once again Satan’s people, perpetrating evil in the name of their church.  And Satan’s people came to our land and stole it from us and murdered our people, all in the name of their faith. The Will of One would never condone the sort of brutality the Christians have perpetrated against our people and all the other people they have enslaved.  They try to convert our people to their faith in the name of saving us from damnation.  I proclaim they are corrupting our children and turning them to evil.

Zero Point Field or the Cosmic Internet?

On The Zero Point Field

For those of us not versed in scientific understanding and especially scientific terminology, I’m going to attempt to explain an interesting theory circulating that ties into the bigger theory I’m constantly alluding to.  

In Quantum Field Theory, the vacuum state is the quantum state with the lowest possible energy; it contains no physical particles, and is the energy of the ground state (Peter Baksa – The Blog, HuffPost).   What the research suggests is, in the universe there is no absolute empty space, there is no vacuum.   The universe is filled with what’s called zero-point electromagnetic radiation.  It suggests that the collective potential of all particles everywhere with their individual zero-point energies merge into one universal zero-point field that permeates the universe on the Planck scale. The important thing to take away from this is the concept of the collective field.   Remember the idea of collective consciousness?  These theories begin to lay the groundwork for attempting to explain how the mind/ brain waves/ emotional thoughts initiate transactions in the natural universe; how our thoughts commingle with everything else, and cause matter to manifest in our lives (Baksa – The Blog, HuffPost).  Thoughts equal energy and energy equals matter, then thoughts become matter.  Remember that book The Secret?  Is there something to that?

So taking this to its rational conclusion; everything and everyone connects through the zero-point field, where a collection of electric charges or energy from every thought, action and event that’s ever taken place in the universe is stored.  It contains ALL the information from the time the universe sparked into existence.  String theory suggests there are eleven dimensions instead of the three to four we can be aware of and contained in one of these dimensions is all this cosmic knowledge.    There’s a cosmic well of information that exists out there that certain people, with a higher number of microtubules in their brain cells, have access to; at least to some extent.   The more in tune the individual’s brain in receiving this cosmic information the “wiser” they are and some have become the prophets of the past.  Perhaps in this dimension, the space and time break down and do not exist and therefore the future too can be perceived?  It could explain “divine inspiration” or inspiration at all.  It also explains why and how the universe could be considered a living organism, alive and conscious and how we play a part in the collective consciousness by feeding our thoughts and emotions and experiences into the zero-point field.   It’s like we’ve tried to recreate this experience by creating the Internet or the Cloud to store our collective information.   The cloud has existed since the beginning of the universe and it’s called the zero-point field.  Perhaps we can train our brains to receive more of the well of information by meditation and deep contemplation and reflection.  We need to quiet our brains in order to hear or receive this information.  When we pray we are basically sending our thoughts to this well and asking for answers from it.  Perhaps that’s how the universe grows and evolves, by sending consciousness throughout itself and then allowing for this consciousness to learn and inform and experience everything to feed the whole.  Does this take away from the concept of a higher being or God?  No, it simply pushes back the concept of God to an even higher realm of existence.  Could God be the final result of a massive complex system that exists not only in our universe but also in the multiverse as well and then even beyond that?  If so, each of us plays an intricate part and is actively participating in the god-experience. 

There does seem to me some sort of design and I cannot accept all of this happened randomly simply out of chaos.  It’s too beautiful.  The Internet didn’t come into existence by itself; it took people to create it.  Such is the same for the complex system that makes up our universe and beyond that, the multiverse.  They don’t exist independently, but work in congress with each other.  That also suggests that negative thoughts and actions affect the zero-point field as well.  Keep that in mind when going about your day.  You’re not in this by yourself; every thought you have is fed into the field.  I like to think karma helps sort all of this out and keeps the scales balanced in the long run, but it’s up to you to feed the zero-point field with positivity and love.  

Cited:

[The Zero Point Field: How Thoughts Become Matter? Peter Baksa.  Huffington Post]

Why are there only 16 basic personality types?

ON PSYCHOLOGY AND ASTROLOGY

When you think about it, how is it possible that the signs of the zodiac can be so accurate so often?  How can an exam like the Myers Briggs personality test break every single human being down into 16 basic personality types?  That doesn’t make any sense to me.  If we’re all individuals, with our own brains, there doesn’t seem to me any way they can predict that with any sort of accuracy.   Yet corporations rely on tests like the Myers Briggs for their human resource departments all over the world.  Astrology has countless devout believers.   How is it that when you meet someone new you already know them because they are so much like someone else that you’ve already known?  It feels preprogrammed and NOT at all random.   It’s like the automotive industry; the car companies only make so many different models.  Humanity seems to be the same, when it comes to personalities.  What are the implications of this phenomenon?

Before I continue I must preface and declare that I don’t completely believe these hypotheses or theories and some, if not most of the people who will read this will scoff, some might even grow angry.  This is simply an interesting idea; so relax and play along if you will.  I came across a concept recently that has had me pondering this and then it dawned on me.  

The important thing in this hypothesis is to consider another definition of sub-consciousness.   In this context, “you” are a small fraction of the greater you that exists on a higher plain of existence; as a vital part of the multiverse.  Your subconscious is actually a frequency being broadcasted by the universe.  Think of the Internet, your brain cells act together like the components of a computer with a wifi connection.  Think of your present body, more specifically, the microtubules in your brain cells, are receivers, like antennae or a satellite dish, they pick up a signal and they amplify a version of your greater soul or self into reality; basically expressing “you” in the physical world.  It almost makes our bodies avatars.  But while we’re existing in our bodies we think we’re individuals.  But really everyone who is your personality type is receiving and broadcasting the same cosmic frequency as you.    The larger self that is you has been dispersed across the planet or maybe the universe.  The signs of the zodiac could correspond to the origins of the broadcasts?   Capricorns are tuned to a station that broadcasts out of that constellation.  But could be the origin of the broadcast is the fabric of the universe itself.  The personality types were part of the Big Bang, and are expanding outward from the initial explosion.  Along with all the energy in the universe, there came consciousness.  Now what about aliens?   Their physical brains could be tuned to another set of frequencies; ones our brains don’t have the range to pick up, though some could have our basic personality types.  There are only so many of these frequencies that us humans can and are tuned to.  The things that make us individuals are our experiences; so nurture makes us individuals but nature offers finite options.   There are rare, higher frequencies that enlightened people can tune to, but most people have the 300, with the sports package.    While some just have basic cable and then a few poor souls can only get the local channels with rabbit ears.  It explains where inspiration comes from.  It explains the idea that there is cosmic knowledge out there to be tapped into.  The higher the frequency the more of this cosmic knowledge or wisdom one can express and broadcast.   Sounds far fetched?  Certainly there are things this idea can’t account for?  True.  It’s also difficult to imagine that I am not just me, but a whole group of people, sharing the same soul.  That’s almost depressing in a way.   It takes away ownership of your soul.   This idea doesn’t line up all the way, but it’s something to consider on a drive to work or at a cocktail party. 

But keep in mind just how much of “reality” we are not able to detect.   The light spectrum.  The sound spectrum.  We have instruments that help us see more of reality than our poor human bodies can detect, but still it’s only a fraction of what’s really out there in existence.  Science tells us there are several more dimensions than the four we know of and there are also quite possibly several other universes.  I’ve speculated about the universe being a living organism in the past.   What if consciousness is woven into the fabric of the universe?   What if it doesn’t reside inside of us, but comes from out there somewhere?  It’s an intriguing thought at least.   Who knows?

Cyber Civil War

ON AMERICAN POLITICS/

-- THE CYBER CIVIL WAR

It’s all over Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and all those newer ones that I’m too old to know about.   The Confederate Flag and the Rainbow Flag are at war.  We’re being ripped apart at the seams, America.  Both sides are so unwavering and tenacious and stupid to notice, or worse care, that we’re being played for fools.  We’re the bringers of our own doom.   There’s that famous concept that psychologists will speak about; the concept of Us and Them.  I’ve spoken about it often, but I feel it’s a nail worth hitting over and over until it’s driven into the wood.   But I am pessimistic enough now to realize that it’s never going to hold.   But still I harp.   The first couple of days after they legalized gay marriage, we ripped each other apart on everyone’s personal digital soapboxes.  It got crazy there for a few days.   After the dust began to settle and fatigue had set in, the realization occurred that you’re never going to change someone’s mind when it comes to ideology.   People are entrenched in their long held beliefs and personal dogmas.  Why do we feel the need to make these melodramatic proclamations on Facebook?   Two things happen; we push those away who disagree with us, and we galvanize those who agree.  “You said it, brother!” vs “You’re going to hell! Sorry but it says so in the Bible.  God’s word!  God's Love Letter to Humanity.  End of story, so, FU!  F stands for Forget!  Because I’m a Christian.  But you get the message.”

We’ve seen it happening gradually, from the nineties when, out of sheer political hubris they shut down the government.   The two political parties in this country have gotten completely out of hand and they’ve turned America into a disgusting joke.    Here’s something of a news flash.   Those politicians don’t really believe the same way you do.  They just know that in order to keep their very cozy jobs, with government insurance btw, they will say what the majority of people in their districts want to hear.   They’re like professional wrestlers, (spoiler alert), they’re just putting on a show.  To them it’s a game!  They really don’t give a damn about you.  I don’t care how good of actors they are.    They’ve all been elected thanks to somebody else’s money.  To get those cozy jobs, they had to promise they’d look out for the interests of the people who put them there first.  The fact is in order to keep us from waking up to the reality of what’s really happening in Washington, they stage this show to keep us divided and to keep us attacking each other instead of them.  They know what buttons to press; what stories to leak into the press; what issues will draw blood.     They knew gay marriage would distract us and stir the dust enough for cover of what they really were up to.  The same can be said about the irrational, relentless attack on the Confederate Flag in all its forms.  The Dukes of Hazzard?  Really?  It’s a well-orchestrated attempt to start a cyber civil war that will distract America from facing her real problems.  The gay marriage debate turned eventually into a debate about state’s rights and the power of the federal government; which is getting into Civil War territory.  You really think it’s a coincidence that the Confederate Flag is all over Facebook, while the two main ideologies of this country; namely Conservatives and Liberals, rip each other apart and polarize this nation?  They’re laughing at us.  And we’re going to take it.  Why?  Because we’ve all got smart phones and enormous TVs and instant gratification.   They’re dumbing us down and sexing us up.   Making us horny and stupid and very controllable, while they steadily take our rights away.  They’ve whittled our attention-spans down to toothpicks.  We can’t go ten seconds without glancing at our phones, or soon our smart-watches.  It’s feels so convenient for them, that I can’t help but wonder if it’s all part of the plan.   And now its time for a commercial about why it’s socially more polite to have a smart-watch over having to pull our phones out of our pockets.   “A glance replaces the clumsy adventure of digging into your pocket or purse.”

And then there’s Donald Trump and that whole circus.   But that’s for another day. 

The State of Youth Sports!

ON CHILDREN’S SPORTS TODAY

Remember when you were a kid and you played all kinds of different sports and participated in various activities?  Fast-forward to today and that reality has changed drastically for our kids.  Someone along the way decided we needed our children to be specialists at the one sport they love the most.  For most kids, it’s the sport their parents love the most, because they are too young to know the difference.  And once it “clicks” with a kid, like the first time they hit a homerun or score a goal, then it’s game on.  They need to play all year long; fall-ball, winter, spring, summer tournaments.  It never ends.  A good friend of mine, a fellow coach, made a comment asking why we would schedule a vacation during soccer season.   My reply was that its always soccer season.  It has all gotten extremely insane. 

And yet I am one of the biggest perpetrators of this around.  Even though I openly admit its madness, I actively and willingly participate in this as a coach and now a member of the board of my children’s soccer league.  I love coaching.  It is my hobby.  Some guys golf.  I coach soccer.   Which brings me to my present dilemma.  The politics of youth sports, namely soccer, is a wild and precarious beast.   And it’s all based on a long con being pulled on suburban soccer moms and dads the country over.  It’s called “club ball” and it’s a pack of lies being sold to people to get their money.  It promises college scholarships and glory.   But what’s even worse is that the high schools not only promote this notion of if they didn’t grow up playing club ball then they’ll never make the high school team, they even refuse to consider talented athletes who don’t adhere to the model.   It’s this fear that’s put into the heart of parents that lingers over our wallets like a vulture on a limb. And even though I know it’s all b.s., I also know that its how it is.  I can’t change it.  I can’t fight against it.  But my afore mentioned good friend, my mentor of soccer coaching, and yes that’s a thing, even though it sounds ridiculous, but I’ve learned a lot about coaching from him and I use his methods when I coach my other teams, etc, but this friend of mine is trying to fight against it and I admire his efforts for it.  He’s right to do it.   His rebellion puts me in a perilous position.   On one hand, his rebellion thus far has been successful and promises to be even more so.  We put together a “select” team of girls my daughters’ age about two and a half years ago.   We trained them ourselves and kept the costs down, considerably compared to club fees.  In the winter we had a chance to compete against some of the top clubs around our area and we not only competed at their level we excelled and beat most of them by large margins.   We beat the number one team (one of the top teams in the state).  We got a lot of notice and our team has a strong reputation now in our area.  We were the Rocky of club soccer.  I love the underdog and it was amazing to see the faces of those people paying thousands of dollars for a product inferior to what we were offering for a few hundred bucks at the end of it all.  People stuck around to see what we would do.  They watched us beat some serious clubs.   Now they’ve started to bring their daughters to our team.  My friend has the potential to build a team even stronger and bigger than the winter team that was so successful.  It’s important to note that his daughter is one of the best players on the team.  She’s very athletic and aggressive and has a powerful shot that scores a lot of goals for us.  It’s also important to note that my daughters are not quite up to that level.   They are good players but they don’t have that killer instinct that makes a great athlete.   Right now, one of my daughter is more into it that the other.  But I always ask them if they still want to play and they always say yes.  They both still love to play and I’m of the belief that soccer is one of the best sports for kids to play for health reasons.  I like the fact that they have to run around all the time.   But on the select team, the one daughter that’s not into it as much, doesn’t play as much as the other one, but both are on the cusp of the middle ground as far as talent on the team goes.  Some of that comes down to personality as much as anything.   On this team, I am the assistant coach, so I have no say on who sits out.   Which is how it should be.  When I’m the head coach of my son’s team, I make those decisions.   The head coach, my friend in question, the rebel leader, has a very high standard for the girls.  Which is something I like about it.  He pushes them all to excel, and that’s something I think we’ve lost sight of in our modern society.  His daughter can and usually does live up to those standards, where my daughter, the one that’s not as competitive or into as the other, often falls short of his standards.  I get that.  When we were kids there was a thing called a bench-warmer.  And the problem is, she’s not that bad at soccer, she’s better than most girls around, but on this team, of very gifted players, she’s not quite there.   This is an A level team while, right now, she plays at a B or C level.     So it can be awkward at times when she doesn’t get as much playing time and when she does go in the pressure is so much on her and her personality isn’t full of confidence anyway and so she plays tense and it comes across as timid and he pulls her right back out.  It breaks my heart.  Keep in mind, this is competitive soccer, not some average rec team playing for fun and not keeping score.  So I get that he wants to win and that he’s going to play the people who play the best.   I do the same thing on my boys team.  I have seen her trying to improve but sometimes I wonder if it’s too late.  But I don’t want for her to give it up yet.  She likes it and its good for her to push herself at something.  Coach pushes her during practice and I like that.   So here lies part one of my dilemma.   As mentioned before Coach is adding a bunch of new older players to the roster for next year.  He wants his daughter and his Rocky team to play “up” an age level.   I get that. That is very good for his daughter.  Not so good for my daughters, especially the one that’s not so into it.  It is good for her during practices to play up, but not during the games.   So she’s being trained very well.  But my wife is very concerned that she’ll never see the field.  Now, I’m a believer that if you think you’re good at something, you’ll be more likely to try harder at it than if you don’t think you’re good.   So sitting the bench all season isn’t going to make her love soccer or try harder at it.  That’s not her personality.  I wish it were.  I wish she was Rudy and would train and work on it in the off times and try to earn her spot on the team.  But like I said, she’s not that into it.   I wonder though, that if she thought she was good at it, would she try harder?   I know one thing, she has a better shot at choice B as opposed to choice A.  

Another aspect of my dilemma is my boy’s team.  I tried to reproduce the Rebel team with my son’s age group.  I put together a group of boys who all stood out on their rec teams.  I took these All-Stars and put them together at the end of fall and I thought I had a super team.   But when we went into the winter season against club teams, we got our butts handed to us.  Although in fairness, we improved toward the end of the season.  But I found that the parents didn’t gel like they did on the girls’ team and some of my parents were unruly and judgmental.  I even received reverse racism in that one parent went over my head and asked if his son could play for a coach who spoke Spanish.  The white coach doesn’t understand soccer like a Mexican does.  I wasn’t offended by this; I found it funny, but also I had a sense of good riddance toward that parent.  He was a nightmare to deal with, walking up and down the sidelines yelling at his kid in Spanish, micromanaging every move the kid made.  That’s for another story.  My point is, it wasn’t the wonderful experience I had with the girls’ team and the cool parents and fun tournaments.  Another problem again comes back to personality.  I found coaching my own son was a challenge of personality and wills.  He wouldn’t act the way he sometimes acts with another coach, refusing to do things, whining about a certain drill he doesn’t like.  We left many practices with him being grounded from something or another.  Of my three kids, however, my son has the most drive and love of the game.  He understands it better than his sisters ever did and he plays at a higher level than they did, especially at his age.  He’s three years younger than them.   He enjoys watching it on TV.   He loves to go to the Chicago Fire games and wear his foam finger and yell and cheer.   Soccer is one of our bonds. 

Now to back to the long con.  I am still aware that in this society, as it stands, if a child doesn’t play for a club, then they won’t play in high school.   Rebel teams aside.  It is inevitable that we will have to take them to one of these expensive clubs sooner or later.  The fear of later being too late, lingers.   Is it too late for my daughter who isn’t as into it?  One of the positive things a club like the Chicago Fire offers is, they have different level teams for kids to play on that meets their abilities.   So if she gets put on a team that’s C level, then maybe she would have more playing time and therefore grow more confident.  But that all depends on the coach.   It is unknown.  I wish I knew the future but unfortunately, right now, I don’t.   My son and wife really want him to play for the Chicago Fire.  He loves the idea that it’s the same club as the profession team he so loves to root for.   One of the problems with the Rebel club system is that we have to find games to play when and where we can.  Coach doesn’t want to enter into the regular club league yet.   That’s getting into the expensive side of things.  He thinks we’ll get more games out of just taking them to tournaments.   He’s right.  But my wife likes to have a set schedule.  She likes to know what’s happening way in advance.  The Rebel club can’t guarantee this regularity, because we are always looking for tournaments to enter, and in the meantime looking to pick up friendly games with various people when we can.   We might not know that we have a game in two weeks until the week of.

Peel the onion further to reveal:  The Rebel club is growing.  We’ve added several teams this spring to be carried over into the fall.  Something is building here.  I am a part of that.  I am a key member of the board who advocates turning the rec program into something more resembling a club.  Even though I know in the long run it is a futile effort and that we will not achieve club status and recognition by high school standards and it will have been in vain.  Unless we succeed!  And there aren’t that many obstacles standing now in our way of turning it into a club.  Coach has been handed the keys to the castle and is taking over as Commissioner of the rec program.   Which means that there is no one standing in his way and he can take this program to the next level.   It’s exciting and fun to be part of.  Like I said before, I love coaching.  But it’s not about me; it’s about my kids and what’s best for them.   I am losing a few boys from my select team, but in the fall I will be gaining several older boys and we will be playing “up” an age level.  This is good for my son.   Unlike my daughters who might not be able to play up, my son can and will come out of a season with older boys that much stronger.   But on the other hand there’s that personality clash between my son and I, where he’d grow more from another coach, in my opinion.  But on the other hand, it is a bonding experience for us.  We spend that time together.   My wife really wants to let him try playing for the Chicago Fire club.  It’s a bigger more established and proven institution in her mind.   Plus there’s that set schedule, where you can prioritize life around it, instead of waiting to make plans until we know when the games are going to be.  She likes to make plans well in advance.  So I find myself between a rock and a hard place.  I don’t want to be the parent that breaks up the Rebel girl’s team, not after all they’ve been through together.  They love each other, those girls, and they have real pride in that team.  Plus, Coach and I are very good friends, and we work very well together.   I don’t want to walk away from a program that I helped establish and let down those people who have joined in on building it.   There are several people coming back to our anti-club from club teams because they believe in what we’re trying to do.   The rebellion is growing. 

I thought I had a solution.  I proposed that I send my son to the Fire Club and I stay on as coach of the Select boys Rebel club team.  We keep the girls team together for one more season.  But Coach suggested that would not look good to the parents that are sticking with our model that I don’t believe in the model, or the idea that an anti-club can exist.    It would be kind of weird to coach a team without having my son on it.   I get that.   Coach has been working hard to keep me involved in the new anti-club and I’m flattered that he thinks I’m such a good coach or whatever that he needs my help to keep his rebellion going.   So it’s basically down to if I want to continue to coach I need to keep my son involved.   One compromise is that the Fire program doesn’t yet know where they’ll send my son to play.  It’s down to two possibilities.   A town fifteen minutes away is possibility number one and number two is a town thirty minutes or more away.  My wife and I agree that number two won’t work for us.   I spoke with a representative for the Fire and told him that if that’s where they try to send my son to play that we won’t be participating in the program.  So there’s my out for club ball this year.   Usually when presented with a choice, there’s one that’s better than the other.  Here I can see both sides equally.   I’m fine with either outcome.   On one hand, I’ll feel like I’ll be letting some people down.  On the other, coaching soccer and running a league comes with a lot of headaches and stress that I don’t really want or need.   So if he goes with the Fire I won’t have to deal with as much stuff.  It will be someone else’s problem. 

Here’s where I get a little spiritual or whatever.  I grew up as a Christian.  One aspect of Christianity is that when presented with a dilemma it is always best to leave it in God’s hands.   As corny as that might sound to some people, I see it as the universe helps us decide things.   That’s a passive way of going through life, sure, but I do want to believe that things happen for a reason.  Though, I have friends who will adamantly say that is NOT true.  The curse of my mind is that I can see all sides of things from many perspectives.   It makes my beliefs malleable and constantly in flux.    So I decided to wait and see where they send my son, to make my final decision.   If they say he’s supposed to play in the town thirty minutes away, then the universe decided I should stay and coach and help build the anti-club for another year at least.   The problem is, Coach wants an answer sooner, rather than later, and the Fire isn’t letting us know.   So I may be forced to decide before the universe weighs in.  But I guess that’s still the universe deciding?  Let’s not get weird here.   But why am I developing an ulcer over all of this? It’s just little kids playing soccer.  

If you’ve read this to its conclusion and have advice for a man standing on a fence looking at two pastures, one new and ripe with possibilities and the other established and proven, but also expensive and a scam and part of the order of things, of which I always like to rebel against, as is my nature, please feel free to comment.  I could use different takes on this.   If anything its’ a slice of reality that parents deal with now days with youth sports.