Brian’s Reflection: Monday, September 1, 2008


The best mind-altering drug is the truth.

- Lily Tomlin, comedienne and wise lady,
born on this day, 1939


OK Gang. I’m telling you now, so that you can at some level prepare yourself for a jolting challenge re. “The Truth”. As far as “spiritual maturity” goes, this will separate the spiritually brave from the spiritually ….. “challenged”.

First of all, Lily is absolutely on the money. All the rest of the mind-altering drugs that people are into are slouches compared to “The Truth”. And let’s not kid ourselves that people are not into mind-altering drugs. It doesn’t matter whether you are a rich dilettante or a dirt-poor peasant. Everyone has their mind-altering drugs in this World of ours, from the selling of which some make billions. There’s a lovely twist in what Lily Tomlin says. Most people use mind-altering drugs to avoid “The Truth”. Bad. And “The Truth” dispels Avoidance. Good!

But let’s keep this in mind: “The Truth” about the World these days (and maybe always) is that Life on this planet , to put it gently, sucks for about 90% of us. I needn’t elaborate. More than to say, how would you like to have bark to eat in Darfur, or be so depressed in suburbia that you want to kill yourself??

I have been listening to the radio (Dennis and I refuse to watch TV news) to the World’s woes for a long time. To the politics. When do I hear “The Truth”spoken? About .0000001% of the time, in my estimate.

Jesus is reported to have said, “The Truth shall set you free”. Apparently the vast majority of us prefer slavery.

Now. Lily also said: “We have reason to believe that man first walked upright to free his hands for masturbation.” Heads up here: War, dominance, control, and lying to maintain all this, is a form of negative spiritual masturbation. (Oh God! Did he say “masturbation”!!! Like that terrible Clinton appointee who said the word (and the Truth) and got fired?? Yes, he did!)

Well. Jocelyn Elders was right about the need to talk about masturbation. She spoke “The Truth”. Jesus was right to demand that we know the truth. And the Sixty-Four Thousand Dollar Questions is - do we want to know and live with “The Truth” rather than with Lies? If we don’t, then settle in for a long, long era of physical, mental, psychological, and spiritual MISERY.

Brian+