Perspectives

Getting or forgetting Christmas.

A New meaning of Christmas.  2019 yrs. after his birth.

This is a beautiful Christmas song, sung and composed by James Taylor. It can be  played on pc and Mac while you read this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s49gEmTlOTk

(Song and reading will not function simultaneously on Iphone.)

Who ever you are, reading this.  Whatever God you believe in, or religion you have. Even if you don’t believe in any deity at all: Welcome to Psychological Universe’s traditional pre-Christmas greeting!

Both healthy and strong, sick and weak, fit or tired.

You might be very fit and strong, and feel like the  most healthy person on earth! Thank God for that! Or thank Allah, Yahweh, Buddha, and not to forget your parents for you  just being alive. Or thank Nature, and the successful cooperation of cells and organs in your body, and their further collaboration with the nourishing sources in your environment.  A constant collaboration,  that makes your vital cells continue to regenerate.

Sadly enough, you might also be sick and ill for the present. You might be in pain, both emotional and physical. Then it’s no wonder if you don’t look forward for Christmas. You might also be old and feel tired, be young and feel fatigued, or you carry a very heavy burden from some traumatic experiences. Trauma from war, accidents, terror and abuse.

Some of us have you in mind, even if you can’t see us.

Then keep in mind though, that some of us think and pray for you, even more these days, when everyone is supposed to be happy. Especially we think of you, with a very dark view of life for the moment. You who don’t know if you manage to live through the day or Christmas.

I still have my childish faith inside of me. It’s living side by side with a much more scientifically based psychological perspective of Faith and Belief in a Deity. Growing up together with Jews, Muslims, Christians, Jesus Christ Church of The Latter- Day Saints, Mormons, even Hindus, Buddhists and Atheists, has made me unable to rank and discriminate between religious beliefs. It’s always the people behind their beliefs and religion, that differentiates their quality.

Christmas deep symbolism.( see this post)

The core and essence of religious faith, whatsoever.

What is the essence or core of all religious faith, or Deities? I  don’t really know. I am no theologist. But I have my thoughts about it, that you may or may not agree with. Besides being spiritual and not incarnated, I think being Godly has to do with being trustful, good, loving, strong, wise, brave, protective, and forgiving.

To live up to these altruistic principles on earth, as a human being in flesh and bone, has proven to be very difficult. This even when many of us have more food, shelter, money, goods than our forefathers could ever dream of.

Why are we not thankful and happy? Is it because we have lost our faith? I do not have the answer, but I think there’s been a too big gap between those idealistic and perfect almost unattainable qualities of our Deities like God, Allah, Jahweh, and Buddha and our everyday life. These qualities now seem almost like Christmas decorations left on a shelf, a drawer or in the attic. We take them down once a year, and most of all it costs us money, and make the business world happy, sometimes also our children and friends.

A split between  ideals and practical action.

I think we must reconsider this somewhat conspicuous split between values we cherish, and how we really live. Like a plant, love must be regenerated by “watering it and giving it nourishment” almost every day. There is no use of a fairytale Christmas idea, if we don’t try to practice the idea of Christmas constantly. I mean also  the rest of the year.

But how can we do that? First and foremost by rethinking what religion and belief is meant to be. If you are full of ideas and none of them are realized, there is little value in having these ideas. Ideas must be translated into action or else they will be hanging meaningless in the air. Christmas is celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, the birth of hope for a better world. When we celebrate his 2019 birthday we must also re-awaken him from his grave on earth.

Jesus, how can that be possible, we may ask? Again, I do not have the answer, even if think I am close. First, we must try to forget that Jesus is only a Christian. As a spiritual Symbol, he is the brother of all the other Prophets of the great religions. He is even the step-brother of the non-Christians Humanists and their community of non- believers.

If we continue to fight for Christ, Muhammed, Yahweh and Buddha in a way that we persecute, hurt or kill each other, we have buried them together with all their wisdom and hope for us. And if we believe in their values, but never make them come true in our meeting with fellow human beings, it’s like keeping these “guys” on the top shelf. A shelf we hardly can reach with our bare hands.

Is there anything I can do, except buying presents?

Yes, reaching out for your brother or sister, neighbor or colleague, or a beggar in the street, however, that’s manageable. Dropping to hide your fortune and income in a complex company structure, instead making it open for taxation, that’s within reach. Having time for your children, your aging mother and half-senile father or grandfather, that’s also within the reach of realization. Even giving your workers the right to organize and have a proper salary to live on is within your reach, if you’re a company owner.

And as you practice these values and deeds, you revive Christ!  You give him a new birth, you resurrect him, – make him stand there alive in between yourself and your fellow citizens. In his light you will know what Christmas really is about. You will also know why we have celebrated Christ and his fellow Muslim, Hebrew, and Hindu prophets for centuries.

These guys never expire on date!

You may forget their names, but whenever you do something good and helpful for another person, their reason for being will be demonstrated. Whenever you try to figure out how to really give hope to or happiness to another person, you help Christ down from the cross, or lift him out of the cradle.

Have a giving and hopefulle OK pre-Christmas!

I started this greeting with a parable derived from the physiology of the human organism. A healthy mind and body need a successful cooperation of cells and organs in your body. More than so, it demands a good and effective collaboration with the environment and its biological and psychological sources of nourishment. In other words; a healthy and balanced exchange of goods.

That’s the only way to regenerate our cells, regenerate our psychological faith in ourselves. At last you might wonder why we call our Deities Gods. I have an idea: As ideas we call them Gods! As taken down to earth and realized between living people in daily life, – we call them Goods.

Then we might wish each other a happy Christmas by these few words: Christ is good! Christ is God! But his existence relies on the practical realization of his words in the world. So rise him up from the cradle and keep him alive!

You can do it!

Article

Is this my country and my people, or is it yours?

Norwegian attitudes and values. 2.

A critical review.

In the NRK program “TYPICAL NORWEGIAN”, Petter Scherven has mentioned a number of Norwegian characteristics that we may also add to our values:

– Low fences between our houses and properties.

Large houses with low or no fences around the property, by DocPlayer.me

Not having tall fences and gates around our houses is typically Norwegian. Every fifth Norwegian also has a cabin or association with a cabin.

Typical Norwegian mountain cabin with skigard, photo janeriwaa.com

-Norwegian nature.

It is important for us to have access to nature where ever we live, both on workdays but especially in weekends and during vacation, which there are plenty of. We have a long tradition of berry harvesting and picking mushrooms in the woods and fields. In the autumn there is a lot of work picklng apples from the the trees, and preparation of the different berries and fruits of the garden.

– The lunch box.

Our lunch box is very Norwegian and characterized by the old attitudes to moderation. It’s usually no box with slices of bread, it’s bread with spread wrapped in white paper. Otherwise abroad you usually eat a hot meal in the middle of  day

“Matpakka” or ” matpakken”( apack of food ) is very norwegian indeed.

– We love to “have it cosy”, or a cosy time.

Norwegians love to enjoy themselves in differnt ways infront of the fireplace, They love to enjoy themselves in front of the TV, on the sofa, in the bed. They enjoy their animals, enjoy their children and even each other’s company. The Saturday gathering has a special position in their lives. Tealights and candles in the evening, especially in the dark times, is typical Norwegian. They call it “Peiskos”,that is cosyness in front of the fireplace.

“Peiskos” in front of the fireplace. by Click.co.uk.

– Newer values

We are a country where men do what was previously most reserved women. Male party politicians, crown princes and social leaders are walking out with their babies in  prams and strollers. They take fathers leave with pleasure. My own observation is that Norwegian fathers want to create closer relationships with their children from infancy and upwards.

– A tradition of strong trade unions.

Norway has a tradition of a strong trade union movement. That’s not how it is England and the United States after Reagan and Thatcher. Such values as Trade Unions ​​contradict what the Right wing politicians think about the rights of employees. Instead they support the view of the employers, in  what is traditionally called the tripartite cooperation in Norwegian working life.

LO, by Gabrielsen, the State Negotiator, Dalseide and NHO represented by Skogen-Lund. Photo Aftenposten.

Here the tradition has been that LO (workers and employees union), and NHO(the employers union) have had a steady balance of strength, with the state in a intermediate negotiating position.

A new and dangerous path regarding traditional values.

The idea has always been that wealth and wellfare must be widely distributed in order to avoid the imbalance and disadvantages of a country with great differences. The majority in the population does not want increasing differences. We simply do not want a society where the individual is left to himself and is “the blacksmith of his own happiness.”  

But this last mentioned attitude is in fact, the tenets of neo-liberalism. They have been standing for a long time  strong in Republican circles in the United States, with philosopher Ayn Rand in the lead,  and economists like Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek as providers of the premises for the intrinsic  excellence of the market.

Americans themselves have pointed on the impact of these values ​​in the US society today. For in the US today, its difficult to succeed if your pictorially are born with one dice in “Life’s Monopoly Game,” instead of three or six dices, at the upper middle class and the rich.

Dice. Multiple exposure

– A well-functioning social democracy even with conservative governments for periods.

Here we differ from most countries in the world, except for the other Scandinavian countries. Year after year Norway has been voted one of the best countries in the world to live in. Both poor and rich have access to free public health and social services. We therefore do not need health insurance as in the US and other countries.

But I will add; How long will we keep this kind of society that has charachterized us the last 70 years?

We also have good Pension Agreements until now. Still, some right-wing politicians say we can no longer afford it. In the richest country in the world we can not afford? Which other countries should then be able to afford tax-paid and pension fund-paid welfare?

– “Norway is unbelievable to Americans!”

This is what filmmaker Michael Moore says. The fundamental differences between Norway and the United States are so great that no American will believe it to be true. Therefore, he also had to edit out some elements from his documentary about Norway.

“In Norway, there is a tradition for politicians to serve the people and the community and not vice versa. When the politician Slagsvold Vedum talked about Norwegian values ​​in the main party debate before the election day, he pointed out that we have never bowed to the elite or the authorities. He pointed to the National type of State as the best governance framework, pointing out that the Conservative Right wing politicians has the EU as the best governance framework. “(Quoted by Tonje Gjevon in Dagbladet’s above article)

– Protest Nation.

Our tradition of equality involves small social and geographical differences, Journalist Gjevjon continues. – And we have used tax policy actively to ensure this. It is also about proximity to the power and respect for the national government and local Norway.

Our status as governed by Denmark and Sweden for hundreds of years until 1814 and 1905, has led to a rebellious spirit in the people that is typically Norwegian. The opposition to the EC, the EU and now the European energy connection to ACER, may be a consequence of this. We have fought with strong forces to free ourselves from domination by others countries before, and won our independence in the end.

Hurray for Norway and the Fatherland, by Rajaamajd WordPress.com

Yes, we are proud of this country,” Yes, we love this land”.(Our national anthem, video with music, press link below)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr3HJIp9cvY

Part one of this article is here: http://www.selvuniverset.com/2019/11/27/lazy-not-hard-working-rich-independent-out-walking-in-nature-social-democratic-neo-liberal-freedom-of-speech-loving-themselves-best-in-the-world-helpful-love-helping-others-best-in-winter-sport-equali/

HOW TO GET A META PERSPECTIVE ON YOURSELF AND THE WORLD.