Smooching in Transit from Here to There

I have been smooched and smooched and smooched, yet again. My "current lover," henceforth known as My CL, since we both like that close-yet-slightly-distanced sobriquet used first in this blog, is a national treasure of successful smooch technique, por gracias de Dios and all that's holy, and I am, so to speak, lapping it up. Is there a Smoocher Hall of Fame? Should an antique kisser like me (63) be called a Smoocher Laureate? My CL could run classes.

I'm now at my daughter's in Aurora (CO), one more full day from the plane south, and I love it here, too. Every corner of this tidy tract home from the 60's brims with functionality, based in love and smooching. Melissa and John--and the boys--just live to love and support each other, and I couldn't be prouder of my best sweetie-pies. The peak time's at dinner, when all at the table share the best and worst experiences of the day: the kitchen fills once more with tenderness, a shiny radiance of pure nurturing, way beyond the spaghetti on the platter we surround. No wonder my daughter grows twice-blooming amaryllis in her living room, with all the happy-camper-growth-energy that flows through and envelops this home! How grateful can a Pop-Pop be, just to be included in it! Gracias a Dios por todos!

I'm pretty grounded in self-love and gratitude these days, which was not so, for much of my life. To me, it takes a good, nourishing love of self to even begin to love others healthily, not the other way around, as is commonly taught in our still-puritanical American culture. Loving others as self-sacrifice is not, for me, what Jesus of Nazareth embodied as a model, but, rather, loving others as self, the classsic mystic stance of Oneness, in the moment, where miracles happen in the intersections between things. In the past, with the best of intentions, I'd created addictive relationships from my utter neediness, instead of from my current fullness, so I know whereof I speak. The puritanical model breeds self-negation and abuse, parasitical behavior that diminishes rather than empowers, whereas the love embodied by the Christ is mutually beneficial, centered as it is in the mutual connection of "Godliness" in each of us.

"I am Thou" is the foundation for understanding the teachings of the Son of Man. We "turn the other cheek" to an "enemy" coming at us, because we see "Him/Her" as "Us," even if currently angry and menacing. Why attack the incoming fist, since it is mine? Might as well love it, turn the cheek in Oneness, and, more often than not, turn the antagonist into an ally.

Had we done that, in the aftermath of 9-11, rather than spewing war for profit, we might not now need the obsessive security our fear has created. Nor would we need to find enemies in order to feel powerful ourselves. The "world's most powerful nation" could learn to exert a stance of love to the rest of the world, rather than an immature cringing based in fear and the need to control. We are diminished every day, the way things are now: we empower only those who use hatred against us. while crippling ourselves, as the whole world suffers and learns to hate our government even more. I wish I could just kiss it all away.

Gracias, CenterDoug