Lust

‘Lust is to the other passions what the nervous fluid is to life; it supports them all, lends strength to them all. Ambition, cruelty, avarice, revenge, are all founded on lust.’ - Marquis de Sade

We are all emotional; it is just that some of us are acutely emotional. Is that really the truth? We all have a story to tell.

Today’s blog, which will continue along the theme of the seven deadly sins, is Lust. I would like to thank everyone for the comments, and the tongue in cheek suggestions that this topic is very apt to me.

I must admit that this subject is the hardest to compose, and for that reason alone it must be the next one to write. You should never shy away from tackling the biggest and most difficult task first. Have I not taught you anything? LOL

The Theologisers or just plain devout Christians amongst my readers, all hopefully understand the concept ‘Judgement Day’ and when the rapture happens. I would be one of the many left standing. The more positive spin would also to be, that when I pass, my visit to the celestial plains and entry into heaven could be refused due to some major indiscretions. All of these more or less linked to lust.

In all fairness, I have forgiven myself, which is all that matters. All girlfriends who have been affected have all been apologised too. However the details of my naughty side are omitted from this blog.

So the meaning of Lust, which is simply, the inordinate craving for sexual intercourse. Put more simply it can be acted upon in a consensual way, or in more extreme cases the lust can cause a frenzy which can have a violent outcome.

I would like to focus today more on the consensual side, as with the extreme type the variables for why, is akin to rubbing a lamp and getting a different genie every time.

Sexual pleasure is actually still considered a sin in many new religions such as, Islam, Sikhism and Roman Catholicism. The latter religion states when lust was translated into Latin it means – Luxury.

The last word is something that struck a chord with me, and has done for quite a long time. A Luxury or allowing yourself pleasure, is not a sin. I always thought that to commit a temporary act of love is better than not committing to love at all.

There are of course the thoughts of the Psychologists, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. However with every other theory either an Oedipus complex, or latent homosexuality being the underlying reason, and a result from all childhood trauma. This does however mask the fact that both had a puritanical upbringing, and had no personal point of reference.

I can only have my own theories as to why one person suffers from lust more than another, and this to me flows simply that my parents were divorced when I was young. I would then on only derive pleasure from limited contact.

This is not in a sexual way; however the void does no doubt in your formative years, manifest with some transference towards your attitude towards your own body and to the female form. It just depends which was the dominant figure the Mother or the Father,

Or is this pure nonsense? As surely we all simply lust over the unattainable, with the visualisation of the person we want to be, in our hormone overloaded minds and raging phallus?

I want to simply suggest that lust is natural, and to make it a sin, is to deny yourself pleasure. This negates the point of existence, the meaning of life is surely to enjoy every second on Earth! There are other pleasures, sure, but the joy and pleasure of sex is what drives us to pro-create.

We could of course be Panda’s who do not seem to understand the joy of sex, so nature is of course de-selecting them. There extinction is imminent; this is not meant to downplay their plight. However, for whatever reason, their desire to procreate has gone.

To encourage denial of the flesh in the religious world does have its drawbacks, the Anglican Church does encourage its clergy to take a wife and live the family life. The Catholic Church does take an opposing view, and the build up of lust through their priests has had devastating effects. This is not glossing over the horrors of what these children faced, nor do I think that is actually justifies the original taboo they place on this sin. It does in fact highlight that it cannot be repressed so therefore could I surmise it is natural instinct?

I think we all have a perfect partner out there, someone who shares our lusts, passions and desires. This is what is sacred, and we should be free to safely express to each other, whatever our lifestyle choice with all adult consensual parties.

Sex is not wrong, failure to express ‘you’ consensually or privately is wrong. Repression leads to apathy and do kind of understand Freud’s theory about attacking your deepest desires.

The best modern day example that I can give you, is from the excellent ‘Sopranos’ when one of Tony Soprano’s Capo’s Vito is repressing his Homosexuality when in a safe environment, and instead of embracing his hearts desires he attacks his very fantasy. They do of course reconcile, but it does demonstrate and back up Freud’s most controversial theories.

Good society, and at the forefront organised religion, has often portrayed its self as the protagonist with regards to so called lustful activities of the minorities. It is however with deep thought, that these so called activists where not openly expressing their sexual preferences. There was persecution nonetheless.

The wicked irony and Freudian observation that these so called Ministers of god and parliament so often find themselves at the mercy of the newspapers in various scandals and sordid tales.

Maybe the moral of today is that you can fight for people to deny themselves pleasure of the flesh, but self repression just makes your natural instinct explode.

Or should we just listen to the top line quote from the Marquis De Sade, and finish with the thought that lust is the gateway emotion to all evil things?

If it feels good do it! As long as it is consensual, and fits with your inner moral compass.

Scott

New deadly sin next week..... from Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, Wrath and Pride

Jealousy Part 1

“The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves” - William Penn

Rose....... A fragile flower, which is notoriously difficult to grow, and requires a lot of attention and maintenance, to look their best at all times.

So what is the topic of today’s blog? Well this topic is vast; and will touch upon the very essence of it; however I do not want this to consume me. It is primarily about the people who look down at you when they have themselves been put up on a pedestal.

There are labels that people are given when they are in the pubescent stage, and one of mine would be the cliché of ‘he will not achieve much’. In reflection it could be said by these same people, that I overachieved.

I do not look at it like that; my view is that I did not reach their low expectations of me. However many people do live up to their assigned monikers of low level roles of criminal, drug addict and benefit scrounger.

This does irk me, and I love reading on facebook and being in contact with friends from my past, who have done the complete opposite, and I am not even shocked to see that achieved what they have, they have not listened to the negativity that was supposed to label them for life.

These ‘people’ that I speak about are what we call ‘The Dream Stealers’ most commonly known as the British civil service, who have an anal obsession of labelling everything.

Everything must be measured (imperial only!); also to allow the possibility that every now and then and to quote Tupac Shakur ‘A rose can grow from concrete’.

However, a rose is fragile as you know and the expert gardener can easily crush this flower. It is unfortunately better known these days, and every past day, as the class system.

The class system! The colonial administrators of the vast Imperial Empire. I have said before that if there is such thing as Heaven or Hell, the British will run the reception desk and you will have to endure countless forms and protocols before entry.

We do enjoy making things difficult, try purchasing a Train Ticket, a meal from Burger King, Coffee, telephone a call centre all of which are met with multiple choice questions and a baffling array of selections.

Now apply the logic to today’s blog, if you are out of the Class system and you seem to have “in their eyes” over achieved and gone above your pre-assigned social status panic and immediate re-labelling is required.

Lol

I do not really believe this for one moment, it is an urban myth that is often perpetrated by the very people who subliminally oppress there selves and others. – The Upper classes are not out to get us!

This can boil down to one pure raw emotion, and that is jealously. A deadly sin that can be summed up quite simply by William Tell in the opening quote,

“The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves”

How true that quote is, and can be kind of a breakthrough moment when you stop to think and absorb it. We allow jealously to eat away at us from both sides, and in some respects we could both be the victims.

Another way to appreciate jealously and its connotations, is to look at the dictionary meaning as below.

Jealous (adjective) unhappy and angry because someone has something or someone you want, or because you think they might take something or someone that you love away from you:

There could even be Freud’s conclusions that all jealous behaviour in Male & Female relationships bore down to latent homosexuality. A thought maybe?

This of course is a complex and emotive subject and without getting into the intricacies of relationships, the key essence of the blog is really about the jealously of success.

Allowing jealously projected towards you to consume you, allows your dreams to be stolen. The behaviour of the projection also results in deep unhappiness for that person.

Successful people are those who are single minded enough to go for their dreams and at every turn, unwaveringly assured that will achieve their desires.

So where are you? Where am I? My path is never straight, and the only person who has control of my guidance system is me.

So the burning question is, “Am I the jealous type?” Personally and emotionally the answer has always been NO. Professionally however, my frustration at times was a symptom of underlying jealously. The key thing is my behaviour has been modified. This does come with experience, and have grown as a person and evolved into a parental figure, kind of like Yoda.

I suspect that when Yoda was a teen, he was out drinking and publically arguing with his girlfriend. The lack of sleep and self loathing may have caused a scene or two.

So in summary, jealously leads to self loathing. Having a victim mentality to jealously will cost you your dreams. I made reference to social labels and the class system, this was merely to demonstrate subconscious jealously of people who have their lives in front of them, only to be judged in those few short seconds and opinions of others whose lives have passed. The sad thing is, they suffered the same fate. The abused always become the abuser.

I will be exploring over the next 6 blogs the seven deadly sins, and to remove my penchant for the dramatic my conclusion is that every sin or vice is the result of a flawed ego.

The control of the ego is the secret behind the secret, the forgotten secret of the hidden secret to the new secret and old secret.

My advice and without ego, is for everyone to live in the six inches in front of their faces by using the best moral compass available. Sometimes this can be helped by religion, spirituality, nature, family or just being.

Finally you never need anybody or anything to complete you, eliminate that need. You are already whole, be part of the collective not the jigsaw.

Thank you

“Sometimes I feel like dancing........................”

Scott

The Montana Syndrome

“Who put this thing together? Me, that's who, who do I trust? Me!” – Tony Montana

A growing trend and a favourite broadsheet soap box topic, is the continued decline of young males with regards to examination results. This fact is often misconstrued as girls doing better, but the hard fact is a decline in academic results. This is even across all the classes.

However, could this even be false thinking? Hysteria created by the inane chattering British press. A young male is meant to fail, his future is already written according and the only way this path can be changed is through hard work and luck.

Although there is always that caveat, that if success does come, then the test was too easy in the first place.

So what the context of today’s blog? As you noticed the title is reference to Tony Montana, and will be giving you my entire take as to why young men not only fail, but fail to even try.

Tony Montana is a classic anti hero, an infamous figure of fictional opulence and success. The portrayal by Al Pacino became an aspiration to many, not to be emulated, but as a cautionary tale of making it.

Now is this fear of making it? No, it is about fear about when you do someone taking it off you, and you fighting to the death to keep it.

The film plays out as many other theatrical releases do about similar subject matter, however the haunting electro soundtrack, which encapsulates the drug fuelled confusion, intensity and irrational anger and apathy that the anti hero has enraging in his ego and maniacal mind of portrayed sociopath.

Tony Montana starts off as someone with a dream, but the fork in the road showed one easy path and one unknown. As he was in a new country, familiarity and ease will always win.

The story is familiar; however there is the one part of the film that I can personally relate too. The feeling that he had sitting in that chair towards the end of the film; watching his life collapsing all around him. The look and the drooping of his jaw, the scowl that his ego did not allow to invert, but pierced the soul of the world who dared not give him what he wanted and felt he deserved. Ironically life did give him what he deserved.

I have had that feeling, watching your life unfold. Even to the point of the dark overture playing to a crescendo thumping away in your mind, the choir and drums gathering tempo towards the inevitable explosion. You have always two choices. 1. Snap or 2. Run.

I ran, and sincerely hope that no-one ever gets to that position, and my literal atonement, is my soul and words that lays before you today. When you can feel the tendons of sanity tensing in your mind and the pain is so intense, that you feel that its immediate rupture would be a release, and the downward spiral could be so intense that you will not feel the pain of dying.

So what did the fable of Tony Montana do to my generation? It mostly alluded to the fact that the greater the persons self made success, will result in the hardest and fatal of falls. All the good times, the sex, the money, the drugs and the power, meant nothing. As you realised that your own death with not be a glamorous finale, worthy of your life and accomplishments.

Did the film stop people from daring to dream? No, it just stopped people from daring to achieve anything other than having just enough to get by.

The manner of business that Tony Montano was is irrelevant, and hopefully you can see through this and apply the appropriate metaphor.

Your dream should not be someone else’s life; your aspirations should not be those of others, your peers or your hero’s. You are responsible for your own actions, your own dreams, and your own outcome to all the hard work you put into making it a reality.

The Montana syndrome is my metaphor for those young men of my generation, who chose not to be great and the fear of having it all and losing it, was greater than not having it in the first place.

I slid down that well, but with every ounce of my sweat and through grit and obstinate refusal, I will claw my way out of that deep shaft and bask in the warmth of the sunlight on my face, even though my eyes are hurt by the light, the pain will reduce to reveal the observation of beauty all around us. Wealth, health, happiness and spirituality are all a by product of actually taking the first steps on your journey.

We can all feel helpless, but the biggest paradox of the universe is that there must be balance, as the greatest gift is to give two parallel experiences. As it all boils down to my friends, that this is the equilibrium of the universe.

So who put this thing together? Us, that’s who, who do we trust? Us!

Surely life is not this simple is it?

Thank you once again for reading, today’s blog is not fluffy or meant to be comical. The oft used quote of “I will not die with my music still left in me” is totally relevant.

When did we develop into having such low expectations? Is this not the biggest plague and risk to our planet? The planet has so much benevolence, if only we asked for what we wanted and dared to dream and dared that little further into actuality.

My name is Scott Lee Everest, and I have enjoyed being your host this evening....... remember to always wear sunscreen.

Check out this awesome website from Declan Lestat, one-stop shop for all your development needs http://fullcontactliving.wordpress.com/

I wonder if a ghetto has a heaven

“I think there's an element where people get very comfortable in their ghetto. Which is fair enough” - Neil Tennant

I grew up listening to a lot of gangster rap, my favourites being 2Pac, Ice-T, NWA and every associated stereotypical artist.

One of the reasons was my ability to identify with their situation of being surrounded by drugs, drive-by’s and hopelessness.

Aspiring and identifying with hopelessness, no doubt stunted my emotional and spiritual growth for many years. This however is another blog; the one thing that did amuse me about rap music was the soft mantra that was always a theme on every album by the above artists.

That was “I wonder if Heaven has a ghetto?”

Even as a disaffected teen, I could see that there perceived situation was so bad that they even wished the same in the afterlife. That right there is some very low expectations.

That my friends, is a ghetto state of mind. I remember at school, that there were teenage girls who used to discuss that they could get a flat from the council on the local tower blocks (amongst drug addicts and prostitutes) if they got themselves pregnant. They could set themselves up for life!!

Thinking back, we all aspired to be ghetto superstars, our role models were the drug dealers, with the nice cars, great sound system and every gadget a man can have. It only occurred to me recently that all of these guys still lived with their parents. I suppose the income streams did not hold up for regular mortgage payments and bank scrutiny.

This is not the theme of today’s blog, but the premise that there is a heaven in every ghetto. You can even go as far as say that “ghetto” is just a metaphor of a world that scares us, and the only way to survive is to purvey a cold tough exterior.

We all know the phrase, ‘that you cannot polish a turd’ this has been used to describe the youth from urban areas but as we all know is not the case.

There is beauty all around us, and we can see that once we affirm our own vision of heaven we can start to see beauty and experience true bliss. We all understand the idea of heaven, but one question we never ask our self is how can we live in heaven today?

So what is your vision of heaven as a concept?

Spending time with loved ones, deceased family and friends, BBQ’s, live in big castle, surrounded by sexy angels and living the rock star life.

So what is it that stopped us from us enjoying this on Earth? Oh yes our circumstances and the ghetto.

I have thought on this for a while, and my concept of heaven is a continuous collection of those moments that make us smile and love unconditionally.

These moments to me are plentiful, the first bite of a delicious meal, eating chocolate ice-cream (doing that now), a kiss from your children, watching your efforts being appreciated, validation, a sunset, a sunrise, the rain nourishing the ground, the smell of flowers, your sports team being successful, a long walk, the countryside, time with your parents, a wedding, winning on bingo and much more that I can list but you maybe understand the concept.

The true irony is; that I would rather accept that there is no concept of heaven, and enjoy all of the above in my life today.

There is no point of spend all of your real life in misery, in hope of redemption in heaven.

However, if you had the keys to paradise, would you rather let in people who have lived and enjoyed their lives or those who lived without pleasure?

If heaven is a party, having Mother Theresa looking over your shoulder will kind of suck balls. So I can understand the ghetto mentality, as of course the concept of heaven it is just a collection of good times with your friends.

I am a kind of a seek forgiveness, than ask permission kind of guy. We are all animals at the end of the day, and the strongest should always prosper.

This is what Darwin was alluding to with Natural selection.................no, I have gone too far!

Ok, I apologise for the Mother Theresa comment, but the point that I would like to make, is not to ponder the concept of heaven, as it should not be your aspiration. This should be of course to live, be happy, love, and do things that bring that smile and unconditional love bubbling in your tummy.

In the unlikely event that there is a heaven or associated spiritual plane, it would no doubt be run by deceased British civil servants. I can imagine the forms and protocol now (shudder). The weather would be a slight drizzle, and there is a dress code for most places. Tea served at 11am and 3pm and Fish on a Friday.

Heaven as a metaphor is all around us, we can see it once we accept its reality.

Like licking the spoon from the cake mix, can taste better than the cake itself. The little things in life are the ingredients; time is what cooks it all together. However, let’s not wait until we die to eat the cake! (Wheat free though)

More Tea Vicar?

Scott

PS. Today’s blog is just my thoughts, we all think things and once we agree and something affirms that though it becomes an opinion. As I have said, nothing has affirmed my opinion and just my meandering mind wandering though nonsense.