EDITOR'S COMMENTS

     This is the beginning of our third year of publication. In the interest of being more fluid as well as being more here and now relevant, we have made two major changes to The Caldron. Both changes will begin with this fall issue. They will help us to be more useful as a source of information, insight, and inspiration.

     For example, if you have a piece that you wish to submit after this issue's deadline but before the deadline for the following issue, send it in anyway and we will add it to this issue midway through the quarter. Just be sure to follow the theme of this issue. The same goes for every future issue. In this way, we will always be more current and relevant with respect to what is going on in the world today.

     In addition to accepting submissions at any time now, we will also begin an ongoing piece in The Caldron, called "BeHereNow," where we can all share information, comments and insights that are relevant to the ongoing world situation. "BeHereNow" will function as a bulletin board where we can all share whatever we have found to be relevant and meaningful in the news or in our own lives. These sharings may be submitted at any time and will be posted as they come in. Please limit them to two hundred and fifty words or less.

     The Caldron has now become temporally layered, with the deepest layer being the pieces submitted at the beginning of the quarter - the essays, the stories, the poems, the music, and the art. The next layer will consist of the pieces that come later in the quarter - perhaps in response to the earlier pieces. Finally, "BeHereNow," with its shorter submissions, will be updated as often as folks send in their new information, comments and insights on the current world situation.



     Today, we are witnessing the end of democracy. Unless we make a stand, unless we raise our consciousness and our political system to a new and higher spiritual level, one that is truly based upon trust in the flow, democracy will surely die. Its main enemy has always been greed for money and power. This greed has kept us focused upon our differences and our disagreements and has failed to bring us together to work for the common good.

     Ignorance and a willingness to let others take care of us have been two other major enemies of democracy. Only thirty percent of the American people voted in the last presidential election. This cannot continue. It has been suggested that all of us who do vote should receive a tax refund just by attaching our voting receipt to our tax return. The tax man would then subtract this refund from what we owe on our taxes. This refund would probably cause more folks to vote.

     We could also educate all American citizens to see that certain responsibilities come with the privileges of citizenship. One of these responsibilities is to be a part of the democratic process and to vote in each and every election. Marshall McLuhan once said, "there are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew." This should certainly apply as well to any nation that prides itself on being democratic.

     Besides falling to the classic vices of greed, ignorance and sloth, the present political system has become archaic and unworkable. Consider the Electoral College, a great, lumbering dinosaur that should be extinct along with the rest of its species. Consider also how the supposed and much vaunted separation of powers between the legislative, the judicial and the executive branches of our government broke down four years ago in the last presidential election.

     Soon, all Americans will be taking an intelligence test called the presidential election of 2004. Please vote. If you don't vote, you will have already failed the test. And before you do vote, please wake up and notice that there is a real difference between Bush and Kerry, much more of a difference that might appear from reading the newspapers or listening to the news and the talking heads on TV.

     In our present and archaic political system that serves up images and not real people and their real ideas, neither of these two men can afford to admit to who they really are. Bush is actually much worse than he appears. He is borderline psychotic and constitutionally unable to see things except in terms of black and white, good and evil. Kerry, on the other hand, is much better than he appears, although he has to act all macho and one-sided because we're in the middle of a war.

     Also, when you vote, consider who would be the best Planet Steward, which candidate would best care for the environment, especially with regard to global warming and the threat it poses to our very existence. And finally, if you do consider this and still vote for Bush, you will have obviously failed the intelligence test.



     This fall, "Wisdom's Corner" again focuses upon the Tao. Using various quotes, many from Japanese masters, it introduces the notion of Hara, the one-point that is located just below the belly button. It discusses Hara's relationship to being in the Tao. It also discusses what happens to us and our relationship with the world when we do become centered in our one-point.

     In this issue, there are several essays on the theme of the eventual end of oil. Charles Hord has written an interesting and well thought-out essay about the growing scarcity and eventual end of oil and what it will mean to our chemical and agricultural industries. He calls it "Drive In." Charles is a professional worrier, occasionally employed in the software business when jobs aren't being exported en masse. He also loves his nephews and would like to leave a better world for them someday.

     I have also written an essay on our current energy crisis, one that has already led us to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Following the theme for this issue, I have called it "What Are We Going To Do When The Oil Well Runs Dry, Mama?"

     In addition, I have included a short piece that I wrote years ago, around the time of the first Gulf War, one that predicted our current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is called "Road Warrior Wars." Unfortunately it is still relevant today.

     Doug Dupler has written a piece called "No More Cars," in which he shares his vision of a world without cars. It's an inspiring take on what our live might someday be like without the automobile.

     Partha Pratim Majumder has written another wonderful piece called "So Many Miles," a teaching story really, showing just how much we will miss our oil when it's all gone.

     Aspen Marks is also back again with her "Seeds from Plot 509," more earthy wisdom from her unique gardening perspective. Although it is still early in the fall, the nights are getting cooler and it's already time to harvest the Great Pumpkin and to sadly put her garden to bed for the winter.

     Our new piece, "BeHereNow" already has several interesting contributions. Please feel free to submit additions, comments, reflection, or whatever to what you see there. It will be updated almost daily.

     Also, please remember that all the wonderful essays, stories, music, and art that were in each of the previous eight issues are still available in the archives and may be accessed from the welcome page (the table of contents page.)

     Eugene Marks, Editor