Being Real - by Bill Neal

Osiyo my friends and relations - we're in the middle of changing the world here: forget the virtual games, forget the virtual gifts. Why care about Farmville when we have Mother Earth to tend? Come on, let's get on with it. What's more gratifying than knowing we did what we needed to do - we held up our end by living our lives according to the Original Instructions?

After doing environmental work for 22 years, starting from when it was just a gleam in the eye of dreamers, hippies, and Indians who've been saying the same thing for 500 years waiting to be understood, I realized that, until the two-leggeds are fixed, the earth will continue to suffer, no matter how much work is done for the "environment". Man still believes that the "environment" is something separate from himself, an internal/external, us/them, in/out duality that is part of the illusion of separateness in which we live our lives. We need to know, each of us, that the "environment" is not something separate from us or outside ourselves - we are part of the whole, altogether as one.

Then, after 22 years, I began to work on fixing people and our institutions. To that end, I worked for a few years as the Native American Spiritual Leader in a women's prison. I was an advisor for the California Green Party candidate for Lieutenant Governor. I am, and have been for 19 years, a fluteplayer and storyteller who has been teaching everyone who will listen about our place in the circle of all living things and our responsibility to every other living thing in the circle. But, above all, I work on fixing myself.

In 1966, I had a vision of the future which I have been following ever since, as much as I understand the vision and myself. Now the time has come for us all to connect through the power of the internet and social media like Facebook to bring about a shift in global consciousness and in our own lives. And, again, this is part of the vision whose time has now come.

Facebook, other social media, and the web itself give us the ability to connect like nothing else in the previous history of the two-leggeds. It is time to get on with it, to realize the time has come to change the face of the earth, and time to tell everyone else whom we know and love that the time has come.

I write about these things and hope others read what I write - that's why I am here, for real communication. It takes all of us to do it - to bring about real change. Well - not entirely true. All true social change is brought about by only about 1% of the population, and so I am looking for the 1% who care and who are ready for change..

Who, reading this, is ready to be part of the 1% who bring about all true social change? Global shifts are revolutionary, not evolutionary - they are brought about by agents of change, catalysts acting consciously together. Not gradual change, nor brought about by violence - but sudden and specific, from numbers of circles of people who realize that this is so.

The course of human history is a history of ever-evolving higher consciousness. This is one of those times, when the minds of the two-leggeds make a leap in understanding. We need to gather everyone into the circle who sees that this is so, so that we can bring about the next change whose time is now come. Hook up, link up, connect, share - make it real in the world. The time is now!

Perception....Something to Think About.......

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.


4 minutes later:


The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.


6 minutes:


A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.


10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.


45 minutes:


The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.


1 hour:


He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.


No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.


This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

The questions raised:

*In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

*Do we stop to appreciate it?

*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?


One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.

How many other things are we missing?