The Way It Is: Accepting The Light And The Dark

This week on --

The Possible Society In Motion Radio Show!

Thursday, September 25, 2014 

6:30 p.m.

The Way It Is: 
Accepting The Light And The Dark

Listen Live from this link or  dial in at: 347.237.5351

Jack and Anastasia explore the significance of accepting both the light and the dark aspects in ourselves for the building of a better U.S.A.

Jack, a long-time reading admirer of the columnist, Rob Brezsny, introduces viewpoints and intriguing ideas from Brezny’s newest book, Pronoia, to spark discussion for what promises to be another lively program.

Visit Anastasia's Exploring Your Dark Side: The Adventure of A Lifetime to personally inventory the light and dark sides of yourself. Advanced Dark Side Warrior assessment here.

Pronoia Is The Antidote For Paranoia 

by Rob Brezsny, available online.

                        Listen Live from this link or dial in at: 347.237.5351

Again the on-air, broadcast portion of the show is followed by a conference call forum discussion.  

Guests are welcome to join in at: 712.432.0600, access code 640883 (also recorded).

If you miss the original conference call discussion, please contact New Horizons, the show's sponsoring organization, at: zonesofpeacenh@aol.com for access code for the conference call recording.

Hear The Podcast!

Reversible Trends In The U.S.A.

First off, if you really care about our country’s functioning at its best, you’ve got to actively support that ideal, each and every day!

I/we at New Horizons get it! You think we are all stuck in the muck.  Our study affirms that, revealing that  --

Better than 90% of you (maybe even 95%), considering our interviewees as representative, believe you are powerless or lack the skills or other resources to impact our national social and political crises.

Are you, part of the
problem or the solution?

And, you are definitely right about these beliefs, somewhat. But it really pays to get a bit more specific about where and how you are powerless rather than just assuming it across the board.

So if you want a better country there is a bunch of stuff, YOU can do, beginning right now, once you get power and powerlessness straight.

Little Anne Frank told us how it really is. She stated  --

“….nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

Attitudes, backed by actions are the way!

You better believe this and act on it, or consider yourself a slacker; a part of the problem ‘cause you are not yet a part of the solution.

We at New Horizons have come to understand more than we did about the issue. Thanks to the generous people who have given of their time and energies to participate in our Possible Human, Possible Society Study. we’ve now got some specific data on who is “walking the walk” and how for a better U.S.A. – and who is just “talking.”

We understand that you may believe you are POWERLESS and in many ways you are.

You may believe you are lacking in skills or other resources to make impact. Likely you are correct in this regard also -- somewhat.

But the real deal actually is this –

1. You are not TOTALLY powerless; and
2. You are not TOTALLY without resources; and
3. There are plenty of options about how to help you develop the necessary skills to help our country better itself;
4. For starters, New Horizons is now getting set to help you utilize your assets by developing programs where you can learn “build a better U.S.A.” attitudes and skills.

Look for more and more “Anastasia The Super Sleuth tips to assist you on this path, if you care.

And, if you dare!

In the meantime, here is a quote from a New Horizons’  press release stating our position, based on preliminary findings from our Possible Human, Possible Society Study.

It tells of how my own personal perspectives about power and powerlessness began developing out of what I learned at home in my family. The full press release is linked below, followed by the quote taken from it.

Possible Society In Motion Project Suggests Potential For Reversible U.S. Trends

“Anastasia Rosen-Jones, New Horizons’ Executive Director, the stepdaughter of a Holocaust survivor, stated, “I am continually aware that my “mom” survived the Holocaust because ordinary people acted in remarkable ways during tragic times. If lives were saved out of the Holocaust by ordinary people doing extraordinary things, we ought to be able to do even more, in the U.S.A.

To our way of thinking, at New Horizons, even this one example, of a personal nature, is illustrative that if people choose to give conscientious consideration, even to unknown others, we can be the change we are after, without making it all about our elected officials.”

If you care about our country, YOU, personally, must support the yearnings  and ideals of your heart and mind by actively being and doing your best, each and every day as a decent citizen of the U.S.A.

To achieve this there are certain attitudes and actions YOU must embrace. 

New Horizons is now getting set to assist you with this.

Details will come over time. 

Anastasia Super Sleuth Says --

• Be cautioned, results require a long term commitment. 
• No quick fixes here.Get off of the "give it to me now" platform. 
• Be prepared to work for your ideals.

Step Right Up, Ladies and Gents!

“I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do, next!”

“I’m gonna now reveal how New Horizons weaves together the practical, the political, the interactive and the spiritual, "Practically Speaking."

"I’m gonna tell you the story of how New Horizons came to blend these critically essential aspects of modern life in America into one beautiful package. This is the story behind the “package” that is the New Horizons Small “Zones Of Peace” Project, the Possible Human, Possible Society Study – and our GIFT to you!”

Step right up, ladies and gents!

Anastasia The Super Sleuth says find out more on –

AnastasiaThe Storyteller.

Read about “My Prophecy” (Anastasia’s) that is the story behind New Horizons.

Then Just Imagine How You Can Join Us On Our Wonderful Adventure!

Practically speaking

If you want to really consider the nuts and bolts of the new American survival, you’ve got to start realizing that –

“9/11’s  Lean In Legacy

• The Practical;
• The Political;
• The Interactive and;
•  The Spiritual.   

They must all play their parts in a balanced way.

This is the new norm for life in the U.S.A.!

For example, Jack and I spoke at length on our last radio show about --

“9/11’s  Lean InLegacy

Hear the podcast

I came away from this discussion with my perceptions altered, markedly, by comments Jack made suggestive of the need for this wholistic integration. Particularly his views on the difference leadership -- and -- values of substance can make in a country such as our’s.

I also came away from the conversation reminding myself, once again, that if we are unable to immediately influence or alter our leaders, there is nothing standing in the way, except us, in changing the ways in which we handle ourselves, especially in times of crisis!

You’ve heard this before, right?

But there was more to our discussion that was critically important and uplifting to consider  from this important show.

For our discussion, Jack and I drew on the work of Gail Sheehy, as she reported it in her book, Middletown, America: One Town’s Passage From Trauma To Hope. For over two years in the wake of their coping with the tragedy that was “9/11, Sheehy regularly visited Middletown, New Jersey that lost more citizens than any other locale from the terrorist attacks.

If you are genuinely concerned – and – willing to do whatever you can, even in small ways to help our country attain a higher level of social – and political functioning – take the time to hear our discussion and draw some personal inspiration – and initiative -- from it for yourself.

And, one more thing – probably mentioned by Jack in our after broadcast conference call conversation –

Bobby Kennedy’s speech (accessible on YouTube), announcing the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., a momentous speech, known to possibly be the “greatest speech ever,” urging the best from us as U.S. citizens; compassion, forgiveness and unity – for starters.

Listen to this too! It can be  a critically important reminder about getting your basic values straight.

Anastasia The Super Sleuth Says –

Compassion, forgiveness, courage and so forth, are elements of human capability called forth by leaning into one another, especially in times of crisis, loss, pain – and – healing.

Often these attributes are undeveloped or underdeveloped, in us. However, we  can develop these and use them to strengthen our country, socially and politically. (Original thinking, courtesy of our Beloved Murat Yagan.)

This makes sense, if you think about it long enough and hard enough.

Anastasia The Super Sleuth Also Says –

Don’t miss your chance!

P.S. If you listen to the audio, you will hear the shift in me occurring around 18 minutes into the show and forward.

Community Life And The Helping Hand

Gail Sheehy, noted author of numerous books, including Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life, named by the Library of Congress as one of the ten most influential books of our times, also authored a lesser known book, Middletown America: One Town’s Passage From Trauma To Hope.

In the book, which Jack and myself will draw upon for tomorrow evening’s Possible Society In Motion Radio Show program, Sheehy tells of her visit three weeks after “9/11 to a vigil in Middletown, New Jersey, a town that lost fifty residents to the tragedy. There Sheehy discovered some interesting circumstances that, even today, bear remarking upon.

As one woman, a recent widow of the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon told her “…she didn't know any of the other widows, although she knew there were many in the town. That really nobody knew one another, that it was very separated and that she was feeling very isolated.”

Sheehy goes on to report, based on her two year study of how the town of Middletown was coping, that it was …”a place where people didn't think they needed community, where people were affluent enough and their work was often in New York, so that they often came and went with very little if any engagement in the community.

Because of its affluence …everybody has to put on a mask of perfection, of alrightness.”

Additionally Sheehy stated --

Yet even the “religious leaders, about half a dozen of them, found one another and admitted to one another, "I can't cope, I don't know how to do this, I am overwhelmed, I don't know where to start.”

Words such as these remind me (Anastasia) that isolation and separateness in our country, tragically, goes beyond extreme circumstances such as “9/11. Unfortunately, the alienation in our society is part and parcel of everyday life.  Blessed are the few, such as myself, who can claim to have an abundance of genuine, reliable friends; enough to assert that they have a true network of support.

I am, indeed, privileged to have this. And, yet I cannot forget, nor would I wish to, the inordinate challenges and struggles I had to surmount to attain this position, one of my life’s greatest treasures.

My heart and soul yearn for the idealism of the American spirit I grew up with in a small Ohio town just after World War II. Personally, it was essential to me, as an adult, that I find a sense of that community spirit, or as close to it as I could. My life up here in the mountains above the historical town of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia affords me that. The nearby towns of Frederick, Maryland and Charles Town and Shepherdstown, West Virginia expand a sense of small-ish town for me.

But today, preparing as I have been for my own quiet commemoration of the tragedy of “9/11, a day that turns out to be one on which Jack and I will broadcast our regular show; this week titled “9/11’s Lean In Legacy,” I needed a bit more to remind me of the spirit of community unity.

So, being of the sixties era, I made a visit to YouTube to hang out awhile with the words and music of Pete Seeger and Peter, Paul and Mary and others. After a number of repeats, listening to “Where Have All The Flowers Gone,” “Blowing In The Wind” and Turn, Turn, Turn,” and shedding a few tears, I felt a bit more connected to both the sorrows and the gratitude of being an American, reminding myself that its not the least of it when we offer one another a helping hand.

Folks in Middletown, Boston and Newtown were forced to do this, coming out better for it, as least in their humanness, in spite of tragedy. Still I can’t help but feel a heartbreak or two that we wait till tragedy hits to turn toward one.

So maybe this week, you can make time for Jack and I as we turn our attention to --

“9/11’s Lean In Legacy

on --

The Possible Society In Motion Radio Show!

Thursday, September 11, 2014 6:30 p.m.

As usual the on-air, broadcast portion of the show is followed by a conference call forum discussion.  Guests are welcome to join in at: 712.432.0600, access code 640883 (also recorded).

If you miss the original conference call discussion, please contact New Horizons, the show's sponsoring organization, at:zonesofpeacenh@aol.com for access code for the conference call recording.

Hear The Podcast!

What’s Wrong With Believing You Are Powerless?

Before we get into answering this question, let’s give due respect to what is right about believing you are powerless?

What’s right is as well said in the “Serenity Prayer” of Twelve Step reasoning as anywhere.

You are not “all powerful.” There is a being that is “all powerful” and make no mistake it is not you!



Anastasia, The
Super Sleuth 
says --

Now for the part that is, however about you.

Looking back, again, to the words of the Serenity Prayer – “the courage to change the things I can…”, let’s look at what’s wrong about anyone in this United States of America’s believing they are powerless when it comes to contributing to the changes this country needs in order to overcome its present problems in society and politics.

Five Things That Are Wrong About Believing You Are Powerless To Help Change America’s Present Societal and Political Problems

1. Time wasted in complaining about what the “others” (i.e. politicians and big money folks) are doing or not doing about our current problems;
2. Time wasted feeling helpless and discouraged about our current problems;
3. Time wasted being passive regarding what you could and should do to foster change, day-by-day in little ways. Like helping an elderly person cross a street;
4. Time wasted ignoring your neighbors rather than building meaningful connections with them (i.e. Ask yourself, who is going to be most available in times of need such as a tornado or earthquake, if it is not your neighbor?)
5. Time wasted, allowing others to pick up the endless responsibilities of needed volunteerism that lies on the base of “all for one and one for all.”

Anastasia, The Super Sleuth Says –

• I have lots more to say on this topic. I've only just begun;
• Your participation in our Possible Human, Possible Society Study (if you are in it) has taught me reams and reams about “what’s wrong about believing you are powerless” and more.
• While I am attempting to get it out – remember this old saying?

“All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing.”

This is as true today as it ever was!

If you are not actively a part of the solution, you are an active part of the problem.

To participate in the Possible Human, Possible Society Study, contact Anastasia at:

zonesofpeacenh@aol.com

It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way

Anastasia, New Horizons’ Super Sleuth, Says –

Preliminary Possible Human, Possible Society Statistics Reveal –

ü  Better than 90% of those interviewed believe they are powerless or lack the skills or other resources to impact our national social and political crises.

Are you one of the 90%?

Question:

Do you “see” the error in this thinking?

Anastasia’s Answer:

I sure do!

“My investigations through the Possible Human, Possible Society Study and my other areas of watchfulness have a lot to say on this matter.

So keep checking in on this blog site during the coming month as I focus attention on this alarming finding of our study and its significance for your life and mine!”

For information on how you can participate in and support our –

Possible Human, Possible Society Study

Contact Anastasia at: zonesofpeacenh@aol.com

Also visit Anastasia The Storyteller Blog Site

 for stories of the personal and professional adventures of New Horizons’ Executive Director.

And how her “vision” behind the New Horizons Small “Zones of Peace” Project and the Possible Human, Possible Society Study are shaping a Possible Society In Motion movement.

Behind The Scenes

There is, once again, so much going on behind the scenes these days at New Horizons. You could call it rehearsing. You could call it germination time. You could call it a time for pausing while things beyond our frail powers take shape.

Whatever it is to be called, my not posting of four articles to this site last month as I have pledged to do each and every month, was a dereliction on that score.

So I will try in this new month to make up for the lack.

Look for –

• Program announcements for our Possible Society In Motion Radio Show;
• Updates on our pending “Police, Politics And The Lean In Legacy” Project;
• Updates on preliminary findings from our Possible Human, Possible Society Study;
• News about how you can get involved in our various programs, projects and our study;
• And, coming soon, how you can support these rich undertakings at New Horizons.

Wishing you a safe and happy labor-less Labor Day!

Anastasia and the New Horizons Support Network Board of Directors

Also visit Anastasia The Storyteller Blog Site.

Here you will find stories of the personal and professional adventures of New Horizons’ Executive Director.

And her “vision” behind the New Horizons Small “Zones of Peace” Project, notably reflecting Anastasia’s journey from blindness to recovery.