The Adventures of Bloggard

Been Around the Block. Got Some Stories. These are Them.

Mister Blue

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Mount Shasta, CA, January 15, 2026: This is my pal. His name is “Mister Blue” or “Blue-Blue.”

Mister Blue has been with me all of my life, and still resides at my bedside, because we’re pals, been together ever since Artelle Loony, Mama’s friend, made Mister Blue for me when I was quite small.

Every morning, when I get up, I spend a moment feeling gratitude and expressing thanks to the Universe, for all the things I’ve been given: Roof, warmth, clothes, food, body, health, love, friends, long life.

And then, every morning, I give Mister Blue a pat and sincerely thank him for sticking with me all this time.

We’re both over 80 years old!

I think of that, and, while I’m thanking him, I remember all the kindness I’ve been given by the humans in my life, and of the life-force and body given me by my ancestors. Thank you Universe. Thank you, Mister Blue.

Gratitude or Grumpy. Whichever you choose, you create more.

I’ve decided gratitude is way better.

And Mister Blue agrees completely.

Can You Have a Completely Original Thought?

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August 11, 2024, Facebook profile of Richard Stillwagon …

Here is a challenging question:
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Can you have a completely original thought or idea?

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Or does your upbringing, culture, education, and world experience shape those thoughts and ideas?
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I have been watching and interacting with conversations about education, politics, religion, indoctrination in general, science, and philosophy.
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All of these conversations are skewed by the bias of each person’s education and life experience. This would seem obvious. But, it is tragically not apparent to those speaking! They believe their opinions to be universal truths. They don’t see that the opinions they have come from the collective consciousness of the environment they keep themselves in, and rarely move from that stance when presented new information.
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It takes an intelligent and critical thinking mind to be self-aware of it’s own biases. To understand that you favor one side or another of a topic and be capable of evaluating that bias and adjusting it based on new information is an incredibly rare ability.
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Humans are creatures of habit.

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That is a cliche because it is true. We resist change even though we know and experience the fact that it is constantly happening.
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Why then do we resist the possibility that new information could alter the conditions of a controversial subject? The answers are: fear, pride, prejudice and ego. We fear change. We take pride in what we think we know. We are prejudiced toward what we prefer and against that which we don’t understand or find distasteful. Finally our ego is so fragile, that we can’t stand to be seen as fallible. I experience these things myself, but I try to be aware of them and try to adjust when when compelling information is presented.
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To know that everything we currently believe has been part of an incomplete education since birth can be a freeing understanding. Knowing that everything we have learned could be outdated,incorrect, incomplete, only a portion of the whole, the beginning of a greater understanding, and a continual education should allow you to open your mind to new information. It should protect your ego and allow for adjustments in opinions on subjects.
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If you can explain why you feel strongly about a subject, then, when presented new information that alters that view, you should be able to explain the change in your opinion without fear or embarrassment. I respect that much more than someone that cannot, or worse, will not learn from new evidence that gives a new and additional insight into an issue. It isn’t waffling on your stance. It is the wisdom to adjust an opinion afforded by the opportunity of seeing a more complete and sometimes very complex picture.and adjusting your position based on that new evidence.
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Original thoughts if not impossible, must be exceedingly rare. But I think evolving thoughts and ideas that improve and become more complete are of tremendous value and should be encouraged

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Can a Person have an Original Thought?

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Mount Shasta, CA, August 11, 2024
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A friend of mine has raised an interesting point: Can a person have an original thought?
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Here’s my take on it …
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Like many questions, and most swords, it has two edges.
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On the one hand, most thoughts first come from the subconscious mind. And the subconscious mind is *associative* in nature. It can be triggered by images, or by words, or by feelings. And whatever it is that’s triggered, it’s something that in this moment is associated by the triggering sight, word, or feeling.
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So, right there, a huge lens has been imposed, a vast lens, but a biased lens. Because it can, apparently, only come up with things that are associated. (The subconscious mind regulates your blood pressure and such body changes as well, and those beneath-awareness kinesthetic triggers are also working.) So you’re often unaware of what the association is.
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And that’s also why saying “don’t think of purple elephant” produces a thought of purple elephant. The subconscious cannot process a *not*. It can only process the association.
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How We Create our Unconscious Mind

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The formation of the unconscious/subconscious mind, in my estimation, is actually caused as a byproduct of our learning how to focus. Because in order to focus, we must *withdraw* our awareness/consciousness from the background in order to place the awareness on the thing we’ve chosen to focus upon. As a consequence, over time we withdraw our awareness from regulation of blood pressure, speed of heartbeat, and remembering to take a breath and more and more we place our moment-to-moment awareness on thoughts, feelings, and sights. It was good survival; our ancestors did it; and we creatures sprang from their pattern in the reproductive process. So we do it, too. It works.
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But we are, along the way, “enslaved” by the prior “decisions,” though we do not have an awareness of having made a decision. A 3-month-old has no such awareness, though the learning–and the associations–have already begun. The 2-year-old continues in the same way. The 5-year-old, the 8-year-old, the 12-year-old, and the teenager.
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By the time we begin to reach some autonomous functionality, hundreds of thousands of decisions have been made, but we don’t know we decided. We feel them as “perceptions.” The people with blue eyes are not trustworthy. People with black skin are shiftless. Republicans are trustworthy. Texans are smart. Yankees talk too fast.

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We are now far down stream, paddling our canoes with paddles made of old views we’ve taken on with no particular care, steering by stars that our culture showed us.

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We think we’re navigating the world, but we’re only navigating *a* world. One that our “growing up” and the people and things and experiences painted for us to see.
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How to Destroy Writer’s Block

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June 7, 2023, Mount Shasta, CA: If you experience writer’s block, it’s very easy to change that so that you no longer experience writer’s block. Here’s how …

Get up in the morning, go pee if you have to, then sit down and start typing. Don’t do *anything else* before you start typing.

Type anything. Garbage, memories, nonsense. Snippets of your dreams. Any thoughts. Don’t try to channel it in any particular direction.

Within 3 weeks or maybe even less, you will no longer experience writer’s block.

That’s really all there is to it.

Creating Your Reality

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Today I was online reading something, and I was *so* tempted to respond in argument with something that someone said.

Even knowing better, I find it hard to stop myself, all too often.

And my particular reason for desiring to restrain myself is this —

A) We greatly create our own experience of life (our reality) by the thoughts we harbor in our heads. Some say these thoughts actually create reality, but for certain they create our experience of life.

B) If you create ill-will thoughts, no matter where you intend to aim them, you are creating ill-will thoughts. And it’s in YOUR head.

C) You suffer as a result of the painful thoughts in your head, and it paints your picture of your universe, and you create your painful experience of life.

D) The more you focus thought on negative stuff (problems and pain), the more you overlook (or miss) many of your opportunities, and you miss out on enjoying the bliss you could be enjoying from your life.

E) So it boils down to — It’s your gun. It’s your foot. Do What Thou Wilt.

Want to live in a world of devils? Or a world of bliss? Although it may seem strange the first time you hear this, with a bit of practice, it is actually possible to control your own mind, and your thoughts WILL create your happiness (or suffering) in this life.

(A word to the wise is sufficient. Let he that hath ears hear!)

🙂

How to Let Go of Sadness or Worry In Only 3 Minutes

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January 28, 2019, Mount Shasta, CA — Do you ever feel sad or worried?

Well, no problem! Here’s how to let it go in under 3 minutes.

Just follow these steps …
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  • Sit down, relax, take a deep breath, and at the top of the breath …
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  • Feel your mind go still.
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  • As you slowly exhale, feel the stillness flowing down into your body.
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  • Note the feelings of relaxation in your body.
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  • Now imagine a [Read more…]

Multiple Universes?

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Medford, Oregon, May 6, 2018 — Sometimes I’m kind of material-minded, and think “down to earth” thoughts. Other times I feel rather woo-woo, but there it is.

I believe there are multiple universes, our physical universe being but one. And that, in a way, these can be pictured as all in ONE place, but “invisible” and generally inaccessible to each other. My hippie years suggest they have a different vibration, but really I’ve no clue, and because time and space seem to be pretty darn twisty anyway, it may be that 70 million light-years away may sometimes be as nearby as the house next door, under the right conditions.

And I believe that these universes are infinite, and that more are created all the time.

I *suspect* that every time one of mus makes a decision it *may* spin off another child universe which is the same except for that decision which was made, so there is a YOU in many or most of them.

Now because of decisions made by someone else way back, perhaps in some of those universes you are the Queen of England, and in another it’s called the Queenie of Poodlesnoot, and in another you’re living under a [Read more…]

I Gotta Espress Mysef!

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Medford, Oregon, March 28, 2017: A friend on Facebook was wailing about expressing her feelings, and the resulting reactions from others that didn’t go well. And it took me back, to remember …

I don’t remember where or when, or what had just happened, but I recall the exact moment, so many years ago, that I had a brainstorm, and I realized that I didn’t need to share every thought I had, every view, every observation, every opinion.

I realized that everyone else around me was busy living their own lives, and that at any given moment they had their own battles (sometimes bigger than mine, and certainly bigger to them). So there were good times for me to share my views, and (lots of times) to not share my views at all.

And I felt — But I gotta express myself! — and then realized that no, actually, I didn’t gotta, and sometimes it would be self-destructive for me to do so, or damaging or hurtful to others around me, in spite of my powerful urge to do so.

Well, my life didn’t change over night, but over years, it did.

And now I sometimes share “who I am” and sometimes I don’t. Because, really, you are who you are, but what you do — talk, express yourself, remain silent, wave your arms, sit quietly — these are just behaviors.

Who you are is an eternal truth, and only evolves over time as you learn and grow. But mere behaviors? They are within your control, to select (or not) in each moment to advance your survival, and the survival of those around you.

That’s my two cents. Maybe it might be a useful viewpoint to explore.

Or maybe not.

 
 

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