4 May 2021
Context
Day 124 – May the 4th be with You
Welcome to May the 4th and it is Star Wars day! So, May the 4th be with You! Who would have thought back in 1977, a sci-fi movie would hang around so long? Not me. However, I have a confession to make. Star Wars came out when I was in anti-hype mode and said stuff like, “you’re only going to see the movie because of the hype! You sheep.”. Yeah, that’s right I was on the dark side and I didn’t know it.
Eventually, I did watch Star Wars. Yes. All of them! Even the Mandalorian series – which incidentally is my favourite part of the Star Wars film universe to-date. The movies are nice and all but I’m not that “into Star Wars”. If you asked me what parts of the Mandalorian series gave a nod to the Star Wars films, I would be clueless.
My ignorance and lack of Star Wars culture asides, what does, “may the force be with you mean?”. Obviously, if you’ve watched the movies, you get the force being a single energy source powering the universe. It’s only the mindset and intentions of the wielder which changes how it’s used.
The force, then, is simply a resource to be tapped into with mindfulness and meditation. A lot of elements are very Buddhist seeming from my point-of-view. Those proficient in mindfulness are constantly connected to the force – Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, for instance.
Anyway, it’s incredibly clever using the fourth of May for Star Wars day. Would the phrase have taken off in Australia, if Australia weren’t flexible and exposed to the date being read with the month at the front? The saying just rolls off the tongue, “may the 4th be with you”! So cute.
My Mother
My anti “everything” started because of being an early adolescent female, who had a father who played mind games. The avenue chosen to prove I was an independent thinking female was to have a different point-of-view to everyone else. In hindsight, this was akin to isolating myself socially. Later, it worked out he simply thought that women didn’t think for themselves when a man was around. So, no matter the stance I took, he believed it was someone else’s view.
The reason he and my mother had issues during their divorce, was at some point she proved she was clever. Many a time in years since the divorce, when I was testing my self-control and he and I spoke, he mentioned how incredibly cunning my mother was. Incredibly smart – even there he thought it might have been the male solicitors/ lawyers. My mother’s comment has always been, “I just told the truth”.
Mum’s interpretation, however, of what is being asked can sometimes come askew in the translation. My mother has a determined mindset and an innocent adherence to a path which can come across as controlling in its own way. Nonetheless, if you asked my mother something in all genuineness it could get misinterpreted, but the response would still be right. To be clear, it’s never a lie.
There’s no intention to deceive. It’s because of this lack of deceptive intention, she could get away with things another person would either feel self-conscious about or get caught out on. My father was almost the complete opposite. He feigned innocence but even when he was it didn’t usually work for him. It’s the few occasions where it worked that kept him repeating the tactic.
Pre-1977 - My Father
For instance, during my parents’ divorce my father hid some money from the courts by putting payments against the home loan as term deposits. Now, I don’t fully understand how this worked. My guess is the money could only be touched by my father, my sister or me.
Since the term deposits were acting, like collateral for the loan bound with a caveat on the title, he felt assured the only people who could access the money was him, my sister or me. At the time my sister was eight and I was twelve, the money was safely tucked away he thought for 40 years, when the home loan finalised.
What my father hadn’t counted on was for term deposits requiring renewal. Also, home’s equity increases, over time too. Hence, no longer requiring the collateral of the term deposits or the caveat which bound them to the title deed. My guess is the term deposits were locked in for a period of three to five years. By that time, my mother had received legal guardianship over us, and we were living in the home the money was held against.
So, when the terms were up the bank sent a letter to my sister and me asking what we wanted to do with the money and the associated interest. I vaguely remember sitting in the living room and my mum explaining the money had come from a term deposit my dad had put in our names. She also advised, if we wanted to keep the money we could, and she would not take it from us.
As an eleven going on twelve-year-old, I didn’t have a job or a job history. It didn’t take a child genius to work out the money wasn’t really mine. We didn’t get pocket money at the time. The choice was, if it came from the home loan it should just go back onto the home loan. Simplistic thinking.
Maybe it was all those years of mum going, “where did you get that from?”, and the response being, “fridge/ cupboard/ bathroom/ outside”. To which the reply would be something like, “if you got it from there, then put it back where you found it”. Dispensing this wisdom like parents everywhere and throughout time.
When, years later I mentioned to my father the house had been paid off and the title deed was in my mother’s name, he declared it to be impossible. He questioned where the money and the caveat had gone. It was with pleasure he was informed of what had happened to the money and caveat. He didn’t believe it, coming from me (being female). Hey, he still believed he owned the house and let us live in it because he had a kind hear. Not the court awarding the house to our mother in lieu of missing child support.
Other stuff
Work: Work went well, was feeling quite successful in terms of getting myself organised. You get those days, where you can’t do another thing unless you get stuff sorted – or is that just me? Also, tackling a problem using a different approach but making it look like something familiar. If it’s too radical, it falls into the category of crazy and it dies before it gets a chance to live.
Cats: We dragged out a cat tunnel which we’d put away for a while, it was pure joy just to watch them play like they were kittens again.
Today's Cards
The Cards - Analysis
Carry Over Cards
There’s only the one carry over card from yesterday, Completion has moved from being an influence to occupying the Recent Past.
Analysis
The Fool in the Now position is influenced by Friendliness. The Goal is Laziness. Laziness is the point where you can relax. If Laziness is being at the top of the mountain too long, then the point I want to strive for is the moment when you just arrive. It’s when the relaxing is in front of you, not the hanging on too long pushing the limits of making it down the mountain before daylight is lost.
Looking at my day, The Fool could be the getting organised at work while relying on the achievements to-date to enable me to do the organising. Using Friendliness, I was able to move a couple of activities until later (Laziness is definitely being influenced by Friendliness here).
In the Distant Past position is the card of Flowering. Flowering has happened and is a pre-cursor to Laziness. It’s probably when I’d managed to get a couple of runs on the board. Time moves quickly in short weeks and those accomplishments can lose some of their lustre.
Creativity is in the Recent Past position. One of the activities which was distracting me was planning for an upcoming event I’m facilitating. The planning was taking longer than expected because of its complexity. Hopefully, the extra time will pay off – if I haven’t overbaked it 😀. Other things, unfortunately, slipped a little.
The Rebel in the Future Energy position and The Fool in the Now coming from a basis of recent Creativity hmmm … This usually spells hanging out on a limb and doing something different to the norm. Again, it is probably the planning. Not that the planning is unique, it is different in that the agenda is visual. A case of show what you mean don’t tell.
Breaking into the next step of evolution is new territory, and a natural evolution from what the organisation has been doing. The Rebel, in this context, is simply doing things based on his inner light; it’s not necessarily about bucking any system.
My Feelings position, toward the slightly different approach is me being open to new ideas from within. In a sense this is echoing The Rebel card in the Future Energy position.
Others’ Views position has the card of Possibilities. Sharing the new approach with other team members has fostered some excitement and maybe opened some Possibilities for them too.
In the Hopes & Fears position is The Miser. Sometimes, I get possessive over my ideas, mainly because every now and again it would be nice to receive acknowledgement for the idea. Although, I don’t really know what kind of acknowledgement I’m after. After all I hope people want to use it. I’m happy if the idea gets used and will share knowledge of it easily and readily – and over exuberantly at times 😏. The fear is in the losing control and thus being The Miser (inwardly).
Ordinariness is in the Outcome position. You know I love this card. It’s the card without stress, without too much excitement and fanfare. The card representing, in my mind Mother Theresa, the saint of small things.
References
- Osho, Osho Zen Tarot – The Transcendental Game of Zen, St Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-11733-7
- Star Wars Day, Wikipedia, last viewed 5 May 2021
- Star Wars Franchise, Wikipedia, last viewed, 5 May 2021
