...as I've said many times before, the only choice any of us ever has is whether to accept Reality and our place in it, or deny Reality and our place in it. We do this with every breath, every thought, every word, every action.

Now, expand the thought to the 6 billion or so humans living right now. If that is too much to get your head around, narrow the thought to the leaders of the US, Russia, China, the European nations, the Muslim controlled nations, and Israel.

Examine the words and actions of each (as well as your own). It's fairly clear from the words and actions of most (if not all) of these leaders that they, to varying degrees, deny Reality and their places in it. If they accepted Reality and their places in it, they wouldn't have the obvious need for control of the lives of others that they show. And they wouldn't be leaders.

Some examples: The Taliban leadership is all men with what appears to be a horrible fear of women. Why else would they treat women the way they do? And why else would they seek to turn the rest of the world to their way of thinking and acting? They are vengeful children in adult bodies who believe in a terrible, vengeful god who is merely the outward projection of their inner nature.

The Russian leadership, again, is all men, but at least these men don't appear to be as terrified of women. Rather, they resent the "civilized" nations of Western Europe, and especially the US, for daring to have come up with the idea of individual rights and responsibilities. If individuals have rights and responsibilities, they must also have power, which diminishes the power of the leader to control them.

The American leadership, on the other hand, is a mix of men and women. Their problem is that they all have a terrible need to control everyone they see as inferior to them socially. They are, effectively, the descendants of the feudal lords and ladies from the Dark Ages of Europe. They see themselves as modern day lords and ladies with the right--nay, the duty--to control the lives of the peasants because peasants are too stupid and uneducated to know what is best for them. Peasants are supposed to shut up and do exactly what they are told to do, nothing more, nothing less.

And then there are those who choose (most of the time, as no one can do so all the time) to accept Reality and their places in it. They understand that all power is vested in the individual and cannot be ceded to anyone else, no matter how hard they may try. They know that they are responsible for their choice to accept Reality and their places in it--and for the consequences rising out of their words and actions based on that choice. They are adults in a world swarming with vengeful children in grown up bodies.

Given that the vast majority of people on the planet, especially their leadership, are vengeful children or terrified children, there is a strong element of inevitability in the course of events.

I have no clear vision of how this particular crisis, or the larger tangle of international interactions will work out. I only know that Reality IS, and therefore that every single one of us, like it or not, is responsible for the consequences of our choice to accept or deny Reality and our place in it.

As I've also said elsewhere, those who choose to accept Reality and their places in it most of the time make their own Heavens in this life, and will be prepared to see Reality face to face in the next. Those who choose to deny Reality and their places in it most or all of the time make their own Hells in this life (and try desperately to drag everyone else into Hell with them), and will refuse to accept Reality in the next. Instead, they will burn in the lakes of fire they built up over a lifetime of resentment, fury, and hatred--because they are already burning in those lakes of fire in this life.

If Reality IS, and Time is merely the revelation of what IS to us in the form of consequences derived from our only choice, for which only we as individuals are responsible, then those who end up in Hell have only themselves to blame (though, of course, they will blame everyone else instead). And thus the Original Sin (the terrible illusion of separation from Reality that resulted from our development of language, when we named everything and defined Reality as Not-Us) infects generation after generation.

Think about it, folks. You are who you are supposed to be, doing what you are supposed to do, RIGHT NOW. The choice--and the responsibility for the consequences of that choice--is always yours. You can't give it away. You can't blame the consequences on someone else. You exist to choose acceptance or denial of Reality and your place in it. And because you make that choice with every breath, thought, word, and deed, you can always change your choice from denial to acceptance--or vice versa.

How do you choose? It's entirely up to you.