Blue Collar Manifesto

The beautiful thing about being stoned is you don’t have to know what you are about to do, you just do it or not.  It’s true, you don’t do those things normally called “work” in the modern workplace/lifestyle, but there are more creative types of work as well.

Baudelaire often worked under the influence of hash, and writing poetry on his level is  definitely of the most arduous type of creative work.   Many artists swear by the weed, and I am one of them. I may not be very good at writing, but when I am stoned, I don’t have a problem writing. It frees the imagination, at least for certain tasks.

I don’t skydive when stoned. At least not anymore. I don’t skydive nearly as well when stoned, though some of us swear by it. Could be just me. But, even though some days I can hardly wait for death’s touch to free me from this hell we call life, I know, somehow, that I have some story to fulfill in this play we call life. So, I don’t take any unnecessary risks in the air.

Yet, only life is mortal. Death is for eternity. Could it be so bad to be unaware of all that is life? Could it be so bad to sleep peacefully unaware through all of time? Could it be so bad to have your heart at peace forever? Somedays, I pray for such peace. Yet, I have a part to play.

Okay, so many days I pray for such peace. Don’t go thinking I’m suicidal though. I’ve had friends do such a thing, and I came close when I was seventeen. Held a shotgun barrel in my mouth for I don’t know how long. It causes too much pain among the living. Something we have far too much of for me to add that level of hell.

I’ve survived shit that should have killed me so many times I can’t count them. Unbelievable shit. Some of which have left emotional and mental scars that will probably not heal until I’ve died. Though June 25, 2007 marks my 47th birthday, I still feel as if I am as immortal as when I was 17. Perhaps even more so, as I attempted suicide that year.

Somehow though, I feel as if I have a part in helping others during their journey of this life.  As if I can eliminate some measure of their pain. This longing for another breath. This thing we call life.

Somehow this smoking and skydiving thing are all related. I don’t know how, but it is. Not some mental thing. Just a good thing. They both help my writing. But I would give up all of them for peace in my heart.

I have so much anger in my heart nowadays. And that hurts. A lot more than I can bear sometimes. Or maybe not, being as I am still here. Breathing at this moment.  But, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. A lot sometimes.

I am often furious with rage at the notion that some other person believes they have some power over me when my actions harm no one other than myself. It is my life. As long as I harm only myself, no one has any right over me. Yet, our Christian-based government constantly refutes these claims, which would have been wholly endorsed by their founder,  in favor of their oppressive old testament persecutions.

I am also enraged that we accept these pitiful beliefs. These neanderthal laws. These opiates of the masses. These anti-christians. Those bound for the pit of darkness.

But, I also long for this dark pit. This pit of nothingness. The worst that a loving god will offer. Please, Timothy O’Leary got it right when he implored us to turn on and tune out. There is no person who has power over you. Help me finish my part in this play. Simply love your neighbor as you love yourself and you love God. All with all of you. Then maybe my part in this play will be over. That’s all I ask.

Rev. Jim Lunsford

First Cannabist Church

Faith is Love

Yeah, if you want to call it that. I don’t watch much TV, but what little I do is the news. Just in passing. Wouldn’t want to watch that shit on purpose. It’s all just crap to me. Nothing really new to the news. Just the same old shit.

The other day some guy named Cho blew the hell out of a lot of people. A pretty cowardly act, but that might just be me. It’s not like they were armed or anything. Just easy pickings for another pissed off murderer. At least he didn’t miss when he aimed at himself.

But there was a lot more going on than just the bad news yesterday and today. You wouldn’t know it from the news reports though. Unless you were following the story of the trial of the pastor’s wife accused of shooting her husband. Only stupid acts of violence reach our news stations.

They would have us live in the fearful climates they have created for us. Another way of getting us to submit to government. A government that can’t protect us from the violence they project. A government that fosters the very fear they claim they protect us from.

But fear is such an empty beast. There isn’t much to fear in a life that must inevitably end. Whenever we die, it is right now. It’s never tomorrow. Just now. The only time that ever truly exists. And that death will surely come, so what is there to protect us from? Certainty? I think not.

Yet, we revel in our fear.  We hold it close to our hearts. We insist on believing all of these bad things that have happened to others will happen to us as well. Unless, of course, we bend our own powers to the will of those in power. Then they will protect us from the inevitable.

I’ve heard the nation is in a state of mourning for these Virgina massacre victims. I’ve heard this from countless media outlets. But I’ve had a damn fine few days filled with anything but mourning. Why is that? Could it be I fear so little? Could it be that I don’t worry about dying? Could it be that I am more concerned about living instead?

It’s not that I’m callous or anything, it’s just that I don’t believe my wasting my tears on the dead will help anything. Nor will any new legislation make our lives better. Or that anything will come out of this other than a lot of people will make money off of other people’s misery. Those people being the news media and politicians.

Think about it for a bit. The dead have no worries and spend no time thinking of you. Why should we waste any time on the dead? They are eternal. Only the living are mortal.

Rev. Jim Lunsford

First Cannabist Church

Life: Meant for the living.

Okay, we now have internet here again. Much better than before as well. So, I guess I can write again. Unfortunately, I am out of weed now, but let’s see how it all goes anyway.

I think there is already a war being fought in this country, and we are all a part of it. It is a war which we have traditionally lost. We have lost this war normally because we choose to have others think for us. Even when we know they are lying. Or rather, especially when we know they are lying and have only their own interests in mind. Interests which are not in line with our own interests.

Yet, this internet is changing that battlefield. We citizens are now armed with diverse opinions and news sources. We are no longer forced to settle for the truth speak of authority figures, we merely choose to settle or not. It’s now our choice even more than before.

I am still more interested in living my life fully,  than in writing this blog, but it has it’s place as well.  But it will be each and every one of you that decide how this world will turn tomorrow. Will it turn for freedom or for the fascism we have today? The choice is yours and mine to make. Peace.

Rev. Jim Lunsford

First Cannabist Church

Government: Fully evolved crime ring

I know it was short and all on my last post, but I didn’t have much time. I can’t write, because I can barely get to a spot for internet connection now.  Hey, I’m just a drop zone bum. No money here.

Seriously though, it’s all a choice. We, as a species, have always chosen hate over love. We have chosen to submit our own personal powers to others. We have chosen to be deceived. We have chosen poorly for happiness.

I am  choosing skydiving over anything else. It’s the only place where I am happy. Where I am free. Can’t help it, I just love the sky, though I hardly ever get up in the air. After that it’s just my motorcycle and my weed. Save yourselves, love each other. Peace, Jim

Rev. Jim Lunsford

First Cannabist Church

Life: It’s yours to live or waste, no one Else’s

Everything I’ve had to say, I’ve said. If you can’t figure it out by now, then there is no point in saying more. And, so I go on to living my life. Enjoy, Jim

Rev., Jim Lunsford

Nothing. At least that is what I’ve let myself become. Through my inactions. Through my self-talk. Through my letting what others think about me, get to me. But, that doesn’t have to be my tomorrow. Or even my today.

How many of us let the world grind us down into nothings? Until there is nothing left of us to shine through the fog that is our lives. Until we have become just another cog in the machine. A machine that just grinds up love and compassion. Until we have nothing left at all.  Until we just accept whatever is offered.

We have been cultivated since birth to believe we are powerless. That we should just accept our nothingness and bow to any wind which blows. And it is so very hard to rise above this purposeful deception.

Our school systems teach us only to be a cog in a machine. A productive little worker bee for the hive. The hive being the fascist little christian nation. One designed to live off of the nothings they have cultivated. All for a dollar.

But we don’t have to be nothings. All we have to do is say no. No to the naysayers. No to those who could but don’t. No to those who would enslave us. No to anyone who stands in our way. As if they have more right to life’s riches than you.

Stand up and be proud. Fight. With every inch of your dignity. Your integrity. Your soul. All you have to lose is your life, and you will lose that eventually. When you do, will it be as a worker bee or as a warrior soul? It’s your choice.

Rev Jim Lunsford

First Cannabist Church

Accept no man as your master

Oh yeah. Hash. And it was good. And I smoked a lot of it. I’m happy now. Not like I have been lately. Been doing a lot of thinking lately.

Mostly about how I don’t know shit anymore. My inner self kicking me down so much that I can’t believe myself worthy of anything anymore. As if I am undeserving of happiness. Even though so many opportunities exist for me to enjoy any level of happiness I desire.

The fact that I know this doesn’t stop me from my own self-destruction. I can see these things going on, but my ego is so broken that I can’t allow myself to realize all that I already  have in my life.

Knowing these things intellectually doesn’t help you out much though. Not from what I can tell anyway.  Knowing that true happiness comes from enoying what you have is a lot different from experiencing it. But at least knowing these things is a step in the right direction.

I guess it’s a lot like our society. We all know it’s wrong. So much of what we do is in direct opposition to our natural selves. Our natural state of love.

As a society, we encourage retribution.  We encourage war. We encourage ignorance. And we know all of this individually. But, we can’t seem to stop ourselves. Maybe we are just happy kicking ourselves down as a society. A little global spat of desperate depression.

But at least the word is getting out. There is an army of bloggers screaming it out. We don’t have to live our histories. Change is as soon as we let it into our lives. Into our hearts.

Whatever we choose is what we were supposed to choose. There is no right or wrong. Just actors in a play. Yet, we can choose the role, just by our attitudes. Our emotions. Our dis-content. Our happiness. As a society.  As an individual. As you. As me.

Hey, I said it was a lot of hash. And it was good. And I inhaled. After all, I am fiscally responsible. Unlike SOME people I could name! Hash on,

Rev. Jim Lunsford

First “Cannabist Church

How would you define your life on a bumper sticker?

Yeah, I always am when I write. Just hit a bowl and start watching your fingers hum along. I never know what’s going to come on out of the whole thing. But it usually somehow seems right.

It encourages our imaginations to grow. It encourages our minds to question. It encourages an independent and personable connection with God. And this is why the Church banned it so many centuries ago.  All for the love of their goddamned dollar.

How many centuries must we continue to endure the yoke of the christian oppression? How many more years do we need before we learn that Christ certainly would not have approved of war. Nor would he have approved of our bowing to this sham of a government. He was quite the political activist. And died at the hands of people with the same mindset as those who govern our lives today.

How many more years do we need before we understand that we are only here for such a brief spot of eternity. That no one has the right to judge another based on morality. That true harm to the society would be the basis of an enlightened society. That love is ten thousand times better than the hate and the love of the dollar that is prevelant in our times.

My love is an angry love. Angry because we don’t have to suffer. We choose to suffer. We choose to remain so willfully ignorant. We choose hate over love. And that really angers me when I get stoned.

Rev. Jim lunsford

First Cannabist Church

Love: Doesn’t make you a pussy

There is no love in my heart for those who have perpetuated the lies that keep us enslaved. All for a dollar. A dollar they have so many of. A dollar you can’t take with you when you die.

What point is there for love in this world? A world that stands idly by while our government mandates global terrorism. A world that stands allied with this mandate by it’s own inaction. A world that refuses to question hate.

There is no love in my heart for a nation that endorsed the brutal suppressing at Waco. Nor for the complicity suspected in the Oklahoma City bombing. Nor for the complicity suspected in 9/11. Nor for the nation that allows this war to continue. A war based on lies.

There is no love in my heart for those who remain so willfully ignorant. For those who choose to believe that just because we are of another color, another nation, another religion, another gender, another whatever, we are evil.

All war is fought over money. The love of which these Christians believe is the root of all evil. And yet, it is this most “christian” of nations which loves war. So very much. Because we have no love in our hearts. Because it is easier to hate. Because we are so small and insignificant. Because we are afraid.

There is no love in my heart for those who perpetuate this insanity. For those in a position to lead, and do not. For you. For me. There is no love in my heart because I am no better than they. Because I tolerate this madness. Because my inactions have damned me with them.

Rev. Jim Lunsford

First Cannabist Church

Life: Thank God it ends

I didn’t write last night. We had a memorial service for the man that died last Saturday. It was good. I drank a lot. I cried. It was good. But he shouldn’t have died. He was a lot better than I. A lot better than most of us. He shouldn’t have died, but he did. The sort of person we all wished we were, but aren’t because we don’t do what we say we will do. He did. He listened when you talked and he did what he said he’d do. All with good intent. I cried and it was good. And I miss him.

Rev. Jim Lunsford

First Cannabist Church

Life was meant for living