Hi Friends, I took the leap and am now officially on Patreon, with exactly ZERO supporters!  I smile, because I didn’t get into podcasting for the money. However, I’m putting the vibe out there in hopes to raise some funds for new equipment and a bit o’ mojo. If you’re interested, below is the Patreon link. Oh, and if you get to Camp 1 of support, you get a mug with MY ‘mug’ on it. Talk about inspiring!

HERE’S THE TRANSCRIPT TO MY RECENT EPISODE (SEASON 2 EPISODE 10) about atonement, and gaining inspiration from philosophers of the past. ENJOY!

 

SOUNDS OF NATURE: (00:01)
SOUND OF OWLS CALLING IN THE NIGHT

THOM: (00:11)
THOM: One year ago tonight, I crawled back into my tent at advanced base camp on Mount Everest in Tibet. Earlier in the day, I had had the symptoms of what is known as a transient ischemic attack. TIA, as it’s known as, is like a small stroke, and I was told that what I should do is not go up the mountain.

THOM: (00:54)
Hmm. And

THOM: (00:58)
When I went back to my tent that evening, I made the decision to go up no matter what. And here I am tonight, listening to the sound of a barred owl calling out into the night, hauntingly, beautifully, soulfully reminding me that going with my gut instincts, going with what feels right inside of my body

THOM: (01:32)
well

Speaker 2: (01:35)
It is the only way to go

THOM: (01:44)
Welcome to Baker street with Tom Pollard, that recording that introduction that you just heard was made about two weeks ago in my driveway at night, you can hear the barred owls echoing into the night, incredible creatures that live near here with the other beings of the air and of the earth. I intended at that time to use it for a Baker street episode. And this very episode, episode number 10 is fitting for the matter at hand. One thing I want to say here off the bat is you shouldn’t believe a word. I say, when you hear something from anyone, be it a podcaster or a politician or a preacher or priest don’t believe what they say. Don’t take it as fact, what people don’t do often enough is to go deep inside to ask themselves if what they’re hearing serves their higher. Good. And if it doesn’t, then the question has been answered. If it does not serve your higher good. When you come from a place of love, then you know that it, it isn’t a truth and it is not for you.

THOM: (03:13)
And so today we’re going to talk about equality about Haile Salassie Rastafarianism about judgment, inner peace and how they all tie together with recent events in the United States and the world, the activities in the United States and the world appear to have risen really to a fever pitch in the last several months. But going back about a year that the protests and uprising in Hong Kong began basically over China, who had planned to extradite a prisoner to the mainland for prosecution and the protests ultimately worked tens of thousands. Hundreds of thousands of people got behind it. And in time in September, China actually repealed their plan to begin. Extraditing prisoners to the mainland. And the protesters now have have a core set of demands. One of them is, is for the government not to call them rioters, but in the year, since those, those peaceful protests started and they’ve turned violent protesters, some of them throwing petrol bombs at police police have responded with live bullets.

THOM: (04:31)
There have been deaths, thousands of injuries, casualties to protesters and police alike. And then here in the United States arising out of the senseless death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Back at the end of may at the hands of a police officer who along with three other police officers standing by have all been charged with murder. George Floyd was a black man whose death has set off growing unrest and dis ease here in the United States, exacerbated greatly by a growing political and economic divide in this country and the world. This has been going on for time immemorial and occasionally things quiet down. People go back into their places. And as time goes on political parties, the gap between them widens and in the last week or so, I personally grew increasingly restless after watching with total indignation and rage as the protests grew across the country and the world, which in my estimation was, was really just catalyzed by George Floyd’s death.

THOM: (05:48)
That it was, it was rumbling and grumbling and growling in the stomach of, of the beast, ready to rise up where the vacuous gap between the haves and have nots has grown out of control and people are angry, many blame it on the current administration, which seems willing to go to any lengths to protect its own interests. It continues to pander to the base voters, most of whom who have zero in common with the wealthy elite running the government. And I mean that on both sides of the fence, but most egregiously from the standpoint of the current administration, creating tax loops for corporations and the top 1% who seem to just be getting richer and richer. So why I bring this up today is not to launch into a bitch session and grieve my woeful position as one of the 99%. But to talk about how my inner sanctuary was uprooted this week at my own doing by the fact that I allowed the negativity and low vibrational energy of newscasts news, the news that came across through my telephone and my television, I let it invade my inner peace instead of just watching.

THOM: (07:04)
I did let it, let it upset and topple my inner peace. I grew angry. And as you heard in last week’s episode, I began posting fervently on my social media, particularly Twitter, but also Facebook, even on Instagram on my story, which here to for has always been a nonpolitical zone of mine, kind of a, a safe place where I could focus on things of creativity, mountain climbing, electric guitars, and other like-minded artists and filmmakers and nature lovers could share with me the things that they love as well. So the other day I made a post on Facebook pointing out a comment that was made by former secretary of state Madeline Albright, the first woman, secretary of state in the United States. And she was interviewed about Trump and how he’s played into the hands of, of Russian premier, Vladimir Putin, and how in communist theology, she shared, there’s a saying about having a useful idiot to help their cause.

THOM: (08:15)
And she said something to the nature of, I don’t really have to say anymore for you to understand the point that I’m making. And so I posted the quote and was very quickly called out by a guy I’ve known for years who lives up in the Valley, where I live. And he thought that the post was beneath me B look, he seemed defended and actually kind of angry. He called me out saying that was really below my level of intelligence. And at first I was upset and, um, you know, I, my ego was damaged a little bit and, but it really sent me along on a thought trajectory where second thought I thought about what I’m really all about. Who am I, what do I want to portray to the world? What do I want the inside workings of myself and soul to feel like every day that I wake up, no matter the chaos that might be going on outside, how do Y want to spend my days?

THOM: (09:17)
And what do I want to project to my friends and to the people who listened to my podcast in that very moment, it was as if my wheels became re-engaged on the tracks. I felt that once calm in control and extremely thankful for that post that this guy had had made on my page, which I have since deleted, I reached out to him and I said, you know, this is by private message. And I just said, listen, I, I hear ya. You know, um, thanks for reminding me, um, that maybe I’d let the emotions get the best of me. I, it doesn’t change my opinion. I still feel very strongly about those things, but it made me realize, you know, I am better than that. I’ve got more to offer the world than my ramblings and quotes from Madeline Albright, as much as I do believe that she is a brilliant woman and, uh, but I’m best doing the things that I’m best at.

THOM: (10:18)
And so I’m going to quote two other people today. Um, I’m going to talk about Albert Einstein and Haile Salassie so, yeah. Um, so this is episode 10. Here we are in this COVID-19 world protests around the United States and the world, the economic and political divides appear to be growing greater. For me. My world has grown, colorful and enriching because I’m a person who has always seen that in our tragedies and losses comes an opportunity to learn. And when we’re giving over to anger or particularly judgment, we’re giving away our power. So I’ve said many times in this podcast, we create our reality with the thoughts that we empower. That’s the very foundation of Baker street with Tom Pollard, more plainly put, when we have a thought inside of us, when we give it strength, when we give it power, empower it, it becomes us.

THOM: (11:26)
That’s our reality. That’s what we project to the world. So if we do what I did last week and allow thoughts of anger and judgment to consume me, that’s the not only what I portrayed to the world, but that’s what I was. I was very upset and I didn’t sleep well through the night. The few nights that this took place, I woke up early. I was visibly not the person that I have always liked being. And that’s person from a place of positivity. You know, when we give into fear, we ultimately give our power away. We stop becoming the master of our own experience. Your physical body is the reflection of the thought forms empowered by your consciousness. So we’re all manifest from source. We are all one. We’re all knowing indestructable beings of light. We are all in this together. We all come from source manifest the same place.

THOM: (12:31)
It has only one ending to this thing, and we’re all going to die. And in the time between now, and then if we come from a place of love, our lives can be a lot happier and peaceful. So Albert Einstein said the soul given to each of us is moved by the same living spirit that moves the universe. So here’s a guy who’s known as a brilliant mathematician and physicist. And here he is talking about the soul given to each of us moved by the same living spirit that moves the universe. I think about that. There are consequences. This is me talking, not Albert Einstein, but the same offshoot. There are consequences. When you choose to come from a place of love. And then there are consequences. When you choose to come from a place of fear, one of them sets you free. And one of them imprisons you.

THOM: (13:26)
And that second one, the latter is from your own doing nobody, but yourself can make you feel fear or love. No external events can make you happy or unhappy. Prisoners of war being tortured have found joy. Don’t get me wrong. They want to be out, but they’re, they’re not broken or beaten down in terms of who their soul is from any condition being imposed upon them. We’re connected to one greater living thing, not a he or a she, but in it. And when we understand that we become less judgmental toward the other beings with whom we share this journey. So when you find yourself doubting or limiting yourself, release those doubts into space up toward our source, transmute them with love and then learn through experience by the mistakes. There are no mistakes, but by those mistakes that we’ve made. And remember when we judge another or giving away our power do not embrace judgment around anything, everything you judge, you support energetically at the expense of your physical and emotional wellbeing.

THOM: (14:46)
When you judge it allows others from physical and nonphysical levels to feed off your life force, don’t give away your power. Haile Salassie was an emperor of Ethiopia back in 1930, up until about 1974, his internationalist views was part of why Ethiopia became a charter mender member of the United nations. And in 1936, among other things he condemned Italy’s use of chemical weapons against its people during the second Italo Ethiopian war. So he was, uh, outspoken for equality and, and against racism. Now I know that there are people who have done their research, that Haile Salassie was also criticized by some, for his suppression of, of various rebellions in Ethiopia. Um, and he opposed certain reforms that, uh, you know, that some say hampered Ethiopia’s ability to modernize rapidly, but, but for the sake of this podcast, and I’m, I’m embracing that there was a negative side to him.

THOM: (15:59)
Like there are to all of us, um, on among the Rastafari movement, Haile Salassie is, was, but is still, even though he’s been dead for decades, um, as the returned Messiah of the Bible, God incarnate and beginning in Jamaica in the 1930s, the Rastafarian movement, uh, thought of him as a figure who could lead them in the Rastafarians into eternal peace and prosperity. There’s a song that Bob Marley does and it’s called war. And it sounds so much like that song could be spoken today. And I’m able to read the words to that song because the words to the song war were taken from a speech that Haile Salassie gave to the United nations in 1963. And it was published in a book back in, um, the early 1970s, which States that any portion of the book could be reproduced without permission, which is pretty cool, perfect for a podcast or like me looking for content.

THOM: (17:16)
So here’s part of Selassie’s speech that Marley put to music in war. You should look it up and play it and crank it. And I’m going to read it for you because anybody who’s aware and familiar with the events that are going on in the United States today, we’ll see that our struggles are not new. It’s on the question of racial discrimination. He talked about as long as there is racial discrimination to those who will learn there is this further, further, less than that until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned that until there are no longer first class and second class citizens of any nation, that until the color of a man’s skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes. That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race that until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship, and the rule of international morality will remain, but a fleeting illusion to be pursued, but never attained.

THOM: (18:38)
And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in subhuman bondage have been toppled and destroyed until bigotry and prejudice and malicious and inhuman self-interest have been replaced by understanding and tolerance and Goodwill until all people stand and speak as free beings equal in the eyes of all men, as they are in the eyes of heaven. Until that day, we will not know peace. We will fight if necessary. And we know that we show when, as we are confident in the victory of good over evil that’s Haile Salassie. I swapped out some of the words. He talked about Angola and Mozambique and South Africa and Africa, but as a world nation, his words hold true. So as our nation, the United States and the world, those listeners I have from Australia, from Nepal, from India, from Finland, from France, from Italy, from Spain, I have friends all over the world, listening to this.

THOM: (19:44)
As we ponder racial and economic chasms that continue to grow, we can do our part by remaining centered, coming from a place of love, not judging others or ourselves, staying above the fray, not giving away our power by investing in ways to harm or discredit someone we disagree with. When we do that, we only give away our power, our power. That’s all we have. And we have this life we do that. We make that other person, the object of our scorn or disagreement. We make that person politician whomever, more powerful. We’re giving it away to that person, hold onto your power. Keep your love. Stay centered, come from a place of love. We’re all in this together. This life in this realm, we’re going in the same direction. Whenever that fateful day may arrive, it will be over. And we will only have our legacy to call back upon handle yourselves with integrity, mend ways.

THOM: (20:49)
With those, you disagree with fight hard for your beliefs. Yes. Vote on November 3rd. If you are an American citizen and you disagree with the current administration, as I admittedly do urge others to vote as well, use your voice. Don’t lean too far left. Don’t lean too far, right? Stay in the center. Keep your wheels on the tracks and listen to the voices of those who disagree with you and be open to change. Listen to the voice of others as I did from that Facebook post, thankful for that person to remind me about who I am today, because of that disagreement on Facebook, which has now been deleted. We both admittedly grew in respect for each other. Peace and love to you all. I will see you real soon with another Baker street with Tom Pollard. I leave you now with the wisdom of the owls of New Hampshire.

THOM: (21:53)
BARRED OWLS CALLING IN THE NIGHT

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