For some time now I have been feeling powerless: powerless about my relationships as well as my work life, and completely powerless about what is happening in the world. Many great spiritual leaders claim that powerlessness is a good state to acknowledge as it is only from this state that we may live a present life. From the time I get up in the morning to the time I go to bed, I remind myself I am powerless in the world. Sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn’t. I find the world to be more frightening than it has ever been before as there is no real constant or nothing that is certain to count on. People used to say all one could count on was death and taxes. That is certainly still true but is a statement completely lacking in comfort. Our country is in a real mess and for a few months now newscasters as well as government leaders have been trying to persuade Americans that the crisis is over and the economy is on an upswing.People have invested their savings back into the stock market. That advice made me angry and frightened as well. In California behavior is particularly frightening as the malls are filled with people carrying shopping bags. Every time I go past the mall parking lot near where I live I am surprised to see there are no vacant parking spaces. People are shopping like crazy despite the fact that California has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. Our social service programs are being cut left and right. Foreclosures happen about once a minute in this state and we may be forced to close some of our most beloved national parks. Granted, California is a huge state and one that has been mismanaged but other states will undoubtedly follow this same path. We simply can no longer afford the life we took for granted for so many years. People that are shopping must be bringing their credit cards up to the max once again believing that life will spring back to where it was. They are not considering what is really happening but are living in the present moment to a dangerous degree. Many people are doing this today. Many are afraid to really examine what is going on in the world as it is really scary to do so. Iran is on the edge of a major revolution, Korea is dangerously close to using nuclear weapons to assert itself, China is readying its economic policies to take over the markets and assume America’s place as leader of the world. Actually, China, Brasil  and India will all have to duke it out in the coming years to see who will take over as the biggest and the best. I would like to place my vote on India as I believe in the culture of education found there as well as the great sense of spirituality. I think I would lose in that bet so I won’t make it. It looks to me like China will win out as they are the greediest at the moment and perhaps the most uncaring about the rest of the world. You won’t see China jumping in to feed a country after famine resulting from internal strife hits somewhere in the world. You probably won’t see China jumping in to save another country from communism or from the perils of a disease that could have been prevented by inoculation. China will sit back and collect interest from the loans she will make to other countries in the world while ignoring whatever pain is going on. Do I think this is bad behavior? Not really. I think we have wasted countless dollars as well as human lives on wars we had no reason to get involved with other than the ego of our military leaders and our presidents.I think now we have to wait while the scene we have created unfolds. If the Mayans are correct, we will live to see a new world order which is more generous, loving and kind and which supports love and human life above all else. So far everything that has happened was predicted in their calendar many centuries ago. I feel powerless because I am powerless. We all are. Any attempt to fell otherwise will be viewed as a joke by the universe.