I see this quote  from my friend and colleague, Al Diaz, author of BEing The Titus Concept and host of BlogTalkRadio Ilumine-Ao Talkshow:  “I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.” ~~Groucho Marx

A coupla’ people liked the quote and commented as such.  And then I began commenting “Well, I actually DO find television very educating.”   Last night, or rather early this morning  I had a rather unusual, yet commonplace occurrence while watching TV.

I was putting the finishing touches on the Handout of the For The LOVE of Money Teleseminar on Thursday, I had the TV on in the background.

Growing up in a very busy, bustling household there usually was NOISE in the background while I was doing homework, reading, memorizing speeches and poetry,etc.  After I moved away from home, to my own place I found I worked better with the TV or radio on low in the background. The rest of the time it’s the usual household ‘quiet’, i.e. radiator, clock, windows pane, house settling noises.

I happened to tune into  an ‘Oldie but Goodie’  Angel and the Badman starring John Wayne and Gail Russell  I popped in just at the part where he’d been laid up for about 3 weeks and was on the mend.  He noticed a wall plaque over his left shoulder:

Quirt Evans (John Wayne): [reads the plaque on the wall] “Each human being has an integrity that can be hurt only by the act of that same human being and not by the act of another human being.”

Quirt Evans: Is that Quaker stuff?

Penelope Worth (Gail Russell): Uh huh.

Quirt Evans: You mean nobody can hurt you but yourself?

Penelope Worth: That’s a Friend’s belief.

Quirt Evans: Well, supposin’ someone whacks you over the head with a branding iron? Won’t that hurt?

Penelope Worth: Physically, of course. But in reality it would injure only the person doing the act of force of violence. Only the doer can be hurt by a mean or evil act.

Quirt Evans: Are there very many of you Quakers?

Penelope Worth: Very few.

Quirt Evans: I sort of figured that.

I was momentarily stunned.  I immediately sat up and took notice!!! That quote spoke to the very essence of No Out There, the premise from which I’ve been living my life for the past 14 years!!!  For from the No Out There perspective:

• the source, cause and remedy for whatever is going on in my life is here within me.
• I am 100% responsible for what is occurring in my life, is now in my life or has ever been in my life
• upsets are a signal I am attempting to fix something I think is outside of me
• the resolution is me. No one’s doing it to me. No one’s to blame, not even me.

I was floored.  I’d seen the movie several times before and had never HEARD (paid attention) to that line.  And yet, there it was, proof positive that EVERYTHING, everything  can contain a message from ALL THAT IS if I only be  and only LISTEN!

For example:  The day after my sister passed away, I was driving over to my Mom’s, unconsoleable, sobbing and crying and turned on the radio.  A new (at that time) Janet Jackson song “Together Again” was playing.  Listening to those lyrics I KNEW my sister was speaking to me.  She was my best friend and confident and had been ill for years, not given long to be here.  We’d often joke that whomever went first we’d come back as the other’s child. 

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As to the movie last night, I don’t know if the quote came from the Religious Society of Friends  – the Quakers – or not!   I took  it as an answer to the concern I had about a very loud difference of opinion my friend James and I had Friday evening.  My heart and mind are settled that I cannot harm him and he cannot harm me.   That message was also confirmation of No Out There as a way of life, for ME.

P.S.  And SOMETIMES I do turn the TV off and read a book, take a drive, work in the yard, etc.  I’m suggesting that rather than automatically shutting the TV off -  Be at CHOICE – about watching TV or doing anything else!  Moderation in ALL things.

P.S.S. And KNOW that It’s ALL Good.  KNOW that All That Is IS in everything.

P.S.S.  I agree with the person who wrote this on IMdb about the movie:  “John Wayne never looked better on film then in The Angel and The Badman. In one scene, he wakes from a coma, hears a noise, gropes for his gun, which is under the pillow and rises, gun in hand to face a startled and stunning Russell. The sight of John Wayne, shirtless, his hair un-combed and his gorgeous, almost purple eyes taking in the lovely lady in front of him, is something no woman from 6 to 106 should miss.”