WELCOME TO BLESSAYS [BLOGS & ESSAYS]


Below

you will find links to all our blogs in 6 categories:
Cross-Country Walks of 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015,
the Silent Path of 2016-17, Journeys Beyond 2018,
and More Rounds from 2025.

Our blogs were originally posted at
https://theportableschool.blogspot.com/
From 2018 to 2023, we posted essays regularly at
https://robertmcnary.medium.com/



8 April 2025


All the World's A Stage,

So Said Shakespeare




“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.”



Bacon Shakespeare


Part II


As mentioned in our first essay on Shakespeare’s world stage, the real writer of As You Like It left out important facts in his play. Last time, we considered briefly the acts which every human experiences after death and prior to rebirth. Now, let us consider more deeply the most important “players” who do not act but stand behind the scenes on stage in our outer world life.

You and I are the actors passing through the seven stages mentioned – during physical existence as well as between lives. But, to get a sense of the Big Picture, we must pause to consider the Producer and Director and others.

You see, we think we run and control our own lives. But, that is really far from the truth. We believe so because we only see the surface of things – while the essence of existence is hidden from our limited vision.

Humans have become more and more materialistically oriented over the centuries, and have long since lost reverence and awareness of the spirit world. Oh, we may for moments allow ourselves to enjoy movies or films which entertain ghosts or goblins, witchcraft or magic. But with the reign of faith in science, we generally say, “This cannot be so. Someone had quite an imagination to come up with this story.”

Ah, but was it just a story. Any more than your life and my own are “just stories.”

Our plays in seven acts upon the outer stage – are actually laid out to a large degree before we are born. Our Souls with perfect understanding provide for the talents and flaws, opportunities and challenges which we express during our coming tour of physicality. Assuredly, those aspects of our lives are based on recent lives and allow us free will – however limited it may be – in the present passage.

So, we have helped quite unconsciously to “write” our current dramas. Then, we have some leeway how our lives unfold. But for the most part, that is in the “how” rather than in the “what” which occurs.

“How can this be so?” you may be asking. “It is my life, I do what and when I wish. Don’t I?”

But, do you?

Do we really have control? Do we really know what we are doing and where we are heading? If we don’t know whence we came, how can we really understand our roles in the present play, the acts yet to come, and the finale far ahead?

Then to get even more “technical,” we should seek to realize that we are in fact puppets on stage. We can draw an analogy to our own situations by considering geopolitical situations past and present.  

There is a fascinating scene in Oliver Stone’s film called Nixon. In it, Richard Nixon makes a late-night, unannounced visit to the Lincoln Memorial and talks with a group of young people. After trying to discuss football, the conversation turns to Vietnam. Nixon says that he wants, “peace with honor,” but it can require fighting and dying.

One young woman asks the US President, supposedly the most powerful man in the world, “You say you want to end the war, so why don’t you stop this war?”

Nixon became flustered when the woman inferred that he was powerless within the 'system' to stop the war: “Whaťt's the point of being president? You're powerless!”

If the “most powerful man” (actor on the world stage) was unable to end an unpopular and wasteful war, that might give us clues to the state of our own powers. Do we have any? How much? How can they be accessed?

If we step back in time a hundred years or so, we can also be reminded of Abraham Lincoln passing through a somewhat similar situation as Richard Nixon. But Lincoln seems to have recognized his limited role when he said, “I claim not to have controlled events, but confess that events have controlled me.”

Presidents Lincoln and Nixon surely thought they had power – at least for some time. Those who elected Lincoln and Nixon imagined similarly – as Donald Trump and the present electorate do. But, believe it or not, such are illusory ideas. Those are illusions because all of us, including presidents, potentates and popes, are only players not directors on the world stage. Real Powers-That-Be are quite invisible to common view.

Even Jesus Christ said as much that He wielded power only as an instrument. “I can do nothing of myself.” John 5

So, are the rest of us any different than Abraham Lincoln, Richard Nixon and Jesus Christ? Well, certainly not in regard to our roles on the world stage – even though they are minor compared to those three seemingly powerful beings.

Production and Direction of the world stage as well as our own local venues are in fact overseen by the Great Ones. Though they are unseen and largely unrecognized, They are the Cloud of Witnesses, the Rishis, the Hierarchy – the True Directors of Planet Earth. Standing alongside them are the Lords of Karma who insure that Divine Justice rules in personal scenes as well as larger dramas.

Rebirth and Karma place us in the right time, place and stage. Then, angels and devas act as Stage Managers to funnel the force needed to build and maintain our forms and to do our duties from moment to moment. It is as if they feed us the lines – so to speak – to fulfill our roles. All the while, the greater and lesser Directors of Karma and Justice govern our actions. Then, the Great Producer aka the Grand Architect of the Universe stands beyond all observing how the show meets intentions.

When we play our role as intended, life flows freely and happily. When otherwise, we fall into illness and injury, distress and divorce, mayhem and madness. Those may not be scripted occurrences, but are fallout from what amounts to poor performances. We need to learn, however ineptly, to play our parts clearly and believably. Not as we wish them to be, but as they are “written upon the Greater Scripts of Life.”

Since humans tend to learn their roles slowly, many, many repeat performances are required on our benighted planet. Fortunately, the Producer, Directors, and Stage Managers are in no hurry. Those are patient, loving, forgiving Beings Who have limitless time on their side and thus on our own. “ With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” 2 Peter 3



Comments always welcome at theportableschool at gmail dot com.





Dr. Bob took a jaunt across America in 2002.

He started in Lavina on June 11 and

arrived at the Statue of Liberty

on November 3, 2002,

which happened to be a Sunday

and the day of the New York Marathon.

"His marathon" was over in time for a good rest.



2002 Route
Dr. Bob's Route


The memories remain and prompted a book 10 years out, 

then followed four walks to the West.

Later still came other experiences

to get him “On the Road Again."




2012 Walk - Montana to Nevada (Blogs 01-14)

Ready for the Road
Out the Door
Harlo to Livingston
First 100 miles
Heading for Idaho
Over the Divide
Three Amigas
In the News
At Center for Peace
Leatherwoman
Photogobia
All’s Well
Recapitulating Lessons from Roads


2013 Walk - Montana to Nebraska (Blogs 15-28)



Ready Again
Changing Plans
First Week Out
Good Man
This Bud
Seams Right
Rescues-Rescuers
Forsyth News
Walking the RR
Natural Healing
Back from the Edge
Living on the Edge
Another Man’s Shoes
Healing Friends

   

2014 Walk - Wyoming to Kansas (Blogs 29-40)

In the Saddle Again
Down the Road
Nebraska
Favorite Spots
Great Dictator
Good Neighbor
Kindness of Strangers
Dorothy in KS
JFK Report
Rules of Road
Planes Trains Autos
Photoblog




2015 Walk - Arizona to Idaho (Blogs 41-55)

Snow in Snowflake
66 at 66
The Night Shift
Sweet Alternative
Montana Again
Navajo Nation
Phone Power
Mormon Trail
Raindrops Falling
At the Junction
Photoblog 1
Photoblog 2
Photoblog 3
Presidential Politics
2015 Map

2016-17 Silent Path (Blogs 56-65)

A Silent Path
7 Weeks In
7 Months In
Silent Reading Joseph & JFK
Moments of Silence
Old Dogs
Robert Robot
Rollin’ River
Like a River

2018-23 Journeys Beyond (66-91)

Dreyfuss Road
Law and Love
Play It Again, S__
It Ain't Easy
Being Rich
Getting Old
Reason for Medicine LOVE is the Reason
LOVE is the Answer
Gifts of Aging
Sequel to Gifts
100 and Counting
Everyday Magic
Magic Books
May Mother Magic
Changing Times Calendar Moms Dogs & Tricks

In Your Mind

Pieces of Mind
Healing Minds
Ghostriders & ...
Life Matters
Richest Person
Mozart: Medium
Mysteries Plus
The World Stage
The World Stage - II




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