Old School Journaling is more than processing emotions!

     Bloggers, today's technocrats or computer wizards think that Journaling is for old people and that it is mostly used as a way to process old peoples emotions, but I seriously have to disagree. As I see it, journaling can be used for many reasons. I use it for recording and documenting events that are important to me like the death of a loved one or of a birth of our babies. I also note events when someone we love got into a serious accident or was violently hurt by someone. I like to document those kind of things for our family's history. And I like to record the times when I almost committed to another woman after my wife died. And I love to record many of my dreams because of the value I find in the information that is given to me, or the strange phenomenon that I see. And if I don't record it, I will not remember all those things that are important to me. I remember when I finally got into taking pictures of some of the Native Indian sites out in the deep woods that once lived in our State. My daughter told me that I didn't have to take them to be process at stores anymore. And she said that all I had to do was save and store everything in either the mobile cell phone or computer. So I told her to do it for me and she did. Then because I was always falling in some of the rugged ravines from off of cliffs, my phone kept breaking. So, I would have her buy another and change over all my saved material and through no fault of hers as she was changing things from one phone to another, my photos went to the clouds. Then I asked her, well get them back. And she would say, "Dad, I can't! those pictures are gone." Then I would go to the V.A. Hospital and their computers would lose our medical information. Then I thought, what is the difference in bragging about modern technologies and old school journaling, because both are subject to problems and are not as reliable as we think. In a great storm, or fire. or natural disaster, what does it matter what technology is best. At the present what works for me is old fashion English cursive writing on paper; preferably a Legal Pad note book. And when I do a pass and review  of my notes, I glean even more information from them. This method of keeping record is valuable to me because it is more than just processing past or present emotions. To me journaling is exciting because it is a learning tool that will sharpen your brains even more with every time that I read back over them. Journaling is like keeping record of history, and like a forensic investigator you can go back to your notes and check to see if you missed something of value to your case. But it is my job to keep meticulous detailed records because language is varied and can come as clues in many modes like body language, coded symbolism, or little details in the surroundings. And if those things are not noted by record keepers, then we can cause ourselves and others a lot of headaches later. Therefore, journaling is not as simple as just old people processing emotions. No!, journaling is a process of waking up the unconscious mind into a more alert state of mind. And as a result wisdom, understanding, and increased knowledge, is born and you will be the beneficiary of those virtues. For example, as I relate my conclusions to my dreams to you, I have to do years of study on some phrases or words, or visions, that I hear or see before I even submit a letter or blog to anyone. Sigmund Freud or Joseph Campbell and the likes will not classify me as neurotic or psychotic, or manifesting in my dreams events in my life that were latent. Like I stated before, I don't plagiarize anybody else's work either, and I love to give credit to whom credit is due. That is how important my journaling has been to me and will continue to be. I want to be only me and no one else. My skin color and ugliness is all mine and I love it that way too. Now, to an example of how just one word can take you into a long historical journey as exciting as any suspense and history filled drama story can. Remember the Word Pele? Well, that name was hard to research. The computer just kept giving me the name for Pele the famous soccer player and the Volcano in Hawaii. Then in October 28th, 2012 I had this dream.  As the dream opens I see that I landed outside of some circular ancient ruins. This place was huge and it looked like the ancient ruins in Greece. The pillars around it were tall limestone material and they were a rustic reddish color. Some pillars still had some large rectangle blocks called architraves on their top of columns. And on the front of these architraves, faces of Gorgons' heads were cut out in high relief form. This place was out in an opened area in a desert looking place. And so as I look I decided to walk into this area of ruins. And as I walked in I see another man on the opposite end of the ruins and it is clear to me from the looks of him that he too has just landed here because he looks confused like I did. And when I saw him I started to walk over to where he was, but I was interrupted by a creature that looked human and was standing looking at both us from the east side of these ruins. The other man noticed the huge demon looking at us too. And our first reaction upon seeing this creature was extreme fear. And the creature kept looking at him..., than at me, and was trying to figure out who to go after first. Then the demon took after me and we both ran in opposite directions because this creature couldn't get both us at the same time. And as I ran I weaved and dodged around the columns and I could see the other man doing the same. Then I got too far ahead of this demon and so he decides to go after the other guy. And here the dream ends. Okay, let me confess that before this dream I knew nothing about ancient temples or palaces and their  nomenclature's names for the architecture, or gorgons, or any of these ancient mythologies. I didn't know what an architrave, abucas, capital, or shaft was. But I drew the ruins in my crude sketching's in my dream notes and later did the research on these images. I have had to do research on art styles as well. And as I did research on this circular ruin formation, I found an interesting word that relates to Pele, Pales; and Mt. Palatinus. And this is the correct term for this circular ancient Greek construction, the name in American English it is Palestra or in Greek and Roman it is Palaestra. Please notice that this is a gym type or sport type setting. Later I dream of wrestling with a man similar to Croton in a place like this. And that match was a stale mate. Nonetheless, Palaestra is Pales the god of the ancients who has many names. One of those names translates into Pan or Paneus. Like the name that was given to the cave at Mt. Herman in Northern Israel. And another name for Pele is Hermes. And there is a Palaestra near Phillipeon in Olympia, Greece. And this ruin style is also called Heroon or Hero gym dedicated to Pan. If one goes down this trail one will find out how this god Hermes was transported through many Country's and lands over centuries and centuries. And when he lands in ancient Rome, the Romans gave a name to the land where Israel had been born to a people they called Palestine. Just look at that root word and what can we say about it. And there is so much more that I have learned just from my dreams. But if you are dedicated to find out truth, it comes with a price. And in closing, let me say that writing is essential because like Steven Tyler the lead singer for Aerosmith once said, he said, 'When I am anywhere and unsuspecting, and a beautiful lyric fly's by my mind, and if I am not prepared with pen and paper and don't write it down fast, I will regret it later because I will forget that beauty that came just for me.' So you see, Words are powerful. Who knew that Palestra was a lover or daughter of Hermes. Or that she was androgynous and loved wrestling. And she was considered to be Arcadian. Or that she was associated with Olympia or the Olympian games. Then to see a woman on horse back in a raging river with white crocodiles and armed men on horseback too, and for a voice out of the sky to call her The Woman of Palestine, the Woman in the Box. Man, this subject is deeper than what I have describe so far. When I speak of Androgynous, it speaks of both sexes as one. Like Hermes and Hermaphrodite. And as for the circular Palaestra, it also means Land of the Dead. Just like a sunken Arena or Arena is also symbolic of Land of the Dead. That's a place Christians call Hades or Hell. You guys don't want to go there. Let's sleep on that for now until next time. Thanks again.                                                                                                                                                  Respectfully,                                                                                                                                            Ruben N. Gutierrez