Merry Christmas

I, Reverend Peter Voegtli, coming to another end of a succesful year, and in my capacity of Priest of the Church of the Latter-Day Dude, wish you days of fun, relaxing, thinking, drinking and abiding with a few pieces of advise:

1. When you receive a Christmas gift you don't like, just try to make your smile look real when you thank for the unwanted gift.
2. Don't worry about the unwanted gift; you could have gotten a worse one.
3. If the unwanted gift is a short, a brief or an underpant, just make another use of it like cutting it to pieces and use to clean your car all shiny.

and

4. Abide
5. JUST TAKE IT EASY, MAN!

Season and its Greetings

The year end is close. With Christmas. I have an open mind. But I don't like Christmas. Instead of celebrating somebody's birth, we are celebrating the raise of shares at the stock exchanges because the Christmas business is good.

This photo shows why I hate Christmas. On the left someone who is unhappy with his gift. And yet, it is an iPhone anyway. On the right is somebody who would like to have real shoes but has to content himself with shoes made out of empty mineral water bottles. With the money spent for the unhappy person in the left, the person on the right could have been made happy many times over.

But there are people who try to give still a sense to Christmas.

Since years I admire the people of the Salvation Army who during this period of the year freeze their bums and sing songs, in the cold, to collect some money. And with this they give some warmth to unfortunate people who go through a rough spell in the Christmas period. And even after.................

Just take it easy, Man

Analyzing "Just take it easy, Man"

"Just take it easy, Man" is a statement and, as we know, a fundamental belief of our Church. But it should not be taken lightly. An analysis is necessary. Let's break this sentence into pieces.

Just. This word can have several injunctions. Either time. Like in "Just married". Which means that the wedding took place a short while ago. Perhaps an hour ago. Or the next morning, after a torrid wedding night, and the couple drives off in a car with all the empy cans attached to it and with the signboard indicating that they were "just married". So, the time lap is upto 12 hours. Short. But it can also mean something simple. Like "just put it down here" or "Why don't you simply shut up". In our statement "Just" has the right place because it refers to both time and simplicity.

Take. Take and give. To give is better than to take. Both can be put together with "Just". I will just take it from you but later I just will give it back to you. But we are struggling in life and we don't take it easy. And we are simply unable to do something and sit shaking in a corner. Because we don't take it. Here we have to be tough and simply think about our well being and so we "just take". What?

It. That is what we take. It. Not him or her. No, it. It is "just" there to "take". "Just take it" has limits. We cannot just take a car which parked along the road side. We cannot just take a pearl collar hanging around the neck of a lady. We can just can take many things, but it is for us, as individual, to decide what our personal decency puts a meaning for "it" just to be taken.

Easy. For this one there is not much to say. Easy is simply easy though we have a lot of people making easy things difficult and complicated. And then, when it comes to money, it is often easily come and easily gone. And people have often the tendency of making easy things complicated things.

Man. This is the most difficult one. If we say "Just take it easy, Man" we have all the women on our back saying "And, we, can we not take it easy too?". And we are in the midst of this "gender topic" which has grown to become more and more important in last few decades. I have no intention on starting a discussion on this and I want to remain down to earth. With James Brown, we know that this is a man's world and that it would be nothing without a woman. On the other hand, when we talk about evolution, the past, the future and human beings in general, we refer to it as "mankind" and not as "womankind". This is my main argument to say that "Just take it easy, Man" goes for both men and women. We could change it and say "Just take it easy, Dude". "Dude" can go for both men and women. But we want everybody to "Just take it easy" even if they are not Dudeists.

So "Just take it easy, Man" goes for everybody. Your man, your woman and even your Golden Retriever.

And if you are not comfortable with all this, simply say "Just take it easy" and replace "man" with the person's name.

More than One BIS (and something repaired)

If I were a Catholic I would now exclaim "HALLELUJAH". But I am a Dudeist. So, I don't really know what I should exclaim. But I will find out. So, for the time being let me exclaim: "YEAH, MAN".

On this blog and on my Squidoo page on Dudeism I have been talking about our founders, the Dudely Lama Oliver Benjamin and the Arch Dude Dwayne Eutsey. I had a picture of our Dudely Lama but on my post "More than One" of a few weeks ago I was introducing our Arch Dude. I could no find a photo of him and I put an anomymous face with a question mark.

The Arch Dude saw this and felt my distrress and turmoil. Which obviously has mis-carried me away from our fundamental belief "Just take it easy, Man". He thought that it was important to bring me back to the right path and in his pity for me, he sent me a picture of him authorising me to use it.

And so, Fellow Dudeist, sympathizers of Dudeism, would and could be members of The Church of the Latter-Day Dude, it is my pleasure to have on my Chapel the photo of  His Arch Dudeship.

A Scandinavian Dude

I have a friend. He is also working as a humanitarian aid worker. To respect his privacy, I just will be general. We are working for the same organisation, now in different countries but on the same continent. When we worked together, I had to determine the need of food to be given every month to people in need and he saw to it that the food got there were it was needed.

He is not a member of our Church. But he is a perfect Dude. He hails from Scandinavia and he is a few years younger than me. But also in the categorie of "oldies" or slowly getting there. Like me, he is a freak of technology. He is very well versed in computer issues and when it comes to mobile communication we are on the same line.

We were living together in the same house at a certain time. Drinking beer in the evening, after our hard work, and relaxing in a Dudeist manner.

We thought the same way, had the same opinions on practically everything. But one day, he really showed me that he was steps ahead of me. Our house was very popular on weekends. Almost every Saturday we had people. And one day we decided to make a Margeritha party. I said to him that he was crazy, how the hell will we make and serve Margerithas to all the people that will come.Because when we made a party we had a lot of people coming. He said that I should not worry. He had the solution.

So we set out to buy all the ingredients mainly the alcohol. I don't remember how many bottles but I guess it was 10 liters. I still worried on how we will quench our guests thirsts with Margerithas. Then he brought out buckets (why?) and poured everything in them and stirred the mixture. I got a bit tired and went for a nap. When I came back, I found this:

Our water dispenser. Full of Margeritha. 20 liters. Well, to make the long story short: The party was a succes. When it was finished, the dispenser was empty. Except for the little quantity that stays in the machine. When we got up in the morning, the house cleaner came to us to say that there was something wrong with the dispenser, the water had a very funny taste.

The dispenser solution is the proof that my friend can "Just take it easy, Man".

There are so many Dudes in this world and they don't realise that they are. As Priest of our Church it is our duty to let them discover it.

PS. On the photo above we know who the guy on the right is, our Dude. The one on the left is not my friend.

More than One

Well, it is embarrasing. I could not find a picture of our second HIM. Of course, I could have snatched the one he has on facebook. But I did not feel comfortable about it. I will though continue to search. So, the second HIM?

Dwayne Eutsey is our Arch Dude. He is running the Church with our founder. He is also the co-author of "The Abide Guide". And he founded our Monastic Order, the "Brotherhood Shamus". He is also a prolific contributor to The Dudespaper. Thanks to his Guidance, the Church has grown from 75,000 priest (when I joined) to over 150,000 now and worldwide.

Second HIM? I don't think that I should use "second". We just have HIM's: Our Dudely Lama and our Arch Dude.

They "Just take it easy". And me too.

Being Cool

This is HIM. Our Dudely Lama, the founder of The Church of the Latter-Day Dude, Mr Oliver Benjamin. In a cool pose. I found this photo in an article published by the German magazine "Der Spiegel" (equivalent of "Newsweek" or "Time Magazine"). The story tells us, among other things, that in 2009 Volkwagen even made a ad spot with our "chief" were he states that if we allow ourselves to be just a little bit Dude, we would contribute to make our world a little bit better.

I just came back from a field mission. A tough one. Both physically and mentally. Physically because I sat for hours in a car hitting extremely bad bush roads. Mentally because I had to talk to people in need, with high expectations and demands and I knew that I will not be able to fulfill them.

But I stayed cool. Because I know how to handle such situations and because the car was airconditioned.

The Dude and Yoga

The Abide Guide, page 216, in its chapter "Some Kind of Yoga" explains Yoga poses, also called Asanas. The descriptions are very enlightening. The chapter starts like this:

"If you squint a little, the Dude looks like a wise old Asian sage: robe, sandals, logn hair, and a goatee. The robe may be polyester (we own an exact replica), the sandals plastic (got those too), and the goatee a few shades paler than you find in China, but perhaps down deep he carries the soul of Lao Tzu with him. Or, at least, a low-rent Alan Watts".

We are told that we should be, and probably are, lightly familiar with Eastern philosophies and practices. We are also told that the Dude manages to mix a bit of West with his East. For instance, he will have a book on Japanese cooking on his coffee table besides a hamburger wrapper.

So, our mind is set for Yoga, our Western mind meeting our Eastern one. There are quite a few Dude Asanas:

- The Spacing Out Asana
- The Toilet Seat Asana
- The Bowling Argument Asana
- The Take it Easy Chair Asana
- The Peaceful Warrior Asana
- The Rugasana
- The Fuggedaboutit Asana
- The Dead In The Water Asana
- The Barasana
- The Gutterballet Asana
- The Deeply Casual Asana
- The Abideasana

For the ones of you who are already a bit familiar with Dudeism, you will have noticed that these Asanas are in direct relation with the beliefs of our Church. I will, as time goes by, explain some of the fundamental teaching and connect them with the Asanas.

Easy

As you know, the word easy is important in Dudeism. And it is my firm intention to propagate the sense of this wonderful and great movement. By my upbringing, I am not afraid of hardship and hard work but I have reached the stage where I appreciate "easiness" and taking things cool.

I do abide, thanks to the help of "The Abide Guide". And I will be happy the day I know that my fellow brethren of this world will be able to do so too. So, this book will help me to spread the knowledge.

And it will be easy to do so. The Arch Dude of the Church of the Latter-Day Dude has authorised that I can use selected sentences, with my comments, from the guide to spread the word.

Easy.

Be Guided to Abide

One can talk a lot. In particular when it comes to let you know about Dudeism.You will learn about it from many instances and, of course, from me. But again, one should never stress and so I will not.

The founders of the Church of the Latter-Day Dude  and their top disciples have written a book which is a profound guide to get salvation from this stressed out, uptight world: The Abide Guide. This book can give you answer for everything. It covers many issues and they are put in a systematic and thematic way:

- Secrets of sacred Dudeist practices
- The Seven Spiritual Laws of Taking it Easy
- Great Dudes who changed the world (without really trying)
- New feminist philosophy for special ladies
- The Way of the Dude applied to politics, ethics and finances
- A 12.step program for personal dudevolution
- The science of really tying your room togeter

and much more. Once you are familiar with the content, your will be close to living like Lebowski, the man who sparked the whole "thing" with the movie "The Big Lebowski".

That's it for today.

The Start of the Beginning

Fellow people of this world. This blog is entirely dedicated to the teachings of the Church of the Latter-Day Dude. It will have tits and bits from a variety of books, pamphlets and other writings from eminent Priests of the Church, followers of Dudeism and myself.

Entries and posts will come as I get inspiration and I will not get stressed. Because I am convinced follower of our credo:

JUST TAKE IT EASY, MAN.