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26 Jan 2003 @ 11:13, by spells. Activism
Only Action will Bring about True Change
On Saturday January 18, 2003, there were demonstrations in 33 countries and over 100 cities protesting war against Iraq. Some cities that participated in the demonstrations were: Portland, Honolulu, Albuquerque, Des Moines, Ann Arbor, Lansing, San Francisco, Seattle, and Tampa. Countries included: New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong, The Netherlands, France, Sweden, Egypt, and Syria.
Surprisingly CNN televised a demonstration of over 200,000 people taking place in Washington DC, as it happened. As I watched this I could see and feel from the speakers and the crowd, that they felt strongly against this action of war. They eloquently listed the reasons for stopping it, and why it is wrong. These people were passionate in their intention to educate and express all the reasons why unprovoked war for oil is so wrong.
Many important points were made, such as:
-President Bush does NOT care about world peace, our civil rights or us. He functions NOT for the people but for the corporations that placed him in power to start with, via a supreme court decision, rather than by popular vote.
-Our nuclear and conventional weapons are OFFENSIVELY used. They are in most cases clearly NOT for “defensive“ purposes. The hundreds of billions spent for the military budget each year, should therefore be called, "offense spending" rather than “defense spending“.
-There is never enough money in the Federal Budget for medical insurance for the elderly, scholarship programs, numerous social programs and/or school programs, colleges, unemployment, libraries, state government functions and repairs on public facilities. But there is ALWAYS an extra 25 billion dollars or so to spare, to build that new bomber, to destroy the earth, kill millions, prevent peace and create widespread hatred toward the United States among the peoples of the world, even amongst our “allies“.
-The only thing Bush has succeeded in doing during his term of office thus far, is to thoroughly expose the lies upon which this government is based. The same may be said for the hypocrisy and lack of right action in our representatives, in their ill-considered approval of pointless wars, the creation of the Department of “Homeland Security” and the passing of legislation like the Patriot Act. . Our land is neither by or for the people. It has been taken over by special interests who install whatever president and congress best suits their private needs. America is now home of the slave and land of the fee, by the corporations, and for corporate profits. Our government no longer represents us, and needs to be replaced entirely by those who really care about humanity.
-This isn't a war to stop terrorism, it IS terrorism in the worst possible form. In other words, this is the War OF Terror, not ON Terror. The whole world has been put on notice regarding the bullying and aggressive intentions of the United States, summarized by Bush’s comments to the effect of, “You are either with us or against us”. Those who don’t “obey” and get in line smartly, had better be prepared to have their peoples bombed and their economies strangled into submission. Hitler was never so efficient.
-A slaughter of Iraqis would be a criminal war for colonial conquest. And that is exactly what another “war” with Iraq will be….a no-competition slaughter of an insect being stepped on by a fifty-ton behemoth. It has nothing to do with helping the people in Iraq or the world in any way. They have already suffered tremendously in the last ten years since the last Gulf Slaughter. Literally millions have suffered and died who would not have died otherwise. It would be interesting to ask people how they think such a war would "help" Iraqi‘s, but then such a question supposes a logical answer, when there is no logical answer. Most people only know what they see on television. Just like computers, they willingly take this virus-corrupted software into their minds, in the naïve assumption that because it’s on TV it must be true.
-Presidential impeachment appears 6 times in the U.S. Constitution. It appears this many times to protect the people from such tyranny as we are witness to today. The reason for this is quite clear...the Constitution was written by men who had come to this continent to escape the arrogance and insanity of Kings. King George had taxed them without representation, taken away civil rights and freedom, and imprisoned people without just cause or due process. If all this sounds too familiar, then you‘ve been paying attention to what‘s been going on. If it doesn‘t then you must be sleeping through Reality 101.. Needless to say, there is much talk of impeaching Bush, who is our own version of King George, (FYI, in a few days at least one website will be up and running dedicated to the task of impeaching G dubbya.). Another interesting section of the Constitution, states that the president has no authority to make war on his own accord...this must be by the official declaration of congress. No such declaration has been made, nor will it ever be, even when we move on to destroy and occupy Iran, Syria, North Korea, half of South America and anyone else who looks like they might be both easy prey and have something of value we’d like to steal. Now, everything under the sun is lumped under the hazy guise of the “war on terror”, about which “good and patriotic citizens” never ask “Why“?. One can well imagine that this is exactly how Nazi-ism came to power in the 1930’s.
I salute all those who had the intelligence and courage in recent demonstrations, to stand up and speak the Truth. Of course, I see unmistakable truth in everything that was stated.
But as the day went on after watching the televised protests, questions and conclusions crept into my mind. Although I was in total agreement with all that the protesters stood for, I wondered how many were really serious and ready, to take the necessary steps to truly make a social change. War, and the direction of “consumption” in which this planet is moving, can only end up in one place....total destruction. These problems won't just go away with a new president. In truth, the president is not much more than a mere figurehead. Impeach him and you will only get more of the same. Cheney and whoever else the corporations want to sponsor, will then take up where he left off, through another rigged election if necessary. How many of you have forgotten just how our illustrious president got into office? He speaks of forming democratic governments abroad, but evades and corrupts democracy here. The hypocrisy is sickening, right to the bone.
Corporations run this country, not one man. Hell, he is a puppet with more strings than I care to count. At this point in time it matters not who is president or what party dominates congress. Nothing, absolutely NOTHING, is honest about the whole process of modern government. It is all controlled by corporations, power, greed and corruption. In other words, the way our government now runs is a reflection of the social values which permeate every part of our society.
For example, as long a material objects, titles, job descriptions, and dollar amounts in bank accounts are all that matter to people, nothing is going to change. In other words, so long as only external things that build and feed egos are what is considered important and a priority in our daily lives, our world will continue to decay. It will matter not who is in office anywhere on planet earth, until everything that is a major focus in today's world, (such as consumerism, love=money, "success" as defined by dollars, instead of wisdom or kindness) is seen for the absolute and total folly it is. Until we fully realize and live as the consciousness/cells in the body of God that we are, the human species doesn't stand much of a chance for survival. Society will only continue to go in the direction of de-evolution and destruction. Does this sound harsh, negative, pessimistic or cruel? Call it whatever you like……I call it The Truth. The Truth won't bend because we don't like it or don't want to hear it. Stay in denial and watch where it takes the human race.
Action and taking responsibility is what is needed in daily lifestyle, not words, marches, petitions, voting, letters to senators, or phone calls. I ask the reader and the demonstrators to consider the following questions...
1. How many of you, who are against what the government proposes to do, own an SUV or other gas guzzling vehicle, (or for that matter, two or three of them) ? These only perpetuate the need for more oil. Now may I ask, what is the need for such a wasteful vehicle in the first place? Could it be to run to the supermarket? The nearest shopping mall? But this isn’t the bottom line. Let's face it, it is only to "show off" to anyone who is looking, since ego-boosting is all that counts in the modern media, workplace and social circles.
2. How many of you own houses with 1000 or more square feet than you really need? Has anyone ever stopped to consider how much lumber, oil, gas, electricity one family truly needs to survive, beyond which these private mansions of luxury are extreme examples of greed? I can assure you that what is needed to live well, is far less than what it took to build these palaces, or to maintain them. Then why do so many here in the US live this wasteful, selfish and impractical lifestyle? That is easy to answer...this is what is accepted and expected. For what reason? Again, it is only for the sake of shallow self-importance, and the supporting of a false construct...the Ego. There is literally no good reason why people are killing themselves and the planet upon which we live, to achieve “financial goals” that can NEVER make them happy or fulfilled. Only a spiritual, simple and practical life focus can do that.
3. How many of you still pay the government taxes for their military killing machines of mass destruction? How can anyone complain about what the government does with money, when they hand it over to them willingly? YOU are giving the government the money it needs to continue doing whatever it pleases, including the bombing of women and children, and the constant bribing of foreign officials, commonly known as “foreign aid”. Now, why should the government stop any of these actions? In their mind there is no need to stop. Why? Because they’re getting paid to do exactly what they’ve always done for the last century or more, and without real protest from a sheep-like public. The solution? STOP PAYING THEM TO KILL MILLIONS AND BRIBE THE WORLD! Vote with your money and how you spend it, rather than trying to change things like futile elections, protests, petitions and other activism, which most government leaders couldn't care less about anyway, and more often than not, totally ignore. If you need examples of this, just look at what protests have done so far…nothing but speed King George’s lust for war all the faster, before public unrest starts becoming a matter for the police, national guard and prison system. Stop paying them, just as you would do in the case of any worthless and destructive employee.
4. What is the difference between the National Debt and Credit Card debt? They both exist because of wrong social focuses, and wrong social values. Credit card debt happens because "consumers" believe they need to buy absurd, “new and improved” plastic-coated products, “while supplies last“. A huge percentage of these products are really not needed, except to keep up with the neighbors, (who couldn't care less about what you have, any more than you really care about what they have).. This results is paying interest on what you didn’t need, for the rest of a miserable, prozac-popping life. Such a life makes people not only wage slaves, but credit card slaves, who are owned by the banks just as much as their mortgages and car payments are. Does anyone really believe they are not slaves to the system, for the sake of shallow social status and corporate work-force drudgery? Talk about delusion!. When as a people did we become so naïve and foolish, that we believe everything we’re told about “success” and life, regardless of how absurd that message is? Wake up and realize there’s better things to do in life.
5. How many demonstrators and/or readers have been in the armed forces, or willingly sent their children into the military? Let me take this one step further...how many have made sure their sons registered with the Government, when they turned 18?
How can any thinking person allow their children to willingly volunteer to be on the government's list for military service, when they know their job description is likely to be that of a mass murderer for minimum wage? It doesn't matter what the government says is "mandatory", when government is only out to protect it's own selfish interests. It cares NOTHING for the lives that are being put in jeopardy. It is sickening to see the constant advertisements on TV, showing life in the military as glamorous, strengthening and respectful. It is demeaning and destructive, nothing else. So many complain about the cost of the military and the corrupt reasons for war, yet blindly follow whatever the government tells them to do. I ask you, why should the government change anything when it governs such pathetic, servile subjects, who are no more discriminating than laboratory rats, willing to grovel mindlessly in the name of patriotism and participate in wars of conquest?
The next question is: When is anyone, including the demonstrators, going to stop talking and start doing? A common belief is that the Power is in the People. This is not true when you can’t tell the difference between the people running the government, and the people that are governed. The only real difference between the demonstrators and the government, is the level and/or degree to which they subscribe to the social values of our day. But when greed and lack of honesty are the mob-rule at ALL levels of society, then there will be no real change. If you think there will be any change with such values as consumerism in place, then you’re just fooling yourself. The greed of the average man in wanting that shiny new car when he doesn’t need one, is no different than the greed of nations going to war for the sake of stealing what other nations have. Honestly, there is no difference when it comes to what is actually being done on a daily basis...Most still worship the dollar as God, regardless of what kind of a protest sign they hold in their hands.
Simplicity, Practicality and Spirituality....these are the keys to true freedom and reform. Until the majority of us with materialistic/consumeristic ideals adopt this focus, nothing else will change. What we do today is not so much a problem of governmental form, specific people in office, political parties, wealth or power. It is a matter of values, daily focus, spiritual ideals, honesty and the decision to evolve or self destruct, (or the lack thereof).
How many readers would be willing to give up their over-indulgent American lifestyles for peace? How many are willing to live honestly for Truth alone? How many would trade in their Phd or Master's degree, for true Spiritual Mastership? I'll bet not one, (or very few) because this is just not “accepted“, and therefore would not be, "easy or comfortable". In this world, you go with the crowd regardless of what the crowd does or stands for. By another name this is known as “corruption and cowardice“. Sorry, but nobody said the truth or the right action that goes along with it, had to be easy or comfortable. People think it is easier to stay in the status quo, even if it means our total annihilation as a nation and as a species. They think it is easier to demonstrate and complain than to really change a thing about themselves. But simple protests won't make a bit of difference in the long run, as long as the population still values materialism, and the Dollar as their focus and God. If you doubt this, then just look around to see which God is the most worshipped every day…the Great One, or the little green one…
Time is running out, but not because the president or his minions say so. Soon millions will be bombed so that every one of you, all government officials, and all the corporate heads, can continue to live that over-indulgent, selfish, and shallow consumer’s life. The time to get serious is now or never. How many out there are truly ready to take on this responsibility? “Rights and responsibility are indivisible.”
I recommend this;
For information on how you can live well and what you can do daily, please visit the World Mind Society Library, (social commentary section) at:http://www.eoni.com/~visionquest, and read; The
Survivalist’s Guide for the New Millennium.
It is time to truly stand together and initiate a REAL demonstration of our values, not only in words, but in the way we live day to day. This is where you really vote, through your spending and your daily decisions. Daily actions are the true test of one's dedication to higher ideals, nothing less.
Sandi Hunter spellscaster9@yahoo.com More >
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 25 Jan 2003 @ 11:01, by jewel. Ideas, Creativity
How can I get them out and sort them and explain them and justify them and organize them? What madness is it to think we can? As Dee Hock's theories I posted on Thursday describe, there is a madness and disorder to our constant state of becoming. I have been feeling very trapped and blocked in my creative outflow for some time now. The meeting with Flemming and that joy-filled consultant in December was the beginning of my re-emergence... Part of the conversations around specific thoughts and ideas have been wearing on me. Some beloveds in my life have wanted me to define and pin point what indeed is going on for me. If I could just be let to gestate in my own organic flow, and then the pulse the rhythm the idea the thought, yes even a specific one! ... can be discovered! I think I am an explorer of consciousness. Not a discoverer. A traverser. Or Traversess. A winger flow-er grower seer knower finder. Yes to traverse via the many dimensions of our becoming.
I drive past the famous San Gorgonio Pass windmills almost every day during my brief surreal stay of a few months back in the US... doing a crazy hodgepodge of helping an old colleague sell body jewelry as a means to support my baby and our dreams of getting back to England and then finally France by next summer... In my morning trance and ponderance... I whirl past the windmills and think about the famous song --- Like a tunnel that you follow... To a tunnel of its own.... Down a hollow to a cavern... Where the sun has never shone... Like a door that keeps revolving... In a half-forgotten dream... --- and I link back forth and back again always in this dream of my own making.... tracing the corridors of my psyche that is forever out of reach. In this dream of our becoming....
My initiations over here have been so very hard and weary... on so many levels, I must say in all honesty. in many ways it all being 'about Work' for me right now, on the major front of what is up with my present course at hand.... is staggering.... there is some inner continuous Prayer that I am entranced in, though on so many levels... I am just coping with what is before me.... though Life Herself continues to whisper me forth and brings me some strange mixed bag of courage, hope and strength---- must I say, despite it all.... despite it all...... I am climbing a seeming uphill course. But, I can see the Inner Compas' Needle has already some subtle shifts on the Inner... and then, Pop! Looking back at the direction forward... I see indeed a few Shifts have also occurred.
If we are this choardic creatures that must surrender to an organization beyond our desire to control and organize in a flat pancake hallucination model that no longer exists.... then Ming's ideas about how we're all Overwhelmed is accurate.... how do we surrender and abandon the false prisms of our mind? Come into harmony with what is being honed via the organic tests of our continuum? Life swings, balances, remains, sustains... if only we trusted even the underworld initiations in our mythos.... individually and in the transpersonal.
Yes and from one perspective, I have been in a type of Hell, a feeling of 'no way out' --- some sort of trapped mind, state, static state of limbo. And yet the star juice, the spewing stuff that glues it all together, it seems to be all around me even when especially when I am weeping inside... for the prisons we strange beautiful humans create.... and also for the trap doorways into the which we continuously ignore but yet fall into ... in this Thread of Mystery that prevails, again and again and again....... I read an Agatha Christie book last week and loved this quote about 'sins having long shadows'... and I think that's what's happening in my life quite specifically right now. I am somehow coming to terms with my own separation from Life, where I have betrayed myself and hidden from my own decision to say Yes to the gold before me, what I am here to offer.... and at the same time, I feel more in Service in the most simplest ways, to the Unfoldment of the Dreaming Life....
Is it possible the Blog Mind is the great crescendo of the Global Brain --- the cruscendo that Leonard Shlain speaks about in The Alphabet versus the Goddess? That we cannot mind-map that which is driven from the poetic, primal pulse from the Mother's spewing Nebuliac Womb? And what has been trapped, compressed, underground, pushed, within me and within all of us --- is this uncoiling of a large serpentine lover just waiting to slither us into stardust and crystal clear chaordic understandings?
Is the only way for me to awaken from this Trance, is it to just Be the Trance itself? Accept I am always in this state of Becoming? The explorer becomes the map... as Dan Winter puts it, the map literally becomes the terrain! We just do what we do, float where we float, show up as we can, sing the disharmonic chords, and in this spewing the light and emerging pattern finds us out as a reflective mirror of Emergence itself. More >
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 24 Jan 2003 @ 23:50, by ming. Knowledge Management
For a while I called my weblog "Ming the Mechanic", because I somehow liked how it sounds. Some people said "Great name!", and others, like my family, said "Mechanic???". Well, I like mechanical stuff, but, really, hardware is something I have rather little talent with. I wouldn't know what to do if my car breaks down. And whenever I need to add memory or a harddisk to my computer, and I decide it is a good idea to do it myself, I tend to end up breaking something. No, I'm a different kind of mechanic. I have some success as a people mechanic, or a system mechanic. I like if people bring me something to fix, and I fix it. Particularly when it relates to individuals or groups of people trying to do something, and not quite succeeding. And I resonate with people with that kind of abilities.
Several corporations I worked for used consultants for various purposes. Like, if the board of directors needed an outside opinion on things, they would bring in Coopers and Lybrand, or Andersen, or some big consulting company like that. Three or four people in suits would show up with briefcases, and they would create a thick report, saying basically what they had in mind saying before they came, and it would cost the company $50K or so. Nobody paid any attention to what they actually said in their report, but everybody were content with the whole thing, because nothing ever changed.
But in this one company, when they actually had a problem, and they didn't know what to do about something, they brought in another kind of consultant. It was this little old lady. Maybe she wasn't that old, but she was an unusual sight for a consultant. I don't remember her name, but let's say it was Heidi. They didn't care about her company name, it was just "Let's call Heidi". And she was fabulous - and very expensive. An extremely sharp and experienced person who would walk around and talk with everybody, and rather quickly figure out what actually was going on. She cared very little about the corporate jockeying-for-position, trying-to-look-good kind of thing. She just went straight for the facts, figured out what the scenario was, reported it to the CEO, and left. And things got fixed. I really liked her. I wouldn't mind being a person like that.
Another example, some would say a horrible choice, but it illustrates my point: In the movie Pulp Fiction, John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson's characters get in some trouble. There's a dead body in the car, blood all over, they're at this guy's house, and his wife is coming home in an hour, and they don't know what to do. Their boss, the big gangster Marsellus Wallace decides it is time to call in Mr.Wolf. Mr.Wolf happens to be across town in a tuxedo at a party, having cocktails. But when he gets the phonecall, he's professionalism itself. He gets paid extremely well, but he is only used when it really counts. He's there in 10 minutes in his Porsche. "I'm Winston Wolf, I solve problems" he says. And so he does. All he really does is to take a keen look at what is going on, and to tell the people who're standing around what the logical thing to do is. And, well, I certainly don't have in mind working for gangsters, but I like the idea of being the person who's brought in to solve a problem, but who otherwise is happily uninvolved.
As to the Mechanic metaphor - a mechanic fixes things, by being knowledgable about how things work, by looking at what is going on, and by adjusting things so that they work. The Mechanic loses no sleep over what you do in-between the times when you need him, whether we're talking about a car or a person or a company. More >
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 22 Jan 2003 @ 23:59, by ming. Knowledge Management
So, do I want to categorize things when I store them, or do I just want flexible ways of searching for things later on? I'm talking about the filing system(s) in my life. My e-mail archive, my personal databases of things I need to remember. Until now my vision has been that a sufficiently multi-dimensional system could be devised where I could easily assign a piece of information to a number of different categories while I'm in the process of saving it, even being able to make up new classifications on the fly. And then, later, when I need to find the information again, it is already classified in a number of different useful ways, as many ways as I feel like, and chances are that one of them is what I need. By date, by location, by people involved, by subjects, by reference to other items, etc.
But the first problem is that no matter how easy the user interface is, I will quickly become tired of categorizing things. I'm already getting way too much e-mail, and even the job of going through it and deleting it, or filing it in even one folder is beginning to be too much work for me. So, would I really want to have to select from dozens of different pulldown lists whenever I file an e-mail? Probably not.
The second problem is that I don't know what my main categories of interest will be next year. I change often, and next year I mostly likely will have a list of new ways of categorizing things, which I couldn't think of now. But am I then going to go back and apply those categories to all my old information? No, I won't have time for that.
So, I must admit that what I really want is that when I need something, I will get it, in an organized, complete and sensible fashion. I want to say "Computer, give me a list of all the people I have sent e-mail last year!". And when I get the list, I want to say "Sort them in order of volume of mail", and then "Correlate the top 10% with the list of people who've called me on the phone". I want the freedom to make it up on the spot. And I don't want to have had to predict that query a year earlier. I don't want to have had to select a dozen pulldown menus on a screen whenever I get a phonecall. I just want to, at best, answer my phonecall.
What I need is apparently an AI that records everything that happens to me, and that is smart enough to be able to give me a complete list of relevant, cross-indexed information, whenever I desire it. Please. More >
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22 Jan 2003 @ 13:02, by mmmark. Science
Last night (1/21/2003) PBS aired a show titled "The Journey Of Man," which profiles the work of geneticist Spencer Wells, who also stars in the two-hour episode. This program is based on fifteen years of research profiling the genetic codes in thousands of blood samples taken from all known ethnic groups around the world. It was not possible to do this science prior to genetic testing technologies on blood.
It’s now official! Just in case there was any doubt in your mind about where you come from, where your roots are, or who you are related to, Spencer has proven that we are all of the same extended human family. By tracking a Y chromosome marker passed on to each generation through men, he has plotted the path of human migration over the entire planet from a single tribe in Namibia, Africa beginning 50,000 years ago. We are all their children. We are all related to people of all cultures, religions and skin colors.
So now I feel obligated to wish everyone of you family members belated happy birthdays wishes and missed holiday greetings. Please take good care of all my cousins, aunts, uncles, mothers, fathers, nieces, nephews and send photos often so I can keep track of my six-billion relatives!
Hugs and Kisses From Your Brother > > > Mark
PS > See ya at the next family reunion!!! More >
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 22 Jan 2003 @ 10:24, by craiglang. Communities
I got some fascinating and thought-provoking reactions to my posting of the link to the "Whitley's Journal" article. In his article, Whitley Strieber takes a very unconventional view (at least from the perspective of the antiwar movement). Thank you to all who wrote. Your views, whatever they may be, are important for an expanded view of the issues.
One of the comments posted in response to the W.S. article was that he has "Blue Blood". The comment seems to suggest that W.S. might be somehow part of the inner circle - or at least supportive of it. This is interesting for many reasons.
The primary reason that the biggest focus of W.S.'s work is in the UFO-encounter area, and the interaction between the ET presence and our civilization. On his radio show "Dreamland", one of the things he discusses frequently is the impact of the coverup (UFO and otherwise) on the lives of close encounter experiencers - and on everyone else, too. Many of the biggest issues there are about the inability of the government, news media, and industry to accept a more far-sighted out-of-the-box view.
Another thing I have noticed as I have written (mostly) about the anomaly and close encounter topic, is that responses (not just to me, but to many, in many different fields) tend to be very polarized (yes I know, that polarity thing again). In many arguments within the UFO field and elsewhere, I often hear the implication - or even the overt statement - that the other side must somehow be part of the coverup, in league with the shadow government, etc. Yet this is the first time that I have ever heard this mentioned in relation to Whitley Streiber.
So I ask: Just who is the inner circle? What is the shadow government and what comprises the coverup? Who is part of it, and who is not? Is there just one group? Or are there many different ones? Is "them" different for different people? And if so, why?
To me, this is a fascinating thing to consider. And I suspect that as we find the answer, it will suprise us. Because in the end, I believe that we will find that "They" are "Us" - we are all one.
Namaste,
-Craig More >
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20 Jan 2003 @ 22:51, by craiglang. Politics
One fascinating thing that I note in many of the discussions on the upcoming war is the degree of polarity involved. There is a deep (and very legitimate) anger over the behavior of the world's (materially) wealthiest nation.
Most interesting is the philosophy behind opposition to the war. This is the idea that we can achieve peace by opposing war. In the causal, objective world this makes sense - there is a pressing need to prevent this awful thing looming ahead of us, so political action is vital. Yet when I see this I am reminded of the Law of Polarity which is core to so many spiritual traditions: "That which we oppose, we bring power to...".
While I feel complete revulsion at the coming US "adventures" in Iraq, I wonder if by intensely opposing war we are actually energizing the very conflict we oppose. In being "ANTI"-war, could we simply be creating another conflict - this one about conflict itself?
So, how can we work for peace besides being "anti"-war? I wonder if the true pacificst is actually the peacemaker - the healer, rather than the divider. While activisim is important, perhaps it is at least as important at this time to be sure to observe one's spiritual tradition. Now more than ever, praying for peace, meditating on peace, and above all - practicing peace in daily life, seems to be truly important.
As within, so without. In many ways, peace begins at home. Some food for thought on a cold January night. More >
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 20 Jan 2003 @ 19:45, by ming. Philosophy
I have a strong agreement with Buckminster Fuller who said things like:"The things to do are the things that need doing - that YOU see need to be done,
and that noone else seems to see need to be done." You know, I have the belief that every one of us is here to do something unique. It is not necessarily pre-destined or pre-determined what exactly it is. Probably rather something to discover or invent. But if we don't do something unique, if we don't add our unique perspective and sensibilities to the global soup of life, our life is somewhat wasted and meaningless. It doesn't have to be huge earth shattering things. It might be just a slightly different angle on things, which we impart to the people around us. Something we're present for, which nobody else paid any attention to. But there is for sure something that you can dream, something you can see, and something you can do, which nobody else has quite the same opportunity for. Bucky also says:"I look for what needs to be done.... After all, that’s how the universe designs itself." Life might seem meaningless unless you realize that you have an important role in co-designing the continued evolution of the universe. There are lots of things to do, so it would be silly to have a meaningless life. More >
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17 Jan 2003 @ 11:50, by patsyb. Poverty
I have a web site, www.energizedwater.info, that gives instructions on how to give water a negative electrical charge using items that you already have in you kitchen. Neg. charged water replaces the electrons that are missing on free radicals and renders them harmless. The improvement to health is immediate and drastic. More >
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 14 Jan 2003 @ 18:09, by ming. Travel
I'm still planning on moving to France. My kids aren't exactly thrilled, except for the smallest one, who's easily excited about the prospect of going just about anywhere. And, based in part on good feedback, I think I'll change my mind and focus mainly on Southern France, as in the South West, Midi-Pyrenees Region. The Cote d'Azur (French Riviera) to the South East also sounds warm and glamorous at first, but crowded and touristy. I don't want to make the same mistake as when moving to California first, we moved to Hollywood, because it sounded like a glamorous thing to write home about. But for people in L.A. Hollywood is mostly just a bad neighborhood, albeit colorful. So, as to South West France, the most vibrant area on various counts would be around Toulouse. It is a big city with lots of high tech computer and aerospace companies. But the bigger area is not very crowded, so you're quickly out in the country. And the whole area has lots of culture and history. Now, it is of course hard to figure it all out in advance, but I think that'll be my starting point when we go and explore a bit. More >
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