Peace and Love

I've been thinking a lot lately about processes of peace. I've always seen peace more as this process and less as the noun to which we so typically associate the term. Peace, the noun, can't possibly be achieved without peace, the verb. This seems like pretty basic knowledge to me.

Our society teaches us to love our egotistical selves--the self which we portray to the world in our experiences with other people. For many of us, this self manifests itself at work, in school, at the pub, at parties, at family gatherings. Perhaps we have so many "selves" that we are a different one each time we enter the world. This isn't too hard of a suggestion.

Perhaps we ought not to be concerned with people loving these "selves" too much (though we might want to think about this), perhaps we ought to be concerned with loving our true self, our internal self, our personal nature, our Inner Light (call it anything you want to have this make sense).

No process of healing can begin if the self is neglected. No process of peace can begin with conflicted souls. Or maybe it can, but it cannot be sustained without a constant devotion to loving your self. Only in loving our self can we even hope to begin to learn to love others and their self.

And what a hard process love is! Would you die for your self? I can't answer--I don't feel like I even KNOW my self. How do you know your self? I am more a novice than you, readers, and I struggle to find this truth.

Resoundingly yours.

Documentation.

What is my hunger?

I just want every experience to be full, but it's not.

I realize that as soon as I accept this, those very experiences will become fuller and more meaningful... but it's hard.

It almost makes it worse that every so often, an incredibly filling conversation or moment or sunset or rainbow or sound or sight or taste occurs.

There are times I struggle with words. But it is those times I feel the most at home, when I am the least bit me.

I was in class on Tuesday and I couldn't speak.

I was actually unable to do so

And it was, incredibly so, exactly the same feeling I have when I am in Quaker Meeting and must speak.

I am deeply immersed in an intense struggle.

I would not attribute a beginning to this, nor do I forsee an end. Neither are there.

It just is.

It is, I suppose, as if I am standing on the edge of a vast, inconquerable precipice.

There it is in front of me. And I must chose to trek, because not choosing is equivalent to being washed away in a great avalanche.

But there are many paths; there are many pitfalls. Stringent danger lurks in every foothold and every chasm.

I know that somewhere far beyond the treeline, my body will fail me.

Yet I began to climb knowing this fact and knowing my own death.

That is how I feel right now.

This, too.

So we should probably stop killing our brothers.

"at least 55 people were killed or found dead Sunday, including 24 people found slain execution-style in Baghdad. "

This is so sad...

...because the headline fails to mention the tragic loss of two individuals other than an officer of the law.

When will we recognize that each individual has worth, and that the lives of police officers are no more precious than the lives of other humans?

An Anniversary Worth Having.

Okay, everyone should go read this: Subversive Christianity: "Our apologies, good friends...

Should We Celebrate the Death of Falwell?

I'm sure that somewhere in America, there's a bundle of happy liberals ecstatic over the death of Fundamentalist Jerry Falwell. No longer will America have the opportunity to hear such "wonderful" sound bits as those which he massively publicized and promoted.

Take, for example, his comments after 9/11, where he said: "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say, ‘you helped this happen'."

Take, for example, the debacle over the Teletubbies, where he declared one of the children's television characters as gay and a threat to American life.

Sounds like a great man to listen to, doesn't it?

As much as I may profess to dislike the fundamentalist rants of Falwell, I find that I'm not sure whether or not to be happy upon his death. I personally find only one thing he has done to have had any (subjective, I suppose) moral worth (starting a program for recovering alcoholic men... but I'm not sure of the details of the program) and, for the most part, consider his "teachings" and sermons, such as the "If I were the king of the world" sermon, to be as un-Christian as the wars which he supported. But should we (liberals?) celebrate the death of Falwell, and should we (conservatives?) celebrate his life?

I abhor Falwell's words, and his sermons and public quotes, yet many of his ridiculous and controversial words and statements sparked important debates in the public community. I'm not sure the country would have publicly debated abortion, gay rights, political correctness or even the role of public schools in society without Falwell's outbursts and fundamentalist public statements. For this, I suppose, all of us should actually thank Falwell for his contribution to the public sphere and the debates which he sparked.

Right?

Millionaires and the top 1%

I just read a depressing article about "pentamillionaires," or those individuals who have more than $5 million in revenue, investments and property.

It can be summarized best by: "To enter the nation's top 1%, you need more than $5 million. And if you get there, you'll have plenty of newly-arrived company: The number of U.S. "pentamillionaires" has quadrupled in the past 10 years, to more than 930,000."

I think America is seriously in trouble, as major network news sources seem to care more about these pentamillionaires and their "troubles and successes" and the reasoning for it rather than the tens of millions of impoverished workers trying desparately to get out of the isolating and violent cycle of poverty...

It's just so upsetting. I don't even think I can vocalize this feeling, other than by saying "we're fucked."