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6.11.2005
SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 2005
The Power of Now
I am reminded today of that line in Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now," that says, "to be unable to stop thinking is a terrible affliction," and the other line that says something like, "the future is not real. You cannot cope with something that is not real."
Living in the moment is a discipline. The little aphorism,"live for the moment," when thrown at you as a judgment because you're not, will do little to get you into the moment. In fact, it will liklely take you out of the moment and into your head. Only love can keep us in the moment - mostly love for ourselves. And ultimately, love is a discipline too, isn't it?
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6.10.2005
FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2005
Security
CNN has a "Security Watch" feature that comes on about every five minutes. MSNBC is always telling viewers things like, "stay tuned for what you need to know to protect your family's security." Security and the fear of losing it are the drumbeats of the electronic media these days. America would do well to remember Helen Keller's famous words - "Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or it is nothing at all."
If we would embark on the daring adventure of ending hunger and AIDS around the world, there might be no need to worry about our security.
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6.09.2005
THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2005
The Opportunity of Life
While the whole of the country seems to be focused on finding one young woman who disappeared on a school trip to Aruba, another 8,300 people will die of AIDS today. None of their names, faces, or backgrounds will ever be known to us. None of their friends will be interviewed on MSNBC to talk about how they felt about them or about what kind of person they were. Thousands more will die of hunger in total obscurity.
We pay attention only to the problems that seem somehow within our grasp to solve. We ignore those that overwhelm us. As I have said before, we are too easily overwhelmed. If millions of people have to endure the agony of a death by AIDS or hunger every year, surely we can endure the discomfort of feeling overwhelmed while we figure out how to save them. To turn our backs on this problem because it overwhelms us is to turn our backs on our own power to overcome it. It is to cede our very human potential. It is a rejection of the God that created us and endowed us with the imaginations and abilities to overcome these kinds of problems.
These kinds of problems are not obstacles to life. These problems are life. They are the game itself. When we turn our backs on the "overwhelming" problems of hunger and AIDS, we turn our backs on the miraculous opportunity that is life itself.
If we are going to turn our backs on the real opportunity of life then we don't need to focus on this young girl in Aruba, for truly, we are all lost.
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6.08.2005
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6.07.2005
TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2005
We All Live In Africa
CNN reports today that, "The Bush administration will announce plans to spend $674 million for 'humanitarian emergencies' in Africa" during an upcoming visit by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, according to a U.S. official. What is newsworthy about it is how small it is, compared to the $82 billion just requested for continuing operations in Iraq, or the $300 billion spent on the war so far, or the $400 billion that the U.S. will spend on "national defense" this year alone, not including homeland "security."
A real national defense plan would call for a massive aid package, the size of the spending on the Iraq war, to stop AIDS and hunger in Africa. This is just plain common sense. We need make no moral proclamations to make such a case. Until we resolve to face up to the impending collapse of the African continent, the United States will have no security.
No one in American politics ever really talks about Africa. No one really talks about ending hunger or ending AIDS. Yet it is to those places where women and their children suffer the ravages of poverty that our vision has to reach out. Those ar the big problems no one wants to seem to confront. Until we do, none of us will have a sense that we live in visionary times. When we do, we all will. Whether we know it or not, the world we envision for those people sets the tone for the world we envision for ourselves.
We all live in Africa.
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6.05.2005
MONDAY, JUNE 6, 2005
Honda's New FCX Hydrogen Car
Honda's ability to get a hydrogen drive to fit in a normal-sized car is a huge technological advance. And it's not just a bluprint or a concept in someone's head. Honda already has twenty of these out on the road. Can you imagine a massive American initiative to transform the U.S. auto fleet to these kinds of cars in the next ten years? It would be the virtual end of our dependence on foreign oil. All it emits is water. The technology is used on the International Space Station to create drinking water! It would be the end of air pollution in America. It would mark the beginning of a huge new industry. It would create millions of new jobs. It would raise living standards and revitalize the American economy. It would set the tone for a new era of unparalleled industrial achievement. If all the next American President promised to do were this he or she would be doing more for the world than the past five Presidents combined. Check out the story from the New York Times...
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SUNDAY, JUNE 6, 2005
 Anger
The quotation to the right says, "The greatest protection in all the world is lovingkindness." The greatest act of lovingkindess we could commit on behalf of the starving and AIDS-affected people of the world would be to stop biting our tongues every time we feel like getting genuinely enraged about their deaths. If you cannot get enraged about the deaths of millions of innocent people each and every year as a result of simple abandonment and neglect then all your lovingkindness is ultimately meaningless. God gave us the power to get angry for a reason. If we are too afraid of our anger ever to let it see the light of day then ultimately we are too afraid of our love.
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