Out of many one. This is one of the original mottoes of the United States of America. It doesn’t get much attention these days as politicians seek to divide us. It occurred to me that politics can be yet another form of violence and terrorism. Continue reading “E pluribus unum”
Three book meme
Paula has tagged me for a three book meme. That’s easy and difficult at the same time because I easily have three favorite non-fiction books but should everybody read them. Well, here goes my presumption. Continue reading “Three book meme”
A breath of fresh air
The presidential candidate debates have been pretty dry with a few exceptions like Dennis Kucinich, Senator Gravel and Rep. Ron Paul. All three have been cast as outside the mainstream. Continue reading “A breath of fresh air”
Soldiers
Today I picked up the wrong lunch on my way out the door. I was on the road for my day job and I picked up a brown sack with what I thought contained two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Continue reading “Soldiers”
Remember when?
Whenever a civilization perishes, there is always one condition
present. They forgot where they came from. –Carl Sandburg
I read the this quote and I thought of it’s application to many areas of my life but also our lives as people and as citizens of the world and our particular countries. Failure to remember when can cause us both individually and corporately to relive failure or peril.
Accu-wrath
Bill Maher strikes the funny bone again with the Accu-Wrath weather forecast. Continue reading “Accu-wrath”
Nonviolence invites us to…
I first read this a year ago and it is true or truer now than then.
Nonviolence invites us:
* To learn to recognize and respect the sacred in every person, including in ourselves, and in every part of creation. The acts of the nonviolent person help to free this sacredness in the opponent from obscurity or captivity.
* To accept oneself deeply, “who I am” with all my gifts and richness, with all my limitations, errors, failings and weaknesses. To live in the truth of ourselves, without excessive pride, with fewer delusions and false expectations.
* To recognize that what I resent, and perhaps even detest, in another, comes from my difficulty in admitting that this same reality lives also in me. To recognize and renounce my own violence, which becomes evident when I begin to monitor my words, gestures, reactions.
Lemmings
In the past couple of days I’ve experienced some frustration and I found release from it in the writing of another blogger. The guy referred to lemmings. Continue reading “Lemmings”
Leaders? What Leaders?
Last week in a phone conversation with my Mother I learned of a new book by an old favorite. Lee Iacocca who along with Jimmy Carter and the U.S. Congress rescued Chrysler from bankruptcy has authored a new book. Iacocca was a breath of fresh air twenty years ago and at eighty-two years young he’s still full of vitality. Continue reading “Leaders? What Leaders?”
Prayer
I have done some reading on Plainfoolish and I received this quote in an email today and I think it fits. I also have another new book from Thich Nhat Hanh ordered an on its way. It is called The Energy of Prayer.
“I am breathing in and making my whole body calm and at peace.” It is like drinking a cool glass of lemonade on a hot day and feeling your body become cool inside. When you breathe in, the air enters your body and calms all the cells of your body. At the same time, each “cell” of your mind also becomes more peaceful. The three are one, and each one is all three. This is the key to meditation. Breathing brings the sweet joy of meditation to you. You become joyful, fresh, and tolerant, and everyone around you will benefit.
–Thich Nhat Hanh, Breathe! You Are Alive: Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing (Parallax, 1996), 50