Cracks in Our World?

Walking yesterday to the park, where I sat on a bench listening to Darshan Ambient and watching the world happen without me. I was reflecting on my dharma teacher who is leaving today, and the positive effect she has had in my life. It was interesting to realize that the world will continue while watching people throwing balls, dogs playing and a mother on a swing with her son. It appears to be independent of me watching it or not. I can affect my world by seeing the beauty in it, or not and I have to continually remind myself to do so. This will make me happier than always seeing what’s wrong with it. Not to be confused by not caring about the health of our planet, but using my energy to affect change instead of just complaining about it. I saw cracks in our world, the huge floating island of plastic twice the size of Texas in the Pacific on PBS. So now I am even taking bigger moves to minimize my plastic use. I no longer buy water in plastic, and reuse my plastic vegetable bags and carry my own cloth bags. I will expand my awareness every time I buy something in plastic and try to avoid it when possible. I think there is a lot to be said about being informed and making the important changes to make sure that our children will also get to enjoy the beauty as well.

Curious Boy

When I was a boy, there were certain things in my life which were instrumental in boosting my curiosity of the world. One was meeting a young man of 19 or 20 who was cycling around the world and I talked to him while he stopped at the southern most point of the US. I was there on vacation trying to get away from my parents, and he was planning on getting to South America next. He told me many stories… of difficulties, upcoming journeys and fears. Overall, he inspired me to see more of the world and have a sense of adventure. Later, at 14, I traveled coast to coast by bus with a friend. By 17, I left home to work 2500 miles away to gain my independence. It provided me with confidence by exposing me to even more worldly people. One year later, I lived with a family while I worked with them. They were totally unlike my family, providing me with a contrast. The time there included a long, cold, and snowy winter, when I spent many an evenings talking with them. I even spent quite a few of those evenings, talking to and hearing their son’s ideas about the world. All while he was away from his family. I challenged any small ideas he carried just to make him think. I can only hope with all the time I spent, helped to expose him to the greatness of the world, as the cyclist did for me.

Ouch!

Oh, what a crushing feeling! They had better get it right with Iraq. We are producing more enemies than we had when we started. There is, contrary to Bush’s latest promotion, less than 10% Al Qaeda are fighting the troops in Iraq and they just started there in 2003-2004. Most, if not all, Iraqies dislike them because they would tell them what to do and how to live. Not understanding history and the culture will be our downfall in Iraq.
Now, take this down to our home turf. We are more and more divided in he USA based on our differences…and our love of money. We will sell our soul for money, and we will kill everything beautiful to make a buck. If we take time and think about our children and what they will have left in the world, we might support our dwindling natural resources, parks, and our heritage. If we try to leave a more beautiful world than we have right now, our children will be proud and our soul will rest easy in the future.