I don't know about any of you folks here but this war stuff
is really taking its toll on my mind.
Letter to my Dodder 3-24-2003
faustina-
it's me, your papa! i'm back alive! hi.
yer mom said she missed me because the people of the united
states were acting crazie and yelling war whoops. she needed
my perspective for balance because she was getting depressed
about it. she said you were too.
ok here's my perspective...
i did everything i could to try to stop this war. i tried to
educate and enlighten. i wrote essays, i sent letters, i engaged
in debates and i supported anti-war movements...
and i LOST. :-(
sometimes you win. sometimes you lose.
but it doesn't mean you give up. you keep on living life
according to your principles and you keep on following your bliss.
is life going to be harder because of what the US is doing?
is the world going to be worse off?
is the future going to be more painful?
YES! but it's NOT your fault and it's NOT your problem
and you don't own the blame, the responsibility or the guilt
for the devastation.
it is perfectly OK for you to continue to follow your bliss
and have a marvelous day every day, even though the world
is in agony. it's still okay to be funny and silly.
in that light, here is the thought for today. put yourself
in the moon's shoes and do as the moon does...
"Oh, make sense of me, night
I can see so much from this cold height
The moon said oh darkness my work is done
I've poured this bottle of light from the sun
But their anger keeps on rising
And they don't understand
I've shown them all that I can
That the world is at hand...
And the moon kept on rising
But I felt nothing at all
She comes when the empire falls
And shines on crumbling walls"
-dar williams
you do your best, you keep on shining,
it's all you can do. if the empire walls crumble
you shine your light on the crumbs.
that is all. that is enough. this is our life.
this is our love of life. this is our job.
last tuesday i was out on the ocean. the moon had
shown all night. at five thirty in the morning
i looked up at it as it approached the western
horizon and i remembered from the moon and sun
charts i'd printed out for the trip that 5:36 AM
was the exact minute that the moon became exactly
full with no shadow from the earth obscuring any
portion of it. i watched it intently for about an
hour as it began to set. it was gorgeous, it began to
turn a dark orange through the heavy moist layer of
air near the ocean as it neared the horizon. i was
sailing the boat directly toward it. then...
behind me through the same water-laden air came the
sun... exactly the same size, also orange, but redder
and brighter. there was nothing but water for a horizon
in front and in back of the boat. here i was sitting on
the "big blue" ball, staring at the yellow-orange ball
in the west and the red-orange ball in the east, both
sitting just above the ocean horizon casting a glow across
the water running directly toward the boat and toward me.
i had never seen the full moon and the full sun at
the same time in such conditions that you could stare at
them both with the naked eye. it was a majestic sight. they
were determined to keep on illuminating the earth forever,
no matter the state of man's affairs.
it was as if they had come as a team,
at the same time, pouring their light on
the earth from both sides.
it was as if they were saying to me...
"we do our best, we keep on shining,
it's all we can do. if the empire walls
crumble we shine our light on the crumbs.
that is all. that is enough. we neither build
nor destroy empires. this is our life.
this is our love of life. this is our job."
love,
-papa |
