War is sold by a handful of madmen on the basis that every citizen of the enemy country spends every waking minute slobbering at the prospect of personally destroying you, your family and all your friends.
When my brother and I were kids, we were driving in the car with my dad one day and “Me and Bobby McGee” by Janis Joplin came on the radio. My very unserious dad got a little serious and said, “Listen to these words.” We listened. He waited. Then he said, “Right…here…did you hear that? She said harpoon and red bandana.”
I’ll end with my hope that the people of Indonesia will find an inclusive and fair way to treat all of its rich religious traditions and thereby set a new and positive example for other countries grappling with similar problems.
Imagine living in a world where you have something in your life that you find incredibly helpful and rewarding, something that gives you specific tools to solve day to day problems you’re hitting up against, and the support system you need to be the best possible version of yourself.
And sometimes a whole culture realizes belatedly that it has weeds–bad, bad weeds—and endeavors to pull them out, through protests, education, legislation. That’s a good thing, too. The world can breathe again.
Religion has been attacked and even its symbols are being aggressively removed from our society. School prayer, the Ten Commandments, even crosses at military cemeteries have been targeted and eliminated.
The composition of a society is rooted in the purposes of its individuals. Intertwined, those purposes fuel the dynamic evolution of a culture. They comprise its life-force; establishing, and then reflecting, its mores, values and goals.
Life is the essential raw material of artists—be they sculptors, performers, painters, writers, directors, or whichever—they involve themselves more with Life than other people. They communicate some teaspoon or cup or hundred gallon vat of Life with every piece of art they create.
And the war between universes—the spiritual and the physical—continues. So many people are looking for the answer. Well, I am here to tell you that the answers have actually already been found.