What DoYou Want, a Formal Apology?

Have you ever heard that, or said that? Well today, I finally found one; a formal apology form. I was just cruising aroud the web and I stumbled across this long spoken of tool for peace making. You can get it here.

I don't think we can really overestimate the value of a sincere apology. It is really a way of putting the weapons down. I have come to look forward to apologizing (mostly). Apologies give us a chance to reflect on how our actions are connected to other's re-actions. Apologies, when done with a pure heart can be moments of growth and acceptance. Apologizing for how our words or actions have done someone else harm without judging whether or not they (a) should have been harmed, or (b) to what extent they were harmed, really gives us the opportunity to show love and care for them above our desire to be right or our own egos.

If peacemakers are part of the Universe's plan for us, apologies give us the chance to be peacemakers; to humble oursleves and express a concern that we have caused pain by our actions or words.

Apologies are not a sign of weakness as only the strong are capable of sincere apology.

Apologies are not always an admission of guilt, rather, they are often an acknowledgement of someone elses feelings and existance.

Apologies are not only for the offended as they also release the offender.

Think about your circle of friends, family and acquaintances. Do you have apologies that can be given out? Go and apologize and restore the relationship.

Good Guys/Gals Finish Last

I used to believe this. How could you not? It’s fairly common to observe people doing the right thing and loosing money, status, thier jobs, sometimes even thier lives because they would not give into living as the world was pushing them to. People who stick to thier convictions even in the face of persecution, mockery and loss have an incredible strength. It seems though, that the ones who are willing to put themselves fist at all cost, the ones who live in a place of kill or be killed, are often the ones rewarded and admired.

I knew a man who worked as a salesperson for a steel company. He was above average at his job. Financially, his sales were valued by the company, but his opinions and personality weren’t. He worked among men with colorful and demeaning ways to talk about women, minorities, homosexuals and the handicapped. Men who could talk about and diminish the humanity of these groups of people not only behind closed doors, but in the open, every day, often in front of or even directed towards the very targets of their hateful speech. This dehumanizing speech was a way to control those who did not fit in their group.

My friend would often speak out and defend these other groups. Because of this, he was mocked and placed socially among the group of outsiders. Raises would be given, he got none. Promotions were handed out, he got none. Bonuses were paid, he got none. The more my friend spoke out, the more he was pushed to the margins of the company. I asked him why he didn’t just give up and either stop pushing back or quit.

He told me that he didn’t quit because these people needed a voice of truth and love in their midst. He felt like he was providing some small counter balance to the hate, lest the victims come to believe fully that they were less than the ones with the biggest mouths. He told me he didn’t shut up as a way of defending himself and ensuring that he was happier and healthier than the bigots he worked with.

Happier? How could he be happier when he was subject to verbal abuse, unfair treatment, and economic penalties?

He explained that when he went home at night he was able to enjoy his family. He carried no toxic emotions out of the office. When he slept at night, he said, sleep came quickly into his mind which was unclouded by guilt or hate, or plans for revenge. He told how he was able to laugh at truly funny things during his work day because he could see them. He could see them because he was not busy hiding himself, or staring at someone who had done him wrong.

Years later, he is still alive. Many of his coworkers have died of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, alcohol related illness and even suicide. He lives. He not only lives, he still has friends from back then, friends he made while standing with them against the verbal and mental abuse of the world. He lives, happily, in good health, and surrounded by friends while the “winners” in that company have died, many alone.

How blessed was he to have the strength to stand up amidst persecution and injustice. How rich he was to have been able to place principals before money and status. I would say that nice guys may sometimes finish last, but they always finish strong, whole, and in closer relationship with the Creator.

Laugh and the World Laughs With You

Little kids have some things we bigger kids have lost.

• Imagination
• Silliness
  
• A sense of adventure
• Curiosity
  
• Disinterest in what the world thinks of our ideas
• Playfulness in all times and and in all ways
• Fearlessness about their bodies
• A way of looking at the world so as to find new uses for things that no one else has ever thought of

Just for fun today, do something crazy so that others can be reminded of the innocence of youth. Do something so silly that milk squirts out of your bosses nose. Splash around in your own creativity. Play like no one is looking. Celebrate your body. Disengage from your fear of being laughed at and BE LAUGHED AT.

Here are some questions to open your creative channels and get you in the mood.

Look at the picture on the right and think about these things:

• What was this boys original idea?
• What did his parents say when they found him?
• What was his response?
• Can you remember doing things like this when you were a kid?
• Tell someone about some of the things you did.
• Recreate one or two of them
  

I Can See Clearly Now...

Image by weye via Flic
"I can see clearly now, the rain is gone. I can see all obstacles in my way. Gone are the dark clouds, that had me blind. It's gonna be a bright, bright, sunshiney day" -From the song, I Can See Clearly Now by Johnny Nash-

I was driving yesterday and I ran out of windshield washer fluid. With all of the ice, rain and salt on the roads it wasn't long until I couldn't see. The world looked smeary, foggy and dark.

I was going through an intersection with this limited visibility and someone appeared out of nowhere and I almost slammed into them. By the grace of God I didn't, but I found myself intensely angry at this persons careless driving. How could they have just popped up like that. They had to have been the most careless and selfish driver ever. They could have caused an accident which would have left me injured and with expenses that I can't afford. How dare they!

A few minutes went by and I realized that indeed, they did not just "pop-up". I was blinded by my own dirty windshield. My inability to see and my tendency to blame others was totally my fault. I needed to clean my own windshield. I stopped at a service station and filled my washer fluid.

Once my window was clean, WOW, what a difference. The sun was shining, the sky was clear, my anger and frustration was gone.

Life is like that. When we carry toxic feelings and emotions in us, greed, anger, shame, guilt, hate, jealousy, vengeance, hurt, grudges, etc.; it truly clouds our vision. We become unable to see what's good and beautiful in the world and in other people because our "windows" (hearts) are dirty. It's amazing how the clearer our vision, the more likely we are to be able to see, and be aware of, the miraculous in the universe.

Conversely, carrying this stuff inside of us creates a self fulfilling cycle of misery. The less we can see Goodness, the less we feel Goodness exists. The less we feel Goodness exists, the more stuff piles up in our hearts that clouds our vision. How blessed are those who live with pure hearts. They are able to see, more often than not, the Creator of the Universe in everything around them.

Get yourself some cleaner and get that crap washed off of and out of your line of vision. May you see clearly today and realize what a "bright, bright, sunshiney day" it is. Today and every day.

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Avoiding the Pain

Image via Wikipedia
We are a pain adverse culture. We try to avoid sadness, mourning and pain at all costs. We deny our feelings, pretend to be OK, mask the pain with activities or addictions, anything we can do to escape it. We want to be happy!

What we miss out on in this quest for happiness at all times, be it real or artificial, is the blessings that come with and after the pain.

Without mourning, I can not learn what it is like to heal. I can not come to a full appreciation of what I have been given and the people that I love until I am aware of the mourning that comes from loss. I can not come to know the comfort that the Universe will hold me in until I am willing to admit to and go through the sadness and hurt. It is in the healing that I come to know how gracious and loving the Universe is.

It is in our willingness to travel through loss, sadness and grief that we learn how to navigate that road for the future. I remember when I was young having difficulty sleeping without a night light. It seems trite, but it wasn't until I was willing to sleep in the dark for several nights in a row that I came to believe that light would return in the morning and that I had nothing to fear. Going through the dark night unaided by artificial light took away the fear of the darkness completely. Sadness and grief are like that too.

Even in our greatest loss there is blessing. We are all terrified at loosing the thing most dear to us; a relationship, our job, a possession, you know what I am talking about. The thing that we feel identifies us and which we would be nothing without. In surviving those huge losses, allowing ourselves to move honestly and fully through them, we become aware that the Universe is bigger than that and It's creation of us is also bigger than any one relationship, possession or loss. Creation and God are truly about life. Life continuing, life returning, life surviving.

Mourning as a blessing... Loss as something not to be hoped for, but to be thanked for the lessons, gifts and blessings it brings.

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The Joy of Desperation

Image via Wikipedia

How to Survive A Grizzly Attack

Source The art of manliness.com

1. Carry bear pepper spray. Experts recommend that hikers in bear country carry with them bear pepper spray. UDAP bear pepper spray is a highly concentrated capsaicin spray that creates a large cloud. This stuff will usually stop a bear in it’s tracks.

2. Don’t run. When you run, the bear thinks you’re prey and will continue chasing you, so stand your ground. And don’t think you can out run a bear. Bears are fast. They can reach speeds of 30 mph. Unless you’re an Olympic sprinter, don’t bother running.
3. Drop to the ground in the fetal position and cover the back of your neck with your hands. If you don’t have pepper spray or the bear continues to charge even after the spray, this is your next best defense. Hit the ground immediately and curl into the fetal position.
4. Play dead. Grizzlies will stop attacking when they feel there’s no longer a threat. If they think you’re dead, they won’t think you’re threatening. Once the bear is done tossing you around and leaves, continue to play dead. Grizzlies are known for waiting around to see if their victim will get back up.

How to Survive a Riptide

Source: Loving-Long-Island.com

Over 100 people drown in rip currents every year. The tragedy is compounded by the fact that rip currents are so very easy to avoid, and very easy to escape if you do happen to get caught up in one.

Rip currents are sometimes mistakenly referred to as riptides and undertow. These names are misnomers because although rip currents pull swimmers away from shore they have nothing to do with the tides and they do not pull swimmers under.

The real danger with rip currents is not that you're getting pulled away from shore, but how you react.

Most swimmers will panic and try to swim against the current. They will tire quickly and soon go under.

Desperation. Utter hopelessness. End of the rope. All expressions we are probably familiar with and unfortunately we have probably felt at one point or another. Grizzly bear attacks and rip currents both prove an important truth of the Universe though. It is when we know enough not to struggle against the thing that's trying to kill us that we are released from it. In actuality, sometimes it isn't even knowing enough that allows us to stop the fight, it is being exhausted, broken, ready to quit, roll over and die.

Alcoholics and drug addicts find the strength to get sober after they have hit bottom.

Bad relationships can be healed or ended after everyone has been emotionally drained and has no more fight for their personal agenda left in them.

People with eating disorders often find the strength to get healthy once they have gotten physically so sick that they almost loose their lives.

People will find a faith and a God of their understanding after they have been too tired, too lonely, too hopeless for too long; once they are exhausted and ready to quit.

It's almost as if, in all cases from grizzly attack to addiction, life wants to restore itself, healing wants to occur, but it cannot until we stop fighting. Until we know enough to stop or until we are so tired and spent that we have no more energy and we just roll over and accept what may come. That acceptance, that surrender, is our salvation.

We try so hard to avoid those times when we hit a wall, when we are broken down, when we have no strength to go on. Those things we struggle so hard against are actually blessed opportunities to witness how great and powerful the Universe is. We are blessed when we are broken because the fight is out of us. We are blessed when we are exhausted and empty because without our own agenda and plans in the way, Life and Love can take over and save us, resurrect us, bring us back from the brink of extinction that we are so sure we will fall into. It is those times and situations when we are at our lowest that we are near the Holy, vulnerable and ready to accept the Universe's healing love and grace.

Desperation is not to be fought against. It is to be welcomed, celebrated, even hoped for sometimes. If it is always darkest before the dawn, bring on the darkness today so that we may dance in the light tomorrow.

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Is Today Your Birthday?

Image by Jacob Johan via Flickr
It's my birthday today. My beautiful, can't-sing-a-note wife sang the birthday song to me. We are celebrating because I was born 42 years ago, a great day to be sure, but frankly an event I had nothing to do with except having the ability to breathe on my own when it was all over. Don't get me wrong, the contributions and gifts we bring to the world are worth celebrating, I'm just not sure there aren't at least several other dates to remember that we could call Birthdays.

If a birthday celebration marks the day we entered into the world and became human, what about other days when we entered more fully into the world and became more fully human?
Do you even remember what those events are or what date they fell on originally?
Could you make a list of all of those watershed events in your life and begin celebrating them?
Here's some possible RE-BIRTHDAYS for you to consider:

• Your first love
• Your graduation day
• The day you realized what you wanted to do with your life and started taking steps to get there
• The day you looked around and realized you WERE there
• The day you completed a long and difficult series of steps to reach an important goal
• Your wedding day
• The day you quit using drugs, alcohol, sex, eating, shopping, working, etc. as a crutch to get through life
• The day you knew, irrevocably, that there was a God and that God was good
• The day you became a parent
• The day you ended a harmful and difficult relationship
• The day you were announced to be cancer free
• The day you read the book that changed your life
• The day you suffered a loss so profound that you were never the same again

Now, not all of us have all of these re-birthdays. Compile your own list and start to celebrate them this year. Life is not set in stone the day you are born. It is a constant walk toward fulfillment and growth. Remember and celebrate the milestones.

Happy birthday to me, happy re-birthday to you.

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Another Year Older, Another Year Wiser?

Image by BrittneyBush via Flickr
At the end of every year we are always surrounded by the "year in review" TV programs, newspaper articles, magazine issues and radio shows.

• What would it look like if you did a year in review?

When I was starting out doing comedy, I used to tape every performance, open mic, benefit, weekend paid spot, every gig I worked. I would then listen to and review the tapes seeing what worked, what could be adjusted, what needed to be scrapped and never used again. It was these honest reviews and adjustments that helped me learn and grow and polish my set until suddenly, 5 years later, there I was playing at the Tropicana in Vegas. It would not have happened without the review.

Making resolutions is good, probably even necessary to set goals and plot a course (see yesterday's blog for a new outlook on resolutions). Maybe a personal and honest review of our year just passed can help to build a map. We would have to be ready to celebrate the successes as well as analyze the failures, be thankful for the growth and mourn the losses, but if we could do this honestly, take an accurate measure of who we were, who we are and who we wish to become, wouldn't that be a good place to start a new year?

Imagine not having to repeat the same mistakes this year. Think about using your past successes as springboards to a whole new level. Analyze your repeating patterns that are also repeating obstacles. Here's some questions to get you started:

• What relationships were mutually beneficial last year and why?
• What relationships were sources of stress or pain on either side last year and why?
• What activities, work, play or social, filled you with the greatest sense of joy and fulfillment last year and why?
• What activities, work, play or social, caused you anxiety, stress or a sense of dread last year and why?
• What events or situations last year made you feel connected to the Universe or in touch with the Holy?
• What events or situations last year made you feel disconnected or made you try to deny the existence of the universe or the Holy?
• What were your greatest successes and what contributed to them last year?
• What were your greatest failures or disappointments and what contributed to them last year?

After spending some time on those questions, make sure you were as honest as you could tolerate, and then crank up the honesty one more notch. It oughta' hurt a little. Once that's done, go into the new year looking to be more aware of what contributes to your successes and what direction the disappointments come from. You will be armed for fulfillment!

Enjoy your reflection, it is yours and it is beautiful.

Comfort Foods and Inner Peace

Image via Wikipedia

Meatloaf, oatmeal, grilled cheese sandwiches, chocolate chip cookies, chicken soup, mashed potatoes, comfort foods. The name of some of those foods alone can conjure up a smell, a taste and often a feeling.

• What is your ultimate comfort food?
  
• How old were you when it entered your life?
  
• When do you crave, or turn to that food now?
• What is it about that food that feels right to you?
• Have you shared it with other people?

For me, I have two that stand out in my mind tonight.

The first is pear juice. That's right, pear juice. If you haven't had it, you should. You need to make sure it is chilled well and DO NOT PUT ICE IN IT! Pear juice has a wonderful thick and grainy texture that gets diluted with ice. My mother would get it for me whenever I got sick as a child. I swear it still, to this day, speeds my recovery. Really though, it tastes like nurturing and support, love and care.

Another food that really does it for me is pupusa. Pupusa came into my life much later. At the age of 39 I went, for the first time, to El Salvador. I fell in love with the country, the people and the spirit of that small nation. I learned there that community is our hope, that life and the desire for survival is stronger than we know and that faith is alive and can be consumed like oxygen or food. I left there after a week. I have returned there and will many more times, God willing. When I am lucky enough to find decent pupusa in the U.S. (no small feat), I am instantly transported back to El Salvador. It is for me the taste of Spirit, unity and the blessings of poverty.
Image via Wikipedia

• If there was one food you could have right now, what would it be?
• How is it that food can bring us such a sense of peace and constancy?
• What does love taste like to you?
• Ask someone else what their favorite comfort food is and why.

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Person Refuge?

Image by Dizzy Girl via Flickr
Yesterday was the day every week that my family has chosen to set aside and rest. we use the word sabbath for that day. That word fits for us culturally, but I am becoming more and more aware that that word is also loaded with religious significance for many people. Sometimes, as I talk to people about their Spirits and their Universal Truths, I am struck by just how much those words that are closely tied to religion can be a real turn off. The words themselves seem to actually become roadblocks to some wonderful practices and ideas. Why that happens is probably fodder for another posting, and probably another blogger. Today though, I would like to take one word, sabbath, and deconstruct it. The concept itself is so important to serenity and fulfillment that it is worth blowing up the roadblock.

Sabbath- n - [Middle English sabat, from Old French sabbat and Old English sabat, both from Latin sabbatum, from Greek sabbaton, from Hebrew abbt, from bat, to cease, rest; see bt in Semitic roots.] Definition courtesy the free dictionary. com

To cease, to rest. To set aside all of the business and work of the other 6 days of the week and engage in stopping and resting. There is no religion tied to the word itself. Certainly, that connection comes up in the Judeo-Christian tradition, it is even one of the commandments but at it's root, the word and concept itself, sabbath simply means to cease and to rest.

Why rest? We seem to be so busy, to have so much to do. We know that there is no time to rest because in resting, something important won't get done. To answer why rest, let's look at nature:

• Plant crops in a field for too many consecutive years and the field will be depleted of nutrients
  
• Stay awake too long and there will be serious mental and physical consequences
• Trees and flowers all have seasons of growth and output followed by seasons of dormancy
  
• Wild animals have times of active hunting and gathering followed by periods or rest or in some cases, hibernation.

If any of these naturally occurring seasons of rest is skipped for too long a period of time, life can not continue. Rest, ceasing, seems to be built into the very fabric of nature.

To set aside one day a week in honor of who you are and Who created you is a gift. It is a gift to yourself, the fulfillment of your potential and to the universe itself. It is a way of respecting and nurturing the gift of life that was placed in you.

Call it what you need to, sabbath, rest day, refuge, sanctuary, cease and desist day, whatever works for you, just call it something and honor it. Set aside a day, every week, to not engage in business as usual. To honor the creation that you are and the Universe that Created you (in your own understanding). We provide wildlife refuges to protect animals from hunters, pollution, construction and noise, why do we think that we do not need that same protection once in a while. Pick a day and create your own "person refuge".

• Do you take time out of "business as usual" regularly?
• What would you do with that time if you took it?
• How would you include your family in those times?
• Can you figure out a way to try this, if not for a whole day, how about a morning?
• How has not taking a person refuge day impacted your body, Spirit and relationships in the past?
  

What Are You Hiding in There?

Image by Liquid Paper via FlickrDo you remember playing Hide and Go Seek, or Manhunt, or Flashlight Tag, or any other game where you would make yourself difficult to see and your friends would have to work to seek you out? How much fun to run away and know that the people who enjoyed our company would came and find us. How reassuring when they actually did. I did have a rather mean cousin who every once in awhile, would leave us out there, waiting for someone to take the trouble to come and find us.

Though we tend to play those games less and less as we grow older, I am often aware that we still hide our true selves away. We disguise out true nature and feelings behind masks of confidence, bravado, irritability, sarcasm, sadness, quietness, braggadocio, all kinds of ways of being in the world that are designed to keep our authentic self hidden safely away where no one will find it.

I am convinced that on some level, we really want to be found. We long for someone to take the time to seek us out. Think about your best relationships. Weren't they with people who didn't give up on finding you? The people who you know you can really trust were the ones who were patient and found you behind the hiding place you show to the rest of the world.

Points to consider today are in two directions, inward and outward:

• What disguise do you use to hide behind? What would happen if you "came out of hiding" once in awhile and allowed others to see you fully and authentically?
• Where are your friends and acquaintances hiding? What mask are they wearing that makes it challenging for you to want to go find them? What would happen if you stuck it out and went and discovered who they really are?
  

Holy Humor

Image via WikipediaVoltaire: "God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." I do not know if Voltaire really said that, I found it on the internet. As a matter of fact, I am not even 100% sure who Voltaire was (is).

I do however share the belief that this universe is filled with humor and things that we should be laughing at, but on some level we are afraid to. It's almost as if by laughing, we are admitting to being somehow less relevant, less serious, less important.

The reality is that laughter is a gift. According to Helpguide.org:

"Laughter activates the chemistry of the will to live and increases our capacity to fight disease. Laughing relaxes the body and reduces problems associated with high blood pressure, strokes, arthritis, and ulcers. Some research suggests that laughter may also reduce the risk of heart disease. Historically, research has shown that distressing emotions (depression, anger, anxiety, and stress) are all related to heart disease. A study done at the University of Maryland Medical Center suggests that a good sense of humor and the ability to laugh at stressful situations helps mitigate the damaging physical effects of distressing emotions."

Knowing all of that might make it easier for us to laugh, really laugh, no matter who is around, or whether or not it is "appropriate". According to this evidence, God has given us the ability to luagh as an important part of our bodies and our spirits.

• What can you do to bring more laughter into your life?
• Where do you currently look for laughter?
• What things do you think are funny, but also feel like you just "shouldn't" or "can't" laugh?
• Write down 5 things that you think God may have made funny on purpose. (giraffes, farts, tickling, etc.)
• When was the last time you were thankful for laughter?
  

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When I Grow Up...

Image by kim_salyer via Flickr"What do you want to be when you grow up?" When was the last time you heard, or answered that question? Today, let's re-ask it from a couple of different perspectives.

• What was the answer when you were young? My first memory of what I wanted to be was a coroner, a la Qunicy M.E., my favorite show when I was pre-adolescent. I wanted the life this man had in the theme song for the show. Brains, the ability to help solve mysteries, excitement, a sailboat, and beautiful girls! Maybe for you the answer is Ballerina, Superhero, Astronaut, Teacher, but what was your answer at age 9 or 10?
  
• Did you grow up and become this dream? For me, quite simply, no. Too much school, too much dedication, too much dsitraction, too much blah... blah... blah... Maybe you have better luck at answering this question than I did.
• As an adult, what were the real attributes about that 'dream job" that speak to you now? For me and my long dead coroner dream, those attributes would include: solving mysteries, doing research, helping people get closure, using my brains more than my back, making my own schedule (at least Quicy seemed to), having a job that others think is odd and being surrounded by beautiful women.
• How many of those attributes are found in your current career choice? It took me 20 years to get to a place where I can say most of them! I have been in sales, management, security, entertainment, and hospitality and all of them left me a little south of joyous. I am finally doing work I love, solving and dealing with mysteries (personal and universal), helping people on thier journeys, thinking more than lifting, coming as close to a free schedule as possible, and believe it or not, I am at a point where i can declare the "surrounded by beautiful women" thing not only immature and shallow, but truly second place to marrying one.
• What is the answer today? What do you want to be when you grow up? If you have not had the chance to live out that childhood dream, how many of those attributes that were important to you then could you go on to fill now? How many are you doing? Are you finding Joy? Is it possible that the career dream you had when you were young knew something about the Spirit that is within you?
  

Perhaps the state of the economy is giving you and your career a chance to reassess the relationship you have with each other. Are you giving equally to the relationship, or is work sucking the soul out of you?

May the work you do fill you and enrich your soul so that it is an extension of who you are.

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Things, Things, and More Things

I saw this picture in an email someone sent me. Not sure where they got it. My apologies for not giving a proper nod to the photographer or the creator but I know not who they are. What struck me though was the honest truth of this sentence. In this Holiday season, it is so tempting to think about all of the "things" we want, or the perfect "thing" for little Joey that I almost needed this little bit of spray painted truth.

The best things in life are actually us, our creativity, our grace, our empathy, our love, our kindness, our individuality, our "ourness".

What part of yourself are you truly thankful for? What part of yourself can you wrap up and give away this Holiday season? What "thing" were you going to buy that you could choose to leave on the shelf at WalMart and instead give someone a piece of yourself?

The best things life are us...

Truth and Peace

I have been thinking a lot lately about truth; truth hurts, truth will set you free, truth is stranger than fiction, etc.

It hasn't always been that way. There was a time, not too very long ago, when truth came somewhere after convenience, personal agendas, political gain or loss and some twisted sense of what I thought people wanted me to say or do. Since trying to focus more on truth I am finding that truth is often annoying, disruptive and seemingly illogical from a self preservation standpoint.

Even in it's sometimes difficult wake, the truth is always disarming. You can not ever effectively argue against truth in the long run. The truth will always win out. It has to. It is a constant. It is not subject to changes of opinion, winds of doubt or shifts in the rules. Truth is truth is truth.

What would the world be like if we all lived into and out of, the truth? What if we were true to who we are, acknowledged how we truly felt, took responsibility when the truth says we are at fault, suffered no hurt feelings at the hands of the truth and remembered that, at the end of the day, the truth has no agenda other than itself?

Where in your life are you currently living as if some illusion or other were true? Where is it that you could shine a little truth and free yourself to live in reality?

This might not be easy. People get nervous when the truth starts flying. Start with yourself. Who are you, really? Where is your heart, really? What makes you happy, really?

Peaceful Video Games?

I found this on the web today. It is a classroom video game called Virtual Peace. According to the web site:

Virtual Peace: Turning Swords to Ploughshares brings together digital learning technologies and international humanitarian assistance efforts. Students and educators enter an immersive, multi-sensory game-based environment that simulates real disaster relief and conflict resolution conditions in order to learn first-hand the necessary tools for sensitive and timely crisis response.

How cool is that? Imagine using video technology to help young people become interested in working toward peace and humanitarian efforts.

• What are some video games that you might create to help people explore the concepts related to social justice?
  
• Do you think these games would ever catch on like the hundreds of war simulation games? Why or why not?
• Would there be any "political correctness" issues raised by a game like this?
• Are there any "political correctness" issues raised by a game like "Call of Duty: World at War?