Having been here for just shy of 60 years, I have learned a couple of things.
What goes around truly does come around. Just because it feels good to do good.
Friends and gratitude bring you everything else.
No one else can answer your questions.
Traveling to distant places is worth it.
Be still and breathe. Spend time with yourself.
Don't believe the naysayers.
You are loved more than you know.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
No more 'others': Gates and the Dalai Lama on GPS
What is possible in a world where we need to maintain destructive force to keep 'others' from getting it themselves?
Fareed Zakaria always impresses me with the depth and intelligence of his interviews. Last week his guest was Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a sane voice in our military. He explained the role of a superpower (us) in keeping the peace through maintaining a nuclear arsenal. He said the purpose of our continued might is 'to prevent others getting nuclear weapons.' He meant that any other power could get the weapons, with any agenda including total destruction of everything. I follow the logic.
I took the thought about 'others' further to find a way out of the conundrum of having weapons to protect us from people who might get weapons. I thought about the projected, 'dark-side'sense of others, where we place our fears and hatreds and against whom we attack and defend ourselves.
When we distance other people or see them as the shadow, and when 'others' see us that way, we perpetuate the possibility of enmity. When everyone knows and feels there are no 'others', we won't need enormous destructive power to protect everyone.
How can we not have others? At heart, we are all one. People love being free to do their best, free of corruption. When they are living in poverty or oppression, they don't have that choice. I really believe that everyone wants to be free. In that way we are all one.
There are big IF's that make the difference in whether we can ever get to worldwide peace. IF people are not so resigned to separation from self that they shut down their humanness. IF people are not 'born to lose' or 'born to be evil,'which I believe they are not. Is our prison population huge because of our freedoms, or because of the high level of alienation in our society and class system?
In any case, a huge majority would agree and would strive to live in accordance with peace.
What would the world be like if we felt that "others" and ourselves were all bringing our best contribution to the way we all want to live? Would there be enough trust and connection in the world that we wouldn't need to spend our resources to prevent outbreaks of hate - against the OTHER?
This week, Fareed hosted the Dalai Lama, who said it for us, "There is no them."
If we, the US, are what Madeleine Albright called "the indispensable power," we maintain the separation, playing the role of Rescuer. If Americans can do anything to move us toward oneness, it would be to increase our generosity and share the power.
Fareed Zakaria always impresses me with the depth and intelligence of his interviews. Last week his guest was Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a sane voice in our military. He explained the role of a superpower (us) in keeping the peace through maintaining a nuclear arsenal. He said the purpose of our continued might is 'to prevent others getting nuclear weapons.' He meant that any other power could get the weapons, with any agenda including total destruction of everything. I follow the logic.
I took the thought about 'others' further to find a way out of the conundrum of having weapons to protect us from people who might get weapons. I thought about the projected, 'dark-side'sense of others, where we place our fears and hatreds and against whom we attack and defend ourselves.
When we distance other people or see them as the shadow, and when 'others' see us that way, we perpetuate the possibility of enmity. When everyone knows and feels there are no 'others', we won't need enormous destructive power to protect everyone.
How can we not have others? At heart, we are all one. People love being free to do their best, free of corruption. When they are living in poverty or oppression, they don't have that choice. I really believe that everyone wants to be free. In that way we are all one.
There are big IF's that make the difference in whether we can ever get to worldwide peace. IF people are not so resigned to separation from self that they shut down their humanness. IF people are not 'born to lose' or 'born to be evil,'which I believe they are not. Is our prison population huge because of our freedoms, or because of the high level of alienation in our society and class system?
In any case, a huge majority would agree and would strive to live in accordance with peace.
What would the world be like if we felt that "others" and ourselves were all bringing our best contribution to the way we all want to live? Would there be enough trust and connection in the world that we wouldn't need to spend our resources to prevent outbreaks of hate - against the OTHER?
This week, Fareed hosted the Dalai Lama, who said it for us, "There is no them."
If we, the US, are what Madeleine Albright called "the indispensable power," we maintain the separation, playing the role of Rescuer. If Americans can do anything to move us toward oneness, it would be to increase our generosity and share the power.
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