More Sounding Brass from Washington

The Hollow Man has been sounding again. Like sounding brass or a tinkling symbol but without soul. He has ordered someone he no longer employs to refuse to show up to speak to Congress. He seems to have forgotten who is sovereign in this land.

I am a member of the Religious Society of Friends, and, unlike my namesake, molineux, eschew violent action as an appropriate method to settle differences. I also know I share my home country with people who believe differently. I can only stand for myself, and like many others, both supporters of war and those against war, have not been truly faced with violent death. But the example Gandhi and his supporters set in India shows that non-violent assertive action can work wonders if, and here is the catch, people are unafraid to die.

Being unafraid to die is the only thing stronger than being willing and unafraid to kill. I cannot say non-violence will always work. Neither can those who support war say that war will always work. Fewer died in India in the resistance to the British Raj than if there had been an all out war. And those who stood bravely in the face of British Sten guns, some of whom died have kept their human dignity intact.

The founders of the United States knew people argue passionately about religion and they knew that if kings and despots ruled, the 'safe' religion(s) this year could get one hanged, burned, or deported the next. Our government was founded to be secular for a reason.

Yet Spirit infuses our lives and wants us to express our best values as we know them. It is not theological bickering to say we all know we should live our lives with integrity, honesty, responsibility and kindness. We may deny these in some aspects of our lives, but in Truth, we do know what is right.

Or maybe would know it if we didn't work so hard to clutter up our thinking with external bombardment from TV, radio, traffic...

Our way home is NOT the path of consumerism preached by the wealthy leaders of this country. It is the path of grounding and listening, once again, to the life that is all around us.

Find a special place in nature and get to know it, through the seasons and different weathers. Pay attention to what changes and stays the same. Get some guidebooks and learn what you are seeing. Sit and listens, walk and observe. Do this regularly and reflect on how much stuff you really need, how much does a consumerist ideology satisfy you at your core.

If we are to navigate the coming bottleneck for human survival made from the peaking of global oil production, climate change, population growth, declining per capita food production, and more, we need to calm down, regain our center, and ask of ourselves to actually try living our values rather than blathering about them as our Hollow Man does.

I suspect this message falls on deaf ears in general, if any reading this are not already thinking this way. But we are now living in a new age of heroes and those of us who see it will one day likely be called to our heroic act whether visible to the world or not. No more hiding in the sand....

Do Quakers have a peace warrior Valhalla we can go to?

Love Peace and Joy to all,

molineux