Once again, Will Hall, I have stood with Dr. King and read Gandhi for so many years and have taken all these actions for so long. I understand, as you may not yet, how broken hearted you are so that you lash out at whomever, even your fiercest companions and allies. Still, may we stand together with a fierce and peaceful heart which is not good feelings but resolute and determined ways of being in the world, action, devotion, 24/7 as well as on occasion. My commitment for this life-time is to be part of ending war. And I won't war with you to do it.
Dear Will Hall: I am afraid you will be embarrassed for this comment when you read my work and know something of my life. Why not browse this site? My advice to you would be to erase this comment so as to lessen the amount of rage in the world which leads directly to the ongoing wars we are in and rewrite it to successfully invite people to the actions that are necessary.
thank you, dear Deena. four women friends gathered in loving conversation around a table, sharing a meal. when we got the news. another war. No Enemy Way. Be a Combatant for Peace. sending love.
Yes, but not distant, the war is right here, as it comes from our hands and lands on our kin. It is right here in the way every point in the universe is the center of the universe. And so my home is not safe for the flowers at this time.
indeed ...not safe.! I deeply concur, deena. I read the Szymborska quote as profoundly ironic, even cynical, written by one who stood in her own centers of the universe. But as of now, there is no hiding place, and no hiding place from our collective complicity.
I'm so tired of these warriors. These warriors and their wars. They make being a warrior look so good to some people, but not to me. Now we have "yoga warriors" "meditation warriors" "mommy or daddy warriors" just for doing the sometimes difficult task of being a mommy or daddy, and even "stop the war warriors". You name it and there's a warrior in every walk of life, or some people want other people to think with their little Jack Horner mentality
But warriors kill. They kill and maim and torture and rape and cut out tongues and cut off living breasts and penises meant for love and they destroy innocence and futures. That's what they do. They don't just work hard, or try hard, or do yoga poses that are difficult and make people think they deserve some kind of glory, or sit in meditation retreats until their eyes turn into pinwheels and their butts start fires by rubbing on their cushions like striking flints. No. They kill and do all of the other things I listed, and more.. They do it to the mommies and daddies and yoga people doing downward dog, and meditators, and peace workers, and bakers, and grandmas who like to knit or build life-saving technologies, and they do all of it to people who don't have a stick for a house or a handful of mud to eat, and they do it to children children children. The beauties of our species. That is what warriors do because they are told to do it and they do what they are told and many of them like it. Yes. That is also true for some. Until, maybe, later on, because of their wars.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: War is War. Warriors make war. Warriors kill innocent people. Mothers and fathers and children, aunties and uncles and babies. And I am sick of the sickness of warriors and their wars.
In some cultures there is something that has been called warrior spirit. I don't defame it, or their cultures, often indigenous. I say something very simple: can we really not find a better way to express that spirit, a better word or term or phrase, one that does not in any way glorify warriors and war and the disaster they bring into the world? Really? No other way? Unless that is what you want to do, all of you non-warriors ie glorify war.
Because I'm glad you are not warriors. Yes. Very glad. Because warriors and their wars kill people just like everyone you love and ever will or hope to love or be loved by. And I am sick of it. Sick of their sickness. Sick and bloody tired of what they do. Are you really not? Is war and are warriors really the pinnacles of our imaginations?
I won't argue the point. Say what you will, then. I've said my bit.
Once again, Will Hall, I have stood with Dr. King and read Gandhi for so many years and have taken all these actions for so long. I understand, as you may not yet, how broken hearted you are so that you lash out at whomever, even your fiercest companions and allies. Still, may we stand together with a fierce and peaceful heart which is not good feelings but resolute and determined ways of being in the world, action, devotion, 24/7 as well as on occasion. My commitment for this life-time is to be part of ending war. And I won't war with you to do it.
Ah I don't think I was lashing out but I can see how that may have read that way!
Dear Will Hall: I am afraid you will be embarrassed for this comment when you read my work and know something of my life. Why not browse this site? My advice to you would be to erase this comment so as to lessen the amount of rage in the world which leads directly to the ongoing wars we are in and rewrite it to successfully invite people to the actions that are necessary.
:-)
thank you Deena… this is horrifying.
Yes, the only medicine available now is precisely what you describe, the No Enemy Way. Thank you for reminding me...I was getting lost in rage.
Yes, I understand. But I couldn't bear the thought that they could turn me into a war monger like themselves.
thank you, dear Deena. four women friends gathered in loving conversation around a table, sharing a meal. when we got the news. another war. No Enemy Way. Be a Combatant for Peace. sending love.
with tears as even the flowers cry as they fall...
"FORGIVE ME, DISTANT WARS, FOR BRINGING FLOWERS HOME. ~WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA~
Yes, but not distant, the war is right here, as it comes from our hands and lands on our kin. It is right here in the way every point in the universe is the center of the universe. And so my home is not safe for the flowers at this time.
indeed ...not safe.! I deeply concur, deena. I read the Szymborska quote as profoundly ironic, even cynical, written by one who stood in her own centers of the universe. But as of now, there is no hiding place, and no hiding place from our collective complicity.
From Peter Levitt, poet, Zen teacher, peacemaker
I'm so tired of these warriors. These warriors and their wars. They make being a warrior look so good to some people, but not to me. Now we have "yoga warriors" "meditation warriors" "mommy or daddy warriors" just for doing the sometimes difficult task of being a mommy or daddy, and even "stop the war warriors". You name it and there's a warrior in every walk of life, or some people want other people to think with their little Jack Horner mentality
But warriors kill. They kill and maim and torture and rape and cut out tongues and cut off living breasts and penises meant for love and they destroy innocence and futures. That's what they do. They don't just work hard, or try hard, or do yoga poses that are difficult and make people think they deserve some kind of glory, or sit in meditation retreats until their eyes turn into pinwheels and their butts start fires by rubbing on their cushions like striking flints. No. They kill and do all of the other things I listed, and more.. They do it to the mommies and daddies and yoga people doing downward dog, and meditators, and peace workers, and bakers, and grandmas who like to knit or build life-saving technologies, and they do all of it to people who don't have a stick for a house or a handful of mud to eat, and they do it to children children children. The beauties of our species. That is what warriors do because they are told to do it and they do what they are told and many of them like it. Yes. That is also true for some. Until, maybe, later on, because of their wars.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: War is War. Warriors make war. Warriors kill innocent people. Mothers and fathers and children, aunties and uncles and babies. And I am sick of the sickness of warriors and their wars.
In some cultures there is something that has been called warrior spirit. I don't defame it, or their cultures, often indigenous. I say something very simple: can we really not find a better way to express that spirit, a better word or term or phrase, one that does not in any way glorify warriors and war and the disaster they bring into the world? Really? No other way? Unless that is what you want to do, all of you non-warriors ie glorify war.
Because I'm glad you are not warriors. Yes. Very glad. Because warriors and their wars kill people just like everyone you love and ever will or hope to love or be loved by. And I am sick of it. Sick of their sickness. Sick and bloody tired of what they do. Are you really not? Is war and are warriors really the pinnacles of our imaginations?
I won't argue the point. Say what you will, then. I've said my bit.