Skip to main content

9/11

Since the top right picture is of the former Twin Towers, it strikes me as interesting that I should get into my blog again on the anniversary of 9/11. Today is a date when I was wondering whether we are going to attack Iran, and how horrific I think the consequences would be. Do we have enough military to support it? Would the government want to initiate another draft and, if not, where would they get the manpower? If not, would they bomb the heck out of them? And then what?

I don't know if it is true or not but, this week I read on the Internet that in all the centuries of mankind there has only been seven years of no wars. And, we have the nerve to call ourselves civilized. Okie Dokie, but holy smoke and mirrors, it seems there is a fly in the soup to me. And then folks, what have most of these wars been about?

The other day I spoke to someone who does a particular meditation to open the layers of the heart. It is a Sufi meditation. You know the tradition where that beautiful poet Rumi talking about the light and sound of God came out of and The Whirling Dervishes. I thought that would be a nice thing to learn, but you see the person then started talking to me about the fact that there is a relationship between Sufism and the Koran. I became fearful suddenly about being taught this meditation technique, and then shocked at my reaction. I thought about how I really would like to study the Koran to see for myself, even though I am told that the ripples within the words can not be translated, what the book really says. I imagined the looks from people seeing it on my desk at work or in my car or carrying it into the coffee shop, and it made me sad, considering why was it that so many people came to America, when they first founded this country. I supposed that those people also were rounded out for simplicity's sake into the idea of all being fanatics. After all, why complicate matters with details of significance--better to go after an Armani.

It is now 11:40. Twenty more minutes to the end of this 9/11 anniversary. I think I will spend the last ten minutes in silence.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Truth Or Consequencies

I wrote this essay as a comment to articles on the following site: http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/archives/2007/02/ One might not think so, but there is a relationship, between trans fat, global warming and the drunk driving issue. Unfortunately, I think that the problem has to do with education. These days in school, we are so afraid to step on someone's toes, so we avoid teaching morals in school, and why should we? Are you shocked? Read further. It has always seemed quite interesting to me that no one can come up with a simple means to start teaching community, integrity, self responsibility and the like to young children from their very first textbooks. I don't see that the word God has to be in there or in order to do that. All great religions teach a core of values that cross borders. There are values that are there in the constitution and the creation of America . By the way, a constitution created by people (whether or not you want to call it a dem...
1 comment
Read more

Finding Agreement

Someone made a comment as to my using 'We' on the list of questions a few posts back. I used the word we in reference to we, as the human race! This is a semantic disagreement. It was 'We' not leaving myself out. If I say, "How long is the human race going to", it is a bit cold, depersonalized and it is sounds like I am leaving myself out. I then could be accused of thinking myself superior. If I would say, "How long are the the Jews or the Muslims or the Christians," it is separating myself from them. Now, think about this in reference to religious works that were written hundreds and hundreds of years ago, which we expect to translate literally and were often times written in poetic language. If you add to this that we are all in human form and the consciousness of spirit has to filter down through a mind of certain time period's knowledge and experience, even in saints, and then add to that, holy books were often written way after the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

35 Thought Provoking Thoughts

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. ~Aristotle Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils. ~Hector Berlioz An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field. ~Niels Bohr Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school. ~Albert Einstein What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child. ~George Bernard Shaw Learning is what most adults will do for a living in the 21st century. ~Perelman I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. ~Mark Twain Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune. ~Jim Rohn Education is that which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding. ~Ambrose Bierce In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad....
Post a Comment
Read more