Skip to main content

PEACE, PAZ, PAIS

All this justification for guns and war, all of this justification for killing people, I wish it would stop. Why can't we spend more energy justifying peace?

Violence begets violence. For the religious folk, isn't your premise that an eye for an eye was replaced for the love and peace and forgiveness in the New Testament?

While I am not religious, I nevertheless, do not want people killed in my name. I wish the entire world could enjoy peace and love, for there is far too much killing and hatred.

That might strike some as a naive position, reminiscent of the 60's hippies. And admittedly, I am a hippie. I am one of those far left, democratic socialists from way back when I lived in Canada and voted for the New Democratic Party, a party where Bernie Sanders would have been at home.

But politics aside, and naive as my position may be, if we give up on even hoping for peace then surely we have already lost. And is it really a bad thing to want peace? Is it not a good idea to love people, to wish for a life without poverty? Do we not want a world where children are safe and grow up educated? Is it really a controversial idea to try to accomplish these goals without resorting to war and violence?

These are difficult times, yes, but we've faced hard times before.
Let us face these problems as one people, a peaceful people. Let's unite in a global initiative of world citizens unencumbered by political division and superpower braggadocio, to stop the killing, stop the hurting, and find peaceful solutions to the problems of income inequality, climate change, diminishing resources, poverty, educational opportunities and health issues, that plague us all.


Wishing you all a happy, healthy and peace filled Christmas.
Stephen Lonsdale




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nirvana

I can no more cease to write than you can stop breathing. It is my salvation. Writing is my path to Nirvana, where suffering has been extinguished, and complete peace is realized, if you believe that sort of thing. I'm not sure that I do, but it's a nice sentiment. For me, since I must work at doing something that fails to excite me in any meaningful way, I must search for my own meaning. Writing is the vehicle I use now. It used to be that my path lay with studying martial arts, but life changes, the body wearies. I suspect many of us, no, most of us, are in the same boat. We are trying to manage our lives the best we can while searching for Nirvana, our own private paradise, or however we might  describe it. Viktor Frankl wrote Man's Search for Meaning. He posits that our meaning is what we choose it to be and that meaning may change day to day. He said, "“Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how'.” Following your passion ...
2 comments
Read more

THE BEGINNERS MIND

This brings us to the end of the ten week series of articles attempting to apply martial art principles and mental attitudes to non-martial situations in everyday life. And it's appropriate that the series ends with the beginner's mind set. Soshin , refers to what is called, “the beginner’s mind”. This is the act of maintaining an open, inquisitive and eager mind when learning martial arts even at an advanced level. The concept is to approach each subject as a beginner with no pre-conceptions.  Personally, I have found this to be the hardest task to attempt. Ego always gets in the way. In training in three different disciplines, Shotokan karatedo, the hard techniques of Soke Morris’s JJI syllabus, and the efficient techniques of Hakkoryu, which shares the same root art, Daito-ryu, with Aikido and Hapkido, I had some difficulties emptying my mind.  I would want to throw uke in karate class, kick uke in aikijujutsu class and finesse uke in JJI class; I was very mixed u...
Post a Comment
Read more

Life's Uncertainty Principle

There was a particular moment, a span of about ten seconds, in my life when I chose a course of action that changed everything and with very dramatic effect. It is hard for me to talk about this without telling you the details but I am going to try. It started in 1982, I had worked hard to earn a position within my job. During my course of duty, a situation developed and I had the obligation to choose, literally, to stay where I was or go. I know, " should I stay or should I go now." I could have stayed . I should have stayed . But I didn't, I went . Ten seconds of my life, that's what it took to change my life's path in every way. I am not talking about military service and fighting a war, where one looks back thinking had I gone right and not left, I wouldn't have been shot. No, nothing that noble. I wasn't shot, blown up, or physically injured in any way. But the situation turned sour and the result from that decision of mine played out in the cou...
Post a Comment
Read more