On a more mundane note...

so... now that i've donated my little bit to save the children, i still feel unhelpful. It's amazing how much help is being offered though, so at least it makes me feel better that they are getting it from somewhere...everywhere. So many conversations have occupied this topic and one thing is certain - it is truly amazing and hopeful at how so many people all over the world are reaching out.

i'm still reading "The Future of Peace" and I am learning so much. I recommend it to everyone. After going through the cyclical 'soul searching' phase again, i have began a list and given it a place in my thoughts. The list will consist of those things that I think are truly important in life. Peace is the first addition. hence, my growing collection of literature to learn about the word and find out how the elusive idea has been made tangible apart from the five concrete letters that we capture it with. The future of peace... Ghandi, and autobiography: the story of my experiments with truth... The words of peace; selections from the speeches of the winners of the nobel peace prize... reason for hope... mother theresa; in my own words... the fifth book of peace. I'm half way through Future of peace; a quarter of the way through ghandi, finished words of peace and mother theresa... the rest are untouched since i bought them. i really like these things i am reading.

there are some simple things that are quite meaningful in talks about peace:

"If you're at peace, then you are not haunted by fears. So, peace is not just an...absence of violence. It means you can enjoy inner serenity because there's an absence not just of violence but of fear - freedom from fear"
- Future of Peace, page 34

"Praying for peace...is not an unimportant or insignificant contribution. Whether one believes that prayers are answered by God or by deities of some sort, it is certain that the mere act of praying establishes the right vision, the right motivation within oneself. It is the beginning of taking positive action, and it sets up an irrepressible faith that cannot be defeated by external circumstances"
-Future of Peace, page 28

well, my title 'on a more mundane note' reflects what i thought i would be writing, but then i started on the wrong note and actually peace is the number one and very first addition to my soul searching quest for meaning before i hit 28. the next thing that i have concluded is that history teachers are of utmost importance. i realize finally that we, collectively, as a human race, are akin to the poor chap in the movie Memento. With each new generation's birth we become a blank slate and as we live we furiously (as in actively, rather than angrily) record all of our gained wisdom into textbooks and journals and poetry and novels...into film and song...into anything we can to make it last after we will die. so that it might be passed on and the human race is not left to madly run from one scene to the next lacking ability to surpass, to grow and to progress.

it is inevitable that history repeats itself, because it is new to each new life. never repeated in relative terms. we may be like a fine spacecraft where each of us is a different part of the machine and we all choose to go our own way and will we never reach the edge of the atmosphere? will we never work in unison to move ourselves towards peace and grace and goodness? so many parts were working in unison to reach out to the tsunami victims - it is amazing what can be done.

anyway, history... is of utmost importance, and those teaching it in all its forms, are truly needed. history and peace.

well, no time now for mundane -ness (at least it wasn't to me, but it might be to you).

till next time...