Friday, December 23, 2005
Don't Underestimate the Power of Doing Something
A man I knew told me of his death vision, which I believe I've talked about in a previous post. In his vision, he was shown that some of the things he did that were big and he thought did much good work for the people turned out to be very damaging. He was shown insignificant momentary events in his life where he did things he had almost completely forgotten that helped far greater than you think a little event like that would.
I was listening to Howard Zinn coming into work on my long commute (thank you Jewels). He talked about how people would look at defeats in their movements. But when you talk with people who were in the thick of it, they would tell you it wasn't as big a defeat as you think and would point out all the change that came out of that movement even if the goal wasn't met.
Everybody says we're in for tough times. I don't know. Nothing seems to happen the way we predict it will. Heck, California was supposed to slip into the sea in 1999. I don't know. I do know I Love the people. I want my fellow human beings to be successful, help each other, have true equality, peace, confict resolution without violence, no more imperialism or colonialism, etc. We can all do our part. No matter how insignificant we feel, no matter how defeated we feel, no matter how overwhelming the odds may seem, we can create a world of real equality and peace. If we don't get to see the outcome, at least we were heading down that path for future generations to take up that torch.
As Jim said on the show yesterday, most of the time you won't be able to defeat evil. Evil has no boundaries. There is nothing that evil wouldn't do to win. We have boundaries. There are things we won't do. If we struggle our whole lives and lost all our battles, we at least will not have become one of them in order to win. Don't underestimate the power of that understanding. That makes you a winner in my book. Even if there are no songs made about what you did, even if there are no books, you and people who knew you will know. Don't underestimate the power of doing something.
And, like I have learned, I have a limited amount of time on this earth. What am I going to do with it? Sell out, make lots of money for myself, join the forces of evil for my own benefit, etc, or am I going to do what I can, clumsy, straight and beautiful, failures, triumphs, and move forward or at least attempt to gain equality for one and all.
And how about you? What are you going to do?
I was listening to Howard Zinn coming into work on my long commute (thank you Jewels). He talked about how people would look at defeats in their movements. But when you talk with people who were in the thick of it, they would tell you it wasn't as big a defeat as you think and would point out all the change that came out of that movement even if the goal wasn't met.
Everybody says we're in for tough times. I don't know. Nothing seems to happen the way we predict it will. Heck, California was supposed to slip into the sea in 1999. I don't know. I do know I Love the people. I want my fellow human beings to be successful, help each other, have true equality, peace, confict resolution without violence, no more imperialism or colonialism, etc. We can all do our part. No matter how insignificant we feel, no matter how defeated we feel, no matter how overwhelming the odds may seem, we can create a world of real equality and peace. If we don't get to see the outcome, at least we were heading down that path for future generations to take up that torch.
As Jim said on the show yesterday, most of the time you won't be able to defeat evil. Evil has no boundaries. There is nothing that evil wouldn't do to win. We have boundaries. There are things we won't do. If we struggle our whole lives and lost all our battles, we at least will not have become one of them in order to win. Don't underestimate the power of that understanding. That makes you a winner in my book. Even if there are no songs made about what you did, even if there are no books, you and people who knew you will know. Don't underestimate the power of doing something.
And, like I have learned, I have a limited amount of time on this earth. What am I going to do with it? Sell out, make lots of money for myself, join the forces of evil for my own benefit, etc, or am I going to do what I can, clumsy, straight and beautiful, failures, triumphs, and move forward or at least attempt to gain equality for one and all.
And how about you? What are you going to do?
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