Responses

I am, to use a southern phrase, "full to busted" with the many happy birthday wishes that came my way yesterday.  All day I felt very happy, no doubt because that phrase kept popping up on my fb profile, on this blog, through my phone and in person from Richard and Elliot.  That much positive energy sent to a person has a wonderful, invigorating effect.  I have a deep sense of gratitude and joy about the gift of my life and the people in it.  Please forgive me for gushing a little, but there were years when I did not feel this happy inside, especially on my birthday.  Holidays, no matter the celebration, normally contain a touch of sadness to go with the sweet.  This year, that touch of sadness came through a world event.

Since my daily routine involves a trip to the coffee pot and the computer, the first thing I saw happening in the outside world on my birthday was the claim that Bin Laden was assassinated and thrown into the ocean.

I'm not sure if I believe it.  When network news describes the events using animated graphics to replay the military action, I wondered:

Are we at the point where we will accept cartoon images as actual truth? 

Even if it is true, why celebrate?  While I'm not sad for this one particular human loss, I wonder if I'm alone in thinking that it's not good to jump up and down for a death wrought from vengeance, paid for with so many lives and funds that could have promoted life sustaining efforts.

Perhaps some will be happy under the belief  that NOW, finally, we can stop making war.

I want our country to stop making war.

I want peace on Earth.

Killing is not an act of peace.

We cannot rid the world of violence and oppression by making war.  Will humanity kill humanity until the last man is standing alone?

Perhaps not.  Perhaps something else is happening.  We currently have a population overload...it seems that life keeps growing, multiplying our numbers so fast that we are having a hard time sustaining ourselves.  And given the unstable weather and natural disasters, we have bigger problems than incidents of terrorism or radical, unstable countries.

We have work to do.  We have love to give.  We have prayers to say and kindness to share.  We have positive energy and the power to keep wishing people happiness wherever we go.

I may be a little older and wiser after having four decades of birthdays but I still believe in love.  I still believe in the ideal of peace, despite the illusion that it's no longer practical or realistic.