Take Me to the River

I started out to go on a hike the other day. Not such an unusual thing really.

I say started to, but I never really made it. I got to the preserve, a place called Ragged Mountain, and noticed what looked like a family getting ready for a hike. There was a set of grandparents, a 10 year old, a dad, maybe another set of grandparents. As I got out of the car one of the grandmothers said, "Are you here for the..." I couldn't here the rest as a car raced by me. I walked up to the woman and told her I hadn't planned to and asked what was going on. Turns out there was going to be some guy coming by to give a talk on vernal ponds. (Don't worry, we'll get to what vernal ponds are eventually.) I was welcome to come along if I wanted.

Hmm.

A talk on vernal ponds.

Mmm...

"Thanks", I said. "That sounds nice".

I found out they weren't necessarily all grandparents. Two of them were, but that was coincidental. One man .was from the wetlands commission, one had another such title that I just can't remember. The other adults in the group represented the local land trust that takes care of preserves like the one we were about to enter. Stewards of the land preserving the rural character and quality of life in their home town. There was the 10 year old who was indeed spending the morning with his grandparents. And me. All of us making small talk, waiting. Waiting for some guy.

Some guy turned out to be Jonathan Richardson from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Now I do Jonathan a slight disservice here for I don't remember his total history. I do remember that he got a BS in Biology from University of Virginia. I remember that as of his talk he had just about 2 weeks to go before he gave his oral defense for his Masters thesis. I think that last part is correct. I think. If that's what one does to finish a Masters program. I've never done it, so I don't know. What I don't remember is his field work. What I can say is it's a lot. I mean a lot. He has spent so much time in the woods of the Northeast could probably direct you to all of the vernal ponds in Connecticut from memory.

Yeah, I know, that's all nice and everything, but, what the heck does he do!  I've lifted the next bit directly from his highlight page on the Yale website.

"My research focuses on the influence of landscape structure on population persistence. More specifically, I am looking at the effects of habitat fragmentation in terms of gene flow, population genetic structure, and evolutionary differentiation among amphibian populations in the Northeast."

I'll let you read that over a few times while I get on with it.

As it turned out all of these people were meeting because some developer wanted to build some houses on some land that includes a vernal pond. We were going to take a short walk into the woods and learn the importance of vernal ponds. You know, show the important people from the important commissions and such the importance of preserving our wetlands and open spaces.

Do you live near a place where you can hear the peepers in the spring? You know the frogs calling out hoping for a one night stand. I don't anymore. If I'm lucky and I'm going somewhere at night I can hear them Doppler style as I drive by. I hear them sometimes when I'm out hiking, but it seems if I get too near or make too much noise they don't make a sound.

Some times when you here them they are inhabiting a regular old pond.

Some times you're hearing the cycle of a vernal pond.

See a vernal pond fills with snow run off and the first rains of spring. The dead leaves left over from the previous fall line the bottoms of these depressions in the floor of the woods allowing the water to collect and remain until the surrounding trees suck up all the water to feed their new leaves. Something pretty awesome happens while all that water rests in it's cozy pocket. This little pond starts to teem with life. All kinds of life. Frogs, salamanders, mosquito larvae, snails and fingernail clams, microscopic zooplankton. A ton of stuff. More than I can remember. The thing is it's a whole ecosystem. A food chain that is almost symbiotic. One layer of life somehow helping the another to survive. Sure the larger things feed on the smaller, but the smaller often take advantage of the larger in some way.

A whole world unto itself.

A whole universe that knows nothing of you or me. Nothing of cars or Mars or The Avengers or anything that we might know.  

They know nothing of us. Have no capacity to understand the world they live on. All they know is their cycle.

Yet here we are.

 It's kinda like that for us too isn't it?

We swim through our lives barely looking up. There are so many things that we think we know. So many things that we are so sure of. So sure in fact that we'd start wars or argue with friends, hush our children, or look down upon out neighbors.

We're lucky in many ways. From where our planet spins in the solar system to the fact that we're all still holdin' on to what we've got. Just do me a favor and look up some time and wonder over the things that are still a mystery. Let go of what you know and wonder over all the things you don't.

I set off on another hike a few days later. I went to a place called Cotton Hollow Preserve. There's a river that runs through it. It's a popular place because of all the small water falls and rapids along the path.

I always watch the water run 'round the rocks. I watch the stubborn rocks buck and fight the constant flow.

I know it's cliched now, but we always have the choice in life. Be the rock or be the water. Be the rock and stay set in your ways no matter what's happening around you. Be the water and find a way to where you want to go.

As Bruce Lee is quoted as saying (though I'm sure it's much older than that) "Be the Water".

Well, it's that time again. Time where I feel like I'm just talking to talk.

Keep your stick on the ice.

Peace

 

Keep on Working

Well, it finally happened.

I got laid off.

I'd been waiting ever so long. Not like a kid waiting for Christmas who can't sleep at night either. More like a person who has been watching people he works with getting laid off every week and can't stand the suspense of when your time is coming. The waiting and wondering. Ooo! I made it to morning break! Phew! Made it through lunch! Clocking out on a Friday afternoon thankful you've made i through another week. Seeing the Hatchet Man on a day he usually doesn't come in and knowing someone is going to be on the outside looking in soon. Usually more than one someone too. That kind of waiting.

See, I knew I was on the list too. No, really. I won't go into details of personalities and loyalties and politics, suffice it to say; I knew.

I should've been working on my résumé ages ago. There was a computer virus a long time ago and I lost whatever versions I'd had. I didn't have any hard copy to simply retype. So I knew I had to do it. And I had become unhappy enough that I should've initiated the change to begin with. And when I say unhappy I mean it. I don't remember a positive word passing my lips while I was there in a long, long time.

I'm not tellin' ya this for you to feel sorry for me. I've been in a lot worse scrapes.

Many people feel desperate losing a job at 50. I'm don't. I think I'm kinda relieved. Well, yeah. Relieved. As much as I felt I really needed the job, as lazy as I was in not writing a résumé; I didn't want to uproot myself again and start over some where else. As much as I'll always tell you that change is good, you don't always greet it with your arms wide open. Some times it's just hard. So I stayed. I stayed and did the best job I could while feeling the breeze of the pendulum as it got closer and closer. I stayed and watched good people have to leave without a chance to say goodbye. I stayed even though I knew.

But ultimately I wasn't given the choice. So even though I knew there needed to be a change and was avoiding it, it came wrapped up in pink paper.

Now, with all this talk of me knowing it was coming some people I know would probably say it was a self fulfilling prophecy. You know, if you believe your marriage is going to fail you act in way that actually expedites the matter. The term was coined by Robert Merton. In his book Social Theory and Social Structure he contends that the prediction is false but made true by a person's actions. Most people associate this tendency in negative ways. It works positively too though. If you look in the mirror before you leave the house for the day and say to yourself that today is going to be the best day ever, you will inevitably act in ways that will help that along. Consciously or unconsciously.

All of that is not to be confused with The Law of Attraction. I haven't really studied The Law. From what little I've read it seems to be a system of visualization and meditation. You attract to yourself whatever you put your attention to. Like attracts like. If you believe you have infinite possibilities then that's what you'll have. If you believe you're poor or alone then that's what you are. It seems to me to have a lot to do with materialism too. Something like if you visualize abundant riches you'll wake up a millionaire. I've got little to say about it really. It seems a sham where people are willing to tell you the secrets to getting extraordinary things if you buy this or that book. Or, you know, maybe even book 2. I don't really know though. If anyone has had success with this and would like to share, you know how to get a hold of me.

So there's one theory that sort of says once you get something into your head you'll act out in whatever way needed to ensure the result you're expecting. The other theory is more about being an active participant in your life. Figuring out what you want or need and trying to influence the universe to do your bidding. There is a third thing I'd like to bring up though. It has to do with subjective reality.

Subjective reality is a belief system where there is only one singular consciousness in the universe. You. Everything else you see, touch, or love are projections of your thoughts. There nothing influencing what happens in your life. No predictions to prove or disprove. There is no universe to spar with and manipulate to your wishes. You are the universe all on your own and all of your wants and intentions are manifested because you create it. You are the creator. It's like dreaming. Everything in your dreams are projections of your dream thoughts. It's the same thing in the physical world. Everything is a projection of your thoughts. Now that's some heavy stuff huh?

How do you suppose these three things are connected? The only thing that I can put my finger on right away is feeling like everyone has the chance to get, or feel, or want anything we want. The thing is is that there are no real short cuts I think. As powerful and vast as the mind is, it all takes work. It takes you to know what you truly want. It takes you to be ever mindful that you can change what you have to what you want. You need to work. You need to keep on working. The change will not come instantly, but if you put your intention out there in the universe and work on it, things will change. Ya gotta put the work in to get the results. If you want to be a happier person, act on it and be mindful of it. If you want more money, do something about it. Go back to school for that degree you never finished. Get another job. Even a second job. Don't just wish for it.

Work for what you want. Work for it and keep on working.

All right.

I'm pullin' for ya. We're all in this together.

What About Now?

Bet you didn't know that in my youth the elders of the church I attended were sure I was going to be the next priest to come from our parish? I was an altar boy. Head altar boy thank you. I was a lecter. I was the president of my youth organisation. I mowed the church lawn and shoveled the sidewalks. I went on retreats. I was lucky to have nothing but good, decent men of the cloth that I came in contact with. Idk. A lot of people thought I was on the fast track to priesthood.

There were some things that changed all of that. Nothing horrible. Just life.

You know, life. Girls. A job. A paycheck. There was all of that but, there was something else too.

A book.

I was reading a catechism book one night. A book a priest had given to all of us high school students. It was the first of it's ilk I had seen that was an actual thick book and not a thin volume full of pastelly pictures and simple words. This was a book that actually discussed the church and church history. And it bothered me. A lot of things bothered me about church all along actually. Mostly how people professed one thing while living another

But it was the way this book talked about the Catholic church that really opened my eyes in a different way. It was the unapologetic way it discussed some of the history of the church.

Like....

1095.

Recognize that number?

Here's a hint. It's a date in history. A fairly important date. Not a very good hint huh? OK, how about this one? It involves Pope Urban II. There, that's a dead give away.  I know some of you history buffs probably don't need any hints but, how about one more hint for the infidels? Ooo. Did ya catch that? Infidels?

Any guesses yet? Give up? It was the start of the Crusades. It gets kinda complicated after that. I guess it was the first successful Crusade. Yeah. I guess there were two others started but never really got off the ground. I think. It's been a while. There were a total of nine Crusades. That doesn't include the Recoquista waged to reclaim the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors or a dozen or more sort of sub-Crusades

Well, like or not we're going to continue the history bit for just a bit longer.

Anybody know any of the accepted reasons for all these mini wars?

There were a bunch as far as I remember. Like, it was a something to keep the bored kings and knights in Europe out of trouble at home. It was to claim Jerusalem back from the Muslims for Christendom. To help Constantinople reclaim land lost to the Muslims. Of course there's the whole wealthy Italian nobles trying to gain control of the Mediterranean Sea.

There are of course plenty of examples of the church putting its fingers in pies where they didn't really belong. I know that's putting it way too nicely. But a bunch of pieces of all those pies clicked into place for me just then and it put a bad taste in my mouth.

The church didn't seem to be acting very Christian mostly. Not very Christ like.

I've lived a lot of life since then. Not much of it inside the walls of a church.

The thing I thought about then and still wonder about now is, what about love? Why wasn't the church actively promoting love? I always figure that all of that history stuff was a long time ago. That was then.

But, what about now? Does your faith, or, do your beliefs preclude you from loving your neighbor? I bet not. I bet we're all a little more grown up than that now. I bet if you looked deep enough into what ever faith you follow, or belief system you practice, or whatever, the base line - that nugget of truth buried beneath the rhetoric - has something to do with respecting others. With taking care of those around you. With love. I don't really know that for sure of course, but I bet.

It's late. I'm outta here.

I'm pullin' for ya.

Peace

 

All You Need is Love

What do think happens when we die?

Is it Heaven you are destined for? Pearly Gates, Angels, reuniting with loved ones waiting patiently for your arrival. Maybe you meet your soul group. Figure out if you learned what you were supposed to. Taught what you were supposed to. Maybe you never got it right. Maybe you need to come back and try again. Hopefully the souls that surround you aren't tired of trying to help you out. Maybe it's back down the Hoober Bloob Highway. Maybe it's nothing. Maybe we just close our eyes and that's that. Theories and beliefs abound.

So many people believe different things. Religion and science each try to get us to see things their way. Experiments, seances, NDEs, exorcisms, so many things telling us that something happens to us when we pass away. Pass on. Pass over.

We just don't know though. We can place our faith in something: believe with all our hearts. But, we just don't know. That is the one secret no one can tell you. That is one of the few things we truly face alone. Maybe that's what makes people feel they're afraid of death. The aloneness. The possibility of pain. I think most of it comes down to the fact that we just don't know what's gonna happen.

Well that and being alone. It doesn't seem to me that we are built to be alone. We started out as Hunter-Gatherers. Or was it Adam and Eve? Either way we weren't alone. We are always with somebody. Clan, family, spouse, parish, community, co-workers, what have you. So many people turn the TV on as soon as they get home just for some noise. Just so as not to be alone. We need to feel part of something.

It's funny though. As much as we strive to be accepted into the cool group at school, or share a faith in a church with others - to fit in: we try and find ways to show we stand apart. We strive to excel on our own. We'd rather look back and see our own lone footsteps in the deep snow to feel the satisfaction of having done something ourselves. We move away from our families to make our own life. We often trade the love and closeness of our spouses and children for our own pursuits: work, play, whatever you can think of that takes you away from what started as your true joy.

So we swirl through this life in a confusion of motives and desires. Sometimes we're confused. Sometimes so sure what will give us that flash of happiness.

Ok, here we go. Ready? The thing is...

You can walk around feeling that flash all the time. Yeah, I know. Seems impossible.

All ya need is love.

Cliche? Maybe.

But it's true.

Nah, not the mushy can't live without you stuff.

How about the every day I'm glad to be alive stuff. How about the life is full of pain and happiness and I know how you feel stuff. The we're all in this together so let's treat each other right stuff. The do what's right stuff. The lend a helping hand stuff.. How about keeping that in your heart and  your head for a few days and see how things change. How you'll see that your true joy comes right from inside of you. How you are the center of all possible things and it's just up to you to fully engage.

So what I'll leave you with is a quote from the movie V for Vendetta. To me part of what that movie is about is how love can change your life. Me being me, it's a part that always makes me cry. If you know the movie that seem impossible, but it's not. If you're not familiar with it, put very simply it's about fighting totalitarianism.

 "It seems strange that my life should end in such a terrible place, but for three years I had roses and apologized to no one. I shall die here. Every inch of me shall perish. Every inch, but one. An inch. It is small and it is fragile and it is the only thing in the world worth having. We must never lose it or give it away. We must NEVER let them take it from us. I hope that whoever you are, you escape this place. I hope that the world turns, and that things get better. But what I hope most of all is that you understand what I mean when I tell you that, even though I do not know you, and even though I may never meet you, laugh with you, cry with you, or kiss you, I love you. With all my heart, I love you."

I'm pullin' for ya. We're all in this together.

Hold Your Head Up

*Sigh*

I'm bored. Bored I tell ya. Bored, bored, BORED.

I came home with a pizza to share with my roommate after work today. He wasn't home. I checked the mail and found a bill. I ate my share of the pizza in my room flipping through the channel guide to find something to watch

There's nothing on TV. My Iphone sits on its charger staring blankly at me. The DVD player waits expectantly for my latest Redbox pick. Books from the library are piled on my bureau. No one to chat with on Facebook.

I guess I'm just waitin' to go to bed so I can get up and do it again. The sun rises. The sun sets. The tides do it too.

The same ol' same ol'.

 *Sigh*

Bored I said.

Just another plain old ordinary day. Yup.

*Sigh* *Blink, blink*

Well, but, wait.

There's magic in ordinary days. Isn't there? Isn't there magic in the sun coming up every day? (Ok. You know I don't mean sorcerers and witches and spells and such, right?) Think just for a minute about the moon giving us the tides. Or the millions of years it has taken to give us Mount Everest. Think about the breeze that caresses your cheek on a beautiful fall day.

Isn't there magic in the feeling you get when you know your partner is right next to you. I know I felt a bit of magic watching a father holding hands with his son as he taught him all about watching for cars while navigating the big big parking lot. I wanted to stop them and remind the dad to hold on to more than his son's hand. Hold on to how he feels roght now. The love and pride he was feeling is enough magic to last a life time.

Maybe I picked the wrong word with magic. Every time in type the word magic all I can think of is David Copperfield or Harry Houdini. I mean there are tricks and illusions. Things we don't know the explanation for. Or even if we do know the explanation we don't know the why or the how.

It's like me studying computers. I learned all sorts of things. Backwards compatibility. Where memory resides  in RAM. All sorts of things. Still though when I sit at a computer I don't know why 0's and 1's do my bidding and make words appear on the screen. Even though I've taken them apart and put 'em together I just don't know why it works like it does. 

One of my favorite lines from anything ever would be from Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales. He's explaining to hs grandson what Christmas used to be like when he was a kid and some of the presents he had gotten. 

"And pictureless books in which small boys, though warned with quotations not to, would skate on Farmer Giles' pond and did and drowned; and books that told me everything about the wasp, except why."

We can know everything about everything and still not know why. I guess that's where magic lies for me. The fact that we live in such a world as this. That for as long as I live there will always be things to amaze me.

Geez. Feeling kind of frustrated right this minute. I don't think this is coming together the way I originally wanted it to.  The whole point I was going to make is that there's magic in you and around you too.

Every day way face the choice to either keep our heads down and go about our life like nothing else matters. Like there isn't a whole world spinning under our feet. Like there aren't things all around to amaze us. Baffle us. Make our hearts break. Confirm our faith in one another. 

So hold your head up. There is no one on this planet like you. There is no one who sees the world the way you do. There is no one who can affect the world like you can. See the magic in ordinary days.

I know. I'm disappointed too. I've kinda forced this post and I feel it shows. We'll see how it goes next time.

Keep your stick on the ice.

Peace

  



.

The Vast Indifference of Heaven

Yup, its happened again. I started this post a while ago and never finished it. I wrote the first couple of paragraphs somewhere around January 5th. It's changed a few times. In fact I'm changing it now. I'll do better in future. Promise. K?

When I first started this blog a few friends said that it must be a very therapeutic thing. You know, share my thoughts and feelings. Get things off my chest that I might not say otherwise. Clear my head of all those pesky problems I just couldn't figure out otherwise. Idk. Have you read this blog often? What do you think? I always feel like you and I are just tryin' to make some sense of this beautiful, bright, carnival together. Try and figure out how to get through it all as best we can. I mean we are all in this together after all. After having said all that, maybe it is time for some therapy.

Friend of mine sent me a message via Facebook the other day. He was asking what my sixteen year old self would think of the very soon to be fifty year old me. Sixteen year old me would find that kind of a funny question. At the time I couldn't even imagine being thirty. I've never been a planner. Never really goal oriented. I think my parents never gave me some of the tools one needs to live a life of forethought and care. I never really thought of it at the time, but dysfunction ran pretty rampant in my family. I know, I know. A lot of families are like that. A lot of kids are able to shake it off, live fully. I have come to realize that I couldn't walk away from it so easily. I mean I thought I did. You know, through drinking and self medication. I spent a long time stoned or drunk. Or of course both.

Well...  Back to my sixteen year old. What would he think of me? It's a crap shoot at this point really. Well, better than house odds that there'd be a lot of disappointment and a lot of satisfaction.

I've had a lot of friends. Known some really excellent people. I've been able to do things with theater that I really love. I think through that an great group of people and I have been able to show audiences some things they might not have thought. Or helped them think of things in different ways. I'm pretty happy with this blog too. What started as a lark really has reached around the world. People in places I'd never imagined would have read my humble ramblings.

I've hurt people too. Ruined marriages through aloof coolness. My most recent ex always told me I enjoyed the hunt more than the catch. That I'm just not in it for the long haul. Of course I beg to differ that point. That's probably fodder for another post though. I've let friendships lapse.

Any of this sound familiar to you? We all have our own disappointments. We have all made mistakes in our lives. Some bigger and more life changing than others of course. Some not quite so big. Barely a blip on our inner radar screen.

So why all this soul searching? Why sit here and tell you?

I've been struggling with the past lately. Caught up in the depression of all the wrong turns. All the bad decisions. I have been giving the past way too much attention.

And it's all been a waste of time.

Yup. You read that right. I'll say it again. I've been wasting my time fretting over the past.

It's not that I don't feel bad about some things or even guilt and sadness about others.

It's just that the past doesn't exist.

Well, I suppose it depends who you ask. There are people who would talk of multi-verses. People who you would say that all things are happening simulaneously. Or that there are time lines that stretch away from us in many directions. You know, there's a universe where you took that class in college you decided against. Where you dated one person and never met the person you are married to now. All kinds of things. I've probaly jumbled some theories together or not gotten something right. Right now they're just theories.

So I think I can safely say that the past doesn't exist. We can not go back and change things. We can not go back and watch events in history first hand. We can not touch it, taste it, or smell it.

Heaven and earth are indifferent to the past. The universe truly moves ever onward. The moon and the stars only watch as time marches on. It's only for us that time stands still as we contemplate the past.

We have no control over what might've been. Could've been. Should've been,

All we have is now. All we can do is stay here in the present.

What does that mean to you and me though?

How about it means making right choices now. How about being mindful of what's really important and doing everything in our power to ensure our happiness now? How about learning from our mistakes? Figure out how things we've done affect our thoughts and feelings now and  try to get it right this time. This now.

Don't let yesterday take away today.

Ok. I don't think this post is going to improve with age. Time I just send it off.

I'm pullin' for ya. We're all in this together.

Oh, yeah, don't be afraid to follow this blog or subscribe to it. Nothing happens if you follow it. No spam or harrassing phone calls. Even if you subscribe the worst that might happen is you might get an email from me telling you that the governing site stinks and you need to check your spam folder for the email verification link. Thanks for your support.

We Can Work it Out

Ok. Here's the deal. I started this post in the middle of November. I had a few things to talk to you about, but, wasn't sure exactly what to say and how to tie it all together. Of course I still have no idea, but I've put it off too long. So please be patient while I figure all this out. Ok? Ok.

It's not even Thanksgiving yet but of course Christmas advertising is in full swing. It started before Halloween actually. Sure, it started small. Tree shaped candy at cash registers for those impulse buys. Stores putting out their boxes of strung of lights and other regalia. All for your convenience. If you'll be celebrating that is.

The notice has been hanging on the bulletin board at work for quite some time now. Since before Halloween. It's a Save the Date notice for the company Holiday party. Yup. A Holiday party.

Now, a lot of people I know get all het up with the term Holiday. You know. Holiday instead of Christmas. Happy Holidays, Holiday party, Holiday what ever else you can think of. Many people feel put upon feeling like they're pandering to people who aren't like them.

If some one wished me Happy Chanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Boxing Day or, even Happy Festivus; I'd be ok with that. I'd know they weren't forcing there views on me, just sharing whatever happiness within themselves they could.

And another thing -

I sure am glad the issue of immigration is new to this country. Never before in our history have people come to our shores (or borders) looking for opportunity. A better life. There have never been sections of towns where people who have come here have settled together to feel something safe and familiar.

Here's a bit of something you've probably never heard before;

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless,
Tempest-tossed to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

Recognize it?

It's on the Statue of Liberty.

Ok, ok. Sorry for all the sarcasm. I know some of the issues of immigration facing us might feel different now a days. I know many people worry over our jobs going to illegal aliens. Our tax money going to support people who don't pay taxes to begin with. And on and on I suppose.

Here's something else -

We are the 99%. Occupy Wall Street. Occupy Oakland. Occupy. Protest the rich and powerful ignoring the people they've climbed over to get where they are now. Protest the legislators who are so out of touch with what people really really need. Legislators who only listen to what special interests say and can't hear the world protesting. Protest people who have more money than they know what to do with whining about taxes. And of course protest the government protecting them.

Protest until We are the 100%.

So all of that was written long ago and far away. What on earth could I have been getting at? Just ranting? I don't know exactly, but I doubt it.

In any case here's another thing -

To paraphrase Charles Dickens, I've always thought of Christmas as...

"A kind, charitable time. The only time when men open their shut up hearts and think of all people as fellow travelers to the grave and not some other race of creatures bound on other journeys".

Next time someone says Happy Holidays remember that in this land filled with people insisting on individuality, where hardly anyone really knows anyone any more, it's meant as something to tie us together somehow. If you're a Christian who finds that phrase offensive, turn the other cheek, do unto others, judge not lest ye be judged. Or you know, just go ahead and say Merry Christmas. Or if you know that person celebrates differently than you wish them happy Channukah, Three Kings Day or whatever.

A friend of mine asked a while ago when people ever realize that we're all the same; that we're all connected.

I haven't a clue. At the rate we're going now, it's gonna be a while. Until then I keep the faith that we can work it out.

So, with out proselytizing, or evil intent. Merry Christmas!

Peace