peace---i'm trying to give it a chance, how about you? and that is not a statement either way on the big topic du jour, yes or no to war in the iraq situation. instead it is simply a declaration that, amid unprecedented ups and downs on every level of my life and the world's life, it truly is time for me to give peace a chance more than ever before. i'm clicking on peace causes, reading peace poetry, going to peace festivals, thinking peace thoughts. i look back on the statement in my last blog entry about my own peace being like the log that grossly supercedes the speck of global war. that is most definitely how i feel, but i must admit, what good is the achievement of a peaceful state of my personal mind and heart, if the world i live in goes needlessly helter-skelter? guess what, i intend to pour my energies in both directions, my heart and the heart of this world. and if wacko unsubstantive haste takes over (in any direction by any party on any side of the war dialogue), let's face it--our hearts will not go on like that titanic song. there won't be enough string quartets on decks around the world to serenade us with "nearer my God to thee" in the face of the tragedy that will undoubtedly follow. so let's unpack that a moment shall we? the opposite of wacko unsubstantive haste is sane substantive slowness. don't get me wrong, there is an undeniable urgency factor present for me and for my globe full of kindred seeking spirits. but me and my globe o'folk need to chill and regroup a little. we are so in need of guidance and mentorship, as sheep in need of a shepherd. we (me and my globe o'folk) are suffering from lack of the things that matter: truth, love, community, passion. those four factors are like legs of a chair that we desperately need to spiritually sit in. break it down, love/truth/community--no passion--chair falls, love/truth/passion--no community--chair falls, truth/community/passion--no love--chair falls, love/passion/community--no truth--chair falls. so how am i doing in these? check with me in a year, wait a second, check with me in a month--i rally within myself even now to not write myself off so flippantly. however, i recognize that i do need time to gently yet aggressively HEAL (there's that paradox again--you love me for these). sometimes you bandage up or put stuff on wounds or do limb therapy to heal. sometimes you just sit, with wounds uncovered, and let things air heal. that's what i am doing these days--air healing. and it is bringing me peace, which is slowly resourcing my 4 deficient chair legs. so how about you world? love in the world?--jaded, conditional, inconsistent. passion in the world?--misdirected, unfocused, or totally locked up and buried (see the movie "adaptation" for a great and creative, off-the-wall lesson about passion). truth in the world?--hidden so far beneath the surface, we can hardly hear it gasping for breath beneath the ever-rising rubble of countless generations. community in the world?--a key healing ingredient for every entity in life, be it politics, government, cities, country clubs, ghettos, the UN, the noisy neighbor upstairs, and in the piety clubs with the word "church" on their signposts yet have little to no resemblance whatsoever to the true meaning of the word "church"--COMMUNITY is the throbbing pulse beneath the shallowness, the tell-tale heart that persistently beckons for reckoning. gee, i'd like to note that my passion chair leg just had a healing moment. let's pray for more healing moments for all our broken chair legs. this is not idealistic spam, it's vital for our titanically toxic hearts to go on in a state of ever-increasing peace. dona nobis pacem, dona nobis pacem, infinity...