I was lucky enough to have good parents. Like me, they were human and fallible, but they taught me with love and that made all the difference. They taught me to seek truth and to let that truth change my life. Even as I advance through my years as an adult, I see more value in what they taught me with each day. I am very thankful for the things my parents taught me, and I hope and pray that I honor them in the way I keep their teachings. Should I make a mistake, the fault is mine because my parents taught me to do better than that.

If anyone should think they are unfortunate in who their parents are, look to the great peacemakers and what they taught. Let them be your parents. Strive to honor their teachings. When you falter, do not make an excuse for your mistake. Simply resolve to continue striving so that mistake is not made again. But continue to seek out the words of the teachers of peace as regular fortification against the hate and lies of the world. As my parents taught me to do, seek truth and let that truth change your life.

I’ve started on reading the words of Gandhi, and I’m amazed at how similar his views are with mine. For example, love. We both agree that love is a force that binds all souls together, just as physical forces bind all matter together. Neither of us can prove love exists in anyone’s heart but our own, but an honest person must admit that he or she does know what love is.

Right away, we see that love requires an element of truth: for a love story to be real, it must involve truth for one and all. Any lies will serve only to destroy that love. A lie requires either living a second life trying to cover up the lie or dealing with revelation and betrayal: neither way is good for the heart, but the second way is better than the first. Therefore, to truly know love, abandon lies, including lies we tell ourselves to justify our sins.

And what are sins? Gandhi had this list that summed them up well:

Wealth without work
Enjoyment without conscience,
Knowledge without character,
Business without morality,
Science without humanity,
Religion without sacrifice
Politics without principle

Rather than list them off, one by one, as in the Law of Moses, Gandhi provides a catalog that requires one to look deep into one’s life and examine it. Find these things that are without and change them so that they are with what they should be with. The solution is within us all, when we are ready to experience it.

I should say that writing things like this is effective, even if all they do is reinforce the wisdom and truth others have communicated to me. If I can repeat over and over again the encouragement to be loving, honest, and faithful, I can strengthen those characteristics in me. If others read this and begin to see a positive change in their lives, then so much the better. I invite anyone else reading this to join me in teaching others this message.

When we remove the sins from our lives, our love becomes more perfect and more pure. Along with our increased honesty, we become more able to experience faith on behalf of those we love. They say things, and love tells us that they are true without any other available proof. I cannot prove that my wife loves me, but I know that she does. Together, we have faith in each other. During our hard times, we rely on that faith to keep our love whole.

Love cannot exist where there is violence, and violence is more than physical or verbal abuse. Violence can be the expectation of an immediate change. Love is not immediate change. True love is as patient as the river, as steady as the wind, and as long-suffering as the rain. When we want to see a change in those we love, we need to be as the river, the wind, or the rain, and also be ready to forgive the one we love so we, too, should be forgiven: the one we love is also wanting to see us leave behind our faults and for that, we need forgiveness. The tools of change are prayer and fasting and soft words. With anything stronger, love departs and anger makes itself present. Anger can cause immediate change, but those changes are lasting only if they’ve broken something. And who would want to be a cause of a broken heart?

So this is why I choose to fast and pray and use soft words. If the change I desire to see does not happen right away, that is natural and I need to be as the river, the wind, and the rain: never failing, always there.

I had a marvelous dream last night. In it, I was with some friends and a German-speaking soldier entered our room. He was injured badly, and we all helped him to recover. He later left, thanking us for what we’d done for him. Later on, I was with a group of refugees under a bridge somewhere, huddling for warmth. The soldier reappeared and told me he had orders to kill us all. “What shall I do?” he said through bitter tears.

I said, “Alle Menschen werden Brüder,” my clothes turned completely white, I opened my arms without fear, and prayed that what I said, which means “All men are brothers,” would affect him.

He threw his gun away and embraced. We both cried with joy and I felt the glow of brotherhood surround us all.

Love is the answer. It really is.

Wow. Just Wow. This movie has it all, almost. Well, it didn’t have ninjas or pirates or space aliens, but it made up for that with robot zombies and a giant robot robot. Great music, fun dancing, and some amazing visual effects. The best part about it was that the climax didn’t involve just one master plan that would knock out the baddies. Instead, the big finish involved a huge number of twists and the last 30 minutes are non-stop, very satisfying action.

Oddly enough, the movie left me thinking as I walked out. The very end of the end features an interesting exploration of what it means to be truly human – or not – as happens in all robot movies. As a film, Robot draws in elements from all other robot movies, from Metropolis on down to Terminator, with a touch of Frankenstein and a dab of Edward Scissorhands. The action sequences definitely contain nods to chopsocky films, as well as the slick stylizations of Russia’s Nochnoi Dozor and Dnevnoi Dozor. It even has an awesome quote just before a baddie administers a massive beatdown: “Happy Diwali, everyone!” (Gratuitous explosions and mayhem follow.)

Looks like I came back to the action, but I can’t also forget the love story and how it showed the way the ugly side of humans comes through. Loved it. The script is full of intelligent turns and twists and the whole experience is massively entertaining, even the 30 second title sequence that introduces “Superstar Rajni.” Must see, four stars, five forks, has a great beat and makes you want to dance, fun for the whole family over the age of 15 because it’s pretty intense and I’m definitely buying the DVD when it comes out. Multiple thumbs up.

We want to create world peace. But peace is not merely the absence of war. There is so much internal strife and that prejudice feeds into the national aspect. We have to change ourselves if we want to change the world. – Arun Manilal Gandhi

I love the channels at the end of the satellite spectrum, the public access and noncommercial ones. That’s where I find some real treasures. Today’s treasure was the wisdom of Arun Manilal Gandhi, courtesy of an address made at BYU on 23 March 1999, broadcast on KBYU, 8AM on a Saturday morning. He taught about controlling anger and controlling violence not only against other people, but also violence against the world. When you consider the violence contained in the disposal of a usable pencil, and the nonviolence in picking up the disposed pencil for more use, you will see part of the lessons he taught.

He discussed keeping an anger journal. He said it would be useful if one kept it in order to control anger and to change its ability to control us. This sounds like something I’d like to take up. If we hold ourselves to account for our violence, we will want to naturally reduce our debts in that area.

We would also want to do that to be a better example to others. The healing the world needs begins first in our own hearts. Whether Gandhi or Jesus says it, it’s still true.

Anything done through fear will not last. Anything done through love will last forever. – Arun Manilal Gandhi

I first heard this Led Zeppelin song when I started listening to the radio back in the 6th grade. I always liked the guitar riffs in it and loved the complexity of the melodies. I never really understood the lyrics, and reading them didn’t help much. They just sort of conveyed a feeling of yearning for some bygone time. When I found out the title, “Ten Years Gone”, that yearning feeling grew in my imagination.

I was 11 years old when I first heard it and maybe almost 13 when I first bought the Physical Graffiti album and discovered the title of the song. I was a kid, then, barely ten years after any sort of thing. The stuff ten years gone in my past was far, far behind me and wasn’t the stuff of yearning. So I imagined then what my life would be like in ten years, when I could reflect back on that moment.

It’s now 30 years later, give or take some months. The song came up in my mix and I had to sit back and reflect on what happened to that young boy from 1979 or 1981. I put the song on repeat and started this note.

I closed my eyes and saw the world as I saw it back then, looking out of my second story bedroom window on the yard below. Yes, I’m older and more experienced, but there’s still a part of me that’s 11 years old. I still look into the world and find a way to discover its magic in spite of all the evil that tries to get in the way. I love to discover new things, to find the good on the planet. It’s there, and my heart is open to receive it.

Now that I’m 42, there’s plenty in my life that’s now 10 years old or more. Have I been a good steward of the life that 11-year-old bequeathed to me in all my annual incarnations? Have I done right by the boy that looked out the window and wondered what it would be like to one day reflect on ten years since something happened? I’d like to think so. My heart tells me so, and my mind has no objections.

And I still look to that future and what it will hold for me. I truly have no idea what each passing moment may require of me, but I know if I approach the things that are coming with a heart wide open and eyes ready to see the good in everyone, I’ll find the hope that keeps me going.

Found this at Half-Price Books for ten bucks. This is a real treasure: 3 CDs, 50 songs, all of them with Michael Jackson putting his passion for the music into every note he sings. The other four Jacksons aren’t too shabby, but you can really hear the magic of MJ’s talent shining bright.

Thomas Carlyle taught that all famous men are, at the end of the day, just men. And yet, they can still be capable of some amazing things. Right now, I want to remember Michael Jackson for the gift of music that no one can deny he gave to us all.

Good gosh, I’m crying while I listen to “Rockin’ Robin.”

Jesus Christ was a man who traveled through the land
Hard working man and brave
He said to the rich, “Give your goods to the poor.”
So they laid Jesus Christ in his grave. – Woody Guthrie, “Jesus Christ”

This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don’t give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that’s all we wanted to do. – Woody Guthrie’s copyright warning, ca. 1940

His guitar was a fascist-killing machine and from the looks of his copyright warning, he was Open Source before Open Source was cool. When money tried to make him sing something other than what he wanted to sing, he walked away from the money. His songs have a resonance that echo across the decades. In their simplicity, they are immortal. Now if only more folks would really listen to them, we’d have something here.

Omaha has a great character to it. I’m having a good time up here. More to come…