When the human race neglects its weaker members, when the family neglects its weakest one--it's the first blow in a suicidal movement.    I see the neglect in cities around the country, in poor white children in West Virginia and Virginia and Kentucky--in the big cities, too, for that matter.    I see the neglect of Native American children in the concentration camps called reservations.    The powerful say, "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps."    But they don't really believe that those living on denuded reservations, or on strip-mined hills, or in ghettos that are destinations for drugs from Colombia and Iraq, can somehow pull themselves up.    What they're really saying is, "If you can, do, but if you can't, forget it."    It's the most pernicious of all acts of segregation, because it is so subtle. [Maya Angelou] The deeprooted tree pushes upward and progresses as do we, when we bend 'round obstacles rather than confronting them, pushing upward steadily but gently as the wind penetrates gently breezing throughout the earth.  There is nothing to be feared when we are silently focused and cultivating an inner independence, such as a tree trusting nature and its cosmic energy. [Swami Arupdas] Is it in the genetics, do you think, or is it more of a cultural influence--this need to feel happy?    The value judment we place upon ourselves that if we're not feeling happy we ain't right somehow.    And that only extreme human beings like saviors and prophets have the right to be unhappy and be okay with it (as Jesus was said to be a "man of sorrows and well acquainted with grief"). It seems to me that the greatest thinkers had to open their souls wide to the broadest range of emotions and possibilities, unlike the average mind among the herd of man just workin' for the weekend and feelin' fine just to get by or make more money and buy more gadgets with which to whittle away the inevitable day. Seeing life with eyes wide open, i mean pupils dilated and soaking in the rays of good and evil...how can one look at this world with beauty in it, sure, but such an overwhelming array of violence and gross materialism and superficial commercialism...how can one look long and hard at this and not be unhappy.    How is it even possible except by shutting down the channels and refusing to participate fully in the reality of pain, growing pains of a species not yet civilized...perhaps never truly able to fully grasp the possibilities of voluntary peacefulness and respect for all of the interwoven elements that make up this strange state we call Life. But if we break down and shut down and join the herd of men in their superficiality what will then be our point of view?    It will be the ass in front of us, for that is the view from within the herd, as one follows another who follows another.    There is a sort of shelter there, to be sure, a haven from the stormy reality...but at what price?    At the price of individuality and originality. [Randy Guess] ©2001 [Home]    [What's New] [Short Stories]    [Philosophy]    [Forums] [Webrings]    [Biographies]    [Site Index]    [Contact] [Extras]    [Links]    [Copyright] <top>