Work Harder.

Well, I didn't get the job with Invisible Children like I had hoped for.


But, I know that that doesn't mean I can't do things to help. It just means I wasn't ready for that opportunity. I need to work harder. I need to become less talk and more action, and gain some more knowledge and a lot more experience.

So that's what I'm going to do. I can't let this get me down. There is just too much to be done.

Home.

I just spent the week on the ocean and in the Caribbean, seeing all kinds of wonderful, beautiful things in new, exciting places.


Now I'm back at home.

And I think that home is a lot more beautiful then we sometimes give it credit for.

Tolerance vs. Respect

Contrary to popular belief, these words are not synonymous.

To "tolerate" already suggests that there's something inherently wrong that you need to get over. It is to say there is something "abhorrent" about them that has to be dealt with. It is to say, "I'll put up with you like I do the boil on my foot".

To respect is to embrace. To take the person for who they are, not how we are taught to assume they are. It does not mean to pretend there are no differences. It means to learn about them, to love them, and to find beauty in those differences. It means to understand that those differences are what make this world so full of life, so interesting, and so incredible. It means to connect from human being to human being.


"We don't need a melting pot in this country, folks. We need a salad bowl. In a salad bowl, you put in the different things. You want the vegetables - the lettuce, the cucumbers, the onions, the green peppers - to maintain their identity. You appreciate differences." - Jane Elliot.


Thank you to the staff at RCC for opening my eyes through this film screening and discussion.

Blue Eyed by Jane Elliot

Yesterday I watched a brilliant film addressing discrimination, and especially racism. I highly recommend that anyone who has the opportunity to watch "Blue Eyed" by Jane Elliot do so as soon as possible. It will change the way you look at other people, and the way you look at yourself. It has really opened my eyes, and I will never again close them to this issue.


Just some quotes and thoughts:


"Doing nothing is just another to show approval for the way things are."

"The problem can't be slapped onto 'the system'. 'The system' is not some big, mysterious, far away thing. We are the system. If the system is the problem, we are the problem."

"The key to solving racism is responsibility. You are responsible for your own action or inaction."

"Even just being 'aware' is complicit."

We make the decision to continue or discontinue the mindsets/actions of the past and present in our own lives. If you change yourself, and pass it onto your family members, your children, soon we will have a generation of people who will not perpetuate the racism we see today. The change isn't going to be all of a sudden, but gradual.

As a person born into privilege, I am one of those who must use that power to address these problems.

Changing mindsets is hard work. How many of us are willing to pay the price? How courageous are we willing to be? Are we content enough with the way things are?

Baby Daylon

Today I got an email from Barbara De La Cerda:

"I know with all my heart that it is because of prayers that Daylon is still here with us and has come this far in his rocky journey in his short life. The doctors are now concerned that his kidneys still are not functioning normally, and are discussing the need of a kidney transplant. My sister Gwen has asked if we could have a massive prayer said in Daylon's honor in hopes that his kidneys will kick-in, and there will not be a need for the transplant. Could you please help us and take five minutes out of your busy schedule and kneel in prayer for Daylon?"


Please keep Baby Daylon in your prayers. Pray that his kidneys will gain strength, and pray that his family will have peace and faith, no matter what happens.

Thank you.

Muse!

A good show should make you want to do something the next day that you weren't doing before.

No disappointment here.

Lovely, lovely, lovely =]

Hope in Empathy

This is an important video, which I think is full of hope.
But if the message that gets itself across in this video doesn't reach the minds of all society, nothing will change.

Please watch this, here.

Live in hope that as our society and way of life grow to be more global, our empathetic circle will as well. Live in decisive action.

The Human Race.

The reality seems to be that we as human beings are a race of terrorism, hatred, and destruction.

What happened to the Divinity that was planted into us at our birth in this world? Why do we choose so consistently to suppress and trample it under our dirty feet? Why have we chosen this? Why do we continue day to day to choose this?

I think its time we look our humanity in the face and see it for what it truly is. Its the only way we will ever become more than this.

War.

There is something very wrong with all of this.

Man wasn't meant to be the means of so much destruction.

You've Got to Hide Your Love Away

A thought popped into my head as I was getting ready this morning, with The Beatles' "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" stuck in my head.

Society would make us believe that we must mentally put up a wall to hide every aspect of ourselves that could potentially let an outsider in on our emotions. They teach us to keep to ourselves, to avoid at all costs the risk of rejection, to put on a mask and hide our emotional selves and lives behind it.


Please don't.


This world is too cruel and this life is too hard for us not to let each other in and help each other through.

This "Hide Your Love Away" attitude is what we have always been taught. We all have this tendency. I'm just as guilty of it as anyone else.

But if you look at the state of the world right now, I think it's easy to see that just because something is "the way it's always been done" doesn't necessarily mean that it's the best way of doing things.

The world needs people who will open up. Who will write books. Who will cry with the pained. Who will have conversations that go past the small talk we seem to somehow get by on.

We need them now more than ever. Because no matter how strongly many of us don't want to admit it, we need each other in this life.



So lets be those people, yes?