Orphans

How much of our personalities and who we are is influenced by our parents, or more specifically the loves of our parents, for those of us who are lucky to be blessed with it. I cannot imagine how it must be to grow up without the care and attention associated with one's own parents. It breaks my heart to think about the number of orphans in the world, many of whom do not have loving homes or people to care and love for them. I have the utmost admiration for people who devote their time to the care and upbringing of orphans. Things like this help keep things in perspective.

Orphans deserve our undying love and affection for they have suffered greatly through no fault of their own. Parents should never have to bury their children and little children should not see the end of their parents before they are ready. They become the children of the community, of society, and are our collective responsibility, and orphanages and homes should be one of our highest priorities when dealing with budgets and funding.

I find it difficult to articulate this into words for it saddens me in a different way. I don't feel trapped, but rather ignorant to the years that I could have been more helpful. I mus encourage myself to make a change in my life and contribute to this area of society as much as I can.

Update to follow.

Marx and Social Equality

Imagine a group that set out to plan society and government. But as soon as they do, they die and are re-born, but they can come back at any level of this plan, male or female, and at any class of society. Motivation for equality and empathy?

1. Who would you most NOT want to be in the society you are familiar with?

Any thoughts?

The Dark Knight

So what would you do, would you take the overstep boundaries of the law, in order to serve justice where the law cannot?

Batman - Vigilante or Hero
The Boondock Saints
Etc.

Is it vigilantism or responsibility? Where do you draw the line? Is it too much power for one person or a group of people?

Al Capone, crime boss, was convicted on tax fraud.

When does personal justice against the tenets of the law turn into a call for anarchy? The Joker.

???

Beef with Bush

Why is it that a president was almost impeached for a personal sexual scandal whilst another is safe while having the lowest approval rating of all time?

Salman Rushdie

"Author Salman Rushdie has threatened to sue a publisher over a book by a former bodyguard that he said portrays him as cheap, nasty and arrogant and depicts his police guards as "losers" who drank on duty."
- http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,396526,00.html

I guess some people don't like being betrayed as things that they believe they aren't. Lawsuits must be the way to go.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Satanic_Verses_controversy

Maybe someone can help point out the difference here? What goes around comes around I guess.

No Questions? Not Now

I am told by a few people sometimes not to question. Not to ask too many questions and just accept things as they are. Accept things because that is the way it always has been. People accepted it before you, and so should I. But the people before us are not like us. They did not have the tools to question. They did not have relatively high literacy rates, did not have full access to libraries, educational programs, or even the rights and responsibilities associated with democracy. All these privileges give us the right, the responsibility to question what may seem normal. What has been accepted for hundreds of years. We can learn for ourselves, we ponder, and study. Instead having to travel to hear a scholar or master speak, we can simply go online and look up a youtube video, or even go to the library and read their biography and books. It is all at our fingertips. Our ancestors did not have these benefits and therefore less of them had the ability to fruitfully ponder their reality.

That is the difference, and that is why we should and can challenge the status quo, challenge the hypocrisy of our time, and challenge societies inequalities.

Be the Star

It isnt easy to find a star in any society, but then it is up to us, the individual, to strive to be that star, to rise up, and encourage others, and it is that human quality, that star quality, that others will be instinctually attracted to, and emulate.
You and I must become aware, and spread that awareness through good living, good action, good thinking, good deeds, and it will spread by God's will on its own.
I know how it can be disillusioning sometimes when you are faced with the malicious people, the people that you cannot understand. But know that even they are a product of their environment at some level, and dont hate them for it, but show love in order for them to understand that ignorance is not the way, because I believe, it takes a lot of effort to be ignorant. It takes a lot of effort to close your eyes to reality, to the benefits of positivitiy, reason, order and love. And if we live that love, we STRIVE to improve ourselves all the time, not others, but ourself, to remove hatred, anger, maliciousness and ignorance from our hearts and mind, and become more self aware of our actions, and our drain, and how we can and do hurt others. 1) it will take up most of our time, we wont have time to hate others, and 2) we improve. We make the personal Jihad against the Nafs. We cleanse our soul. And a pure heart is an attractive heart, that will have its followers.

No More...

No more distractions
no more differences
no more hatred
no more ignorance
no more fear
NO MORE

Do not allow yourself to be dragged into ignorance. Do not allow yourself to believe that you will be ignorant, that you are destined to be ignorant if you are not educated, if you are not old, if you have not paid your dues. All your answers, all fundamental knowledge will not be found on TV, in Books, in Experiences, but inside. Through reflection we will find our humanity, regain the knowledge of our dignity. The answers are always inside us, regardless of color, race, language, nationality, age. We can always find it. We, YOU, are capable of everything. I am capable of everything. I will REMOVE myself from the stream, no, the raging river of distractions, of lies, of profits and wake up to my own abilities, to the power of my mind, and of MY HEART. We are slipping further and further from ourselves, from the Truth, from GOD. They are the same, and we cannot allow it any longer. I cannot allow it for myself. I will stand up, and I will die proud and free, the way God created me, and I will know Him, know myself. I will love my brother and sister, regardless of race, religion, creed. God created us all, and we are all the same, and we are ALL lost, and we must find ourselves, find GOD, and remove our minds from focusing on distractions. We must not let our society, our surroundings control who we are: humans, with God-given dignity, rights, responsibilities and freedoms. I cannot betray that responsibility, that test. I cannot be forgetful any longer. I will break free from these shackles that serve to limit my potential, these human shackles. I will use powerful tools granted to ALL human beings, tools of love, of reason, of respect, of responsibility. These tools are accessible to all of us because they are inside of us. I will not let myself be manipulated, to be controlled, to be told of my limitations, to be reminded of my limitations. I am not too young, too slow, too simple, too negative, too naive or too positive. Do not shackle me, and let us be free. Free of hatred, of anger, of destruction, of war, of murder, of rape, of violence, of ignorance, of limitations. You and I are capable, always have been capable and always will be capable. I say no more... for your sake, for my sake, for humanity's sake.

Quality over Quantity

It is not the quantity but the quality of the mind. It does not matter how many people follow a certain thought. Society is simply a collection of minds. What is important is the quality (clarity, strength, purity) of the mind. This is not a dictatorship or control. You would not be affecting the world through your individuality but through the quality of your mind. This mind quality would be something people would instinctively follow.

In this way, change will come from inside us and not found outside. We must search our souls in order to locate it, to free our minds of the shackles of confinement and the mob mentality.

The Struggle

"Joy lies in the fight, in the attempt, in the suffering involved, not in the victory itself." - Gandhi

Will we achieve what we set out to do, no matter how indomitable it may seem? Does it even matter? The struggle, the "Jihad" is where we can find the fulfillment. As difficult and as painful as it might be, it strengthens the soul, nourishes the soul. The destination is important, but it is the journey that defines us.

Let's take the journey, and not hasten the coming of our own ends.