My mind is a little jumbled tonight.  Truly my monkey mind is working overtime.  I've always enjoy non-professional writing, but have limited outlets for it.  This blog came as an afterthought: a sudden realization that I had unconsciously clicked on the blog link.  I try to never argue with my subconscious - it is much smarter than my conscious brain.  I don't know if it will fullfill this sporadic need, but I think I will give it a try.

I just watched the Free Hugs video.  I've watched it before but that grandmother that gives the first hug is amazing.  It made me think of how easily we lose contact with each other.  This brought my thoughts to "This American Life" with Ira Glass.  I really love that show.  His storytelling helps connect you to one more person.  It's amazing to see the change in people once they start connecting, start understanding what makes other person tick.  Makes me think.  What if they had this show in Canada?  Or Mexico?  Or Chile? Or Iran?  It amazes me that there was a million person candle vigil after 9-11 in Tehran.  So many people don't know about this or just dismiss it.  What if who we call enemies are just the same as us, but we just don't know and then, because of that, find it easier to not care...

And that brought the memory of a posting that I read in the past.  I searched and found it.  I hope you enjoy:

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on this november the 11th I remember a veteran who has been an incredible influence on my life.
He was the man who taught me about november 11th being Armastice day. A day to remember how useless war is at solving our problems with others but how useful it is to the makers of death tools and their backers.
he taught me about the word enemy.
How so often we could more easily define enemy as a person or a people whose story we are ignorant of.
To make them an enemy it is in fact necessary to be ignorant of their stories. How easy it is to be ignorant of others by simply not asking the questions that open the doors to their world, because we should all realize how our lives have become invisible to people who do not stray far from the television or their front door to learn about our world.
no matter if it is a person or a nation of people, it is like an iceberg where so little is on the surface but what it truly necessary to know and act upon is what lies beneath that surface, what lies beneath the misunderstanding.
That is why war has to happen so quickly, without consideration for such things. IF we knew the deeper story of the people we are calling an enemy, we would not so easily call them enemy.
conversation, relationship, Understanding, empathy... these are what take time but give such greatness and wisdom to a people... to a nation of people. It is why we are no longer considered to be a great nation.
We fear what we don't take the time to know and we kill, with rationalizations already thought up before hand no matter if it is a civilian or a soldier, what we fear.
do we fear more than we understand?
This world takes an immense amount of cooperation to work. fear cuts down on our cooperation. fear destroys from within what no enemy can touch.

the veteran I am speaking about is Kurt Vonnegut who died a few months ago but while he lived, understood so much, asked many questions and shared from his heart without fear.