Curl Up to God

31% We the People

I wonder if the children of Iraq are a little more hopeful with regard to their living conditions and trauma and fear that surrounds them now that Bush's approval rating is now at an all time low of 31%. 

I wonder if the malnourished and impoverished in Darfur are taking note of this new number and a small glimmer of hope in the American people has been rekindled. 

I wonder what the ones who have fallen victim to this number, or their loved ones are thinking.

I wonder if a chord, or note, of rallying and strength of "we the people"of some sort...some sort of wethepeople...is struck in our hearts at the sounds of deterioration, lack of support and doubt.

I wonder if we, just for kicks, took that number, that percentage, the 31% and focused that number, that percentage,

31%

of our day and searched for stillness, quiet, wisdom,

answers.

If we spent that time focusing and listening and searching and hearing and seeing and absorbing and observing and problem solving and acting and acknowledging and

stopping,

just 31% of our time, all of us, would we become charged with more of a sense of obligation to our fellow man?

woman?
child?

I believe we would.  I believe that in between the chatter of this number anaysis is a deep, reverberating drumming sound...a pulse

vibrating through each of our souls toward healing, justice and life and we sort of hear it, kind of sense it...

we the people can kind of hear it. almost there.

Questions for Bush

I know how devastating individual wars are.  You know the kind. The ones that we have between lovers, family, friends, co-workers, spouses, children...the ones that often words do the most damage.  For me, whenever I've been in a disagreement or said things that I regretted, I'm tormented by the pain that I caused  not only myself but to others.  If I say (or write) and unkind word, or project a feeling or look that harms another, I am truly probably more affected than they are. And I try, Itry my absolute hardest to never say or do an unkind thing again. However, I am human and we, as humans, have the challenge of facing our own fears of inferiority, of rejection and of loss and often use harmful tactics to protect ourselves from nothing more than fear itself.  But perhaps, we hope somewhere deep inside, that we've learned our lesson and the next time around the words and actions are not as harsh or severe. 

I look at war and, specifically this war, and wonder if this Administration has ever regretted an unkind word to someone close to them. Have they ever experienced the pain of killing...I'm not saying in the physical sense...but killing of the soul, of the heart.  There is so much of this killing going on and initiated by just a handful of people, that I am convinced that we might just be too numb to react to how horrifying it all is. 

Iraq.Poverty.Darfur.Katrina.AIDS.

and this is only the short list.

I don't understand how this Administration can get up every morning and face themselves and the country that they represent.  I simply don't understand it. How in the world can they so blindly continue to destroy lives? Not only the over 200,000 lives in Iraq, but the millions upon millions upon millions of lives that are affected in a negative way by their actions.  How can they sleep? How can they smile?  How can they legitimately stand before children?  How?  How do they do it? I know these questions will go unanswered but I have to at least put them out there.  If only to feel as if I have utilized my right as a US citizen.

And so.

I have a couple/few really simple questions for Bush.

Mr. President, if God appeared to you (for real) and asked you to stop this war, would you? If God Himself asked you to put an end to the war and to rally as many leaders and thinkers as possible to assist in the rebuilding of Iraq, would you do it? 

I'm serious.

God.

The God you speak of all the time and invoke His name in countless policy speeches.

So.

We're talking about God here. Not anything or anyone else. Just God. 

If He asked you to find a way, any way possible, to utilize the brain, heart, soul and mind that He gave you to change the course that you and your Administration have set would you?  Would you listen and act immediately?  If God asked you to stop lying would you finally stop?  If He simply said, "George, stop lying. And while you're at it, stop killing. I put it in stone a long time ago. Just do as I have told you" would you do it?

Would you listen to God? (this is the more simple point of my questions)

If the answer is yes, then I suggest he look into the eyes of the millions of us.  For I believe that God lives in each of us and when we are quiet and still we can hear the call of peace and love and life.  It is in that stillness that God appears before all of us.  Each of us.

God can't make it any more clear to you Mr. President.  He's trying to reach you through those of us who are listening. 

Perhaps if you and your Administration sat still and truly listened, maybe even curl up and listen, you would start your day differently...beginning now.