“We” for Peace

Despite all the headlines that infiltrate My Yahoo mail account, the movement for peace in the world is equally evident.  The Dalai  Lama was in Vancouver on Sunday and although news of the peace conference did not make yahoo headlines, his image seemed to be everywhere as I walked around Vancouver.  ” ‘We’ are the world” was the headline on Monday’s 24Hours, a reminder that We are all one.

Yesterday, as I was thinking about all the things I still want to write about I reflected on how strange it was that the story didn’t make Yahoo headlines.  When I returned from the coffee shop I checked my mail at home, sure enough there was a Yahoo headline about the Dalai Lama receiving an honorary cowboy hat when he arrived in Calgary to talk about peace.  Thankfully the movement for peace is ‘worthy’ enough to make Yahoo headlines.

When I live on My own, I generally avoid television.  Staying with a friend in Vancouver has subjected Me to television every moment I choose to be home – it ‘never goes off’ one roommate told Me after I had made the terrible mistake of turning it off when I found the living room empty one morning.

So although I try to get writing done at home, the television is a like a drug.  The most mindless shows can become mildly entertaining, Your body and mind switch to auto pilot and an entire evening, even an entire day can be lost to the endless drone of television.  On the upside, it forces Me to get out of the house every day, explore Vancouver and look for peaceful places to write.  Also, some of the programs I have been sucked into have been encouraging.  The channel is often left on the Discovery network and there are some intelligent, informative programs that are helping to create awareness.  The fact that there is a channel somewhat ‘dedicated’ to producing educational television (and that people are watching it) is encouraging in itself.

Daily Planet had a segment with a guest author promoting a new book about the beauty of evolution.  When asked how he felt about those who choose to dismiss the theory of evolution, he expressed great sadness.  He went on to say that those who ignore the ‘factual’ evidence of evolution are missing one of the greatest stories of Our creation.  To create the belief in the mind of a child that evolution is just a myth, We are breeding ignorance and further removing the child from discovering what We really are.

Later the same night, there was a documentary on freemasonry and the conspiracy theories surrounding secret societies associated with them as well as the history of modern religion.  Both programs succeeded in presenting both sides of arguments while remaining relatively objective.  I was reminded of the author from Daily Planet as I thought about the fifteen year old children I met in a Christian school in Ontario who told me that ‘evolution was a myth created by science to tempt them away from their faith in God’, who’s parents probably would not allow them to watch such programs.  If parents want their children to support blind faith, I suppose they must try to keep their eyes closed to the truth but it is rather unfortunate.

Both the television program on freemasonry and the history of Christianity had a very similar underlying message.  Both were encouraging people to find a hidden truth within themselves, hinting to Our own individual limitless potential.  The show on freemasonry suggests that devout conspiracy theorists believe the fate of the world is determined by a small group of incredibly powerful people who have attained this power through some kind of secret spiritual wisdom.  The program on Christianity suggests that Christianity is a recreation of previous pagan religions that was forced upon the people by unmentionable means of cruelty and punishment for ‘non-believers’ until people were too afraid to cross the church (pun intended).  The second part of the show dedicates its time attempting to verify the proof of Jesus as a real man as confirmation of the bible.  But throughout the program, the narrator reminds Us to interpret the stories of the bible as spiritual messages, particularly the story of Jesus.  If We can collectively understand that the story of Jesus is a spiritual message and that His power exists within all of Us, there is hope for humanity.