If you haven’t read the letter by Mir Tamim Ansary on Afghanistan yet, stop what you’re doing and read it now.

Mir Tamim Ansary on Afghanistan

You shouldn’t be reading this line until you have finished Mir’s letter. Go back and finish now.

Now how many of you found that to be a different view, or at least a much closer viewpoint, of things than you had before? My hand is up in the air on this one. I am realizing more and more how little I’ve kept abreast of events in the world arena in the last several years.

So why is it that we haven’t been aware of what’s going on out there? Distracted. Had something else to do. Wasn’t interested.

As an individual, that’s something I’m not particularly proud of right now. As a country and a culture, it’s abominable.

Your next reading assignment, Silly Season, is also short, sweet, and to the point. Give it a look for a minute.

I’ll get back to writing fun stuff later this afternoon.

When the mind is

Transparent and pure

As if reflected on the

Mirror-like surface of the water,

There is nothing in the

World that you would dislike.

When it is serene

As the light breeze

In the sunshine, there will be

No one whom you

Would like to forget.

- Pa-ta Shan-jen

I’d like to write of happy things, of sunny skies and the smell of fresh bread. I’d like to understand my heart so I could pour it out through my hands. I’d like to pull time off it’s wheel just for a moment, to put the chaos on hold, to let us all have time to think, to bend the world into a shape that doesn’t hold so much anger, fear, and confusion. I’d like to think that something good will come out of this time. That this isn’t what thousands of people throughout the world have dealt with in their hearts for years. That we could all wake up from the nightmare. That we can take two sit-coms and feel better in the morning.

Instead, it’s time to get used to living in a new world. It’s time to take an active hand in shaping this new world. I cannot sit idle, and passively let insanity enter in my presence. A stand must be made, a public stand, against racial hatred, against senseless and ignorant retaliation. It must be made when a person I call my friend uses racial slurs. My stand must be made clearly and immediately. It must be made when I’m at a club and hear comments about foreigners. It must be made every day by my words and actions. Freedom must be protected, and this is the way I have to protect the freedom of those I love, those I barely know, and those I will never meet.

Chaos reigns within

Reflect, observe, act with honor

Struggle to keep the bile down

To not lash out at insanity, stupidity

A dismal task

Can’t let anger take control

Must take a stand against senselessness

Against friends and countrymen when necessary

If hate spreads, then we have learned nothing

If we cower, the victory of violence is complete

Apathy, ignorance, and rage

The enemy in each of us