January, 2005 One ship drives east and another drives west With the self same winds that blow. 'Tis the set of the sails, And not the gales, That tell us the way to go. Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate; As we voyage along through life, 'Tis the set of the soul That decides its goal, And not the calm, or the strife. - Ella Wheeler Wilcox    The winds blow hard this night, California is in the grip of a series of storms we call 'The Pineapple Express'. These are high winds bringing moisture laden air that will dump with a fury upon encountering California's hills. The winds blow day and night, overturning trailers, jackknifing rigs on the freeway. Locally the winds blew a mobile home off the truck dragging it along the highway as it crossed a high bridge over a reservoir. The trailer was dashed to pieces hundreds of feet below.    The winds are only one problem, the rain is another. Landslides, road closures, and flooding have been occurrences in the Southland. We have had two or three weeks of unrelenting rain, nearly daily rain, daily gusts. I must say that we have had the occasional respite from rain that has enabled us to venture onto the terraces to pick cactus on occasion. And the leaves we are picking now!.. beautiful,. deep green, rich with the nitrogen given to us by nature in her life-enabling rain that we so often curse with one breath while we thank God for the water we all need. The leaves are washed clean of dust; the normal speckling of minerals and well water is replaced by a clean green slate of rich vegetable bounty.    While we sit miserable in our house, wishing we could be out enjoying fresh air and digging in the ground, we are reminded of how fragile this life is, the scenes on television of the horrendous flooding from the Tsunami are so overwhelming that to be sad to be in a clean warm house with food and fresh water and the internet and television is the height of self-indulgent narcissism. I thank God for this land he brought me to, and I thank the American people for the help they gave my family in a war-torn country before I was born. We in this land of plenty have the world at our feet, and the resources of the world are gobbled up by our insatiable appetite. It is right and fitting that we give our hearts and some money to those suffering so much.    But yet, we must remember that it is the same appetite for building and renewal that gives us the low casualty figures when we have our own natural disasters. When the earthquake happened here just over a year ago, two people in a neighboring town died. A couple months later the same magnitude earthquake happened in Iran, and many thousands died. We use our resources and those of other nations who sell to us to make our people safer, we use technology to make our world move with a more responsive speed. When we ship cactus to New York it gets there in five days or less on average, and this for a small price considering the distance involved.    The same Tsunami event on the California coast would likely have been detected with our satellites and deep-sea buoys, alerts would have been sent throughout California, and many thousands of persons might have been saved. Now while it is hard to imagine Los Angeles evacuating in an orderly and manageable fashion, I am sure the loss of life would have been greatly reduced due to our way of life.    This brings us to the next comment, we tend to want the others in the world to adopt our way of life, and we spend a huge amount of money trying to bring people into this way and philosophy. I truly believe the USA is being altruistic when we try to raise the standard of living of others. But it is said that while 'you can lead a horse to water, you cannot make him drink'. Not all in the world want our life with it's hectic and frenetic pace of meetings, schedules, and people and business. I remember lazy afternoons in Morocco while the businessmen drank tea in their slow-paced method of business. Even the relief efforts are not up to our standards, in India it is said the survivors are divided into separate camps based upon caste. This is a horrendous thing to us, tantamount to dividing survivors based upon race. But it is hard for us to impose our vision of equality upon others, just as we resist efforts by the international community to change our foreign policy or greenhouse gasses policies.    I must say, I like this place, I will stay here and enjoy the blowing of the wind, and the clatter of the rain on the roof, the life giving moisture that will hopefully enable us to have another good year of cactus, and I place it all in the hands of the Almighty as to what winds, and what rains He may send my way, it is up to me to make the best of those winds, and those rains to ensure my family's success, and the nourishment of the people. AMEN. Jan 29, 2005 Got up in the morning, cold. Turned on the TV and watched the 1964 Japanese movie "Fight Zaguichi, Fight!" about a blind Swordsmaster who saves a baby after it's mother is killed by brigands. I am struck by the similarity of the Samurai code of 'Bushido' with the European Knights code of 'Shivalry', and the modern 'Code of the Fighting Man'. The greatest fighting men live by a code, to not offront the helpless, to practice self-restraint. It is only through Self mastery that one can advance to the height of one's own ability, hence it is said: Chapter 33 Understanding the world is knowledge, Understanding yourself is enlightenment. Mastering others is strength, Mastering yourself is true power. Having many things is affluence, Being content with what you have is satisfaction. Will power will increase perseverance, But tranquility with the Tao brings eternal endurance.    Hold onto Restraint, remember always to have compassion. No matter how great you are, no matter how powerful and cunning, and quick you are, You will still find compassion to be your greatest ally.    Blessed are the mercifull, for they will receive mercy    I'm brought to smile often at a memory of a trip I made to the market recently, a young man in his twenties was with his parents or grandparents. He was mentally disabled, and strode through the market with the simplicity and wonder of a child. He reached his hands up to the lights as a child will to the stars. His face had the radiant glow of a saint, and his loving caregivers indulged his whims. They strode the market with him, holding hands, loving and adaptable to his mind. They showed no shame of him, and he in his simplicity walked through the market happy in his ignorance. Looking through his eyes at a new world, one he had never seen before, until he recognized a food he loved, then he asked for it.    There was something about his happy countenance that thrilled me, this is the essence of humanity itself, stripped of all indulgences, ego, and aspirations. This young man looks for nothing out of life, he lives from one moment to the next. And his caregivers provide all for him, and will love him to the end of their days.    This is the way I see God providing for us in Paradise, we will not need to worry about anything, all will be taken care of by a loving and benevolent Master. But this is not the way of this fallen world. Although the world is beautiful it is also a harsh and nasty place, full of killing and dying. All things destroy something in order to live, from the smallest paramycium living on detritus on the forest floor, to the lion killing a fawn to eat. But one day the lion will lay down with the lamb, and the Shepard will watch over them all. But in this life this young man will be provided for by the loving couple until their demise, then perhaps some others will watch over him, and someday I may see him in his old age, walking through the market with the same look of wonder in his eyes, hands reaching to the sky.    From the Gospel of Jesus Christ    Ask and it will be given, seek and you will find,    knock and the door will be opened.    For everyone who asks recieves, and he who seeks finds,    and to all who knock, the door will be opened.    What man among you when his son asks for bread would give him a stone?    And when he asks for a fish would give him a snake?    If you then who are imperfect know how to give good gifts to your children,    how much more will your Father    who is perfect give good things to those who ask him?    Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about what you will eat,    or what you will wear, isn't your life more than it's food?    And your body more than it's clothing?    Look at the birds of the sky, they neither sow nor reap,    nor gather into barns, yet God feeds them.    Which of you by thinking can add a day to his life?    And why do you worry about clothing?    Consider the lillies of the field, how they grow,    they neither toil nor spin, and yet I tell you    that not even Solomon in all his glory was robed like one of these.    Therefore if God so clothes the grass that grows in the field today,    and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, won't he all the more clothe you?    So don't worry about these things and say 'what will we eat, and what will we wear',    for that is what the gentiles seek,    and your Father knows that you need these things, but first seek the Kingdom of God.    And these things will be given to you as well.