Opening speech
by Václav Havel, President of the Czech Republic about the transformation of NATO
I believe that the new alignment of Nations that exlude France and possibly Germany see a vision of history and the future summed up by Vaclav Havel. Please read the entire speech, its worth it.

"I have usually leaned toward the opinion that evil should be combated rather in its germinal stages than in its expanded forms, and also toward the belief that human life, human freedom and human dignity represent higher values than State sovereignty. This leaning, perhaps, gives me the right to raise this serious and complex issue." Havel

"Evil must be confronted in its womb and, if it can’t be done otherwise, then it has to be dealt with by the use of force."
Havel

Thoughts


Thoughts running thru my mind like the waters of a river.
At times maddeningly fast,
Like the white water rapids of the Colorado.
Sometimes slow and meandering like the Mississippi.
And then sometimes,
Only occasionally,
The waters become still and quiet,
At that moment,
Even though the waters are deep,
You can see all the way to the bottom.
All things become clear and understandable,
Then the waters begin to move again,
For to stand still too long would be to stagnate,
Grow stale and die,
The trick I guess,
Is to remember what the bottom looks like,
While the water is running wild!

How is it that our friends are acting like enemies and our one time enemies are now our friends?
The world seems upside down. Have we changed or has the rest of the world changed, warped, diviated?
I don't see the change here. We still are a bit arrogant, We love money, power and freedom.
The world has become corrupted. Chirac is pals with Saddam, the U.N. made billions skimming the oil for food program.
We can argue and fight over who is more corupt but look at the end product, cheaper gas and freedom for the Iraqi people.
There is no disputing the fact that the Iraqi's are better of now than a couple of months ago.

Google poetry


When I hoped I feared ,
Since I hoped I dared;
Everywhere alone
As a church
remain;
spectre cannot harm,
serpent cannot charm ;
He deposes doom,
Who hath suffered him.

Emily Dickenson

FEAR




Sometimes I fear the day,
The sun won't come up today,
It will only rain and rain and rain.
Fourteen hours on the road, through rain and damp and cold,
Low grade fever and aches and pains,
"Hello misses Tinker, I'm here to measure your Kitchen!"
Smiling for her while crying inside for me,
When will the sun come out?
When wil the pain stop?
Why do I continue to try?
No money,
No time,
No ...............


Wait,

I am surrounded by love,
My kids,
my wife,
My friends around the country!

Morning will come,
and I will survive,
I will thrive!

Because I am loved,
Because I love.

I choose not to self-destruct today,
I choose not to smoke today,
I choose life over wasting away,
The sun is shining in my soul,
Welcome to the day!

PAIN
ache, misery, pang, stitch, throe, twinge,discomfort,
distress, hurt, suffering; agony, torment, torture,
Flickering,Quivering,Pulsing,Throbbing,Beating, Pounding,Flashing,shooting,prickling,drilling,stabbing, sharp,cutting,pinching,pressing,Cramping,crushing,tugging, pulling,wrenching,Hot,burning,scalding,searing,tingling, itchy,smarting,stinging,dull,sore,hurting,heavy,tender, taut,rasping,splitting,sickening,suffocating,punishing, grueling,killing,wretched,blinding,annoying,miserable, intense,unbearable,spreading,radiating,penetrating, piercing,tight,numb,drawing,squezzing,tearing,cool, nagging,nauseating,agonizing,torturing.

How do we describe pain? There is no object to this sensation. All other interior states have an object, I hate John, I have a fear of heights, I love Bonnie. The list could go on forever but the point is only pain does not have an object, we try to give it one, Its as if a hammer is hitting my head, Its as if a weight is on my chest. There is no weight or hammer. Pain destroys language. I try to explain the pain but all I ever accomplish is describing the effects of pain, I can't walk or I feel sad. I have started to try to find references to pain in poetry and literature, but guess what? I can't find many!
The best Nietzsche could muster was "I have given a name to my pain and its 'Dog'. "It is just as faithful, just as obtrusive and shameless, just as entertaining, just as clever as any other dog."
Huysmans says "The useless, unjust, incomprehensible, inept abomination that is physical pain."
T.S eliot put it best so far "A magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen." I think he came closest to hitting the mark.
Pain is certain (to the one in pain) to hear that another person has pain is to have doubt. its hard to understand to grasp.
One of the reasons who are quiting smoking seem to understand my pain is that the addiction to nicotine has the same effect as pain. it has no object (except the actual cigarette) but its not the cigarette we want, its nicotine. People who do not smoke do not understand the difficulty. People who are not in pain do not understand what it feels like. Because there are no words, but I will continue to search for them.

WHY?

How to conect,
How to love,
Can I be loved?
Can I care?
Will they hear me?
Do I make a sound?
Am I speaking Jibberish?
Why can't they understand?
Am I fooling Myself?
Am I really me?

Where Is God?
A plane hits- many will die
Another hit- people begin to cry
Where is God?
A third plows into the Pentagon
Plane number four crashes- many more are gone
Where is God?
Rescuers rush in- the buildings fall
Our country mourns- death has touched us all
Where is God?
Churches open- people come to pray
People are found in the rubble- alive they say
Here is God
Strangers helping strangers fast become friends
Working together united till the very end
Here is God
Chorus' of God Bless America ringing in the air
Proving to one and all- Terriorists we will not fear
Here is God
Peace will come to those in pain
For as sure as the sun shines after the rain
GOD IS HERE!!

Unknown Author

I want to write about spring,
But the War will not let me hear,
the robin singing in the tree,
The war will not let me see,
The Cherry blossoms in Branchbrook park,
The war gives me no rest,
My mind is flooded with thoughts and visions,
The war though justified deafens,
I can think of little,
But I know that spring is coming,
May even be here now.

My Garden as my life


Digging in my garden,
I get dirt under my nails,
Weeding, pruning, planting,
The garden of my life always needs work.
Back breaking, exhausting work,
To make my garden,
Someplace I want to be,
Every day I must clean the dirt and worries
From under my nails.
If I do not, then it builds up and makes my hands useless,
No longer able to work on my garden.
The garden of my life used to have high walls
Surrounding it, Protecting it,
It was a lonely place and the shade promoted weeds.
I tore down those walls and now my garden is thriving,
It is watered by those who come to look at it,
by those who sit and smell the flowers of my life,
The sunshine of openess heals whatever blights may come,
And friendship and love enrich the soil it grows in.

Rain and wind

Rain and wind,
A spring day starting with full force,
Rain to help the flowers grow,
Wind to .........Who knows?
New life growing,
Old one suffering,
New one loving,
old one despairing,
Spring is here and all is good,
New start,
Fresh winds blowing out the stale air,
Breath deep and start fesh.

Garden


Everyone has a garden,
Some Gardens have flowers,
Some gardens are the words they write.
A garden is a place where we go to talk to God.
Where connections are made to the world.
Some gardens are filled with people,
others, are filled with books.
One persons garden may be the kitchen,
One, a stand of pine trees,
Some Gardens are bars,
Whatever the garden may be,
it is a place where we touch the world,
The conduit from our souls to Earth.
My garden is pain,
Throughout my life my grounding,
My connection to the world,
Pain,
I love books,
forests of pine,
vegatable gardens,
libraries,
But to them I am a stranger,
Pain is my garden,
Where I know I am alive.
I need a new garden,
But how?