Yes.

"Waterboarding is torture."
-Eric Holder, Attorney General Appointee

What a nice, cool breathe of relief. Finally, after the blundersome tap dances of the last eight years, someone in charge has taken a stand for the sake of this country's morality.
Yes, I know it only seems like a few, insignificant words, in an insignificant confirmation hearing. But when I think of all of the "I don't recall"s, and "I don't know"s, and "It depends on how it’s done"s, those words gain powerful meaning. They say that we will no longer sacrifice our conscience. They say that we are done with the half-lies, rationalizations and deceptions that turn is into mirror-images of those we hunt. This country was founded on the rule of law, and not the rule of fear. It is our equality under the law that feeds our morality, that shows us all to be the same. We are humanity, inter-connected and self-reflective. When we break our own law, even in pursuit of others who have broken it, we break the bonds that connect us as humans. That was the meaning of this country, in the beginning. And the brotherhood of nations. It was not to say that the rules created by a few are perfect and unquestioned, but that an equal recognition of that rule of law will create a more perfect society. There us a lawful path for every process or undertaking, even to change.
Instead of submitting to the rule of law when we felt threatened, our leaders subverted it. They took matters into their own hands and minds. And we sat and watched, whether with incredulity or uneasiness, their deception without doing a thing. Millions of blind eyes were turned, sealed shut by fear. Fear of what we would find, fear of the lawlessness of those who terrorize us. We sat on our plush couches, in our perfectly modulated comfort, and we watched it happen.

The city on the hill used to be a beacon of light in the world; yet our light is only now a shadow of what we used to be. It is up to us, as much as our newly-elected leaders, to untie the binds of fearful darkness that have so ensnared it.

To begin

I have always struggled with the concept of blogging. I want to share my true nature- the conflicted ideas debating in my mind, the experiences in life that touch me, the ideals that drive my spirit. But to what extent? The moments in life are ever so minute, yet dazzlingly complex; to reveal the details of their magical existence would be a great chore, and in all likelihood a terrible bore to you. It would be frivolous and, in a way, demeaning. Even if I spared no detail, in the end it is still up to you, the reader, to color my stories with the brush of your own perspective. What I hope to do, instead, is to re-create the feeling of those moments that move me deeply, and those arguments that stir within me. They will be there for you to decipher, to probe, to do with what you will.

You'll soon discover that it is usually the simple, small facts of life that speak to me most clearly. I recently immersed myself in an introduction to cosmology, and one facet connected me even more deeply to life. All of life, as we have known and witnessed on this planet for thousands of years, shares the same source. The basic matter that constitutes this earth and its inhabitants is a remnant of large supernovas eons ago. We come from stardust, made of the rarest material in the grand scheme of the universe. The ancient mystics taught that the path to enlightenment lay inward, to the realization that we are all one and the same. Enlightenment, gnosis, is the acknowledgement of our truest nature in harmony with all that is. In a very scientific way, they were completely accurate. We are the same- not just humankind, but all of that chich we designate as being alive. We are stardust.
Of course, that is an incomplete statement. It only seems to address te physical nature. There must be something more: to explain why we feel the things we feel, why our emotions hold such sway in our lives. Why we experience the world in such distinct ways. There is something more to who we are, to what life is. Something unseen, unheard, untouched...it is precisely this Mystery of life that defines us. We have many names for the source- Yahweh, Allah, Vishnu. It gives and takes, creates and destroys life. It is, in a sense, that which we name as life. When I open my eyes on the world outside, I sense it. It is in every leaf, every particle of light, every droplet of water. In me. The miracle of what is awes me, and inspires me. What society wants to consider small and insignificant, I consider to be essential.

This is what inspires me to write. It is not out of self-importance or ego that I share the ruminations of my soul. People sometimes say I am a good writer, but I know they are simply too kind and loving. I am a misty shaft of light, a potential and nothing more as of yet. My greatest weakness is my inability to finish, to carry through. If you searched me, you would find only ideas. Outlines, and beginnings. But nothing that I have truly completed, nothing that I have accomplished with my writing. This blog, it turns out, is for my own aid as much as anything else. It is to help me remain accountable to the aspirations and dreams within.