Q-BLOG#4, 2000 years of...

Yesterday was an eerily quiet day. Everything was closed here. No DFAC, no MWR (Morale, Welfare, Recreation) gym’s, TV rooms or Internet café’s were open. It was like a ghost town. We only worked a 10 hour day yesterday. There are still many things to do. I’m attaching a sort of out line of where we are located in/near Baghdad to give everyone a point of reference. I dare not give out more information than that. We are not in the international zone. This is where much of what you see on TV is going on. In one of our military briefings we learn why we get more mortars, car bombs outside the gates and missile launches during the morning. It will make it back to the East coast in time for the news. We like to blame the media for these things. I like to call it “the Wal-Mart Phenomena”. What is the Wal-Mart phenomena you ask?

It is where we go to Wal-Mart for the lowest price we can get. We don’t really care where anything is made or how it comes to be there, we just want the lowest price. Yet, we want high wages. Wal-Mart is serving our want, and so they go off shore to get the products so that we can have them at a low price. The jobs we had then go to another nation that does not have the high wages we do. Then we blame the government for not doing enough to keep jobs in this country. So television news is the same. They are only feeding us what we want, trying to drive up demand for their channel by providing us more of what we want. Hmmm. The old saying, “Be careful what you ask for…” comes to mind.

We did hear about the US Embassy being hit. Many car bombs could be heard and felt in the distance. Today will prove to be a much more active day.

In the quiet time that I did have last night, just as I began to doze off to sleep to music by SEAL, a song game on that suddenly prompted the words below. I had not intended on writing another Blog until next week, but, if you know me well, when words start going through my head, I can’t really stop it. This was so powerful to me that I felt moved to share.

2000 YEARS OF…

We keep 2000 years ago through
What we think is love…
But manifests itself into hate
A man born of divinity
Died at the hands of humanity
They say to save us, to give us new life.
But today, 2000 years later
We point the blame, kill and defame
Those that were saved by the grace of divinity.
If we left that 2000 year history alone
And began a life anew
Would we still hate, still defame, still blame?
Look around at the beauty we have
It’s in books, music, fad and art
In all the goodness we’ve hidden deep within our hearts.
Did divinity and grace end
2000 years ago at a cross
From a man who we say died to save us?
Did humanity create a history
For divinity or for
The justification of cruelty?
Wars, prejudice, judging enslaving…
Surely these were not the things
A man would die for…give up his life for?
Love one another…
Is the voice I hear still
In my heart and in my soul.
Not, Love another ONLY if,
They’re not gay, or black or yellow
Or female or foreign or poor.
Love One Another….
Bring one and all to the table.
For we are all sinners and all are forgiven
Not just the wealthy (countries too!),
The fare looking, the thin or tall,
But ALL of God’s children, one and all.
We keep 2000 years of history
And change it in our soul’s memory
Interpreting Love into Hate.
Translating that which serves us
Forgetting the ALL that we say
Is the reason for the Cross and the fall.
Suffer we must, the greater our trust
That all we have created
Will help us achieve a place in heaven
So when a person speaks…
And the words he speaks
Begin to exclude,
Then you must know from the bottom of your heart,
And the depth of your soul
That he speaks no truth…
Because only those who dare to speak,
…to include all the parts of humanity
Can begin to speak the truth of divinity
Not just Jew or Gentile, but Palestinians too,
And all those who hate you,
Because you have hated them too.
And people who hurt you?
Love them any way. Keep your distance,
Let them think about their deed another day.
Love is the only thing
That fear is afraid of.
So let’s make fear afraid today.
But we’ve forgotten
The most important words
The ones we’re afraid of.
The word’s you would think
Our ear’s, our hearts
Our mind’s have never heard.
LOVE ONE ANOTHER
One and All
This is the message my Brother and Sister
LOVE ONE ANOTHER
AS I HAVE LOVED YOU.
PERIOD.


Remember Love, not Fear.

Robert