LOVE WORKS DAILY 01/18/07 - LAUGHING AT THE FACE OF ALLAH
Hello Friends! I hope today finds you happy and well
and filled with the infinity that is love and the
capacity to give and receive it freely today!
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INSPIRATIONAL MOMENT:
(Great Thoughts By History's Inspired Thinking Men and Women)
The best of the people are the first to greet others.
-The Prophet Muhammad, as reported by Abu Umamah
TIM's BLOG
(Random Thoughts and Tim's Daily World):
Good Morning all!
As you have likely noticed, I have stopped doing the
IN THE NEWS section. I had done it one time before and stopped
after a couple weeks, because I frankly couldn't find anything
new or interesting to write about on most days. Every day
the news was about hate and killing and violence and war,
and there is only so much to say. I really had to dig deep
past the headlines to find something that did not involve
death to write about, and it's also challenging to
write about the local Acorn Festival every week.
So...if a big story comes along and I really have something
to say on it, I will. Otherwise, everyone has lots of access
to the news these days, and I'll leave that to you.
Speaking of leaving it to you. This being Thurday now, and
a week since the last QOTW...and several days since I asked
whether people valued it, or wanted me to push an "interactive"
element to this group, I have have gotten ONE email. It was a
good email, but I would have no idea whether this represents
the group.
So here's what I am thinking.
1. You have not been receiving or reading LOVE WORKS this last
week.
2. You have tried to email, but your emails have not gotten
through to me...which is something to correct.
3. You have been too busy this week to respond.
4. You don't have time in general to bother.
5. You don't care one way or another.
Now, I'm not meaning to be grumpy, but I am most concerned
about #2. If #1 is true, and the hundred or so people I think
I am writing to are not reading it...that's OK...
But if you have tried to respond, I am not getting it...this
is a real problem.
If this is the case....
an email (besides the others I gave) that you will get through to me at is
musicbrokers@wildblue.net
I get hundreds of emails daily at that address.
If that should fail
musicbrokers@yahoo.com
These are both work email, but please write to them if you
have not gotten though to the others.
I have this little running fantasy of dozens of frustrated people
writing and not hearing back and thinking I am ignoring them.
If in fact, #3-#5 are the case...then my fantasy explodes...
but I do know the reality then.
This will be the last I speak of this..so not to worry...
If you are ignoring my call for feedback, you will only have
to do so today.
Otherwise, I will be returning to my usual format of
writing my essays and posting them into the ethers.
I do know that many of you enjoy and get benefits from
these essays, so I don't think what I am doing is in vain.
And when I've really pressed the matter in the past, I've gotten
a number of really flowery and apologetic (and very sincere) emails stating
how much LOVE WORKS means to them.
This is great, and I do appreciate it, but it's not what I'm
asking for. I write these for me, and most days that is
quite enough.
But I do enjoy getting feedback on the topics themselves, and
I do like to know sometimes that I am not sending them out
into the void of cyberspace to no eyes or ears.
In short, I like getting LOVE WORKS messages too...
And after all...that is the mission of the group.
LOVE WORKS...it doesn't just sit there and let other people
work...it gets up and contributes to the making the world a
better place.
So......I have been on a bit of a rant this week, and I
apologize. This won't continue beyond today. I will either
hear from a number of you, or I won't, or I will find out
why it is happening and try to correct the problem.
I do LOVE you all very much, and am only trying to gauge the
direction that LOVE WORKS should take.
Not trying to make anyone feel guilty, I just truly want to
know why I never hear from most of you for months at a time, if ever.
Just a question.
Being just a reader is cool too...glad that you are here...
So again, don't think I am trying to pressure people to write
in. I have just expected a somewhat larger response that
I get. Joshua stated that it was his experience to...so
I maybe it is the norm.
(end of rant)
Today's LOVE WORKS was written in 2003. It was written shortly
before we had gone to Iraq, and I thought that by the time
I came around to repeating it, I would be writing a prologue
to the effect that "now that the war is over" etc. ect.
Well, we haven't left Iraq, and if anything things are even
worse. We did hang Saddam. Didn't change anything. We do have
a NEW PLAN out there to get out...I think....but it may
all be a political move to influence the next elections. Hard
to tell.
The bottom line is. Almost 4 years later...we are still
doing it. Whatever "it" is supposed to be.
Tonya asked me today, if when we are talking about the many
names of GOD at our Church school thing...we should mention
names like ALLAH (which by the way refered to the exact same
historical GOD that the Christians and Jews believe in...)
I told her that we had to be very careful. We're in a small
town, and there are alot of people who might not send their
kids if we start talking about other religions to much.
Especially "evil" religions like Islam. (Sarcasm intended.)
Anyways...this is what I wrote in 2003...hope you enjoy...
Oh, and write to me...(dang it, wasn't going to mention that again)
(Continued in Part II)
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo
Peace be with you.
From LOVE WORKS DAILY 03/06/03
(c)2007 T.Thomas Henry
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LOVE WORKS DAILY 01/18/07 - LAUGHING AT THE FACE OF ALLAH
PART II
FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
(Brand New and Classic Love Works Essays 2001-2007)
I decided to go out on a limb today!
Sometimes what I write is to shock you into thinking. Other times,
I have a specific point of view. Today is little of both...brace
yourself.
I choose the inspiration for the LOVE WORKS letters from a wide variety
of sources; secular and religious; western and eastern; widely known to
scarcely heard.
I look for a nugget of a idea within the vastness of thoughts and ideas
flying at us everyday.
But today for the first time since the inception of this letter,
I started with a quote from the Muslim tradition.
Like I said I decided to go crazy!
What possibly is there to gain from Islam?
We are Americans. Muslims are our enemies....right?
You know...the whole World Trade Center thing...the pending war in
Iraq...those middle easterners all hate Americans..we need to stick
together on this one. Be PATRIOTS!
Right?
It's that what we should be doing?
I was told that the Muslim faith instructs it's practitioners to
kill Americans on sight, if possible. Kill all Westerners, for that
matter, because we are all devils and laugh at the face of Allah. A
preacher from a CHURCH told me that...so it has to be right.
Right?
We should be tolorant of Muslims, but certainly not embrace them or
their radical beliefs.
Right?
"They're already teaching our children about that evil religion in our
schools, what's next, we all just hold hands and sing songs about
PEACE and LOVE like a bunch of F***ing hippies", another person said
aloud at my store the other day. "There are no innocents in Iraq,
except the Christians, and we'll get them out first", he continued.
So we (the good guys) need to go over there and just bomb the hell out
of everything, right?
Another person who was "there in the Gulf War" says..."This whole mess
is our own damn fault, if we'da (I do believe that WE'DA is a word)
just finished 'em off when we were there the first time, we'da not have
this problem now...we knowed 'bout the World Trade thing months before
it happened, and we'da just let it happen so the public would see just
how crazy those f***ers are...people just'a wouldn'ta believed it
otherwise."
This makes sense to me. A perfectly rational, balanced viewpoint. Based
on the facts.
It's all very clear.
And really quite simple.
Muslims, and anyone of Middle Eastern descent, are hate mongers,
fanatical and insane.
And we (Americans...the good guys) are not.
Right?
Right?
uhhh..I DON'T THINK SO.
As I've just demonstrated, I've found plenty of hate mongers and
fanatics everywhere I've been.
Every skin color. Every ethnic background. Every religion.
Every walk of life.
As a matter of fact, I've met plenty of "fanatical, extremist,
lunatics" just living in my neighborhood, and my hometown.
Now don't get me wrong!
We must CONFRONT HATE!
I agree with this, I really do.
But I don't think we confront it WITH HATE, as so many people
are choosing to do.
We confront HATE with LOVE and we defeat HATE with LOVE.
And until I change the name of this letter to HATE WORKS DAILY,
I'm sticking with that principle.
Like I said, many people will not agree with me.
So I'm going out on a limb here.....
.....LOVE WORKS.
Give it a chance.
It works...
It really does!
And anyone who would like to get together to sing songs about PEACE and
LOVE....the party is at my place!
Love In Thought! Love In Word! Love In Action!
Love To You Today!
"May we endeavor today to increase our understanding and appreciation of
what others have given and contributed to us. And develop constant,
mindful consideration of how our thoughts and actions will BENIFICIALLY
CONTRIBUTE to others"
The best to you today in discovering the answers to life's difficult
questions!
A Final Thought:
Love is always the right thing to do. Even if it isn't the easiest
thing to do.
May we have compassion for the struggles of others, wisdom to
acknowledge our own, and courage to address them both every day.
Respectfully,
Tim
This is a daily newsletter of LOVE WORKS DAILY:
A collective of individuals of different beliefs and
backgrounds, dedicated to a better world by living LOVE in thought,
word and action. Compassion. Wisdom. Courage.
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo
Peace be with you.
From LOVE WORKS DAILY 03/06/03
(c)2007 T.Thomas Henry
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