Here, right now, on that long lonesome highway, traveled by many, remembered by few, looking for something I can believe in - something I'd like to do with my life ... when there's nothing to tie me to something that might have been true yesterday, tomorrow is open.  Right now that seems more than enough, just to be here today.  I don't know what the future is holding in store. I don't know where I'm going.  I'm not sure where I've been, but right now I'll make my life worth living.  I don't need to see the end.  So live without care ... like a fish in the water; like a bird in the air.  With a spirit that guides me and a light that shines before me, I must care enough to surrender.

Reflected upon 1st day of retirement.
Source: "Sweet Surrender",  John Deutschendorf, Henry Deutschendorf, JD
http://www.johndenver.com/philanthropy/phil.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Denver

"The best part is that for the millions of dollars we spend on toys only to have them full of lead or come apart and choke a kid, the best toys [wanted most by kidz on the ground floor] are the homemade or everyday things around the house.

"No, [that's] not really Scrooge ... It's buy nothing [i.e. Stuff] ... not give nothing.  There was this ritual where [one] would give each other gifts whenever [they] saw something the other would like... but specifically NOT on [the holidays] or birthdays.  It was sort of a because-I-want-to-not-because-I-have-to thing."

That's a treasure of a thought this time of year.  That thought certainly is NOT 'Scrooge', NOR 'Hallmarkie' - possibly the 2nd worse the first!?  The Stuff of that thought is all together and all right, both well-wrapped and a gift, to those lucky enough to be around such a person - a special peace.

Very possibly there's a direct ratio between buying less to celebrating more ... http://adbusters.org/metas/eco/bnd/ ... !sreehC [in reverse].

• Ehren Watada - Socrates Smiles
http://clearblogs.com/DiFferRentsPace/31772/Ehren+Watada+-+Socrates+Smiles.html

• White Crosses East to West
http://clearblogs.com/DiFferRentsPace/28908/White+Crosses+East+to+West.html

What iT Takes to Make an Ehren Watada:
" ... stuck to his principles, even under enormous pressure ..."  "... armed only with unshakable conviction and a simple truth ..."  "All it takes ... is persistence ..."
site: http://eatthestate.org/11-12/ArmyBlinked.htm  EaT The STaTe !

Upon returning from IRAQ: Nancy Pelosi 2/1/2007 states "our commitment is to insuring that the policies they [OUR TROOPS] are given to implement match the exceptional quality of their service and their sacrifice."  On  6/22/2006 U.S. Army 1st Lieutenant Ehren K. Watada is the first commissioned officer to IRAQ to publicly refuse deployment.

Cape Cod CROSSES
site: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2398584

Santa Barbara CROSSES
site: http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/North_America/United_States/photo354104.htm 
site: http://www.peaceheroes.com/PeaceHeroes/arlingtonwest.htm

Ohio CROSSES site: http://nwopc.org/

Lt. Ehren Watada's NO! site: http://www.ltwatada.org/ 
JAIL? site: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/301877_amy01.html 

Casualty Count Ticker
site: http://icasualties.org/oif/ 

In Wyoming’s Sweetwater County, the city of Green River was the first in 1931 to enact an ordinance banning door-to-door solicitation.  Marketing has since blown doors off common sense, public effort to shield mass harassment, by ill-intended motivations of economic or political gain, to manipulate both the moral & social conscience of citizens.  Neither the Green River Ordinance nor effort since bans FEAR as agency of the war-minded.

site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_River_Ordinance

site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mania

site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_panic

site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_fear

Wars rage havoc ever since WWI was meant the war to end all wars.  In moment of silence, truce is now forgotten as veterans unfurl flag & pomp.  The 1938 bill for an 11/11 Armistice Day holiday “dedicated to the cause of world peace” officially was changed 1954 to Veterans Day.  What was changed?  What was won?

                                                                   What was lost ?

Are we “fleeing from the faces of our fathers” for a different future? site http://www3.baylor.edu/~Ralph_Wood/chesterton/gkc_lifegiving.pdf ... and what about those “flags of our fathers”? … site http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418689/ … Even though we now know how to market & sell war & even though our fathers knew not fully how & what they were bonded & buying into, it was their hope, as it is ours now, to imagine a future clear of ethnic & religious conflict or economic based wars over land & resources. 

How often have we woken in dream or recall of (or face now) our Father’s expectation … wanting only to be out from under it & erased from memory recall?  Worse yet, have we (or will we) pass the same cultural coding unto our children … or can we face it, see it for what it was to free the blame & guilt & to break its toxic cycle of transmission?        That is the “war” of all “wars” to be fought!   

site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iwo_Jima

site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_the_Flag_on_Iwo_Jima

site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bradley_%28Iwo_Jima%29

site http://www.freepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061020/ENT01/610200341/1036

Aside from Separation of Church & State, probably Separation of Religion & Sports is even harder to disentangle.  Perhaps commercial evolution will replace corporation logo namesake arenas with those of religions (Saints vs. Demons) (Islams vs. Xtians)?

While sports fans may be in states of mind bought on by temporary, possibly permanent, brain imprinting in youth or later life by developed allegiance, the addiction or religious-like profession of belief & commitment or difference (yours vs mine) is invasive to self, family, community, college, region, state & nation (Olympics).  If only wars could be settled on a playing field instead of a battle field (evolution perhaps?)    

Ancient civilizations, diety systems, even astrology (9^th house or Saggitarius) have proven to be a blended complexity of religion & ever-present sports competition.  But is fighting the only option for what we believe in?

site www.religionlink.org/tip_050118a.php site http://www.brainevent.com/be/TheNews/head_to_head/20010504/show_debate_or_toc site http://www.stadiummouse.com/religion/ site www.shef.ac.uk/socstudies/Shop/obare.pdf site http://www.brainevent.com/be/TheNews/head_to_head/20001127S/index_html site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

Calculation determines a total death-count by military action & war, [since 13th century], approximating a low 154,450,700 to a high 425,457,800 lives ...

                             (figured with any death related to military action or war).

That may be right, though not by definition of right ... lest it be right by might. 

site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_toll

Africa, South America, South Asia, Mongolia, & the South Pacific have declared their territories to be NWFZ (Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone).  That practically represents the entire southern hemisphere of this planet Earth!

site http://www.opanal.org/NWFZ/NWFZ's.htm

site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear-Weapon-Free_Zone

The USA may prefer Japan to develop nuclear homeland defense [a loop hole in Japan's constitution] & the UN may pressure foreign use of a home-land only, defense force.  In another twist Syria may also call for NWFZ in partial or whole motivation to control Israel's nuclear capability.      Maybe in "the end" it's not what you got,

                                                                                        but how you don't use it.

site http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/library/treaties/nuclear-free-zones/trty_nuclear-free-zone-index.htm

While news shows, political pundits, & poli-sci experts debate Corporations' interests or linkage to wars' cause & effect chain, load yourself up with ammunition @ these links: 

                                             CORPwatch site http://www.corpwatch.org
                                      warPROFITeers site http://www.warprofiteers.com

3rd US of A President, Thomas Jefferson, set a personal distinction saying ...

"To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed, opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself."

Vatican's Catechism http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a5.htm

fudges more than it makes distinction, much less a decision, as to their 5th commandment [Thou Shalt Not Kill] in war time.  Within the ranks of Rome, is

there corruption of Christianity via hair-splitting, rhetorical attempts

to justify war & suggest murdering is OK but killing is not?

Would not Genuine Jesus refer Roman Rank to their own catechism paragraph #2317 [above link]: "In so far as men are sinners, the threat of war hangs over them and will so continue ... but insofar as they can vanquish sin by coming together in charity, violence itself will be vanquished ... nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

US of A President Eisenhower saw where the United States of America came from

& warned where it was going.  One wonders, all as it is now, if indeed he was a prophet within our own time.  View links & or DVD; decide for yourself ...  

With consternation in this nation at the level it is, some of most people are

 BLUE in the face vocalising positions, or politically WHITE washed with half-truths, or just down right RED necked about it all.   One easily forgets that brief wisp of peaceful calm & hope @ Olympic Games with their 5 color rings - one color at least @ flag of all the world's nations.