ThansCorner

Well I’m off to Canada for five days of camping in the woods of our neighbors to the north. I expect it’ll be a good chance to relax without the usual hustle and bustle of daily life. Believe it or not, the laptop stays home – nature at its best without interruption. I think somehow the world will manage without me for a few days…

So I heard about this a long time ago and liked it then and I recognize it’s nothing new to most. But everytime I come back to it, the idea behind it hits me a little bit harder.

Free hugs.

Simply the thought of a complete stranger in this hateful and isolating world, knowing nothing about my life or who I am, wanting nevertheless to reach out and make my day a little better…wow. And it’s not exactly a selfless act on their part either. You know the little-school sayings like “love grows when it’s shared” – however cheesy, this is the physical manifestation of that lesson.

What is the purpose in life? How about making everyone’s just a little bit better. Someday I’ll find myself a sign like that and a street corner all my own.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, give it a look.

I was having a general conversation this evening about politics (I know, real shocker here in DC) and as so often happens, we ran into the wall that is two-party politics. With only two choices, how can the population, or even a single individual for that matter, find their beliefs modeled exactly by either of the options. And just like every other time this barrier pops up, it is just as quickly acknowledged as the inevitable best option among a world of evils.

I’m not advocating reworking legislation or constitutional precedents upon which our entire understanding of government is founded. This issue isn’t about the dirty politicking that inevitably dictates the action of any campaign hoping to accomplish anything.

The phrase “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” represents the American dream and beliefs binding our nation’s populace. The words don’t, however, exactly model their original phrasing. Where our country has broadened matters to a pursuit of happiness, John Locke was originally speaking of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of property.”

Now there’s no surprise here that Locke’s capitalistically founded philosophy acknowledges propery and possessions as our mandate and ultimate object. The distinction is that America, champion of the free market economy and fair, democratic elections, is founded on the basis not of power, nor with the intent of securing wealth or objects in the name of its citizens. Our founding fathers spoke of a higher calling than these in the form of happiness.

Think for a moment of that playful child, gleaming smile spread across his face as he plays and experiences the world. This fact is universal and independent of all other things. Now look at government and the politics that dictate its movements. When did happiness fall by the wayside? When did we forget the meaning of freedom and the ideals we fight to maintain through diplomacy and military action around the world?

Perhaps the solution is not a challenge of our two-party system. Two opposing ends of the spectrum with their own extreme and moderate factions do have the potential to weigh benefits and costs of each decision and find some appropriate balance in the middle. The nature of our parties, not their existence, is the problem. I admit to party politics, broad generalizations of others I oppose, and a fascination with their downfall, whether by honest or dirty means. Still, I believe that with a change in tone we can make steps foreward rather than steps back.

Compassion. What would life be like with gleaming smiles dictating policy. I’m not suggesting throwing money at the poor or bailing people out to the point that they no longer feel the need to support themselves. What I am saying is that our existence as a respectable nation relies entirely on our respectful treatment of those within and without. People are entitled to different, even wrong opinions. They’re welcome to shout them from the rooftops and they’re welcome to argue them to no end with every individual they encounter. What we need is a dignity and recognition that dissent is okay and part of a decision-making process.

Our two parties exist to offset each other in a cooperative, not destructive manner. The system relies on the continued existence of these two parts. Can we not recognize the inevitability of this truth and take steps towards compassionate progress? Yes we can. But it better be soon because things are falling apart.

This article includes simple instructions for making homemade ice cream without all of the churning and such of a regular ice cream maker. I just want to say that, though it’s targeted towards kids, I fully planning on making good use of this recipe as soon as I can find some rock salt.

Link to Homemade Ice Cream article

Well, I’ve moved to Washington DC now for the next month and a half to work for the organization Project Kaleidoscope doing web design. Taking advantage of the ideal location of my housing on GW campus, I went for a walk down the National Mall, taking some photos along the way (Photos here) and stumbled across a huge body of calmly marching individuals decorated in the colorful garb of what must have been traditional to their culture.

This is DC. Stuff like this happens all the time, yet something grabbed me and caused a pause in my thoughts and motion. They carried signs reading “The problem of humanity is Human Dignity” as these thousands of men and women of all walks of life marched past Smithsonian museums and sculpture gardens along the national mall, finally gathering together at the Washington Monument.

Now, given the magnitude of the event, I expected to find articles in the Washington Post or CNN but I had to search further within Google to find any mention of the event. This was a gathering of a group called Swadhyay Parivar of North America. I have never heard of this national organization and I’m guessing the same is true of most, and yet it exists as part of the constituency of our country. The signs they hold talk about human dignity and the ties the bind us all together under the label of “human”.

I don’t know much about the beliefs and history of this group beyond a few articles I’ve just glanced through this afternoon, but there’s something simply about this event that could benefit each of us to think about. Our nation is a cooperation of millions of individuals characterized by unique qualities and beliefs. A cooperation. Life in this city should not be dictated by disputes between republicans and remocrats, whites and African Americans, men and women, or “native” Americans and immigrants. It should be about finding ways to come together and address the “problem of humanity”: Human Dignity.

As the march wrapped up and I walked past, I noticed a small cluster of people on the sidewalk about 100 feet from the edge of the Swadhyay gathering. They bore their own signs, saying “Defend American Borders”, “Threats to america”, “Not another 9/11, No more aliens”. I think they knew, though, seeing thousands of peaceful, responsible individuals challenging their perspective of people different than them, that their cause was a bit foolish. I think they know deep down that the divisions between us are much less important than those signs show.