Hi. I'd like to offer you an update on what's up with Start. Here's a stream of consciousness with a touch of organization. :-)
* The last month, sans laptop, has been tough, in large part due to the devastating systems-shock of being sans-laptop at precisely a time when I needed to be away from a desktop computer due to the daily commitment at Peace Park I've assumed ( prop1.org ). For me this is like having my hands amputated, or being placed in solitary confinement precisely at the time my loved ones needed my full presence and attention. It has also been a devastating, healthy shock to face the truth of how little my work is valued by others, that there was virtually no concern that my work was devastated by the absence of a laptop. But, without exception in my life the following is True: "If it does not kill you, you grow." I regret nothing in my life that at the time I experienced as a mortal body-blow. Without these devastating blows, the things that within myself I find hopeful for the world, would not exist.
* Late last week, an Angel has ordered a laptop for my use!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even though this has not yet arrived - next week, this has been an enormous shot in the arm for me; like receiving a transfusion - not just the fact of a laptop to be available, but the fact of the kindness, thoughtfulness, caring, support, comradeship... that the offer and execution represents. Like lying in your hospital bed and learning that a surgical team is going to attempt to re-attach your hands, in time for you to return to work on saving your family. Did you ever see the movie "
The English Patient?" It is not unlike that movie for me without a laptop.
* For the foreseeable future my #1 priority will be supporting and sustaining the 28 Year Anti-Nuclear Peace Vigil at the White House. If there is such a thing as the Divine, the Sacred (and at least in psychological terms there is, with absolute certainty) this Vigil, and the commitment is embodies on the part of Thomas, Connie, Ellen, Troy and others - is Divine, Sacred. God clearly is calling me to do my part to make certain it endures. With Thomas up fighting for us on a new terrain, it falls to me to join Connie, Troy, Ellen and others to directly and indirectly sustain this unique, Life giving, Hope giving Monument to Peace Building of such importance to millions around the world who are educated, inspired and engaged by its existence.
* I yearn to be back on Capitol Hill at this crucial time. Whether Congress backs the Budget put forth by Pres. Obama, will entirely determine the future of Humanity / America / Planet Earth. The next 30-60 days are entirely crucial - what Congress signs or shirks is monumentally crucial. But I cannot be two places at once - The Hill and White House Vigil.
* Tragically, very few folks have yet subscribed to the new blogs I maintain:
http://HomeearthSecurity.blogspot.com and
http://AmericasBleedingWars.blogspot.com . Any success in life I've had has been based on a rare ability to cull through mountains of information and "see" the really strategic, crucial information. For my personal role - my Peace Work - I need to do this now. These sites are my personal repository. And I'M FINDING THAT THEY ARE UNIQUELY VALUABLE REPOSITORIES. I cull through the results of about 40 google spiders I've activated every day and post just the deeply strategic articles that are available. I barely have time to study these articles due to my laptop-less time at the White House. But in the moments I can steal to study these sites - THEY ARE A GOLD MINE. And this weekend I've started a 3rd:
http://BarackObamaBeyondOMG.blogspot.com .
* Among the few things I deeply, authoritatively understand is Strategic, High Stakes Leadership. I've studied and practiced this my entire adult life. Every day my head spins at the brilliant Leadership Pres. Obama demonstrates. "Greatest leader in the history of the world," I tell people every day. He is. God damn us if we remain on the sidelines while he fights with his life for ours. I refuse to.
* Here at the Peace House Ellen and I, with the vaccuum presented by Thomas' moving on, have undertaken to strengthen the sense of mission, purpose, and meaning among we here. We now have a brief House Book that articulates what we stand for, who belongs here, what behavior DOES NOT BELONG HERE. This is an enormous step forward in terms of building on what already has been done, and as Ellen says, necessarily moving even beyond "the high standards that Thomas set."
* Spring is the highest impact time to be at the White House Vigil - it is then that the middle and high school trips flow through. The Vigil is an enormously powerful pulpit. You can imagine. Yes, probably 80% of the groups are carefully steered entirely away from the vigil by their Censors (teachers). But another 20% escape this fate - some carefully steered exactly TO the vigil by their teachers. It is an extraordinary and sacred opportunity to be able to have 3-15 minutes to deliver into these open, pliable, receptive souls. Sacred. 15 years ago I'd have had little to offer. 35 years I'd have had much to offer, and finally, today I have much to offer again - Humanity, the Truth of Humanity. Is it making a difference? None of us can ESCAPE making a difference; direction and degree are the only variables for any of us and any and every moment of our lives. For Start Loving, in this day, at this time, this is an enormous, a Sacred Channel for what I have to offer, to deliver. In the minutes I have with each group I deliver along the following lines: we work here, for 28 years now, to get nuclear weapons off of your planet; we also work here to confront the other threats to you, my brothers and sisters - the brutalization of Palestine, the theft of oil from the Middle East; AND MOST IMPORTANTLY - the 400 BILLION TON METEOR HURTLING TOWARD EARTH - THE CO2 WE'VE PUT UP THERE, that will destroy civilization if we don't stop it; that it is always the youth that have led humanity out of the darkness, that they can succeed, and that if they do not succeed Hell will reign on their planet; that what we at the vigil do is a different kind of soldiering - the only kind that ever has or ever will advance the Human agenda items like - women having the right to vote, ending child labor, ending slavery, ending the Vietnam war.... Clearly some of those in each "audience" are profoundly touched by our brief interchanges. Worth my life? Duh. Oh, yes, sometimes our conversation goes to Jesus, prompted by the Crosses on my head, and I share, and frequently they eagerly identify with: the Man Jesus is who I care about, my #1 hero, Gandhi's too, our Einstein of how to be actualized Humans, how to escape Hell-on-earth. So often, they "get it." This is pretty Sacred. This is profoundly Sacred.
* When there are not receptive "audineces" at the Vigil, via radio (NPR news, CSPAN) and MP3 (Thomas') I study DemocracyNow, books on Climate Change, Anti-Nuclear and key articles I haven't time to read otherwise. There is not a second to waste.
* My sift at the signs is 5:15-10:15pm. All waking seconds that I am not there I am on a desktop computer at the Peace House (thinks to Ellen and our House benefactor) researching Global Warming, US War Making or republishing segments of DemocracyNow! pertaining to either of these subjects. Additionally, on the rare occasion when there is an important citizen action in DC (Power Shift for example) I video that with equipment Ellen has provided me) and get that up on YouTube for the purpose of encouraging the participants and educating others as to what is possible.
* My other pulpit of some considerable power is http://youtube.com/StartLoving1 where I now have over 330 "Subscribers" and where I publish a dozen or so new videos every day; and where there is some level of daily dialog with folks from around the world regarding what is posted there.Hmmmm. Well, I've forgotten some things, but this will have to do for now.
