For the record:
Read this from CNN:
SYRIA TO WITHDRAW FROM LEBANON
Syria will withdraw all its forces in Lebanon to the Bekaa Valley area, closer to the Syrian-Lebanese border, Syrian President Bashar Assad said today. The move comes after the United Nations, the Arab League, the United States, France, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Egypt all stepped up pressure on Damascus to quit Lebanon.
O.k. now read this from CNN the same day:
China: No independence for Taiwan. BEIJING, China -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao opened the annual session of the National People's Congress in Beijing by saying a planned anti-secession law would never permit independence for Taiwan.
Same day both news items being reported. same situation. completely different circumstances and outcomes. Why? why isn't anyone forcing china to give Taiwan their independence? Hhhmmm.
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It is not our responsibility to feed the hungry, nor clothe the naked, nor house the homeless. It is not our responsibility to reform the delinquent or heal the sick or subsidize the poor. Truly, one could confidently argue that it is not even our responsibility to take care of our own selves. That is why when a person falls down you offer them a hand up but you don't force them up. the only thing I can think of that anyone has a responsibility to do in this life is to avoid hurting others. people may argue that one has a responsibility to not hurt oneself as well, but there's just no basis to that idea. if a person wants to spend this life or a portion of it hurting themselves, they have the right to do that. lets face it, masochism is fun. as painful as it can be, there is pleasure in it or we wouldn’t be so into it. it is part of the wheel of life. all of it, the whole life, is for exploring and appreciating and experiencing...

Now with all this said, i will add that it may be true that we have no responsibility to do any of these things, but we do have the right to do them if we choose to. And what's more, as we grow as people/life-forms/beings/creators, we come to understand that there is great joy in it; that it may not be our responsibility to help others, but inside there is a calling that feels almost as if it is our duty.

So no man, there is nothing wrong with being a capitalist, with being selfish, with being self absorbed or self concerned or unconcerned with the welfare of others around the world. we have every right to let a person in the same town we live in die of hunger one day while we throw away our leftovers from dinner that night. that's just the way of the world we live in. that is nature’s way. But one can feel, somewhere deep within, something subtle and profound that beckons to us, something that sparkles with an understanding that we, humanity, can transcend nature if we want to. only if we want to. and often times we do not want to. But if we want to, we can. we, above all other life forms that we currently know of in the known universe, have the awareness, the ability, and sometimes even the desire to, transcend the natural world that we were born into.
So this is where the desire to feed the hungry and house the poor and the rest of it comes from. from this understanding. Not from an imagined obligation or responsibility, but from an inner calling to continually evolve and to transcend who we are and who we are all being.

Dear Jules,
Early AM
I was just running a process in the bath. Just before that I was speaking with my mom about you and explaining exploring with her how you feel like my twin in so many ways... not like a lover-soulmate mind you, but like a twin-soulmate. In the way we think and feel. I'm not sure if I have ever met someone who thinks more like me as much as we are both so liberal-minded, eccentric, caring, forward thinking, etc I was telling her... in fact, I told her, take my liberal viewpoints and multiply them times two or three and that is Juliet. This is a good thing. a rare thing. but this is the space where revolution and evolution come from. And people like Juliet are very important to the world. o.k. so that was that. just idle talk. Just told her it would be nice if one day you all could hang... that she would appreciate you as a person.

O.k. so then I started processing (that means using some Avatar tool/exercise/technique/whatever to explore/create or discreate something) something that was very heavy for me. huge. Just fucking huge. It literally spanned my entire life. I don't feel like typing about it but would love to share it with you over the phone. but that's the thing about beliefs... they can last your whole life or good portion of them and we operate through them and are not aware of it. but one thing I have noticed is that now after ten years of processing I am hitting major lifetime beliefs that span my entire life sometimes and during the processing I am aware of and actually see/feel myself in other stages of my life, like when I was a baby or when I was a young boy and I laugh/cry/expand/discreate for them and with them during the process. It is really quite miraculous, healing, releasing, and clearing. To heal/help/improve an entire lifetime in five minutes of concentrated effort.

Eventually I got through the creation/belief... discreated it... felt it leave/dissolve/disappear-from my mind/body and the span of my entire life-past-and-future.. man I don't know if this makes any sense to you but... I was inside of it and deeply meditative and I got this “hit” (I hate using that term because it seems so new-agey but sometimes it is very appropriate) that “Juliet needs to do Avatar now. You need to encourage her more to make it a goal now and not put it off as her friend.”

Anyway that was it. it was just this huge emotional message that like landed very firmly in my head/ears/heart-- but not audibly -- just this information download that came BAM into my heart – like from all past and future lives landing at once in me in that moment that told me to tell you that this is what you are looking for and that the time is now at this point when you are at this point in your life when you are looking and searching and wondering and open and vulnerable and free and not to put it off but to make it happen, that you would get what you were looking for out of it... and that the time is now. that the “break,” the “message,” the “clarity,” the “solution” you are seeking is there.

O.k. so I'm telling you what I was told to tell you. but allow me this caveat Jules please: I do not normally say this stuff to people. just so you know. I mean, I never talk to my band about it or any other people I work with or hang with or any of that. maybe I should but I just don't. its my own personal thing... I figure people are going to come to whatever they need on their own or through some kind of however word of mouth or whatever but I don't necessarily run around talking to everyone or anyone really about Avatar or their personal or spiritual shit. you know? its just not me. I like to play the singer and not much more. So just so you know, this is not my MO normally. Avatar especially is something very special and it isn't for everyone. [I would say that for 90% of the people out there its just too much to think about and the biggest obstacle they are going to encounter is their belief that they do not control their reality but that someone or something else does -- usually a God or fate or the universe or karma or luck... so when they learn about Avatar they freak out and think it’s a ridiculous concept or downright evil because they have some belief that tells them that they do not and cannot create their own reality. So for them you know, unfortunately that is precisely what they will experience in this life.]

But that's not you obviously Jules. I'm sorry in a way for not speaking to you earlier about it. as I said its just not my thing usually to go there. But I just really got this hit to tell you to run and make it happen and it will be this major thing for you as it was for me... that as your friend I need to encourage you to do it and also help you do it as much as I can as far as planning and any other way that I can be of service of to you.

Perhaps its just because I feel such a kinship with your soul that I share with you. Or perhaps that is all a load of crap. who knows. (the soul... I wouldn’t even swear to that being a real thing... for all I know we are just skin and bones... no better or worse for it (that even sounds like you.) but what I do know now here is that wow what a fucking loud and clear message that was for me. it was hypnotic. So there you go sister. God I feel excited right now. I love you.
Fishy

Current spin: Mathieu Boggaerts, 2000. I have been frantically searching for GOOD French music... something to sink my teeth into so I can get really inspired and absorbed by the French to facilitate my learning better. Well this is great stuff. not rock. Just light pop. But really good. very sixties lounge pop.