Friday, November 21, 2008

A Great Battle

BE KIND, FOR EVERYONE YOU MEET
IS FIGHTING A GREAT BATTLE.

Philo of Alexandria


Of Note: We each are inhabited by two entities--the soul and it's shadow, the personality. At some point in the evolution of our consciousness, the soul asserts its authority. The personality puts up a great fight and a battle rages, sometimes for more than one lifetime. We have met these people; they are the ones who are conflicted, many times are less than healthy, and often self-destruct. Looks really bad from the outside--but the soul-work is being done. Eventually, the personality is subsumed by the soul, and the battle is won. All of us have this in store. Obviously, Philo was familiar with the ancient teachings and was passing the word along. It was kind of him to give us a heads up.

Today's Weather Report: The water is dripping from the roof under the intense sunlight. Even through the window, I can feel its warmth. Make no mistake, it was 2 degrees at 6 this morning and is set to be zero tonight. But right now, the light touch of the sun is entrancing.

Watch For Change Snippet: What do you think is keeping pirates on the high seas from coming to justice? Certainly if we can put a man on the moon and explorers on Mars, we can free the oceans from thieves. Well, as it turns out, besides infighting between shipping companies and various governments as to which is responsible to pay for freedom from violence in international waters, what to do with captured pirates is the other hurdle. Surprisingly, human rights is the issue. A consensus has yet to be reached between western nations as to how to handle the human rights of pirates. Piracy has not been a problem since the early 1800's for western nations and back then human rights had yet to be defined. Indonesia and Malaysia are taking care of their longtime piracy problem by capturing the thugs, trying them and instituting stiff punishments for those found guilty. The outcome apparently is not always pretty. Some pirates have been turned over to Somalia with the promise they will be tried and not tortured, but the final outcome of their treatment is in question. In addition, UK has instructed its naval ships not to take pirates as this could confer some British rights to the thieves with which the country does not want to deal. And to complicate matters even more, just this week, Islamic terrorists in Somalia have said they will take care of the problem under Sharia law because capturing Muslim ships in the past two weeks has crossed the line. We will stay tuned as this seemingly strange human rights story unfolds. Why would anyone read fiction when the real thing is so much more exciting? Marie provided this picture from her trip to Galveston earlier in the year. US ports do not have to contend with pirates any longer, only hurricanes.

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