One of the three Purple Heart Veterans says, "Why would I want my children to join the military?"
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More comments on the above YouTube video:
"I listened to Dire Straits throughout my time in Afghanistan. Played out of a communication laptop attached to our armoured vehicle. Kept me going. 👍👍"
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"This song has always been emotional to me, but it hits much harder after this past week. Thank you for this heart felt performance Mark. Thinking about everyone I served with in Afghanistan."
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"I'm a Vietnam Vet. When I heard this the first time I cried the tears of a baby. Only a combat vet can understand how much this song is true in every word. Don't think for one second that I believe any of you don't feel the words. I know you do. I'm talking of a visceral, deep in the bones, feeling. One that goes far beyond just feeling the song. Now it's so many years since this was released and still I cry when I hear it. Thank you Mark for writing this and for giving such a heartfelt performance each and every time. I love your work."
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"This is a song that kids should be taught in schools all over the world. Look after each other. Look after our world. Beautiful."
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BROTHERS IN ARMS
These mist covered mountains Are a home now for me But my home was the lowlands And always will be Someday you'll return to Your valleys and your farms And you'll no longer burn to be Brothers in arms
Through these fields of destruction Baptism of fire I've watched all your suffering As a battle raged high And though they did hurt me so bad In the fear and alarm You did not desert me My brothers in arms
So many different worlds So many different suns And we have just one world But we live in different ones
Now the sun's gone to hell And the moon's riding high Let me bid you farewell Every man has to die But it's written in the starlight And every line in your palm We are fools to make war On our brothers in arms
I want to make it clear, however, that although I am deeply opposed to war, I am not advocating appeasement. It is often necessary to take a strong stand to counter unjust aggression. For instance, it is plain to all of us that the Second World War was entirely justified. It "saved civilization" from the tyranny of Nazi Germany, as Winston Churchill so aptly put it. In my view, the Korean War was also just, since it gave South Korea the chance of gradually developing democracy. But we can only judge whether or not a conflict was vindicated on moral grounds with hindsight. For example, we can now see that during the Cold War, the principle of nuclear deterrence had a certain value. Nevertheless, it is very difficult to assess al such matters with any degree of accuracy. War is violence and violence is unpredictable. Therefore, it is better to avoid it if possible, and never to presume that we know beforehand whether the outcome of a particular war will be beneficial or not.
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From Ursula K. Le Guin's translation of the Tao Te Ching:
AGAINST WAR
Even the best weapon is an unhappy tool, hateful to living things. So the follower of the Way stays away from it.
Weapons are unhappy tools, not chosen by thoughtful people, to be used only when there is no choice, and with a calm, still mind, without enjoyment. To enjoy using weapons is to enjoy killing people, and to enjoy killing people is to lose your share in the common good.
It is right that the murder of many people be mourned and lamented. It is right that a victor in war be received with funeral ceremonies.
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Let every voice be heard.
"... Let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late ..."
It's been a long long time since 1971 when I first heard Bob Dylan sing "Watching the River Flow." It's one of my favorites among his lesser known songs. Now, 50 years later, I am curious but not willing to pay the $25 dollars to watch him sing as I sit at my laptop. ¿What's the matter with me? (-:
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Coincidentally, this morning I finished watching two excellent films by Martin Scorsese that moved me deeply:
In the darkness of my night, in the brightness of my day.
(Bob Dylan)
She knows too much to argue or to judge.
(Bob Dylan)
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I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe.
(Dalai Lama)
I'm nothing special, just an ordinary human being. That's why I always describe myself as a simple Buddhist monk.
SCIENCE has always fascinated me. As a child in Tibet, I was keenly curious about how things worked. When I got a toy I would play with it a bit, then take it apart to see how it was put together. As I became older, I applied the same scrutiny to a movie projector and an antique automobile.
At one point I became particularly intrigued by an old telescope, with which I would study the heavens. One night while looking at the moon I realized that there were shadows on its surface. I corralled my two main tutors to show them, because this was contrary to the ancient version of cosmology I had been taught, which held that the moon was a heavenly body that emitted its own light.
"It
turned out this man worked for the Dalai Lama. And he said gently -
that they believe when a lot of things start going wrong all at once,
it is to protect something big and lovely that is trying to get
itself born - and that this something needs for you to be distracted so
that it can be born as perfectly as possible.”
―
Anne
Lamott, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
Found on Cris R’s blog via Nick’s blog – July 4, 2015
My social energy is quite low, but my creative energy has returned.
We're not there anymore either. That was 12 years ago.
We're not there anymore. That was 6 years ago.
We're not there anymore. That was this last Tuesday evening.
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead —his eyes are closed. The insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.” (Albert Einstein,Living Philosophies)
"My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness." (The Dalai Lama)
"... You a praying man, huh? What do you pray for? You pray for the world?" I never thought about praying for the world. I said, “I pray that I can be a kinder person.” (Bob Dylan, Chronices: Volume One -- from a conversation with "Sun Pie" near Raceland, west of New Orleans)
In the interests of everyone the artist has the responsibility of using his medium well. In the Tibetan culture, most of the paintings are of deities or Buddhas, and they try to send a message of the value of the spiritual.
-- Dalai Lama
Concerning the Spiritual in Art, is a book by Wassily Kandinsky I read during the 1980s.
"In the interests of everyone, the artist has a responsibility to use his medium well. In the Tibetan culture, most of the paintings are of deities or Buddhas, and they try to send a message of the value of the spiritual."
(The Dalai Lama)
Today is my youngest sister's 55th birthday. We have been estranged since March of 2003, right after our father's death. I am thinking of her today and sending kind wishes.
This is my word for today. I especially enjoy hearing it pronounced. My sense of humor needs some exercise. My cat, Oboe, expressing, "Yikes!" I'm not sure what she was reacting to, but a few seconds later she looked at me quite peacefully. In this photo, she looks the way I have been feeling as I face some of my oldest fears. I have had the experience of being frightened and then laughing with relief when the danger is past. Laughing is somewhat like the shaking response that animals have after a traumatic event, the response that allows them begin functioning again. See Somatic Experiencing.
The Sanskrit word for laughter is "hasya." I just learned that there is something called Hasya Yoga.
Humor is a prelude to faith and Laughter is the beginning of prayer.
(Reinhold Niebuhr)
In my childhood, I had a religious assistant who always told me, 'If you can really laugh with full abandonment, it's very good for your health.
Natural environment sustains the life of all beings universally. Trees are referred to in accounts of the principal events of the Buddha's life. His mother leaned against a tree for support as she gave birth to him. He attained enlightenment seated beneath a tree, and finally passed away as trees stood witness overhead -- Dalai Lama
How can I be useful, of what service can I be? There is something inside me, what can it be? -- Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Welcome to "37TH DREAM (RUMORS OF PEACE)".
The photograph currently at the top of my blog was taken from my porch before sunrise on October 29, 2023.
"OLD GIRL OF THE NORTH COUNTRY" (the earliest name for my blog -- http://oldgirlfromthenorthcountry.blogspot.com
) came to life in early December of 2006 so that I could post a 42-year retrospective of my paintings and drawings and through that action, create a new relationship with the day the man I loved returned from Vietnam in December 1970. For a while (sometime after spring of 2008, which is when he died) my blog was "TALKING 37TH DREAM WITH RAINBOW (RUMORS OF PEACE)". For a number of years, it's been "TALKING 37TH DREAM (RUMORS OF PEACE)." As of April 12, 2017 my blog was titled "37TH DREAM / TALKING 37TH DREAM (RUMORS OF PEACE/LOOKING UP)". Somewhere along the way it became 37TH DREAM (RUMORS OF PEACE).
To begin viewing the retrospective with narrative, scroll down to December 8, 2006, on this page:
I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. -- Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware. -- Martin Buber (1878-1965)
It is only a little planet, but how beautiful it is.
-- Robinson Jeffers
The true end of a war is the rebirth of life; the right to die peacefully in your own bed. The true end of war is the end of fear; the true end of war is the return of laughter.
-- Alfred Molano
Enjoy every sandwich -- Warren Zevon (1947-2003)
Not in God's wilds will you ever hear the sad moan, "All is vanity." No, we are paid a thousand times for all our toil, and after a single day spent outdoors in their atmosphere of strength and beauty, one could still say, should death come — even without any hope of another life — "Thank you for this most glorious gift!" and pass on.
-- John Muir (1838-1914)
Philip Henslowe: Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster. Hugh Fennyman: So what do we do? Philip Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well. Hugh Fennyman: How? Philip Henslowe: I don't know. It's a mystery.
