hmmmmmmmmm.......: AWOL

hmmmmmmmmm.......: AWOL

Monday, June 06, 2005

AWOL

No, for real.

This week my job is to schlepp an AWOL war resister around town. He's an interesting guy, and I feel like this is the first genuinely useful thing I've done in opposition to the war. Protests are important but the only way to actually stop a war is to dry up the supply of soldiers willing to fight it.

I've been taking him to local high schools. I look out at the sleepy, doodling kids and think, "One day you'll look back on this and realize how extraordinary this situation was. I hope it's not when you get drafted yourselves."

BTW, apparently they're thinking of scrapping "don't ask don't tell," along with allowing women into combat, so.... watch out.

Check out his website at http://www.carlwebb.net/. I'm not linking it--just cut & paste into your browser.

Like I said, an interesting guy.

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*The quote in the top bar is from Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, whom I tend to view with some suspcion as a person (great teacher or charismatic cult leader? I'm not sure!), but whose teachings I often find useful nonetheless... here is a further elaboration:

The sense of trust is that, when you apply your inquisitiveness, when you look into a situation, you know that you will get a definite response.

If you take steps to accomplish something, that action will have a result--either failure or success. When you shoot your arrow, either it will hit the target or it will miss. Trust is knowing that there will be a message.

When you trust in those messages, the reflections of the phenomenal world, the world begins to seem like a bank, or reservoir, of richness. You feel that you are living in a rich world, one that never runs out of messages....

You trust, not in success, but in reality.... [W]hatever the result that comes from your action, that result is not an end in itself. You can always go beyond the result; it is the seed for a further journey.

And,

Often, when someone tells us we should be fearless, we think they're saying not to worry, that everything is going to be all right. But unconditional fearlessness is simply based on being awake....

[F]earlessness is unconditional because you are neither on the side of success or failure. Success and failure are your journey.