Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
I cannot teach you violence, as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before any one even at the cost of your life.
Mahatma Gandhi


I believe that to meet the challenges of our times, human beings will have to develop a greater sense of universal responsibility.
Each of us must learn to work not just for oneself, one's own family or nation, but for the benefit of all humankind.
Universal responsibility is the key to human survival.
It is the best foundation for world peace.
H. H. the Dalai Lama

"If everybody would agree that their current reality is A reality,and that what we essentially share is our capacity for constructing a reality,
then perhaps we could all agree on a meta-agreement for computing a reality that would mean survival and dignity for everyone on the planet,
rather than each group being sold on a particular way of doing things."
F.Varela

Remember our strength lays in our difference, in the specificity of our experience, about what we may live, feel through/from our bodies,
link together and understand with the help of our knowledge... and then share all this with knowledge and experience of others".

Anne
Lyon, 1° Janvier 2009

your message is perfect....you get it completely. Who really takes the risks and the social judgements?

thank you so very much,
right or wrong, who knows?
paula

oh and Happy New Year!

Thank you Anne and hny21.gif to you too!!

Here is an excerpt from a page at Poets.org about Poems for the New Year:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5889
Eighteenth-century Scottish poet Robert Burns may well be most famous not for a poem he wrote, exactly, but for a poem he wrote down. According to Burns Country, a comprehensive website devoted to the poet, Burns, in a letter to an acquaintance, wrote, "There is an old song and tune which has often thrilled through my soul. You know I am an enthusiast in old Scotch songs. I shall give you the verses on the other sheet... Light be the turf on the breast of the heaven-inspired poet who composed this glorious fragment! There is more of the fire of native genius in it than in half a dozen of modern English Bacchanalians."

That song was a version that Burns fashioned of "Auld Lang Syne," which annually rings in the New Year at parties across the world, though most often sung out of tune and with improvised lyrics, as it has been described as "the song that nobody knows." Though the history of the authorship of the poem is labyrinthine and disputed, Burns is generally credited with penning at least two original stanzas to the version that is most familiar to revelers of the New Year. Here are the first two stanzas as Burns recorded them:

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!

Chorus.-For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

Happy New Year to All!

Anne, your quotes reminded me of a scene in the film "Exodus". The transcript of a conversation between Karen and Dov:

You just listen to me for a minute.
When the Nazis marched into Denmark...
...they ordered every Jew to wear a yellow armband...
...with the Star of David on it. And when they-
-That's the worst thing that can happen? -I said, listen!
You don't know what you're talking about.
The next morning, when every Jew in Denmark had to wear his armband...
...King Christian came out of Amalienborg Palace for his morning ride.
And do you know something?
He wore the Star of David on his arm.
-But why should-
And you know something else?
By afternoon, everybody was wearing Stars of David.
Jews and Danes, and, well, just everybody.
Why'd they do that?
If you don't just know why they did it, Dov...
...well, maybe that's what's wrong with you.


The night the Nazi order came down, the underground radio transmitted a message to all Danes. The King said that one Dane is exactly the same as the next Dane. He said he would wear the Star of David and he expected that every loyal Dane would do the same. The next day in Copenhagen almost everyone wore the arm band. The following day the Germans rescinded the order. (From Leon Uris' Exodus.)


One hopes that people with good hearts will elect leaders who inspire them to change the world for the better, with compassion for all of its inhabitants. We must solve problems without resorting to scapegoating and hatred. We must never again allow the majority to take away the civil and human rights of a minority.

~Zucchini