Just this much

Just this much..

A spiritual man said,
"To be truly present, all you have to remember is just this much!"

Holding his thumb and index finger apart about the length a spark might jump, just this much, just this eternal instant, just the living truth.

When memory falters, we are forced back into the living present, where life is to be lived. The past is irretrievably departed, only this morning's sun, only that love across the table.

Just this much remains.

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inspired by Stephen Levine's Turning Toward the Mystery

Moral Values at Center of Political Discussion

Moral Values at Center of Political Discussion

Howard Dean says that Democrats can run on moral values as well as Republicans and that Democrats' programs to provide help for people reflect moral values more than Republican programs do.


John Edwards believes one of the greatest moral issues we face is the concern about leaving trillions of dollars of debt to our children, all because of President Bush's tax cuts for rich people.


Ernest Partridge has written an article titled A Master Morality, in which he states:

"Simply put, the best alternative to the “Master Morality” of Bush, Inc. is the political morality of the founding documents of our republic; the political morality that we once believed to be exemplified in our government; the political morality that the propaganda machine of Bush, Inc., is determined to convince us that we still have.

If and when the day comes that a critical mass of our fellow citizens comes to fully appreciate what has been taken from us, that will be the day that the fate of Bushism will be sealed."

It's the second time I've linked this MoJones interview with Jim Wallis of Sojourners, but it's a great example of current political discussion about moral values.


Howard Zinn fears that Democrats, in their political strategy aimed to seem less "reactionary" on abortion and gay marriage, will contribute de facto to the ideological atmosphere that will ultimately end up destroying support for the Women's Freedom to Choose and Gays' Right to Marry causes. He says:

"Let us also take a look at Democratic complicity in the outpouring of moral effluvia over abortion and gay marriage. Much ink has been wasted about the supposed emergence of “moral values” as a new reality around which Democrats must solemnly redraw their battle lines and retreat even further to the right. Anyone interested in defending the leftist position would refuse to acquiesce to the pretentious pseudo-morality undergirding Republican “values.” He or she would ask why the “culture of life” does not extend to people who are actually living, like American children and mothers in poverty, or Iraqi civilians under bombs, and why the “sanctity of marriage” is to be decided not by the actual people wanting marriage, but by the federal government.."

PHOTO

photo by Jude Nagurney Camwell

Castler