Story 2

"I am tired", thought Chief Tahu. "I am tired, I can feel life hanging down on me. I wish to shake off this heavy burden. What is this light? What gods are telling us?"
The shining horizon seemed to be full of life. Lights flickered.

Rubber band ball

I used to have one of these rubber band balls. We'd compare whose ball was bigger. It's nothing really, just a way to keep all the rubber bands in one place. I'd get a batch of the donation cards, tied with the band; pull the band off; get through the batch; wrap the band around the ball. And thus the ball grew. With time it got a bit dirty, but I never could toss it to the trash. It represented many hours of work and many donation batches. Band by band the ball came to its tremendous size. Dollar by dollar we were gathering the funds. The ball reminded me that sometimes seemingly unimportant things in life can lead to greater accomplishments.
The rubber band ball can symbolize our society. sometimes what we do seems just as unimportant as a rubber band. Yet it plays its role in the grand scheme of the universe.

Story 1

Chief Tahu woke up late. He felt the sunset. His tired eyes welcomed the soft light coming through the loosely covered entrance of his wigwam. He sat up and breathed in the warm air of the late fall. He liked the smell of fallen leaves. Chief Tahu sat quietly for a minute. No sound came from the village. With effort Chief Tahu raised himself from the floor and stepped outside.
Everybody was gone. The fire was still flickering on the burned wood. He heard someone running. Young Guno rushed towards him through the darkening forest.
"Chief! Chief!"
Guno's eyes were wide with the mix of awe and fear. He stopped, breathing fast.
"The light!... on the horizon. There is light on the horizon."
Chief Tahu raised his hand to silence the boy. He closed his eyes and stood there listening. Guno could not understand what the chief was trying to hear.

my worst enemy

I never had real enemies. There were a few people I wasn't mad about, but no enemies. My only enemy is myself. There is a part of me that I would avoid if it was a separate being. I constantly battle that other part. What makes me do things that are unreasonable and just plain mean? Why can't I always chose what's best? Is it human nature? Is it my nature? I've always hoped to think of myself as a "good person". Why can't I always be good? I've tried something lately. I stop and ask myself, why I am doing this? Do I enjoy the feeling it gives me? Is there some kind of moral dominance I am looking for or I am just not in control of my emotions?
Reason is a beautiful thing. It's a sturdy bridge over the madness of emotions.

how about those elections in Russia...

I know I don't write here as much as I could. But I can't pass a chance to express my frustration with the Russians. In the 90s the herd was let free. The sheep was lost and bewildered. Democracy? What a heck is that? We are sheep! Let us back! And now we see the will of the Russians - they want back to the safe and familiar barn. Baaaah. Take our freedom and our dignity as well, we are too chicken to be in control of our own life. Shame.

A Little Test

Sorry, I've got to post this here to see if it actually works

How do we build our opinions

There is so much information around us. It makes us feel well informed. We get together and discuss matters of foreign politics. Do you like Cheney? What should we do in Iraq? Boy, that Putin really is getting out of control. Almost everybody has an opinion. One day I stopped and laughed to myself, because I realized that all or most of our opinions are built on other people's views and thoughts. How many of us do get access to the actual source of the information? We feel well informed and educated, but in reality we just repeat someone else's ideas. You watch Fox you get one world, you watch CNN and it makes things look quite different. May be we're not much different from the people two centuries ago, we just feel a lot smarter.