If you want to be a rebel, be kind

In the latest issue of Parabola magazine is an article that touched me deeply. I wrote a long Blog with quotes from the article - and then found that the whole article is available on line from The Daily Good website! I strongly encourage you to click and read:  If you want to be a rebel, be kind. 

It is the story of Pancho Ramos Stierle who was raised in Mexico and became a student at the University of California to pursue his Ph.D in Astrophysics. As time went on he realized that his research supported an institution that actively proliferates nuclear weapons. That awareness and his observation of so much inequality between those with power and those with none led him to non-violent protest actions which resulted in his arrest, loss of his student visa and therefore being an "undocumented" citizen with no rights. He was now unable to get a job, hold a bank account or obtain any insurance.

"Here is someone capable of being a rocket scientist, whose father is an economics scholar and author in Mexico, who chooses to live without any financial currency - just so he can be of service to his struggling brethren. ... There are those who use anger, sarcasm and parody to confront unjust action. Pancho does it with just the simple - and radical - power of love."

(If you Google his name you can see YouTube videos, other information  and his  Facebook page.)

...to change the things I can...

I am currently reading a fascinating book: A Beginner's Guide to Changing the World by Isabel Losada. Based on the Serenity Prayer she decides to find out what she can and can't change in regard to the situation in Tibet.

This quote struck me today: "... The landscape was so dramatic and powerful it was hard to mind about the danger. I leapt out, sat on a rock and tried to take it all in. This was Tibet. The land of snows. And the struggle to live and be joyful in this frozen and beautiful land is what has made the Tibetan people who they are. Their faith is not in a God outside themselves who will change their circumstances for them - but is a faith in the qualities within themselves that they have to develop in order to live and be happy in this place. So every day the focus is on peace of heart and mind and the development of compassion. I read once that the Dalai Lama said that Buddhista are good at talking about compassion but Chriatians are better at taking action. This may be so, but in the West it is rare to find people who really have Christ's teaching at the centre of each decision they make. In Tibet it is rare to find people who do not have their faith central to their lives."

Where is Jesus?

I haven't blogged much recently. The unpredictability of life (see last post) means I am about to spend a few days in hospital this week. So the lead up to that has put some other things on the back burner! But this picture is one that often comes to my mind as I watch the news - especially as we hear of benefit cuts and people in Christchurch still without certainty re their homes.