Well, the death toll in the countries affected by the Tsunamis has risen to 23,000 plus. That's a whole lot of people, a whole lot of devastation. It's unimaginable. The fact that 23,000 lives can be ended so quickly further proves the ridiculousness of war. No matter what we do to ourselves, Mother Nature can do us one better.
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During a hike this morning, a friend and I tossed this around: Why is religion a constant source of contention for the planet, when it's supposed to be a beautiful thing. Most religions teach tolerance and kindness and if we all abided by our respective religous teachings, we'd do all right. But too many religions want to be right and the faithful spend too much time trying to convince others to do what they believe is right. Is it more important to be right?
The things that people do for God are some of the worst things you can do. The "enemy" in Iraq, the so-called "insurgents" are fighting in the name of God. So too is the United States. So how can either be right? What if we all believed that God was within us as opposed to someone we worshipped? Would we behave differently? Is there an ultimate right and wrong? Ultimately, does it matter if you're right or wrong? Or is it how you treat people in the process of being right or wrong? What if you treated people well but were wrong? Or, conversely, what if you treated others poorly but were right? How can two sides, each having unbending beliefs, ever find common ground?
OK, we talked about other stuff, too ..... skateboarding, skateboarding injuries and my friend's new toy, an indoboard, which she says is a great workout but not a lot of cardio. Who needs cardio :-)
