Purple Heart

Today I met a man.
He is 88 years old. His name is Alfred. I did a service call at his home. When I pulled into the driveway, I noticed the car there had a purple heart on the license plate. Inside the home I noticed a case of medals on the mantel. "Are those your medals?" I asked. "Yes" he said, "but that's ancient history". I just looked at him in awe. He listed the medals for me...2 purple hearts, bronze stars, silver stars, European Campaign.
The hair stood up on my arms.
"I was there for D-Day, and the Battle of the Bulge". "I was shot in the belly, and again in the hip."
More hair stood up.
I am fascinated by these men. I have no love for war, and the idea of shooting someone or being shot at, holds no attraction for me whatsoever, but I still feel sometimes that I missed out on something by not serving in the military. The whole Band of Brothers thing. Even knowing practically nothing about him, Alfred is a hero to me. He survived some of the fiercest fighting the world has ever seen, and lived to tell about it. Not only that, but as far as I could tell he was a regular, happy guy, with a wife of 61 years and at least 1 loving daughter. How does someone go through that and remain sane?

I shook his hand and thanked him for what he did back then. I told him there were still plenty of people who appreciate it.

Count Your Blessings

I like to count my blessings.
I'm not sure why.
Maybe because I have so many.
Surely there are many people with more stuff than me. But I'm not sure anyone is more blessed with good fortune than I. No one could ask for a better childhood...loving parents who are still together...a brother and sister anyone would be proud of. I still see my first friend regularly. I've known him for over 47 years.
I was still a child when I met my wife. We've been married 31 years, and I'd do it all again in a New York minute. We have two sons, both of whom I am very proud. They never gave us a minute of trouble, and they are kind, compassionate people.
How can life be so good to one person? Is it karma? Did I do something good in a past life? Or is life going to dump all the bad stuff on me all at once?
Sometimes I wonder, but not usually.

Cause No Harm

It's easy to say but not so easy to do. Legend has it that the Buddha saw farmers working in the fields with hoes and forks. He saw worms and insects being cut and killed by the tools and realized that harm and suffering were everywhere. So going through life without hurting something is pretty near impossible. As careful as we may be, there is always the possibility that what we are doing is causing or will cause harm to someone or something. Maybe harm is the wrong word...maybe we should say cause no discomfort. All beings want to live comfortably. Even a flatworm will avoid an unpleasant stimulus. To a flatworm, comfort means food and a cosy place to live. For a dolphin, it means food, a cosy place to live, and friends to play with. For a human, it means so much more. The more complex the peephole we're looking through, the more difficult it is to find comfort. So for a flatworm, harm or discomfort would involve a lack of food, or the cosy place to live, while for a human, it could be almost anything.
So causing no harm is not so easy to do. Generally, animals have no intention to cause harm or even discomfort. They have no ability to look ahead and see the consequences of their actions. So if a lion eats a person...the intention is probably to survive. We, as humans, have a responsibilty to look closely at what we are doing. We need to look ahead to see the possible outcomes of our actions. We need to think less of ourselves as individuals, and think more of the overall comfort of the One Thing of which we are all a part.

Getting Started

I've been trying to get this blog going for months now, but I can't think of anything good to say. At first I was going to concentrate on buddhism, but after reading some other buddhist blogs, I decided it wasn't such a good idea. First of all, I'm certainly no expert, and secondly, those other blogs make my skin crawl sometimes. Buddhists are supposed to be accepting, compassionate, and non-discriminating, but I find that most are very close-minded. It's like "my way or the highway". They're as bad as Christians for God's sake!
So I guess I'll do what some other bloggers seem to do. I will bounce around from subject to subject as I see fit. Like it or lump it!

Today I would like to solve all the worlds problems. The killing, starvation, neglect, and general malaise that seems to be everywhere. Here's the answer. Ready? Do whatever you want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone.