In persuit of transformation

I have been in my hometown of Cleveland Ohio for a week already. And it is good to be with friends and family.

I am experiencing many stimulating readings related to the what this trip is about. In preparing the workshop which I conducted last week in Toronto, I explored Thomas Merton's insights into the significance of our age. He has profound insights into the crisis of the West, and shows how the crisis of meaning is subverting the East. I will share some of this as I go along with these blogs. This thoughtful meanderings into meaning add significance to this journey to the UK. While the journey is to contribute to peace and saving life on earth, much has to do with what it means to live. Thus, in challenging ourselves to preserve life on earth by living sustainably, we have to transform ourselves to mature, wise, and sophisticated beings. This is no small order. In these short blogs I will give snippets of my findings.

One example is a man, whom I will name Mac. I met Mac in my Olympia laundromat. Mac approached me with alarming statements about his experiences as a Brown Beret special forces warrior in Vietnam between 1968 and 1972. "We killed 2,000,000 Vietnamese. Only 58,000 US military were killed. You tell me who lost the war. And, we Brown Berets killed more that all the other branches of military together." Mac indicated how they parachuted behind lines and did their work. Mac is articulate and not bragging, though proud, although I was not sure at first.

I told him that while he was doing his work, I was resisting the war and the Dow Chemical Co, producers of Agent Orange, napalm, and other weapons, and that I went to prison for my actions.

Mac went on to tell me his present story. Now, he practices healing through Eastern methods. He is healing himself and others like he killed many in Nam. Yin and yang. He tells amazing stories and presents them as reversing what he did in Nam.

Mac was given the option at the age of 17: "Behind the bars or put on the bars." He had the choice of joining the military or going to prison for four years. That is how he got into the Brown Berets. He did not know the implications of his choice to join the military. I think he is living a new way, a transformed way. I look forward to meeting him again (twice so far) to learn more of his story...and share more of mine.

Gandhi believed that, if you are not able to kill, you are not able to truly be nonviolent. Nonviolence of the strong takes courage.

In this story about Mac's transformation, I find some hope of transforming the world from its violence. Mac did not know what he was getting into when he was drafted. Later, he found a different way. The human world did not know the implications of nuclear weapons when they were developed during WWII. I see a growing consciousness in humanity of the folly of nuclear armaments. Will humanity overcome all the vested interests involved in their production? I.E. scientists, engineers, corporations, military leaders, and politicians? I hope we are around to see it. Will humans learn and transform before their demise? I hope my children and all children are around to see.