SPIRIT IN MATTERS: Taking a Higher View of Life on Earth
By Dianne Eppler Adams

Vol. 2, No 2 – January 22, 2004

GUIDING PRINCIPLES
...Ours is an interconnected, interdependent, sacred world.
...All relationships – personal, communal, national, global – are equal and best approached with fairness, respect, honesty, and compassion.
...Darkness is overcome, not by avoidance, but through shining the light of awareness on it and choosing otherwise.
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FROM THIS VANTAGE POINT...

          The Power of No

Ever since I left the 9-to-5 world, I have found no end to the good causes and helpful activities that I could get involved in. There are many worthy causes in the world as well as friends and neighbors I could help out. Like me, you may have felt the stress that comes from wanting to help out and yet there aren’t enough hours in your day. 

Whether it’s a product of your upbringing – taught to place other’s needs before your own – or just your natural giving nature, sooner or later you’ll end up in a dilemma.

Whether we like it or not, we earth dwellers are subject to the limitation of time. Time is a boundary we must learn to respect. I believe that’s a good thing, for otherwise we might not be discerning about what we spend our precious time and energy on.  In order to prioritize and focus my efforts, it becomes necessary to say the “n” word – NO.

“No, I can’t. My to-do list is full!”  “No, my time is focus on...”

That’s right.  Even when you have a naturally cheerful, can-do attitude, occasionally saying the opposite of “yes” is necessary for making progress on self-defined priorities.  In fact, if you don’t say “No” to something, your “Yes” has no meaning.  It’s just another of life’s paradoxes.

If you were raised to be giving and caring toward others, like I was, the importance of saying “No” might come as a shock. But until you become comfortable with setting the boundary of what you will do, you may be doing good for others but all the while feeling like you've been used as you do so. What about making progress on you self-defined priorities?

Discover the power of NO!

(Your comments are always welcome at SpiritInMatters@aol.com.)
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"Don't ask yourself what the world needs - ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do it. 
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
   -- Harold Thurman Whitman

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FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION...

WOMEN IN SAUDI ARABIA - 'WHY WAS I BORN A GIRL?'
By Mouna Naïm, Le Monde, Paris, France, Dec. 28, 2003
http://www.worldpress.org/Europe/1730.cfm

“Why was I born a girl? This is a country of men and I would like to be one!” At age 13, Leila—not her real name—is already sizing up the vast frustrations she will experience as a Saudi woman.

The other day, her mother was accosted in the street by a mutawaa (a religious policeman charged with “promoting virtue and preventing vice”) ordering her to cover her child’s head although the veil is not obligatory at that age. Her mother’s objections were ignored, and Leila was forced to cover her beautiful black curls.

The majority of Saudi women say they would wear the veil of their own accord because, they say, it is a requirement of Islam. But the veil is becoming insupportable for the more free-spirited among them because it is interpreted so strictly here that the least bit of flesh must be rendered invisible, reducing women to uniformly shapeless black figures and, above all, because it represents the sum of interdictions imposed on them.

... As for women, “the terrible injustice that has been done to them in our society, the relegation of their humanity and their national pride behind the bars of taboo and suspicion, are nothing else,” he thunders, “than an injustice that we have committed against ourselves. Is it not shameful that all of us, in spite of our multiple paths as thinkers and our varied social experiences, have become products of the same mold, without color, odor, or flavor? How has our vision of woman been taken hostage by a handful of pre-Islamic fanatics?”


WIND AND A PRAYER
By Erik Baard, Village Voice, January 7 - 13, 2004
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0401/ebaard.php

The shining tower planned for the gawked-upon gap of the World Trade Center may be the first skyscraper to pray for its city. The designer of the wind turbines that will occupy the top of the "Freedom Tower" wants the rotors to serve as prayer wheels, cycling through mantras of peace.

Tibetan Buddhists write the mantra "Om Mani Padme Hum" many times over on thin papers and enclose them within cylinders called mani, which are also inscribed with the mantra. These spin on an axle, continuously repeating the prayer. The words aren't directly translatable, but they invoke blessings from Chenrezig, the embodiment of compassion.

That tradition could be a starting point for a spiritual gesture in the same airy reaches once filled with death, according to engineer Guy Battle, who's overseeing the wind farm for the planned Freedom Tower. Architect David M. Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, master planner Daniel Libeskind, and developer Larry Silverstein haven't yet ruled on the proposal, and no artists have been commissioned to explore it.

The turbines are to produce a fifth of the electricity needed by the building. "They are simple generators, but they can be somehow linked with the memorial. People could even put prayers on the propellers," Battle says. A reflection of mourning, forgiveness, and hope open to all faiths and ethical traditions would give real meaning to the skyscraper's somewhat stilted name.


UNTAPPED MARKET
By Tim Holt
http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/9766

Water has been called the oil of the 21st century. The World Bank predicts that by 2025, two-thirds of the world's population will not have enough drinking water. With scarcity making water an increasingly valuable commodity, private companies are tempted to corner water supplies and delivery.

"We think there'll be world wars fought about water in the future," predicts the aptly named Peter Spillett of RWE/Thames Water, one of the three largest water companies in the world.

Even in the United States, long a bastion of publicly owned water systems, water is increasingly viewed as something to be bought and sold. Private companies have started taking over municipal and suburban water systems, which gives them monopoly control over water rates. Water "privatization," and, most notably, the dramatic entry of the three largest water companies in the world to the U.S. market, threatens local control over this precious resource.

... There is an inherent contradiction in the notion of reaping profits from the delivery of a life-giving resource. The huge size of the companies now moving into the U.S. market only exacerbates the disconnect between water provider and water consumer. Governments or public water districts are typically involved in the delivery of water because we literally can't live without water. Letting it fall under the control of companies based in Germany or France may be a boon to their shareholders, but not to those who depend on their water.


UN ENLISTS BROADCASTERS IN BATTLE AGAINST AIDS
From Reuters, January 16, 2004 (Complete)

Top executives from 22 broadcasting giants around the world agreed on Thursday to join a U.N. campaign to educate the public about how to prevent AIDS.

"If there is one thing we have learned in the two decades of this epidemic, it is that in the world of AIDS, silence is death,'' U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, urging the media companies to broadcast more public service messages and educational shows and also to explore AIDS themes in their regular programming.

Annan organized the Global Media AIDS Initiative with help from Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Drew Altman, president and chief executive of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

"You are joining into something where there is very much positive momentum, but we're not even doing half of what should be done,'' said Gates, whose Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has given extensive support to the search for an AIDS vaccine.

"The challenge for all of you is to think about how to raise visibility,'' he told the group.

After a three-hour round-table meeting, all 22 executives signed a declaration resolving "through our companies to expand public knowledge and understanding about HIV/AIDS.'' HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.

Among participating media companies were the BBC, Broadcasting Organizations of Nigeria, China Central TV, Russia's Gazprom-Media, Brazil's Globo International, NHK Japan Broadcasting Corp., Time Warner Inc., France's TV5, Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. International, South African Broadcasting Corp. and Spain's Radiotelevision Espanola.


CITIZENS' DEBATE COMMISSION FORMED
From OpenDebates.org, January 12, 2004
By Chris Shaw
http://www.mediareform.net/news.php?id=2267

Washington — National civic leaders from the left, right, and center of the political spectrum have come together to form the Citizens' Debate Commission (www.citizensdebate.org). Operating with full transparency, the Citizens’ Debate Commission will sponsor debates that address pressing national issues, feature innovative formats, and include the candidates the American people want to see.

“The Citizens’ Debate Commission will sponsor presidential debates that put voter education first,” said former Congressman John B. Anderson.

“This is an issue of such importance to the health of our democracy that we, liberals and conservatives, are putting aside ideological differences and joining together to sponsor truly democratic debates,” said Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

The nonpartisan Citizens’ Debate Commission was formed because the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), which has sponsored presidential debates since 1988, fails to adequately serve voters’ interests. The CPD, which was created by the Republican and Democratic parties, secretly awards control of the presidential debates to the Republican and Democratic candidates, limiting voter choice and restricting subject matters of political discourse.

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”I am convinced that the universe is under the control of a loving purpose, and that in the struggle for righteousness man has cosmic companionship.  Behind the harsh appearance of the world there is a benign power.”
---Martin Luther King, Jr.

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