The Jailer and The Prisoner

Forgiveness is a patient word that begs to be said when sorrow alone decides it can be uttered.

The crimes of your own sorrows cannot be held responsible by the jury of your own emotions. All alone you build the prison walls that one day will gladly be torn down by you and knowing this, you intentionally did not make the fourth wall so you can walk away when you are ready.

But can you, the jailer, really imprisoned? Sadly, your stubbornness is making you not want to face the invisible wall that is your freedom.

The elderly and the wise – they are not the same – can easily laugh at this for they have made such prisons before and they have learned to distinguish between the mask of the jailer and that of the prisoner. Here's a truth about the wise, they make their prison walls with ladders so they are always reminded of their freedom which ever direction they are facing.

As the prisoner, you wait for the brilliant rescue by your friends. Blessed are our hearts for desiring the need to be needed by friends. You have given them detailed maps to where you are suffering since a daring prison escape is a grand story waiting to be told. Just wait in hope that your friends like to play the game with you and not ruin the gallant rescue attempt by not telling you right away that you are both the prisoner and the jailer.

And if you really wanted to be free, your jailer-self can command this and freedom will again be yours at the very moment when you have forgiven yourself.

Surrender to your freedom song

Surrender to your freedom song, one
that can only be sung when you let go of
the things that hold you back

Knowingly we choose the chains that
imprison us, for we hide within them
for fear of surrendering to the
uncertainties of freewill

In the infinite possibilites, our simple minds
can only comprehend what we believe
to have been predetermined beforehand...

Uncertain bird, if you were meant to be
a windvane, you would have been born so...

31

I searched long and hard for elusive happiness when in fact; all along all I needed was personal contentment for what I already have.

Thirty one years of a life uncharted. So many memories treasured while so much more… forgotten. Life is a mix bag of struggles and junction points of tranquility. I encountered struggles in finding my own personal strength as well as the meaning behind some uncontrollable circumstances. I met interesting people in interesting places and found loneliness is a visitor all too often unwanted. But in between breaths that span moments counted in minutes, hours, days or weeks, I ultimately reached moments of contentedness. A simple thing such as Monday afternoon without anything to do but sit still in a café is a reward that is so easily forsaken. Or take for example opening a door that reveals a dear loved one sleeping so peacefully after a long day under the sun.

It is within these moments that we must not allow to be stolen away by the restlessness brought upon by the incoming waves of the unknowable future.

Restlessness causes our thoughts to race before waking up. Too many concerns most oftentimes keep us awake after midnight. It makes dreaming all that much harder for worries have a habit of not singing any lullaby songs that contain words of wisdom.

Why do we worry so much?

Now I write as if it’s going anywhere that will lead to some profound answer. The truth is… I can’t concentrate for I am restless. Writing is my silent conversation with myself. My fingers move and they are caught by the keys of a keyboard indifferent to the pressures of life.

Strength lies in the hearts of those who have friends.

Of all the blessings that I am most grateful, it is the valuable time I have spent with people that shared my ups and downs. Looking back, it’s hard to see how I could have made it without everyone’s challenges, patience and forgiveness. No matter how much we try to avoid it, we are judged by our friends.

I hope my jury find me guilty of a friendship that is worthy of their most precious time.

after three years: 3,000 equals 655,000?

Study: War blamed for 655,000 Iraqi deaths

• President Bush says he does not consider report credible
• Study says 2.5 percent of population killed since war; death toll rising each year
• The authors said their method of sampling the population is a "standard tool of epidemiology and is used by the U.S. government and many other agencies."

We're sorry

When can our country say "we're sorry" to the Iraqi people? How many Iraqis want our kind of democracy when barely 50% of our population voted in the last presidential elections? How many Iraqis want a government like ours that support torture? How many Iraqis now ask, "why don't you invade North Korea now that they have a nuclear weapon?"

Three years ago, I sent this e-mail to my friends the week we were about to invade Iraq. I lost respect as a US citizen because of this e-mail.

From: Joseph Laurino
Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2003 12:07 PM
To:

Hello Friends,

I wanted to let you know that my party has been cancelled.

The continuing events in the Middle East have proven to be something that I can't let go of and escape from. This war based on the ignorance of each side's points of view, the craving for revenge and economic stability, and the hatred between world leaders is something that I don't support.

I can't put a price on a life lost in the World Trade Center and on a life taken by this war funded by my tax dollars.
If terrorism didn't affect us economically, I don't believe we would have acted this way. If we were all really into helping each other in this magnitude, the war on poverty would have been over a long time ago.

For a different perspective, please read the following web sites:

http://www.thehungersite.com/
http://www.datadata.org/
http://money.cnn.com/

Thanks,
Joseph

Now it is your turn

I ask how come was I not swayed by the need of revenge by most Americans? Did I love the 9/11 victims less? Or did I think that by attacking Iraq we were not solving the right problem? I have spent countless nights thinking about all of this and now it is your turn!

Take care,
-Joseph

democratic access to electricity and clean water

just in from cnn...

Segway creator unveils his next act -- Inventor Dean Kamen wants to put entrepreneurs to work bringing water and electricity to the world's poor.

-joseph

there are some relevant ideas...

1. The Corporation
2. Confessions of an Economic Hitman
3. The Walmart Effect
4. Hegemony Or Survival (by Noam Chomsky)
5. Maps of Time

And if this works...

Like lending to a friend -> Prosper.com

with micro-credit for people who want to augment their
small businesses in third world countries... it can potentially
change the world for the better... the key is to observe what
happens and optimize for the percentage of transactions that
are good...

-joseph

the invisible hand vs. the benevolent heart

If Adam Smith were alive today, he would be shocked at how his Invisible Hand metaphor had been bestowed unto a self-centered body of a corporation. Lacking a heart, a corporation blindly fights for its "life" like a Darwinian virus. Since its concept of survival is derived from the simple equations for the maximization of profits (at all costs), the powerless poor majority of the world remain victimized.

But like the ants in the movie, "A Bug's Life", the poor will realize that power does not have to be derived from wealth. Before profits and money ever were invented, TRUST, RESPECT, SOLIDARITY existed and were the primary sources of strength for the early tribes.

Those same sources of power still exist today.

It is about time to replace the Invisible Hand metaphor with the Benevolent Heart metaphor.

-joseph