Just before the most recent Nobel Peace Prize was announced, CNN ran a piece listing ten people as possible leading nominees. One of these people was Daisaku Ikeda. I imagine many readers, upon seeing his face and name, would have reacted with a puzzled look of non-recognition. Who is this man? Daisaku Ikeda is not […]
The times appear dark; but a new world is forthcoming. This is the challenge for youth – to build this new world with their bare hands. All is possible. Lay aside all common dreams. Become all that you can be. — A reading from “A New Myth for the World”. ______________ James Hilgendorf is a […]
Look out into the world. What do you see? Gathering chaos, a breakdown of whole societies – especially in the Middle East. This is the world of our religions’ roots – Christianity, Islam, Judaism. This is where we came from, this is our ancestral home. And this home is being torn apart, desecrated, bombed to […]
The dinosaurs that once roamed and terrorized the Earth – did somebody plan them? Did God, sitting and pondering on his throne, envision them in his lordly plan? There were no thoughts of peace and brotherhood coursing through tyrannosaurus rex’s brain, only the ferocious gnashing of jaws and teeth, and insatiable hunger – a penchant […]
Bernie Sanders, in running for the office of President of the United States of America, talks of revolution. By revolution, he means drawing many more people into the political process, and then standing up together against the monied interests – the banks and Wall Street – that have consolidated their economic power and are consciously […]
Mexico’s hurricane, the largest storm ever to veer off the Atlantic and Pacific waters, is about to roll onto the west coast of our southern neighbor. Batten down the hatches, it’s here. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, I am dreaming. The mottled clouds overhead, at day’s end, are beautiful. The sky stretches out so lovely, […]
Atheism vs. Fundamentalism. Science vs. Religion. Evolution vs. Creationism. The battle lines are drawn, have been drawn for centuries, and will continue to be drawn. No quarter given. On one side is a world of science and reason and materialism; on the other a world of faith and God and the supernatural. Each is dug […]
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman wrote of a vision and dream of America that still inspires us. It was the seminal dream of America. It was a dream that, to many today, seems lost; but which still lives on, awaiting fulfillment. A reading from “A New Myth for the World” by […]
Believing in yourself, at times, is one of the most difficult of things. We seem lost. Nothing appears on the horizon but gathering storm clouds. This is the time to pull out all the stops. Continue. Keep going. Hang in there. Never give up. A reading from “A New Myth for America”, by author James […]
70 years ago, the atomic bomb at Hiroshima blew a hole in the fabric of our time and space. No longer was all-out war imaginable; and yet here we are, 70 years later, thousands of even more horrific nuclear weapons poised on alert for exactly that specific scenario. We can destroy it all. This is […]