YOUR WORK!

No war, YES ...

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C A T A L O G

Selected contributions / Wybor nadeslanych prac

POLSKI

• SWIETOSC- Krzysiek Klusek

ENGLISH

• LOVE - Anne Flentgen
• RESPECT - Annelie Holm
• JEZUS - Beata Anna Cessak(+ foto)
• MY CHILDREN - Bill Thompson(+ foto)
• WAR - Charlotte Hood
• LOVE - Dave Gingerich
• NOBILITY - Eric Priezkalns
• WAR - Holodigit
• LOVE - John Thomas Doty
• FORGIVENESS - Johnson-Elder Dixie

(TO BE CONTINUED)

From: Krzysiek Klusek

No war, YES CHRIST

It is a conceptualistic art.
Imagine there are a lot of sheets of white tissue.
They are of used for waving.
We are all together now. And we are scanning:

WAR ??? NO MORE !!!

We can do it, even staying everyone at his place, even without
waving, but it is important to be TOGETHER.
How can we be together so?
Because we know:

"Jesus didn`t die for me
because of who I am
or what I`ve done,
but rather in spite of it."
Bob Schwartz

And it is the only way for making peace not war.

From: Beata Anna Cessak

Recently I've been reading a book entitled Actual Minds, Possible Worlds...by Jerome Bruner, a psychologist at New York University. In this book he crystallizes what I have thought before: much of what we think is "the way things are" is only "the way things are" because of how we perceive it. In other words, if I have an idea about what is right or civilized, it may be right for my world (or not). But is it really right, or do I just think it's right? No one can deny that certain physical realities exist. I think, for example, that even if no one hears a tree fall in the forest, it DOES still make a sound. But some of what we perceive as 'right', or 'good', or 'beautiful' or 'worthy' is that way to us because we are conditioned to value those things, not because they are intrinsically valuable.

I don't know so much about war, but I venture a guess that many battles are fought over conflicting world pictures. If we can learn the ways we are conditioned, perhaps we can step back and examine those ways, thinking about what we really think, and if it is necessarily in conflict with what others think. Perhaps we can agree to value similar things; perhaps we can agree NOT to do so.

An aside, but related: I think it is possible to be a Christian AND to be tolerant of others. I believe Jesus is the way to eternal life, and that He loves me and died and rose again for me. That should not hinder my love; but rather enhance it. What does this have to do with different worlds? That is a perplexing question; I leave it to God to work out. I think it is also possible to step back and examine my beliefs in the hope of understanding and loving others.

From: Anne Flentgen

From: Annelie Holm

No war, YES MY CHILDREN

They know nothing of these wars. They cannot be touched by them if I protect them. They will be safe. They will grow happy and healthy into a world of peace where war and violence are unknown.

These are lies. We can make them the truth. We must make them the truth. I do not want my children to know the meaning of war.

From: Bill Thompson

From: Charlotte Hood

This is the first step towards worldwide love.

From: Dave Gingerich

Maybe I'm the only person who uses the word anymore, but I still think there is a place for nobility. Not the sham nobility of bloodlines and privilege, but that nobility of spirit, of soul, that is rarely alluded to these days. Nobody would call the murderers in Oklahoma ignoble, but that is exactly how they are. There actions were the ultimate in pettiness. Maybe these people need our disdain rather than our fear. To think - the very pomposity or trying to achieve a goal through random execution.

Though, of course, nobility is not just missing when we appraise the values that seem to make the world a continually more dangerous place. There is no doubt that the trite squabblers who fuel most wars have no sense of magnanimity. Maybe they have forgotten what it is that they wanted, and are now only driven by a blind greed, seeking to further fatten themselves when they are too fat already. But nobility also seems lacking in our arts, our politics, our news; even the commonplace has become dishevelled. How little it means to the secure that freedom which is simply to walk down a street of shops without fear. To many there is no sense of pleasure in the act, no sense of gratitude for this absence of danger, and yet a woman is killed in a more unfortunate place and presumably someone claims this to be an heroic action to protect their country, their people.

The notion of the nation is one used with alarming regularity. It seems that anything is permissable so long as it is done for your people, your cause, your calling. Do away with the nation - replace it with the noble. The noble makes no allowances for the supposed ends of these butchers and malingerers. No false heroism or trumped up accolades could be called noble.

It might be that there are too many of us. The success of our species means we run out of control, no balance to check us. What hope for nobility when the individual is lost in the mass? In the mass there is no identity, and so no responsibility. One cannot give a name to a wave in the ocean. That so, I think nobility can still survive, because nobility is the affirmation of the individual, irrespective of the surrounding crowd. The crowd is no more real to the noble than are its constituent elements. The noble are destined to stand alongside, or against, all others, without compromise.

Democracy is still the best way, despite the panderings, falsehoods and meagre corruptions of the professional politician. I myself have voted today for my little say in who runs the local council. There's a civic duty attached to the right to vote, and this holds no less for those elected than those electing.

So much trivial mish-mash news and 'events' seems to fill those invisible rays sent around the world. Such an infatuation with the self that the meagrest are set on high, only to be dissected as any other person would be. That is such a vicarious pleasure: to see others torn open, their inards removed for public spectacle, knowing all along they look just like our own. I think the noble must be at peace with themselves, so that they recognize their own reflection in the mirror and do not seek it in the face of some anonymous imposter.

Culture may die under its own weight. That oppressive overloading that is pretension might bring the whole house of cards down. Our culture should be a structure of beauty and refinement, not an engineering colossus. Still, should it fall, another will take its place, and whilst we have no reason to suspect it might be better than its predecessor, we have no more reason to fear it will be worse. So long as we exercise good judgement, let us be optomistic.

There is a place for nobility, and that is within all of us. Nobility is a disease, though not especially contagious. Given a long enough spell of incubation, anyone might catch it.

Our greatest hope is that these few words merely represent a certain time in the history this animal's development. Maybe there will one day be a generation who will all be born with a sense of nobility, and the pride and fearlessness to treasure it. Whilst I ask for the word to return to common parlance, they would have no need for it, because they would not understand a world without it.

Love,

From: Eric Priezkalns

From: holodigit@aol.com

From: John Thomas Doty

After 2 years, we were both picked up. He had been drafted & deserted after his brother was sent from 'Nam to Laos. He was from a poor family & sent to military prison. My Dad was Interior Dept., well-off, so I got 2 years' probation (in my parent's custody)...they did an injunction to keep my beau away from me. Sad end to Romeo & Juliet of the DC anti-war underground railroad. He moved to California & is happily married (I hear). I went to collge, moved to Colorado & am happily married......may all the 'Nam vets forgive us for keeping their replacements out of the war. May we all forgive MacNamara for keeping us IN that unjust slaughter- house! Blessings on all!

From: JOHNSON-ELDER DIXIE

TO BE CONTINUED

YOUR WORK!