Tsunami - Paradigm Shift Competes With Passion for Oscars

Family and Global Relationships

As long as mother America suckles the infant Iraqi Democracy,

the new Fathers won’t take responsibility to make the transition from breast

to bottle fed, to chunks of real meat, nor take over until

Mom returns to her normal workplace.

Moms always fret when giving up their responsibilities to even dad

and agonize about what might happen in her absence.

It’s time to stop babysitting the dads.

Tsunami

Paradigm Shift

Competes with The Passion

for Oscars

Tsunami waves of destruction reaching global proportions test the character of nations as their fates hang in the balance of history during this pivotal moment.

My love of the ocean is only eclipsed by my active participation as a nurse in caring for the needs of other human beings; so when I became aware of the regional devastation alone the shores of the Indian ocean, I mourned for the dead, injured, displaced, destruction of shelter and work places and the total disruption of normalcy for the people in those lands for years to come.

My second thought from a personal and selfish perspective was the potential damage and destruction of some of the world’s fragile coral reef ecosystems, where many of the brightest, most colorful corals, marine fish, invertebrates and crustaceans live in their undersea paradise. The coral reefs of Sri Lanka, Jakarta and Sumatra are well known by scuba divers in search of pristine beauty and represent part of the local tourist economy as well as income by natives colleting exotic live specimens from these underwater coral gardens for export. In one of my aquariums dwells a three inch long cherry red and white trimmed Fire Shrimp from Sir Lanka; one of my favorite undersea creatures because I love bright red.

Bright colored batik sarongs draped around and over dead bodies reflect the bright colors of indigenous creatures and flowers above and below the ocean’s crest. An immense black hole threatens to suck me into its uncharted twisted vortex of death and destruction while I look for seen or unseen rocks to cast my anchor of strength upon.

The toll of these waves of death is hard to fathom, the aftermath an unending daily horror for the survivors and the short and long term impact on the shoreline coral reefs, the truck garden, hatchery and refuge for many of the oceans creatures is difficult to imagine in light of the overwhelming human tragedy.

Global disasters require global cooperation to move from the darkness of despair into the hopeful light of new days filled with wonderful opportunities to experience the exuberant joy of meeting the felt or unfelt needs of suffering humanity.

The Passion of this year unfolded in the scenes of war, a movie depicting abuse and atrocities in an attempt to kill God, politicians and democratic processes of freedom run afoul, jihad by many special interest groups in the battle for control and access to resources domestic and abroad and scenes of a contorted planet bemoaning her symptoms of aging and returning some of the ecological damage inflicted upon her by the inhabitants.

Gnashing of teeth and cries of help heard from the shores of Florida, through the sands and cities of Iraq, to the coasts of the Pacific Ring of Fire, mingled with befuddled councils of mighty stature muttering and bickering among themselves, thrusts upon the shoulders of individuals and nations a grand opportunity for a paradigm shift.

A shift from abuse of power to empowering all mankind to join peaceful forces in a grand scheme to beat the weapons of war into hammers of justice, bells of freedom and songs of love between all earthly brothers and sisters all over the land. “If I had a Hammer,” echoes inside my brain during flashbacks to the sixties, Peter, Paul and Mary on tour for peace.

Shifting from doing “the right thing” for the wrong reason to doing “the right thing” for the heartfelt right reason tests the true character of individuals and nations.

Whether events are personally or globally catastrophic, history’s balance pivots on the point of a strong standard of mercy, justice and visible acts of compassion towards those in need of the essentials to support themselves and their families. Not in recent times have the nations of the world had such an opportunity to set differences aside and shift their focus from the negative aspects of conflict to the

positive benefits of working side by side and joining hands in helping their earthly brothers and sisters of all colors, creed, gender, age, culture and nationality.

The concept of Tsunami might shift from overpowering waves of death and destruction to its ability to transform hearts of revengeful stone into energized weaponless armies of relief workers to lift up the impoverished and rebuild their homelands.

Shifting from the mere power of man’s weapons of war to the supernatural power of being helpful and kind to others could elevate America above the quagmire of global policing and manipulation of access to resources human and natural through the marketplace and by brut force. Our breath is held and we feel faint of heart as we play prophet portending the near and distant future of the world. The question demands attention, “How can we find balance between the heavy side of floating landmines, IED’s, depleted uranium munitions, mountains of debt from conflicts present and the lighter side of human happiness heaped up with mountains of essentials to promote healthy families and productive societies?”

The Passion presents the price of mistakes and offers the freedom of choice to accept the gift of forgiveness. When the laws of the oceanic creation are broken, creatures die and so mankind also returns to dust when the laws of Moses are broken into bits, struck down by hardened radioactive metal alloys of genetic alteration. Mother earth’s plants and animals above and below the ocean’s crest wail above the din of war, but seem quieted by ears muffed by greed and anesthetizing music of battle field rock.

The world is a stage upon which men of might display the best and worst of mankind’s inner thoughts made public for derision or applause. Press reviews denouncing a playwright’s peace proposals as flights of fancy promoted by crazed men or women out of touch with reality are expected when the broad way is narrowed to a fine line of solid human truisms.

The curtain of transpiring world history has been drawn back by natural calamities, exposing the actors as they perform their final acts. The Executive director and producer weight in heavily on the speculative prospects of success, measured not in the control of natural resources, but in the play’s ability to inspire hope and good will between all men and women.

With a loud drum roll ending with the silence of prayer, nations, factions, invaders, occupiers, insurgents, coalitions and puppet masters holding the strings of vengeful terror from afar call out into the darkness, Cease all hostilities, beat your non depleted uranium weapons into hammers and join together in a global relief effort from war, shifting to humanitarian aid in Tsunami ravaged countries. The final chorus loudly proclaims, The war on poverty, despair and hopelessness will launch new songs of praise for leadership exercising wisdom.

Troops withdrawn peacefully from Iraq over a three month period, redeployed to the Indonesia area to rebuild world trust, respect and communities while recruiting unemployed Iraqis men and women to work side by side with Americans in this peaceful relief effort, would wake up the dead snoring men in the back row.

Are humanitarian actions motivated by sincere disinterested benevolence more powerful than storms created by quakes of war profiteers and waves of personal and corporate greed?

Is it possible for men in positions of leadership to be guided by principle versus hidden agendas of special interest groups? For the insurgents of the world to live in an atmosphere of true freedom, they first must throw off the shackles binding them to trees bearing bad fruit. If Allah, Our Father in Heaven and Yahweh really exists and Their promise of judging the individual acts of each man and woman is not just a parent’s contrived threat to control behavior, then each of us should reconsider to what cause, organization and or human we give allegiance to. God by His own words claims to be jealous when we turn our affection and loyalty to any other object.

It is time to stop playing God!

Vengeance is mine! He says. And, nominated for best supporting actors . . . .?

The Oscars go to . . . .!

Wake up! You’re going to miss the last act! It could be the best of show. Spoken softly and discretely to the stranger dozing in the adjacent seat as I nudged his shoulder.

Fantasy Footnote: After the Paradigm Shift, Army recruiters reported being overwhelmed by enthusiastic men and women volunteering to fight for freedom from poverty, starvation, homelessness and substandard housing around the world. DOD acknowledged that feeding the poor, rebuilding communities and teaching impoverished people how to happily subsist within their culture and environment has saved billions in projected Defense Department warfare costs and decreased worldwide war related losses and injuries by 98 percent.

Larry E. Park, TheDreamer@OceansRest.com and author of the Apology read round the world at: http://www.islamonline.net/english/In_Depth/Iraq_Aftermath/2004/12/article_01.shtml