Bloggers from 44 countries are participating in the Fifth BlogBlast for Peace,founded by Mimi Lenox, and I’m among them. Here and on my main blog, Diary of a Heretic, I’m posting different Peace Globes, both inspired by Bob Marley.
Why Bob Marley? The research I did for the story I’m writing now revealed again and again how passionately (and nonpolitically) he sang and otherwise sought One Love, as Peace on Earth.
The indefatigable, irrepressible, and incomparable Mimi, who sponsors the BlogBlastforPeace, coming up June 4th, writes a lively personal blog, and proliferates Peace Globes throughout the planet (go here to get yours and join the movement!), tags me for memes with endearing trust. I often decide they're just too overwhelming, and so let them go, hoping she won't take offense.
Of course, I already know full well she won't take offense, since Mimi lives and breathes Peace and forgiveness. Why she puts up with a heretic like me might be a puzzle--except that she's the avatar of Peace. Governments should take a lesson. That's the big hope. On June 4, 2008, blog about Peace whether you believe it's possible or not. Even if it's impossible to recognize it inside yourself--try.
In any case, considering Peace as a possibility can't hurt. Thinking about it in your politest way kills no one. So, go get a Peace Globe and blog about it on June 4th. Of course, the risk exists that your efforts might not instantaneously change the world. Peace on Earth might not reign the moment you put up your post. Occasionally that happens to bloggers, right?
Yet, maybe the only reason it hasn't worked before is because you didn't do it before.
That's my awesome speech today. Now for once I'm doing one of Mimi's Memes, because this one's not cosmic in scope. If anything, it might teach me to shut up--at least intermittently.
It's a one-word answer meme.
Yourself: Troublesome
Your Partner: Saintly
Your Hair: Unloved
Your Mother: Mercurial
Your Father: Redeemed
Your Favorite Item: iPod
Your Dream Last Night: Horrific
Your Favorite Drink: Kombuchu
Your Dream Home: Self-improving
The Room You Are In: Main
Your Fear: Time
Where Do You Want to be in 10 years: Writing
Who You Hung Out With Last Night: Manny
What You Are Not: Placid
Muffins: (?)
One of Your Wish Items: Freedom
Time: Unforgiving
Last Thing You Did: Photoshop
What You Are Wearing: Glasses
Your Favorite Weather: Natural
Your Favorite Book: Many
Last Thing You Ate: halvah
Your Mood: Disappointed
Your Best Friends: Scarce
What Are You Thinking About Right Now: Migraines
Your Car: Gone
Your Summer: Daunting
What’s on your TV: Ha-ha-ha!
What Is Your Weather Like: Noisy
When Was the Last Time You Laughed: Now
What is your relationship status: Married
Tagged: Blue Girl
Jennifer
Claire
Hotel Mark
Paisley
Inkslaspher
Manny
When this country completed its fifth year of inflicting war upon Iraq, I decided it was high time I updated my Peace Globe for Mimi Lenox’s famous campaign to promote Peace by rallying bloggers to contribute a personal message, graphic, or simply add their name to one of her Peace Globes. Mimi offers a variety of Peace Globe backgrounds, collects everyone’s creative efforts promoting Peace on the planet and to the planet, and showcases them on a slide-slow that runs front and center on each of her four Peace (she writes two personal blogs, too, but if you link to any of her sites, you're sure to find the others.)
True, despite her prodigious efforts, which includes a semi-annual Blog Blast for Peace and regular radio appearances, a cynic might note that there's still no peace going on in Iraq, Darfur, our sorry government, or even in many our homes, which a lot of us are about to lose. But think again: All this terrible pandemonium is only more reason for bloggers to unite and make whatever impact we can.
Yesterday, Easter Sunday, Manny and I attended our ritual Sunday six p.m. yoga class. It’s always rigorous and helps us start the work week less anxious than we would be otherwise. The class begins and ends with Om or a short prayer wishing all living things “health in the body, spirit, and mind.”
Last night when the teacher started the class, he informed us that world wide, starting at 6 p.m. EST (our time), a movement had formed to chant “Om” for an hour, everyone’s voice rippling into the atmosphere everywhere. No one gasped or prepared to leave, though an hour of “Om” was not why we were attending that class. We were after yogic exercise that The Kula Yoga Project has long promoted as “sweaty, intelligent, ecstatic.” To my relief and I'm sure several others', the teacher announced we'd do our part with three minutes of Ohmming at the start and end of our practice.
Our teacher believes that declaring peace, finding it in oneself, and radiating its benevolent power toward everyone you know and love—and then taking it farther, extending it to the ultimate collective self—has an effect. Yet even he sees that a focusing on Peace for six minutes total plays a part.
I don’t know about "Om's" universal effect, but have no grounds for disproving the claim.
Simultaneously, however, I have a good deal of faith of that Mimi Lenox’s Peace movement is a growing power that costs bloggers nothing; it’s an excellent way to blog, take a few minutes and send your personal message into the atmosphere aiming far beyond anything normal. Why not? Try it.
Go here or here to get a Peace Globe. And if you’re curious, go here.
