THINGS ARE GETTING WORSE

I am a realist. I can’t pretend everything’s fine when it’s not. As much as I try not to keep up with all the major events in the world, somehow I still feel bombarded by them. I can’t walk down the street with my eyes closed, so even when I don’t want to, my eye catches the headlines on the newspapers. It seems, especially for the last few months, that things—events—in the world have gone from bad to worse.

It seems that every day, people on both sides of the war are killed in Iraq—and in Afghanistan, and Israel. I’m sure there are wars going on in Africa and South America and little neighborhood gang wars in big cities that I don’t even know about. All this, when I think about it, depresses me.

When I was younger, I wanted to participate. I wanted to fight. I went to Vietnam, for God’s sake, and in the infantry. Even though I didn’t believe in the cause really, but mostly because I was young and out to prove in any venue offered to me, that I was just as much a baddass as the next guy, I agreed to go to Vietnam to shoot at people. After all, that was my job! That was what I was trained for.

But in the end, I was just part of the bad news that people at home saw on television and read about in the newspaper. After a time in Vietnam, I was offered a job as a Combat Correspondent, so then I became responsible for writing the bad news!

The same thing is going on today. Looking back in time it seems like it’s gone on forever. There’s always been bad news.

Throughout history, those few people who have stood up and tried to make peace were the real heroes, come to think of it. Buddha, Christ, Gandhi all tried to tell us where to find peace within ourselves.

I am starting to believe that living alone—being a monk—is the answer for all of us.

When we participate, even in peace marches, we are taking a stand, taking a side, which irritates others and creates more discord. Then there is more bad news to write about.

Is the world going to hell? It seems to me that it is. Is the only way out, just to drop out?