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Don’t hate!

Yes, I know Chris Pirillo beat me to the punch and said the same thing this morning. I doubt that he will mind my writing on the same theme. If there shall ever be a story, fix, or tip we all need to write about, this one is it.

Don’t hate! Hate comes from fear. Hate divides. Hate renounces our greatest strength, which is love — which, at root, is union. Our hate thereby hands a moral and practical victory to those whose fundamental purpose was to incite fear and nurture division.

I am angry, but I am not afraid. My mind has been snapped into an awake lucidity in the last 48 hours. I am moved by the literally hundreds of personal emails, and hundreds more of posts on the newsgroups, pouring forth condolence, support, and strength from all parts of the globe. I see an effort to weaken our country having, instead, brought strength, focus, and unity. I call for justice, but insist it must be just. In this instance, I believe righteousness mandates that it be swift, severe, and relentless.

But, in the passion of our response, let us please remember that (with about four dozen specific exceptions on the East Coast, out of hundreds of millions of others), our neighbors are not the perpetrators. Terrorism exists to incite terror. It exists to stir panic, horror, and unthinking reaction. Ultimately, the only defense against it, as a tactic, is not to feed it.

Fear, emotion-driven retaliation, and reactive striking out at those who remind us of our assailants are not the characteristics of strength. They are weakness. And they will be perceived — correctly — as weakness. They will bring joy to our assailants.

I don’t discuss religion in this newsletter. This time, though, I’m making a brief exception, to explain my point of view. I grieve for the loss of life, and especially for those who have lost loved ones. But, ultimately, it is not the deceased that hold my thoughts. My spiritual conviction is that they, to a one, have been received into the embrace of Love Immeasurable. Rather, it is for the living, and for the world into which we now step forward in the hours and days immediately ahead, that I reserve my concern and prayers. Crisis gives us focus, individual and collective. In that concentrated focus, the world seeming dramatically new in some fashion, we make inner choices that determine our actions for a long time to come. Thoughts we have now, feelings we have now, and choices we make now will determine the nature of our world for the next half century. The choices we make today have more power than the ones we make next week, or the week after. As the collective heart and mind of the United States, and the rest of the world, emerge out of the initial shock, it is with our earliest thoughts and choices that we create our world anew.

I believe this with all my heart and soul — with every cell of my body — with every faculty at my disposal.

The state of mind of each and every one of us matters more in this hour, on this day, in this week than any other thing that is within our control. Every individual heart and mind contributes to this. Minds trained to discipline and set in rapport with simple spiritual truths have enormous power to affect the collective mind of humanity. Our inner tranquility not only will give us individual peace, but will spread, by human contact and by something deeper. It also makes us more able to undertake, with surgical precision and unwavering will, the duty of response, as we actively engage and take this war against terrorism home to its roots.

Probably many of you will not agree with me, and many others will think I’ve missed the point. But many of you will agree. My only real point is that our ways of thinking, feeling, speaking, and acting with regard to Tuesday’s attack are all creative choices. What they are creating is our world tomorrow, next month, and next year. Choose with your heart, and choose from the profundity of your love more than from the profundity of your pain.

And don’t hate!

Aum. Ha.

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HUMOR

Some may feel this is not a week for humor. I feel it is a week when we cannot be without it! We must be able to laugh at ourselves.

Thus, my favorite of all newsgroup posts of the week was from a fellow who suggested that part of our response to this week’s terrorism should be to show that we can rebuild — to rebuild the WTC at once, and build it taller than before. And then, as an enduring message to our enemies, we should plant atop it a large sculpture of a clenched human fist, with a single finger pointed skyward....

I have also thought, this week, that there may be great humor in seemingly cursing someone with computer jargon — as a way of freshening our point of view, becoming better able to chuckle at ourselves, and also blowing off some steam. How many ways can you think of? Obviously, you can always call someone a “no-name motherboard,” or a “corroded DIMM slot.” Can you think of others? (I’ll publish the best ones here in the future, if you like.)

To all: Live, love, embrace your best vision for the future, hold your kids close, choose who you want us to be and where you want us to go, and find ways to serve in this time of enormous need.

See you next time with the regular topics, and maybe some of your responses to this one.

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Warmly,

Jim Eshelman

THE NECESSARY LEGAL STUFF
DISCLAIMER: Any information given in this newsletter, or on any other part of the Windows Support Center website, is researched by me and believed to be accurate. However, I cannot guarantee, and do not guarantee, that all the information provided will work on all computer systems, for all users, all the time. Also, I sometimes make mistakes (that’s life!), and it is possible I made one or more of them here. All information herein is offered as-is and without warranty of any kind. In other words, I rely on the best information sources I can, and do my best to get it to you accurately; and, thereafter, you take your life in your own hands if you trust me on it. Neither James Eshelman, this site, outside contributors to this site, people quoted on this site, nor my cat is/are responsible for any loss, injury, or damage, direct or consequential, resulting from application of any information presented here.

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