routinized, scrutinized, mutinized

two of the title words are not recognized by the google dictionary spellings. they're not usually turned into verbs in this way, they are meant to be nouns and things that just happen without any intent. overtly.

however, i feel like college has begun to routinize me, which is not exactly what i would desire for myself, or for anyone i care about. it strips away my ability to frequently make random calls and break from the "normal". classes are great, as i've already said, but i feel mildly constrained by the routine that these classes are pushing on me.

it makes sense to me then that i scrutinize the system that does this to me. after all, are we not taught to think for ourselves in school? ;) i'm not trying to write this in an annoying way, or a rebellious manner. i say this pretty light-heartedly, but i like to examine the vague irony of it. i am routinized by things that i love, and by someone i love, whose voice every night is so calming and intoxicating that it soothes my mind and body to sleep, even if my heart denies me sleep by pounding fiercely inside my tossing and turning body, until i wrap my arms around my pillow and "pretend i am kissin the lips that i am missin".

that's the kind of routine i used to hate about having a girlfriend, but things have changed since that sort of routine came after getting to know her so much better on a friendship level for nearly two months, spending at least an hour or two in conversation with her nearly every single day, face to face, shopping with her for foods both of us can eat, sodas she'll make me finish after her first sip, and tiny pieces of manufactured and discovered oddities in jewelry stores that accentuate beautiful characteristics of her or of any other soul that dons them.

the routine of her voice every night these past two weeks has been really helpful for me. and really enlightening, as well.

so, due to the scrutiny
i've placed on the layers of routine
that affect my every day's and "some day's"
i have determined that i will break away from all of the unhealthy routines
and focus only on the healthy ones, allowing the rest to fit in place
and my branching out--i'll call it mutiny--
will allow me to make some changes
in the way this world views justice.

i declare mutiny against the harmful status quo.

i may only have a semester here at this particular institution, which means i've got a few months to make a mark and make sure as many in the region as possible, are aware of injustice on a global scale, and have begun to find methods of fighting back.

routine scrutinized produces mutiny.

i like it this way ;)

a journey renewed... again.

if anyone reading this has known me well for over a year you'll definitely recognize these sentiments, especially if i knew you at the end of my spring semester at Lakeland. and there may be a few of you who recognize these exact thoughts if i spoke with you about this in Africa.

i wrote this a week ago in an attempt to understand myself and get some things out on paper. it was unfinished, but maybe i'll like it better this way.

--

my mind is racing. the Jesus of Peace. the God of Justice--would they think this right?
a monster taking on the bigger monster.
theoretically, in being armed, i can kill.
i can take life. not yet, for i am thus far unarmed,
but in the future. three, four, maybe five years, and i'll have the capacity.
but can i pull the trigger?
what hat will i wear?
will i be undercover?
will i be a badge?
or don a suit?
what about combat boots, camo, and a bandana?
will i go guerilla to "seek justice"?
will i be seen as a terrorist, murderer, snake?

or will i even ever really take a life?
in defending the poor and oppressed, will the Prince of Peace fade to the background?
will his call be lost in gunfire?
will i ignore his will?

if no one is to perish, perhaps i can help, and simply aim low-- just high and hard enough to bring them down so they cannot rise again.

can i shatter your bones in your legs and kick your face into the mud and know that you'll walk away from your crime?

--

tell me what you all think, please. every time i think this way i find something that swings me back to the other extreme end of the pendulum and i loathe any hint of violence.

and then again i see violence succeed in releasing captives of cruelty.
and then i remember there's no such thing as redemptive violence.
and then i think to myself, "is rescuing violence the same as redemptive violence?"

war is not the answer. invasion is wrong. occupation is wrong. but what about insurrection? what about violent uprising within a country in order to gain liberation?

i am stuck. i could go for a coffee date or a phone call with anyone interested in talking about this stuff.

peace.
amani.
veritas.

why, oh why does the bluebird sing?

if you see a bluebird singing, and you ask him why he is, he ought to have a good reason for stringing together a song.

if he doesn't have a good reason, then you may politely ask him to be quiet.

if he doesn't take a hint, just tell him to shut up and sit down.

if he still doesn't abide... cuff 'im.
and then he'll have to come up with a good defense for court.
....
if you see or hear me making a lot of noise and standing firmly on something, and you ask me why i feel as i do, i ought to have a good reason for roping together my slogans and outcries.

if i don't have a good foundation, then you may politely ask me to be quiet.

hopefully i will.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, i kindly request that you challenge me to know why i believe and say the things which i believe and say.

i will tell you i believe in a God of love, because i am in love with him.
i will tell you i believe in a world of suffering, and i probably don't need to point to all the evidence--we see and feel it every day.
i will tell you i believe in justice, because without it, somebody would've already pulled the trigger of the pistol pointed at my head.
i will tell you i believe in Jesus, because without him being a servant would have no rewards--and i would not personally like being on the floor, washing your feet.
i will tell you i believe in evolution, because there's a fossil record to back it up, and such beauty and ingenuity in the designs that span the eras that we would be cheating God to say humanity was the first on his canvas.
i will tell you i believe in a God of love, because we humans have been created in his image, a specific design set apart from everything else on the fossil record--beginning with the Old Man (Adam) and culminating in the New Man (Jesus, Son of David)--that we may have love and compassion for our neighbors (and even our enemies)... that we may grow closer to one another, and, most importantly, to him.

i will tell you this because this is one thing i must stand for, and i beg you never to make me sit down and shut up about.

i would prefer, without a doubt, with every ounce of devotion, humility, and eagerness to be no greater than my master (Matthew 10.24b), that you see that i will not abide, and that you cuff me.

you have no choice...

"...Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, "Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Then feed my sheep. (John 21.17b NLT) Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not." (John 21.18 KJV)

...another shall gird me, and carry me whither i wouldest not.

welcome Krissi!

Krissi is now officially the fourth member of the team (the third of the active roster, and the fifth to join the journal)!

please be as kind to her and her views as you have been to myself and mine!

she is not going to be an exact carbon copy of my theology and idealogy, so please don't expect it. in fact i've already told her that i want her to post anything she can think of on here that we disagree about already. there's not much, but she's definitely got a right to post her own stance and opinion.

God be with you all!

see you next year!

PAX
-archer

doing singleness the wrong way...

flipping shut the novel i checked out of the library here on the base a few days ago, a murder mystery called 'The Poet', i'm nearly to page 100 of the paperback, and the action's starting to kick into high gear, as the protagonist, Jack McEvoy--a homicide reporter at a Denver newspaper--stumbles onto a theory that link's his cop brother's recent suicide with another cop suicide 2000 miles away in Chicago, making it look like a serial killer. he sets his sights on Chicago, D.C., and the FBI HQ on the east coast, aiming to track down this story.

McEvoy's a 35-year-old bachelor who's lived in the same apartment for the past 9 years, working the same reporter beat at the paper.

reading about his life suddenly taking a turn for... (at least) the more interesting and exciting, i found myself strapping on my bag, slipping into my sandals, throwing on my shirt, shrugging sleep off, grabbing my 1.5 liter Kilimanjaro water bottle, with the label ripped off, and heading down the steps from my bunk in the dorm room, toward the bathroom. stop at the sink on the way out, scrub my face with water and wake myself up, then run my fingers through my hair that i'm growing out in a rather mottley fashion, and head out into the open courtyard, feeling invincible.

standing coolly in the shadows, my unkempt brown hair striking strange shadows across the tan bricks and chop-cut grass behind the short bushes, i breathe deeply, and suddenly realize the attitude shift that's come over me.

i suddenly feel like i'm on top of the world. i'm only going to check my email and perhaps blog a bit, really, so why this high? nothing fancy or new about me... just the bag i spent less than 14 bucks on in town, after getting a wad of cash out of the NBC ATM in Arusha. maybe it's because everything went so smoothly, or just because i am dwelling so much in God's goodness to me, that i'm frankly forgetting the key to all of this:

once i get to feeling this good, i'm likely to forget where the source of this joy really is.

i am liable to phase God out of the celebration, right at the kick-off.

i am on the verge of doing singleness the wrong way. where i start to get the hyper-inflated sense of self-worth, and my own ability to get involved and actually influence things. me and my intentionally shabby appearance begin to form an ego to go along with the care-freeness of it all.

i gotta remember--and reclaim--the simple truth of this only working if it's only about Jesus. not about being single.
the latter's great and all, but not if it's not filled in by something much, much better!

it's a daily thing: re-working on that. but it's good. just can't get too caught up with the crazy hair and the deadly hyper-inflation of Asher.

Peace.
Jesus.
Love.

-archer

the monster who got devoured by community

"i can't believe you can be so against what you once stood for!"

that's what i almost said to him.
my brother, Micah.

we were having a rather casual argument, as we sometimes do. i was trying to tell him why movements are so great, why men and women like Yoko Ono and Dr. King and Bono (sorta) and Lennon all give themselves to causes for a reason.

i tried to tell him that all change is made by small groups of people that grow into something large and influential enough. i reminded him of Amnesty International, of which i am a member. started by a single British professor in 1961, and has grown to nearly 2 million members whose letters have freed thousands of prisoners and victims and alleviated tensions and injustice all around the world in only 40 years.

he looked back at me with a smug look on his face that i couldn't crack. i just don't get how my brother, the boy with the cross branded on his left arm, and the Che Guevera clock (which is now no longer a clock so much as a small, glass poster, and is now also mine), could suddenly become somebody who's clearly so hopeless, with no faith in humanity, or even in humans. he's got no faith in anything, save Zarathustra's bold story of "making it on his own". he claims Jesus did it too, in his coy attempt to throw my own words back on me. but with his foot sticking plainly out of his mouth, i reminded him that forty days of fasting alone in the desert hardly counts as being alone. oh, and then i told him about the 12 disciples who were with him nearly everywhere he went.

he tried to tell me that since Zarathustra made it, anyone who wasn't weak could do it. he apparently had forgotten for the moment that good ole' Z is a fictional character. actually, i think that's when he tried to segway to Jesus. to him, Jesus is just as fictional, sometimes.

sometimes.


...BUT this isn't what i meant to get side-tracked by.

instead, i meant to tell you about another boy who had an american flag hanging proudly in his room, draped across his mirror with a chalky cross drawn on it. this boy believed with all his heart that it was america's sacred duty to follow George W. into battle and storm into Iraq in 02. he would have actually voted for W. the second time around, had he been old enough. this boy sickens me far more than Micah ever will. this boy believed in intolerance as the only way to change things for the better. this boy was anti-gay marriage and pro-war. (i.e. anti-love, and pro-hate) he was a thoroughbred american who wished he could've said the pledge of allegiance twice daily at school, rather than only on mondays in 8th grade.

this boy was going to join the navy, or the marines or something and fight for his country. he had a buzz cut already and everything about him stank of proud-to-be-an-american in the most disgusting form. it wasn't even flattering to the remaining good elements of the U.S.

this boy was frankly a self-righteous prick just like the best of them. could never recognize flaws in himself. believed he was always right. believed that america was supposed to be an all-christian nation. and that everyone who didn't believe what he did had to be converted, and he thought them more like scalps dangling from his belt, than actual souls, actually aching people. there was no love in this boy.

he was a monster.

i don't have that mirror in my room anymore. the american flag lies half-burnt in a black garbage bag somewhere in a dump.

i protested the "Bush Regime" on October 5, 2007 and felt almost more at home there, than i do half the time in church. it's funny how preotestors seem to realize they can do nothing on their own, and we sort of band together, as we all did that night to share a bowl of free soup, brought to us by an organization supporting the march, called "Food Not Bombs", i think. as a sister of mine shared a cigarette with a brother of mine, and both braced their backs against the cold downtown wind, i waited my turn for a used spoon, in order to eat half a cup of warm veggie soup in chicken broth.

after the march and everything, we wrapped up with a "die-in", which was by far, one of the most dramatic and patriotic experiences i've ever witnessed. watching video footgae from it later, i was shocked to find an elderly man in a wheel-chair shifting his weight and lowering himself to the chilled black-top of E. 9th street in the heart of Cleveland. during rush-hour.

riding the bus home that night with Micah, as the dim lights kicked in overhead in the fading autumn sun, i read from a communist newspaper about the similarities between Bush's and Hitler's. it was kinda freaky. as a middle-aged man walked past me, on his way out the front door of the 9X four-wheeled community driving machine, he looked down and complimented me on the white bandana around my knee with the word 'COEXIST' scrawled in dark permanent marker. the Islam crescent was the 'C', the Jewish Star of David was the 'X', and the Christian cross was the 'T'.

that bandana is now sewn onto a small black jacket i bought for the purpose of shaking things up and lacing it with lyrics and sayings and emblems of what i stand for. i named her Ruth. i'm wearing her now, for the first time since probably March this year.

she's beautiful, and reminds me of the kind of communion that comes from a strong, united purpose. i miss that union.

i'm hoping i'll find that soon, sometime in the coming couple of years.

anyone wanna go see that movie, "Across The Universe" with me sometime?

Love and Peace or Else.
-Archer

the straps of my sandals are my home. whenever i am wearing them... i know God has me exactly where he wants me..

i don't know much about my future... i barely know my next step... i pray for incredible courage as i lift my feet to plant them in the straps of my sandals. once they are there and i take the next step, my fears will susbide and i will truly depend on you, my beloved and beautiful Adonai!

I pray that you will never leave me, although i already know that you have never even allowed an inkling of such a thought to occur to you.

I will depend on you and some of my brothers and sisters and your work through them to survive the rest of my life, my God, my King!

I will stand in your presence every moment of my life... i will bow at your feet and thank you and praise you for everyone you send my way.

i will thank you every waking moment for the beautiful and upright woman you have blessed me with as a companion. we will strive on, seeking you every morning.

i love my sandals, God, i love that once i put them on, i will have everything in the world. the clothes on my back and the bread on my table, or the water running between my fingers... God you will provide. whether i sleep under the stars or a roof made of drywall and plumbing, or plaster, or tin sheeting.... God i will ever be under your wings.

When i come home to you, leaving this earth, i will be most thankful, and i will really truly understand the depths of your love...

but i know that from the moment i put my sandals on, i will be with you in ALL that i do... God let your piller of fire-- your shakainah-- be ever present. and be unto everyone i know, everyone i encounter, everyone i love, exactly what you are to me-- my strength, my hope, my courage, and most importantly, your are simply my plan, God.

i love you, Adonai, and i thank you with every fiber of my being and every strand of my soul...

Amen.

the half door and the whole new promise!

My new dear friend and comrade named Emily was the half door. The most desperately confusing of my dilemmas was how to hang onto a good friendship with her, in spite of a growing attraction to her that I sensed in myself.

Yesterday, I told her flat out what the issues were within myself. We both feel really good about not trying a romantic relationship or anything of the sort. Friends-with-benefits is also out of the question! We are in fact quite content with simply being there for each other. I need her and I think she needs me.

Today she gave me a book, hiked with me, and let me break through her mask.

DC Talk wrote a book in 2001 called “Live Like a Jesus Freak”, as a companion to their previous book(s) about Jesus Freaks around the world. We’ve been talking a lot in recent days about what it will mean to really live for/like Jesus in our future- and present-tense selfs.

We have talked about Africa, college (and the idea of the lack-thereof), the reality of death and martyrdom for something real, the excitement of having no plans, the possibility of disappearance in order to actually accomplish things, the socio-economic (as well as the natural) stance of Phoenix, Arizona… and just about everything you never hear normal college kids talk about.

We talked about being real and intense and we both agree that we’ve finally met someone as crazy as ourselves! ☺ For we are quite few and far between.

We talked about the Native American reservations, Thailand, Mexico, Tanzania, China, Panama, and Uganda. We talked about how gross suburbs and developments are, and how all they ever do is give birth to themselves (the kind of stable environment that will die out when a new visitor or intruder is introduced). We talked about hating life here in its fakeness and apathy.

We even each tried a taste of some random plant I thought was a mint leaf until I put it in my mouth and thought it might be poison ivy, but thankfully she (being a wannabe Native American!) confirmed for me it is not!

Finally I am breaking out of this place and I am remembering who I exist for, and who I want to exist with. If I live my whole life in steady communication with people like Emily, I have a vague feeling that I should be doing just fine.

This really long blog is an attempt to give Em a shout-out and state that I have re-entered God’s arms for the millionth time in the past year, and maybe with the help of this book she’s given me, I’ll never be truly homesick again.

Thanks, Em.


Peace of Adonai be with you all.

my dad, spiderman, don cheadle, derek webb, evon christian, krissi bernd, the fraser women, punjabican, Jesus...

all my mentors (yes, spiderman currently counts as a temporary mentor :) ) are urging me to do what is right, to fight the good fight and above all-- to do it non-violently.

i am listening to them. i am completely understanding them.

i am relating to them:

"you know the tree by the fruit
just between me and you
i never do what i want
i do what i'm taught
and i've been learning a lot
about the violence i'm capable of"
-Derek Webb, "I Don't Want to Fight"

"Lately things have been going my way. But I have this bad feeling. This darkness I've discovered has a power far greater than anything I could have imagined. It's... intoxicating."
-Spiderman, "Spiderman 3" trailer

and i thought i was learning from them. but somehow i keep seeing violence as some actual frickin plausible mode of change.

"if you beat them at their own game, then you've already lost."
-Evon Christian

i have this concept of doing a lot of good in Africa in a short period of time, and a feeling that i'm gonna die young, lookin down the barrel of a gun i'll think i'd buried long before.

"even if you think there's all this glory in dying for a cause, think about what you'll do to everyone else."
-Stacey Littlefield, my father, my accountability, and my only superhero

i've been wrestling with the possibility of taking up arms in a defensive militia in Africa, with a group of comrades hell-bent of defending the innocent by becoming guilty in their stead. that's what sucks.

"every hero has a dark side." (Asher's translation: "every [human] has a dark side.")
-Spiderman 3 game advert.

i've become aware of my own violence and dangerous capabilities again.

i'm in agreement with no one, especially not God. especially not myself.

so maybe i will die early. maybe i'll be gone in 10 years like my premonition. maybe i'll never get married, maybe i'll live life on the run, but i pray i never have to f*****g take the life of one of my brothers! it is not my right. i am not a killer.

"so i'm walking away from this
before i hurt someone
'cause i'm facing enemies
on both sides of the gun"

and whether you believe he is who he said he was, you've gotta understand the gist of what he said, at least in this one case:

"...let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!"
-Jesus, John 8.7

pax, brothers and sisters.

and for Pete's sake help me out here! besides,
"it takes a village to raise a child".... no idea who said it, but it's true!

my [controversial] stance on violence

it is strange & sad that in war, a Bullet is the only thing to connect two people in some situations. a Bullet is the most cowardly and uneducated, unprepared and uncreative way to hurt an opponent.

especially since that opponent has NOT--and will NOT--always be your opponent.

it is the cowardly way to prevent a potential friendship just because of momentary disagreement. non-passive, non-violent words and actions that do not take or end life are the best, indeed the ONLY way to really improve the world or even hope to truly win an argument.

people are always changing their minds, every day of every year. to choose to use a Bullet is to ASSUME that that person you are putting a Bullet into is NEVER going to agree with you, and you'll NEVER agree with them.

and we all know what happens when you assume...

"it's hot as hell"

i'm runnin the gauntlet
scrapin by in things i can't give myself to
i'm livin and i'm lovin.
i'm givin and i'm burnin
burnin up these walls
creepin round me
overcrowdin me
cuz i ain't fightin by you, brother
cuz i ain't protectin you, sister

in these pretty little picket-fences
i am surrounded by mixed-up concept
concepts so crude and cruel
are you even human?
can you breathe those words
and really be breathin?

i've been told to stay behind
to not go now or even ever care
how dare you!

i got my sisters, brothers, best friends and lover
i got my God, my Jesus, and my dream
i got a sickness you ain't tainted
i got freedom you ain't tasted.
c'mon and raise the ladel
i'll help you cradle
that sweet soul soup in your hand
let it pour down deep
let it bathe the land.

Dr. King, Mahatma Ghandi
President Mandela, and sister Zariatu
you're all i got to get me where i've always been
you're gonna save the world a thousand fold
but you ain't the first

i cannot
will not
refuse to wipe your tears
your fears from the face
the face of this bloody planet.

my homeland, as my sister says:
"it's a very colorful place, very colorful-
-and that color's red."*

Ecclesiastical
"Five for Fighting"
Epistle
"Three for Thriving"
Universal
"One for Winning"

this is my life.
don't take it.
please don't take it.

i'm gonna be in a parade-
a victory march-
before i pass and fade.
just one in the masses
made of former classes
who don't see black or white no mo.

so i ask fo mo.
mo hope
mo love
mo peace
mo life
just mo-
of what really matters.

written from the heart and unedited, unadulterated, uncensored. Feb. 5, 2007. you may put this anywhere else and call me "anonymous". i can roll with that. just don't prevent my words from bein read. (*credits for the quote holla back to my sister, Aisha)

love and peace or else, sisters and brothers.

namaste. pax. salaams. love.

the most informative hour of my life!

earlier today, right around 11.00, my friend Grace skipped class to join myself and her friend Matt (a co-chair of student gov't), on an excursion to Starbucks.

i had intended to have fair trade coffee, but they did not have any brewing at the moment. ergo i had a simple, bold, "komodo dragon" coffee. a tall decaf drink that by NO means seemed devoid of caffeine! :) it's finally wearing off!

i don't have time to focus on writing much here, but i have made some decisions based on all the philosophy and economic and "evil pharmaceuticals" stuff that we talked about.

1. i am going to look into a Rosetta Stone program for either some African language or French, i believe! intensive fluency is the goal!
2. i am going to invest in a strong and intense course for learning EMT training within five months, shortly after my return to the states. ergo i will likely be unable to hold a job, unless i work weekends only. the program i've heard of is 8-hour days & 5-day weeks!
3. i am going to seek out more information on WHO makes WHAT drugs. i need to know who goes where, does what... who's got western (especially US) moneys, and who i can ask for money from for the beginnings of a strong Non-Profit, as well as partnerships with other organizations.

finding news of Africa from within the African continent has been a huge task this morning! it was ALL i was doing (aside from cataloguing sources and blogs to read, and such) when Grace found me! ok, i lied, i had just began to listen to Rob Bell's sermon: "Calling All Peacemakers" Part 1, from early december. i downloaded them weeks ago and i'm finally getting into them. so far i am really enjoying it! i can't wait for the next 2 parts! I heard part 2 got a lot of flak. i think he spoke about the idiocy of the Iraq war. i have really liked Rob Bell to begin with, but he never fails me, it seems! he's also really big on saving the world thru love, prayer, and activism. hopefully i'll be able to guide my own relevant love based on revelations like his and that of others, as well as reading the Psalms and the gospels (over and over again!).

I am disturbed by the likelihood of humanity killing itself off thru diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis. I do not know much about Malaria, but i hope to learn something about it's effects... especially considering these are the three targets of the United Nations Global Fund!! Tuberculosis is ALREADY DRUG-RESISTANT!!!! it is incurable and TREATMENT is the only option. these drug-resistant strains exist in New York City and Russia already. TB may very well be the next great Plague.

until the next plague, we must learn to do things naturally and be careful with the drugs we manufacture and administer. approval of severely toxic and poisonous drugs is NOT PERMISSABLE!!!! it's simply not wise, and we MUST learn our way around these drugs. disease scares (such as SARS, Avian Flu, and West Nile Virus) are nothing but scams while we forget about the realistically globally-threatening diseases!

we have secured our own doom in our desire for immaculate cleanliness. we fight bacteria- ALL bacteria. ergo we kill the healthy bacteria that strengthens and maintains our immune systems. so we weaken ourselves and downwardly spiral into ABSOLUTE DEPENDENCY on man-made drugs full of life-limiting toxins.

i've got to look into AZT and Nevirapine. both are used to treat AIDS patients. apparently both are able to cause death.
the Treatment Information Group's leader (don't look to me for technical terminology and names and details here, just the gist of the story) has recently-3 weeks ago-accused the leader of the Treatment Action Campaign of GENOCIDE based on the fact that he has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of poor, black South Africans thru administering these two ARV's!

I e-mailed Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in the fall with the intent of working with them this summer. yeah, this is hitting kinda close to home! what the devil is going on here?!

i've got a lot more to investigate.

love and peace or else, sisters and brothers!

the problem and the source

this is as best as i can figure and came to me slowly, growing in either direction from time to time, while sitting in church today:

-Lack of heart (impossible)
-Lack of loving heart (very truly POSSIBLE)
-Lack of love
-Lack of relationships
-Apathy (?)
-Poverty & Sickness (inseperable)
-Desparity
-Division
-Judgment
-Prejudice
-Racism (or any generalized feeling of Superiority)
-Anger
-Hatred
-The First Blow
-The Reactive Blow
...
...
...
-The 1,000,000,000th Reactive Blow (more commonly referred to as Open War)


++is it too narrow-minded to say that everything goes back to Love???++

thoughts, anyone?