My outlook of the future of this world hasn’t been consistent since age 3. Or maybe even earlier - the age is just arbritary. Sometimes I feel that there is no hope for our children, while sometimes I am very optmistic about the future. Things will take care of themeselves, I think. Who are we to project a timeline from the present into the future and decide what is going to happen. But sometimes my rational mind tells me that surely, not to see Armageddon coming, is foolishness. The end of days is going to be very much semisynthetic, unnatural. Take a moment and look at the world around you. Is anything right? We are all on a oneway journey into the bowels of a very man made hell.

This swinging between bloom and doom doesn’t really bother me. What does, is the answer to the question - do I really care? Do I really care about the world around me? About my country, about my neighbourhood, about my surrounding…Do I have a problem if oilwells burn bright..if the Amazon jungles are more green on maps than land….if I use my bike more than I should (just because I can afford to pay for the fuel)……….DOES ANY OF THIS MATTER TO ME?

Well dear friend, it does. It does hurt to see mother nature being abused. It does hurt to particpate in all this greedy plundering. But that’s not the end of it - it’s just the begining.

The trouble lies in the fact that to feel hurt is one thing, to do something about it is another. To feel premonition is different from living life knowing what is right and what is wrong - and sticking to the former. To be able to ACT differently, not because you THINK differently, but because you feel RESPONSIBLE for the consequences of your action takes strength. And this kind of strength is not the ordinary Schwarzenegger type silver screen stuff. This strength comes from within. It knows no gender and it knows no enemies. It only knows the ignorant ones - the ones who oppose it and pose as ‘enemies’ - and how to go beyond the darkness. But the ones with strength are always few. The ignorant and foolish always revel in the safety of numbers. Of course, there are the ones who know right and wrong (and aren’t all that ignorant), but don’t have what it takes to stick to their guns.

So to ask the question, ‘does the bleeding world matter to me’, is indirectly to ask ‘do I have the strength to do something about it‘.

I’ll stop here.

Peace