Crusade for Peace

I have been torn as indicated in my last post - with the idea of living in the world and turning into a contemplative, a recluse.  I love my life - oh sure there is all kinds of shit to deal with...my kids, his kids, my family, my job, idiots, politics, health, finances, and, and, and.......

But, I have always thought it would be nice to put it all aside (not the people I love) - and just go live the life of a hermit.

One of my favorite writers and, dare I use the words, a modern-day-prophet, is Thomas Merton.  He was an amazing man, an incredible writer and a role model.  Not just as a Catholic, but as a humanist.

After watching a really crappy documentary on him - and - after reading his stuff off and on for years, I have become a little obsessed with what he has written.

Today for example, I read this (Taken from his book Cold War Letters):

"In actual fact it would seem that during the Cold War, if not during World War II, this country has become frankly a warfare state built on affluence, a power structure in which the interests of big business, the obsessions of the military, and the phobias of political extremists both dominate and dictate our national policy.  It also seems that the people of the country are by and large reduced to passivity, confusion, resentment, frustration, thoughtlessness, and ignorance so that they blindly follow any line that is unraveled for them by the mass media."

And occupy wall-street aside kids, I have to ask you in all seriousness, what the fuck has changed?  Absolutely nothing.  We still run around like chickens with our heads cut off, waiting for our moral compasses to orient and all we can manage to do for the most part is whine and complain about our lot in life and point fingers at politicians we've elected just so we can sink back into our recliners, pop another beer, open another bag of potato chips and be content to watch 'Dancing with the Stars'. 

As a fellow writer, Tom Ryan has astutely pointed out on his blog post about Father Merton's book:

"The intellectual torch that Gandhi lit, that Merton kept burning in his writing, dims in a field somewhere, still smoldering, warm. King held it for a while and marched with it. It’s a dangerous instrument to see much less touch. Dangerous still to write about non-violence, the absurdity of war, when war’s become such lucrative business, a veritable profession one can choose or not choose in this land of the free. War’s a necessity. It’s pragmatic. What would we do without it? We publicly trade it. We invest. We’re paid nice dividends. We outsource it with practical ease and peace of mind to contracted peacekeepers, subcontracted to uniformed government oath-taking leaders.

The Cold War and the contemporary War on Terror share absurdities in their very titles. The Cold War wasn’t cold and isn’t over. The War on Terror is a war fought against a method, a technique pioneered by the likes of Manachem Begin (in his Irgun days as architect of the King David Hotel bombing, 1946) and Guy Fawkes (that 1605 “Powder Plot” is an awkward subject in Catholic History).


With struggle, we've become weary, lost the spiritual anchor of God (I have often), while arguing over God's favor as if God favors. We have alternatives and choices in where we focus our faith; be it to a deity or a tree, a sport, or a lover, or nothing. Perhaps we question the very existence of faith. I wonder about my own sometimes. Sometimes I feel like a Quaker without membership."

I don't think we necessarily need the spiritual anchor of God (although in my life I personally do), or to become Quakers,  in order to understand/comprehend that something is very the matter here.  Our world-weary souls need not be so willing to roll over and play dead when there is so much at stake.  I think it's time for a Crusade for Peace.  Dare we be so brave?