Memorial

Memorial Day is fast approaching, and so are my contradictory thoughts about said day. Its that balance between realizing who has fought and sacrificed and died so that I/we can live in a place that is, relatively, more "free" than most other places. And on the other side of the scale is the utter abhorrence of war in general, especially with my countries preemptive hall pass/rationale. Either way, what I realize more and more is that I do not understand. A lot. And knowing that, perhaps I should let go of old ideas and make a clearing for new ones. Pull out the dusty mindhedge trimmers and get to work. I prefer to do it by hand but electric or gas (or hydrogen or solar or ???)  may be necessary for some. Whatever metaphorical method one may choose, it may help to think on this while doing such work:

"a little unlearning goes a long way." - Richard Kehl

But hey, the sun is in Gemini and the time is ripe to wrassle with the myriad contradictions that stir us up so much. In mine ears it has been thoughts like "pieces of one" and "constant impermanence" (Go Mountain Sangha!). Despite the maddening flip-flop hypocrisy of it all....it is somehow....true? To quote Blaise Pascal: 

"Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth."