from the crow's nest

A day late, but not sorry. Last night Fred and I went to the beach to see the planets lined up with the moon. Saturn was the first to pop out followed by Venus. We had a hard time deciding what we were supposed to be looking at -the stars seemed so bright. And when we got home and looked at the diagram of the sky in the newspaper, I wondered how there could be such a difference in one day. I explained it away by saying the moon was larger and brighter and may be hiding one of the planets. Oh well, now I am looking up at the blue sky and thinking about what lays beyond it that we can't see.

I just deleted a paragraph I wrote on Arafat and Israel. I feel like I am only seeing the blue sky and am missing all the depth behind that layer. There is so much history, so many stories, so much misery, and so much hate. I wish it weren't so. It's not a comfortable feeling knowing that people hate me simply because I'm an Amercian. But they do. I can't change that - not in my lifetime. Our cultures are too separate. But that doesn't mean I give up nor do do I expect anybody to quit.

What I'd like to see are common goals for the world - rid ourselves of famine, fight disease, protect our environment, invest in education, etc. Every nation needs to be striving towards these goals for the benefit of their people. It sickens me to see greed take away the opportunity for progress. But we lack the leadership. We don't have team effort. We have politics instead. I think they can't see the forest for the trees.