Common Ground

There are a lot of blogs out there, a lot of web sites, that provide a lot of information, analysis, and opinions. Especially in the political arena, there is so much data from so many sources, it's hard to know what to believe. It's particularly hard to see how such a polarized society can find common ground. But that's unquestionably what we have to do.

There's been a whole lot of lying, and that makes things far more difficult. We're going to have to stop lying. If we've been lied to, and we've believed some lies, we're not going to be happy when we're confronted by the truth. All those lies are going to stand between us and the commonality we must find.

I've been able to take some time the last few months to slow down, read and meditate. I've practiced Zen meditation, read a lot of Zen literature, and mixed in a great deal of other reading -- history, poetry, quantum physics, politics, you name it. I think I've learned a little about myself, and how to better appreciate these fleeting moments of my existence. I wanted to start a blog that focused on personal discovery and broader understanding. That's still my goal. But this luxury of time that I've enjoyed has allowed me to examine things a bit more closely than I've been able to do for most of this century, and my reveries have been disturbed by my growing sense of a general distress in this country and the world at large. Recent national polls show that very few of us agree that we're headed in the right direction. It follows, then, that the vast majority feel that something has to change.

Change is frightening. Many of us feel we don't know who to trust. I'm struggling to find a voice, for any who take the time to read this, that might help to build some bridges over the gulfs that separate us. I want to help build trust, but it will have to be founded on real, honest searching for the truth. It's not going to be easy. As I said, there's been a lot of lying.

I've been re-reading Jesus the last few days. Just because I meditate doesn't mean I don't appreciate Jesus. I grew up watching Billy Graham's "Crusades" so long ago, and I was always so impressed by his insistence on returning, time and again, to His actual words. Perhaps our common ground might still be found in those portions of the King James translation printed in red.

I don't think Jesus ever lied.