Who is the man that would risk his neck for his brother man?

(Shaft!)

As a friend wrote, big props to Bernie Mac and Issac Hayes.

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What you don't know by yourself, you don't know.

--Socrates

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Things have been somber lately. I work in an office with four Russian women and down the hall, a Macedonian, a couple of French, an Argentine, a couple of Italians, and a Georgian. We have been watching so much different worldly news, and feeling so many conflicts.

One of my Russian friends commented that she was thinking about how biased the media in both of the countries are (Russia, Georgia). I replied "RE: media bias in both countries (all countries for that matter)...

Reading a book on Gilles de Rais. In 1420, a war between two families in France, '...it was decided that [the] immediate task was to raise an army of 50,000 men. This is an enormous figure for the period and probably represents wishful thinking rather than fact. It was common practice in the Chronicles of the time to exaggerate the number of soldiers involved in any engagement and to falsify casualty lists in in favour of whichever side one happened to be writing for. Everyone knew and nobody cared.'

Seems we haven't come very far in 600 years."

The Georgian colleague and I spoke at length and her family is living near one of the many places that has been bombed.

It seems we don't get very far at all in the history of days, and our histories are written by bias, and our memories fail us.

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I'm also having a fascinating debate on Facebook about the Edwards scandal. Some have called this an exceptional event, while I see no difference from any other sordid political/sex revelation. I'm not even very interested in retelling the commentary here. What I will note is that I'm terribly curious about the way different cultures view their political leaders and their private lives. Some holding them in high esteem close to messiahs, while others separate the leadership of constituents from the bedroom antics.

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A piece of a conversation with a friend today:

We should be our own best friends and we should find happiness through ourselves. It is a blessing to be able to share that with another person... To have strength and stability (as much as is possible in this difficult world), and then share that with someone, instead of feeding off of their contentment to boost ours.

Regarding being what we really are.. I was talking to someone about this recently. For the life of me, I cannot remember which philosopher or writer, but a guy I read while studying in Spain, wrote a poignant piece about the harmful effects of denying one's "calling." When we are supposed to be mechanics, we can only be bankers for so long before our misery drives us insane (insert whichever career or way of living or whatever). If we are close to our soul/spirit/energy/mind, we can hear our future calling to us. Suppressing that voice, repressing the core desires of our purpose on earth (in this body, at this time, in this country, with these talents) will only lead to our own suffering, not to mention an injustice to the world and to history. This is the ultimate fight of every person. To be aware of it, and to live as one should, the way that is written by you and not by society or family or church, that is the ultimate power and the biggest everyday challenge.

Socrates was very, very correct. And, even when you know it by yourself, the hard task is to recognize it every day.

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As for me, all I know is that I know nothing. - Socrates