Respect

I am glad that you are enjoying your family and that they are enjoying you.

It is true that we busy ourselves with the symptoms and disease instead of looking at the source and the truth at the heart of the matter.
I began my Biology class today, as I regularly begin every semester telling the students to be skeptical...don't believe just because it is what everyone else believes.
I pointed out that until Einstein, Newtonian physics had all of the answers. Euclidean geometry has been expanded upon to include fractal and topolgic geometries among others. Darwin's theory of evolution is being questioned by a scientist who has proposed morphologic evolution.
The most incredible part of science is that we can't know it all...we know the little bit that's exposed and if we are curious skeptics the discoveries will not cease.

The current debate about rape is ridiculous....only men would propose such nonsense...it is men who think that every female is a sexual outlet for their physical needs and desires.

I have repeatedly come to the concept of respect many times over the past several weeks...
thoughts of it, discussions about it...
if we truly respected ourselves, others and the world violence would cease.
The violence of child and domestic abuse is about power and control over others who we perceive to be less powerful than our self.
If nations respected differences and were content to share power and become interdependent wars and aggression would cease.
If we respected the earth and her resources we would never again exploit the land for gain, for money...which is perceived as power.

I have been once again charged with the task of what to teach in First Day School at Quaker Meeting. I have chosen the testimony of Community...interdependence...empowerment...sharing and trusting the community (family, local and global) and its members. Hopefully the concept of respect for differences will be pervasive throughout the lessons.

I will be checking in now in the evenings as my days are now structured by school.
I look forward to hearing from you...
Maggie