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Chris Duel

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Archives for June 2015

May You Live In Interesting Times

June 28, 2015 by Chris Duel Leave a Comment

May You Live In Interesting Times

Bob Dylan sang, “The times they are a changin’.”

That was in the early Sixties. Those of us old enough to remember that era recall tumultuous change, clash of cultures and a rift between the generations.

Recent events in America are rivaling the changes witnessed in the 1960s.

On Friday June 26th, the Supreme Court made Marriage Equality legal in all 50 states.

The next morning, female civil rights activist Bree Newsome evaded security guards, climbed the 30-foot steel flag pole at the South Carolina Statehouse and removed the Confederate flag, which has become a more profound symbol of controversy in the aftermath of the Charleston church murders.

I woke up this morning and looked at the image of the LGBT rainbow flag being waved on the steps of the Supreme Court along with the photo of Bree Newsome removing the Confederate flag in South Carolina and a memorable phrase occurred to me…

“May you live in interesting times.”

Curious of the phrase’s author, I googled it. According to Wikipedia, it has been regarded by many as an ancient Chinese curse, although no actual historical Chinese origin has ever been found.

In 1966, Senator Robert F. Kennedy used the line in address to the people of Cape Town, South Africa on the “Day of Affirmation.” It has since been used in novels, films and television series.

I am surprised that some regard these six words as a curse. It seems more like a blessing to live in interesting times than in mundane or stagnant times.

If indeed the phrase dates back to ancient China, perhaps it is both a blessing and a curse.

In the Chinese language, many linguists point out that the word “crisis” is created by the use of two characters – one representing danger, the other representing opportunity.

Interesting times.

Curse.

Blessing.

Crisis.

Opportunity.

Take your pick.

And enjoy the ride.

We truly live in interesting times.

 

 

 

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Filed Under: America, Beginning, Crisis, New, Opportunity, Thought Tagged With: America, Bob Dylan, Confederate flag, Crisis, Marriage Equality, Opportunity, Robert Kennedy, The Sixties, Times

Love More, Fear Less

June 27, 2015 by Chris Duel Leave a Comment

Love More, Fear Less

 

Love More.

Fear Less.

Laugh Often.

Breathe Consciously.

Forgive Everyone. 

 

(that is all)

 

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Filed Under: Love, Soul, Spirit, Thought, Uncategorized, Wisdom Tagged With: Breathe, Fear, Forgive, Laugh, Love

Fifty Father’s Days Without My Father

June 21, 2015 by Chris Duel 3 Comments

My Father, Frank

 

My father died in February of 1965. He was 42 years old and I was four. I was his youngest of five children.

I never knew him when I was an adult and I barely knew him past the age of three, as he served in Vietnam during the last year of his life.

Vietnam was my father’s second war, having flown B-17 bombers over Europe in World War II.  He would later tell my mother and older siblings how the war haunted him and how he grieved for the prodigious loss of life that he witnessed and participated in.

Because I was so young when he died, I only have a handful of actual memories of my father.

I have the one item he wrote directly to me. It is 22 words inscribed in pencil on the back of a photograph he had kept in his wallet.  It is one of five photos of his children that my father carried with him on his journey to and through Vietnam.

The photo is of his youngest son as he knew me in the last year of his life.

 

My Father's Message to Me

 

On the back he wrote,

“Kip,” You and your sisters and brother have been on the other side of the world – I love you son. Dad.”

More than 50 years later, I am touched that our father would carry photos of his children with him in a far away war.

How could he have known his son would treasure the message half a century later?

His words, “on the other side of the world,” have both the literal meaning he intended and a cosmic meaning now that he is indeed somewhere on the other side of this existence.

My brother and a sister have since joined him there.

As will I one day.

Until then, I carry the photo and those words with me, as he once did.

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Filed Under: Feeling, grief, Heaven, Love, Solstice, Soul, Spirit, Uncategorized Tagged With: Chris Duel, Father, Father's Day, Heaven, Love, Soul, Spirit

Prayers For Charleston, Prayers for America

June 18, 2015 by Chris Duel Leave a Comment

Prayers For Charleston

Prayers For Charleston

I cannot begin to fathom the sickness and hatred that drives a human being to kill other innocent human beings, much less for the absurd “difference” of skin color or ethnicity.

We live in a world of so many beautiful blessings. How and why can this happen?  I don’t have the answers.

What I do know is that there are two powerful forces in the world: Love and Fear.

Love is the truth.

Fear is the illusion.

And once again we have a choice.

To choose Love and spread Love.

Or to choose Fear and spread Fear.

I vividly remember the night Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.  I was seven years old.  I sat in front of the television late into the night of April 4, 1968 and watched the replays of his speech from the night before, where he said he’d been to the mountaintop and seen the beauty of all God’s children living in peace, while adding that he might not make it there with us.

I’m stunned that in the 21st Century such unevolved fear, hatred and ignorance still exists.

All I know to do is to continue to choose Love over Fear.

And to continue to shine a light on the darkness of hatred, racism and ignorance.

God Bless those who were killed in Charleston last night.  And may comfort and peace ease the horror and pain of their families and friends.

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Filed Under: Love, Prayers Tagged With: Charleston, Charleston Shooting, Fear, Hate, Let Love Rule, Love, Prayers for Charleston, Racism

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