begin.
2010 or twentyten ? hum.

- and i write this at the risk of confusing any potential reader of my book
'kevin my military man'.
- the below is extraneous and 'off' topic to the subject matter in my story.

-11.52 am. [now 2:12 due to interruptions] u.s. east coast.
- initially i was going to leave it 'all' alone today.
- but then....as i finished picking up
- i lifted from a pile of scrappy papers that needed sorting and recycling, the yellow car pass to gillette stadium.
- i walked to the drafting table where our tickets to U2 9.21.2009 lived.
- i lifted 1 of the 2 masks of 'aung san suu kyi' and a chill ran up my spin.

- and it came 'front and center 'the reason why i am publishing'.
- the goodness in our world
- the potential to fix things for everyone now and for future generations
- the communication that is needed to facilitate this
- and to try and connect and link in with those already on this important 'band wagon' (a pun of sorts- that just ran out as i naturally typed this sentence yet it has double meaning here.)

- it does so now again (that chill) as i recall this minutes later.
- one of the paper masks was badly damaged and then i recalled more of the concert. during the song 'walk on', we were asked to lift up our masks. i looked down onto the floor. i have two hands and looked for a second mask to lift up high. the floor was scattered with masks and i gathered as many as possible and handed them to the people around me.
- i admit. i did not know anything about 'aung san suu kyi'.
- what i did know was that it was important to 'support this concept' - 'standing up for what is right etc.etc."
-
**
- i am 'not' a groupie and i have never been a groupie although i have been to 100+ concerts in my life (98 % of them before the age of 24). i want to make that clear.
- i waited patiently for a very long time.
- u2 tickets were 'out of our budget' while raising children.
- 'please don't get me anything for my birthday, etc.etc. when u2 comes around (again), i really want to go.' i said this for several years to my husband. i had never been to u2.
- friday afternoon 9.18.2009, my counter-part called to say 'they released tickets.
'i can get general admission or the side of the stage' ?
'do general admission on the floor. we stand up anyway.'
- late or so i thought, we enter the football stadium at the far end. stretched in front of us is a metal floor. only a hundred or so people are gathered near the front of the stage against the boundary to the inner circle'. we look at one another but don't say anything.
- we settle in front of the barracade but then i am alone.
- my cell phone rings; "walk to your left.'; 'what ?"; "walk to your left. keep walking to your left".
- i enter the 'inner circle'. 4 rows back from the stage.
- i engage in conversation with 2 young girls the age of my youngest child 19-20.
- how interesting this is. it is always interesting for me when i speak with young adults about the[ir] world.

- i admit that i did not know the 'new' songs. it didn't matter. i've felt it before - that unique energy that transcends an audience during a musical experience
- but this was different.
- maybe it was - because we were so close.
- probably not.

- it lasted for a few days. something.
- and it was also special that this entire thing took place unexpectedly and with my counterpart. we've been on that 'life wavelength' in our relationship.
- this did something - at least for me.

- not a frequent 'utube' user, i did take the time to listen to u2 songs during the next few days but almost immediately i came across the many, many 'interviews' that go all the way back to the late 1970's.
- and it hit me. i had always been connected....
- 'their philosophy'. 'not conforming' - (at least philosophically -
for the most part - but i understand the business word etc.etc.)
- and i understood 'this' instinctively.
- it held me up for years. not wanting to conform. we all conform in some way - to survive.


- amnesty, greenpeace, things i connected to from the beginning.
- do you know about data = [debt aids trade africa] ?
- that u2 (among *many other things*) raised conscienciousness about an economic and accounting problem that continues to contribute to subsevience for millions of people because 'interest payments' are so high.
- from the website one.org ....
- $93 billion of debt has been canceled in sub-Saharan African countries since 1996.
- 3.1 million more Tanzanian children enrolled in school after the government used its savings from 'debt relief' to eliminate school fees in 2001.
- .... among many other things that are facilitated, communicated and worked on....
- reading the utube comments - u2 touches people all over the world in a very 'spiritual' way.
- in their interviews, they discuss (from early on) how the audience is a part of the entire 'thing' for lack of the descriptive 'inclusive' word, and that 'they' are there for that reason.
- some sort of connection.
- the above is completely subjective and 'paraphrased' and not well-worded. i will edit this post and put up the real quotes at some point.

http://www.one.org/international/
- you should join one.org
- you don't have to give them money. just join the millions of who
'think about the future'. all you are doing is adding your name to a list.
- you will get an email - but 'not' too often. you will 'not' be solicited.
- you don't even have to read the emails but it will remind you that 'you are involved'.
- we can fix this !

[do not know where the below fits in but it where i started the post.

- it had to do with this small span of time whereby it didn't matter what a person's subjective feelings were about religion, politics, life, what is going on in the world - that for some reason people in the audience were connected for those couple of hours. (paraphrased from u2 and people who were interviewed.
- they 'called people out' on the same subjects that are still pending - still trying to defeat a sect of humanity. oh that sounds so political. i want to get off of that right now because i do 'not' want to get political.
- i am a humanitarian though.
- let me fix that comment. first of all, i have no right to 'put words in their [u2] mouths.'
- they are very 'diplomatic' and that has been my personal objective anyway and always.
- always to stop and think and put myself in the other person's shoes which really 'eliminates judgement'.
- but on the other hand - what is 'right is right' and what is 'wrong is wrong'.
-*this does indeed come out in 'kevin my military man'

okay - i 'absolutely' did not have any of this in mind when i started today but this is where i ended up. i know you care. i especially know that young adults care. all over the world.

all of the above from ** to here is a digression. so 'again ' back to where i started.
- minutes before i picked up the masks, i walked past the nativity scene in our bay window.
- a tradition that i have brought forth from my mother, camille.
- and i noticed the 'baby jesus'.
- whenever i think of the jesus and christianity - i always concern myself with 'turning off individuals on our planet that do not get it. of course that is because they were not born into christianity or what have you.
- and i worry about turning people off. but with 6.4 billion of us, some people connect and some do not; some connect about some things and do not connect about others. c'est la vie.
- that is fine with me. 'good and ethical people exist in all flavors and colors'.
- in my book, i try and integrate other cultures, religions, life styles to bring everyone in.
- christianity is just something that i was born into.
- and there is more for me to say.
- but in a very generic sense - i equate jesus with peace (or humility or compassion - or how about just down to earth tolerance and love)

- yesterday surya, a kind individual who works 'with' amazon, helped me (more on this but not today) and i cannot mention surya without mentioning a balance 'brandon' who helped last week....thanks again b.
- and i believe but i am uncertain that surya resides someplace in india.
- if i have this incorrect - no matter - it does not matter where he lives
- tav a main yet secondary character in my book is from india.
- i asked him what his name means and now i have looked it up. of course cross-referencing will give me options. SOOR-yah. unisex (used for males and females); sanskit for sun (or sun-god) and for that matter, i now understand why when i asked surya if he knew the meaning of his name - he passed by that question - i get why. do you ? why he did not respond - his humble being.

- and this about my yoga teacher; well one of them. i love them all. they are all so different.
- she went to india for one month this past autumn, and the culture shock took time to settle in.
- she didn't say much. then she said something positive.
- then a couple of weeks later, (she says interesting and truly 'honest to herself things' outloud anyway) she said out of nowhere 'i have fallen in love with jesus'.
- many of us quietly chuckled (although she was completely serious).
- we all know that she is jewish. she continued, 'i said that at the table and my father's eyebrows popped up'. ( i just paraphrased that sentence because i do not recall but it was something like that).
- and later she said 'what would jesus do ?'
- it made me think.
- it was proof that people are open-minded.
- it is a positive thing - that people are open-minded.
- i think that music, television, film, the internet and media in general contribute to this.

- so i will end this blog for today.
- it didn't much revolve around my book 'kevin my military man' but i am still trying to sort out the reason for a blog.
- at this point i will use it as further communication and a tool whereby the other ideas whether they be trivial or important come to mind.

- the reason that i have written 'kevin my military man' is because i am trying to communicate with other people. it is a love story. it is fun. it is true to life. it is deep seeded. dialogues represent those which do or may happen between young adults and their parents (surrogate parents, teachers, mentors) to help them through the thick forest of dilemma confounding our 21st century world.

- i do wish i were multilingual.
- how lucky those of you in the world are - to be able to communicate in more than one language.

peace and love and happy new years.
end.