Something Worth Dying For

I wasn't very inspired for the past weeks to come here and to give my best about anything. Maybe because I was to busy looking to, and feeling pitty about myself, maybe, maybe, maybe. Well, truth is, I got of track but now I am back. Yes, I am human to! And today I read a story that actually inspired me and that I'd like to share with you guys.

Main thing about it, stick to what is worth it and don't give to much atention to the rest.

Something Worth Dying For.


As Valentine's week draws to a close, my mind wanders to Nell and Jim Hamm, who in 2007 celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. A month before this milestone the couple decided to take a hike in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park situated in Northern California. There, on this walk, just days before their 50th wedding anniversary, Jim was attacked by a 200 pound, eight foot long mountain lion.


This lion, pouncing seemingly from the sky, pinned Jim to the ground. Nell, age 65, didn't even hear the animal. She turned to find Jim, 70 years young, underneath the lion with his head partially in the animal's mouth. "He didn't scream," Nell later said. "It was a different, horrible plea for help."


The next few minutes were a fight for life. It was seeing everything important to the couple flashing before their eyes. It was pain and blood and sweat but most of all, love. Nell could have run. She could have gone for help, but she didn't. There, before her was the most important thing in her life, something worth dying for.


With that in mind she reacted, grabbing a log and begun beating the animal. When that didn't work, she took a pen from Jim's pocket and tried to stab one of the eyes of the mountain lion. She poked until the pen was bent and unusable.then she picked up the log again and beat. She beat and beat.


It worked, the lion finally backed off. He looked at Nell one last time and disappeared into the foliage. Nell was afraid to leave her bleeding and dazed husband. She was able to move him about a quarter of a mile to a trail head where she covered him with branches, to protect against another attack then waited for help.


"She saved his life, there's no doubt about that" said a spokesman for the Department of Fish and Game. When asked if she was a hero however, Nell shook her head no. "You hear remarks of hero. It wasn't that. We love each other very much."


In that moment, Nell found one thing in her life worth dying for.she was willing to go toe to toe with a powerful animal and risk her own life for her husband and for their life together. And some do lay down their lives for powerful and positive purposes; some of these purposes are saving another, for our freedom, for a child.But dying for most of us isn't about literally wrestling mountain lions to free a loved one. Instead, dying might be confronting our fears and anxieties to help our loved one. Dying might be doing something we don't like, because he/she does. Or, dying might simply be biting our tongue instead of speaking out and hurting another's feelings.


Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. may have said it best, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Die a little today for something powerful and positive that is worth dying for.and in so doing save your life and another's along the way.


(Matt Forck)

Happy Valentine's week!

Be Yourself - From my book: "It's Not About How, It's About Now"

For the first post in 2012, and with the help of my dear friend Doris Kendrick to whom I dedicate this, I decided to cite one chapter of my book "It's Not About How, It's About Now" in witch I write about being the true self.

Never before I considered being truly yourself, always and everywhere, as important as I do it today. We are living in times where morals became as rare as the rarest of the diamonds. People live constantly in doubts about what they see and what they hear. We do not know  who we can trust and who not. Many don't even know if they can trust themselfes! 

So why don't we put a hold on all this and start within ourselfes ad re-discover the real person that lives in us. It doesn't matter if your neighbor joins you or not, important is that you do what you believe to be right and good for you. And if just one follows your lead, than the world has a true chance to become a better place.

I hope with this I could help making this first step a little easier.

"We all wear masks. Different masks for different people and different situations. The mask one wears at work is most likely very different from the mask one wears to a social event with old acquaintances, which is different from the mask they wear at a small gathering of close, intimate friends.

People wear masks to protect themselves from scrutiny and judgment – wondering inside “what would they think if they really knew me?” or “what would they think if they only knew the truth?”

 The masks people wear to protect themselves are like ‘personas’, that is, each mask carries with it a different personality style and a set of rules or behavioral parameters for what people think they can and can’t say, as well as, what they feel they should and shouldn’t do when in the presence of different groups or types of people. 

We wear masks because we all want to be and feel accepted by others – belonging is a very strong and basic human need. In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, it falls right in between Personal Safety and Self-Esteem.

Wearing different masks for different situations (using different sets of rules for different groups of people) can seem like a sensible approach – it’s playing it safe to avoid being judged, hurt or even losing the acceptance of others. It’s what people call being “appropriate”.

Being appropriate may have saved someone from judgment but it never brought anyone lasting happiness.

We, as unique individuals, are embedded in the paradox of “being & expressing our true selves” and “fitting in” to a system of other individuals and groups of people. If we consider Maslow’s Hierarchy again, for most people, fitting in & belonging and having the respect of others is more important than having respect for ourselves and high self esteem.

Though people wear masks to protect themselves, most of the time they’re not even aware that they’re actually hiding from the world. In the end, wearing too many masks too much of the time will do more harm than good to a person’s self esteem.

There’s another paradox – on the one hand they’re trying to protect themselves but they’re really hurting their true selves on the other.

It takes massive amounts of personal energy to keep wearing those masks – it can drain you to your core and deplete your very life essence to incessantly hide, censor and even lie to others about who you really are, what you really think, how you really feel and what you’re really like in the good times and the bad. Hiding yourself just to belong, causes much suffering in the form of loneliness and feelings of isolation, which further perpetuates putting on a brave face (another mask) and a fake smile (yet another mask).

Authentic, genuine, people might still wear a mask once in a while but they have fewer of them and they wear them less often than inauthentic, so-called ‘appropriate’ people. They ‘show up’ as their true selves, warts and all, wherever they go and whomever they’re with. They are being themselves.

At first, it takes great courage to make the decision to be yourself and to start shedding those masks, one by one. It can feel like you’re walking around naked in the middle of a battle where everyone else is covered from head to toe with body armor, a full head mask and multiple weapons. You will feel vulnerable, a word that most people, especially men, can’t handle very well.

It takes a higher form of self esteem and confidence to share your true thoughts and feelings, your fears and failures. But for some people that’s easier than sharing their successes and their true greatness because they believe that that might threaten others if they speak highly of themselves, as it bears the risk of being judged and losing acceptance. This reminds me of a famous passage by Marianne Williamson (author of “A Course in Miracles”):

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

That still gives me shivers every time I read it.

Being authentic means you are being yourself at the very deepest possible level – the level of true spirit. Your mindset, your behaviors or actions, your ways of being in the world are guided by your true nature, not by the dictates and rules of society or the particular group or individual you are with at the time. Your true nature, who you really are, is calm and relaxed but so alive at the same time. You are honest with yourself and with others. You have personal integrity and you honor your true self, your inner spirit.

There comes a time in people’s lives when they begin to value how they feel about themselves more than they value what others think of them; where they value self respect more than the respect or acceptance of others. There is an astonishing power and sense of freedom and lightness that comes from being authentic. It is so powerful and fulfilling that after a while, being ‘real’ is the only option worth considering.

When you are authentic everything in life gets easier!

The first step to being yourself is to know yourself and that means increasing your level of self-awareness. Knowing yourself means being, first and foremost, honest with your ‘self’ without self-judgment and condemnation.

Be a passive observer of your life. Reflect on how you are, or better said ‘who you are’ in different situations with different types of people. When do you feel more ‘yourself’ and when do you feel like you need to put on a mask? Questions like these spark reflection, which then increases self-awareness.

That covers who you have been being but who are you really and how do you get to know your self better?

There are many ways to get to know yourself and it is primarily an inside job, that is, only you can really decide for yourself who you are. However, the process or approach to discovering who you really are will be mix of internal and external evaluation. Ultimately, it’s all about CHOICE – choosing who you want to be from now on. (I know I am repeating myself a little, but truly this is all what it is about, and we cannot hear it enough!)

The ultimate inner work is to decide for yourself who you want to be because it feels right. Choose to be yourself and begin to play and experiment in your life each day by taking off one mask at a time and showing up as your true self more often.

And lastly, enjoy your ‘self’!

True, I still wear masks sometimes, and with all, I still believe that once in a while a little protection can be adequate. But most of the times I manage to be all me. By doing this, again, I came one more step closer (step five) to my goal - unconditional happiness!"

Happy New Year!

All my friends, friends of friends, family, more friends

and the rest of the World - best 2012!

Back to the Past

For those of you who read my blog, it is no news that my father was a diplomat. What this means is basically that every couple of years we moved - to another country.

From 1974 to 1978 it was the turn of Argentina, Buenos Aires to be more specific. As soon as we got there I was enrolled into the German school named by the great Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. At that time I had no idea, that the following years would be probably the most important years of my teenage life. But this is not what I want to talk about today.

I left Buenos Aires December 1978, a little after the Soccer World Cup that the Argentineans won. I left behind a bunch of people I call friends, a special friend I called girlfriend, my heart, took with me tons of wonderful memories and the certainty that I would be coming back to visit as often as I could.

Well, it took me 33 years to come back and I could only stay for a few hours, and that, is what I will tell you about now.

The past December 17th was a class reunion to celebrate 30 years of our graduation. It was not the first meeting ex-students organized, but definitely a very memorable one. So, no matter what, I had to be part of it.

The very same day my daughters were having their farewell party at school. Another event I couldn't miss. So I organized myself, made all the necessary arrangements, planed every detail:

09:00 h (Friday) take kids to school for final rehearsal

10:00 h beginning of event

12:00 h end

13:00 h back home for lunch

15:00 h take kids to a friends birthdays party and double check that the mother will pick  

            them up the next day (it was a sleepover)

15:30 h cab to bus station to take the shuttle bus to airport

17:30 h arrive at airport - check in

19:30 h in aircraft departing to Argentina

22:00 h arrive at Aeroparque Airport in Buenos Aires

22:30 h cab to hotel

23:00 h check in at hotel, shower, dinner, get some rest

10:00 h (Saturday) meeting with classmates at school - depart to destination "Party"

19:00 h back to airport - check in

21:30 h in plane back to Rio de Janeiro

01:50 h (Sunday) back home - day over

It would have been a great day, no stress, everything fine ... ... if it wasn't for Murphy!

Things started to get weird the moment I left my kids at their friend's home. Heaven's gates were opened and tons of water pored down on us. Traffic immediately stopped, as usual when it rains in Rio, and there was nowhere to go. If I had decided to swim to the airport, I believe that I would have made it a lot faster. Anyways, I arrived at the airport at exactly 19:00 h, worried that I might not make check in on time, but ... ... Murphy did his job here to. My flight was 2 h delayed.

So I went and had some chicken for dinner, sat in the lobby and watched a movie on my laptop until it was my time to board.

Flight was great, no details other than that we arrived the same 2 hours late in Buenos Aires. No big deal I thought and took a cab to my hotel - I had made my reservation 2 days earlier and so I was set. Stop right there! All set if it wasn't for ... yes, Murphy!

My hotel was actually no hotel at all, it was a pension and at 02 o'clock in the morning it was already locked and no one answered the door anymore. Sh....

Well I thought, on my way we passed a few other hotels in the same area so I decided simply to check into another place ... ... ... No vacancy! None ... at all!!!

It was already 03:00 h, me on the street, nowhere to go other than the school to meet my friends, but still plenty of time to get there. So I started walking.

I walked down Carranza to Av. Sta. Fe, turned left and walked, walked. Sta. Fe changed to Cabildo. When I arrived at Belgrano I got thirsty. So I stopped at some "cage" yes, actually a cage in which was a little shop and a person selling stuff. Sweets, beverages, and other things. I got a bottle of water and since I wasn't so sure I asked for directions to San Isidro. "Well," the lady said "you need to get the 628 bus and ...." - "Nono, I said, I am on food!" 

After she recovered from the shock she tried to explain that it was quite a walk, but I made her understand that I had plenty of time to get there. So, she told me just to keep walking. I'd get there. And so I did.

Nuñes, underneath Av. Gral Paz when Cabildo changed into Av. Maipu, and I kept walking. Passing a few Night Clubs, a lot of drunken people, a few more of them cages with people selling beverages, and so on.

When I got to La Lucila I started feeling my feet. I was wondering how far I got and how far I still had to go. I had no map and no idea where I was. I knew though, I had to go to San Isidro and from there I'd ask my way through. 

It began to clear. Wow I thought, sunrise in Buenos Aires, great! 

One thing I noticed different from a night in Rio de Janeiro. These kids here smoke a hell lot more than our kids in Brazil. And they cry definitely more to. I believe I saw at least half a dozen girls, pretty drunken girls, wining out loud sitting on the sidewalk and their drunken friends standing around bitching about some dude. Not all together but at least one per Night Club I passed. Strange folks here.

Martinez. Finally, I started to remember. I've been here before, I knew that. I stopped at a Fire Station and talked to a fireman standing in front. I asked him for directions and again, well, I explained that I already was walking for so long, I wouldn't matter to keep going for the rest. I am pretty sure that he was very tempted to lock me down and to call a shrink, but ... well. 

Street name changed back to Av. Sta Fe and I was told to walk to Marquez and than turn left and, yeah, take the bus ... but I walked. I walked Marquez to Monroe and than I sat down, the first time after I started my matinee walk, and had a cup of coffee. The worst coffee I ever had in my entire life. It was around 6 o'clock. 

So I walked Monroe to Sucre and than left into Blanco Encalada. Hey!!! Almost there. At a very bad signed intersection though I took the wrong turn. I stood at the wrong side of the highway, walked a few blocks until I finally found someone who pointed me back into the right direction. Soon I found Blanco Encalada again, this time on the right side and, yeah, only somewhat 20 blocks to go.

It was around 08:30 in the morning when I finally arrived. To the very surprise of the doorman, that couldn't actually believe that someone came so early to a meeting scheduled for 10 am. We became friends. Laughed a little over my story, talked about cars. I went to a little mall kind of thing on the other side of the road and had another coffee and a sandwich. 

10:30 the first, well, second one arrived and shortly after the rest of the gang. 

It was a great day. A wonderful reunion. A great feeling to see all these wonderful people again, after so many years. It was worth every single step I made and I’d do it anytime again.

I took my plane back to Brazil at scheduled time. Arrived home tired but very happy. And once again, I left back people I call friends, my heart and took with me tons of new impressions and memories.

By the way, I checked the map. I walked aproximately 21km that night. No wonder my feet hurt!

I Hope I didn't Miss Any - HoHoHo ... ... ...

Afrikaans	Gesëende Kersfees
Afrikander	Een Plesierige Kerfees
African/ Eritrean/ Tigrinja	Rehus-Beal-Ledeats
Albanian	Gezur Krislinjden
Arabic:	Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah
Argentine:	Feliz Navidad
Armenian:	Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand
Azeri:	Tezze Iliniz Yahsi Olsun
Bahasa Malaysia:	Selamat Hari Natal
Basque:	Zorionak eta Urte Berri On!
Bengali:	Shuvo Naba Barsha
Bohemian:	Vesele Vanoce
Brazilian:	Boas Festas e Feliz Ano Novo
Breton:	Nedeleg laouen na bloavezh mat
Bulgarian:	Tchestita Koleda; Tchestito Rojdestvo Hristovo
Catalan:	Bon Nadal i un Bon Any Nou!
Chile:	Feliz Navidad
Chinese: (Cantonese)	Gun Tso Sun Tan'Gung Haw Sun
Chinese: (Mandarin)	Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan
Choctaw:	Yukpa, Nitak Hollo Chito
Columbia:	Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo
Cornish:	Nadelik looan na looan blethen noweth
Corsian:	Pace e salute
Crazanian:	Rot Yikji Dol La Roo
Cree:	Mitho Makosi Kesikansi
Croatian:	Sretan Bozic
Czech:	Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce a stastny Novy Rok
Danish:	Glædelig Jul
Duri:	Christmas-e- Shoma Mobarak
Dutch:	Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar! or Zalig Kerstfeast
English:	Merry Christmas
Eskimo: (inupik)	Jutdlime pivdluarit ukiortame pivdluaritlo!
Esperanto:	Gajan Kristnaskon
Estonian:	Ruumsaid juulup|hi
Faeroese:	Gledhilig jol og eydnurikt nyggjar!
Farsi:	Cristmas-e-shoma mobarak bashad
Finnish:	Hyvaa joulua
Flemish:	Zalig Kerstfeest en Gelukkig nieuw jaar
French:	Joyeux Noel
Frisian:	Noflike Krystdagen en in protte Lok en Seine yn it Nije Jier!
Galician:	Bo Nada
Gaelic:	Nollaig chridheil agus Bliadhna mhath ùr!
German:	Froehliche Weihnachten
Greek:	Kala Christouyenna!
Hausa:	Barka da Kirsimatikuma Barka da Sabuwar Shekara!
Hawaiian:	Mele Kalikimaka
Hebrew:	Mo'adim Lesimkha. Chena tova
Hindi:	Shub Naya Baras
Hausa:	Barka da Kirsimatikuma Barka da Sabuwar Shekara!
Hawaian:	Mele Kalikimaka ame Hauoli Makahiki Hou!
Hungarian:	Kellemes Karacsonyi unnepeket
Icelandic:	Gledileg Jol
Indonesian:	Selamat Hari Natal
Iraqi:	Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah
Irish:	Nollaig Shona Dhuit or Nodlaig mhaith chugnat
Iroquois:	Ojenyunyat Sungwiyadeson honungradon nagwutut. Ojenyunyat osrasay.
Italian:	Buone Feste Natalizie
Japanese:	Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto
Jiberish:	Mithag Crithagsigathmithags
Korean:	Sung Tan Chuk Ha
Latin:	Natale hilare et Annum Faustum!
Latvian:	Prieci'gus Ziemsve'tkus un Laimi'gu Jauno Gadu!
Lausitzian:	Wjesole hody a strowe nowe leto
Lettish:	Priecigus Ziemassvetkus
Lithuanian:	Linksmu Kaledu
Low Saxon:	Heughliche Winachten un 'n moi Nijaar
Macedonian:	Sreken Bozhik
Maltese:	IL-Milied It-tajjeb
Manx:	Nollick ghennal as blein vie noa
Maori:	Meri Kirihimete
Marathi:	Shub Naya Varsh
Navajo:	Merry Keshmish
Norwegian:	God Jul or Gledelig Jul
Occitan:	Pulit nadal e bona annado
Papiamento:	Bon Pasco
Papua New Guinea:	Bikpela hamamas blong dispela Krismas na Nupela yia i go long yu
Pennsylvania German:	En frehlicher Grischtdaag un en hallich Nei Yaahr!
Peru:	Feliz Navidad y un Venturoso Año Nuevo
Philipines:	Maligayan Pasko!
Polish:	Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia or Boze Narodzenie
Portuguese:	Feliz Natal
Pushto:	Christmas Aao Ne-way Kaal Mo Mobarak Sha
Rapa-Nui (Easter Island):	Mata-Ki-Te-Rangi. Te-Pito-O-Te-Henua
Rhetian:	Bellas festas da nadal e bun onn
Romanche (sursilvan dialect):	Legreivlas fiastas da Nadal e bien niev onn!
Rumanian:	Sarbatori vesele
Russian:	Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva is Novim Godom
Sami:	Buorrit Juovllat
Samoan:	La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou
Sardinian:	Bonu nadale e prosperu annu nou
Serbian:	Hristos se rodi
Slovakian:	Sretan Bozic or Vesele vianoce
Sami:	Buorrit Juovllat
Samoan:	La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou
Scots Gaelic:	Nollaig chridheil huibh
Serb-Croatian:	Sretam Bozic. Vesela Nova Godina
Serbian:	Hristos se rodi.
Singhalese:	Subha nath thalak Vewa. Subha Aluth Awrudhak Vewa
Slovak:	Vesele Vianoce. A stastlivy Novy Rok
Slovene:	Vesele Bozicne. Screcno Novo Leto
Spanish:	Feliz Navidad
Swedish:	God Jul and (Och) Ett Gott Nytt År
Tagalog:	Maligayamg Pasko. Masaganang Bagong Taon
Tami:	Nathar Puthu Varuda Valthukkal
Trukeese:	(Micronesian) Neekiriisimas annim oo iyer seefe feyiyeech!
Thai:	Sawadee Pee Mai
Turkish:	Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun
Ukrainian:	Srozhdestvom Kristovym
Urdu:	Naya Saal Mubarak Ho
Vietnamese:	Chung Mung Giang Sinh
Welsh:	Nadolig Llawen
Yugoslavian:	Cestitamo Bozic
Yoruba:	E ku odun, e ku iye'dun!

Thoughts

December! Again. Christmas knocking at the door, people always in a hurry to get things done before the holydays ... holy  days ... Do you still remember what that means?

Since I am not here to criticize or condemn anyone, the only thing I'd like to do is to bring back to our consciousness what it means to actually be able to read this post.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep... you are richer than 75% of this world (7 billion by now).

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace... you are among the top 8% of the worlds wealthy.

If you woke up this morning with good health you are more fortunate than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle unfolding all around you, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation... you are ahead 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church meeting without fear of persecution, harassment, arrest, torture, or death... you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If your parents are still alive and still married...you are very rare.

If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.

So, instead of wining over the psp you did not get, the vacation you have to postpone, or the new car that just won't come, thing about how fortunate you actually are and give thanks. Doesn't matter to whom, just be thankful. You might be surprised how this can make your life better.

Have a great holy season, love to you all

Robert F. Ziehe

Resistance

Due to my - again - long absent here, I will provide you today with what I believe, being a great piece of literature. In a very easy and light way the author teaches us a valuable lesson for life. When I first read it I immediately fell in love with these words.

Well, read for yourselves!

"No person, ideal or institution becomes great until Great Resistance has been encountered. Greatness cannot be achieved until this concept is understood.

Unfortunately, the average person is ignorant of this rule to achievement. Mr. and Miss Average, in their ignorance, are fearful and reluctant to encounter even slight resistance. They don't want to make waves or be criticized and they incorrectly feel that criticism will hold them back and prevent their happiness from being realized. In truth, the opposite is the case.

Take note: when we begin to change our jobs, we are first given resistance by our loved ones, for they fear change because change means facing the unknown! When we begin to make rapid achievement or commitment to rapid progress, we have road blocks thrown up by our friends and relations. They begin to resist by negative comments and actions which are devices to cause you to maintain the 'status quo'.

Now, if you are to achieve great progress, you must prevail against those closest to you; this is difficult and requires courage because you desire to please and not hurt those you love. The truth is that great harm befalls your loved ones when you fail to be yourself and do your thing. This is so, because you lose your enthusiasm for life, your growth process stops and your self-esteem diminishes.

Those negatives are revered when you stand your ground; and when you have prevailed, your loved ones gain a new and higher respect for you. History records countless events which prove the point. For an example, the greatest of all men overcame the most severe form of resistance and in so doing gave birth to Christianity. Had Jesus Christ run from His opposition, we would not know His name today, nor would we have available for our use those great and wonderful truths He brought forth for us so that humanity could find their individual greatness.

Furthermore, Christianity met "its" greatest resistance in Rome. Thousands of Christians were crucified in Rome. This resistance was met and in so doing, gave life to the force of Christianity, and Rome became the center of all Christianity - now, and for the past 1700 years, Rome has remained the very center of the Christian world.

Let these great lessons of the past stay in our mind as a beacon in our personal and corporate future. Let us understand and be grateful that our ideas have proven worthy of tremendous resistance. Today, all over the world, great forces have risen to resist our growth. These forces fear us for what we represent and they are attempting to destroy us and our dreams. Our understanding of this phenomenon and our strength of character and our commitment to our way of life is prevailing over these forces which have risen up. We are fortunate to have such great resistance. This resistance is evidence of our greatness and it provides us with the energy to prevail, to conquer and to dominate. These next few short years will record a brilliant history and establish a permanent place for our way of life - which is Freedom to be and to work out our dreams for a great world, for ourselves, for children and all humankind.

Understand our battle and be glorified that you are a part of the making of history. The work you do today in the defense of our way will provide new freedom and hope for millions yet to come. Stand tall in the face of our enemy...your resolution and commitment will seize his heart with fear and he will fade into oblivion.

AND THAT IS THE LAW OF LIFE."

It was written by the late William Penn Patrick in approximately 1970