Recently, I had started to brush up on my knowledge of Eastern philosophy.  I was very bothered when I looked at my different Buddha statues and couldn't remember the names of each one.  During my studies, I was reminded of how Siddhartha Gautama went through all the different extremes of life, trying to find his comfort zone.  Indulgence, fasting, etc.  Nothing was working for him.  It was when he realized that sticking to one genre of living, or one extreme, wasn't the way to go.  Live in such a way that satisfies yourself, as well as staying conscious to the needs of those around you.  As Dave Matthews put it in the song JTR, "I saw God and the Devil dancing arm in arm."  Man, wouldn't that be nice? 

 It applies to my life in this way.  I'm tired of living in an extreme.  I have a few right-wing views, but that doesn't mean I have to be a fascist.  I see some things liberal, but I still think Obama is full of it.  One thing that I have always dealt with in my life is not being enough of something for the groups of people I hang out with.  I'm too bleeding-heart for the skinheads and I'm too hard-nosed for the liberals.  My definition of being open-minded is understanding why someone feels the way they do and having the will to listen to someone elses point of view, wether you agree with them or not. 

Accepting the fact that people are different.  It doesn't mean that you have to like them, but you have to understand that they are that way because they choose to be.  That's the way it's supposed to be.  Again, as Dave Matthews said "Some people do, some people don't.  Some people like to smoke a bowl and some people don't.  Some people do and others won't.  But that's okay.  That's the way it's supposed to be, you know."

My personal resolution:  I will no longer settle for an extreme.  I never really hated other races or creeds or religions.  They're alright by me.  But by the same token, I won't look down on a neo-nazi either.  It's just another belief and wether they choose to show love or not, we should not stoop down to their level by any means.  We should continue to embrace and love.  That's the lesson I have learned, anyway.  I learned it in high school when I realized that, even though I was made fun of for dressing in black, I was just as bad for using words like "prep" and "yuppie".  I was no better than they were. 

I implore everyone who reads this to please take it in for what it is.  We don't need to get anything in return.  Love cannot be wasted if it is given sincerely.  To give and then expect something in return is not giving at all.  As long as we did our part, then why worry?  We shouldn't pressure people to be a certain way.  Rather, we should just stand as examples.

Thanks, guys.