It's a beautiful day today in my part of the world.  The birds are in full nesting mode and I suspect I will soon have a family nesting on the eve, right near my bedroom window.  I hope so.  I'd love to listen to them as they grow and it is a relatively safe place from my cats.

I've been thinking about what it means to have connections with others.  Most of my connections are on the internet.  I have one person from Italy whose artwork and words I really enjoy.  Another friend I have not met lives in Germany.  There are a number of good folks from Canada, Russia, Italy, South Africa, Australia, New Zeland, and from my own country as well.  This slight, tenuous web of friendship is multiplied over and over again, in millions of homes, in millions of hearts.  And although my web is small and fragile, millions of webs together become very strong.

I am hopeful, because of the internet.  As we reach out to one another more and more, we get to know each other better and it becomes more difficult to demonize each other.

 I note that a lot of countries (especially my own) are beginning to try to control the net.  I can understand why.  It is very powerful.  If I have friends in china, for instance, it becomes more difficult to see them as enemies.  Thus it becomes more difficult to persuade me to go to war with them.  I do not think it is coincidental that right now my country has the worst relations with countries where the internet is not common.  It is easier for the Powers that Be when the enemy is faceless and unknown.

Perhaps one road to world peace is that everyone, everywhere has access to the internet.

i believe knowing one another is the solution, not the problem.

May all of us live in Peace with one another.