Object 1

Object 2

Reproduction of any portion of this book,

except for use in a review is expressly forbidden
without previous approval in writing from the publisher
Copyright by June Stepansky
A Different Voice publishing Co.
Woodland Hills, CA 91367
adifferentvoice@live.com

The world is my country

All mankind are my brethren
To do good is my religion.
Thomas Paine

CONTENTS
The unexamined life
Freedom of speech in a diverse world
An open letter to religious leaders
An open letter to people in power
A new view of crime and punishment
Tolerancea significant word
Just opinionsGreed
Interview about success, happiness and a more meaningful life
An open letter about media and influence
About our imperfections
Reflections on life and death
Guidelines for all religions and all people of good will
About men
About women
Personal responsibilities
The complexities of sex
About parents and children
An open letter to young people
Appreciating the complexities of the universe
Random thoughts of war
A vision of Eutopia

THE UNEXAMINED LIFE

In 399 BC Socrates, a Greek philosopher spoke these words The unexamined life is
not worth living. These words are just as true today as they were those many
centuries ago.
Why was it so difficult then and still is so hard today to look at our lives and our
world with a critical eye? It is difficult because what we find when we examine
things too closely is that much that is happening to us is not what we had hoped our
lives would be and when we acknowledge that truth, we must then make an effort to
either accept and adjust to harsh realities or to begin to make possible changes both
difficult alternatives.
A more common choice that many people make is to escape thinking too much about
what is happening to them or their world by masking their problems with all sorts of
available drugs--constant new experiences, tranquilizers, food addictions, current
fashionable drug and liquor choices which ultimately do not solve problems, but
rather become harmful addictions in themselves and complicate their lives even
further.
How is it possible to change this harmful cycle?
The first truth we must learn is that there has never been an easy road to change. We
have become the individual that we are today because of many influences both from
inborn tendencies and from past negative and positive experiences. If some trait that
we carry from the past is no longer working for us, we must have the courage to look
at it with a critical eye and make the necessary changes. We must make sure that each
day and each week and each month has some sort of balance between responsibility
and relaxation. This balance is an essential component of a happier life. We must also
re-evaluate our relationships so that most of them give us a sense of satisfaction. If
we need professional help to make all of these changes, we are lucky to live in a time
when such help is readily available. When we strive to make our lives happier, we
also become more aware of our world and its impact on our lives and consequently
want to try to make it a better and happier place, because what happens in our
community and our world does impact our happiness.
The examined life is ultimately a happier, more creative life which helps us function
both personally and socially in a more loving way and which ultimately benefits not
only ourselves, but our families, our communities, and ultimately our world.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN A DIVERSE WORLD

Voltaire (16941778) said, I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend
to the death your right to say it.
That statement made so long ago is more timely than ever.
As our country and our world becomes more diverse as to political, religious, ethnic
and racial values, it will be increasingly important that all of us have a high tolerance
for differences of opinions, because it is likely that we may differ from our neighbors
as to values, clothes, behavior, relationships.
It is also important that while we must allow all diverse opinions to freely be
expressed. We must not allow any political, religious, ethnic, or racial group to dictate
to everyone else their truth. A free society allows every person to follow the
dictates of his conscience, but not to impose them on others. This means that we will
all need to compromise our truths when they are in conflict with other peoples
truths. It means that no one is above the secular laws of the land in which they have
chosen to live. If the laws are not considered fair, in a free society we all have the
power to work to change those laws.
As in all good families and societies, communication and compromise are the key to
good relationships.
Our best hope in a diverse country and world, is that we all learn from each other, just
as we have learned to enrich our cuisine with spaghetti, chop-suey, French onion
soup, sushiall the good diverse foods of the world, so too can we enrich our lives
with new ways of living by taking the best of each culture and perhaps making them
our very own.

AN OPEN LETTER TO RELIGIOUS LEADERS

Primitive groups millions of year ago began religious practices in response to their
fear of the unknown and often terrifying world in which they lived, and to try to
understand the mysterious forces of the universe which surrounded them and
impacted their lives.
In the ensuing centuries, a great variety of religions appeared. There were some that
worshiped the sun and the moon. Their were some that called for human sacrifices.
There were some that worshiped a large number of deities and some that worshiped
only one. Many of these religions no longer exist as part of our lives and have been
replaced by more modern versions.
Although all religions have at their core a spiritual and social base, the history of the
interaction between religious groups has been one of violence and bloodshed.
We are now at a time in world history that calls for more tolerance and dialogue,
because mans weaponry can now easily poison and destroy our world. Religious
leaders of all religions must come together to recognize what common bonds they
share and emphasize those bonds of family, honesty, social unity etc. which are part
of all religions. Religious leaders must insist that their followers allow freedom of
worship to all religions and freedom from coercion to conform to any particular value
system.
They must emphasize the separation of church and state in all countries. The goal is
that every person have freedom to worship as their conscience dictates in a country
which is tolerant and respects all rights.
Religious leaders, if they desire, can begin to change our world into one of cooperation and harmony.
Isnt that the goal of all loving human beings?

AN OPEN LETTER TO PEOPLE IN POWER

Any mans death diminishes me

because I am involved in Mankind.

John Donne

From the beginning of time when the first group of humans walked on the earth so
many millions of years ago, the strongest tribe conquered their weaker neighbors and
showed them no mercy. They took all their possessions and subsequently killed or
enslaved everyone in the group.
Even in more civilized times, landowners or factory owners of all countries used their
workers and slaves without regard to their welfare.
As more people became educated, they became aware of the inequity between the
different classes and began to demand better conditions for those individuals who had
no rights.
The earth is now at an important crossroad in its history. In a nuclear age, we must
think carefully which philosophy we want to follow. Will we follow the idea that the
strong will continue to exploit and subdue the weak, leading to more poverty,
continual war and possible complete annihilation, or will we begin to see that all men
want to live with security and dignity and begin to devise new ways to make this
possible.
Already a few powerful men are beginning to try make a difference . Men like Bill
Clinton, Ted Turner, Bill Gates and Sir Richard Branson are sharing their resources to
help all people regardless of country, race or religion to live better lives.
Let us hope that this will be a signal to other great- hearted powerful individuals and
to all leaders of powerful countries which will take us in a new direction, and which
will give to all children a new chance for happiness and for hope.

A NEW VIEW OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Whether we live in poor areas or more affluent environments, we are all affected by
the crime around us and the fear it engenders in all of us.
Long ago people viewed crime in a more simplistic way. There were good people and
bad people and the bad people needed to be punished and crime would then
disappear. That has not happened. When bad people are punished they do not
ordinarily stop being criminals.
New information has taught us about the relationship of cause and effect. There is
still a dialogue going on about nurture verses nature, but no authority will deny that
poverty, environment, bad parenting have a large role in producing individuals who
have lost any hope that they can survive as productive citizens of our society.
According to current statistics, it costs between $20,000 and $30,000 a year to keep
one prisoner in jail. How much better it would be to spend that money on
preventative measures like better counseling, better recreational facilities, better
parenting classes and better job training programs for young people who are at risk.
For those people who are already in prison and will one day be paroled, wouldn't it be
wiser to give them counseling and job training and get them ready to live
productively instead of warehousing and punishing them and then throwing them
back on the streets to become a danger to us again?
We must change our own view of this underbelly of society. These are people who,
because of the circumstances of their lives, are not able to make a living, who cannot
control their emotions or who feel a sense of hopelessness. Instead of taking revenge,
we must begin to find the cure for this disease and treat this like any other chronic
illness with tolerance and understanding and wise life-changing programs.
By doing these things, we will perhaps begin to make some inroads on the problems
of crime, drug addiction, family violence and insure a future of healthier families,
safer communities and ultimately more hope for us all.

TOLERANCE-- A VERY SIGNIFICANT WORD

Helen Keller wrote, "The highest result of education is tolerance"
A significant word
is tolerance
We must find in our hearts
our own truth,
and allow the same
freedom of discovery
to others.
Many loving truths
live in diverse hearts.
The only imperative
is to try to find the truth
in one loving heart
our own.

There are many truths in the world which lead to the development of
loving hearts. Each thinking individual must ultimately find his own path
to wholeness.
What we can, however, seek to accomplish is to try to implement and
ensure an open society that will allow the free and easy exchange of all
information, and then trust that individuals given open access to all ideas
will make loving choices, whether those choices be political, religious or
social, that will ultimately benefit us all.

JUST OPINIONS--GREED
Greed is Good !--from the movie Wall Street
More than 2000 years ago the wise and famous scholar Hillel wrote If I am not for
myself who will be for me. If I am only for myself, what am I?
Recently there have been people and corporations in the news who have been only for
themselves with no regard for the damage their greed has done to others. This list
includes schemers like Madoff, many bankers, unscrupulous insurance companies,
dictators, politicians whose only goal is to accumulate vast amounts of money. For
these groups of people it is no longer about being more secure or supporting ones
family. Its about unlimited accumulation. Greed is rapidly becoming an illness and
an addiction as deadly as drugs.
If this were an individual addiction we would not need to examine so closely what is
happening, but when so many of these individuals and large corporations steal money
that rightfully belongs to other people then it becomes legalized theft. We all can see
how someone like Madoff stole from others, but it is harder to determine when
insurance companies charge higher premiums than they should or bankers higher
rates than they should or when politicians take money from corporations to vote for
legislation which denies ordinary citizens their lawful rights. These individual and
corporate actions are just as much a theft as a criminal robbing a bank. When a
dictator or leader steals from his people, more money than he will ever be able to use
in many lifetimes, than we need to look at what drives these greedy people to do what
they do.
Why do these enormously rich people continue to steal? There is a subconscious
drive that impels them to search for more and more power to enhance their worth in
the eyes of others. Often it is the only way that they can feel admired and loved and
this neurotic need often originates in an underlying feeling of low self-esteem.
Corporate stealing is all about making the most money thats possible without regard
to injuries this may cause to others. Even our own societal values contribute to these
neurotic drives of individuals and corporations for more power and money because
most of us still admire and pay homage to those who are rich, and we dont always
question or care about how they earned it. So we too become a part of this worldwide illness.
How can we begin to curb these greedy people from stealing from us all? We must of
course watch them much more carefully and hold those who steal to a higher
accountability. We must also build a new value system that does not admire those
who become rich at the expense of others.
How different the world would be for all of us if the following wise words became
the universal mantra for a better and more just society--- If I am not for myself who

will be for me. If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?

INTERVIEW ABOUT SUCCESS, HAPPINESS

AND A MORE MEANINGFUL LIFE
The following is an interview featuring June Stepansky--poet, writer
From your perspective what is the most important key to achieving personal
success?
Before this question can be answered, we must define what we mean by personal
success. Many of us equate personal success with power and financial success, and
indeed we must have enough self-esteem and enough financial security in our lives to
feel confident that we are meeting our necessary responsibilities, but in my definition
of personal success we must view our lives in all of its varied aspects. That means
attention must be paid not only to our work and our careers, but also to our personal
needs--health, recreation, personal relationships and growth. In today's fast paced
environment, this takes a special commitment to dedicate ourselves to planning and
balance.
What are the common barriers that block a person from achieving success?
Again we must define which type of success we are seeking, because the two separate
definitions of success demand different strategies and follow different paths.
Financial and career success demand that we learn to work hard, pick ourselves up
from our failures and continue to constantly do what is necessary to move forward
toward our goals, making success the first priority in our lives. If we make this choice
then we can be confident that we will eventually succeed.
Success in one's personal life has a different path. Our own private needs and our
personal relationships must then become part of our decision making process. These
more personal decisions may take time and energy away from our drive toward our
financial and career success. Each person must make his own decision as how to
continue to move forward, but each decision that is made has its consequences. If we

choose career success at any cost then the personal side of our lives may suffer. If we
choose our personal success path, then we may make less money and feel perhaps a
lesser sense of achievement in our careers.
Therefore the barrier to achieving success is really our own conflict about these
choices, and the difficulty in deciding what our choices should be. Once we make our
decisions, we can then move quickly toward our selected goals.
What are the keys to effective goal setting?
There are two ways that we set our goals. One is outer driven and one is inner driven.
The outer driven goals are the goals that others set for us. They may be set by our
friends, our neighbors, the society in which we live or the prevailing values of our
time.
The second way we discover our goals is inner driven. It is an internal system which
show us what we would like to personally achieve. It is this inner voice that whispers
to us who we are and how we can achieve our unique potential.
Before we can achieve our goals we must know ourselves well enough to know what
goals we want to achieve, and be sure they are our own goals and not the goals that
others have set for us. When we know what we really want to accomplish, it is then
easier to take those steps which help us to achieve those goals.
What 2-3 core "things" do you believe are part of living an extraordinary life?
For me the extraordinary life is not so much about what a person achieves or what
others think of him, but rather how he views his own life and his own achievements
in terms of his loving relationships and his competence in adjusting to the difficult
demands of living with strength and with dignity, so that he can say when he looks
back over the passing years "I have been grateful for the gift of life. I have tried to
continue to learn and grow. I have tried to have the courage to follow my internal
honesty."This more examined life is an extraordinary life because it leads to more
balance, more contentment and to the fulfillment of each individual's personal vision.
What has life taught you that you would like to share with others?
Life is a marvelous, continuing journey. Every day is a challenging adventure with
opportunities for new insights, growth and change. With thoughtful planning and
good decision making skills we are more able to have some control over our days and

to achieve that ultimate goal of leading happier, more fulfilled lives.

AN OPEN LETTER ABOUT MEDIA AND INFLUENCE

We are fortunate to live in a country and at a time when we have almost unlimited
access to information--political, social and personal through many TV and radio
outlets, through newspapers and through the internet. What many of us dont always
take the time to realize is that all of these outlets are businesses who have owners and
motives and agendas of their own which do not always reflect truth. These businesses
also have advertisers who ultimately have their own agenda which could compromise
the objectivity of reporting what is true.

How then can we decide that the source of our information is truthful and reliable?
We probably cant, unless we know who owns the outlet and understand their
motives. The other way to seek the truth is to get our information from as many
different sources with diverse opinions as possible and then sift through all the
different opinions and make an informed judgment
.
This may seem like too much of an effort for most of us. Is it really important that we
do this? It is one of the most important things that we will ever do . If we dont make
the effort to be thoroughly informed, unscrupulous individuals will be able to bend
us through emotional or intellectual manipulation to become their puppets for
carrying out their ideals. That is how countries ultimately lose their freedoms.

It will take the awareness of all of us that there will always be unscrupulous
individuals who will try to manipulate our thinking, if we allow them to do it. A truly
informed electorate is the one way that we will always be able to know the truth of
any given situation and the only way that we will continue to retain our precious
freedom of thought and action in a continuing free society.

ABOUT OUR IMPERFECTIONS

Plutarch wrote, To find fault is easy;To do better may be difficult.
Those who are cruel
are wounded.
Those who are possessive
or fearful,
those who are greedy,
or abusive or irresponsible,
suffer debilitating wounds
from too little
or too unwise
love.

We are not born kind or cruel, aggressive or irresponsible. Each child even
within one family experiences a different set of realities according to his
individual nature and his individual experiences both at home and in the
outside world. Only we ourselves can assess what it has been, for better or
worse, that has shaped us into the person that we have ultimately become,
therefore the only person who can mend the flaws in our own personality
is ourselves.
This is a difficult process, but with effort and desire and whatever help is
available to us, we can fix those early mistakes made by ourselves and
others and become the individuals that we all desire to be.

REFLECTIONS ON LIFE AND DEATH

"We say that the hour of death cannot be forecast, but when we say
this we imagine that hour as placed in an obscure and distant future.
It never occurs to us that it has any connection with the day already
begun or that death could arrive this same afternoon, this afternoon
which is so certain and which has every hour filled in advance."
Marcel Proust

I recently attended a funeral. A midst the usual eulogies, I began to reflect

on the ultimate finality of death. Nothing can ever again be changed or
amended. The unresolved conflicts, the difficult relationships, the spoken
words that have wounded others and those that others have used to wound
us can no longer be taken back. Even the unspoken words of love can now
never be spoken.

How important it is then that while we are still alive we make sure that we
treat each day and each relationship as if we might never experience them
again. This decision makes each daily experience fully alive and
significant. so that our inevitable sadness at thoughts of death can
rededicate our actions to do better in all the decisions and interactions of
our lives while we are still alive and are still able to make the necessary
loving changes.
If one has done the best that one can with this wonderful gift of living,
then death no longer becomes a painful and tragic ending, but just the next

necessary step in the continuous cycle of life.

GUIDELINES FOR ALL RELIGIONS AND ALL PEOPLE OF
GOOD WILL FOR A LOVING AND PEACEFUL WORLD

People of different views and different lifestyles share many similar values
and ideals. These guidelines are about our shared similarities that
emphasize how alike we all really are. Here are some of the values on
which we can all agree and on which we must ultimately work together to
strengthen.
The golden rule is a universal value that all of us share--Do unto
others as you would have others do unto you.
All of us love our families and want our children to be educated,
healthy and happy.
All of us want to have adequate shelter and food and medical care for
our families
All of us want to be productive and be able to find work and have fair
compensation for our work.
All of us want to be feel safe and be protected from cruelty and
injustice in our various environments.
All of us want to be respected even though some of our opinions and
customs may differ from one another.

All of us want to live in a country that respects our freedoms and our
rights.
All of us want to live in a world that is safe from preventable
disasters, from both the violence of our fellow man and from mans
abuse of nature.
All of us want to have the freedom to pursue our unique destiny and
fulfill our unique dreams.
All of us share the dream of a safer, better, happier world for us, our
and our childrens children forever.

Because we all basically have so much that we share in common, each of

us must strive to become more compassionate and more understanding of
those differences between us which will always exist in a diverse society,
and we must all strive to become more tolerant of those differences and to
value the skills of compromise-- in our families, in our communities and in
our international relationships, so that we can ultimately live together in
harmony in a more loving and peaceful world.

To this end, let us all as caring individuals of all religions and of all races
and nationalities pledge our united energies and our maximum efforts. By
our united action not only can we give our lives added meaning, but we
can also insure that this world, which belongs to all of us, will eventually
become the fulfillment of all of our hopes and all of our dreams.

ABOUT MEN
All of us whether we are men or woman have men in our lives that we care about.
They are our fathers, our brothers, our sons and our partners and what we hope for
them is that they lead happy and fulfilled lives.
What is it to be fulfilled as a man in our society? Is it to be a warrior? Is it to become
rich? Is it to be a scholar? Is it to be an athlete or a playboy? We all have unspoken
expectations for the men in our lives and they also have unspoken expectations for
themselves, but unfortunately, they never really tell us what they want for themselves.
We do not always know the secrets of their innermost dreams.
We do however notice that many of our men are angry at the roles life has given them
to play. We see it in the domestic violence that explodes in our homes and on our
streets, and in the anger that is often released in the violence of war. When a man
views himself as an individual, he doesnt seem to have a problem knowing what he
wants to achieve in his life and how to find his happiness. When he views himself as
part of a group, then he must mold himself to the expectations of that group even if it
is not a good fit. Many men never question the destiny that life has dealt them, and if
ultimately they are not happy with their roles they become angry and dont really
know how to change that destiny.
The emerging and changing roles of women and their ability to make more diverse
and individual choices will ultimately affect the lives of men and hopefully give them
more freedom to make constructive individual choices of their own.
What all of us want for the men that we love is that they live happy and fulfilled
lives. How will men begin to achieve these goals? It will take the courage and
informed decisions of those individual men who have finally decided to make the
conscious changes that will be needed to help them to live more personal, happier and
less anxiety- ridden lives.

ABOUT WOMEN
For a long time women have been questioning the roles that society imposed on them.
We saw it in the novels of Edith Wharton in the early 1900s about the restricted lives
of women. We saw it in the fight for a womans right to vote (1917) which many
women fought for and even died for.
It took women a long time, but finally in the 60s women were able to break out of
the mold that imposed a particular behavior on all women, and this allowed women to
have more choices about how they wanted to live their lives.
With more choices, of course, have come new problems and new challenges and this
has affected the previous more structured styles of domestic life ( such as manwoman relationships, past social expectations etc.) which will certainly take some
time to address. Change is always difficult, but it will ultimately be liberating not
only for women, but eventually for men and even for the society as a whole.
We are now in the process of identifying, one person at a time, what these new
changes are going to be and how they are going to affect all of us.
Will women choose to work part time and stay home part time? Will some men
choose to stay home while woman work? Will well- functioning and low cost day
care centers be more prevalent? Will both men and women decide to work part time
and live different, less material lifestyles? These questions will only be answered in
the future as individuals live their lives and find out what works well and what
doesnt.
The ultimate hope for all woman (and for all men) is that their greater range of
choices will bring about a greater chance of happiness and a more tranquil and better
life.

If our men and women are happier then our children too can look forward to a more
loving and brighter future.

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
As a society, our books, movies and our national sympathies seem to admire those
individuals who are risk takers and live the adventurous life--those who risk all for
fame and fortune. This makes for very interesting but not necessarily truthful
storytelling. For those people who succeed, risk is indeed a fascinating life choice,
but not all risk takers succeed either financially or personally, and that leaves the rest
of us with the necessity of trying to discover alternate choices about how we wish to
conduct our lives. One of these possible alternate choices is to choose a life dedicated
to the pursuit of personal responsibility. This potential choice may perhaps in the long
run be an even more satisfying life choice than many other possibilities
Our first commitment to personal responsibility must of course begin with a lifelong
commitment to ourselves and our needs--our health needs, our education needs,
caring about our appearance, caring about our personal environment and our
happiness, so that we can ultimately enhance our self-esteem and become strong and
secure individuals.
Next our ongoing commitment should be to the important others in our lives to help
them to achieve their own potential so that they too will be able to live more fulfilled
lives.
When we have made a determined effort to achieve our first two goals, then our next
step is a dedicated, personal commitment to the society and the world in which we
live to try to help make a better and safer environment for all, so that someday when
we look back at the accomplishments of our lives, we can feel a sense of pride that
because of our efforts we have succeeded in some small way to make the world a
more human and humane home for all.
This life path choice is not entirely risk free. Life has no completely risk free options,
but it is certainly a safer and more secure choice for a life well lived, because each

succeeding step is given careful thought and each potential risk is assessed carefully,
This life path choice can almost certainly lead to a happier life with better
relationships and a more loving and certain future for ourselves, our loved ones and
for the entire world.

THE COMPLEXITIES OF SEX

First and foremost we need to understand that sexuality is a natural
function of our bodies like eating or sleeping. As such, we need to treat it
like any other bodily function with understanding and thought.
Just as our eating and sleeping habits become distorted by the pressures of
society, our anxieties and lack of sensible control which can become
obesity or anorexia, so does sex, this very elemental function, become
manipulated and distorted by these same pressures -- the values of society,
our many anxieties and the lack of sensible control which still continue to
shape our sexuality all over the world.
Many of our religions teach us that our body is something to be ashamed
of and should be treated with repression and guilt. Many of our societies
teach us a disregard for the equality of the sexes and allow us to use and
abuse each other for our selfish needs.
Often when people are angry or troubled by the stresses of life they use sex
as an outlet for their anxiety. This really has nothing to do with their
natural drives or love, but becomes a mechanism used as a release from
their frustration and anger.
Those who commit domestic abuse, those who use other people without
regard, those who are addicted to pornography, those who try to dominate
others sexually because of their need for power must begin to look at the
source of their behavior much the same way that a person who is out of
control when they eat too much or drink to much must recognize that the
source of their behavior is unhappiness and anxiety.
Isnt it time, as the world tries to become more knowledgeable about
sexuality, that we also begin to personally examine our actions and our
motives and begin to change our sexual behavior, if that becomes
necessary, to a more tolerant, caring and ultimately better functioning

mode so that we all can become more balanced and happier individuals?
How different our future world will become, if we begin to act with more
insights and more wisdom about the enormous complexities of sexuality.
ABOUT PARENTS AND CHILDREN
A Lebonese poet and novelist Kahil Gibran (1883-1931)
wrote some wise advice to parents about their children.
The following Quotes are from his book "The Prophet"
Your children are not your children.
They are lifes longing for itself
They live in the house of tomorrow
which you cannot visit
not even in your dreams.
It would be so much easier to be compatible with our children, if they were carbon
copies of us. If their values were the same and their interests were like ours, we
could more easily understand and communicate with them.
Unfortunately, relationships between parents and children are not quite that
uncomplicated. Each child, who is allowed to discover his own self-identity, views
the world in his own way, and we, as parents, must treat them, like any other
relationship in our lives, with respect.
If, however, an adult son or daughter has very different views, it is often very
difficult to allow them to follow the dictates of their own nature without reproach.
This is especially difficult if we are worried that they may make some serious
mistakes, but adult children must be allowed to make their choices, live their lives,
even make their mistakes and still find parents who will be there to give them
emotional help, if needed.
A parents role is to be emotionally available and an adult childs role is to
eventually become a happy, strong, loving individual.
The relationship between parents and their adult children is a constantly changing

and growing bond which hopefully will grow stronger and more loving with the
years as both parents and their children continue to work on their relationship and
try to make it more understanding and more fulfilling.

AN OPEN LETTER TO YOUNG PEOPLE

Youth is a wonderful time for growth and opportunity, although for many
young people it is also a time of extra stress and difficult decisions. Many
of you are trying to decide where you will eventually fit into the complex
pattern of our society and it may take some time perhaps to make these
difficult decisions. It is important however that you to be patient with
yourselves and give yourselves all the time necessary to explore your
many options before making your final decisions as to your life path.
It is always nice to be part of a group that is considered cool but it is also
realistic to realize that what is considered cool today may not be so
modern in future years. When we all look at pictures of our parents and
grandparents who thought that their clothing was so fashionable and that
their music was so modern, we see that in just a few years all the things
that seemed so new to them now look old-fashioned to our more
contemporary eyes. How will your pictures and your music and your
dances seem to your children and grandchildren?
There are however eternal things that will never change in the future. If
you choose to develop your skills and talents and focus on your ability to
learn about the world and its many wonders--( science literature, art,
history, politics etc.) then the coming years will hold unlimited
opportunities for your personal growth and your career success. These
choices will certainly enrich your life and will also help you maintain a
continuing youthful enthusiasm for life and insure that your future will be
more productive and more interesting.

Looking forward to the future is a great adventure, and if you make good
choices, it will be an adventure that will ultimately be rewarding and
exciting.
APPRECIATING THE COMPLEXITY OF OUR UNIVERSE
It's about being born and growing .
It's about selfishness and love.
It's about the mysteries of sex.
It's about communication
or lack of it.
It's about uncertainty and fear.
It's about understanding the past,
and looking forward to the future.
It's about accepting
the incredible vastness
of a universe which we may
never fully comprehend.

Our earth and our universe are filled with complexities. There are no
easy answers to the difficult questions, whether they be political,
religious, medical, personal or environmental. The old adjustments will
no longer solve our modern complex problems.
It is necessary for our very survival that we begin to understand that the
solving of universal problems is going to demand dedication and maturity
and compassion. We must educate ourselves and also help others to
become more informed, so that the decisions we make will be the ones that
will protect and preserve this fragile globe and its even more fragile
inhabitants.

We must all strive to make this earth, our only home, a place of beauty and
harmony instead of a chaotic sphere on the brink of possible destruction.
This should now be our collective responsibility.
RANDOM THOUGHTS ABOUT WAR
War is a complex problem which will not be easy to solve. The reason for this is
that war has many underlying causes that are often difficult to identify and
change. There are economic imperatives and land issues, There are anger issues,
intolerance issues and the inability of leaders to compromise on conflicting goals.
There are the masculinity issues about being a warrior and perhaps even many
as yet undiscovered factors that propel us toward war. Until all of these
underlying issues are identified and the appropriate actions taken, we will never
be able to look forward to a world without war,

When each of us ultimately becomes more aware and begins to identify these
obstacles and then commit ourselves to work toward making the necessary
changes, one problem at a time, only then will we will begin to see the
beginnings of a more reasonable, a more cooperative and a better functioning
world where all people will be able to look forward to a brighter future which
will finally allow them to live dignified and peaceful lives.
According to scientific thought, our planet is now 4.5 billion years of age. Since
the first humans began to roam the earth millions of years ago, their first
instinct was to find food and defend themselves-- violently when necessary. We
are still functioning in this primitive, violent way these many millions of years
later, not taking into account that the world is no longer the same and human
beings are no longer cave dwellers. Since the advent of the hydrogen bomb, our
way of thinking about war must change. We are on the brink of total
annihilation either through the complete destruction of our world or through
released radioactivity which will kill or injure everyone on our planet. War is no
longer a rational way of solving differences. How will we secure our future
without resorting to war? It means that alternative ways must be found to put
pressure on rogue states diplomacy, sanctions, increased dialogue and the
ability of the rational world to try to understand the thinking and the
motivations of others and the ability of everyone in confrontational
circumstances to make compromises. There is no longer any other alternative.
The time is now. More and more small unstable countries are getting the bomb,
and we can no longer pretend that this danger does not exist. All of us who care

about the future must put our energies to this task, or we will be facing a time
when this wonderful earth that we love so much will be reduced to a few atoms
of radioactive dust.

A VISION OF EUTOPIA
A place in which human society, natural conditions, etc.,
are so ideally perfect that there is complete contentment

Before we can hope to shape the future, we must first examine the past,
because we have arrived at this point in history as a result of the past
actions of many of our ancestors from many diverse cultures.
Up to this point in our history especially before the rule of law, many
societies simply took what they desired from others. The strongest
survived and the weaker societies perished. The misery and the carnage
that resulted was viewed by our ancestors to be their only way of surviving
in a dangerous world. What was fair or right didnt really matter. Survival
and prospering has always been the way of the world regardless of the
cost in suffering to others. We have seen this in the constant conquest
which all countries have practiced. We have seen this in the business
practices which still exist today that take cruel advantage of those who are
less able to protect themselves. We still see this attitude in many of our
current societies. The strong prey on the weak and use them without
compassion to achieve their objectives. A world which has the goal of
using others for personal advantage will never become a world in which all
individuals can live with dignity.
Before we can achieve the more loving vision that we all desire, we must
first begin by defining the vision of the world that we want to create.
For a long time we have been taught to worship great wealth and many
still think that it is the path to happiness. Wealth of itself does not create
happiness, as we see if we have known people who have been very
wealthy. They suffer the same problems of health or difficult relationships

or loneliness or anxiety as the rest of us. Wealth does not solve all
problems.
Adequate financial stability certainly is necessary to a happy life, but
extreme wealth is not. When our personal goals change, then our society
will also begin to change.
Vision 1--One of the important visions for a better world is adequate
financial stability for all.
Vision 2--Healthy people are happier and better functioning so that our
second vision is for adequate health opportunities for all.
Vision 3--Educated people do better in their lives and contribute much to
their communities. Opportunities for career education and education that
also teaches people personal responsibility should certainly be part of a
new vision for the future.
Vision 4--Governments that reflect the desires of the people and can be
changed regularly by law.
Vision 5--Freedom in our personal lives--which includes political,
religious, sexual, and diversity of thought as long as we remain non-violent
in our choices.
Vision 6--Adequate help for those in need whether financially, physically
or emotionally
None of us knows what the future will be like, but if all people have most
of their needs met and all people respect each other in their search for
happiness and fulfillment, and try to make the world a better, more wellfunctioning and beautiful place, I have great hope that this vision of
EUTOPIA, through the efforts of caring people everywhere, can someday

become a living reality.