My mindsay friends,

Still we labor in our efforts to prepare for our move to China.  There has been much done, and there is much still to do - Sorting, and packing, and de-stuffing our lives.  As well as continuing in the preparation of our paperwork and in planning what we may.  Much time has been spent with garage sales and giving stuff away.  It is amazing that, even as voluntary simplicists who eschew almost all belongings other than books, we have SO MUCH STUFF.  We have grown lax in our vigilance against material goods, or so it seems.

As for here, I haven't much time for blogging at the moment, nor is time foreseen in the near future.  I am greatly occupied on many fronts.  Little issues and things of Great Importance.

However, I still have an attachment to this community.  You are all more than names and faces.  As a whole, all of you are missed.  Many of you have been in my thoughts and in my conversations.  Some of you are missed individually and particularly.  DrunkenOso  has kept me up to date on what he is able. 

I do not know where I am going with this blog, or with this community, as it pertains to my future endeavors and hopes in Life.  The future and what it holds is unknown to me.   Even moreso now than at any other time.  However, I will do my utmost to give to you as I may in the due regard of our community and friendships.  I will write some more, and in greater detail, in the next few days.

Peace to All of You.

It has been thirty days since my last entry on this blog. 

A month of silence for the men who fasted even longer.  Men who denied not just their passions and desires, but their actual needs for living!  Men who willingly stretched the pangs of death as long as possible.  Can you imagine the will and dedication it takes to remain focused upon the task at hand, of killing yourself by not eating? 

That others might have Life and Liberty.

Had their fasting started upon the day I started my silence - they would still be fasting.  All of them.  Still.  All that time that has passed between then and now, the starting of my silence until the end of it here, all that time that you have lived your daily routine and forgotten them.  Yes, forgotten them.

And they would still be fasting, and fighting, and slowly dying.

Go back to DrunkenOso 's blog and read about them again.  If they can take the time to refuse every meal unto death, you can take the time to read about them again.  Plant their story in your soul.  Make it a part of you.  A daily reminder each time you pick up a fork and place food in your mouth; that you may exercise the Life and Liberty you have,and use the nourishment of that food, to do what is Right.  Because they refused to eat for the same reason.

That is how we should live our lives.  With the dedication to our purposes that in whatever we are doing were our endeavors to kill us, so be it.  If it is the right Way, and we are commited to doing what is Right, full steam ahead.

Let us build a momument in our hearts to this, to these men, to the walking upon such a Path in such a Way, that we might remember daily how they lived their lives and died, that we might live our lives and truly Live.

With Passion, with Righteousness, with Dedication, with Commitment, with Mercy, with Compassion, with Justice.

With Sacrifice.

Living for others.  Dying for others.  Living a Life of Death to Self for the well-being of Others and for the Purposes of The Right Way.

That is what it takes to live Heroically.  That is what it is to truly Live in Love.

My best friend DrunkenOso is engaging in his yearly fast in remembrance of, memorial for, and solidarity with the plight of the H-Block Ten, those dissidents who participated in the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike, who died in starvation for their beliefs of liberty and their want of basic human rights.

It has caused me to stop and ponder upon several things; memorials, convictions, peaceful resistance, and solidarity with all aspects of one's beliefs.

Especially upon solidarity, and its place in one's life.  What does it mean, and what is its place?

Solidarity - Coherence and oneness in nature, relations, or interests, as of a class.  Characterized by or involving community of responsibilities and investiture.  Solidary character or relation; union or fellowship arising from common responsibilities and interests as between a body of persons or group of people.

To stand in empathy, sympathy, and regard, as a member through participation, by one's practices.

Solidarity is a practice of Virtue.  It is to stand in unity with others, giving voice and strength beyond the ability of the singular Self.  To suffer, work, and participate in the endeavors of the common good, for the group welfare, as if one body in one accord.  When we stand for justice, we stand in solidarity for those that do not have justice.  We work for the establishment of Just Rule.  When we feed the hungry, we stand in solidarity for the poor who have not to eat.   We work for the right to eat.  When we stand for Peace, we stand in solidarity with the victimized.  We work for Peace.  By such labors we may share the cup of joy and suffer the cup of sorrow with those with whom we live, truly having community.  Koinonia; a fellowship of the beloved in Life and Love.  That we may be virtuous and right.

We are on one side or the other.  Even by not choosing we have made a choice.  There is no neutral ground.  Give voice.  Represent.  Make good your convictions.  Fight the Good Fight of Virtue.