19 November 2020. “Postcard from Vienna”

This week, we are doing something different.

As some of you will know, I spent most of last Monday 2 November night into Tuesday November 3 morning hidden away in a basement in a bar in the centre of Vienna, while a terrorist attack was happening outside.

I thought I would take this opportunity to write a few words about it from a personal perspective, not so much as a critique of terrorism, but more about the feelings it creates in the world around us, and more specifically, the reflective thoughts it triggered in me.

I won’t bore you again with the whole story, but being stuck in a basement while you know people are being killed not too far away from you, certainly gives you a bit of time to reflect.

Of course, the whole concept of terrorism is abhorrent – the concept of people fighting over religion is just that, a concept. Every religion throughout history (Christianity, Islam, Hindu etc) has teachings that are based in love, and being in that basement really made me think about the whole concept of love and how some of us embrace it in our daily lives, and how some of us run a mile from it.

How can a religion preach love, and then followers of that religion can kill people? Not only that, they believe that they are killing people for the greater good of mankind, like it’s an honour. This is the 21st century, yet we still behave like it’s the 1700’s.

It’s the same as people fighting over land and borders. Borders are nothing more than a construct. America isn’t even 250 years old, but everyone constantly fights over its borders, including those of us who chose to kneel at the sacred altar of “the orange one.”

In actual fact, those land borders formed the absolute foundation of his 4 year, fear based campaign.

Is killing people for attempting to cross a border towards a better life, really any different from terrorism?

People can fight as much as they want, but the FACT remains, no one on the planet has more right to be in a certain place than another – it’s nothing more than a government concept, and like most government concepts, it’s based in fear. When the new world was discovered, those land borders just didn’t exist.

I believe that every day in the course of our lives, we are faced with a never ending stream of choices. People commonly say “I didn’t have a choice” but I don’t believe that, I believe we ALWAYS have a choice, and that choice is whether to choose LOVE or choose FEAR.

Think about it?

Everything comes down to love or fear, and the problem with our modern society seems to be that we are constantly being led towards fear. Don’t you think that’s a big part of the reason that we are suffering from what can only be described as a “depression and anxiety epidemic”? You only have to watch the news or pick up a newspaper to see first hand how we are being led towards fear driven choices.

I don’t think it’s any coincidence that as things get worse, smartphones and tablets are infiltrating deeper into our lives, and the way things are headed, future generations are going to be even worse – all because we are being force fed, and coerced into following the path of fear.

The whole concept of terrorism is based on pushing us into the path of fear, but in that basement, I found myself feeling feelings of anger. Anger that people can have such a flagrant disregard for innocent human life. The fact that it could just as easily have been me sitting outside having a beer isn’t lost on me.

Terrorism is fear. War is fear. Racism is fear, it goes on and on…. but in our constant search for truth and the nature of reality, it becomes obvious that as human beings, our natural, fluid state is love.

I would respectfully ask you all, the next time you are making a decision, try to focus consciously on LOVE and see if it makes a difference to how you feel.

Follow your heart, follow the path of love.

Does that make me sound like a hippy? If it does, so be it, but love, compassion and loving kindness are the cornerstone of our very existence, and I believe that for future generations to survive and thrive, the world has to turn to love.

We are all somebody…. or maybe the ultimate truth is that we are all nobody.

#LetLoversRunTheWorld ✌🏻❤️ CB/DR ©️2020