Reflection

Listening to a variety of music this morning -- and, as usual, drift back to Michael Jackson. If you are not a fan, you should really listen to some of his music -- like Heal the World, Man in the Mirror, Black or White, and You are Not Alone for starters. He had a message, and it is now for us to pick up and carry on regardless of personal feelings for him.

The message -- to take care of each other and our planet -- is perhaps needed more than ever before. Check out the news -- pick up a paper, listen to the radio, watch it on TV. We are a violent planet. We are a violent nation. I live in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Each night on the news, there are more gang wars, more people destroyed in my own backyard.

Has life always been this way? With the internet, we can catch things just as they are happening, and we see globally each night on television. Is it just because of this instant access that gives us pictures that we have never has access to before. My husband and children love history. It seems that since the time the Europeans first came to what we now know of as the USA, we have been a violent people.

Native Americans helped those first settlers to survive. In hindsight, it was a terrible decision on their part. We, collectively, have reduced their numbers until some tribes no longer exist. Things have not changed much since that time. A lot of the violence stems from greed. We want what we don't have. More money, more power, more things is the message that is continually broadcast.

That is why the words sung by Michael Jackson are so important. Listen to his broader message. Stop fighting. Stop hounding people to the point that their lives seem to spin out of control. Stop buying needless things to stuff our houses until they seem to burst at the seems. Just STOP. Replace anger, violence, greed ... with love, compassion, giving. One by one we can make those needed changes.