Making A Living And Making A Life

Nothing Makes Me Feel Better - Calmer, Clearer And Happier - Than Being In One Place, Absorbed In A Book, A Conversation, A Piece Of Music. It's Actually Something Deeper Than Mere Happiness: It's Joy, Which The Monk David Steindl-rast Describes As 'that Kind Of Happiness That Doesn't Depend On What Happens.

As A Member Of The Mainstream Media For Many Years, I've Learned Just One Thing: Never To Trust Anything I Read In The Mainstream Media - Not Because Of Any Agenda Or Deliberate Dissimulation, But Simply Because It's Filtered And Comes Very Often From Someone Whose Judgment I Might Not Trust In Other Circumstances.

I Remember Many Years Ago, I Asked [dalai Lama] About Exile And He Said: "well, Exile Is Good Because It's Brought Me And My People Closer To Reality," And Reality Is Almost A Shrine Before Which He Sits. Exile Brings Us Up Against The Wall And Forces Us To Rise To The Challenge Of The Moment.

For More And More Of Us, Home Has Less To Do With A Piece Of Soil Than A Piece Of Soul.

I Think America The Symbol And America The Notion Are Still Very Different From America The Nation. What's Touching And Almost Regenerative Is That Whatever Is Happening In The Reality Of America, Where There Is A Murder Rate Worse Than Lebanon's And Where There Is So Much Homelessness And Poverty, Still America Will Be A Shorthand Throughout The World For Everything That Is Young And Modern And Free.