“It’s nave for us to think that we can grow our nuclear stockpiles, the Russians continue to grow their nuclear stockpiles, and our allies grow their nuclear stockpiles, and that in that environment we’re going to be able to pressure countries like Iran and North Korea not to pursue nuclear weapons themselves.” —President Obama

I don’t know how many of you are familiar with Thich Nhat Hanh. He is a Vietnamese Buddhist Priest, who was forced to leave Vietnam during the Vietnam conflict. He was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his anti-Vietnam War activities, speeches and writings.

A writing friend lent me a couple copies of the Shambhala Sun magazine that featured Thich Nhat Hanh and what he calls mindfullness.

Perry Garfinkel has a topic in the September 2007 edition of the Shambhala Sun that speaks to the politics of the still mind that is defined by Hanh as “interbeing.” Garfinkel tells us interbeing expresses the Buddhist concept of interdependence, with attention to the relationship between and among people. It is the heart of socially engaged Buddhism, or learning to “be” together. Something that I believe is sadly missing in our competitive society.

In the Star Tribune on Monday, there was article on the Opinion Exchange that people and organizations are answering the president’s call to volunteer and mentions the Lions Club international meeting in Minneapolis this week.

The article expresses: “Our greatness should not be measured by our gross national product, our medal count in the Olympics or our military might. Rather it should be measured in the generosity of our spirit and in our willingness to lend a hand.

Along these lines I often think of John F. Kennedy’s remark that you can’t fight another nation’s war.

Matt Welch, a reporter I found on line the other night, wrote some time ago: “Most importantly, in terms of Iraq’s election, liberation from the dictator was provided entirely from the outside, without help of an internal dissident opposition. Central European countries, while obviously affect strongly by the behavior of the super powers, mostly ‘owned’ much of their own freedom.”

Then there is still the Peace Corps, a product of John F. Kennedy’s reign. We have a few Peace Corp folks of our own that served in the Peace Corps. Two who come to mind are Harry Stevens and Dan Kane. I am certain there are others.

Some of you attended the presentation of the Peace Corp in action on a video at the library last year. I applied for the Peace Corp during my days of uncertainty, mostly to avoid going to war. I decided against it and then got drafted instead and ended up in Vietnam.

I heard mention on the radio the other day that 58,000 Americans died in Vietnam. There was no total on the number of Vietnamese who were killed, which brings us back Thich Nhat Hanh.

Natalie Goldberg, whose book Writing Down the Bone, was the source of our writing group, that’s met for at least a dozen years. We usually meet Wednesday in the small conference room at the library. In the summer, we sometimes meet on the edge of town with the mosquitoes. Natalie spent time with Thich Nhat Hanh in his Peace Village in France.

Thich Nhat Hanh worked with American troops after Vietnam assisting with the difficulty they carried home.

Thich Nhat Hanh tells us as we breathe in mindfulness, our breathing becomes calmer and more profound. The tension in our breathing dissipates. And when our breathing is relaxed, we can embrace our bodies, and we can relax. The exact word that the Buddha used translates as “calm.”

Also close by is Art Bauer’s Tai Chi classes on Wednesday and Friday mornings at the Senior Center at 9:30. If you are member of the Senior Center, the cost is $2 and if you are not a member, it’s $3.

When that’s over you can join others at the Oakland Avenue McDonalds for coffee or you can walk over and visit the library and catch up on the newspaper news or you can hike around the Millpond.

Crossing over the Millpond’s east bridge the other day, there were 15 mallard couples sitting on a long log watching the river flow. Then, there were about 100 geese swimming in a nice formation up river to a point and then there seemed to be some confrontations going on. Geese were flapping their wings and chasing one another all over. I left.