2006-09-26 - 4:51 a.m.

Meanwhile, my life has been idyllic. I am more in love with Dean every day. We just got back from an amazing 3 week vacation in Amsterdam. I'm working part time and spending the rest of my time writing a book on a topic which fascinates me to no end, and also jamming with the greatest rock band of all-time (The Alliance!) The town where I live is not only beautiful, but funky and full of intelligent, engaging, and caring individuals. Life couldn't be better.

In light of the current political state of the world, I can't help but feel self-concious of all the freedom and prosperity in my life and wonder if this is the calm before the storm, wonder how much longer America will remain free and prosperous and democratic. I am alarmed by the current direction in which things are going. I wonder what it was like for the people of Germany and Holland just before WWII. Were they aware? Could they have done more to stop the Nazis?

Last year this week I was in Slidell, Louisiana with the Red Cross, helping the Red Cross get money to the people after Katrina. I never really wrote about that experience here, or anywhere. Right after I came back, I was deployed with the Red Cross again to Florida for Hurricane Wilma, and when I came back from those experiences I was exhausted, and too emotionally overwhelmed to want to write about them.

This week, one year later has been emotional for me, too. I promise you (and by you, I mean myself, or anyone of the handful of people on the planet who might ever read my little webdiary) that I will write about Katrina here one day.

I watched Spike Lee's film "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in 4 Acts" on HBO. If you ever get the chance to see this film, please please see it. Of course I cried my eyes out - but I also learned so much. He interviewed survivors and politicians of all kinds, and he took all the politicians and the Army Corps of Engineers to task, and he captured the spirit of New Orleanians, and he told the story more completely than I thought possible. Incredible.

But I try to stay positive. The future is what you envision it to be, right? Fear is useless, and our future will only be gloomy if we allow it to be that way. It's kind of like a self-fulfilling prophecy that if we all expect the future to be gloomy than it will be that way. I refuse to believe in or accept a dark future. That doesn't mean I live in ignorance to remain blissful - but rather that I choose to believe in a brighter future. I embrace change. I take postive actions. I have hope. And I know I am not alone.

It's possible that John Lennon had an overly simplistic worldview when he wrote "All You Need is Love" and "Imagine" etc. - But he was sending messages of peace and love into a world that could always use more peace and love. And his songs carry a vision of a brighter tomorrow, a possible future that IS possible, if enough of us share the same bright idea. "War is over - If you want it" I want it.