I didn't really believe it would take me two years to readjust to being back in the USA after being abroad, but it looks like that will be about what it takes. I'm one year into the process of getting my feet back on the ground in my home culture, after living in China for four years from 2004 - 2008.
I began blogging while I was in China, uploading photos of my travels, keeping a journal of my daily life, and journaling about various topics such as law and ethics. (Click here for a link to my blog about my life in China and my thoughts on cross-cultural issues.)
Now that I'm back firmly rooted in the soil of my home culture, I have much more to write about that is related to my life in the USA rather than to my life in China. Hence, it is time to start a new blog.
In the USA, I am a lawyer, mediator, ethicist, and a citizen devoted to the cause of peace. I view peace as more than absence of conflict. I inherit the concept of peace as enunciated by Gandhi and King, by Mandela and Suu Kyi. Peace is an assertive response to oppression, to aggression, to evil, to hatred, and to violence. The goal of this blog will be to journal about peace and all thoughts surrounding and stemming from that concept.
Reading what I wrote a bit over a year ago, I would change this a bit. Peace is not just a "response". Peace is an opposite force for good as against evil. Peace is the embodiment of compassion, and in human life is the active application of the Golden Rule. Jesus said (in Matthew 22:37-40), "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Peace is the active pursuit of this commandment, extended into the world through our actions without hesitation or reservation, and peace is also the fruit of that activity.
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