peace

I heard the dalai lama speak today. I am now someone that can say they have seen the dalai lama and heard him speak. pretty cool. A cop gave us free parking, and there were lots of Chinese people there protesting the dalai lama and talking about how politics and the olympics should be separated and that the dalai lama was trying to lead a secret revolution. I like seeing passionate political people, even if I disagree.

I know he is seen as a God, but he just seemed so approachable and nice, like my grandpa. It must be weird being viewed as a God. Then again, he has been raised to believe that. He kept making jokes about his bald head, and he seemed really real. His ideas on peace are very idealistic, but the crowd was loving it. The coolest thing I thought he said was talking about intelligence. He said that intelligence should fuel compassion, not hatred. That makes sense. The smarter we get the better we should be at treating each other (at least in theory). Instead I think we just get better and better at corrupting ourselves.

I talked to my favorite prof tonight and he mentioned how people of faith are written off for using God as a crutch that helps them deal with difficult things in life. Other people look down on those with faith as not being strong enough to handle troubles. My prof was making the argument that cynicism and lack of faith is also a crutch because you do not have to take love of yourself and your ability off of a pedestool, or admit that at some point you might be held accountable for your actions. Therefore the entire argument is dumb because both sides lose. I thought that was good.

Do I think world peace is possible? No. Do I like the dalai lama anyway? Yea, he seemed like a cool guy.