[These comments about What If You Stopped…? came in by email, so they can’t show up in the Comments section]: Beautiful, Laurie! Love ya! Donna ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Dear Laurie – This is SO excellent!  You are giving me tools for personal growth, but more ­ ways of unpacking important concepts for living and growing into healthy people/groups, in a cross-cultural way.  I am a believer in Jesus with a heart toward bringing understanding among peoples with various belief systems – so that the common aspects of life that we all share can be used to bring us to a place of honoring and understanding those that we may not share ­ insofar as they are not mutually destructive, of course.  Cannibals, for instance, have elements of their perspective that would not lend themselves to this process.  But among wide spectrums of economics, politics, language, and understandings or ways of relating with or explaining the supernatural, there are common themes and patterns of life which, when approached with open heart, can go a long way toward diffusing tensions and miscommunications that lead to ‘needless’ war etc.  I reflect often on the moment in history when Jimmy Carter, Menachim Begin, and Anwar Sedat sat down to ‘wage peace’ so that their grandchildren would not live in a world ripped by strife.  Also the idea that we study war so our children can study mathematics so their children can study music…. There is within that idea some wisdom, but I think we are coming to the point where we see that along with war, we have to study peace and learn to listen to hear – not to argue back.  This is where your contribution comes in, and it is significant. So I thank you and promise to make good use of the skills you share. Blessings, Mary More about Laurie Weiss