scored for 2 trumpets and tuba
sometimes we want to be of help – any way we can. This urge to ‘save the world’, to be the martyr of these times is the natural overflow of love. But the feeling must be tempered. Just like you yourself are responsible for your own life, so too is each other single individual responsible for their life course. To direct others, to interfere even out of good intentions violates the basic principle of free will.
such love much be tempered by the knowledge of wisdom. When these two principles are combined we arrive at a higher form of compassion; one in which empathy is present, but despair is not. There is suffering, to be sure, but such is mortal existence.
wise compassion results in a steady peace of mind, balance.
100 Musical Footsteps 
December 19, 2008 at 5:40 am
A beautiful image and a wonderful reminder of personal responsibility. Well done!
December 19, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Wow. This is all very cool. Thanks for being so creative and sharing!
December 20, 2008 at 2:29 am
Thanks for sharing this. Great post. Yesterday I listened to a woman at work recount a brutal image she had seen after the Mumbai attacks of a child having lost his 2 parents. She condemned the attackers. Suffering is universal, I thought to myself, and the suffering experienced by the attackers (which drove them to attack) isn’t different from the suffering the child felt. We all suffer. It is the human condition. (Until we begin to come out of it, and then we still suffer, until we totally come out of it, which may be millenia away). I certainly don’t condone violence, but I don’t condemn the attackers either.
“Empathy is present but despair is not.” I like that. Well put.
December 20, 2008 at 7:13 pm
You are a philosopher indeed! Thanks for your inspiring thoughts and music! They make my day!
Yumi 🙂
December 30, 2008 at 1:44 am
I love this one. Thank you for sharing these with us.
January 10, 2009 at 2:20 am
Well said.