After "passing" war games on the big island of Hawaii, we spent the last morning of our stay at the Hilo Airport.

Tuesday, November 09, 1999

After "passing" war games on the big island of Hawaii, we spent the last morning of our stay at the Hilo Airport. Later that Sunday we would fly back to Oahu. Early on, the chaplain made his rounds trying to get us to a church service asking each of us our religious affiliation.

"Protestant"…"Lutheran"… "Catholic" came the mixed replies.

Then, Crazy Earnie – "Buddhist," he called out. This of course brought an outburst of laughter from all of us. Then it seemed funny.

A few Sundays ago I joined my son when his confirmation class visited St. Augustine. Following the question answer session Father Nelson told us how he had heard Buddhists in Tibet were being trained to come to America, not to persuade Americans to become Buddhists, but to teach Christians how to be peaceful.

Recently I came across a book written by Thich Nhat Hanh entitled "Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire." It is Buddhist proposal for peace published in 1967, the same year Earnhart reported he was a Buddhist, the same year we arrived in Vietnam.

Thich Nhat Hanh is a prolific writer, poet and teacher presently living in Plum Village in France. He also works with Vietnam Vets to help healing their Vietnam experience. The book points out how Westerners apparently had no idea whatever of the complexity of the social and cultural problems they were wrestling with in Asia. An example is our recollection (to those of us old enough to remember) of the Buddhist priest who set himself on fire. The Westerners saw this self-immolation (self-burning) as an act of savagery, violence, and fanaticism, requiring a condition of metal unbalance. In the eyes of the West he was not seen as a kind lucid person who burned himself to death to call attention of the world public to the sufferings of the Vietnamese people under Ngo Dinh Diem’s oppressive regime.

There is a Zen saying – "To set up what you like against what you dislike, this is the disease of the mind." It seems to me that we could heed this instead of imposing our ways on others around the world. The result – we are often perceived as bullies.

Carol Bly said, "It’s fun to hurt people and things, and it always has been, and animals love it, too. If you ‘discultivate’ a country, take its culture away – bad schools, nobody reads anything, and everybody watches television – you’ll get a lot of people enjoying bullying. If you don’t teach people more complicated enjoyments, they’ll go back to that one because you didn’t give them anything better."

Carol Bly is a writer. She is also a founder of the Collaborative of Teachers and School Social Workers and a frequent lecturer on literature and ethics. She is the author of "Changing the Bully Who Rules the World" – reading and thinking about ethics. She has been described as a one woman army fighting moral drift and the bullies of the world.

She is coming to a public forum at the Library Nov. 20 with two sessions open to the public. At the first, from 9:30-11:30 a.m., she will share tips and techniques for improving your writing style. Writers of all ages are welcome to attend this free session. Then at 7 p.m. she will present a public performance of some of her latest work, again writers and fans of all ages are welcome to attend this free event.

Carol believes writing is something for all of us, not just a privileged few who attend ‘better’ schools. According to Brenda Ueland, another distinquished Minnesota writer, "Everyone is talented, original and has something important to say."

So what do Buddhism and Carol Bly have in common?

On Nov. 20 you can find both Carol Bly and Thich Nhat Hahn at the Public Library – Carol in person.

Bob Vilt’s column appears Tuesdays