Well MSN will not let me into Spaces, so I cannot post my earlier entry. I think they must be upgrading the network again. I wish they would give some warning when they are going to mess with things. It is annoying when you are in the middle of doing something and you are locked out. I am so glad I am writing entries in another program now. At least this way I do not lose everything I have written when the system malfunctions.
Mmm… got my entry posted two hours after it was ready. Is okay though. Finished reading Thunder and Lightning by Natalie Goldberg. I recommend this book to writers, but not until you have read her earlier Writing Down the Bones, and possibly Wild Mind. Writing Down the Bones is a very inspirational tome. It is always good to get me writing.
I was looking through Bartlett’s for a good quote and came upon this one by Herbert Clark Hoover: Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die. And it is youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow, and the triumphs that are the aftermath of war. (June 27, 1944)
I think our warmongering politicians would do well to remember such wisdom. They seem to forget who reaps the results of the wars. After all they do not have to worry about being personally involved. They are above all the blood and dying, and often they are gone on to some greener field before the ending of action so they do not have to deal with the rebuilding and recovery. War is a truly terrible thing and should be avoided unless absolutely necessary, but then again is it ever really necessary? Can people not come to better outcomes than violence against one another? It seems with such awesome minds that we could come to more harmonious solutions. Communication and a willingness to negotiate seem to me a step toward peace. If two people on opposite sides in a war were to meet under other circumstances it is highly probable that they would find commonalities and become friends. This makes war a very cruel thing. It dehumanizes us. This leaves those who fight with emotional scars for life. Some cope, but some are so devastated they can not integrate themselves back into peaceful daily life.
Okay, that is enough of that. I will leave my podium now and go back to whatever it is I should be doing right now. 
Always,
Jo Ann
Chronicles 