Posted on 09/29/2004 4:56:08 PM PDT by Choose Ye This Day
[Excerpt]
AW: You mentioned spirituality with windsurfing. Tell me your views on that.
JK: Spirituality is a fundamental for us. I mean, it's the-it is the overpowering, driving foundation of most of the struggles that we go through here on earth, in my judgement. I am a believer in the Supreme Being, in God. I believe, without any question in this force that is so much larger and more powerful than anything human beings can conceivably define.
I think the more we learn about the universe, the more we learn about black holes and the expansion of the universe and the more we learn what we don't know about: our beginnings and-not just of us, but the universe itself, the more I find that people believe in this supreme being. I'm a Catholic and I practice but at the same time I have an open-mindedness to many other expressions of spirituality that come through different religions. I'm very respectful and am interested-I find it intriguing.
I went to Jerusalem a number of years ago on an official journey to Israel and I was absolutely fascinated by the 32 or so different branches of Catholicism that were there. That's before you even get to the conflict between Arabs and Jews. I have spent a lot of time since then trying to understand these fundamental differences between religions in order to really better understand the politics that grow out of them. So much of the conflict on the face of this planet is rooted in religions and the belief systems they give rise to. The fundamentalism of one entity or another.
So I really wanted to try to learn more. I've spent some time reading and thinking about it and trying to study it and I've arrived at not so much a sense of the differences but a sense of the similarities in so many ways; the value system roots and the linkages between the Torah, the Koran and the Bible and the fundamental story that runs through all of this, that connects us-and really connects all of us.
And so I've also always been fascinated by the Transcendentalists and the Pantheists and others who found these great connections just in nature, in trees, the ponds, the ripples of the wind on the pond, the great feast of nature itself. I think it's all an expression that grows out of this profound respect people have for those forces that human beings struggle to define and to explain. It's all a matter of spirituality.
I find that even - even atheists and agnostics wind up with some kind of spirituality, maybe begrudgingly acknowledging it here and there, but it's there. I think it's really intriguing. For instance, thinking about China, the people and their policy-how do we respond to their view of us? And how do they arrive at that view of us and of the world and of life choices? I think we have to think about those things in the context of the spiritual to completely understand where they are coming from. So here are a people who, you know, by and large, have a nation that has no theory of creationism. Well, that has to effect how you approach things. And until we think through how that might effect how you approach things, it's hard to figure out where you could find a meeting of the minds when approaching certain kinds of issues.
So, the exploration of all these things I find intriguing. Notwithstanding our separation between church and state, it is an essential ingredient of trying to piece together an approach to some of the great vexing questions we have internationally.
AW: Do you think that we are headed for more enlightened spirituality or are we doomed to crawl back to the caves?
JK: That's the test! That's exactly what the challenge of life is all about and some people find that. I mean, look at the Dalai Lama who I've spent some time with and who is absolutely intriguing. Extraordinary person. He is certainly telling us there is life from enlightenment-here and hereafter, but I think, whether or not we're going to be [enlightened] is the great test that all of us are struggling with. That's part of what makes life so challenging and so much fun.
AW: I say that it's really quite extraordinary to see somebody like you who is clearly involved with windsurfing and awakened to its passions. I see the same passion in your work as a public servant. Do you find the same energy serving the public as you do in windsurfing?
JK: I don't know if my mother gave me a permanent dose of what I call hyperactivity or if it's just an outgrowth of the exuberance that I was talking about earlier that just comes from life itself. I think it's a lot of fun. I have a hell of a lot of fun every day. Even when I'm sometimes feeling overburdened and behind, when I stop and I think about alternatives or other people who are less fortunate or those who have seen their lives change dramatically because of misfortune, I consider myself very, very lucky. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about how lucky I am and therefore how important it is to try to do things that are constructive and to help to make a difference.
Read the rest of the article for a few other good laughs. This guy doesn't stand a chance.
His is an ill wind that blows no good.
I missed the Kerry windsurfing RNC ad. Do you know where I can view it online?
DOH!
My first lame attempt at searching wasn't good enough. The entire article, and some choice comments, are on this thread from last week:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1222235/posts
http://www.georgewbush.com/VideoAndAudio/
It's called "windsurfing" (appropriately enough)
I'm not sure which type of media file it is.
But he blows, anyway.
Could somebody please explain what in the world this means?
"And that goes for your little dog, too!"
The Kerry Campaign has reached
the Flying Monkeys of Oz stage.
The Liberal Point of No Return.
Thanks. No wonder the Dems hated it.
This has got to be one of the funniest things I've read in a week! Spirituality and windsurfing and Dali Lama....fascinating.
Sure. It means he's never worked a day in his whole damn life.
lol, he is nuttier than I would have ever dreamed and that was bad enough, man needs to be committed.
Yeah, all the demons in Hell do too.
Could I ask a personal question...how old are you? Kerry is a 60 year old windsurfer.
Did you not pay attention when Yoda was on screen?
What did Zell call him? Bowl of mush, wasn't it?
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