Miniature Earth; Small Village

I'm not sure how the Youtube recommended videos thing works, but I got a couple 2 days ago which have made me think...I watched Andrea Corrs "Shame On You" and "Miniature Earth" with the song "Mad World". "Shame On You" is pretty much an anti-war and pro-youth song, about persuading young people to join a war which keeps them from living normal lives and loving those who love them ("shame on you, to keep my love from me"). The Miniature Earth is a small documentary clip on what a "village" of 100 people, representing the world, would look like. I found this one interesting because I had said to my friend just a day earlier, regarding the high cost of gas..."Why don't we all just live within a half hour or less of where we work, or within walking distance or something?" I was telling him, forming communities sort of NY style, and trying this out, in the same way that people have a collective "lights out" (save energy) night, to have a longer-term commitment to living local. Then, I told him, I love to drive though...and many Americans do. It's not that we have to, but we like to. Our get-away space.

I haven't thought much about the war, except that the soldiers coming back should have better healthcare and PTSD screening and that multiple deployments should be avoided. I think I don't really understand how difficult it is, but some people see the effects of the war firsthand. I know an immigration officer from Canada told me even American guys with PTSD who don't want to go back to war, are not given refugee status there unless they never enlisted to begin with. He said a lot of guys came over who signed up and then realized it wasn't the same war they thought they were fighting for to begin with. He said some of these guys were really afraid to go back. What I remember, was the expression on this immigration officers face when he said this. This officer didn't do right by me, personally, but when he mentioned what was going on with some of the others, I could see it personally bothered him and troubled his conscience.

I'm so busy with my own problems to be troubled very deeply and follow everything. I feel I'm just going along for the ride and I don't have enough information to know whether this war is good or bad or right or wrong. When is it going to end though? What are the objectives again? and how are they being approached? and if this is about oil, why is gas up to $4/gallon? is it to enforce the idea that we need to stay there and help a country which will supply us with more oil, because, the message is, gas is high because there is an oil shortage? what if everyone just started moving closer to work? what if we passed laws for driving more electric cars...isn't electricity generated by water/dams and windmills and natural, renewable energy sources which we have in abundance? why do we have to move so fast? in cars? yeah, I like to drive and I like driving fast too, but if everyone took the bus or lived within walking distance of work...I wonder what sort of difference it could make.

My other thought, which I've had since I was very young, and which isn't original at all, but something I've always wished for, is what if people were only spirits without bodies and connected with oneanother only on a metaphysical levels...the friends we chose were people we couldn't judge by appearance but only by their minds and thought processes. I wonder how different our social circles would be and who we would discover to be our soulmates (plural).