Chopping Down the "Peace" Tree

An idea, brought to you by Solani Silver Flake in a Stanwell Bamboo Billiard.

Radical is the idea that mankind can obtain the understanding of cultural perspective intrinsic to itself for the purpose of living in unison. If these ideas are not cultivated into beliefs throughout the intellectual lifespan collectively, then they are just ideas bred by the design of an unabrasive society. I have not personally experienced any manifestation of the idea based on the hopes of the new age hippie. The ones who brandish peace signs in the form of two fingers thrown casually into the air. Peace is not a casual fleeting concept. Futility in peace is the same as futility in war. When pacifists put to action their specific breed of protest for the sake of peace, they in their actions are only waging war. Resistance and protest are not peaceful exploits. We take what we need, and the forceful nature by which we do so eliminates the hope that the understanding of peace can be recognized. If the men and women who are waging it seek to cultivate the rewards of it, the gains will be minimal and the cost high.

There is only one kind of peace that is attainable in this world, and that is the peace within one's self. This is the peace on which to expend energy and faith. There are few things that I will resign to about mankind as a whole, this is one of those things. We have to let societies do what societies do and forge our own armor to deflect the blades and arrows that stray. Never will man lay down their arms in the name of peace, not when assets, resources, and lives are at risk; not even when morality is at risk. In a peaceful world where man is left to his devices death, violence, and crime no matter how petty, can be the only derivative. Though this might seem a dark topic, it's brought me to some degree of enlightenment. I've been able to deliberately identify what turbulence is keeping me from my peace, and have since calmed the waves and slowed the churn. For those who have the bigger idea in mind, they first need to recognize that the more miraculous thing would be for all men to have their own peace. Collective peace is a prize that is made not to win, which is why it's so highly valued. It's hard not to hope when things are as they are.

Ignorance is a great platform for which ecumenical peace to stand on, because understanding is the means for an end. No revolution has been thwarted for the sake of peace, no transformation of government, nor people, nor policies have been conceived through clear and unrippled interpretation.

I find ways to consider how many times I've fought with myself and how the end result of each was the same; square one. I consider how I can dismiss the conflict and create harmony in the ripples that are created by living.

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." John F. Kennedy.

Lessons learned under the hood, Part 1

On recent hot, hot, hot summer days, I have been squeezing myself under the hood of a vehicle that has no apparent will to live. It has been sweaty, sticky, muggy, messy, but it was all made at least slightly more tolerable by my pipe.

Pipe Tool: A fingers-on review

Some of you may have ready my ramblings about the new iPhone app Pipe Tool. Kevin at Pipes Magazine was kind enough to let me try it in exchange for a review. Well, that full review is up now. Hope you find it helpful.

There's an app for that?

Maybe it's just that we pipe smokers have become accustomed to relative obscurity. Granted, there are plenty of us on the Internet forums, or at least there seems to be. But it is unusual for us to be noticed by the so-called mainstream. That's why it's a little surprising when even we can say, as Apple has taught us to, "There's an app for that."