How I met Barack Obama's sister Maya

Last summer, in August of 2007, we had a huge anti-war art show with almost 100 artists who put up over 200 works of art for a month.

The show was called "War and Peace".

One morning days into the show, while we were hanging out in the sun room, someone said that Barack Obama's sister was in town campaigning. Everyone in the room got excited.

"Let's invite her over!"

She was able to come to the show and walk through spending almost a half hour with us. She really enjoyed it. She even said that as a school teacher she would love to use some of our art in her classroom.

This picture is in the children's studio. Over six hundred works of art from children around Maui covered the walls. The art had been made as a gift to the Dalai Lama who had visited the month before.

She was very cool-- open, sweet, intelligent, present and radiant. It was easy for me to believe, that she was family to something big, something powerful, something we haven't seen in a long time.

Manifest.

Close-up of "Burning Angels, Hungry Ghosts and a Million Little Bubbles" now showing at the epOxybOx "War and Peace Art Show".

"Burning Angels, Hungry Ghosts, and A Million Little Bubbles"

If George W. Bush were to meditate, what would his experience be?

The notion that George W. Bush lives in a bubble, isolated from the opinions of the American Citizenry and the world around him, is a projection that we put upon him to relieve our own guilt and responsibility for America's war in Iraq. The fact is, that we as Americans are quite successful, in our own right, at living out joyful lives during war; each of us in our own little bubbles. We have pretty nice bubbles, especially here in Maui.

Like all projections, there is truth in it. Bush has a dogma he prescribes to that, given much external dialogue, would soon reveal it's inconsistencies. So, better for W. to remain in his bubble. Otherwise, the vision he is holding, his vision of freedom, which seems to include a religious polarity of us against them, would falter.

In the title, I am referencing Bush's self defeating starkly dualistic view of the world and religion. I am also referencing the public castigation of author James Frey for lying in his book A Million Little Pieces. Our failure to even censor the President for his lies is a painful hypocrisy.

In early discussions of what to name the art exhibition for which this art piece was created, Maui Artists for Peace wanted something bold and audacious that demanded an end to the war in Iraq. As more artists joined, the sentiment was expressed that it does not serve to fight for peace. To achieve peace, we must be and express peace. It has been said: heal yourself, heal your family, heal your community and the world will be healed. The question is how to manifest peace. The danger is isolating oneself on an island in the middle of the Pacific to the point where in other parts of the world, people experiencing the worst kinds of death and violence, seem a world away.

It was Dennis Kucinich who said, before the war started, that we must have compassion and hold the President's hand as we walk him back from the abyss. In this painting, a plastic bubble (made from petroleum) surrounds President Bush as he sits, meditating in the lotus position.

To manifest peace, I manifest a peaceful George W. Bush.

War and Peace Art Show

The Maui Artists for Peace present Maui's War and Peace Art Show . It is thus far exceeding most people's expectations. With over 200 works of art and 80 artists, it's phenomenal that the call for art went out less than a week before the show opened. The website is mauistopthewar.com

Peace

"...others cannot bring us peace. No leader is going to give us peace, no government, no army, no country. What will bring peace is inward transformation which will lead to outward action. Inward transformation is not isolation, is not a withdrawal from outward action."
--Krishnamurti

The time of looking for a leader, a Dr. King, a Gandhi or a Barrack Obama to bring us peace is past. Change will come with hundreds, thousands perhaps millions of leaders. Obama has called for grassroots, for involvement among likeminded people to get involved on a community basis. Helping ourselves and our communities is the best thing we can do for our country and for the world. It is the inner transformation that will bring us peace.

Peace is not just an absence of war, peace is an act of sensitivity. We do not just get along, we act from a place of compassion for ourselves and those around us. By respecting the space of our former enemies, we honor ourselves.

Peace is not just getting out of Iraq. It is having a personal recognition of everyones humanity. Peace comes from the peaceful journey of each person.