Certainly what the ambassador was getting at in his last post was important. He used Rousseau to point out that we cannot truly look at anything objectively. (I suppose this is really just the way I interpretted what he said, none the less...) Rousseau uses his discussion of the state of nature to draw this conclusion. He says we can never imagine what the state of nature was like because we already have ideas of what it should be (basically).

I think this applies to all aspects of life, including the Peace, Fear, Tao and all intangible things we have been discussing. (I would like to take this time to point out that the path is not by any means an actual path in the physical or even mental state. 'Path' is a rough translation of 'tao' and should be thought of more as our relationship to the universe around us.)

Objects have different meanings to different cultures. Even colors have different meanings, such as black being worn for a death in the west while is is worn for a wedding in other parts of the world. This may seem like a major digression, but bare with me - hopefully it shall come full circle.

Like these different symbolic meanings from culture to culture, the aspect of reality that we started this discourse on, are subject to different meanings based upon people's own interpretations and the interpretations of those around them.

How easy it would be then, to say, "Alas, there is no answer - there is no truth!"

This statement would be nothing more than a naive sentiment and absurd excuse to free ones mind of tiresome intellect.

We will never know the Peace, the Fear, the Tao. We will only know that they are. Perhaps that is the only, absolute, truth.

We must acknowledge them, and even try to define them as we are doing here. Ultimately, however, we must keep in mind that they are far beyond the self imposed constraints of our mind.

There must then be an acceptance (by each of us) that we are, not possibly, but probably wrong.

"Those who know do not say. Those who say do not know." - Lao Tzu ("the Old Boy), Tao Te Ching

-the colonel