What I love about you is that you aren’t just a mindless singer like a lot of them seem to be. You have a conscience and a brain. Thanks for your music and sharing your feelings with us. Have a great day!

Well said Ann-Marie…yes, David’s lyrics are meaningful. In fact this note from him reminds me a lot of the lyrics to Devil By My Side.
“Believe in hope”.

kristine, was about to say the exact same thing!
“believe in hope, believe in faith”
was the first thing that popped into my head after reading this!

David, thanks for having such a beautiufl soul
and letting us into your thoughts
us fans are trully blessed!

its important to show international support, its the least we can do. as individuals, im encouraging everyone to support the monks by wearing red on fridays and to go walk next saturday, oct.6 at noon in every major city. Democracy is something we (north americans) seems to take as granted, living in (how well said, david!) our little comfy bubbles. When democraticly elected and nobel prize winner disapear and the people get killed for their pacific protests and believes, it is our responsability to show our support.

I can remember my cousin who was part of youth canada world talking about the situation in burma and their meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi who disapeared for good, couple days later, about how the millitary forces follow them around town before they got arrested and escorted out of the country. How their bags and individuals has been search for any video tape or information they can bring to intenational community. How they got able to hide a video tape, and ship it to cnn…

but nothing has changed since… but for crissis now. When you see people that don’t even have the right to have their own believes, it shows us how lucky we are and that we should never take anything for granted.

This text reminds me of the song “Hallucination”.
Each person has a bubble. There are many tragedies in this world like people who wants to commit a suicide. ive a friend who died in this way, and each day passed, i try to understand, why ?
i just don’t understand why life could be so beautiful as it could be so dark and ugly.
This is the picture than some people have.
This is sad to know it. And this is sad too, to know than the world has natural tragedies.
i think the most difficult is, to watch this horrible thing, and to know that nobody can do something for them.

you’re a great inspiration, david…..
i realized how fortunate i am living in a first world country when i had been to a third world country….and i hope people can reflect on that as well

I think, in many ways, we need our “bubble” in order to function… otherwise we would be overcome with reality. But we also need reminders and moments of clarity to take a stand in the sitaution and to appreciate what we have.

I am happy to see all the recent attention that the plight of the monks in Burma has been getting. Drew - I will defiantely be looking into that walk on the 6th! David - thanks for the moment of clarity

I can’t handle the guilt. I have been working for four years so that I can leave this place and join the conscious world. If I work for ten more years I think I could be someone who really change things.

if i were one of the burma people, i would be delighted and have much more inspirations to fight when seeing many supports from humankind all over the world who shows real care for them.
i can imagine living in the lost of connection to the world with real fear. yes, hope is a strong power to keep on. besides, i think they must have their strong harmony as well because it will lead them to the point where the army can threaten them no more.

wars do good for no one but since we cant avoid them coz it seems like ‘fighting for power’ is in human’s blood, we can then take it as lessons to learn. at least it can waken us to realize and be thankful of what we have.

thanks to david and everyone. its always glad to know that there are a lot of people who really care for the situation. here is hoping that the persons with authority will also have the real care and do the right things. im keeping my eyes on any china’s movement now.

We are concious of the situation, but yes so powerless so we are in our “bubble”. It’s such a tough world out there, especially now that I have a daughter I am more aware of what is going on in the world and I realize that is not getting any better! I just cannot watch all the violence on the news, on t.v.

We went to see the movie Kingdom the other night,It made me feel pretty much like ALL
of these coments.Even what David said,Hope is a strange thing,even when things look dark we still have to keep it alive.
I will put this as an affirmating each day,so often we feel we are powerless. We can keep Our dream,for loved ones alive, and people in the world who are in tremendous pain.
Each day I like to write down what I’am thankful for,I’m always surprised at how many
incredible things happen in ONE day.

‘Twas in truth an hour
Of universal ferment; mildest men
Were agitated, and commotions, strife
Of passion and opinion, filled the walls
Of peaceful houses with unquiet sounds…

extracted from “The Prelude,” by William Wordsworth.

As David says, sometimes hope is the whole point.

Hi David Im so proud to say that you are an artist that I admire. When I saw your concert in St. Catharines I was on cloud none when you sang Devil by my side. The lyrics in that song are so strong and profound. I’m sure even Leonard Cohen was impressed. This is my song to my daughter to make sure this new generation is built on faith and hope.

I’m interested in finding out more about the peace walk on Saturday. Is there a website or does anyone have more details? thanks

Yes, hope is strange yet so very important to all of us in our lives as we deal with pain and suffering inevitebly at some point along the way. Thanks David for mentioning this situation in Burma, indeed I do enclose myself in a bubble much of the time and forget to follow the real important news going on in this messed up world of ours.

What is amazing to me, is how we look back at history and are appalled by lack of action and yet we never seem to change. Who isn’t disgusted that no one took notice of Rwanda when they needed help desperately? Hindsight is so clear. How many years will it be before people look at the history books and think…”how on earth did they manage to have obesity as the big problem on one side of the world, while people were literally starving to death on the other…AND THEY KNEW ABOUT IT!” “How did people not know that building a great big wall to separate one group of people from another would foster hatred and ignorance of the other?” How is it that we just never never learn from our mistakes?

I guess I’m not feeling the hope today…

At their core people are selfish and self centered. We will applaud what others are doing or saying but we, ourselves will not do a thing. (Believe me, I am as guilty of these traits as anyone) Perhaps the challenge should be for us to break out of our self centered bubbles and start doing something at “home”. Perhaps I am being completely naive - but does giving money for problems in other countries really make a difference overall? I am sure every little bit can help but not in a global way – not for the next cause brought to our attention. I think the difference can be made in the community mindset. Maybe it is time for us humans to stop ignoring the poor person on the street, or to offer an ear to that single Mom who wants a friend or give a better paying job (Or better yet, training) to that family who are having trouble making ends meet, how about spending time on a regular basis at the old aged home? (what about that lonely person you work with who does not have family nearby.. ever think of inviting them over for Thanksgiving or CHRISTMAS??). I think we must start doing the little things at home (I know these examples are NO comparison to what others are going through in this world – and my heart breaks for their plight) but to start at home will teach OUR children to become less self centered and a little more community oriented. From there the hearts of our children could become tender to what is happening beyond their borders - some of those children (or grandchildren) will become the leaders of tomorrow…. Would it not be wonderful??? A tender hearted intelligent leader (what about a world FULL of them??) OOOOO - of course I am dreaming, centuries have gone by and it remains the same - we are perhaps more aware of the plight of others in a more instant manner with today’s technology but the selfishness and self centeredness of the human being has never changed. I guess the question we could be asking is what can *I* do to make even a small difference for someone? This kind of thinking could give someone hope that theirs is not a hope-less situation.

I have faith in the goodness of humanity. I think often peoples lack of action is not selfishness, it’s just a lack of understanding about the situation when you’re far removed from it and feeling helpless & powerless to change things. People need to be more informed of what’s happening on a global level and to know that everyone has power and the more people stand together for a cause, the more difference it will make. I think the internet is changing things, because it connects people around the world. People aren’t as isolated from each other as they once were and information is more accessible to everyone. The world seems smaller now and I think we have more power now than ever to change things for the better. There is always hope.

I don’t believe people are inherently evil either, we are selfish and self centered at our core though (and I am also terribly, terribly lazy… hehe). Pertaining to the helplessness and powerlessness people feel when faced with global issues - exactly, I agree - I have no clue what to do that would be a tangible help to these people. The problem is that when we feel helpless and powerless we then put the walls of our bubbles back up and proceed on our way - nothing happens - except perhaps lip service.
Yes people DO have the power to make a global difference but more often than not helping others starts at home. Who knows how far reaching our acts could be? We may not notice that person who saw us do something special for someone - but what if that one act touched that onlooker and encouraged THEM to do something special for someone else? We can do things for the people who are around us - let us start there and maybe one day we will be able to do what needs to be done to help further abroad. (Consider it boot camp) Yes, we should do what we can to bring global awareness, but awareness paired with a lack of ways to help comes that bubble we find ourselves in. We need to give people who are newly aware of the issues, tools and methods to help so they CAN help, even in their small way. Unfortunately, grandiose ideas for aid are not attainable by many due to their own circumstances, but the “small” acts in their local community could be the catalyst for something great globally. (Presently, my hope springs eternal as I feel that butterfly’s effect)
Though technology is really cool, it gives us a false sense of community, it is rare that you will meet the people who become ‘friends’ online. (Though I am personally aware it does happen). Quality time spent with actual flesh and blood people becomes sparse - We spend so much time on the ‘net’ doing whatever it is we do, that the plight of the people around us can easily go un-noticed.
I agree, there is always hope - but those that feel hopelessness may not be able to see that. To assume that all people know there is hope will not help those wallowing in despair. We must be there to offer hope to them… replenish their spring of hope if you will!!

Very well said diamond, I agree!

On the subject of Burma, theres is an amazing hour-long documentary on youtube. It gives great overview of the condition there, and really gives a clear image what things are like inside the borders. I think the most important thing any of us can do to “help” right now is to inform ourselves. Whats the old PSA? “Knowledge is Power”? People are risking their lives to get video, news, etc. out of the country. We need to spread this news around… (BE WARNED: the video contains graphic, disturbing images…)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-YVdpQHdqo

Hope has always been within us. We only need Despair to recognize Hope that isin deep slumber. As long as we are still living Hope would always be alive.