"I am going to take this bucket of water and pour it on the flames of hell, and then I am going to use this torch to burn down the gates of paradise so that people will not love God for want of heaven or fear of hell, but because He is God."

-John Green

I wish my mind worked like this man's. For those of you who haven't heard of John Green, you should definitely make yourselves aware of him. Vlogbrother, author, Nerdfighter extraordinaire. I've only read his book Looking for Alaska, but it completely blew my mind.

So I was reading through a page of quotes and stumbled across this one. I'm not going to go down the religion route with this, but the point it makes is amazing. Why don't we accept things for what they are? Not because there's something to gain, not because something terrible could happen if we don't; but because it's what we believe is right.

If I think about the religion side of it for a sec (which I know I said I wouldn't), then it's a bit mind-boggling. I know a guy who became a Christian because he was scared of what Hell would be like. I know many, many people who hear about the perfection of Heaven & so jump along for the ride. What about the actual core of it all...love. Simple. Love. And with that, another John Green quote;

"Here's to all the places we went. And all the places we'll go. And here's to me, whispering again and again and again and again: iloveyou"

That's love. No questions, no doubt... just adventure. Trust in the fact that there are many days of love and happiness to come. Not analysing the downsides, not selfishly considering what you may get out of it... just enjoying being in love. I'm excited for that experience :)

Selflessness. Humans aren't very good at that, are they? But I guess that's for another day.

Quotes:   http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1406384.John_Green?page=1
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

If only. How great would that be? I'm not about to go off on a beauty queen "I want World Peace" thing, but how amazing would it be? There's so much fighting going on at the minute, that people don't even know what we're fighting for anymore. 

How many lives do we have to lose before we can come to some sort of an agreement? We've all seen them... those portrait shots of the smiling soldiers on the news. But those men are dead now. They've been killed fighting wars over stupid, unnecessary things. They've left friends, wives, husbands, brothers, sisters, mums, dads and maybe even kids behind- all because they're brave enough to step up and serve their country.

Why can't the governments just take a step back and think: wait. What's this all about? What if it was their son or daughter, brother or sister? Would they change their mind then? Would they bring those brave men and women home?

Northern Ireland is crazy. No matter what happens, religion seems to be brought into it. Even in primary schools the children are asking each other if they're "cats" or "pigs." If you say you're a cat, then you're catholic, and pig mean's you're protestant. Why should 4-11 year olds be worried about this?

For those who don't know much about Northern Ireland, it went through a period throughout the 70's known as the troubles. Catholics and Protestants declared war on each other, and security went mental. However, people came to agreements and almost everything is calmed again.

However, people feel the need to pass on these troubles to their kids & grandkids and there's absolutely no need. A young police officer was killed just 4 days ago because of being a Catholic in the police force. A certain group didn't like this, so they stuck a bomb under his car? 25 years old he was. We all live in the same country, so why can't we just get along? People are using religion as an excuse for violence... they quite clearly don't give a toss about the whole "Christianity" aspect.

Being a realistic person, I can see that Protestants and Catholics will never exist alongside each other without the memory of the troubles. There'll always be the judgement when we hear a name that is clearly of a certain religion, or if we see someone wearing a certain uniform or sports top. It's something we can't stop, and we cannot change religion; but the hatred isn't needed, surely.

As I've said before, I'm not one for compromising beliefs, but when we consider the sacrifices that innocent people are making; surely compromise is the better option?