If we could reach out and embrace the events that pass us we would. But, on our first try we find ourselves in the middle of a terrible fire that wants to consume our aspirations. We fight to extricate ourselves from our curiosity and when we are finished the event that has consumed us is down the river; a mere picture that we weakly respond to. It floats still with an enthusiastic band of persons whose destines are formed by the event. Soon enough another one appears and just as we begin to disappear into its implications we pull back and understand, with some joy, that we are free after all. The great event surrounds us, now, on all four sides and has amplified its messages so we stand helpless and passive. Even at this point we treat the event the way Buddha treated the advancing horde of demons under the Bo tree. Do we not want to set a precedent for future generations? The events appears to rob us of precious energy so, now, we avoid contact with it at all costs and learn, rather, the art of conversations and defense.