Speeches of Hyo Jin Moon 2006-2008
Delivered Sunday at Belvedere Estate in Tarrytown, New York
Hyo Jin Moon Speaks on It Doesn’t Matter How Old You Are, Page 147

Some episodes may contain explicit language. Listener discretion is advised.

 

It Doesn't Matter How Old You Are

September 17, 2006

Did you check it out, Defining Moment TV?
(http://definingmoment.tv/web site)

Is it Okay? We'll just keep it coming.

Well, it's got a format so it can grow as much as we can keep inviting people to do interviews. You can email suggestions about what you're interested in, what you want to see, anything, information that you think would be useful to you. Let us know. We can do it. At the same time we can develop new characters too.

These days more than any other time in history it doesn't matter how old you are. Obviously young people live under pressure to become something great, something that can put you in the limelight as quick as possible if it is doable. They need to really prove themselves, because there are so many ways to put a spotlight on an individual. You can do it to yourself deliberately, or you can end up in the spotlight because of circumstances, because of whatever occupation you choose, and suddenly an inquisition is on your tail.

People want to know what the best trend is. They want to know what, whatever it is at all times. In order to actually find some kind of success in today's world you have to go through scrutiny. That's the kind of reality that my children will face, and that young people are facing now. Today's people, in whatever profession that you're involved in, have to contend with this kind of pressure just to further your careers.

Having said that, how do you go about achieving a reality where you can actually do something that you can compete and win with? Obviously, with something like Defining Moment TV, the more we have of it, the better.

For our church we can provide incentive for people to seek out and further individual aspirations and understanding. With that, you ultimately can get control over your destiny and take care of whatever responsibility you might have. Ultimately, in order for you to be successful, you have to put aside big dreams for a while and just deliver what's expected from you. Do your responsibility and be up to whatever standard is expected of you in the present. These expectations dictate what you have to deliver in the end. It doesn't matter what other people tell you. That's about it.

You can't change that reality. It would be nice if we could just go out and witness to several politicians and through some kind of miraculous inspiration convert them into our way of thinking. That's not going to change how America will be the day afterwards. America is a very different place. The 400 and some odd people in the House of Representative who make the laws get elected every two years. To pass a law or make an amendment to a law and put it in the law books, people from both sides have to agree. In America, people then went out of their way to avoid the kind of king and feudalism system that they ran away from.

It's a very difficult place and even the person who is in the position of management doesn't have absolute power. Yes, the president gets presidential treatment to a point, and within the context of the law he does have absolute power, but his power is limited by the law and by term limits.

Ultimately in the end in order to change America, you can't do it with judges. You can't do it with politicians. You have to convince the people, people like us have to be well informed as to what America stands for and how it work—even just basic nitty-gritty stuff from the bottom up. That's the essential point, no nonsense, just the facts.

In America, there so many ethnic and religious groups in this land of opportunity, this land of immigrants. So many groups hold on to their own traditions and their own cultural identity. Never mind their religion.

In religion too, it depends on what part of the world you came from. So, you have to understand all those facts. It's not a silly thing. It's crucial information if you want to believe that you have the potential to change these people. You have to know these things whether you like it or not. Otherwise you can't communicate. You are speaking in a different tongue, speaking a different language.

It would be like me talking to you in Korean. You could understand my gestures to a point but even that's limited to how universally we understand body language. So, as long as we clearly do not have a universal language to present a universal culture, then it's very important we stay informed about these variations of human history. Why? Just to communicate, just to say hello in the right way. If we don't have those basic fundamental facts we get nowhere.

We can dream all sorts of dreams and anything is possible—I believe that. But I also believe that certain things will take time. I believe that certain things can be done relatively faster than others. However, you have to dream the dream in a realistic way. And the way to dream of changing the world, the universal idealism, the ultimate stuff, regardless of who you are means that whoever does the basic homework first has a better chance of scoring than somebody who is not doing it.

Eventually everybody, every organization, every religion that wants to realize the dream will put greater and greater emphasis on that fact of knowing because that is the only way. There is no other way.

We can talk about stuff we understand and we can inspire each other because we want to hear things that make us feel good, and because it distinguishes us from some other groups of people. We think our beliefs are greater than the other guy. So be it! That's beside the point in changing the world. I don't think that religion should be something that just caters to holding on to and managing someone's personal view of reality or frame of mind. I think it should be more than that.

For us to increase who we are, it is important that we use formats like this that are so readily available. Of course, it isn't cheap, obviously, it's cheaper than network, but it's global and we should use it to the hilt. We should use it as much as we can. Why? Because ultimately, if you are better informed, and you can deal with basic facts more than the other person then you will have a better chance of reaching out and connecting. It's very important.

You can't do it alone. We need more and more people like you, not less. Just even for your children's sake, just imagine. Let's get to the point on every issue, how the government works on every different level. If we can have something that you and I can feel comfortable with and give them the facts on how things work, starting with the government, wouldn't you feel better?

For example, what is the extent of the power of the president, and what is the extent of the power of the legislature, and so on and so forth. If you know these things, wouldn't you feel better? And if that information came from somebody like you and me who are committed, then that's important. We should have more of this, and it's never too late. I try to do more—more—as much as possible, but it's limited. I don't want to sound cheesy, but stuff costs and you can only do so much. But you want to do more. Okay, all right. That's your limitation but you try to do something more. It's easier said than done, right? Always, right? Let's make a greater commitment and take a greater risk and all that troublesome stuff, that pain and heartache. There is no guarantee. But that's what needs to be done!

Somebody has to do it, right? Somebody will always say that. I hate that term. But that's true though. Somebody will say that and somebody will have to do it.