This was the first year since becoming an evangelist that I've worked every city on our Tech Days tour -- with the possible exception of the very first Technology Day tour, the inaugural tour which took place during the summer of 1998.  I think we hit 4 cities on that inaugural tour, sort of a prototype tour, as that fall we began the second instantiation of the tours, as it were.  But after that first set of cities, we got a lot more aggressive with our schedules, which meant it was more difficult to work the event in every city. So I didn't.  Nor did anyone else, as far as I know.  But this year, every city on our itinerary saw these weary evangelical bones...and to cap a fifteen city sojourn with Tel Aviv was a fine bookend to an otherwise interesting year.

Shalom.  That's the Hebrew word for "hello."  It also means, "peace."  It has been my habit to open Tech Days events with the "hello" or "good morning" greeting from the locale in question.  In Germany, for example, a "gut gutenmorgen" would be appropriate.  In China, a "nee-HOW" might be heard to mean "good morning," depending on the phonetic acumen of the speaker.  In Israel, it's "shalom."  I heard Dr. Wayne Dyer speak once about that particular good morning -- shalom.

The word "shalom" is made up of two syllables, both of which sport spiritual onomatopoeiac attributes.  The "lom" part of the word sounds like the holy "Om," the primal mantra. Tibetan Buddhists believe that chanting the prayer, Om Mani Padme Hum, out loud or silently to oneself, invokes the powerful benevolent attention and blessings of Chenrezig, the embodiment of compassion. Viewing the written  form of the mantra is said to have the same effect  -- it is often carved into stones, like the one pictured above, and placed where people can see them.

The "sha" part of the Hebrew word for peace also contains the traditional name for God, which is manifest in most spiritual traditions.   Allah, Yaweh, Jehovah, Adonai or God all come with the "ah" sound.  So does Buddha, Krishna, Shiva. And so, of course, does Java. Hence, the near religious fervor when it comes to the Java revolution? :)

After leaving Tel Aviv, on my way home as it were,  I had the great pleasure of addressing 510 open source devotees in Frankfurt at the JAX2001 conference.  Since it was on the way, at the behest of my friend and fellow evangelist at Sun,  Rags Srinivas, I was given the opportunity to bear my testimony during a keynote event that will likely remain a high point in this evangelist's reflections -- I have long felt a strong kinship with those devoted to the concepts of open source.  Addressing the attendees at that conference has most certainly confirmed my suspicions; I know now who I must seek out during at least the upcoming year (the fiscal year at Sun begins anew July 1 of each year) -- open source sensibilities have always been part of Sun's theory of operation.  It's high time we took proactive steps to enjoin that growing community.  I plan to do my part by seeking out speaking opportunities at just such gatherings in the future...the messages to both the Java and the open source communities are the same:  If there's hope for humanity, it's in softare.  We should therefore code in peace, knowing that our work in the larger sense is God's work.  Shalom.

By the way, check out today's online quotes from yours truly...it ain't every day you get yourself quoted in Wired, now is it? :)