Crossposted at The Arty Blog
Since nobody seems interested in helping to write the story about putting up the Christmas tree, probably nobody's interested in the next part of the saga. But, I got an appallingly late start today (and everything I try to do is taking *forever*), so I've not yet had a chance to read the news and find suitable blog topics.
The dragons couldn't wait to start decorating the tree. After breakfast, I brought the boxes of ornaments down from the attic to the living room, while they carefully carried in a tray of cocoa and cookies. Once everything was ready and I had sat down, Vincent started zooming around in great excitement, while Winsome tried to burrow into the boxes to find interesting decorations. I spanked his paws lightly and said, "I'll unpack, and hand things to each of you to hang up. Move back, now, and give me room."
Winsome stepped back obediently. Vincent landed nearby and they waited, eyes gleaming, while I started to unwrap ornaments. To my relief, and mild surprise, the decorating went pretty smoothly for the first half hour or so. But, I should have known the peace and normality couldn't last.
After a while, I decided to get up and hang a few decorations too. And, while my back was turned, Winsome picked up a cute little quilted bird with red and green striped wings and a stained glass bluebird. He examined them with a puzzled air. "Why do you want to put this sun catcher and this little toy in our Christmas tree?" he asked, holding them carefully up to a branch a foot or so over my head.
"We need at least one bird in our tree, and I like those. My mother gave them to me," I said, glancing up for a moment. Then, I went back to disentangling the hooks of a frosted glass bell and a fat, curly bearded Santa. "Don't put them on the same branch, though, Winsome. Give one to Vincent, so he can put it lower down on the other side."
Winsome glided over to hand the bluebird to Vincent, who was taking a cocoa break and looked around at Winsome with whipped cream on his nose. "Why do we need them in the tree?" Winsome asked again, as he flew around looking for a good spot for his striped bird.
"They're good luck," I said, setting the Santa aside and reaching into a small empty space to find a solid twig to hang my bell on. "You should always have birds in your Christmas tree."
Winsome looked at me, then at the bird in his paw, and then back at me. He flew over to the table where I'd been unpacking the decorations, and set the bird down on an empty piece of tissue paper. Vincent looked up, munching a chocolate chip cookie. He seemed puzzled too.
"If you want birds," Winsome said, "there are a couple of cute little brown ones I saw at the feeder this morning when I went out to stretch my wings. I'm sure they'd be happy to come in and sit in our Christmas tree for a while. Why don't I go' ask them?"
Finally the tree was decorated, with two very confused little sparrows fluttering and chirruping in the branches. It was time to put on the angel at the top and the tinsel garlands. Vincent flew up to place the angel, giving us a chorus of "Angels We Have Heard on High." Winsome snorted grumpily and accidentally set fire to the chocolate chip cookie he was eating.
And then, things got exciting.
Since the dragons had never seen tinsel garlands before, I explained that we wanted to loop them loosely over the tree so that it would look as though silver and gold icicles were sparkling on the branches.
"We have some glass icicles," Vincent said, pointing around the tree.
"Yes," I said, sighing. "Yes, I know we do. I don't know exactly wy people put tinsel on Christmas trees, or when and where the custom began. But, we do. And, it's a lot easier to cope with when its in garlands - ropes like this, see? - instead of individual strands. So, be good, and loop this first garland around the tree for me." I held up the golden rope I'd just uncoiled from its box. The dragons looked at each other. Apparently deciding to humor me, they swooped down and each grasped an end of the ten or twelve foot rope.
And then, I made a terrible mistake. I turned away. I took a long swallow of my now tepid cocoa, and then another. I picked up a sugar cookie, and started to eat it. And, when I looked at the tree again, wondering vaguely why the sparrows were so excited all of a sudden, I saw my dragons happily flying in opposite directions around the tree, wrapping it and themselves more and more tightly in the sparkling golden garland.
I dropped my cookie, hardly noticing the sparrows who zoomed over to peck at it enthusiastically. "Stop," I cried, waving my arms, trying to get the dragons' attention. "Stop! That's not what' I meant!"
Vincent on one side of the tree and Winsome on the other stopped in mid air, beating their wings only enough to hover, and looked at me in surprise. Vincent had a couple of loops of the rope around his tail and one around a back leg, while Winsome was sporting one loop in front of his wings, and one loop behind them. They both looked as though they were thoroughly enjoying themselves.
"What's the matter?" Vincent asked tentatively.
"Aren't we doing it right?" Winsome demanded, suddenly sounding and looking anxious.
I stared at them for a moment, hovering there, wound in gold tinsel and still clutching the ends of the sparkling rope. I stared, and then I began to laugh. I couldn't help it. "Nothing's wrong," I said with difficulty. Moving back to my chair, I sat down weakly. "You're doing fine. You - you just need a little more practice." I hesitated, not sure I could handle the consequences of my next suggestion. "Do you think you could, uh, unloop it and start again?"
"Sure," they said eagerly, and began flying around the tree again.
I flung my arms up. "Wait!" As I started to get to my feet,, I felt a strange sensation and, glancing down, saw one of the sparrows pecking a cookie crumb off my slipper. He fluttered over to his mate, and together they retreated under the table. The dragons were hovering again, now looking puzzled.
"You said..." Winsome began.
"I know." I paused, thinking. "The best thing to do might be for one of you to stay still, and the other to unwind the rope. That way, there's less chance of you both getting tangled up again."
"We're not tangled up," Vincent said indignantly, pulling the loops around himself tighter as he moved his tail for emphasis.
"Yeah, well, you just stay where you are, and let Winsome unwind."
It took Winsome a couple of tries before he figured out which direction to go. But, in about ten minutes the tinsel rope was lying in a neat, straight line in the middle of the living room floor, and the dragons were curled up on the couch, panting. The sparrows ventured out to investigate the garland, but discovering that it was not nice to eat, and that they could not carry bits of it off, they decided to go sit in the tree again.
I leant back and closed my eyes. Really, I thought. It's a good thing I couldn't find the Christmas tree lights.
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I'm sure there are more impressive "Christmas lights synchronized to music" out there, but I just had to post this one, because it's done to Vince Guaraldi's Linus and Lucy. That was the one specific request we had for the jazz band that played at our wedding.
Years later, I met a man who told me that he and his wife had chosen the same music to be played as they were leaving the church at the end of the ceremony. Now that's cool, I thought. But I wasn't quite brave enough to do something like that, back when I was a bride--a few short months after graduating college. If I had it to do over again, sure, I'd go for it. :)
Haloscan comment thread
The image you see above is a digital montage by Barbara Desrosiers, and is entitled Luminous Dawning
Meditating upon the birth of the Christ-child led me to combine the images of a baby, a cathedral, and dancing light. Luminous Dawning is an attempt to hint at the power of faith, the protection of the Almighty, and the eternal birth of hope despite this world of pain. Upon the completion of this piece I found a kindred spirit in the words of Meister Eckhart.The web site Explore Faith features a section, A Time of Miracles, which includes reflections on the seasons of Advent and Christmas. I've used a couple of them for our family's evening Advent reflections.
“The awakened heart is like a luminous sphere just giving without thought to any who may come close or gaze at it. The soul becomes blessedly lost to all but its own holy being.” ~Meister Eckhart, Jerusalem
Sometimes the most spontaneous events become the most inspiring.
2 days ago a national Moveon organizer called and asked if I would be willing to help get people together to give our local congressman, Don Manzullo, petitions asking to sponsor HR 64 bill to remove Bush's authority to wage a war against Iran. The first thing I thought, oh dear, one more thing to do. I was running a candidate forum on Wed. and participating in a county Democratic meeting on Thursday. HOKay, just one more thing. I have to admit; it really is hard to pass up an opportunity to let our Republican US representative know how I feel.
I sent out over 400 email notifications and printed out the petition. To my surprise, there were over 260 signatures from all around the 16th district and most of them were not the "usual" peace activists that I knew. They included some incredible and thoughtful comments like, "We can not allow this administration to compound errors and mistakes. Disaster awaits those who do not head their mistakes and make changes to prevent their re-occurrence."
I called the representative’s office. The receptionist said that they would be glad to have a representative meet with the group "Holly". I guess I am on first name basis with his staff now. ☺
Twelve hardy activists met in the icy parking lot. A pastor read his inspirational poem, we discussed what we would say, and took pictures of the group with a peace sign under our representatives sign.
We ushered the group into the entryway and jammed ourselves into the 12 by 12 foot space. As we waited, another constituent needed to squeeze by to get some government papers from the front desk. As he spoke we could detect a middle-eastern accent. They slipped his papers under the glass barrier to him. He asked why we were there and we explained that we wanted to get the message to our representative that we wanted to prevent war with Iran. His eyes lighted up and he just stood in the middle of the group to hear this for himself.
Our congressman’s PR man squeezed in from the office door to join us in the foyer. Guess there will be not comfy conference room for these uninvited guests. I always wonder why people worry about security with PEACE activists.
I read him the petition and explained that we wanted to pass on to our congressman that we did not want a war with Iran and to have him sign a bill to remove Bush’s authority to wage this war. Almost all stated their strong opinions including wasting of billions of dollars, losing thousands of lives, and resenting Bush’s fear tactics, it was hard not to wander off on Manzullo’s miserable voting record, including issues such as health care, energy and his distorted logic for saving money by eliminating human services and spending billions in Iraq. We may question if any of this does any good but it sure felt good! I handed him the 10 pages of signatures as we left.
Outside the door the extra visitor asked if he could share a word with us. He explained that what is going on in Iran is complex. Russia and China are negotiating with Iran for oil. He told us to listen to the truth teller Olbermann.
He finished by saying, "I love America and I have lived here for over 10 years. I come from Iran."
He added, "It was an experience for me to see people like you care about other people in the world. Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you," and he kissed his fingers and extended them to each of us in the group.
Haloscan comment thread
I read this story:
"Merry Christmas" a group called, and this guy and three friends called back "Happy Hanukkah!" So ten people jumped them.And the story about the "Christmas is wonderful" resolution that was passed by the House of Representatives. And I just came up short. As I wrote here, I'm really at a loss.
At least a good Samaritan came to their aid--a Muslim. He confirms that nothing else was said; there was no antagonism, just the greeting. He got beaten too.
We need to do something.I'm still pretty stumped by all of this. But I thought this might be a good time to post the bumper sticker I made a couple days ago...
Something positive. And now.
I'm at a loss. It's like those dreams I have where I try to scream and nothing comes out. I feel immobilized.
I know what not to do. Talking about "those people" and how horrible they are will not make it better. I'm not criticizing anyone for doing so, because the impulse can be hard to resist.
But we need to start recognizing our common humanity. Can't do that by pointing fingers, though. I'm pretty sure we need to lead by example.
That's all I've got, though. No wonder I don't blog much these days.
Mister Splashy Pants got a huge 119,367 votes (over 78 percent of the vote) with his nearest rival being Humphrey at 4,329 (less than 3 percent). The rest of the top ten were Aiko, Libertad, Mira, Kaimana, Aurora, Shanti, Amal and Manami.
Many websites also took credit for the rise and rise of the Splashy-Panted One. Some websites encouraged their readers to cheat and vote more than once, while others like Treehugger seemed to imply that Mister Splashy Pants wasn't a proper name for a whale.
We're sure Treehugger didn't mean it that way but it resulted in a final wave of votes from their readers that took Splashy to an unreachable position at the top of the pod.
I saw this painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe at a local retreat center. (Sorry it's so blurry.) I had a little mini-retreat of about two hours. I think I'll be going back for more before this busy season is over.
Today is the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. That, and the approach of Christmas, serves to remind me just how radical and countercultural the message of this season can be.
From an essay on "Liberation Spirituality":
Interestingly enough for Catholic spirituality (but with increasing ecumenical implications), the rediscovery of the historical Jesus is being accompanied by a rediscovery of Mary of Nazareth, the faithful woman of the gospel, the model of the "poor of Yahweh" of yesterday and today. She who is always found among the poor (like our Lady of Guadalupe, for example) becomes a model of a spirituality of liberation for the poor and for those who live in real solidarity with the poor. Her Magnificat becomes a song of historical liberation. In the Puebla documents she becomes a model "for those who do not accept passively the adverse circumstances of personal and social life . . . but who proclaim with her that God 'exalts the lowly' and, if it is the case, 'pulls down the princes from their thrones"'
Took this picture of Stevie this morning. Tried to think of a caption for it, but he doesn't really seem to be doing anything. "I has a big, climby, stratchy toy?" Nah.
Then I remembered having seen lolcats with the caption you see here. Stevie does kinda look like he's staring at you.
Haloscan comment thread
Thank you to Jessica for reminding us of the help needed at Pine Ridge Reservation this time of year. Click here for more information about the current donation drives.
Haloscan comment thread
Some of you may be aware that we had a problem with another shopkeeper offering one of our graphics in his/her store. Thankfully, that has been taken care of, and Demetrius has been adding some new designs to the autism awareness section in our store. Anyway, to make our designs all "Google-icious", I'm posting this to the front page.
So I thought I'd post this image that Demetrius just created of a Guacamole, Lettuce, Bacon and Tomato sandwich.
Just realized that John Lennon was killed 27 years ago today. At the time, by the way, I had no clue who he was. It was many years later before I realized what we lost that day. Anyway, I thought I'd post this video...
And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so happy Christmas
We hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
War is over, if you want it
War is over now
Greetings from listener, who took this New Snow on the Fence photo and received the following notice from her town clerk this week:
We have 8 pairs of snowshoes that are available to be rented and returned during regular Town Clerk office hours.Happy White Advent! ~ listener
Snowshoes may be rented by town residents for up to three days at a time. Please return them before 11 am on the date they are due so that people waiting to rent them only need to make one trip to pick them up.
There is a $20 deposit for each adult pair and $10 for each child pair. The deposit is returned to the renter when snowshoes are returned in the same condition they were rented.
Click here for the Wikipedia article about St. Nicholas. (Ever try stir-fried wikipedia?)
Yesterday's Question of the Day at My Left Wing asked the question, "Why do you blog?" Since I'm still busy working on grades, I thought I'd "borrow" that idea for a post here.
My response in that thread:
Wow-- deep questions, seriously. And one I've been trying to think about. I was reminded of that fact when I saw a fellow parishioner at church the other day. He's on the adult education committee and had approached me a while ago about taking part in a session about the internet and blogging.
We were in a religious education group together last year, and he recognized my writing from diaries at Big Orange. I blogged a lot more back then. I still feel like I need to keep blogging now, but don't have much sense of purpose or direction at the moment. Anyway, I was relieved that he didn't come over to me to talk about this issue on Sunday, because I'm still working on it.
Anyway, one of my answers with regard to why I blog, is that it allows me to occasionally have in depth conversations that could never happen in "real time". Face to face or (bleah) on the phone, the pace is too fast for me. But it's possible to have "deeper" conversations on blogs...and eventually bring those insights into real time conversations.
I gave a couple of final exams yesterday, and have one more plus some make-up exams to give on Thursday. Right now I have some grading to do, but, for the first time in weeks, we have our living room back. Daughter was sleeping on the couch while she had a cast on her leg, so that she wouldn't have to go up and down the stairs to her bedroom. The cast finally came off yesterday (and there was much rejoicing).
So now I'm looking at the DVDs I recently checked out from the library, thinking I really should watch one of them before they need to go back to the library. I can't even begin to count how many DVDs or videos I have checked out, only to return them, unwatched, to the library. I just, um, treat them to a little car ride. Inanimate objects enjoy that, right? ;) Or wait--maybe the service I'm offering them is sort of like a retreat. Some quiet time during which they will not be subjected to any new scratches or additional wear and tear.
Anyway, right now I've got "Outfoxed" and "Shut up and sing". Both are things I'd kind of like to see. But my husband doesn't like to watch anything that might make him even more angry at the right wing than he already is. And I'm not much for sitting down and watching a DVD by myself.
As the day wore on, I started watching a documentary called The World According to Sesame Street
Sesame Street” originator Joan Ganz Cooney explains the show like this: “Our producers are like old-fashioned missionaries...it’s not religion they’re spreading, but it is learning and tolerance and love and mutual respect, and in a way, you have to say it must be the most wonderful job in the world.”It really is fascinating, and probably less likely to make me cranky than the other two options. (Which I may eventually watch as well.)
listener passed along some pictures of the pine grosbeak, along with some comments. You'll have to take my word that I really don't have the focus today to piece together a post involving someone else's words and pictures. But here are a couple of the photos she sent--maybe she'll have something to say about them in the comments.
Haloscan comment thread
I just wanted to share this tonight...
Thin Places are ports in the storm of life, where the pilgrims can move closer to the God they seek, where one leaves that which is familiar and journeys into the Divine Presence. They are stopping places where men and women are given pause to wonder about what lies beyond the mundane rituals, the grief, trials and boredom of our day-to-day life. They probe to the core of the human heart and open the pathway that leads to satisfying the familiar hungers and yearnings common to all people on earth, the hunger to be connected, to be a part of something greater, to be loved, to find peace.
But thin places aren’t always literally places. The arts are sometimes thin places for some of us. Music. Poetry. People can be thin places. Marcus Borg believes one of the best ways of understanding Jesus is to think of him as a particularly thin place where the transcendent reality Jesus called the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of heaven shone through.Haloscan comment thread
One of the emphases of the Celtic Christians about thin places is that they are porous and permeable. Marcus Borg says: “They are places where the boundary between the two levels becomes very soft, porous, permeable.”
Click here for a listing of World AIDS Day events planned by members of the One campaign around the country.
From the UN Chronicle
World AIDS Day is an opportunity to raise awareness and fight prejudice about HIV/AIDS and express global solidarity with people living with the disease. Commemorated on 1 December every year since 1988, the Day provides an occasion to remind Governments and world leaders of their commitments to fight AIDS.More here.
Well, we've had QUITE the afternoon-evening!
A female Pine Grosbeak hit our upstairs window, leaving a few tiny feathers and a teeny red spot (I strongly suspect a hawk swooped through the yard, because ALL the birds dispersed.)
I went to the living room windows and spotted her under the (heated) birdbath, with one wing out a few inches more than the other.
I watched her from the window for a long time, while consulting Son*in*NC the wildlife biologist and Daughter-in-law*in*VT who graduated pre-vet.
After a really long time she hadn't expired; in fact she began to turn her head from side to side! But she didn't move around and the cold wind was blowing from behind her. So I set a box over her, cut open on one end so she could be free if desired.
About 40 minutes later she hopped out of the box! Then she proceeded to hop clear across the back yard, but, sadly, she could not fly. With the day dimming and a very cold night ahead, I set her into a box and brought her in.
I called the vet who had me call the VT Institute of Natural Science (VINS), who had me call a rehab-er, who had me call a different rehab-er, who had me call a third rehab-er who won't be home until this evening.
So we have Ms. Grosbeak all set up with seeds and cherries, and water. She is in the Guest Room and had enough warmth without being too warm (we want to keep her acclimated, if we can).
Hopefully she will wake up and be able to fly. If so, we'll watch for her mates to return to the cherry tree out back and release her to rejoin them. If she cannot fly she may need expertise and long-term care than we can provide.
I am encouraged that she was more alert when we moved her to the more spiffy box set-up. I had my thin leather gloves on and could feel her struggle a bit, and she felt stronger than earlier. Hope, hope!
Caring for Creation is a huge job! It's amazing how complex this world is.
Keep the hope coming! ♥ listener
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by W.A. Thomasson
Dennis Hastert’s resignation from Congress, effective now, means there will be a special election to fill his unexpired term. The dates have not been officially announced, but it is anticipated that the special primary will be Feb. 5, to coincide with the regular primary, and the special general election will be sometime in April.
Although having the special and regular primaries on the same day will save money, it is also generating a good deal of confusion. Some things even the Illinois Board of Elections is unsure of. The special and regular primaries are technically separate elections. Does that mean voters will have to cast separate ballots? With duplicate sets of touch-screen and optical -scan counting machines at each polling place? What about election Judges? One set or two? And — OK, maybe this is a stretch. But since Illinois is an open-primary state, would it be legal for someone to take a Democratic ballot for the special primary and a Republican ballot for the regular primary?
One thing for sure, however, is that candidates will have to file new nominating petitions. The ones they filed earlier this month are only valid for the regular primary. That means they have three weeks to collect a minimum of 873 valid signatures from registered voters in the district. Since challenging nominating petitions is something of a tradition in Illinois, that means they really need 2000 signatures. Or maybe 3000 to be on the safe side. There is little doubt that all the current candidates will be able to do this, especially since Hastert’s resignation has been rumored for months and they have all had contingency plans. Still, it means that for the next three weeks they are going to have to focus on signature gathering rather than voter persuasion.
There are two Republican and four Democratic candidates. On the Republican side, archconservative State Sen. Chris Lauzen is p;ositioning himself as Hastert’s heir. Dairy magnate Jim Oberweis, who finished second in both the 2004 senatorial primary and the 2006 gubernatorial primary, is a flaming radical rightist. He and the state Republican leadership openly loathe each other. Oberweis was not named the senatorial candidate after the primary winner withdrew because he had campaigned explicitly against George Bush and his “soft-on-immigration” guest worker proposal. And after the gubernatorial primary, he described the winner as “another Hilary.” Oberweis won’t win this primary if the party leadership has anything to say about it. But given the current state of Illinois Republican politics, they may not.
There is a really excellent diary at Prairie State Blue that gives a lot of detail on the Democratic candidates as well as other aspects of the special election. I think there is a great deal to like about each of the candidates, although in different ways. John Laesch, the 2006 candidate against Hastert, is the most progressive on the issues. He’d probably agree that he’s basically in the Kuchinich mold. Jotham Stein has the most innovative ideas on the issues and is running a strong campaign. I have donated to him simply because he personally called me, even though I am dozens of miles outside the district. Those things matter. I like Bill Foster both because of his scientific background and because of his emphasis on fiscal responsibility, a la Howard Dean. Additionally, he is in a position to put a lot of his own money into the campaign and, even though a first-time candidate, has a lot of political savvy from the 10 months he spent as a volunteer staffer with Patrick Murphy’s campaign in Pennsylvania. Those sorts of things will matter in April and November. I don’t know much about Joe Pera, the 2004 candidate, because he got into this year’s race very late. That may make it hard for him to catch up to campaigns with established momentum.
A lot of people are looking to this special election as a barometer of how well Democrats will do next November. It’s maybe a biased barometer, since Bush carried the district 55-45 in 2004. But between declining GOP fortunes, shifting demographics, an open seat, and maybe even an Illinoisan at the top of the Democratic ticket, it could be winnable.A post by Subway Serenade/Astral Technician (who is celebrating his birthday today).
Imagine that you're driving in your car listening to your favorite music from your favorite radio station. If you live in a major city, thousands of people are listening to the same song you are and all of your hearts are beating to the rhythm of the music. Your brainwaves are also keeping time. As the songs change, so do your internal rhythms. I demonstrated this principle at the mini DeanFest in Vermont earlier this year.
Now, if you didn't have a radio, you wouldn't be able to hear the music. Songs of all sorts, from every station would be passing through you unnoticed, and your internal rhythms would be going their own merry way.
However, those who hear the music share a bond, a focal point that has all of the hearts dancing to the same tune, even though they don't realize it. I have found in practical terms that not only do the internal systems receive waves and react to them, but we also broadcast waves of our own to which others react. We are in fact, exchanging waves of various sorts all the time. Not only that, but we and everything around us are just a series of complex, but simply ordered waveforms.
Today I was thinking of how so much of the world seems to be listening to some radio station that plays nothing but Rush Limbaugh droning on and on. Yet we don't realize that a really beautiful music station is just a few stations up the dial. What if Peace on Earth were made possible simply by having enough connected hearts reaching up and changing the channel?
Haloscan comment thread
From the comments...
Howard was right, as usual. We need to appeal to people with Confederate flags on the backs of their pickup trucks. But who would have thought an African-American would be the person to do it?
Story from last night's Obama for President/Democratic Party of Oak Park Meetup: Rob Baren, the local party's political director, has been visiting his father in the hospital in Dayton. He couldn't quite believe everybody telling him everyone they knew was voting for Obama. But driving back through rural Ohio, a guy in one of those big, fancy pickup trucks waved as he went past. And in the back window of the pickup were three signs:
Nitional Rifle Association
Confderate flag
Obama for President
Bill Thomasson | 11.27.07 - 11:15 am |
I just remembered that it was possible to choose "new posts have no comments" under the comment settings. This way, I can still have the traditional Blogger-integrated comments available for use when Haloscan is messed up--for a while there, Haloscan seemed to be messed up on a regular basis, if you'll recall. But with this change, people won't be coming to this site and commenting in the wrong place.
Haloscan comment thread
Going to an early service tomorrow, so I thought I'd go ahead and post a new thread before turning in tonight.
Originally posted at My Left Wing
How can I live more intentionally--acting rather than reacting, choosing where to invest my energies and talents? How can I find balance in all of this--remembering who I wanted to be and making choices that are in keeping with my core values?
While I've done a lot of thinking along these lines, I haven't come up with much that I can write about yet. But Maryscott remarks in the Daily Rant about this site "dying" moved me to try to put at least some of this into words.
I have been revisiting the reasons I started to frequent political blogs. In a nutshell, the emergency of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and later the 2004 election changed me from someone who tuned out most of politics and never watched the news to someone who had to get involved because the stakes were so high.
There's a book called Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers
I'm sure someone reading this will find flaws with this analogy and want to point them out to me. Just this once, please don't. Whether or not my zebra comparison makes sense or seems appropriate to you, I'm telling you the truth as I see it. Which is this...it is not healthy or adaptive to be in "emergency response mode" for an extended period of time. I do believe that it is part of my "calling" (for lack of a better word) to be doing something toward healing the world. Even just a little part of it. My hunch is, that's something I have in common with a lot of people here, even if we express it differently.
Many people across the country today w,ill be having their Thanksgiving dinner at thousands of locations that serve meals to the poor and homeless. But this would be largely unnecessary if our priorities were a little different.
From the Washington Post:
Food banks are a dominant institution in this country, and they assert their power at the local and state levels by commanding the attention of people of good will who want to address hunger. Their ability to attract volunteers and to raise money approaches that of major hospitals and universities. While none of this is inherently wrong, it does distract the public and policymakers from the task of harnessing the political will needed to end hunger in the United States.Something to think about as we give thanks for the harvest.
The risk is that the multibillion-dollar system of food banking has become such a pervasive force in the anti-hunger world, and so tied to its donors and its volunteers, that it cannot step back and ask if this is the best way to end hunger, food insecurity and their root cause, poverty.During my tenure in Hartford, I often wondered what would happen if the collective energy that went into soliciting and distributing food were put into ending hunger and poverty instead. Surely it would have a sizable impact if 3,000 Hartford-area volunteers, led by some of Connecticut's most privileged and respected citizens, showed up one day at the state legislature, demanding enough resources to end hunger and poverty. Multiply those volunteers by three or four -- the number of volunteers in the state's other food banks and hundreds of emergency food sites -- and you would have enough people to dismantle the Connecticut state capitol brick by brick. Put all the emergency food volunteers and staff and board members from across the country on buses to Washington, to tell Congress to mandate a living wage, health care for all and adequate employment and child-care programs, and you would have a convoy that might stretch from New York City to our nation's capital.
But what we have done instead is to continue down a road that never comes to an end. Like transportation planners who add more lanes to already clogged highways, we add more space to our food banks in the futile hope of relieving the congestion.
We know hunger's cause -- poverty. We know its solution -- end poverty. Let this Thanksgiving remind us of that task.
Can't seem to fall asleep, so I decided to get out of bed for a bit rather than just lying there feeling frustrated.
Popped over to BBspot to see if today's Daily Links had been posted yet. They had, and I found this one rather amusing. Products whose names were variations on the "I can't believe it's not butter" theme. I thought I'd go ahead and post it now, because I might forget by the time I eventually fall asleep and eventually wake up again...
Now I'm going to go try that thing where I'm horizontal with my eyes closed again and see if it works this time.
Haloscan comment thread
I am slooowly getting over a yucky cold, but it's been gray outside all day, so that's amplifying the usual virus-induced bleariness.
"Distractibility" has been the name of the game for me today, and I've been hopping around various sites on the interwebs, but not really accomplishing anything.
Found this article about the science of cooking interesting. As I was reading it to Demetrius, he said that Alton Brown of Good Eats had addressed some of the same issues. Turns out that Harold McGee, who I'd never heard of before today, was a major influence on Alton Brown. He's got his own web site, Curious Cook, which I will check out when I have a longer attention span.
But from there I moved on to this geography quiz, which I liked because you actually get points for being "close". So I ended up wasting a fair amount of time on that as well.
Eventually, I did manage to get myself out the door to run a couple of errands. While I was out, I thought of a blog essay I wanted to write, and had every intention of starting once I got home. So now that I'm home, I should get to work on that. Actually, I should work on lecture prep first. But...
Look! Some bouncy balls!
A picture of Michael Jackson graces the cover of the current issue of Ebony magazine. I don't know about you, but I find that just a teensy bit ironic.
Thriller was 25 years ago...wow.
Haloscan comment thread
I hear there's a debate tonight.
Use this thread to discuss the debate, or anything else that's on your mind.
Haloscan comment thread
On my way to bed, but thought I'd post something silly first, and share this page from Snopes. Some oddly funny stuff...
They say that if a person has a pet cat and dies, if the person's body is not found fairly soon after death, the cat, having not been fed, will become ravenously hungry and eat the dead person's face off - JUST the face!
Is this true? My cat often looks me in the face. I used to think he was just being friendly. Now I know he's just sizing me up, like a chef at a butcher shop, waiting for "the big day". Since hearing this rumor, every time my cat licks his chops it gives me the willies!
Psychologist Philip Zimbardo (photo courtesy of The Lucifer Effect web site) came to speak at a community college here in Columbus last month. I recorded the whole talk, which was an hour long. The whole thing was fascinating, but I set myself the modest goal of transcribing only the last eight minutes. Those last minutes of the lecture were the uplifting, hopeful part, and, I don't know about you, but I sure could use more of that in my daily life.
"The line between good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being", says Aleksander Solzhenitsyn. ... "It's a decision that you have to make every day in various ways."Haloscan comment thread
So what I want to do, is I want to end on a positive note, because I know I've depressed you. When I was writing this book I was so depressed, going through all this horrible stuff, and being immersed in this "evil shit", if you will. (Laughter) But the positive note is, heroism as an antidote to evil, by promoting what I call "the heroic imagination" in every man, woman, and child in our nation.
What I mean by that is, here's Joe Darby. He's the guy who exposed the Abu Ghraib abuses. His friend gave him a CD with those pictures and more--he looked at them and said, "This is terrible! We're supposed to bring democracy to these people, and we're humiliating them!" He took that CD and brought it to the senior investigating officer. He was a private in the Army Reserves. That's a thing you never do. And he knew that his buddies were going to get in trouble. But he said "I had to do the right thing." They had to put him into protective custody along with his mother and his wife, because everybody wanted to kill them. ...He is the most ordinary person, G.I. Joe, and he did the right thing.
And there's also the guy in China, in Tiananmen Square, where students were having a peaceful demonstration to promote more freedom, and here was a line of tanks trying to crush them. He jumped in front and said, "We are all Chinese, we all want freedom! We want the same things--please don't do this!" And he turned around. And so here's a powerful physical hero. Darby was a whistleblowing hero. So I want to refocus away from evil to understanding heroes.
Hannah Arendt, in her analysis of the banality of evil said, you know what, evil monsters like Adolf Eichmann, who orchestrated the deaths of millions of Jews, before he went to Auschwitz, was normal. When we see him in this trial, he's normal. You put him in a situation, and give him power, and permission to kill, you know what? He does his job very well. And she said, the problem with evil is that the perpetrators of evil look like your next door neighbor. They don't look like the comic book monsters that we're led to be afraid of as kids. That's the danger--that they're terrifyingly normal.
So I extend her concept to the "banality of heroism". There are two kinds of heroes: there's Nelson Mandela, there's Gandhi, there's Mother Teresa--but these are the exceptional heroes. They built their whole lives around heroic deeds. They had a call, a mission, to serve humanity. They are the exception. Most heroes are like Joe Darby--ordinary guys, who only once in their lives do a heroic deed. And never again--almost every hero is a one-time hero. And so I'm going to argue that everyday heroes are ordinary people who do extraordinary deeds. There's nothing special about them. And I want to argue that the same exact situation that inflames the hostile imagination in some people, and makes them do bad things, that same situation inspires the heroic imagination in other people.
And for most other people, it renders them passive. I call that "the evil of inaction". Most people do what your mother said, "Mind your own business and don't get in trouble!" You have to say, "Mama, in this case, you're wrong, because humanity is my business."
And so, with the psychology of heroism, we want to encourage children, families, everyone, to develop the heroic imagination. To think about yourself as a "hero in waiting". And that, to be a hero, you don't have to be more religious, you don't have to be more compassionate. All you have to do is be ready to act when others are not, or when some people are doing bad things, and you have to be ready to act on behalf of other people. Being sociocentric...you have to stop thinking about yourself and what will it cost you or what will you gain. To be a hero you've got to act, and you've got to act on behalf of other people--that's all you need.
And so what we want to do is have curriculum--I'm working with people to develop curriculum, starting in the fifth grade, getting kids to think about what it means to be a hero, who are the heroes in your life, what have you done that's heroic. What skills do you need--because some kinds of things you really have to know something, like first aid skills. So when the time comes--and I tell you, it's only going to come once in your life!
So I want to end with this wonderful story that some of you know about. A guy named Wesley Autrey, who's the New York subway hero. He was in a train station with 75 other people. A white guy falls on the tracks. The train is coming, and it's going to cut him in half. He's (Wesley) got a reason not to get involved--he's got two little girls. He's got no personal connection. Instead, he jumps on the track to try to save the guy. The train was coming, it could wipe him out. So I'd like you to actually see this in action.
(He showed this video)
So one day, you will be in a new situation, and there's going to be three paths before you. Path 1: you join in and become a perpetrator of evil. Not Abu Ghraib evil, but teasing, bullying, spreading rumors, spreading gossip. Path 2 is you become guilty of passive inaction. You're home at Christmas, and Uncle Charlie starts telling a racist or sexist joke, and you don't say, "Uncle Charlie, please don't." Or you're in a cab in New York, where they do it all the time, and you say, "I find that insulting. Please stop." If you don't do that, you allow this person to think "Everybody likes it. Everybody thinks it's funny." You have to take action.
Path 3 is to go straight ahead and do the heroic thing. You challenge authority, you challenge the system. And so I hope we are all ready to take that path and celebrate being ordinary heroes--heroes in waiting. Waiting for the right situation to put our heroic imagination into action. We have to think it--by thinking it, it increases the probability of doing it. We know from psychology that if I convince you that everything we know about you means that you're really more generous than most people. Next week there's a blood drive--you know what? You're going to give more blood than him. Next week there's a charity drive--you know what--you're going to give more money than somebody else.
I think that promoting a heroic imagination in our schools--just thinking about it--because it's only going to happen once! Wesley Autrey never did it again, he never will--he's not going to be in that particular situation. Joe Darby, never did it before, and he's not going to be in that situation again. So the point is, you always want people to be primed--ready for the situation where things are going to happen, you're prepared, and you're going to be the one to take the action.
Unlike the geese in the song from the original Willie Wonka movie, these geese weren't laying golden eggs. But they were definitely making their mark, so to speak. While I was changing clothes at the gym today, I overheard people complaining about the sheer quantity of the geese around the pond near the rec center. And the noise they made. And all that poop. Can't something be done about them?
Um, who is encroaching on whose territory with all this urban sprawl?
Haloscan comment thread
In honor of Hermann Rorschach's birthday, "What might this be?"
It's also Julian of Norwich's birthday, by the way.
Haloscan comment thread
This morning I noticed that Joseph at Plunderbund had posted the following:
Orthodox Rabbi: Don’t Use the Bible to Pass Judgement on Others
Living in a college town like Columbus, Ohio means people tend to be open to many different viewpoints. It also means they are less likely to judge viewpoints that are different from her own.I was actually there at St. Stephen's to hear Rabbi Greenberg's sermon--really a piece of luck, as I've missed church a lot lately to catch up on my sleep and I didn't know he was coming. He gave a fascinating sermon, and was back in the afternoon to talk about some of the issues he covered in his book, Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition
It’s one of the reasons I moved back here.
It’s also, I assume, one of the reasons Rabbi Steven Greenberg is in town.
Greenberg, “America’s first openly gay Orthodox rabbi”, was here to give a sermon and speak at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church on the OSU campus.
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November 6 is the birthday of my maternal grandmother--the one Daughter in Ohio was named for. It's a little amazing the consistency with which I am able to remember the date, without even trying to. Remembering birthdays has never really been my strong suit.
Maybe part of it is the fact that it comes just a few days after All Saints' Day. And then, we're getting into that whole holiday season, where it's pretty natural to think about traditions and continuity. Where you've been, and where you're going. The people who continue to touch our lives even though they are no longer with us.
I'm sure I could ramble more about all of this, but I need to get to bed. But this is where my heart is right now, and I really needed to say so "out loud".
Haloscan comment thread
Look at Cassiopeia's W. Start at the center star of Cassiopeia and follow that (third) star to the lower left, to its second star. Stay on that trajectory for 5 times the length between the two stars and note a yellowish bright object in the constellation Perseus. Or, as Hubby likes to say it: set the W as the center of a clock and look for Holmes around 7 or 8 pm. Let us know if you see it! We're just waiting for the clouds to dissipate.
Very cool...an exploding comet! Visible to the naked eye, but even better with binoculars or telescope.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071103/ap_on_sc/brighter_comet
Photo credits = Mahon About Town Newsletter, Nantucket
From an article in the New York Times, February 27, 1967...
...legislators are getting protests from farmers who object to doing chores in the morning darkness, from drive-in movie proprietors, from early-to-bed, early-to-rise communities, from the mothers of children who will not sleep until the sun goes down, and from indignant defenders of "God's time."
State Senator Bobby Rowan of Enigma, GA, rose recently in the Senate chamber and said:
"Not since Biblical times has there been a man who could change sunrise and sunset, but the bureaucrats are attempting to do it."
And Gov. Harold E. Hughes of Iowa, who has promised to veto any legislative action that would keep his state off daylight saving time, was criticized sharply by a rural delegation a short time back.
A spokesman for the group, Hugh A. Vail of Indianola, told the Governor that daylight saving time would weaken are resistance of Iowa's children to Communism.
"A child gets up in the morning under daylight time and cries because he has lost an hour of sleep," Mr. Vail asserted. "A parent has to whip him to get him to go to school. Maybe he has had breakfast and maybe not.
"He whines all day. When he comes home, his parents give him aspirin. We are living in a drug age. The schoolchildren are so busted that they have to have drugs. Then when Communism comes along, what are we going to do?"
(I don't have an actual picture of Mr. Vail, but this is how I imagine him.)
The image comes from Kalle Koskinen's Photo Gallery.
It's a gorgeous fall day here in Columbus too. Going to take the dogs out for some playtime.
Haloscan comment thread
Image from Friends of Washoe web site
Washoe the chimp has died. I hope she's somewhere cool.
Scientists have announced the death of the first animal to break the language barrier, a female chimpanzee called Washoe who could communicate 250 words in human sign language.From a description of the language studies conducted with Washoe...
Washoe was not only the first animal to learn a human language, she also passed on what she had learnt to her adopted son before dying on Tuesday at the ripe old age - for a chimp - of 42.
Her death was announced by scientists at the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute at Central Washington University, where she had lived in a research centre.
"Her name sign is formed with the fingers of a 'W' hand flicking the ear on the same side," read her biography on the Friends of Washoe website.
"Washoe is the first non-human animal to acquire a human language and her adopted son Loulis is the first to acquire a human language from another chimpanzee," it said.
Washoe, born in Africa in 1965, was the main subject of the 1997 book "Next of Kin: What Chimpanzees Have Taught Me About Who We Are," written by the institute co-director Roger Fouts.
...Washoe was now also able to coin new words: the first time she saw a swan her trainer asked her 'What's that?' and she responded with 'water bird'. Washoe would often sign spontaneously, initiating sign language 'conversations' with her trainers. She also, quite spontaneously, developed 'swear words' - words which she added on to her other utterances to indicate displeasure. For example she would sign 'dirty' before someone's name if they had displeased her. The implications, then, is that she was using the words she had learned to fulfil communicative intentions: she was actually using language, rather than producing stimulus-response behaviour.Washoe's Biography
Took Brady (the collie) to the dog park yesterday. He had fun. I had fun watching him have fun. It's a good thing.
Another busy week ahead of me, but here's an open thread.
Haloscan comment thread
A post by Subway Serenade/Astral Technician
When Howard Dean spoke at DemocracyFest on of the things he spoke of at length about was how the Democratic National Committee was reaching out to find common ground among evangelical and other Christian groups. He made the point that these folks are moving away from the hard right positions of "God, Guns and Gays," and moving toward issues of the occupation of Iraq, poverty, social justice and environmental stewardship. Dean said that there is much common ground that can be explored in the next election cycle.
Last night I found this in the New York Times:
The extraordinary evangelical love affair with Bush has ended, for many, in heartbreak over the Iraq war and what they see as his meager domestic accomplishments. That disappointment, in turn, has sharpened latent divisions within the evangelical world — over the evangelical alliance with the Republican Party, among approaches to ministry and theology, and between the generations.(Snip)
This ten page article in the Sunday Magazine offers much to consider as progressives try to find common ground with a constituency that was led astray by wolves in sheep's clothing (Fallwell, Dobson et al) that for far too long has held sway over the public presentation and perception of American Christianity.
Meanwhile, a younger generation of evangelical pastors — including the widely emulated preachers Rick Warren and Bill Hybels — are pushing the movement and its theology in new directions. However conceived, though, the result is a new interest in public policies that address problems of peace, health and poverty — problems, unlike abortion and same-sex marriage, where left and right compete to present the best answers.The backlash on the right against Bush and the war has emboldened some previously circumspect evangelical leaders to criticize the leadership of the Christian conservative political movement. “The quickness to arms, the quickness to invade, I think that caused a kind of desertion of what has been known as the Christian right,” Hybels, whose Willow Creek Association now includes 12,000 churches, told me over the summer. “People who might be called progressive evangelicals or centrist evangelicals are one stirring away from a real awakening.”
“There was a time when evangelical churches were becoming largely and almost exclusively the Republican Party at prayer,” said Marvin Olasky, the editor of the evangelical magazine World and an informal adviser to George W. Bush when he was governor. “To some extent — we have to see how much — the Republicans have blown it. That opportunity to lock up that constituency has vanished. The ball now really is in the Democrats’ court.”Amen.
