"Water Work"

Swim in a lake.
Float down a river.
Dive in an ocean.

One tests the body.
One provokes the mind.
One challenges the soul.

- HK Stewart, Christian Taoism

Hyper Analyze

via The Curious Brain

The Doing Word

"God is a verb rather than a noun. God is a process rather than an entity. There is some biblical justification for this. God, after all, answered Moses’ request for revelation with the words, 'I AM WHO I AM.' This phrase is probably more accurately translated 'I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE.' God seems to be saying to Moses that the reality of the divine is an experience. God comes to us in the profound flashes of insight that cut through the darkness, in the hope that permits human beings to cope with inevitable despair and suffering, in the healing solidarity of kindness, compassion and self-sacrifice, especially when this compassion allows us to reach out to others, and not only others like us, but those defined by our communities as strangers, as outcasts. 'I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE.' This reality, the reality of the eternal, must be grounded in that which we cannot touch, see or define, in mystery, in a kind of faith in the ultimate worth of compassion, even when the reality of the world around us seems to belittle compassion as futile."

"We are tempted, indeed in a consumer culture encouraged, to reduce life to a simple search for happiness. Happiness, however, withers if there is no meaning. The other temptation is to disavow the search for happiness in order to be faithful to that which provides meaning. But to live only for meaning—indifferent to all happiness—makes us fanatic, self-righteous and cold. It leaves us cut off from our own humanity and the humanity of others. We must hope for grace, for our lives to be sustained by moments of meaning and happiness, both equally worthy of human communion. And it is this grace, this love, which in our darkest moments allows us to endure."

Entire essay: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/acts_of_love_20120219/

Fever Ray, "When I Grow Up"

Anthropocentric Environmentalism

"Like all of us, I am a foot soldier of empire. It is the empire of Homo sapiens sapiens and it stretches from Tasmania to Baffin Island. Like all empires, it is built on expropriation and exploitation, and like all empires it dresses these things up in the language of morality and duty. When we turn wilderness over to agriculture, we speak of our duty to feed the poor. When we industrialize the wild places, we speak of our duty to stop the climate from changing. When we spear whales, we speak of our duty to science. When we raze forests, we speak of our duty to develop. We alter the atmospheric makeup of the entire world: half of us pretend it’s not happening, the other half immediately start looking for new machines that will reverse it. This is how empires work, particularly when they have started to decay. Denial, displacement, anger, fear.

The environment is the victim of this empire. But the 'environment'—that distancing word, that empty concept—does not exist. It is the air, the waters, the creatures we make homeless or lifeless in flocks and legions, and it is us too. We are it; we are in it and of it, we make it and live it, we are fruit and soil and tree, and the things done to the roots and the leaves come back to us. We make ourselves slaves to make ourselves free, and when the shackles start to rub we confidently predict the emergence of new, more comfortable designs.

I don’t have any answers, if by answers we mean political systems, better machines, means of engineering some grand shift in consciousness. All I have is a personal conviction built on those feelings, those responses, that goes back to the moors of northern England and the rivers of southern Borneo—that something big is being missed. That we are both hollow men and stuffed men, and that we will keep stuffing ourselves until the food runs out, and if outside the dining room door we have made a wasteland and called it necessity, then at least we will know we were not to blame, because we are never to blame, because we are the humans."

Entire essay: http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/6599

Laws Of Nature

Buildings and bridges

are made to bend in the wind,

to withstand the world,

that's what it takes.

All that steel and stone 

is no match for the air, my friend.

What doesn't bend breaks.

What doesn't bend breaks.

- Ani DiFranco, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O25LNr_3YQ

Genetically Modified Omega-3 Soybeans

"The biotechnology firm Monsanto stands just one FDA approval away from growing soybeans that have been genetically modified to produce those omega-3 fatty acids that doctors are always recommending."

"Monsanto plans to include SDA soybean oil in just about everything: 'baked goods and baking mixes, breakfast cereals and grains, cheeses, dairy product analogs, fats and oils, fish products, frozen dairy desserts and mixes, grain products and pastas, gravies and sauces, meat products, milk products, nuts and nut products, poultry products, processed fruit juices, processed vegetable products, puddings and fillings, snack foods, soft candy, and soups and soup mixes, at levels that will provide 375 milligrams (mg) of SDA per serving.'"

It is worth mentioning that the actual omega-3 fatty acids that are going to be produced by the soybeans are not the same kind that are found in fish.  According to the FDA:

The oil is obtained from a bioengineered soybean. Monsanto states that SDA soybean oil is compositionally different from conventional soybean oil. SDA soybean oil contains 15 to 30 percent SDA and 5 to 8 percent gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), neither of which is present in conventional soybean oil. SDA soybean oil also contains slightly higher levels of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and palmitic acid than conventional soybean oil. SDA soybean oil contains lower levels of oleic acid and linoleic acid (LA) than those present in conventional soybean oil. Monsanto notes that the variability in the oil’s fatty acid composition, notably the SDA concentration, is due to natural variation in growing conditions for the soybean.

Basically, this means that a bunch of junk food is going to be erroneously marketed as healthy using the "Omega-3" catch phrase to reel in innocent, unknowing consumers.

Source:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2011/04/11/monsanto-modifies-soy-beans-to-grow-fish-oil/

Of Monsters And Men - "Little Talks"

A lovely song and a stunning music video.  The colors!

Empathic Grace

Artwork by Barry Stevens

"Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow

because even today I still arrive.

Look at me: I arrive in every second

to be a bud on a spring branch,

to be a tiny bird whose wings are still fragile,

learning to sing in my new nest,

to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,

to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,

in order to fear and to hope,

the rhythm of my heart is the birth and

death of all that are alive.

I am the mayfly metamorphosing in the

surface of the river.

I am also the bird which, when spring comes,

arrives in time to eat the mayfly.

I am a frog swimming happily in the

clear water of a pond.

I am also the grass-snake who,

approaching in silence,

feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,

my legs as thin as bamboo sticks.

I am also the merchant of arms, selling deadly

weapons to Uganda.

I am the 12-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat,

who throws herself into the ocean after

being raped by a sea pirate.

I am also the pirate, my heart not yet capable

of seeing and loving.

I am a member of the politburo, with

plenty of power in my hand.

I am also the man who has to pay his

'debt of blood' to my people,

dying slowly in a forced labor camp.

My joy is like spring, so warm it makes

flowers bloom in all walks of life.

My pain is like a river of tears, so full it

fills up all the four oceans.

Please call me by my correct names,

so that I can hear all my cries and my laughs at once,

so I can see that my joy and pain are but one.

Please call me by my correct names,

so I can become awake,

and so that the door of my heart be left open,

the door of compassion."

- Thich Nhat Hanh, Earth Prayers -

"Heaven Can Wait"

This music video is, well, I am not quite sure.  But I will say this, its awkwardness really brings back childhood memories, especially when in group settings.  Not to mention I have watched it several times and notice something new each playback.

Half Empty, Half Full

"I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will."

- Antonio Gramsci -

Pinkwashing

The CEO of The Susan G. Komen Foundation nonprofit has an annual salary of over $500,000 and the Vice President of Development made over $400,000 in just one half of a year...

"The Komen Foundation owns stock in General Electric, one of the largest makers of mammogram machines in the world. It also owns stock in several pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca (now AzkoNobel).

AstraZeneca has long been a Komen booster, making educational grants to Komen and having a visible presence at the Race For the Cure. At the 1998 Food and Drug Administration hearings, the Komen Foundation was the only national breast cancer group to endorse the AstraZeneca cancer treatment drug tamoxifen as a prevention device for healthy but high-risk women, despite vehement opposition by most other breast cancer groups because of its links to uterine cancer.

The organization’s biggest sponsors are — surprise! — the corporations that profit from cancer through chemotherapy and radiation. To them, Komen for the Cure isn’t really about finding a cure for cancer; it’s about promoting cancer so that they can sell more drugs and radiotherapy that keeps more patients locked into a cycle of dependence on toxic cancer treatments."

"Komen receives over $55 million in annual revenue from corporate sponsorships, from such health-minded companies as Coca Cola, General Mills, and KFC — that’s right, the fast-food joint contributing to American society with buckets of diseased and tortured birds fried in genetically modified toxins. Buy a bucket of junk food, and pretend as though you’re helping to save lives while you slowly take your own!"

"Did you know that Susan G. Komen for the Cure spends nearly a million dollars annually suing small charities over the use of the word 'cure' in their charitable endeavors? Komen’s general counsel, Jonathan Blum, had the following to say regarding a legal battle of Komen's that threatened to shut down a small lung cancer organization for using the word “cure” in its name: 'We see it as responsible stewardship of our donor’s funds.'"

Source: http://www.alternet.org/story/154010/i_will_not_be_pinkwashed%3A_komen%27s_race_is_for_money%2C_not_cure__/?page=entire