Grandfather Smiles

Of Monsters And Men - "Little Talks"

2012-02-15T14:00:00.001-06:00

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

Empathic Grace

2012-02-15T13:19:00.001-06:00

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"

2012-02-10T16:37:00.003-06:00

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

2012-02-10T16:09:00.000-06:00

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

- Antonio Gramsci -

Pinkwashing

2012-02-10T16:02:00.000-06:00

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

Pseudo-Progessivism

2012-02-10T15:35:00.000-06:00

"The candidate supported by progressives — President Obama — himself holds heinous views on a slew of critical issues and himself has done heinous things with the power he has been vested. He has slaughtered civilians — Muslim children by the dozens — not once or twice, but continuously in numerous nations with drones, cluster bombs and other forms of attack. He has sought to overturn a global ban on cluster bombs. He has institutionalized the power of Presidents — in secret and with no checks — to target American citizens for assassination-by-CIA, far from any battlefield. He has waged an unprecedented war against whistleblowers, the protection of which was once a liberal shibboleth. He rendered permanently irrelevant the War Powers Resolution, a crown jewel in the list of post-Vietnam liberal accomplishments, and thus enshrined the power of Presidents to wage war even in the face of a Congressional vote against it. His obsession with secrecy is so extreme that it has become darkly laughable in its manifestations, and he even worked to amend the Freedom of Information Act (another crown jewel of liberal legislative successes) when compliance became inconvenient.

He has entrenched for a generation the once-reviled, once-radical Bush/Cheney Terrorism powers of indefinite detention, military commissions, and the state secret privilege as a weapon to immunize political leaders from the rule of law. He has shielded Bush era criminals from every last form of accountability. He has vigorously prosecuted the cruel and supremely racist War on Drugs, including those parts he vowed during the campaign to relinquish — a war which devastates minority communities and encages and converts into felons huge numbers of minority youth for no good reason. He has empowered thieving bankers through the Wall Street bailout, Fed secrecy, efforts to shield mortgage defrauders from prosecution, and the appointment of an endless roster of former Goldman, Sachs executives and lobbyists. He’s brought the nation to a full-on Cold War and a covert hot war with Iran, on the brink of far greater hostilities. He has made the U.S. as subservient as ever to the destructive agenda of the right-wing Israeli government. His support for some of the Arab world’s most repressive regimes is as strong as ever.

Most of all, America’s National Security State, its Surveillance State, and its posture of endless war is more robust than ever before. The nation suffers from what National Journal‘s Michael Hirsh just christened “Obama’s Romance with the CIA.” He has created what The Washington Post just dubbed “a vast drone/killing operation,” all behind an impenetrable wall of secrecy and without a shred of oversight. Obama’s steadfast devotion to what Dana Priest and William Arkin called “Top Secret America” has severe domestic repercussions as well, building up vast debt and deficits in the name of militarism that create the pretext for the “austerity” measures which the Washington class (including Obama) is plotting to impose on America’s middle and lower classes.

The simple fact is that progressives are supporting a candidate for President who has done all of that — things liberalism has long held to be pernicious."

Essay in its entirety: http://www.salon.com/2011/12/31/progressives_and_the_ron_paul_fallacies/singleton/

Dreams

2012-02-03T09:34:00.002-06:00

"For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream."

- Vincent Van Gogh

The Golden Path

2012-01-05T11:17:00.000-06:00

Fire-Proof Soft Drinks

2012-01-03T14:56:00.001-06:00

"Brominated vegetable oil is patented as a flame retardant and it's banned in food all over Europe and Japan, but it's on the ingredient list of about 10 percent of sodas in the U.S. It's not in Coca-Cola, but is in Mountain Dew, Fanta Orange, and in some flavors of Powerade and Gatorade.

What brominated vegetable oil (BVO) does to soda is, Coca-Cola explains, 'prevent the citrus flavoring oils from floating to the surface in beverages.' The fruit flavors that are mixed into a drink would otherwise settle out. What BVO does when it's acting as a flame retardant is not much different: It slows down the chemical reactions that cause a fire."

- Entire Article: http://www.treehugger.com/health/flame-retardant-in-soft-drink.html

Trusting Nature

2012-01-03T14:38:00.003-06:00

Artwork by Cora Brittan

“Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering its a feather bed."

-Terence McKenna, via Coyote Prime

Tex

2011-12-27T15:57:00.002-06:00

Reversing MS Using An Evolutionary Diet

2011-12-27T14:57:00.002-06:00

Another success story of someone who ditches grains, sugars, legumes, and processed foods.

"Dr. Terry Wahls learned how to properly fuel her body. Using the lessons she learned at the subcellular level, she used diet to cure her MS and get out of her wheelchair."

The Medium Of Dancing

2011-12-21T16:22:00.000-06:00

This is a trailer of a documentary about the transformative power of dancing. I would really like to watch this sometime...

Simplification

2011-12-20T15:06:00.000-06:00

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction."

- Albert Einstein

Fear

2011-12-13T12:07:00.000-06:00

I ain’t afraid of your Yahweh,
I ain’t afraid of your Allah,
I ain’t afraid of your Jesus,
I’m afraid of what you do in the name of your god.
Rise up to your higher power,
free up from fear, it will devour you,
watch out for the ego of the hour,
the ones who say they know it are the ones who will impose it on you.

- Holly Near, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEJx8cYnUuE

Lighthouse

2011-12-12T23:11:00.000-06:00

I have been on a bit of a music binge lately, and felt compelled to share another extremely artistic video. The lyrics are also great.

No Turning Back

2011-12-12T23:06:00.000-06:00

"A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes -

Artwork by Ann Krone

You Won't - Television

2011-12-12T12:40:00.003-06:00

Minds

2011-12-10T12:25:00.001-06:00

“Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.”

- Eleanor Roosevelt

Modern Crucifixion

2011-12-05T19:21:00.001-06:00

"It was the church in Latin America, especially in Central America and Augusto Pinochet’s Chile, which provided the physical space, moral support and direction for the opposition to dictatorship. It was the church in East Germany that organized the peaceful opposition marches in Leipzig that would bring down the communist regime in that country. It was the church in Czechoslovakia, and its 90-year-old cardinal, that blessed and defended the Velvet Revolution. It was the church, and especially the African-American church, that made possible the civil rights movements. And it is the church, especially Trinity Church in New York City with its open park space at Canal and 6th, which can make manifest its commitment to the Gospel and nonviolent social change by permitting the Occupy movement to use this empty space, just as churches in other cities that hold unused physical space have a moral imperative to turn them over to Occupy movements. If this nonviolent movement fails, it will eventually be replaced by one that will employ violence. And if it fails it will fail in part because good men and women, especially those in the church, did nothing.

Where is the church now? Where are the clergy? Why do so many church doors remain shut? Why do so many churches refuse to carry out the central mandate of the Christian Gospel and lift up the cross?

Some day they are going to have to answer the question: 'Where were you when they crucified my Lord?'"

Entire Essay: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/where_were_you_when_they_crucified_my_movement_20111205/

Gotye - "Somebody That I Used To Know"

2011-11-29T20:43:00.001-06:00

This is an incredible music video that captures the difficulty of yesterday's intimacies.

Self Understanding

2011-11-29T18:10:00.000-06:00

"I respect my limitations, but I don't use them as an excuse."

- Stephen R. Donaldson

Trailer: The Greater Good

2011-11-26T17:11:00.001-06:00

This film explores the controversy associated with forced vaccinations in America.

- Related music video (which I think is a really awesome work of art): Cloud Cult, "Take Your Medicine"

My Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T21:36:00.001-06:00

Three years ago I wrote a very emotional reflection about the American holiday known as Thanksgiving. This time in my life was an incredibly tumultuous period which catapulted me into a transformational journey in which I am still participating in to this day. Looking back at where I was three years ago is a very humbling experience. Having one's reality changed so drastically in such a short period of time is like throwing a baby out of a crib. I would never wish it upon anyone, but at the same time, I would never wish for anyone to knowingly avoid it. One cannot stay in a crib his or her whole life. Growth makes the accommodations too small and uncomfortable. The time to leave the crib came for me whether I wanted it to or not. And now I am here.

To commemorate my journey, I offer an alternative viewpoint on how to approach this dark and myth-ridden holiday, coming from the hearts of a heroic people.

Whether you believe in God, the Great Spirit, or even nothing at all, I offer you my thanks for what you offer the world in your own dance of life. Even more so, I offer my most sincere thanks for all who have helped me in this incredible journey, my life. Navigating in the dark is sometimes scary, but with support from others I have stayed strong. Personally, the past couple of years have been rather troubling. Mental and physical meltdowns have brought me closer to hopelessness than I ever deemed possible. Even so, with every setback, I received love from different sources--friends, family, or even people who I have never even physically met before--all of you have helped me become strong again.

There is something special about going through a dark tunnel and coming out the other side. Colors are much more vibrant, and life is more miraculous than ever. I am grateful to experience hardship, and in feeling these hardships, I have come to realize that so many others experience darkness, often much darker than anything I will ever endure.

I could keep going on, but really, I would just like to thank you. From the depths of my heart and soul I offer you my love, no matter how different or similar we may be. You are all special, I have learned greatly from our interactions, and I am blessed to have you all in my life, physically or digitally.

Happy Thanksgiving.

- Teddy Grahams

"We return thanks to our mother, the earth,

which sustains us.

We return thanks to the rivers and streams,

which supply us with water.

We return thanks to all herbs,

which furnish medicines for the cure of our diseases.

We return thanks to the moon and stars,

which have given to us their light when the sun was gone.

We return thanks to the sun,

that has looked upon the earth with a beneficent eye.

Lastly, we return thanks to the Great Spirit,

in Whom is embodied all goodness,

and Who directs all things for the good of Her children."

- Iroquois -

The Thanksgiving Myth

2011-11-24T21:02:00.001-06:00

"'Thanksgiving' is a very ancient concept to American Indian nations. The big problem with the American Thanksgiving holiday is its false association with American Indian people. The infamous 'Indians and pilgrims' myth. It is good to celebrate Thanksgiving, to be thankful for your blessings. It is not good to distort history, to falsely portray the origin of this holiday and lie about the truth of its actual inception. Here are some accurate historical facts about the true origin of this American holiday that may interest you:

'Thanksgiving' did not begin as a great loving relationship between the pilgrims and the Wampanoag, Pequot and Narragansett people. In fact, in October of 1621 when the 'pilgrim' survivors of their first winter in Turtle Island sat down to share the first unofficial 'Thanksgiving' meal, the Indians who were there were not even invited!

There was no turkey, squash, cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie. A few days before this alleged feast took place, a company of 'pilgrims' led by Miles Standish actively sought the head of a local Indian leader, and an 11 foot high wall was erected around the entire Plymouth settlement for the very purpose of keeping Indians out! Officially, the holiday we know as 'Thanksgiving' actually came into existence in the year 1637. Governor Winthrop of the Massachussetts Bay Colony proclaimed this first official day of Thanksgiving and feasting to celebrate the return of the colony's men who had arrived safely from what is now Mystic, Connecticut. They had gone there to participate in the massacre of over 700 Pequot men, women and children, and Mr. Winthrop decided to dedicate an official day of thanksgiving complete with a feast to 'give thanks' for their great 'victory.'

As hard as it may be to conceive, this is the actual origin of our current Thanksgiving Day holiday. Many American Indian people these days do not observe this holiday, for obvious reasons. I see nothing wrong with gathering with family to give thanks to our Creator for our blessings and sharing a meal. I do, however, hope that Americans as a whole will one day acknowledge the true origin of this holiday, and remember the pain, loss, and agony of the Indigenous people who suffered at the hands of the so-called 'pilgrims'. It is my hope that children's plays about 'the first Thanksgiving', complete with Indians and pilgrims chumming at the dinner table, will someday be a thing of the past. Why perpetuate a lie? Let us face the truths of the past, and give thanks that we are learning to love one another for the rich human diversity we share."

- John Two-Hawks, http://www.nativecircle.com/mlmThanksgivingmyth.html

- Further details: http://www.danielnpaul.com/TheRealThanksgiving.html

Realism

2011-11-23T10:00:00.001-06:00

The pessimist complains about the wind;

the optimist expects it to change;

the realist adjusts the sails.

- William A. Ward -

The Revolution Is Love

2011-11-21T18:17:00.001-06:00

Omega 6 Fats: An American Heart Association Fallacy

2011-11-21T09:14:00.001-06:00

Mainstream nutritional recommendations are often misleading or erroneous:

The research upon which the American Heart Association based their 'eat-your-omega-6-fat' advisory, is fatally flawed, according to the results of a meta-analysis study, which showed that a steady diet of omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids increases the risk of heart disease and death, especially for women [1]. British J Nutr. Dec 2010.

Source: http://omega-6-omega-3-balance.omegaoptimize.com/2010/12/03/meta-analysis-reveals-heart-healthy-omega-6-fat-increases-risk-of-heart-disease.aspx

Buddha Of The Future

2011-11-18T23:35:00.001-06:00

“It is possible that the next Buddha will not take the form of an individual. The next Buddha may take the form of community - a community practicing understanding and loving kindness, a community practicing mindful living. This may be the most important thing we can do for the earth.”

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Struck

2011-11-06T22:48:00.003-06:00

To look into her deep blue eyes and see sorrow

and then equally feel my own...

This?

This is how it goes sometimes.

Lightning strikes.

A pulse of energy penetrates through the depths of the soul

at first invigorating, rehabilitating, and surprisingly soothing.

But after that initial strike?

Charred emotion.

Reality sets in.

Lightning can't last forever.
The flash cannot erase the past,
nor can it be kept for the future.
It is only of the present--
A moment, nothing more.

Ah, yes.

Life is full of passionate bursts.

Love the light and enjoy the ride.

Embrace the sparks as they come.

- Teddy Grahams

The Art Of Inclusivity

2011-10-31T08:53:00.000-05:00

“I have no interest in participating in the traditional political process. It’s bureaucratic. It’s vertical. It’s exclusive. It’s ruled by money. It’s cumbersome. This is cumbersome too, what we’re doing here, but the principles that I’m pushing and that many people are pushing to uphold here are in direct opposition to the existing structure. This is a counterpoint. This is an acknowledgement of all those things that we hate, or that I hate, which are closed and exclusive. It is about defying status and power, certification and legitimacy, institutional validation to participate. This process has infected our consciousness as far as people being allowed [to participate] or even being given credibility. The wider society creates a situation where people are excluded, people feel like they’re not worth anything. They’re not accepted. The principles here are horizontal in terms of decision-making, transparency, openness, inclusiveness, accessibility. There are people doing sign language at the general assembly now. There are clusters of deaf people that come together and do sign language together. This is an example of the inclusive nature that we want to create here. And as far as redefining participation and the democratic process, my understanding of American history is that it was a bunch of white males in power, mostly. This is radically different. If you’re a homeless person, if you’re a street person, you can be here. There’s a radical inclusion that’s going on. And if it’s not that, then I’m not going to participate.”

- Jon Friesen, http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/a_master_class_in_occupation_20111031/

Navigating Noise

2011-10-29T10:56:00.002-05:00

A thoughtful sentence shared to me by one of my friends: "You have to learn to ignore the noise freedom makes to be free."

The journey continues...

Vibrations

2011-10-26T15:49:00.003-05:00

Big Brother Censoring Populist Protests

2011-10-26T15:38:00.001-05:00

"Forget copyright infringement, YouTube is now complying with removal orders from governments to stop populist rage going viral.

In a frightening example of how the state is tightening its grip around the free Internet, it has emerged that You Tube is complying with thousands of requests from governments to censor and remove videos that show protests and other examples of citizens simply asserting their rights, while also deleting search terms by government mandate."

Source: http://www.occupyr.com/News/thread.php?id=249

Denunciation And Disruption

2011-10-25T15:54:00.000-05:00

From Christopher Ketcham:

The beauty in all this is that there is no mere demand, not a sliver of legislation the occupiers want passed or special interest they want satisfied—nothing by which to be hemmed in ideologically or politically. The habit in the mainstream media to date has been to bitch and moan that the protesters don’t know what they want, or won’t say what they want, won’t offer up the pre-masticated bullet-point list easily consumed by reporters suckled on press releases and toilet trained for TV. An ex-Marine named Brian Phillips, 25, who traveled to Zuccotti Park from Washington state, tells me what he wants. “We want to start a new way of living,” Phillips says. “We want to start a new society. We want to destroy a system that benefits only the 1 percenters. It’s not working for us. It’s putting us in poverty. We say: ‘No more making laws that benefit corporations or banks.’ ”

The norm in the political economy of the United States is that the corporations and the banks run things and we all suck it up and smile. With the rise of the occupation, the disruption of this degraded normalcy of affairs is the message and the meaning. The message is that the future of American democracy is not in casting the meaningless vote in the two-party shell game, nor in lobbying over fine dinners, nor in writing letters to robots like Charlie Rangel, nor merely in Facebooking and Twittering one’s dissent. The future lies in people gathered in the streets in solidarity and making trouble.

This is only the beginning.

Entire essay: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/denunciation_and_disruption_the_vision_that_drives_occupy_wall_street_20111/

Lies

2011-10-20T10:23:00.002-05:00

"The worst lies are the lies we tell ourselves.
We live in denial of what we do, even what we think.
We do this because we're afraid.
We fear we will not find love, and when we find it we fear we'll lose it.
We fear that if we do not have love we will be unhappy."

- Richard Bach

Chris Hedges Interview

2011-10-18T14:48:00.000-05:00

Honesty

2011-10-18T14:44:00.004-05:00

"A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble. "

- Mohandas Gandhi -

Not Moving

2011-10-18T14:32:00.000-05:00

Becoming Alive

2011-10-17T15:10:00.002-05:00

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

- Howard Thurman

Daniel Pinchbeck On Revolution

2011-10-17T15:03:00.001-05:00

"The path before us requires voluntary renunciation and voluntary simplicity to reduce our burden on the earth. Therefore, the old paradigm that sees accumulation of wealth and immediate material satisfaction as the goal needs to be rejected collectively. We are going to step into a new realization of our purpose -- of the meaning of human life, in itself. We are going to remember, and relearn, what every ancient civilization and traditional culture tells us: that our lives have a spiritual meaning, above all. Existence in this world is an initiatory process to prepare us for the transition to other conditions of being, other worlds or bardo realms beyond this one.

The duality of spirit and matter also needs to be overcome. Indigenous people do not recognize this dualism -- they do not imagine spirit to be above or outside of this realm, but within it. Instead of a sky religion, their spiritual practices are rooted in sensuous connectivity with the earth. In a sense, indigenous cultures are much more truly materialist than our society, as they see the essential value of the natural world as an expression of the Creator, and do not try to impose abstract systems on to it.

Our civilization has been ruled by a mindset that sees life as a means rather than an end. In the past, guilt and postponement were inscribed in a religious creed that put off redemption to some distant future. Recently, science replaced religion with a fundamentalist vision of technological progress, leading to a time when humans merge with silicon or create artificial intelligences that succeed us. This is also a delusion that keeps us alienated from the living present.

We don't know what it will be like to live in a society where life is realized as the ends in itself -- where we seek to benefit the collective by nurturing and supporting each individual. We can only anticipate that it will be wonderful to find out.

The consciousness movement has the sacred task of integrating our understanding of spirit and Psyche into the rapidly unfolding movement for planetary justice and social regeneration. This global movement is part of an initiatory process for humanity as a whole that will bring about a transformation of both the individual and collective ego-structure. The goal is not the destruction of the ego but the attainment of an ego-free state -- liberation from the tyrannical demands of the ego, which can never be satiated. Similarly, we don't want to see the smashing of current institutions, but their alchemical transmutation, so they support our human community and safeguard the resources of the natural world. Humanity, as a whole, is rapidly losing our appetite for violence and destruction. We are increasingly sick of the negative patterns of the past, and ready to overcome the inertia."

- Daniel Pinchbeck

Chris Hedges, "A Movement Too Big To Fail"

2011-10-17T14:57:00.001-05:00

"The Occupy Wall Street movement, like all radical movements, has obliterated the narrow political parameters. It proposes something new. It will not make concessions with corrupt systems of corporate power. It holds fast to moral imperatives regardless of the cost. It confronts authority out of a sense of responsibility. It is not interested in formal positions of power. It is not seeking office. It is not trying to get people to vote. It has no resources. It can’t carry suitcases of money to congressional offices or run millions of dollars of advertisements. All it can do is ask us to use our bodies and voices, often at personal risk, to fight back. It has no other way of defying the corporate state. This rebellion creates a real community instead of a managed or virtual one. It affirms our dignity. It permits us to become free and independent human beings."

Essay in its entirety: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/a_movement_too_big_to_fail_20111017/

Occupy

2011-10-17T10:27:00.003-05:00

“For years, I labored with the idea of reforming the existing institutions in the South, a little change here, a little change there. Now I feel quite differently. I think you’ve got to have a reconstruction of the entire system, a revolution of values.”

- Martin Luther King Jr

- sott.net

Control

2011-10-16T13:03:00.001-05:00

"The fool has a goal.
The gifted person of bliss has no aims."

- The Rambling Taoist

Lanterns On The Lake - "Keep On Trying"

2011-10-16T11:59:00.000-05:00

A phenomenal music video. It really captures aging, loneliness, and community quite beautifully.

Inclusive Spirituality

2011-10-16T11:55:00.000-05:00

"Recently as part of my deep studies of the Tarot I received a teaching that stated, everything is spiritual because everything is spirit. A very simple statement I know but one that at least for me even though I might mentally agree with it and understand it was not something I really lived on a daily basis. I didn’t BEHAVE as if I truly realized it. From this point of view there is nothing that is not spiritual, there is no action that is not spiritual, there simply cannot be. The result of the deep contemplation of this was a great expansion and a redefining of my spirituality to essentially include everything in my life. Now its not so much of a challenge to walk around and see trees, the sky, cute little kittens and lovely works of art as manifestations of spirit. But what about people you detest? What about the aspects of your personality you’ve struggled with the most? What about sexuality? What about destruction? What about your fears?

When spirituality is compartmentalized we create a concept out of it and then proceed to judge ourselves, other people and our experience based on that concept. However that concept is not real except in our minds and it creates separation which cuts us off from reality. Whatever our concept of spirituality is it is in some way problematic because its limited and spirit knows no such limits. Spirit is life itself, the ever flowing life energy of the entire cosmos of which we are a unique expression, just as we are now. Our personalities being a vehicle for the creative expression of Divine Will. We are the means by which the universe becomes aware of itself in an infinite number of forms and actions. Some of those forms are considered beautiful and some are considered horrible but ALL are spirit. There is no form or expression in existence which is not Divine."

- Colin's entire blog post: http://www.awakeninthenow.com/aitn/2011/10/everything-is-spirit/

Soy Protein Found In Virtually All Commercial Eggs

2011-10-16T11:20:00.000-05:00

"There is a growing market today of consumers trying to avoid soy in their diet. Many people have developed soy allergies, and a number of people are concerned about the plant estrogen properties of soy protein. Soy protein is linked to the rise in hypothyroidism, early puberty in young girls, and lower testosterone levels in men, among other problems. Much of this research is documented in Dr. Kaayla Daniel’s book The Whole Soy Story.

What most people do not realize, however, is that due to the predominance of soy in animal feeds, soy protein is probably present in your food even if it is not listed as an ingredient anywhere. Very little testing has been done to determine if the soy protein from the animal feed is passed into the end products we consume. Most laboratories do not even have tests available to test for this.

Professor M. Monica Giusti, a poultry biologist of The Ohio State University, is one of the few people who has done research on soy isoflavones appearing in commercial egg yolks. She has designed lab tests to detect soy isoflavones. In 2009 one of her students published a master’s thesis on the transfer of the soy protein into egg yolks and chicken tissue: Quantification of Soy Isoflavones in Commercial Eggs and Their Transfer from Poultry Feed into Eggs and Tissues."

Article in its entirety: http://healthimpactnews.com/2011/soy-protein-present-in-all-egg-yolks-and-chicken-tissues/

What Is Real

2011-10-16T11:19:00.000-05:00

"We have to create culture, don't watch TV, don't read magazines, don't even listen to NPR; create your own roadshow. The nexus of space and time where you are now is the most immediate sector of your universe, and if you're worrying about Michael Jackson or Bill Clinton or somebody else, then you are disempowered, you're giving it all away to icons, icons which are maintained by an electronic media so that you want to dress like X or have lips like Y. This is shit-brained, this kind of thinking.

That is all cultural diversion, and what is real is you and your friends and your associations, your highs, your orgasms, your hopes, your plans, your fears. And we are told 'no', we're unimportant, we're peripheral. 'Get a degree, get a job, get a this, get a that.' And then you're a player, you don't want to even play in that game. You want to reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that's being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world."

- Terence McKenna

Farming Study: Organic Trumps Conventional

2011-10-16T10:50:00.000-05:00

"The results are in from a 30-year side-by-side trial of conventional and organic farming methods at Pennsylvania's Rodale Institute. Contrary to conventional wisdom, organic farming outperformed conventional farming in every measure.

There are about 1,500 organic farmers in Saskatchewan, at last count. They eschew the synthetic fertilizers and toxic sprays that are the mainstay of conventional farms. Study after study indicates the conventional thinking on farming - that we have to tolerate toxic chemicals because organic farming can't feed the world - is wrong.

In fact, studies like the Rodale trials (www.rodaleinstitute.org/ fst30years) show that after a three-year transition period, organic yields equalled conventional yields. What is more, the study showed organic crops were more resilient. Organic corn yields were 31 per cent higher than conventional in years of drought.

These drought yields are remarkable when compared to genetically modified (GM) 'drought tolerant' varieties, which showed increases of only 6.7 per cent to 13.3 per cent over conventional (non-drought resistant) varieties.

More important than yield, from the farmer's perspective, is income, and here organic is clearly superior. The 30-year comparison showed organic systems were almost three times as profitable as the conventional systems. The average net return for the organic systems was $558/acre/ year versus just $190/acre/year for the conventional systems. The much higher income reflects the premium organic farmers receive and consumers pay for.

But even without a price premium, the Rodale study found organic systems are competitive with the conventional systems because of marginally lower input costs."

Read more: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/business/Study+debunks+myths+organic+farms/5462520/story.html#ixzz1axZUgc8q

The Tide

2011-10-16T08:37:00.003-05:00

Along the shore the tide always rises,
and then it falls.

I sit on the beach and watch
with my hands tied and feet cemented.
The waters engulf.

Sometimes I flail around,
trying to free myself from that which holds me down.
Mostly, though, I just sit there in the water,
letting it rise above my head.

Stillness.

Pretty soon the liquid crescendos.
I open my mouth and the let the water flood in.

Some would call this illogical,
but it is my only means to survive.

The water is cold.
It is in me.
Chills spread throughout my body,
and yet I sit here minute after minute,
hour after hour.

I am drowning.
I have died many times before.
I will die many times again.

Death is bizarre.
Death is warmth.

Without death, I die
and with it, I thrive.

Along the shore the tide always rises,

and then it falls.

- Teddy Grahams

Momentum

2011-10-14T23:43:00.000-05:00

Occupy.

Understanding Fear

2011-10-02T11:04:00.000-05:00

"Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage.Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love."

- Rainer Maria Rilke, via Coyote Prime

Lemon

2011-10-02T11:01:00.000-05:00

"We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons"

- Alfred E. Neuman

Geron Hoy: "King of Pangea"

2011-10-02T11:00:00.000-05:00

I do not really have words to explain this one. It just feels good.

Ripening The Soul

2011-10-02T10:39:00.000-05:00

"Each soul harbors a garden where a true story dwells in seed form and waits to be watered with attention and nourished with genuine emotion. The roots of the soul are eternal, yet the braces reach into time and would bear fruit amongst the living. If a person has found a path of meaning in the world, the inner fruits ripen and become a resource and nourishment inside as well as a source of sweetness and reassurance to those we encounter on the way.

If the fruits of the soul fail to ripen they bear a bitter legacy that leaks into life. This inner bitterness tarnishes the subtle beauty of the world and eats away at the roots of meaning. Bitterness and wisdom cannot dwell in the same place. Unless something ripens within and becomes as a fruit ready to be shared and enjoyed a person grows bitter with age. Bitter or sweet, the soul tends to grow one way or the other."

"People argue about the source and meaning of evil acts found in all parts of this world where light and dark mix as often as day and night exchange places. An old meaning of evil was simply 'unripe.' Until the soul begins to grow towards its own sense of fullness and awareness it remains unripe, 'green' in the wrong way. If the inner motion of the soul be strongly denied the fruits become bitter and vile as the rejected inner seeds spread conflict and division.

No amount of good intentions or positive ideas can remove evil from this world; only that more people learn to ripen the seeds they carry within and find ways to assist meaningful and purposeful things to blossom and ripen in the garden of reality. When something in this world becomes ripe and ready it becomes 'good;' 'good enough to eat,' and beautiful to behold. Until then it remains like unripened fruit, more likely to produce sour grapes and bitter feelings."

- Michael Meade, The World Behind The World

Farmageddon Trailer

2011-10-01T10:03:00.000-05:00

Love

2011-10-01T09:52:00.000-05:00

"Love is the emblem of eternity; it confounds all notion of time; effaces all memory of a beginning, all fear of an end."

- Madame de Stael

The Moondoggies

2011-09-25T18:08:00.002-05:00

A beautifully cartooned music video about one man's heartfelt journey.

Success

2011-09-18T09:49:00.000-05:00

Source: I Love Charts

Community

2011-09-10T06:54:00.000-05:00

“A healthy social life is found only, when in the mirror of each soul the whole community finds its reflection, and when in the whole community the virtue of each one is living.”

- Rudolf Steiner

Personal Update

2011-09-03T11:17:00.002-05:00

The time has finally come to fully get back into the swing of things. My travels will take me to a new land with a new job. My internet access and available free-time will be limited, so I will not be blogging as much as I have during this summer.

This has been a greatly challenging stretch, I have learned a great deal about myself, and am very glad with how much stronger I have become. I am very gracious for my parents helping me get back to full speed, and for all my friends who supported me through this rather trying time.

And now? The road trip begins. Let the dancing commence!

- Teddy Grahams

The Power Is Yours

2011-08-31T17:47:00.002-05:00

"You have to take seriously the notion that understanding the universe is your responsibility, because the only understanding of the universe that will be useful to you is your own understanding."

- Terence McKenna

The Demise Of Guys: Internet, Video Games, And Porn

2011-08-31T16:36:00.001-05:00

"Psychologist Philip Zimbardo asks, 'Why are boys struggling?' He shares some stats (lower graduation rates, greater worries about intimacy and relationships) and suggests a few reasons."

Overlooked

2011-08-31T16:26:00.000-05:00

“If we do not expect the unexpected we will not discover it, since it is not to be searched out and is difficult to apprehend.”

- Heraclitus

D. H. Lawrence, "Wild Things In Captivity"

2011-08-30T15:48:00.001-05:00

"Wild things in captivity
while they keep their own wild purity
won't breed, they mope, they die.

All men are in captivity,
active with captive activity,
and the best won't breed, though they don't know why.

The great cage of our domesticity
kills sex in a man, the simplicity
of desire is distorted and twisted awry.

And so, with bitter perversity,
gritting against the great adversity,
they young ones copulate, hate it, and want to cry.

Sex is a state of grace.
In a cage it can't take place.
Break the cage then, start in and try."

- D. H. Lawrence

Saving The Economy

2011-08-30T15:40:00.000-05:00

"'Saving the economy' is the slogan used to defend every sort of injustice and negligence, from defeating health-care legislation to ignoring the Clean Water Act to shunning the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change. But should we save an economy in which the finance industry claims over 40 percent of all corporate profits and a single hedge fund manager claims an income equivalent to that of twenty thousand households? Should we save an economy in which the top 1 percent of earners rake in a quarter of all income? Should we embrace an economy in which one in ten households faces foreclosure, 44 million people live in poverty, and 51 million lack health insurance, an economy in which the unemployment rate for African Americans is above 17 percent and for all workers is nearly 10 percent? Should we defend an economy that even in a recession generates a GDP over $14 trillion, a quarter of the world’s total, and yet is supposedly unable to afford to reduce its carbon emissions? Should we serve an economy that represents less than 5 percent of Earth’s population and yet accounts for nearly half of world military spending? A reasonable person might conclude that such an economy is fatally flawed, and that the flaws will not be repaired by those who profit from them the most."

- Scott Russell Sanders

John Trudell On Fearful Obedience

2011-08-27T13:52:00.000-05:00

"I get concerned sometimes that maybe people are afraid to even think about challenging the concept of democracy and that's where all the good little nazis come from, the ones that are afraid to challenge the concepts when they see the contradictions in the concepts. That's where you get the good little nazis. And the distortion and the feeding process off of us to keep us distorted and insecure, that's to help us become good little nazis. It's all got to do with planting that seed and that idea and concept of fear."

- John Trudell

Video: "Subconscious War"

2011-08-27T13:46:00.000-05:00

"Subconscious War is a short documentary on media, reality, and the culture of violence, It covers the prophecies of Aldous Huxley and Neil Postman's grim assessment of our Brave New World and relates these to our violence and the cultural influences that fosters it today."

If I could summarize this video using only one word, "chilling" would be most appropriate.

David Foster Wallace On Perception And The Purpose Of An Education

2011-08-27T13:02:00.000-05:00

Part of David's Commencement Address to graduates of Kenyon College in 2005.

"But most days, if you're aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line. Maybe she's not usually like this. Maybe she's been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer. Or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the motor vehicle department, who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a horrific, infuriating, red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness. Of course, none of this is likely, but it's also not impossible. It just depends what you want to consider. If you're automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won't consider possibilities that aren't annoying and miserable. But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.

Not that that mystical stuff is necessarily true. The only thing that's capital-T True is that you get to decide how you're gonna try to see it.

This, I submit, is the freedom of a real education, of learning how to be well-adjusted. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't. You get to decide what to worship.

Because here's something else that's weird but true: in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship--be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles--is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.

Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they're evil or sinful, it's that they're unconscious. They are default settings.

They're the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that's what you're doing.

And the so-called real world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings, because the so-called real world of men and money and power hums merrily along in a pool of fear and anger and frustration and craving and worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom all to be lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the centre of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talk about much in the great outside world of wanting and achieving.... The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.

That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.

I know that this stuff probably doesn't sound fun and breezy or grandly inspirational the way a commencement speech is supposed to sound. What it is, as far as I can see, is the capital-T Truth, with a whole lot of rhetorical niceties stripped away. You are, of course, free to think of it whatever you wish. But please don't just dismiss it as just some finger-wagging Dr Laura sermon. None of this stuff is really about morality or religion or dogma or big fancy questions of life after death."

- Wallace's entire speech: http://moreintelligentlife.com/story/david-foster-wallace-in-his-own-words

Words

2011-08-27T12:33:00.001-05:00

"The words you speak become the house you live in."

- Hafiz

Children - Supersaturated With Structure

2011-08-27T12:32:00.001-05:00

"In the journal's latest issue, experts argue that a decline in unstructured outdoor play among kids has left today's whippersnappers screen-addled, hyper-protected, or worse. "For every child, there was a dad standing there coaching every move—moving the kids’ arms, catching them as they came down the tiny slide, doing virtually everything for them," former Psychology Today editor-in-chief Hara Estroff Marano writes of her now-wimpy neighborhood playground. 'When my kids were young, we parents sat around the perimeter, let the kids play, and didn’t get involved unless someone had a bloody nose or something like it.'

Marano goes on to argue that while today's helicopter parents agonize over the prospect of sexual predators, germs, and broken bones outside the home, they're really depriving their children of the health benefits of exercise, the immune-strengthening effects of playing in the dirt, the social skill development of spontaneous socialization, and even the ad-hoc training to participate in a democratic society. Anthropologists David F. Lancy and M. Annette Grove write (PDF) that by creating, organizing, and playing games on their own, children develop social intelligence that is lost in highly adult-managed activities like (horrors!) Little League. Peter Gray gets even more serious on play, claiming (PDF) that as kids engage less and less in 'free play,' the're put at greater risk of 'anxiety, depression, suicide, feelings of helplessness, and narcissism.'"

- Entire Article: "Helicopter Landing: Let Kids Play By Their Own Rules"

Take Your Medicine

2011-08-26T16:47:00.000-05:00

Stunning!

Immeasurable Nature

2011-08-26T16:45:00.000-05:00

"There is no ‘enough' in nature. It is one vast prodigality. It is a feast. There is no economy: it is all one immense extravagance. It is all giving, giving, giving: no saving, no penury; a golden shower of good things forever descending."

- Richard Jeffries

HK Stewart, "Where Nothing Is Free"

2011-08-25T11:52:00.000-05:00

"Where nothing is free,
nothing is sacred.

Where nothing is feared,
everything is sacred."

- HK Stewart

HK's insightful blog: Christian Taoism

Soaring

2011-08-24T12:04:00.000-05:00

"You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?"

- Rumi

Ukelele Gently Weeps

2011-08-22T21:02:00.000-05:00

One of my long-time favorite musical videos. The second half gets super intense in a super good way.

John Welwood On Love, Relationships, And The Caged Soul

2011-08-22T16:11:00.002-05:00

The soul cage

Perhaps you learned to be tough in order to survive in your family, or to gain respect or approval. So you come to think of yourself as "someone who's in command" -- and that becomes your soul cage. When you find a good, loving relationship, it will confront you with how this identity obstructs an open, direct meeting between you and the one you love. Your compulsion to be in control also cuts you off from a whole range of inner resources -- spontaneity, trust, receptivity to love, letting go, facing the unknown, and genuine strength. If you want to be fully present to life and to another person, this identity has to dissolve.
But of course, you're likely to feel tremendous resistance at that point, because your whole sense of self -- your survival, strength, and self-approval -- is so tied up with being tough and in control.

What to do

The operative principle is to start where you are. We need to feel and open to the pain of being stuck inside the prison of our old self-concepts. And we need to recognize that our love is calling on us to break out of this prison and become the vast being we truly are.
We often feel tremendous resistance to letting love all the way into us, because love is a power that can break open the shell of the false self. We start to think: "I didn’t get into a relationship to have my most precious strategy for security and survival threatened like this!" At this point, we imagine something is desperately wrong -- with ourselves, with our partner, or with the relationship. Yet this is actually a tremendous opportunity to break through to a larger and truer sense of who we are.

Focus on suffering

Not just suffering -- because everyone suffers anyway -- but conscious suffering. Making your suffering conscious. Having to maintain control is suffering, but you may not realize that until your love for another shows you how trapped you are in that identity. Because love makes you want to expand and connect, it also lets you see what's keeping you contracted and isolated.

Identity and belief

When we put an identity structure under the microscope of awareness, we find that it is made of a number of little beliefs linked together. Each of those beliefs needs to be exposed. If you always have to be in control, for instance, what beliefs are behind that? Maybe you imagine that if you're not in control, others will control you. Or maybe you think that being in command is the only way you can get respect. It helps to understand what purpose this control identity serves -- because it did serve a useful function at some point in the past. Becoming free of that structure requires this kind of inquiry.

Conscious relationship can be a vehicle for regenerating soul in our culture, for rediscovering community and sacredness in daily life. Through learning to speak truthfully and listen respectfully to one other person, we start to practice genuine meeting and dialogue -- which is exactly what our world most needs on the collective level.

- Excerpts authored by John Welwood, from "Conscious Love and Sacred Community"

A Radically Naked Bible Study

2011-08-21T21:12:00.000-05:00

A Traditional Interpretation Of 2 Corinthians 12:9,10

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

A Reinterpreted 2 Corinthians 12:9,10

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so the power of the soul may live through me. As a living soul I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. The warm winds of rebuke feel like food to my soul. The hot fire of failure fuels the light of my soul. For when I fail, then I am strong in spirit and walk through its open door to redemption. Therefore I sing the song of my soul without fear, that when my mouth closeth I finally know complete rest in the the kind of silence that is one with the Father within.

If knowing that you do not know is the beginning of wisdom, then questions are like an open door to a new world. The Quest is contained in the question. The question is a journey for which destinations are only temporary. Its complete answer can never arrive, but only deepen in unfolding like another signpost on the way.

- Excerpts fom Lucid Tribe Media's essay, "Naked Compassion"

The World At Large

2011-08-21T15:47:00.001-05:00

Rainer Maria Rilke, "Put Out My Eyes"

2011-08-20T22:06:00.000-05:00

"Put out my eyes, and I can see you still,

Slam my ears to, and I can hear you yet;

And without any feet can go to you;

And tongueless, I can conjure you at will.

Break off my arms, I shall take hold of you

And grasp you with my heart as with a hand;

Arrest my heart, my brain will beat as true;

And if you set this brain of mine afire,

Then on my blood-stream I yet will carry you."

- Rainer Maria Rilke -

Scott Russell Sanders, "Breaking The Spell Of Money"

2011-08-20T21:45:00.000-05:00

"So the crucial question is, why? Why are those of us in the richest countries acting in such a way as to undermine the conditions on which our own lives, the lives of other species, and the lives of future generations depend? And why are we so intent on coaxing or coercing the poorer countries to follow our example? There are many possible answers, of course, from human shortsightedness to selfish genes to otherworldly religions to consumerism to global corporations. I would like to focus on a different one—our confusion of financial wealth with real wealth.

To grasp the impact of that confusion, think of someone you love. Then recall that if you were to reduce a human body to its elements—oxygen, carbon, phosphorus, copper, sulfur, potassium, magnesium, iodine, and so on—you would end up with a few dollars’ worth of raw materials. But even with inflation, and allowing for the obesity epidemic, this person you cherish still would not fetch as much as ten dollars on the commodities market. A child would fetch less, roughly in proportion to body weight.

Such calculations seem absurd, of course, because none of us would consider dismantling a human being for any amount of money, least of all someone we love. Nor would we entertain the milder suggestion of lopping off someone’s arm or leg and putting it up for sale, even if the limb belonged to our worst enemy. Our objection would not be overcome by the assurance that the person still has another arm, another leg, and seems to be getting along just fine. We’d be likely to say that it’s not acceptable under any circumstances to treat a person as a commodity, worth so much per pound.

And yet this is how our economy treats every portion of the natural world—as a commodity for sale, subject to damage or destruction if enough money can be made from the transaction. Nothing in nature has been spared—not forests, grasslands, wetlands, mountains, rivers, oceans, atmosphere, nor any of the creatures that dwell therein. Nor have human beings been spared. Through its routine practices, this economy subjects people to shoddy products, unsafe working conditions, medical scams, poisoned air and water, propaganda dressed up as journalism, and countless other assaults, all in pursuit of profits."

- Essay in its entirety: http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/6343/

Art

2011-08-20T21:22:00.000-05:00

Artwork by Marek and Maia Wysoczynski

This? This is lovely!

Being Too Handsome

2011-08-20T12:06:00.001-05:00

"In many species, males woo females into mating with them. This means they need to find a way to be attractive, which includes everything from elaborate plumage to melodious mating calls. But there's such a thing as too handsome.

As far as neotropical túngara frogs are concerned, the most handsome males are those that make the most appealing calls. These calls are a combination of one long 'whine' and a succession of short 'chucks.' As a general rule, the male that puts on the most chucks is going to be the one most likely to attract his choice of mate.

But what's interesting is that females have an inbuilt limit on how much they can appreciate these calls. While their overall preference is based on the ratio of chucks to whine, at a certain point they can no longer tell the difference between, say, 50 chucks and 55 chucks. There's no point for the males to add any chucks beyond a certain point, and so this places a limit on the adaptation of male mating calls.

This may well speak more generally to why males of other species do not evolve longer tails or more colorful feathers. At a certain point, it's all just overkill, and so there's evolutionary advantage to being ridiculously good-looking. (Emphasis on the quite literal use of 'ridiculously' there - being generally attractive is obviously still advantageous in an evolutionary sense.)"

- Source: http://io9.com/5828533/females-can-control-the-evolution-of-male-handsomeness

Radiance

2011-08-19T14:50:00.000-05:00

"I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness the astonishing light of your own being."

- Hafiz

Genetically Modified Bacteria In Our Intestines?

2011-08-19T14:46:00.000-05:00

Robert Jensen, "Nature Bats Last: Radical Political Theology"

2011-08-19T14:41:00.001-05:00

"The phrase 'nature bats last' circulates these days among people who have their eye on the multiple, cascading ecological crises. The metaphor reminds us that nature is the home team and has the final word. We humans may be particularly impressed with our own achievements - all of the spectacular homeruns we have hit with science and technology - but when those achievements are at odds with how nature operates, then nature is going to bring in the ultimate designated hitter and knock the human race out of the ballpark. The point is simple: We are not as powerful as the forces that govern that larger living world. So, we need to see beyond the egotistical rhetoric of our technological fundamentalism - the claims that infinitely clever humans will solve all problems with gadgets - and end the human war on the rest of the living world.

The radical political theology I believe we need for this moment in history would acknowledge, rather than try to mask, our confusion and uncertainty. Facing that takes a new kind of courage. We usually think of courage as rooted in clarity and certainty - we act with courage when we are sure of what we know. Today, the courage we need must be rooted in the limits of what we can know and trust in something beyond human knowledge. In many times and places, that something has gone by the name 'God'. Religious fundamentalism offers a God who will protect us if we follow orders. Technological fundamentalism gives us the illusion that we are God and can arrange the world as we like it. A radical political theology leaves behind fear-based protection rackets and arrogance-driven control fantasies.

The God for our journey is neither above us nor inside us but around us, a reminder of the sacredness of the living world of which we are a part. That God shares the anxiety and anguish of life in a desecrated world. With such a God we can be at peace with our powerlessness and alive in hope. With such a God, we can live in peace."

Essay in its entirety: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/2011817123937422833.html

Courage

2011-08-18T14:56:00.000-05:00

“Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'”

- Mary Anne Radmacher

Sexual Disarrangement

2011-08-18T11:30:00.003-05:00

Sexuality.

They like to categorize.
They like to compartmentalize.
They like to make you into an easily discernible, set-in-stone statistic that can be reproduced for the world to see.

There is no reading in-between the lines.

It is not allowed.

Are you but one answer to a multiple choice question?

Is that all you are?

(a)?

(b)?

(c)?

They make it seem like there is no such thing as "all of the above".

But even if there were, it is not much better.

You are not (a).

You are not (b).

You are not (c) .

You are not any of these!

You are much more than all of these.

You are everything. You are nothing.

The hesitation you feel is very good.

Absolutely! It is good to feel confused.

The talking box tells you otherwise, but you know the truth.

You do not have to listen to the men in the temples.

And the teacher? She listens to the scantron.

The scantron is not alive. It does not even know you. It is dead.

Are you straight?

Are you gay?

Are you bi?

Ha! What a silly game.

Pinball machines smack you up,

but you always roll back down towards whatever it is you are.

So what are you?

You are human!

Even more so, you are alive!

To say anything more is to deceive.

You are all, and all is love.

- Teddy Grahams

D. H. Lawrence, "Lies About Love"

2011-08-15T13:50:00.001-05:00

"We are all liars, because

The truth of yesterday
becomes a lie tomorrow,
Whereas letters are fixed,
and we live by the letter of truth.
The love I feel for my friend, this year,
is different from the love I felt last year.
If it were not so, it would be a lie.
Yet we reiterate love! love! love!
as if it were a coin with fixed value
instead of a flower that dies, and opens a different bud."

- D. H. Lawrence

Derrick Jensen, Hope, And Symbolic Death

2011-08-15T13:17:00.000-05:00

"A WONDERFUL THING happens when you give up on hope, which is that you realize you never needed it in the first place. You realize that giving up on hope didn’t kill you. It didn’t even make you less effective. In fact it made you more effective, because you ceased relying on someone or something else to solve your problems—you ceased hoping your problems would somehow get solved through the magical assistance of God, the Great Mother, the Sierra Club, valiant tree-sitters, brave salmon, or even the Earth itself—and you just began doing whatever it takes to solve those problems yourself.

When you give up on hope, something even better happens than it not killing you, which is that in some sense it does kill you. You die. And there’s a wonderful thing about being dead, which is that they—those in power—cannot really touch you anymore. Not through promises, not through threats, not through violence itself. Once you’re dead in this way, you can still sing, you can still dance, you can still make love, you can still fight like hell—you can still live because you are still alive, more alive in fact than ever before. You come to realize that when hope died, the you who died with the hope was not you, but was the you who depended on those who exploit you, the you who believed that those who exploit you will somehow stop on their own, the you who believed in the mythologies propagated by those who exploit you in order to facilitate that exploitation. The socially constructed you died. The civilized you died. The manufactured, fabricated, stamped, molded you died. The victim died.

And who is left when that you dies? You are left. Animal you. Naked you. Vulnerable (and invulnerable) you. Mortal you. Survivor you. The you who thinks not what the culture taught you to think but what you think. The you who feels not what the culture taught you to feel but what you feel. The you who is not who the culture taught you to be but who you are. The you who can say yes, the you who can say no. The you who is a part of the land where you live. The you who will fight (or not) to defend your family. The you who will fight (or not) to defend those you love. The you who will fight (or not) to defend the land upon which your life and the lives of those you love depends. The you whose morality is not based on what you have been taught by the culture that is killing the planet, killing you, but on your own animal feelings of love and connection to your family, your friends, your landbase—not to your family as self-identified civilized beings but as animals who require a landbase, animals who are being killed by chemicals, animals who have been formed and deformed to fit the needs of the culture."

- Derrick Jensen

Essay in its entirety: http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/170/

Sing Out

2011-08-15T13:14:00.003-05:00

Not Who You Think You Are

2011-08-14T22:50:00.010-05:00

They make you, you do not make yourself.

This may be contrary to public opinion, but it is true!

Who you think or imagine yourself as is your interior identity. Interior identity (self) is not an accurate depiction of who you are if it is never effectively expressed outside of the mind in which it was born. Living in a virtual video game rather than the physical present is a good example of this concept. The video game cannot be physical reality, and should not be treated as such. It is purely a simulation (Some could say that "real" life is also a simulation, but even so, the video games would be nothing more than parallels to this simulation. They cannot replace what we are all living out right now).

Your outward identity is vastly affected by the type of audience that is present. If people think you are a certain way, they will intentionally and unintentionally train others around them to view you the same way, thereby limiting the outward scope of your true and passionate expressions. This ultimately traps you within predefined conditions of who you are (to everyone else except yourself).

Labels rampantly destroy. If you are always around a crowd of people who view you as the conservative religious girl, it becomes that much harder to even think about being anything else. Likewise, if people see you as the overtly analytical philosophizing boy and little else, then more often than not, that is what you will continue to be. Even if the label is partly true, it still limits who you are because it places greater emphasis on one part of you rather than your entirety.

The way to overcome the chains of constrictive labeling is through the act of mystery. Mysteriousness cures judgement and its associated limiting factors.

Mysteriousness is not simply acting strange or mystically cooky. People do that all the time and often end up getting judged and misperceived even more. In fact, maybe mystery is such a loaded word that other descriptions are needed.

Instead of being stereotypically mysterious, be covertly naked. Toss aside all affiliations, wash away your past, and blur the future. Do not be afraid to show any part of who you are. Bare it all, even if it feels uncomfortable (which it should, sometimes). Do not be afraid of you! Do not be afraid of others being afraid of you!

Of course, if you are going to effectively "bare it all", you should not run around naked in front of Grandma. Sometimes going barefoot is extreme enough. Be smart with it. Find balance.

To sum it up, wander alone. Don't be your Facebook profile. Be you. Intuition will guide.

Sparkle. Glimmer. Fail. Smile. Go crazy!

Be the lighthouse in the fog on a treacherously rocky island terrain amidst a horizon brimming with pirate ships (to make things exciting). But do not expect to "lead" anyone, only yourself.

Arrrrrr!

- Teddy Grahams

Answers

2011-08-14T12:40:00.000-05:00

"I have lived on the lip
of insanity, wanting to know reasons,
knocking on a door. It opens.
I've been knocking from the inside."

- Rumi

Life

2011-08-10T08:24:00.002-05:00

Have fun.

Mind

2011-08-10T08:21:00.002-05:00

"The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong."

- Carl Jung

Genetically Modified Sweet Corn Coming To Americans' Diets

2011-08-09T09:38:00.001-05:00

"Monsanto Co., the world’s biggest vegetable seed maker, said it will begin selling genetically modified sweet corn in the U.S. this year, the first product it has developed for the consumer market.

The sweet corn seeds are engineered to kill insects living above and below ground and to tolerate applications of the company’s Roundup herbicide, Consuelo Madere, Monsanto vice president for vegetables, told reporters at company headquarters in St. Louis today. They will be introduced to growers serving the U.S. fresh corn market starting in the autumn, she said."

- Article in its entirety: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-04/monsanto-to-introduce-engineered-sweet-corn-in-u-s-this-year.html

Knowing Self

2011-08-04T15:35:00.000-05:00

Image By Jessica Harp, The Art Institute

"People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering."

- St. Augustine

Massive Attack - "Teardrop"

2011-08-04T15:17:00.001-05:00

Lyrics:

Love, love is a verb
Love is a doing word
Fearless on my breath
Gentle impulsion
Shakes me, makes me lighter
Fearless on my breath

Teardrop on the fire
Fearless on my breath

Night, night of matter
Black flowers blossom
Fearless on my breath
Black flowers blossom
Fearless on my breath

Teardrop on the fire
Fearless on my

Water is my eye
Most faithful mirror
Fearless on my breath
Teardrop on the fire
Of a confession
Fearless on my breath

Most faithful mirror
Fearless on my breath
Teardrop on the fire
Fearless on my breath

You're stumbling a little
You're stumbling a little

Fundamentalist Consumerism

2011-08-04T11:22:00.000-05:00

"While some progressives are fond of calling fundamentalist religion the 'opiate of the masses,' they too often neglect the pacifying nature of America’s other major fundamentalism. Fundamentalist consumerism pacifies young Americans in a variety of ways. Fundamentalist consumerism destroys self-reliance, creating people who feel completely dependent on others and who are thus more likely to turn over decision-making power to authorities, the precise mind-set that the ruling elite loves to see. A fundamentalist consumer culture legitimizes advertising, propaganda, and all kinds of manipulations, including lies; and when a society gives legitimacy to lies and manipulativeness, it destroys the capacity of people to trust one another and form democratic movements. Fundamentalist consumerism also promotes self-absorption, which makes it difficult for the solidarity necessary for democratic movements."

- Bruce E. Levine

John Taylor Gatto, Educational Obedience

2011-08-04T11:15:00.000-05:00

“The truth is that schools don’t really teach anything except how to obey orders. This is a great mystery to me because thousands of humane, caring people work in schools as teachers and aides and administrators, but the abstract logic of the institution overwhelms their individual contributions.”

- John Taylor Gatto