Abe's Wisdom Transcriptions

My dear friend Abe took his spirituality seriously. Here's one small example: three images covering six pages in a little brocade book where he transcribed prayers and writings from Tibetan Buddhism. I hope you like them as images... I tried typing the words, but it didn't do justice to the depth of Abe's devotion, God rest his soul.

A decade full of hypocrisy

Frank Rich reviews the hypocrisy of the millennium's opening decade. What's a person to do? Perhaps think locally, act neighborly...

What's more important than food?

On today's Fresh Air, Michael Pollan makes a persuasive argument for sanity in food policy. Like changing subsidy priorities so fast food isn't cheaper than good food.

unbiasd.com

Taylor Barstow and Adrian Mott have launched unbiasd.com, a hot news site that provides articles selected to provide a spectrum of left-to-right bias.

After opening an article, the next navigation pulls up an easy-to-complete rating form. The first time it's opened, the reader simply enters their e-mail address, and they're ready to go.

It's a great idea that will hopefully help readers become more familiar with the "other" side of opinion, rather than simply judging it from afar.

Songs about Barack

As joy has exploded in the process of electing Barack Obama, one expression has been new songs, dedicated to him and the vision we share through him. With thanks to Kari Njiiri, who played these on his Jazz Safari show last night, here are a few:

• Will Galison sings "Taking it Back with Barack, Jack" (Swing)
• "Oui, on peut -- Yes we can!" (Zydeco)
• will.i.am sings "Yes We Can"
• Cocoa Tea sings "Barack"
• Samba Mapangala w/Fanaka Ndeg: "Obama Ubarikiwe Remix"
• Docta Musica WashiWara sings "Barack Obama"
• The Mighty Sparrow sings "Barack The Magnificent"
• Jose conde sings "Respondele A Obama"
• Brenda Fassie sings "Black President"
  

Alice Walker's Advice to Barack

Alice Walker celebrates her election joy through advice to Barack, centering on the need "to cultivate happiness in your own life." Thanks to Lisa for tagging this.

Poem: The Only Sermon

by Andrea Ayvazian, pastor of the Haydenville (MA) Congregational Church

if we dug a huge grave miles wide, miles deep
and buried every rifle, pistol, knife, bullet, bomb, bayonet,
if we jumped upon fleets of tanks and fighter jets
with tool boxes, torches
unwelded them dismantled them turned them into scrap metal
if every light-skinned man in a silk tie said
to every dark-skinned man in a turban
I vow not to kill your children
and heard the same vow in return
if every elected leader agreed to stop lying
if every child was fed as well as racehorses bred to win derbies
if every person with a second home gave it to a person with no home
if every mother buried her parents not her sons and daughters
if every person who has enough said out loud I have enough
if every person violent in the name of God were to find God
we would grow silent, still for a moment, a lifetime
we would hear infants nursing at the breast
hummingbirds hovering in flight
we would touch a canyon wall and feel the earth vibrate
we would hear two lovers sigh across the ocean
we would watch old wounds grow new flesh and jagged scars disappear
as time was layered upon time would slowly be ready
to begin

One woman's take on consciousness

Watch this!

Process

"Though the human body is born complete in one moment, the birth of the human heart is an ongoing process. It is being birthed in every experience of your life. Everything that happens to you has the potential to deepen you. It brings to birth within you new territories of the heart."

-- John O'Donoghue. Anam Cara. New York: Cliff Street Books, 1997.

Einstein knew a few things

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
-- Albert Einstein

Barack's sublime speech on race March 2008

Readings on Greed

Robert Greenwald has compiled a short bibliography of articles on the current trend of personal greed and its devastating effects on the poor, the middle class, and our social fabric. Another excellent article from Rolling Stone is Paul Krugman's "The Great Wealth Transfer."

The Irreverent Reverend: Beating the Holiday Blues

The Irreverent Reverend: Beating the Holiday Blues

A Common Word

Muslim leaders declare the unifying tenets of the three Abrahamic faiths in an letter submitted in September 2007 to Pope Benedict XVI: "A Common Word Among Us."

Terror is in the Eye of the Beholder

In this 2004 interview Mariane Pearl displays great maturity and insight as she reflects on her experience during and after the abduction and execution of her husband, Daniel. The 50-minutes interview is from the radio show, "Speaking of Faith. with Krista Tippett." To listen, download, or read a transcript of the interview, click here. Here's an excerpt:

"For me they clearly haven't won as I'm still standing, because to take somebody's life is nothing, you know? If you have seven, eight people in a room and the person has shackle and you kill him, you know, then that's not a victory. And there is something bigger than that, and the spirit is what makes us human. And that's the only way you can challenge those people because, physically, I could never be as ruthless as they are, and I'm not interested in being as ruthless as they are. So that's not even something I'm considering. But you cannot get hold of a strong spirit, and I think that's why Danny opposed them. That's why I oppose them, and that's why hopefully our son will oppose them. And that's something, whatever you do, you can imprison someone, you can kill that person, if they resist you mentally, you — that's it. You haven't claimed anything. And I think they know that."

If we don't save Democracy, who will?

Bill Moyers delivered a transformative speech to the the United Church of Christ's bi-annual General Synod in Hartford yesterday. Moyer's talk provides moving examples of the current threats to American democracy and of outlandish economic and social injustice. And his talk calls th church to action, for "it is a small, committed, determined people of conscience that can turn this country around," he says. "Poverty and injustice are religious issues and Jesus moves among the disinherited." It is time, he says, to "drive the money changers out of the temples of Democracy." Listen to it via the UCC's video archive.

Not Buying It

Here's a New York Times article that glimpses extraordinary personal dedication to limiting growth: Not Buying It.

Is that the emperor without any clothes?

In this essay from The New York Review of Books, Cheney: The Fatal Touch, Joan Didion manages, through unremitting scholarship, to disrobe our vice-emperor.

Sailing is divine

Sailing is a wonderful way to engage with beauty... of wind, waves, the curve of a sail and a hull, the strain of a line staying true. The boat doesn't move by dominating its surroundings, but through understanding, yielding, respecting. Will and I were lucky enough to go sailing overnight last week with my oldest friend, Bill, on his beautiful ketch Black Pearl.

American Indian/European Fusion

I went to a wonderful concert Monday night, sponsored by Robert Jonas's Empty Bell center, and featuring Vince Redhouse. Vince had been a jazz musician from childhood who, at age 37, embraced his "Indianhood" and began playing the Indian flute. He extended its traditional Dorian scale into a full chromatic scale, and thereby can perform with European instruments in playing classical western music, like Satie and Debussy. He was joined Monday by drums and two electric guitars. The effect is magical and a little haunting as he weaves the sounds of the two cultures into a musical unity that belies our visceral memory of them at war.