Friday, August 31, 2007

ponies and mice

Fun with polymer clay!

Thursday, August 30, 2007

chicken pox

so far, it's just one bump on littlest kid, but nothing else looks quite like chicken pox, at least nothing I can think of anyway. No clue where they might have picked them up, maybe when big sister had her teeth cleaned? Who knows. I'll be busy trying to make this as fun as possible for them. I remember how miserable I was with cp and couldn't go anywhere.

edit to add: Paul doesn't think it's chicken pox. I was 15 when I had them, I remember it quite well. We'll just have to wait and see... both girls were complaining of having a scratchy throat last night.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

on this day in history, Aug 28

Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous I Have a Dream speech. Make sure to take a few minutes today to read and reflect upon the powerful words he spoke. http://www.freemaninstitute.com/Dream.htm

I asked my husband last night, because I cannot comprehend, why would anyone ever kill another person? I just don't understand!! His answer was, "you try real hard to do what's right and be a good person, and there's always somebody who's gonna take advantage of that and do you wrong. That really pisses you off." At that point, since I never do sit quietly and listen, I added, "because they don't respect you. And then you don't respect them. And that monster, disrespect, keeps feeding off itself and grows bigger and bigger and bigger until somebody ends up dead." I'm still not sure I understand, though.

Monday, August 27, 2007

and yet another resignation in the news

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bush administration officials say Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will announce his resignation Monday.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

The World House - Martin Luther King, Jr., 1967

link

"We live in a day, said the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, "when civilization is shifting its basic outlook; a major turning point in history where the pre-suppositions on which society is structured are being analyzed, sharply challenged, and profoundly changed." What we are seeing now is a freedom explosion, the realization of "an idea whose time has come," to use Victor Hugo's phrase. The deep rumbling of discontent that we hear today is the thunder of disinherited masses, rising from dungeons of oppression to the bright hills of freedom. In one majestic chorus the rising masses are singing, in the words of our freedom song, "Ain’t gonna let nobody turn us around." All over the world like a fever, freedom is spreading in the widest liberation movement in history. The great masses of people are determined to end the exploitation of their races and lands. They are awake and moving toward their goal like a tidal wave. You can hear them rumbling in every village street, on the docks, in the houses, among the students, in the churches and at political meetings. For several centuries the direction of history flowed from the nations and societies of Western Europe out into the rest of the world in "conquests" of various sorts. That period, the era of colonialism, is at an end. East is moving West. The earth is being redistributed. Yes, we are "shifting our basic outlooks."

These developments should not surprise any student of history. Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself. The Bible tells the thrilling story of how Moses stood in Pharaoh's court centuries ago and cried, "Let my people go." This was an opening chapter in a continuing story..."

It's been forty years, so what happened? Why are we still not free?



"A final problem that mankind must solve in order to survive in the world house that we have inherited is finding an alternative to war and human destruction. Recent events have vividly reminded us that nations are not reducing but rather increasing their arsenals of weapons of mass destruction. The best brains in the highly developed nations of the world are devoted to military technology. The proliferation of nuclear weapons has not been halted, in spite of the limited-test-ban treaty.

In this day of man’s highest technical achievement, in this day of dazzling discovery, of novel opportunities, loftier dignities and fuller freedoms for all, there is no excuse for the kind of blind craving for power and resources that provoked the wars of previous generations. There is no need to fight for food and land. Science has provided us with adequate means of survival and transportation, which make it possible to enjoy the fullness of this great earth. The question now is, do we have the morality and courage required to live together as brothers and not be afraid?"

do we?

Things Grampa Says, part 2

When I first became a mother, it was pretty rough on me. I was experiencing great trauma and depression, and everyone was telling me what to do. Usually, what they told me to do was in conflict with what my heart was telling me. I got especially upset after going with my baby and my mother to visit my grandparents. I didn't say anything at the time, but after I got home I talked to Grampa on the phone about how upset it made me that Mom and Gramma (and others as well) kept telling me what to do all the time, as if I weren't capable of being a mother in my own right, as if my instincts weren't good enough, as if I were doing everything wrong because I wasn't doing it the way they did it with their babies. Grampa got kinda quiet, then simply said to me, "Everyone's gotta kill their own snakes." He told me I had the right to make my own mistakes, and that he knew I wasn't going to do anything to harm my baby. I have found many occassions since then to use his phrase. I really like that one.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

things Grampa says, part 1

My nose?
I don't mind it.
I'm behind it.
It's those in front I offend.

Friday, August 24, 2007

mountaintop removal

link
"The Bush administration is poised to issue regulations today that would legalize and expand the controversial coal mining practice known as mountaintop removal. The technique involves blasting off the tops of mountains and dumping the rubble into valleys and streams."

Coal River Mountain Watch

Thursday, August 23, 2007

almonds

USDA SAYS ALMONDS LABELED AS 'RAW' OR 'ORGANIC' MUST BE PASTEURIZED

Under pressure from industrial agriculture lobbyists, the USDA has quietly approved a new regulation that will effectively end distribution of raw almonds, while putting many smaller almond farmers out of business. The regulation is scheduled to go into effect on September 1st, unless thousands of consumers take action now. The rule requires pasteurization of almonds, including organic, yet allows those same almonds to continue to be labeled as "raw". Nutritionists point out that raw, organic almonds are far superior, in terms of nutrition, to pasteurized almonds. One of the FDA-recommended pasteurization methods involves the use of propylene oxide, which is classified as a carcinogen in California and is banned in Canada, Mexico, and the European Union. Organic and family-scale almond farmers are protesting the proposed rule, saying it will effectively put them out of business, since the minimum price for the pasteurization equipment is $500,000.

Take action: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_6747.cfm

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Monday, August 20, 2007

metal art by Paul

Check out these trophies Paul made for the Shawn Adams Memorial Spirit of the Game Ultimate tournament!
http://nakedpretzel.com/shawn.shtml



(click on either photo above for higher resolution image)


Paul has 20 years experience in metal fabrication and welding. He often repairs or creates custom parts for his friends' motorcycles. I have some garden ornaments he made that I need to photograph, too. Contact paylridr@bellsouth.net to discuss your custom metal fabrication or repair.


Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket


Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket


Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket


Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

girl talk

consider yourself warned.
This post may not be suitable for people born with external genitalia.

Okay then.

Many of you know that I have rather severe endometriosis, which causes extreme pain for me especially during menses. Well, not any more it doesn't! I have experienced periods without pain recently, but that is generally the exception rather than the rule. But never, not until now, have I experienced a period as a healthy, normal bodily function, as something good for me. I'm not fighting it, dreading it, afraid of it, and while the experience is undeniably intense (for lack of a better word), it doesn't hurt! Anyway, I will be back to blogging when this is all over, with a brand new outlook on the things happening in our world. Shouldn't be more than a day or two more.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

We Are the Ones We've Been Waiting For

The Hopi Elders Speak
We Are the Ones We've Been Waiting For

You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour.
Now you must go back and tell thepeople that this is The Hour.

And there are things to be considered:
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.

This could be a good time!

There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold on to the shore.
They will feel they are being torn apart, and they will suffer greatly.
Know the river has its destination.
The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above thewater. See who is in there with you and celebrate.
At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally.
Least of all, ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

We are the ones we've been waiting for.
–The Elders Oraibi
Arizona Hopi Nation

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

to clear up confusion...

it has been brought to my attention that certain very dear people in my life are worried that I don't believe in Jesus. I have to tell you all that I do remember him from a past life. I loved him then as I still do now, and I've been waiting 2000 years for him to return. I was so angry because his message became horribly twisted by those who sought to control the people, which goes against everything he stood for. I'm sorry I allowed my anger to prevent me from admitting this to you any sooner. Is the world ready for a human Christ? Certainly he was and is Divine, but he came to teach us that we all are, every last one of us.

Monday, August 13, 2007

unschooling

Just now, I was trying to explain to my daughter what Tai Chi is.
She said, "I know."
Anyway, the conversation continued, and she somewhat reluctantly agreed to let me pretend to teach her. :-)

and another resignation...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Karl Rove, President Bush's close friend and chief political strategist, plans to leave the White House at the end of August, joining a lengthening line of senior officials heading for the exits in the final 1½ years of the administration.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Pride

No matter what amount of brainwashing, humiliation, torment, and torture they endure, some people still have their pride. This is the threat perceived by those who seek to control people. This is why the most proud people throughout history have always become targets for oppression and cruelty. If we all become targets, if we all learn to be proud, they can't zero in on any one of us.

The Snake

I have always loved this poem. Used to have it memorized, but that seems a whole different lifetime ago, and the words are all new again.

The Snake, by D H Lawrence

A snake came to my water-trough
On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat,
To drink there.
In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob-tree
I came down the steps with my pitcher
And must wait, must stand and wait,
for there he was at the trough before me.

He reached down from a fissure in the earth-wall in the gloom
And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down,
over the edge of the stone trough
And rested his throat upon the stone bottom,
And where the water had dripped from the tap, in a small clearness,
He sipped with his straight mouth,
Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body,
Silently.

Someone was before me at my water-trough,
And I, like a second comer, waiting.

He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do,
And looked at me vaguely, as drinking cattle do,
And flickered his two-forked tongue from his lips, and mused a moment,
And stooped and drank a little more,
Being earth-brown, earth-golden from the burning bowels of the earth
On the day of Sicilian July, with Etna smoking.
The voice of my education said to me
He must be killed,
For in Sicily the black, black snakes are innocent, the gold are venomous.

And voices in me said, If you were a man
You would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off.

But must I confess how I liked him,
How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water-trough
And depart peaceful, pacified, and thankless,
Into the burning bowels of this earth?

Was it cowardice, that I dared not kill him?
Was it perversity, that I longed to talk to him?
Was it humility, to feel so honoured?
I felt so honoured.

And yet those voices:
If you were not afraid, you would kill him!

And truly I was afraid, I was most afraid,
But even so, honoured still more
That he should seek my hospitality
From out the dark door of the secret earth.

He drank enough
And lifted his head, dreamily, as one who has drunken,
And flickered his tongue like a forked night on the air, so black,
Seeming to lick his lips,
And looked around like a god, unseeing, into the air,
And slowly turned his head,
And slowly, very slowly, as if thrice adream,
Proceeded to draw his slow length curving round
And climb again the broken bank of my wall-face.

And as he put his head into that dreadful hole,
And as he slowly drew up, snake-easing his shoulders, and entered farther,
A sort of horror, a sort of protest against his withdrawing into that horrid black hole,
Deliberately going into the blackness, and slowly drawing himself after,
Overcame me now his back was turned.

I looked round, I put down my pitcher,
I picked up a clumsy log
And threw it at the water-trough with a clatter.

I think it did not hit him,
But suddenly that part of him that was left behind convulsed in undignified haste.
Writhed like lightning, and was gone
Into the black hole, the earth-lipped fissure in the wall-front,
At which, in the intense still noon, I stared with fascination.

And immediately I regretted it.
I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act!
I despised myself and the voices of my accursed human education.

And I thought of the albatross
And I wished he would come back, my snake.

For he seemed to me again like a king,
Like a king in exile, uncrowned in the underworld,
Now due to be crowned again.

And so, I missed my chance with one of the lords
Of life.
And I have something to expiate:
A pettiness.

Monday, August 6, 2007

on this day in history...

such a horribleness, unspeakable horribleness. link Today, let us focus our energies on preventing such a thing from ever happening again, let us pray our hearts out for the soldiers of the world, that they might find the inner strength to accept moral responsibility for their actions, and do what is right and good as dictated by their hearts, rather than blindly obeying orders.

Saturday, August 4, 2007

The Cave

Plato
Book VII of The Republic

The Allegory of the Cave


"Here's a little story from Plato's most famous book, The Republic. Socrates is talking to a young follower of his named Glaucon, and is telling him this fable to illustrate what it's like to be a philosopher -- a lover of wisdom: Most people, including ourselves, live in a world of relative ignorance. We are even comfortable with that ignorance, because it is all we know. When we first start facing truth, the process may be frightening, and many people run back to their old lives. But if you continue to seek truth, you will eventually be able to handle it better. In fact, you want more! It's true that many people around you now may think you are weird or even a danger to society, but you don't care. Once you've tasted the truth, you won't ever want to go back to being ignorant!" link


[Socrates is speaking with Glaucon]

[Socrates:] And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: --Behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.

[Glaucon:] I see.

And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent.

You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners.

Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave?

True, he said; how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?

And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows?

Yes, he said.

And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them?

Very true.

And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow?

No question, he replied.

To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.

That is certain.

And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive some one saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision, -what will be his reply? And you may further imagine that his instructor is pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring him to name them, -- will he not be perplexed? Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to him?

Far truer.

And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away to take and take in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him?

True, he said.

And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he 's forced into the presence of the sun himself, is he not likely to be pained and irritated? When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities.

Not all in a moment, he said.

He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven; and he will see the sky and the stars by night better than the sun or the light of the sun by day?

Certainly.

Last of he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the water, but he will see him in his own proper place, and not in another; and he will contemplate him as he is.

Certainly.

He will then proceed to argue that this is he who gives the season and the years, and is the guardian of all that is in the visible world, and in a certain way the cause of all things which he and his fellows have been accustomed to behold?

Clearly, he said, he would first see the sun and then reason about him.

And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the den and his fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them?

Certainly, he would.

And if they were in the habit of conferring honours among themselves on those who were quickest to observe the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before, and which followed after, and which were together; and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future, do you think that he would care for such honours and glories, or envy the possessors of them? Would he not say with Homer,

Better to be the poor servant of a poor master, and to endure anything, rather than think as they do and live after their manner?

Yes, he said, I think that he would rather suffer anything than entertain these false notions and live in this miserable manner.

Imagine once more, I said, such an one coming suddenly out of the sun to be replaced in his old situation; would he not be certain to have his eyes full of darkness?

To be sure, he said.

And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the den, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady (and the time which would be needed to acquire this new habit of sight might be very considerable) would he not be ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of ascending; and if any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death.

No question, he said.

This entire allegory, I said, you may now append, dear Glaucon, to the previous argument; the prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed whether rightly or wrongly God knows. But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must have his eye fixed.

junk mail

why does anyone think I might need a bigger penis or a fake college degree?

Thursday, August 2, 2007