Saturday, February 28, 2009

Biblical Travels and Humor


My Jesus Year - Benyamin Cohen
Cohen, who is the son of a rabbi, travels far and wide in a year of exploring Christian faiths. His humor is entertaining, his information interesting.
The Year of Living Biblically - A J Jacobs
AJ (who read the Encyclopedia Britannica for his last work) tries to live according to biblical command. A personal look into the paradoxes of the Bible, and its traditions. Made me laugh out loud. Crazy situations, a great read that was fast-paced and fun.
These two books happened to come into the library at the same time. But it ws good to read them together, and compare and contrast.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

An International Street



For those of you who are REALLY interested in Sesame Street....
The World According to Sesame Street is out of print, but available in many libraries - a terrific overview of The Children's Television Workshop, and Sesame Street abroad. Sesame Street is seen in many countries, and they try to tailor their show to address the cultural needs and interests of the country in which it is shown. A fascinating look at a non-violent show, in some areas where children already know much violence at a young age.
Our favorite episodes of Shalom Sesame are in Vol. 1 - we enjoy "barbazoni" (rubber duckie) in Hebrew! Also hosted by Itzhack Perlman.

Sesame Street Unpaved

My favorite book about Sesame Street. Interesting trivia, great pictures. Out of print (1999) but still at many local libraries!

Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street

by Michael Davis

As most of you know, I am a Sesame Street NUT. This book was rather complicated, with much information, but for a true fan it was all interesting. We have much to be thankful for in the Children's Television Workshop. How nice it has been to revisit this programming with my daughter. Skim the details, but read the book!

Saturday, February 21, 2009

I See You Everywhere

by Julia Glass

I picked this novel up becuase of its complex family relationships. It was above average - satrted off very well, but I found I did not care about the lives of the main characters (2 sisters) very much as I worked through the text. Perhaps a good beach book - if only it was beach weather!

The Credit Crunch Explained


The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Why Facebook is For Old Fogies

from TIME magazine..

1. Facebook is about finding people you've lost track of.
2. We're no longer bitter about high school.
3. We never get drunk at parties and get photographed holding beer bottles in suggestive positions.
4. Facebook isn't just a social network; it's a business network.
5. We're lazy. We have jobs and children and houses and substance-abuse problems to deal with. At our age, we don't want to do anything. What we want is to hear about other people doing things and then judge them for it.
6. We're old enough that pictures from grade school or summer camp look nothing like us. These days, the only way to identify us is with Facebook tags.
7. We have children. There is very little that old people enjoy more than forcing others to pay attention to pictures of their children. Facebook is the most efficient engine ever devised for this.
8. We're too old to remember e-mail addresses. You have to understand: we have spent decades drinking diet soda out of aluminum cans. That stuff catches up with you. We can't remember friends' e-mail addresses. We can barely remember their names.

9. We don't understand Twitter. Literally. It makes no sense to us.

10. We're not cool, and we don't care. There was a time when it was cool to be on Facebook. That time has passed. Facebook now has 150 million members, and its fastest-growing demographic is 30 and up. At this point, it's way cooler not to be on Facebook. We've ruined it for good, just like we ruined Twilight and skateboarding. So git! And while you're at it, you damn kids better get off our lawn too.

Humor of the day

Ben & Jerry created "Yes Pecan!" ice cream flavor for Obama. They
then asked people to fill in the blank to the following:
For George W. Bush, we should create "_________".
Here are some of their favorite responses:
1. Grape Depression
2. Abu Grape
3. Cluster Fudge
4. Nut'n Accomplished
5. Iraqi Road
6. Chock 'n Awe
7. WireTapioca
8. Impeach Cobbler
9. Guantanmallow
10. imPeachmint
11. Good Riddance You Lousy M*f**ker... Swirl
12. Heck of a Job, Brownie!
13. Neocon Politan
14. RockyRoad to Fascism
15. The Reese's-cession
16. Cookie D'oh!
17.The Housing Crunch
18. Nougalar Proliferation
19. Death by Chocolate... and Torture
20. Credit Crunch
21. Country Pumpkin
22. Chunky Monkey in Chief
23. George Bush Doesn't Care About Dark Chocolate
24. WM Delicious
25. Chocolate Chimp
26. Bloody Sundae
27. Caramel Preemptive Stripe
28. I broke the law and am responsible for the deaths of
thousands...with nuts

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Daughters of Light: Quaker Women Preaching and Prophesying in the Colonies and Abroad, 1700-1775



from Amazon: Daughters of Light by Rebecca Larson is a startling reassessment of the place of women in American colonial history. Larson's story of 18th-century Quaker women describes women's power in popular reform movements of that era, and explores Quaker women's redefinitions of marriage and motherhood. Colonial Quakers, like their contemporary descendants, believed that "the Holy Spirit had been planted in the hearts of all humans to inwardly teach them." Although Quakers had strict rules regarding women's dress, language, and behavior, Quaker women were never denied their claims of a direct connection to God. (Their Puritan sisters, by contrast, practiced a religion that idealized female submission in both the earthly and spiritual realms.) So when Quaker women believed they were called to preach--in meeting houses, courthouses, and private homes; to other Quakers, to Native Americans, and to ecumenical audiences; in the West Indies, England, Europe, and the American colonies--they were given the freedom to do so. All domestic duties were configured to account for divine demands. (The Spirit leading Quaker women, as one wrote, "was to me like a needle of a compass ... for so it pointed where I ought to go.")
Great contribution to women's history writing in general, and Quaker history as well. This book was very detailed, but very interesting. I feel proud of the Quaker's equality after reading this book!




Choices

"if i can't do
what i want to do
then my job is to not
do what i don't want
to do


"it's not the same thing
but it's the best i can
do

"if i can't have
what i want then
my job is to want
what i've got
and be satisfied
that at least there
is something more
to want

"since i can't go
where i need
to go then i must go
where the signs point
though always understanding
parallel movement
isn't lateral

"when i can't express
what i really feel
i practice feeling
what i can express
and none of it is equal
i know
but that's why mankind
alone among the animals
learns to cry"

-Nikki Giovanni

This is from a great interview with Bil Moyers - transcript/video here.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

PINK. cuz women dig PINK.

from Amazon: "I have the paperback version. This is a very nice one year devotional Bible for women. It is very portable yet still easy on the eyes. Also, the print is in pink which is somewhat unique for any Bible which makes the reading more fun. NIV readers may be disappointed as this is the NLT version though I personally enjoy both. It also contains the common "verse finder" typical of most one year Bibles. Keep in mind this is not a study Bible, and therefore, does not explain the difficult verses. This is purely a one-year devotional Bible geared specifically for women. Enjoy! "

Oh my. I am not sure if "specifically geared towards women" means merely PINK, or something else. You know I am dying to get a look at this.

I was searching in regards to a conversation at meeting, on how the bible is so inaccessible and confusing to so many people. Myself included, although I have had the advantage of a GREAT "bible as lit." class at UMASS.

Museum of African Art - Portland

We're hoping to get here in the next few weeks. I met a fascinating man last week - Oscar Mokeme, a Nigerian priest. He presented his masks and his culture at the Newburyport Public library, as a CHIME presentation. He is a very spiritual man, he had a gentle way about him that happened to calm me greatly after a week of great consternation and fear.

He offered blessings to us all, but perhaps just his presence alone was enough for me that evening. I hope we can soon get to his museum, and see the masks and him again!

Uncertainty

“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.” The Dhammapada

Week 3: What is the image of my anger?
Week 2: What are the dead things I carry?
Week 1: Why and how do I embrace uncertainty?

LOL I do NOT embrace uncertainty. EVER. And perhaps a little step in that direction might be healthy for me. Uncertainty is often a precursor to change. Great change. Necessary change.

How many times in my life have I tried to "fix" everything, only to find the "fixed" thing was still not a path I should have ever been on in the first place?

"Does this path have heart?" - Casteneda.

Not sure yet of the details. Uncertainty. Indeed.

Friday, February 06, 2009

Six Minutes Against Torture

Brought to you by the New York Yearly Meeting of Quakers. Somehow I find this much more powerful when read in the voices of the yearly meeting members.

A Sign of The Times

The woman traveler stops by the security checkpoint. After placing her luggage on the screening machine, the airport employee checks her baggage. The traveler hands her spare change and watch to the security guard and proceeds through the metal detector. With no time to spare, she picks up her luggage and hurries to board her flight!

music lessons

It was time for a revisit to Sarah Vowell today.

How music touches us all!

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/favorites.aspx

Scroll down to "music lessons" - Sarah is about 21:00 minutes into the hour.

St Patrick comes to the South Shore



start time: 1:00 pm

more info here

havin' a jubilee

In the book of Leviticus, there's a prescribed "rest period" after 50 years of toiling:

"...[Y]ou shall have the trumpet sounded throughout all your land. And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family. That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you: you shall not sow, or reap the aftergrowth, or harvest the unpruned vines. For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces." Leviticus 25:9-12 NRSV

Regardless of your religious views on the bible and its messages, or who they came from or whatever - this is a pretty good lesson. The land needs a rest to become productive again. So do we.

I mention this after a very long day of trials and tribulations re: my own work situations. I've been struggling to make a home for myself in a job that might not be right for me. I began the employment as a way to reconnect with my teaching nature - and I have worked with some incredible people in the past few years. One by one, they have begun to leave. I am still in the "hanging on" mindset - preferring to suck the last bit of marrow from the drying-up bones of this job. There ain't much left. Perhaps moving on should be done when the time is right, and perhaps that's not when one is kicked so forcefully out the door?

Buddah would say get rid of the attachment, and the problem is solves itself.

I have an invitation to an all-New England Friends yearly meeting gathering in April sitting in my inbox. A Quaker hoopla of reflection. Popped into my box in a timely divine fashion. Perhaps it will be a good kick-off to my own "jubilee"?

Here's an excerpt from the meeting notes:

Jubilee is, then, a kind of laying-down of everything in order to be reconnected with the divine. It is a
kind of new beginning, to let go of old structures, old business where there may not be life, and be ready
with hands as empty as possible to receive what God is asking of us.
I pray, as part of our work together we will ask each other, what is the Spirit asking of me/us? Is the
Spirit asking me/us to move forward on this or is this a piece of work that I/we can lay aside for a time to
attend to that still small voice, the sole authentic authority for movement?
And the second part of this process is to hold ourselves accountable for acting on what insight, perhaps
vision, we are given. In order to do that, we need to be concrete and specific in naming not only what we
are called to but what we are currently doing.


Name what I am currently doing.... hhhmmm......spinning my wheels? Trying to accomidate a calling that is not a good fit? I am usually very articulate, and yet in this moment I am at a true loss for words.

So there we are. Perhaps I am not in crisis after all - I am in "jubilee". Sounds almost exciting and party-like!

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

French Toast




We love to cook around here, as you know. Our favorite Sunday morning activity is making french toast! I am also glad these days for the simple quality cooking items that we own. Glass bowls are easy to clean and to handle, and the tongs are great for dipping!

Talent is Overrated


What Really Separates World-Class Performers From Everybody Else - Colvin


Very similar (eerily so?) to Gladwell's Outliers in many ways. But a good book - references the K Anders Ericcson studies regarding practice habits/success of musicians. I must say, as someone who personally has always just relied on elbow grease, these books speak to me despite their self-helpy "you can fix your life too!" attitude. An interesting read, but I might read the Gladwell first, especially for the real-life examples.

Listening To The Light


How To Bring Quaker Simplicity and Integrity Into Our Lives - Pym
This was a good basic Quaker guide for me - Pym also considers himself a Buddhist as well as a Quaker. Added to the spiritual bookshelf!



The Wordy Shipmates


by Sarah Vowell.
A great read, as usual , from a witty and brilliant author and student of human character. I as aware of the larger historical pictures contained therein - but the anecdotes and personal touch made this book appealing. Like the fact that the John Carver Inn in Plymouth has a water slide emerging from a giant Mayflower replica? (added to the list of quirky "must sees" for this summer)
Also, good mention of Anne Hutchinson and Mary Dyer. Two unfortunate Quakers who contradicted the Puritans' sense of religious freedom with well, religious freedom.