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 14 Feb 2004 @ 20:23, by nemue. Neighborhood
I am feeling whimsical today, thinking of the meaning of my life. Why I am here, wishing I could go home. Please indulge me as I share my feelings, as this is food for my soul. This is the substance that gives me the strength to face another day, another challenge.
Tomorrow someone I work with will be told she no longer has a job with the company that she has worked for over 27-years. I feel sorry for her and I feel angry with her because she should (could) have taken control of her life, listened and done something about addressing the issues that had been raised with her. Many people went ‘out on a limb’ for her – but she refused to change, refused to listen and now she will pay the price. Even though I am angry with her my heart feels for what she will go through tomorrow. She has no partner, no support net; she will be largely on her own. I know her; she will continue to drive people away. I also feel to some degree that I have failed which is what prompted me to write the following.
For Pip, More >
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 14 Feb 2004 @ 16:57, by amara. Ideas, Creativity
The parts and pieces of this were created spontaneously about two years ago and finally assembled, in its own time, a couple of months ago. It sits in our co-op gallery, High Desert Living Arts [link]a few doors down from our pottery.
I suppose the title says it all -- "Hold it Together." I keep feeling it's not a coincidence it's a woman. Perhaps just projection, but I think there's something more. There's something about the wobble. There's a hope, I think, that with help, even with the wobble, the bowl will be able to hold itself up at some point. More >
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 14 Feb 2004 @ 11:13, by jazzolog. Environment, Ecology
I have never waited for anything the way I've waited for today, when nothing will happen.
---Marguerite Duras
And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
---T.S. Eliot
Approach it and there is no beginning; follow it and there is no end. You can't know it, but you can be it, at ease in your own life.
---Lao-Tzu
In the Woods, c.1900-04
Watercolor over pencil on paper
Paul Cezanne 1829 - 1906
A break in the weather and, while it's still cold outside (around 20 degrees Fahrenheit) here's a chance to restore and replenish. Southeast Ohio has been so wet this fall and winter, relieving a few years of drought conditions, that the ground is completely saturated. Any more rain or thaw after snowfall means flooding at once, so time at home has been used fortifying against the elements. Today is calm and rather bright so I was inspired, as the Valentine ladies laze about a bit this morning (plus Ilona's friend Tara who spent the night after the big Middle School dance) to get after a few chores. More >
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 13 Feb 2004 @ 18:38, by bombadil. Ideas, Creativity
As I walk
down the park,
I see them,
And I watch them,
Bustling,
And fluttering about. More >
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 13 Feb 2004 @ 11:16, by craiglang. Energy Sources
I posted this in the PSI room, but after thinking about it overnight, I thought that it might be interesting for general consumption.
The last week or so has been very interesting from the point of view of (unintended) mind-machine interactions. I have had a couple of instances where the computer locked up when I started using it (Yes, I know - it's Microsoft...). Both of these times were when I felt quite stressed and in a hurry. More >
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 12 Feb 2004 @ 22:48, by amara. Ideas, Creativity
It seems I've always been interested in the didgeridoo. I had heard just brief references to it in television and world music in my younger years. The sound is captivating and of course, unique. The first time I experienced it live was in Atlanta, Ga in the early '90's. This cat was a really good player, don't remember his name. He had a stack of painted PVC didgeridoos he was selling on the street for $75 - $120. That struck me as absolutely nuts! I don't care what one could do with the tube, it's still just a tube and the art wasn't that kickin'.
Went right home and "built" one, partly out of spite. Saw him a few more times and he helped me get started playing. That was over ten years ago and when I started working in clay and realized I could make a tube by throwing a series of "donut" forms on the wheel and piecing them together, I thought "any tube will do!" And there it was, my first clay didge.
The clay didges have been in development for about three years now and it's been a wonderful tour of sound and form. Most challenging has been how subtle changes in length, width, bell shape, pinches, so many factors can make big changes in sound. It can be baffling. Just when I think I start understanding what does what, I'm usually surprised and find something totally different. But, just like in other realms of my work, the "surprises" usually work out to be better than what I've planned. The trick is integrating those surprises in the next time!
More on the process in future posts.
--Thomas More >
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 12 Feb 2004 @ 10:00, by spectragon. Developing World
“Go as far as you can see and you will see further”
On a number of occasions, the author’s of the US constitution expressed grave concern over the potential for economic interests to gain political control. Today it is apparent that they were men of exceptional vision. Since that time, cultural evolution has kept pace with the more obvious evolution from horse & buggy to the Internet, but our attention has been distracted from the advances in social engineering.
It is common for organizations to formulate a mission statement that clarifies their “vision” (the objective of the organization). This vision is meant to be the guiding principle by which the members of the group interact. As individuals, we seldom give adequate consideration to the utility of having a vision of our own. We often go no further than to consider the ways our most obvious drives may be satisfied by the smorgasbord of available options society offers. Unbeknownst to most of us, this is by design. How can one be totally devoted to the vision of another while remaining true to one’s own personal vision?
The viable options, concerning vision, are bounded by the limiting assumptions inherent in the model of reality one embraces. Our view of reality is “menu driven”. The perspective of hindsight obscures the possibilities of the paths not taken as we proceed down the bifurcating path of life’s choices, resulting in the illusion that the world offered us fewer options than are, in fact, available.
The scientific advances of the last century have broadened our consensual perspective of reality in a way that corroborates the descriptions offered by mystics throughout the ages; enabling us to see a world of energy patterns, rather than discrete objects. This vision has profound implications as a unifying principle where diversity is recognized as an empowering dynamic.
The correlation between form and function is apparent in the observation that consciousness is role-related (i.e. one’s awareness is invariably focused on one’s interactions). A vision that reflects a commitment to understand and cooperate with natural systems, results in a synergy that facilitates the evolution of both the consciousness and the potential role to be played. More >
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 12 Feb 2004 @ 02:54, by jazzolog. Religion
Art is frozen Zen.
---R.H. Blyth
From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.
---Franz Kafka
The birth of a man is the birth of his sorrow. The longer he lives, the more stupid he becomes, because his anxiety to avoid unavoidable death becomes more and more acute. What bitterness! He lives for what is always out of reach! His thirst for survival in the future makes him incapable of living in the present.
---Chuang-Tzu
The "Left Behind" series, novels whose plots revolve around the Rapture now number 40 million in print. (Photo: leftbehind.com/CBS)
Let me say at the outset that my main problem with the current and prevalent Evangelicals has to do with theology rather than politics. They have the right to yearn for a state grounded in their principles, and the mainstream has the right to send them back to their pews---which is what we're going to do. I want neither George Bush NOR the Dalai Lama as my emperor.
My theological problem involves what I judge to be the major thrust of prayer among Evangelicals. I find the literal reading of Biblical material as silly as a literal reading of Mother Goose. I do not think of the Bible as a fairy tale, but I do know what a parable is and what it isn't. It ain't a New York Times editorial---or at least oughtn't to be (most of the time). Jesus taught with parables, not news items or States of the Union speeches. Prayer becomes distorted in a literal perception of parable and scripture.
I believe Evangelicals use prayer as an appeal to God to do stuff for them...and as a ritual of gratitude when they think the tasks have been righteously performed. I believe this is magical thinking...and I find much of magic in what Evangelicals do. The very air and atmosphere of a Pentecostal meeting is magical: the circle, the hands-holding and waving, the chanting (whether in tongues or not), the public emotional convulsion of being born again, the healings. The power here is magic...which is perfectly OK, as long as it is recognized and celebrated as such. More >
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 10 Feb 2004 @ 16:05, by bkodish. Natural Health & Healing
Yesterday's New York Times (Feb. 9, 2004) published a long article by Gina Kolata entitled, "Healing a Bad Back Is Often an Effort in Painful Futility." Link
The article gives a pretty good rundown of some of the facts familiar to knowledgable health-care providers: Alot of money and effort gets spent with very questionable return on investment.
As the article puts it, "...for all the costs, for all the hours spent in doctors' offices and operating suites, for all the massage therapy and acupuncture and spinal manipulations, study after study is leading medical experts to ask what, if anything, is doing any good..."
The report goes on to note that most people get better without treatment (not quite the positive news you might think--since "better" doesn't necessarily mean "pain-free"). The article also notes that for those who don't get better, the best approach (according the experts quoted) may be to learn live with the pain.
What a depressing conclusion...even more so because the article and the experts it quotes fail to give an adequate picture of the problem and thus encourage an unnecessary fatalism about the possibilities of healing. More >
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 8 Feb 2004 @ 14:00, by koravya. Altered States
Saturday morning, February seventh, Two sets of dreams. More >
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