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 26 Nov 2004 @ 18:05
When crows find a dying snake,
They behave as if they were eagles.
When I see myself as a victim,
I am hurt by trifling failures.
---Shantideva
Learn to wish that everything should come to pass exactly as it does.
---Epictetus
I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.
---Wilson Mizener
Hope In The Prison Of Despair
Evelyn de Morgan (1855-1919)
So much for happy Thanksgiving. But nobody ever said we can't give thanks sadly...or anxiously. Hysterically? Probably not to very good effect, eh?
OK, what am I talking about? I really was elated as we moved into the holiday, even though Judge Carr had turned down the Green and Libertarian parties' motion to a Federal Court to begin the recount early. Their point had been that waiting for Secretary of State Blackwell to certify the election, on a date I've seen given variously as December 3rd or 6th, would make completion of a recount impossible by December 13th, when the Electoral College convenes. [link] As Dan Tokaji explains Carr's decision, these minority candidates are highly unlikely to benefit in terms of new results; and since they're the plaintiffs, there's no reason to try to beat the deadline for Electoral College convention. Besides, Blackwell, dragging his feet and every other part of his Republican body, already had protested we can't have a REcount before the actual count is finished. He'd surely appeal a favorable verdict for the Greens and Libertarians. More >
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 19 Nov 2004 @ 10:51
I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.
---John Muir
Excessive stress is involved in a wide variety of medical conditions, including heart disease, high blood pressure, ulcers, acid reflux disease, strokes, and many other illnesses. Though most of us have heard that deep breathing can help us relax in the midst of stressful situations, many of us do not really know how to breathe deeply. We do not really know how to breathe deeply. We do not know how to quiet our minds and emotions and release the unnecessary tension in our diaphragm, ribs, belly, and back that restricts our breathing. As a result, our efforts to deal with stress through deep breathing often result in shallow, fast breathing which tends to make us even more nervous, anxious, and tense than we already are.
Though it is extremely important to your breath and health to learn how to quiet your mind and emotions and to release unnecesarry tension in your breathing muscles, there is a simple breathing practice that you can use in the meantime to help you relax. In this approach, you simply emphasize and lengthen your exhalation. The long exhalation helps turn on your parasympathetic nervous system, your "relaxation response."
Using this technique, there's nothing to do except to make sure that your exhalation is longer than your inhalation. You don't have to count to do this. Just put your attention on your breathing as you exhale. Sense the air from your lungs going out slowly and gently through your nose. When you're finished exhaling, don't put your attention on the inhalation. In fact, don't make any kind of effort to inhale at all. Just wait for your inhalation to arise by itelf. Take several complete breaths in this way.
If, after several breaths, your exhalation still isn't longer than your inhalation, simply imagine that you are gently blowing out a single candle as you exhale slowly and effortlessly through pursed lips. Take several more breaths in this way, and you will soon find yourself beginning to relax. To deepen this relaxation, you can hum for several breaths.
---Dennis Lewis
Breathing in, breathing out, feeling resentful, feeling happy, being able to drop it, not being able to drop it, eating our food, brushing our teeth, walking, sitting---whatever we're doing could be done with one intention. That intention is that we want to wake up, we want to ripen our compassion, and we want to ripen our ability to let go, we want to realize our connection with all beings. Everything in our lives has the potential to wake us up or to put us to sleep. Allowing it to awaken us is up to us.
---Pema Chodron
The photo is from the increasingly popular image site Sorry Everybody. [link] More >
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 14 Nov 2004 @ 12:06
Like a dream,
Whatever I enjoy
Will become a memory;
The past is not revisited.
---Shantideva
That moment you leap free of yourself, the wine of the friend, in all its brilliance and dazzle, is held out to you.
---Jalal Al-Din Rumi
Everything is true just as it is:
Why dislike it?
Why hate it?
---Zen saying
Painting by Paul Charles Chocarne-Moreau (1855-1931): The Cunning Thief
So where are we on this Sunday? How are the Ohio Boards of Election proceeding and did Kerry's lawyers find anything? Various blogs are on fire with incidents and speculation, but the media is quiet---except an occasional report about the blogs. JohnKerry.com is virtually retired, with his concession speech being the most recent item.
David Cobb and Michael Bednarik (learn those names!) of the Green and Libertarian parties respectively issued a joint statement calling for a recount in Ohio. [link] They're well on the way to getting the fee together ($113,000) and Cobb said before the election that a Bush victory will ensure the Greens a major voice in the restructuring of the Democratic party. You're probably aware that they and Ralph Nader, of course, are demanding recounts in other states as well. At this point, I have not heard the Democrats have done so anywhere. More >
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 7 Nov 2004 @ 11:45
The painting by Andrea Del Sarto is of Christ realizing He is Risen.
I heard the unblown flute
In the deep autumn shadows
Of the Temple of Suma.
---Basho
Heard melodies are sweet,
but those unheard
Are sweeter: therefore,
ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but,
more endear'd,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone.
---John Keats
W.'s presidency rushes backward, stifling possibilities, stirring intolerance, confusing church with state, blowing off the world, replacing science with religion, and facts with faith. We're entering another dark age, more creationist than cutting edge, more premodern than postmodern. Instead of leading America to an exciting new reality, the Bushies cocoon in a scary, paranoid, regressive reality. Their new health care plan will probably be a return to leeches.
---Maureen Dowd, November 7, 2004
Garrison Keillor went even further on his Prairie Home Companion show last night. He proposes, of course in irony, a Constitutional amendment that bans born-again Christians from voting. He bases his proposal on the fact Evangelicals obviously are not citizens of the United States, but rather of Heaven. They no longer believe in our basic American values. Their health care plan is an opportunity for a closer walk with God. More >
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 4 Nov 2004 @ 10:02
O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
---The Book of Common Prayer
I wish that I could just wrap you up in my arms and embrace each and every one of you individually all across this nation.
---Senator John Kerry to his supporters, November 3, 2004
Don't drink by the water's edge.
Throw yourself in. Become the water.
Only then will your thirst end.
---Jeanette Berson
Max Ernst: Pieta or Revolution by Night, 1923
Few memories are more outstanding in one's life than the moment in your swimming lessons when you first jump into the deep end of the pool. For me it was at the Jamestown, New York, YMCA with a bunch of friends my own age, at the direction of our teacher. Maybe we were aged 7 or 8. Brownie was a great barrel of a man, and it helped that we all liked and looked up to him. He was a leader we'd follow anywhere. The water was 12 feet deep, but Brownie assured us we'd go to the bottom, push off and bob back up. The question "What if I don't?" delayed my volunteering to be first. Nobody wanted to be the puny whiner who would be last, so quickly one at a time in we went...and survived, and learned to love doing it. More >
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