That Ain't No Marching Band
Last night somebody setup a keyboard on the street corner and serenaded me to sleep. It didn’t sound like the guy had ever taken a piano lesson in his life, but I respect him for performing a random creative act.
A Challenge
The next time you find yourself in the forest, lay down on your belly and take a look around. Then roll onto your back and gaze at the canopy and sky.
Changing your perspective shows you a whole new collection of life.
Musings on Aid
Have you ever noticed that, with the majority of aid organizations, when you visit their website and head to their ‘Get Involved’ or ‘Help Out’ sections, they only ask for money? Or poster-ing? Perhaps, at best, they’ll give you some office work. They never actually ask for people to go overseas. Never ask for people to help distribute the supposed aid. It doesn’t quite help support the notion that these organizations are actually doing anything. They’ve got nobody in the field!
Musings on Aid, Part Two
Isn’t it strange how people get degrees in fields related to NGO work?
It reflects the attitude that aid is an industry – something permanent, instead of a sad necessity that must be temporarily pursued until governmental disputes can be settled or unfortunate weather events overcome.
The other day I met someone who was pursuing a degree in refugee assimilation. It doesn’t make sense! She will be solving no problems – only propagating old ones. (Though she will be guaranteed a steady stream of subjects.) Why not get a degree in “nonviolent conflict resolution” or, if that doesn’t pack enough umph for you, “tactical warlord disposal” or “guerrilla warfare education for refugees”. Something to cut the problem off at its source.
Fallout Shelter
Walking around town last weekend, I stumbled upon this old brick building with a “Fallout Shelter” sign on it.
Always good to know where your local bunkers are, I suppose. I imagine the thing is a remnant from the ‘50’s or ‘60’s and that it isn’t stocked or maintained anymore. But, still, I doubt the shambling masses of the undead will be able to eat you in there.
Another possible bug-out location.
The Essential Koran
Thomas Cleary’s The Essential Koran is a sort of summarized version of the Islamic text. It consists of passages selected for the opening of Islam to the modern Western mind.
I was surprised at the lack of myth in the book. It seemed to be filled with “God is this, God is that, disbelievers are poopy.” Names were dropped (Moses, Jesus, etc) and the Garden of Eden* was given a full page, but there were no real stories – the most important aspect of any religion or believe system. I’m forced to think that this is a result of the summation, that the actual Qur’an contains more myth.
I found many disagreements in the text, though none that I think are specific of Islam. Rather, all large, organized religions seem to fall to this.
Despite the beauty of the words, it describes a life of fear. Fear of some god, some master hanging over you. Even those who claim to love and find joy in their god must consider with every action what their judge will think of them. There is no harmony in this – these tiered systems, that find a distinction between heaven and earth.
They do not comprehend anything...except as God wills.
What’s this? Are humans not sentient? You are your own being. You are god. You know as well as any what lays before you and what lays behind you.
And what is the life of the world but the stuff of deception?
How can one live so removed? How can one deny the joys and beauties and truth of life?
There is much good in Islam – kindness, benevolence, tolerance – but it is still a structure of (dank) submission. A belief that separates its followers from the Earth.
- A note on the Garden of Eden story: this version has the fruit enlightening Adam and Eve to their bodies. It is said “and when they tasted of the tree, their shame was exposed to them; and they began to sew together leaves from the garden to cover themselves.”. Our bodies are now something to be shameful of? So much for humans shaped in the image of their God, and all that.
So Long and Thanks for all the Nectar
My honey stock is running low, and the farmer’s market doesn’t start up again till April.
Plus, the bees are running away.
I think it’s a sign.
A sort of “so long and thanks for all the fish,” but with bees.
(The dolphins chose to stay, due to new employment opportunities.)
Bury Me Standing
Isabel Fonseca’s Bury Me Standing digs past the lore of gypsy culture to find the Rom people as they really are. In her travels of Eastern Europe soon after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, she researches the gypsy plight – early slavery, Nazi death camps, and modern persecution. The book is depressing, but recommended for the insight into the normally closed world of Roma.