A contemporary prophet

"Some folks may be really bummed to find that “God bless America” does not appear in the Bible. So often we do things that make sense to us and ask God to bless our actions and come alongside our plans, rather than looking at the things God promises to bless and acting alongside of them. For we know that God’s blessing will inevitably follow if we are with the poor, the merciful, the hungry, the persecuted, the peacemakers. But sometimes we’d rather have a God who conforms to our logic than conform our logic to the God whose wisdom is a stumbling block to the world of smart bombs and military intelligence."

— Shane Claiborne

Intellectuals...?

"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."

— Isaac Asimov

Olive Kitteridge, a formidable lady

"And then as the plane climbed higher and Olive saw spread out below the fields of bright and tender green in this morning sun, farther out from the coastlines, the ocean shiny and almost flat, tiny white wakes behind a few lobster boats — then Olive felt something she had not expected to feel again: a sudden surging greediness for life. She leaned forward, peering out the window: sweet pale clouds, the sky as blue as your hat, the new green of the fields, the broad expanse of water — seen from up here it all appeared wondrous, amazing. She remembered what hope was, and this was it. The inner churning that moves you forward, plows you through life the way the boats below plowed the shiny water, the way the plane was plowing forward to a place new, and where she was needed."

—

“Olive Kitteridge” by Elizabeth Strout

I loved that book, and Olive especially. What a well drawn, unique and eminently genuine woman. At times she was not especially likable, and often she was more than a bit prickly, but in the end she’s someone I felt like I’d really met and come to know, and I was glad for having had the chance to do so.

Vermont hiking trail

A suspension footbridge along the way on a hiking trail in southern Vermont

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

I know that in some quarters this poem is thought to be cliched, or hokey, or just dreck. So be it; those folks are entitled to their views. But for me, it keeps coming to mind at the oddest times, and some of its counsel speaks of true wisdom and comfort. As I’ve learned in a 12-step program that’s also sometimes thought of as hokey - “Take what you need, and leave the rest”.

God’s True Cloak

We must not portray you in king's robes,
you drifting mist that brought forth the morning. 

Once again from the old paintboxes
we take the same gold for scepter and crown
that has disguised you through the ages. 

Piously we produce our images of you
till they stand around you like a thousand walls.
And when our hearts would simply open,
our fervant hands hide you.

Book of Hours, I 4

by Rainer Maria Rilke; translation by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows

Yummmmm!

How is this not a major food group!?

Irony, or ?

"World leaders have flown in first class to the United Nations this week to discuss global poverty over cocktails at the Waldorf Astoria."

—

NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

And so it goes.

"To all the secret writers, late-night painters, would-be singers, lapsed and scared artists of every stripe, dig out your paintbrush, or your flute, or your dancing shoes. Pull out your camera or your computer or your pottery wheel. Today, tonight, after the kids are in bed or when your homework is done, or instead of one more video game or magazine, create something, anything. Pick up a needle and thread, and stitch together something particular and honest and beautiful, because we need it. I need it." — “Cold Tangerines” by Shauna Niequist

woman in red coat

Some questions cannot be answered.

They become familiar weights in the hand,

round stones pulled from the pocket,

unyielding and cool.

Your fingers travel their surfaces,

lose themselves finally

in the braille of the durable world.

Look out of any window, it’s the same —

the yellow leaves, the wintering light.

A truck passes, piled deep in cut wood.

A woman, in a red wool coat,

sees you watching and quickly looks away.

.

~ Jane Hirshfield

from Of Gravity and Angels

let life happen

For one human being to love another;

that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks,

the ultimate, the last test and proof,

the work for which all other work is but preparation.

I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people:

that each protects the solitude of the other.

This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love:

the more they give, the more they possess.

There are no classes in life for beginners;

right away you are always asked to deal with what is most difficult.

Believe that with your feelings and your work you are taking part in the greatest;

the more strongly you cultivate this belief,

the more will reality and the world go forth from it.

If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it;

blame yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches;

for the Creator, there is no poverty.

Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting

to see us once beautiful and brave.

Perhaps everything terrible

is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.

The deepest experience of the creator is feminine,

for it is experience of receiving and bearing.

The future enters into us, in order to transform itself in us, long before it happens.

Let life happen to you.

Believe me: life is in the right, always.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Colosseum

Inside the Colosseum, Rome

Ireland - druid relic

Poulnabroune - a dolmen (portal tomb) on the Burren in County Clare, Ireland.

Oh, don't be so serious!

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

— Kung Fu Monkey

Child Hunger in America

Child Hunger, As Seen At Wal-Mart

“Why would somebody buy baby formula at midnight?

Bill Simon, the head of Wal-Mart’s U.S. operations, answered this question in a talk last week.

And you need not go further than one of our stores on midnight at the end of the month. And it’s real interesting to watch, about 11 p.m., customers start to come in and shop, fill their grocery basket with basic items, baby formula, milk, bread, eggs, and continue to shop and mill about the store until midnight, when … government electronic benefits cards get activated and then the checkout starts and occurs. And our sales for those first few hours on the first of the month are substantially and significantly higher.

And if you really think about it, the only reason somebody gets out in the middle of the night and buys baby formula is that they need it, and they’ve been waiting for it. Otherwise, we are open 24 hours — come at 5 a.m., come at 7 a.m., come at 10 a.m. But if you are there at midnight, you are there for a reason.”

For so short a blurb, that piece speaks volumes. We have a long way to go still.

Let's go for a walk

Winter's Bone

This will be available on Netflix in October.

The book was superb, with powerful, lyrical writing and a magical use of the culture of the Ozarks. I’d recommend it.

Twain's "rules'

"Life is short. Break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile."

—

Mark Twain

A Life

"You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give."

— Unknown

A Reflection

Of all the struggles in my life, among all of the challenges to be met, and overcome, those that have tested me the most, and those that continue to do so, always involve the same two combatants - me and me. We have yet to see which of us is the stronger.

Life is...

I climbed a mountain

Just after I turned 60 I decided I wanted to climb a mountain. It meant losing a bunch of weight and getting into something approximating decent shape. One fantastic side benefit was that my then 13 year-old grandson, Joe, decided to train and tackle the climb with me. We spent a wonderful winter and spring that year traveling and hiking together to get ready.

So here we were climbing Mt. Washington in NH - on the Tuckerman Ravine trail.

From a true, and tested, leader..

I could not imagine it being said better. Thank you, General....uh, Mr. President.

“Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower”

Quiet friend who has come so far,
feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell. As you ring,

what batters you becomes your strength.
Move back and forth into the change.
What is it like, such intensity of pain?
If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.

In this uncontainable night,
be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,
the meaning discovered there.

And if the world has ceased to hear you,
say to the silent earth: I flow.
To the rushing water, speak: I am.


by Rainer Maria Rilke; translation by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows
Sonnets to Orpheus II, 29

On Children

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.



You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,

which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them,

but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.



You are the bows from which your children

as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,

and He bends you with His might

that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies,

so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Kahlil Gibran

The House of the Rising Sun - sung by Sinead O’Conner

yeahbaby!

What to read?

"The biggest single task facing the United States today is the unleashing of our social imagination. We are locked into twentieth century institutions and twentieth century habits of mind. Science fiction is the literary genre (OK, true, sometimes a subliterary genre) where the social imagination is being cultivated and developed. Young people should read this genre to help open their minds to the extraordinary possibilities that lie before us; we geezers should read it for the same reason. The job of our times is to build a radically new world; speculative fiction helps point the way."

— Walter Russell Mead

I started reading science fiction as a youngster and continued throughout my teen years. Then, for a while, I drifted away from it, but I've always considered the reading that I had done as a wonderful part of my educational foundation. So, as you might expect, I loved this quote, even as one who now fits into that category he calls: "..we geezers.."

Color...and perspective

A beautiful image, so creatively composed.

Go to the Limits of Your Longing

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like a flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

Book of Hours, I 59
by Rainer Maria Rilke; translation by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows

Writing

often it is the only
thing
between you and
impossibility.
no drink,
no woman’s love,
no wealth
can
match it.
nothing can save
you
except
writing.
it keeps the walls
from
failing.
the hordes from
closing in.
it blasts the
darkness.
writing is the
ultimate
psychiatrist,
the kindliest
god of all the
gods.
writing stalks
death.
it knows no
quit.
and writing
laughs
at itself,
at pain.
it is the last
expectation,
the last
explanation.
that’s
what it
is.

— Bukowski

To Be Of Use

The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who stand in the line and haul in their places,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

~Marge Piercy

Paddington Station - London

London

Not the best shot, but fun - for a weekend morning.

Believe, and worship......but choose wisely

"…. in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship—be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles—is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.

Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they’re evil or sinful, it’s that they’re unconscious. They are default settings.

They’re the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that’s what you’re doing.

And the so-called real world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings, because the so-called real world of men and money and power hums merrily along in a pool of fear and anger and frustration and craving and worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom all to be lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the centre of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talk about much in the great outside world of wanting and achieving…. The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day."

- David Foster Wallace

A resolution

"I shall pass this way but once.
Any good, therefore, that I can show,
Or any kindness I may bestow,
On any fellow being
Let me do it now.
Let me not defer or neglect it.
For I shall not pass this way again."

— Anonymous, but reported to be based on a quote from a sermon by the Quaker missionary Stephen Grellet.

So adorable

Children of the Mountains (by Mitchell Kanashkevich)

Not mine, but I wish it were

I picked this up from a Tumblr post just because I loved the shot. If anyone knows where it was taken, I'd love to hear from you.

Paris from Notre Dame

"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."

— E.B. White

The International Court of Justice

The International Court of Justice, The Hague, Netherlands

Might does not make right

"The death penalty can be tolerated only by extreme statist reactionaries, who demand a state that is so powerful that it has the right to kill."

—

Noam Chomsky (via revolutionnow)

Having the power to kill is not the same thing as having the right to kill.

Becoming beautiful

"The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen."

—

-Elizabeth Kubler Ross

This says so well something I’ve sensed for a long time. In my opinion, It is very difficult for people who have never been driven to their knees by life, or fate, or their own fallible humanity to be fully able to embrace others as they are, with all of our good and less good dimensions.

We're No. 1(1!)

Tom Friedman’s Op-Ed piece (emphasis supplied) in today’s NYT - a “reality check” and a challenge. Today’s opinion section seemed to be filled with well thoughtout columns. I’d also recommend the ones by Frank Rich and Nick Kristoff.

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

I want to share a couple of articles I recently came across that, I believe, speak to the core of what ails America today but is too little discussed. The first was in Newsweek under the ironic headline “We’re No. 11!” The piece, by Michael Hirsh, went on to say: “Has the United States lost its oomph as a superpower? Even President Obama isn’t immune from the gloom. ‘Americans won’t settle for No. 2!’ Obama shouted at one political rally in early August. How about No. 11? That’s where the U.S.A. ranks in Newsweek’s list of the 100 best countries in the world, not even in the top 10.”

The second piece, which could have been called “Why We’re No. 11,” was by the Washington Post economics columnist Robert Samuelson. Why, he asked, have we spent so much money on school reform in America and have so little to show for it in terms of scalable solutions that produce better student test scores? Maybe, he answered, it is not just because of bad teachers, weak principals or selfish unions.

“The larger cause of failure is almost unmentionable: shrunken student motivation,” wrote Samuelson. “Students, after all, have to do the work. If they aren’t motivated, even capable teachers may fail. Motivation comes from many sources: curiosity and ambition; parental expectations; the desire to get into a ‘good’ college; inspiring or intimidating teachers; peer pressure. The unstated assumption of much school ‘reform’ is that if students aren’t motivated, it’s mainly the fault of schools and teachers.” Wrong, he said. “Motivation is weak because more students (of all races and economic classes, let it be added) don’t like school, don’t work hard and don’t do well. In a 2008 survey of public high school teachers, 21 percent judged student absenteeism a serious problem; 29 percent cited ‘student apathy.’ ”

There is a lot to Samuelson’s point — and it is a microcosm of a larger problem we have not faced honestly as we have dug out of this recession: We had a values breakdown — a national epidemic of get-rich-quickism and something-for-nothingism. Wall Street may have been dealing the dope, but our lawmakers encouraged it. And far too many of us were happy to buy the dot-com and subprime crack for quick prosperity highs.

Ask yourself: What made our Greatest Generation great? First, the problems they faced were huge, merciless and inescapable: the Depression, Nazism and Soviet Communism. Second, the Greatest Generation’s leaders were never afraid to ask Americans to sacrifice. Third, that generation was ready to sacrifice, and pull together, for the good of the country. And fourth, because they were ready to do hard things, they earned global leadership the only way you can, by saying: “Follow me.”

Contrast that with the Baby Boomer Generation. Our big problems are unfolding incrementally — the decline in U.S. education, competitiveness and infrastructure, as well as oil addiction and climate change. Our generation’s leaders never dare utter the word “sacrifice.” All solutions must be painless. Which drug would you like? A stimulus from Democrats or a tax cut from Republicans? A national energy policy? Too hard. For a decade we sent our best minds not to make computer chips in Silicon Valley but to make poker chips on Wall Street, while telling ourselves we could have the American dream — a home — without saving and investing, for nothing down and nothing to pay for two years. Our leadership message to the world (except for our brave soldiers): “After you.”

So much of today’s debate between the two parties, notes David Rothkopf, a Carnegie Endowment visiting scholar, “is about assigning blame rather than assuming responsibility. It’s a contest to see who can give away more at precisely the time they should be asking more of the American people.”

Rothkopf and I agreed that we would get excited about U.S. politics when our national debate is between Democrats and Republicans who start by acknowledging that we can’t cut deficits without both tax increases and spending cuts — and then debate which ones and when — who acknowledge that we can’t compete unless we demand more of our students — and then debate longer school days versus school years — who acknowledge that bad parents who don’t read to their kids and do indulge them with video games are as responsible for poor test scores as bad teachers — and debate what to do about that.

Who will tell the people? China and India have been catching up to America not only via cheap labor and currencies. They are catching us because they now have free markets like we do, education like we do, access to capital and technology like we do, but, most importantly, values like our Greatest Generation had. That is, a willingness to postpone gratification, invest for the future, work harder than the next guy and hold their kids to the highest expectations.

In a flat world where everyone has access to everything, values matter more than ever. Right now the Hindus and Confucians have more Protestant ethics than we do, and as long as that is the case we’ll be No. 11!

Sunset on Long Pond

Belgrade Lakes, Maine

Praying

"Prayer is not just asking for what you think you want, but asking to be changed in ways you can’t imagine."

— Kathleen Norris

This is sad, really sad.....

Nearly 2/3 of the growth in income to the top 10%! Sickening.

Russian nesting dolls

A street vendor's stall in St. Petersburg.

For The Record

In a political season that seems marked by a remarkable willingness to promote ignorance and make up "facts", this seemed to be a refreshing reconnection with reality that would be worth saving.

This year, to honor 9/11… ReadDon’tBurn

… and the memory of the faithful American Muslims who died that day, I think I’ll sit down and start reading the Quran.

Why?

• … because sacred literature is almost always beautiful, and it always bears Truth.
• … because the USA was founded on the idea of a wall separating church and state, giving us the responsibility to respect, protect, and cherish all faiths.
• … because a Christian who wants to save souls can only refute Islamic scripture and doctrine if they’ve actually read it.
• … because America is the great melting pot, and that fondue will be bland if it has only one ingredient; our diversity strengthens us and empowers us, as long as we attend to it with respect and loving-kindness.
• … because Christians are commanded to love all persons, regardless of nation, sex, employment status, or faith; one appropriate act of love is to spend a little time reading the Quran so that you could actually take part in a conversation about it.
• … because hate, fear, and intolerance are not American values, family values, or Christian values.
• … because the Christians — and Americans — who believe all Muslims are evil and that Qurans should be burned are by far the minority, and faithful, loving, generous Christians need to be seen and heard.

That’s right. On Saturday, September 11, 2010, I’m reading the Quran so that I can be a better American and a better Christian.

Won’t you join me?

From The Undercover Nun

Saturday is 9/11

It’s also the end of Ramadan. There will be major assemblies in all the mosques. As a gesture of friendship and mutual respect, what say we all go down to our local mosque, introduce ourselves, and volunteer to stand security watch for them so they can celebrate in peace, without the worry that some Beckhead yahoo is going to torch their car or building during the services? Grab a video camera, just in case.

Priorities??

I’d guess that as much as 75% of the things I worried about in my life never happened. On the other hand, of those events or circumstances that worked to make a real change or difference in my life, probably 3/4 of them I never saw coming. So I suppose one might conclude that I did about the right amount of worrying……but about the wrong things? Or not.

No way......ever!!

For a guy who at times can have a real phobic reaction to heights, this picture is both beautiful and scary. I have no doubt that were I somehow (having been drugged and spirited there unawares) in the position of the fellow in the picture, my phobia would render me a screaming puddle of Charlie in seconds. Wow........just plain "Wow!"

"Never stifle a generous impulse"

— William Redington Hewlett

The Life of A Day

Like people or dogs, each day is unique and has its own personality quirks which can easily be seen if you look closely. But there are so few days as compared to people, not to mention dogs, that it would be surprising if a day were not a hundred times more interesting than most people. But usually they just pass, mostly unnoticed, unless they are wildly nice, like autumn ones full of red maple trees and hazy sunlight, or if they are grimly awful ones in a winter blizzard that kills the lost traveler and bunches of cattle. For some reason we like to see days pass, even though most of us claim we don’t want to reach our last one for a long time. We examine each day before us with barely a glance and say, no, this isn’t one I’ve been looking for, and wait in a bored sort of way for the next, when we are convinced, our lives will start for real. Meanwhile, this day is going by perfectly well-adjusted, as some days are, with the right amounts of sunlight and shade, and a light breeze scented with a perfume made from the mixture of fallen apples, corn stubble, dry oak leaves, and the faint odor of last night’s meandering skunk.

- Tom Hennen

Living In The Now

The other day I came across a quote that really made me stop and think. It was attributed to “Anonymous”, which may be better than having a famous name attached to it. Here’s how it went: ” Hell is the knowledge of opportunity lost; the place where the man I am comes face to face with the man I might have been.”

Undoubtedly it’s odd to mix the idea of hell with Zen concepts, but the more I thought about this idea the more it spoke to me of the need to truly be present to my thoughts, actions, and choices in this moment.

No More Taking Sides

In recent days we've heard the news of a cab driver in New York stabbed because he is a Muslim http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/nyregion/31cabby.html and another incident in Seattle where an employee wearing a turban in a 7-Eleven store was beaten and told: "“You’re not even American, you’re Al-Qaeda. Go back to your country.” http://peterdaou.com/2010/09/man-beats-man-in-turban-youre-not-even-american-youre-al-qaeda-go-back-to-your-country/

And today the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority will sit down at the State Department with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to begin a process of trying once again to find a road to peace and to end a conflict that has afflicted that region for more than 60 years.

Will the new peace process work? We can't know yet, of course, but it seems to me that all people of good will have to hope and pray that it does. And what about our country, are these recent incidents of anti-Muslim feelings, even Islamophobia perhaps, isolated events, or are they signs of what is to come, of where our nation is going? Those questions must remain unanswered right now too, left to be answered by future historians in light of what tomorrow’s news reports may bring.

All this was on my mind this morning as I dutifully spent my hour on an elliptical trainer at the gym. I used to listen to music on my iPod while exercising, but over the past couple of months I've been enjoying some very intellectually stimulating and educational podcasts from "Speaking of Faith", a program produced by National Public Media and wonderfully hosted by Krista Tippett. I could go on and on about how much I've come to love this program, the people to whom the recorded shows have introduced me, and the website that expands upon and broadens the potential scope of the learning the show offers in ways that are truly amazing. But I'll resist that temptation, at least for this post, and speak only about the show I listened to today. "No More Taking Sides". http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2010/no-more/

If you follow the link to the page for that particular show, you'll see that the introductory blurb describes it this way: "Robi Damelin lost her son David to a Palestinian sniper. Ali Abu Awwad lost his older brother Yousef to an Israeli soldier. But, instead of clinging to traditional ideologies and turning their pain into more violence, they've decided to understand the other side — Israeli and Palestinian — by sharing their pain and their humanity. They tell of a gathering network of survivors who share their grief, their stories of loved ones, and their ideas for lasting peace. They don't want to be right; they want to be honest." The story they have to tell is, at the same time, heart-breaking, inspiring and a source of hope. They talk about moving beyond being pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian to looking for a way to use the pain they each feel over the loss of a loved one in a way to try to help heal and, ultimately, resolve what seems to be the unresolvable conflict between their two peoples. At one point, Mr. Awwad makes the comment that he sees his pain over the loss of his brother as "holy", and he felt that to strike back in anger over that loss would allow that holy pain to be used in furtherance of continuing a struggle that would inevitably lead to other losses and other futile acts of retribution.

I urge you to listen to this program, to think about the way in which these folks are trying to find a better way, and - if you're so inclined - to say a little prayer for them, for the peace process being started today, and for our country. May we all be guided by wisdom, from whatever source you may believe in.

Mirror Lake

During our recent vacation in Utah, Suz and I hiked around this alpine lake, which was about an hour from Park City where we were staying. All along the way out and back we were marveling to each other as each turn in the road or crest of a hill brought one gorgeous panorama after another into our vision. It was a magnificent day!

Good To Know.......???