350.org is the first large-scale grassroots global campaign against climate change. Its supporters include leading scientists, the governments of 92 countries, and a huge variety of environmental, health, development and religious NGOs. All agree that current atmospheric levels of CO2 -- 390 parts per million -- are causing damage to the planet and to its most vulnerable people, and that government action at the United Nations Copenhagen climate conference is required to bring the earth's carbon level swiftly down to 350 ppm.
What is 350? 350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Scientists measure carbon dioxide in "parts per million" (ppm), so 350 ppm is the number humanity needs to get below as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change. To get there, we need a different kind of PPM -- a "people powered movement" that is made of of people like you in every corner of the planet.
My Godson is officially adopted into the family, as of Easter Monday!
Neighbor Ed just got tenure!
My friend Charlotte just got back from Istanbul and posted some of her amazing photos on Facebook. I'm really hoping she might be a guest blogger here and talk about her travels and the religious art she saw there. One of her stops was the Hagia Sophia (picture on left).
I'm trying to plan an academic path to a Master's degree for myself. I have a meeting with an advisor this afternoon!
And finally, this isn't in the news of the me, rather the news of the "we" but - I am so proud of our President and First Lady. Out planting trees:
Check out this Peek-A-Boo Jesus via "Religious Imagery" blog. Love it! "Religious Imagery" does a great job finding graffiti-like religious art. I still haven't figured out if the blog author is the artist, but either way, it's fun, "found" art. Keep it up!
Italians walking their children to school, via NYT. I think we could make this into a movement here too. While we were walking to school the other day, we witnessed, through a bus window, an unfortunate child getting beaten about the head by another child. The other kids on the bus were laughing about it. La Prima and I discussed how it would feel to be the beaten child, and I described my own dire bus experiences. She still thinks riding the bus is cool, but now, maybe that feeling is tempered...? * More beautiful poster art from Bryant Terry and Favianna Rodriguez.
Hi All. I went to see Taking Root last night. It's an Independent Lens production for PBS about Wangari Maathai of Kenya. She started the tree-planting Greenbelt Movement in Kenya to help the environment, and ended up defending democracy and human rights. It's an amazing and inspiring story that she wrote about in her book, Unbowed: A Memoir. But the film adds a whole new dimension because you can see what she was talking about. It's very moving, and I recommend it highly.
You can also check out the Action Guide which was put out by the film-makers. The movie totally has the activist in me clamoring to get my hands dirty. PHS was a co-sponsor, along w/Penn's African Studies department. The PHS Tree-Tenders program was featured and reminded me, once again, how awesome it is to live in such a green city.
The movie will air in Philadelphia on WHYY on Friday, April 24th at 10 p.m. Check it out!
* "Death Saint"s are destroyed in Mexico, seen in the Philadelphia Inquirer. I had heard of "Narco Santo" and have written about the phenom here and here. But this is new to me. I always love it when religious art makes headlines in the mainstream news.
* Found on Idle Speculations, a relic of St Benedict was found inside another artifact in the (presumably vast) storage areas of the British Museum. It's beautiful, right? I am amazed by the simplicity of the imagery used to represent the four Gospels, mixed in with the intricate carvings. Intense. [For those of you following my Lenten spiritual exercise, I have read Matthew and Mark, and am about 1/2 way through Luke. I'm leaving the toughest for last.]
CULTURE:
* I found this "What Would You Do" clip on Joe.My.God. It is truly fascinating to watch how people's attitudes about big issues shift and get expressed in daily interactions.
* Here is a really good discussion of image rights as used in print and blog media from bldgblog. Clearly, the print mags bear the burden of cost in what author is talking about. I can see that there are serious monetary and ethical implications to cutting and pasting. But the free flow of ideas model is so alluring... it ALMOST overrides other concerns. Food for thought. * Johnny Cash's "Personal Jesus", from YouTube
* My friend Jennifer just recommended Diana's Blog to me (Diana is a writer for "The Faithful Traveler"). How have I not found this before?? Great stuff!
Stewart finds that outrageous. So do I. Reporters have a special role in our society. They are supposed to look at all stories with a skeptical eye. We count on reporters to make sure the mischief makers are caught and exposed. We do not expect the reporters to be turning a blind eye to the mischief.
Stewart's focus on CNBC captured what many people are feeling. From Mother Talkers,
I was listening to Marketplace on NPR during the drive home on Friday. I should really stop doing this, in this climate, because I get really worried. I heard this depressing statistic: if you graduated in the 1990s and started saving for retirement, you are basically back to square one. You have no more money for retirement than if you'd saved it under your mattress. I am furious. I did everything I was supposed to do: saved from the first day I started my first job, made it a priority. And because some fat cats on Wall Street got too damn greedy, I've lost it all. 11 years of investments, gone. Now what? I'm not sure I can trust 401(k)s for retirement anymore, y'know? Luckily, I'm at least 30 years away from retirement. But I'm still really pissed!
Oy on the financial news from BlogHer. From the same article: From Cenk Uygur of The HuffingtonPost
I have a close friend who works at a business news station -- and here is the worst kept secret in show business -- it's all about the access. If you piss off the CEOs or the companies, you're going to get a call from your boss. You have jeopardized our relationship with them! That is very thinly disguised code words for -- don't ever say anything negative about a company we cover otherwise your job is in the trouble. The message is clear -- go along to get along. This isn't journalism. It's public relations by another name.
And now my friend is wondering, what does it say about him that he didn’t want to like those glasses because he was afraid that everyone else would like them, too? “Now and then,” he writes, “I get the awful feeling that people think I grew a beard to be trendy and I want to say, ‘I had this beard before it was cool.’… What sort of person feels that way and why?”
Here’s what I think. I think that the dynamic that accounts for his anxiety and my aneurysms is a particularly Generation X phenomenon. When we were growing up, we were fond of things that were weird and unlovable, largely because we, ourselves, felt weird and unlovable. Now that those things have been appropriated and repackaged for mass consumption, we instinctively want to reject them, even though we still love them—just like we mostly kind of hate ourselves, even though we inspire ourselves with something like the affectionate pity one might feel for a broken crayon, or, say, a tattered copy of Pac-Mania! The Official Pac-Man Joke Book.
* "None" gaining ground - In a USA Today article, found on Hasta Los Gatos Quieren Zapatos, more and more people are listing "none"as their religious affiliation. I was v. interested to read the following quote on reenee's post:
"Meanwhile, nearly 2.8 million people now identify with dozens of new religious movements, calling themselves Wiccan, pagan or "Spiritualist," which the survey does not define. Wicca, a contemporary form of paganism that includes goddess worship and reverence for nature, has even made its way to Arlington National Cemetery, where the Pentagon now allows Wiccans' five-pointed-star symbol to be used on veterans' gravestones." Having just been to Arlington for my grandmother's funeral, this tidbit struck me. Just like how there are now Wiccan Chaplains in the Army.
* A GREAT post on belief, Jesus, the Apostle's Creed and basically sums up my feelings about God, at BlogHer. Just hit the nail on my head!
* Interesting story on Beliefnet about the change from Junia to Junias in the Bible text in 1927. Apparently, Junia was considered a female apostle, until a footnote wiped her out. I read a lot about this issue, and found this link on Christian Feminism thanks!
"Roman Catholic bishops in Italy are calling for Catholics to abandon technologies like text messaging, Facebook and Twitter for Lent. Also recommended: BuzzFeed. So we'll see you in about 30 days have a great month everybody! Just kidding. But seriously, I was just about to poke God. "
* PLUS! Church Sign Hackers - awesome. From BuzzFeed.
MENTAL HEALTH for DAUGHTERS:
I found this great list of questions that Reviving Ophelia author, Mary Pipher, PhD, recommends for adolescent girls, to help them stay grounded and healthy. It's a pretty good list for anyone, so I thought I'd share:
How do I feel right now? What do I think? What are my values? Who would I describe myself to myself? How do I see myself in the future? What kind of work do I kike? What kind of leisure do I like? When do I feel most myself? How have I changed since I entered puberty? What kinds of people do I respect? How am I similar to and different from my mother? How am I similar to and different from my father? What goals do I have for myself as a person? What are my strengths and weaknesses? What would I be proud of on my deathbed?
"So what’s going on here, and where do these antibiotic-resistant infections come from? Probably from the routine use — make that the insane overuse — of antibiotics in livestock feed. This is a system that may help breed virulent “superbugs” that pose a public health threat to us all."
* From my friend Jim's blog "Legend of St Ursula, St Michael Fighting the Dragons" This is a new blog, and this first (post-virgin) post is about illness, Lent and cooking! The Cornbread recipe is an added bonus - along with some fab religious art. Excellent work!
POLITICS:
* In my view, this is HUGE, and SUCH a relief. Way to go Barry! from Huff Po: "When signing legislation, Bush often would use such statements to direct officials to ignore parts of the law he thought were incorrect or restricted the administration's constitutional powers."
Lots of religious art to be found out on the intertoobs this week, perhaps in honor of the start of Lent. Read on:
RELIGIOUS ART:
* A Serbian icon was recovered in Italy, via BBC. Looks like Jesus' baptism in the Jordan with my favorite, John the Baptist. Look at the motion happening in the icon. My cousin Anthony always refers to John the Baptist as the "Forerunner", and says that images of him are often full of energy, highlighting the awesome.
* Bob writes about the concept of the garden in his review of Nils Büttner’s The History of Gardens in Painting. There are beautiful images in this book, apparently. This quotation struck me, in particular, since it describes exactly the kind of floral symbolism in (religious) art that I've been fascinated by for years:
"Büttner easily transitions from this Roman contemplative use of the painted garden to the religious contemplative use of the early Christians, who linked Christ with the lost paradise of Eden. Without getting bogged down in detail, Büttner explains how flower symbolism developed around figures such as Christ and the Virgin Mary into a full-grown visual garden of salvation for believers. Büttner shows how even the garden of courtly love, a parallel development to the Christian painted garden, bought into the idea of garden as the means of salvation. “Nothing that conflicts with the ethic of courtly love is admitted into the garden,” Büttner writes, “wickedness, hate, greed, envy, and miserliness are banished from it as surely as are old age and poverty.” Sacred and profane love follow the same program of green power." Thanks, as ever, Bob!
DREAMS: * I share something in common with Tai - I, too, have always wanted to live on a house boat.
* I just learned about a competition put on by British Airways called "Great Britons." "Where in the world would you go to take your passion to the next level?" As I've mentioned before, here and here, I would love to be funded to travel around countries that I think have the most moving religious art, and see it in situ. I'd love to take pictures, and talk about the art, and maybe even make a book about it. Maybe I shoud apply! I could see more art like this one from Mexico Cooks.
A good reminder from Gawker, that, back in the day, we used to dim the lights at night to save energy!
Another good idea would be to say a prayer for Lisa of Clusterfook, who is dying of Ovarian Cancer. Let's hope her passing is peaceful. I heard about her from BlogHer.
I interrupt my normally scheduled broadcast to tell you about the wonders of Baggu! Given that there is a glob of plastic material, blown in from landfills, the size of TEXAS (and we know that's big!) out in the Pacific Ocean somewhere, I have decided to forgo plastic bags at every place I shop. This has been my attempt at a New Year's Resolution.
So far, I have not accepted many, many bags. And I can do so because that is so easy with Baggu. And so well-designed - I can keep this easy-to-fold bag in my purse and whip it out whenever I need to carry some impromptu purchase home from the market. It's AWESOME! And I recommend it highly to everyone.
But ultimately, people are going to judge me not by my words but by my actions and my administration's actions. And I think that what you will see over the next several years is that I'm not going to agree with everything that some Muslim leader may say, or what's on a television station in the Arab world -- but I think that what you'll see is somebody who is listening, who is respectful, and who is trying to promote the interests not just of the United States, but also ordinary people who right now are suffering from poverty and a lack of opportunity. I want to make sure that I'm speaking to them, as well. This snippet found Justin Webb's BBC Blog but full text on Politco
Obama is awesome for the greens (as in, those who support green initiatives, not "the Greens" who supported the Terrible Nader). I felt so let down after Clinton. He just signed a bunch of executive orders at the end of his presidency, and really didn't give a rat's @$$ about the environment - even with Al Goregeous on board. A travesty. Well, hopefully this isn't too little, too late. From TreeHugger.
Even though we had a snow day this week, Spring will be here soon, and so will soccer season. I don't know when La Segunda will start, but probably next fall, so I will heed this sports advice from BlogHer.
"The Case Against Candy Land" from Boing Boing. OMG - he's RIGHT! no wonder I am bored to tears playing Candy Land. Maybe it's NOT that I'm a bad mom, bored playing "classic board games" with my daughter. No, it's THE GAME we're playing.
In the interview accompanying these shots of Marky Mark, he uses the word "dope" over and over again. "I think of myself as a very flavorsome rapper. I'm versatile and that's what I think makes my style so dope," he says. "I did a dope rap on voting for MTV. I just started getting hip on voting." Winter 1992.
And finally, Lakshmi turned me on to this blog last week "Career Hope and Advice for Everyone Starting Over", and I love it. This is the kind of stuff I talk about with Ladybird a lot. And Angie and I just had a marathon convo about these same ideas - so maybe we're all on the same wavelength or something. I have recently found some contentment at work, but it's been a struggle. [Perhaps someday I will share the saga of my volunteer post I had to quit this fall out of frustration. People can be tough.]
I don't know who said it, but you've probably also heard the truism that "we see things not as they are but as we are." (Somebody please write in and tell me who said it!) And that is consistent with what Deutschman was saying about "frames." We see and believe things according to elements we already believe to be legitimate truths in life.
So. If you think all workplaces are Dickensian workhouses, that's probably all you're going to find, because you don't have the faith, vision, or expectation of finding anything better for yourself. And if you are surrounded by friends who firmly believe the same, you're at a huge disadvantage even if you do aspire for better for yourself. You're going to be constantly surrounded by debilitating messages that your dreams for something better are pointless. So, from their perspective, you might as well take what you get and suck it up. That's reality, sweetie. Deal with it. Really? I beg to differ.
It's not just friends telling you discouraging things about the world. It could be family members telling you discouraging things about yourself. This is especially common in families with neglectful, abusive, substance-abusing parents. Children of these households very commonly take on unconsciously assigned roles like the Scapegoat, the Troublemaker, the Over-Achiever, the Good One. If that's the case with you, and you're trying to thrive in a world of your own making, hoping for a better life in a healthier world, you could be upsetting the rest of the family. You're breaking the rules, getting a little "full of yourself," or "too big for your britches." And someone is going to want to remind you – often forcefully – that it's futile to aspire for anything better. And heaven help you if you actually reach for a way to love yourself.
Once every few years, a panel of Hindu and Buddhist judges in Nepal chooses a new "living goddess," a young girl who serves, until she reaches puberty, as an incarnation of the deity Taleju. One of the tests each candidate must pass in order to be eligible for the role is this: She must show no fear as she spends a night alone in a room filled with the bloody heads of ritually killed buffaloes and goats. I'd like you to consider the possibility of carrying out a more humane equivalent of that ceremony, Pisces. For one night, keep symbols of what you're afraid of in the place where you sleep. To do so would be an excellent way to earn the right to graduate to the next level of your spiritual evolution.
But more in keeping with my impression of this Administration's Environmental record, is the disgusting Coal Ash Disaster. TreeHugger has more info. I gotta say this spill is just creepy. What is even creepier is that I don't hear any outrage..... Yuck.
First off, Angie is engaged! Congratulations Angie & Neil. I get to do some of the wedding planning. I'm stoked.
If you want to take a peek at her engagement ring, you can find it under her pseudonym at her jeweler's website: Lorinczi. Look at "Collections," under "Bridal," Angie's is the last dot in the bunch. Absolutely BEAUTIFUL work, Stacey. You Rock! [get it?]
Also, today is my grandmother, Helen's birthday, she would have been 99 years old today. I am thinking of her favorite yellow cake with mocha icing that my mom used to make for her. I miss Grandma.
I didn't get a job I'd applied for with a great organization, which is a bummer. But, onward and upward, as I always say.
I don't think I should let la Prima see this death map from Buzz Feed. She's having trouble falling asleep at night because she's worried about natural disasters.
Happy Holy Daze, Pisces! My gift to you is advice about the coming year. First, read this quote from W.H. Auden's book The Dyer's Hand. "A daydream is a meal at which images are eaten. Some of us are gourmets, some gourmands, and a good many take their images precooked out of a can and swallow them down whole, absent-mindedly and with little relish." With this as your touchstone, I urge you to be a gourmet in your approach to daydreaming during 2009. It will be time for you to make your fantasy life into an art form instead of a chaotic, unconscious diversion. If you put more intention into your generation of mental images, you will find yourself better able to create what you really want.
Photo of San Lazaro celebrants in Cuba, from the BBC.
Here is a fascinating discussion of Richard Ciznik (I'd never heard of him before) who is an Evangelical preacher who might be a great addition to the Obama administration, according to Framing Science, where I found the piece. Very, very interesting comments about the future generation of Evangelical voters, and what it means for us on the left who are also Christian. According to Mike Clawson at Emerging Pensees, Ciznik may be picked up by another org sooner rather than later anyways. Wild. I never knew of the intrigue! Oh the Drahms!
The rock pools of Oz are detailed in a lengthy, in-depth discussion of the rock pools of Australia, as opposed to, say, Madeira on Pruned.
I had a facial last night so I could talk with La Prima about her problems with some of her friends. "They're telling secrets." I forgot it starts this early!
Aerophant's "a river remembered" post reminds me of my time playing in the stream with Ladybird. It was in her grandfather's pasture. We had the greatest adventures! and another little gem from Aerophant.
My friend Karen sent me this image of Pharaoh's daughter finding Moses, it's from the Fleischer Art Memorial, here in Philadelphia. It's done in the style of a Madonna, but is of an Old Testament subject.
A Pruned article about re-purposing canals. Is there something other than green-ways that we can do with these things? I think of the canal in my hometown. What memories!
This weekend will be our family's holiday baking weekend. Unfortunately my flu bug has prevented Lakshmi, Sam and Awesome Godson from coming over. He's still brand-new, and though I approve of sharing, I do not approve of giving the gift of flu to an infant. SO. We will be cooking with just the Grand Forêts present. Our cookie list this year is as follows:
So, in the spirit of thanksgiving, I will say, thank you for reading, and visiting my blog. And thank you, God, for all the blessings of this life. I'll share my favorite (easy to remember!) table grace with you all:
God is Great God is Good Let us Thank God for our food, Amen.
Joe.My.God linked to this NYT story, and commented that as a kid he wished he could have gone on the QE2. As a kid, I DID go on the it, and maybe it was because I was 6, and too young to appreciate it, but, the experience was lost on me. There really wasn't anything for kids to do. The funnest part for me and my sister was to press the steward/stewardess buzzers when my parents went out to dinner at night. By the time they got back, all the stews were hanging out in our room. Angie was freaked out by the porthole.
In medieval Europe, more resources and human ingenuity were lavished upon cathedrals and churches than on any other buildings. In the last hundred years, the emphasis has been different, having switched to the towering structures that house institutions dedicated to commerce. By that measure, Money is a far more important God than God. During the next few weeks, Pisces, I invite you to buck the modern trend. As an experiment, see if you can devote at least one more percent of your energy and intelligence to matters of the spirit and soul than to the demands of the material realm. I suspect you'll find, ironically, that this will lead to an increase of your mastery over the material realm.
The ideas and opinions expressed in this weblog are mine alone, and do not represent the views of my employer or of any other organization with which I may be associated.
"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to save the world and a desire to savor the world. That makes it hard to plan the day."
Margaret Fuller quotation
What a woman needs is not as a woman to act or rule, but as a nature to grow, as an intellect to discern, as a soul to live freely and unimpeded to unfold such powers as are given to her.
"A daydream is a meal at which images are eaten. Some of us are gourmets, some gourmands, and a good many take their images precooked out of a can and swallow them down whole, absent-mindedly and with little relish."
from - The Dyer's Hand.
Wassily Kandinsky Quotation
"The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul."
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