Haiku: Iris

one lone iris stands

defiantly in silence

behind the church sign

Haiku: Washington

World torn asunder

Politicians kiss babies

Blossoms fall too soon

Creative GIFs by Aakash Nihalani

Motown Philly Back Again

This is perhaps one of the most ambitious pieces of poetry of our age.  This has the taste of the future.

Motown Philly Back Again by Harmony Holiday   We're all pagans and shamans and clap your hands     now we won't stop the beat We believe in divine healing and we hate to see that      evening sun go down We know when the sight of our women dressed in white    each ritual night, is touching, hypnotizes The animals blush and split for us as revival, as revealed    to themselves These are triumphant women. Even Sister Fame hiding out in the alley turning tricks    and singing verses from the undid scripture, is touching Thank you jesus, thank you jesus, that you jesus, baby,    is that you, she mutters up high between rocks    and lace---his eagerness---it was all night long Sometimes he'd interrupt a recording session to tell us    about his early Motown days or expand on his views of    Heaven and Hell One time he was saying how important it was to love    one's father. Do you love yours? I asked him Why don't you tell him Why don't you tell your father, he said I will if you do You go first

Have I succeeded?

  

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

 

Ralph Waldo Emerson 

 

 

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Warped

Warped

via Tumble Into Peace on 1/25/13

Quasars Shift Red

Hot Stars Burn Blue

Space-Time Is Warped

And So Are You

                                 - seen on bulletin board at MIT SIPB room

The Nation Needs Extremists

The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. The Nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

 

Martin Luther King, Jr.  

 

 

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Greater purpose

Greater purpose 

 

Use me, God. Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do, and use it for a purpose greater than myself.

 

Martin Luther King Jr. 

 

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The Teller

The Teller

by David Mason

He told me, maybe thirty years ago,
he'd met a rawboned Eskimo named Jack
while filming polar bears on an ice floe.
Jack went out fishing in his sealskin kayak
but the current carried him so far off course
that when a Russian freighter rescued him
they signed him as a mate to Singapore.
Five years at sea it took to get back home.

The year an Englishman gave him his name.
The year of hustling on a Bali beach.
The year of opium in Viet Nam.
The year he pined for snow. The year he searched
for any vessel that would turn toward Nome.
The man who told me? I tell you, I don't know.

Active Hope

Passive hope is about waiting for external agencies to bring about what we desire. Active Hope is about becoming active participants in bringing about what we hope for. Active Hope is a practice. Like tai chi or gardening, it is something we do rather than have. It is a process we can apply to any situation, and it involves three key steps. First, we take a clear view of reality; second, we identify what we hope for in terms of the direction we'd like things to move in or the values we'd like to see expressed; and third, we take steps to move ourselves or our situation in that direction. Since Active Hope doesn't require our optimism, we can apply it even in areas where we feel hopeless. The guiding impetus is intention; we choose what we aim to bring about, act for, or express.

 

Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone

Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We're in without Going Crazy 

 

 

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Wot's de idear?

RT Harrrumph!

Surface RT runs a pared-down version of Windows 8 known as Windows RT. The OS, which runs on ARM-based chips from Nvidia and others, is not compatible with standard Windows applications. It supports only software pre-installed by Microsoft or apps downloaded from the company's online Windows Store.

Failing and Flying

by Jack Gilbert
Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew. It's the same when love comes to an end, or the marriage fails and people say they knew it was a mistake, that everybody said it would never work. That she was  old enough to know better. But anything worth doing is worth doing badly. Like being there by that summer ocean on the other side of the island while love was fading out of her, the stars  burning so extravagantly those nights that anyone could tell you they would never last. Every morning she was asleep in my bed like a visitation, the gentleness in her like antelope standing in the dawn mist. Each afternoon I watched her coming back through the hot stony field after swimming, the sea light behind her and the huge sky on the other side of that. Listened to her while we ate lunch. How can they say  the marriage failed? Like the people who came back from Provence (when it was Provence) and said it was pretty but the food was greasy. I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell, but just coming to the end of his triumph.

Language and humanity

No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached.

 

Amy Tan

 

Keep your language. Love its sounds, its modulation, its rhythm. But try to march together with men of different languages, remote from your own, who wish like you for a more just and human world.

 

Hélder Câmara

 

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Donation requests without PayPay = FAIL!

There are a great many worthy causes that I would gladly support if only they would except PayPal.  Here is a great example: Toby Keith's initiative to fund critical USO functions...

Donate now. Help the USO fund critical programs including career transition workshops for our wounded troops.

Please allow us to use the currency of this new technological age.  I would be willing to bet that the first 10 PayPal contributions would cover the cost of implementation.  I betcha I can find a wagering site that would give me odds and take my PayPal payment.

Half cooked?

A one-pound female lobster that was caught by a Massachusetts fisherman last week arrives at the New England Aquarium in Boston. Officials say such rare coloration is estimated to occur once in every 50 million lobsters.

Picture: New England Aquarium, Emily Bauernseind/AP (via Pictures of the day: 1 November 2012 - Telegraph)

Incredible Illusion

What Is an Epigram?

What Is an Epigram? by Samuel Taylor Coleridge   What is an Epigram? A dwarfish whole,  Its body brevity, and wit its soul.

Degrees of love

Degrees of love

 

St. Bernard (1090-1153) said that there are four ascending degrees of love:

1) Love of self for self's sake.

2) Love of God for self's sake.

3) Love of God for God's own sake. 

4) Love of self for God's sake.

Be a yardstick of quality.

“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.”   Steve Jobs

Your level of expertise on the job may have a lot to do with how you feel about going to work.  Imagine if you were recognized as the best at that particular job.  Imagine if people came to you for answers.  You’ll enjoy work more!