SCOREBOARD BABY! I am so glad that lying did not become the new campaign strategy.

Focal Length

I am a fan of the Chris Hayes "Up" show on MSNBC. I've realized that what I like is that I have actually seen panelists change their minds on the show and one of the reasons, I think, is that the show constantly changes focal length on issues. The panelists offer input that does not allow the participants to set one focal length (immediate myopic issues vs. more gestalt perspectives) that tends to generate naive notions. I've even altered my own stance on issues. I guess I'm a wuss.

Poll on Polls

Discovering Home

Home is the sensation of relief.

I have had a truly incredible summer of travel and escapades.  Starting with a road trip with the Razor Babes to San Francisco, then a solo return trip to the bay area for a visit and a wedding, then off to Chicago for the Jump Rhythm Jazz Project week long work shop, followed shortly by a fantastic honeymoon in the Northern Pacific (Oregon and Washington specifically) and finally a flight across "the pond" to Germany and Switzerland for more touring and yet another wedding.

It was great.
...
I am spent!

But, this is a good thing, a great thing, because now I want to be NOWHERE else be right here in the Kubocha Cottage (our affectionate name of our little house-- details later). 

Traveling is an excellent opportunity to discover the preciousness of your daily, average life. Travel is exciting and of course I appreciate all of the different views I have seen this summer: over cities, oceans, the alps!  But, travel for me often feels like I have been frozen in time.  It serves for me as an incubation period during which I am suspended from completing my everyday tasks and thus making "progress".  Travel forces me to step back and just observe.  And, as many of you know, observing the self is often uncomfortable.  It is energetically taxing and at times frustrating, irritating, and depressing to take the time to shed light on the dark and forgotten corners of the soul, sweep them out and suffer the dust cloud that follows. But, there is no better place to do exactly that than on an 11 hour flight home from Frankfurt.  

All of the waiting time, in lines, for take off, for check in, for check out, at train stations, in a car...  All of that time is incubating time.  It feels like I truly hibernated this summer, not because I closed myself in doors, but because I divorced myself from my sense of identity in the things I do at home, namely, teaching dance, choreographing, going to yoga, going to the gym, eating at certain restaurants, taking walks...  the details are not what's important. The challenge is that we become what we do, and we start to deeply identify ourselves by our habits and our practices.  Of course in the Buddhist sense we are none of this.  We are indefinite and these aspects of life are just details.

But, through our life we can gain insight and peace if we choose. Travel is just thing thing to shake up the routine, to help you question who you are and discover you are not your daily run around schedule.  I have been reminded that I choose the routines in my life and they can be deeply satisfying and rewarding.  But, being home is not about being on autopilot.  Being home is the place where the real work needs to happen. 

I am glad to be home. 

Arm the Occupy Movement

I remember in the 60s how frightened folks were when they saw armed blacks walking the streets to police the police. I think it would be provocative to have all the occupy folk buy guns and wear them visibly when they next occupy Wall Street. Guns scare me. I would like to scare those who think guns are the solution to violence but don't think I could follow my own advice here. Guns in public spaces are just plain scary. It would seem that such scare tactics from the occupy movement might start the conversation the NRA doesn't want us to have.

Soldier Dogs

I just read Soldier Dogs and wish our American educators would approach student learning the same way. They clearly admit that dogs are diverse. They don't even try to train dogs not disposed to their needs. How would that map into student diversity in our schools? Also even dogs apparently predisposed to training do not always succeed. So... we need students ready to learn with natural instincts appropriate to the skills to be learned. Obviously the trainers of these dogs are more willing to admit the dog diversity than we are in the world of education. Can we admit that there might be students that will not be able to learn the things we want? The outcomes are obviously quite different. Students who don't cut the mustard will probably be a bane to anyone who mistakenly hires them. Dogs that are untrainable, if allowed to progress into the battle field, kill people.

OK, where did you hear this?

I hear so many blatant statements that are far from truth when researched, I'm not talking heavy research -- I mean a couple of web searches.

The problem is knowing what is true and reliable on the web. Believe it or not, there are standards to judge a site as reliable and worth having trust. Following is a link "Standard Practices for Evaluating Websites"

http://www.coastonline.org/mml/lecture/lecture.php?lecID=EvalWeb

Yes, there are tools to believe the information you have been given.

There is so much mis-information that people want to believe and it floats through all the social media with little resistance.

We need to ask "Where did you get this? Who told you this? etc."

The biggest problem is that the information (true or not) is exaggerated to make it more persuasive. Say it louder and the masses will believe it.

And with this questionable information dogma is once again re-enforced.

Sad. Who are the truth sayers? The relationship of the poor and Jesus have been forgotten in the current discussion.

Don Megill

Unionize the Robots

You may remember a previous post that suggests we export unions as well as jobs to help the working conditions in other countries to which we send our jobs. But I now think that is not enough. We now need to unionize the robots that replace workers in our own manufacturing plants. How can we be sure the line between intelligent life forms does not include robots? Just think of trying to cross a union picket line of robots.

American Taliban

This most recent move by Komen to defund Planned Parenthood is disturbing. How is it different from the Taliban who show no respect for women. To me this is just a symbolic burka for American women. Those old white men in congress who think they know best are no better than those Afghan butchers killing women in a stadium for entertainment. I'm getting rid of all my pink tennis balls!

Confused

I found myself in a Unitarian Universalist service this morning as a result of my new granddaughter's dedication. The minister's offering was on the value of a religious left. It was actually wonderful to hear someone in public pronounce unapologetically liberal ideas. It became obvious over time that these Unitarians must be ever vigilant to not allow any creed to slip into their covenant. It is the only way to keep a diverse universalist body glued together without creating exclusionary rules to define the borders between them and the rest of the world. It seems to be something that requires constant vigilance.

Vaguely related to this is the religious right that seems to abound in exclusionary rules for membership. On thing I can't resolve is the need for those waiting for the rapture to have the Jews return to Israel as a condition for the rapture. What motivated that? Is it because the Jews are the chosen people only to not be chosen at the rapture itself? Did the biblical writer not see how the later Christians would place the Jews outside their rapture even though they share a major part of their holy scriptures? Why would god require the Jews to be back home only to reject them during the rapture? Very confusing?

Dave