Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing.
1 Peter 3:8-9

...but the car kept coming up,
      the car in motion
music filling it, and sometimes one other person

who understood the bright altar of the dashboard

1. Had a good, productive day at the (home) office. Killer cramps meant I didn't feel like a human being until around 10am, but thanks to the miracle of technology (if we don't understand how it works, does that mean it's magic?) I still started working before 8am. Of course, now I feel like I need to get just one more thing done before I can go, er, home.


2. I've lined up an editor for my new first chapbook. This is good because it'll never get published unless I have deadlines. I can has deadlines?


3. From our email exchange about the book:
   

   
   ME: I'd like to get it out before December and the holidays -- it might make a nice gift to some folks, unless it's super-tacky to send off your own poetry as a gift.
   
   HIM: I don't think it's at all tacky - either that, or I'm the tackiest mofo around.
   

   
   
   


4. I'm leading the annual open circle of the Women's Sacred Circle at First Parish Cambridge (UU). This is, I believe, my second or third year on the leadership council for the group. Our official church liason/fearless leader has been in the job for about three years. No one wants to take it over from her (especially me) because it involves sitting through interminable Program Council meetings where they debate things like where the table for the group raising money for the thing should go next Sunday. She's very happy, however, that I've taken over most of the planning of the actual open circle. We only open to new members once a year. Usually we get a pretty sizable number of newcomers in October, but not everyone stays. It's always a challenge making sure everyone feels welcome. By the end of the year, we all know each other really well. But it's only this year that I really feel like I'm deeply rooted in the group. It's like all kinds of family: sometimes they annoy the crap out of you, but you still love them.



5. Army Guy, mellowtron, and I went to see Neal Stephenson read from his new book Anathem last Saturday. The Harvard Bookstore put it on -- in my church, because my church is just that cool. I was the first one up in line and asked him a question about Snow Crash. In the back the book, he mentions that the book was originally conceived as a graphic novel and I wanted to know whether he'd ever done any other collaborations. In short, no.
   
   The crowd was super-nerd-a-licious, which made the premise of the book (a monastic "mathic" order that studiously avoids exposure to ephemeral technology in pursuit of more eternal truths) that much more apropos. Behind me, kids were talking about Facebook and Netflix. Ten years ago it would have been about iVillage and About.com.
   
   Two great questions: one about some kind of nerd religious movement called "The Singularity." Apparently, some dude is predicting there will be a Rapture of the Nerds, where we all transcend our bodies and upload ourselves into entirely digital spaces. Sounds about as likely as Gabriel blowin' his horn and the dead rising up from their graves. What I want to know is, who's going to maintain the servers? The rest of us, I guess, who'll be stuck behind reading old books and playing with ham radios.
   
   Best question EVAR, though: "If you had to choose just one, would you teach your children to type or to write cursive?" The poor man was stumped. For a minute. Then he chose cursive, "on the theory that handwriting recognition will improve enough to recognize cursive."
   
   My cursive is completely illegible. Of course, so is most of my printed handwriting.
   

Honestly, I no longer know what to make of John McCain anymore. A man who has readily admitted he doesn’t know much about the economy makes a big show of bringing his presidential campaign to a grinding halt to rush to Washington to fix it, which seems a bit like a NASA auto pool mechanic declaring to all and sundry that he’s going to stopped making oil changes to rush to Florida to consult on the Shuttle.
[...]
he also suggests we cancel (or, “delay”) the presidential debate on Friday, and maybe the VP debate next week. You know, just to be sure we’re all focused on the economy, instead of, frivolous things, such as the fact that John McCain apparently hasn’t had a useful thought about the national economy since he married a heiress, and that Sarah Palin can’t be trusted to extemporize [...] without appearing like she’s [shoving her hockey-mom pumps down her throat].

Link to Scalzi's full post

yesthatthom

I want you to hear something a California pastor said to me recently:

"If we lose, we go to jail."

It's just that simple, says Pastor Jim Garlow--if marriage loses in California, religious liberties everywhere will be next. [Funny thing, that: here in Sodom Massachusetts, religious liberties seem to be alive and well for Christians, Muslims, Jews, pagans, and others alike, gays can get married, and marriage as we know it is still intact.]

The fight for marriage in the states is our first priority.

But we can't take our eye off Washington, D.C. politicians. Your support is vital as we stand up to liberals who want to criminalize your religious speech . . . threaten the religious liberties of employers . . . silence conservative and Christian broadcasting . . . raise taxes . . . and impose taxpayer funding of abortion and embryonic stem cell research.

Tony, this is an incredibly offensive letter. Christians have never
been sent to jail in this country for practicing the teachings of
Christ. Untold numbers of homosexuals, though, have been rounded up by
police, beaten, raped, and returned to the street without charges ever
being placed. Recognizing a loving, stable union between two people is
not an affront to marriage. Preaching hatred and intolerance is,
however, an affront to Christ's teachings. Shame on you, and shame on
your organization. Turn off your computer and read your bible.

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have
love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all
knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do
not have love, I am nothing.
And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I
surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me
nothing.

1 CORINTHIANS 13:1–3 (NASB)

tammy212

tammy212

So feminists have achieved their revolution? Women are equal? Our rights have been won in our enlightened country?

Apparently not as far as law enforcement in Texas is concerned.

...

It was bad enough that this "lead" was given to law enforcement a year ago. But today it comes out, according to MSNBC.com, that Schleichler Counter Sheriff David Doran has had an informant in the church compound for four years. He has known that underaged girls were being forced into marriage against state and national law for four years. But this upstanding representative of the public's civil rights has this to say:

"We are aware that this group is capable of (sexually abusing young girls)," Doran said. "But there again, this is the United States. We are going to respect them. We're not going to violate their civil rights until we get an outcry. I've said that from day one."

There, you see? Forced marriage is only important if women and girls living in a compound under the control of men complain to outside authorities. Otherwise they should just be left to the control of their men, who today are weeping as the chapel where the marriage beds are is being searched. I would like to give each of those men a red-hot iron handkerchief for their tears.

This is the United States. We are going to respect the rights of adults to force sexual behavior on underaged girls. We are going to respect the rights of men to hold women and girls captive. Have I got that right?

I am too angry to breathe. The next person who tells me we women have it made will be lucky to walk away without my teeth in his/her throat.

Think about the last time you completely changed your world-view. I mean, completely. Like, one week you are absolutely positive the world is flat and still, and the next you realize that it’s an oblong oblate spheroid circling a flaming ball of gas in space. I’m sure many of you can think of a personal example.

It happened to me, once, and it was a little scary and overwhelming. I can’t even imagine what it might be like to not only change my own world-view, but to know that I was also changing the world-views of the rest of humanity. One week they believe their vast family of man was created by supernatural deity out of the mud, as a unique and special mirror-image of Himself — and the next week, I’m going to convince them of the beautifully stunning interrelatedness of all creatures on the planet. Talk about overwhelming.

Now here we are, 199 years after the birth of a man who did just that. About 150 years after Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species, the theory of evolution has been firmly established as a biological fact accepted by all serious scientists on the planet. Yet, we’re still fighting to convince a small but dedicated sect of fundamentalists who would rather stick their fingers in their ears and yell “la la la la la” while the rest of us learn more about the wonders of the universe. Surveys still show that many people don’t understand or accept evolution, and several viable candidates for US president admitted proudly that they don’t believe in this simple reality.

[...]
Just a reminder that I’ll see all my fellow Bostonian Evil-utionists at the Redline tonight, and all the rest of you had better be working on your Darwinian Valentines

True Freedom Is an Inward State of Being
Morality as taught by way of rules is extremely powerful and valuable
in the development of practice. It must be remembered that it, like
all the techniques in meditation, is merely a tool to enable one to
eventually get to that place of unselfishness where morality and
wisdom flow naturally. In the West, there's a myth that freedom means
free expression--that to follow all desires wherever they take one is
true freedom. In fact, as one serves the mind, one sees that following
desires, attractions, repulsions is not at all freedom, but is a kind
of bondage. A mind filled with desires and grasping inevitably entails
great suffering. Freedom is not to be gained through the ability to
perform certain external actions. True freedom is an inward state of
being. Once it is attained, no situation in the world can bind one or
limit one's freedom. It is in this context that we must understand
moral precepts and moral rules. - Jack Kornfield, Living Dharma from
Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book

http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_536/dailydharma/4135-1.html

Sex and religion prompt newspapers to censor "Opus" comic

In Opus -- Berkeley Breathed's comic strip followup to Bloom County -- the ever-changeable Lola Granola has taken up conservative Islam as her latest fad. In response, chickenshit newspaper editors across America have pulled the strip, scared of offending people with sex and religion. As Dan Gillmor writes at The Center for Citizen Media Blog, "Puritan prudishness and political cowardice: Now there's a combination that's just certain to attract more readers."

dalbino83

1. Good news for la_directora: As evidence of a major shift in Spain's attitude toward animal rights and violence, Spain's state-run TV service has decided to stop showing bullfights at times when children might be watching. I wonder if they allow lesbian kisses? Full story from The World here. Scroll down to "Spanish TV cancels bullfight coverage"


2. The Goddess is alive and magic is afoot. Evidence of older, female-centered rituals exist in the Islamic tradition, too. The description of Zar (or Zaar) music in the last segment of the same show listed above sounds awfully familiar. It's led by women, it builds to a fever pitch or trance, it has healing qualities, it's designed to get the participants in touch with their own spirit, or the spirits, or The Spirit. It's familiar because it's the same thing I've been doing in ritual here in the US for well over ten years. It's also similar to what I know of Sufi ritual.
   
   A Google search on the topic turns up mixed results. These are three I found interesting:
   
   
   • Arabic writings on Zar (PDF) A scholarly bibliography of a number of sources. Useful if you'd like to do some library research.
   
   
   • Chapter Twelve of The Influence of Animism on Islam. The Christian/modern patriarchal bias (they liken the ritual to Black Mass) makes me squicked, but if you can read past it you may actually find accurate details.
   • Homosexuality in "Traditional" Sub-Saharan Africa and Contemporary South Africa I find it interesting that zar appears to be linked to homosexuality. Well, it is female-centered, so men who participate must be gender-suspect. Funny how humans constantly conflate gender identity with sexual orientation.
   
   


3. Okay, so I really dug last night's show of the The World. There was a great story on women in combat in Iraq. The segment includes excellent interviews with a number of female soldiers profiled in Band of Sisters, a book written by journalist Kirsten Holmstedt about women in combat situation. Military law still states that women cannot fight "in combat," but as Holmstedt notes, "in Iraq, the front lines are everywhere--and everywhere in Iraq women in the U.S. military fight."
   



4. Daily Dharma quote about right livelihood:
   

   
   Right Livelihood Today
   Right Livelihood appears to be harder to practice these days than in
   the time of the Buddha. The rule is still the same: Right Livelihood
   is organizing one's financial support so that it is nonabusive,
   nonexploitive, nonharming. However, these days what is abusive and
   exploitive is not necessarily self-evident. When the Buddha taught,
   unwholesome livelihood categories were easy to distinguish.
   Soldiering, keeping slaves, manufacturing weapons and intoxicants--all
   were on the proscribed list. In our time, soldiers sometimes serve as
   peacekeepers. It's hard to know the wholesomeness of all the products
   of any corporation, corporate mergers being what they are. Who knows
   what else is being manufactured by my detergent company's
   subsidiaries? . . . For me, a complete picture of wholesome Right
   Livelihood is even larger than the proscriptions that reflect external
   choices. Wholesome internal choices--healthy attitudes about one's
   work--also contribute to mental happiness and peace of mind.
   Everyone's livelihood is an opportunity for self-esteem.
   -Sylvia Boorstein, It's Easier Than You Think
   from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book
   http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_478/dailydharma/4044-1.html
   

   
   This is a question I struggle with quite a good deal. Anyone who saves for retirement by investing in mutual funds may inadvertently be funding a company that participates in icky things like warmongering or child labor. I've looked into the new lines of "socially responsible" investment funds, but find that their rate of return is less than stellar. And one still needs to wonder about who decides what company is socially responsible. They tend to be heavy on the tech stocks, which leads to extra volatility.
   
   Right livelihood is why I refused a gig at Raytheon, a defense contractor and pretty big employer here in the Boston area. But defense contractors often come up with new technologies that substantially improve one's quality of life--and I'm not just talking Tang. My second-generation-immigrant grandfather spent his life working at Lockheed, which makes both passenger aircraft and war planes.
   
   Boorstein's notion of "wholesome internal choices" is helpful. And one must be centered and well to do good effectively in the world. But it's also easy to become complacent and believe that living well and taking care of oneself is enough. It's not.
   
   



5. I received some feedback recently regarding my communication style, which was described as "abrasive." While opportunities for self-improvement abound, I find myself caught in the same conundrum many women in business face. Early on in my career, a friend of mine suggested I read a book called Hardball for Women, which did an excellent job at helping me adapt to a culture that was originally made for men, by men, and about men--I'm talking about the business world. It helped me to understand the different ways that men and women communicate, and I began to modify my communication style as a result. But here's where the dilemma sets in: they see my tits. So they expect different things from me than they would of someone with no tits (or man-boobs). A man expresses anger or impatience, he's seen as powerful or important. A woman expresses anger or impatience, she's seen as out of control or moody. And God forbid you mention these different expectations in the actual business world! That's playing the gender card!
   
   The tightrope, the challenge, the opportunity for personal growth (or AFGO, as they call it in some circles), is this: to appear competent, powerful, in control, while still personable and approachable. It's fun, kids! Now you try!
   
   

1. Julia Cameron may have hit it big with The Artist's Way, but boy does her memoir Floor Sample suuuuuuck! Her choppy sentences annoy the crap out of me. I wish I could find a DVD copy of her '89 movie God's Will, but apparently they only show it at film festivals because of sound issues.
   
2. I'm preaching at a lay-led service on Sunday, July 29, at 10:30 at First Parish UU in Harvard Square. You should come. We're gonna be all pagan and stuff in the meeting house. My sermon is on the topic of winnowing. 'Cause it's Lughnasadh, the grain harvest.
   
3. I was working on aforementioned sermon, which is why I am awake at 12 midnight. Go to bed, me.
   
4. I just discovered a new anime called Gilgamesh. The artwork is not up to Miyazaki standards and I wasn't terribly impressed with the voice acting at the beginning, but it's the storytelling that really draws you in. They're very good at the slow-reveal, a la Anne Rice. And it's got that same sort of gothic feel. Mostly in black, white, and shades of grey, with a hint of red now and again.
   
5. I love Farmer's Markets. They totally rock. Given the current state of my digestion, I'm off the white stuff (wheat flour, sugar) for the time being. But oh, those fresh, ripe, sun-kissed beefsteak tomatoes and the locally grown lettuce... they're a welcome distraction from a dearth of ice cream. Dammit. Now I'm hungry. No eating. Time for bed.