summer of love

me 1967

free stamp

This was the most interesting thing I saw in Cleveland when we were there visiting Aunt Sarah and Uncle John.

Well, that and the WWII submarine in which I almost puked just from imagining the stench of 50 men enclosed in tons of steel and which made me angry once again about the money and resources we squander on war. All this while my boys were having the time of their lives lining up the guns and peering through the periscope....

The free stamp just reminded me of something I wrote when I first started this blog in january....

already

Ok, so mom was already on youtube...you never know what a search will turn up.

Here she is in a news conference in Washington, D.C., speaking in defense of Oregon's Death with Dignity Act, which legalized physician-assisted suicide. This law, passed not once but twice by the Oregon people, was being challenged in the US Supreme Court at the time by then Attorney General, John Ashcroft. It later became known as "Gonzales vs. Oregon".

Compassion and Choices used every tool at their disposal to assist in the fight. My mother became one of those tools: a patient-plaintiff in the case, a simple woman who spoke simple truths about her own experience.

But it's not a simple issue, death. Like birth, it has swirling about it so many of our fears of the unknown, not to mention the irrational beliefs of so many in power. What is best for an individual human being so often gets lost in rhetoric and religion. In the end, however, my mom, Oregon, and all of us who value the freedom to make our own choices, won. It its summary, the Supreme Court majority did not mince words:
'The Attorney General's unilateral attempt to regulate general medical practices historically entrusted to state lawmakers interferes with the democratic debate about physician assisted suicide and far exceeds the scope of his authority under federal law.'"

She never did use Oregon's law, but I witnessed first hand how its existence helped her - not to die, but rather to live.

my mom's on youtube!

One year ago today, my brother and I went out to Oregon to tie up loose ends with our terminally ill mother. She had been given a two month diagnosis a few weeks before, but seeing as she had outlived the odds already by surviving more than five years with stage IV breast cancer, we figured she had at least six more months left in her. After I filmed and watched this, however, I knew the end was near. Not all of us are privileged enough to see the other side before we cross over, but I'm convinced she did. She left us 10 days after this video, on August 2nd, 2006.

promise me

promise me
this day
you will remember

on the bike path
our evening shadows a mystery
look up!
not the sun nor the moon but suburban
giants
with lit faces
made wicked by your
imagination
or friendly
two wheels and a heart
beating faster
than your pedals
screaming with
joy

the fair was fun
last words on your lips
before succumbing to sleep
only to dream of ferris wheels
and girls in pigtails holding tight to their
prize chickens

promise me
this day
you will remember

my antonia

"...sunflower-bordered roads always seem to me the roads to freedom."
-Willa Cather

draft college republicans

Untitled from huffpost and Vimeo.

Max Blumenthal:
On July 13, 2007, I visited Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, where the bodies of American soldiers killed in Iraq were freshly interred. Afterwards, I headed across the street to the Sheraton National Hotel, owned by right-wing Korean cult leader Sun Myung-Moon, to meet some of the war's most fervent supporters at the College Republican National Convention.

In conversations with at least twenty College Republicans about the war in Iraq, I listened as they lip-synched discredited cant about "fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here." Many of the young GOP cadres I met described the so-called "war on terror" as nothing less than the cause of their time.

Yet when I asked these College Repulicans why they were not participating in this historical cause, they immediately went into contortions. Asthma. Bad knees from playing catcher in high school. "Medical reasons." "It's not for me." These were some of the excuses College Republicans offered for why they could not fight them "over there." Like the current Republican leaders who skipped out on Vietnam, the GOP's next generation would rather cheerlead from the sidelines for the war in Iraq while other, less privileged young men and women fight and die.

Along with videographer Thomas Shomaker, I captured a vivid portrait of the hypocritical mentality of the next generation of Republican leaders. See for yourself.

sundays....

mean new secrets are posted. I look forward to this every week like some people look forward to a preacher's sermon or the release of a new Harry Potter; something that makes you feel connected to the rest of humanity. You can find them all at the PostSecret website.
Thanks, Marina.

god of war, god of peace

This radio programme was produced for the BBC by my friend Kirsten Dwight. In it, John McCarthy reports from Israel, "where religion is at the heart of the conflict and is seen, rightly or wrongly, as crucial to the search for peace." Just when you thought there was nothing new to hear or read or watch or learn....
Look on the side bar under "Listen Again" for "God of War, God of Peace". It will only be available until Wednesday. Kudos to Kirs!

fear of phobias

There are so many things to be afraid of!

It's a good thing I don't suffer from triskaidekaphobia or else today, Friday the 13th, would have been a really, really, really bad day....
a. I flew on a plane from Cleveland (cool city, by the way) to Denver.
b. The hostess seated us at this table for lunch

c. Guess what number was blinking red on our answering machine when we got home?
d. It's my mother-in-law's 81st birthday.

And then I got to wondering if there was a fear of phobias (which there is-phobophobia, not to be confused with hobophobia, which is, of course, a fear of hobos!), and that led me to THIS!!

I think I may have truly suffered from scelerophobia as a young girl....

old friend with old glory

In Ashland, Oregon, they print photos like this in the newspaper... Here's to you, Moses Shane! Love ya!

In Wheat Ridge, Colorado, they do this:
from the USA Today I picked up from a random airport seat:
"An American flag waving upside down outside a home to protest the Iraq war has touched off a flap with a homeowners' association in this Denver suburb. Retired banker Beth Hammer ran up the flag that way March 19, the fourth anniversary of the Iraq invasion. Association board members are considering whether to fine her $500 a day for violating a 'patriotic and political expression policy'." A DAY!!!

rock star

In the sense that I live on a rock but came from the stars.

"We have begun to contemplate our origins: we are star-stuff pondering the stars!" -Carl Sagan, Ithaca, NY

Those are the words at the base of this Sun statue, the beginning point of a monument to Carl Sagan that starts on the Commons and ends a few miles away with Pluto at the Science Center, a fully representational/proportional model of the solar system.

technology in new york

above: My brother's partner Gwen works at a microfluidics lab in Ithaca, where they make these little chips and circuits that can adapt themselves to all sorts of lab tests, including HIV testing. The explanation of how this high-tech gizmo works went fairly over my head, but I liked the little gurgling sounds it made, and the fact that it all fit into a neat little compact suitcase.

below: My brother works at a food lab in Ithaca, where they make Splenda and other secret foods. It was like being in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, without the Oompa-Loompas. This is a not-so-high-tech piece of equipment that my brother used to invent a candy straw for Frito-Lay (coming soon!)

declaration of something or other!

tava

Last night, around a backyard fire, I learned from a very wise man that Pikes Peak used to be called Sun Mountain by the Utes. A little research revealed this to be true. I think I'm going to start calling Pikes Peak "Tava" from now on... maybe it could take hold the way Denali has in Alaska. There's something about it that is sacred, yet it is often so hard to feel amidst the swarm of humanity in its shadow.

From the Pikes Peak Historical Society Museum in Florissant:

10,000 YEARS AGO
Archaic tools and arrowheads found during the archaeological survey of the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in 1974 place human beings in the area about 10,000 years ago. Ute Indians say these are their ancestors. The Ute have no migration story, but instead cite a legend wherein Creator made their nation on Pikes Peak. For thousands of years, they perform ceremonies on this sacred mountain which they call “Tava” (meaning sun in their dialect of the Aztec language). The band of Ute Indians in the Pikes Peak region takes its name from this mountain, calling themselves “Tabeguache” (The People of Sun Mountain). They are one of ten bands of the Ute Nation, whose ancestral lands include all of Colorado, Utah, and northern New Mexico.

the sun

the sun
resurrects itself
each day
whether we
like it
or not

Copernicus fucked with the heavenly bodies,
screwed over their relationships
until what used to be
scattered into the indifferent heavens

a revolution of consequences so vast,
the sun stopped in its tracks
and waited
for the earth (and the others)
to come ‘round

meteors crash-
changing orbits
and even small minds

history spirals ever after-
not happily perhaps
but consistently

the sun
resurrects itself
each day
whether we
like it
or not

summer solstice

You could do this or this, but I prefer to simply imagine, for a day, that the sun really can stand still.

from religioustolerance.org

"Solstice" is derived from two Latin words: "sol" meaning sun, and "sistere," to cause to stand still. This is because, as the summer solstice approaches, the noonday sun rises higher and higher in the sky on each successive day. On the day of the solstice, it rises an imperceptible amount, compared to the day before. In this sense, it "stands still."

Significance of the summer solstice:

In pre-historic times, summer was a joyous time of the year for those Aboriginal people who lived in the northern latitudes. The snow had disappeared; the ground had thawed out; warm temperatures had returned; flowers were blooming; leaves had returned to the deciduous trees. Some herbs could be harvested, for medicinal and other uses. Food was easier to find. The crops had already been planted and would be harvested in the months to come. Although many months of warm/hot weather remained before the fall, they noticed that the days were beginning to shorten, so that the return of the cold season was inevitable.

The first (or only) full moon in June is called the Honey Moon. Tradition holds that this is the best time to harvest honey from the hives.

This time of year, between the planting and harvesting of the crops, was the traditional month for weddings. This is because many ancient peoples believed that the "grand [sexual] union" of the Goddess and God occurred in early May at Beltaine. Since it was unlucky to compete with the deities, many couples delayed their weddings until June. June remains a favorite month for marriage today. In some traditions, newly wed couples were fed dishes and beverages that featured honey for the first month of their married life to encourage love and fertility. The surviving vestige of this tradition lives on in the name given to the holiday immediately after the ceremony: The Honeymoon.

one more reason to love Miranda July

Being a teacher, I love giving assignments. Your assignment is to check out these assignments!
learning to love you more

everyone and no one

I love Miranda July. It really is that simple.

a movie:
Me and You and Everyone We Know


a book:
No One Belongs Here More Than You

summer, not winter, but all the same...

There's a certain slant of light,
On winter afternoons
That oppresses, like the weight
Of cathedral tunes.

Heavenly hurt it gives us;
We can find no scar,
But internal difference
Where the meanings, are.

None may teach it anything,
'T is the seal, despair,
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the air.

When it comes, the landscape listens,
Shadows hold their breath;
When it goes, 't is like the distance
On the look of death.

-Emily Dickinson