Changing Places

PERRspectives Blog: Hurricanes, Divine Retribution and the Right

In these times of American hyper-partisanship, even the response to an act of God like hurricane Katrina is revealing.

The disaster, which devastated the extremely red states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, brought no snide claims of “divine retribution” from the voices of the left. No one declared that a just God wrought vengeance upon the South for its sins of slavery, succession, civil war, Jim Crow or more recently, its coronation of George W. Bush. Instead, the liberal blogosphere, led by sites like DailyKos, urged readers to come to the aid of their fellow Americans, providing news updates, offers of shelter for refugees and support for the Red Cross.

Contrast that reaction to the compassionate conservative response of the radical right to acts of God - and man. Time and after time, the mouthpieces of the American Taliban that now have the ear of the President and the wallet of the Republican Party praised the wrath of an angry God that smited their enemies for a laundry list of sins and perversions.

…

The Robertsons, Falwells and Buchanans of the world differ only in degree, and not kind, from the likes of the Reverend Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas. Phelps has held anti-gay protests all over the country, most notably at the 1998 funeral of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard. Phelps latest abomination is to lead demonstrations at the funerals of U.S. troops killed in Iraq. Phelps and his congregants (mostly family members) contend that American soldiers are being killed in Iraq as vengeance from God for protecting a country that harbors gays. At their funerals, they offer shouts “God hates fags” and “God hates you” at the mourners.

All of which raises the question: where was Pat Robertson during hurricane Katrina? The same man who prayed to God to kill American Supreme Court justices has also claimed that his power of prayer altered the course of hurricane Gloria in 1985, sparing his headquarters in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

So while those on the left offer compassion, assistance and prayers for their neighbors impacted by the natural disaster that was Katrina, the reactionary right continues to use divine retribution as just another tool in its arsenal. All involved would do well to reflect on Abraham Lincoln’s words of caution to North and South from his second inaugural:

Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other…The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.

I often hear people say there is no difference between politicians of the left or the right, or that the right is somehow more “moral” than those on the left, or that people who espouse religion lack values somehow.

This is what makes us different. This is what makes us not more moral, not more special, not having better values, but, perhaps - more compassionate, more caring, more loving. We understand that humans have foibles and flaws. We know the world is not always kind. But we don’t blame God, or claim he’s “on our side”. We look for the best possible outcome of whatever situation we find ourselves in - not for ourselves alone, but for everyone involved.

This is what makes us different. That we care, not only for ourselves, our position, our “side” — but for everyone.

Noel Hart, Crimson Rosella

David Watts, Crimson Rosella

Crimson Bouquet

Imagine your heart as an opening lotus.
From its center comes a crimson child,
Pure, virginal, and innocent.

One meditation gives this instruction :

Imagine your heart opening into a red lotus.
From its center comes a crimson child.
Bring this child out of your body and imagine him or her floating above
your head. You, as a child, are holding a sun in each hand while each foot stands
on a moon.
Hold this image as long as you can.

It is hard to bring out this child. When you try, you realize how many defenses you have built around yourself. You also realize how the experiences of adolescence and adulthood have stained you. Sometimes, you may even doubt that you have a pure and innocent self to bring out anymore. But each of us does. Each of us must find that crimson child within us and bring him or her out. For this child represents the time when our energies were whole and our hearts were untroubled by the duplicity of the world and ourselves.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

Norah Jones
Seven Years

Spinning, laughing, dancing to
her favorite song
A little girl with nothing wrong
Is all alone

Eyes wide open
Always hoping for the sun
And she’ll sing her song to anyone
that comes along

Fragile as a leaf in autumn
Just fallin’ to the ground
Without a sound

Crooked little smile on her face
Tells a tale of grace
That’s all her own

Spinning, laughing, dancing to her favorite song
A little girl with nothing wrong
And she’s all alone

My child sees the sky
by Ganesh Visputay

My child sees the sky
She sees trees, vines, flowers and blossoms,
The arabesques adorned by leaves and flowers
Of various trees,
Stars shining through those designs,
She gazes steadfast
Cuddled in the cradle of my arms
And she smiles
After a while
I see that she sees all this

I too begin to see
Trees, vines, sprays of flowers

Where had the sky hidden all these years?

Why is it we hide our hearts from others? What is it we are afraid they will see? How much we love them? Alas, I’ve lost friends for that great crime. Or, perhaps, people would see how much we care only for ourselves, and not for them. I suppose people think that of me as well, even though it isn’t true. If only we were as unafraid to show our beautiful colors as a gorgeous crimson rosella.

Perhaps our hearts our not really hidden at all, at least, from the child in each of us. I tend to look at others with a child’s eye, and see them for who they truly are. And sometimes, this seems to be what other people fear most of all — that I will know them, know their secrets, know all they things they have hidden away and covered up in order to be accepted in the world. And, that I will still love them — anyway.

Take your pick of relief organizations and donate.

American Red Cross
2005 Hurricane Season Relief
P.O. Box 97089
Washington, DC 20090-7089

Susan Kaprov, Puzzle Matrix

This fragile body
Is matrix
For mind and soul.

We cannot afford to neglect our bodies, even if we recognize that we must not identify with them exclusively. Actually, in our search for our true selves, our physical existence is the best place to start. We can alter our lives by how we eat and exercise, and we can expedite our search by keeping ourselves healthy. If we are free of physical blockages and pain, we can identify our inner selves much better.

In the search for the mind and soul, it is wise to understand that the body is not the true self, but it is also wise to maintain the body. There should be neither denial nor mortification of the flesh, but it takes a wise person to both maintain the body and look beyond it.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

“All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force… We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter.” — Max Planck

Neo: What is the Matrix?
Trinity: The answer is out there, Neo, and it’s looking for you, and it will find you if you want it to.

Morpheus: If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then ‘real’ is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.

Spoon boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That’s impossible. Instead… only try to realize the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Spoon boy: There is no spoon.
Neo: There is no spoon?
Spoon boy: Then you’ll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

Morpheus: Neo, sooner or later you’re going to realize just as I did that there’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.

Whatever you feel about the reality of this world, or the possibility of there existing any other, we live in the here and now, and we have to deal with where we are here and now. Taking care of yourself is essential. We all know we ought to eat right and exercise, that we need to take good care of ourselves. But we don’t always do it.

American culture is one that praises excess, not restraint. Most of our wealth now goes to the people in the top income group. Everyone wants huge SUVs and big houses that are far more than they need. Our food portions are huge. It’s not surprising that so many find it hard to restrain themselves. Even those who do exercise often do it to an extreme, and our female icons starve themselves into skeletons. Our president prefers riding his mountain bike and taking extended vacations over dealing with a woman’s grief, a war, a gas crisis, and an economy on the edge. Where is the call to be both fit and to be healthy? Not to excess, but to a level that everyone can do, and to maintain our mental fitness as well? To be moderate in our work but not abandon it entirely?

My husband and son and I started doing South Beach Diet a couple of months ago and have lost about 10 pounds each. I do pilates and yoga at the gym, and recently started playing tennis with a friend. My husband and son take our dogs on walks in the evening. We could still be more active than we are, but at least we are making the effort to stay healthy. My diet isn’t always perfect, though. I don’t really believe in doing anything to an extreme.

But most of us feel we are more than our bodies, perhaps even more than our minds, that there is something else within us that is separate from these things. And it is important to nourish that part of ourselves as well, whether through religion, art and creativity, or whatever means we find to sipritually enrich ourselves. Some look beyond themselves, but I find it more important to look within, to acknowledge my own spirit in ways that connect me with the all things. That way, I can also acknowledge it within others as well, rather than thinking I alone am “saved” or somehow special to whatever God is out there. And realize that all of us are a part of this world together, in body, mind - and spirit. We create the matrix, and we decide how to use it — selfishly, or together.

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed” — Mahatma Gandhi

You must be the change you want to see in the world. — Mahatma Gandhi

Neo: I know you’re out there. I can feel you now. I know that you’re afraid… you’re afraid of us. You’re afraid of change. I don’t know the future. I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it’s going to begin. I’m going to hang up this phone, and then I’m going to show these people what you don’t want them to see. I’m going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you.

Rescuers Evacuate Switzerland District - New York Times

Rescue workers completed an airlift evacuation of a half-submerged riverside district of the Swiss capital Thursday as large parts of central and southern Europe were hit by flooding that killed at least 42 people.

Brienz, Switzerland, was one of many areas of central and southern Europe that were hit by flooding. At least 42 people were killed.

Lucerne, Switzerland, was flooded as well.

Hardest hit was Romania with 31 victims, many of whom were trapped inside their homes and drowned as torrents of water rushed in. Austria, Bulgaria, Germany and Switzerland reported a total of 11 dead, but numbers were expected to climb as more bodies of the missing are recovered.

Across the Alps, military helicopters were ferrying in supplies to valleys cut off by flooding and evacuating stranded tourists — and even cows — isolated in mountain pastures by the rising waters.

But we don’t have to worry about global warming….

What’s it going to take, the floods to hit DC like in Kim Stanley Robinson’s 40 Signs of Rain?

Wake up, America - wake up. Let’s stop quibbling over gay marriage and whose God is the bestest of all and get to work on the real issues that are going to dominate our future - like Global Warming.

Stupid Merkans - I’m sick of them.

“I know my own nation best. That’s why I despise it the most. And know and love my own people, too, the swine. I’m a patriot. A dangerous man.”
– Edward Abbey

Evolution debate creates monster | LJWorld.com
Evolution debate creates monster

Satirists preach gospel of Flying Spaghetti Monster

By Scott Rothschild (Contact)

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Topeka — From Darwin to intelligent design to the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

The debate over teaching evolution in Kansas public schools has caught the attention of a cross-country Internet community of satirists.

In the past few weeks, hundreds of followers of the supreme Flying Spaghetti Monster have swamped state education officials with urgent e-mails.

They argue that since the conservative majority of the State Board of Education has blessed classroom science standards at the behest of intelligent design supporters, which criticize evolution, they want the gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster taught.

“I’m sure you realize how important it is that your students are taught this alternate theory,” writes Bobby Henderson, a Corvallis, Ore., resident whose Web site, www.venganza.org, is part FSM tribute and part job search.

“It is absolutely imperative that they realize that observable evidence is at the discretion of a Flying Spaghetti Monster,” he wrote to the education board.

Henderson did not return a telephone call for comment. He says in his letter that it is disrespectful to teach about the FSM without wearing “full pirate regalia.”

Board member Bill Wagnon, a Democrat, whose district includes Lawrence, said he has received more than 500 e-mails from supporters of FSM.

“Clearly, these are just supreme satirists. What they are doing is pointing out that there is no more sense to intelligent design than there is to a Flying Spaghetti Monster,” Wagnon said.

Satirists? Such heresy! How dare they not believe in his noodly appendages! May they be condemned to the eternal vat of sauce…..

McCain sounds like presidential hopeful | www.azstarnet.com ®

On Tuesday, though, he sided with the president on two issues that have made headlines recently: teaching intelligent design in schools and Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mother who has come to personify the anti-war movement.

McCain told the Star that, like Bush, he believes “all points of view” should be available to students studying the origins of mankind.

Including the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Johnny???

Have you been touched by his noodly appendage?

Bernardo Strozzi, Old Woman at the Mirror

The theme of this painting has a long tradition: the old woman who has not learned to give her life any other meaning but that of ornament and vanity, and who is unable to see the truth or recognize her true self in the mirror. Strozzi’s formulation, however, is both individual and new. It makes the most of the surface values, deliberately contrasting the wrinkled skin of the old woman with the fresh complexion of her servant and juxtaposing the firm and rounded forms of youth with the withered slackness of old age. He reveals in the mirror that the old woman’s red cheeks are painted with rouge, and he places a blossoming, scented rose in her wrinkled hand. He also shows us the uncriticizing complacency on her face, leaving it up to the spectator to deduce a sense of embarrassment, emptiness, transparent illusion and moral warning.

Our subjectivity
Is a mirrored,
Spiked casket.

We surround ourselves with the reflections of our own identities. We think only of ourselves, not of Tao. All we care about is survival and gratification. When will we see that all we have done is to surround ourselves with our own illusions?

We do not see the world as it truly is. We ignore the dilemma of our existence. We are like preening idiots inside a mirrored casket. As we build upon our illusions, the box gets smaller. Soon it develops spikes – the spears of our own egotism – only we are so self-absorbed that we do not notice the points. We are too in love with ourselves. We prance around, we fluff our hair. And still the casket gets smaller, and smaller.

Some succeed in getting out of this trap, but they are so attached that they drag their casket behind them for a long time. Those who drag their illusions with them are only a step better than those who are trapped in them. Only when we realize our true nature does the casket disappear.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

I think when people look back at our time, they will be amazed at one thing more than any other. It is this–that we do know more about ourselves now than people did in the past. But that very little of it has been put into effect… There is a great mass of new information from universities, research institutions and gifted amateurs, but our ways of governing ourselves haven’t changed. Our left hand does not know–does not want to know–what our right hand does. This is what I think is the most extraordinary thing there is to be seen about us, as a species, now. And people to come will marvel at it, as we marvel at the blindness and inflexibility of our ancestors. — Doris Lessing, Prisons we Choose to Live Inside

“Our modern society is engaged in polishing and decorating the cage in which man is kept imprisoned.” — Swami Nirmalananda

“Truth lies within ourselves: it takes no rise from outward things, whatever you may believe. There is an inmost center in us all, where truth abides in fullness and to Know rather consists in opening out a way whence the imprisoned splendor may escape than in effecting entry for light supposed to be without.” — Robert Browning

“In our natural state, we are glorious beings. In the world of illusion, we are lost and imprisoned, slaves to our appetites and our will to false power.”
– Marianne Williamson

What do we imprison in ourselves? The things that, if we really dealt with them, might be dangerous to our standing in society; like showing our true age. or our true self.

The ego exists, in part, to protect us from things that are dangerous. But, if you truly come to view yourself as a part of everything else, what is left to be considered dangerous? The Tao says,

He who knows how to live can walk abroad
Without fear of rhinocerous or tiger.
He will not be wounded in battle.
For in him rhinocerouses can find no place to thrust their horn,
Tigers no place to use their claws,
And weapons no place to pierce.
Why is this so?
Because he has no place for death to enter.

Tao Te Ching, 50

It doesn’t mean one who walks the path of Tao will never die. It means that they have already accepted death and have no fear of it. Not being afraid, they can see things as they are, unobstructed by the veil of fear, and so are better warriors, hunters, and travelers. Or perhaps, just better at accepting life and the changes that come with aging, or becoming more fully oneself.

New Westerners and Easterners see the world differently

Chinese and American people see the world differently – literally. While Americans focus on the central objects of photographs, Chinese individuals pay more attention to the image as a whole, according to psychologists at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, US.

“There is plenty of anecdotal evidence suggesting that Western and East Asian people have contrasting world-views,” explains Richard Nisbett, who carried out the study. “Americans break things down analytically, focusing on putting objects into categories and working out what rules they should obey,” he says.

By contrast, East Asians have a more holistic philosophy, looking at objects in relation to the whole. “Figuratively, Americans see things in black and white, while East Asians see more shades of grey,” says Nisbett. “We wanted to devise an experiment to see if that translated to a literal difference in what they actually see.”

The researchers tracked the eye-movements of two groups of students while they looked at photographs. One group contained American-born graduates of European descent and the other was comprised of Chinese-born graduate students who came to the US after their undergraduate degrees.

Each picture showed a striking central image placed in a realistic background, such as a tiger in a jungle. They found that the American students spent longer looking at the central object, while the Chinese students’ eyes tended to dart around, taking in the context.

Harmony versus goals

Nisbett and his colleagues believe that this distinctive pattern has developed because of the philosophies of these two cultures. “Harmony is a central idea in East Asian philosophy, and so there is more emphasis on how things relate to the whole,” says Nisbett. “In the West, by contrast, life is about achieving goals.”

Psychologists watching American and Japanese families playing with toys have also noted this difference. “An American mother will say: ‘Look Billy, a truck. It’s shiny and has wheels.’ The focus is on the object,” explains Nisbett. By contrast, Japanese mothers stress context saying things like, “I push the truck to you and you push it to me. When you throw it at the wall, the wall says ‘ouch’.”

Nisbett also cites language development in the cultures. “To Westerners it seems obvious that babies learn nouns more easily. But while this is the case in the West, studies show that Korean and Chinese children pick up verbs – which relate objects to each other - more easily.

“Nisbett’s work is interesting and suggestive,” says John Findlay, a psychologist specialising in human visual attention at Durham University, UK. “It’s always difficult to put an objective measure on cultural differences, but this group have made a step towards that.”

Nisbett hopes that his work will change the way the cultures view each other. “Understanding that there is a real difference in the way people think should form the basis of respect.”

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (vol 102, p 12629)

I’m always more interested in seeing things holistically and this is probably why I’m drawn to the Tao. Rather than the individualism of being “saved” as a person, the Tao relates one to the whole of creation and emphasizes becoming a part of the whole of Tao. Somehow I find this much healthier….

Job pressures are overwhelming.
Responsibilities are heavy.
When I close my eyes,
The demands of others are all I see.

Sometimes responsibilities can become so great that you cannot keep your mental equilibrium. Your attention is scattered. Feelings of frustration lead to tremendous unhappiness. Your insides ache. You don’t get enough sleep, you eat poorly, and you quarrel with others.

The sages may breezily pronounce all of this to be the folly of humanity. They are undoubtedly right, but the words of the sages are too lofty when we are scrounging in the dust for our survival. Many of us must face these pressures, at least for the moment. Even if we would like a way out of this madness, we will not be able to forsake society all at once.

When one is under stress, awareness of Tao is impossible. If you are fighting on the battlefield, or fighting in the office, or fighting in your home, or fighting in your mind, there is no such thing as being with Tao. If you are involved in this type of life, then you must content yourself to face your problems bravely — until you can do nothing other than renounce it.

Every moment that you are with your problems, you are not with Tao. The best you can do is to remember that our stress is not absolute reality.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

“Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it.”
~ Lily Tomlin

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important. ~Bertrand Russell

The field of consciousness is tiny. It accepts only one problem at a time. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

In times of life crisis, whether wild fires or smoldering stress, the first thing I do is go back to basics… am I eating right, am I getting enough sleep, am I getting some physical and mental exercise everyday. ~ Edward Albert

If you ask what is the single most important key to longevity, I would have to say it is avoiding worry, stress and tension. And if you didn’t ask me, I’d still have to say it. ~ George Burns

Any idiot can face a crisis - it’s day to day living that wears you out.
~ Anton Chekhov

I keep my life fairly stress-free these days. Not that there aren’t things I coulld stress over, there are plenty, but I know that stress triggers some very bad reactions in me. Tao is one of the ways I deal with stress, yoga and pilates are others. I just started playing tennis with a friend, and am truly bad at it so far. But doing something I’m lousy at just for fun actually amuses me. Or I will take a long walk when I’m stressed and reconnect to the world. Or garden. Or work on my art.

When I am truly stressed, and particularly when I’m angry about something, I clean. If you ever find my house truly spotless, watch out, because I’m probably in a very bad mood. Cleaning is one of those mindless tasks that I can get absorbed in when I’m mad.

Pets are important for me in keeping stress down. You can’t stay stressed when there are two ridiculous looking golden retrievers sprawled on their backs in the yard, or when a small grey cat or fuzzy black one curls up in your lap purring (like right now). Except when she digs her claws in, of course…

I don’t really care for most of the advice on “managing” stress, though. I don’t think stress is there to be managed. It is a way for the body to tell you you’re literally putting too much stress on it, and you need to stop. Of course it isn’t always possible to create downtime when you most need it, but when you get it, use it. We tend to rush around from one activity to another and not take time to just unwind and relax when we can. Stop overscheduling the kids and let them read a book instead. Stop overscheduling yourself and realize life can go on a few moments without you worrying about it.

And mostly, stop fighting. Try that phrase “you are right“. It shuts people up so fast, it’s amazing. Everyone is right in whatever way they have justified to themselves. It doesn’t mean you have agreed with them, only that you’ve acknowledged that they are right - in their mind. But they don’t have to know that.

Truthful words are not beautiful.
Beautiful words are not truthful.
Good men do not argue.
Those who argue are not good.
Those who know are not learned.
The learned do not know.

The sage never tries to store things up.
The more she does for others, the more she has.
The more she gives to others, ther greater her abundance.
The Tao of heaven is pointed but does no harm.
The Tao of the sage is work without effort.

Tao Te Ching, 81

India: Everything Gets Worse With Coca-Cola

PLACHIMADA, India - In the end it was the ‘generosity’ of Coca-Cola in distributing cadmium-laden waste sludge as ‘free fertilizer’ to the tribal aborigines who live near the beverage giant’s bottling plant in this remote Kerala village that proved to be its undoing.

On Friday, the Kerala State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) ordered the plant shut down to the jubilation of tribal leaders and green activists who had focused more on the ‘water mining’ activities of the plant rather than its production of toxic cadmium sludge.

”One way or another, this plant should be shut down and the management made to pay compensation for destroying our paddy fields, fooling us with fake fertilizer and drying out our wells,” Paru Amma, an aboriginal woman who lives in this once lush, water-abundant area, told IPS.

Chairman of the KSPCB, G. Rajmohan, said the closure was ordered because the plant ”does not have adequate waste treatment systems and toxic products from the plant were affecting drinking water in nearby villages” and that the plant ”has also not provided drinking water in a satisfying manner to local residents”.

Apparently, the generosity of the Coca-Cola plant was limited to distributing sludge and waste water free and did not extend to providing drinking water to people seriously affected by its operations.

In a statement Saturday, Coca-Cola said it was ”reviewing the order passed by the chairman of the Pollution Control Board, Kerala state,” and that ”going forward, we are in the process of evaluating future steps, including a judicial review”.

The KSPCB closure order is only the latest episode in a see-saw battle between Coca-Cola and the impoverished but plucky local residents ever since the Atlanta-based company began operating its 25 million-dollar bottling plant in this village, located in the state’s fertile Palakkad district, in 2001.

Along the way, pollution control authorities, political parties, the judiciary and global environmental groups, starting with Greenpeace International, became involved in the dispute and Plachimada grew into a global symbol of resistance by local people to powerful trans-national corporations trying to snatch away their water rights.

That’s why I don’t drink it…..

Ozy and Millie

Don’t call me a follower of Tao.

Following Tao is an intensely personal endeavor in which you spend each minute of your life with the universal pulse. You follow the fluid and infinitely shifting Tao and experience its myriad wonder. You will want nothing more than to be empty before it – a perfect mirror, open to every nuance.

If you put labels on who you are, there is separation from Tao. As soon as you accept the designations of race, gender, name, or fellowship, you define yourself in contrast to Tao.

That is why those who follow Tao never identify themselves with the name Tao. they do not care for labels, for status, or for rank. We all have an equal chance to be with Tao.

Reject labels.
Reject identities.
Reject conformity.
Reject conversation.
Reject definitions.
Reject names.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

“Labels are for cans, not people.” — Anthony Rapp

“Once you label me, you negate me” — Soren Kierkegaard

“They stick you with those names, those labels — ‘rebel’ or whatever; whatever they like to use. Because they need a label; they need a name. They need something to put the price tag on the back of.” — Johnny Depp

“I don’t care what people call me,labels have the negative value of making smaller boundaries for people.” — Michael Graves

“Labels are devices for saving talkative persons the trouble of thinking”
–John Morley

“What I really resent most about people sticking labels on you is that it cuts off all the other elements of what you are because it can only deal with black and white; the cartoon.” — Siouxsie Sioux

The problem with labels is they are merely shells that contain assumptions. When we are taken in by a label, we are taken in by opinions and beliefs. That is, we willingly accept statements without evidence of their validity. The assumptions become stereotypes, which soon become put-downs. Before you know it, we are engaged in name-calling or verbal abuse.

People are complex, multifaceted, and multidimensional. When we apply labels to them, we put on blinders and see only a narrow view of an expansive and complicated human being. Did you ever buy a plastic container or bottle of food at the super market with a huge label on the lid and sides that prevented you from seeing the contents? That’s what the labels we use to ‘describe’ people do, they obscure the contents of the individual.

When speaking about others, there’s nothing wrong with using descriptions. Novelists do it all the time. But there is a big difference between descriptions and labels. For example, think about the difference between saying “Tom is tall.” and “Tom is a liberal.” ‘Tall’ is a description because it is based on a fact; it’s just another way of saying “Tom is six feet, four inches.” When we call Tom a ‘liberal,’ however, we empty the word of meaning. Here’s what I mean. What are you, a liberal, conservative, or other? The answer is on some issues you are liberal and on other issues you are conservative or other. Right? So, how can I describe you by a single term? If I were to do so, I would reduce you to a one-dimensional artifact of the profound person you really are. Wouldn’t that be grossly unfair? Isn’t that good enough reason to avoid the consumption of assumption? — Chuck Gallozzi

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
The named is the mother of the ten thousand things.
Ever dersireless, one can see the mystery.
Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations.
These two spring frm the same source but differ in name; this appears as darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gate to all mystery.

– Tao Te Ching, 1

I’ve always dislked labeling people or being labeled. One thing I find totally annoying now is this tendency to dismiss things politically as coming from “the left” or even “the right”. To me, it’s a matter of is what the person saying making any sense at all, or are they spouting off meaningless phrases or even lying about their intent? To dismiss other viewpoints by labeling them without considering the view and the person is always limiting.

Any issue has a multiple number of viewpoints, not merely two or even three. Our biggest problem as a society is that our lives and our issues are complex, yet people insist on seeing them in the simplest terms. And simple issues, conversely, are made overly complex by adding labels. A woman’s right to her own body becomes “pro life” or “pro choice” instead of being the simple issue that a woman decides what happens to her body. She becomes a uterus instead of a human being with a right to decide her own fate. And the real issue isn’t even about a woman - it should simply be a person’s right to live their own life as they desire.

Labels are dangerous. They stop people from thinking and let them take the easy path of simply reacting to the label. I find myself not even thinking of names of objects these days, preferring to note the colors, textures and forms around me rather than thinking I need to label things.

In dealing with others, I mayneed to use the shorthand of labels at times, but try to be careful in doing so. In my own thoughts, I try to avoid them at all if I can.

My younger son, Gregory, turns 16 today - old enough to drive, oh no!
Fortunately, he doesn’t really want to or need to, yet.

Other people who share Greg’s birthday:

1902 Ogden Nash was born on August 19, 1902

American writer of humorous poetry who won a large following for his audacious verse. 1902-1971

“To keep your marriage brimming, With love in the loving cup, Whenever you’re wrong, admit it; Whenever you’re right, shut up.”

1946 Bill Clinton was born on August 19, 1946

American 42nd US president (1993-2001), b.1946

“The road to tyranny, we must never forget, begins with the destruction of the truth.”

Actor and director Jonathan Frakes is 53. (Born 1952) He’s best known for the character Commander William Riker on the TV series “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” His directing credits include the movies “Thunderbirds” and “Clockstoppers” and the TV shows “Roswell” and “Diagnosis Murder.”

1921 Gene Roddenberry (creator, producer, writer)

1871 Orville Wright (aviator)

Order and Chaos, M C Escher, 1950

Build your life brick upon brick.
Live a life of truth,
And you will look back on a life of truth.
Live a life of fantasy,
And you will look back on delusion.

The good of today is based upon the good of yesterday. That is why we should constantly be attentive to our actions.

Take frugal people as an example. They recycle the scraps from their cooking into compost piles. They eat at home rather than in restaurants. They do not waste water. They shop carefully. They do not spend their money on frivolities. This is exactly the type of care that we need for spirituality.

We should not fritter our efforts away on amusements; rather, we should concentrate on endeavors most important to us. We should not randomly gather information; rather, we should try to order it into a comprehensive whole, thereby compounding our abilities to our own advantage. We should not carelessly tell lies, because we will then be divorced from the truth that we seek.

Whether our lives are magnificent or wretched depends upon our ordering of daily details. We must organize the details into a composition that pleases us. Only then will be have meaning in our lives.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

“What we imagine is order is merely the prevailing form of chaos.” — Kerry Thornley

“The primary sign of a well-ordered mind is a man’s ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.”
– Seneca

“We need quiet time to examine our lives openly and honestly. . . spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity to renew itself and create order.” — Susan Taylor

“The world is not to be put in order; the world is order, incarnate. It is for us to harmonize with this order.” — Henry Miller

“There is a cheap literature that speaks to us of the need of escape. It is true that when we travel we are in search of distance. But distance is not to be found. It melts away. And escape has never led anywhere. The moment a man finds that he must play the races, go the Arctic, or make war in order to feel himself alive, that man has begin to spin the strands that bind him to other men and to the world. But what wretched strands! A civilization that is really strong fills man to the brim, though he never stir. What are we worth when motionless, is the question.”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I’ve never been really big on what most people would consider to be order. They think of it as neatness, having everything in its place. But that isn’t really what order is about. Nature is ordered, but do you think of a natural scene as one where everything is in place? Fallen trees here, dead branches there - and yet, they serve a purpose. To me, that is what order is about - making sure that the things that are in your life are meaningful to you and serve a purpose, and are as natural as possible. I like the Craftsman era, and William Morris’ saying, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”. Most the surfaces in my home are wood or stone or ceramic. Decorative objects are glass or ceramic or pictures I’ve painted or love, sake containers and rice bowls, and a simple, plain China set that was my mother’s. There isn’t much here that’s very fancy or strictly for decorative purposes.

That’s kind of how I feel about order in my life. If something strikes me as truly beautiful (yes, I know, that isn’t very Taoist of me, but I do like beautiful things…) then I will enjoy having it around and take pleasure from looking at it. If it’s useful and I need it for something, I might not care how it looks. Ideally, it will be both aesthetically pleasing and useful, as many of the Craftsman era designs were.

My house might not strike anyone as particularly well-ordered. The garden is arranged as a cottage-style garden, to look natural, not with plants in neat little rows. The kids aren’t required to keep their rooms spotless, and most of the rest of the house isn’t either. There’s usually dog fur and cat fur around. And it’s a small space, only 1300 square feet for the four of us, but it is well-organized, so we all can have our space (except my husband, who always complains there’s no space for his stuff. Hey, he’s got an office at work… but I do need to work on creating space for him…)

But order is as much internal as external. I can find anything in the house in a couple of minutes, even stuff I didn’t misplace. The kids hate it when they are looking for something and ask me where it is, and I say, “Where you left it”. And then I find it, which really infuriates them.

And, the house is getting cleaned today! So it’s a good day to post about order. Of course, the vacuum cleaner decided to fail and I’m out of toilet bowl cleaner, but oh well. My cleaning ladies are resourceful, and will get the job done. After raising 9 kids, Keena isn’t challenged by my house, that’s for sure. She’s a magnificent older woman with so much energy and spirit. Anyone can hire a cleaning service, but I love Keena because she simply loves to clean and I have a great deal of respect for that, since it isn’t one of my favorite tasks. I tend to be very deatail-oriented when I get in a good cleaning mood, so it takes forever. They are typically done in a couple of hours.

So, if order is about “creating a composition that pleases you”, then my life is pretty well ordered right now. As for the house, well, I don’t think I would spend 20 years in a place that didn’t please me! It’s been small and felt crowded at times, but it’s never felt huge and empty. And that pleases me, a great deal.

The hero comes down from the mountain,
Radiant with the power.
Yet one tussle with a dusty old man
quickly tumbles him into the dirt.

In olden times, young men and women who wanted to be extraordinary trained in the mountains with a famous master. Away from all the distractions of society, isolated in the cleanliness, they remained on a high peak and did not come down until they had attained great ability.

Such people were heroes, the pinnacle of cultivation. However, in their subsequent wanderings in the world, such heroes would often come upon some oldster who could quickly best them. Whether in philosophical debate or physical skill, there was always some obscure wanderer who could outshine even the greatest of heroes. Why? Because the hero only had perfection, the strength of youth, and courage. The oldsters had the advantage of experience and wisdom.

There will always be people in the world better than yourself. Learn to recognize those elders who are wiser than you, and respect them. Know that you yourself will not be great until you have lived a long time.

To perfect oneself is difficult but not rare. To have perfect wisdom is rare indeed.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

Accomplished, beneath an imperfect exterior. Giving, (of himself) without becoming worn out. Filled up, without appearing to be so, And pouring out without being emptied. Very straight, beneath a bent air; most able, behind an awkward appearance; highly perspicacious, with an embarrassed exterior. This is the Sage. — Tao Te Ching 45, Weiger translation

Why is the root of wisdom so deep?
Because it must be planted in our lives.
The road to the precious capital is not for the inattentive.
– Loy Ching-Yuen

The Tao cannot be avoided.
By attuning to its way, we seem to move less and less with a disturbing wilfullness;
We move with rather than against the nature of things.
Self interest gets in the way of the Tao.
When we move selflessly, we move with grace,
ease and harmony amid apparent confusion.
– Ray Grigg

“Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature.” — Adam Smith

Sorry for the lack of an image, but I couldn’t find one perfect enough….

I suffered from perfectionism in my earlier years - nothing was ever good enough for my mom, it seemed. If I brought home 4 As and a B, it was “So, why did you get a B?” I really loved my mom and miss her wonderful qualities, and maybe she couldn’t find anything else to say and was just teasing me, but the little nagging criticisms always got to me, since I always wanted to please my folks. If I made a mistake doing a project with Dad, it was always, “That’s ok - you and I are the only ones who will know.”

So for a long time I tried, of course, both to be perfect and to be like my dad - I became an engineer, got my MBA, and wanted to be as good an engineer and manager as Dad was. But, I am not, after all, a manager, although I was a pretty good engineer. So I worked as a software QA and process consultant, telling other people how to make things work better - not perfectly, but better.

I pretty much lost my perfectionism once I quit working to raise the kids. It was really tough to handle two kids and a full-time job plus keep things as perfect as I wanted them! So of course something had to give. I thought giving up the job would let me feel better about things. It didn’t. So I started seeing a most excellent shrink, and we worked out all kinds of kinks - the perfectionism, the sarcasm, the whole gamut of things I had collected that weren’t really working very well for me. And I thought all was well. Until…

It turned out, I couldn’t be the perfect friend, either. And after losing three wonderful friends of over a dozen years aquaintance each, I fell apart pretty much completely, feeling like a complete failure at life. And got my body chemistry overhauled. Wow. What a difference. No more perfectionism, no more obsessions, no more stupid demands on people for the sake of whatever I happened to think was best. It wasn’t just the drugs of course, but the whole thought process and therapy and lots of yoga and then, most of all, Tao. These days, I find myself happy with life, content with who I am, and content with pretty much whatever happens in my life and what is going on around me. It is really nice to feel good.

And is it perfect? No, of course not. Do I feel I am anyone “great” or “important”, or “perfect”? No, of course not. I think I’m all right, nothing special. But I don’t think anyone else is special either. Or, more accurately, I see everyone as special and unique in their own wonderful way. This is how life is, how it works. We all move through life and learn orur lessons (or not) and move along, with things and people whacking us on the head until we figure out that very little in life will ever be perfect, that perfect-seeming things are usually fragile, and that on your best day, a dusty old man can tumble you into the dirt, no matter how good you are. Or as one of our favorite sayings goes, “Age and treachery will always defeat youth and skill.”

Wednesday August 17, 2005–President Bush’s Approval Rating has tumbled five points over the past week to the lowest level ever recorded by Rasmussen Reports.

Just 43% of American adults now approve of the way George W. Bush is performing his role as President. Fifty-five percent (55%) disapprove.

In other news, 43% of Americans are Still Stupid…..

Pharyngula

Via Freethought Weekly, it’s Kissing Hank’s Ass: The Movie.