I love Walter Cronkite!
His short clipped mustache,
Eyebrows that jut,
And the way
that he
looks
sees
so much.
Decades of
America.
War, death and pain,
Fraud and impeachment,
with a crinkle cheeked smile.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Happy Pesach from the Dominican School!!
Happy Pesach...
I went to the Dominican school for a Sephardic Passover service tonight...
Here are the kids doing the four questions:
Here are some schoolmates studying the Haddadah:
More friends...
Good fish balls, good music, good matzohs (round ones)... and macaroons! And since it was Sephardic, we had green beans and hummus with dinner.
It turns out that the Dominican School had a hall the right size, that's why we had it there.
I went to the Dominican school for a Sephardic Passover service tonight...
Here are the kids doing the four questions:
Here are some schoolmates studying the Haddadah:
More friends...
Good fish balls, good music, good matzohs (round ones)... and macaroons! And since it was Sephardic, we had green beans and hummus with dinner.
It turns out that the Dominican School had a hall the right size, that's why we had it there.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Noisy New Year to you!
What are these people waiting for?
It was the Full Moon, and that means it was time for... not just earthquakes, but since it is also New Years in the Chinese calendar, it's time for a Big Parade in San Francisco.
Sorry about the dark pictures, it was... um... dark. Here's an immortal favorite:
Guess what year it is?
Planes, cablecars and automobiles...
And the boys in the band...
I wish my pictures of the Boy Scout Marching Band, or of Miss Laos came out better, but they didn't... so you are lucky to have another float picture:
And dozens of groups with dragons... these folks cheated a bit, putting it on a float (but it was well lit!)
Well, gotta go catch up with my parade!
-Charlie
It was the Full Moon, and that means it was time for... not just earthquakes, but since it is also New Years in the Chinese calendar, it's time for a Big Parade in San Francisco.
Sorry about the dark pictures, it was... um... dark. Here's an immortal favorite:
Guess what year it is?
Planes, cablecars and automobiles...
And the boys in the band...
I wish my pictures of the Boy Scout Marching Band, or of Miss Laos came out better, but they didn't... so you are lucky to have another float picture:
And dozens of groups with dragons... these folks cheated a bit, putting it on a float (but it was well lit!)
Well, gotta go catch up with my parade!
-Charlie
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Stations of the Nations Prayer Site
I'd like comments on this.
I can think of several UU Churches or Congregations that might be good locations for such a prayer site.
I am sad that so many of us ignore the state of War that exists in our country, and maybe this could help to bring it into community consciousness. Notice that nothing here is specifically UU or specifically pro- or anti- War. I like that. The War is everyones responsibility. Note that, with the exception of the word "prayer", there is nothing which people could consider religious about the Site, and nothing explicitly Christian.
Charlie
The Stations of the Nations Prayer Site
This is a proposal for a temporary Prayer Site for prayers related to the War declared by the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan. These Prayer Sites should be open to the general public, and in a public place. They might be placed on the grounds of a church or other religious building.
The Prayer Site can consist of a series of "Stations", with a place for one or more persons to sit, stand or kneel.
Stations can be as simple as a series of wooden signs at eye level. More sophisticated Stations could be made with two sturdy vegetable crates-- one for sitting, and one with the name of the Station inside it (to keep the wind and rain off of any words or images).
Each Station should draw the attendee's attention to an aspect of the War. Stations could be identified by the name in simple block letters. It could also include simple pictures or graphics (for example, a Navy flag) and other information (for example, the number of Navy personnel currently deployed into the War Zone.) These are places of prayer, not reading rooms. Offensive decorations should be avoided.
Stations should allow for prayer, and not block traffic or be otherwise intrusive.
While stations may be combined, we suggest that Stations be established for:
U. S. Army Personnel,
U. S. Navy Personnel,
U. S. Marine Corps Personnel,
U. S. Air Force Personnel,
Other U. S. Government Personnel,
State Military Personnel
Local Military Personnel deployed overseas,
Contractors and their Families,
The Families of Military Personnel,
Military Personnel from Other Countries,
Military Personnel who have died due to the War,
Contractors who have died due to the War,
Civilians who have died due to the War,
Children orphaned,
Military Personnel injured due to the War,
Civilians Injured due to the War.
The Families of those dead or injured
Persons in love with those dead or injured
If you wish, and depending on local religious practice, a Prayer Site might include:
Management and Owners of Corporations providing Contractors
The Earth
Some faith traditions require that even one's enemies must be prayed for. These might be included:
Enemy Combatants
Persons financing Enemy Combatants
Enemy Combatants who have died due to the War
If all Stations are not fully accessible, a Station with the list of Stations might be included as well.
The Prayer Site should include an explanation, such as the following suggested text (If several languages are common in the community, translations should be posted as well):
-----
This Stations of the Nations Prayer Site has been established for the duration of declared War.
Different Stations have been set up to focus attention on different groups involved in or affected by the War.
1) It is a place of prayer and meditation. You are welcome to visit, even without praying.
2) You may select one, several, of all of the Stations, and may visit them in any order, taking as much time as you wish. You are free to skip Stations.
3) Different traditions pray in different ways, please feel free to pray in whatever way you feel is appropriate.
4) Please be respectful of others and their prayer and meditation practices. In some cases, this may require you to skip Stations or change your order of visiting.
5) If you have no tradition, you might say: "I turn my mind to (name of station), and acknowledge the wish that they might be safe and healthy at the end of the War" or "I acknowledge the deaths of these men and women"
6) Please do not add religious symbols, decorations, incense or candles
7) Go in peace.
-----
I can think of several UU Churches or Congregations that might be good locations for such a prayer site.
I am sad that so many of us ignore the state of War that exists in our country, and maybe this could help to bring it into community consciousness. Notice that nothing here is specifically UU or specifically pro- or anti- War. I like that. The War is everyones responsibility. Note that, with the exception of the word "prayer", there is nothing which people could consider religious about the Site, and nothing explicitly Christian.
Charlie
The Stations of the Nations Prayer Site
This is a proposal for a temporary Prayer Site for prayers related to the War declared by the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan. These Prayer Sites should be open to the general public, and in a public place. They might be placed on the grounds of a church or other religious building.
The Prayer Site can consist of a series of "Stations", with a place for one or more persons to sit, stand or kneel.
Stations can be as simple as a series of wooden signs at eye level. More sophisticated Stations could be made with two sturdy vegetable crates-- one for sitting, and one with the name of the Station inside it (to keep the wind and rain off of any words or images).
Each Station should draw the attendee's attention to an aspect of the War. Stations could be identified by the name in simple block letters. It could also include simple pictures or graphics (for example, a Navy flag) and other information (for example, the number of Navy personnel currently deployed into the War Zone.) These are places of prayer, not reading rooms. Offensive decorations should be avoided.
Stations should allow for prayer, and not block traffic or be otherwise intrusive.
While stations may be combined, we suggest that Stations be established for:
U. S. Army Personnel,
U. S. Navy Personnel,
U. S. Marine Corps Personnel,
U. S. Air Force Personnel,
Other U. S. Government Personnel,
State Military Personnel
Local Military Personnel deployed overseas,
Contractors and their Families,
The Families of Military Personnel,
Military Personnel from Other Countries,
Military Personnel who have died due to the War,
Contractors who have died due to the War,
Civilians who have died due to the War,
Children orphaned,
Military Personnel injured due to the War,
Civilians Injured due to the War.
The Families of those dead or injured
Persons in love with those dead or injured
If you wish, and depending on local religious practice, a Prayer Site might include:
Management and Owners of Corporations providing Contractors
The Earth
Some faith traditions require that even one's enemies must be prayed for. These might be included:
Enemy Combatants
Persons financing Enemy Combatants
Enemy Combatants who have died due to the War
If all Stations are not fully accessible, a Station with the list of Stations might be included as well.
The Prayer Site should include an explanation, such as the following suggested text (If several languages are common in the community, translations should be posted as well):
-----
This Stations of the Nations Prayer Site has been established for the duration of declared War.
Different Stations have been set up to focus attention on different groups involved in or affected by the War.
1) It is a place of prayer and meditation. You are welcome to visit, even without praying.
2) You may select one, several, of all of the Stations, and may visit them in any order, taking as much time as you wish. You are free to skip Stations.
3) Different traditions pray in different ways, please feel free to pray in whatever way you feel is appropriate.
4) Please be respectful of others and their prayer and meditation practices. In some cases, this may require you to skip Stations or change your order of visiting.
5) If you have no tradition, you might say: "I turn my mind to (name of station), and acknowledge the wish that they might be safe and healthy at the end of the War" or "I acknowledge the deaths of these men and women"
6) Please do not add religious symbols, decorations, incense or candles
7) Go in peace.
-----
Sunday, February 11, 2007
A poem.
Legion
The gray haird man in the Legion Hall
Wasn't really talking to me, or to my beer,
It was the air, perhaps, or something on the wall
An old team photo? A plaque? A faded dream?
Or maybe the olive drab they'd painted the ceiling
Some wag with surplus paint.
A sky of green, faded, peeling.
Once I snapped-- the winning point,
Back, before the war.
Once I blocked-- gave him time to escape
To get off that bullet.
And we were the victors.
We were.
We were victorious
I was a part of it all
I was a part
A part.
-Charlie
The gray haird man in the Legion Hall
Wasn't really talking to me, or to my beer,
It was the air, perhaps, or something on the wall
An old team photo? A plaque? A faded dream?
Or maybe the olive drab they'd painted the ceiling
Some wag with surplus paint.
A sky of green, faded, peeling.
Once I snapped-- the winning point,
Back, before the war.
Once I blocked-- gave him time to escape
To get off that bullet.
And we were the victors.
We were.
We were victorious
I was a part of it all
I was a part
A part.
-Charlie
Friday, February 9, 2007
Bless Snickers!
The folks at M&M Mars have done a wonderful thing. Think about it.
The release of Brokeback Mountain was a noisy interval in the history of the United States. Theaters across the nation had that **shameful** movie's name on the marquee... and everyone had to walk by. Lots of folks talked about it, but many more were able to avoid the subject.
But at the Superbowl something amazing happened. Perhaps 50 Million men saw two auto mechanics kissing... kissing in the process of sharing a Snickers Bar. A simple fact. And more amazing, if we assume 10% of all men are gay (whether they know it or not), perhaps 5 Million men who are physiologically gay saw the kiss.
Even if the numbers are wrong, millions of men actually saw an act of homosexual affection, saw it before they could look away.
What followed was a few seconds of 'cultural compensation'. The two men attempted to act macho by ripping out their chest hair in an attempt to compensate for their socially unacceptable act.
The folks at Snickers have done a wonderful thing, may blessings be upon them. But all blessings have consequences, and all joy has sadness.
We live in a culture of lies, and when one is exposed to us-- when something that touches our vitals-- an image of an execution on the streets of Saigon, or poverty in the dust bowl or Biafra, or death in so many places, we are, in the twinkling of an eye, changed. In an instant the denied reality shines through. And hiding in the midst of a Superbowl commercial was a bit of reality, one denied by a huge fraction of the public in the USA. A shocking truth wrapped in humor.
What about the men who suddenly discovered something about themselves? What comfort will those five million men have? Their lives are topsy. If they are married, they now see themselves living a lie. If they are near one of those highway rest areas, they can destroy themselves, their wives and their families with unsafe, anonymous sex. If they are rich they can hire an escort. If they are not, they can drink themselves to death. Perhaps they can give their lives, or their life savings to organizations that teach hatred. Perhaps they can kill themselves.
Every joy has a sadness.
The gay rights movement did the right thing too. The hooted and hollered about the unfairness of the ad. The complained bitterly about the self-destructive macho behavior that followed the kiss. Why did they do that?
"If I didn't hit ya, he was gonna. And he's a whole lot bigger than me!" I'm not sure what movie that line is from, though I think John Wayne said it to Jimmy Stewart... obviously after Wayne knocked Stewart to the ground. The attack from the gay rights movement was a framing attack. It put the commercial into the news, but it put the second half of the spot on the spot, and robbed the affection-control elements of society from asserting the evil of Snickers' subversive act, for to do so would be to agree with the evil gay rights fringe! Further, it put out the message that one need not react self-destructively, that there is another way.
There is hope.
So we have a story with legs... Did you see the Snickers ad? Did you see those men kiss? Did they really kiss, or was it technically not a real kiss? If the ad had been placed in another event would it have done as much? The Rose Parade? Ellen? Queer Eye? No. There is no place else in the television schedule where a commercial will be seen by more men than the Superbowl. Someone understood that, and exploited it perfectly.
Brokeback Mountain exposed many people to the very existence of men kissing-- normal men-- mechanics and cowboys. But the act itself, and the demonstration of the physiological brain reaction was kept safely away, like the Playgirl covers on the top shelf at the airport, you have to seek them out to see them. Snickers found a way to bring one bit of truth into fifty million middle-American homes, while they were looking.
It was, in fact, brilliant. It was, in fact, a public service. It was, in fact, a blessing.
The release of Brokeback Mountain was a noisy interval in the history of the United States. Theaters across the nation had that **shameful** movie's name on the marquee... and everyone had to walk by. Lots of folks talked about it, but many more were able to avoid the subject.
But at the Superbowl something amazing happened. Perhaps 50 Million men saw two auto mechanics kissing... kissing in the process of sharing a Snickers Bar. A simple fact. And more amazing, if we assume 10% of all men are gay (whether they know it or not), perhaps 5 Million men who are physiologically gay saw the kiss.
Even if the numbers are wrong, millions of men actually saw an act of homosexual affection, saw it before they could look away.
What followed was a few seconds of 'cultural compensation'. The two men attempted to act macho by ripping out their chest hair in an attempt to compensate for their socially unacceptable act.
The folks at Snickers have done a wonderful thing, may blessings be upon them. But all blessings have consequences, and all joy has sadness.
We live in a culture of lies, and when one is exposed to us-- when something that touches our vitals-- an image of an execution on the streets of Saigon, or poverty in the dust bowl or Biafra, or death in so many places, we are, in the twinkling of an eye, changed. In an instant the denied reality shines through. And hiding in the midst of a Superbowl commercial was a bit of reality, one denied by a huge fraction of the public in the USA. A shocking truth wrapped in humor.
What about the men who suddenly discovered something about themselves? What comfort will those five million men have? Their lives are topsy. If they are married, they now see themselves living a lie. If they are near one of those highway rest areas, they can destroy themselves, their wives and their families with unsafe, anonymous sex. If they are rich they can hire an escort. If they are not, they can drink themselves to death. Perhaps they can give their lives, or their life savings to organizations that teach hatred. Perhaps they can kill themselves.
Every joy has a sadness.
The gay rights movement did the right thing too. The hooted and hollered about the unfairness of the ad. The complained bitterly about the self-destructive macho behavior that followed the kiss. Why did they do that?
"If I didn't hit ya, he was gonna. And he's a whole lot bigger than me!" I'm not sure what movie that line is from, though I think John Wayne said it to Jimmy Stewart... obviously after Wayne knocked Stewart to the ground. The attack from the gay rights movement was a framing attack. It put the commercial into the news, but it put the second half of the spot on the spot, and robbed the affection-control elements of society from asserting the evil of Snickers' subversive act, for to do so would be to agree with the evil gay rights fringe! Further, it put out the message that one need not react self-destructively, that there is another way.
There is hope.
So we have a story with legs... Did you see the Snickers ad? Did you see those men kiss? Did they really kiss, or was it technically not a real kiss? If the ad had been placed in another event would it have done as much? The Rose Parade? Ellen? Queer Eye? No. There is no place else in the television schedule where a commercial will be seen by more men than the Superbowl. Someone understood that, and exploited it perfectly.
Brokeback Mountain exposed many people to the very existence of men kissing-- normal men-- mechanics and cowboys. But the act itself, and the demonstration of the physiological brain reaction was kept safely away, like the Playgirl covers on the top shelf at the airport, you have to seek them out to see them. Snickers found a way to bring one bit of truth into fifty million middle-American homes, while they were looking.
It was, in fact, brilliant. It was, in fact, a public service. It was, in fact, a blessing.
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
A bit of a party...
Here's a quick update... As I said, last week was the start of the term, and now I'm in the groove. First week, first book down. Last Saturday I took a course in Biblical Research, learning how to read various biblical study tools... good things to know, but it ate up my Saturday. This weekend I don't think there is anything but Feast Night at school.
So Starr King doesn't have a big pile of traditions, but one happened last week, the "Mustache Party". The rule was that everyone had to come with facial hair, or similar. Judging was going to be in 4 categories: Fisherman, Mister Potato Head, Fantasy and overall.
Here I am, being a hairy fisherman:
The costume consisted of ink-jet printed fishing lures, held onto the hat with safety pins. And yes, that's mascara darkening the facial hair.
I came in second in the fisherman category, but, probably out of pity, I won the Mister Potato Head category, and came home with a lovely Sigmund Freud action figure!
Not bad for a 30-minute costume.
So Starr King doesn't have a big pile of traditions, but one happened last week, the "Mustache Party". The rule was that everyone had to come with facial hair, or similar. Judging was going to be in 4 categories: Fisherman, Mister Potato Head, Fantasy and overall.
Here I am, being a hairy fisherman:
The costume consisted of ink-jet printed fishing lures, held onto the hat with safety pins. And yes, that's mascara darkening the facial hair.
I came in second in the fisherman category, but, probably out of pity, I won the Mister Potato Head category, and came home with a lovely Sigmund Freud action figure!
Not bad for a 30-minute costume.
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