the end of the beginning

Within about fifteen minutes of leaving St. Croix on a 45' Africat a devine brown booby with a spectacular yellow beak started following the boat. He was quite magnificent, striking definition between his black head and white chest, a stunningly graceful flyer. He stayed with us the entire trip, swooping across the flybridge and sailing straight out ahead of us, then plunging down to glide along the tops of the waves. He'd disappear for a short while until we thought maybe he had tired of us only to reappear by the flybridge to repeat his performance. He guided us into Charlotte Amalie Harbor, glanced back at us to see if we were following, then when we looked like we knew where we were going he left us to fly back out to sea. A messenger of some sort i thought, he was so beautiful, he had to be.

i sat up top next to the captain and while traveling across the pond he asked me why i was taking a picture of his radar screen. i explained that i liked to take pictures to use in my blog and that i posted every Wednesday. i explained i was trying to save the world, chuckled and said tough job. He said that was noble, better than those not doing anything then he went quiet. He was quiet for a longish bit there then said, "You should title the blog "we are near the end of the beginning." i liked the sound of it and thought OK if i use the picture, i'll use his title.

Look at the picture,(you might have to double click on it to really see it) located on it is a point called the "End". The little boat symbol is where we were when the picture was taken and the "End" was the Yacht Haven marina but only the beginning of a night of great music. "Third World," the reggae band from Jamaica was making an appearance on St. Thomas and we were lucky enough to get invited to go see them.

Plato had this to say about new music...not that reggae is new but you will see where i'm going with this later.

"The introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state, for styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions. ... The new style, gradually gaining a lodgement, quietly insinuates itself into manners and customs, and from it ... goes on to attack laws and constitutions, displaying the utmost impudence, until it ends by overturning everything."

Today, those on the left who backed President Obama's incredible bid back in 2008 are getting to the end of the beginning. Like Plato said ,for some, President Obama's election is imperiling their whole world view. They are fearful of that which is new and different. They don't like change and fight against it daily. The arrival in the White House by President Obama was not the end of the journey to create change. That is happening now as new laws get passed and the end becomes more of a reality.

Closing Guantanamo, moving Kahlid Sheik Mohammad to NY, moving the health insurance bill through the legislative process, working to get out of Iraq and reconsidering our priorities in Afghanistan, finally announcing a deal with China on clean energy this morning these are all processes that get us to our end.

Closing Guantanamo will end some of the off shoring of detainee's captured in this
mess of our own making. While Mohammad's trial may finally expose some of the machinations behind President Bush's "War on Terror." The US-China deal is important because it will drive world and market behavior, regardless of what happens in congress or Copenhagen. While health insurance for all can only positively affect our economy by making our citizens healthier employees and employers and creating a more robust workforce.

It is only after we accomplish these goals that the real beginning can start.

spirit in architecture

Today i'm thinking of an Architect or builder. Architecture and building could be viewed as the expression of the human place in the world. An architect is a designer of buildings that hold different types of people. The builder the vehicle by which the design reaches fruition. The design begins from a concept relying on a stipulated menu of needs. He or she tries to stay within the guidelines and yet impact the final product with imagination and creativity.

All our buildings express our culture and our place amongst humanity. It is our abode, the place where our spirit enriches our present.

i've been trying to articulate a method that would work for everyone and yet still have room for all the many differences we all have and need. Religion does not have room for those that disagree with the dogma...unless you are willing to "believe" or have "faith". If the dogma is presumed to be accurate you may find yourself questioning that which is not supposed to be questioned. Blind acceptance may not be in the cards and you need another venue. This is my venue for talking about our similarities not our differences.


i found a book i never would have bought if it hadn't appeared on my dining room table. It was waiting to be discovered in a box with a whole lot of other books that were meant to have been taken to a resale shop but hadn't made it as yet. The box had been deposited on the table temporarily while the cleaning out of a car occurred.

Being the sort of person that can never let a box of books go unexplored i delved in, finding a few books for myself and for a friend. i put the rejects back in the box and immediately started to peruse my new gems. The one that caught my imagination is called "Between Silence and Light" Spirit in the Architecture of Louis I. Kahn.

i had never heard of him but i liked the title and started reading and came across this quote of his.

Now remember this is an Architect.

"All material in nature, the mountains and the streams and the air and we, are made of Light which has been spent, and this crumpled mass called material casts a shadow, and the shadow belongs to Light.

I felt first of all joyous. I felt that which Joy is made of, and realized that Joy itself must have been the impelling force, that which was there before we were there, and that somehow Joy was in every ingredient of our making. When the world was an ooze without any shape or direction, there must have been this force of Joy that prevailed everywhere and that was reaching out to express. And somehow the word Joy became the most unmeasurable word. It was the essence of creativity, the force of creativity. I realized that if I were a painter about to paint a great catastrophe, I could not put the first stroke on canvas without thinking of Joy in doing it. You cannot make a building unless you are joyously engaged.

I would like to feel that I have not forgotten, nor have you as I speak to you, about the stream of Joy which must be felt. Otherwise, you really don't feel anything. If what I say somehow activates that feeling, I would, of course, be terribly pleased and honored." Louis Kahn
Here at humanity squared this author works for a type of unity and joy that, while supporting group identity at various levels, promotes a wider allegiance to humanity as a whole. i find that for many, humanity as a whole is a concept that is not considered even though we are connected through our economic predilections.

Reading Kahn's piece on Joy one can't help but recognize the universality of his expression. Everything we do starts with being joyously engaged. We just don't always think about it in those terms.

And so today's piece is a shorty.

center of effort

Have you ever been sailing? Or spent anytime just feeling the wind as it hits your body? Living in the islands wind is a constant, it blows day and night and when it doesn't blow things feel down right odd.

Wind typically comes from all directions, but here, it mostly blows out of the east. It cools, sends in the cleansing rains, helps birds on their migrations and massages our senses even while we may be standing still. In a boat it propels us forward and in a storm it conjures up all sorts of melee.

Boat builders and sailors use the term center of effort as the thing that quantifies the point on a sail where all the prevailing driving forces of the wind appear to act to move the boat forward.

Swimmers know this spot as the place where they are perfectly buoyant. Where they are at their best in relation to the water and themselves. Sailors find it by tweaking the sails and paying attention. Others have a spot that they refer to as the core of their being, they work on that spot all the time, becoming one with whatever suits them.

i was out birding yesterday morning and kept hearing a sound that reminded me of a rattlesnake. We don't have snakes on this island so i was mystified. It wouldn't go away and i heard it a lot. The wind would blow a little rustling things up but i never could locate the source or identify who was making the rattlesnake sound. It kept intruding on the bird calls asking to be noticed.

i also found a broken birds egg and photographed it for another blog i'm working on. i've seen loads of broken bird eggs on my travels, this is the first time i've ever actually stopped to photograph one.

Searching for information about center of effort i stumbled upon the Emily Dickinson slant rhyme.

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all.

And thought how interesting. Here it is again, i was looking for Hope yesterday, couldn't find her, but found the poem while looking for wind.

Wind....on Thursday i'm telling a story to a fifth grade class about Aeolus(Keeper of the Winds) who gives Odysseus a bag containing the north, east and south winds so he can sail home to Ithaca safely on the west wind...He almost makes it, he can see Ithaca, and falls asleep, leaving the bag unprotected. While sleeping his sailors cut into the bag thinking Odysseus has been hoarding riches, instead they release the winds and are blown back to where they started..........i decided to look up wind gods and ran across references to a feathered serpent that is found in Aztec, Maya and Hopi religious traditions.

Aha thinks i, didn't i hear a rattlesnake yesterday morning? The search is on.

Quetzalcoatl was one who was revered by the Aztecs and Maya. He was a feathered serpent and was known as a bringer of knowledge and peace. He was also associated with a god of the wind(Ehecatl), to Venus, to the dawn, to merchants, and to arts, crafts and knowledge. He was against human sacrifice and was said to have created the calendar.

i read the whole description, remembering that in my travels through Mexico Quetzalcoatl had fascinated me. For Quetzalcoatl was imbued with a similar return story as that of Jesus. In fact Spanish historians, not Aztecs, had attributed the Aztecs demise to the confusion of thinking Cortes was Quetzalcoatl returned. According to anthropologists this was a fantasy of Cortes and the Spanish, not Moctezuma, who was the Aztec ruler Cortes encountered. Moctezuma never thought Cortes was Quetzalcoatl.

Reading on i came to an entry about the Fifth World and clicked on it to learn more. Its amazing the travels i take trying to research something as simple as wind.

The coming Fifth World (where our present World is presented as the Fourth) is said to arrive following a cycle in nature affecting our entire Solar System, where our Earth births an egg (Mystery Egg, Hidden Egg) and then moves "up" within our system to reach its crowning place. All of the Earth's life is then said to be "raised" to its perfected-eternal form. Some tribes refer to this period of change as "Purification Time." During this period of purification, time is said to change where we must choose between the natural Time we have now upon our Earth (meant for us) and an unnatural time structure which removes us from nature and our opportunity to reach the Fifth World. It is told that everyone will have to choose between the two time frames—one leading to the Fifth World with our Earth, and the other (which will be very alluring, deceiving many) which will remove us from our Earth, taking us to oblivion....Wikipedia

For the Hopi, the end of the fourth world is marked by the arrival of Pahana, or the lost "White Brother." For the Axtecs and Maya Quetzacoatl, for Christians it is the return of Jesus.

For me, my center of effort is to try to exert my time refocusing ourselves away from selfish individualism. To stop waiting for some final redemption or savior. To hammer home that cooperation and non-violence reaps greater rewards for all of us, today, no matter what venue you are practicing it in.

To keep working on this world, the one we live in, the one we can create change in.
Getting blown back to the beginning can happen to all of us. We find our center of effort. Odysseus men made a mistake, it took them longer to get home but they finally made it. We all make mistakes, the key is to re-center, don't panic and take a deep breath. Calming yourself before you act, trying to find that center of effort, may make the difference between further calamity and a successful resolution of the problem. The worlds problems and your problems are here today...they need work today...not tomorrow.

And so i came full circle. A kind of rambling romp. The wind, the rattler, Hope, the poem, the feathered serpent, and the egg.


Break an egg and use the nourishment to help you work on today.

time poverty

Ever hear of the "hurry sickness"? Ever wonder when happiness got tied to commodities? Ever wonder why so many undertake the pursuit of loneliness? Ever wonder why we have been compelled to do more, to move faster, to compete harder?

All across our nation both those with high disposable incomes and those with more average incomes find the demands upon them leave little time for happiness.

Did you know the Japanese have a category that lists death from overwork as a national statistic? The first reported death from overwork was in 1969 and struck a 29 year old male worker in a shipping department. He died from a stroke as the result of over work. As more and more deaths were linked to overwork the Japanese recognized that workers doing twelve or more hours a day, six or seven days a week, year after year, were at a higher risk for death. They determined that working like this held too much evidence of suffering physically as well as mentally.

Working, left little time for anything. Working just to accumulate things led to more stress and a higher risk of dying instead of less.

A friend of a friend had an interesting overwork story. Apparently one day the friend of a friend was experiencing pain in his chest. He decided the prudent thing to do was to go to the emergency room and get checked out immediately. In the hospital while under going the initial questioning the doctors asked him how old he was. He said he was thirty-six and they said, "OH! You probably just have indigestion"......but as they moved along with the questions they asked him what he did for a living. He said he was a hedge fund manager and all hell broke loose. Immediately they went into action, they zipped him in and hooked him and called for more help. He's thinking this is not good what's wrong with me? It turned out the week before they had a young financial fund manager die on them and they were taking no chances.

In Australia researcher's asked the question, "Why, if the economy is doing so well, are Australians not becoming happier?" They argued that over work, over-consumption and consumer debt led to psychological disorders, alienation and distress. (Hamilton and Dennis).

The time they had left over after trying to get everything done meant they had to self medicate just to have some measure of enjoyment.

Work-life balance is a concept that ties "career and ambition on one hand, with pleasure, leisure, family and spiritual development on the other."

Today in our fast paced society we are inundated with performance as a measure of worth and happiness. The consumer edict tells us that we can't be happy unless we are able to purchase all those baubles, houses and cars waiting on seller's shelves everywhere. It tells us that we are not equal or good enough unless we have them. Performance as a measure of self worth creates a constant stream of increased stress as we strive to reach some pinnacle that keeps getting higher.

Beginning in the 1920s, advertisers persuaded Americans that happiness would not come from leisure time, but from purchasing commodities. So if you worked longer hours you could buy more. Today the average number of hours Americans presently work each week is the highest it has been in nearly seventy-five years.

Eighty percent of men and 62% of women put in more than 40 hours a week on the job. Americans work longer hours than medieval peasants did. Nearly one in five workers now spends more than 50 hours per week at work.

Some view recreation or the pursuit of leisure time as an aspect of life that is unproductive. However research has shown that recreation and leisure have positive health benefits that accrue over time. Slowing down can be advantageous to your overall health.

Around the world the Slow Down Movement is gaining momentum. Professor Guttorm Fløistad summarizes the philosophy, stating:

The only thing for certain is that everything changes. The rate of change increases. If you want to hang on you better speed up. That is the message of today. It could however be useful to remind everyone that our basic needs never change. The need to be seen and appreciated! It is the need to belong. The need for nearness and care, and for a little love! This is given only through slowness in human relations. In order to master changes, we have to recover slowness, reflection and togetherness. There we will find real renewal.

There is an interesting talk about slowing down on TED
http://www.ted.com/talks/carl_honore_praises_slowness.html


i'll leave you with two questions to ponder while you also try to slow down.

One...does excessive pursuit of money and materialism come at a substantial cost to our own lives and to the lives of our families?

And Two.... does this link in with an ever greater degree of violence in our society which can be an indicator of the levels of stress we aren't able to deal with?

one turned to another

Income inequality has been a hot issue of late and i thought that was the topic i was supposed to write on today. i did lots of research about the disparity, read historical reports, started to structure the essay.....and then decided i needed a break. Upon further investigation i understood that income inequality was not even included in what i am to write about.

During that break i got down the New King James version of the Holy Bible. Sometimes i let the book open, read the two pages and go on about whatever pursuit i'm on that particular day. Other days i pop open some novel i loved or the Hebrew texts or a book by the Dalai Lama. Today, the book opened to Matthew Chapter 6. i read it while eating nuts and began to wonder how the Catholic Bible compared.

Since my indoctrination was with the Catholic Bible and i don't have one, i went on line to read Matthew Chapter 6 and was struck by the difference between the two.

Most reading here know that the King James Bible is an English translation of the Christian Bible (based upon the Latin Vulgate)that was begun in 1604 and completed in 1611 during the reign of King James I of England. Certain Greek and Hebrew words were to be translated in a manner that reflected the traditional usage of the Church of England. For example, old ecclesiastical words such as the word "church" were to be retained and not to be translated as "congregation". The new translation would reflect the episcopal structure of the Church of England and traditional beliefs about ordained clergy. In places where the original language employed repetition, they tended to enliven their text with stylistic variation, finding multiple English words or verbal forms.

"In 1975 The New King James Bible was being worked upon by 68 prominent Baptists and a few conservative Presbyterians with the full version being printed in 1982. The aim being to update the vocabulary and grammar. One of the criticisms of the King James Bible is that it is based solely upon the ancient texts available during the time of King James and not on earlier manuscripts and documents which have since been discovered." Wikipedia

The Catholic Bible on the other hand came down from the apostles writings themselves which no longer exist. The papyrus dissolved over time. Some where around 383 St. Jerome translated the New Testament from Greek into Latin and over 16 years translated the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin. Chapter and verse divisions are not found in the oldest manuscripts of the Bible, and there is evidence that the early Hebrew writers did not even separate the words of the text, following a Hebrew tradition that Moses recited the Law as one continuous word. In the commentaries of the Hebrew Old Testament i learned that Moses had taught a student all the oral stories. This pupil could recite them forwards and backwards at any time for Moses and others while Moses was alive. But once Moses died, in his grief, he forgot the stories and the elders put together the pieces through exegesis. i was very surprised to learn this while reading.

i decided that i would place the translations from the New Version of the King James and the Catholic Bible together.

Matthew Chapter 6.....the lessons in black are the Catholic Bible and the lessons in Blue are the New King James .
i switched the last one as i was partial to having the Catholic phrase last. As you read through you will see there is not much difference....just as there is not much difference between all of us.

1 'Be careful not to parade your uprightness in public to attract attention; otherwise you will lose all reward from your Father in heaven.
1 "Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2 So when you give alms, do not have it trumpeted before you; this is what the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win human admiration. In truth I tell you, they have had their reward.
2 Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
3 But when you give alms, your left hand must not know what your right is doing;
3 But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
4 your alms giving must be secret, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.
4 that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.
5 'And when you pray, do not imitate the hypocrites: they love to say their prayers standing up in the synagogues and at the street corners for people to see them. In truth I tell you, they have had their reward.
5 "And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
6 But when you pray, go to your private room, shut yourself in, and so pray to your Father who is in that secret place, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.
6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
7 'In your prayers do not babble as the gentiles do, for they think that by using many words they will make themselves heard.
7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.
8 Do not be like them; your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
8 "Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.
9 So you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be held holy,
9 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us.
12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.
13 And do not put us to the test, but save us from the Evil One.
13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.
14 'Yes, if you forgive others their failings, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours;
14 "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 but if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failings either.
15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
16 'When you are fasting, do not put on a gloomy look as the hypocrites do: they go about looking unsightly to let people know they are fasting. In truth I tell you, they have had their reward.
16 "Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
17 But when you fast, put scent on your head and wash your face,
17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
18 so that no one will know you are fasting except your Father who sees all that is done in secret; and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.
18 so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
19 'Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moth and woodworm destroy them and thieves can break in and steal.
19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;
20 But store up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor woodworm destroys them and thieves cannot break in and steal.
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For wherever your treasure is, there will your heart be too.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 'The lamp of the body is the eye. It follows that if your eye is clear, your whole body will be filled with light.
22 "The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.
23 But if your eye is diseased, your whole body will be darkness. If then, the light inside you is darkened, what darkness that will be!
23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
24 'No one can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or be attached to the first and despise the second. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.
24 "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
25 'That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and what you are to wear. Surely life is more than food, and the body more than clothing!
25 "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are?
26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27 Can any of you, however much you worry, add one single cubit to your span of life?
27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 And why worry about clothing? Think of the flowers growing in the fields; they never have to work or spin;
28 "So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;
29 yet I assure you that not even Solomon in all his royal robes was clothed like one of these.
29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Now if that is how God clothes the wild flowers growing in the field which are there today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will he not much more look after you, you who have so little faith?
30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 So do not worry; do not say, "What are we to eat? What are we to drink? What are we to wear?"
31 "Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?' or ‘What shall we drink?' or ‘What shall we wear?'
32 It is the gentiles who set their hearts on all these things. Your heavenly Father knows you need them all.
32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33 Set your hearts on his kingdom first, and on God's saving justice, and all these other things will be given you as well.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
34 So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.'

a simple prescription for all mankind

i was reading a piece that was put out by a Catholic Archdiocese in the states. Pope Benedict XVI was asking Catholics to give generously this year to the church's missionary agencies.

The Pope claimed that sending out missionaries to evangelize was part of the Catholic spirit and reflected the church's vitality. He said

"I mention especially the local churches and the men and women missionaries who bear witness to and spread the kingdom of God in situations of persecution, subjected to forms of oppression ranging from social discrimination to prison, torture and death,"

"Even today," he added, "missionaries are put to death for their evangelization work, joining the ranks of missionary martyrs through the centuries."

What is wrong here? No one should die spreading the word of the AllOne.

Pope Benedict strongly defended the fundamental missionary task to call all people to salvation in Christ.

"The task of evangelizing all people constitutes the essential mission of the church, a duty and a mission which the widespread and profound changes in present-day society render ever more urgent. At stake is the eternal salvation of persons, the goal and the fulfillment of human history and the universe," he said.

"The church should make clear that it wishes to transform the world by proclaiming the Gospel of love and by spreading hope "contagiously" among all peoples, he said. He emphasized that the church evangelizes not in order to extend its own power or dominion, but to serve humanity, "especially the suffering and the excluded."

As a lapsed Catholic i find his emphasis on claiming that this wasn't about power or dominion or indoctrination questionable. i spent years being indoctrinated, i spent years watching the church spread its tentacles everywhere, years worrying that we were all doomed and years listening to the pleas for money to continue this "work".

In the past, on this blog, i have written about Speakers. Speakers from every culture and regions of the world that talk to their own. Jesus was a Speaker, Buddha was a Speaker, Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and all whose names i know not or have forgotten to mention, all were and are Speakers in favor of social justice. None of them wanted church's, temple's, or mosque's built that would enshrine their words of wisdom, bring in untold millions of dollars and make them icons. What they wanted was for mankind to emulate what they taught. To spread the teaching in a way that would benefit all of mankind.

Unfortunately, their actions became constrained by writer's who followed them. The main message became lost in all the text, worship, congregating, and tithing to keep the operations going.

Today's speakers that are not connected to any religion come out with a simple message, the one that has been passed down since the dawn of man. The one that is common to all religions and all peoples. The one that continues to get lost amongst the effort to create conformity.

The simple message is to be truthful and trustworthy, to respect and help our neighbors, to honor our families, and to put a stop to our bad deeds and endless fighting. The message is to look after those in need and do not slander or speak evil of women or men. To pray privately, to give to what ever cause moves you. There are no rituals, no dogma, no edifice to build or maintain, no dues to pay, community is that of which you create or that of which you belong.

You need no faith to understand this. No belief you must accept. Eternal salvation is not a reward for following dogma.

You are, always have been, and will continue to be even upon death a part of the AllOne.

the self proclaimed pesky guest(who i love) and the guide!

i love having company. St. Croix is a wonderful island to show off and we do show off whenever we have visitors. Leading someone through the unknown, especially a pesky guest, can be full of trials and tribulations...but not usually. We sus them out, figure out what they enjoy and then try to accommodate their needs so they will come back. We want them to visit again and again so we try to feed them the gems. Of course we always keep more in reserve for that next trip.

Because there hasn't been a whole lot of time to write this week, darn that pesky guest, i've decided to put up a few nature pictures.
We have spent a lot of time eating, chatting, playing at the beach, hiking, touring around, swimming and taking pictures so here we go.

At Sandy Point we had a Little Blue Heron that was very accommodating. It was almost as if he wanted to have his picture taken. Its not a great shot as we have been hit with "dirty air" from South America which is creating hazy conditions.


The crab on the rock is but a shadow of his former self. i actually placed this abandoned skin here as that pesky guest had considered taking it back home. i thought a picture might work better.






The blue brain coral is how it looks when the algae has left and it is gasping for life. It is a beautiful color but sad none the less.



Underwater photos are really hard to take. Our pesky guest has an underwater camera and let me play with it...so now you have to suffer through my learning phase. Hopefully sometime in the future they will have much more clarity, when i have time to practice with one of my own.
Green and Hawksbill turtles are common in the islands. This one is a green that stayed around long enough to get a quick shot.







Sargent Majors mingling under the pier are great subjects, but they won't hold still. Putting that focus on one and hoping you are holding the camera steady enough in swelly water is a feat. i had a lot of blurry ones that were deleted.





St. Croix still has areas that have remained relatively unspoiled. How much longer that will be the case is anyone's guess. At Will's Bay below there is a major hotel slated to go into the valley just before the baths. With the economic climate not as conducive as it was to development maybe this pristine place will get some breathing room.



Pesky guests love going places that are not crowded. It gets them in touch with the beautiful side of nature and makes for great photo ops!

music junkie

i'm a music junkie and thought it had been too long since i've posted a list of bands i'm listening to at the moment. Since the moment is constantly changing this list will not be indicative of my future tastes.

But for now you might want to check out:

Amadou and Mariam.....Welcome to Mali
Muse....The Resistance
Monsters of Folk....Monsters of Folk
David Grey.....Draw the Line
The xx.....xx
MGMT......Oracular Spactacular
Mason Jennings.....Blood of Man
Three Days Grace....Life Starts Now
The Rural Alberta Advantage....Hometowns

I don't like all the songs on all the albums...but find a way through, there is lots of good there. Lala.com is a fun place to listen to music.

i'm also a book junkie and although i haven't been reading much lately these were good.

Breakfast with Buddha...Roland Merullo
My Stroke of Insight....Jill Bolte Taylor
The Sparrow....Mary Doria Russell
I Am A Strange Loop....Douglas Hofstadter

The Century Plant is going through a metamorphosis. Most of the little plantlets that grew on the cut down stalk have spread out and fallen off. The shoot that came out a while ago had a partner that joined it. They both grew straight up with slight curves and then bent over to the west together. They have flowered together and i'm still watching them to see what is next. They are beautiful. The stalk is dying off and it will be interesting to see what is left in its place. All the little followers i imagine

Hope the bird is most amazing. Her flight of 3,500 continuous miles is a record for Whimbrels. She is still here, 46 days and counting. She has stayed longer than the researchers in Virginia thought she would. There was another Whimbrel that landed in the Dominican Republic but she only stayed two weeks and flew on to South America. She was released in Virginia in September and came straight to the Caribbean so hasn't been traveling as long as Hope.

My friend and i are the only ones to have seen Hope on St. Croix. We have seen her 3 times now and every time its as if it never happened. She is very skittish, has a lovely loud cry and i imagine because of that transmitter she is carrying she won't let us get too close. We also had a flagged Ruddy Turnstone that we are trying to find out where it came from. This time of year is a wonderful time for birding. i'm constantly amazed at how far these small creatures travel just to survive.

As most of you know i'm a believer in defensive war only, i don't believe in Just Wars there is no such thing. i think Guantanamo should be closed, we should be out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and those responsible for creating an environment where torture was tolerated and even condoned should be held accountable. i believe in universal health care and think we as a nation can do much better for those living within our borders.

Andrew Sullivan in the October issue of Atlantic Monthly has a four page letter that he wrote to President Bush. It is one of the most eloquent pieces i have read in a long, long time. He comes from a conservative background and expounds on those things he agreed with during the Bush administration. Many things i don't agree with but that is beside the point. He speaks to Bush in a respectful manner which many have lost the capacity to do in this day and age, and he speaks truth.

A very dear friend put me on to this piece and i'm putting the link here because everyone should read it. Please set aside some time from your hectic lives as this is very important.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200910/bush-torture


And finally aren't clouds the most pretty, handsome, good looking, alluring, prepossessing, delightful, bewitching, elegant, drop-dead gorgeous, easy on the eyes creations to look upon. All the color changes they go through as the sun rises and sets just makes my heart glow. My mother lives in Southern California and once said she was sick and tired of blue skies. "Blue, blue, blue" she said, "I've had enough." She longed for a billowy white cloud to look at. Well we have loads of them here taking all shapes and sizes. Hiding all sorts of messages. Look up and enjoy them. If you double click on the cloud pic you will find two rainbows.

e.e.cummings once said:
"We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit."

mass observations

i've been reading a bit about a woman called Nella who participated in a civilian writing project in Great Britain during and after WWII. The idea behind the writing project was to enlist ordinary citizens to keep a diary. A written record so to speak of how they were experiencing every day events in their part of Great Britain.

Nella was a housewife and began writing in 1939 as part of a larger group of diarists. Her diaries covered everything we all encounter during the course of our lives and one reviewer of a book that was later published by her said, "it's about tiny domestic difficulties and lumpy custard." But it wasn't just about tiny difficulties, it was about everything happening in a neighborhood during War.

The project she was involved with was called the Mass Observation project. A term, that at least to me, smacks of surveillance. Too bad it wasn't called something else more palatable because the idea is actually a very good method to include personal ordinary histories in the greater scheme of the major aspects of historical accounts. The original aim was "to create an "anthropology of ourselves".

There is a web site dedicated to making available testimonies that were collected during that time and two of Nella Lasts books are available at Amazon. Many of the diarists wrote about "the coronation of George VI to peoples drinking habits in Bolton pubs, to sex and boredom, the themes covered are quite diverse." The project continued into the 1950's but was then disbanded, it started up again in the 1980's. If you want more information you can find it here:
http://www.massobs.org.uk/index.htm

Having majored in Anthropology this whole exercise in writing by large groups of people spread out over a nation is fascinating. Just the idea of pulling so many stories together into an archive that can be accessed far into the future is wonderful. Imagine the cultural historians, anthropologists, and scientists looking for information on numerous topics from that time period. No longer do they have to guess or unearth deposits...they have it available on the net.

i've been wondering if something like this could be started in the Virgin Islands?

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i'm still on the health reform conversation and probably won't be able to let it go. There are a number of objections that seem to always rear their ugly heads during this debate. Taxes which i addressed in my other piece still grabs everyone so here is a bit more on that subject.

i want to ask you politely, is it our priority to place the funding of our military industrial complex over the values of the American people? Are we really a Christian nation?

"The U.S. military is unmatched. Since 2001, total U.S. defense spending has increased by nearly 80 Percent. Furthermore, we are spending more on defense than all of the other countries of the world combined. Combined. 56 percent of the entire discretionary budget for fiscal year 2010 will be used to fund the defense department."

"The global reach of the US military today is unprecedented and unparalleled. Officially, more than 190,000 troops and 115,000 civilian employees are massed in approximately 900 military facilities in 46 countries and territories (the unofficial figure is far greater). The US military owns or rents 795,000 acres of land, with 26,000 buildings and structures, valued at $146bn. The bases bristle with an inventory of weapons whose worth is measured in the trillions and whose killing power could wipe out all life on earth several times over. These figures do not include Iraq and Afghanistan." Thom Hartman

Really check out this web site to see where your taxes go....to me it looks like there is lots of room for a public option without breaking the bank if we re-evaluate who we are as a nation.
http://www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm

And finally, i don't understand why we would rather spend $4 on insurance premiums to save $1 on taxes? Because you know the premiums will go up if nothing is done.

Another big issue is Malpractice and Tort Reform. An article up yesterday titled "Medical Mal Practice Breeds More Waste" stated that:

The direct costs of malpractice lawsuits — jury awards, settlements and the like — are such a minuscule part of health spending that they barely merit discussion, economists say. But that doesn't mean the malpractice system is working.

There is a lot of good stuff in this article about tort reform and malpractice
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/business/economy/23leonhardt.html?em if this debate does interest you get educated.

And finally that issue of government can't run anything but all those failing industries can.

Consider this:
The health insurance industry has a 30% administrative overhead compared to 3% government's(Medicare/Medicaid)? Simplistically we could assume that the health industry is 27 % less efficient than the Government. The Government is actually the solution because they are better managed than the private insurance cartels.

And what about the personal health bankruptcy's? Sick people made a choice to run up all those bills in order to retain their health or life, right? Getting sick, that's a choice, right?

And so i end with a quote by Maurice Maeterlinck:
"At every crossroads on the path that leads to the future, tradition has placed 10,000 men to guard the past."

bird banding

For the past three mornings i have been helping to band birds. We use mist nets that we set up in areas known to have a variety of indigenous and migrating birds. This time we set the nets up at the Sandy Point Refuge.

Birds fly into the nets which are strung up between aluminum poles. (Double click on the image to the left for a better view) Once a bird gets stuck in the net they become frantic trying to get out, so every 15 minutes we do a pass by and collect whomever has had the misfortune to get caught. We put them in bags to calm them down and take them back to the data tent. Here we put a band on their leg, measure their beak, wing and tail, check the brood patch and whether they are molting or not. Then we release them back into the wild.

Doing this type of work with people who challenge, encourage and teach one another to reach a higher level of expertise is wonderful. All along the way we have to cooperate and include each other to protect the birds and get the job done as quickly and painlessly as possible.

If there had been any one of us that didn't try to be inclusive, speak kindly, or acknowledge the others it could have been a miserable three days.

Lucky for us we worked well together.

Although this is my second time banding i was thinking about how the teaching was done without criticism. Teaching without criticism reinforced the lessons learned and kept the environment calm and productive. Everyone reached out to help any one else that was having a problem removing a bird from the net, trying to get a band on a squirmy leg, or just doing the simple measurements and jotting down data. All of us changed roles and participated in every aspect of the banding job.

If any one of us had been self absorbed, or thinking they didn't need help it would have been a nightmare. Which brings me to my point today.

Those that believe the individual is solely responsible for eventual outcomes are deluding themselves. Team work gets the job done quicker and more efficiently. Even if a leader sets out achievable goals they may not meet those goals if the group can't work together.

Which brings me to children. Raising children to think only of themselves and that they are self sufficient and only responsible for themselves makes for difficult adults later in life. People avoid them and it impacts the final product. Incivility does have tangible costs in the workplace and can be a major deterrent to getting anything done.

Peggy Tabor Millin wrote a short piece on interacting that I found in a book about civility. The image of the raindrops remains with me and may with you after you read this.

"I was on a train on a rainy day. The train was slowing down to pull into a station. For some reason I became intent on watching the raindrops on the window. Two separate drops, pushed by the wind, merged into one for a moment and then divided again--each carrying with it a part of the other. Simply by that momentary touching, neither was what it had been before. And as each one went to touch other raindrops, it shared not only itself, but what it had gleaned from the other. I saw this metaphor many years ago and it is one of my most vivid memories. I realized then that we never touch people so lightly that we do not leave a trace. Our state of being matters to those around us, so we need to become conscious of what we unintentionally share so we can learn to share with intention."

How can any one of us ignore the amount of interacting we do on a daily basis? If we are civil to each other the possibility of misunderstanding is reduced when we have a clear sense of our impact. Do not go mindlessly about your business, stay present and try to understand how you affect others.





PS Hope is still here on St. Croix. She is still at Great Pond, moving around, eating and sleeping. It has been a month now and maybe she will stay with us until she returns to the mainland. We have seen her since the first time with another Whimbrel and are glad to see she has company.
i will let you know if anything changes.

bounded rationality

According to Herbert Simon most people are only partly rational and are in fact emotional/irrational in the remaining parts of their lives. Most of us can't process or compute the results of every alternative action and find ourselves coping with the limited information available to make decisions.

When the decisions seem too large to solve we shut down. We stop thinking about it and go on about our lives. This is happening all across America as citizens shut down their minds when contemplating government involvement in health insurance.

So since this topic concerns all members of American society and i'm pro government involvement. Here is part of a case for endorsement of a public option.

Taxes....Insurance companies have the power to tax and they tax the public mightily. When 20% - 30% of payments do not go to health care, but to denying care and profiting from it, that constitutes a tax on the 96% of voters that have health care. But the tax does not go to benefit those who are taxed; it benefits managers and investors. And the people taxed have no representation. Insurance company health care is a huge example of taxation without representation. And you can't vote out the people who have taxed you. The American Plan offers an alternative to private taxation.

Doctors care; insurance companies don't. An American plan aims to put care back into the hands of doctors.

Economics....we are losing our competitive advantage. Our corporations and small business are saddled with astronomical health insurance costs and as a consequence make our products and services more expensive and less competitive. The capacity to innovate, having a sophisticated business culture, effective public services, excellent infrastructure and well-functioning goods markets are key indicators of a thriving economy. Why is it Europe and Asia are increasing their employment roles while we are falling behind, they all have universal health care? Could the ridiculously high cost of health care in American have anything to do with why American firms are not hiring?

Government has two moral missions: protection (of consumers, workers, the environment, the old, the sick, the powerless; and empowerment( through public works; communication, energy, and water systems; education; banks that work; a court system: and so on.) Without them, no one makes it in America. Taxes are what you pay for protection and empowerment by the government, and the more you make the greater your responsibility to maintain the system.

When you fight against a public option you are not fighting for freedom of medical choice you are fighting for insurance company profits. The CEO's of the major insurance companies said in the congressional hearings recently that they would continue to deny care. They will deny you care that you believe you have paid for, why would anyone support this?

Countries with universal care admit there are problems...we admit there are huge problems here in the US.......nothing is ever perfect...but they would never dismantle their universal care.......they would improve it. Unlike us who want the same dysfunctional system to continue just so government doesn't have a hand in it. Crazy logic when there are other countries all over the world experiencing better care, better economies, higher standards of living etc. than we get.

Constitution
Art. I, Section 8 states:

"The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States."

That means that Congress can tax and spend for whatever it chooses, including health care, highways, and bridges, unless another part of the constitution forbids it (for example, the 1st amendment bars Congress from spending money for religious activities). So the question really should be, where does the constitution forbid Congress from passing health care reform?
We are already adversely impacted by our "insurance company free enterprise". Here are a few adverse impacts.
1) We spend more on healthcare than any other industrialized nation. If we don't reverse this trend, 20% of our GDP will go to healthcare within the next 10 years.

(2) The US healthcare system ranks 37th in overall performance, and 72nd based on health outcomes.

(3) The Center for American Progress forecasts the cost of the average family insurance policy will skyrocket from $13,000 today to over $22,000 by 2019.

(4) Our businesses - yes, American businesses - cannot compete globally because they are burdened by the high cost of providing healthcare to employees.

(5) Medical debt is the principal cause of bankruptcy in the United States.

(6) People are literally dying, either because they can't afford healthcare, or, because their insurers are denying coverage.

(7) The current healthcare system is economically unsustainable and will lead to the financial ruin of us all.

Status quo: If you oppose health care reform don't think you don't support a health care plan. You do. It's called the status quo. To help you understand what you support let's look at the status quo as if it were an actual bill.
Under the ‘status quo' plan a few for profit conglomerates will squeeze out all competition and run the most expensive and least efficient health care system in the world. As a nation we will spend $2.5 trillion dollars a year to receive health care worth $912 billion dollars. The cost per family for insurance will average $22,000 a year as compared to less than $2000 a year in Canada. This plan will rank 37th in outcomes and 24th in life expectancy. It will gobble up 20% of the GDP but in the coming years will rise at 3 times the rate of inflation sending the nation into bankruptcy. It will leave 45 to 50 million people uninsured and drop 15,000 people a day from its roles. 18,000 people will die from this insurance program each year (or 50 a day) because they can't afford health insurance and can't get the treatment they need. Under this program 2/3 of all personal bankruptcies will be health cost related. If you have paid your premiums on time all your life, you are as likely to be dropped by your private insurance company when you need life-saving care as you are to get treated.

The most important asset for a country is a healthy population. i don't understand why we don't want to invest in that?

And finally.......... Christianity demands more from those fortunate enough to be wealthy, and it demands social justice(affordable health care). Social justice does not mean tax cuts for the wealthy, who can then CHOOSE to give to the poor. It means that we take care of our poorest first. If we give money to the poor, they spend it, all of it, and it trickles up to the wealthy.

We want SMART government that will be there for those who need it. – NOT for those who take advantage of it, regardless of whether the one taking advantage is rich or poor.

clean that dirty water

Human Beings get pretty raunchy if we go days or even a week without cleaning our body. Today, if you didn't wash, friends and enemies would smell you coming and get out of the way so as not to assault their olfactory glands. In fact, if you aren't clean the chances of being shunned by those around you rises exponentially.

We all have active odor receptive genes that kick into high gear when something is not hosed down or emits a rank odor. Smells that are offensive explain our dedication to trying to keep a modicum of cleanliness. We enjoy clean bodies, hair and surroundings.

We spend large sums of money annually cleaning up our lives after making messes.

We don't all do ritual cleaning but it is a mainstay in many religions and typically involves the use of water in some manner. Sweat lodges, standing under waterfalls, bathing in rivers, washing the feet, hands and face, pouring water over the heads of babies and full ritual immersion before interacting with a god of any sort are part and parcel of religious traditions world wide.

Cleaning goes on in nature as well. Mother Nature uses snow, hurricanes, tornados, fire, floods, wind and rain to clean out debris and let new life begin. Animals, reptiles, birds and insects all perform some type of cleaning ritual, be it on their bodies or in their homes. Everything on this earth gets cleansed in some manner during its lifetime.

We here in the Virgin Islands are in for some annual cleaning out. It is hurricane season. Historically September and October bring on the rains and the hurricanes and it cleans things out to say the least.

This is going to be short...but i want you all to think about cleaning out your minds. Clean out all the pre-conceived notions you have been packed with since child birth. Clear the slate and look at your fellow human beings, as equals first............... Equals................Greet everyone as an equal.

Practice looking at everyone you encounter through out the day with no added baggage concerning their dress, their manner of speech, their intellectual level, their wealth or lack of wealth, their weight, their skin, their hair, their eyes, their color, their affectations and on and on.

Practice seeing them first as equals, clean out your mind, and relate to them as a human being first.

Thank you ahead of time to all of you that try this.