flamingo tongue snail

Open the door to a dark house and what do you do first? 

Flip on the "light." 

Why?

Because we need to "see".

The use of illuminating light started when pre-historic man discovered how to create fire at will.  Up until that point lighting up anything was solely a function of nature.  Lightning lit up the night skies, lightning bugs flittered amongst the trees leaving the glow of light behind and fires started by lightning lit up vast areas. The only problem with fire was, man couldn't control it, but he sure wanted to for fire could be very destructive.

As man learned the intricacies of cooking and lighting his caves with fire he put more thought to lighting up his residence during the night.  Torches were created from bundles of sticks.  Torches could be placed anywhere  and could easily be transported but still posed a danger when they burned down to the end.  Myths were created around the use of fire and Gods took shape to explain the questions. 

Eventually, the use of fire created a desire to control the darkness more consistently.  Fire had a tendency to burn itself out, so man started experimenting with burning things other than wood.  Animal grease was a natural progression.  Soon stones, shells and horns were filled with grease and a wick and caught on fire.  Archaeologists discovered these pre-historic oil lamps dating back as far as 15,000 years so we know darkness had been conquered long ago.

As man progressed to a more agrarian society light took on more and more meaning.  Artificial light, possessed by the wealthy in the form of fats and oils, would ordinarily be consumed by the poor, but revered none the less.

Some cultures worshiped the sun, understanding that light was necessary for things to grow.  The Egyptian sun god Ra created the first divine couple, Shu and Tefnut, who are the parents of the earth and sky.  Man was born from the tears of Ra, created from his flesh and in his image,
while the earth was created to provide care and support for mankind.  Hmmmm... sounds familiar?

Light is composed of waves and particles but there is actually no way to simultaneously find both the position and path of the particle.  Light surrounds us and nurtures everything we need to grow, so it stands to reason that it would be revered.  We are part of the light. We need it for life.

This morning, while swimming, the sun was refracting through the water.  In the Caribbean it is a beautiful sight.  One that imprisons you in light beams that undulate, tremble and palpitate upon your very core.  If you take a moment to relish the experience the light leads you to explore the entire underwater world.  All sizes of fish, turtles and mammals, flash and flick their bodies...coral, sea fans, sand, everything moving and immobile is pinpointed in the beams as you move through the water.  You are focused on the all and the connection through the light.  It is truly a spiritual experience.

Flamingo tongue on a purple sea fan from Arcadin Islands, Haiti.

Philosophers, scientists, shamans, rabbis, imans, preachers and probably every human being alive has at some point considered "light" and its effect on us.  Sunsets, sunrises, rainbows, light reflections in ponds or any body of water are immortalized in poems, literature and religious texts.  People who have had near death experiences tell us they have seen the light and come back to talk about it.

"Curiously enough, the message from all of those who have encountered the light and returned is the same. All of the beings of light are in firm agreement, and they tell the dying: Stay on Earth and resist the transcendental temptation; focus on life not death; use your human powers of love and compassion in work to make this material world-the world of the here and now and the world we all inhabit-a better world, the best world it can possibly be. This is the one thing on which all of us-the believer and the skeptic-can unanimously agree. This is the true light we all should see."
Robert Baker

St. Croix, VI Three Kings Day Parade 2010

This flower is so beautiful I had to post it for everyone to enjoy.  It should have been in the parade!

I started taking pictures where the groups were lining up.  Much easier to get closeups when the crowd is thin!

Everyone parades...mama's, kids, dads and even grandparents. Check out the 4  grannies below strut their stuff!  The music is loud and the crowd dances along, it starts late, goes slow, slow, slow and doesn't end till after dark.  It is the slowest parade ever.  Some parade goers lack patience and walk the route passing the masqueraders as they wait their turn to perform in front of the grandstand.  It is an all day affair but worth it in so many ways.  If you have never been it is time to come to the islands and experience a Cruzian Christmas the best in the world.  And that's just my opinion.

donkey races

All those vices you tried to hang up are auditioning for a major performance on New Years Eve. The audience is ready, the director has given you the lines, go out and do your best. Let those vices perform, let them do it with a bang, give them the stage to enjoy the applause they so desperately crave, for this is the last chance you have to do all the things you want to stop.

Eat, drink and be merry for the dawning of New Years Day will arrive with a rasher of Do Nots.

Do not eat that fatty food, do not over indulge in tobacco or alcohol. Do not go back to your couch potato ways, get up, get out and exercise. Every year millions of people all over the country list their do nots for the New Year. They will be better people, they won't argue, they will work harder, they will be more understanding and it all starts soon, midnight December 31st.

On stage this year are some philosophical musings.

One guy Peter from England says: "My New Year's resolution is to live until I'm one hundred and twenty six. I haven't broken the resolution yet and it's currently day 5. I'm doing well.

Another one said: "Write down your mistakes in the previous year (2008) and any bad habits you may have picked up - aim to improve your life throughout the New Year by avoiding your errors. I've been following this since 2000 he says and the bad habit list is growing.

Oscar Wilde said: "To never give into anything except temptation and to read more."

Faye of the USA says "I think New Year's resolutions help us to define areas in our lives that need some improvement. If their only virtue is an admission of our faults, and a wish to improve ourselves, they are worth making even if they only last a few hours."


Gareth in the UK said "This year I have decided to give up completely."


All those dreams and drastic changes need more preparation than a New Years Eve resolution.

i've never been one to make New Years Resolutions. There is something so wrong about picking that one day out of 365 to change anything about your person. And what if you fail...what if you start out with all these good intentions and within days are back doing what you have sworn off for life?

Later, when you look back, you have not only failed, but it will make you feel bad on top of it.

So there goes the self esteem, out the window on a rash decision to make a New Years Resolution.

So this year swear off resolutions.

According to a study done by Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire 78% of those polled failed to keep their resolutions. Wiseman asked 700 people about their strategies for achieving new year resolutions only to find the majority of the respondents had failed to keep them.

So give it up, enjoy the New Year, don't make any resolutions you can't keep. Have fun, laugh lots and enjoy your friends and family.

Happy New Year

Happy Holidays

i went to see an impossible fantasy last night, a movie that left a friend longing to live on the depicted planet. "Avatar" is a movie that created a wonderful escape into a way of life many of us could wish for here. "Avatar" lived up to its billing and i would recommend it to any one that loves a good science fiction movie.

The writers create a chimera(which has been used to describe real-life entities that arise or are created as amalgams of previously separate entities) that moves between the human culture and the indigenous on planet Pandora. The irony of naming a planet after a woman who released all the evils on the world becomes abundantly clear as the movie takes shape. i would tell you to go just for the special effects. The mixing of water world entities with earth-bound physicalities in ways not allowed in our world was a fantastic use of the artist's imagination. But the unification of Pandora's inhabitants with the world they lived on is something many of us here might love to experience. Ahhhh the joys of the fantastic.

But playing the role of the gatekeeper i will restrain further flows of information about the movie so as not to spoil it for you.

Just go.

Friday is Christmas. The end of the build up that has been going on everywhere for almost two months now. Since most Americans appear to overemphasize spending and superficiality at the expense of spirituality Friday will be the culmination of an intense shopping binge.

All of us, be we religious or secular, enjoy the coming together, the festive food and the break from the work routine. It is a time of year when we can let our hair down and just fall in love with everything, if we allow ourselves that option.

This universe we live in is wondrous even without faith in a divine plan. Having a holiday to celebrate together is so much fun. This is the best time of the year in the islands. We all shut down to party and commune with each other.

This Holiday Season i'm thinking about what a magical and amazing place Earth can be when we all celebrate how improbable things can happen, Santa coming down the chimney for instance.

There is a great children's book about Santa Claus(The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Julie Lane)that brings tears to my eyes every time i read it to a child. It is one of the most heartwarming stories i think i have ever read. It describes an orphan who is passed around from family to family in a Northern European village, because no one family has the resources to keep him full time. As he grows, he adds more people he loves to his extended family. He slowly starts making tiny gifts and leaves them in stockings on the doors during the dead of night. He evolves into the Santa we all thought we knew and loved as children only to find out later he never existed. But this Santa is real, his love is real, and the love for him from adults and children is real.

The nature of the human mind is to question and as children we are taught to question Santa's reality. i think we should be reminded of humanity's great questions at least once a year. At some point in our lives we question the meaning of our world and our existence. In doing so, we examine religious beliefs and philosophies of different cultures; we look at literature's and the artistic expressions of the people of the world; we study languages, create works of art and perform music and plays.

What, if anything, can be known with certainty?

Questioning can be as simple as having a successful confrontation with human suffering, or questioning to find the answer to life's roadblocks.

Remember that cruelty hardens and degrades while kindness reforms and ennobles. This holiday season let Peace prevail, become a foe of violence, don't let it invade your space.
And remember, don't ever stop questioning our humanity, question who we really are, question everything.

Celebrate our questions.

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes

food

Food, from the simple to the sublime . . . is a commodity we can't do without for too long before it negatively impacts our existence. And we can't have that now can we?

As the holiday season creates more venues for eating many of us will be anxiously shopping for that delectable tidbit that will wow family and guests.

Eating has always been an important event in this family, just on a daily basis. We organize our day around the evening meal, dinner being the most important for that is the one we can usually all attend. If you can't make dinner you better have a darn good excuse why not.

But traditions play a huge role for most humans around the world and for us they are primary. The menu selection, prep work, cooking and eventual presentation can cause a rash of headaches if all aren't in agreement prior to beginning the process. We are a very fussy bunch, us humans, and we like our food just so. Sometimes, tradition is so set in stone, that any mention of a change of a menu can be down right horrifying.

A guest last night was lamenting having to attend a Christmas Eve appetizer party instead of a sitting down dinner. Another was discussing a menu faux pas(cooking the Turkey in a paper bag) that had made their Thanksgiving less than stellar. It seems we are such creatures of habit that any changes during traditional meals cause such consternation as to make the event unsatisfactory.

i was reading recently about the oil used during Hanukkah, a celebration that reminds Jews of the miracle of the oil that burned for eight days when the Maccabees purified and rededicated the holy Temple in Jerusalem. Oil plays a huge role in this story. There is the oil of the candles that kept burning and the oil for cooking the Latke's, which is an American tradition. The characteristics of different oils(that for burning and eating) can enhance the flavor and aromas of most dishes but we really don't need the oil it just helps us "see" and taste in a more helpful way. Some say that oil has a way of "illuminating" life, i would tend to agree with that statement.

i had oil all over the stove, the kitchen counters, the floor and myself trying to make the traditional latke's last night and keep the guests entertained. i could "see" i was in danger of slipping on some of it while juggling heaping bowls of marinating grated potatoes, sizzling potato pancakes frying on the stove and pans full of already cooked latke's being kept warm in the oven.

The kitchen was a disaster but the dinner table looked lovely. The house glowed with the Christmas tree and other decorations, but my mother's voice kept playing over and over in my head. She had admonished us for building a house where the kitchen was visible to the guests while you were cooking. Last night was a night i could hear her saying "see, I'll bet you wish they couldn't "see" you now, hehe." "All that oil everywhere, it's such a mess, no one wants to see the mess when they are about to eat."

Well, it was a mess, but you know what, the food was great, the talk was great and everyone helped clean up after. The mess brought us all together.

Eating during holidays always brings up some cultural tradition be it Thanksgiving turkey, Hanukkah latke's, Christmas puddings, or Valentine chocolates. Food plays a big role . . . and so does the conversation that surrounds the making and eating of it. After all the prep, all the fuss, all the work of getting it to the table the real aspect of tradition and food comes to fruition.

When everyone sits down and starts to eat, if it becomes very silent for a short while you know you have triumphed. After that, the fun starts for everyone starts chatting and this is what i love to savor, eating and talking. The food, the talk, they bind us to each other. It can bring out great joy or give rise to clearing the air of grievances. We can solve the world's problems in one sitting or create new ones. We can articulate and sparkle or remain quiet and listen.

The joining together to eat can symbolize health and togetherness so celebrate every time you sit down with family or friends.

For food can humble us in ways unexpected.

lingering essence

A friends father died recently and during writing a condolence message i was struck by his lingering essence. This happens every time i write a condolence letter or even think of someone alive. Usually the person i'm writing about or thinking about appears vividly in my conscious, reminding me of all the things i liked about that person. Reminding me of the lessons i learned from that person, their smiles, stories and how we interacted.

i think about them while writing and they come back to life. My friends father was laughing, he was as alive as i am to me while i was thinking about him and yet he is dead. My conscious brought him back to life, interacted with the vision, and enabled me to compose a more personal message. He took shape, he talked, i re-created him.

There is a book written by Robert Lanza called "Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness Are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe." This book, about the centrality of life and how our conscious creates the universe, uses the term biocentrism and lays out seven principles which i will blatantly copy.

1. What we perceive as reality is a process that involves our consciousness. An "external" reality, if it existed, would by definition have to exist in space. But this is meaningless, because space and time are not absolute realities but rather tools of the human and animal mind.
2. Our external and internal perceptions are inextricably intertwined. They are different sides of the same coin and cannot be divorced from one another.
3. The behavior of subatomic particles, indeed all particles and objects, is inextricably linked to the presence of an observer. Without the presence of a conscious observer, they at best exist in an undetermined state of probability waves.
4. Without consciousness, "matter" dwells in an undetermined state of probability. Any universe that could have preceded consciousness only existed in a probability state.
5. The structure of the universe is explainable only through biocentrism. The universe is fine-tuned for life, which makes perfect sense as life creates the universe, not the other way around. The "universe" is simply the complete spatio-temporal logic of the self.
6. Time does not have a real existence outside of animal-sense perception. It is the process by which we perceive changes in the universe.
7. Space, like time, is not an object or a thing. Space is another form of our animal understanding and does not have an independent reality. We carry space and time around with us like turtles with shells. Thus, there is no absolute self-existing matrix in which physical events occur independent of life.

Our senses give us a read out while we are awake and while we sleep. According to Lanza space and time are not external, they are not objects, they are a part of our conscious makeup. Lanza explains that the basis for trying to understand this conscious creation could be had through an investigation of quantum physics.

But controversies abound.

Some say this idea will revolutionize our concept of nature. Others say poppycock. But as Kant said in his own words way back when.

Space is not something objective and real, nor a substance, nor an accident, nor a relation; instead, it is subjective and ideal, and originates from the mind's nature in accord with a stable law as a scheme, as it were, for coordinating everything sensed externally. (Ak 2: 403)

Lanza who is known to many as a biomedical pioneer in cloning and stem cell research, goes on to suggest that we are all immortal. That there is no such thing as death.

i can comprehend this because we are all energy. Energy is not lost in this world it just eeks out to combine with other entities. We change shape when we pass on but our energy remains. It becomes part of everything , part of the plants, the trees, the air, the ocean, the universe. In this way we become immortal, we don't die.

i'm throwing all this out there as a betweener. i'm not sure his idea is strong enough to convince me that only our consciousness creates reality.

If it is the case, my question today would be if our conscious created space and time and reality....why in the world did we create this place? i think we could have done much better.

And so today i'm using my conscious to create reality. My friends dead father is alive and in my world we all treat each other as equals first.........what is yours creating?

betweeness

Yesterday in the New York Times there was an article about a new book by Dr. Tomasello who "believes children develop what he calls "shared intentionality," a notion of what others expect to happen and hence a sense of a group "we." It is from this shared intentionality that children derive their sense of norms and of expecting others to obey them." The article, called "We may be born with the urge to help," describes the study of 12-24 month old subjects who exhibit helping behavior before parents actually teach manners.

"Drop something in front of a two-year-old, and she's likely to pick it up for you. This is not a learned behavior, psychologist Michael Tomasello argues. Through observations of young children in experiments he himself has designed, Tomasello shows that children are naturally—and uniquely—cooperative."

Even the selfish and independent people have to work with others to reach their goals and this may have been learned in childhood, Tomasello claims. Cooperation is one of the least understood attributes of nature and as research continues the focus on the benefits of cooperation and cultural norms becomes more apparent.

Yesterday i was also reading about yeast proteins in biomolecular interaction networks. Scientists use a term called high betweeness proteins when describing a relationship with low connectivity protein modules. While reading an abstract that is much more in depth than the above sentence i was struck by the need for high betweeness in human relationships.

Being between is not necessarily reflective of connectivity or cooperation but "being between" still has a role to play by creating a linkage of interactions. The linkage of interactions by humans not accustomed to relating with each other can occur through the random use of the betweener. The betweener can or cannot signal any diverse groups by using key commonalities.

Barbara Ehrenreich has a new book out(Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America,) that questions the mammoth business of "positive thinking". Apparently after a diagnosis of breast cancer she became caught up in the cult of the pink ribbons. Those ribbon wearing ladies who were not allowed to express anger, fear, or distress by doctors, families and other pink ribbon wearing "cancer survivors." This immersion in "happiness" in the face of death lead her to research the American obsession with optimism. She wanted to know if poverty, obesity, unemployment and relationship troubles could be overcome with a positive mind set. Later, after much research, she came to the conclusion that the bungled invasion of Iraq and the current economic mess may be intricately tied to this reckless national penchant for self-delusion and a lack of anxious vigilance, necessary to societal survival.

Which leads me back to the betweener. The betweener can create a shorter path to understanding and may directly or indirectly influence later outcomes. There is no recognizable category of people that represent betweener's for they are not easily identified. i absconded with a scientific term(high betweeness) to create a different verbal usage of connecting humans together even when they may not view it as a connection or as being necessary to their survival or existence.

Historically negotiators or mediators played a type of betweener when parties to a dispute reached an impasse and discussions broke down. This is not the definition of a betweener that i'm trying to develop, for a betweener's role is purely linkage and not final resolution. Sometimes the linkage may happen without any of the parties recognizing the importance or change in behavior that happened as a result of "betweeness."

It is a slow process that occurs over time as the betweeners sweeten the pot with unusual connections or insights.

As most of you know i was adamantly against the Iraq invasion. Today i'm adding that i'm against the increase of troops by President Obama in Afghanistan.

Our military is composed of men and women who are trained to kill. That is their job.

As Juan Cole says on his blog today:

The biggest threat of derailment comes from an American public facing 17 percent true unemployment and a collapsing economy who are being told we need to spend an extra $30 billion to fight less than 100 al-Qaeda guys in the mountains of Afghanistan, even after the National Security Adviser admitted that they are not a security threat to the US.

We are increasing our forces to kill more Afghanistan people...we are not going in to make peace. Warriors don't make peace, they kill. Peace only happens after they start to withdraw.
i rest my case.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow!

Holidays can be stressful times for those hosting the festivities and those joining the party with lofty expectations. Family time can run the full gamut of relaxation, adventure, laughter and fun to bouts of unexpected misunderstandings. It is the misunderstandings, those times that come unannounced and unanticipated that can wreck havoc with the party.

Albert Sweitzer had a lovely quote about misunderstandings:

"Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate."

Many times the misunderstanding is related to a failure to communicate appropriately. One or the other may have thought they were listening. Thought they understood what had passed between both of the parties involved in the failure to understand. Thought they had explained themselves perfectly in a logical manner, only the end result was really one participant just trying to defend their own point of view? Was one talking when they should have been listening? Was one listening too much and not having an opportunity to explain?

We all need to be understood and listened to, not just heard. Hearing and really listening are two different activities. When we listen so hard that what we have heard is offensive it is time to take a deep breath before responding with some diatribe we wish later we hadn't replied with.

Sometimes coming back with a positive emotional response can diffuse the situation. We humans are all emotional beings and respond positively when our psyches are stroked. We all have gut feelings when misunderstood. we fight back without thinking or we enter a zone detached from the verbal acrobatics. We put up our defenses, we ignore the words hoping they will go away and the attack will stop.

Think about the relationships between members of a family during this holiday. They should be mutually beneficial and not simply relationships of provider and consumer. We need family to survive even when we misunderstand each other. It is important to get over the impasse as fast as possible so it doesn't grow a thick moldy crust that can't be touched. Get over it tomorrow, move on, don't brood or yell if you are involved in any misunderstandings.

When we are joined with each other in mutual actions of eating and drinking....think of the trust and affection, care and responsibility we can retain as members of the human family by taking an extra moment before reacting.

"Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate."

Happy Thanksgiving

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.