"If I was an inventor, I would invent something not to make money off of it--that's a very sick, distorted idea--I would invent something to better the world, knowing that would come back to me and my own betterment. So that's a completely different value structure, and the best thing I can relate to you is the idea of a family--the idea of what it means to live in a family--and the respect that's mutual in a family where you're not tipping your mother every time she brings you something at the table. It's an entirely new value system orientation, and unfortunately, we have to undo the tremendous psychological distortion that's been created after centuries of this despotic system that is failing right in front of us, and will lead to simply more war, more poverty…." -Peter Joseph

I think we will see the appearance of de-monetized black holes where work still gets done as the monetary system dissolves within affinity groups until they grow. These will be cooperative corporate entities that will grow from the ground up, and provide for all their members' basic needs and their community needs. They will continue to merge until it goes global.

chant/prayer/mantra: We would be one.

pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

Labels: 6th UU principle, anti-oppression, economics, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, theological, theological sources

Labels: drug war, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, personal bookmarks, salvation, theological sources, USA

.

From a video of Floyd Red Crow Westerman
The songs that follow are well worth the listen as well.


pax hominibus,agape to all,joel

Labels: angry at organized religions, Christianity, heaven on earth, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, presence, theological sources

.


Sorry about that.

Anyway, here's a link to a neat song I found from NewEden.org. I don't subscribe to the video's theology of a eucatastrophic discontinuity theory (a.k.a. that kind of rapture) and the substitutional salvation accompanying it, but still a good song.

Maybe I'll cover it some day with a spin.

lyrics:I wish we'd all been ready.

pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

Labels: music, parousia, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, personal bookmarks, theological sources, war and peace

revjd's first 3 challenges to humanity: 1. Unite; 2. Feed, house and clothe all; 3. Terraform th moon

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Labels: anti-oppression, homelessness, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, sci-fi

Today's service at First UU San Francisco was dedicated to the Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office. Here is a picture of the preamble to the UN Charter, drafted 60+ years ago,written as a response to the end of WWII, "the war to end all wars." This picture was taken down on UN Plaza, by where Hyde St. meets Market. St.



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chant/prayer/mantra: Put an end to the war machine, and devote all those lost resources to peacetime prosperity efforts.


pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

Labels: economics, equal rights, globalism, multiculturalism, paradigm shift, parousia, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, theological sources, universal health care

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Regarding Candlepower
Delivered 9.27.2009 at First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco


Light does not sit still. It wants to spread in every direction until it hits something to reflect off of, or to be absorbed.

But doesn’t the word “light” describe more than just matter or energy? From a spiritual perspective, light is knowledge, information, and reason—and even emotion. Light shows the paths available to us, and the light of understanding can help to dispel fear and confusion.
Candlepower is another term for luminous intensity, or how bright a light appears to be shining.

The title of this sermon is also a reference to actual candles. Now, I want to start with a brief story about a candle we have at home. He’s sitting right back there with his mom and grandma, and his name is Henry. Sometimes our infant wakes up alone in the bedroom with the lights out, and starts to wailing. I’ll go in and scoop him up to my chest, get the drool towel on my shoulder, and rock him back to sleep while singing in the darkened room. His favorite lullaby is actually a variant of “This Little Light of Mine” from our hymnal. He likes it best when I sing it under water. The underwater version goes something like this: “Thbibs lbibttble lbibliblbght obf mbibne, iblbl’m gmloblbing tblblo let it shine.” As soon as he gets close to nodding off, I switch over to a steady rhythmic version that I call the “Seraphim’s Lullaby.” In Judeo-Christian lore, the seraphim are the inner ring of angels singing songs of praise night and day to God.

This lullaby echoes the last word from “this little light of mine” in a rhythm as he starts to nod off. “Shine, shine,… shine, shine, shine,… shine, shine, shine,… shine, shine, shine ,… shine, shine, shine ,… shine, shine, shine ,… shine, shine, shine , shine-shine,” which then repeats. Then as Henry’s totally conking out from the monotony, I work my way down to singing “Shine…” every eight beats, until I can finally lay him down slowly in the crib.

That to me is one example of a candle, it’s some personal information, a message that I sing to my baby, a prayer whose seeds will hopefully be planted deep within, for him to shine his light steady and strong, whatever that may turn out to be. And each of us has different messages, and different light to shed onto the world. Our light is composed of our experiences, perspectives, passions and hopes. Getting in touch with the uniqueness of our own light is a process of constant unfolding. Then when we shine out, it’s through our words and our deeds—through our life itself.

When our candles of life come together, they inform each other. By listening intently to the experiences, perspectives, passions and hopes of another, the light in ourselves grows in intensity, or changes hue. We can feel more strongly about our truths, or develop a more nuanced understanding. And when our own light is flickering, one candle can always light another, and that’s one empowering blessing of being among a community of broad-minded thinkers and compassionate feelers.

When enough people share in community, we have a rich discourse that becomes a bonfire, where we can not only have light, but also warmth, and sometimes “heat” when we come to disagreements. I’ve already witnessed that this congregation’s conversations are often energized enough to grow from words into action. And the fire turns into steady-burning coals….19th-century Universalist Mary Livermore tells a story how before there were matches, if your kitchen’s fire went out in the night, you either needed to work flint and steel together until a spark caught so you could light your tinder and rebuild your own fire from scratch (a painful proposition), or you would beg a shovelful of coals from a neighbor. A vibrant and thriving religious community like this one has coals it can offer, not just to the Sunday afternoon fellowship, the Lutherans, the Buddhists, and the other groups that meet here, but to the wider community. And they have coals that would enrich us as well.

A campfire like ours at First Unitarian Universalist is highly visible, and draws people in from further away. That’s our goal—to grow spiritually as a community, and draw people in, so that new visitors and old members alike can come here to fan the flames of their passions for justice, and become more active in the world. Here’s a question to ponder, what things have you found here that make you come to life, and make it natural to devote your time and energy here?
[pause for water, smack water glass against pulpit by accident]

Yet while a roaring fire is more robust than an individual candle, even our campfires are in danger of being blown out or diminished by the rain and the wind of an environment that doesn’t know to value what we have here. It’s all the more frightful when we find our voices shut out of the mass media, and there are other voices amplifying values that run counter to ours. Our good news that God loves everyone, and that everyone is saved isn’t likely to be well-received if it can’t be heard, or runs contrary to nihilistic and damaging messages blaring through the airwaves.

Our message presents danger to some people. For some, our news means questioning their whole worldview based on a personal and everlasting life, and accepting a savior to overcome sins. For others, it means weighing their relationship to the Earth and the welfare of its inhabitants against their own self-interests. Questioning fundamental assumptions and habits like these is difficult, and when people first hear our good news—and I realize there may be some sitting right out here today, or perhaps listening online—when people first hear our good news, we are a new candle joining an existing candle, which burns differently.

So our light can attract hostilities as well as friends. Our message brings cognitive dissonance and fear to some. Our goals may run counter to their goals of maintaining their livelihood, their lifestyle, or their retirement plans, or their hopes and fears for an afterlife, so they will fight our message. From Jesus decrying the Pharisees killing of prophets in Matthew 23, to Hypatia of Alexandria, to MLK, all the way to Van Jones, the brightest luminaries have been under attack by powers with vested interests, with their light diminished, sullied, or even snuffed-out. Humanist philosopher Erich Fromm says, “Those whose hope is weak settle down for comfort or violence; those whose hope is strong see and cherish all signs of new life, and are ready at every moment to help give birth to that which is ready to be born.” What light exists that can finally burn brightly enough that it cannot be snuffed out?

The Sun is one such source of light that will be constant and shining for ages to come. What would it take to get our message THAT bright? How about a compelling enough message to help draw in a critical mass of people sharing their lights on a global scale? Our message is right on: everyone’s together in this spherical blue and green boat, everyone’s included, and nobody should be left behind. Our message is one of communities rooted where they are, and extending out to any other communities who would join in common cause. The sixth Unitarian Universalist principle, states “[We...covenant to affirm and promote] the goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all.” The thought that the sixth principle might come into reality is awe-inspiring, isn’t it? That’d be a huge change! One I hope we all learn to truly welcome.

The principle says “the goal of world community.” A goal is a dream with a deadline. We’re not about affirming the dream of a world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. It’s a goal. There’s got to be a deadline, or the light is blurry. If we leave the deadline unset, then that’s just a dream deferred. That’s justice deferred, peace deferred, and liberty deferred.
So, what do we envision—how will we know when the goal of “world community” is successfully realized? It requires that we establish common ground on which to speak and listen freely. We can start by all acknowledging our common humanity, and the worth and dignity to be found in everyone. Until we do that, we’re standing on different ground, not common ground. From common ground, we can freely share the lights of our myriad communities of identity. And with that common ground conversation, we can equitably negotiate shared definitions for peace, liberty and justice.

We’ll need to do a lot of work to get to that common ground. From physics, power is defined asthe ability to do work in a given amount of time. A more powerful movement can get more work done more quickly. A more powerful movement is composed of more people participating more fully.

Today’s second lesson is the story of Aten, the god responsible for the Sun. This god was represented by a bright disk in the sky, with arms reaching out of it, each with a hand bearing gifts. More hands, more voices, more lives working for common ground means more power and faster work toward our goal. Not everybody’s going to join our churches. Perhaps they disagree with organized religion entirely, or perhaps they’re happy with the worship and the people of their own faith communities. But surely they will lend their hands and co-create with us once they see the light of our message, and our goal. And our fourth principle—the one about our “free and responsible search for truth and meaning” compels us to share this light with them, pronto. For when we truly embody truth and meaning, we find we’re responsible to act on it, and share it.

Until we create a deadline that we mean to be accountable to, there’s a disconnect at work here. The “end-times” or the “last generation” has been a concept people have anticipated at least since the book of revelation was written, and probably much earlier. For many people, the end of time, or to my understanding, the end of the age, was always “just a few years away.” But it’s been that way for countless generations. It’s time to get in sync, and focus our resolve and determination to bring the end of this age, through introducing a beloved world community.
The God I know and love, who waits with a plenitude of gifts that true community brings, has been ever-restless for world community to come into being. This God is getting less and less patient, first ringing the doorbell, then knocking, knocking, knocking, then pounding at the door, demanding, “Who put this door here? And why is it taking so long for them to answer?” There’s real pressure to answer the door, to answer this call, because nature has a way of making corrections. That danger to our environment is a real-life fire-and-brimstone scenario, which I’ll reserve for another sermon, some other time. We try not to work from a place of fear, so let’s instead look at the possibilities of opening the door and answering the call.

A few weeks ago, Rev. Fitch mentioned in his homily that this community needs to go public and show the world a new paradigm for the 21st century, and I would challenge us to take that a step further. To reach our goal, we need to shine the light of a 3rd millennium community. To guide humanity’s eyes toward the horizon and see the sunrise, and know that just as our message of world community starts to shine, so too, the fire of the human race is only just now beginning to burn like the stable star of today’s first lesson.

So I’ll ask, and this is not a rhetorical question, but you need not answer aloud right now: How soon do you think this world community can be delivered? How soon will we be able to establish common ground throughout the races, beyond national boundaries, and across ethnic lines? How soon until we can establish common ground for everyone based on the fact that they love and are loved, not based on what kind of person they love? And how soon until we can establish common ground that says nobody is left behind, that when we come to the economic table, nobody leaves hungry, without an adequate piece of the pie? What if that depends on us talking and acting on our goal of world community? How quickly can our light spread?

We are not alone. We have allies. Who are they? “Anybody who will answer to the call for this world community we yearn for.” But the call is critical. It brings the power of suggestion into play. Some people have forgotten their dreams, or do not believe we can achieve this goal. Perhaps they’ve never even thought about the possibility of world community. If we who carry this torch don’t invite them, they won’t know when or where to show up, or to show up at all.
And here’s more good news: for the most part world community happens as people come to life and join one at a time, empowering each other. The people you share this message with—your friends, family, maybe even people you’re just conversing with for the first time, they might really need Unitarian Universalism.

Before last week’s service while I was talking with a parishioner, I shared a little about this sermon, and I mentioned how long it took me to stumble upon this religion, and how there are a lot of people in the world out there who want—who need—the gifts of our theology. She shined her light right back and said, “and they have gifts that we need.” To me, that is a reminder of the true give-and-take involved in this commission.

Some say we need to get more people in our doors, and into our congregations, but I think it’s more than that. Howard Thurman, the longtime minister at the Church of the Fellowship of All Peoples just up Larkin Street, said: "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." So get in touch with your passion and find or create an avenue to manifest that passion, either within or beyond these church walls, and get other people excited about it. And listen to others, and hear their passions, so they can realize their goals as well.


May the work that we do shine like the fusion of the Sun, and may this community achieve that goal of world community, with the inclusion of everyone and energy of everyone working toward it. And when you go forth from this place, may you know in your innermost heart that you carry the Sun within.

Amen.


Please stand and take a few moments to greet your neighbors during the hymn’s introduction, and then join in singing the Hymn of Hope, This Little Light of Mine, #118 in your hymnals.

There's a link to an audio recording of this sermon (and the full service) at http://www.uusf.org/AboutUUSF/SermonArchive/index.htm

prayer/mantra: 1 down, 10, 100, 200, 500, 1000+ to go...?

pax hominibus,
agape to everyone,
joel

Labels: astrophysics, favorite scriptural passages, globalism, heaven on earth, Henry, inter-faith, our mission, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, religious community, sermons

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While I still remain skeptical about the actual likelihood of success for this iteration of the process of creating contained nuclear fusion at Lawrence Livermore's National Ignition Facility (NIF), I am also hopeful that this will help guide our research.

Lasers, lasers, and more lasers. And amazing amounts of instantaneous energy. Wow. Maybe a little scary too.

I'm just thinking of all the good we could do with all the energy nuclear fusion could provide us. We wouldn't have to bat an eye about the high energy costs of desalinization. We could power an energy grid that could mean we have clean trains running from every city on each continent, and we could even power boats and individual transit eventually once we get the battery technology up and running. Of course, sadly, there's probably also a lot of bad we could do with that energy, and I'm not going to devote my own energy toward considering it. But what awesome/awful wars we could have with that much energy! But all sardonic attitude aside, with all that energy, we'd have a surplus of it, and energy wouldn't be a scarce resource. Without scarce resources, the reasons for going to war are greatly diminished.

chant/prayer/mantra: Let there be light.


pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

Labels: astrophysics, desalinization, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, renewable energy, technology

 So I was thinking of a government that automatically ran itself somehow.  And wondering if maybe "Autocracy" was the correct word, because linguistically, that seems sensible.  However, autocracy describes a type of tyrannical rule similar to a dictatorship.

Labels: globalism, heaven on earth, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, religious community

The site is designed to detail all the intended changes during the transition period from Bush to Obama. Pretty impressive that they're already ready to go with this. They must've been working on it for a long time prior to the election.

lyrics: "Long time coming, but I know that change is gonna come." Otis Redding

colors: What is the color of change?

chant/prayer/mantra: may it be smooth.


pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

Labels: paradigm shift, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, politics

Obama has 206 electoral votes already statistically declared by the U.S. press exit polls, and these don't include California, Oregon, and Washington, which are going to definitely go to Obama. In other words, he has 206 + 73 electoral votes, which is greater than 270.

Therefore..........................President Obama.

lyrics: I wonder what is going to happen.

colors: Red, White, Blue, Green, Orange, Yellow, Indigo, Violet, Brown, Beige, and Pink.

mood: Amazed, and excited. And ready to rebegin again.

chant/prayer/mantra: May our world surrender, open, and surrender to a new loving embrace!


pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

ps - now we'll need to wait a little bit to see how proposition 8 turns out this electoral round.

Labels: pax hominibus/bright shiny future, politics, racism, USA

Oh my. This article on the demise of our monetary system by visionary writer Charles Eisenstein is a goldmine of cogent sanity. It tells the story so clearly, it is almost unethical to provide a link to it. But according to whose ethic?

I hope all my friends get a chance to read it. I'll comment more on this article later.

"In the face of the impending crisis, people often ask what they can do to protect themselves. "Buy gold? Stockpile canned goods? Build a fortified compound in a remote area? What should I do?" I would like to suggest a different kind of question: "What is the most beautiful thing I can do?" You see, the gathering crisis presents a tremendous opportunity. Deflation, the destruction of money, is only a categorical evil if the creation of money is a categorical good."

"In the meantime, anything we do to protect some natural or social resource from conversion into money will both hasten the collapse and mitigate its severity. Any forest you save from development, any road you stop, any cooperative playgroup you establish; anyone you teach to heal themselves, or to build their own house, cook their own food, make their own clothes; any wealth you create or add to the public domain; anything you render off-limits to the world-devouring machine, will help shorten the Machine's lifespan. Think of it this way: if you already do not depend on money for some portion of life's necessities and pleasures, then the collapse of money will pose much less of a harsh transition for you. The same applies to the social level. Any network or community or social institution that is not a vehicle for the conversion of life into money will sustain and enrich life after money."

Here's another good article from realitysandwich.com, talking about the end of our current global economic system. This is some serious stuff.

lyrics: My dog is running in her dreams. I know, 'cause she's kicking her feet. I've been having dreams about earthquakes, and doves, and things.

colors: the color of war is the color of blood is the color of money. money, money, money, money. oink, oink, oink, oink. -god bullies, off of some song from the album war on everybody.

mood: stressed out and procrastinating

chant/prayer/mantra: a deep prayer for a transition through the coming crisis.


pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

Labels: Capitalism, environment, paradigm shift, pax hominibus/bright shiny future

Labels: art, Book of Romans, Capitalism, Christianity, equal rights, heaven on earth, oppression, paradigm shift, parousia, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, tarot

Here is something I posted on a slashdot poll the other day, which asked, "Who is to blame for the US financial situation?" I was responding to someone who blamed the American Dream. It's the first thing I've ever posted there that got modded to +5:

What we need is for people to start redefining the American dream.

Here's a start:

1. A modest two-bedroom home (house, apartment, or condo) within walking distance of a municipal train line powered by electricity.

2. A home that is energy efficient, and powered by local power off the grid.

3. A job within half-hour's travel from one's home. (Perhaps by electric car/scooter/motorized skateboard, but preferrably by public transport or bicycle.)

4. A grocery store with good produce, and some good restaurants, all within walking distance.

5. And a 30-hour work week.

6. A cute puppy, if you're into that sort of thing.

7. A modest wardrobe of clothes that you really like, with a classic style that matches you, so you don't need to buy into next year.

8. Three or four pairs of good shoes (dress, sports, knockabout, boots).

9. Well-maintained and funded municipal lending libraries and public workshops for tools, so that not everybody needs to own a reciprocating saw and a compound miter saw for those once-a-year projects, or try to set up and maintain their own home recording studio. (If you're super-serious about that avocation, then yes, you have your own private workshop out back, but often, owning and maintaining your own is more of a hassle and a waste of resources.)

10. A clean and safe park within walking distance.

11. An electric guitar or piano or something of your own to cherish, that reflects an authentic manifestation of your true self and your avocation.

12. An internet connection that is as robust as a phone or electrical connection, and secure, and as simple to access as a (70s-style) television.

13. A community, a job, and a government that supports me more and counts on me, but doesn't exploit me.

14. A partner and friends to enjoy life with.

That, to me, is the American dream. I could care less about impressing you that I'm keeping up with the Joneses. I'd rather impress you by being me, and by allowing you to be you.

While I offer that as a hope and as a new vector for us all to pursue, I recognize a few things:

First, it would require a little bit of reengineering our politics, government, and economy, so that we could establish these "sharing" things. It would also require a little bit of backtracking with respect to the draconian pursuit of individual achievement in the USA.

Second, this is not just a dream for the USA. This is something I'd like to see for everyone alive in the world.

Third, we may need to cut that dream back even more, unless we can get our population down a bit further. My list, while much more modest than the old American dream, may still not be sustainable, especially when we consider the trees, the bees, and the orangutans. Read Sustainability by John Cobb for more info on where I'm coming from.

And fourth, this is just my vision of how things ought to be, and I haven't elaborated on many of the complexities of these goals, so please try not to read in arguments against them or support them without spending a little time thinking of what they might mean to you, and what kind of backstory I would add in support of these goals.

lyrics: "Angel flying too close to the ground." -Willie Nelson

chant/prayer/mantra: "Change is coming. Now is my time." From Forty-six and 2, by Tool.


pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

Labels: heaven on earth, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, renewable energy, slashdot, sustenance, theology, tool, Universalism, USA

x=logos=christ

x(-1) is the one who learns to taste the creator's wisdom for the first time (adam and eve, the first person to make a wheel, or matches, the first person to sell land, or split the atom)*
x(0) is th one who knows and speaks the understood nature of the creator's wisdom/logos (zoroaster, moses, some OT prophets, mohammad)
x(1) is th one who learns to incarnate it and manifests it (krishna, buddha, socrates, jesus, hypatia, joan-of-arc, mlk, saoshyant?)
x(1.5) is th one who basks in the afterglow of the incarnate (gospel writers, disciples, paul, saints, promise-keepers)
x(2) is th one who can speak and manifest it without punishment or remonstrance
(saoshyant)
x(3) is th one who can live it freely and naturally (saoshyant, along with a not-too distant future generation) (post Glory of Romans 8.)

*th enumerations within parens are not meant to be exhaustive, only examples

chant/prayer/mantra: may we enter the unravelment of the Zoroastrian eschaton, and all be of one ousia with the saoshyant.

i know that may all sound nutty and high-falutin', but really its just fancy theological talk, for "let's get past this, and get along, and get it on to happening, eh?"

pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

Labels: Book of Romans, Christianity, christology, heaven on earth, parousia, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, theology, Universalism

I often have freaky dreams, and they don't bug me too much. In fact, I find them to be very inspirational sometimes. I had a very freaky dream the other night.

In this dream, I was a private in the military (complete with haircut I'm pretty sure), down on some military base in a hot climate. I was in a large reinforced concrete bathroom, emptying my bladder, when an earthquake happened. It seemed to go on for about 20 seconds, and I had found a less-than-clean place on the floor where I thought I'd be relatively safe. As it was fading and we were worrying about aftershocks, there was another soldier about ten feet away over by the sinks, singing (to reassure himself), "We are chariots. We are chariots. We are bizarre chariots. We're going to make it out of this world."

Wow. I woke up around 4:00am, and using my best drowsy voice got a recording of what he sang. I'm so glad I've got that little voice recorder. Anyway, if you combine the above-linked understanding of chariot with this blog entry from a while ago, and this recent tattoo post (the symbolism and pragmatic semiotics, not the picture itself) on the bmemodblog, I'm not sure exactly what to make of it, but it must mean something...


lyrics: "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound...."

colors: burnt,white, and blue

mood: steady, and ready

chant/prayer/mantra: may we all be, and be loosely connected.


pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

Labels: Christianity, music, parousia, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, personal religion, sacred texts, tattoos, theological sources

This article is about why San Francisco is having difficulty becoming more green. Bicycle advocates have been working really hard to get more bike lanes and bicycle corridors in the city. And now one guy is saying that bicycles on the roads cause traffic jams, causing cars to idle and waste gas. That is simply so myopic.

If not now, then when?

lyrics: Hillary saying "sisterhood of the travelling pant-suits."

chant/prayer/mantra: Praying for a kinder and greener future in America.


pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

Labels: bicycles, environment, freedom versus freedom, pax hominibus/bright shiny future

Al Gore just delivered a landmark speech this week.

In this speech, he challenges the U.S. to use 100% renewable energy by 2018.

A classic quote from his speech:

"We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that's got to change..."

Energy Policy is going to be key for the upcoming election, because it affects the economy, the environment, and our nation's/planet's security. Mobilizing our unemployed workforce toward creating and implementing systems of renewable energy would be a stunningly effective boost to our sagging economy.

Mr. Gore, thank you for your intitiative.


chant/prayer/mantra: One planet of people, whole.


pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

Labels: Capitalism, economics, environment, globalism, paradigm shift, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, politics, renewable energy, USA

I have no idea when I did this one, but apparently I did, since it looks like something I'd draw. :) I just set it as my desktop wallpaper for a little while to help keep me going.

lyrics: "The lord was frozen alive and his presence it fell through the sky it fell through the sky." - Now, by Meat Beat Manifesto

colors: see pic.

mood: sleepy

chant/prayer/mantra: get it done.


pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

Labels: art, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, salvation, theology

Hi Friends-

Yesterday in Sufi Storytelling, the instructor surprised us by telling us we were each to deliver an impromptu 3-5 minute story, off the cuff. Here is a version of what I came up with.

How many of you have heard the story of the Robot at the Spelling Bee? [Of course, some wiseacre answered "I have"...] Well, this story might be a little different than the version you've heard. Here it is.

There was once this society of people who lived underground, because they didn't fit in with human culture. They were freaks (a term I generally use endearingly) in a way -- see, they were part eagle, part ox, part lion, and part orangutan. I'll leave you to try and picture which part is which, and you'll probably be able to come up with a visualization sufficiently freaky to get the picture.

Anyway, they lived underground, and ostracized, because the human people didn't know how to appreciate or understand them. But they wanted to get the chance to be outside in the sunshine, so they built a robot with the fanciest, shiniest, newest artificial intelligence (not just with solid logic and heuristics, but also with dynamically-reproducing seeded algorithms) they could come up with and sent it to the humans. The robot happened to arrive on the day of the spelling bee, and decided to join up.

When it was its turn, they gave it a pretty easy word. Can somebody give me a somewhat easy spelling word? [from audience: kumquat] Kumquat, well,... the robot heard the word and had not a clue, having not ever really learned anything about the human culture and its language or spelling, so it just sat there until the people said "Stupid robot, go away." And it was kicked out of the spelling bee in the first round.

It went back to the eagle-ox-lion-orangutan people and told them about the language of the humans and how they had this spelling bee ritual, so they found out a bit about it, and the robot processed what had happened, until it felt ready to go the next year. The next year, it went back and signed up again for the spelling bee. Can somebody give me a more difficult spelling word? [from audience: chartreuse] Hmm, chartreuse. Well, the robot had deciphered a little bit about the ways of the spelling bee during the last year, and learned the language, but only had a vocabulary of about 5000 words, so it didn't know "chartreuse." It asked the judges for the etymology and for it to be used in a sentence, and then said, "Well, I don't know how to spell that word, but I do know a word from our culture that apparently is quite similar." And it proceeded to tell them all about the eagle-ox-lion-orangutan word for chartreuse. Upon finishing, the judges thanked it and rang the bell to indicate that the robot was again kicked out of the spelling bee.

And every year, the robot came back for the spelling bee, knowing more and more about human culture. Each time it got to a word it didn't know (from the third year on, it was able to even advance a few rounds), instead of guessing at words it didn't know, it would teach the judges and the audience words from the eagle-ox-lion-orangutan culture. After many iterations of this process, the humans finally knew enough about the eagle-ox-lion-orangutan culture that they began to appreciate it. And when the robot reported back, the eagle-ox-lion-orangutan people were able to come above ground into the light of the sun, and live together with the humans in harmony.

\The End.

lyrics: "Here we are in the parking lot, getting ready inside our heads." -The Helvey Brothers, from Heavy Metal Parking Lot

colors: Not brown. I just (finally) found my summer chaplaincy internship at a state health facility just north of here.

mood: pretty good, tired.

chant/prayer/mantra: bless the freaks


pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

Labels: coursework, Islam, paradigm shift, parousia, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, theology