December 2012 - OE - lists.wedgeblade.net

Monday OpEd on GUNS
by Jaime R Vergara 15 Dec '12

15 Dec '12

Sending two OpEd pieces for Monday and Tuesday. The intended audience are readers in Saipan. Sending it to this listserv, in case, anyone is interested. Monday on Guns is along our currently gun conversation. Sending articles separately. j'aime la vie Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, Celebrate! GUNS TheSandy Hook incident in Newton, Connecticut had our President drop a tear andlowered the flags of the nation at half-mast. In a shooting rampage reportedly of one named Ryan Lanza, 27 people werekilled, 20 of them children. The schoolhas students from kindergarten to fourth grade. Twohundred twenty-one years ago, December 15, 1791, the United States Congresspassed the Bill of Rights. The Second Amendment is worded, "A well regulatedmilitia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of thepeople to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." The first comma is missing in the versionratified by the States. No matter, theright to bear arms is the intent of the amendment. During America's revolutionary period, there were many reasonsto protect one's right to bear arms. Wikipedia lists the following in no particular order: deterring tyrannical government, repelling invasion, suppressing insurrection, facilitatinga natural right of self-defense, participating in law enforcement, and enablingthe people to organize a militia system. The image of the Minuteman inLexington, MA is in every American's mental playground! Inmy social process scheme of the economic, political, and cultural dynamics, theimpetus for the legislation in the political was the desire to maintaindomestic tranquility. Case law has sinceevolved to define that right, and to this day, the right to bear arms remains aUS constitutional right fervently defended by the powerful Vienna, VA-basedNRA. Inlight of the recent assault on the American consciousness brought about by theSandy Hook incident, preceded by the Oregon Mall, Aurora Cinema, and theColumbine rampage, we must once again raise the issue of individual rights upbefore the mirror of social responsibility. Surely, the question of securing domestic tranquility has gone waybeyond the capabilities of hand guns and assault weapons, but in our culturalheritage is a deeply seated defense of the "gun culture", from PaulRevere's alert of the Red Coat's heading to Concord's armory, to our Texan'sever vigilant call to remember the Alamo. Acountry that spends half of its discretionary budget on defense spending is nottoo distant from a culture of mass destruction. Defense right (in the language of homeland security) is foisted as arationale to maintaining order, domestically and globally, in an unrulyuniverse, by the self-appointed police of the world. The metaphors of competition, conflict, and war remain as the primary image of our social discourse. Onthe personal level, one of our own Saipan residents, after his home and hisdiminutive wife was assaulted by an intruder, opined on the "draconian gunban" in the CNMI. He wrote in theST in 2010: "Gun ownership in theUnited States of America is a right, not a privilege. Owning a car is a privilege. Owning a cell phone is a privilege, Internetaccess... a privilege, having Cable TV... a privilege... Self-defense is a right!" Oursympathies are with the writer. We donote that any gun ban in American territory has been observed in the breachrather than the rule. My impression ofhow authorities handle handguns and assault weapons in their personalcapacities is not a favorable one. Thetraffic of guns in the Pacific reportedly occurs in the confluence of criminalelements under legal cover. Individualrights are always weighted in the context of social responsibility. The historical context to guns in America isdomestic tranquility, and that cannot be maintained and sustained by simplyallowing citizens the right to bear arms. In fact, the record holds the reverse. Believing that access to tools to inflict fatal solution on unwantedintrusions has only been exploited by the malcontents against the unwary, andthe innocents are known to suffer. Wethink of the British ban on guns, and the unarmed Bobby of London. The Yakuza, known to inflict muscle on thestrength of the bullet, has not been deterred by Japan's banning of thehandguns, a reason often used to returning the right to bear arms back toNippon's citizens. The throve ofJapanese tourists in shooting galleries in Saipan and all throughout thePacific (Waikiki hand bills shows bikini-clad girls holding riffles) shows anative fascination with guns in Japan since Commodore Perry alighted on itsshores. In2008, figures reveal that of the 12,000 homicide cases involving handguns inthe US, there were 11 in Japan. The UShas the loosest restriction in owning handguns in the world! Japan holds one of the strictest. There were two handgun-related homicidesreported last year. Whatis clear to me is to have a national and local conversation on the secondamendment, then move it into every family's dining table (Kilili's office mightwant to get some figures from CNMI's experience in aid of legislation). If guns remain as the toy of choice (becausethey are cheap as well as preferred) under the Christmas tree this season, thenwe further the culture of guns in a manner as casually as we hold motherhoodand apple pie. InChina's latest assault on schoolchildren, 22 were reported to have been slashedwith the knife. Just think if thedespairing culprit had a gun! j'aime la vie Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, Celebrate!

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OpEd Tuesday on my Japan-China connection - Happy Holidays
by Jaime R Vergara 15 Dec '12

15 Dec '12

MyNippon-Zhongguo connection Had my first child been a boy, he would have had theunhappy name of Kenichi Zhou Enlai! Justimagine the ribbing he would have gotten in the schoolyard. My wife and I were children of the 60s,forgiving as hell. I "forgave"Japanese daily atrocities they allegedly committed in the Philippines duringWWI. Kenichimeans first healthy child in Nihonggo. I was also a cheerleader to Mao Zedong's alter ego, ZhouEnlai, the consummate diplomat, and nemesis of Zhongguo's Gang of Four led byMao's actress wife Jiang Qing. My firstchild was born a year after the historic visit of Richard Nixon to China in1972, set up by the Kissinger-Zhou Enlai tandem. Ergo, Zhou Enlai would have joined the family'slitany of names since Mao Zedong would have been too hard to handle in mywife's conservative family, and I would have taken exception to a Germanaddition to my lineage. Happily, we had a girl. With her Mom of Welsh-Scot-English-German Midwest US extraction, and ourself,a Sino-Indo-Malay-cum-a-dab-of-Iberian concoction, Manila-born Kristina grew upto furl a school banner that declared: Mongrels of the World, Unite! I grew up in an area that still pronounced Yamashita'sname with blood curdling sound. Rocksrained on our house roof on New Year '65 when I brought home a Japanese studentfrom a Youth Assembly I attended in Dumaguete City the previous week. That was a good twenty years after the famedNippon General's march north of Manila through our valley. I would later find out that a Japanese officer warned myDad that he was on the list of those to be apprehended by the Kempetai. He was suspected of cutting the stencil andrunning a mimeo machine for the underground's news rag. He was guilty as charged. Had he been apprehended, I might have beenborn an orphan. My mother was heavy withchild while "we" were on the run. I am no apologist for Japan. They have their ample share of the blame gamefrom WWII. Their atrocities werecharacteristics of every occupying imperial force in the last five centuries,born out of a sense of superiority nurtured and sustained by a heirarchicalsocial structure that ordered humanity from the heavenly mandate to the lowlypeon. One of my Dad's older brothers was a school teacherbefore the Rising Sun's banner was unfurled over the archipelago, a nationalistnoncompliant to the wishes of the American forces who saw it their task tohusband the birth of an independent nation through a Commonwealth heavilytilted to the advantage of US commerce. He ended up being a translator to Nippon's occupying forces, thus, seenas a collaborator to the regime. American-ledguerrillas quartered him at the public square with four carabaos headingseparately to the four winds, a warning on Filipinos who cooperated withNippon. During the Vietnam War, records of American forces'earlier behavior in the Philippines, particularly in Samar, came to light. Atrocities did not start in Vietnam bydrug-crazed exceptions. They were abundantlyon display by the flannel-garbed Indian fighters who came to tropical Philippines,already seasoned in leaving behind veils and vales of tears in their pathsthrough native territories, as real estate hungry easterners of Europeandescent moved westward-ho! Forgiveness came on as a strong virtue in ourupbringing. As an adult, we came torealize that this was more than just ignoring other's unacceptablebehavior. It is acknowledging the objectivereality that whatever occurred in the past, is done. Finis. There is no way of undoing it; one can, however, learn a lesson from it,and decide whether one continues with established patterns, or takes on adifferent course. We now know that humanity is wired to behave according tothe images that informed its growth, and therefore, feels comfortable when itautomatically just follows the easy path of previous behavior. Education's task is to provide alternativepaths. My Chinese Oral English students introduce themselves atthe beginning of the semester, and as a model, I introduce myself first withsome guidelines that they then use for their own intro. One of my lines in response to the questionof "what makes me happy" is an echo of Star Trek, which I rephrasedas "going someplace I had not been previously, and doing something I hadnot done before." There is a new context abroad, surprisingly a germalready implanted from those who devised the remembrances of this season, fromthe progeny of Millat Ibrahim, whetherit be the Hanukkah/Menorah of the Torah story, the manger Christ-child atYuletide, the end of Muharram in Islam, or the secular drumbeats of African matunda ya kwanza, a celebration of thefruits of the harvest, where humanity affirms the path it hath already trod,but proceed to move someplace it had not previously been, and do something ithad not done before. In my old book,that was labeled "forgiveness", or, if I may be allowed a play onwords, being "given for" the future. My Nippon-Zhongguo connection is grounded in the past,but moves unencumbered and freely into the future. Happy Holidays! j'aime la vie Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, Celebrate!

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Status report on Dan
by Lee Early 15 Dec '12

15 Dec '12

Dan called this morning. Last night the doctors removed a gangrenous gall bladder in an hour operation. The gangrene did not appear to have spread and they think they got all of it. He feels like he was kicked by a horse. I know what that feels like but some old sod from Iowa - - what does he know about a horse kick? Eh? He thinks this might finally be his last visit for awhile even though the hospital has only finished 2/3rds of their new wing. More later unless Dan can find another farm animal to wrestle with. Lee. Lee Early 19230 Forest Park Dr. NE, A102 Lake Forest Park, WA 98155 Home: (206) 922-3182 Lee's mobile: (425) 212-7997

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Re: [Oe List ...] Status report on Dan
by LAURELCG＠aol.com 15 Dec '12

15 Dec '12

As my grandkids say, O M G. In a message dated 12/14/2012 2:38:26 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, lees.mail(a)comcast.net writes: Dan called this morning. Last night the doctors removed a gangrenous gall bladder in an hour operation. The gangrene did not appear to have spread and they think they got all of it. He feels like he was kicked by a horse. I know what that feels like but some old sod from Iowa - - what does he know about a horse kick? Eh? He thinks this might finally be his last visit for awhile even though the hospital has only finished 2/3rds of their new wing. More later unless Dan can find another farm animal to wrestle with. Lee. Lee Early 19230 Forest Park Dr. NE, A102 Lake Forest Park, WA 98155 Home: (206) 922-3182 Lee's mobile: (425) 212-7997 _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

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"Mom" is Marianna Bailey
by James Wiegel 14 Dec '12

14 Dec '12

Lynn Brailsford Teaneck, NJ These cookies were made by Grandma Hines and will forever be associated with feelings of being loved and cherished. Our family is from Mt. Airy, NC (aka Mayberry of Andy Griffith fame) so I always thought this was a southern recipe. I have seen and tasted northern 'imposters', but none have come close to the delicate, mouthwatering melting of butter, flour, and powdered sugar accompanied by the delicate crunch of pecans in your mouth! Grandma called these 'Sand Dabs'. Mom makes them for us and the grandkids now...I hope this posting passes on the love for another family! SAND DABS 3/4 cup butter 4 tsp powdered sugar 2 cup flour 2 tsp water 2 tsp vanilla extract 1 cup finely chopped pecans Cream the butter and sugar. Combine other ingredients. Take about a tablespoon of mixture and roll it into a ball. Place on cookie sheet. Bake 45 min @ 325. After cooling, use a sifter to sprinkle cookies with powdered sugar. Jim Wiegel "Life has got a habit of not standing hitched. You got to ride it like you find it.. You got to change with it." Woody Guthrie 401 North Beverly Way, Tolleson, Arizona 85353-2401 +1 623-363-3277 skype: jfredwiegel jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com www.partnersinparticipation.com Upcoming public course opportunities: ToP Facilitation Methods Coming in February. Ask about an inhouse course ToP Strategic Planning, Oct 9-10, 2012 The AZ Community of Practice meets the 1st Friday of every month Facilitation Mastery : Our Mastering the Technology of Participation program is available in Phoenix in 2012-3. Program begins on Nov 14-16, 2012 See short video http://partnersinparticipation.com/?page_id=55 and website for further details.

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12/13/12, Spong: The Birth of Jesus, Part V Matthew’s Original Story The Prologue and Tamar, the Incestuous One
by Ellie Stock 13 Dec '12

13 Dec '12

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR The Birth of Jesus, Part V Matthew’s Original Story The Prologue and Tamar, the Incestuous One Matthew is the gospel writer (82-85) who first introduced the story of Jesus’ miraculous or virgin birth into the tradition. He did so with the seventeen most boring verses in the entire Bible! (See Matt. 1:1-17) These verses are Matthew’s version of the genealogy of Jesus, but we refer to them the “who begat whom” verses. Yet in these incredibly boring verses, I am convinced that we can discover clues that will reveal both why the virgin birth story was developed in the first place and why it seems to be of such importance to the author of this second gospel to be written. First, some comments on the genealogy in general. Matthew began his description of the line that he claimed produced Jesus with Abraham, the traditional father of the Jewish nation. Matthew was himself a deeply committed Jewish writer, probably a scribe, and he was writing for a traditional Jewish faith community. He was, therefore, very interested in grounding the Jesus story in the very DNA of Jewish life and history. So he made Abraham, the first pivotal person in Jewish history, the first pivotal person in Jesus’ lineage. David, who originated the royal family that ruled some portion of the Hebrew nation for between 400 and 500 years, became his second pillar in Jesus’ ancestry. The next historical marker in Jesus background that is reflected in this genealogy was what is called the Exile. The citizens of Judah, first in 596 BCE and finally in 586 BCE, after being defeated by the Babylonians, were marched into the land of their conquerors to spend the period of Jewish history, known as the Babylonian captivity, as an underclass of laborers. This Exile lasted for two to three generations and was the time in history when the life of the Jewish nation quite literally hung by a thread. The last period covered by Matthew’s genealogy was from the Exile to the birth of Jesus. Matthew suggested that each of these epochs in Jewish history had been fourteen generations long. That is the point in which every shred of literal accuracy, which people like to attribute to this gospel, begins to break down. Abraham, if he lived at all, would be dated around the year 1850 BCE. David became king of the nation, first in Hebron, about the year 1000 and seven years later in Jerusalem, his newly-conquered capitol. So, between Abraham and David, there are some 850 years. If a generation is considered to be 20 years, which actually might be far too long in that time when life expectancy did not exceed 40 years, there would have been 42 generations between Abraham and David. The time from King David to the Exile would be 400 years plus or some 20 generations. The time from the Exile to the birth of Jesus would have been around 600 years or some 30 generations. So Matthew’s scheme for dividing Jewish history into the stages that he wishes to describe breaks down quickly. To achieve his 14 generation mathematical symmetry Matthew literally had to omit the names of some of the kings in Judah who reigned between David and the Exile who are actually described in the Hebrew Bible. The next problem that gives a biblical commentator pause with this genealogy, which goes from Abraham to David to Joseph to demonstrate Jesus’ royal lineage as a son of David, is that when he arrives at the virgin birth story, his narrative completely denies the role of paternity to Joseph in the life of Jesus. The Virgin Birth story says that Joseph, the presumed male agent in conception, was replaced by the Holy Spirit. So this elaborate effort to ground Jesus in the life of the Jewish people is compromised by the account of his miraculous birth. Literalism wobbles visibly. Another unusual detail in what Matthew portrays as the lineage of Jesus is that he included the names of four women in the genealogy. In this patriarchal world that was quite unusual. Women were not thought then to be equal partners in the procreation process. In that day no one knew that women produced an egg cell and were biologically co-creators of every baby that had ever been born. Women were rather thought of only as nurturing wombs, into which the males placed the seeds of life that women simply brought to maturity. Yet Matthew included four women in this genealogy. They were not mythical women either, for the story of each of these women can be found chronicled in the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures. Their stories were known, but even if they had not been known, anyone could go to the Bible and read them. The other fascinating thing about these women was that by the standards of that day, each of them was considered and defined as a “morally compromised woman.” Please listen to the drama being presented here. In this 17 verse genealogy with which Matthew introduced the story of the Virgin Birth, he made the claim that four of the women who were in the line that produced Jesus of Nazareth, were what his generation would have called unclean or scandalous women. What do you imagine was Matthew’s purpose in opening his story this way? The first of these “shady ladies” was Tamar and her story can be found in Genesis, chapter 38. She was the wife of Er, the first born son of the patriarch Judah. Judah had two other sons, Onan and Shelah, a fact that becomes important as the story unfolds. This chapter tells us that Er was “wicked in the sight of the Lord and the Lord slew him.” (Gen. 38:7). Under the law that governed widows in Hebrew history, it thus became the duty of Onan, the next oldest son, to marry the wife of his deceased brother in order “to raise up offspring for your brother.” (Gen. 38:8). Onan objected and practiced a primitive kind of birth control that came to be called “Onanism.” This act displeased God, according to this story, and so we are told that God also killed Onan. Now it became Shelah’s turn to marry his brother’s widow, but Shelah was only a boy, about five years of age and, having seen what happened to his two older brothers when they were married to Tamar, he was eager to avoid this fate. So Judah violated the code of behavior and the demands of the Torah and sent Tamar back to her family of origin, to live under her father’s protection. In this patriarchal society, Tamar was now “damaged goods” and she would no longer be thought of as “marriageable.” Judah, seeking to perfume his behavior, promised to send for her when Shelah grew up. Some time passed during which Shelah did grow up, but Tamar was forgotten. Next, we are told, Judah’s wife died and now he was a widower. After a period of time for mourning, Judah returned to his business as the owner of large flocks of sheep and planned a trip to Timnah to talk with his sheep shearers. When Tamar learned of this intended visit, she removed her widow’s clothing, put on a veil and the clothes of a prostitute and positioned herself at the entrance of her town which was on the road to Timnah and where Judah would have to pass by inevitably. He did. Judah saw her and assuming, as she intended him to do, that she was a prostitute, he turned aside to make a contract with her. They bargained for a price and it was agreed that her payment for “services rendered” would be a “kid from my flocks,” which would be sent to her the next day. Wise to the ways of the world, Tamar, still veiled, required that Judah give her something of value, something that she would return when his payment of the lamb was received. They settled on Judah’s signet ring, the cord that was wrapped around his waist and his staff. The two of them then went off to have their tryst, after which Judah went on his way and Tamar went back to her father’s home and once more put on the garments of her widowhood. The next day, Judah, true to his word, sent one of his servants with the lamb to redeem his property. This servant, however, could not find the woman. He inquired of the people of the village as to the identity of the prostitute, who solicited business at the gates of this village. They denied that anyone had ever done that in their town. The servant returned and reported to Judah his failure to locate this woman. Judah, not willing to the subject of ridicule, decided to forgo any further effort to recover his ring, cord and staff, charging them off as “losses from a business deal,” and a number of months passed. Then Judah heard the local gossip that Tamar, his daughter-in-law was pregnant and would soon produce a “child by harlotry.” Judah was incensed at this news and now, exercising his authority over this woman he had earlier rejected, ordered her to be brought out and burned at the stake. As she was being led to her place of execution, she sent word to Judah, her father-in-law, saying, “I am with child by the man to whom these belong” and she included his signet ring, his cord and his staff. Judah recognized them as his own and publicly repented. “She is more righteous than I, inasmuch as I did not give her to my son Shelah,” he said. Because sex with one’s daughter-in-law in that day was considered to be incest, Judah did not “lie with her again.” (Gen. 38:26), but he did provide for her care and after she gave birth, married her and brought her into his harem. Tamar became the mother of twins whom she named Perez and Zerah. That is the story. Matthew, by using the name Tamar, incorporated her story into the genealogy of Jesus. He was saying through this device that the line that produced Jesus went through Judah to Perez to the son of Perez, whose name was Hezron. Here, Matthew was asserting that the Christ Child had an ancestor who was guilty of incest. It is an interesting way to open a narrative about the Virgin Birth! That, however, is only the first of the women to whom Matthew alludes in this genealogy. The other three are equally as fascinating and provocative. We will turn to each of them in detail as this series unfolds. ~John Shelby Spong Read the essay online here. Question & Answer Randy Bell, from Florida writes: Question: I am a 21-year-old student from Florida. Over the past year, I have gone through some changes regarding my view of religion and the world and would just like to thank you for your ideas on the current and future state of Christianity. Your writings and talks have been instrumental in helping me understand the role of religion and spirituality in my life. I never got to speak to my hero, Christopher Hitchens, before he died, something I regard as my only real regret in life. But I am glad I have a chance to thank you for your message of love, hope and a more modern take on a topic that has great meaning to me. Answer: Dear Randy, Thank you for your letter. I am delighted that you believe yourself to have been helped by my writings and I am pleased that you put your thoughts into words. I am also gratified to be in your pantheon of heroes alongside Christopher Hitchens. The world lost one of its most creative minds when he died. I knew Christopher Hitchens, but not well, and had the pleasure of being part of a two-hour debate with him on ITV in London a number of years ago, well before his book God is Not Great came out. He considered me an inadequate Christian, since I did not fall within his narrow definition of what a Christian is or believes. He assumed that the only way to think about Christianity was to define it in rather traditional, rigid and medieval terms, as he constantly did. He spent a lot of his time attacking his version of Christianity, which I had no trouble attacking as well. I thought of him as a brilliant man and an able rhetorician, but one who was very poorly informed about the movements in historical Christianity. He did not know there was any other way to view Christianity than the way he so thoroughly rejected and enjoyed lampooning. That is where I think he was wrong. In my series, recently completed through this column, entitled, “Think Different, Accept Uncertainty,” I spelled out an alternative to Hitchens’ version of Christianity that he and I both find easily rejectable. That series is now available, if you are interested, along with all of my previous columns, to those who are subscribers. That series filled about half a year in this column’s history. I hope the world recognizes, as you seem to do, that both Christopher Hitchen and I have a role to play in seeking God’s truth. ~John Shelby Spong Announcements Between now and December 31st, get a great deal on the perfect Christmas gift! Give someone you love a year-long subscription to Bishop Spong’s Weekly Newsletter, and you’ll be giving them the insight and thoughtful commentary you have come to appreciate from one of the leading voices for “believers in exile”. Plus, you’ll be giving them access to over eight years of weekly essays that Bishop Spong has written — all the way back to 2004! There are 2 simple ways you can do this: 1) Simply send in a check for $25 to: ProgressiveChristianity.org 3530 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Suite 1 Portland, OR 97214 ~Please clearly write the name and email address of the person you are giving to OR 2) Email us today at support(a)johnshelbyspong.com with: ~Your name and email address ~Your friend’s name and email address **Then we will send you a paypal invoice that you can pay directly using a credit card. Use one of these 2 simple steps and we will send your friend a Special Gift email notification - letting them know that about your gift. Then they will begin to receive Bishop Spong’s essay every Thursday for the whole rest of the year! Pass on all that you love about Bishop Spong — Give a gift Subscription today! Any questions or concerns, please contact us at support(a)johnshelbyspong.com or 503-236-3545. Copyright © 2012 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have a membership at our website. Our mailing address is: ProgressiveChristianity.org 3530 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Unit 1 Portland, OR 97214 Add us to your address book If you are a paying subscriber, you may login and cancel your account. Sent to elliestock(a)aol.com — why did I get this? unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences ProgressiveChristianity.org · 3530 SE Hawthorne Blvd. · Unit 1 · Portland, OR 97214

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Witness
by Richard Alton 13 Dec '12

13 Dec '12

Burning Man Celebrating my 71st birthday this December. You would think after all these years I would have learned a few things and, more important, be a lot wiser. Not sure. I guess one thing I have learned is that there is a lot of wisdom out there in this great old world. And to act on this insight I try to collect wisdom and jot them down in my yearly calendar… I am not sure it makes me wise. One example is my daughters going to Burning Man (gathering of old and new hippies as one friend explained to me to smoke a lot of pot). Well my daughters Christina and Kay had not told me about this last part so I immediately went and googled Burning Man. And upped popped the Burning Man principles: There is no default world; Expect more from strangers; Form your own camp; Be part of the generosity economy and Embrace impermanence. I wrote Christina- the older daughter- what is this all about? She says, “you know this is like what we learned with ICA, you know the other world” Now that caught my attention. The one principle I was most fascinated with was the one about ‘Expect more from strangers”. It seems Burning Man believes that people are scarred of other people, and it is their job not to be scarred. They also recommend “go in for a hug”- that seems a little too scary for me. Most people it appears are trying to project their appearance of normalcy instead of celebrating their wonderful weirdness. The key seems to be able to say “yes” to the strangeness of strangers. Your job appears to be to expect people to be interesting. Also you have a right to approach any random person and have an interesting interaction. So I now have these 5 principals in my calendar book. I usually try to read through these wisdom notes regularly and try to be mindful of them through the day. ‘Expecting more from strangers” went with me to the ICA Nepal Conference. The second day there I tried to walk from the ICA Nepal office back to my Hotel. A course, I got lost. I had a map but it did not seem very helpful. And then I noticed a man walking near me who also had his map out with a great big backpack like he had been trekking. Finally, I walked over to him and asked, “have you found where we are?. Nope, but I think I am close” We finally figured out where we were with the help of a policeman and we started walking together. Where are you from?: Egypt. What do you do?: I am the Egyptian consular at the Egyptian Embassy in New Delhi and come regularly to Nepal to trek. He asked me some questions and I told him about our El Bayad work and that I had coached baseball in Maadi (suburbs of Cairo). And then I asked him about the new government in Egypt. He spent about 15 minutes trying to explain the situation in Egypt and what he thought the future looked like. I was just startled that this just totally out of the blue interaction had produced such an amazing interaction. And then there was the actual Nepal Conference. What a way to just maximize such weird connections? And is not that finally what community is all about? I guess that is what Burning Man means by Form your camp. Burning Man’s philosophy seems to suggest that these camps are about making an impact together. They are not just for hanging out together, but camps are where people are about something that contributes to the larger community..this is what gives camps meaning. These camps seem to leads us to the generosity economy; this has to do with someone who always gives to others as a way of life. Burning Man sees the transformative feature of their faith is the ‘gifting’ economy. Notice how it makes your life better to give. In fact, giving away can become a way of life for you and your people. The last principle is embracing impermanence which is really up in your face at 71 years old. I am going to put that one in my 2013 monthly planner for my brood screen for the year. I know I have to embrace it… I am sure it will embrace me. Bet you that these principles came from smoking too much pot. Probably, the same pot the Other World came from. Dick Alton, just back from hanging out with Bill McKibben and 350.org working to divest my oil stocks… Richard H.T. Alton 166 N. Humphrey Ave, Apt, 1N Oak Park, IL 60302 T:1.773.344.7172 richard.alton(a)gmail.com Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back Babe Ruth

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Re: [Oe List ...] Salmon: Response to Alton's Witness
by David Walters 13 Dec '12

13 Dec '12

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My email address
by Herman Greene 12 Dec '12

12 Dec '12

I sent a message to the dialogue email list that confused some people. In the dialogue list I said my email was hfgreenenc(a)gmail.com. Earlier I had said on the OE list that me email was hfgreene.nc(a)gmail.com. Either address should work because gmail ignores periods in an address. Notwithstanding the foregoing, some people have reported that they have had problems with hfgreene.nc(a)gmail.com. Therefore, for best results, use hfgreenenc(a)gmail.com -- that is the exact address in gmail's records. Herman

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OpEd ST Thursday Season's greetings
by Jaime R Vergara 12 Dec '12

12 Dec '12

Theawesome world of teenager Pi The Lifeof Pi is Yann Martell's best selling yarn of thePondicherry-born Pi (aka Piscine Molitor Patel) made into filmunder the direction of Ang Lee, (Li Ang to the Chinese), the Taiwan-borncolleague of Spike Lee, and known for directing the controversial Brokeback Mountain film of same-sex affections. Out title forthis article is from our feeble translation of the Chinese movie title (the"awesome" may also be translated as "bizarre, weird, strange,illusory and/or magical") currently showing both on regular and 3Dscreens. I saw the 3D version, worth the¥-cost, allowing me to commune with the zoo residents of the old PondicherryBotanical Gardens up close and personal. Awesome. I start atthe edges. There is Gérard Depardieu, the renowned French actorand director who is three years our junior but whose recent mid-girth imagesdouble ours. He plays a French cookon-board the ill-fated Japanese cargo ship for carnivorous sailors. He had no sympathy to the vegetariancharacters from India sailing across the Pacific. We already mentioned France's Pondicherry, which is set to introduce thecharacter of Pi and to narrate the circumstances that led to the voyage, longin the book telling but marvelously and powerfully cinematographed at theopening of the movie. Pi's family decides to move to Canada with their menagerie when publicfunds in Pondicherry were no longer extended to the maintenance of the gardensand its animals. Crossing the MarianasTrench, complete with a map and a foreboding "deep" in the movie,they run into a storm that we are only too familiar with in our protractedstays in places like Oahu, Majuro, Nuku'alofa, Kolonia, Hagatña, and Saipan. The plot thickens to the main story, which is how a vegetarianHindu-Christian survives 288 days afloat the misnomered "Pacific"ocean with a ferocious fully-fanged misnamed (Richard Parker) Bengali tiger ona 30-passenger lifeboat. The tongue-in-cheek reference to religious practices and the God-speak ispart of the context. Our young teenagerPI embraces Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam before he reaches puberty, to thegreat dismay of his science-enamored parents who would rather that the he makesa choice of practice rather than fall into the nebulous world of the muddledmixed middle. Then, we get to the final confrontation between the young teenager, thetiger, and the sea. Facing the wide expanse of the awesome and aweful universe, Pi's Hinduismremains unalterably all embracing in his affirmation of the unfathomablemysteries of his life. Though not shownto be Madrasah-trained, with a laser-beamed disciplined awareness of beancounting cans of water and biscuits/wafers, Pi remains alert to the limits ofhis possibilities and brave enough to know in his bones that if elements inone's surrounding is non-compliant, like Richard Parker, it can, at least, betrained. Then life runs into its illusions, actual in Pi's telling, imagined as amirage to those familiar with the desert and the open seas. Pi and Parker run into a verdant island, afloating huge algae, hospitable and sustaining during day but acidic and toxicat night. Pi had a pond of fresh waterand roots to fill his carb needs, and Parker had thousands of malleablecreatures for lunch, but the island turned the evening shadows into anightmare. The duo survived and afterfilling up provisions, sailed away. A strange catholic pieta comesthrough as the exhausted Pi finally cradles on his lap the head of the equallyemaciated tiger, the earlier allusion to the mysteries of the Christ ofcompassion with a Padre at a Portuguese Church. The religious theme got a final brush in the cinematographic tableaubefore it hit the shores of Mexico. "I have a story that will make you believe in God," is a lineearly on in the novel and in the movie. Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam gets early billing, with Judaism'sKabbalah gets a line when Pi the professor claims he lectures on the subjectalso. Japanese insurance company accountants that covered the cargo shipprovide the epilogue segment of the film, interviewing their sole survivor fortheir report. Pi's story was toofantastic to be believed, so Pi personified the zebra, hyena, gorilla, and thetiger with those of his parents and the ship's cook. The accountants' report stayed with the storyof Pi and the tiger. Belief in God is anaccount of the real. (Pi's pi in one scene is 3.14, then to the nth degree. It is also represented by 22/7, and 335/113, never a whole number!) In any case, however we relate our story, stories reveal beliefs, not beliefs determining stories. Pi's complaint was that the tiger never even bothered to say"goodbye." In an earlierepisode before he left Pondicherry and his first heartthrob, Pi recalled thatthe parting did not include uttering "goodbye". For three thousand years, humankind told their story in God-speak,too. In the life of this meat-eatingformer teenager from Northern Philippines, God walked away without saying"goodbye", as well. "ForUnto Us a Child is Born" is the season's wondrous and awesome theme, notthe Magi's appearance, and their going away without saying goodbye. I am with Pi on God in this one. j'aime la vie Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, Celebrate!

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