Best of the season….happy new year!
Share & heal. Magic words, for magic people. You’re part of the magic in the coming year. Step up!
Happy New Year!!!!!!!!
Thoughts: How Raven brought light to the world
How Raven brought light to the World
According to a Haida story, in the beginning the world was in total darkness.
The Raven, who had existed from the beginning of time, was tired of groping about and bumping into things in the dark. Eventually the Raven came upon the home of an old man who lived alone with his daughter. Through his slyness, the Raven learned that the old man had a great treasure. This was all the light in the universe, contained in a tiny box concealed within many boxes. At once the Raven vowed to steal the light. He thought and thought, and finally came up with a plan.
He waited until the old man’s daughter came to the river to gather water. Then the Raven changed himself into a single hemlock needle and dropped himself into the river, just as the girl was dipping her water-basket into the river. As she drank from the basket, she swallowed the needle. It slipped and slithered down into her warm belly, where the Raven transformed himself again, this time into a tiny human.
After sleeping and growing there for a very long time, at last the Raven emerged into the world once more, this time as a human infant. Even though he had a rather strange appearance, the Raven’s grandfather loved him. But the old man threatened dire punishment if he ever touched the precious treasure box. Nonetheless the Ravenchild begged and begged to be allowed to hold the light just for a moment. In time the old man yielded, and lifted from the box a warm and glowing sphere, which he threw to his grandson.
As the light was moving toward him, the human child transformed into a gigantic black shadowy bird-form, wings spread ready for flight, and beak open in anticipation. As the beautiful ball of light reached him, the Raven captured it in his beak!
Moving his powerful wings, he burst through the smoke-hole in the roof of the house, and escaped into the darkness with his stolen treasure. And that is how light came into the universe.
A Haida Legend
Posted by Lady Abigail
Music: Where the hell is Matt?
If you’re already in a good mood & smiling about how cool the day after the full moon feels
& how neat it is that Solstice is upon us (days get longer from here on out – wahoo!)
and you got a chance to hug somebody today (or are looking forward to him hugging you later)
& the coffeehouse people smiled at you
& the sun made those grey skies pink
& all that….
then add this to the pile. Bet you smile twice.
Matt notes (he travels & puts this together each year):
The dancers in Syria are blurred for their safety.
I got into North Korea with Koryo Tours. It’s not difficult or dangerous.
This video was made without a sponsor. I don’t need you to buy anything. Just remember we need to take care of each other.
Matt
Thoughts: Be the good you want to see in the world….
from our friends at Fractal Enlightenment
Funnier: Year in Review
Wordplay: Grammar mistakes, and the mistakes people who write about them make….
For the writers, editors, and general linguaphiles among us. This is especially poignant for me because it deals with hypercorrection, far and away the greatest sin committed by proofreaders, copyeditors, line editors, and well-meaning friends who look over others’ writing.
I don’t agree with the blogger 100%, but I think he makes interesting points civilly and thoughtfully. Of course, the headline/title is horrible, as is almost anything of the “[Some Number of] Whatevers That Almost Everyone Makes/Does/Says” type, but I hope that won’t keep you from at least a glance at this particular quasi-arbitrary list.
Here’s his list (the blog explains each one a fair amount):
1. Confusing grammar with spelling, punctuation, and usage.
2. Treating style choices as rules.
3. Ignoring register.
4. Saying that a disliked word isn’t a word.
5. Turning proposals into ironclad laws.
6. Failing to discuss exceptions to rules.
7. Overestimating the frequency of errors.
8. Believing that etymology is destiny.
9. Simply bungling the rules.
10. Saying that good grammar leads to good communication.
11. Using grammar to put people down.
12. Forgetting that correct usage ultimately comes from users.
13. Making mistakes themselves. It happens to the best of us.
[Yes, a 13th mistake; it’s a bonus. And a mistake.]
Here’s the story, with details, disclaimers & a good amount of insight.
Grateful: A Love Song to the World
Musicians Nimo Patel and Daniel Nahmod brought together dozens of people from around the world to create this beautiful, heart-opening melody. Inspired by the 21-Day Gratitude Challenge, the song is a celebration of our spirit and all that is a blessing in life.
For the 21 Days, over 11,000 participants from 118 countries learned that “gratefulness” is a habit cultivated consciously and a muscle built over time. As a famous Roman, Cicero, once said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”
This soul-stirring music video, created within a week by a team of volunteers, shines the light on all the small things that make up the beautiful fabric of our lives.
Visit at:
Emptyhandsmusic.com (Nimo Patel) | KindSpring.org
DanielNahmod.com | EllieWalton.com
Writings: A moment with Derek – Smart people don’t think others are stupid
Long ago, in my first year of teaching high school in New Orleans, I can still remember writhing with angst (that’s the way I talked then, too) when the kids would ask me something I didn’t know. They would ask, “Well, what year WAS it that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet?” or “Did they make YOU study grammar like this?” or “Why do we drive on the parkway & park on the driveway?”
Once they found out how this made me suffer (I HAD to have an answer! I was The Teacher!), the questions came fast & furious.
Then, in February a week before Mardi Gras, a junior asked something, and I said, “I don’t know.”
It was the most liberating thing that ever happened to me up to that point. Wow. Shook loose from the ego-wrap of “gotta know.” Use it all the time now: I don’t know!
Then I started noticing how folks who said someone was stupid or dumb or worse…usually weren’t all that smart themselves. When I read Derek’s take on this, earlier this year, I thought, as I often do with the stuff he writes – yeah.
Here goes:
The woman seemed to be making some pretty good points, until she stopped with, “Ugh! Those (people she disagrees with) are just so stupid!!”
She could have said Southerners, Northerners, Republicans, Democrats, Indians, or Americans. It doesn’t matter. She had just proven that she wasn’t being smart.
There are no smart people or stupid people, just people being smart or being stupid.
(And things are often not as they seem, so people who seem to be doing something smart or stupid, may not be. There’s always more information, more context, and more to the story.)
Being smart means thinking things through – trying to find the real answer, not the first answer.
Being stupid means avoiding thinking by jumping to conclusions. Jumping to a conclusion is like quitting a game : you lose by default.
That’s why saying “I don’t know” is usually smart, because it’s refusing to jump to a conclusion.
So when someone says “They are so stupid!” – it means they’ve stopped thinking. They say it to feel finished with that subject, because there’s nothing they can do about that. It’s appealing and satisfying to jump to that conclusion.
So if you decide someone is stupid, it means you’re not thinking, which is not being smart.
Therefore: smart people don’t think others are stupid.
Thoughts: Everyone is beautiful….get closer.
As you know, most monks see beauty in everyone, even folks who try to cover it up (can you imagine? hiding from your OWN beauty? or deny it, or do distracting things), or folks who say “Beauty is this, but it’s not that.”
Doesn’t work that way, and you know it.
From the description of this short 4 minute film, posted just last week & closing in on five million friends watching it:
Disabled mannequins will be eliciting astonished looks from passers-by on Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse today. Between the perfect mannequins, there will be figures with scoliosis or brittle bone disease modeling the latest fashions.
One will have shortened limbs; the other a malformed spine. The campaign has been devised for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities by Pro Infirmis, an organization for the disabled. Entitled “Because who is perfect? Get closer.”, it is designed to provoke reflection on the acceptance of people with disabilities. Director Alain Gsponer has captured the campaign as a short film.
About Brother Ian
Over the centuries, Brother Ian has been collecting stories & information & discourses for the purpose of elevating the human condition as needed, dissecting it when necessary, and building the case for hope.
In the spirit of noting that organized crime, organized baseball, organized labour, and organized religion tend to engender controversy & occasional discord, I promise to be neither organized or critical of those who are.