What have you been thinking about recently?
Posted on Feb 1st, 2008
by 
synonym for light
synonym for light
This is in Response to the Questions and Reflections for February 01, 2008:
this (rapunzel's blog about tv and damanhur),
this (an article about how humans are getting healthier -- really!)
this (the art of power, by thich nhat hanh who is also the author of peace is every step and the raft is not the shore and true love. all of which I read and reread. the link "true love" is thich nhat hanh talking about true love-- beautiful.)
this (the sutras of abu ghraib, notes from a conscientious objector in iraq, by aidan delgado, which I've just finished reading.)
this (soul mountain, by gao xingjian, translated by mabel lee, which I am just beginning to read.)
I have been practicing too, not just thinking. Even within my own home, without going outside, there is plenty of opportunity for practicing peace and love. in this incarnation I have chosen to challenge myself by marrying someone who has very different beliefs than I do and also with a child who challenges me everyday not to be lazy in my convictions, but to really practice what I say I believe.
I have been thinking/wondering/meditating about whether I am somehow not doing enough, for peace, for the biosphere, for justice, for love. I have been wondering if there is anything more I can do or that I ought to do. I do not now know the answer. I am waiting, sitting, listening, learning.
also I am thinking that I ought to take this course. has anyone here ever taken one of "the great courses"?
this (an article about how humans are getting healthier -- really!)
this (the art of power, by thich nhat hanh who is also the author of peace is every step and the raft is not the shore and true love. all of which I read and reread. the link "true love" is thich nhat hanh talking about true love-- beautiful.)
this (the sutras of abu ghraib, notes from a conscientious objector in iraq, by aidan delgado, which I've just finished reading.)
this (soul mountain, by gao xingjian, translated by mabel lee, which I am just beginning to read.)
I have been practicing too, not just thinking. Even within my own home, without going outside, there is plenty of opportunity for practicing peace and love. in this incarnation I have chosen to challenge myself by marrying someone who has very different beliefs than I do and also with a child who challenges me everyday not to be lazy in my convictions, but to really practice what I say I believe.
I have been thinking/wondering/meditating about whether I am somehow not doing enough, for peace, for the biosphere, for justice, for love. I have been wondering if there is anything more I can do or that I ought to do. I do not now know the answer. I am waiting, sitting, listening, learning.
also I am thinking that I ought to take this course. has anyone here ever taken one of "the great courses"?
Access: Public
abu ghraib
August 2008 
Oh, maybe I will take that course too! I love love love calculus but have forgotten most of what I learned (I had a very embarrassing moment when I offered to help someone and realized I no longer knew how that particular thing worked. At all.)
I was going to start working on Ruby but I'll consider calculus too.
Thanks!
what is Ruby, I think I missed a reference somewhere? (it's my grandmother's name too.)
I'm listening/watching this right now. it's powerful. it's vietnam vets interacting with thich nhat hanh at plum village and in washington dc. so powerful.
and rapunzel– should we take it “together” and help each other with our homework? math was always my best subject in school, but somehow in the mess of my teenage years, I never took calculus. I really want to.
ruby is a programming language. I think not being able to program is a form of illiteracy.
I was going to start working on it at the beginning of the month but it's been a little bit of a busy-crazy month, so maybe in february.
oh! I agree with you about not being able to program being a form of illiteracy. and I'm illiterate in that case. I'd love to learn ruby too. it looks elegant, just from a quick glance. it looks like we are on to something damanhurian already. aren't the damanhurians, lifelong learners? :-)
Dawn - I had to bone up on calculus when my daughters took it in high school and college - I'd forgotten so much! Use it or lose it kinda thing. When Julia was in middle school I found a book at a book fair that explained - text and pull-out graphics - all math up to and including calc better than any other source I ever saw. The book got lost in one of my many moves. I so want to find that book again. You look at it and it was like “Oh, that's so obvious…”
Love the links…
Jeannie - I played a bit with ruby at CL. Object oriented yes but with a legacy owed to Grace Hopper and COBOL - I think that's why it's so easy to read directly. I took my hat off to Grace a long time ago and never put it back on!
Here's to literacy, both in math and programming languages….
You are all amazing! Jeannie I stopped by Dawn's on my way home from work and she was chopping leeks while listening to, and responding lyrically back, a Norwegian learning program. Ruby, Calculus, Norwegian, links and hyperlinks and I am thinking about making my toy boat sea worthy so I can pretend to sail it to Greenland and find someone who wears skin underclothes.
Dawn I didn't have time to get the cashew soup things but made a nice chicken soup for sick Fiona.
Albert you said bone up! Does that mean bones showing aren't that bad?
Oh Farland, you have to go back and look at my reply to your reply to my comment on otter's blog post on Boucher's nudes….oh heck, here's a link. It'd probably work faster, the link, if some Ruby coding was used hereabouts, but we'll make do with the Emerald City stuff.
I de-boned a turkey one time (complicated recipe) - it looked really weird, all floppy and stuff, 'till I cooked it and then it kinda firmed up. Bones are fine.
“skin underclothes…” Hmmm. Is that a thing, or the absence of a thing? ;-)
And Jeannie - I'm gonna learn enough so I can code a calculus solving program in ruby but display all the results - the word parts - in Norwegian.
The Inuit make their underclothes of thin skinned animals rabbit and birds with the feathers inside against the skin. So presence of things. I'm just joking about the bones thing. I love everybody's bodies including mine and laugh about them all at the same time.
I'm laughing out loud reading all these comments. I can't even compose myself enough to make a good reply to all of that. I'm going out to yoga now – I taught this morning and got jealous of all the students getting all sweaty and bendy and relaxed – I decided I have to get back on my practice schedule. this will be only my 3rd or 4th class taken since the new year, not much for someone who usually practices everyday almost.
I won't log on to gaia again til tomorrow, but I'll send you all some yoga and offline love!! thank you all for being such wonderful good friends and the constant laughter while learning. :-)
Farland, I knew someone who made these interesting pieces of clothing from skins, lots with the fur fur-side-in. She made them from road kills, which she decided were going to waste. She would scoop them up and until she was ready to use them put them in her freezer - she went through lots and lots of roommates…
farland almost went through a tentmate in iceland because of my finickyness (is that a word) about dead bird germs in the tent. but we actually did ok. she thinks I'm a neat freak, which would make my mother and any housemate I've ever had laugh their heads off. so you see how she is darn good for my perspective.
albert – about that book— I NEED it. what is it called? you MUST remember. I predict that you WILL remember and share it here in the next week or month or so. this is my inner freyja at work again.
oh – and after making that inner freyja remark and whichever other thread we were all on about — and that was a day after naming my iPhone freyja/friia to remind me of ancient times and mysterious witchy mischivous wickedness whenever I use it – I watched Aeon Flux and the main character's body guard woman is called Freya. That made me happy. That and the mtv logo thing at the beginning with astronauts sitting in a movie theatre in their spacewalking suits and floating popcorn. I need me some floating popcorn. :-0
Dawn you were the good sport (it was all good sport) I did collect from the road sides and skin out some various indigenous Icelandic birds which then continued our close quartered damp trip with us. Germs.. someone has to love them.
germs– someone has to love them– that is one of the funniest things I've heard all day and it comes at a good moment. I've just suffered hearing a bunch of yoga students discuss the various levels of cleanliness in the various studios around the valley after teaching class in carbondale tonight. there is a broad spectrum of tolerance levels.
I'm still quite amazed when I look back at that month Farland, I don't remember us even being ever really testy with each other. you're right, it was all good sport. and now, I'm glad about the birds– they made good memories. :-) and I'm glad about the damp and all of it.
I've just been choosing which Iceland photos to show at Zele in June. It's such a labor of love.
I'll try to remember the book Dawn. Uhhhh, uhhh, uhhh - nope - nothing today. I'll try again in a few days. Promise…;-)
nice. thanks. I'm using my future remembering skills today, thanks to laura's blog. I'm remembering that you are going to remember it soon. haha! me and my inner freyja might be able to channel the queen from wonderland soon, with a litl encouragement from my friends near and far. ;-)