Love Ya Award

These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

Jolly Roger is unrelenting in his commitment to speaking the critique that may yet return us to the uniquely American vision of a viable and vibrant free society. He also coins hilarious words. He doesn’t mince those words much, because the issues that he confronts are much too important to soften. His critiques are as thoughtful as they are sharp, so if you can’t argue effectively, you had best vacate the debate. I am honored to be his blogger friend. Big hugz, JR!

As I think about all the people I’ve met through blogging, I have to echo Jolly Roger’s sentiments:

There are some really decent people doing this thing that we do, and quite a few of them reach out to others with kind words, encouragement, and a pat on the back, delivered in HTML. I’d like to recognize some of these folks here, because they certainly deserve the recognition.

I would like to be on record, however, as being in (respectful) disagreement with the characterization of his critically patriotic blog:

Heidi of Virus Head is a long-time friend of this disgusting rag. She’s also very human in her writings, no matter what they are about.

I am indeed pleased to be considered fully human (grin).

So – here are some of the friendly blogs and bloggers upon which I rely.

• Kimmy blogs at Kimmy Sharing Light. The title is apt – she shares the light, even to the droopy-eyed. She’s also become a very fun Facebook friend – always sending little tidbits and extending her beauty through a thousand little kindnesses.
• Vance blogs at Meditations on an Eyeball and at the related Deferral of Meaning. He posts far too infrequently, but there is always a central question or concern that is worth mulling over. Vance is one of the only people I know with whom I am inclined to discuss biblical interpretation. Because his studies are question-driven and a bit existential and postmodern, we speak something close to the same language. Our visions of God might be a bit different, but our paths often intersect in ways that enrich both.
• Darrell blogs at Blog of the Grateful Bear, and I’m grateful for him. He inspires me with hope. He is very service-oriented – truly caring and compassionate. We’re both mystics of a sort, and so we share a love of cats and coffee (as all good mystics ought).
• Amanda blogs at Welcome to the Trueness. She is a tireless worker for issues having to do with our animal friends on planet earth. She also a creative, lively, curious and compassionate woman. I’m glad to count her as a friend.

  She has also started up a business – Lemon Queen Web Design – to support her website design habit. Check it out.

• Kate blogs at ITISI. We met through a series of coincidences. We just kept meeting up, and after a while resistance to synchronicity is futile isn’t it? She is witty and fun and she has a wonderful aesthetic sense – with images, with words, with ideas. I love her blog, and I love her too.
• So, the shining woman and mom known as Judith writes at The Only Thing I Know. She makes me laugh and celebrate. We share a deep love for the nuances and resonances of language. I wish she lived in Atlanta.
• Todd blogs at – and about – Postcards from Hell’s Kitchen. He’s one of the first bloggers that turned up when I started blogging, and we’ve been faithfully following each other’s blogs ever since. I get a vicarious pleasure from his explorations of restaurants and cultural events, and have come to value him very highly as a friend. I also think that he must be an excellent teacher.
• Mark blogs at Left Behind and Loving It. Although we went to graduate school together in Iowa, we didn’t really get to know one another very well at the time. I’ve been enjoying the way Mark thinks since we rediscovered each other recently on Facebook. He’s churchy, but in a good way. It’s a two-for-one friendship too, because his wife Christine is totally cool, too. I still remember their wedding (sniff, sob).

I could go on and on, really. I can think of ten more right off. But because there really are so many terrific blogging friends, and so many friends who have yet to start blogging, I’ll leave this space open. Ask yourself: Are you a good friend and blogger? Are you kind and encouraging to others? Do you offer laughter or wit or authentic questions? If so, claim it!

Virus Head is one of the most gracious people I’ve encountered in my years of blogging. She has a gentle patience that almost makes me feel bad for the chainsaw approach I take to some of my more notable commenters. I DON’T feel bad, of course, but seeing her way stops me dead in my tracks from time to time.

For those who answer blog comments, emails, and make their visitors feel at home on their blogs. For the people who take others feelings into consideration before speaking out and who are kind and courteous. Also for all of those bloggers who spend so much of their time helping others bloggers design, improve, and fix their sites. This award is for those generous bloggers who think of others.

This means a lot to me, all the more so because at times I really have to struggle to maintain civility. It is very comforting for me to know that some readers notice (and care) that I try to be as gracious and understanding as I can (even when provoked). I don’t always succeed. It is very tempting for me to give in to my flair for a kind of wicked wit; it’s fun! I enjoy argument more than dialogue, and I really, really enjoy winning an argument. It’s true. What can I say?

When the urge comes, I try to remember that I can’t see the person, so I miss all sorts of nonverbal cues in the communication. I can’t adjust my rhetoric or style when I am missing vital information. I can’t add a smile or convey a sense of irony. Words on the page come across differently. You can’t broadcast the tone of voice, the facial expression.

People are also at all sorts of levels in different areas. They are from all sorts of backgrounds, and a wide range of personal, community, and cultural experience. You have to take people where they are to get anywhere… if it’s worth bothering at all. Online, it is sometimes difficult to get much of a sense of where someone might really be “coming from.”

It’s the teacher in me that usually wins the battle over my inner debater and warrior. Sometimes it’s a strain. I can get a little derisive from time to time. But I think less of myself when I do.

So – thanks, Jolly Roger. The admiration of a pirate is a wondrous thing.

Yes, this is another of those “Create-a-network” meme awards. You can link this back to me if you wish, you may choose to name others, or not. It’s up to you.

Can I toss it back in your general direction, JR? I am so glad to have met you online.

Todd at Postcards from Hell’s Kitchen is my earliest blogger contact on the net. He gets out there and explores everything there is. He is kind and caring and witty and very gracious.

Maria has a MySpace blog. She is a doll (I mean that in the good way). I first encountered her through the site Women Evolving. I can’t find it on the net anymore, but I used to visit the site years ago to be refreshed. She’s so very sweet and kind it almost kills me sometimes. We are contemporaries from Massachusetts, but we’ve never met.

Actually, I’ve never met anyone on this list. If I were to list people I knew, the list would be unmanageable.

Vance’s Meditations on an Eyeball illustrate the value of quality over quantity. He wrestles with difficult religious and philosophical questions. His posts are somehow both opinionated and open. In correspondence, he is a thoughtful and gracious writer. I’m putting him on the list because I hope that he will get more comments on his blog and have more of a chance to let his inner hospitality shine.

Don at Life Cycle Analysis posts on environmental change, archaeology, and human interactions with the environment. He always gets a fair number of comments. Here’s a “moonbat” who rises above it all (note the url of the blog – I know that “moonbat” is meant to be an insulting word to signify a crazy liberal, but I love the sound of the word). His blog has some interesting things you won’t see elsewhere.

Some of the most thoughtful kind people I’ve encountered online don’t blog at all, or not much.

For example, Elainna is a long-time online friend and Care2 buddy (her site is The Wild Side). She is a tireless worker for spirituality, the environment, progressive politics, and a host of other causes. I get a whole bunch of leads from her on petitions to sign, letters to write, news to read, things to do. She is always gracious and caring, and I am rather fond of her.

Dennis doesn’t post very often at his blog, but he does post at his Care2 group Love, Tolerance, and Ridiculous Stuff. Do you really want to see the thoughtful and hospitable response? He’s got it down to a science. I think he even means it.

I’ve set a grassroots fund-raising goal of $500 from the blog.

Support John Edwards through VirusHead.

VirusHead says:

“I’m looking forward to hearing more about your positions – the American people appear to need some real messages, some real debate. I have always thought you were a good guy. Stay that way, if you would. As Gore to global warming, you are to issues of fairness. For myself, I would like to hear more about your ideas on international issues as well.

Incidentally, don’t you think that the telecommunications networks should have to carry more that the usual number of debates so that some of the issues really facing America can be discussed openly? After all, it is my understanding that the “airwaves” belong to everyone. The current administration is trying to cut funding for even the tiny of piece of it that calls itself public television, but I think that national debates should not be funded by campaign funds. That should be a service granted – gratis – by the media networks. And it sure would be nice if they loosened up on some of the rules of the regular debates. There could be a better format.

In smaller matters, I’m glad you kept the bloggers – but…. I’d rethink the favorite actor / director choice on this page.

A grin and a handshake -”

That was written before the bloggers “resigned” of course – right smack dab in the middle of the whole thing.

And the fave actor/director is listed as Paul Newman – who is great, of course, but…

JohnEdwards

The next carnival will be held May 7th at a Small Group of Thoughtful, Committed Citizens.

The Roving Ellipsis hosts the Progressive Faith Blog carnival this week. Great job weaving the various strands together!

Are you a progressive faith blogger? Join here.

The Carnival will be hosted next week by Velveteen Rabbi.

Welcome to the 7th Carnival of Progressive Faith Bloggers! Join us if you would like to participate in future carnivals. Your host next week is Pearlbear’s Blog. Contact Michelle directly with a "Carnival Post" email or submit your blog link and description to ProgFaithCarnival – at – Yahoo.com with "Carnival Link" in the title.

I was planning on making this more of a narrative post, but the topics this week were very wide-ranging. The round-up is more concise than descriptive. I encourage you to go read the posts. Please feel free to comment with additional post links. Without further ado, then:

Baraka at Truth and Beauty questions whether revulsion is the best response with a witty, sweet defense of piglets and love hounds. Sometimes even the lowliest of animals can hold the key to Heaven or an explanation of our connection to God.

Eternal Peace outlines a two-tiered Tonglen meditative practice in which one breathes in the pain of others and breathes out a sending of relief and joy – but it’s the second level of the practice that got my attention.

Connecting with the voice of the infinite in our lives is pondered – with the aid Paul Tillich – at Even the Devils Believe (see also the top ten list of ikons for theologians).

Daniel at Radical Torah is also thinking about the singular Voice which arises in each individual – in a post on the radical, yet grounded, subjectivity of Judaism.

On grounding (in relation to rock/stone in particular), see an interesting instruction on alter construction from the book of Exodus, and take a look at photographs of the patient stones of Glendalough at Hoarded Ordinaries.

Think Buddha considers a challenging question of the relative ease or difficulty of ethics in a Western context.

Planet Grenada muses on Sunni-Shia tensions and hopes during Muharram (the first month of the Islamic lunar calendar), and Another Country interprets Lent as a time to establish new habits for spiritual growth.

Radical Hapa considers race in the context of the delusion of national innocence, and No More Apples expands on what it would mean to have "more of those apples" now that innocence is gone.

Semitism.net reports on Prime Minister Olmert’s annexation of the Jordan Valley, and comments on its injustice.

Richard at Tikun Olam comments on a recent political statement that compared stem cell research to the Holocaust, Nazi torture science, and slavery.

Xpatriated Texan considers heating costs and the politics of Citgo oil from Venezuela. At Blue Texas, he posts on the "Kinky" stalking horse hypothesis, and at the Progressive Populist he proposes the interresponsibility of ourselves with one another as the foundation of progressive values. Tammany on the Hudsom notes the low level of ethical understanding exhibited by pleading ignorance to an obvious conflict of interest.

LA Mom points out that the Bush administration can’t have it both ways for UN inspectors at Guantanamo.

Mainstream Baptist reports on proposed Oklahoma state legislation for state distribution of funding to faith-based organizations, despite strong prohibitions in its constitution.

At Cross Left Jo posts ten things that technology can help coordinate between progressive organizations, and ScottPaeth reflects on lessons from Bonhoeffer.

The Corner posts on subverting hierarchies and exploring the interpretational acts of a network nodal mode of power, and Pearlbear’s Blog connects the dots for a new conspiracy theory of entertainment media control and command technology.

Father Jake Stops the World takes a look at spiritual shifts and financial questions at the Episcopal Diocese of Albany.

Boy in the Bands wonders about the terms under which a new church might be welcomed under the Universalist Unitarian umbrella.

Velveteen Rabbi responds to the New Reform Response to intermarriage by questioning whether welcoming conversions of non-Jewish spouses may evolve into pressure and an expectation of eventual identity shift – thus undermining community acceptance and respect of interfaith couples as they are.

At the Feminary, Episcopalian Stasi is rebuffed by an Anglican kissin’ cousin, but welcomed by rabbis.

In a post that (unfortunately) resonates with my own experience, Reverend Mommy narrates a humerous, humbling moment of self-realization in the classroom.

And last, Grateful Bear quotes the Sufi mystic Ibn al-Arabi. I am particularly fond of this:

My heart has become capable of every form:
It is a pasture for gazelles,
And a monastery for Christian monks,
And a temple for idols,
And the Ka’aba of the pilgrims,
And the tablets of the Torah,
And the book of the Koran.
I follow the religion of Love:
Whatever path Love’s camel takes,
That is my religion and my faith.

Join us if you’d like to participate.