My friend Richard “Shining Thunder” Francis has been adopted by a llama (and, it seems, a lama). More on that below. Richard is a former JW who has dedicated his life to an extraordinary calling of love and spirituality. He has health problems of various kinds and, among other things, he is blind (Touchingly – to me – he refers to his body as “the donkey.”) None of this has stopped him from writing several books, running a ministry and…
Oh, no… I completely missed this song by Heather Nova. It would have been great to have had “Virus of the Mind” for the dissertation…. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqXIhKIOcjU[/youtube] HEATHER NOVA South 2001 Virus of The Mind Well I was watching this talk show the other day And on it there was this guy and he was saying When you let other people tell you what’s right When you leave your instinct and your own truth behind he said That’s a virus of…
I posted a little while ago about the little boy who couldn’t see a future for himself outside of the JWs. All Jehovah’s Witness children grow up this way. Watch this short new video to get a sense of the kind of message that all JWs – even children – hear ad nauseum. Notice the way non-JWs are presented, and the image of God that they create. There is no room for love, compassion, or grace in this message. I’ve…
Mitch has created a great extended list of Republican corruption and criminal behavior at Basket of Puppies. Again… note the themes. Take a look. Thanks for commenting and letting me know about your list, Mitch!
Chuang Tzu (Master Chuang) was a witty and profound writer – and a bit of a curmudgeon sometimes. I love his parables, and his humor, and his mystical – yet very pragmatic – approach to attunement and freedom from conventional obsessions. He lived in China sometime around the 4th century B.C.E. He’s my favorite. You may run across different spellings of his name. This is how I saw it when I first started reading, but you will also see Zhuangzi,…
Republican Culture of Corruption: 2007 So Far is a pretty good list – see any themes? On this Larry Craig scandal in particular, I’m struck again by how destructive it is when people cannot accept themselves for who they are. There is a strange doubling of the personality. People talk about hypocrisy, but it’s worse than that. It’s worse because it’s a deeper problem than just “not walking the talk.” People who share the traits that you find irritating in…