tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65538157073367740902024-03-05T10:19:06.049-05:00[un]Common Sense"Life, love... the full catastrophe!"Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.comBlogger1597125truetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-82551640448854682802017-04-18T10:20:00.003-04:002017-04-18T10:20:55.993-04:00If I could... <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hola
Everybody,<br />
Spring has sprung here in The Center of the Known Universe. <i>Fuck</i>
wherever it is you live! LOL</span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<h2 class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Now [no. 15]</span></b></span></h2>
<h2 align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"> </span></b></span></h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNqufVSG3Dgb4p3kk3odQDlpOnAS4UD_x6qm0KUOviAkR_NQUeVKIdXF07vcaH5vVbyhdTyTJtxt-Kte_X5KC6jbJOcimhDSdv-IlMO6bSCytw7rsmEXroH3_xCKsjKi5hig810q1IEYA/s1600/029_+Eros.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNqufVSG3Dgb4p3kk3odQDlpOnAS4UD_x6qm0KUOviAkR_NQUeVKIdXF07vcaH5vVbyhdTyTJtxt-Kte_X5KC6jbJOcimhDSdv-IlMO6bSCytw7rsmEXroH3_xCKsjKi5hig810q1IEYA/s320/029_+Eros.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>If
I could<br />
I would guarantee you<br />
bright sunny days<br />
and soft, dry breezes<br />
for all your Summers.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>If
I could<br />
I would give you<br />
clear cold days<br />
and clean snow<br />
for the Winters you love.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>And
if I could<br />
I would give you Autumn,<br />
dressed to the teeth,<br />
at that precious moment<br />
when you most need change.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>But
if I want you<br />
to remember me<br />
as I will always remember you,<br />
I will send you,<br />
naked,<br />
unadorned,<br />
Spring.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Edward-Yemil
Rosario ©</span></span></span></div>
Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-29365051371098985512017-04-16T12:12:00.004-04:002017-04-16T12:12:54.618-04:00Sunday Sermon [Redemption Song]<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hola Everybody,<br />
Today's blog art is by the great Salvador Dali. There’s <i><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/event/salvador-dali-143373193#nico-yperifanos-salvador-dalis-personal-representative-presents-on-picture-id97325798" target="_blank">anotherDali work</a></i> that’s of importance here. Dalí once made a gift to the men’s
jail in lieu of a personal appearance there. He was supposed to give an art
class to the inmates in 1965 but canceled due to illness. He donated the then
new gouache-ink-and-pencil sketch, specifically “For the dining room of the
Prisoners Rikers Island,” as he inscribed it. And he sent some encouraging
words for the men: “You are artists. Don’t think of your life as finished for
you. With art, you have always to feel free.”</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><a href="http://mentalfloss.com/article/64563/time-salvador-dali-painting-was-stolen-rikers-island" target="_blank">Itwas stolen by correction guards in 2003</a></i> and is believed to have been
destroyed.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Here’s a photo of the work being presented to then
commissioner Anne Kross (seems like she doesn’t<span>
</span>get it):</span></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_ZqfccyKePg/WPOXTMK8xYI/AAAAAAAAGsw/l2zzvRaK_JocW6QbzBsyD8JozIeHoP5CQCLcB/s1600/04-16-17_%2BDali-Rikers_%2B001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_ZqfccyKePg/WPOXTMK8xYI/AAAAAAAAGsw/l2zzvRaK_JocW6QbzBsyD8JozIeHoP5CQCLcB/s320/04-16-17_%2BDali-Rikers_%2B001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<h2 align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 115%;">Redemption Song</span></b></h2>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ehv3qee1mXg/WPOXevAcWqI/AAAAAAAAGs0/aYsddaoMrU87Q7wnJf_thzwHVET3_tBFwCLcB/s1600/04-16-17_%2BRedemption%2BSong.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ehv3qee1mXg/WPOXevAcWqI/AAAAAAAAGs0/aYsddaoMrU87Q7wnJf_thzwHVET3_tBFwCLcB/s320/04-16-17_%2BRedemption%2BSong.jpg" width="222" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Woman, why are you weeping?</i><br />
<span> </span>-- Jesus to Mary Magdalene (John 20:15)</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">For a long time I refused to go to
funerals. I simply wouldn’t go. On one level, I didn’t want to see my loved
ones garishly made up lying in some casket. I have seen many, many people leave
this existence. Most of the people I was raised with are dead or dying. I grew
up in a violent world and quite a few were taken in the prime of their lives --
victims of violence, disease, or addiction. On another level, I didn’t want to
come face-to-face with death. Especially death warmed over as I used to call
funerals in mainstream US culture.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I didn’t like funerals. Didn’t like
death… So I never went.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Then one day, I was shopping with a
lover and she picked out a dress she loved so much she said, “This is the dress
I want to be buried in!” We laughed about it. We, she, was young and beautiful,
full of life. She was the Bonnie to my Clyde, committing crimes of life in that
devil-may-care way only the foolish and young can justify. We didn’t last long
together, less than two months, but we created so much drama in one another
lives that we would become forever attached. Years later, after all had been
done between us, she died in my presence.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">People have a fucked up knack of
dying around me.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">When it came time to make
preparations, her sister confided in me that she knew what dress to bury her in
and when I saw it, it cut me deep because it was that very same dress we picked
out that day so many years before. When I told her sister, she smiled because
my former partner in crime had told her sister the same thing. I wasn’t
planning on attending her funeral, but her sister insisted.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I am not a practicing Christian. I
don’t accept Jesus, or anyone else, as my savior, nor do I believe in a literal
translation of the Bible, Old or New. However, I do think that some of the teachings
attributed to the person called Jesus of Nazareth are sublime. My personal
belief, borne of personal experience, is that the core teachings of Jesus were
corrupted for personal and political gain. Thomas Jefferson held similar views
and he wrote a version of the Gospels, now known as the <i><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/how-thomas-jefferson-created-his-own-bible-5659505/" target="_blank">JeffersonianBible</a></i>. In it, he excised the parts he felt were contradictory to the
core message of hope and love of the Nazarene. And believe me, there’s lots of
contradiction in the Gospels.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">According to people who wrote the
story hundreds of years after the fact, when Jesus finds Mary Magdalene crying
at the door of the tomb, he says to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” As I see
it, Jesus wasn’t asking a rhetorical question. He wanted to know why we worry
and sob and fret when hope is always present, if we could just tap into it.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">For me, Easter is about liberation,
and it’s especially meaningful for a person like me who sometimes feels chained
to moodiness and negativity too much of the time. The celebration of the
resurrection is a chance for us to acknowledge Jesus’ message of hope and in so
doing, grab the hope that is already there.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Anyone else notice that of all the
people he showed himself to, it was the women first? In fact, of all the women,
it wasn’t his mother, but Mary Magdalene to whom Jesus appeared first. I don’t
take Jesus’ resurrection literally, but there is a message there that resonates
with my own life. Jesus’ life, like mine, was a redemption song. And like
Jesus, it was the women in my life who tended to me -- tended to me through my
own passage to a new life. Maybe this is saying something about the Feminine
Principle and how far we have moved away from that healing force. For me, this
was no accident of the Gospels. Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene because she,
more than any other disciple, believed in him. All those other bums, betrayed
and denied him, didn’t they? LOL</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">When I cried at my ex-lover’s
funeral, it seems as if I cried for all the loved ones I had never said
good-bye to -- the one’s whose funerals I didn’t attend. It was as if all that
loss I was holding on to came out like a river. It was at once one of the
saddest and most liberating experiences in my life. I read somewhere the other
day that the opposite of loss is finding. It’s a deceptively profound
statement.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Grief is what we add on to loss. It
is a learned behavior, specific only to some cultures. It is neither
unavoidable nor universal. In some cultures, for example, you will never see
someone cry at a cremation. Their cultural perspective on death is one of
acceptance in a way foreign to Western theories of grief and loss.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Similarly, when Jesus appeared to
the disciples he asked, “Why are you troubled?” Jesus says to the disciples in
Luke’s gospel when he appears to them after his “resurrection.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My Buddhist practice has slowly
transformed my view of grief -- has actually opened the door for me to see that
there’s an alternative to grief. It’s not that grief is wrong, only that
there’s another possibility. Loss of a loved one can be viewed in another way,
a way that avoids the long days of aching, oftentimes crippling grief.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Over the years since my ex-lover’s
death, I have attended many funerals and have had two others die in my arms. I
sometimes cry at funerals but I understand death differently today. A teacher
once explained it to me in simple terms. “Have you ever been to a concert and
experience the shouts of ‘more!’ coming from the audience when it came time to
end?” he asked. “Usually, the musicians will play one or two encores, but
eventually they have to pack up their gear and leave. I’ve experienced this
many times and when I’m going home, I usually reflect on how great the music
was and how lucky I was to have been there. I never felt grief at the end of a
concert.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">And that is exactly how I
experience life and death today. I see it as if a magnificent concert had come
to an end. I revel in the wonderful performance. I was there shouting loudly,
“More!” when it came to end the performance. My loved ones struggled to stay
alive a little longer, but eventually they had to let go -- they had to pack up
their instruments and “go home.” Today, I choose to see instead what
magnificent lives my friends and loved ones led. What powerful inspirations
they were in my life. Their shining power of example. I reflect mostly how
fortunate I was to have been in their lives to witness their glorious and
beautiful power. Today, I walk away from funerals feeling a lot like I do after
watching a great performance: exhilaration. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Grief is seeing only what has been
taken away from you. The celebration of a life is recognizing all that we were
blessed with, and expressing that gratitude. When I die (and we all will die
sooner or later) I hope this is what people will feel for my own performance
and that people will celebrate life and not just mourn my death.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Whatever your belief, this has to
be part of the message of the resurrection, whether you understand it as
literal or not. That the concerts of our lives continue reverberating and in
that way create more life. That our lives are never ended, but live in our
deeds and actions… and our memories.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My name is Eddie and I’m in
recovery from civilization… </span></span></div>
Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-21339715955788482132017-04-15T12:13:00.004-04:002017-04-15T12:13:44.795-04:00You have a fine line of style... <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]--><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hola mi gente,</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I haven’t written anything for public consumption in over a
month. A part of that is that I’ve been busy at my new gig. However, the main
reason is that I’m living like a gypsy -- I have no place to call my own… yet.
Hopefully, that will change soon.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Today… a poem… </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<h2>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; font-variant: small-caps;">Nows [no. 13]</span></b></h2>
</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EVSTz3sFK78/WPJGGbnZHfI/AAAAAAAAGsg/4JQOaC62FikWcZlvPW2eJU8FT78A0BhAQCLcB/s1600/Vannia%2BLara_%2B001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EVSTz3sFK78/WPJGGbnZHfI/AAAAAAAAGsg/4JQOaC62FikWcZlvPW2eJU8FT78A0BhAQCLcB/s320/Vannia%2BLara_%2B001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">You are not</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">More perfect than
anyone.</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But you have a</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">fine line of style.</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">A sharpened sense</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">of your outer edge:</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">the changing purposes</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">and possibilities for</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">your eyes and your
ass.</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">A master of the
passive assault,</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">you caress me</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">with your passing
glances,</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">and lure me to
adventure</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">with a smile</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I can never be sure I
saw.</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">-- Edward-Yemil
Rosario © 2003</span></span></div>
Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-71625064189013028922017-02-20T19:15:00.001-05:002017-02-20T19:15:34.111-05:00The Paradox of Education<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hola Everybody,<br />
It’s been a while since I posted a blog and a lot of that has to do with being
busy working my new gig and stressing over finding a place where I can rest my
head. Right now, I have no place. I would submit that I’m the Best-Dressed
Homeless Person in NYC! LOL It’s ok, I will persevere. Tonight, a friend who’s
aware of my situation, let me use the hotel room she wasn’t going to use the
last night of her stay here. Hey, I’m grateful. I’ve been sick these past few
days and appreciate the chance to rest without worrying about this or that.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Most likely due to
the film, <i><a href="http://www.iamnotyournegrofilm.com/" target="_blank">I’m Not Your Negro</a></i>, I’ve
been seeing many white liberals express anguish over James Baldwin’s truth. I
was lucky, I discovered Baldwin when I was a teen. I love James Baldwin and if
you ever get a chance, pick up some of his non-fiction. It’s some of the most
powerful socio-political writing <i>evah</i>... The following is an excerpt I try to
post at least once a year.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>A
Talk to Teachers</i>, by James Baldwin</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Delivered
October 16, 1963, as “The Negro Child -- His Self-Image”; originally published
in <u>The Saturday Review</u>, December 21, 1963, reprinted in <u>The Price of
the Ticket, Collected Non-Fiction 1948-1985</u>, Saint Martins 1985.</i></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><br />
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Since
I am talking to schoolteachers and I am not a teacher myself, and in some ways
am fairly easily intimidated, I beg you to let me leave that and go back to
what I think to be the entire purpose of education in the first place. It would
seem to me that when a child is born, if I’m the child’s parent, it is my
obligation and my high duty to civilize that child. Man is a social animal. He
cannot exist without a society. A society, in turn, depends on certain things
which everyone within that society takes for granted. Now the crucial paradox
which confronts us here is that the whole process of education occurs within a
social framework and is designed to perpetuate the aims of society. Thus, for
example, the boys and girls who were born during the era of the Third Reich,
when educated to the purposes of the Third Reich, became barbarians. The
paradox of education is precisely this -- that as one begins to become
conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated. The
purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at
the world for himself, to make his own decisions, to say to himself this is
black or this is white, to decide for himself whether there is a God in heaven
or not. To ask questions of the universe, and then learn to live with those
questions, is the way he achieves his own identity. But no society is really
anxious to have that kind of person around. What societies really, ideally,
want is a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of society. If a society
succeeds in this, that society is about to perish. The obligation of anyone who
thinks of himself as responsible is to examine society and try to change it and
to fight it – at no matter what risk. This is the only hope society has. This
is the only way societies change.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-variant: small-caps;">* * *</span></b></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My
name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization… </span></span></div>
Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-86973078784560921452017-02-05T08:00:00.000-05:002017-02-05T08:00:20.404-05:00The 12 Steps for Everyone [Step Two]<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Hola
mi Gente,</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br />
Many people take issue with 12 step fellowships, calling them cults and
ineffective. I don’t care to debate that here. I don’t know if the following
will get you clean, but it is what helped me recover and it’s a set of
principles that continue to guide my evolution as a human being.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">These posts are best read in order.
My take on the first step can be found <i><a href="https://translucence.wordpress.com/2017/01/01/the-12-steps-for-everyone-step-one-3/" target="_blank">here</a></i>.</span></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Faith and
our Deepest Experience</span></b><b><span style="font-size: 20.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></b></h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Kq4aU1aYxoQ/S4wAMl-T1aI/AAAAAAAAAxw/Xw5qC7NMgngr7CVNbB22lAgrWeUuIO3fQCPcB/s1600/step2large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Kq4aU1aYxoQ/S4wAMl-T1aI/AAAAAAAAAxw/Xw5qC7NMgngr7CVNbB22lAgrWeUuIO3fQCPcB/s320/step2large.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>We
came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.</i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span><span> </span>-- The Second Step, <i>Narcotics Anonymous</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">As most who read these pages know, I
am an addict in recovery. I’ve been clean (yes, <i>clean</i>, not<i> sober!</i>), one
day at a time (sometimes <i>one breath</i> at a time), for going on more than
26 years. What follows is a narrative of my journey toward wholeness. I don’t
know if this will work for you, but if you were to ask me, this is how I got <i>clean</i> and recovered my life. My story is
extreme and you might find it hard to identify with some of its elements. All I
ask is that you try to identify with rather than compare my story. As they say
in the rooms: listen to the message and not the mess.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I believe all people, regardless of
whether they are addicts or not, can benefit from a rigorous application of the
12 Steps.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So take a thorough <a href="https://translucence.wordpress.com/2017/01/01/the-12-steps-for-everyone-step-one-3/" target="_blank"><i>FirstStep</i></a> and what happens? We’re stuck in a bad place. I mean, c’mon now,
coming to the full and painful realization that my way of doing things was fundamentally
fucked up wasn’t a revelation that filled me up with spiritual joy.
Furthermore, my bottom had me staring at some very harsh consequences. The last
time I took a drug or drink, I was in detention and looking at a possible
15-year prison sentence. Talk about despair.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But years before I got to that mess,
the first time I read this step, I literally walked away from Narcotics
Anonymous. My understanding of the core principle of this step, faith, at that
time caused me a lot of discomfort. I am not a religious person, nor do I
believe in a patriarchal God-in-the-sky. To make matters worse, as I continued
reading down the steps, I kept seeing the “God” word and the phrase “Higher
Power” and I decided then that it was bullshit.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Consequently, I went through the
five worst years of my life. The second issue I had with this step was the
implication that I was insane -- <i>restore us to sanity</i>. Years later, when
in desperation I came back to NA, I did so with a more open mind. But I still
had major issues with this step…</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My sponsor at the time suggested
that I simply commit to keeping an open mind and to make this process a
personal search. The beauty of Narcotics Anonymous is that the fellowship
doesn’t demand you do anything. There are no “thou shalts,” no “shoulds.” As
part of taking this step, my sponsor suggested I do a close reading and learn
the terms. One of the first things I liked about the step the second time
around was how it starts, “came… ” and then, “came to… ,” then, “came to
believe… ” In a very real way I was finally coming to my senses -- I was <i>awakening</i>.
The opposite of despair is hope and I came to understand that hope is what the
Second Step offered me.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Faith was a harder score to settle,
but there are enough agnostics and even atheists who are recovering addicts
because the Twelve Steps allow for a kind of spiritual democracy. You do not
have to believe in anything, or join any religion. <i>You do not even have to
apply the steps</i>. They are simply suggestions and since whenever I followed
my own suggestions, I usually experienced tremendous suffering, I figured it
was time for me to listen to some alternative proposals.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">There are many different meanings of
faith. At one extreme, there is the more common understanding of faith as blind
faith, but that’s just one way of looking at faith. There are degrees of faith.
In fact, we all have daily moments of faith and belief. We have faith, for
example, that when we turn on the faucet, water will flow. We have faith that
our car will start, or that a toaster will work. We also have many beliefs. We
believe, for example, that we have a personality. Actually, many of us believe
we are our personality, though, scientifically speaking, there’s no brain
center that organizes personality. Your personality is a set of beliefs and
quirks that you constructed in order to operate in the everyday world. Similarly,
scientists have faith in reason and logic to solve problems.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Shit, some of us believe that if we
shove money inside of hole in the wall (as many of us did in the 1980s when we
copped reefer or heroin), a bag of dope will materialize. LOL! I’m not kidding.
Back in the day, the way you copped drugs was that you’d stick your hand with
your money in a hole and a hand with bag would come out. I had complete faith
in that transaction.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So early on in my recovery process,
faith for me had to mean a temporary suspension of disbelief. What that means
is that I made an agreement with myself to keep an open mind. Sometimes faith
can mean trust. I came to believe that the spiritual principles of hope, freedom,
and willingness would restore me to sanity. And believe me, by the second time
around, I knew I was insane.<span style="line-height: 115%;"></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I have been studying human behavior
for over a two decades now, and the best definition of insanity I have come
across is: doing the same actions and expecting different results. Even an
infant knows better not to stick his hand in the socket after the first
go-round. But as adults we oftentimes commit the same behaviors -- especially
in the area of relationships -- expecting different results.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sometimes faith can mean trust in a
teaching, or self-confidence. As a Buddhist, my Higher Power is the Dharma (The
Law), a clearly defined set of ethical and cognitive principles. In sports, a
group can develop faith in their ability as a team to overcome extreme odds. In
that same way, I came to believe that the fellowship and principles of
Narcotics Anonymous could restore me to sanity. Why? Because I was seeing
people in the fellowship taking back their lives. People all around me were
helping heal themselves and one another. I have been to NA meetings where a
particular individual cried in despair because she couldn’t pay her rent, then
see her cry in joy once again several months later because she <i>was able</i>
to pay her rent.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Initially, my Higher Power was the
group. I came to believe that what I couldn’t do alone we could do together.
Like a team. Eventually, my spirituality would evolve and I would come to
embrace Buddhism as my path. The historical Buddha didn’t make any claims to
divinity and his last words, as he lay dying (of all things, food poisoning)
were, “… be a lamp unto yourself.” What that means to me is that ultimately,
you must walk your path. It means that sayings, scriptures, or instructions
alone will not save you. Ultimately, if you want to awaken, to come to your
full realization as a human being, you must walk your path -- whatever that
path entails.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">And that’s what the second step
helped me begin. It helped begin to walk the walk, trusting in my experience
that I could be restored to sanity by a power greater than myself. The Second
Step helped me come to a different understanding of faith, one that wasn’t
associated with dogma or religion. I wanted a faith that encouraged and
emphasized love and respect for ourselves as a foundation. I wanted to
experience a faith that uncovered our connection to others, rather than
designating anyone as separate and apart. The faith I came to know as part of
my recovery process and that I describe in this post does not require a blind
faith or even a belief system; it is not necessarily connected to a God, though
it doesn’t deny one. This faith I speak of is not a commodity we either have or
don't have -- it is an inner quality that unfolds as we learn to trust our own
deepest experience.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My name is Eddie and I’m recovery
from civilization... </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Resources</b></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Addiction is one of the most
pressing problems in our society -- a society that actually encourages
consumption at the expense of substance. If you think you have a problem, give
yourself a break and try something new, it just might save your life…</i></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Alcoholics Anonymous: <i><a href="http://www.aa.org/lang/en/subpage.cfm?page=1" target="_blank">Official website</a></i></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Narcotics Anonymous: <i><a href="http://www.na.org/" target="_blank">Official website</a></i></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Books
I have found useful:</b></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Allione, Tsultrim (2008) Feeding
your demons: Ancient wisdom for resolving inner conflict. (<i><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=KU-O19yxLS0C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false" target="_blank">click here</a></i>) </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ash, Mel (1993) The Zen of recovery
(<i><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=cQqFtgAACAAJ&source=gbs_book_other_versions" target="_blank">click here</a></i>)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Chodron, Pema (2005) When things
fall apart: Heart advice for difficult times (<i><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=sBRYTFo_CQMC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false" target="_blank">click here</a></i>)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Griffin, Kevin (2004) One breath at
a time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps (<i><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ptM4VgjxxEkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=one+breath+at+a+time&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi6ocSGq_rKAhVIdD4KHcS7AcQQ6AEILDAB#v=onepage&q=one%20breath%20at%20a%20time&f=false" target="_blank">click here</a></i>)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Z., Philip (1990) A skeptic's guide
to the 12 Steps (<i><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=KQnqauiNUk4C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false" target="_blank">click here</a></i>)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Note: The featured artwork is by <a href="http://www.askart.com/artist_bio/Benh_Usry/11237822/Benh_Usry.aspx" target="_blank">Ben'hUsry</a>.</i></span></span></div>
Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-83465202066179069842017-02-02T19:07:00.003-05:002017-02-02T19:07:28.812-05:00The Freak<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hola mi gente,<br />
Things are starting to get busy at work, but this is a good thing. LOL</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 115%;">The Process and the Freak</span></b></h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_mJfD9xns3Q/WJPJrRcXVuI/AAAAAAAAGlA/Ywye1NzBknUw9YYTbfWQIWOhwDi1vNSIgCLcB/s1600/02-02-17_%2BThe%2BProcess_%2B002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_mJfD9xns3Q/WJPJrRcXVuI/AAAAAAAAGlA/Ywye1NzBknUw9YYTbfWQIWOhwDi1vNSIgCLcB/s320/02-02-17_%2BThe%2BProcess_%2B002.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">When I talk about the work I do,
you have to understand that the “I” I am referencing is a lot bigger than just
me. I see my work as being a part of a process that’s larger and more powerful
than I. In fact, I perceive who I am today to be the product of many people who
have helped me along the way. In other words, who I am and what I do is the
result of the work of too many people to count. Today, when I say “I” it is
with the clear realization that I am connected on so many levels with so many
people.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In fact, if you’re reading this,
you have probably helped make me the human being I am today. No shit.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So! The other day, I was headed to
a meeting when a woman stopped me and said, “You probably don’t remember me,
but… ” Now, in a past life if a woman, or anyone for the matter, approached me
with that line, it usually wasn’t positive. I was about to tell her, “Hey, it’s
not my baby,” or “If I owe you money… ” LOL But then I remembered that was the
old Eddie.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In any case, she went on:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">You changed my life. I remember
that before I met you, the way I thought about incarcerated people was very
narrow-minded, but working with you, and seeing the passion and intelligence
you brought to the work and how people responded to you, changed the way I saw
people. You changed the way I looked at the world in a very fundamental way and
that’s why I’m here today. The funny thing is that when you first met me, you
predicted you would change my life. Well, I never got the chance to tell you,
but you did. You changed my life and I want to thank you.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Wow, she almost made me cry! </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But here’s the thing: it wasn’t me,
but the “process” that changed her. In fact, I’m constantly being changed by
the process myself. What I try to do -- on a daily basis -- is to be a conduit
for the process of change. Most of the time, that’s about me getting out of the
way of the process and being able to channel something much more powerful than
me.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So, I turned to her and told her:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Thank you so much for saying this,
it means a lot to me. But here’s the thing: now you have to become an agent for
change and be part of that process.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">And the look in her eyes told me
she understood everything I was saying. She was actually crying. My hairs are
standing up as I write this. No, I’m no Jesus freak, but I know that all of us
working together can bring about change. We can make big changes. This is why I
get pissed off when I see people giving away their power to neoliberals. <i>We are the change, not Her or Him</i>. I
know this because I have experienced it every day for the last 25 years.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This I know is true: You are more
powerful than you give yourself credit for and together? Man, that story has
yet to be told. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Who loves you?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My name is Eddie and I’m in
recovery from civilization… </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Thanks
for reading. If you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, please
consider helping me out by sharing it, liking me on </i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/eyrosario" target="_blank">Facebook</a><i>, following me on </i><a href="https://twitter.com/translucence" target="_blank">Twitter</a><i>, or even throwing me some money on GoFundMe
</i><a href="https://www.gofundme.com/2m8xmas" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> or via PayPal </i><a href="https://www.paypal.me/eyrosario" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> so I can keep calling it like I see it.</i></span></span></div>
Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-43567794455753218872017-02-01T18:23:00.004-05:002017-02-01T18:23:50.911-05:00Skillful Living <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Hola mi Gente,<br />
When I facilitated workshops, I was always looking out for experiential
exercises. This, in turn, kept me in a state of constant exploration and
learning. So, in a very real sense, my workshop participants were actually my
greatest teachers.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<h2 align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Alive</span></b></h2>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZICzWdSrVzg/WJJt-Q0Ah-I/AAAAAAAAGko/hCqoPhg6GE0seBdpPI3BVDaTmizrbpP7wCLcB/s1600/02-01-17_%2BSkillful%2BLiving.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZICzWdSrVzg/WJJt-Q0Ah-I/AAAAAAAAGko/hCqoPhg6GE0seBdpPI3BVDaTmizrbpP7wCLcB/s320/02-01-17_%2BSkillful%2BLiving.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>Change your words into truth
and then change that truth into love…</span></i><span> <br />
<span> </span>-- Steveland Wonder, <i>As</i></span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Ever consciously reflected on the
fact that you are alive -- right now? I mean <i>really</i> get into that? Try
this, soften your belly and relax your jaw. Feel -- <i>feel</i> don’t <i>think</i>
-- feel your heart beating deep inside your body, and feel the rhythm of your
heart as it radiates outward, pulsing in your hands, feet, and neck. Feeling
your heart in this way, relax and open as in an offering to the world.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>While you are at it, take a moment
and try to feel how you live your life. How do you spend your life’s moments?
What did you or will do today or yesterday? What are your plans for tomorrow?
Who do you love and do you love deeply?</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>The undeniable truth is that no
matter what -- no matter how much money you have made, how many Coach Bags you
own -- one day you will become numb and your heart will stop, you will stop
breathing, and all this will disappear. In some moment just like this one, your
life will end.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Period.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Are you ready for death? Are you
ready for the death of your children and your loved ones?</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Perhaps one day you will be friends
and family celebrating, a gentle breeze, the sun caressing your face. Suddenly your
heart stops. A final plea… and then fade to black… </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Are you ready? I mean, are you <i>truly</i>
ready? Have you loved and lived fully and given of your deepest gifts?</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>A life well lived is a life faced
with an open heart in <i>every moment</i>. You can be wide open, holding
nothing back and you will receive in return without pushing away. This is true
whether you are living in a penthouse or the Big House (prison). The opening of
your heart does not come from an analysis of some kind, it is not dependent on
external factors, it does not come from “loving” in the normal sense that we
conceptualize love. The opening of your heart comes from a deeply felt sense.
You <i>are</i> openness, inseparable from this entire moment. The one truth is
that everything comes and goes. Everything must change.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>Your child’s smile: precious but
temporary and already dissolving.</span></i><span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>Your lover’s tender embrace: already
disentangling.</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Life often resembles the ocean in
that, try as we may, we are essentially helpless to stop the waves -- they come
and go, no matter how much we rail against them. Yet, while it is true that we
cannot stop the waves, we can still learn how to surf. Every moment is a
miracle and already disappearing. Every experience is at the same time full and
empty -- both.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>A life lived merely for the sake of
experience is a cheated life full of tension, insecurity, loneliness, and a
deep sense of emptiness. Your Coach bag cannot fulfill you because, at some
point in time, it will fade. It will break, or get lost, stolen, or worse: it
will fall out of fashion. Your experience cannot fulfill you because as soon as
it comes, it is already gone. Like the addict’s obsession/ compulsion for a
fix, it’s an illusion, just out of reach.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>If we stop the grasping, life
becomes free and full of light. Surrendering is opening. That’s how you open --
you surrender, opening full and bright, breathing deeply. Offering your heart
of hearts, you are reborn in this moment. Believe me, when <i>the end </i>comes
the only questions that will matter is whether you loved deeply and lived
fully. But do not wait, death gives us the permission to live freely and love
openly this very moment.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery
from civilization… </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Thanks
for reading. If you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, please
consider helping me out by sharing it, liking me on </i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/eyrosario" target="_blank">Facebook</a><i>, following me on </i><a href="https://twitter.com/translucence" target="_blank">Twitter</a><i>, or even throwing me some money on GoFundMe
</i><a href="https://www.gofundme.com/2m8xmas" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> or via PayPal </i><a href="https://www.paypal.me/eyrosario" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> so I can keep calling it like I see it.</i></span></span></div>
Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-88648594953080913132017-01-28T22:47:00.002-05:002017-01-28T22:47:34.865-05:00La Llorona<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hola mi gente,<br />
I’m so sick the liberal hypocrites who have all of sudden gown a backbone and
sense of morality. While neocons like Trump and his henchmen have “alternate
facts,” so-called liberals live in an <i>alternate
reality</i>. They can kiss my ass.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The
following legend, La Llorona (the Weeping woman), can be viewed from multiple
perspectives. Speaking directly about La Llorona and her impact upon the
Chicana culture, Orquidea Morales writes, “For Chianas, La Llorona is a
cultural icon, descendant of La Malinche and Aztec Goodess Cihucotal, who
represents women’s voice and agency.”</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This
is one positive perspective one may take when viewing folktale: La Llorona
represents a rebellious woman, refusing to be forced into subservience and
treated lesser simply because of her upbringing. Morales speaks of how
Chicana’s and Chicana feminists have re-theorized the myth of La Llorona to
view the tale as an empowering episode of revolution and the demand for
equality. Other women view the tale as a paradigm for being a bad mother -- the
examples of being weak, abandoning one’s children in times of crisis, being
beaten by emotions and unable to control oneself</span></span>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">La Llorona</span></b></h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-36-zN3xHJrI/WI1ltUgwznI/AAAAAAAAGkQ/IzRM73wjAwERxdFTK7lT7Ip_xfaLvn4IACLcB/s1600/01-28-17_%2BLa%2BLlorona.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-36-zN3xHJrI/WI1ltUgwznI/AAAAAAAAGkQ/IzRM73wjAwERxdFTK7lT7Ip_xfaLvn4IACLcB/s1600/01-28-17_%2BLa%2BLlorona.jpg" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is a story that the ancient ones have been
telling to children for hundreds of years. It is a sad tale, but it lives
strong in the memories of the people, and there are many who swear that it is
true.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Long years ago in a humble little village there
lived a beautiful young woman named Maria. Some say she was the most beautiful
girl in the world. And because she was so beautiful, Maria thought she was
better than everyone else.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">As Maria grew older, her beauty increased and her
pride in her beauty grew as well. She would not even look at the young men from
her village. They weren't good enough for her. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">“When I marry,” Maria would say. “I will marry the most
handsome man in the world.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">And then one day, a man who seemed to be just the
one she had been talking about rode into Maria's village. He was a dashing
young ranchero, the son of a wealthy rancher from the southern plains. He could
ride like a Comanche. In fact, if he owned a horse, and it grew tame, he would
give it away and go rope a wild horse from the plains. He thought it wasn't
manly to ride a horse if it wasn't half wild. He was handsome and he could play
the guitar and sing beautifully. Maria made up her mind -- that was the man for
her. She knew just the tricks to win his attention. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">If the ranchero spoke when they met on the pathway,
she would turn her head away. When he came to her house in the evening to play
his guitar and serenade her, she refused to come to the window. She rejected
all his costly gifts. The young man fell for her tricks. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">“That haughty girl, Maria, Maria!” he said to
himself. “I know I can win her heart. I swear I'll marry that girl.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">And so everything turned out as Maria planned.
Before long, she and the ranchero became engaged and soon they were married. At
first, things were fine. They had two children and they seemed to be a happy
family together. But after a few years, the ranchero went back to the wild life
of the prairies. He would leave town and be gone for months at a time. And when
he returned home, it was only to visit his children. He seemed to care nothing
for the beautiful Maria. He even talked of setting Maria aside and marrying a
woman of his own class.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">As proud as Maria was, she became very angry with
the ranchero. She also began to feel anger toward her children, because he paid
attention to them, but just ignored her.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">One evening, as Maria was strolling with her two
children on the shady pathway near the river, the ranchero came by in a
carriage. An elegant lady sat on the seat beside him. He stopped and spoke to
his children, but he didn't even look at Maria. Then he whipped the horses on
up the street.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">When she saw that, a terrible rage filled Maria,
and it all turned against her children. And although it is sad to tell, the
story says that in her anger Maria seized her two children and threw them into
the river. But as they disappeared down the stream, she realized what she had done
and she ran down the bank of the river, reaching out her arms to them. But they
were long gone.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The next morning, a traveler brought word to the
villagers that a beautiful woman lay dead on the bank of the river. That is
where they found Maria, and they laid her to rest where she had fallen.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But the first night Maria was in the grave, the
villagers heard the sound of crying down by the river. It was not the wind, it
was La Llorona crying. “Where are my children?” And they saw a woman walking up
and down the bank of the river, dressed in a long white robe, the way they had
dressed Maria for burial. On many a dark night they saw her walk the river bank
and cry for her children. And so they no longer spoke of her as Maria. They
called her La Llorona, the weeping woman. And by that name she is known to this
day. Children are warned not to go out in the dark, for, La Llorona might
snatch them and never return them.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span>* * *</span></b></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization… </span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Thanks
for reading. If you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, please
consider helping me out by sharing it, liking me on </i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/eyrosario" target="_blank">Facebook</a><i>, following me on </i><a href="https://twitter.com/translucence" target="_blank">Twitter</a><i>, or even throwing me some money on GoFundMe
</i><a href="https://www.gofundme.com/2m8xmas" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> or via PayPal </i><a href="https://www.paypal.me/eyrosario" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> so I can keep calling it like I see it.</i></span></span></div>
Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-79375540402637982362017-01-27T07:00:00.000-05:002017-01-27T07:00:14.234-05:00Notes to a Young Progressive<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Hola mi Gente,<br />
I plan to rest this weekend.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<h2 align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Nationalism</span></b></h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIIwq5hJzgw5fmyabBZs1tiV10x9ZPpiCQl3tE6kgu52wMuH-aVs-8ffESXz3xPKv2az5PxlRHI7p4rCquos0PFH3nWlgHreJ__RDi0LHQC6g-Bgb4oquxV99WkQglMR47BBBiguMgM-Q/s1600/01-27-17_+Notes+to+a+Young+Progressive.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIIwq5hJzgw5fmyabBZs1tiV10x9ZPpiCQl3tE6kgu52wMuH-aVs-8ffESXz3xPKv2az5PxlRHI7p4rCquos0PFH3nWlgHreJ__RDi0LHQC6g-Bgb4oquxV99WkQglMR47BBBiguMgM-Q/s320/01-27-17_+Notes+to+a+Young+Progressive.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>I
call him a patriot who rebukes his country for its sins and does not excuse
them.</span></i><span><br />
<span> </span>-- Frederick Douglas</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Many
years ago, George Orwell wrote a prescient essay on the differences between
nationalism and patriotism Orwell’s <i><a href="http://www.resort.com/%7Eprime8/Orwell/nationalism.html" target="_blank">Notes onNationalism</a></i>, has as much relevance today as it did when it was written
right before the lead up to WWII as nationalistic fervor fed the flames of
Nazism and fascism.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Too
many people confuse nationalism for patriotism. When I listen to the
nationalistic fervor stoked by the likes of Trump and Hillary, for example, it
is concerning because theirs is an appeal to fear to a white demographic
feeling betrayed -- a population looking for any excuse to explode. The successful
Trump/ GOP’s campaign strategy is to create “the other” as different and
unpatriotic. It’s been a one-note effort mostly because U.S. conservatives
apparently do not know any other strategy.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Another
reason political elites use this tactic because it works: tar and feather a
candidate by coming up with the scary face of a black killer. At one time that
face was the face of Willie Horton. Today, it is any black kid with a hood.
Dismiss people who dare question the wisdom of our current foreign policies as
“unpatriotic.” Paint the opposition as effeminate and ineffectual and deride
them for having the courage to speak out against wars that kill tens of
thousands of innocent women and children. And this is just the Democrats.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>And
it continues to work. It is working partly because the failures of decades of
lunatic neoliberal economic policies have created global financial meltdowns
and eroded the middle class.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Orwell
defined patriotism as “devotion to a particular place and a particular way of
life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force
upon other people.” I have no argument with this definition</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>According
to Orwell, nationalism is the tendency of identifying oneself with a single
nation or an idea, and “placing it beyond good and evil and recognizing no
other duty than that of advancing its interests.” In other words, nationalism
doesn’t have to be based on an allegiance to a particular nation. This same
fanaticism can be applied to any “ism”: neo-conservatism and fundamentalism of
any kind (religious or otherwise), for example. Whether it’s based on a country
or an “ism,” nationalism always contains that dangerous combination of blind
fanaticism and a lack of concern for reality.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>In
nationalism, thoughts “always turn on victories, defeats, triumphs and
humiliations… Nationalism is power-hunger tempered by self-deception.”
Moreover, its self-deception leads to catastrophic miscalculations based on
delusions rather than facts. Orwell stated, foretelling the mental state of
democrats today:</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>“Political
and military commentators, like astrologers, can survive almost any mistake,
because their more devoted followers do not look to them for an appraisal of
the facts but for the stimulation of nationalistic loyalties.”</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>But
to really appreciate Orwell and understand how he had our <i>current</i>
foreign policy down pat, you only need to read this:</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>“All
nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of
facts. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits but
according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage -- torture,
the use of hostages, forced labor, mass deportations, imprisonment without
trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians -- which does not
change its moral color when committed by ‘our’ side.… The nationalist not only
does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but has a
remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.”</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>It
was Georges Santayana who said “… those who refuse to remember the past, are
condemned to relive it.”</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Any
of this sounds familiar?</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>My
name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization…</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Thanks
for reading. If you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, please
consider helping me out by sharing it, liking me on </i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/eyrosario" target="_blank">Facebook</a><i>, following me on </i><a href="https://twitter.com/translucence" target="_blank">Twitter</a><i>, or even throwing me some money on GoFundMe
</i><a href="https://www.gofundme.com/2m8xmas" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> or via PayPal </i><a href="https://www.paypal.me/eyrosario" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> so I can keep calling it like I see it.</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-9087035816658783322017-01-26T23:56:00.004-05:002017-01-26T23:56:50.944-05:00Naked is the Night<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Hola Everybody,<br />
Some of the worst, most atrocious examples of writing can be found in the
social sciences. I think a large part of the reason is that social scientists
try too hard to make their writing sound “scientific.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">Every once in a while, however, you run into some great
writers who also happen to be great social scientists. Case in point, Luc
Sante’s <i>Low Life</i>, the story of New
York's Lower East Side, circa 1840-1920. Sante may not be a social scientist in
the strict sense of the word, but damn! his insights and how he brings to life
the culture of the streets that continues to influence our contemporary popular
culture, is a rare and wonderful fusion of art and science. Check this little
gem of a paragraph…</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<h2 align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 115%;">The Naked Night</span></b></h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-olYQsHFyHZs/WIrS1gqhNQI/AAAAAAAAGjs/b_FEbWMXzF8YvS14ZJ9IVHXvcCLHlPdYQCLcB/s1600/01-26-17_%2BNaked%2Bis%2Bthe%2BNight_%2B002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-olYQsHFyHZs/WIrS1gqhNQI/AAAAAAAAGjs/b_FEbWMXzF8YvS14ZJ9IVHXvcCLHlPdYQCLcB/s320/01-26-17_%2BNaked%2Bis%2Bthe%2BNight_%2B002.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The night is the corridor of
history, not the history of famous people, or great events, but that of the
marginal, the ignored, the suppressed, the unacknowledged; the history of vice,
error, of confusion, of fear, of want; the history of intoxication, of
vainglory, of delusion, of dissipation, of delirium. It strips off the city’s
veneer of progress and modernity and civilization and reveals the wilderness.
In New York City it is an accultured wilderness that contains all the accumulated
crime of past nights… and it is not an illusion. It is the daytime that is the
chimera, that pretends New York is anyplace, maybe with bigger buildings, but
just as workaday, with a population that goes about its business and then goes
to sleep, a great machine humming away for the benefit of the world. Night
reveals this to be a pantomime. In the streets at night, everything kept hidden
comes forth, everyone is subject to the rules of chance, everyone is
potentially both murderer and victim, everyone is afraid, just as anyone who
sets his or her mind to it can inspire fear in others. At night, everyone is
naked.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;">* * *</span></b></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My name is Eddie and I’m in
recovery from civilization… </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Thanks
for reading. If you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, please
consider helping me out by sharing it, liking me on </i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/eyrosario" target="_blank">Facebook</a><i>, following me on </i><a href="https://twitter.com/translucence" target="_blank">Twitter</a><i>, or even throwing me some money on GoFundMe
</i><a href="https://www.gofundme.com/2m8xmas" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> or via PayPal </i><a href="https://www.paypal.me/eyrosario" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> so I can keep calling it like I see it.</i></span></span></div>
Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-5129555192647688642017-01-24T19:58:00.004-05:002017-01-24T19:58:50.588-05:00Waiting to Inhale<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Hola
mi gente,<br />
Some people got pissed about yesterday’s post and insisted I’m a cynic. That’s
just bullshit. What I find insightful that some so-called progressives are now
pathologizing dissent. SMDH</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Waiting
to Inhale</span></b></h2>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QhAIWSM5lMU/WIf31kGyAQI/AAAAAAAAGjU/gRyEuu4dPVIvmnyn9KrYM-Hy8VICMl8ygCLcB/s1600/01-24-17_%2BWaiting%2Bto%2BInhale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QhAIWSM5lMU/WIf31kGyAQI/AAAAAAAAGjU/gRyEuu4dPVIvmnyn9KrYM-Hy8VICMl8ygCLcB/s320/01-24-17_%2BWaiting%2Bto%2BInhale.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>(</span><span>or
Drowning in Love</span><span>)</span><span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>A wise woman and her student were standing by a pool
chatting about longing and ambition. “What do you want more than anything
else?” the wise woman asked.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>“To perfect my ability to love all of creation the way I
love myself,” the young man replied.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>At that very moment, the wise woman tackled the student and
before he could react, shoved his head beneath the water. Accustomed to his
teacher’s sometimes unorthodox manner of instruction, at first he didn’t
resist.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>One minute went by... then another. Finally, as his lungs
screamed for air, the student began to struggle and kick, but his teacher was
strong. Finally, she released her grip and the student surfaced, struggling for
breath.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>“What did you want more than anything else during these last
few minutes?” the wise woman asked.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>“Nothing else was in my mind except the desire for air,” the
student managed to gasp.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>“Excellent!” beamed the wise woman. “As soon as you are
equally single-minded in your desire to perfect your ability to love all of
creation in the very manner in which you love yourself, you will achieve your
goal.”</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>My name is Eddie and I'm in recovery from civilization... </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Thanks
for reading. If you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, please
consider helping me out by sharing it, liking me on </i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/eyrosario" target="_blank">Facebook</a><i>, following me on </i><a href="https://twitter.com/translucence" target="_blank">Twitter</a><i>, or even throwing me some money on GoFundMe
</i><a href="https://www.gofundme.com/2m8xmas" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> or via PayPal </i><a href="https://www.paypal.me/eyrosario" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> so I can keep calling it like I see it.</i></span></span></div>
Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-34673049054048737442017-01-23T20:04:00.002-05:002017-01-23T20:04:23.846-05:00Neoliberal Bullsh*t<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hola mi gente,<br />
I’m loving my new job! Great people, fantastic opportunity to help build
something unique and effective, and a team that’s on board. Good things coming
down the pike.</span></span><br />
<div align="center" data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DRXZhZ54yHk/WIaoAME1HgI/AAAAAAAAGi8/tlINGswj_QQjdHK5iU2CZEMrANZomMMGgCLcB/s1600/01-23-17_%2BNeoliberal%2BBullshit_%2B002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="194" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DRXZhZ54yHk/WIaoAME1HgI/AAAAAAAAGi8/tlINGswj_QQjdHK5iU2CZEMrANZomMMGgCLcB/s320/01-23-17_%2BNeoliberal%2BBullshit_%2B002.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I love that people are organizing and protesting
and strategizing. This past weekend’s activities <em>are a good start</em>. My
hope is that we make a movement rather than moment.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now on to the shit that will piss neoliberals off…</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">First off: will white neoliberal feminists throw
the rest of us under the bus (again)?</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">As for Trump and the Democratic Party, I have some
shit to say about that bullshit. Aside from basic differences on social issues
such as gay marriage and abortion rights, for example, Trump/ Pence and Obama/
Clinton are far closer on major issues than many of the people who protested
yesterday would have us believe. Obama’s is the first administration to have
bombing runs done for every day of his administration. Where were the
Hillary-loving, pants suits sycophants when that was happening?</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Obama will have deported more people than any other
president in history but you didn’t hear one word of protest on that front.
Hillary didn’t merely hack an election in Honduras, as she and the corporate
media allege, she backed a junta against that country’s freely elected
government. And when that country's stability crumbled as a result of that
junta and became the murder and rape capital of the world, Hillary proposed
refusing to allow the women and girls admittance into this country, insuring
that these most vulnerable of people would continue to be killed and raped.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But… there wasn’t one peep about that during
yesterday’s protests. Talk about hypocrisy.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yes, Trump plans to cut or at least privatize
Social Security. Well, so did Hillary (and Obama). Trump is pro-fracking. Guess
what? So was Hillary (and Obama). Trump belongs to Wall Street, but how is that
any different from Hillary (and Obama)? Trump will deport millions, just maybe
not as much as Obama <em>did</em>. Trump's itchy nuclear trigger finger is
concerning, just as Obama’s was (although he flirted with abandoning that
policy), while Clinton <em>never</em> wanted an end to nuclear stockpiling. And
lest we forget, Hillary was hell-bent on starting some shit with Russia,
recklessly provoking a rival nuclear power.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">And yes Trump has a hard-on for war China,
just as Clinton and Obama seemed to be, playing with the specter of nuclear
fire. Trump's hard line on Israel is impossible to distinguish from Hillary's
or Obama's. And if there's a moral difference between Trump's fascistic
nationalism and Obama/ Clinton's lunatic “American exceptionalism,” please
enlighten me.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Trump's bullying of the press, and threatened
radical restrictions on our civil liberties, might allow him to do more damage
to the Bill of Rights than Obama's done already, but the jury’s still out on
that one. The fact is that Obama's reckless expansion of the power of the
executive branch is a gift for Trump, who will most certainly open that door a
little wider.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The question remains which side would actually do
anything for peace, economic justice, civil liberties, or climate justice? The
answer to that, dear reader (if we’re honest) is: neither one.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from
civilization…</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><em>Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed reading it
as much as I enjoyed writing it, please consider helping me out by sharing it,
liking me on </em><a data-mce-href="https://www.facebook.com/eyrosario" href="https://www.facebook.com/eyrosario" target="_blank">Facebook</a><em>, following
me on </em><a data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/translucence" href="https://twitter.com/translucence" target="_blank">Twitter</a><em>, or even
throwing me some money on GoFundMe </em><a data-mce-href="https://www.gofundme.com/2m8xmas" href="https://www.gofundme.com/2m8xmas" target="_blank">HERE</a><em> or via PayPal </em><a data-mce-href="https://www.paypal.me/eyrosario" href="https://www.paypal.me/eyrosario" target="_blank">HERE</a><em> so I can keep
calling it like I see it.</em></span></span></div>
Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-75441885085768114232017-01-20T18:13:00.000-05:002017-01-20T18:13:08.433-05:00The Machinery<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">Hola mi gente,<br />
The time for appeasement and “getting along” has long passed. It’s time to throw your body onto “the gears of the machinery.” And it’s not Trump -- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">we are responsible.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 115%;">Operation of the Machine</span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DfRINbCXwdY/WIKZWhNORMI/AAAAAAAAGik/f6zskxAeNp0By0pxMey2JI-c-Y8tRy8BwCLcB/s1600/01-20-17_%2BOperation%2Bof%2Bthe%2BMachinery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DfRINbCXwdY/WIKZWhNORMI/AAAAAAAAGik/f6zskxAeNp0By0pxMey2JI-c-Y8tRy8BwCLcB/s320/01-20-17_%2BOperation%2Bof%2Bthe%2BMachinery.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">“There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels… upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!”</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">-- Mario Savio, speaking on the steps of Sproul Hall, on December 2, 1964</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PhFvZRT7Ds0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">It’s time… </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization… </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, please consider helping me out by sharing it, liking me on </i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/eyrosario" target="_blank">Facebook</a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, following me on </i><a href="https://twitter.com/translucence" target="_blank">Twitter</a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, or even throwing me some money on GoFundMe </i><a href="https://www.gofundme.com/2m8xmas" target="_blank">HERE</a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> or via PayPal </i><a href="https://www.paypal.me/eyrosario" target="_blank">HERE</a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> so I can keep calling it like I see it.</i></div>Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-59213563575619029382017-01-19T23:38:00.000-05:002017-01-19T23:38:08.418-05:00The Spiritual Warrior<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hola mi gente,<br />
This is a work in progress. A very rough of the second part of my upcoming
presentation.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 115%;">The Spiritual Warrior and the Runaway Society</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 115%;"></span></h2>
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"></span></em></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<em><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UAo8VFU8Y_w/WIGTuGUD8KI/AAAAAAAAGiM/NYMUTaxDcy8rzZnjnroeLoA0h6Dux11MwCLcB/s1600/01-19-17_%2BSpiritual%2BWarrior.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UAo8VFU8Y_w/WIGTuGUD8KI/AAAAAAAAGiM/NYMUTaxDcy8rzZnjnroeLoA0h6Dux11MwCLcB/s320/01-19-17_%2BSpiritual%2BWarrior.jpg" width="320" /></a></em></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><em>How do I bear witness to the
unbearable?</em></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><em>Why are people so deliberately cruel?</em></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><em>How do I not bring more rage into the world?</em></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Towards the end of Emile Zola’s <em>Beast of Man,</em>
an engineer and a fireman are quarreling in the locomotive of a passenger
train. In his rage, the fireman has stoked the engine’s fire into an inferno.
They grab at each other’s throats, each trying to force the other through the
open door. Losing their balance, both fall out and perish. The train rumbles on
at breakneck speed. The passengers, soldiers en route to the war front, are
sleeping or drunkenly unaware of the impending disaster.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Our society resembles this runaway train. We have
become a runaway society.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Some of us act within the world as a response to
suffering. Still, at times it might seem our work is impossible. I remember
being part of a huge protest rally in DC and walking next to an elderly woman
and I asked how she could still do all this without being discouraged. Her
answer is one I’ll never forget. She reminded me that some of us have ancestors
who fought against slavery though they knew they would probably never be free
themselves.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">That was a powerful reminder for me… </span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">What does personal liberation look like in a world
gone mad? Is personal liberation a worthy goal when there are so many
suffering? </span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Excerpt</b>:
In this section, I use my experiences as an engaged activist to talk about the
Buddhist notion of the spiritual warrior -- the Bodhisattva -- who takes a vow
to forestall their own liberation until all beings are liberated.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">How can the Dharma inform social justice? </span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Using stories and anecdotes from a range of
practices culled over a 20 year period of activism, I show how Buddhism has
(and has not) influenced the work.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Question and
Answer/ Interaction</b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from
civilization… </span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Thanks
for reading. If you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, please
consider helping me out by sharing it, liking me on </i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/eyrosario" target="_blank">Facebook</a><i>, following me on </i><a href="https://twitter.com/translucence" target="_blank">Twitter</a><i>, or even throwing me some money on GoFundMe
</i><a href="https://www.gofundme.com/2m8xmas" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> or via PayPal </i><a href="https://www.paypal.me/eyrosario" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> so I can keep calling it like I see it.</i></span></span></div>
Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-10852870707015785712017-01-18T19:48:00.001-05:002017-01-18T19:48:08.602-05:00Engaged Spirituality<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hola mi gente,<br />
This February each Sunday I will be giving a series of four lectures at the
Upper East Side’s <i><a href="http://www.allsoulsnyc.org/site/c.atJQL8NRJqL8H/b.6216933/k.BDF5/Home.htm" target="_blank">All Souls Church</a></i> at 1157 Lexington Ave.</span></span></div>
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</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The overall theme is what some call <i>engaged spirituality</i>…</span></span> </div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gvnJkb5Jojk/WIAMalgor7I/AAAAAAAAGh0/l0WTdytByOEx5IPV_pLev0-fwfVDi465gCLcB/s1600/01-18-17_%2BEngaged%2BSpirituality.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gvnJkb5Jojk/WIAMalgor7I/AAAAAAAAGh0/l0WTdytByOEx5IPV_pLev0-fwfVDi465gCLcB/s320/01-18-17_%2BEngaged%2BSpirituality.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Too often, I hear my brothers and
sisters talk about their experiences during their incarceration and sometimes I
feel some of us doing the world a disservice. Too often, we talk about the
horrors of our personal experiences without offering the important systemic analysis
that undergirds those experiences. On the flip side, too often I hear people
talking about transcending their experiences of incarceration but, again, at
the expense of offering our unique perspective on the nature of the moral rot
that sustains this society’s obsession with punishment and revenge.</span></span></div>
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</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I will be offering just such an
analysis during the four interactions at All Souls Church and what I hope is
that the interaction with the people in attendance will result in a shift in
consciousness -- or at least a deeper awareness -- of the depraved mindset that
is the foundation of the punishment paradigm.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The interactions (not lectures)
will take place on the successive Sundays in February (5<sup>th</sup>, 12<sup>th</sup>,
19<sup>th</sup>, and 26<sup>th</sup> from 10:00-11:00 a.m. each morning). I
offer a brief outline of the first interaction below.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hannah Arendt proposed the thesis
that people who carry out unspeakable crimes, like Eichmann, a top
administrator in the machinery of the Nazi death camps, may not be crazy
fanatics at all, but rather ordinary individuals who simply accept the premises
of their state and participate in any ongoing enterprise with the energy of
good bureaucrats.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Doing terrible things in an
organized and systematic way rests on “normalization.” This is the process
whereby ugly, degrading, murderous, and even unspeakable acts become routine
and are accepted as “the way things are done.” There is usually a division of
labor in committing and rationalizing the unthinkable, with the direct
brutalization and killing done by one set of individuals or institutions; and
another section of society keeping the machinery (sanitation, food supply,
etc.) in order; still others producing the implements of brutalization, or
working on improving technology (e.g., a more efficient crematory gas, a longer
burning and more adhesive napalm, a better prison or isolation cell). It is the
function of defense intellectuals and other experts, and the mainstream media,
to normalize the unthinkable for the general public. Arendt’s “banality of
evil” lends an important dimension to the question of the racialized social
control that we call mass incarceration. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">What does personal liberation mean
at a time when we can no longer differentiate between prisons and jails and the
communities that serve as feeders for the prison-industrial complex? In fact,
marginalized communities -- mostly black and Latinx -- are de facto open-air
detention centers that differ from jails and prisons only in their degree of
freedom of movement. Much of what transpires inside “the walls” of detention
centers occur inside the walls of housing projects and surrounding ghettos, for
example. Housing projects very much resemble prisons in the way they are
designed and policed.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">If a spiritual discipline -- its
ethical principles and cognitive practices -- is to have any relevance, then
they must address modern issues. Both sections will be informed by my personal
experiences resulting from the choices I made while incarcerated at Rikers
Island and NY State’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My name is Eddie and I’m in
recovery from civilization… </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Thanks
for reading. If you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, please
consider helping me out by sharing it, liking me on </i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/eyrosario" target="_blank">Facebook</a><i>, following me on </i><a href="https://twitter.com/translucence" target="_blank">Twitter</a><i>, or even throwing me some money on GoFundMe
</i><a href="https://www.gofundme.com/2m8xmas" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> or via PayPal </i><a href="https://www.paypal.me/eyrosario" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> so I can keep calling it like I see it.</i></span></span></div>
Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-53046856799907243412017-01-17T19:28:00.002-05:002017-01-17T19:28:30.994-05:00¡Que Viva Oscar Lopez Rivera!<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hola mi gente,<br />
Puerto Rican freedom fighter, Oscar López Rivera, finally got his freedom after
<em><a data-mce-href="https://www.democracynow.org/2017/1/17/breaking_president_obama_grants_clemency_to_chelsea" href="https://www.democracynow.org/2017/1/17/breaking_president_obama_grants_clemency_to_chelsea" target="_blank">President
Obama pardoned him</a></em> after serving over 30 years, most of them in
isolation.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">And that’s a good thing.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Also offered clemency today was <em><a data-mce-href="https://www.chelseamanning.org/" href="https://www.chelseamanning.org/" target="_blank">Chelsea Manning</a></em>,
who should’ve been given a fuckin’ medal not prison time.</span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Uq9Hfwvyxl4/WH62Dy9KnxI/AAAAAAAAGhM/jeJL3YJzd70mD8AzBCQ9Gf-c8oF-ArUhQCLcB/s1600/01-17-17_%2BOscar%2BLopez%2BRivera.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="158" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Uq9Hfwvyxl4/WH62Dy9KnxI/AAAAAAAAGhM/jeJL3YJzd70mD8AzBCQ9Gf-c8oF-ArUhQCLcB/s320/01-17-17_%2BOscar%2BLopez%2BRivera.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Oscar López Rivera is a political
prisoner who was convicted in 1981 on federal charges of seditious conspiracy
and conspiring to oppose U.S. authority over Puerto Rico by force. He was also
accused of being a member of the FALN, the Armed Forces of National Liberation,
which claimed responsibility for more than a hundred bombings to call attention
to the colonial case of Puerto Rico. In 1999, President Clinton commuted the
sentences of 16 members of the FALN, but López refused to accept the deal
because it did not include two fellow activists who have since been released.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">López Rivera has maintained all
along that the charges against him were strictly political:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">… I think the fact that I was
charged with seditious conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United
States speaks for itself. But the charge in reference to Puerto Ricans has
always been used for political purposes. It goes back to 1936. The first time
that a group of Puerto Ricans was put in prison was by using the seditious
conspiracy charge. And this is -- has always been a strictly political charge
used against Puerto Ricans.</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Interestingly, when then President Bill
Clinton’s offer of clemency was announced, Hillary Clinton supported their
release. But in typical Clintonian fashion, Hillary rescinded her support when
she took political flak from the right for her support. At the time she was
gearing up for a run at the NY State senate seat. This highlights why Hillary
lost to a reality show clown: she has never taken a stand on <i>anything.</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Gloria Quinones, one of hundreds of
activists and religious leaders who worked for the release of the Puerto Rican
nationalists, called Mrs. Clinton's repudiation of the President's clemency
grant “a real insult” to the nearly one million Puerto Ricans living in New
York.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">“She thinks that we are politically
expendable, insignificant to her campaign,” Ms. Quinones said.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">At the time each of the prisoners
had served more than 19 years, longer than the amount of time usually served
for the crimes they were convicted of committing.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">None of the prisoners was found
guilty of murder, bombing or hurting a person.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Missing from the list of pardons, tragically,
were <i><a href="http://www.freemumia.com/who-is-mumia-abu-jamal/">Mumia abu Jamal</a></i>
and <i><a href="http://www.freeleonard.org/case/">Leornard Peltier</a></i>. My view is
that while this is a small step addressing the problem of the crackdown of
political dissention, it's a very scrawny one.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My name is Eddie and I’m in
recovery from civilization… </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Thanks
for reading. If you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, please
consider helping me out by sharing it, liking me on </i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/eyrosario" target="_blank">Facebook</a><i>, following me on </i><a href="https://twitter.com/translucence" target="_blank">Twitter</a><i>, or even throwing me some money on GoFundMe
</i><a href="https://www.gofundme.com/2m8xmas" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> or via PayPal </i><a href="https://www.paypal.me/eyrosario" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> so I can keep calling it like I see it.</i></span></span></div>
Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-84779811281402074372017-01-14T15:20:00.005-05:002017-01-14T15:20:57.085-05:00Bad Day at the Beauty Salon<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Hola
mi gente,<br />
I came across the following poem by novelist, poet/ spoken word performer, <i><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/13/arts/television/maggie-estep-slam-poetry-performer-dies-at-50.html" target="_blank">MaggieEstep</a></i>. Unfortunately, Maggie left us too early at the young age of 50. While
the poem is on the surface a sad (and hilarious) tale of beauty salon trip gone
awry, underneath it’s exterior, there are themes that run the gamut from
identity, economic oppression, stripping and sisterhood, and well… just read
it.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bad Day at the
Beauty Salon</span></b></h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QGIiK0CFU7A/WHqH3Vk-KzI/AAAAAAAAGg0/K-anTcRNjmsQqe-IBpl48QkFqE3SY6A7ACLcB/s1600/01-14-17_%2BBad%2BDay%2Bat%2Bthe%2BBeauty%2BSalon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QGIiK0CFU7A/WHqH3Vk-KzI/AAAAAAAAGg0/K-anTcRNjmsQqe-IBpl48QkFqE3SY6A7ACLcB/s320/01-14-17_%2BBad%2BDay%2Bat%2Bthe%2BBeauty%2BSalon.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I
was a 20 year old unemployed receptionist with</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">dyed
orange dreadlocks sprouting out of my skull.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br />
I needed a job, but first,</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">I
needed a haircut.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">So
I head for this beauty salon on Avenue B.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I'm
gonna get a hairdo.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I'm
gonna look just like those hot Spanish haircut models, become brown<br />
and bodacious, grow some 7 inch fingernails painted bitch red and rake<br />
them down the chalkboard of the job market's soul.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">So
I go in the beauty salon.<br />
This beautiful Puerto Rican girl in tight white spandex and a push-up bra<br />
sits me down and starts chopping my hair:<br />
“Girlfriend,” she says, “what the hell you got growing outta<br />
your head there, what is that, hair implants? Yuck, you want me to touch<br />
that shit, whadya got in there, sandwiches?”</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I
just go: “I'm sorry.”</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">She
starts snipping my carefully cultivated Johnny Lydon post-Pistols hairdo.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">My
foul little dreadlocks are flying around all over the place but I'm<br />
not looking in the mirror cause I just don't want to know.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“So
what's your name anyway?” My stylist demands then.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“Uh,
Maggie.”</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“Maggie?
Well, that's an okay name, but my name is Suzy.”</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“Yeah,
so?”</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“Yeah
so it ain't just Suzy S.<br />
U.<br />
Z.<br />
Y, I spell it S.<br />
U.<br />
Z.<br />
E.<br />
E, the extra<br />
“e” is for extra Suzee.”</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I
nod emphatically.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Suzee
tells me when she's not busy chopping hair, she works as an exotic<br />
dancer at night to support her boyfriend named Rocco.<br />
Suzee loves Rocco,<br />
she loves him so much she's got her eyes closed as she describes him:<br />
“6 foot 2, 193 pounds and, girlfriend, his arms so big and long they<br />
wrap around me twice like I'm a little Suzee sandwich.”</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Little
Suzee Sandwich is rapt, she blindly snips and clips at my poor punk<br />
head.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br />
She snips and clips and snips and clips, she pauses, I look in the<br />
mirror: “Holy shit, I'm bald.”</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“Holy
shit, baby, you're bald.”<br />
Suzee says, finally opening her<br />
eyes and then gasping.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">All
I've got left is little post-nuke clumps of orange fuzz.<br />
And I'll never<br />
get a receptionist job now.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">But
Suzy waves her manicured finger in my face: “Don't you worry,<br />
baby, I'm gonna get you a job at the dancing club.”</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“What?”</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“Baby,
let me tell you, the boys are gonna like a bald go go dancer.”</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">That
said, she whips out some clippers, shaves my head smooth and insists<br />
I'm gonna love getting naked for a living.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">None
of this sounds like my idea of a good time, but I'm broke and I'm<br />
bald so I go home and get my best panties.<br />
Suzee lends me some 6 inch pumps,<br />
paints my lips bright red, and gives me 7 shots of Jack Daniels to relax<br />
me.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">8pm
that night I take the stage.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I'm
bald,<br />
I'm drunk,<br />
and by god,<br />
I'm naked.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">HOLY
SHIT I'M NAKED IN A ROOM FULL OF STRANGERS THIS IS NOT ONE OF THOSE<br />
RECURRING NIGHTMARES WE ALL HAVE ABOUT BEING BUTT NAKED IN PUBLIC, I AM<br />
NAKED, I DON'T KNOW THESE PEOPLE, THIS REALLY SUCKS.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">A
few guys feel sorry for me and risk getting their hands bitten off by<br />
sticking dollars in my garter belt.<br />
My disheveled pubic hairs stand at<br />
full attention, ready to poke the guys' eyes out if they get too close.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Then
I notice this bald guy in the audience, I've got a new empathy for<br />
bald people, I figure maybe it works both ways, maybe this guy will stick<br />
10 bucks in my garter.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I
saunter over.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I'm
teetering around unrhythmically, I'm the surliest, unsexiest dancer<br />
that ever go-go across this hemisphere.<br />
The bald guy looks down into his<br />
beer, he'd much rather look at that than at my pubic mound which has now<br />
formed into one vicious spike so it looks like I've got a unicorn in my<br />
crotch.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I
stand there weaving through the air.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The
strobe light is illuminating my pubic unicorn.<br />
<span> </span>Madonna's song Borderline<br />
is pumping through the club's speaker system for the 5th time tonight:</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“BORDERLINE
BORDERLINE BORDERLINE/LOVE ME TIL I JUST CAN'T SEE.”</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">And
suddenly, I start to wonder: What does that mean anyway?</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“LOVE
ME TIL I JUST CAN'T SEE”</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">What?</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Screw
me so much my eyes pop out, I go blind, end up walking down 2nd Avenue<br />
crazy, horny, naked and blind? What?</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">There's
a glitch in the tape and it starts to skip.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“Borderl.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">ooop.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Borderl.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">ooop.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Borderlin.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">ooop”</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I
stumble and twist my ankle.<br />
<span> </span>My g-string rides between my buttcheeks
making<br />
me twitch with pain.<br />
<span> </span>My head starts spinning, my knees
wobble, I go down<br />
on all fours and puke all over the bald guy's lap.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">So
there I am.<br />
<span> </span>Butt naked on all fours.<br />
<span> </span>But before I have time to regain<br />
my composure, the strip club manager comes over, points his smarmy strip<br />
club manager finger at me and goes:<br />
“You're bald, you're drunk, you can't dance and you're fired.”</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I
stand up.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“Oh
yeah, well you stink like a sneaker, pal.”<br />
<span> </span>I peel off one<br />
of my pumps and throw it in the direction of his fat head then I get the<br />
hell out of there.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">A
few days later I run into Suzee on Avenue A.<br />
<span> </span>Turns out she got fired<br />
for getting me a job there in the first place.<br />
<span> </span>But she was completely undaunted,<br />
she dragged me up to this wig store on 14th Street, bought me a mouse brown<br />
shag wig, then got us both telemarketing jobs on Wall Street.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">And
I never went to a beauty salon again.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span> </span>-- Maggie Estep (1963 - 2015)</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">* * *</span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization… </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Thanks
for reading. If you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, please
consider helping me out by sharing it, liking me on </i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/eyrosario" target="_blank">Facebook</a><i>, following me on </i><a href="https://twitter.com/translucence" target="_blank">Twitter</a><i>, or even throwing me some money on GoFundMe
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Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-8627204586201588982017-01-12T23:17:00.004-05:002017-01-12T23:17:54.152-05:00The Stupid Question<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hola Everybody,<br />
There’s much to write about these days. Corporate news now barely cares to vet
their sources and clamor to follow in Fox News steps. Democrats have for the
most part given up any pretense to stand for anything other than their
corporate masters and those who drink their Kool Aid wander aimlessly
experiencing defending the CIA and NSA and stumbling around in a psychotic break.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But I’m tired and most people really don’t give a good
goddamn anyway... and we will continue to get less.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 22.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 115%;">Questions 101</span></b></h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x3mdLxy7dQs/WHhUho4FI9I/AAAAAAAAGgk/Xe37yd6CLiwZR0L2YOUfHUIt9ZU0wizhgCLcB/s1600/01-12-17_%2BQuestions%2B101.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x3mdLxy7dQs/WHhUho4FI9I/AAAAAAAAGgk/Xe37yd6CLiwZR0L2YOUfHUIt9ZU0wizhgCLcB/s320/01-12-17_%2BQuestions%2B101.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>You see things that are and say ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never
were and say ‘Why not?’</i><br />
<span> </span>-- George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I was taught that the only stupid
question is the one you don't ask.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Why? An excellent question… </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">It’s a question I have been plagued
by since as far back as I can remember. I’ve learned to ask other questions --
sometimes looking in the dark for newer questions, or questions not asked. I am
a born skeptic, a doubter, a trouble maker by nature -- “un mas que jodes, un
travesio.” At various times in my life I have been deemed unfit to live among
the free and a bit deranged, to boot.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But along the way I have learned
that questions are the very substance of who we are and what we do. I have
learned that almost everything we do, every decision we make, is a response to
an inner question. It’s unfortunate, I often think, that Questions 101 is not a
regular feature in our classrooms. But then again, does the status quo really
want to nurture questioning in our young?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">One of my favorite books, Douglas
Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, deals with this issue of questions.
In it a massive supercomputer is designed to give the ultimate, the absolute
answer, an answer that would explain “God, life, the universe, and everything.”
But the computer takes seven and a half million years to do this, and by the
time the computer delivers the answer, everybody has forgotten the question!
So, nobody remembers the ultimate question, but the ultimate answer is: 42.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is amazing! Finally! The
Answer! So wonderful is the answer that immediately a contest is held to see if
anyone can come up with “The Question.” Many profound questions are submitted,
but the final winner is: How many roads must a man walk down?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Reflecting about “spirituality,
life, the universe, and everything” is pretty much what my life has been about
-- the unexamined life, in my book, is an unworthy one. Of course, the answer
may be not as clever as 42. Perhaps the answers deal with matter, life, mind,
and spirit, and the underlying evolutionary currents that seem to unite them
all in a pattern that connects.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">For some time now, I have tried to
embody this spirit of questioning. I guess part of my personal mission is to
prod others to question, to look for the unasked questions and to try to
understand who decides what questions will be asked and why. I think that’s
part of my motivation for posting my rants -- I want people to ask, to
question, to investigate their lives. If I were to die today, I would like to
believe that I made some difference in the lives of the people I touch. I would
want people to say, “He was a crazy motherfucker, but he cared, and he made me
think. Or something like that.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In this crazy world all we can be
sure of is the punch line to this grand Cosmic Joke we call life -- death. In
the midst of all this uncertainty, we fumble for meaning or something that
gives us a foundation of sorts. Sometimes this clinging is the core of our
pain, sometimes having no meaning in one’s life is a key component to pain. So
then, this is my meaning -- my mission: to rattle the cage a bit, to ask the
unasked question and to ask you, dear reader and friend:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Why not?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">We -- the curious, the apathetic,
the wounded, the lonely and the happy -- are all somehow compelled to mass together
in order to create meaning. We huddle together and tell our stories by the fire
to ward off the dark. But in order to avoid the Kool-Aid we must dare to ask
the questions that need asking and support each other somehow when the answers
are harsh or painful.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I remember a time when that was
called community... </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My name is Eddie and I’m in
recovery from civilization… </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thanks
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consider helping me out by sharing it, liking me on </i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/eyrosario" target="_blank">Facebook</a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, following me on </i><a href="https://twitter.com/translucence" target="_blank">Twitter</a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, or even throwing me some money on GoFundMe
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Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-32911419313203918282017-01-11T19:07:00.001-05:002017-01-11T19:07:09.715-05:00Thoughts Without a Thinker<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Hola
mi gente,<br />
So, I’m getting my groove back, using my creativity. Things are looking up.
Next step: get my own place!</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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Stream</span></b></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LnDfA9MHORQ/WHbHyNafxeI/AAAAAAAAGgM/8okKzT35rsQ5Fu9zLa80yl13wXXZtxXigCLcB/s1600/01-11-17_%2BThoughts%2BWithout%2Ba%2BThinker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="194" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LnDfA9MHORQ/WHbHyNafxeI/AAAAAAAAGgM/8okKzT35rsQ5Fu9zLa80yl13wXXZtxXigCLcB/s320/01-11-17_%2BThoughts%2BWithout%2Ba%2BThinker.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="http://www.juliabuntaine.com/stream-of-consciousness.html" target="_blank">Stream of Consciousness</a>, Chenille stems, styrofoam, </i>Julia Buntaine.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>Thinking to get at once all
the gold the goose could give, he killed it and opened it only to find --
nothing.</span></i><span><br />
</span><span><span> </span>-- Aesop (620–560 BC) The Goose with the
Golden Eggs</span></span></span></div>
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</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span></span></i><span><br /></span></span></span></div>
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</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>I once met a lovely woman, highly intelligent, beautiful
writer. In her early 40s, she was at her creative and physical peak. I used to
joke that she looked as if she lived on a Stairmaster. In short, here was a
woman I felt I could enjoy knowing better, maybe even --who knows -- explore
the “C” word with her. She had one major drawback, however... </span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>She thought too much.</span></i></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>She was ruled by her thoughts and she wasn’t satisfied with
torturing herself with her thinking, she insisted I join in also. I’ll give you
an example, we would plan a meet-up (she lived in Boston and I live in NYC) and
initially we would talk excitedly about what we would do together, but as the
date would draw nearer, thoughts stemming from her insecurities would
predominate our conversations. At first I was more than happy to help her
dispel some of these thoughts. I mean, she would have one thought (“Eddie
doesn’t like me, so he won’t come”) and then another thought connected to that
thought would appear (“Eddie is just coming because he wants sex”), which would
be connected to another thought (“I’m such a loser”). This would go on until
her whole thought process and beliefs around our meet-up would be so totally
screwed up, so totally disassociated from reality, that I would have a hard
time addressing all of it. </span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Eventually, I would have to tell her that I didn’t need to
hear all her thought processes and she was so offended that she broke off
meeting with me. She was so hurt because, according to her, her thoughts <i>were</i>
her and I shouldn’t have been so insensitive to her thoughts (or something
along those lines). I don’t “do” therapy in my personal life, though friends
constantly ask me questions that essentially are invites to “analyze” them. I
don’t even adhere to that type of theoretical orientation. LOL</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>You might judge my friend’s thinking, but I see people do
that kind of thing <i>all the time</i>. I mean, we all do it to a degree. We
like to call it “analyzing,” but it resembles mental masturbation. We create
scenarios out of a tangled web of thought constellations and ingrained belief
systems we take as ultimate truth. I will add that my friend’s thinking brought
her a lot of suffering in the form of clinical depression.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>We live in a society in which we’re encouraged to live from
the “neck up” at the expense of our bodies and the rest of reality -- we live
disembodied lives. I see it all the time in my work. Ask someone how he or she <i>feels</i>
and they will quickly proceed to tell you how they’re <i>thinking</i> about
their <i>feeling</i>.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>I often tell my women friends that they shouldn’t think
around me because it makes my dick hard. I’m kidding! It doesn’t work, telling
someone not to think, makes them think even more intensely.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Let me be clear<i>: thinking is not bad in itself</i>. In
fact, thinking is an essential tool for our well-being and survival. Indeed,
our distinguishing feature as a species is the ability to create complex
symbols, agree on their meaning, and use them to encode our knowledge. The
ability to think allows us to compute, reason, and create, and, most
importantly, to share our understanding with each other in the form of speech
or writing. We can even record our thinking (on blogs, no less) for others!</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>The issue here is that as a species we have grown to value
thinking to the exclusion of other aspects of our being. We have become more
identified with our thoughts and the more we become lost in our personal soap
operas, the more disconnected we have become from what we have in common with
other human beings and our ecology. We have surrendered our sense of self to
our thinking mind, becoming “lost in thought.”</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>I should know, because I too was addicted to the non-stop
ruminations of my thought-stream. After years of meditation practice, the most
significant change in my life has been my relationship to my mind. We’re still
together, my monkey and I, but we’re no longer in a codependent relationship.
Slowly, but surely I am gaining my liberation from the tyranny of thinking.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>The change was precipitated by the acknowledgment that my
mind had a <i>thinking</i> problem. I was a heavy thinker, often engaging in
about 70,000 to 150,000 thoughts a day! I got up in the morning and -- bam! --
I was thinking 2-3 thoughts per minute, continuing through the day until night
when I thought myself to sleep.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>I tried everything from analysis (which made me more
attached to my thinking) to screaming and flailing about, which only
temporarily diminished the flow of thinking. Eventually, I would turn to drugs
in an attempt to “blow my mind” by short-circuiting the neural wiring and I
have to say -- one time I even forgot who I was (literally).</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Later, I would practice a <i><a href="https://tricycle.org/magazine/vipassana-meditation/" target="_blank">form of meditation</a></i> in which the goal was not to stop thinking, but rather
expose the mind to itself. Before my meditation practice I was completely
absorbed on the <i>content</i> of thoughts, how to manipulate them and extract
meaning from them. That is what we’re taught and graded on in school and it is what
our culture values.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>But no one had taught me how to <i>look</i> at my thoughts.
Ordinarily, we go through life with what psychologists call a pre-conscious
stream of thoughts coursing through our minds. Barely noticeable, this thought
stream exerts an enormous amount of influence in our lives. We do this
mindlessly without awareness. In fact, modern science shows that our thoughts
aren’t the dominant player in our lives. Brain research finds that most of our
interpretations of the world as well as our decision-making process takes place
on what evolutionary psychologists call the “sub-personal” level, <i>without</i>
a rational thinking self directing the process.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
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</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>When I first sat down to meditate, I was almost overwhelmed
by the sheer magnitude of the thought stream. Eventually, I learned the simple
task of watching the stream without making judgments, or running around to
analyze them. A resentment thought pops up, I acknowledge it gently and then
let it go. Sure enough, some time will pass and another thought will present
itself and I do the same thing -- I see it, acknowledge it and let it go.
Eventually, this has a stabilizing effect -- you’re not stuck on the thoughts
that seem to come from nowhere. You are not stuck on the content of your
thoughts but engaged in the <i>process </i>of the thought-stream.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Eventually, with lots of practice, I was able to observe the
“gap” between the thoughts. This is pure consciousness, pure awareness -- the
most powerful healing force I’ve ever encountered... but that’s for another
blog for another time.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>It may not sound like a lot, but it’s a huge thing for me to
say that the main difference between my experiences today and those of 20-odd
years ago is that I catch myself quicker these days. Essentially, today I’m
less prone to be carried away by every thought that comes along -- I don’t get
caught up in my delusional personal soap opera as often as I used to. This is
especially true in the area of resentments and personal relationships. The
thought-stream is not ruling my responses or filtering my reality as much as it
once did.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Today a thought can arise and I can say, “thanks for
sharing, but I’m not engaging that today, I’m too busy doing something more
important.”</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization… </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Thanks
for reading. If you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, please
consider helping me out by sharing it, liking me on </i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/eyrosario" target="_blank">Facebook</a><i>, following me on </i><a href="https://twitter.com/translucence" target="_blank">Twitter</a><i>, or even throwing me some money on GoFundMe
</i><a href="https://www.gofundme.com/2m8xmas" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> or via PayPal </i><a href="https://www.paypal.me/eyrosario" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> so I can keep calling it like I see it.</i></span></span></div>
Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-64164169375995523582017-01-10T19:02:00.004-05:002017-01-10T19:02:48.837-05:00Direct Experience<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hola mi gente,<br />
Well, today was my first day of work. I believe I have come across a project I
can sink my teeth into and a good team. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-B956y2eRXi8/WHV2AYjcaLI/AAAAAAAAGf0/91nWsfK_m4c52Tpxpkp799rxor8ILrMUQCLcB/s1600/01-10-17_%2BDirect%2BExperience.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-B956y2eRXi8/WHV2AYjcaLI/AAAAAAAAGf0/91nWsfK_m4c52Tpxpkp799rxor8ILrMUQCLcB/s320/01-10-17_%2BDirect%2BExperience.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Experience is not what happens, but what we do with what happens.</i><br />
<span> </span>-- Aldous Huxley</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Someone asked me recently whether
books or direct experiences were the best teachers and it reminded me of the
following story:</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">There was once a young scholar who
came from a privileged family who spent most of time reading and studying all
the great teachings. One day, while traveling, he came upon a wide river and
eventually found a boatman to take him across. During the crossing, partly to
pass the time and partly to impress the boatman, the young scholar described
his life of studies. As he spoke, the boatman listened attentively. Then, after
some time, he says to the young scholar, “You have learned much, sir -- but
have you learned how to swim?”</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Why no,” he replied. “I have not.”</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Then I am afraid your knowledge is
of little use,” said the boatman, “for this boat is sinking.”</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">LOL!</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is, of course, a funny over simplification,
but it is true that direct experience remains the powerful teacher. However, a
book can provide a map of the territory that can prepare us and enables us to
learn more from our experiences. And while a book can point the way, we still
must make the journey. In other words, the map isn’t the territory. So, in my
estimation, it is a false choice. We don’t really have to choose between books
and direct experience. Instead, the wisest course is to choose both.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">It may be that it will take years
of experience in order to integrate fully what we learn from books. Our perspectives
change over time as life teaches and humbles us. It is the nature of life that,
no matter how much we may have learned from books, we sometimes have to
experience humiliation before we find wisdom. If we are receptive and
open-minded, everything we encounter is a potential lesson. We succeed by
failing, learn from our mistakes, and we rise up to our potential through a
long and winding staircase.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My name is Eddie and I’m in
recovery from civilization… </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Thanks
for reading. If you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, please
consider helping me out by sharing it, liking me on </i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/eyrosario" target="_blank">Facebook</a><i>, following me on </i><a href="https://twitter.com/translucence" target="_blank">Twitter</a><i>, or even throwing me some money on GoFundMe
</i><a href="https://www.gofundme.com/2m8xmas" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> or via PayPal </i><a href="https://www.paypal.me/eyrosario" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> so I can keep calling it like I see it.</i></span></span></div>
Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-80686102517285929922017-01-09T22:08:00.002-05:002017-01-09T22:08:36.492-05:00Reflections on Revolution<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hola mi gente,<br />
I attended a coalition meeting this past Saturday and it compelled me to write
to short pieces. One I posted <a href="https://translucence.wordpress.com/2017/01/07/mass-incarceration-is-not-the-problem/" target="_blank"><i>yesterday</i></a> and this one -- a
reflection.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I can’t stay quiet and I abhor when conscious communities stop
questioning assumptions. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MyTD7r0jvdc/WHRQHd_9lGI/AAAAAAAAGfY/wfWnD_umvwk0IYb17T8eFA-rmnmdJZ_nQCLcB/s1600/Dawn%2B%2526%2BDusk_%2B119.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MyTD7r0jvdc/WHRQHd_9lGI/AAAAAAAAGfY/wfWnD_umvwk0IYb17T8eFA-rmnmdJZ_nQCLcB/s320/Dawn%2B%2526%2BDusk_%2B119.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must
love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains</i>.<br />
<span> </span>-- Assata Shakur, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=kVVp9RLqlYwC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false" target="_blank"><i>An Autobiography</i></a></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The following is a work in
progress. Assata’s words bring to mind what I call <i>conscious radicalism</i>. A method of inquiry and practice that
questions everything and takes nothing on face value.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>It is our duty to fight for
freedom…</i></b></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">It’s winter in America, as brother
Gil Scott Heron noted. But there’s a new resistance here… </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Rather than passively accept second
class status, movements for the liberation of people of color (and our white
allies) are defining, resisting, and rising against white supremacy and its
many tentacles that have been choking our people for centuries. Unfortunately,
I might add (fuck it, I’m keeping it real), some social justice organizations
have become part of those tentacles. This newer resistance, however, composed
mostly of young black and brown people, is involved in the struggle to be free
from subjugation, oppression, and domination. Its pursuit is the manifestation
of a truly just, sustainable, and equitable society.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>It is our duty to win…</i></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The sheer weight of the task of
unravelling a massive social habit of and addiction to violence and injustice
cannot be underestimated. It comes with the convenient amnesia about historic transgressions
of such enormity it overwhelms the mind. It proves daunting at the least,
stunningly and increasingly destructive on mental, physical, material, and psycho-spiritual
levels. Even as the effort is meant to liberate, its current methodology was for
the most part forged within the same construct it seeks to undermine:
competition at the cost of collaboration, power over equality.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>We must love each other and
support each other…</i></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I am no longer surprised to the
degree of chauvinism in the nonprofit sector when it comes to self-care. We
work long hours with little pay. The boundaries between our personal lives and
mission-related work have become blurred or have ceased to exist at all. In
fact, I have observed many within the social justice field take pride in how
much they can do without. I get it, this is hard work, and much of my personal
mission is closely tied to my collective endeavors. I understand how easy it is
to be obliterated in all the mess. But this serves no real purpose. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Keeping it 100, this is a
reflection of the oppressive forces under which we labor. We mirror the same
power dynamics of the larger dominant society. We earn little, work long hours,
and have even less to show after decades of doing this work. How is that
justice? If this set of circumstances was being played out by corporate
interests, we would be (rightfully) outraged. Yet we do it to ourselves. We
adopt the same oppressive hierarchies that keep us down and then we expect
change. We run our organizations and our movements just like corporations and
we inflict the same harm, with just a few reaping even a decent living.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yet I do see a change coming. I see
young people seeking a different form of consensus or at least attempting to
define a consensus that is truly equitable. Liberation can only come about
through love and until we do away the master’s tools, we will continue to
flounder. For too long our methodologies have been forged within the crucible
of the dominant mindset of colonization, capitalism as religion, corporations
as demigods, domination of people and planet, zero-sum mentality, rape and
plunder as spoils of victory, human and natural resources taken as objects of
subjugation to the very few privileged -- the one percent.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I am taken aback to how easily we
fit into our internalized oppression. Even when we are conscious of how the
structures we resist can manifest in our work: suppression, depression,
martyrdom, and simply taking the abuse until there is no room left in our
bodies to contain all that destruction. Eventually, it turns inward and, like
the disease that it is, eats at us from the inside-out. Without the habit of
questioning our most cherished assumptions, and the practices of
self-awareness, and undoing vicarious trauma -- in other words, without love --
the degree of suffering we will unwittingly bring upon ourselves will be too
much.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>We have nothing to lose but our
chains…</i></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Conscious radicalism is about
bringing a focus and a method of inquiry that keeps us aligned with our
missions. In the final analysis, this movement isn’t about a particular
legislation, incremental or revolutionary change, a particular jail closing, or
even mass incarceration. This is not about subject and object, practitioner and
observer. This is about <i>liberation</i>. A
liberation that is both personal and collective. It is not about branding, or
taking photos with people in power, or sidling up to the symbols of our
oppression. It’s about leadership predicated on the models passed down to us by
our ancestors, who have been resisting for centuries. This isn’t about seven
effective habits, positive thinking, or prosperity gospel. This is about love
in the service of true freedom.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">We all bear the scars and wounds of
this struggle. Therefore, when we bear witness to this suffering writ large, we
also bear witness to the wisdom of liberation from that suffering. And we bear
it together.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My name is Eddie and I’m in
recovery from civilization… </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Thanks
for reading. If you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, please
consider helping me out by sharing it, liking me on </i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/eyrosario" target="_blank">Facebook</a><i>, following me on </i><a href="https://twitter.com/translucence" target="_blank">Twitter</a><i>, or even throwing me some money on GoFundMe
</i><a href="https://www.gofundme.com/2m8xmas" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> or via PayPal </i><a href="https://www.paypal.me/eyrosario" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> so I can keep calling it like I see it.</i></span></span></div>
Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-9213795541716270332017-01-08T19:09:00.002-05:002017-01-08T19:09:18.968-05:00Sunday Sermon [Simplicity]<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hola mi gente,<br />
Yeah, it’s winter here in the land of the snow, but I <i>still</i> prefer to live here than in whatever Armpit, USA you live.
LOL</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G6CASQKsMiQ/WHLUSMv0X-I/AAAAAAAAGe8/jTeiOmSuCBgud86Au3MrQtA2evFhjyPDgCLcB/s1600/By%2Bthe%2BSea_%2B010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G6CASQKsMiQ/WHLUSMv0X-I/AAAAAAAAGe8/jTeiOmSuCBgud86Au3MrQtA2evFhjyPDgCLcB/s320/By%2Bthe%2BSea_%2B010.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>For every complex problem, there is a simple solution that doesn’t
work.</i><br />
<span> </span>-- H. L. Mencken</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I was recently reminded of the
story of the man who kept constantly snapping his fingers. When someone asked
him why he did this, he answered, “Well, to keep the snakes away, of course.”
When it was pointed out to him that there weren’t any snakes in their city, the
man said, “You see how well it works?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">You might laugh, but this kind of
fallacious thinking happens all the time. This is the kind of logic that often
guides the search for simple solutions -- until we finally roll up our sleeves
and do the actual work. You find this frame of mind to be true of those who
champion <i><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19491331" target="_blank">positive thinking</a></i>
or <i>prosperity spirituality</i>. The truth
remains that using techniques to change our beliefs, fix our feelings, banish
self-doubt, quiet the mind, think only positive thoughts, or attract whatever
or whomever we desire, represents simple solutions that don’t work. Visualizing
money will not magically attract it unless I <i>act</i> as much as I focus. I also have a problem with spirituality
that is grounded on getting and hoarding material things. As far as I’m
concerned that’s the opposite of the spiritual life.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Whenever I ask a group of people
how many have read books on positive thinking, many hands go up. When I ask them
to keep their hands up if they have had only positive thoughts in the last
week, all the hands disappear. How many of us who visualize positive outcomes,
listen to subliminal tapes, or affirm out the ass, actually realize the desired
results?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">::blank stare::</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Besides, as I have been writing
about for years now, there’s a tremendous amount of potential in “negativity”
or negative thoughts. Negative thoughts can act as motivating factors in
success and there’s a wealth of knowledge and experiential lessons to be
gleaned from them and our failures. Believe me, I just went through a year and
a half of some of the most challenging circumstances, and using negative “energy”
was a huge factor in keeping my sanity.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The truth is that there is no way
to keep our emotions or thoughts positive because we have no direct control
over arising feelings or thoughts. In actuality, much of our suffering is
rooted in the false belief of control. In any case, in the real world, people
who transcend their situations are not fixated on changing their feelings,
manipulating thoughts. They are focused on doing what needs to be done, and
doing it regardless of whatever feelings may arise. Of course, this does not
mean repressing or denying our feelings or thoughts. In fact, I value my thoughts
and emotions as I would a beloved child: I value, honor, listen to, and learn
from him, but I don’t let them take over the house.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Simplicity has power, no doubt, and
grounding our lives on constructive, positive behavior is the simplest and most
powerful approach I have known. However, simple doesn’t mean easy. On the
contrary, the techniques proposed by many motivational speakers appear easy on
paper, but are as complex and fascinating as they are unworkable. And when we
try these techniques and fail to get our desired outcomes, we assume we didn’t
do them right or applied ourselves enough and enter the madness of continuing
to do the same actions and expecting different results. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yes, simplicity has power. But what
can be simpler than <i>just doing it?</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> </i> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My name is Eddie and I’m in
recovery from civilization… </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Thanks
for reading. If you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, please
consider helping me out by sharing it, liking me on </i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/eyrosario" target="_blank">Facebook</a><i>, following me on </i><a href="https://twitter.com/translucence" target="_blank">Twitter</a><i>, or even throwing me some money on GoFundMe
</i><a href="https://www.gofundme.com/2m8xmas" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> or via PayPal </i><a href="https://www.paypal.me/eyrosario" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> so I can keep calling it like I see it.</i></span></span></div>
Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-40260752014769921272017-01-07T17:46:00.005-05:002017-01-07T17:46:43.518-05:00Mass Incarceration is NOT the Problem<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hola mi gente,<br />
Thought I’d wade in… LOL</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZHhH0KS_SKA/WHFvyOVfq5I/AAAAAAAAGes/L78lAH4_ReYxz2HlnQTNxMQjTSdww2vagCLcB/s1600/01-07-17_%2BMass%2BIncarceration%2Bis%2Bnot%2Bthe%2BProblem.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZHhH0KS_SKA/WHFvyOVfq5I/AAAAAAAAGes/L78lAH4_ReYxz2HlnQTNxMQjTSdww2vagCLcB/s320/01-07-17_%2BMass%2BIncarceration%2Bis%2Bnot%2Bthe%2BProblem.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>A major challenge of this movement is to do the work that will create
more humane, habitable environments for people in prison without bolstering the
permanence of the prison system. How, then, do we accomplish this balancing act
of passionately attending to the needs of prisoners… and at the same time call
for alternatives to sentencing altogether, no more prison construction, and
abolitionist strategies that question the place of prison in our future?<br />
</i><span> </span>-- Angela Y. Davis</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yes you read that right: mass incarceration
<i>isn’t</i> the problem. You could close
all the prisons you want. You could <i>end</i>
mass incarceration <i>right now</i> and it
would accomplish very little. In fact, saying you’re for ending mass incarceration
is a nice thing to say, but it doesn’t do squat if you’re not addressing the
root causes at the core of our society’s way of interacting with Black and
Latinx people.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In order to better understand the criminal
justice system, one can no longer differentiate between prisons and jails and
the communities that serve as feeders for that particular form of racialized
social control. In fact, marginalized communities -- mostly Black and Latinx --
act as open-air detention centers that differ from institutions of
incarceration only in the degree of freedom of movement. Much of what
transpires inside “the walls” of prisons or jails occur in inside the walls of
housing projects and surrounding ghettoes, for example. Housing projects very
much resemble prisons in the way they are designed and policed -- isolated and rigidly
controlled.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The social control of people of
color has had several permutations. First there was chattel slavery, which
morphed into Jim Crow apartheid, which mutated into the ghetto, and now we have
mass incarceration. It’s the spiral dynamics of racialized social control. Mass
incarceration is like a cough -- a symptom of a deeper disease. You can address
the cough, but if you don’t address the root cause, the disease will continue
to destroy the body. Do away with mass incarceration (which will not be
happening any time soon, by the way), and you’re still left with the virus that
sits at the core of this nation’s soul.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Mass incarceration is symptomatic
of the social psychosis of institutional racism. I am asserting that slavery
and mass imprisonment are intrinsically linked and that we cannot understand the
latter -- its timing, composition, and inception as well as the acceptance of
its harmful effects on those it impacts -- without returning to the former as a
starting point. In other words, from a historical perspective, the mass
incarceration of mostly people of color in the United States is a direct
offshoot of the roots of the institution of racism.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Doing terrible things in an
organized and systematic way rests on “normalization.” This is the process
whereby ugly, degrading, murderous, and even unspeakable acts become routine
and are accepted as “the way things are done.” There is usually a division of
labor in committing and rationalizing the unthinkable, with direct
brutalization and killing done by one set of individuals; and another section
of society keeping the machinery (e.g., sanitation, food supply, correction
officers, judges, lawyers, etc.) in order; still others producing the
implements of brutalization, or working on improving the technology (a better
crematory gas, a longer burning and more adhesive napalm, a better prison or
isolation cell). It is the function of intellectuals and other experts (many
who call themselves social justice advocates), and the mainstream media, to
normalize the unthinkable for the general public.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is why it is incorrect to say
that our criminal justice system is broken. It isn’t. It has been working
exactly as it was meant to work for centuries.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The lack of a shared basis for
moral judgment in a multicultural, multiethnic, multi-religious nation dooms
the justification of punishment. The economic cost of our system of punishment
stands at about 100 billion dollars per year. It destroys families and communities,
and it deprives those caught in its maws their most basic liberties, sometimes
for a lifetime. Vacuous references to “ending mass incarceration” or vague
phrases are woefully inadequate as resistance to a system of justice predicated
solely on race and punishment and do not serve as a foundation with which to
challenge the prevailing paradigm of justice as punishment.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery
from civilization… </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Thanks
for reading. If you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, please
consider helping me out by sharing it, liking me on </i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/eyrosario" target="_blank">Facebook</a><i>, following me on </i><a href="https://twitter.com/translucence" target="_blank">Twitter</a><i>, or even throwing me some money on GoFundMe
</i><a href="https://www.gofundme.com/2m8xmas" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> or via PayPal </i><a href="https://www.paypal.me/eyrosario" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> so I can keep calling it like I see it.</i></span></span></div>
Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-29011107125473098662017-01-06T17:12:00.004-05:002017-01-06T17:12:41.683-05:00Little Women<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Hola Everybody,<br />
Okay, I know I’m going to be stigmatized for saying this but am I the only one who thinks that the “women’s” gymnastics competition kid of a sick societal obsession?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>::blank stare::</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Yes, <i>it is</i> a fetish of sorts, but in more ways than you would think… </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizDx_Tn9dhz1sZ3O6hrrfRDnZSWVZqSWQNEnAo50KDttkaEBu2JAisi7clcv8M-nPQiFOoN0VWiKLZ8n8QB1dBHHsKNnkpdExOEbk5r30LqoLbInazupliNCBfcpuhNwbh8UoBGWdj_gU/s1600/01-06-17_+Little+Women.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizDx_Tn9dhz1sZ3O6hrrfRDnZSWVZqSWQNEnAo50KDttkaEBu2JAisi7clcv8M-nPQiFOoN0VWiKLZ8n8QB1dBHHsKNnkpdExOEbk5r30LqoLbInazupliNCBfcpuhNwbh8UoBGWdj_gU/s320/01-06-17_+Little+Women.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Nadia Comeneci</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>If the young heroine’s quest is one of development, then what does the maniacal obsession for perfection do to such a quest? If, for the young girl, the quest is from alienation to integration within a community where she can develop more fully, then what does our compulsion/ obsession with perfection do to that quest?</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>It strangles it.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>I’m not here to rail against gymnastics, nor any other sport. However, I have to wonder what an unhealthy preoccupation with exercise, weight, and poor body image do to a young girl’s psyche. I would never allow my daughter (if I had one) be put through the torture of gymnastics or ballet training no matter how gifted she was. It’s <i>inhumane</i> to demand perfection. It’s also tragic that we allow adults to break little girls in a mad quest for perfection.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>And to some degree, it’s different for female athletes than it is for the males. While the males also suffer the same injuries and make the same sacrifices (sacrificing puberty for their sport, for example), for the females there is the added burden of body weight. Female gymnasts (as well as ballet dancers) are instructed (conditioned) to be obsessed by weight. Mix a torturous training regimen (often the bulk of waking hours) with abnormal dieting and you have a clear-cut path to eating disorders and arrested physical and psychological development.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>I usually consider myself an open-minded person, willing to try to see all sides of a story, but as I watch the following montage, I have to shake my head and wonder what sane parent would willingly allow his or her daughter be put through all this. </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>For what? For whom?</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>For every girl that manages to do a one-legged landing and become an idol to millions of fans, there are the countless broken bodies and psyches of girls so young it's hard for me to wrap my mind around it.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DcNonfHeJHA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></span></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization… </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, please consider helping me out by sharing it, liking me on </i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/eyrosario">Facebook</a><i>, following me on </i><a href="https://twitter.com/translucence">Twitter</a><i>, or even throwing me some money on GoFundMe </i><a href="https://www.gofundme.com/2m8xmas">HERE</a><i> or via PayPal </i><a href="https://www.paypal.me/eyrosario">HERE</a><i> so I can keep calling it like I see it.</i></span></span></div>Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6553815707336774090.post-30956038160563636802017-01-05T23:16:00.002-05:002017-01-05T23:16:18.775-05:00Perfectly Unfolding<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hola mi gente,<br />
I like to re-post the following Occasionally because it reminds me of the
importance of gratitude.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--tL585mXLZc/WG8Zh-q9NLI/AAAAAAAAGdM/cYZ4enfl1xIswRLUASFkLPH9fMvwmNQPQCEw/s1600/01-05-17_%2BPerfectly%2BUnfolding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--tL585mXLZc/WG8Zh-q9NLI/AAAAAAAAGdM/cYZ4enfl1xIswRLUASFkLPH9fMvwmNQPQCEw/s320/01-05-17_%2BPerfectly%2BUnfolding.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>“Thank you” is the best prayer that anyone could say</i>.<br />
<span> </span>-- Alice Walker</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My readers are probably already
familiar with my sickening claim that this moment is perfectly unfolding,
right? I mean, I only mention it at least once a week. Today, however, I’m
going prove my point beyond a shadow of a doubt -- no charge.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Whether you want to own up to it,
not -- whether you’re aware of it, or not -- literally thousands of things go
right for you every day, beginning the moment you wake up.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yup.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">For starters, through some magic
you don’t fully understand, you’re still breathing and your heart is beating,
in spite of the fact that you’ve been unconscious for many hours. You wake up
and breathe in the air that is a mix of gasses that’s just right for your
body’s needs, as it was before you fell asleep.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">You open your eyes and you can see.
Light of many colors floods into your eyes, are registered by nerves that took
billions of years to perfect. Furthermore, the interesting gift of these
beautiful colors comes to you courtesy of an unimaginably huge globe of fire,
the sun, which continually detonates nuclear reactions in order to convert its
body to light and heat and energy for your personal use.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Do you realize that the sun is
located at the precise distance from you to be of perfect service? One small
difference and you would either burn or freeze. And here’s another blessing: every
day the sun appears to rise over the eastern horizon right on schedule every
day, as it has long before you were born. Talk about trustworthiness and
commitment.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">How about the day you were born, do
you remember that? It was a difficult miracle that involved many people who
worked hard on your behalf. No less miraculous is the fact that you have
continued to grow since then, with millions of new cells being born inside you
to replace the old ones that die. And check this out: it happens automatically!
You don’t even have to think about it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Amazingly, the water your body
needs so much comes out of your faucets in an even flow, with the volume you
desire, and either as cold or hot as you desire. It’s pure and clean; you’re
confident there are no parasites lurking in it. There is someone somewhere
making sure you will continue to receive this gift of water without
interruption for as long as you require it.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Look at your hands. They are
beautiful. They’re amazing creations that allow you to carry out hundreds of
tasks with great force and intricate grace. They relish the pleasure of
touching thousands of different textures, and they’re beautifully perfect.</span></span></div>
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</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In your closet there are many
clothes you like to wear. Have you ever stopped to think who gathered the
materials to make the fabrics they’re made of? Who infused them with color, and
how did they do it? Who sewed them for you?</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In your kitchen, there’s tasty food
in secure packaging waiting for you. Many people you have never met worked hard
to grow it, process it, and get it to the store where you purchased it. This
bounty of food is unprecedented in the history of the world.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Your appliances are working
flawlessly. Despite the fact that they work on a power that would kill you
instantly if you were to touch it directly, you have perfect confidence that
you’re not in danger. Why? If I may say so, your faith in the people who designed
these machines is impressive.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Wait! There’s more! Much more!</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">At this very moment, gravity is
working exactly as it always has, neither pulling too much or with too little
force. How did that little piece of magic ever come about? It doesn’t matter,
because it will continue to function with amazing efficiency whether you
understand it or not.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">At the same time, a trillion other
elements of nature’s design are expressing themselves perfectly this very
moment. Plants are growing, rivers are flowing, clouds are drifting, winds are
blowing, and animals are reproducing. Though you may take it for granted, you
relish the ever-shifting sensations of light and temperature as they interact
with your body.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">There’s still more. You can smell
odors, hear sounds, and taste tastes, many of which are quite pleasing. You can
think. Though some of us don’t use it nearly enough, we have the extraordinary
gift of self-awareness. You can feel feelings. Can you even begin to understand
the magnitude of being blessed with that mysterious and wonderful capacity?
Moreover, as a bonus you’re able to visualize an infinite array of images, some
of which represent things that don’t exist.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">You have the gift of language.
Billions of people have collaborated for untold centuries in order to cultivate
a system of communication that you understand well. Speaking and reading gives
you great pleasure and a tremendous sense of power.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Want to travel to some far off
land? There are a number of machines to choose from in order to get there.
Cars, planes, buses, trains, subways, ship, helicopter, or bike -- whatever you
choose, you have the utmost confidence that it will work efficiently.
Multitudes of people who are now dead devoted themselves to perfecting these
modes of travel. Thousands more still alive devote themselves to ensuring that
these benefits will keep serving you.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sure, we are now aware that in the
future shrinking oil reserves and climate disruption may impose limitations on
your ability to use cars and other machines to travel. But you also know that
many smart and idealistic people are right now diligently working to develop
alternative fuels to protect the environment.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Perhaps you own an MP3 player or
cellphone, fantastic inventions that have dramatically enhanced your ability hear
a vast array of beautiful sounds and communicate with your loved ones at low
cost.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Let’s say you have been awake for a
couple of hours. At least a hundred things have already gone right for you. If
one of those hundred things had not gone right -- your toaster was broken,
there was no hot water, or your car didn’t start -- you might feel today the
universe has conspired against you, that your luck is bad, that nothing’s
right, and life sucks. Yet the fact remains that the vast majority of
everything is working with breath-taking perfection and consistency. Taking
this in consideration, you would be a deluded creature to think that life is
primarily an ordeal.</span></span></div>
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</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My name is Eddie and I’m in
recovery from civilization… </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Thanks
for reading. If you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, please
consider helping me out by sharing it, liking me on </i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/eyrosario" target="_blank">Facebook</a><i>, following me on </i><a href="https://twitter.com/translucence" target="_blank">Twitter</a><i>, or even throwing me some money on GoFundMe
</i><a href="https://www.gofundme.com/2m8xmas" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> or via PayPal </i><a href="https://www.paypal.me/eyrosario" target="_blank">HERE</a><i> so I can keep calling it like I see it.</i></span></span></div>
Eddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09579585545543464648noreply@blogger.com0