...and they lived happily ever after. Smith & Lady: poets, artists, photographers & adventurers.
Our relationship was forged to the soundtrack of Yoko Ono's magic,
frenetic, love-laden song, "Walking On Thin Ice." ( play song )
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With utmost respect, I’d like the freedom to talk with You today as though You are expecting me to order from a menu–I pray that this is OK.
I am really glad that some troops are returning back home to the United States. In a way, they are being “detained” back home. What I would like to see is for all of these troops to be integrated into the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as laborers. The first project I want to see them build is high speed, affordable rail such that people from everywhere in the United States can easily get around to see their families who might be living in other states without having to use airplanes, cars and buses. I would like to see the system work such that it is coordinated with local rail systems much like those I have seen in Europe, but of course, again, a lot less expensive to use.
I’d like for all the troops and all the military contractors to also return home and be integrated into similar projects such that rather than having oppressive employment, these people are employed in ways that do not oppress.
I’d like for all those who have been needing work who happen to be in the United States to be able to easily obtain work that is very high paying. One particular large project I have in mind is converting the monoculture crop swaths to organic farms with varieties of crops–this helps feed bees better. I’d also like to see a highly-paid beekeeper on every farm.
I want the subsidies for corn and soy to be diverted to all organic produce such that people can afford to buy the produce, and I want to see a lot of tasty vegetarian recipes that are easy to prepare.
I’d like to see a sliding scale for healthy food such that people who need food stamps receive food stamps to the extent that the food stamps are needed by these people. But I’d like for us to also think about the obesity and population problem and for us to use our foods mindfully so that we are not consuming too much of the Earth’s resources.
I’d like for people to limit their consumption of other animals by at least half, if not more. I prefer that homo sapiens become vegetarians because it is more ethical and kind to be a vegetarian, but I understand that our cultures have tended to foster acceptance of eating other animals so of course I understand the eating of other animals.
it was a big old house, many many floors. all the people had been turned against each other, so they were misusing each other, abusing each other. and we convinced them to work together.
one bad guy even apologized to the rest of us for bullying. then the people who had turned everybody against each other–the controllers–came, and we pretended that it was discordant like before, and we fooled them.
but somebody had left a note on the banister on one of the stairwells that would have given us away. the bad people stopped by and were checking us out. we fooled them; they thought everything was normal.
but they were walking up the stairs and we were afraid they were going to see the note and find out, and that’s when I woke up. it’s the wake up dreams you remember the easiest.
- smith & Lady
Personal disclaimer by Lady: I do not believe that bad people exist. I believe that the situations have sometimes been such that we sometimes have perceived some people as bad.
I am writing to let you know that I am concerned. I do not wish suffering for people. But of course I choose biosphere over people, if that choice has to be made in that way.
Perhaps extreme weather events are the only way we’re going to change, and perhaps people in the U.S. in particular need to be awakened to extreme weather events and their cause.
I think the best thing we can do is stop driving cars unless necessary, stop eating meat, unplug everything we can, and live within the rhythm of sun, moon and birdsong.
It’s reputed that meat, the desire for meat, is the cause of much suffering on this planet, both to our biosphere and to massive amounts of people and animals.
It takes so much more water, fertilizer, land space, vegetable matter to raise a pound of beef than, say, an equivalent amount, calorie-wise, of asparagus.
Forests are being clearcut in the Amazon to grow things to feed cows and to grow biofuel so that people can have luxurious lifestyles. The Amazon is the greatest area of lung on this planet. Please help us cease this clear-cutting by making wiser choices as ethical people and by creating better, more ethical opportunities for the people doing the clear-cutting as a vocation.
I am making incremental changes in my lifestyle to try to consume less, eat more locally, eat less meat, etc. Three weeks ago I bought four bags of magic beans. Two weeks ago I cooked two different things in the oven at the same time to save on energy consumption. The week before I learned how to make a healthy, inexpensive and tasty variant of hummus. This past week I’ve started to make my own bread.
I’m buying cage-free eggs from local farmers. The vendor at the West Side Market showed us pictures of the chickens. They are beautiful. They laze about in tall beautiful expanses of green grass. The egg yolks are bright, rich yellow, and I swear they taste extra fine.
I am soon getting half a share of produce from Geauga Family Farms. Pick up points are not limited to Geauga. There are points in Cuyahoga and Lake County as well.
I have doubled up duty on car rides. The two days I commute to work, I also do something special with Grandma. And I’m doubling and tripling up other car trips as well. I’ve started to consider only going to entertainment and poetry events in my local community as much as possible. My near goal is to commute with friends to get to events that are further out to minimize our impact on the environment and pocketbook. I aim to do everything I can do, within reason, yes, yet stretching my idea of reason to something that can effect change and help me live in a more joyful and reverent manner.
So what I’m asking you is to ease up on the floods and tornadoes, Universe. Have some faith in us and help us keep the faith by making immediate changes where we can perceive possibility for change.
Other prayers of note:
I pray for moderation, yet I pray to be possessed when I should be possessed.
I pray that I am ethical, calm, joyous, productive, and the same for Smith.
I pray that a certain family member starts writing a poem every day.
I pray that I finish my commitments so that I can feel more free to follow through on commitments to myself.
Thank you for the many, many blessings and miracles I receive daily from you-me-It-Universe.
Some private thoughts, hopes, thanks, prayers as well…
Love, Awomen and Amen,
Lady
LADY’S HUMMUS RECIPE
1# chickpeas, soaked overnight, rinsed, boiled in lightly salted water 1-2 hours until soft.
2 heads of garlic, roasted at 350 degree Fahrenheit 1/2 hour.
1/4 – 1/2 cup of your favorite vegetable oil (olive oil is a hoax perpetrated on the masses)
1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Squeeze roasted garlic out of its skin and mash in large bowl with fork, then blender. Squeeze cooked chickpeas between fingers as much as possible and put in the bowl as well. Add the other ingredients. Mix as much as desired (I like little chickpea bits left in mine.)
Smith’s telling me all kinds of stuff this morning…
I’m thinking of Sunday Morning Coming Down right now and it’s quiet, it feels like Sunday morning.
Kris Kristofferson was a Rhodes Scholar, which means you have to be pretty fricking smart. After he graduated in England, he came back to the U.S. and with all this college education and everything, he chose to get a job at Johnny Cash’s recording studio as a janitor because he figured he’d get a chance to slip Johnny Cash a copy of his songs he’d written.
And one of the the songs he slipped to Johnny Cash was Sunday Morning Coming Down which is one of the saddest, most heart-evocative songs I know.
Johnny Cash was gonna sing the song on his show. His TV people came to him and said, “We don’t want you to say this line On the Sunday Morning sidewalk wishing Lord that I was stoned/ cuz there’s something in a Sunday makes a body feel alone.” We don’t want you to use the word stoned on TV.”
And Johnny Cash turned to Kris Kristofferson and said, “How do you feel about this? You wrote the song. What do you want me to do?”
Kristofferson said, “It’s your TV show. I would totally understand if you don’t want to use the word stoned.”
Everybody left it at that. And Johnny Cash went out there and sang it the way it was written.
I can’t believe Smith has all this shit in his brain, but I sure do enjoy it.
Sunday Morning Coming Down by Kris Kristofferson
Well I woke up Sunday morning,
With no way to hold my head that didn’t hurt.
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad,
So I had one more for dessert.
Then I fumbled through my closet for my clothes,
And found my cleanest dirty shirt.
An’ I shaved my face and combed my hair,
An’ stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.
I’d smoked my brain the night before,
On cigarettes and songs I’d been pickin’.
But I lit my first and watched a small kid,
Cussin’ at a can that he was kicking.
Then I crossed the empty street,
‘n caught the Sunday smell of someone fryin’ chicken.
And it took me back to somethin’,
That I’d lost somehow, somewhere along the way.
On the Sunday morning sidewalk,
Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
‘Cos there’s something in a Sunday,
Makes a body feel alone.
And there’s nothin’ short of dyin’,
Half as lonesome as the sound,
On the sleepin’ city sidewalks:
Sunday mornin’ comin’ down.
In the park I saw a daddy,
With a laughin’ little girl who he was swingin’.
And I stopped beside a Sunday school,
And listened to the song they were singin’.
Then I headed back for home,
And somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringin’.
And it echoed through the canyons,
Like the disappearing dreams of yesterday.
On the Sunday morning sidewalk,
Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
‘Cos there’s something in a Sunday,
Makes a body feel alone.
And there’s nothin’ short of dyin’,
Half as lonesome as the sound,
On the sleepin’ city sidewalks:
Sunday mornin’ comin’ down.
Do do do do do do do do,
Do do do do do do do,
Do do do do do do do do,
Do do do do do do do.
Communication is slightly confusing to me sometimes; I can accept rain. Breeziness was felt on my left air, right side of face a little numb. Left ear the hum of Reality.
The commentary of the toilet lid in a bathroom, the soberness of morning. Mandy asked a question along the walls.
Everythingis part of ALL. I believe everyone is forgiven, and I do. Everything seems better, and I want it to be so. I do not want you to feel that you can’t talk candidly but sometimes I do.
Take care, take care, and have a great day.
I always want my ears to ask, and perceive answers.
It is possible, based on the information I’ve read of the opposition so far, that Gaddafi will step down from internal pressure. It will be interesting to learn more about El-Senussi and his perspective, and the history of Libya and social movements in Libya.
According to the article, Pro-Gaddafi militiammen were repelled by the opposition supporters when they tried to overtake Zawiya on March 1st. The article also says, “The cities of Misrata east of the capital and Gherian to its south also appeared to remain in opposition hands, as was virtually all of the east of the country, including several key oil fields.”
I spent some time trying to learn more about the opposition forces, and who they really are. Marc Ginsberg, the former ambassador to Morocco (appointed by Clinton), wrote an article on the subject. He says that there’s a fear the fighting could revert into a “Spanish Civil War” stalemate with Libya disintegrating into factions and tribal regions divorced from a central government. I disagree with his assessment (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amb-marc-ginsberg/who-is-in-charge-of-the-l_b_830647.html) based on the fact that he was appointed by Clinton, has contributed to Fox News, and is very business oriented. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Ginsberg)
There IS one part of the opposition movement that gives me hope, and with which I can agree fairly fully. The group’s name is “The Libyan Islamic Movement for Change.” What I really like about this group is that it is unarmed, and is composed of “communists, socialists, liberals and partisans of democracy in the country and civil societies making various activities.” This group aims to change Libya by peaceful means. Let it be so.
The exiled crown prince of Libya, Mohammed El-Senussi, who seems to have some stake in the situation (and sympathy from the West as he’s been living in London since 1988), says that military intervention should NOT happen. I agree very strongly. Let it be so.
“Let me be clear. There is a difference between a no-fly zone and military intervention and the Libyan people do not seek external military involvement on the ground. That will not bring about the peace and freedom that we crave,” said El-Senussi.
Let the amount of deaths be minimal. Let it be so.
Not only is the UN planning to investigate, but EU leaders are going to gather on March 11 in Brussels for a summit to deliver a response to the crisis in Libya and the Arab world. However, the EU might have an economic stake in the outcome. So a resolution provided solely by the EU is not sufficient for action. A resolution provided by the UN, if supported by a lot of the Arab nations, might be sufficient for a better course of action. And please remember to take into account Libya’s own crown prince’s words–that he feels military intervention should NOT happen. I agree, and I also want Gaddafi and Gaddafi’s forces to cease killing people immediately, and I do not want foreign (US) intervention in Libya at this point, save for possibly, UN peacekeepers.
Also, we must take into account the relatively higher standard of living Libyans enjoy and the relatively high life expectancy. The information we’d been receiving in popular media outlets in the West about Libya and Muammar Gaddafi (a.k.a. Moammar Gadhafi) was incomplete.
1989 Nelson Mandela
1990 “The children of Palestine”
1991 The indigenous peoples of the Americas
1992 The African Centre for Combating Aids
1993 “The children of Bosnia and Herzegovina”
1994 The Union of Human Rights Societies and Peoples in Africa
1995 Ahmed Ben Bella, Francisco da Costa Gomes
1996 Louis Farrakhan
1997 Gracelyn Smallwood, Melchior Ndadaye, Melba Hernandez, Manal Younes Abdul-Razzak, Doreen McNally
1998 Fidel Castro
1999 “The children of Iraq”
2000 Souha Bechara, Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Evo Morales, the Movement of September, the Third World Center
2002 Mamado Diaye, Roger Garaudy, Ibrahim Alkonie, Jean Ziegler, Nadeem Albetar, Ali M. Almosrati, Khaifa M. Attelisie, Mohamed A. Alsherif, Ali Fahmi Khshiem, Rajab Muftah Abodabos, Mohamed Moftah Elfitori, Ali Sodgy Abdulgader, Ahmed Ibrahim Elfagieh
2003 Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria
2004 Hugo Chávez
2005 Mahathir bin Mohamad
2006 ?
2007 Libraries of Timbuktu.
2008 Dom Mintoff
2009 Daniel Ortega
2010 Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan
I am hoping that people can rebuild the infrastructure in the US to something more sustainable–not sure natural gas is the best way to go. Hoping for more electric, geothermal energy, whatever Tesla envisioned, etc. But rebuilding part of the infrastructure seems like it would be a good jobs program.
I’m hoping criminal charges are NOT filed against the man who inadvertantly started a fire in Colorado. Rather, I am hoping for an education program to be implemented, and perhaps this man can help testify part-time for the education program in compensation, although I hope they pay him for his time.
In Detroit, for example, African American elders raised in the South saw the vacant lots in our deteriorating neighborhoods not as blight but as opportunities to plant community gardens that would also give city kids a sense of the time and patience that are a normal part of country life and that human beings now need for our continuing evolution.
So much skepticism and condemnation and vitriol on commondreams. How can we ever come together if we can’t forgive each other? I believe we must forgive.
Foxnews:
I’ve been largely ignoring the tea party as I do not want to get too emotionally involved. I am hoping that conservative movements can blend with liberal movements and find areas of common ground. I know there are areas of common ground. I am hoping for less emotional demonization from the extreme elements on the fringes of movements.
Hoping for more understanding from the right about the consequences of treating other countries as places to plunder – 1,000,000+ iraqis killed as a result of our actions. We lost, what, a couple thousand in the twin tower incident? I do not think this t-shirt was purposefully designed to cause grief.
Can’t take any more this morning. I am hoping that people can reconcile their differences. I have friends from all over the spectrum, and they all have good hearts. A better reality is possible, and is in the making, I am sure of it.
The Weather
World weather report: Looks like the tropical storms are still safely out at sea. Weather.com says they are something to be concerns about, but I hope not.
I am hoping for a more even distribution of precipitation so that the arid regions of the world, the ones that are suffering from drought, have adequate precipitation.
Hoping the risk of fires can be reduced in the west. I think this can happen if they get a bit more precipitation.
Heart hurts.
- – -
Dears,
I believe schitzophrenics and affectives and manics have antennae to Gaia and the Sun. I believe they can go crazy from not understanding the signals they are syncing into. We used to have roles for these people. We called them shamans.
Fly is buzzing around my head, trying to tell me something. Cricket’s chirping outside. Mandycat is interested in the fly.
I believe in an afterlife–probably of one’s conception, but I am not sure. I believe the signals I have received is from my conception of a possible afterlife, which is good.
I am hoping that September 11th is remembered as a somber date for this country and the rest of the world–that we come to recognize the genocide that we perpetrated in Iraq (over a million Iraqis dead), and that we make reparations. I do not know enough about what people may or may not be doing in Afghanistan, but I am hoping that we pull out of Afghanistan unless we can sufficiently change our philosophy to actually help all Afghan people.
Interesting info about bees and wasps: http://www.greensmiths.com/bees.htm – turns out that not only bees benefit us, but wasps as well. I really like the name greensmith as I am now a smith, and I used to be a green.
Grunt work:
Checking the collective psyche…
Collective psyche seems A-OK as far as facebook goes.
Checking mainstream media…
9/11: Mainstream media is expressing grief over the disappearance of the World Trade Center. I hope the Mainstream media can start publishing statistics of the number of people killed by the US due to our outrage. I find these statistics disturbing and sad. (1 million Iraqis or more, from what I understand. I am hoping for fewer casualties from Afghanistan, and I’m hoping we can actually make reparations directed by the governments of those countries.) We allowed the looting of one of the cradles of civilization.
Alternet seems to have an appropriately conscientious examination of the situation, but I’m hoping for less fear and vitriol. http://www.alternet.org/
Speaking of fear and vitriol, I have difficulty reading commondreams.org lest it seem like commonnightmares. But I’ll check…
Interesting. I bet if some of the people who read common dreams start reading Fox News, they could resolve some of the vitriol and start coming together. Weird when left meets right. http://www.commondreams.org/
Checking mainstream media on the right…
Very interesting. Foxnews seems to be picking up on the same stories commondreams.org picks up on. http://www.foxnews.com/
German Identity is reasserting itself. I’m glad about this–I’m hoping for a candid self-examination by the youth who did not experience the conditions of WWI & II. I understand that seemingly homogenous populations have more of a seeming rootedness and xenophobia than what we experience in the US–I am hoping the US can become an example of excellence, integration and conscientiousness again. I know this is possible.
World weather report as far as hurricanes/cyclones/etc. seems AOK today although I really wish I could see the west coast of Africa and South America. http://severe.worldweather.wmo.int/
Severe weather warning in Greece. Hope it is much needed rain, but if not, that it peters out and goes away.
