[Sven2]

If the present could exclude political abstracts (is Ms.Bachmann just a nightmarish theory though?) and flat tax becomes part of third grade curriculum, living in the moment would be pure bliss!
On second thought, what if at present one is having a toothache?  8)

Just playing along, Eccles!

[Eccles]

If the present could exclude political abstracts

On second thought, what if at present one is having a toothache?  8)

Just playing along, Eccles!

I'm always delighted to play.

As for a toothache, sometimes I think the whole point of the book of 'JOB' is that nothing makes us happy.

Change of topic:

Here's something I'll share with you before I have to get back to some editing I have to get done this morning. While I was walking from my car to my office a few hours ago a gust of cold wind blew up the back of my suit jacket, and I shivered and thought what a cold morning it was. Then I suddenly recalled that I was merely dwelling on my own perspective relative to my comfort and that in fact the wind and the weather and nature itself was operating exactly according to its own laws and principles and it was really very beautiful, and just for a few seconds as I walked along I was filled with joy. Then the wind blew in my face and I shivered again, and picking up the pace, I walked inside the warm building. A little later on a colleague observed how it was going to be a beautiful day. I said I thought it already was. Have a good one.

[skordamou]

What a Holiday treat to come here and find Eccles among us again! hello!!!

[Sven2]

WINTER SOLSTICE, DECEMBER 21. 

In the depths of winter I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.

--Albert Camus

The crocuses and the larch turning green every year a week before the others and the pastures red with uneaten sheep's placentas and the long summer days and the newmown hay and the wood pigeon in the morning and the cuckoo in the afternoon and the corncrake in the evening and the wasps in the jam and the smell of grose and the look of the gorse and the apples falling and the children walking in the dead leaves and the larch turning brown a week before the others and the chestnuts falling and the howling winds and the sea breaking over the pier and the first fires and the hooves on the road and the consumptive postman whistling "The Roses are Blooming in Picardy" and the standard oil-lamp and of course the snow and to be sure the sleet and bless your heart the slush and every fourth year the February debacle and the endless April showers and the crocuses and then the whole bloody business starting all over again.


--Samuel Beckett, Watt

Must be my pagan nature that makes me love those turns of the celestial wheel above all.
Salve to the light.

[SaveJFC Admin]

For those of you not on the East Coast...

http://www.trishah.com/winter2010

[Sven2]

Trishah, hope that the man who's 6'5" had shoveled your driveway too! Here the snow was light and little, but the winds came brutal.

[skordamou]

Wishing everyone a Happy and Healthy 2011. May it be good.

[Cissy]

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my family and friends here, you all are always in my heart!!

I found a letter from Tammy today, she sent it just over a year ago... It was sweet to find, good to hear her words again.

Yes, this new year is going to be better!

[Patrick]

I'm happy to have found you my friends
love and peace and health for the new year, may the 010111 bring us happiness

[Sven2]

Patrick, are you thinking in binary code - cute! Skor, that would be nice, being happier and healthier in the new year. Cissy, we can always hope for the better!

As to the New Year as new beginning......

January 01, 2011 is


Julian Calendar
December 19, 2010

ISO Calendar
Day 06 of Week 52 of Year 2010

World Calendar
Sunday, January 01, 2011

Hebrew Calendar
25 Teves 5771

Islamic Calendar
Muharram 25, 1432

Mayan Calendars
Long Count: 12.19.17.17.18
Haab (Civil): 11 Kankin
Tzolkin (Religious): 10 Etznab

French Revolutionary
Time: 0:00:71
Décade II, Doudi de Nivôse de l'Année 219 de la Révolution

Coptic
Kiyahk 23, 1727

Ethiopic
Takhsas 23, 2003

Persian
Dey 11, 1389

Baha'i
2nd day of Honour, B.E. 167

Doesn't matter, does it? We start afresh! Love and best wishes to everyone.

[SaveJFC Admin]

Howdy All!  And Happy New Year!

       

And glad you found us Patrick!

For me... No resolutions this year!  Just plans  ;D

[Sven2]

As it happened from the beginning, we here on the BB could stay away from politics - more or less. Then politics breaks in suddenly, leaving its trail, in blood and pain.

I just received an e-mail from a good friend and decided to post it here. The death of a little girl at the hands of a young gunman adds to the cruelty of Tuscon shooting something justifying that. Maybe it is the terrible symbolism of her birth on 9.11.

Hatred is very contagious. Mind-born and more dangerous than Black Death.

"Our hearts are heavy for the victims of the tragedy in Arizona. We must put a stop to the escalating hate rhetoric of the right and its very specific calls to armed violent action. Lines of decency have been crossed.

Sarah Palin has a special responsibility and opportunity in the wake of the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. For it was Sarah Palin and Sarah Palin alone who earlier put the crosshairs of a gun on Rep. Giffords. And so far, Palin's response has been Facebook prayers for the victims and an official denial that her widely distributed map involved gun sights at all. This is obscene duplicity at best.

I'm joining CREDO Action in calling on Sarah Palin to renounce the use of shooting images in political rhetoric immediately, and stop using her platform to promote and validate violent calls to action on the right.

Click on the link below for more information."
http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/palin_violence/?r_by=14885-2850316-hSOrS5x&rc=confemail

[SaveJFC Admin]

I think JOHN would agree.   And I think we should take a community stand on this.  I personally think we should put that bold statement from the last post on a scroller at the top of the front page of this site.  Anyone have any opposition to this?

[Eccles]

I was encouraged by these words spoken last night by the President:

Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let us use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselves of all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together.

... After all, that's what most of us do when we lose someone in our family - especially if the loss is unexpected. We're shaken from our routines, and forced to look inward. We reflect on the past. Did we spend enough time with an aging parent, we wonder. Did we express our gratitude for all the sacrifices they made for us? Did we tell a spouse just how desperately we loved them, not just once in awhile but every single day?


So sudden loss causes us to look backward - but it also forces us to look forward, to reflect on the present and the future, on the manner in which we live our lives and nurture our relationships with those who are still with us. We may ask ourselves if we've shown enough kindness and generosity and compassion to the people in our lives. Perhaps we question whether we are doing right by our children, or our community, and whether our priorities are in order. We recognize our own mortality, and are reminded that in the fleeting time we have on this earth, what matters is not wealth, or status, or power, or fame - but rather, how well we have loved, and what small part we have played in bettering the lives of others.

That process of reflection, of making sure we align our values with our actions - that, I believe, is what a tragedy like this requires. For those who were harmed, those who were killed - they are part of our family, an American family 300 million strong. We may not have known them personally, but we surely see ourselves in them.

He added, "... our task, working together, is to constantly widen the circle of our concern so that we bequeath the American dream to future generations."

In a way, I think seeing ourselves in others and widening "the circle of our concern" is what I've found inspiring in 'JFC' and David Milch's writing generally. It's why Freddy came all the way from Hawaii, and it's what got Barry out of his inner prison all the way to the parade. It brought Mitch back to take the weight required to keep him grounded and moved Butchie from self-imposed exile in his "room in the palace" to a state of alert watchfulness out on the water.

[cassie]

 

In response...


So sudden loss causes us to look backward - but it also forces us to look forward, to reflect on the present and the future, on the manner in which we live our lives and nurture our relationships with those who are still with us. We may ask ourselves if we've shown enough kindness and generosity and compassion to the people in our lives. Perhaps we question whether we are doing right by our children, or our community, and whether our priorities are in order. We recognize our own mortality, and are reminded that in the fleeting time we have on this earth, what matters is not wealth, or status, or power, or fame - but rather, how well we have loved, and what small part we have played in bettering the lives of others.



[/quote]It is a living human person who stands behind the masks and appearances and organizes all of the aspects into an organized whole. We all have these masks: one person walks into the building as a doctor or a businessperson; another as a patient or client. But every one of us goes home at night and assumes other masks - those of father, mother, lover, friend, daughter, etc. Beneath the masks, we are all human beings, who need and deserve the same things. It's easy to be deceived by the masks, and to believe that they mean more than they do. Yet, from a spiritual perspective, the person is what counts, and it's from some kind of deep development in the heart and mind of the person, that healing events seem to come from.