Got Stress. Does It Make You Itch All Over. Don't Scratch. PUNT.

Punt is kicking the ball before it hits the ground. How do you kick stress? Start with kicking the biggest stressor. Do not scratch it. Give it a kick before it scratches you raw.

Whether the stresses are people or stuff, stress can make you itch all-over. Kick stress hard and deep. Punt like in football to let your gunners do the work. The gunners force a guy to fair catch. You control stress. It can be a fair catch--not an itch.

A fair catch is a catch of a punt on the fly by a defensive player who has signalled that he will not run and so should not be tackled. You kick stress and then catch it and it doesn't tackle you. 

Football and stress have common tools to combat itching.

Photo by Orrling andTomer Scheib-Wikipedia Commons

see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7iImLtDFOc

for disclaimers by VikingsWorld on this youtube video

Photo by Pitke: a 5-year-old Finnhorse gelding nibbling his itching right hind leg, Wikipedia Commons

Related Links:

Itchy. Itch Me. A Word Picture by Sigourette, a fellow blogger Importance of the Punt Team by DEADSPIN  Face-Off or Just Ignore the Itch by a Little Thread of Thoughts, a Wordpress blogger

Myeloma. Bone Marrow Cancer. What do you do? Go to the playground.

You live. Day by day. Minute by minute. The clock ticks. You try to forget. Stress builds.

You live. How to control your thoughts? Some say faith. Some say ____________.

I say go to the playground everyday. Children keep us alive. Watch the children.

Go to the playground. Sit on the sandbox edge. Watch them play. 

Play is therapy for body and mind.

Deutsches Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archive) 15 Jul 1955, wikipedia commons

Thinking. Creating. Use of Time. HOW TO DO IT ALL? Receptor Ripples.

Solution to HOW TO DO IT ALL: Take the kitchen sink throw it in. Leave the faucet running. Then watch the ripples. Let the plasticity of your brain form ripples in its neurons. Be mindful of the wave action to sooth your receptors. Insight will come.

If you create this state of mind, you can call on it when you need it.

Imagine having the power to release ripples on your brain neurotransmitter receptors.

• Every time you are at your kitchen sink. 
• Every time you see water.  
• Every time you see any ripple pattern. 
• Even on a very hot day in rush hour traffic watching heat ripples... 

Create a Memory Trigger of Ripples.

Perhaps ripples in a tidal pool...

Photo by Hugh Chevallier. Children swimming in the tidal pool at Dancing Ledge, Purbeck

Or if you think better alone perhaps ripples in the sand underwater ...

Photo by Michael C. Rygel from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ripples_mcr1.JPG

YOU CAN DO IT ALL. Use ripples on your receptors. Ripples are everywhere.

Some ripple links:
Dancing Ledge and World Heritage site on your doorstep
Wikipedia on Tide Pools
Ripples in a Beaver Pond by fellow blogger, Kim Ykema
Isle of Purbeck
Ripples of Change by Sandy Penley, a fellow blogger

Post Office by Charles Bukowski. A Menu with Intense Flavors. Choose one of His Dishes to Pass.

With June's book club selection, I selected the first novel of a poet. His life in Los Angeles, from 1920 when he was born to 1994 when he died, went through many social changes. These changes and the alcoholism, his bad acne scarring, his strict upbringing brought forth in him a need, a drive to write. So his writing reflects those different times and experiences. Just as Studs Terkel wrote of the people in Hard Times so has Charles Bukowski written of the people in their lowlife hard times.

This lowlife has intense flavors. No 12-course meals. During a period of his lowlife he lived on one candybar a day for the only meal a day he had. This candy bar was ironically  a bar called Payday. His first real payday was his novel, Post Office. It was the only regular payday he hung onto with the hopes of having enough steady money to continue writing.

Working at the post office began with delivering mail. But it helped him have money to drink, write and get very ill from bleeding ulcers and drinking too much. After he nearly died from this he returned to the post office to sort mail for over 11 years. Grueling grunt work.  During those years he drank and wrote every day. The people at the bars and race tracks were what he wrote about--he told their stories. He was their voice. Bukowski began also to write poetry that told a story with the raw intensity of life in the streets. 

Charles Bukowski, portrait by italian artist Graziano Origa, pen&ink+pantone, 2008
image from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bukowski-by-origa.jpg

Bukowski says it was his father that gave him the ability to write.  His father beat 'the shit out of him.' Bukowski says his father's beatings took away all pretense, all that was unnecessary. Pain cleared his mind. Usually the beatings occurred several times a week from when he was 5 until he was 11 or 12 years old. Bukowski comments that as the years of beatings continued he slowly over time cried or yelled less and less during the beatings.  When he finally stopped reacting to the beatings his father stopped beating him. Within a year or two later he started writing. Writing stories. Later  also writing poetry.

He wrote his first novel, Post Office, in three weeks for John Martin. Martin was a book collector who discovered  and admired Bukowski's streetwise stories in the alternative press of the 1960s. He proposed that Bukowski quit his job at the post office to write full time and he would pay him $100 a month for life. Martin remarked to Bukowski that he might consider writing a novel since novels can produce more income compared than selling stories or poetry. Bukowski found his own Payday, the novel, Post Office. Within three or four weeks after their agreement he called John Martin to come and pick up the novel.

But he had to wait five years before he could cash this Payday from the novel. During that time John Martin gave Bukowski 25% of his own income for 5 years; then Martin sold his  book collection of valuable editions for $50,000. Just as this last money was almost gone, the publishing began to make a profit. Black Sparrow press was in the black. Bukowski finally earned his PayDay, making a living as a writer.

John Martin says there is no other poet whose poetry has gone into 30 to 40 printings and no other poet who has written so much poetry. Here is just a few stanzas of Bukowski's  poem called

Dinosauria, we

born like this

into this

as the chalk faces smile

as Mrs. Death laughs

as the elevators break

as political landscapes dissolve

as the supermarket bag boy holds a college degree

as the oily fish spit out their oily prey

as the sun is masked

we are

born like this

into this

into these carefully mad wars

into the sight of broken factory windows of emptiness

into bars where people no longer speak to each other

into fist fights that end as shootings and knifings

born into this

into hospitals which are so expensive that it is cheaper to die

into lawyers who charge so much it's cheaper to plead guilty

into a country where the jails are full and the madhouses closed

into a  place where the masses elevate fools into rich heroes...

You can get a sense of who he was from some films. There is the documentary film on his life, Bukowski: Born into this. There are poetry readings. One reading is titled Bukowski at Bellevue. Also there are two DVDs called The Charles Bukowski Tapes: Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. These are film clips of Bukowski during the filming of, Barfly, which Bukowski wrote. All these films are in Netflix.

Bukowski is complex. He had to drink to face people. He wrote of so many intense human emotions but John Martin says Bukowski could not approach a stranger and wouldn't be able to engage in every day small talk.

I would encourage you to read some of his poetry if you cannot get a copy of the novel. Some say his poetry during the 1970s reflect his best voice. But his later poetry gives voice to all the frailties ... being alone, being sick, writing to Lady Death.

Survey the large Bukowski menu and choose your meal, an experience that you can relate to. If the critics are right people will still be reading Bukowski just as we continue to read Shakespeare today. Many say he is not a 'Beat' Generation poet though some label him so. Bukowski's poetry has a timeless quality. You can see that in theDinosauria, We poem. His writing flavors are intense. I am curious what flavor appeals to you and which of his dishes you are going bring to the book club table.

Here's a Link to the youtube list of Charles Bukowski Poetry Reading. Almost 300.
Also see my previous blogs posts on Charles Bukowski by searching my blog with his name in the search box.

Michigan may Reduce Funding to Universities w Unmarried Partner Benefits. Knock. Knock. Who's There?

Protect Michigan's Universities and Families

By Stella Sunstein

To be delivered to: The Michigan State House, The Michigan State Senate and Governor Rick Snyder

“David Agema's amendment penalizing universities over same-sex benefits violates the universities' budgetary autonomy, interferes with their academic freedom, and penalizes all unmarried couples, particularly those who are not allowed to marry in the first place. Any further cuts in state funding will directly harm Michigan students and their families. Please ensure that the reconciliation process eliminates this hate-driven legislation.”

The Michigan House Republicans recently approved an amendment to the House bill on education funding written by Rep. David Agema. The amendment proposes that the state subtract 5% from the state funding of any university that offers health insurance coverage for employees who live with another adult outside of marriage.  

During a time where public education operates under increasingly difficult financial constraints, ideologically driven legislations have even less of a place in educational policy than ever. The amendment violates the autonomy of public universities and is thus a direct attack on academic freedom.  

Moreover, the amendment’s clear intent to divide the academic community is deeply immoral. Targeting unmarried couples, and by intent particularly gay and lesbian families, at a time where every public poll shows significant majority support for civil unions flies in the face of the country’s commitment to equality. Americans, as a rule, do not want the government to tell them how to conduct their private lives.  

Middle class families already suffer from the rising cost of college tuition. If the amendment passes, the loss of funds may well contribute to an even steeper rise, thus penalizing all Michigan families in the interest of an obsolete sexual morality Americans have rejected resoundingly.  

The bill still needs to be reconciled with the Senate version. Please petition the Michigan Senators, both Republicans and Democrats, to oppose this nasty piece of legislation.

Above copied from Signon.org's Petition Signature Request Site. Click here to go to their site if you want to sign the petition.

If you want to personally call Dave Agema, the author of this proposed amendment, his office phone is 5173738900 per the QUEERTY [Gay Rights] post.  Click here to read their conversations with Mark in Rep. Dave Agema's office.

If you are in a petition signing mood,  Click here to go to the site that wants to "Reclaim Michigan. Recall Rick Snyder," the Michigan governor. Note: 807,000 valid signatures are needed before August 5. 

I think getting petition signatures is a learning experience for anyone going to law, economics, sociology, political science or considering how to get an internship with a desired company  . 

• Real life experience knocking on doors shows initiative which every employer values
• Advocating a pro-employer stance of their right to determine compensation 
• Advocating basic rights of unmarried partners...

If I read your internship request I would want to meet you to talk about your 
"Knock. Knock. Who's There?" experience.

A Soliloquy. Youthful Mercury. "What's this 'ere on the plyte? 'Knock and ring'! Blowed if they won't be harsking yer to 'walk hinside', next!!"

Cartoon from The Project Gutenberg eBook of Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 102, April 23, 1892, by Various, Edited by F. C. Burnand

From http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14514

Tired of People Giving You Their Advice. Test If You Can Stop Giving Advice and Tune into Active Listening.

I failed the test when I tried to stop giving advice. Short of zipping my mouth shut or duct taping it, it is a great effort for me to change and stop giving advice.

designed by http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Chrkl

 So rather than focusing on stopping my advising behavior, I think I'll try a pro-active plan: to be a listener, an active listener. The art of listening is a rarity. It requires me to suspend my own needs. How do I let go of my need to give advice?


Michael P. Nichols who wrote The Lost Art of Listening, says "effective listening requires attention, appreciation, and affirmation." If I can learn to really listen then there is no need for advice-giving. The person to whom I am listening will instead form their own solutions.


Can you imagine how much attention, appreciation and affirmation I can show if I said, "Take Your Time -- I'm listening." Listening is not a one-way street - it like a two-way radio or satellite which sends and receives signals. 

When a person talks to me and I am listening, I need to tune into their channel and reflect back what that person said, their original signal. Why? Because my own signal is so strong the other person's channel has static and I don't receive their signal completely. I need to reflect back what they said and check that I received the complete signal. I need to tune my antenna to their channel.

I need to practice listening with the people I have communication problems with. I guess this is how peace negotiators work.

Oh! How I and everyone around me could use more peace! So I'll not need to zip my mouth shut, but to open my ears, my radar, my satellite... to tune in their channel and check with them if I received the signal they sent without my static, my needs.

ACRIMSat animation.gif from (NASA/JPL) wikimedia commons

A Look Inside Michael P. Nichols' book, The Lost Art of Listening: How Learning to Listen Can Improve Relationships

Hints for listening if you are in business or social networking

Hints for listening if you are a parent.

Hints for those in Healthcare

Reflective Listening Tips and Some roadblocks to avoid by Chris (WordPress), a fellow blogger.

Click here to see a picture of my Antenna.

Please share any ways you have learned that help or prevent the Art of Listening.

I need to tune in... having too much static on my satellite lately.

Escapism in a book. It is only Time-Delayed. Still Stuck in Comfortable Corners Offstage.

Yes, bertiebass, many readers look for pure escapism in reading a book. And yes, 'lowlife' in a book can be too real and uncomfortable as you say.

Yet, in Bukowski's first novel, Post Office, the main character, Harry Chinaski, offers me a different form of  'escape'... escape from the comfortable corners.  I, too, like Chinaski was stuck ten years in a grunt job. As I read his novel, Post Office, about how he began his escape from the Post Office I become uncomfortable. I realize that I may be still stuck in the comfortable corners and not really living life on the center stage.

Thanks for your comments, bertiebass, you turned on the stage lights. I need to be uncomfortable. Can I open the curtains and step onto the Center Stage?

Stage on Stage. Taken by User:Lekogm November 27th, 2004 from wikimedia commons)

Or maybe I am stuck in the books? Do I choose to live in books and avoid the center stage where I am vulnerable?

Modern Book Printing Sculpture from the Berliner Walk of Ideas from wikimedia commons 

Perhaps it is time for me to reread an earlier post:

 Life is So Good when you make it Center Stage.

Want to Write? Try a Frame, a Pet, a Gravestone or a Fly-Swatter. Advice from Charles Bukowski.

How do you write, create? Bukowski's answer was "You don't, I told them. You don't try. That's very important: not to try, either for Cadillacs, creation or immortality. You wait, and if nothing happens, you wait some more. It's like a bug high on the wall. You wait for it to come to you. When it gets close enough you reach out, slap out and kill it. Or if you like its looks you make a pet out of it."


 Hey. I put my fly-swatter away. Seriously, if you think of your writing as a pet, it opens writing in a totally new frame.. frame of mind... framework...

Link to Some Quotes of Charles Bukowski on wikiquote

Here's a relaxing frame of mind from the ruins at Blawearie

 

An example of a Writer's Gravestone
Note: Charles Bukowski had "Don't Try" on his gravestone.

Choosing a Book for Book Club? Try Post Office? Grunt and Too Real.

Image by lungstruck via Flickr

Book clubs thrive and age. So how to chose a book when it is your turn? Perhaps, a novel by a poet? When the poet, Charles Bukowski, wrote his first novel, Post Office, he was writing of Henry Chinaski, as drunk, throwing up, having sex, manually sorting mail at the Post Office... Hmm. Too real?

A struggling young university student told me Bukowski was among the great 'real life' poets. This student with his love of music, writes songs and posts them on facebook, has a life that at times, was and is 'too real'. His family had a life similar to Bukowski's character, Henry Chinaski. The student had his received Christmas presents and then the presents were gone--pawned or stolen the next day. Is Post Office a book for a book club of older women?

Is this a book for even a Post Office employee? I gave a copy of Post Office as a parting gift to my mailman. His route was being redrawn and he was re-assigned. I didn't receive a thank you note. Perhaps, the novel was too real for him. Yes, maybe, one doesn't want to be reminded of the years at the Post Office when all mail was manually sorted as Henry Chinaski did for over 10 years.

The Post Office is moving the opposite way -- eventually all mail will arrive at local post offices mechanically presorted. Not even a morning sit-down time to sort mail for the mailman's individual route. Mailmen will be walking all day. Hmm. Still manual work.

My nephew might call this type of work, grunt work. He said he was a grunt when he was in basic training running for hours for days with full combat gear with hair-line cracks in his ankles.

Is the novel, Post Office, of interest to a book club? Time magazine called Bukowski, the "laureate of American lowlife." We are all grunts in some way. We often run with full combat gear and consider ourselves still in basic training. Now I am wondering about my hair-line cracks--did they ever heal?

Help me decide my book club selection by selecting Agree or Disagree if I should select the novel, Post Office, in the area below these links. 


Link to the NY Library Friends Bookshelf to see comments about Post Office and other books that influenced people the most and where you can donate and add your book choice and how it influenced you

Link to wikipedia on Charles Bukowski.

Link to a little race track poetry by Charles Bukowski.

Buried in Negativity. Refocus on Bright Spots with Solutions. Try Positive Deviance.

62 percent of our thoughts are negative. Stuck in the muck? Negativity is a stimulating distraction. What can we do? We can find happiness in everything. The dragonfly is a model. It hovers and holds its position like as if time was stopped. Yes, we can stop reacting negatively and focus on the bright spots where communities have found solutions. Change occurs locally. Be a dragonfly with a stopwatch.

Examples of local solutions: 

• We can give to the Post Office's canned food drive to stamp out hunger. 
• We can sign a petition to reopen the Peace Road to the kindergarten in the village of Al Aqaba in Gaza.   Link to petition.   Link to Al Aqaba
• We can write our pension fund holder, TIAA-CREF to divest from Israel occupation products to encourage focus on the bright spots in the Middle East. Link  
• We can make a mock wall at our university to raise awareness about the walls in Palestine and on the U.S. border. Link
• We can learn what Nakba Day means to Palestinians and Israelis. Link

Solutions exist in the bright spots. We can see them if we are not buried in negativity. Try Positive Deviance. Link to Positive Deviance  The 62 percent negative focus needs a dragonfly stopwatch.

Edouard Manet sketch 1873

End Israeli Apartheid. Who to Boycott. Divestment Worked in S. Africa.

Campus BDS Heating Up This Spring! April 26th, 2011 *copied from endtheoccupation.org

This spring, the weather is not all that's heating up! April has brought a burst of U.S. campus boycott and divestment(BDS) initiatives following inspiring actions around the country on the BDS Day of Action, held on the annual Palestinian Land Day. Active campaigns in California, Arizona, Indiana and beyond are becoming a force to be reckoned with. We are thrilled to welcome and support many of these campus groups as new members of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation! Here are some of the exciting ongoing initiatives:  At the University of California at San Diego, the UCSD Associated Students are voting tomorrow night on a resolution to divest fromNorthrop-Grumman and General Electric because they profit from violent conflict, including in Israel/Palestine. Click here to read the resolution and send endorsements to rzuabi@gmail.com. Above: Students' wall on the UA campus. Click to enlarge.  No Mas Muertes at theUniversity of Arizona (UA) recently issued this call for campus boycott and divestment from national targets Caterpillar andMotorola, due to their involvement in racist policies against Latina/o migrant communities and indigenous peoples in Arizona, Palestine and around the world.  The statement coincided with the launch of a national "Mock Wall" Movement protesting U.S. support for Israeli occupation and discriminatory U.S. immigration policies, with students at six universitiesaround the country constructing walls on their campuses to raise awareness about the destruction wrought by the walls in Palestine and on the U.S. border.  At Earlham College in Indiana, students launched this BDS resolution to divest their campus from Caterpillar, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard, which profit from Israeli occupation and violations of Palestinian rights. The students put together this terrific video.  Northrop-Grumman, Caterpillar and Motorola are also three of the five companies targeted in a national campaign initiated by Jewish Voice for Peace (a member of the US Campaign) to compel financial giant TIAA-CREF to divest from Israeli occupation. Campuses are fertile ground for this growing campaign. Check out the comprehensive new campaign web site and resources here! Don’t forget to check our "BDS on Campus" resources here, including ahandbook by veteran activists to guide students through campus divestment campaigns. Whether your group is on a campus or not, we invite you to join our coalition too, by clicking here. We are more excited than ever to support diverse groups working around the country for corporate accountability and an end to U.S. supportfor Israeli occupation and apartheid. *Copied from http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=2966

What does the death of Osama Bin Laden mean? Osama was not born a terrorist.

Osama Bin Laden is dead. Sadness and death. Hatred lives. Our everyday choices contribute. Will hatred ever end? President Obama announces his death. Death is not the end. People who cling to extremes exist. What can an average person do to stop hatred? We can make new choices.

If a person's death is announced, what message is given? It is the end of one person's life. But a wish for peace throughout the world is sad at any one person's death. Quakers believe in the value of life. When life is shortened be it by a terrorist's attack or old age, life has meaning. Let us consider the value of each person's life. We choose.

Be it a diamond for a wedding ring, a coffee ground fresh, or a piece of perfect fruit that must be without blemish, we do contribute to the world's serious deadly economic, political and social issues. Let us be sad in the death of each person's dreams.

The child in the desert of Kenya or the laid-off worker in Detroit who has no money to pay for the house payment or especially for the Somali fisherman who no longer have fish to catch due to non-Somali overfishing in their waters and resorts to kidnapping, we should be sad.

We do contribute to hatred in our purchases. Economy driven without values sways the world toward hatred and death. We do contribute. Look inward toward how your everyday choices influences the lives around the world. Osama bin Laden was not born a terrorist. No baby is. 

Forgiveness is complex. Sri Bhagavan on Forgiveness. Silent Apologies.

Forgiveness is complex. It is a process. In the video Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba said that hurt or pain causes combustion with smoke that at the end produces energy. Forgiveness then occurs. To forgive is not just words. It has to be felt as a result of experiencing the pain and hurt. Words do not describe feeling processes very well. Gestures are better. Kneeling.

Kneeling helps heal genocide.

In 1970 West German Chancellor Willy Brandt knelt  before the Warsaw Ghetto monument.

  For more on Willy Brandt's Silent Apology click here

Forgiveness. When is it needed? Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba dies.

Forgiveness. To forgive means you have felt hurt and need to be released, to let go of that hurt. Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba died today in India. This god-man with millions of followers means there are beliefs of others the strength of which we do not understand. Some say he was divine. How does this relate to forgiveness? Ask the people of Rwanda, where one million people were murdered in 100 days. We cannot understand the beliefs, be they spiritual or political, of others. Beliefs have power. But the greater power resides in forgiveness.

Entrance to Puttaparthi is the birth place and abode of Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
Image by Williampfeifer released to wikipedia

Whatever power people give or recognize, the greatest power is the power to forgive. To let go of hate. To let go of anger. To let go of memories. Painful memories freeze you in a trap of self-thinking. When you forgive those who hurt you or you perceived that they hurt you in some way, you release your mind to consider thinking of something other than yourself. If we hold onto hate, perceived wrongs, we limit the energy within us - however, you may define that energy, the spark of the divine, the light that gives us life.

Happiness is: Duct Tape? A Hypothesis? A Memory? Your Choice.

Is happiness like duct tape? Easy to tear apart. Never perfectly smooth. Leaves a residue.

photo by Evan-Amos, 8-25-10, wikimedia commons

 Is happiness like a hypothesis, an assumption that must be continually tested?

CASE-IF-THEN-END flowchart from wikimedia commons

 Is happiness an action taken? A reconnecting with pleasant memories. 

Such as the thrill our first steps?

The First Steps by Greek painter, Georgios Jakobidea, from wikimedia commons

Your choice.

If you think happiness is more like duct tape, 

here's the you tube channel where you can make more duct tape happiness:  

http://www.youtube.com/user/Ducttapestuff?blend=3&ob=5

 

Three Cups of Tea. Be cautious where you take your cup of tea.

"The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family."

Greg Mortenson  wrote,Three Cups of Tea and his group, Central Asia Institute, has been working for decades to build schools especially for girls in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Initially, Greg promised to build one school to thank the local people who saved his life while he was mountain climbing in the remote region. He had the third cup of tea. His family is also now  many Pakistani and Afghan children. He continues to build schools.

His book and his group was investigated on 60 Minutes.
.
I did not hear the program but I heard a response which questioned future contributions. This response prompts me to caution against prejudging him and his group. Instead apply proverbs and history. Be cautious where you take your cup of tea.  Remember Henry Fonda's skepticism in the movie, Twelve Angry Men. This skepticism resulted in an innocent verdict, a total opposite of the initial jury vote.

Mr. Mortenson's strategy differs from the United States military strategy of top-down directives. For example, Mortenson consults with local councils about school needs and supports their goals. Perhaps there is a political motive from some dissatisfied individual or group that brought the magnifying glass.

Even President Obama in his firing of Shirley Sherrod, who was later vindicated, made mistakes due to limited information.

I urge you to stand by Mr. Mortenson and his group. Maybe this local bright spot has become a scapegoat for NGO groups.We should be skeptical of media reports just as the spokesman for the Pakistani government was quoted by the Christian Science Monitor:

The Pakistani government conferred the Star of Pakistan, the country's third highest civilian award, on Mortenson and invited him to take tea with President Asif Ali Zardari in 2009. President Zardari’s spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, told the Monitor the government was treating the allegations with caution. "One has to find out the detail because often a number of media reports turn out to be incorrect," he says. "Until one knows what the story really is, one can't move forward."
 http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2011/0418/Greg-Mortenson-s-Three-Cups-of-Tea-Will-CBS-report-harm-aid-work?cmpid=ema:nws:Daily%20Auto%2004182011&cmpid=ema:nws:NjkzNjA2MzE1NgS2

I heard Mr. Mortenson speak in person. I saw his eyes and heard the desire to do so much with working with local needs and values with so little resources. His enthusiasm and mission to effect change through building schools may move, Three Cups of Tea, from the non-fiction shelf to the autobiographical memoir genre of Maya Angelou.  

When humanitarians like him are so focused on the solutions they don't believe in explaining every detail to a 60 Minutes reporter. They trust people.

 I, too, will continue to trust in local bright spots like Greg Mortenson.  We need to support local bright spots because that is where change occurs. Locally. If 60 Minutes had focused on the bright spots like Greg's local council engagement two decades ago, how different would be today's 60 Minutes segment be - the contrast between top-down strategies versus community-generated strategies. Local bright spots are change agents. Remember Twelve Angry Men. One person in your face challenging your comfortable auto-response. I trust Greg Mortenson.

Desperate for Spring. Your Flower choices: Wearing, Drawing, Animating or Making?

1. Just go and get some fresh flowers and put them in your hair.

This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3b21174., orig by Burr McIntosh Studio, taken 1902. 

2. Draw flowers.

• click on this link and then click on  your mouse when you are on the black screen
• http://www.procreo.jp/labo/flower_garden.swf
• You can draw as many flowers as you want.

3. Watch animated flowers

Malene Thyssen, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Malene

4. Or you could make some plastic flowers.

by material boy, Flicker, 19 Feb 2006

What is your flower choice?

Planting red geranium seeds. When life is so sad, plant seeds.

While I plant red geranium seeds, should I be doing/planting something else?

Shouldn't I be writing letters to Congress? Getting informed about issues? Shouldn't I be thinking of how to help others? Natural gas fracturing.  Suicide in the Armed Forces. Monsanto and GM seeds? Birthday presents for young relatives? Brushing my pets? No.

No. I decided the world would not end if I planted red geranium seeds. I am taking a stand for red geraniums and purple dragon carrots. May the dead soldiers forgive my need to get my hands in the dirt. When life is so sad, I need to plant. I need to get back to something that grows and fills my mind with life not worries.

Like the book says all I ever needed to know I learned in kindergarten.  For example, take turns. It is my turn-to help something grow from seed and rose geranium oil repels mosquitoes.

Andrew Dunn, 31 July 2006http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GeraniumFlowerUnfurl2small.gif

Want peace for Palestine? Where you shop can pay for war. Boycott styles. Chicago, Quaker or Aussie?

Image via Wikipedia

In September 2011 there will be a UN vote on an independent state for Palestine. Will the United States vote no? How do individuals effect change? Just like the people of the world did in stopping apartheid in South Africa. You can join the Global Campaign through boycott.

Chicago style you tube video says, How your shopping pays for war
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4tXe2HKqqs&feature=player_embedded

Quaker style Israeli settlement products are barriers to peace. Boycott. http://www.quaker.org.uk/settlement-produce

Australian style  Download of the manual on Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions from Australians for Palestine  http://australiansforpalestine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/bds-manual.pdf

Global style? United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 (II) Future Government of Palestine of November 29, 1947 has yet to be determined. Your actions can put Palestine on this animation of states added to the United Nations since 1946.