Sky

A walk in the woods

Why we are so pissed off........

I don't know why so many in the media are too dense to understand why people are so pissed off and deciding to occupy Wall Street.  It is very simple. The banking industry has been playing craps with our money and a fixed roll of dice.

Our own government provides documentation of the unfairness of our system.The CIA World Fact Book is a wonderful compendium of information. They publish an index that measures the degree of inequality in the distribution of family income in a country.  According to our government's own figures, the United States is more unequal a society than either Tunisia or Egypt.

(When you read the chart, remember that the bigger the GINI index the more unequal a country's income distribution).

Somehow, the news people "get" the frustrations of the people in the streets of Egypt but want to hold their heads in the sand about the frustration driving protests here.I avoid tv news now....it just makes me want to stick pins into voodoo dolls.


Some more depressing figures.....

The 400 wealthiest Americans have a greater combined net worth than the bottom 150 million Americans.

The top 1 percent of Americans possess more wealth than the entire bottom 90 percent.

In the Bush expansion from 2002 to 2007, 65 percent of economic gains went to the richest 1 percent.

We have allowed the mis-regulated financial system lead us toward catastrophe. And adding insult to injury, today it is reported that Citigroup Earnings Rise 74% to $3.8 Billion!

At this point I'm ready for Dylan Ratigan to run for president.....at least he is in tune.  Watch this video:

God, religon.....taboo stuff

I do not believe in supernatural miracles, the inerrancy of scriptures,the trinity,etc.  In that manner I line up with many of the deists that helped found our country (Jefferson, Washington, etc.).

I admit the possibility of a god while also admitting the possibility of no god. I see no reason for people to think that god would have to be the creator of all things. Why couldn't there be a god that did not create the world, but is instead a force or energy shared between people and the world....or simply put, part of the world? 

I exposed my children to multiple religious views. I also used modern day parables and personal life stories to teach much about life. One story, or perhaps it should be called a question, that I had posed to my children when they were growing up is this:

If you were walking down the street and a person came up to you and said that you had to believe what they believed in and that if you didn't do so they would pour a can of gasoline on you and light a match...... well what would you do? 

And if you then said you believed what they believed .......would that really be belief? Would it truly be your belief? Would it be a memory that started so young it felt like your idea?

I would ask questions like: if this is how someone tries to get you to believe their religion, what do you feel about that? Does it make you understand them more?....do you want to love and cherish their beliefs?........are they accepted as your boss or leader or teacher because that is what you want or because they have power over you?   What is terrorism? Is this a form of terrorism?

These discussions would be gentle and interesting and different with each child. I taught my children to think for themselves and let them create their own belief systems.  I raised my children to be caring people.  My kids grew up with terrorism in the headlines. I would discuss terrorism with them and pointed out its more subtle forms.  They know that I feel it is a perverse form of child abuse to teach small children to be afraid of a boiling oil hell in order for them to line up with their parent's religion.  Who, how and why else is anyone ever allowed to terrorize children like that with permission from a civil society? My children knew terrorism was being associated with the Muslim religion........they also knew this often unrecognized association with the Christian religion.

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My twenty year old cat Daisy

My cat Daisy......I often called her Daisy Crabby Cat......She stayed on my lap sleeping most of the day yesterday and passed away today.  She was my oldest daughters kitty.....so many memories get tied up in a pet that you have had for twenty years. I will see her ghost (in my mind) for many days to come, I am sure.

haiku

memories of soft sweet earth
a constant thrumming
trees backlit by morning moon

I love morning glories

I needed a laugh and this is where I found it...

This brought back memories!  This is definitely not politically correct but I can't imagine a parent not feeling this at some point.  I never used profanities much....but I felt them at times!

Coffee Cake!

Food Works For Middle Way House is offering delicious coffee cakes!  We have discovered that everyone's idea of a perfect coffee cake is different.  You have those who want the yeasted bread type of cake and the others that prefer the quick bread type.  Charlotte Zietlow, famous in Bloomington for many great reasons including her critical role in getting Food Works off the ground, has provided us with her favorite recipe and that has now  become our stand by recipe.  Feel free to call us and order a coffee cake the day prior.....and if you have your own recipe you want to share, we can do that too!  (812) 219-9525.......P.S......I am planning a coffee cake recipe contest in the future!

A Poem sent to me by a friend.....

Please Call Me by My True Names By Thich Nhat Hanh (1929 - ) Don't say that I will depart tomorrow -- even today I am still arriving. Look deeply: every second I am arriving to be a bud on a Spring branch, to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings, learning to sing in my new nest, to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower, to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone. I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry, to fear and to hope. The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death of all that is alive. I am the mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river. And I am the bird that swoops down to swallow the mayfly. I am the frog swimming happily in the clear water of a pond. And I am the grass-snake that silently feeds itself on the frog. I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones, my legs as thin as bamboo sticks. And I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to Uganda. I am the twelve-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat, who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate. And I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving. I am a member of the politburo, with plenty of power in my hands. And I am the man who has to pay his "debt of blood" to my people dying slowly in a forced-labor camp. My joy is like Spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth. My pain is like a river of tears, so vast it fills the four oceans. Please call me by my true names, so I can hear all my cries and my laughter at once, so I can see that my joy and pain are one. Please call me by my true names, so I can wake up, and so the door of my heart can be left open, the door of compassion.

family update

My daughter was on a flight circling the Minneapolis airport yesterday when the tornado struck there.  The tornado thankfully missed her apartment by three miles.

The Almost Finished Bloomington Rail Trail Walkway Bridge

Vagina Pops

We have been busy finishing a 450 vagina pop order in the kitchen today. All for a good cause of course.....the sale of them will benefit Middle Way House.

Gluten Free Bread

We are very happy with our Gluten-Free Olive Oil Bread at the Food Works Kitchen, and we know you will be, too. Many who have tried it prefer it over "regular" bread. It will be available at all of the Bloomingfoods locations starting in February, and it is in the Food Works Market now! Call us at (812) 219-9525 to order for Wednesday pick-up. This is our Gluten free baking day. Each loaf is $5.29 and available fresh, frozen, or frozen par-baked.