biography

1.26.11 

Andrew Tennyson was a 34 year old IT specialist for Linkedin© and spent much of his days patrolling Wikis of interest and making edits as he saw fit. He was a former fighter pilot for the Canadian Forces Air Command. Though he never saw “action” he got plenty of it in brutal training regimens and sick pranks from his fellow pilots in his Air Division. Though to others, Andrew was a respectable man, in reality, he often did shameful things. His most recent sleaze-ball move was when he cheated on his Malaysian wife with some dumb broad in his cooking class he only took to get in her pants. He first saw her through the outside window of the second floor of the local breakfast hotspot—“Alonzo’s Morning”—throwing some hash browns on the fryer while he was down on the street throwing an angry letter in the box on the street corner. It was his latest rant to the government for using his precious tax dollars to fund cancer research. He stood there watching her for five minutes as she finished trying the dish from the student cook next to her. It was creepy, sleazy love at first bite.

At the Restaurant

1.24.11

At the Restaurant

by Stephen Dunn

“Life would be unbearable if we made ourselves conscious of it.”– Fernando Pessoa

Six people are too many people
and a public place the wrong place
for what you’re thinking–

stop this now.

Who do you think you are?
The duck à l’orange is spectacular,
the flan the best in town.

But there among your friends
is the unspoken, as ever,
chatter and gaiety its familiar song.

And there’s your chronic emptiness
spiraling upward in search of words
you’ll dare not say

without irony.
You should have stayed at home.
It’s part of the social contract

to seem to be where your body is,
and you’ve been elsewhere like this,
for Christ’s sake, countless times;

behave, feign.

Certainly you believe a part of decency
is to overlook, to let pass?
Praise the Caesar salad. Praise Susan’s

black dress, Paul’s promotion and raise.
Inexcusable, the slaughter of this world.
Insufficient, the merely decent man.

creativity part 2

1.25.11

Creativity comes from the spiritual realm, the collective consciousness.  And the mind is in a different realm
than the molecules of the brain.
The brain is a receiver, not a source.

Candace Pert

Time takes time ya know

1.22.11

They always say time changes things, but actually you have to change them yourself.

Andy Warhol

just a remind of what andy's art looks like

a case for collectivity

1.21.11

Our interactions with others are just as important as self-knowledge/self-realization.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/health/views/18mind.html?ref=health

'Since the common ingredient in all therapies is not insight, but a nonspecific human bond with your therapist, it seems fair to say that insight is neither necessary nor sufficient to feeling better.'

Dalai does it again

1.20.11

"Encountering suffering will definitely contribute to the elevation of your spiritual practice, provided you are able to transform the calamity and misfortune into the path."

- The Dalai Lama

"Transform the calamity" is my new mantra.

Boy! he can cook!

1.19.11

Generally, I find the paper lackluster at best, but I really enjoyed this story: http://bit.ly/hQIFbg

I, too, took up cooking at an early stage "because they don't make the sauces right."

straightforward

1.17.11

I've been busy this week taking Seminary courses.  My Professor in Spiritual Practices closed our last class today with this little gem:

"God is everywhere, even if you don't like it."

Soren Kierk-ohead

1.16.11

A quote, from our friend Soren Kierkegaard: "The highest and most
beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about,
nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived."

And since I am in a rather contemplative mood:

Christopher O'Riley covers Radiohead: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8bjPdR1RC8

prayer

1.15.11

"God does not exist to answer our prayers, but by our prayers we come to discern the mind of God." - Oswald Chambers

More Hope

1.14.11

In the words of President Obama:  "[We should make sure]...we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds."  

Given this is the Year of Collective Action, I believe we should strive to do exactly what the Prez is telling us.  Maybe we can start by:  (1) thinking through our thoughts before we say them.  I know I struggle with this and would really like to slow my mouth down before something actually comes out of it.  Another point is the fact that (2) we have to put ourselves in each other's shoes.  I think these two actions will lead to positive and/or 'healing' social interactions!

Hope

1.13.11

We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us. I believe that for all our imperfections, we are full of decency and goodness, and that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us. 

- President Obama

Beauty and the Ugliness

1.11.11

"If you look for ugliness, you will find it everywhere.
When you look for beauty, you will find that everywhere."

-Narayana

Wisdom of Ralph Waldo

1.10.11

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."
    

     -Ralph Waldo Emerson

sustainable love

1.7.11

Happy Friday, January 7, 2011!  Here's my little Friday gift to you all.  I told Shelley about this but wanted to send it your way.  I read this article in the NY times lately and I thought it has a lot to do with our usual discussions as well as the new theme for 2011!  Maybe not in terms of marriage but in terms of general relationships.  It might seem a little counterintuitive at first but if you think about it for a second, then it definitely makes sense.  From my blog (aka I'm quoting myself):  'We want to learn from each other, and when this doesn't happen, we no longer feel compelled to contribute [to the relationship]. On the surface, yes, it does sound counterintuitive to think 'the best [relationships] are those that bring satisfaction to the individual'. However, evolutionarily speaking, this makes perfect sense. By learning new things (or seeing the world from someone else's perspective), we are better prepared to survive given a diverse set of situations.'

commitment

1.6.11

"The irony of commitment is that it's deeply liberating - in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life."
       - Ann Morris 

Einstein's Dreams

1.5.11

June 1905

"A man stands at the graveside of his friend, throws a handful of dirt on the coffin, feels the cold April rain on his face. But he does not weep. He looks ahead to the day when his friend's lungs will be strong, when his friend will be out of his bed and laughing, when the two of them will drink ale together, go sailing, talk. He does not weep. He waits longingly for a particular day he remembers in the future when he and his friend will have sandwiches on a low flat table, when he will describe his fear of growing old and unloved and his friend will nod gently, when the rain will slide down the glass of the window."

-Einstein's Dreams

Nurture Life

1.4.11

"There is a very old piece of wisdom that comes from the 4th century monks of the Egyptian Desert: "Do not combat the demons directly."  Instead of paying so much attention to the prince of darkness, they advised their disciples to focus on the Lord of Light and thus, indirectly but inevitably undo the power of the demon... 
I therefore want to say as clearly as I can that the first and foremost task of the peacemaker is not to fight death but to call forth, affirm, and nurture the signs of life wherever they become manifest."  

       -- Henri Nouwen 

Don't Carry it All

1.2.11

In the spirit of our new year's New Year theme, and because I believe in moderation and "this burden born of all and one" and, as Shelley said, "exerting our individualities with the support of each other," give a track from the new Decemberists album a listen:

"Don't Carry It All": http://www.npr.org/2011/01/02/132436422/first-listen-the-decemberists-the-king-is-dead?sc=fb&cc=fmp

Life in Color

12.31.10

For some reason I'm in a mood to look at pictures.  Have you all ever seen this?  I had never seen it before until I read an article in BBC about the last roll of Koachrome being developed.  Anyway, the green eyed girl is an amazing portrait and Steven McCurry has many more if you look at his website.  Totally check it out if you have time.

So what else am I thinking?  When I was living in Japan it seemed much easier to take cool pictures.  I think this is also true of Mr. McCurry's pictures.  We are moved by places and people that are foreign to us.  I've never been to a Holi Festival in India so the bright red pigment covering the faces of a crowd (see Mr. McCurry's website) intrigues me.  Maybe this is partly because of the scenery too?  If someone like Mr. McCurry were to take a picture of you how would you compose your image?  Keep in mind that it should say something about your everyday life.  Where do you feel at home?  What would you be doing?