Stromek/LittleTree's Blog – September 2008 Archive (11)

Due to demands of work, I will be 'not blogging' for about a week. OR TWO. (Also to happiness of being at a party next weekend far from home! :) It is a week of birthdays, and doing things I've procrastinated far too long. (Can we 'procrastinate' things? Well, I sure do!) Please check back here after International Peace Day -- my husband and I are spending that day on . . . . the Battleship New Jersey :0 because the birthday boy (70 years old) is a history buff, and wanted to celebrate on a… Continue

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9/11 - a.k.a.… Continue

Today I dressed for cooler weather,

Anticipating walk amidst the heather.

But summer smiled the sun on me

So peacfully I sat, beneath a tree.



Seeking shade, I watched as water

Swiftly rushed along the banks

Of brook so tiny fish could not scatter

Amidst the rocks and weeds so rank.



A frog jumped as I walked along

Singing a silly little song,

"Ecology, ecology, it's for you, and it's for me --

Ecology, ecology, it keeps the world… Continue

This morning, in the hazy sleep just before awakening, I saw a strange vision. John McCain and Sarah Palin dressed in nicely tailored suits, (his was grey, hers was yellow) behind tall barriers made of green fabric, fluttering in the breeze. They were in position to march before the crowds, and had fencer's foils (the very slim swords) in their hands, and were practicing saluting in sychronized precision as they marched in, which they then did. They appeared on the speaker's platform, "swords"… Continue

WHEN WILL WE LEARN PEACE?



We will learn when we are all reborn as Buddhas.

We will learn when we are all one with Jesus.

We will learn when we all sit at the hand of Mohammed.

We will learn when we are in the presence of Jehovah.



We will learn when we know, for certain, that there is no

"other" -- that there ARE no boundaries -- that we

are looking at things the wrong way -- "through a glass darkly".



We will learn when no one makes money… Continue

Here in Northern New Jersey (where it used to be rural, with more cows than people) regular gas topped out at about $4.05 per gallon. Now, since the two conventions have finished, it has dropped on average, 10 cents per week, and ranges from $3.31 to $3.45 per gallon.



It will continue to drop about 5 cents a week until the election on the 2nd Tuesday in November.



This happens EVERY YEAR. The base price has never been as high, but the pattern is exactly the same: whatever… Continue

Some good news about His Holiness: The Dalai Lama was released from a hospital in Mumbai on Monday, September 1, after a four-day observation for abdominal discomfort and fatigue. In the last month he has maintained a very busy touring schedule, and it was thought that he was suffering from fatigue, and a possible stomach infection. The doctors have recommended rest for the 73-year-old Tenzin Gyatso. His appointments for the next few weeks have been cancelled, but he is expected to resume his… Continue

Some of us are pacifists. Not only that, some of us are passive pacifists -- leading us to resist the very idea of taking initiative, even toward peace. (I include myself in this group).



I know my passivism stems from things that happened in my childhood -- I was often disbelieved, because I made outrageously intelligent comments for one so young, and if not so much accused of lying, well, that is how it felt.



To this day, when confronted, the most natural reaction for me… Continue

I heard on the radio this morning that the rights for the music and lyrics of Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein are being offered for sale. (They wrote South Pacific, The Sound of Music, Oklahoma, and many, many other famous and beautiful musical works for the stage, during the 1940's and 1950's).



Those works are still able to generate box office receipts, and are performed in amateur theaters and schools worldwide. They contain some of the highest quality, most heart-moving… Continue

I've noticed that many members have mentioned greed and economic disparity in the world to be a source of war and violence.



This morning, the BBC World radio broadcast featured interviews with militants in Nigeria -- ranging from youths, angry because they were, as my mother would have said "dirt poor", with only the clothes on their backs and a bicycle. They watched the oil pumping, and knew that the oil producers were very wealthy, and none of that money ever reached the people,… Continue

This day was originated in 1882 to honor the working people of America, and their unionization, by the Knights of Labor. More accurately speaking, a day was developed by the trade unions in New York City to create a day without labor, that was hearalded with celebrations, parades, and speeches. And, of course, no work. Somewhat later, the IWA (International Workingman's Association) chose to celebrate the working persons on May 1st, a day associated with the Socialist movements, especially the… Continue