Headstand!!
HUGE day in yoga Wednesday. I figured out the headstand and managed to support myself sans wall. Wow, what a feeling! Been doing yoga since 2002 and it took a new instructor (first time we met) for that little something to click that made all the difference. Yoga is really a metaphor for life. Inching forward ever so slowly, and then….a breakthrough. My ass doesn’t look this nice, but then again, you can’t win ‘em all.
“Is religion built upon lies?” Authors Harris and Sullivan engage in one of first online debates
Sam Harris, author of the bestseller The End of Faith and Andrew Sullivan, author of The Conservative Soul have been engaging in a sharp online debate since January 16 on the value of organized religion in today’s society. In what must be one of the most publicized online debates yet, Harris is defending his position that all religion is built on a pack of lies while Sullivan – a gay devout Catholic – is defending the virtues of religion, while distinguishing moderates from the more fundamentalist groups around the world. Personally, as someone who invests and divests from religion over time, I find this debate thrilling. I’m also intrigued by the rise in anti-religious writing and philosophy of late that these two ends of the spectrum represent. I find it very cool that they are using a website – Beliefnet – as the forum to showcase such a debate, allowing readers to follow and comment in real time. The internet is a perfect medium for such an exchange, but debating is one area that hasn’t gained much traction online. Might this be a new trend? With the 2008 election on the horizon, I can foresee Hillary and Barack battling head-to-head online a few months from now as the Democratic primaries draw near. I can’t wait.
Florida schools, Americana and Abstinence
I’m in Orlando for FETC and engaged in a shocking conversation with a computer science teacher today. After I presented our offering and gave her a tour of the website, she asked if there was any information available on STDs. Afraid where this conversation might be going, I explained that naturally, the answers was "yes, we cover 4 million topics from 135 reference titles – encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc and STDs are certainly included somewhere in there." She explained that her school district couldn’t condone the use of our site since it contained educational information on STDs and "high schoolers are very interested in researching these topics." Ahh…..yeah. Needless to say, the three of us working together were dumbfounded. I’ve heard and read plenty about right-wing fundamentalists, but never necessarily experienced one on this level. To deny children the right to learn and shelter them from understanding issues that will help them protect themselves from dangers that may lay ahead seems like a shocking misappropriation of state and federal resources and a betrayal by the education system in which they place their trust. Do these people truly believe that 17 and 18 year olds don’t know about sex? and/or aren’t thinking about sex? and that teenagers are better served by their parents and teachers looking the other way? I chose not to pursue this debate with the teacher, but the things you see in the heartland are truly amazing…and in this case, disturbing. By the way, in case any of you missed Jim Webb’s Democratic response to Bush’s State of the Union….he kicked ass – Jim Webb’s Democratic response
Another Burn is dust…
Burning Man ended a week ago Monday. Without getting into details yet, this year was even better for me than 2005. It will take some time to fully digest what transpired and to hopefully, consolidate the experience into a message, lesson, learning. Nonetheless, Burning Man felt more like home and my camp-mates more like family. I expected the "wow factor" to be diminished the second time around and the experience to be somewhat less meaningful, so I was doubly pleased when I discovered this wasn’t the case. My photos probably tell the best story. Also, here is an aerial map of Black Rock City that helps give some idea of what Burning Man actually looks like. More to come on this…
Heading out to the desert – Hope and Fear: The Future
I’m spending the day preparing for my voyage to Black Rock City – home of the Burning Man Project. This year’s theme is Hope and Fear: The Future. I’m giddy with excitement to get out there. This will be my second year participating in the event. The sketch on the left is my vision for the layout of our 26-person camp – Camp Tramp – the centerpiece of which will be four trampolines. As the Burning Man website explains, "Trying to explain what Burning Man is to someone who has never been to
the event is a bit like trying to explain what a particular color looks
like to someone who is blind." I was moved by my experience in the desert last year and decided somewhat recently to return with a smaller cadre of friends in 2006. We combined our group with two others to form this camp. One of the best descriptions of Burning Man that I’ve come across was written in the 2006 summer newsletter by the event’s founder, Larry Harvey. "Our annual event in the desert is meant to provide an example of what can happen in a community when social interactions cease to be mediated by a marketplace." This description leaves a lot open to imagination and that is, in fact, the essence of Burning Man. Naturally, Answers.com also has good coverage of the event. Last year, I was inspired to write "The Piss Declaration" following the event and I thought it appropriate to post it again here:
“Giving the piss back…”
While riding through dusty Black Rock City, carved out of a desert in northwestern Nevada, I spotted a cluster of couches and lounge chairs set on shag carpet beneath straw tiki umbrellas carefully positioned looking out on the horizon. I parked my $20 bicycle turned gypsy chariot and joined a couple, who were already taking in the view. “We were wondering when you’d arrive…,” they explained. I introduced myself and before I sank into the couch, Chef Daddy arrived with bicycle turned full-service bar, apologetically offering, “…sorry I’m late….remind me who had the guava juice, the bloody marry, the daiquiri?” Now, beginning to sip my juice and take in the view, Chef Daddy’s son, Todd, pedaled up with trumpet in hand, freshly returned from performing at the Montreux Jazz Festival. While Chef Daddy prepared the last of the cocktails, Todd serenaded us in sweet ballads as we shared, expressed and celebrated life together as if we were old childhood friends.
The first few days of September, I took part in a social experiment of sorts, exposed to the extreme elements of Nevada’s Black Rock Desert with only the severely insufficient things I chose to pack. The harsh desert conditions had a way of reducing us all to our core – the foundation of our animal souls – and then forced us to work together to live, survive and celebrate. Out of this organism that we built, blossomed the most radical self-expression and creativity I have ever witnessed. Stranded in the desert with 37,000 strangers, we communicated, expressed and shared our lives with each other, each growing in our own individual, but connected, way from the experience. Out in the desert, everyone shares the same challenges; the desert serves as a great equalizer, breaking down the boundaries that separate us in our daily lives. With these boundaries reduced to outlines in the sand, a door seemed to open, allowing us to share ourselves with those all around.
The most essential rule of Burning Man is the law of giving. No currency is permitted and no bartering allowed. Rather, everyone is encouraged to give and by necessity, learn how to graciously receive. With giving comes kindness, and with kindness, compassion, warmth, support and harmony. This simple principle of giving, more than any other, dramatically changed the way the community functioned and interacted. With traditional barriers down; we all became approachable, talkative and friendly. The world of possibility opened for all to enter. Personally, void of everyday distractions, I was able to feel more acutely than I have in perhaps my entire life…sadness, happiness, loneliness and intense community. Left without the luxuries to which I’ve become accustomed – reduced to worrying about the acidity of my hands and feet on a daily basis – I reached a higher level of clarity. Reduced to your foundations and stranded in the desert, the importance and power of community becomes quickly apparent.
At the beginning of each new year, the Jewish people engage in Heshbon HaNefesh – an accounting of the soul – reflecting on our good and bad deeds over the past year. On Simchat Torah, which comes after the accounting has been taken and the books closed, we celebrate receiving the bible and with it, the life that we were given and chose to receive. Sitting beneath that straw tiki umbrella in the desert, rapping with an Israeli guy from Brooklyn, we couldn’t help but notice a few parallels and the auspicious time of year. Like the traditions of Rosh Hashanah and Simchat Torah, Burning Man provides a time for each participant to reflect on his/her life and reclaim it according to their own redefined rules and parameters and then celebrate it.
This year, I’ve chosen to recast my own life by modifying the way I interact with my co-investors on this journey. My Australian friends have an expression – taking the piss – which means giving someone a hard time, often employing intense sarcasm… something that I, and many of those around me, know all too well. One of the reasons I became so familiar with this expression is that in a warm, supportive and kind environment such as Burning Man, there is no room for people taking the piss. The few times during the week when someone was taking the piss (probably me), they would inevitably receive a comment from someone in the group, “why you taking the piss out of him?” (insert thick Australian/quasi-British accent). During my week in Black Rock City, I witnessed the power of support and encouragement; what it means to add to each other’s overall experience, not take away from or discount it. Never before had I appreciated the damaging and debilitating effects of competitive bickering, unnecessary sarcasm and talking each other down. I also never before understood how warm, fuzzy and uplifted one can feel when freed from the shackles of this limiting behavior.
With the Jewish New Year around the corner and the Gregorian New Year on the horizon, I challenge myself and all of us to free ourselves from harmful jabs, sarcastic criticisms and snide remarks that do nothing to help us grow and improve as individuals. While they are often only meant in jest, I believe the underlying effects are far more severe. Instead, let’s support, encourage and help each other reach new heights and grow in directions we never thought possible. Let’s pledge to give the piss back; the piss that we’ve all taken from each other over recent years.
Irresponsible reporting by leading publications reveals larger anti-Israel bias
This photo was emailed to me with the following capton:
Do you see the "problem" with this picture? The last "body" in the back is getting up too early. These are the "57 dead" in Qana and the journalist goes along with it.
In case you missed this piece of news last month, Lebanese journalists initially reported that 57 people had been killed including 37 children in the Israeli bombing of Qana. This led to the Israeli government suspending air strikes for 48 hours. Human Rights Watch later reported that, in fact, 28 was the number dead, which included 16 children. Its hard to argue over numbers of dead, especially since I believe every single one of the lives lost in this conflict were killed unnecessarily. However, in the crucial war of public opinion, the Arab nations battling Israel continue to gain support, and with much assistance from foreign journalists who do not seem to care about reporting news factually. I am reminded of the NY Times photo in September 2000 of Tuvia Grossman, a Jewish student from Chicago, blood streaming down his face, which included a caption describing him as a Palestinian victim of Israeli abuse. The report proved to include other factual errors including the location where it was taken. The point here is that a strong anti-Israel sentiment continues to plague honest reporting around the world, particularly reports from the region of conflict. One might expect this type of biased coverage from Lebanese or Syrian sources, but from the NY Times and Washington Post….its very disappointing.
Psychadelic mushrooms tested at Johns Hopkins
The Wall St Journal ran an article today entitled "Go
Ask Alice" on a study conducted by prominent doctors and medical
researchers at Johns Hopkins on the effects of psychedelic mushrooms – aka
psilocybe cubensis. The most interesting takeaway from this
carefully controlled study was the overwhelmingly positive experiences the
majority of participants reported. To quote the WSJ:
A third of the participants said the experience with psilocybin was the
single most significant experience of their lives, and an additional 38% rated
it among their top five such experiences — akin to, say, the birth of a first
child or the death of a parent. This was
the first known study of psychedelic drugs since 1962.
Interesting….
