Even in absurdity, sacrament.     Even in hardship, holiness.     Even in doubt, faith.     Even in chaos, realization.    Even in paradox, blessedness

 

   links open windows | email me at lightenin' speeds
Hey, original t-shirts for sale!

bird on the moon weblog      We're in XML

contact jay

books
by jay joslin

all the pictures
flickr photostream

call me moonbird
social networking

blog archives

search

t r a n s l a t i o n

Donate:

Jay's Amazon wishlist

flightpath
photolog (periodic)

wingspan
fiction log (on hiatus)

CURRENT MOON
moon phase

 

Birdfeathers, Moonbeams,
and Kindred Spirits:

a blog is a happening

a taste of africa

a voyage to arcturus

a welsh view

abada abada

HIATUS: abuddha's memes

akma's random thoughts

alembic

alliance

amberglow

american samizdat

american street

amma's column

amor mundi

animated stardust

andart

animal

anonymoses

another day in the empire

anthropik network*

antiquark

anthoblogy

apophenia

aref-adib

LOCAL: around asheville

LOCAL FRIEND: asheville green room

atom jack

bagnews notes

banubula

baraita

barbelith / temple*

beautifying face paint

bhikku

bifurcated rivets

big hominid's hairy chasms

biosingularity*

blahblog

blogarama

LOCAL: blog asheville

LOCAL: blue ridge blog

bob harris

boing boing

bowen island journal

bower of bliss

bruce eisner's vision thing

LOCAL FRIEND: bruce mulkey

NC: cathcoll

chandra sutra

chapel perilous

chatelaine's poetics

cheese dip

close your eyes and try to see

coffeehouse studio

cognitive daily

cold carryouts*

connexion

corpus mmothra

cowlix

cow pi

creek running north

cu sith myth*

cunninglingustically yours*

cyborg democracy

daily grail

daily kos

dangerous meta

dating god

deb-o-rama

dervala

digital falcon

PERIODIC: djaloki from haiti

dong resin's joint

do not think of a blue elephant

dumbfoundry

LOCAL: easybake coven

eatonweb portal

HIATUS: ecotone wiki

LOCAL: edgy mama

eeksy peeksy

eschaton

esoteric science

esoterically

everlasting blort

etherealgirl

ex cathedra

exclamation mark

PERIODIC: facilitating paradox

fantasy goat

feathers of hope

fine whine

fluxblog

fool in the forest

fragments from floyd

f train

fulton chain

future hi

future pundit

gay news blog

gay spirituality & culture

geegaw

geese aplenty

geisha asobi

global voices*

giornale nuovo

gmt +9

god & consequences

god, universe, world

godlorica"*

gordon.coale

gox box sox

grapez

green fairy

grey lodge

guruphiliac*

LOCAL FRIEND: hangover journal

heretic's corner

hoarded ordinaries

how to save the world

huffington post

huge entity

hyperstition

iceblog

ikastikos

incoming signals

information aesthetics

PERIODIC: in passing

insomnia

interesting drug

inveterate bystander

invisible college

ivory lab

iwriteilive

is your daddy gay?

j. orlin grabbe

j-walk

jaded woman's sanctuary

je eigen gratis

jesus' general

jimwich

joe perez
julia set

jumpingfish

key 23

kuro5hin

lady bunny*

lasiar's lair*

PERIODIC: laughing~knees

the lair of the okapi

leaves of grass

liberal agit-prop

LOCAL: lies and myth*

little professor

littleyellowdifferent

living room

london and the north

lvx23

HIATUS: man who fell asleep

maud newton

meeting place by an old live oak

memefirst

memepool

metaphilm

michael moore

middle east journal*

mind hacks

ming the mechanic

LOCAL: modern peasant

modulator

moon river

mouse musings

mulubinba moments

mutato nomine

my little problem

my zen life

naked villainy

nanovirus*

neon epiphany

noah grey

nootropia

northanger

northcoast cafe

numenous thoughts

< # oddbloggers + >

off the kuff

ontological damnation*

open brackets

open source theology

organic mechanic

owl stretching time*

pagan prattle

parking lot

patteran pages

pax nortona

pedantic nuthatch

philo

philosophistry

pilgrimage

the planet jupiter

plastic

plastic bag

plep

points of departure

post-atomic

post human blues*

practical hippie

presurfer

prosaic

pssst

pure land mountain

purple goddess in frog pajamas

PERIODIC: pyoruba

quantum biocommunication*

queer visions

qwertica

qubikuity

radical druid

randomwalks

reality carnival

revealer

riley dog

BELOVED FRIEND: robin's view

rude pundit

sandstorming*

sappho's breathing

satan's laundromat

LOCAL: scrutiny hooligans

sentient developments

sloe wine

shaghaghi

shamanic shifting

sharp sand

sinequanon*

singlenesia

sounding circle

southern jubilee

special farm

spectrum bloggers*

spurious

spoonbenders

stilicho

stormwind

street prophets

LOCAL: sweet tea

synthetic zero

tailor's today

technoccult

technorati

teju cole*

ten thousand birds

terreus

the loom

the obvious?

the path*

theophany journal

third world view

this journal blug

thistle & hemlock

three quarks daily*

tin man

tofu-hut

total viscosity breakdown

23rd monkey

uffish thoughts

ufo breakfast

under the fire star

utility fog

utter wonder

via negativa

vortex egg

vritti

watchers

watermelon punch

way down here

weblogs dot com

weird events

we make money not art

whatever

where project

whiskey river

witold riedel

wood's lot

wooster collective

world changing

xoverboard

yellowstone wolf

z+blog

zanshin

zapatopi

 

* Latest additions... welcome!

[?]= Seems to be down or on hiatus.
Please report broken links for my blog audit.

"Life expands or shrinks in proportion to one's courage."    ~Anain Nin

{ Friday, 30 April, 2004 }

This is a moblog post:

This is a moblog post:

0022.jpg

The stage where our fair play doth commence in the next fortnight

jaybird found this for you @ 18:45 in Live from the road... | | permalink



Another classic poem, that stirs

Another classic poem, that stirs up goosfeathers in my soul, in celebration of the last day of National Poetry Month:

WILD GEESE by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

This is one of the most moving and inspiring poems... it's like a mantra that moves soft like breath-steam over a cool morning. It uplifts while it also reintegrates you with the fundamental, base nature of our animation.

jaybird found this for you @ 15:26 in Authors, Books & Words | | permalink



April's Quirky Search Requests

Yep, it's "that time of the month" here on birdonthemoon.com, where I let loose and open ye olde referrer logs for some search requests fun. I know it's spring and all, but dang, it was a naughty month. I'll omit the formerly-weird-now-regular requests for the sake of keeping onesself pure and diginified, but fear not, there are gems nonetheless. Request in italics, snark in normal.

  • ways of stopping auditory hallucinations- plug your pituitary gland?
  • possum bones- roadkill soup stock?
  • tea bagging sexual positions pictures- what if you use a strainer?
  • what is the unknown shed in harvest moon a wonderful life for- it's for you to wonder about.
  • smiles is gay- jesus, we invented everything!
  • you gotta sashay back- hun, I sashay where I want to!
  • telling the bird cocktails apart- after a few cocktails, the only bird I remember is "FREEBIRD!" Not. Ha. Look, I'm trying here!
  • album cover woman tricorner hat- She's a revolutionary woman...
  • ways to put eyeliner on- I'm not that gay. Well, maybe once a year.
  • give me enough doubt to keep me human enough faith to keep me holy- this is actually a fantastic axiom. I searched for it to find an author, but alas. Wisdom from the referrers!
  • pics of a raw typewriter to a new typewriter- Raw typewriter is not recommended for daily consumption. Try medium-rare instead.
  • martha stweart nude- is it a good thing?
  • howl at the moon party themes- there's a werewolf in the punchbowl!
  • starting a fire by rubbing sticks together new zealand- I'm telling ya, those Kiwis are very ecologically mindful. It may take a while but it's better than lighter fluid.

    And this moth's winner, in the decorative arts category:

  • dung beetle wallpaper- Rollin', rollin', rollin', keep that dung a-rollin'...

    Thanks to all for another great month!

    jaybird found this for you @ 13:23 in Blogosphere, Tech & Internet | | permalink



    In celebration of the concluding

    In celebration of the concluding day of National Poetry Month, I present one of the finest and most ecstatic poems of the 20th Century's most wonderful poet, Pablo Neruda... [about Pablo, more poems]

    POETRY by Pablo Neruda

    And it was at that age...Poetry arrived
    in search of me. I don't know, I don't know where
    it came from, from winter or a river.
    I don't know how or when,
    no, they were not voices, they were not
    words, nor silence,
    but from a street I was summoned,
    from the branches of night,
    abruptly from the others,
    among violent fires
    or returning alone,
    there I was without a face
    and it touched me.

    I did not know what to say, my mouth
    had no way
    with names
    my eyes were blind,
    and something started in my soul,
    fever or forgotten wings,
    and I made my own way,
    deciphering
    that fire
    and I wrote the first faint line,
    faint, without substance, pure
    nonsense,
    pure wisdom
    of someone who knows nothing,
    and suddenly I saw
    the heavens
    unfastened
    and open,
    planets,
    palpitating planations,
    shadow perforated,
    riddled
    with arrows, fire and flowers,
    the winding night, the universe.

    And I, infinitesmal being,
    drunk with the great starry
    void,
    likeness, image of
    mystery,
    I felt myself a pure part
    of the abyss,
    I wheeled with the stars,
    my heart broke free on the open sky.


    This piece reminds me of how we approach the creative process. It's an encounter with a magic carpet, which whisks us from our small, secure and known territory, out into a staggeringly large, oft frightful, and blissful universe- one thought not only leads to another, but a whole great branching of thoughts. The process toward creation is exponential, and this poem, in its imagery and technique, takes me from my seat and out into the folds of stars where we encounter mystery, and thus, inspiration to create from the expanse.

    Also, being the last day of National Poetry Month, it seems fitting to announce that my target date for submitting my manuscript for the new book, retitled Rainbow Over Crossroads, is May 31st- a month from now. I've not had much time to work on it lately, but it's so very nearly done that I'm brimming with anticipation for the moment I hit send and it flies away.

    jaybird found this for you @ 10:10 in Authors, Books & Words | | permalink



    Viva Bob Edwards! As

    Viva Bob Edwards!

    As he leaves Morning Edition, where he has been host since the show's debut in 1979, NPR recognizes Bob Edwards' 30 years on the public airwaves. After nearly 25 years of waking up at 1 a.m., Edwards assumes new duties as senior correspondent for NPR News.

    Nice tribute NPR, but a better tribute would've been not to remove Bob in the first place during your 'corporate revisisoning' of a show that has worked for the past 30 years. I'm an avid NPR listener, and my mornings won't be the same.... without.... BOB!

    (cue dramatic music, a flinging of used tissues, and spotlight on a panicked run to the radio as Bob's voice recedes into static... )

    jaybird found this for you @ 07:20 in News, Opinion & Politique | | permalink



    { Thursday, 29 April, 2004 }

    "Stage Directions"

    The stage, 'tis barely swept; Our drama kicks up the dust That is the debris of the heart's past storylines, Our breath must yield to forgotten pleadings That still linger, as a moth to a spotlight, Though our transit is from a new script. I am for this night not me Yet I require all the muscle of this body To call out in another name. I can claim to know well the confines of my own skin Even that is wrought with mystery, Let alone the one I speak the words too, Pronouncements curved at the end, a hook, For your next phrase to clasp to, Or else we'll just wallow in the light And leave the expected word behind like a broken prop, And defy the billing of tonight's theater. No exit is wrong and no entrance is right; And by the same swift hand of judgment No minute is to be scrapped either. There's only this act, this scene, And the lines we dare to speak To an empty house filled with love.

    jaybird found this for you @ 23:41 in Journaling the Infinite | | permalink



    Totally weird: Sex, the final

    Totally weird: Sex, the final frontier, and we ain't goin' there, hun.

    Dr Rachel Armstrong, speaking yesterday at a British Interplanetary Society symposium on the Human Future and Space, said the US space agency Nasa was considering how to deal with the natural urges of astronauts travelling on long journeys such as a three-year trip to Mars, where the six-strong crew would be likely to include two women. "Nasa is talking about the chemical sterilisation of astronauts on longer journeys," Dr Armstrong said, in a talk discussing the problems humanity may face in trying to reach the planets and, eventually, the stars.

    jaybird found this for you @ 16:00 in Science, Quantum & Space | | permalink



    Sequestering carbon: For industrialised countries,

    Sequestering carbon:

    For industrialised countries, cuts of 90% or more would probably be needed, Professor Shepherd believes. Renewable energy could produce only about a fifth of the cuts needed, and so the world should research other methods, including possibly nuclear power and macro-engineering solutions. Professor Shepherd said these could range from storing ("sequestering") CO2 in deep aquifers or at depths of more than 3,000 metres (9,850 feet) in the oceans to mixing it with serpentine to produce magnesite and burying the resultant solid waste. He put the cost at $50 (42 euros) per tonne, and falling. Storing CO2 in trees and soils, as envisaged by the Kyoto Protocol, the international climate treaty, he estimated, could probably cope with no more than about 100 billion tonnes of carbon.

    jaybird found this for you @ 10:10 in Environment, Ecology & Nature | | permalink



    That was a bit spooky...

    That was a bit spooky... my screen door just opened and slammed shut of it's own accord. It's not a windy morning and it's secured rather tightly, so it'd have to take a rather strong animal to pull that off.

    I love the smell of phenomena in the morning...

    jaybird found this for you @ 07:13 in Journaling the Infinite | | permalink



    { Wednesday, 28 April, 2004 }

    This is a moblog post:

    This is a moblog post:

    0021.jpg

    Waiting under an irradescent sky for the next scene

    jaybird found this for you @ 18:05 in Live from the road... | | permalink



    Quantum Spirit: Being, Consciousness, and

    Quantum Spirit: Being, Consciousness, and Everything

    Idealists and realists alike long to discover a theory that is profound, simple, elegant, and free of counterintuitive insult and dualistic paradox. Is there something that when represented in phase with our scientific knowledge, theologies, and philosophies can resolve them into a unified theory of everything? Is there some common denominator, some underlying condition that is the basis and support for all that exists?

    jaybird found this for you @ 14:26 in Spirituality, Religion & Mythos | | permalink



    I'm not sure what to

    I'm not sure what to think of this, but the BBC sure loves glamorizing mobile phones to the nth degree: Asia puts faith in mobiles

    Mobiles phones are not usually seen in the West as a way of keeping in touch with God.
    But the growing popularity of communication technologies is providing a way for people in Asia to express their faith, say researchers.

    jaybird found this for you @ 07:06 in Spirituality, Religion & Mythos | | permalink



    { Tuesday, 27 April, 2004 }

    It's been a long day-

    It's been a long day- OT at work and about four hours rehearsing and just getting home. There's a freeze warning tonight, which really is disconcerting but spring's verve is stronger than winter's jealous claws.

    Tree pollen is starting to coat everything, even my keyboard. No, wait, don't go there. It's a wonderful sign that even more light and life await. May is my most favored month and I plan a wide array of cosmic outdoor activities,

    There is nothng at all going on in my life of the kind that 90% of the blog world posts. Everything is just peachy, and whenever there is more time, I'll set out some more creative work. Otherwise, you reading this right now is my equivalent of unzipping my brain and letting it flop about the bar, as I buy you a beer for listening.

    jaybird found this for you @ 22:49 in Misc. Babble | | permalink



    Virginia is having some issues:

    Virginia is having some issues:

    We're here to prove than when a U.S. state attacks the fundamental legal rights of gays and lesbians, gays and lesbians know how to fight back. Please join us in boycotting Virginia companies and their products and services. And by all means, don't take your tourism dollars there until they disprove their new slogan, "Virginia is for Haters."

    jaybird found this for you @ 15:28 in Gay, Lesbian, Queer & Free | | permalink



    Books > Sunday Book

    'The Spiral Staircase': Goodbye to God. Also Hello.


    Through her years at both convent and college, Armstrong was plagued by fainting spells. Sometimes she got lightheaded, and sometimes she smelled scents that weren't really there. The nuns had dismissed these faints as, alternately, spiritual failure and weak nerves. But the fainting only got worse as Armstrong proceeded through graduate school. She began a sort of sleepwalking -- she'd look down at her desk and find a cup of coffee that she couldn't remember making; or she'd realize that she was in the library and have no idea how she got there.

    jaybird found this for you @ 11:26 in Spirituality, Religion & Mythos | | permalink



    Laser-o-vision: A system that projects

    Laser-o-vision: A system that projects light beams directly into the eye could change the way we see the world.

    jaybird found this for you @ 07:15 in Science, Quantum & Space | | permalink



    { Monday, 26 April, 2004 }

    Had a wild barbecue party

    Had a wild barbecue party last night, complete with random Shakespeare and, well, antics and cosmic well-done braggadocio that were quite fun yet somewhat slipped through the grill memory-wise. Damn cider!

    It was a wonderful rainy day (I'm one of those weirdos that delight in wet weather). Tonight I have achieved nothing in large quantities, which is the compensation for the break-neck pace of the past few weeks. With the Complete Word of God (Abridged) show in the can and packed away, I'm now in the home stretch of rehearsals for Twelfth Night at NC Stage, opening next week (!). The speech at the Gay Rights rally is over, and soon, I'll only be down to a few major projects... two websites, and notably, finishing up all my doctoral work.

    I've been yawning all day, and at this very moment it's got the best of me. Some of you have said that you'd like to see more personal seepage here. Well, here ya go. It's exciting here and there with scattered dullness, and tonight, at your request, a bit of dullness.

    At least, for me, I've discovered that dullness can be deeply fulfilling in a Taoist way... indeed, in a rather silly way it's a measure of existence, for which great thanks is owed.

    jaybird found this for you @ 21:30 in Journaling the Infinite | | permalink



    Return of badger badger badger

    Return of badger badger badger mushroom mushroom: a live action take on the historic badger meme.
    [12 megs mpg, via monkeyfilter]

    jaybird found this for you @ 18:53 in Blogosphere, Tech & Internet | | permalink



    Tool use in birds and

    Tool use in birds and language use in animals.

    jaybird found this for you @ 15:07 in Environment, Ecology & Nature | | permalink



    The Sensory Homunculus [via

    The Sensory Homunculus [via MeFi]

    This model shows what a man's body would look like if each part grew in proportion to the area of the cortex of the brain concerned with its sensory perception.

    jaybird found this for you @ 11:24 in Consciousness, Psychology & Philosophy | | permalink



    This is what happens if

    This is what happens if you steal wood in Iraq (3mb wmv, via MeFi)

    This is a disturbing film from Frontline that will make you question about America's plan for 'democratization' in Iraq.

    jaybird found this for you @ 07:45 in News, Opinion & Politique | | permalink



    { Sunday, 25 April, 2004 }

    The rally went well (sparsely

    The rally went well (sparsely attended, maybe 100 peeps), and very good speeches. The speech was well received and felt very good to give. Thanks all for your support!

    jaybird found this for you @ 18:00 in Misc. Babble | | permalink



    This is a moblog post:

    This is a moblog post:

    0020.jpg

    Pride rally!

    jaybird found this for you @ 15:09 in Live from the road... | | permalink



    The two-spirit tradition in Native

    The two-spirit tradition in Native American experience

    The first step on the path to a two-spirit life was taken during childhood. The Papago ritual is representative of this early integration: If parents noticed that a son was disinterested in boyish play or manly work they would set up a ceremony to determine which way the boy would be brought up. They would make an enclosure of brush, and place in the center both a man’s bow and a woman’s basket. The boy was told to go inside the circle of brush and to bring something out, and as he entered the brush would be set on fire. “They watched what he took with him as he ran out, and if it was the basketry materials they reconciled [sic] themselves to his being a berdache.”

    jaybird found this for you @ 13:03 in Gay, Lesbian, Queer & Free | | permalink



    Going down, down, down

    Going down, down, down in a burning ring of fire

    The Hubble Space Telescope has seen a brilliant circle of bright blue stars in a rare example of a "ring galaxy" - the result of a galactic collision.

    jaybird found this for you @ 07:41 in Science, Quantum & Space | | permalink



    "Canto of a Setting Moon"

    The cockeyed smile of a ruddy crescent
    Drips a sweet star across the night
    Falling into my hand, a mystery,
    A lover's locket from a midnight sky.
    Tired eyes don't want to leave the window
    The honey-laden air that gossips
    With buds doubled with nectar
    Forces me awake longer...
    Why collapse in a heap of dreaming
    When there's a spectacle playing
    To the tune of young crickets
    And the softer music of stars dancing slow
    Just outside this thin wall
    Erected to keep the wild out...
    Yet this alive hour invites itself in the house
    And I'm more than eager,
    Night brought to visit with a cockeyed smile
    Turning down the light that summons fluttering wishes
    That keep vigil over an awakening world.

    jaybird found this for you @ 01:27 in Journaling the Infinite | | permalink



    { Saturday, 24 April, 2004 }

    "Sunday's Speech"

    I'll be speaking tomorrow at a Gay Rights rally downtown in response to the presence of a certain well-known hate-monger here in town. Below is the text of the speech. I wanted to focus on an un-angry call for unity and freedom to counter the invective and hatred that his entourage will likely dredge up. As always, my themes can't help but be global. I'm a globe-head.

    ----------------------

    Address to 2004 Asheville, N.C. Gay Rights Rally
    Rev. Theodore “Jay” Joslin

    WE STAND HERE TODAY, under this beautiful sky, enfolded in the comfort of verdant mountains bursting with new life, as a testament to the power of unity. It is through this coming together, with love as our beacon, that we shall endure and prosper over those who claim righteousness through hatred and bigotry. We stand to be counted as those who will not be divided by polarizing rhetoric or the politics of fear. We stand together in joy to proclaim that neither individuals, nor governments can assert a monopoly over morality and faith. For too long religion has been used as a weapon against us; now we stand to reclaim our human rights and among them, the inherent right to practice and interpret morality and faith on our terms. We ask that right not be hindered, but lauded by a nation renewed by a quest for freedom for all people. Boldly, may we seek the same protection for those who would oppress us; in our vigor to continue our struggle toward equality, we must not forgo the fairness we seek for ourselves.

    As we gather here to advocate for fairness and justice, may we understand that our struggle is not exclusively limited to the right to marry, the right to freedom from discrimination, or the right to be protected by the law. Our struggle, in order to be effective, must be locked arm in arm in solidarity will all like struggles for human rights; as we advance toward equality, we must not forget to march for women’s justice, to march for racial justice, to march for economic justice, to march for democracy, to march for the Earth. These movements are all linked by the universal birthright to grow, to evolve, to live free from fear of the unjust, and to live in harmony and accord with all those with whom we share our brief time on this delicate sphere as we dance around the sun.

    Our movement must also bring to awareness the fact that ours is not some new fangled fancy quest for special treatment. Indeed, that we are standing here speaks to the bravery of those who’ve made the way for us to trailblaze into the future. We must not forget them; we need to hearken to old traditions and forgotten histories in order to see ourselves in context. As the missionaries swept into the new world hundreds of years ago, the first fronts against our identities in America were opened as native cultures fell to the gun and the cross, using a distorted and hijacked interpretation of Christianity. The First Nations celebrated and affirmed our ancestors place in the tribe; they lived, worked, married in freedom, often with spiritual sanction as medicine men and women, healers, and walkers-between-the-worlds. They were the berdache, the winkte, the nadleehe, the mexoga, the hemaneh. The point is that Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and the Transgendered were preceded on the continent by those who were not exiled or ridiculed for their sexuality, but included and welcomed. Today, as we stand in the heart of the former Tsalagi Nation, no matter what family history moves through our blood, we stand for inclusiveness and welcoming again, and I do it the name of those who lived free before me.

    And that’s just America; on every continent on this glistening Earth, our traditions lived on in many ways in countless cultures, and to this day in Africa, Polynesia, Siberia, India and many other regions, native peoples persist in maintaining their cultures and our place within them despite the onslaught of judgementalism and mental insularity that is broadcasted daily from our western civilization-in-peril. Our duty to posterity is to change the message our civilization-in-peril broadcasts, starting right here, right now, in big and little ways.


    To achieve this end, there is no better advice than the old saying “be the change you wish to see in the world.” If you want a world of love and tolerance, be it, do it, night now. Do not allow your voice to be drowned out by hatred and vulgarity, but persevere in your song, no matter how awkward. Surely, as you be that change you wish to see, you will silently inspire others to take up the cause and be free from the yoke of conformity to a defeatist message of hopelessness and the distractions of banal minutiae that would attempt to lull society into passive acquiesce to a world gone mad. Be the change, and take back the message. Smile boldly in the face of those who would pronounce invective, and reply with the most revolutionary, the most powerful tool we as humans have inherited; love. Love’s power, like a swollen, raging spring river, can transform the face of the land simply by its nature. Stone gives way to steadfast love, just as rain gives way to the light, and hangs a rainbow in the sky as a promise of change and renewal. Love is why we’re standing today in unity, and love ultimately will win us through.

    There is an old song; “We are an old people, we are a new people, we are the same people, deeper than before.” It applies to all of us, gay or straight. We are an old people in that our identity has been validated by cultures and spiritual faiths across the globe, for thousands of years. We are a new people in that the challenges we face daily are unrivaled in history, and we must dare to invent new ways to trek toward freedom. We are the same people because time has not erased our kind; we love the way we do in the same ways that our ancestors loved, our orientations are not some quirk of fate but biologically, sociologically and spiritually justified, though we need no excuse to be who we are.

    We are deeper than before because we as a species continue to grow and evolve, we become further enmeshed in the mysteries of existence and the ardor of the cosmos. Freedom means more to us now than ever before, and little by little, as our work moves fear to give way to love, may we use it wisely. As we stand today for human rights, may we use the freedom won by our efforts justly, and in love’s holy name, never allow it to be denied again.

    Thank you.

    jaybird found this for you @ 23:07 in Journaling the Infinite | | permalink



    The Ern Malley Poetry Hoax:

    The Ern Malley Poetry Hoax: The greatest literary hoax of the twentieth century was concocted by a couple of Australian soldiers at their desks in the offices of the Victoria Barracks in Melbourne, land headquarters of the Australian army, on a quiet Saturday in October 1943.

    "Ern's" poems here. [via monkeyfilter]

    jaybird found this for you @ 19:54 in Authors, Books & Words | | permalink



    This is a moblog post:

    This is a moblog post:

    0018.jpg

    Beauty thrives where it is least sought

    CONTEXT: When on a walk along the river today, I found this swarm of butterflies busily attending to a pile of horseshit. Of course, it's a bit funny to our general biological prejudices, but it was the most beautiful scene... so many butterflies, swirling through the air and alighting on this one peculiar spot, making use of something we humans cringe at. I stayed and watched in utter astonishment, and had just enough time to fire off a moblog post before they all flew off and the sky was a blaze of yellow. Leaving, of course, a supposedly ordinary and typically rueful pile of horseshit.

    jaybird found this for you @ 16:22 in Live from the road... | | permalink



    A nice way to start

    A nice way to start your day, if hungover from the cast party: a meditation on right now

    jaybird found this for you @ 09:49 in Spirituality, Religion & Mythos | | permalink



    { Friday, 23 April, 2004 }

    This is a moblog post:

    This is a moblog post:

    0017.jpg

    The things I do for theater...

    jaybird found this for you @ 20:12 in Live from the road... | | permalink



    For Japanese Hostages, Release Only

    For Japanese Hostages, Release Only Adds to Stress

    The first three hostages, including a woman who helped street children on the streets of Baghdad, first appeared on television two weeks ago as their knife-brandishing kidnappers threatened to slit their throats. A few days after their release, they landed here on Sunday, in the eye of a peculiarly Japanese storm.

    jaybird found this for you @ 16:12 in News, Opinion & Politique | | permalink



    Shakespeare's Coined Words Now Common

    Shakespeare's Coined Words Now Common Currency

    • Method in the madness
    • Neither rhyme nor reason
    • One fell swoop
    • Seen better days
    • It smells to heaven

    jaybird found this for you @ 12:06 in Authors, Books & Words | | permalink