Saturday, 15 February, 2003...........................................................

"Valentining"

Valentine's day usually finds me hiding under a rock or with a bag over my head, but this year I kept my stubbly chin upwards and focused on global love, earthly romance and galactic passions. Which I think went over better than cowering under the covers waiting for the day to end.

Some time ago, I was told of an account of a Valentine, perhaps not the St. Valentine, that I really enjoy. There was an elderly monk, living in some small cabin somewhere in Europe. He was a recluse, who rarely ventured into town and never spoke. Upon his death, as villagers inspected the cabin, they found that every corner, crevice, and nook was filled with tiny notes. There were hundreds of notes, and each one recalled a different villager, and the qualities that Valentine found admirable and praiseworthy about them. Thus was born the tradition of sending cards to those we love, reminding us of the goodness within all. How sweet.


Last night saw the release of the self-titled album by Jen Wo, a thoroughly orignal and creative work by a thoroughly original and creative spirit. The mood at the gala-event was celebratory, much jubilation and frivolity, and this little kitten is going to go very, very far. I'm very proud of her... she's one of my best friends and such a sweet little sprite.

Today, people around the world are mobilizing for peace. Which is a very natural way to follow up a day when we celebrate love. May Peace proceed in love's wake.

jaybird wrote this at 13.52 EST| entry link| your thoughts?|

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♥

On the Nature of Love

"The noblest sort of Love is that which exists between persons who love each other in God." ~Abû Muhammad ‘Alee ibn Ahmad ibn Sa‘eed ibn Hazm

via metafilter.com

jaybird wrote this at 00.07 EST| entry link| your thoughts?|

Friday, 14 February, 2003...........................................................

Fighting Iraq which may or may not have chemical weapons with... U.S. Chemical Weapons! Genius!

jaybird wrote this at 16.34 EST| entry link| your thoughts?|

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"Tubside Whirlygigs"

Slipping into the bath to ease a headache, with all in the house very quiet except for Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" playing to a sleeping cat, I relaxed and dissolved. It's been a long while since I've been able to detatch from things so effectively. Even with so many interesting pieces of news sliding under the door of my life, nothing was there to distract me.

While I melted away, some thoughts spiraled softly by, that I didn't really catch until towling off with my reconstituted feet on the ground and the jazz fading to long-ago applause. Like dandelion puffs, you don't notice them on the breeze until they've already blown out of reach. But you get the idea.

In the past two thousand or so years of civilization, there have been many empires, paradigms and ways of thinking and living that have given the world it's present shape. There are so many ways to analyze and quantify the causes and effects that have led up to right now, but a simple, two-fold approach could be to say that we have either lived in pleasure at the expense of others or lived in sacrifice for the pleasure of others. However, on a mass-scale, humanity has yet to emrace living with pleasure in balance with and even for the benefit of others.

For example, here in the West virutally all of our commodities are brought to us via the labor of others. Those others sacrifice their time in order that we may have them. To compesate them for time, we give them money, which may satisfy short-term needs but ultimately sows discord and displeasure because of it's scarcity. Yet, because society constrains itself and it's resources in the pursuit of capital, it is unable to balance itself with the needs of the Earth, the needs of it's people, and the needs of it's own evolution.


This is an overly simplistic model but the point is that we have yet to explore globally and generally the option of attaining personal fulfillment without destabilizing the local physical, social, emotional and spiritual environment. To evole, we must grow our abilities as a species to be self-reliant and increasingly inventive; we must engender radical inventiveness, thinking "with" rather then "at" problems.

Additionally, our creativity is progressively astounding. We are artistically becoming bolder as a society; but how to personify that trend, to encourage everyone, perceived abilities aside, to live uniquely and have the tools to do it? How can it be done without causing others to sacrifice?


Those and other silly things swirled around me and the soap suds, whirlygigging possibility afer possibility, until all the possibilties went down the drain on their long journey home, and the purple towel hung back on the hook. I feel hopeful that, although a dark cloud hangs over the world, that the sun is on the other side of it... after stormy weather if we keep looking up and dreaming on, there could very well be a rainbow to dance under, a love supreme.

jaybird wrote this at 00.39 EST| entry link| your thoughts?|

Thursday, 13 February, 2003...........................................................

"Redesign"

Thanks to an email by "johnb," I was alerted to the possible difficulty others may have in viewing this site with light letters on a black background. So, we're a little grey around the edges now. Whoever you may be reading this, drop a line or post a comment with your suggestions for easy reading. Thanks!

jaybird wrote this at 18.38 EST| entry link| your thoughts?|

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"War on Terrible"

I'm so happy that the US is fighting terror with terror. It behooves the guvmint to scare the living bejezzus out of people to make it seem like it's being responsible. Isn't frightening the population to advance an agenda the exact same thing as, ahem, terrorism?

And once Gen. Tommy rolls into Iraq, lobbing 800 cruise missiles in two days at a city of 5.8 million folk, 3 million of which are children, I'm sure those stubborn nations that didn't lovingly endorse American foreign policy will gladly and glibly rush forward to salute the flag. Sagging ratings, Mr. President? How about a little international carnage to brighten your day and to proove to disbelievers how big your club is? How about a little bone throwing and bison-spearing to push those electoral votes over the top?

What will it take for the political paradigm to evolve beyond the high-tech neanderthalism and primate-style territorial imperative that has mired th Earth in such dangerous muck? Will we have to be collectively dragged down the drain of a doomsday scenario of multi-front wars, famine, poverty, disease and overall global bad taste before the majority dig in our heels and declare "no more!"

Just think; a it only takes one gesture to change the world. Let's wave hello to eachother, smile a bit, and despite the vitriol and agitation that sticks to the pot of politics, stir a little love into the equation.
If there must be war, let's have a "war on terrible" and reclaim the joy this world was written with.

Let's do something...

jaybird wrote this at 18.32 EST| entry link| your thoughts?|

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"Unwanted Dreams"

I just forced myself awake from the most awful dreamstate i've had in a while. I don't know what it all means, but I think it was a psychic reaction against the concept of beef jerky. Vicious, it was.


Tonight, a whopping two people showed up for the writer's group, which in a way was good; my words were scrambled and I was too tired to talk. I've also been battling the powers of the internet, trying to send my graphics to the publisher. I also battled slow people on the road, violent people at work... rather like a mid-term test of wills.


I don't know if today has a theme, but if the dream has anything to do with it, it's not pretty. I'm going to petition my brain for relief, enjoyment, and even sweetness to prevail for a while, in the welcoming arms of hopefully sounder sleep.

jaybird wrote this at 01.18 EST| entry link| your thoughts?|

Tuesday, 11 February, 2003...........................................................

"Digging the Immaterial"

I'm pleased as punch, happy as a clam, joy-filled as a jumble of love juice. The book is done, and what's more, it's "in." I'll get a production schedule in a few days.

I'm trying to be mellow and humble about the whole thing, but, damn, it's exciting. I hope it will be useful... Thank you, everyone, who have made this possible.

jaybird wrote this at 22.30 EST| entry link| your thoughts?|

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figured out

jaybird wrote this at 19.22 EST| entry link| your thoughts?|

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figure this out... i'm stumped.

jaybird wrote this at 19.18 EST| entry link| your thoughts?|

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State Can Make Inmate Sane Enough to Execute... latest human rights bonus!

jaybird wrote this at 12.31 EST| entry link| your thoughts?|

Monday, 10 February, 2003...........................................................

"Mastery"

At work, where I constantly straddle either occupational burnout or mad fits of enthusiasm, I worked with a client today that did nothing but laugh. That's all she does. She cannot talk though she understands some language fairly well when paired with gestures. Her laugh didn't seem like some monotone, automated schizo-script, but as if everything around her were truly funny. It was not mocking, but that giddy, joyfilled laugh of a crazy guru or mystic clown. Another client turned towards me frequently with a penetrating stare to say "happy!" in an increasingly excited pitches.

The workshop is a depressing place, but if these folks can find joy there, even transcendance, while the staff moans about quitting time and various drama, who there is truly the master?

On a far less moving note, I'm tweaking font colors to make things more pleasant on the eye. If you stumble upon this and have any recommendations, lemme know.

jaybird wrote this at 18.54 EST| entry link| your thoughts?|

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Bill O'Reilly calls the ACLU "terrorist" for supporting a gay-straight alliance club. Thanks for the handbasket, Bill. Idiot.

jay wrote this at 12.35 EST| entry link| your thoughts?|

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Rumsfeld disowned.

jay wrote this at 12.29 EST| entry link| your thoughts?|

Sunday, 9 February, 2003...........................................................

"Youtopia"

At the Early Girl Eatery for brunch, had a really good conversation with Sherman about Utopia/Dystopia. The question is whether as we advance consciously, will following human nature lead society to some sort of planetary zenith, or some sort of individual spiritual pinnacle? My take is that our current global paradigm, something of a myopia, is not self-sustaining, and eventually most of it will crumble either via revolution or "under it's own weight." It is likely not be a single event but rather a long series of social-politial-economic breakdowns/breakups (that's already underway, somewhat). Once the collapse has stabilized, the air will be ripe for a quantum leap in personal psycho-spiritual evolution, that rather than taking a single shape, will blossom in myriad forms and phases.


I do believe that despite our want of certain dogmas to have the heave-ho, they must remain to an extent because evolution demands variation, and for any one worldview to dominate a new paradigm would be counter-productive. What ceases to be useful will eventually perish, and while for sentimental reasons this can be distressing, all systems must adapt and change. If it's true with moths, it must be true for movements and ideas. Yet there is no ultimate answer; no one knows the Big Truth, so let's honor our little truths and be on Earth together, learning from eachother while we can.

What I'd like to forsee is a great dialog of the world's philosophies, meeting somewhere in the middle for tea then going about their business trying to survive and be happy. Singular interpretation of life and it's mysteries is part of the crisis we're in right now; western history is written with too few hands. Collective participation while maintaining, celebrating and expanding cultural identity seems to be a viable path for growth. That's cultural identity without ignorance, politicizing, marginalizing, and playing the same stale, bloody game of oneupsmanship. Is it possible for there to be an era based upon the idea that we wake up, realize that life is a miracle not to be squandered on petty differences but on common, inborn natural needs to grow and love?

Seems as if that's what most religions, philosophies, and prophecies of the world are aiming at, in a nutshell. That's natural enough for me.

Meanwhile, here's more about 'topias and the shift in global consciousness.

jay wrote this at 15.20 EST| entry link| your thoughts?|

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"Technicalities"

Silicone-driven things are befuddling to me today. At church, we had feedback like all get out. There was nothing I knew how to do, other than to kill the mikes. Now, I'm trying to convert the site to XML but IE6 won't view it; Netscape is loading fine. Imagine that.

We plunged thirty pages into the book last night; I think the end is in sight. The cover is ready [all 9 megs of it] and the formatting looks nice. Hopefully, by this time next week, I'll have my first book being printed. Yippie.

Today, I'll rest until typing time. I need to pay some bills, but... I've been neglecting my finances because... I don't want to know. I think I'm ok but the greenbacks are historically my #1 stressor. If ya think about it, they're actually the world's #1 stressor. Would we be in this eschatological mess without 'em?


I beg to differ that $ makes the world go round, but makes us go round the world. Just another one of those technicalities that keeps us clamoring and nauseous at the gates of Paradise.

jay wrote this at 11.42 EST| entry link| your thoughts?|