Rare Bob Dylan Footage - The Times They Are A-Changin

This version of this incredible song- which has so often been the one that fits as we tumble through time and stumble into new realities- sounds like the song did when I first heard it many years ago, on a slightly scratchy vinyl LP that was played over and over and over again. All night long. I am finding the bare boned unenhanced Dylan soothing, just the thing for right now, comforting in its depth and familiarity. Know and remember that it is true, we can get through whatever comes our way. Change is part of the story, always.

homeland

Sometimes- times like now- when things are unsettled and divided all around or sometimes just when I see changes in the landscape, or turn to the wrong radio station or think about the war and the fact that Americans have become torturers, or hear the voice of just about anyone within the current administration, I can feel so damned alienated from this land of ours and it seems like it will never feel like home again. But then there are the little things, different for all of us I'm sure, for me it happens for me when by chance I hear certain songs- Simon and Garfunkle's "America", for one-or when I catch the scent of the Atlantic ocean on the fog, or go to a big city and watch all the different people going about their business and, then, unexpectedly, I will feel a rush of gratitude and good fortune for being here, in the U.S., a thankfulness for the past and for the future, for the possibilities and dreams that may be battered but not yet relinquished. There's something about this poem that kindles that feeling. Despite the conceit of its Eurocentric premise, the words are just so powerful and so beautiful that I think it speaks to everyone here on this soil, all of us whose lives are the stories that shape our land, a place not yet done becoming.

The Gift Outright
- Robert Frost

The land was ours before we were the land's.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In Massachusetts, in Virginia,
But we were England's, still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed by what we now no more possessed.
Something we were withholding made us weak
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright
(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)
To the land vaguely realizing westward,
But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,
Such as she was, such as she would become.

The Chimeras

The Chimeras
-W.H. Auden

Absence of heart- as in public buildings,
Absence of mind- as in public speeches,
Absence of words- as in goods intended for the public,

Are telltale signs that a chimera has just dined
On someone else; of him poor foolish fellow,
Not a scrap is left, not even his name.

Indescribable- being neither this nor that,
Uncountable- being any number,
Unreal- being anything but what they are,

And ugly customers for someone to encounter,
It is our fault entirely if we do;
They cannot touch us; it is we who will touch them.

Curious from wantonness- to see what they are like,
Cruel from fear- to put a stop to them,
Incredulous from conceit- to prove they cannot be,

We prod or kick or measure and are lost;
The stronger we are the sooner it is over;
It is our strength with which they gobble us up.

If someone, being chaste, brave, humble.
Get by them safely, he is still in danger,
With pity remembering what once they were,

Of turning back to help them. Don?t.
What they were once was what they would not be;
Not liking what they are not is what now they are.

No one can help them; walk on, keep on walking,
And do not let your goodness self-deceive you;
It is good that they are but not that they are thus.

Take Sarah Palin, Please!

Recently a friend asked why some Democratic women harbor such antipathy towards Sarah Palin. Is it that she is not Hillary? Is it something more?

My first thought in answering this was that I do not want Sarah Palin to lead our country because she is stupid. Crafty, yes, and shrewd, but lacking in breadth and depth, a small mind in her own small world, centered on things black, white, punitive and restricting. But such an answer is too crude and flip. I expanded my thoughts, and I am posting them here.

My feelings about Sarah Palin have nothing to do with Hillary, and everything to do with leadership.

Looking at John McCain these days, it seems apparent that his health is suffering from the stress of the campaign. I would not be at all surprised if he has undisclosed health problems that will surface within the next months or years. We must choose a vice president with the confidence that, if necessary, this person could make a seamless transition to President of the United States, the most difficult and challenging role imaginable.

I don’t want a leader who brings the role of world leader down to the level of a fourth grader, which is what, I am sorry to say, Sarah Palin does. I don’t want a “WallMart” politician whose strongest asset is relating to the average citizen. I am sorry if it sounds “elitist”, but what I want is a LEADER.

I want a leader whose wisdom and learning goes far beyond mine, someone who takes the time to learn about the world and the cultures of its people, someone who understands the nuances of diplomacy, someone who is solidly versed in the basics and complexities of economics. Someone with expansive open ended thinking who is comfortably familiar with the history of this country and the world, someone who will recognize the pitfalls of repeating disastrous patterns. Someone who has taken the time to study policy and can trace the roots of current political processes and policies to the great thinkers who laid the foundations of our country Someone who truly understands the responsibilities that come with leadership.

I want someone who can think on his or her feet, pulling in knowledge from sources and books that I don’t even know exist. Someone who truly values education, and will support our students and our schools, someone who measures educational progress through more equitable and meaningful criteria than improved standardized test scores. I want a leader who is a statesman, a scholar, a diplomat a negotiator. I want someone who values life in the broadest sense, not just the fetal sense. I want a leader who will work with others to devise an affordable health care system that will be available to every American. Someone who will strive towards the impossible goal of helping the citizens of this country reach their full potential. Someone who sees the dangerous road we are on where wealth, resources, and ultimately power,accumulate in the hands of the chosen few.

I want someone who has worked hard to achieve a leadership position through years of both formal education and hands-on experience. I want someone who has sacrificed for knowledge, a person whose vision is not limited by self interest and reaches beyond the United States to every corner of the world. Someone who knows the geography of the world, can mentally position where countries are in the world, knows the names and positions of world leaders and where they stand in relation to one another. I want someone has made the effort to learn about diverse systems of government, someone who can let go of the notion of American isolationism and be willing to learn from, and work with, other people and other countries to explore new ways of solving problems. I want someone believes government is by the people, for the people and of the people, and that that is something good and valuable, not to be disparaged or demeaned.

So that’s my ideal. Obviously not Sarah Palin. Not even close. I do not want her speaking for me.

Mario Frangoulis in Concert‏

Message from the Greek Institute:

Mario Frangoulis in Concert

October 30, 2008
Cutler Majestic Theatre at Emerson College
219 Tremont St. Boston, MA 02116

Tickets: 1-800/233-3123
or visit Telecharge.com

Theatre website:
www.maj.org

Bebe

I met Bebe two years ago. He was not young, and his life had been difficult and abusive. My sister heard about him through Maltese rescue and, as she already had two dogs , she was hesitant to commit to a third and decided to foster him until he could find a loving home. Of course, that decision went by the wayside once she met him and fell in love. He was not in good health, his body was covered with sores and benign tumors, he had been kicked so much his spleen was enlarged and he had liver damage. When I met him he had just been released from the vet’s and was shaved and stitched and looking like Franken pup. I set him on my lap and we drove that way all the way to southern Florida. I bonded with him in a way that I had not with my sister’s other small white dogs, even though he bit me hard when I inadvertently touched his sore body. It hurt like hell, but I forgave him. I understood this scrappy dog, Bebe had soul. He was just so damned grateful for every crumb of attention, every act of kindness. In his previous life (as Hank) Bebe had been taught to perform, he could walk on his hind legs, twirl around and dance, he was very skilled at this, and seemed to enjoy it. This is how I will remember him, dancing for cheese.

bonnie prince billy

I find I just keep wanting to hear this song!

Horses
- Will Oldham
-Bonnie "Prince" Billy

I'd be riding horses if they let me
sleep outside at night and not take fright
I would ride the range and never worry
I would disappear into the night

Everybody needs an angel
but here's that devil by my side
Deaths head ring upon his finger
poor boy hanging on the light

They'll be drawing straws inside the courtroom
as the sudden twilight turns to black
torches burn into the sad eyes
on the wrong side of the track
make those horses jump through hoops of flames
they won't kick and they won't scream
let the good lord do the driving
while the poor boy sinks in the stream

I can smell the campfires burning
but I'll go out walking on my own
by day and night the world keeps turning
frightened people hiding in their homes

yikes!

*

I have been mopey , empty, sadly misty gray as if I am this day, without even a peek of sunshine ,watching the wind blow the leaves from the trees , all about endings, that unfocused dread, and I found myself staring into the cupboard trying to decide if I had the energy to pop corn or whether I would just plunge a spoon into the peanut butter jar- but then I had a simple thought: September is not December. The heat may not be as intense, the flowers as prolific or the colors as varied, but there is still time. So I ran out of the house, took a long walk and -Oy! What did I do? I went to the gym and made a commitment to exercise. And now I must change the mental tape to the one that says I think I can, I think I can.

Religious Literacy (or not)

A few months back, a friend recommended Stephen Prothero's book, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know-and Doesn't.

The book is based on the premise that American people, while professing great religiosity, are actually incredibly ignorant of the foundations and teachings of all religions, including Christianity. Prothero argues that such ignorance has a high social cost. He makes a case for "religious education", not in the sense of dogma or indoctrination, but as a tool for understanding the teachings, symbols and "scripts" that underlay various religious beliefs and may motivate people to action. It's a good book-somewhat heavy on the Judeo Christian, and lacking in other traditions, but well worth reading. If you are interested in learning more, click the title of this post to visit the author's website

Anyhow, there is a section in the book that gives examples of our ignorance and commonly held misconceptionsand I thought I would lighten up this afternoon by posting a few of Prothero's findings.

(figures are from what Prothero calls "scientific survey" and are footnoted, but I am not going to include sources here)

10% of Americans believe that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife.

Only 10% of American teenagers can name all five major world religions and 15% cannot name any.

Nearly two thirds of Americans believe that the Bible holds the answer to all or most of life's basic questions, yet only half of
American adults can name even one of the four Gospels and most Americans cannot name the first book of the Bible.

8% of teenager responding to a Gallup poll believed that Moses was one of the 12 apostles

When asked whether the Bible locates Jesus' birthplace as Jerusalem (it does not), 60% of evangelical Protestants and 51% of Jews answered yes.

In 1982, while the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit was debating whether the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishnas) was a religion, they said that the Bhagavad Gita (a Hindu scripture) is ?as important in the Buddhist religions (sic) as the Bible is to Christians and Jews?.

Most Americans have difficulty distinguishing between Hinduism and Buddhism and only a tiny minority can name a single scripture from any Asian religion.

He also includes "unscientific" bloopers of the sort that circulate among teachers. Apocryphal, but funny, (in a somewhat sad way).

The epistles were the wives of the apostles.

Jesus enunciated the Golden Rule, which says do one to others before they do one to you. He also explained: Man does not live by sweat alone.

Moses led the Jews to the Red Sea where they made unleavened bread, which is bread without any ingredients.

The Egyptians were all drowned in the desert. Afterwards, Moses went up Mount Cyanide to get the Ten Commandments.

Moses died before he ever reached Canada. Then Joshua led the Hebrews in the Battle of Geritol.

St. Paul cavorted to Christianity. He preached holy acrimony, which is another name for marriage.

Name Days for September

September 1 - Simeon
September 3 - Anthimos
September 4 - Moisi, Ermionis
September 5 - Zaxarios, Zacharias
September 8 - Gennisi tis Theotokos
September 9 - Ioakeim & Annis
September 11 - Evathia (Eve)
September 13 - Kornilios, Aristeidos, Kornilia
September 14 - Ypsosi tos Timios Stauros, Stavros (Steven)
September 15 - Nikita
September 16 - Eyfimias
September 17 - Sofias, Pisteos, Agapis, Elpidas, Sofia, Agapi, Elpida
September 18 - Eumenios, Ariadnis (Ariadne)
September 20 - Eustathios, Stathis
September 22 - Fokas
September 23 - Sullipsi Prodromos
September 24 - Theklas, Thekla
September 25 - Eyfrosinis
September 26 - Metastasi Ioannos Euaggelistos
September 27 - Kallistratos
September 29 - Kuriakos, Kiriakos