see moonflowerdragon

 
 

How I have been seeing god & religion ...

See an elephant ... a really BIG elephant. It is everything.

See a person standing close to the tip of its trunk - say the flaring
of the trunk touches his/her shoulder. See a dozen people along the
trunk in contact with it in different ways. See people on the
elephant, laying, standing sitting, handstands. See people under the
elephant from head to tail, even underfoot. See people leaning on the
legs in different ways, climbing them even. See people in contact
with the tail, even standing in droppings.

Now focus on some of these people, see their thoughts - one sees an
elephant, one sees Ganesha, one sees Buddha, one sees the old man in
the clouds, one sees bright light, one sees Hern, one sees light
through clouds, one sees Christ crucified, one sees Christ bathed in
light, what other images of god/s do we have, some see themselves in
relation to their god - being hugged, being hurt, being poked, being
patted, being held in its palm, being held on a leash, bowing, having
tea together, playing chess, being played like a chess piece. Now see
some of these people imagining other people - see their speech bubbles
- one or two might be of what they see, but many are are speaking of
other things: instructions, rituals, ??? See two people very close,
same contact with the elephant same image in mind, different speech.
See another two people very different contact with the elephant,
different images in mind, talking to each other and speeches
consistent.

See one there listening? Maybe two? I wonder what is in their thought bubble?

Now let's fade out the elephant image and see these people going about
living - what are they doing? Some preaching, some teaching, mothers
& fathers caring for children, cooking, farming, butchering,
paperpushing, thieving, killing, eating, swimming, nursing, hitting,
building, painting, praying, gossiping, casting spells, partying,
loving, writing. What are they each thinking?

See their faces: happy, sad, angry, joyful, serious, silly, afraid, serene.

Scan the elephant gradually back into the picture, see the elephant
get bigger and bigger so that its image overlays the people, larger
and larger so we see less and less of the outline of the elephant,
'til we don't see its edge anymore.

It is everything.

Spring cleaning

I haven't yet found a poem that will inspire me to industrious spring cleaning.

Perhaps Sandy Shreve's will help when I eventually get to the paper piles as long as I don't think of the last five lines.

Maybe this one?  (for which I thank google for sending me to - maxwell at apartment therapy)

Love Song

Sweep the house clean,
hang fresh curtains
in the windows
put on a new dress
and come with me!
The elm is scattering
its little loaves
of sweet smells
from a white sky!

Who shall hear of us
in the time to come?
Let him say there was
a burst of fragrance
from black branches.

--William Carlos Williams, Al Que Quiere! The Four Seas Company: Boston, 1917

Okay, so it is a bit light on the cleaning side but the rest of it is tempting - particularly right now.

I wish my own spring cleaning didn't get so much like Lori Boulard describes.  Or ninepatch.

I don't know whether David Keig's encourages or discourages me, for I'd never cut it as a 1950's wife!  Indeed thanks to Dr Gaye Bland I know that my own sentiment is more like that of Emily Dickinson who apparently wrote "House is being 'cleaned,' I prefer pestilence."  No, I don't feel that way, but it sounds like Emily was referring to someone else doing the cleaning ... I wouldn't be complaining!

Has anyone else discovered that google is a great tool for the procrastinator?  Easier to self-justify than Zuma or Dynomite.

Okay mum's here to go shopping, procrastination complete!

Showed mum Roy's photo... "oh ... He's a nice looking chap" she says.  "And beautiful daughters."

Hallelujah

Okay so I don't know any non-religious exclamations that might express my joyous relief!

I finally got that @#$%^&*! multimedia assignment finished - twenty minutes ago!

< deep, joyous sigh of relief >

Fascination

"Fascination" ... yep that word pretty much covers it.

Little did I suspect that forcing myself to dial and request data for that @#$%^&*! multimedia assignment would result in the most fascinating conversation I have enjoyed in years?.... mmmm ... yeah since that last in-depth with Ceccy I believe!

Thanks Roy www.abcguide.com.au. 

That conversation put me into a fascinated daze for hours after, slightly delaying progress on the assignment, I'll finish it tomorrow ... oops I mean later today.

"Listening to You" at Multnomah County Library & clioinstitute

Remember Tame the Web?  Next I followed Michael to "Listening to You," at Multnomah County Library.  I like the idea of including user comments on a library website.  Apparently Michael found that site through the clioinstitute blog and I didn't want to stop with a quick skim there - I want to read more ... "inspiring libraries to inspire communities "! ... just these recent posts beg for me to surf more:

• Library Trends with Discussion Questions
• Marketing Your Expertise Online
• How is technology affecting the ability to learn
• Video testimonials give vibrance to an online strategic plan
• Enriching print content with podcasts
• Using a library website to share strategic plan updates
• Management Trends

When will I get the time?

The Future of Libraries from the DaVinci Institute

One of the other example blogs from that workshop I mentioned last time was It's all good.  And from there, Alane sent me to The Future of Libraries: Beginning the Great Transformation.  Fascinating notions.  Definitely another link for that web-directory.

Hennepin County Libraries

When creating a mini web-directory recently purely as an assignment for my Diploma of Information and Library Services I found so many fascinating websites that might be useful or interesting to other library students it was hard to stop myself surfing for more than needed for the assignment.   In the process I subscribed to get bloglets from Peter Scott's Library Blog. The only item that caught my curiosity today was the link to presentations from the Conference and Exhibition "Internet Librarian 2005". I'll be wanting to check out more of those but the path I followed first was Workshop 9 — Advanced Weblogs: Applications, Technology, Cases whose "Quick, Quick, Quick Intro to Blogs and RSS" gave Tame the Web: Libraries and Technology as a blog example, where I found '10 Things I Learned at Internet Librarian 2005' #8 of which connected with me so I visited Hennepin County Library .

I liked it and wanted to note it. So let's just hope that till I have somewhere else to journal it, it ends up at moonflowerdragon.

--
I am guided by two apparently disparate philosophies:

       "Peace *will* enter your life, but you
       need to clear a spot for her to sit down."

and:

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of
arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to
skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, champagne in the other, body
thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a
ride!"