Mother Mary
Originally uploaded by paynehollow.
Monday, May 29, 2006
Friday, May 26, 2006
Happy Birthday, Ralph Waldo and Rachel!
Yesterday was Ralph Waldo Emerson's birthday. Tomorrow is Rachel Carson's. Great writers and thinkers ought to be remembered along with their words.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803-1882)
Emerson, along with Thoreau, Margaret Fuller and others made up the Transcendentalists. A description of Transcendentalism in the words of Ralph Waldo, "We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds...A nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men."
More quotes from Emerson:
Commerce is of trivial import; love, faith, truth of character, the aspiration of man, these are sacred.
Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.
Good men must not obey the laws too well.
As we grow old…the beauty steals inward.
Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Rachel Carson
(1907-1964)
Rachel Carson is sometimes called the Mother of the Modern Environmental movement, she published Silent Spring in 1962, alerting folk to the dangers of pesticides. She had an excellent way of writing about detailed and complex scientific issues in beautifully poetic language.
Some samples:
The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.
To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down the surf lines of the continents for untold thousands of year, to see the running of the old eels and the young shad to the sea, is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be.
Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life.
=====
Happy Birthday Rachel and Ralph, the world is richer for their work and your works.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803-1882)
Emerson, along with Thoreau, Margaret Fuller and others made up the Transcendentalists. A description of Transcendentalism in the words of Ralph Waldo, "We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds...A nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men."
More quotes from Emerson:
Commerce is of trivial import; love, faith, truth of character, the aspiration of man, these are sacred.
Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.
Good men must not obey the laws too well.
As we grow old…the beauty steals inward.
Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Rachel Carson
(1907-1964)
Rachel Carson is sometimes called the Mother of the Modern Environmental movement, she published Silent Spring in 1962, alerting folk to the dangers of pesticides. She had an excellent way of writing about detailed and complex scientific issues in beautifully poetic language.
Some samples:
The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.
To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down the surf lines of the continents for untold thousands of year, to see the running of the old eels and the young shad to the sea, is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be.
Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life.
=====
Happy Birthday Rachel and Ralph, the world is richer for their work and your works.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Mary Wollstonecraft quote
Mary Wollstonecraft, author and mother of Mary Shelley (who wrote Frankenstein - one of my faves) said:
No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.
Discuss, if you so desire.
No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.
Discuss, if you so desire.
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Jeff Street String Band
Jeff Street String Band
Originally uploaded by paynehollow.
Today we had our annual Earth Day Hootenanny and Dinner on the Ground at church. I know, Earth Day was last month, we always have ours about a month late. It's just our way.
Check out more info at the Jeff Street blog.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Bike to Work Day!!!
Roger Cycling the Loveland Trail
Originally uploaded by paynehollow.
Friday is Louisville's Bike to Work Day. The weather here in Kentucky is crisp and cool and practically begs you to leave your car at home (or maybe even give it to a worthy cause) and engage the Green World outside our doors.
I leave you with Edward Abbey's words:
It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it's still here. So get out there and hunt and fish [AND BIKE - dan] and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for awhile and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space.
Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: You will outlive the bastards.
"Breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air," or at least as much of it as you're likely to find in your community.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Happy Mothers Day
Happy Mothers Day
Originally uploaded by paynehollow.
To my mom, Mary and my kids' mom, Donna. What a lucky guy I am.
Happy Mothers Day!
Having seen this over at Marty's place, I thought I'd share the wealth. Julia Ward Howe, the author of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," wrote this powerful speech in the days following the Civil War (from which Mothers Day sprung as an anti-war effort!)
Great stuff, thanks Marty.
=====
Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!
Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says "Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.
Julia Ward Howe
Boston, 1870
Great stuff, thanks Marty.
=====
Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!
Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says "Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.
Julia Ward Howe
Boston, 1870
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Whaddya Wanna Bet They Squander It?
Right now, with Bush's ratings flushing ever closer to the 20's%, the Dems are enjoying a significant lead in polls. From CNN:
NEW YORK President Bush’s job approval rating has fallen to 29%, its lowest mark of his presidency, and down 6% in one month, according to a new Harris poll. And this was before Thursday's revelations about NSA phone surveillance.
Of 1,003 U.S. adults surveyed in a telephone poll, 29% think Mr. Bush is doing an “excellent or pretty good” job as president, down from 35% in April and 43% in January.
Roughly one-quarter of U.S. adults say “things in the country are going in the right direction,” while 69% say “things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track.”
=====
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A CNN poll released Wednesday may continue the anxiety for the GOP, showing Democrats with a 14-point advantage over Republicans among registered voters asked their preferences in this year's midterm elections.
The poll, conducted for CNN by Opinion Research Corp., found that 52 percent of respondents who were registered voters said they were leaning toward voting for a Democrat, while 38 percent said they were leaning toward a Republican.
======
But knowing the Democrats, they'll mumble and bumble around, fail to come up with a definitive voice that sets them apart from the Republicans, and the races this fall will be closer than they ought to be.
I still think things look bad for the Republicans - they've done so much wrong - this should be a shoo-out of the Ghastly Oligarchy Party and a shoo-in for people with new and better plans and some sense of morality and courage.
But I have my doubts.
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UPDATE: With the announcement today that three telecommunication firms provided the National Security Agency with domestic telephone call records from tens of millions of Americans, and added to that the big stock market dip, I'd say there's a good chance that within a week or two, Bush will reach that 29-ish% approval rating.
=====
NEW YORK President Bush’s job approval rating has fallen to 29%, its lowest mark of his presidency, and down 6% in one month, according to a new Harris poll. And this was before Thursday's revelations about NSA phone surveillance.
Of 1,003 U.S. adults surveyed in a telephone poll, 29% think Mr. Bush is doing an “excellent or pretty good” job as president, down from 35% in April and 43% in January.
Roughly one-quarter of U.S. adults say “things in the country are going in the right direction,” while 69% say “things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track.”
=====
What do you think? Are elections going to be close this fall or will the GOP be tossed like last week's garbage?
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Dynasty?
President Bush suggested Wednesday that he'd like to see his family's White House legacy continue, perhaps with his younger brother Jeb as the chief executive. The president said Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is well-suited for another office and would make "a great president." "I would like to see Jeb run at some point in time, but I have no idea if that's his intention or not," Bush said in an interview with Florida reporters, according to an account on the St. Petersburg Times Web site...
-AP
and that huge retching sound you hear is the sound of a billion sensible people.
-AP
and that huge retching sound you hear is the sound of a billion sensible people.
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