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+ updated at 5:17pm ESDT on Tuesday, October 7, 2014. 

+ “In everything, whether it is a thing sensed or a thing known, God Himself is hidden within.”  -- St Bonaventure

+ Spirituality and Practice offers an excerpt on an excerpt on practicing Unconditional Love from the book, It's Up to You: A Practice to Change Your Life by Changing Your Mind by Karen Casey. Read the S&P review.

+ Religion for Life offers John Shuck's recent  interview with Bill McKibben

+ 2 important articles by Robert Reich:

•  “Why We Allow Big Pharma to Rip Us Off”
• “Why the Economy is Still Failing Most Americans”

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+ NY Times offers “U.S. Climate Has Already Changed, Study Finds, Citing Heat and Floods” 

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+ This is currently featured on the Spirituality and Practice home page:
Join Caring People Trying to Save the Planet > Elemental, a deeply spiritual documentary directed by Gayatri Roshan and Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, opens this weekend in New York and L.A., followed by openings in other areas and availability on iTunes. It presents profiles of three dedicated environmental activists on three continents. Through their personal stories, it reveals the immense challenges faced by those who want to change attitudes and spur citizens to band together in a communal effort before it is too late. We encourage you to support this film and support these people! | See our review of Elemental. | Find a screening in your area. | Visit the official site and see how you can get involved.

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+ Democracy Now! offers "The Costs of War: 10 Years After Iraq Invasion, New Study Tallies the Massive Human, Financial Toll"

On the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, we look at a massive new report by a team of 30 economists, anthropologists, political scientists, legal experts and physicians about the Iraq ... Read More or Watch Video →

+ TruthOut offers “US Climate Bomb is Ticking: What the Gas Industry Doesn't Want You to Know” by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers. Excerpt: “We spoke with experts - Cornell engineering professor Dr. Anthony Ingraffea and biologist and author Dr. Sandra Steingraber - to explore what the newest studies show and to bust common myths about gas shale hydraulic fracking. The path out of this situation is a combination of promoting sound science, ending the extraction economy and employing direct action to weaken the stranglehold of industry on the political process. It is time to end the "all of the above" energy strategy which ensures going over the climate tipping point and instead commit to a carbon-free, nuclear-free energy economy.” | Read the article

+ TruthOut offers “Will Capitalism Destroy Civilization?” by Noam Chomsky. Excerpt: “Dewey called for workers to be 'masters of their own industrial fate' and for all institutions to be brought under public control, including the means of production, exchange, publicity, transportation and communication. Short of this, Dewey argued, politics will remain ‘the shadow cast on society by big business.’

 

"The truncated democracy that Dewey condemned has been left in tatters in recent years. Now control of government is narrowly concentrated at the peak of the income scale, while the large majority 'down below' has been virtually disenfranchised. The current political-economic system is a form of plutocracy, diverging sharply from democracy, if by that concept we mean political arrangements in which policy is significantly influenced by the public will.

 

"There have been serious debates over the years about whether capitalism is compatible with democracy. If we keep to really existing capitalist democracy – RECD for short – the question is effectively answered: They are radically incompatible. 

 

"It seems to me unlikely that civilization can survive RECD and the sharply attenuated democracy that goes along with it. But could functioning democracy make a difference?” | Read the article

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+ updated at 11:53am EST on Thursday, January 17, 2013

 

+

If you could get rid
of yourself just once,
The secret of secrets
Would open to you.
The face of the unknown,
Hidden beyond the universe
Would appear on the
Mirror of your perception.
-- Rumi

 

I found that quote at http://www.allspirit.co.uk/sufism.html

 

+ Urgent > Deadline Monday: Fight the largest coal export terminal in the United States

Dear Friend,

As climate change wreaks havoc across the globe and scientists issue dire warnings of a 9-15 degree increase in temperatures this century, the coal industry wants to ship more than a hundred million tons of dirty coal to Asia each year and make the problem much worse.

Peabody Coal and SSA Marine are moving forward with plans to build the largest coal export terminal in the country in Washington -- the Gateway Pacific Terminal. This is one of the most important fights against coal in the country right now, because if we lose, it will seriously undermine much of the progress we've made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the amount of dirty coal burned in the United States.

The Army Corps of Engineers is accepting public comments on the outrageous Gateway Pacific Terminal proposal to determine which environmental impacts of the project it should study.

Whether or not the Gateway Pacific Terminal is allowed to move forward could be determined by which factors the Corps includes in its impact statement. A full accounting of Gateway Pacific's impact on global greenhouse gas emissions would be devastating for the project, so our public comments are crucial.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/gpt_coal_exports/?r_by=53456-10635-Cesx_Mx&rc=paste2

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+ updated at 5:19pm EST on Monday, January 14, 2013

+ Unbound: An Interactive Journal of Christian Social Justice offers "Earth Walk" by David Siegenthaler. The author says the Environmental Movement is not as effective as it could be because it is not paying enough attention to core spiritual values which demand rejection of our current way of life. Excerpt: "If the main val­ues of the U.S. soci­ety may be dis­cerned from the per­sis­tent struc­tural fea­tures of our coun­try, it is ques­tion­able whether the envi­ron­men­tal move­ment presents a seri­ous chal­lenge to an econ­omy based upon accu­mu­la­tion of wealth for some, a pop­u­la­tion of labor­ers (often for­eign, migrant, or oth­er­wise ren­dered pow­er­less) will­ing to accept a lot less, and an increas­ingly tech­nol­ogy and lux­ury infat­u­ated pop­u­la­tion of con­sumers. Indeed, the envi­ron­men­tal­ists them­selves (our­selves!) pre­dom­i­nantly rep­re­sent priv­i­lege and wealth"

+ Unbound: An Interactive Journal of Christian Social Justice A offers "Eco Justice and the Earth Court" by John Preston, a friend of mine and an environmental activist, colleague in ministry, Progressive Christian theologian, author. In this article, he challenges the church to be prophetic and daring and reformed especially as we face the real possibility of ecological and economic and social catastrophe.

Don't miss the whole article. It is so important. But I can't resist posting his final paragraph here: "Our Cre­ator is a God of Eco-Justice. Within the covenant between God and Israel there was a deep con­cern for the widow and the impov­er­ished that reflected God’s own con­cern for the wel­fare of the “least of these.” There was also a con­cern for the land, which was the foun­da­tion for sus­tain­able liv­ing. Today, for those who have the eyes to see, the plight of all crea­tures is tied to the wel­fare of the planet earth. The eco-justice story is also the earth story. It is this story that must come from a dim back­ground, kept in place by the illu­sion of old nar­ra­tives that are no longer viable, to the fore­ground of our con­scious­ness as Amer­i­can Chris­t­ian peo­ple. Bring­ing that story into the fore­ground of our con­scious­ness is the prophetic task. It is also the true pas­toral task in a time that strug­gles for meaning." | Read the article

+ We saw 4 great movies in recent days, 2 at the theater and 2 at home.  And, of course, Spirituality & Practice has great reviews of LINCOLN, LES MISERABLES, THE LADY and BABETTE'S FEAST (1987 Oscar for Best Foreign Film).

+ Moved from my December 19 post which was titled incorrectly > Lester Brown is one of the most compassionate and articulate voices promoting sustainable abundance on our planet. Lester Brown’s new book Full Planet, Empty Plates takes a close look at the variables contributing to the growing crisis of food scarcity.  Utne Reader offers a section from the book. Here is an excerpt: "We are entering a new era of rising food prices and spreading hunger. On the demand side of the food equation, population growth, rising affluence, and the conversion of food into fuel for cars are combining to raise consumption by record amounts. On the supply side, extreme soil erosion, growing water shortages, and the earth’s rising temperature are making it more difficult to expand production. Unless we can reverse such trends, food prices will continue to rise and hunger will continue to spread, eventually bringing down our social system. Can we reverse these trends in time? Or is food the weak link in our early 21st-century civilization, much as it was in so many of the earlier civilizations whose archeological sites we now study?" Read more

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+ updated at 4:32pm EST on Wednesday 12/12/12

+ Back to Economic Justice: 2 of the latest posts by the brilliant Paul Krugman:

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/12/the-yes-minister-theory-of-the-medicare-age/
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/delusions-of-wisdom/

If only the Democrats would be advocates for Economic Justice the way Krugman and Reich are, among others like Bernie Sanders and Michael Moore.  Oh I could name so many more.  Like Ed Schultz.  Like Amy Goodman. 

+ Economic Justice is really important so don't miss the important links below.  Just as important is the need to deal with climate change.  Here is a pie chart explaining clearly why the climate deniers need to be revealed as the uninformed and misinformed non-experts they are. Thank You Bill McKibben for sharing this and for all you do to protect and preserve our home, our planet.

+ I have found a very informative article on the Federal Budget:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/07/17/156918878/dissecting-federal-spending-with-an-eye-on-cuts

So much of the conversation is missing the point when it comes to what cuts can really be made.  WE NEED MORE REVENUE and I believe this article and the 2 Reich posts below will help you see why.

+ The latest 2 posts by Robert Reich get to the heart of the problem, the growing injustice which seems to be quite alright for the plutocrats: 

http://robertreich.org/post/37752857908 
http://robertreich.org/post/37674429285

Correct me if I am wrong but it seems to me that most of the people with great power and privilege simply don't care about the suffering of the poor who will be hard hit if we go the route of austerity. The plutocrats will not suffer. 

The Democrats need to fight as hard as ever for tax increases for the wealthy and no cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Unemployment benefits and all other programs which help the poor and struggling middle class.  Thank You Robert Reich for being such a tremendous advocate for economic justice.  I hope the Democrats listen to you. 

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+ updated at 2:00pm ESDT on Tuesday, March 20, 2012 + Vernal Equinox was at 1:14am ESDT.

+ Spirituality and Practice offers "Spring: 12 Ways to Inaugurate the Season" by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat.

Excerpt 1: "As outside, so inside. Spring is a time for cleaning out and making way for fresh possibilities and new commitments. It's a time to revive our senses and expand our horizons. It's a time to begin again."

Excerpt 2: "Cherish Beauty Afresh: Watch the video movie Enchanted April about four Englishwomen who rent a medieval castle in Italy for a month. This paradisiacal place tutors them in the spiritual arts of letting go, luxuriating in the senses, and loving. They discover that a vacation can be a soulmaking experience when it emphasizes the path of the heart, reverie, wonder, counting one’s blessings, and living in the present moment. Ponder the ways in which the change of seasons enhances the feeling textures of your life."

+ I'm glad last week's weather predictions are turning out wrong.  It is still unseasonably warm and will be for another few days but the mid-70s F. feel a lot better than the high 80s F. which were predicted.

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+ I looked at our 10-day forecast and saw 60s and 70s and even 80s. This is ridiculous. I don't live in North Carolina. I live in Central NY. I know some people really like this weather but I really misssed winter this year and now I am not at all ready for summer weather in March. I also don't like it that Glacier National Park will have no glaciers within 20 years. We really need to wake up and do something about this. Climate Change will have catastrophic consequences and they are coming sooner than most people think.

+ Terror, Trauma, and the Endless Afghan War

by Amy Goodman with Denis Moynihan -- We may never know what drove a U.S. Army staff sergeant to head out into the Afghan night and allegedly murder at least 16 civilians in their homes, among them nine children and three women. The attack has been called tragic, which it surely is. But when Afghans attack U.S. forces, they are called “terrorists.” That is, perhaps, the inconsistency at the core of U.S. policy, that democracy can be delivered through the barrel of a gun, that terrorism can be fought by terrorizing a nation.

+ TruthDig offers "At Last, Some Decency on Wall Street" by Robert Scheer -- TD says: By the time you read this, the PR hacks of Goldman Sachs will be vigorously pressing their efforts to destroy the reputation of whistle-blower Greg Smith.

+ TruthDig offers "A Letter From Uganda on #Kony2012" by Sara Weschler reporting from Uganda on the Internet Phenomenon Targeting Joseph Kony -- There is an evil man somewhere in Africa waging a brutal war for absolutely no reason. The biggest problem is that no one knows about him. But if “we” spread the word and pressure the U.S. for military assistance, then by the end of this year “we” can capture Kony and end this horror. Where do I even begin?

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+ updated at 10:11am ESDT on Friday, July 30, 2010

+ Grist offers "Why did the climate bill fail?" by David Roberts. It never had a chance of passing according to Roberts and his reasons for that are depressingly convincing. 

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+ updated at 11:26am ESDT on Friday, May 21, 2010

+ The Independent offers "Man-made climate change blamed for 'significant' rise in ocean temperature" by Steve Connor, Science Editor. It begins: "The world's oceans are warming up and the rise is both significant and real, according to one of the most comprehensive studies into marine temperature data gathered over the past two decades."

+ Toronto (Ecumenical News International) -- Eighty international religious leaders will gather in Canada in advance of the meeting of the Group of Eight industrialised countries to press governments to honour the United Nations Millennium Development Goals to reduce poverty. "Our hope is that we can speak with one voice … that we both encourage and challenge world leaders to really give serious attention to commitments they made since 2000," said Canadian Anglican Archbishop Fred Hiltz, who is heading the Canadian delegation to the faith leaders' 21-23 June meeting in Winnipeg. The G8 leaders are meeting in Huntsville, Ontario, from 25 to 26 June. This is to be followed by a meeting of the G20 - or Group of 20 leading economies of the world - in Toronto from 26 to 27 June. The G8 groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. The eight U.N. development goals adopted in 2000 range from halving extreme poverty to stemming the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by 2015.

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+ updated at 4:14pm ESDT on Wednesday, May 5 (cinquo de mayo)

+ The Abundancetrek Blog is coming back to life (hopefully!) with a new series of posts (hopefully!).  Go to Joyful Wandering -- 1. 

+ IT'S UNSEASONABLY HOT. Once again the temperature along the Erie Canal has soared above 80 degrees F.  This is the Sixth day this year that we have seen the temperature rise above 80 and it's early May. The overall record of the past several decades shows global warming is well underway and this year's weather is underscoring this trend.

4:17pm UPDATE: Very chilly weather is coming our way for the next few days.  So, I guess the Global Warming Deniers around here can gloat again ... as they did this winter when we had several very cold spells.  I suppose that if you want to be in denial, you can always find the evidence you are looking for.

+ Two segments of Democracy Now! focus on the huge and dangerous power of the oil industry and particularly BP:
BP Oil Spill Highlights Poor Safety Record, the Worst of Any Oil Company in America
AND
BP Funnels Millions into Lobbying to Influence Regulation and Re-Brand Image

+ Democracy Now! offers Phoenix Suns to Protest Arizona Anti-Immigrant Law. "Opposition continues to grow against Arizona’s anti-immigrant law, which allows police officers to stop and interrogate anyone they suspect is an undocumented immigrant. On Tuesday, city councils in the Arizona towns of Flagstaff and Tuscon both passed measures to sue the state over the new law. Meanwhile in California, the Oakland City Council unanimously voted to boycott Arizona. The National Basketball Association’s Phoenix Suns have announced their players will wear jerseys showing their team name as 'Los Suns' in a playoff game tonight to protest to the new law. Today is also the Mexican holiday of cinquo de mayo. On Tuesday, Phoenix Suns point guard and NBA All-Star Steve Nash spoke out against the law in an interview with ESPN. Steve Nash: 'I’m against it. I think this is a bill that really damages our civil liberties. I think that it opens up the potential for racial profiling and racism, and I think that it’s a bad precedent to set for our young people, and represents our state poorly in the eyes of the nation and the world. I think we have a lot of great attributes here and I think it’s something we can do without and hopefully it will change a lot in the coming weeks.'"

+ Democracy Now! reports the following very troubling news: BP: Spill Could Be 10 Times Current Estimate. "The oil giant BP has privately conceded the size of its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could be ten times greater than current estimates. The New York Times reports a senior BP executive told a closed-door Congressional briefing that a ruptured oil well could be spewing as many 60,000 barrels of oil a day. The expanding oil slick meanwhile has hit the shores of Louisiana’s Chandeleur islands, a wildlife refuge 60 miles from New Orleans."

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+ Democracy Now! offers "Environmentalist, 350.org Founder Bill McKibben on Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet" in audio, video and transcript.  Intro: "Ahead of Bolivia’s indigenous summit on climate change and the expected unveiling of a Senate climate bill next week, we speak to someone who sounded one of the earliest alarms about global warming. Twenty years ago, environmental activist Bill McKibben wrote The End of Nature, but his warnings went largely unheeded. Now, as people are grappling with the unavoidable effects of climate change and confronting an earth that is suddenly melting, drying, acidifying, flooding and burning in unprecedented ways, Bill McKibben is out with Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, a new book about what we have to do to survive this brave new world.

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+ This weather is crazy.  We don't have to go to Florida to escape a cold spring.  Florida came to us.  Mid 80s for 2 days in early April.  Some like it but I think it's troubling.

I wonder what the deniers of Global Warming who live in these parts are saying today.

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+ updated at 5:15pm EST, Tuesday, February 16, 2010

+ I'm blown away by the wisdom and compassion being shared in InterSpiritual Wisdom, the E-course I'm taking at Spirituality and Practice.  Swami Atmarupananda brought our attention to this powerful verse from the Bhagavad Gita:

Through devotion one knows Me truly, who I am and what is My nature. Having known Me in truth, one forthwith enters into Me. (18:55)

This is a lot like a saying of Jesus:

I am the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)


The Bhagavad Gita was written 1000 years before Jesus.  The sages of the ages all find the source, the foundation, of our wisdom traditions.

+ TimesOnLine (London) offers "If global warming is real why is it cold?" by Colin Summerhayes. Excerpt 1: "There is a very good reason why our local temperatures have been cold in contrast with the global picture. This winter has seen a 'blocking high' over Greenland and Baffin Island that has brought temperatures 7C above normal in these areas, and cold weather to the surrounding regions - Northern Europe, the UK and the north east coast of America." Excerpt 2: "Data from satellites and surface measurements show that January 2010 was globally the warmest in the 32-year satellite record, but the overwhelming focus on "white-out Britain" meant that this record went virtually unremarked."

+ Spirituality and Practice offers "Will You Be E-Mailing This Awesome Column?" by Mary Ann and Frederic Brussat.  Excerpt: "A big surprise: people preferred e-mailing articles with positive rather than negative or sensational themes, and they liked to send long articles on intellectually challenging topics. But most interesting of all was the finding that readers wanted to share pieces that inspired awe. The Penn researchers defined this quality as 'an emotion of self-transcendence, a feeling of admiration and elevation in the face of something greater than the self.'"

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+ updated at 10:10pm EST, Monday, January 25, 2010

+ The Supreme Court and Congress has for decades been allowing big multinational corporations to have more and more influence over our politics.  Last week the Court voted by a 5-4 vote to allow any corporation to spend as much money as they want to influence elections.  All restrictions lifted. 

Democracy Now! offers an interview with Jamin Raskin which presents a scathing critique of this decision.

LATE ADDITION: An even more scathing response is offered by Adam McKay in his blog at The Huffington Post.

+ Media Matters offers "Can the media's climate change deniers ignore the latest temperature record?" It begins: "This January, major meteorological organizations throughout the world -- including NASA -- released reports showing that the past decade, 2000-2009, was the warmest on record. The reports undermine the right-wing media's numerous claims that recent snow and cold weather shows that climate change does not exist or has slowed over the past 10 years."

+ You can now download a five-module course, "Globalization We Can Grasp," with plenty of information and practical ideas for dealing with this oppressive domination system hurting so many citizens of planet Earth.  The course was developed by the North American Working Group for Covenanting for Justice of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC). 

+ Spirituality and Practice offers a film review of Last Chance Harvey.  Excerpts:

• It takes some of us many years to discover our true song, to take a risk on love, or to free ourselves from prisons of our own making.
• Last Chance Harvey is a life-affirming romantic drama that reminds us that it is never to late to turn our lives around. The trick is that it usually takes a leap of faith into the dark which can be very frightening. Dustin Hoffman conveys Harvey's awkwardness as he finds himself reaching out to a complete stranger for sympathy and a little human kindness. She responds to his pain, and they spend a long time together after Kate convinces him to attend his daughter's wedding reception. She joins him and provides moral support as he expresses his love for Susan. What is endearing about the intimacy that develops between these two middle-agers is their convivial conversation. In the end, it serves them both very well.

We saw this movie recently as I finally allowed it to reach the top of my NetFlix queue. I particularly appreciated the tenderness and vulnerability and humility of the Harvey character as played by Dustin Hoffmann.  I went through a few tissues as a wonderful romance developed and as family healing took place during the wedding of Harvey's daughter.  The review got the tears flowing again. 

+ Two Friars and a Fool offers "Shooting People for Jesus". Excerpt: "I shouldn't be surprised, but this stuff just hits me like a kick to the ribs. It sends me spinning off into depression to realize how many people calling themselves Christians are full of violence and proud of it. We are never going to be satisfied that Christ has been crucified enough. We keep putting him up there over and over and it is disgusting."

+ Viola Larson's post, "Where are we at? What about Jesus Christ?" continues to attract comments including several by me.  We are dealing with orthodoxy which I see as a dynamic process and not static content.  One of the brothers thinks it is pretty irresponsible of me to part from the tenets of fourth century and sixteenth century orthodoxy.  And, of course, Viola Larson has said before that I am not a Christian since I don't believe in Jesus in the same way she does.  If she had her way, I would be kicked out of the Presbyterian Church.  Thankfully, my Presbytery and most Presbyteries don't have such a narrow lens.

+ Heavy rain today along with plenty of melting snow will definitely create flooding in some places around here.  It is quite warm for January today. Soon, possibly by midnight tonight, the forecasters say that it will be very cold again and we will get more snow but there is no major storm predicted at this time.