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Jan Phillips Newsletter � September 11, 2008
buddha

Believe nothing,

No matter where you read it,
Or who has said it,
Not even if I have said it,
Unless it agrees with your own reason
And your own common sense.

Buddha



**********************

Daily
 
These shriveled seeds we plant,
corn kernel, dried bean,
poke into loosened soil,
cover over with measured fingertips
 
These T-shirts we fold into
perfect white squares
 
These tortillas we slice and fry to crisp strips
This rich egg scrambled in a gray clay bowl
 
This bed whose covers I straighten
smoothing edges till blue quilt fits brown blanket
and nothing hangs out
 
This envelope I address
so the name balances like a cloud
in the center of sky
 
This page I type and retype
This table I dust till the scarred wood shines
This bundle of clothes I wash and hang and wash again
like flags we share, a country so close
no one needs to name it
 
The days are nouns:  touch them
The hands are churches that worship the world
 
 ~ Naomi Shihab Nye ~


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 "One of the first things Seneca children learned was that they might create their own world, their own environment, by visualizing actions and desires in prayer. The Senecas believed that everything that made life important came from within. Prayer assisted in developing a guideline toward discipline and self control."

--Twylah Nitcsh, SENECA




Quotes from:
the demon and the angel-Searching for the Source of Artistic Inspiration by Edward Hirsch

We are reasserting man's natural desire for the exalted, for a concern with our relationship to the absolute emotions. Instead of making cathedrals out of Christ, man or 'life,' we are making it out of ourselves, out of our own feelings."
Barnett Newman



The creation of genuine art demands conscious struggle, formal inventiveness, and reckless courage.

Edward Hirsch




We make out of quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry. The creative artist must be open to an unknown power that fills him. S/he must be able to draw strength from a source s/he doesn't understand or know.
W. B. Yeats



Without contraries is no progression.

William Blake



Here is the time for the sayable, here is its homeland.
Rainer Maria Rilke






Making art in America is about saving one's soul.

Charles Simic



The imagination is an organ of understanding. And the imagination needs all the faculties at hand, all the sensibility, all the conscious and unconscious intelligence it can galvanize to fulfill its luminous mission.

Edward Hirsch


 
We penetrate the mystery only to the degree that we recognize it in the everyday world, by virtue of a dialectical optic that perceives the everyday as impenetrable, the impenetrable as everyday.
 
Gershom Scholem from
Walter Benjamin and His Angel




Today
 
The ordinary miracles begin. Somewhere
a signal arrives:
"Now," and the rays

come down. A tomorrow has come. Open
your hands, lift them: morning rings
all the doorbells; porches are cells for prayer.
Religion has touched your throat. Not the same now,
you could close your eyes and go on full of light.
 
And it is already begun, the chord
that will shiver glass, the song full of time
bending above us. Outside, a sign:
a bird intervenes; the wings tell the air,
"Be warm." No one is out there, but a giant
has passed through town, widening streets, touching
the ground, shouldering away the stars.
 
~ William Stafford ~
 
(My Name is William Tell)



Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives - the power to retell it, rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change - truly are powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts.
Salmam Rushdie



Everyone should carefully observe which way his heart draws him, and then choose that way with all his strength.
 Hasidic Saying




My Life is devoted to the liberation of the human mind and Spirit beginning with my own. 
Maya Angelou





Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it. Rabindranath Tagore





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Greetings!

I asked my neighbor Marge today if she thought a good Christian could vote Republican. She was just trying to unwind the cord on her electric lawnmower and I think the question took her by surprise. I asked her because she's a good Lutheran, the widow of a career Marine, the mother of four and grandmother of several. Like Sarah Palin, she's had her share of mothering challenges-kids with drug addictions, unmarried pregnancies, grand-daughters gone astray. In the forgiveness department, Marge has come a long way. She's one of the least judgmental people I know.

"I don't know," she said. "I haven't been keeping up with politics much. I know everyone in my church is going to vote Republican, except maybe me. They hand out a piece of paper that tells us who we ought to vote for, and most people just go with that."

"What issues do they base it on, the things Jesus talked about or the things he never mentioned?"

"Whadya mean?"

"Well, he never said anything about homosexuality, except love everyone all the time; he never said anything about abortion, but he did say we will be judged according to how we judge others. He never said anything about gay marriage but was fierce in his condemnation of divorce. 'Let no man put asunder--" Seems like a good Christian would want to take a stand for what Jesus took a stand for---peace instead of violence, dignity for everyone, caring for the poor. Don't you think?

"Well, yeah, that makes sense, but it doesn't work like that. The church cares about the issues he didn't talk about. They're against gays and abortion, not war. My sister is a Christian in Texas and when I told her I was all for getting out of Iraq fast, she couldn't figure out why I cared about Iraq. 'What's that country got to do with you? Why do you even care about it?' She couldn't  understand why it hurts me that all those soldiers have lost their lives."

"How's she voting?"

"She'll vote for whoever her husband is for. It always goes like that. Whatever he believes, she believes. So they'll go for McCain. She likes Palin, too. Feels good about having a woman in there."

"Yeah, I'd like a woman in there too, but Sarah Palin kind of scares me. She doesn't believe in global warming, she doesn't want gun control, she's against reproductive rights and sex education. Yesterday I saw a clip of her talking about how the Alaskan pipeline is God's will. And today she's talking about maybe going to war with Russia. That's not the kind of leadership that inspires me."

"Me neither. I have another sister who used to live in Alaska. She likes Alaska so she'll be voting for Palin just because of that."

"Wow, does that make sense to you?"

"Nope. But it's true. I think you ought to talk to some more people in the neighborhood. Give 'em something to think about. Like I said, I haven't tuned in yet. I don't know if I'm going to go for Obama. I know darn well I'm not going to do what the church says, just because they say so. And I've never liked McCain, so who knows?"

"OK, Marge, keep me posted," I say as I head back over to my yard.

"OK," she hollers back, "and keep those questions coming. I'll be thinking about it all day: can a good Christian vote Republican? Let me know if you find out!"

I went back into the house wondering if we'll ever figure out how to think our own thoughts, or if we'll just keep voting the way our churches tell us, or our spouses, or because we like the state the person came from.

As for being a Christian, I have to vote for the "we" not the "me." My faith calls for me to care about all of us---the poor, the immigrants, the refugees, the families in Baghdad, Afghanistan, Bosnia. I have to say NO to war, and not just this was, but all wars. Today the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen admitted that "we can't kill our way to victory." Not now, not ever.

War is an obsolete solution, as was slavery, as was child labor. It's time for us to ban it, like we banned cigarette commercials on TV. It's not healthy for us. I wonder if Christians really gave some thought to what their  teacher said about non-violence, about the poor, about what we do to the "least of these," if they wouldn't cast their vote for the person who took time to remind us at the national convention that "we ARE our brothers and sisters' keepers."


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Rays off coast of Mexico
            Looking like giant leaves floating in the sea thousands of Golden Rays are seen here gathering off the coast of Mexico.  The spectacular scene was captured as the magnificent creatures made one of their biannual mass migrations to more agreeable waters. Sandra Critelli, an amateur photographer, stumbled across the phenomenon while looking for whale sharks.

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JAN
Upcoming Jan Phillips Workshops



NEXT WEEKEND IN MISSOURI!

Sept 19-20 House Springs, Missouri
Tools of Transformation:
The Word, the Image, the Story
Rockhaven Ecozoic Center; 7621 Rivermont Trail
call 636-375-3159,contact [email protected]
MORE INFO

September 25-28 Reboot and Shoot Photography Workshop, Lake Bonaparte, NY SOLD OUT!

New Workshop at Muse Lodge!
October 4-5, 2008 Adirondacks in the Fall: Sketching and Watercolor in your Personal Journal

If you've always wanted to learn how to draw or sketch, you couldn't have a better teacher than Jane Lafazio. You'll go away amazed at how talented you really are!

Taught by Jane LaFazio Email Jane at [email protected], MORE INFO ON JANE

October 17-19 Facilitator Training in San Diego-for people who are ready to start leading their own workshops: what you need to know to harvest your wisdom,  identify and attract your audience,  get paid for your expertise; expand your circle; live more creatively. $475. Register early-limitied to six participants. contact [email protected]

October 25, San Diego, CA- Getting Past Your Writer's Block Once and For All;  Saturday 9-5 pm $85 (includes lunch)  a workshop to help you dissolve your obstacles, awaken your genius, and bring your writer's voice out of hibernation. [email protected] for details.

November 7-9 Reboot and Shoot Photography Workshop in San Diego
� experience the healing power of photography
� expand your photo-creativity
� learn what you need to know about shutter speeds
   and aperture controls
� improve your framing, composing and editing skills
� get feedback on your current body of work
Friday evening through Sunday afternoon-$295. 858-571-1417, or email [email protected] to register

NEW CLASS FOR WRITERS! San Diego (Clairemont)
November 4-December 9, 6:30-9 pm
Getting Your Story Straight-Turning Memories Into Memoir
 
This is a 6 week class that will provide you with the tools you need for transforming your life experiences into a memoir that will be exciting to write, useful to read, and ready to market. $295, call 858-571-1417 or [email protected] to register
 

How Changing the World Works...

I received this email today and am passing it on...

I have just returned from a summer camp where I volunteer every year--my campers, young ladies between the ages of 10 and 12, became so inspired when they learned about what is going on with the Chocolate Slave Trade, they organized a camp-wide awareness campaign and boycott.  They have also inspired me to spread the word even further (I have known of the practice for 3 years, and aside from telling people I know and personally boycotting the products, I haven't undertaken any serious action.)

Inspired by my campers, I have spoken with my boss and the organization where we work has committed to hosting a community-wide screening of the British documentary "Slavery" (the only one I know of on the subject) and talk-back.  The screening/talk back will include a letter writing campaign to state legislators and U.N. officials.


Karel, New Orleans, LA
For more info on chocolate slave trade

"Find something you like to do, learn to do it well, and do it in the service of the people." Karlene Faith


 
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