BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

NOT READY TO MAKE NICE Forgive, sounds good Forget, I’m not sure I could They say time heals everything But I’m still waiting I’m through with doubt There’s nothing left for me to figure out I’ve paid a price And I’ll keep paying I know you said Can’t you just get over it It turned my whole world around And I kind of like it I made my bed and I sleep like a baby With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’ It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger And how in the world can the words that I said Send somebody so over the edge That they’d write me a letter Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing Or my life will be over I’m not ready to make nice I’m not ready to back down I’m still mad as hell and I don’t have time to go round and round and round It’s too late to make it right I probably wouldn’t if I could ‘Cause I’m mad as hell Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should Forgive, sounds good Forget, I’m not sure I could The...

I HAVE COME INTO THIS WORLD TO SEE..... .. I have come into this world to see this: the sword drop from men's hands even at the height of their arc of anger because we have finally realized there is just one flesh to wound and it is His - our Beloved's. I have come into this world to see this: all creatures hold hands as we pass through this miraculous existence we share on the way to even a greater being of soul, a being of just ecstatic light, forever entwined and at play with Him. I have come into this world to hear this: every song the earth has sung since it was conceived in the Divine's womb and began spinning from His wish, every song by wing and fin and hoof, every song by hill and field and tree and woman and child, every song of stream and rock, every song of tool and lyre and flute, every song of gold and emerald and fire, every song the heart should cry with magnificent dignity to know itself as God: for all other knowledge will leave us again in want and achin...

RABBI MICHAEL LERNER'S REPORT FROM THE NSP CONFERENCE (which I attended and will blog more about later): In a front page story in the Washington Post, a major story reporting on our conference proclaimed in its first line "The religious left is back." "Long overshadowed by the Christian right, religious liberals across a wide swath of denominations are engaged today in their most intensive bout of political organizing and alliance-building since the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements of the 1960s, according to scholars, politicians and clergy members." I don’t want to say that the conference was without some problematic elements, and this report discusses them as well. I think a spiritual movement must always be honest, self-critical, as well as affirming what is good about what it is doing and accomplishing. It’s hard to convey the level of excitement and enthusiasm experienced by the 1,200+ people who attended the 4-day conference launching the Networ...

How We Love Kim Cope Tait The first time I drove by the dead cat on Kawaihae Road, I thought, I will see the person who lost that pet today. The second time, on my way home from town, it felt like I was driving in slow motion. Coming over the Waiaka Bridge, I was already gazing toward where I had seen the cat. A man was kneeling tenderly next to the cat's body. Gently, gently he lifted the stiff carcass, cradling it like a baby, and he walked slowly across the road to where he lived. I looked into the back seat of my car to see that my six-year-old son had also witnessed the removal of the body. "Was that his cat?" he asked. "Yes," I answered. "What was he doing? Was it dead?" he asked. "Yes," I answered, "I think it was." I waited a long time. My son's look was one of slight worry. Somberness. "I don't think it was dead," he finally said. "Maybe it was sleeping." By now I had tears in my eyes and a small...

SPIRITUAL ACTIVISM CONFERENCE Washington, D.C. May 17-20, 2006 HOW REALISTIC IS THE SPIRITUAL COVENANT WITH AMERICA? This vision, needless to say, is “unrealistic” in the sense that it does not conform to the assumptions of politicians and editorial writers and t.v. and radio commentators. For most political leaders, that ends the discussion, because they’ve consistently been unwilling to risk any electoral loss for the sake of some higher good in which they believe. But that is precisely why so many Americans have come to distrust them—because if they won’t fight hard for their own beliefs how can they be counted on to fight for the best interests of the society when the going gets rough? Democrats need to learn that in order to win with their ideals they have to be ready at times to lose with their ideals. Or to put it an other way, anyone with a backbone worthy of respect doesn’t reject ideas because they are unrealistic by contemporary standards, but only because they are bad ideas...

SWEET NEOCON You call yourself a Christian I think that you're a hypocrite You say you are a patriot I think that you're a crock of shit And listen now, the gasoline I drink it every day But it's getting very pricey And who is going to pay How come you're so wrong My sweet neo con It's liberty for all 'Cause democracy's our style Unless you are against us Then it's prison without trial But one thing that is certain Life is good at Haliburton If you're really so astute You should invest at Brown & Root.... Yeah How come you're so wrong My sweet neo con If you turn out right I'll eat my hat tonight It's getting very scary Yes, I'm frightened out of my wits There's bombers in my bedroom Yeah and it's giving me the shits We must have lots more bases To protect us from our foes Who needs these foolish friendships We're going it alone How come you're so wrong My sweet neo con Where's the money gone In the Pentagon Ye...

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on NOT understanding it." - Upton Sinclair

One Mother Says Its Time to Stop the Madness You won’t catch Muffy Mead-Ferro at a toddler fitness class. When it comes to enriching after-school activities, she’s not ferrying her kids to traveling soccer or French lessons either. She lets them amuse themselves in a mud puddle in the backyard instead. This Salt Lake City mother of two says she isn’t feeling a shard of guilt about her choices. “We’ve raised the bar too high on parenting,” she says, “And squeezed out all the fun. Someone has to say, ‘Stop the Madness'.” Last spring, Mead-Ferro published her manifesto, " Confessions of a Slacker Mom ," which called on women everywhere to park the mini-van, bow out of the childrearing sweepstake and lighten up. With Confessions of a Slacker Wife (due out from DaCapo in April) she’s trying to bring some downtime to domestic life, too. The problem, as Mead-Ferro sees it, is that too many well-heeled, well-educated and otherwise sensible women are driving themselves and each ot...

Opening Up the Mikvah As a child, Tucker Lieberman could barely stand to take showers. When he passed the bathroom mirror, he would “go into what almost seemed like a mild state of shock, with chills and painful, uncontrollable shaking” because the girl’s body that he saw didn’t accord with his understanding of himself as a young man. Even after having chest surgery, taking hormones, and living as a man for seven years, he avoided undressing in men’s locker rooms. Nonetheless, in March of 2005, he and a friend entered Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikvah and Education Center in Newton, Massachusetts, undressed, and experienced Judaism’s most intimate ritual—immersion in the mikvah (ritual bath). Mikvah immersion can be a daunting experience for anyone whose body does not conform to commonly held expectations. It requires the participant to completely disrobe, enter a bath, and dip below the surface of the water. In immersions that are governed by Jewish law, such as for convers...

Bush to Israel: Drop dead! By Jack Engelhard Two leaders from the Middle East visited President George W. Bush recently, with the same agenda, that is, to cut Israel down to size, and both left happy. The most recent guest was Mahmoud Abbas, who was elected president of the Palestinian Authority even as members of the same Authority resigned to protest alleged corruption at the ballot box. Abbas came with a wish list of one item. In keeping with the still-operational Palestinian charter, he wanted Israel. Bush told Abbas that he could have all of Gaza, the entire West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and part of Jerusalem. What about the rest? In good time. Step by step, said Bush. That conversation is just guess, but is to be assumed from published accounts of Bush's Rose Garden remarks that followed his meeting with Abbas -- " Israel should not undertake any activity that contravenes road-map obligations or prejudices final-status negotiations with regard to Gaza, the West Bank an...

YOM HASHOAH HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY April 25, 2006 The Holocaust, symbolized by Auschwitz, the worst of the death camps, occurred in the wake of consistent, systematic, unrelenting anti-Jewish propaganda campaign. As a result, the elimination of the Jews from German society was accepted as axiomatic, leaving open only two questions: when and how. As Germany expanded its domination and occupation of Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, the Low Countries, Yugoslavia, Poland, parts of the USSR, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Italy and others countries, the way was open for Hitler to realize his well-publicized plan of destroying the Jewish people. HELL ON EARTH: After experimentation, the use of Zyklon B on unsuspecting victim was adopted by the Nazis as the means of choice, and Auschwitz was selected as the main factory of death (more accurately, one should refer to the “Auschwitz-Birkenau complex”). The green light for mass annihilation was given at the Wannsee Conference, January 20, 1942, a...

Photo Credit: Jude Nagurney Camwell TRUTH "Truth will go anywhere to rescue anyone. You need only be ready to come back home. It makes no difference how long or far you have wandered. Since Truth does not fear what you fear, it can seek and find you in the deepest jungle, and guide you back to where you really belong." - Vernon Howard The Daily Guru

TRUE LOVE "True love, my dear is putting an iron clad grip upon the sore, swollen balls of a Divine Rogue Elephant and not having the good fortune to die!" - Rumi

SOME DOWN-TO-EARTH THOUGHTS ON SOULMATES "The common misconception about soulmates is that they are meant to be together. The soul is a mysterious and undiscovered country. It weaves a fabric of existence far beyond life and the deeper meaning of what lies beneath are easily misinterpreted by those who try to simplify its workings into definable concepts. "The word is abused by those who fall in love and stay together for long periods of time, even for their whole life. It is easier to do this with someone who is not your soulmate. Someone who fits the definition of soulmate is fully in tune with your thoughts, your ways and your pain. They are too close to you to be close to you. "By direct definition, a soulmate is someone with whom you have mated with at the soul. Not at the heart, the mind or the body. You may not even be physically attracted to your soulmate because the attraction is on a completely different level. It is an attraction so powerful that it borders o...

INSIDE Inside the doors are sealed to love Inside my heart is sleeping Inside the fingers of my glove Inside the bones of my right hand Inside it's colder than the stars Inside the dogs are weeping Inside the circus of the wind Inside the clocks are filled with sand Inside he'll never hurt me Inside the winter's creeping Inside the compass of the night Inside the folding of the land Outside the stars are turning Outside the world's still burning Inside my head's a box of stars I never dared to open Inside the wounded hide their scars, inside this lonesome sparrow's fall Inside the songs of our defeat, they sing of treaties broken Inside this army's in retreat, we hide beneath the thunder's call Outside the rain keeps falling Outside the drums are calling Outside the flood won't wait Outside they're hammering down the gate Love is the child of an endless war Love is an open wound still raw Love is a shameless banner unfurled Love's an explosio...

IMPEACH

AMEN!!

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh, and the greatness which does not bow before children. -Kahlil Gibran