Beauty: Valley of Astonishment

7 12 2014

IN the middle of the journey of our life, I came to myself, in a dark wood, where the direct way was lost. – Dante 

peter brooks

http://www.visitgreece.gr/en/greeceonthespotlight/municipal_theatre_the_jewel_of_piraeus_is_open_again





FREEDOM in form

3 12 2014

“The presumption that a high rate of continuous economic growth is possible puts a premium on investment in the sorts of institutions and conditions that facilitate such growth, like political stability, property rights, technology, and scientific research. On the other hand, if we assume that there are only limited possibilities for productivity improvements, then societies are thrown into a zero-sum world in which predation, or the taking of resources from someone else, is often a far more plausible route to power and wealth.” – Francis Fukuyama

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Consciousness: world giving (index)

2 12 2014
Since we live in this world, we have to do our best for this world.
Aung San Suu Kyi
 
What this world needs is a new kind of army – the army of the kind.
– Cleveland Amory 
 

2014_World_Giving_Index_Heat_Map_by_CAF

 





4 Kids?!

1 12 2014

“The soul is healed by being with children.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky





FREEDOM through music

29 11 2014

“It [music] gives me the feeling of love, of romance. I figure right now the world needs to come into music, singing.” – Henry (Film: Alive Inside)

 

Michael Rossato-Bennett, WRITER/DIRECTOR/PRODUCER
ALIVE INSIDE – winner of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for U.S. Documentary. Through the film, Michael strives to incite conversations that interrogate issues related to cultural consciousness and collective human change towards the greater good.

Want to get involved? See here: http://musicandmemory.org





Plato in the Kitchen @ School of Life

27 11 2014




FREEDOM is: free-fallin’

25 11 2014




Consciousness: Home is where the heart… longs to be

25 11 2014
 
When you are in your home, you don’t glorify home: you don’t feel its importance and its intimacy, but when deprived of home, it turns into a need and a lust, as if it is the ultimate aim of the whole journey.
Mahmoud Darwish (1941 – 2008).
 
“Look at Athens and Sparta. Athens was an open city and Sparta kicked people out. Go and look at the ruins of Athens and Sparta now and ask which of the two cities made the greatest contribution to civilisation.” – Boris Johnson (Mayor of London)
Immigration_by_country
 
 
Philomena – Mummy, I want to go home. 
Luna [interrupting] – Which home? Greece or London?
Philomena – London, that is our proper home.
Luna – No, Greece is because this is where we are right now. This is where our family is.
Philomena – Our family is in lots of places–in America, in Bolivia, in Mexico, in Austria but London is our home because we were born in London. That’s where we’ve lived all our lives till now.
Luna – But we’re not English. We speak like English people but we’re not really English.
Philomena – Yes we are.  
Luna – No, Philomena, we’re not. And we live in Greece so this is our home. Right now, this is our home. With the turtles.
 
Poetry and exile 
works by Abdallah Benanteur, Ipek Duben, Mireille Kassar, Mona Saudi and Canan Tolon
http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/poetry_and_exile.aspx
1 October 2014 – 29 March 2015 (Free)




FREEDOM in the space of hard choices

19 11 2014




GOD: angels among us

8 11 2014

The word angel comes from the Greek word angelos, meaning “messenger.” In Western religions, the word specifically describes a kind, or benevolent, being. Today, November 8, celebrates the two angels Mihail and Gavril who are constantly part of our lives, protecting us and forgiving our sins, guiding the souls. The Saint Mihail and Gavril day is also known as the ‘Summer of the winter’ – the last warm days until Christmas. It is also the name day of Castorius, patron saint of sculptors, stonemasons, stonecutters.

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‘Angels are active spirits with intelligence, will and knowledge. They have no bodily needs or desires. They have no worries about the future either, and no fear of death. They have no anxiety about their salvation and no struggle for immorality, being already immortal (Luke 20:36). Unlike men, they are not faltering between good and evil, being already good when God created them. The Angels are the lowest of all the orders and the closest to man. They announce the lesser mysteries and intentions of God and teach people to live virtuously and righteously. They are appointed to guard each of us who believe. They are neither aged nor aging, but unchangingly youthful, beautiful and strong.’

‘Behold, two guardian angels appointed to learn a man’s doings learn and note them, one sitting on the right and one on the left. Not a word does he utter but there is a sentinel by him, ready to note it.’ (Quran 50:17-18)

Mal’ach: ‘In Judaism angels sometimes show a little independence of mind. They even argue with God, making a persuasive case that human beings should not be created. The angels argue that people will commit offenses against truth and peace. Since the angels’ arguments are not refutable–human beings do indeed sin continually against both truth and peace–God dashes truth to the ground, and creates human beings in spite of their deficiencies (Genesis Rabbah 8:5).’





FREE WILL: The Philosophical Implications of the Urge to Urinate

6 11 2014
 
Mummy: why are you out of bed again? its bed time.
Philomena: i have too pee.
Mummy: you just peed 5 min ago.
Philomena: well i have to pee again.
Mummy: well hurry up and get back to bed.
Luna: (2 minutes later): i have to pee too.
Mummy:no you don’t, Luna.
Luna: YES I DO!!!! i’ll have a bad dream if i don’t pee. you don’t want me to have a bad dream and wake you up at 3 in the morning do you?!

“For social scientists, the task of the experimental psychologist isn’t to settle once and for all whether we have free will, but rather to see whether people think they do. This is the study of “lay theory”—people’s convictions about the workings of the world.”

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http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-philosophical-implications-of-the-urge-to-urinate/

 

 

 





faux FREEDOM

5 11 2014

“I can’t explain freedom, Mummy. Its just something you feel when you’re being free.” – Luna

“I will say this about the abstract concept of ‘freedom’; it’s possible you are freer if you accept what you are and just get on with being the person you are, than if you maintain this kind of uncommitted I’m free-to-be-this, free-to-be-that, faux freedom.” – Jonathan Franzen





A Happy Halloween

31 10 2014

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Reading List: Longreads and This Land Press at Housing Works

30 10 2014

To get you ready for the big night, we’re thrilled to share a reading list of stories and books from the event’s featured storytellers.

http://blog.longreads.com/2014/10/27/reading-list-longreads-and-this-land-press-at-housing-works/





HAPPINESS: No hay que llorar, – pues la vida es un carnaval, -y es mas bello vivir cantando

28 10 2014

(start at minute 12:25)

Todo aquel que piense que la vida es desigual,
tiene que saber que no es asi,
que la vida es una hermosura, hay que vivirla.
Todo aquel que piense que esta solo y que esta mal,
tiene que saber que no es asi,
que en la vida no hay nadie solo, siempre hay alguien.
-Ay, no hay que llorar, que la vida es un carnaval,
-Y es mas bello vivir cantando.
-Oh, oh, oh, Ay, no hay que llorar,
-que la vida es un carnaval
-y las penas se van cantando.
-Oh, oh, oh, Ay, no hay que llorar,
-que la vida es un carnaval,
-Y es mas bello vivir cantando.
-Oh, oh, oh, Ay, no hay que llorar,
-que la vida es un carnaval
-y las penas se van cantando.

Todo aquel que piense que la vida siempre es cruel,
tiene que saber que no es as,
que tan solo hay momentos malos, y todo pasa.
Todo aquel que piense que esto nunca va a cambiar,
tiene que saber que no es asi,
que al mal tiempo buena cara, y todo cambia.
-Ay, no hay que llorar, que la vida es un carnaval,
-Y es mas bello vivir cantando.
-Oh, oh, oh, Ay, no hay que llorar,
-que la vida es un carnaval
-y las penas se van cantando.
-Oh, oh, oh, Ay, no hay que llorar,
-que la vida es un carnaval,
-Y es mas bello vivir cantando.
-Oh, oh, oh, Ay, no hay que llorar,
-que la vida es un carnaval
-y las penas se van cantando.

-Carnaval
Es para reir
-No hay que llorar
Para Gozar
-Carnaval
Para disfrutar
-Hay que vivir cantando
-Carnaval
La vida es un carnaval
-No hay que llorar
Todo podemos cantar
-Carnaval
Ay, Señores
-Hay que vivir cantando
-carnaval
Todo aquel que piense
-No hay que llorar
que la vida es cruel
-Carnaval
Nunca estar solo
-Hay que vivir cantando
Dios esta con el
Para aquellos que se quejan tanto.
Para aquellos que solo critican.
Para aquellos que usan las armas.
Para aquellos que nos contaminan.
Para aquellos que hacen la guerra.
Para aquellos que viven pecando.
Para aquellos nos maltratan.
Para aquellos que nos contagion.

ENGLISH:

Everyone out there that thinks that life is unfair,
Needs to know that’s not the case,
Because life is beautiful, you just have to live it.
Everyone out there that thinks they are alone and they are unhappy
Needs to know that’s not the case,
Because in life no one is alone, there is always someone
-Oh, there’s no need to cry, because life is a carnival,
-It’s more beautiful to live singing.
-Oh, there’s no need to cry,
-For life is a carnival
-And your pains can be alleviated through song. (x2)
Everyone out there that thinks that life is always harsh,
Needs to know that’s not the case,
That there are just bad times, and it will all pass.
Everyone out there, that thinks that this will never change,
Needs to know that’s not the case,
The bad times will turn, it will all pass.
-Oh, there’s no need to cry, because life is a carnival,
-It’s more beautiful to live singing.
-Oh, there’s no need to cry,
-For life is a carnival
-And your pains can be alleviated through song. (x2)
-Carnival

Its for laughing
-Theres no need to cry
For enjoying
-Carnival
For having fun
-One must live singing
-Carnival
Life is a carnival
-Theres no need to cry
Everyone can sing
-Carnival
Oh, men
-One must live singing
-carnival
Everyone out there that thinks
-Theres no need to cry
that life is always harsh
-Carnival
Will never be alone
-One must live singing
God is with him

For those that complain forever.
For those that only critisize.
For those that use weapons.
For those that pollute us.
For those that make war.
For those that live in sin.
For those that mistreat us.
For those that make us sick.

Read more:  Celia Cruz – La Vida Es Un Carnaval Lyrics | MetroLyrics

Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso was born on October 21, 1925 in the diverse, working-class neighborhood of Santos Suárez in Havana, Cuba, the second of four children. Her father, Simon Cruz, was a railroad stoker and her mother, Catalina Alfonso was a homemaker who took care of an extended family of fourteen.[2][3]

 

 





FREEDOM is the ability to fail, reinvent oneself, and do so playfully over a lifetime

28 10 2014

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FREEDOM is a work in progress

21 10 2014

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Gender: “I’ve been looking for the hole mummy, but I just can’t find it.”

19 10 2014

… “There is no way to see what’s different just from their tails.” – P&L

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Nature: U Thant, Cutie Kuti & Tom

16 10 2014

innocent when you dream

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GOVERNANCE: what do you mean continents don’t have flags?

16 10 2014

– That’s the Greek Flag, says Luna confidently pointing upward to a flag outside our local souvlaki joint. Want to have a competition about who knows more flags? – Luna (age 5)

– Ok.

– The MEXICAN flag is Green, White and Red. The British and American flags are both Blue, Red and White, but in a different way. America has stars. Bolivia has Red, Yellow and Green–does any other country have the same colours?

– Let me think. Well, Jamaica does.

– What about Africa? What’s the African flag like?

– Well Africa is a continent, not a country. There are many countries-many flags in Africa.

– What do you mean? Continents don’t have flags?

– No, I guess they don’t.

– What about the world? What’s the world flag?

– I’ll have to think about that one. Lets chat about it later.

– Okay because we need a flag to put on our moon castle.

[how about this for a flag?]

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Click images to see as Earth’s first emissary into space, is carrying a gold plaque that describes what we look like, where we are, and the date when the mission began.