Buckets

Our family enjoyed A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids. (picture above) It was a useful reminder to the whole family that we must build each other up or “fill buckets” because that is part of the changes we’d like see in our society.  I made up a bedtime story that mentioned buckets and I explained the Occupy Movement in terms she would understand. I mentioned this to one protester and she suggested that I write it. I added it to my list.

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Daisy Deadhead suggested that I do a piece like hers on ‘the voices in my head or my spiritual side’, so I did. She called hers Deity Meeting Part 1. Here it is, entirely unedited.

Spiritual Chaos

Setting:

Main Characters:
Mary- Mother of Jesus
Gaia
Mary Magdalene (MM)
Thomas (Doubting)
Wisdom(spirit of Jesus, shethelor)
Buddah
Rose Winslow

Minor Character(s):

Grizzy The Ferret
Ripple Blanket/Rug

Buddah: Please everyone get a cushion from the corner and gather in a circle around the rug. (the crowd settles in) Let us open this meeting with ten full breaths of meditation.

Thomas: But Buddah we are missing Gaia.

Buddah: Shall we meditate until she arrives and then take our ten breaths.

Rose: That would be a good idea.

Buddah: Everyone get comfortable.

MM: Gaia is always late.

Blessed Mother: She is a busy Goddess, please have some patience.

Thomas: We could be meditating for a half hour.

Blessed Mother: Thomas, she said Grizzy had a cold so she would be running a bit behind.

Thomas: I wish she would leave those horrid creatures behind.

Buddah: Looks at Thomas gently and shushes him quietly.
Thomas reluctantly closes his eyes with a sigh.

Fifteen minutes pass and Gaia enters.

Buddah’s eyes open and he welcomes her to the meeting and invites her for one minute of meditation.

The group hears a small jingling bell.

Thomas: (Mumbling) ……you didn’t bring one of those stinky ferrets again did you?

Rose and the blessed mother shift in their seats. After a minute Buddah thanks everyone for their meditation. Gaia opens the meeting. Grizzy jumps in her lap with a jingle.

Gaia: Today we are meeting to discuss demands. It has been brought to our attention that these are not working. We must go about things in a more gentle fashion.

MM: That must be why she is reading Verbal Judo. So far the plan is working. I say we keep up the good work.

Thomas: I disagree, I think we need to take a hard line with demands and put them in writing before this meeting is over.

Grizzy The Ferret: (Runs right over to Thomas and jumps on his foot, nosing it)  Put a sock in it Thomas or I’ll bite your ankle!

Blessed Mother: Grizzy that’s not appropriate. One more outburst like that and you are banned from eating rasins for eternity.

Grizzy The Ferret whimpers and jingle noises are heard all the way to Gaia’s lap.

Rose: We are a leaderful and nonviolent movement. We have to give J time to reread and outline Verbal Judo in order for it to be more effective. Thomas, look at this as an exercise in patience.

Thomas gets up and paces the room while mumbling and making hand gestures.

Rose: Blessed Mother, will you give us an update on the controversial Holiday Plans?

Blessed Mother: So far the kiddo’s birthday was good. It was low key and she complained a little about the lack of a large crowd but a good time was had. For a bonus there was a kitty cake. And going to the cousins house for a sleepover and Thanksgiving Dinner was an appropriate addition for the birthday. Kiddo has requested a big Christmas tree.

Thomas interrupts: This is where we need to take a hard line. We should and will have a Christmas tree.

Gaia: Everyone knows how I feel about cutting down a tree and sticking it indoors to die a slow death. I’d like to see if we could get a larger live tree we could plant somewhere after the holidays.

Wisdom: It is MY supposed birthday, as well as Winter Solstice. I think I should be able to decide. This matter needs to be tabled until the next meeting. Can we agree on that much?

“Yes” is heard all around the circle.

Wisdom: Blessed Mother please continue with your update.

Blessed Mother: The loft bed may be delayed until after Christmas due to the 6 to 8 weeks of shipping time. What about the addition of the slide?

Thomas: We can’t do anything until we get the bed but the slide looks like it might be a go. There’s a definite fun factor with an indoor slide. Kiddo should be excited. She will forget about the Holiday nonsense if she gets a slide. Temperature check on the indoor slide.

All fingers in the circle are wiggling in up position.

Thomas: Great! Meeting adjourned….

Buddah: Wait a minute. Let us pause and each find something to be grateful for.

MM: Please don’t make us share it this time. Remember what happened last time?

Gaia: We can do an optional share. Except for Grizzy the Ferret. He needs to share something he is grateful for.

Grizzy The Ferret: I’m thankful that for all eternity I have the freedom to talk and go wherever I wish. I don’t need no stinking cage!

Gaia: Wonderful Grizzy! I’m thankful that J got so excited about Toilet Paper being 40% post consumer recyclable paper! And for the years J did not cut a tree down for the holidays.

Buddah: Anyone else? Rose?

Rose: I’m thankful that J is studying to go back to school and/ or work.

Buddah: May we all discover and appreciate the opportunities we have!

FTY: What I’ve been Reading

Voracious reader that I am I cannot seem to bring myself to write something. Ack.  My two most recent reads are Training Women in the Martial Arts: A Special Journey and

I am still stunned by this sentence…

<—- pg.46  “Most people are unaware that Mahatma Ghandi publicly acknowledged the influence suffragists had on his belief in civil disobedience and non-violent revolution.”     

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chaotic notes

Why Teachers must become community organizers and justice fighters

Given the complex challenge corporate education reform poses, today’s teacher activists cannot just have a strategy which is solely school or teacher centered. They must become community organizers who fight school closings, the proliferation of tests, and the weakening of teacher bargaining rights as attacks on the ability of working class people and people of color to fight for better opportunities for themselves and their children. In this setting, Teacher Activists must put forth a vision of Radical Democracy which envisions an education which empowers students as critical thinkers and agents of historical change, not just as obedient test takers and which envisions schools playing a central role in neighborhoods united and mobilized to get a fair share of the nation’s resources. Occupy Wall Street has provided a language and an example to put that model of Radical Democracy into practice. But it cannot work unless teachers link their own fate to that of the students they work with and the people in the communities where their schools are located. Unless Teacher activists become community organizers and justice fighters in the broadest sense, they will lose the battle to defend their classrooms from the incursions of corporate interests.

And

Us solidarity economy

The dominant feeling within North America social economy and solidarity economy practitioners is that no real change will come about in the economic system unless economic alternatives are built from the ground up. Building concrete alternatives provide examples that show that there are other economic paths: that worker owned and run enterprises with good working conditions and environmentally sound practices are achievable and viable. No amount of protests or demonstrations, or even elections, will change the “system” by itself. In other words, we must roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty to show that this other economy is possible. Indeed, more and more people feel that this is the only way. After all, other changes in economic systems did not come out by sudden upheavals or revolution. Capitalism did not replace feudalism by a sudden revolution. It took something like 3 to 5 centuries for the bourgeoisie to overtake feudalism. It was a long process and they fought hard to take hold of the economy. In other words, they strengthened their class until it got stronger than the old forces. Of course, this way of explaining fundamental changes in society is open to debate. But, certainly this is a possible, or plausible, explanation: we need to have a long term approach. Even if we could all hope for rapid and radical changes, we must recognize that they could take a long period of time. The society and economy we strive for is a people‟s centered economy. By definition, this means that this new economy will be governed to the greatest extent possible through direct participatory democracy at all levels..

Along the same lines from Yes Magazine Best Job in Town and They Own It

STY: Going Beyond

 

Still Going!

 

chaotic note

Loving Women Occupy Right Now

Up tonite, I am taking homemade guts and eyballs in a jar and Haunting my favorite Dojo!

I must read later What kind of buddhist was steve jobs?

Self Defense

Repurpose Your Political Yard Sign

This is a visual How To Repurpose Your political Yard Sign…

Supplies:

wire frame of political sign
tape: clear packing or duct
scissors
contractors paper- u can buy at any hardware store or a paper bag may work

Step 1 and 2 get supplies, lay out contractors paper and put wire frame over your paper, cut paper when u have enough to fold over making two layers of paper…as seen in photos below

Step 3 fold side, top, and bottom of paper

Step 4 make your 2nd layer of paper/ 2nd side of sign by folding the paper in half

Step 5 tuck in last fold

 

Step 6 Decorate—Remember if u are using markers stick a bit of cardboard in between layers of paper to prevent them from bleeding through

Step 7 Done!

 

Later I may post pics of signs made for Occupy Raleigh and/or The Temple of Terror!