I’m actually trying out some more themes. The green one was a bit hard on the eyes and the one I’ve just changed from was far too busy. WordPress has a number of freebies but I’ll shell out some $$$ if it seems like a good idea. This one appeals to me – easy to read, easy on the eye and you can read comments without having to open another page. Might want to do something about the header.
Acting on a whim
A whim is an odd or fanciful idea, something kooky you suddenly decide to do, like dress up like a chicken or drive to Vegas.
A whim can be a sudden impulse or a change of mind, like if you go shopping for school clothes but instead buy a pink cowboy hat. Whim is a shortened version of the equally silly soundingwhim wham which means “fanciful object,” like a tiny snow globe that plays “Hava Nagila.” If you go for a drive on a whim, you could wind up anywhere, perhaps even back to the store to return that snow globe.
from http://www.vocabulary.com/ (a great little online dictionary that is interactive)
I just spent $25 to convert this blog to its own domain – one of those occasions where I just acted impulsively without going into the ins and outs over whether there is any benefit (apart from shortening the URL). Maybe I have a hunch that it will provide an incentive for writing more and better. Maybe it signals renewed commitment to this exercise. Maybe I’m more a chip off the old block and am starting to throw little bits of hard earned moolah around more freely in my advancing years, just like my late pater did. Anyway, $17 for an annual registration plus $8 to keep the scammers and moochers at bay is not going to break the bank. And I may pick up a few tips along the way.
The eyes have it!
Strange thoughts occur during the waking moments of the day. This morning, various pairs of eyes paraded across the blank screen of my mind, as if awaiting assessment (or were they assessing?) – inviting, daring, willing me to read them. Here is a sampling – the dream state eyes are replicated by some cropped images.
Each set of eyes carries its own silent language. Is it a soul language? Contemplate the different pairs of eyes and you receive something different from each – innocence, beauty, wisdom, hope, trust, discernment – and stereotyping not withstanding , it is possible to attribute these characteristics across generation and gender.
What a gift we give each other if we use our eyes when communicating. When in teaching or mentoring mode, I will sometimes say in good humour, “Show me the colour of your eyes!” Such a startling demand banishes coy, deferential or defiant avoidance of eye contact and paves the way for some good locking of rapport.
This is why I am often bemused by those, who, from behind dark eye-shades, lobby for the banning of the hijab “because it hides the ability to communicate.” Try reading a face hidden by a pair of Gucci sunshades! Far easier to communicate with eyes peeking over a veil.
The language of the eyes is no new discovery – it has been around a long time.
Cicero (106-43 B.C.) is believed to have said, Ut imago est animi voltus sic indices oculi – ‘The face is a picture of the mind as the eyes are its interpreter.’
Jesus, in Matthew’s version of the Sermon on the Mount, declares, Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!
Matthew 6:22-23 (Eugene Peterson, The Message)
It was the French, however, who coined the phrase, Les yeux sont le miroir de l’âme. ‘The eyes are the mirror of the soul.’
So, ain’t it a pity that this blog can’t show you a pair of eyes so you can read its soul! But then it could read yours – and you may not be ready or willing for that!
Life happens…
… looks like postaday has gone out the window! It’s over a week since I’ve posted anything on my wordpress blog. I guess this eliminates me from whatever trophy or medal was to be awarded come December 31. Even though there was a sheer multiplication of immediate and insistent preoccupations and layered interruptions that interfered with my daily intentions, followed by the dismay of missing first one, then two days, and finally a whole week of scribing, I felt exhilaration. It was as if some shackles had been loosed. Having slavishly tied myself to writing something each day, no matter how banal, I was relieved to be able to give myself permission to be released. I’ll swing back onto the postaday merry-go-round, but now it will be under my conditions! So, maybe I’ll be here tomorrow and maybe I won’t.
Edit: I knew there was a reason I configured these posts to arrive in my email in-box. I get to see them as a recipient! I’m not happy with the curmudgeonly sounding ending. If my few readers are gracious enough to read this far they deserve something a little more promising, so I will make evey endeavour to be here tomorrow… and the day after!
Manipulating online causes
As someone who occasionally responds to on-line causes, I was arrested by this article: Uprooting fake online activism – Eureka Street.
It reminded me of how grateful I am that suspicion is an inherent part of my nature. When someone asks something of me, my internal radar goes into overdrive. Up goes the antennae, then the scanning software, always humming along in the background, goes into overdrive. What are they really asking me to do? Are the facts right? Are the facts selective? What is being left out? What is the other side(s) of the story? How does this fit into the big picture? What am I not asking that needs to be asked before deciding to trust this cause?
What I once considered a character blight I now count as a blessing! The on-line causes I have come to support are backed by people or organisations that have some runs on the board as far as integrity and effectiveness are concerned. New causes that are in sync with my personal and public commitments are investigated, assertions checked against a range of sources, including my own homegrown intuitive savvy, which has taken me a life time to learn to trust.
“Wise as a serpent, gentle as a dove” seems to be a worthy guideline as one negotiates the cyberspace plethora of causes that lobby for our attention.
When does free speech become license?
Today’s court ruling against journalist Andrew Bolt’s critical printed comments in relation to fair-skinned Aborigines has again ignited the “freedom of speech” debate: Ruling against Andrew Bolt will harm healthy debate, say libertarians | Herald Sun.
The libertarian position that all speech should be unshackled, un-monitored, uncensored is frought with problems. Generally, I am quite happy in most discourse to engage in unfettered argument. Sometimes the unbridled “free speech” that erupts from an impassioned position releases creative possibilities that swing the discussion onto a new plane. On the other hand, I can also play out enough rope to hang myself. If I want to avoid “hoisting myself on my own petard” I have to temper the freedom of my tongue (or keyboard) with discipline. And there’s the rub. Discipline according to who’s standards? In a relativistic climate, it becomes a difficult question to answer. Unless one voluntarily subscribes to a code of conduct, it is difficult to apply the kind of inner discipline that releases the full benefit of freedom of expression.
How do I give the best and fullest display of my thoughts and arguments in public discourse (thus exercising true freedom of speech)? I first have to consider the values upon which I base my thinking and allow them to shape my words. Then again, what we say will ultimately reveal our values anyway.
Will the court decision be helpful in proscribing what can and can’t be said and maintaining the right to protection from vilification? Libertarians argue no, it simply brings those so vilified into sharper focus and makes them targets for further slander and defamation. On the other hand, the ruling pulls us into line as a community and shows that, even if we see value systems as relative, true freedom for oneself is rarely achievable outside of consideration of what it means to be “free together.”
Vicarious Pilgrimage – the Camino de Santiago
I’ve always enjoyed the long distance walks of John and Marilyn. I can do it all from the comfort of my chair. Two years ago they walked the full distance of the Bibbulman Track – I traced every inch of their journey over my own maps which have been waiting like an expectant pooch with lead in jaws waiting to be taken for a walk. Last year, my friends upped the ante and paced out the Larapinta Trail. They thoughtfully took a location device that transmitted their position on Google maps. Every night I could zero in on their campsite and track their progress through some of our driest country. Right now I am similarly monitoring their progress along the Camino de Santiago (The Way of St James) in the north of Spain. The clarity of the maps is a gift of this digital age – one can almost feel the terrain under foot and zoom eagle eyed from mountain tops over sweeping plains right down through the narrow alleys to the doorsteps of the hostels from which the signals emit. John and Marilyn are nearing the completion of this 700km leg of the pilgrimage. Others here have done sections of this walk. Shared stories on John and Marilyn’s return will certainly enliven the maps I have been pinning on the church noticeboard showing their progress.
Related Articles
- Camino de Santiago: an inspirational journey (spaintravelguide.com)
- Next Stop: Culture Pilgrims in Santiago de Compostela (travel.nytimes.com)
- Walking the Camino de Santiago from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (in France) to Roncesvalles (in Spain) (caminodownunder.wordpress.com)
Doodling vindicated
My schoolboy doodling habit faded sometime ago – not the least because of my being caught up in the digital revolution. It’s much easier to scrawl absent-mindedly on what ever surface is available if you have a pen in hand rather than an android.
The inner censor, well trained by censorious school masters/mistresses, also inhibited what might have been a very creative trait, and this TED talk seems to bear me out.
So doodlers of the world unite! There are many possibilities out there.
A benchmark for the ‘new’ atheism
Recent discourse between theist and non-theist positions has been strident – not the least because the platform has been the very wide educational one, both public and private. Government funding of chaplains, indeed the existence of chaplains, teaching of scripture, the saying of prayers, adding faith specific verses to the national anthem – all have raised the emotional investment of both sides in the debate.
Some of the rhetoric from either side has bordered on the banal. Neither fundamentalist theists nor taunting non-theists have served their side of the argument well.
Today however, I read – Jonathan Rée – Varieties of irreligious experience | New Humanist – presenting an atheist position that I found helpful, respectful and refreshing. Here, I thought, is someone I, as a theist, could have a cappuccino and a chat with sans a sense of being humoured or set up for a pratfall. Without caricature or parody, Rée surveys a history of non-theist thought and philosophy vis-vis the theist stance without parody, caricature or rancour. No straw men here. I am sure that non-theist folk of good will would also appreciate the opportunity to weigh matters with “opponents” who were not looking to trip them up and “win” an argument.
Well -articulating his atheist position – Rée is able to move it to the middle ground where people can touch and appreciate a shared humanity. No lobbing clever hand grenades at an unseen and often imaginary enemy from the safety of an entrenched position . When the current public slanging match can move to a place where this kind of conversation can happen, we’ll be in a much better place. It depends on what our vested interests are.
I am indebted to A Feather Adrift for drawing my attention to this article.
Related Articles
- The Many Ways not to Believe (3quarksdaily.com)
Time our pollies just stopped…period
I concur.
We have the ludicrous situation where a Labor government is pressing for the most draconian offshore detention procedures with a conservative opposition pleading humanitarian concerns for blocking the legislation – and each blaming the other for the arrival of more boats!
The time for schoolyard politics is over. Now is the hour that calls for some good moral leadership. Bite the bullet and return to the sane practice of onshore processing for all asylum seekers, no matter how they arrive here.
Wondering Pilgrim 