at Sedhiou,Senegal
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Peanut Fields
Saturday, February 26, 2011
The "Seven Samurai," my favorite movie
Just watched again, for maybe the tenth time, what a great movie. I saw it in the fifties when it first appeared.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Legal Aid Cuts Are Continuing Despite Increased Need
http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202476843961&slreturn=1&hbxlogin=1
Now, we learn that a bill has been introduced in Congress to cut back the funding for the national Legal Services Program on top of state cuts. This is very bad, given the increasing need of lower income people for government sponsored legal assistance. Justice and equality in our system entails the availability of lawyers for all parties in our courts. That is a dream that the "War on Poverty" began to try to fulfill through the Legal Services Program. But since 1981, the nation has gradually eroded what was a fine, indeed, outstanding federal program of assistance to the poor. I will post some additional thoughts on this topic.
Now, we learn that a bill has been introduced in Congress to cut back the funding for the national Legal Services Program on top of state cuts. This is very bad, given the increasing need of lower income people for government sponsored legal assistance. Justice and equality in our system entails the availability of lawyers for all parties in our courts. That is a dream that the "War on Poverty" began to try to fulfill through the Legal Services Program. But since 1981, the nation has gradually eroded what was a fine, indeed, outstanding federal program of assistance to the poor. I will post some additional thoughts on this topic.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
The Sun Over The Casamance, Senegal
Fishermen on the Casamance River
Location:Near Sedhiou, Senegal
This shot was one of three finalist photos in the recent Boston Area Returned Peace Corps Volunteers' photo contest.Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Monet's Garden, Giverny
(Please click on photos for a better view.)
These photos taken at Giverny by John Hand are subject to Copyright, 2011, and may not be copied for commercial purposes without my permission.
Homeless Families, Emergency Assistance and Due Process
THOUGHTS ABOUT POVERTY AND JUSTICE (CONTINUED)
Before 1981, there was no homeless population in Westchester County, New York where I worked for a Legal Services field program. When a family was evicted or burned out of their home, the family quickly obtained replacement housing. However, with welfare grants not keeping pace with the rising costs of housing during the 1970s, many families were able to pay their rent only by using the portion of their earned income that was exempted by law from consideration in calculating their welfare grants (the first $30 plus one third of the balance of gross income). One of the supposedly cost saving welfare reforms of the early Reagan years was the elimination of this exemption. It was then that we first saw families become homeless. Over the years, rooming houses were eliminated and many single people also lost their only affordable shelter.
The massive numbers of homeless people, including thousands of children brought about a system of so-called “emergency housing,” arranged and supported by the welfare department. In time, the welfare department contracted with corporations to provide “emergency” services to the ever growing numbers of homeless people. The result was a system where due to no fault of their own, many children and adults found themselves in environments where the normal conditions and rights of civil life and society did not apply. Instead, families became subject to strict supervision, a lack of basic privacy and a set of special rules and controls.
Some examples: Homeless families and single people became "licensees" of their accommodations, rather than tenants. As licensees, they could be evicted from emergency apartments and shelters without any of the normal rights of tenants. They could be denied overnight visitors and allowed restricted visitation during the day. They had little or no redress from unsanitary and unsafe housing conditions. They could be required to submit to physical and mental examinations and therapy sessions as determined by case workers and housing managers. Their rooms and apartments were subject to unannounced searches, even during the night, to ensure that there was no unauthorized person on the premises and that they possessed no contraband.
These and many other restrictions on normal living conditions were rationalized as necessary incidents of the "emergency" situation created by a large homeless population. This was not a temporary dislocation of people caused by a great storm, fire, riot or other massive disturbance. It was a persistent situation that was created by welfare and housing policies and it could have been remedied by governmental policies. But the homeless were for the most part poor people of color and they were not desired in any community's "backyard.”
There is a major problem with fighting for the rights of homeless people to the have normal protections of privacy, freedoms to come and go, rights to protest unhealthy living conditions and to challenge unjust evictions and other arbitrary governmental decisions. That problem stems from the very concept of civil “emergency.” The government used the rubric of “emergency” to justify its curtailment of civil liberties and statutory rights of homeless families. Homeless families might complain that they were being deprived of entitlements, freedom and privacy without “due process of law,” but that constitutional concept is by no means absolute.
Due process and our other constitutional rights depend on the circumstances, on what people demand and on what each of the branches of government say they mean. What protections are available under “due process of law” is determined by balancing the interests of the government against those of the individual. As the Supreme Court stated in Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, resolution of what process is due requires a “consideration of (i) the nature and weight of the private interest affected by the official action challenged; (ii) the risk of an erroneous deprivation of such interest as a consequence of the summary procedures used; and (iii) the governmental function involved and state interests served by such procedures, as well as the administrative and fiscal burdens, if any, that would result from the substitute procedures sought.”
A state of emergency shifts the resolution of what process is due to the favor of the government, in order for it to reduce or eliminate the emergency. There is danger to civil liberties and other rights whenever the government determines that an emergency exists, especially if the emergency is indefinite in duration, widespread geographically and indeterminate in its scope and details. The government can be expected to take advantage of any shifting of the balance between government power and individual rights. The executive branch, especially, will not voluntarily give up whatever powers it can accumulate from the legislative and judicial branches in order to maintain surveillance and control of the people.
- Posted from my iPad
Before 1981, there was no homeless population in Westchester County, New York where I worked for a Legal Services field program. When a family was evicted or burned out of their home, the family quickly obtained replacement housing. However, with welfare grants not keeping pace with the rising costs of housing during the 1970s, many families were able to pay their rent only by using the portion of their earned income that was exempted by law from consideration in calculating their welfare grants (the first $30 plus one third of the balance of gross income). One of the supposedly cost saving welfare reforms of the early Reagan years was the elimination of this exemption. It was then that we first saw families become homeless. Over the years, rooming houses were eliminated and many single people also lost their only affordable shelter.
The massive numbers of homeless people, including thousands of children brought about a system of so-called “emergency housing,” arranged and supported by the welfare department. In time, the welfare department contracted with corporations to provide “emergency” services to the ever growing numbers of homeless people. The result was a system where due to no fault of their own, many children and adults found themselves in environments where the normal conditions and rights of civil life and society did not apply. Instead, families became subject to strict supervision, a lack of basic privacy and a set of special rules and controls.
Some examples: Homeless families and single people became "licensees" of their accommodations, rather than tenants. As licensees, they could be evicted from emergency apartments and shelters without any of the normal rights of tenants. They could be denied overnight visitors and allowed restricted visitation during the day. They had little or no redress from unsanitary and unsafe housing conditions. They could be required to submit to physical and mental examinations and therapy sessions as determined by case workers and housing managers. Their rooms and apartments were subject to unannounced searches, even during the night, to ensure that there was no unauthorized person on the premises and that they possessed no contraband.
These and many other restrictions on normal living conditions were rationalized as necessary incidents of the "emergency" situation created by a large homeless population. This was not a temporary dislocation of people caused by a great storm, fire, riot or other massive disturbance. It was a persistent situation that was created by welfare and housing policies and it could have been remedied by governmental policies. But the homeless were for the most part poor people of color and they were not desired in any community's "backyard.”
There is a major problem with fighting for the rights of homeless people to the have normal protections of privacy, freedoms to come and go, rights to protest unhealthy living conditions and to challenge unjust evictions and other arbitrary governmental decisions. That problem stems from the very concept of civil “emergency.” The government used the rubric of “emergency” to justify its curtailment of civil liberties and statutory rights of homeless families. Homeless families might complain that they were being deprived of entitlements, freedom and privacy without “due process of law,” but that constitutional concept is by no means absolute.
Due process and our other constitutional rights depend on the circumstances, on what people demand and on what each of the branches of government say they mean. What protections are available under “due process of law” is determined by balancing the interests of the government against those of the individual. As the Supreme Court stated in Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, resolution of what process is due requires a “consideration of (i) the nature and weight of the private interest affected by the official action challenged; (ii) the risk of an erroneous deprivation of such interest as a consequence of the summary procedures used; and (iii) the governmental function involved and state interests served by such procedures, as well as the administrative and fiscal burdens, if any, that would result from the substitute procedures sought.”
A state of emergency shifts the resolution of what process is due to the favor of the government, in order for it to reduce or eliminate the emergency. There is danger to civil liberties and other rights whenever the government determines that an emergency exists, especially if the emergency is indefinite in duration, widespread geographically and indeterminate in its scope and details. The government can be expected to take advantage of any shifting of the balance between government power and individual rights. The executive branch, especially, will not voluntarily give up whatever powers it can accumulate from the legislative and judicial branches in order to maintain surveillance and control of the people.
- Posted from my iPad
Monday, February 21, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
PRAYER IN THE ROCKIES by Ronald George Hand
"Wind of the mountains, blow me clear
Of trivial thoughts, and stupid fear;
Blue of the mountains, steep my soul,
Color my life and make me whole.
Rain in the mountains, wash me clean
Of selfish cares - the small and mean;
Oh purple mist and wild bird cry,
You mark the trail to a boulder sky.
Wind of the mountains, wind and the rain
Freshen my cup of laughter again;
Strength of the hills, flow into me;
Earth, bear me up to a Destiny."
Of trivial thoughts, and stupid fear;
Blue of the mountains, steep my soul,
Color my life and make me whole.
Rain in the mountains, wash me clean
Of selfish cares - the small and mean;
Oh purple mist and wild bird cry,
You mark the trail to a boulder sky.
Wind of the mountains, wind and the rain
Freshen my cup of laughter again;
Strength of the hills, flow into me;
Earth, bear me up to a Destiny."
Saturday, February 19, 2011
WELFARE For Families With Children
Aid to Families with Dependent Children was not a failure as some have said. AFDC served the country quite well for many decades, beginning during the Great Depression. It could have been improved, but instead, it was eroded by Reagan and then eliminated by Gingrich-Clinton. The removal of that program was part of a package of so-called reforms which injured poor people and diminished our civil rights and liberties. AFDC was was more than a charitable hand-out to poor children and their parents. Although it bestowed no right to receive any particular amount of assistance, whatever was determined to be appropriate was an entitlement. Assistance could not be denied in an arbitrary manner. A family's benefits, once granted, were protected procedurally by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. In the Supreme Court case which announced that right, Justice William Brennan said,
"Welfare, by meeting the basic demands of subsistence, can help bring within the reach of the poor the same opportunities that are available to others to participate meaningfully in the life of the community... Public assistance, then, is not mere charity, but a means to "promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity...." Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U.S. 254, 265 (1970).
AFDC contained strict work rules which were enforced. And, many welfare mothers were able to keep their apartments when grant levels failed to rise with inflation in the 1970s by working, because, at that time, working parents were allowed to keep a portion of their earned income. Reagan eliminated that partial exemption, resulting in thousands of families becoming homeless. The elimination of AFDC in 1996 removed the national safety net for poor children.
- Posted from my iPad
"Welfare, by meeting the basic demands of subsistence, can help bring within the reach of the poor the same opportunities that are available to others to participate meaningfully in the life of the community... Public assistance, then, is not mere charity, but a means to "promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity...." Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U.S. 254, 265 (1970).
AFDC contained strict work rules which were enforced. And, many welfare mothers were able to keep their apartments when grant levels failed to rise with inflation in the 1970s by working, because, at that time, working parents were allowed to keep a portion of their earned income. Reagan eliminated that partial exemption, resulting in thousands of families becoming homeless. The elimination of AFDC in 1996 removed the national safety net for poor children.
- Posted from my iPad
Friday, February 18, 2011
Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Of Children-A Continuing National Disgace
The Feds have made 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood the maximum safe level. Even 5 micrograms are too much. This is not new, but the articles still come and probably will do so for another decade or two, unfortunately. Click for the latest article I have read. Here is an excerpt from the article:
"Some doctors say that the C.D.C. could act more aggressively to identify poisoning cases by lowering the threshold at which lead levels are considered elevated. That threshold is 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood in children under 6. But Dr. John Rosen, who founded the lead program at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx in 1972, said research had established that even at levels as low as 5 micrograms per deciliter, lead could cause irreversible impairment to intelligence quotient, motor skills and behavior."
"Some doctors say that the C.D.C. could act more aggressively to identify poisoning cases by lowering the threshold at which lead levels are considered elevated. That threshold is 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood in children under 6. But Dr. John Rosen, who founded the lead program at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx in 1972, said research had established that even at levels as low as 5 micrograms per deciliter, lead could cause irreversible impairment to intelligence quotient, motor skills and behavior."
Political Asylum
http://voa-intheirownwords.blogspot.com/2009/06/ordeals-in-seeking-asylum.html
Nico Colombant did a nice job with this video presentation of the work that Community Legal Services and Counseling Center, Cambridge, MA, does for victims of persecution who seek asylum in the United States.
Nico Colombant did a nice job with this video presentation of the work that Community Legal Services and Counseling Center, Cambridge, MA, does for victims of persecution who seek asylum in the United States.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
In Case You Suffer From Back Pain...
OPEN LETTER TO BACK PAIN SUFFERERS:
In January, 1981, shortly after the law firm where I worked dissolved, as I was riding a bike through the streets of Eugene, Oregon, I stopped short to avoid hitting the back of a car. I felt something "go" in my back, but it didn't hurt then. A few hours later, I was in agony on the floor in my home. Shuffling and doubled over, I managed to get to the office of a sports medicine physician. He did nothing but examine me. He gave me neither medicine nor any physical adjustment - just told me to take it easy. This made me very anxious, since he didn't seem to think anything of my predicament.
At that time, I thought it was an isolated episode that would go away and not return, for I had not experienced back pain for 20 years. My back was "out" and would return to normal. The pain diminished, but persisted. So, I went to an osteopath, who gave me the physical adjustment I wanted and also a muscle relaxant. Now, I felt "treated." I relaxed, and after a few days of slow going, I was normal. I put the incident behind me.
But not for long. Several months after I returned to New York and my old job, I awoke one morning unable to get up. The pain was quite fierce. Of course, I at once identified the cause: raking leaves in the yard. This time I went to a chiropractor, who adjusted my back and took x-rays. The results were alarming and depressing. He told me I had degenerative disc disease and that the condition was chronic and incurable. But there was hope for a fairly normal life if I followed instructions and took care.
Over the ensuing six years, I went to a chiropractor every time my back "went out," that is, several times a year. Each bout lasted from three to twelve weeks. I could not do many things that I enjoy doing. Physical exercise was dangerous. Running was out of the question. Hiking was problematic; I worried I'd have to be rescued on some ridge in the White Mountains, as once I almost did.
Carrying, lifting, driving, even sitting in a theater became increasingly difficult, painful and fearsome. Doing research in a library was extremely uncomfortable - especially standing in the stacks. Going to meetings anywhere that I did not have the right kind of chair presented significant problems. Every day I had to spend from a half hour to two hours lying on a pad on my office floor. I missed work several weeks a year and almost routinely had to leave early or arrive late. My life was carefully arranged to protect my fragile back. Nevertheless, the pain became continual and worse around 1986. The doctors told me that I could expect a gradual worsening of the condition. I felt pretty bad since I was only 46. I wondered about what my condition would be at age 52 or 55.
During one particularly awful episode, I consulted an orthopedic surgeon, who paced, looked very grave and told me I would be in deep trouble without surgery. In desperation, I consulted a neurologist, who assured me I could control the problem with certain exercises and swimming. I followed his suggestions and swam 5 or 6 times a week, though I dislike swimming for exercise.
One day in late '86, coming out of the courthouse in White Plains, someone asked me how I was doing. I didn't lie. She suggested I see the physician that she said had cured her husband of back pain, John Sarno. Dr. Sarno is a professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at the New York University School of Medicine.
Dr. Sarno's theory is that except for rare cases, back pain is caused not by structural defects in the back (which, of course, do appear in various scans). Rather, pain emanates from the back, shoulders, neck or legs, etc., as a result of mild deprivation of oxygen in the affected area of the body. This condition is produced deliberately by the brain for the purpose of distracting one from repressed emotionality, including repressed anger. The name that Dr. Sarno has given to this condition is tension myositis syndrome (TMS). Thus, the tension that causes back pain is not tension of which one is readily aware. In order to sustain the deception, the brain associates back pain with various triggers, such as raking leaves or twisting - almost anything will do. TMS is a stratagem of the brain to protect itself from what the brain considers a threat of an overwhelming nature.
Curing back pain results when one rids oneself of the self-deception involved. Once one understands that the pain is harmless, because it arises from a stratagem of the brain, the syndrome loses its efficacy. What a pleasure it was to lose the fear of deterioration and pain and to realize that I could safely resume all activities. I have done so and I have had no debilitating back pain since 1988, when I attended Dr. Sarno's program.
Dr. Sarno first conducts a physical examination and takes the history. If he makes a diagnosis that the pain is a result of TMS, the patient is asked to return to the N.Y.U. Medical Center to attend a class in which Sarno teaches how and why the pain is produced. It is the knowledge of how TMS works that dissipates the deception and hence the pain, which no longer can serve any function. I was examined by Dr. Sarno in January, 1988. In February, I attended his lectures with about 50 other patients. Subsequently, I attended several of his Tuesday afternoon seminars and within a couple months I no longer had back pain.
In 1988, when I was a patient and student of Dr. Sarno, he avoided the term “psychosomatic,” because, he said, that word was loaded with inaccurate meaning. He focused on back pain exclusively and preferred simply to use “tension myositis syndrome,”or “TMS.” If I recall correctly, his treatment lectures and his 1991 book (Healing back Pain) only tangentially speculated that TMS may be part of larger medical phenomenon. But with publication of The Divided Mind, Dr. Sarno has produced a landmark work encompassing the field of psychosomatic medicine.
If I read Dr. Sarno’s latest book correctly, broadly speaking, there are three ways in which his thinking now is radically different from when I saw him for treatment. TMS describes a benign strategy by which the brain protects itself from what it considers to be dangerous emotional material contained (locked away) in the sub-conscious part of the brain. Other psychosomatic conditions, however, are not limited to the benign pain of TMS; they are capable of damaging or destroying the individual. Secondly, while TMS is caused entirely by psychosomatic processes, other psychosomatic processes can be a partial cause of - or an exacerbating factor in - any illness, including cancer and cardiovascular disease. Thirdly, psychosomatic conditions are universal among humans.
I think that Dr. Sarno’s work is profound. I urge you to read The Divided Mind, The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders, Harper Books, 2006. I recommend also, Healing Hypertension-A Revolutionary New Approach, by Samuel J. Mann, M.D. Hypertension Center, NY Presbyterian Hosp.-Cornell Medical Center, John Wiley and Sons, publisher, 1999.
In January, 1981, shortly after the law firm where I worked dissolved, as I was riding a bike through the streets of Eugene, Oregon, I stopped short to avoid hitting the back of a car. I felt something "go" in my back, but it didn't hurt then. A few hours later, I was in agony on the floor in my home. Shuffling and doubled over, I managed to get to the office of a sports medicine physician. He did nothing but examine me. He gave me neither medicine nor any physical adjustment - just told me to take it easy. This made me very anxious, since he didn't seem to think anything of my predicament.
At that time, I thought it was an isolated episode that would go away and not return, for I had not experienced back pain for 20 years. My back was "out" and would return to normal. The pain diminished, but persisted. So, I went to an osteopath, who gave me the physical adjustment I wanted and also a muscle relaxant. Now, I felt "treated." I relaxed, and after a few days of slow going, I was normal. I put the incident behind me.
But not for long. Several months after I returned to New York and my old job, I awoke one morning unable to get up. The pain was quite fierce. Of course, I at once identified the cause: raking leaves in the yard. This time I went to a chiropractor, who adjusted my back and took x-rays. The results were alarming and depressing. He told me I had degenerative disc disease and that the condition was chronic and incurable. But there was hope for a fairly normal life if I followed instructions and took care.
Over the ensuing six years, I went to a chiropractor every time my back "went out," that is, several times a year. Each bout lasted from three to twelve weeks. I could not do many things that I enjoy doing. Physical exercise was dangerous. Running was out of the question. Hiking was problematic; I worried I'd have to be rescued on some ridge in the White Mountains, as once I almost did.
Carrying, lifting, driving, even sitting in a theater became increasingly difficult, painful and fearsome. Doing research in a library was extremely uncomfortable - especially standing in the stacks. Going to meetings anywhere that I did not have the right kind of chair presented significant problems. Every day I had to spend from a half hour to two hours lying on a pad on my office floor. I missed work several weeks a year and almost routinely had to leave early or arrive late. My life was carefully arranged to protect my fragile back. Nevertheless, the pain became continual and worse around 1986. The doctors told me that I could expect a gradual worsening of the condition. I felt pretty bad since I was only 46. I wondered about what my condition would be at age 52 or 55.
During one particularly awful episode, I consulted an orthopedic surgeon, who paced, looked very grave and told me I would be in deep trouble without surgery. In desperation, I consulted a neurologist, who assured me I could control the problem with certain exercises and swimming. I followed his suggestions and swam 5 or 6 times a week, though I dislike swimming for exercise.
One day in late '86, coming out of the courthouse in White Plains, someone asked me how I was doing. I didn't lie. She suggested I see the physician that she said had cured her husband of back pain, John Sarno. Dr. Sarno is a professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at the New York University School of Medicine.
Dr. Sarno's theory is that except for rare cases, back pain is caused not by structural defects in the back (which, of course, do appear in various scans). Rather, pain emanates from the back, shoulders, neck or legs, etc., as a result of mild deprivation of oxygen in the affected area of the body. This condition is produced deliberately by the brain for the purpose of distracting one from repressed emotionality, including repressed anger. The name that Dr. Sarno has given to this condition is tension myositis syndrome (TMS). Thus, the tension that causes back pain is not tension of which one is readily aware. In order to sustain the deception, the brain associates back pain with various triggers, such as raking leaves or twisting - almost anything will do. TMS is a stratagem of the brain to protect itself from what the brain considers a threat of an overwhelming nature.
Curing back pain results when one rids oneself of the self-deception involved. Once one understands that the pain is harmless, because it arises from a stratagem of the brain, the syndrome loses its efficacy. What a pleasure it was to lose the fear of deterioration and pain and to realize that I could safely resume all activities. I have done so and I have had no debilitating back pain since 1988, when I attended Dr. Sarno's program.
Dr. Sarno first conducts a physical examination and takes the history. If he makes a diagnosis that the pain is a result of TMS, the patient is asked to return to the N.Y.U. Medical Center to attend a class in which Sarno teaches how and why the pain is produced. It is the knowledge of how TMS works that dissipates the deception and hence the pain, which no longer can serve any function. I was examined by Dr. Sarno in January, 1988. In February, I attended his lectures with about 50 other patients. Subsequently, I attended several of his Tuesday afternoon seminars and within a couple months I no longer had back pain.
In 1988, when I was a patient and student of Dr. Sarno, he avoided the term “psychosomatic,” because, he said, that word was loaded with inaccurate meaning. He focused on back pain exclusively and preferred simply to use “tension myositis syndrome,”or “TMS.” If I recall correctly, his treatment lectures and his 1991 book (Healing back Pain) only tangentially speculated that TMS may be part of larger medical phenomenon. But with publication of The Divided Mind, Dr. Sarno has produced a landmark work encompassing the field of psychosomatic medicine.
If I read Dr. Sarno’s latest book correctly, broadly speaking, there are three ways in which his thinking now is radically different from when I saw him for treatment. TMS describes a benign strategy by which the brain protects itself from what it considers to be dangerous emotional material contained (locked away) in the sub-conscious part of the brain. Other psychosomatic conditions, however, are not limited to the benign pain of TMS; they are capable of damaging or destroying the individual. Secondly, while TMS is caused entirely by psychosomatic processes, other psychosomatic processes can be a partial cause of - or an exacerbating factor in - any illness, including cancer and cardiovascular disease. Thirdly, psychosomatic conditions are universal among humans.
I think that Dr. Sarno’s work is profound. I urge you to read The Divided Mind, The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders, Harper Books, 2006. I recommend also, Healing Hypertension-A Revolutionary New Approach, by Samuel J. Mann, M.D. Hypertension Center, NY Presbyterian Hosp.-Cornell Medical Center, John Wiley and Sons, publisher, 1999.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Flowers, Trees, Plants, continued
(Click on the photo for a better view)
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Another Of My Favorite Poems
"My heart has become a receptacle of every form;
it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,
and a temple for idols, and pilgrims' kaba,
and the tablets of the torah, and the book of the Koran.
I follow the religion of love, whichever way its camels take.
For this is my religion and my faith."
-- Ibn Arabi
it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,
and a temple for idols, and pilgrims' kaba,
and the tablets of the torah, and the book of the Koran.
I follow the religion of love, whichever way its camels take.
For this is my religion and my faith."
-- Ibn Arabi
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Selected Verses of "Cold Mountain," written by Han-Shan-one of my favorite poems
"People ask the way to Cold Mountain
Cold Mountain: there's no through trail.
In summer ice doesn't melt,
The rising sun blurs in swirling fog.
Clambering up the Cold Mountain path
The trail goes on and on.
The long gorge choked with scree and boulders,
The wide creek, the mist-blurred grass.
The moss is slippery, though there's been no rain.
The pine sings, but there's no wind.
Cold Mountain is a house
Without beams or walls.
The six doors left and right are open,
The hall is blue sky
The rooms all vacant and vague,
The east wall beats on the west wall,
At the center nothing.
If I hide out at Cold Mountain
Why worry?
Days and months slip by like water,
Time is like sparks knocked off flint.
I'm happy to sit among these cliffs.
Gone, and a million things leave no trace
Loosed, and it flows through the galaxies
A fountain of light, into the very mind."
"His poems were written on the walls of cliffs, on rocks and trees; they were in the colloquial T'ang, direct and uncomplicated, born out of experience, not romanticized beauty. Han-Shan called Cold Mountain his home, but it is more than that - Han-Shan is Cold Mountain. The road to Cold Mountain was his path to enlightenment."
Cold Mountain: there's no through trail.
In summer ice doesn't melt,
The rising sun blurs in swirling fog.
Clambering up the Cold Mountain path
The trail goes on and on.
The long gorge choked with scree and boulders,
The wide creek, the mist-blurred grass.
The moss is slippery, though there's been no rain.
The pine sings, but there's no wind.
Cold Mountain is a house
Without beams or walls.
The six doors left and right are open,
The hall is blue sky
The rooms all vacant and vague,
The east wall beats on the west wall,
At the center nothing.
If I hide out at Cold Mountain
Why worry?
Days and months slip by like water,
Time is like sparks knocked off flint.
I'm happy to sit among these cliffs.
Gone, and a million things leave no trace
Loosed, and it flows through the galaxies
A fountain of light, into the very mind."
"His poems were written on the walls of cliffs, on rocks and trees; they were in the colloquial T'ang, direct and uncomplicated, born out of experience, not romanticized beauty. Han-Shan called Cold Mountain his home, but it is more than that - Han-Shan is Cold Mountain. The road to Cold Mountain was his path to enlightenment."
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
