Habitat: Enlightened?

Twice now, Unte Reader has referred to my 'burb as "enlightened". Although I can't say I've been blinded by the light here, and I haven't found the road to Damascus (up New Hampshire Avenue?), it's pretty cool. The name "Takoma" purportedly comes from an Indian expression for "high up near heaven". I thought that was in West Virginia, but maybe the First People found it in here too.

From 10 Most Enlightened Suburbs — By Peter Katz and Jay Walljasper, Utne magazine March/April 2003 Issue:

1. Montgomery County, Maryland (Washington, D.C.)
A mostly affluent stretch of communities northwest of D.C.,
it’s home to probably the leftiest ’burb anywhere
(Takoma Park) and one of the very first New Urbanist
communities (Kentlands).

And in The Most Enlightened Town in Every State and Canadian Province, they write, "Takoma Park: Not your typical suburb. A truly comfortable multiracial, mixed-class, gay-friendly environment next door to Washington, D.C.".

Calling all spiritual teachers to The People's Republic of Takoma Park, AKA, "The Berkeley of the East" . . .

Heart2: Soaring

Migrators

Heritage: Mongrel

I visited the First Americans Festival down at the National Mall yesterday. It's part of the celebration for the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian. It awakened me again to the bounty of living in the D.C. area, where you can enjoy celebration and sharing with people of many cultures. Here you get constantly exposed to differences and flavors of humanity, only to constantly learn anew that we work the same inside even if our carcasses were built at different assembly plants using parts programmed by different arrangements of DNA.

For those who haven't followed her career lately, remember Buffy Sainte-Marie? She performed yesterday and delivered a presence and voice as fresh and compelling as when we first heard her back in the 60s. In addition to continuing to perform, she's an educator (adjunct professor at two colleges) and a digital artist (see more about her at http://www.creative-native.com/. As a performer she delivers an activist message to alert us to injustice and misdirection, and asks us to seek higher ground for our endeavors -- to care for each other and the land.

Here are her lyrics for "Mongrel Pup," which celebrates melting pot diversity and tells us not to let the "robots of gloom" get us down. Intertribal Straight Ahead. . .

Mongrel Pup
w/m © Buffy Sainte-Marie
c. Gypsy Boy Music
All Rights Reserved


Robots of gloom they come and go
Donít let em get you down
Laughter is the grease of growth
support your local clown
Donít ever be afraid to smile
at what you really love
Laughter is the grease of growth. Yeah.

Little boys love the Gypsy woman
who lives down on the beach
They love her flashy Gypsy skirt
and nothing on beneath
They love her ferris wheel legs
her roller coaster eyes
Little boys love the Gypsy woman. Yeah.

Little girls love the nature boy
who lives among the shells
they love to see him body surf
upon their little selves
They love his silky seaweed hair
They love his sunset eyes
Little girls love the nature boy

And Baby is a mongrel pup
Hybrid mutant girl
cross-bred nomad stronghead
and Happy in the big bad world
We are the Space Age Council of
Intertribal Straight Ahead
And maybe youíre a mongrel pup. Yeah.

Life: Is But A Dream, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily. . .

A dialogue between Kwai Chan Caine and Master Kahn from Steve Geller's quotes of dialogues from the television series, Kung Fu as found at http://www.kungfu-guide.com/overview.html:

#60. Kahn: The cobweb is made of silken thread so fine that a puff of breath destroys it. Yet, to the spider it is a secure haven.
KCC: Still to me only a cobweb.
Kahn: (Blows a cobweb): When the wind blows, a feather dances in its wake.
KCC: But the feather, much weaker than the wind, can do no other.
Kahn: Is this the way of man?
KCC: There are strong and weak.
Kahn: You do not see. Which is stronger, these boards, or your arm?
KCC: The boards.
Kahn: Strike the boards, using your arm as a weapon (boards break). Yet the boards resisting do not endure.
KCC: Can the weaker be the stronger?
Kahn: See the way of life as a stream. A man floats, and his way is smooth. The same man turning to fight upstream, exhausts himself. To be one with the universe, each must find his true path, and follow it.–KF*

Autopilot: Adjustable

You are getting sleepy. . . You are getting sleepy. . . Tomorrow you will practice random acts of reality. . . Tomorrow you will practice random acts of reality. . .
Tomorrow you will practice random acts of reality.

Funny Bone: Ticklish

"Time to elect a new precedent" - advice from Swami Beyondananda, author of the new book, Swami for Precedent - A 7-Step Plan to Heal the Body Politic and Cure Electile Disfunction. From Step 7: Don't Get Even, Get Odd!:

Here's An Odd Idea: Let's Declare CODE GREEN
In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Americans have been
terrorized not just by terrorism, but by the war on
terrorism. Our Department of Homeland Insecurity has
even color-coded danger, to make sure we "see red"
when they need us to. All this codedependence has
made most Americans sad and scared. But after all,
these frightening colors are just a pigment of our
imagination anyway, so why don't we try something
odd and imagine something different? Imagine the
yellow of fear and blue of the blues being dissolved
in a warm solution of love, and blending into a
healing green. Instead of fomenting anger and an
emergency mentality, why not foment love and creativity
and an emerge 'n see mentality instead? Time to emerge
from the habit of getting even and see the odd
solution that is just ridiculous enough to work!
Let's declare Code Green!

For more of this wholesome, toothsome delightification, see: http://www.beyondananda.com/precedent.html on Mr. Beyondananda's site.

Interior Dialogue: Incessant

We gazed down the beach at Bellows Field Beach Park mesmerized by the "Thomas-Kinkade-does-Hawaii" sight of golden light waning on the green, lush Koolau Mountains.

"Beautiful." "Ummmm." "Yes, it's wonderful." "Yes. . . it's very healing." Everyone murmered, "yes".

In silent,reflexive rebellion I wondered to myself, "Healing? What ails? What needs healing?". Yet I know that something does and it was.

Voice: Silent

Three Trees - Valley of The Temples, Oahu, HI


Four Leaves - Botanic Garden, Washington, DC

Brain: If I Only Had One

"Do we think or do we only think that we think?"

(Richard Rose, June 1955, Deposition on Conclusion of Life's Philosphy, found at: http://www.selfdiscoveryportal.com/arDeposition.htm

Sustenance: Fruit of Knowledge Insufficient

One fine day at Bellows Air Force Station Beach, Waimanalo Bay (as in "Paris, London, Waimanalo"), Oahu:

Dream delivers us to dream, and there is no end to illusion.
Life is a train of moods like a string of beads, and as we pass
through them they prove to be many-colored lenses which paint
the world their own hue, and each shows only what lies in its
focus. From the mountain you see the mountain. We animate
what we can, and we see only what we animate.

From Essays, 2nd Series, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, found at
Project Gutenberg

Actions: Programmed By Advertising

Maybe a new kind of advertisement can help? http://www.selfknowledge.org/events/immortalcombat.ram (Opens in RealPlayer.)

From: http://www.selfknowledge.org/events/tennant_before.htm