real reason

"There are things you do because
they feel right
and they may make no sense
and they may make no money
and it may be the real reason we are here:
to love each other
and to eat each other's cooking
and say it was good."

Brian Andreas

nothing i can do

erudite

–adjective
characterized by great knowledge; learned or scholarly

Oh Snap!

Not as graceful as I would have done it but I completely understand her frustration... They would have NEVER done that to a man.

good advice

“When preparing to travel,
lay out all your clothes and all your money.
Then take half the clothes and twice the money.”

— Susan Heller

Fun Facts Part Deux

these are little facts i have picked up along the way
you can click on the links to read the full articles

***
Feminist women are more likely
than other females
to be in a romantic relationship.

-MSN article

***
In 1980, the city of Detroit
presented Saddam Hussein
with a key to the city.

-CBS NEWS

***
Bimonthly means both
'twice a month'
and
'every two months'.

-Oxford Dictionary

originality

it is better to fail in originality
than succeed in imitation
-herman melville

Make Us...

"look again,
in a fresh Way,
at that which we assume about the world
because it has become overly familiar"
~Karin Fierke

(im)possible

(Photo I took at the Great Sand Dunes in CO)

*
*
*

Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it.

Impossible is not a fact.

It's an opinion.

Impossible is not a declaration.

It's a dare.

Impossible is potential.

Impossible is temporary.

Impossible is nothing.

- Muhammad Ali

UN Fact Finding Mission

“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts." — Abraham Lincoln

After flying into Tel Aviv during the attacks on Gaza in January of this year I have been trying to follow it closely. Its normal I guess for me to want someone to have to pay the piper... in this case that someone would be those who called the shots (figuratively and literally) during the attacks early this year. In April of this year the UN established a Fact Finding Mission and the NGO I worked for in Jerusalem provided testimony in front of this commission last week.
To my dismay and I can't say surprise, Israel is not cooperating with the Mission and further more is completely cutting off access to the areas under its control.

Here is the full article

and an excerpt:

Israel refuses to cooperate with this UN Fact Finding Mission, established in April 2009 by the UN Human Rights Council and is not permitting access to areas under its control, thus rendering implementation of the Mission’s already challenging mandate that much more difficult. Mission members are accordingly unable to gain first-hand evidence and impressions of rights issues related to Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

Israeli damage to property and human lives in the Gaza Strip did not end with “Operation Cast Lead” and continues to this day through the ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip.

seeing things

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”
~Henry Miller

No, she's not my sister...

Happy Birthday * Feliz Cumpleaños
to a woman I am so blessed to have in my life

Love you mom.

Adios unwanted solicitations

So if you are tired of unwanted solicitations in your mailbox and want to save the environment (100 million trees annually) and save yourself some time (8 hours per year) here are some links to get you started:

• DirectMail.com - free, quick way to get your name off commercial mailing lists.
• MailStopper - paid service that stops your junk mail, and actively keeps you from getting back on mailing lists; promises to stop 90% of your junk mail in 90 days. Makes a great gift ($20/year).
• Catalog Choice - free service that'll get you on no-send lists to stop catalog spam.
• OptOutPrescreen.com - opt out of preapproved credit card and insurance offers online or by phone: 1-888-5-OPTOUT.
• YellowPagesGoesGreen - get your name off phonebook mailing lists.
• EcoLogical Mail Coalition - helps businesses stop mail addressed to former employees.

Now you can't say you didn't know.

Mr. Nawi

Mr. Nawi is a man I read about in the New York Times. He is a regular guy who owns a pluming business but who is also an Israeli activist who connects very deeply with the Palestinians. Below are some of the highlights from the Article that are so very true and honest. I think the powerful words DECENCY and UNDERSTAND are key to Mr. Nawi and I pray can be the future of the Middle East conflict.

(photo taken at the Mt. of Beatitudes, Galilee)

His family has trouble understanding his priorities. His mother says she thinks he is wasting his time. And many Israelis, when told of his work, wonder why he is not helping his own.

Mr. Nawi has an answer.

“I don’t consider my work political,”

he said between phone calls as he drove.

“I don’t have a solution to this dispute. I just know that what is going on here is wrong. This is not about ideology. It is about decency.”

Mr. Nawi attributes his activism to two things: as a teenager, his family lived next door to the leader of Israel's Communist Party, Reuven Kaminer, who influenced him. And he is gay.

“Being gay has made me understand what it is like to be a despised minority,” Mr. Nawi said.

Several years ago, he had a relationship with a Palestinian from the West Bank and ended up being convicted on charges of allowing his companion to live illegally in Israel. His companion was jailed for months.

Mr. Nawi said harassment against him had come in many forms. Settlers shout vicious antigay epithets. His plumbing business has been audited, and he was handed a huge tax bill that he said he did not deserve. He is certain that his phone calls are monitored. And those army jeeps are never far behind.

“I’m here to change reality,”

he said.

“The only Israelis these people know are settlers and soldiers. Through me they know a different Israeli. And I’ll keep coming until I know that the farmers here can work their fields.”

Peace in Poetry

Mahmoud Darwish is one of the most admired Arab poets. He was born in a village in upper Galilee, in 1942. In 1948, he fled with his family to Lebanon when the Israeli Army destroyed his village. A former member of the PLO’s Executive Council, and the Poet Laureate of Palestine, he wrote the 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence.

photos I took from the roof of a friend's home in
Kalandia Refugee Camp, West Bank

The water tanks for when the water is shut off and the solar panels to save money and be more efficient. Amazing, even the refugee camps of the West Bank are ahead of the U.S. energy practices.

Mahmoud Darwish's poem, below, gives a simple yet deep vision of the future of Palestine when the oppression of the occupation is over and there is PEACE.

My favorite line,

"a dove will sleep in the afternoon in an abandoned combat tank"
Below is the poem in English then Arabic:

Another day will come, a womanly day diaphanous in metaphor, complete in being, diamond and processional in visitation, sunny, flexible, with a light shadow. No one will feel a desire for suicide or for leaving. All things, outside the past, natural and real, will be synonyms of their early traits. As if time is slumbering on vacation… “Extend your lovely beauty-time. Sunbathe in the sun of your silken breasts, and wait until good omen arrives. Later we will grow older. We have enough time to grow older after this day…”/ Another day will come, a womanly day songlike in gesture, lapis in greeting and in phrase. All things will be feminine outside the past. Water will flow from rock’s bosom. No dust, no drought, no defeat. And a dove will sleep in the afternoon in an abandoned combat tank if it doesn’t find a small nest in the lovers’ bed…

if you don't like the term...change it

sweet dreams

Tomorrow afternoon I will fly to a city I love
to visit friends I adore.

I can't wait to
ride the metro,
walk to a local bar,
laugh with friends,
drink tasty beverages,
give long overdue hugs,
dance until my feet hurt,
inhale the air from a rooftop,
be surrounded by monuments,
reminisce about good times
and
talk of future adventures.

Oh and if we so happen upon some late night empanadas...that would be ok too.

observer

photos from my visit to the Museum On The Seam - Jerusalem

"You never will be the person you can be if pressure, tension and discipline are taken out of your life."

The Observer

Doris Bühler sculpts the image of the observer contemplating the world from a different viewpoint.

“From an inquisitive angle, tense and dumb,”

says the artist.

“Are we capable of understanding and sensing the array and possibilities of our existence?”

Each moment is unique, and so are we, for every passing moment influences our concepts and our viewpoints. The burden of history influences our outlook and accordingly, we are unable to regard anything without subconsciously relating to the past. Our concepts are dictated by our human history and whatever we have experienced in the past. In this work I am trying to challenge rigid thought patterns.”

The "Observer" is introduced by the artist as a shining metallic head emerging from the earth. The head, generated by advanced technology, consists of over 300 aluminum plates welded together.