To This Day Project – Shane Koyczan – YouTube.
To This Day Project. “But our lives will only ever always continue to be a balancing act that has less to do with pain, and more to do with beauty.”
art
Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys
Yesterday afternoon we had the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf Opening Reception. I planned it as a 2-hour catered affair, inviting people from the University of Redlands community, the City of Redlands, and our initiative’s community partner, Peace Academy. It was a small, low-key, intimate, and relaxed event.
This Opening Reception sets the stage for all the other events we will be providing based on the Bridging Cultures Bookshelf. Coming up: a film showing and facilitated discussion of the documentary Prince Among Slaves with Dr. Patrick Wing, professor of history at University of Redlands. We will hold the first film showing at University of Redlands, then we will hold another film showing at Peace Academy.
Here are a few images from yesterday’s event.
Muslim Journeys Bookshelf Opening Reception: Mingling
Muslim Journeys Bookshelf Opening Reception: Mingling & Refreshments
Muslim Journeys Bookshelf Opening Reception: More Mingling
Championship fight between Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston: Miami Beach, Florida. February 25, 1964. Image from Flickr.
In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of ev’ry glove that layed him down
Or cut him till he cried out
In his anger and his shame
“I am leaving, I am leaving”
But the fighter still remains
Peter Dow with Penelope Dow at Joshua Tree National Park, California, December 30, 2012. Photo taken by Madeleine Dow.
Everywhere I’m looking now
I’m surrounded by your embrace
Baby, I can see your halo
You know you’re my saving grace
You’re everything I need and more
It’s written all over your face
Baby, I can feel your halo
Pray it won’t fade away
Just like real life.
Goodreads | A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut – Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists.
A Man Without a Country is where Kurt Vonnegut wrote
Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country
Sherman Alexie at University of Redlands, February 5, 2013
This topic is not the original intent I had for this blog post. I’ve been sitting on this draft for about a week now. I had wanted to talk about the movie Super 8, which I rewatched with my family after I returned from ALAMW13. I was inspired by the catchy line delivered by the 2011 movie’s protagonist Joe Lamb. I thought it held a significant idea encapsulated in a compact info-package worthy of a blog post. But I had trouble putting my thoughts together in a coherent enough manner.
Then, last night, I heard Sherman Alexie speak at University of Redlands. My first time to hear him in person. Things fell into place in my head. He delivered the same message as Joe Lamb: “Bad things happen. But you can still live.” Not the same words. But similar idea and spirit. The injustice and suffering we experience need not be for nothing. The anger we harbor can fuel our artistic, creative, and aesthetic endeavors. And by living I mean feeding and growing one’s soul through art and creative work: writing, painting, drawing, dancing, or performing.
Alexie spoke of the grinding poverty he knew as a child growing up on an Indian reservation in the Spokane, Washington area. When you are dirt poor, he said, your basic hungers for food, shelter, safety, and physical comforts become one with your spiritual and emotional hungers. Basically, that’s nice, dear. But it doesn’t fill my belly. What do you do when that’s your reality?
For Sherman, the answer was he had to get out of the rez. The consequences of his decision to leave were not (are not) easy to bear. There was the challenging question: “You think you’re better than us?” Wait, don’t answer that. Whether you think so or not, it doesn’t really matter. It’s a trick question. You’re damned either way. Then there’s the biting, corrosive self-loathing. So, in sum, you get beat up or ostracized by others because they think you’re full of yourself, then you beat yourself up because you think you’re a colossal idiot for wanting more out of life. And yeah, you are full of yourself because you’re full of shizz. Oh, joy. What writer, what artist or creative person, does not know this old familiar tune?
So we crack jokes and tell stories. We laugh. We do this so we can go on and keep on living. So, live.
Diabetes Art Day 2013 | Diabetes Art Day.
“Your future is cloudy.” I hope not.
how a book is born (because you kids love the infographics) | Weldon Owen.
How a Book is Born
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