contradictions

Patricia Heaton Gets Sued And Proves That She's Mentally Challenged


Oh, Patricia Heaton. You remember her right? She spent most of the last decade and part of this one playing the wife of America's favorite everyday man on Everybody Loves Raymond. Well, it seems that Ms. Heaton has gotten herself into a few pickles and only in the last week. First, Patricia is being sued by her former personal assistant Jennifer Lee. According to TMZ, Jennifer says that she worked for her from August 2007 to Match 2009 and always worked more than the 15-20 hours a week she was hired for. She says that some problems arose with Patricia when she asked about her unpaid wages. Patricia then proceeded to fire her claiming that Jennifer's child was becoming a problem because of the work schedule. Jennifer obviously did not like that and is now suing her for at $7,425 in unpaid wages as well as for overtime and additional expenses. One of the best things Jennifer wrote in the lawsuit? "If the rich and famous wish to employ individuals to cater to their every need, they must also refrain from violating California's wage and hour laws." Amen. So after this whole fun thing of getting sued, Patricia then went on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, where she proceeded to make an ass of herself on national television.

Now, I hate math, OK? I wish it would go away, I don't understand algebra, stuff like that. But come on, knowing some simple multiplication is necessary in life. Well, apparently for Patricia it's not. She looked like she was about to cry when this question popped up: If a euro is worth $1.50, five euros is worth what?

A. Thirty quarters
B. Fifty dimes
C. Seventy nickels
D. Ninety pennies Seems fairly simple, right? Wrong!

It took her a ridiculous amount of time of whining, almost crying and yelling about how she's really bad at math before trying to call her husband, who didn't hear the question, and then Regis Philbin, the host, had to literally walk her through it. Make sure to watch the cringe worthy video after the jump…

Check out the video of Patricia on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire after the jump.

photo: Patricia Heaton at the honoring of author Sam Haskell. http://socialitelife.com/enlargedimage?back_to=/patricia_heaton_gets_sued_and_proves_that_shes_mentally_challenged-08-2009/patricia-heaton-at-the-honoring-of-author-sam-haskell-7&postid=2351961

actress Patricia Heaton at 1999 Emmys

PARENTING, FAME & PATRICIA HEATON

“Patricia Heaton's kind of elegance was once plenteous, but alas times changed and although the political climate has changed for the betterment of women’s lives their value have been cheapened, somehow, by a lower standard of branding young women into fame. The baton was not past to enough women at all levels of American life to create the necessity for developing the elemental qualities of mature women of substance. Raising children extends beyond basic offerings of food, water, fire, and shelter. It is a deeper task. With our obsession with trivia, and the passionate need to remain young, appealing, and devoted to the embryonic stage of youth adult women retard the growth process of young women. Soon, as a country, we will pay for this practice.” – Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

actress Patricia Heaton

 

sacredness a woman teaches

Devin Devasquez

"... I understand the unnatural relationships people hold, and practice in modern life as a cause of disease. Sleep is a sacred ritual. It has always been a treasured part of the day. It belongs to the simple ritual that holds lives together. Fitting such a 'nuisance' to the fast pace of modern life sleep has become a cast away. As a castaway the talk about, and around sleep is awkward, and unnatural. It has been removed from its function, and no longer holds a sacred place of dreams, revival, and power. The mysterious joys of sleeping and entering into the magical realms of healing, other realms of being a created being, and deep rest are lost in a culture of acquisition where speed is a virtue, and exhaustion is an admirable trait leading people to their deaths prematurely. " Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories

"... I worked too many hours as a young father here and there in those years. It led to exhaustion, and near fatal accidents. I remember falling asleep driving on the highway four times. Once I drove several miles asleep on the beltway. When I reached breaking points I walked into the forest and would sleep deeply nestled within a stick and mud home I had built. Those sleeps would break up 17-hour shifts, and settle my body into its natural form. I don’t work like that anymore. American life is too shallow a state of being to forfeit so precious a thing like sleep. I turned my driver’s license in to the state, and began a new life.” – Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories

SACRED STORY

The Mustard Seed


He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."

Matthew 13:31-32

If Judaism had united with Jesus, world Christianity would not have come into being. Instead, a Jesus-centered nation of Israel would have begun. It would have grown in stature, influencing the Cain-type nation of the Roman Empire. It would not have been a Christian country, but would have been Jesus' own country It would have formed the kingdom of Jesus, rather than forming the religion known as Christianity. If that had happened, the country would have inherited the kingship and would have inherited the world. It would have grown and expanded to the point where today it would be one nation encompassing the world. Other countries would have inherited perfectly the tradition of that kingdom of Jesus. It would have become like a big tree with many different branches. Jesus' country would have been the trunk and each nation of the world would have been another branch, connecting to one trunk and one root. The leaves of that tree would have been individual men and women.

That huge, gigantic tree would have been one nation of God. The flowers and blossoms that bloomed would have been of one root, one tree. Even if you took the smallest leaf, it would contain all the elements of the huge trunk. The root, trunk, each branch, and every little leaf would all contain the same elements. It would have been full of the spirit of the kingdom. The spirit of the root, spirit of the trunk -- everything would have been contained within this tiny leaf, which means each individual. My Father-

Adruma Victoria

New York teenager by the Sartorialist

a LIFE LIVED DEEPLY

Spoken-word musician Gil Scott-Heron dies in NYC

By CRISTIAN SALAZAR, Associated Press Cristian Salazar, Associated Press – Sat May 28, 7:29 am ET


NEW YORK – Musician Gil Scott-Heron, who helped lay the groundwork for rap by fusing minimalistic percussion, political expression and spoken-word poetry on songs such as "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," died Friday at age 62.

A friend, Doris C. Nolan, who answered the telephone listed for his Manhattan recording company, said he died in the afternoon at St. Luke's Hospital after becoming sick upon returning from a European trip.

"We're all sort of shattered," she said.

Scott-Heron's influence on rap was such that he sometimes was referred to as the Godfather of Rap, a title he rejected.

"If there was any individual initiative that I was responsible for it might have been that there was music in certain poems of mine, with complete progression and repeating `hooks,' which made them more like songs than just recitations with percussion," he wrote in the introduction to his 1990 collection of poems, "Now and Then."

He referred to his signature mix of percussion, politics and performed poetry as bluesology or Third World music. But then he said it was simply "black music or black American music."

"Because Black Americans are now a tremendously diverse essence of all the places we've come from and the music and rhythms we brought with us," he wrote.

Nevertheless, his influence on generations of rappers has been demonstrated through sampling of his recordings by artists, including Kanye West.

Scott-Heron recorded the song that would make him famous, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," which critiqued mass media, for the album "125th and Lenox" in Harlem in the 1970s. He followed up that recording with more than a dozen albums, initially collaborating with musician Brian Jackson. His most recent album was "I'm New Here," which he began recording in 2007 and was released in 2010.

Throughout his musical career, he took on political issues of his time, including apartheid in South Africa and nuclear arms. He had been shaped by the politics of the 1960s and the black literature, especially of the Harlem Renaissance.

Scott-Heron was born in Chicago on April 1, 1949. He was raised in Jackson, Tenn., and in New York before attending college at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.

Before turning to music, he was a novelist, at age 19, with the publication of "The Vulture," a murder mystery.

He also was the author of "The Nigger Factory," a social satire.

This is the man whose attitude, poetry and "bluesology" influenced a whole generation of radical rap musicians. Renowned in the '70s and '80s as the "Minister of Information", Gil Scott Heron is the voice of humanity, whose prose dissects the ills of the world with scalpel-sharp precision. He is a writer/poet/musician and one of America's great originals. Performing work from his latest album 'Spirits', Scott Heron is a man with something to say and a message worth listening to. - anon.

FREEDOM

Thailand's Queen Sirikit & King Bhumibol Adulyadej

Thailand arrests American for alleged king insultBy TODD PITMAN and SINFAH TUNSARAWUTH, Associated Press Todd Pitman And Sinfah Tunsarawuth, Associated Press – Fri May 27, 1:02 pm ET

BANGKOK – Thai authorities said Friday they arrested an American citizen on charges he insulted the country's monarchy, in part by posting a link on his blog four years ago to a banned book about the Southeast Asian nation's ailing king.

The man is also suspected of translating, from English into Thai, portions of "The King Never Smiles" — an unauthorized biography of King Bhumibol Adulyadej — and posting them online along with articles he wrote that allegedly defame the royal family, said Tharit Pengdith, who heads the Department of Special Investigation, Thailand's equivalent of the FBI.

The American has denied the charges, according to the Thai-language prachatai.com news website, which tracks cases of lese majeste, as the crime of insulting the monarchy is known.

The 54-year-old Thai-born man lived in the U.S. state of Colorado for around 30 years before returning recently to Thailand for treatment for high blood pressure and gout, the website said. If the allegations are true, the infractions would have been committed while he lived in America — where they are legal — raising concern about the reach of Thai law and how it is applied to Thai nationals and foreign visitors.

Tharit said the man's Thai name was Lerpong Wichaikhammat. Walter M. Braunohler, the U.S. Embassy spokesman in Bangkok, identified the American as Joe Gordon and said a consular officer visited him on Friday morning. He declined comment further, saying only that officials were following the case "very closely."

"We're still looking into what the exact charges are," Braunohler told The Associated Press.

Thailand is a constitutional monarchy but has severe lese majeste laws that mandate a jail term of three to 15 years for any person who "defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir to the throne or the Regent."

Critics say the lese majeste laws — used with alarming frequency over the last several years — are often a weapon of political harassment and calls have grown recently to amend or abolish them.

Thai-based media routinely self-censor coverage of the royal family, but the Internet has tested the taboo. Thai authorities have responded by trying to block thousands of websites considered subversive, arguing that defending the monarchy is a priority.

Tharit said the man was arrested Tuesday and is facing charges that include inciting public unrest and violating Thailand's Computer Crimes Act. Gordon appeared before a Thai court Thursday, which denied him bail.

Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej

A DSI spokeswoman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said the American was arrested in the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima and is being held in a Bangkok prison.

Praachatai.com said police arrested the man at his home and seized a computer and cell phone.

Sensitivity over criticism of the monarchy has increased in recent years as the poor health of the country's 83-year-old king has elevated concern about a smooth succession. At the same time, sharp partisan political battles in the wake of a 2006 military coup have unleashed unprecedented questioning of established institutions, including the palace.

Thailand's freedom of speech reputation has taken a battering in recent years, as successive governments have tried to suppress the opposition. Its standing in the Press Freedom Index issued by the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders slid to 153 last year from 65 in 2002, when the ratings were initiated.

The number of lese majeste cases has grown dramatically in recent years. Between 1990 and 2005, an average of five per year made their way through the Thai court system. Since then, however, there have been at least 400 cases — an estimated 1,500 percent increase, according to David Streckfuss, an American scholar who wrote a recent book studying the harsh laws called "Truth on Trial."

In March, a Thai court sentenced Thanthawut Taweewarodomkul — the operator of an anti-government website — to 13 years on charges of defaming the monarchy and three more years for violating the Computer Crime Act. The 38-year-old ran a website affiliated with the anti-government Red Shirt movement whose aggressive street protests last year deteriorated into violence and were quashed by the army.

The 2007 Computer Crime Act addresses hacking and other traditional online offenses, but also bars the circulation of material deemed detrimental to national security or that causes panic. It carries a penalty of up to five years' imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 baht ($3,285).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110527/ap_on_re_as/as_thailand_monarchy 

Wasicun Sapa

New York woman smoking a cigarette in 2007 by the Sartorialist !!!!

“I have long been baffled by the notion of Black Americans finding and speaking their language as if there is one lost somewhere. In the 1960's it, the notion, awoke something deep within that generation. Back in the 1920's there was a move towards those kinds of discoveries, but there has been no significant advancement towards that end. During the years of slavery history reports the efforts of Africans to keep their languages on the Southern plantations. Each generation had its own challenges, and each generation lost a bit more until it appears to be a glimmer overshadowed by an urgent need to be validated by White Americans. The Cheyenne met Blacks in the late 1800's and called them, in their own tongue, Wasicun Sapa, Black White People. The Cheyenne saw something very clear today's Black American apparently does not, or cannot see…” – Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories

New York man's style reminiscent of Thelonious Monk by the Sartorialist in 2007

MICHELLE OBAMA, sense of style

Mrs. Obama wore the Roksanda Ilincic dress, which contrasted well against this yellow couch, for a tour of Westminster Abbey and to tea with Samantha Cameron, the British Prime Minister's wife, at 10 Downing Street on May 24, 2011. Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-201_162-10007910-7.html#ixzz1NaNIop4S

Black Panther movement 1960's

black massage therapists at work

Guns & money

“There has to be an active majority who voice their outrage, and out of that a small group of people of action who will do practical things like create a citizens board with the authority to pass judgments against the police in WA. The Black Panthers in their time armed themselves, stood and observed the police in action, reported them, and in short, acted within the confines of the law. It was impossible for the police to do anything against aggressive citizens who knew the law. The Panthers became a force to be reckoned with. They created community within their community, and the voice of the People became a force to reckon with. The US government was afraid, and outraged. Our government began a campaign to undermine what began as community development into a national security issue. Elevated to national security the right to kill insurgents became the law of the land, and the killings started.



With the fall of the Panthers the notorious gang, the Crips, arose out of the rubble. At first clinging to the spirit and tenets of community passed down by the Black Panthers the community held on to the singular hope of community development African-American style. And then a train loaded with weapons showed up on mysterious night and pushed darkness into their souls, and the Crips became a terror in the national consciousness under the social pressure of the larger communities who expected Black and Latino communities to die on the asphalt. The gang rivalries between the Bloods, the Crips has grown into a millions of dollar industry for the criminal justice system, and the film, music, and fashion businesses as the body count across the country has deepen the blood levels on American streets beyond what any individual can survive in, and maintain sanity.


This is a short history lesson, and insight. The train? Witnesses in the early 1980’s recall a train full of guns, and ammo that appeared unmanned in Los Angles one day. The early members of these gangs who survived the last three decades remember how the guns got into their communities.


It takes a warrior to build community in the United States.” –Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

How The Terrapin Beat The Rabbit – Cherokee

The Rabbit was a great runner, and everybody knew it. No one thought the Terrapin anything but a slow traveler, but he was a great warrior and very boastful, and the two were always disputing about their speed. At last they agreed to decide the matter by a race. They fixed the day and the starting place and arranged to run across four mountain ridges, and the one who came in first at the end was to be the winner.

The Rabbit felt so sure of it that he said to the Terrapin, "You know you can't run. You can never win the race, so I'll give you the first ridge and then you'll have only three to cross while I go over four."

The Terrapin said that would he all right, but that night when he went home to his family he sent for his Terrapin friends and told them he wanted their help. He said he knew he could not outrun the Rabbit, but he wanted to stop the Rabbit's boasting. He explained his plan to his friends and they agreed to help him.

When the day came all the animals were there to see the race. The Rabbit was with them, but the Terrapin was gone ahead toward the first ridge, as they had arranged, and they could hardly see him on account of the long grass. The word was given and the Rabbit started off with long jumps up the mountain, expecting to win the race before the Terrapin could get down the other side. But before he got up the mountain he saw the Terrapin go over the ridge ahead of him. He ran on, and when he reached the top he looked all around, but could not see the Terrapin on account of the long grass. He kept on down the mountain and began to climb the second ridge, but when he looked up again there was the Terrapin just going over the top. Now he was surprised and made his longest jumps to catch up, but when he got to the top there was the Terrapin away in front going over the third ridge. The Rabbit was getting tired now and nearly out of breath, but he kept on down the mountain and up the other ridge until he got to the top just in time to see the Terrapin cross the fourth ridge and thus win the race.

The Rabbit could not make another jump, but fell over on the ground, crying mï, mï, mï, mï, as the Rabbit does ever since when he is too tired to run any more. The race was given to the Terrapin and all the animals wondered how he could win against the Rabbit, but he kept still and never told. It was easy enough, however, because all the Terrapin's friends looked just alike, and he had simply posted one near the top of each ridge to wait until the Rabbit came in sight and then climb over and hide in the long grass. When the Rabbit came on he could not find the Terrapin and so thought the Terrapin was ahead, and if he had met one of the other terrapins he would have thought it the same one because they looked so much alike. The real Terrapin had posted himself on the fourth ridge, so as to come in at the end of the race and be ready to answer questions if the animals suspected anything.

Because the Rabbit had to lie down and lose the race the conjurer now, when preparing his young men for the ball play, boils a lot of rabbit hamstrings into a soup, and sends some one at night to pour it across the path along which the other players are to come in the morning, so that they may become tired in the same way and lose the game. It is not always easy to do this, because the other party is expecting it and has watchers ahead to prevent it.

From the Archives of Blue Panther

QUESTION OUR FREEDOM: truth to power

HOMELESSNESS, the American lie

We, Americans, love ghosts. We render each other invisible, at will, when someone falls victim to the thievery banking, government, and large corporations. Unemployment, or homelessness makes people's faces, and lives invisible. In our culture a white woman's plight gives urgency to the problem, while our ghost stories, and religious beliefs influence our policies. But when all is said and done we are in the same place when President Johnson declared war on poverty. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/112801/fight-to-rejoin-middle-class-usnews 
photo: Brianna Karp

spiritual responsibility of elders

Earlier this year my cousin, Marcia put on a spectacular party for two of the families elders. Marcia asked me to bring my drums. I didn't want to. I just wanted to eat and have fun with family. It wasn't 'til I got there I learned why she wanted the drums. She wanted to play with me for the family. So I did a personal tribute, and explained the 6/8 rythmn as the heartbeat, and we got down to it!

Recently surfing the Web I found myself on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZJwfftRtYU

... the day my son Married Talia in 2010

forgiveness:TRUTH to POWER, a teaching

Native spiritual leader Felicita Two Feathers giving prayers

The one and only time I sat with Rainbow Eagle was in the mountains of Virginia. About a mile outside of West Virginia he held a teaching circle for a week. Of the many things he said at Wolf Run these words stand out, "Speak with Integrity say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself, or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love. You will have as much power as you speak the truth." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Junal Gerlach, model, fashion designer

How the Tsimshian know that Animals have Crests - Tsimshian

Many years ago, among the very ancient people, they would hunt for sea otter and fur seals, which took them far out to the sea where they saw many strange things and strange beings. This is what happened to four great hunters who saw a great battle between the giant devilfish [octopus] and the black fish [killerwhale]. These hunters were away out to sea hunting the sea otter and fur seals and went to an island for shelter and rest. While these men camped here, they knew it to be the abode of the giant devilfish who had taken many canoes, destroying many people. Soon, a large black fish, with a hole in its fin to distinguish it, came along to where the giant devilfish lived and it dove under and was gone a long time. The large black fish came floating up to the surface of the water which was covered with blood and drifted about. Another black fish came upon the floating body of the dead black fish and then it turned about and swam away. This dead black fish was the prince of the black fish and when one of his fellow black fish saw it, it turned about to tell all the other black fish in the world of what had happened to their prince. When the chief of the black fish knew what had happened to his nephew he at once summoned all the black fish from all over the world. These came to the great chief black fish Chief's house who told them, "We must retaliate and kill the devilfish. It has been a menace to all having killed many people and taken down many canoes. It has killed my nephew who was to be my successor and I want revenge. This devilfish must be killed or we will all be killed off."


Not long after the death of the prince of black fish, when these four hunters were camping, a constant storm began blowing, making it impossible for the people to hunt. These four men watched the approaching black fish, knowing that now there would be war. The great number of black fish circled about where the abode of the giant devilfish was. This devilfish was a huge one and many times it would emerge from the water and wave its many limbs in the air. Its huge body often resembled an island thus enticing to come to it as if it were a shelter. The black fish all gathered together in four groups and at once the four hunters recognized the fact that these were four crests, just the same as the four clans among the human beings. Each group had different markings on their fins to distinguish them from the other groups. Each of the group seemed to have its own leader. All the while the black fish were jumping and diving in the water as if they were challenging the giant devilfish to make an appearance so they could battle it. But this never came about. The devilfish would not come out to challenge.

The black fish realized that they must change their tactics. One of the leaders had the Eagle markings in its fin, a fin with several white rings on it representing the stick gnawed by the beaver. First one warrior jumped out of the water and dove down. It was gone a long while and floated up dead. The second went down into the water and then another, until the last of the Eagle black fish dove down. It was gone a long while and finally came up. Around it was one of the arms of the giant devilfish. Now the Killer whale chief of the black fish led his warriors, marked by a short squat fin with a hole in it. Their leader dove down and was followed by another of the same group. Then another went down. Soon several black fish came floating up and the water was red with blood, but there also was one more arm of the giant devilfish that had come up. Then the Wolf group of the black fish came forward and had a fin which resembled a tail of the wolf. This chief sprang about, and with others of his group they dove down and were gone along while. Finally one of them floated up dead, and more of the black fish dove down and more floated up. The last of the m dove down to help their leader, who had not as yet reappeared; they were gone a long while and the sea was full of blood. Soon the Wolf leader of the black fish and his followers came up, dead, but wrapped around the leader were three limbs of the monster devilfish.

There were still a number of limbs and only the Raven crest of the black fish remained. These were distinguished from the others by their fin shaped as a raven's beak. The Chief of the Black fish now called on the Raven black fish group saying, "Only your group is left, if we are to be victorious over the monster devilfish." The leader of this group jumped up, "I will go alone and battle the monster," he said. Then he jumped out of the water and dove down. He was gone for a long while and there was much blood coming to the surface of the water. The leader black fish came up and wrapped around its body was a large limb of the giant devilfish. When the leader had rested a while, it dove down into the waters to again attack the giant devilfish and this time he was gone for much longer. Again there was much more blood coming from the surface devilfish's den and after a great while the Raven black fish came to the surface. He was in a very weak condition but he had another arm of the giant devilfish around his body. The Raven group of the black fish were very happy as their leader had brought up to limbs and was slowly regaining his strength. All of the other black fish were swimming about him and some were jumping out of the water. It appeared to the watching hunters that the black fish were dancing about their leader. Soon the Raven black fish leader began to move about and gave one great leap form the water and dove down. In all there were five limbs from the giant devilfish got by the other clans and two by the lone Raven leader of the black fish group. This time the leader was gone a long while, much longer than before, and there was much more blood. Soon, in a nearly dead condition, the leader of the Raven black fish came to the surface; he had around him another limb of the giant devilfish.

It took a long while for the black fish Raven leader to revive and he did not regain his strength until the next day. But early in the morning, just as it was breaking day, these Tsimshian hunters saw the leader was making preparations to dive down to battle the giant devilfish for the final confrontation. Soon the great

Lone warrior black fish leaped out of the water and made a big splash as it dove down in a fury. It was gone a long time and again blood appeared at the water's surface. After nearly being gone all day, the people saw first a large slimy mass coming to the surface; it was the huge devilfish, the monster which had for ages been taking down canoes and people. It was dead as also was the black fish leader of the Raven group. Wrapped around it was the last limb of the giant devilfish and the black fish Raven leader died with ultimate honor and glory. This is how the giant devilfish was killed by all of the four crests of the black fish people.

That is why the people knew that animals have crests as human beings do.

From the Archives of Blue Panther

Turning Conflict Into Art

Native American woman Junal Gerlach in her power

There is real difficulty in naming, acknowledging, and owning the experience of violation, and potentially trauma, which can sometimes occur in intense conflicts. It can be even more challenging to move on from conflicts that offer no balm or accountability for the unethical actions of others. We can be hurt so deeply when the acknowledgement of our voice, our perspective, our strength, and the integrity of our intentions is refused. The 'easy', (and sometimes brutish) route of blaming and scapegoating for a conflict situation emerges when another's humanity is denied.


Speaking truth to power is one of the most paradoxically powerful and vulnerable forms of conflict that emerges in our world. Toxic authority — both the kind that is entrenched in outer systems, as well as in inner ways of relating that are learned behaviours - does not like to be challenged, or have its actions questioned in any way. Toxic power can respond to questioning with rage, panic, and ruthlessness. Rather than allow the truth to emerge, cover-ups and denial are the learned modes of operating, thereby creating more and more confusion and despair within the self-regulating system of life. Healthy life systems have their own exquisitely tuned feedback loops, which are always co-creating towards greater self-expression, self-expansion and wholeness.


Learning from the dance of opposites that we find in the natural world, we see the stunning co-creativity that is constantly at work in all dynamics. If we could remember, and truly trust this instinct and impulse, our trauma could potentially become the canvas of the greatest form of expression of the deepest source of our selves. The artist of life, through honouring and expressing the comedy and tragedy of the dance can turn painful conflict into an exquisite new creation.


By MARIA VAMVALIS
MAY 21, 2010
http://rememberingtheancientdeer.blogspot.com/2010/05/turning-conflict-into-art.html

PAMELA BROWN

Pamela Brown, interior designer

http://biznik.com/members/pamela-brown 

Chitimacha teaching

"There is responsibility for each person towards each person. This is the first law.  Council is important and being inclusive is a fundamental law for living on Earth. Law two. The third law that came to mind sparked the Judeo-Christian trigger within me, and with some embarrassment I thought about the order of the gender, Man then Woman.  I stopped because unlike the Eden story the emphasis is on joint cooperation, and no one in the story is above the other.  The fourth law. The Earth is dependant upon the Animal, Plant, Mineral, Human, Sky People relationship and the story instructs the Chitimacha on the fifth law of the People."

- Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories

FORGIVENESS, NDN country & the soul

Junal Gerlach

Everything is negotiable.
Everythin is forgiveable.

The story of abuse, and the darkness behind the image of deep Native spirituality, and cultural superiority toted by many people needs to be told. White America needs to hold on to an image of the Indian that tells precious little about the consequences of conquest, rape, religious intolerance, and cultural contempt that spoiled the land, and relations between the red and white people. Junal Gerlach has a story.

Her video is raw, and to the point: http://www.junalgerlach.com/movie.html 

Korean Girl Guitar Funk Jam

MY PEOPLE

NIGGER MENTATLITY




“I can deal with the nigger mentality, but I won't as if it is some prerequisite initiatory process, or a developmental stage of permanence. It has its place: in the past..." - Gregory E. Woods

TEEPEE

The Teepee

Values help guide behavior through the process of growing up, changing and handling responsibilities. Personal values are what determine a person’s decisions and actions. Social values are set by cultural beliefs as to what is important for a community. There are fifteen traditional Cree cultural values that serve as a guide for happy and healthy living. Each value is honored in the construction of a teepee, which requires 15 poles — with each pole symbolizing one value:


1. Obedience – accepting guidance and wisdom from others


2. Respect – for self and others


3. Humility –knowing that we are not above or below others in the circle of life


4. Happiness – showing enthusiasm to encourage others


5. Love – love of self and love of others, not things


6. Faith – belief in the spirit world


7. Kinship – relationships and bonds with parents, siblings, extended relatives, knowing one’s home community


8.Cleanliness – spiritual cleanliness


9. Thankfulness – gratitude for life and for family


10. Sharing – sharing knowledge, stories, traditions, for future generations


11. Strength – spiritual strength to do things that are difficult


12. Good Child Rearing – guidance and protection of the sacred gift of children


13. Hope – hope that the women who are the life givers and the nurturers will carry on the teachings to bring healthy spirited people into the world


14.Ultimate Protection – protection of the minds, spirit, emotions and health of the youth


15.Control flaps from winds – balance in life’s journey

 

These are the sacred values that sustain the Cree spiritually, physically, emotionally and mentally. The first three are considered the foundation of the teepee because a teepee will not stand upright with only two poles, a minimum of three are needed - just as you need a child and two parents to make a family.



A ceremony is followed when erecting a teepee with tobacco given to Mother Earth by a woman in thanks for the use of all the materials to make the teepee, and the doorway facing east. The teepee is symbolic of the sacredness of womanhood as it stands with dignity; it provides warmth, comfort and shelter, and love and care to the family. With the control flaps up, the teepee resembles an old woman standing with her arms extended out in thanks. Women are named after the fire that is built in the centre of the teepee.


The control flaps are used to control the release of smoke and insects from the fire. When they are positioned properly, all smoke and insects flow out through the opening at the top of the teepee. So these flaps represent balance in life’s journey.

http://www.fourdirectionsteachings.com/cree_learning_activities_int.html

WISDOM OF EXPERIENCE, a Lakota man remembers his father

Today it was warm and I went for a walk. I walked past the place where my

father used to live. I thought back to another warm day when I walked this
way to visit my father. I was a much younger man, but he was a very wise and
old man by then. It was not long after that day before he joined with the
Great Spirit. But that morning, I believed he would live forever. He was
sitting at his front door, using an old fashion stick drill to make holes in
small seashells he collected when we went on a trip to the beach. I asked
him what he was doing. He said he was making necklaces in the old style as
gifts for his granddaughters and great-granddaughters from the shells he
collected.

I looked at him with surprise. The drill he used was a homemade drill made
from a stick, and cross bar of wood, some string and a nail. It was just as
the ones his father and his grandfather used to make holes in shells so many
years ago. It was the same exact type of tool our people had used to drill
holes in shells and rocks for generations before the white men came to this
land. (In the past they used flint or another sharp rock rather than a nail
at the end.)

I watched as his old and bony hands spun the string tightly around the
shaft, then push the cross bar over and over again. Each time he pushed the
crossbar, the string unwound and the drill spun. Then he let the crossbar
go, and used his old fingers to spin the stick, rewinding the crossbar up
again and then pushing the crossbar down. His old hands did this with such
ease that the nail spun on the shell back and forth, making a hole in the
center. Still, it was slow and hard work, especially for his old, tired
hands.

I pulled up a chair next to him and sat down. I looked at the many shells
that were waiting have a hole drilled in them sitting in a basket by his
side. Then I looked at the handful that was sitting in another basket with
small holes neatly drilled in each. Knowing my father's habits, I knew he
had been working on his drilling since the early morning. After a short time
I asked him why he wasn't using a better, more modern drill to make the
holes. I suggested he use my modern drill, or even use the old hand crank
drill he had in his toolbox. They would both be faster than the old hand
made one he was using. My father did not look up from his work. He kept
moving the crossbar on his hand made drill as he worked. "This works as well
as I need it to," he said.

"But," I argued with him, "there are many more ways that would be much
quicker."

My father stopped his work and looked at me. "What benefit would quickness
be?" he asked me.

I didn't understand. I answered him, "You would be done sooner."

My father looked deep in my eyes and said, "This is exactly why I use this
old drill. Our people have been making this type of drill for hundreds of
years. It always works in its own time. I could use a new type of drill and
have all these shells drilled and strung by noon. But then what would I do?"

"I am making a gift for my granddaughters and their daughters. I am happy in
making these gifts. Making the gifts is as much joy to me as giving the
gifts. If I were to rush and make them with the tools you suggest, then I
would be denying myself the joy that the effort gives me. If I rush, I will
not have the time to become one with the things I make."

Though I wanted to, I did not understand him. I thought he was foolish, and
maybe even a bit senile for taking all day, maybe longer, and putting in
such an effort to drill the holes in the shells with an old stick drill. I
believed my nieces and grandnieces wouldn't know the difference anyway.

Not long after that day, my father's spirit joined with the Great Spirit,
but not before he had finished the necklaces and gave them to his
grandchildren and their daughters.

When it came to be time to clean his home, I found, in his personal effects,
a small package with my name on it. I opened it up and found a hand made
sheathe of leather. The stitching was less than machine perfect, made by my
father's brittle old hands. On it was beaded a bird of Thunder and a
medicine symbol. Inside the sheathe was a blade of shinning, hand sharpened
and polished metal. The handle was made from a deer horn. My name was carved
on the base of the handle. Its rough cut and shaped beauty was amazing to
behold.

When I held the knife, I could feel the spirit and energy of my father in
every inch of the knife and sheathe. His being and his spirit were in this
gift. Inside the sheathe, along with the knife, was a note. My father wrote,
in his shaky hand, words that translate to: "My son. Now I am dead. An old
piece of metal and a deer horn, like shells on the beach and a piece of
string, tie this old man's heart to those he loves."

I could feel the wisdom of my father surround me. I could feel my own
ignorance and shame well up in me. I knew then why my father used the old
stick drill to work the shells. I also understood then, that the fastest way
to do something is not always the best. Even if the end result looks the
same, or better, it is the soul of the hands that make something that makes
that item of value.

This day, when I walked past the place where my father lived, I am an old
man. I stopped and looked at the place where my father sat with the old
drill and the shells, and I reached to my side to the sheathe and knife my
father made which I wear on my belt every day of my life, and I remembered
him and his wisdom.



From the Archives of Blue Panther

CHALLENGE TO NEGRO PARADIGMS

author Jam Donaldson

http://postblackthebook.blogspot.com/2010/11/author-jam-donaldsons-book-conversate.html

a CHILDREN'S STORY

Jennifer Lopez on movie set

A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said,

"Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like. "


The Lord led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors
And the holy man looked in.
In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of
The table was a large pot of stew which smelled delicious and made the
Holy man's mouth water.
The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They
Appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long
handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach
into the pot of stew and take a spoonful, but because the handle was
longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their
mouths.


The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. The
Lord said, "You have seen Hell."


They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the
Same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large
pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water. The people were
equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were
well nourished and plump, laughing and talking.


The holy man said, "I don't understand."
It is simple" said the Lord, "it requires but one skill. You see, they
Have learned to feed each other. While the greedy think only of
themselves.


"A friend is someone who reaches for your hand, and touches your
heart. People say true friends must always hold hands, but true friends
don't need to hold hands because they know the other hand will always
be there...." - a sacred story to embody (author unknown)

hand holding by Edit Magyar

EARTH MEDICINE is the same as yesterday

“Going back to the Earth can't happen without guidance. It has become a cliché. Going back to Mother Earth is unrealistic to a people who are mere spectators. Meteorologists rely on machines to predict weather and the habit of touching the Earth, and her forces is antiquated in the modern mind. The times are requiring a new medicine; an approach that somehow balances the demands of living, and being present with the sacred elements that hold worlds together.

These are my words. Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories”

 

Earth Mother's fluid

 
 

" You can tell a great deal about a man's religion by the way he treats Water."

- Pam Tinker, Sirmiq Aattuq Wisdom Keeper

white Heron, Guwisguwi atop Tree of Wisdom Aquanti

Jamestowne history

Ancient Planters of Jamestowne

by Bebe Johns Fox/ under copyright

jamestown settlement

 

Several families in old Orange can claim descent from Ancient Planters those who paid their own passage, arrived in Virginia before 1616, and remained for a minimum of three years. Right off hand the names which occur to me are the Norwoods of Chatham, who descend from William Farrar, as do the Burtons of Caswell, and the Cox family, who built "Riverside" on the Eno, descend from William Spencer, owner of twelve acres on the island itself who became a Burgess representing Surry County across the James River at a later date. A number of descendants of Capt. Graves reside in Caswell County. Your compiler had the distinct pleasure of being a charter member in 1991 of the The Order of Descendants of Ancient Planters founded in Raleigh, North Carolina. continue...

CLEANINESS, a historical fact

Jessica Simpson without maked up

I noticed, as a young man, white people created terrible, and beautiful lives for themselves, and other peoples as they kill, conquer and suppress the globe into their image, to the best of their abilities. For reasons I can only speculate on they consistently write their stories, plans, conspiracies on paper and publish them. They leave traceable evidence for the interested to follow if so inclined. For example, singer Jessica Simpson admits she doesn't brush her teeth all the time, and many times will not wash her hair until it starts smelling.

When the Irish pushed the black African conquerors out of their homelands after hundreds of years of domination one of the first things the white citizens did was to destroy the baths their former masters had built. In the 20th century several American, and European authors wrote Western novels vividly describing the revulsion American Indian tribes experienced smelling, and interacting with the white settlers who did not bath, or believe in bathing. One story written by an author from the northern part of Europe wrote of a band of Indians who had captured some white women. When the captors tried to cross a river the white women went into convulsions fighting to get away from the water. The leader ordered the women to strip the white women's dresses off, and everyone reeled back in horror when they realized the women's bodies were moving. When the People realized the women were cover in lice they were thrown into the water and vigorously scrubbed clean as the white women fought with all their might to get out of the water!

There is a spirit to one's history, and the why of it lies deep in the soul of the people.” - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

ZANITA'S photos

I am a fan of Zanita. Her photographic work captures me. I look at her work at least twice a week. Here is a photo of Solange wearing Carly Paiker in Zanita's lastest photo shoot. I have nothing else to say about my interest in women's fashion other than providing a link to this shoot. http://zanitazanita.blogspot.com/2011/05/carly-paiker.html 

Solange by Zanita 2 

to an old friend

“Beverly, there is a sameness and there are differences between the beauty of youth, and the mature beauty of a life lived deeply immersed in the development of things, people, and events larger than oneself. Life, and living changes perceptions, and beauty. In all its formations Beauty changes as easily as wind changes directions. The depth, the high intelligence, and the play within you is pleasant, warm, inviting, and charged with that something that is larger than yourself; whatever that may be.” - Gregory

Beverly Sandidge Booker & her granddaughter

the NEVA

Neva is ‘One of the Guardians of the Mysteries of the Sacred Feminine at the entrance to the Underworld, and the Womb Sacred.’ – Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories