Opinions, Quotes and Important Notices
last updated 7/17/03
"in case of rapture, this vehicle will be unmanned"
this bumper sticker brings to mind the utter irresponsibility of born again christians, who knowingly continue to drive automobiles that they expect to leave unattended suddenly while driving them.
any christians who truly live christian lives would voluntarily turn in their driver's licenses and sell their cars. i propose that all christians have their driver's licenses suspended until after the rapture occurs. maybe they should even be charged with criminal intent to commit vehicular homicide. how is a drunk diver who MAY POSSIBLY lose control of his car any better than a christian who is certain of that possibility? do they consider non-christians to be so totally unimportant that endangering their lives is perfectly acceptible as long as there is no risk of getting caught?
how is this is not seen as sociopathic behavior?
From a friend, about Burning Man:
"It is a place that I associate with freedom. I can be me so to speak. Stand with my arms open to the wind, close my eyes and be god. (lil g) Can put on makeup, color my hair blue, hug strangers, see into people and not be worried about what they see in me.
My Tribe, I love my Tribe."
Hi phamily & phriends,
We read so much unpleasant stuff about pagans being discriminated against and marginalized and I wanted to share a wonderful thing that happened today on the government facility at which I work.
I work at ________ Hospital (nurse practitioner), and have been there 16 years. I don't hide my pagan spirituality, but neither do I advertise. Those who know me know there's "something different" but many are not sure.
Today at work a friend from our Hospice Unit called and asked for some advice. One of their patients had a daughter and the daughter's partner who had flown in from Washington state to spend some time with her dad before he passed on. R____'s childhood had been a difficult one with a lot of unresolved hurts regarding her dad. Our Hospice team is great with healing in this area. Today was to sort of cap off all the emotional work she had done in the past few days. In exploring her beliefs, our mostly strongly Christian hospice team picked up something "different." She finally mentioned that she sort of related to the feminine divine, the goddess. They weren't sure what to do, but one lady thought to give me a call. I went over and talked with her and her partner and of course they were pagan. R____ is wiccan-pagan-eclectic and Sam was Druid-Native American. They appreciated the Hospice Team's efforts but the Team just couldn't say the right words to fit their spirituality.
I talked with the Hospice Team and offered to set up sacred space in which to hold their ritual. The Team leaders and unit chaplain were a little hesitant - not sure what they were getting into and what I would do, but since they knew me pretty well, they figures I "wouldn't do anything wrong."
We ended up with a beautiful pagan ceremony by the lake. We cast a circle, called the quarters, called in the God and Goddess and had a wonderful healing ceremony. Some of the nurses attending at first looked a though they were expecting a lightning bolt from their loving God to strike them dead, but they always state that they support any spiritual direction their clients have. So they had to walk their talk.
The feedback was very positive afterwards and they were surprised at how comfortable the ceremony really was. They really liked the calling in of the quarters. The clincher was that a major hospital adminstrator was also present (the Chief Nursing - like a VP of the company). I wasn't sure about that, but she actually seemed to enjoy it very much and she KNEW how to do a sage smudge!! I wanted to share this because sometimes we forget how much things have changed from 20-30 years ago. I think it really educated some of the Hospice personnell about other ways of spirituality.
Sorry this was so long, but this was a pretty important day and I wanted to share it with you all - those to whom I'm most close. Please keep R____ and S____ and R____'s father (J____) in your thoughts this week as he makes his transition.
Blessings, K____
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 10:09:55 EST
Subject: How about celebrating a little genocide-Mar 17?
Once again, March is here. A lot of Pagans are brushin' off the green, and getting ready to celebrate the feast of St. Patrick, known throughout the world for doing only one thing in his life... ...He killed the Druids, and his brand of genocide helped to almost erradicate Paganism from the island of Ireland. And so, Pagans are running around having parties, and making floats for St. Patty's Day parades, and such. I am sooooo confused. I wear snakes on St. Pat's day, and NO GREEN!
Picture this...visions of giant Hitler balloons being flown above Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for A. Hitler's birthday every year, while small Jewish kids oooo and aaaaah over the magic of it all. Perhaps beautiful blonde-haired, blue-eyed Arian, uniformed beauties will toss them some gold teeth, or candy, and little wooden shoes, while they wave to the floats, and the kids all wear grey striped pajamas.
Wow, as you can tell, I think the idea of Pagans/Wiccans/Witches or anyone of non-Christian faith celebrating St. Pat's feast day is sick.
Important Notice to Windows 95 Users
If Janet Reno is going to go after Bill Gates, it should be about this! Never operate a computer with the Windows 95 operating system with women, children or pets in the room. Have you seen the shutdown message: "It's now safe to turn off your computer" in ghastly brown type on a black background. Do you think that message would be there if it was a safe operating system?
Bumper sticker seen on a Florida pickup truck: "Fear God" I don't quite know what
to make of it. last updated 4/27/2000
Speaking of religious issues, for all of recorded history, there have been
"holy wars" (an outrageous oxymoron if ever there was one!) righteously
instigated by all the world's organized religions except Buddhism. What's
wrong with these people! (Somebody correct me if I'm wrong on this. Have they ever started a war?)
Another bumper sticker; you've all seen them: "In case of rapture, this vehicle
will be unattended". Shouldn't anyone with one of these have their driver's
licence revoked? They fully well intend to be carried off to heaven on some
unnamed date leaving their car careening down the highway out of control.
This is completely irresponsible behaviour. What about all the poor little
Buddhist and atheist children in other cars? Is this any better than people
who drink and then drive, knowing full well that they may be endangering
others? At least the drunken driver had a hope that he will be in control.
After all, he is STILL in the car.
"I drink two cups of coffee a day. At that rate, I'll down 34 gallons of
java this year, made from 18 pounds of beans. Colombian farms have 12 coffee
trees growing to support my personal addiction. Farmers will apply 11 pounds
of fertilizers and a few ounces of pesticides to the trees this year. And
Colombia's rivers will swell with 43 pounds of coffee pulp stripped from
my beans. Coffee is the world's second largest source of foreign exchange
for developing nations. The United States drinks about one-fifth of the worlds
coffee." from "Stuff, (The Secret Lives of Everyday Things)" (You don't even
want to know about that Big Mac you had the other day)
"You're either part of the solution, or you're part of the precipitate!"
Politicians don't lead, they follow.
Peter Gorman
I'm not paranoid; everybody just thinks I am.
"If you maintain the proper perspective, this can all be very entertaining" (Use this statement in any appropriate situation. Your fellow inmates/employees/victims will most certainly appreciate it! Trust me.)
Labels -
Some people just assume that people are going to conform to normal modes. These days, normal doesn't cut it anymore.
Every person has to be judged as a unique individual, not a stereotype. Most people in my life right now are like no one
else and can't be categorized. They're too special to have come out of a mold. Some people just can't get that.
Homo sapiens version 2.0 is being born right now. Each person is their own religion, their own temple. Congregation is an
obsolete term in the new era. Pisces had middlemen to convey the word of the higher powers to the masses, each one hearing
the same sermon every Sunday. They all watched the same tv channel. Now each person listens to the words of their own
personal godhead directly and surfs the internet to wherever he or she needs to go!
Love is -
When you know who someone is And not just accept them unconditionally in spite of their eccentricities and problems
and horrible things they've done in their past, but BECAUSE of them.
You can never know all of another person, so cannot fully love all of them.
You can only watch them unfold and open to you and embrace each layer as it is given. This is a never ending process and,
no matter how long you have been with that person, it is fraught with peril that the next will be something you can not
handle. Never take love for granted. People change. Love is elusive.
Karass -
A term from Kurt Vonnegut's novel, "Cat's Cradle". One of the tenets of the fictional religion Bokononism is the concept
of karass. It is true family, as opposed to granfaloons, groupings of people based on arbitrary and irrelevant groupings
such as religions, political parties, geographical locations of people, or the accident of what parents you were born to.
Most people belong to one or more granfaloons, never realizing that these are totally artificial groupings. The true
family is tenuous and subtle. When one meets a member of his or her karass, there is sometimes instant recognition, not
always at the conscious level. A word. A moment's eye contact. The bond is recognized. Reunion has occurred. Where and
when the relationship began is seldom known. There may be only one or two or a small handful encountered in an entire
lifetime. Or none. It is a rare event, a miracle like that of hummingbirds finding each other over miles of wilderness,
one worthy of rejoicing.