Wednesday 4 May 2011

Former Military Interrogator Matthew Alexander: Despite GOP Claims, "Immoral" Torture "Slowed Down" Effort to Find Osama bin Laden

To be intelligent beings we need to inform ourselves with many perspectives and then come to our own understanding knowing we don't have to belong to any others' understanding. This is another perspective from Democracy Now, enjoy learning something new.



Former Military Interrogator Matthew Alexander: Despite GOP Claims, "Immoral" Torture "Slowed Down" Effort to Find Osama bin Laden

Saturday 9 April 2011

Congratulations Deborah Young!

Hello Friends,

Just wanted to share the exciting news I received last night! Deb Young an amazing teacher, mentor and mother from Naropa University was asked to help Bhutan create a "Gross National Happiness" classroom to match the GNH campaign they have been promoting for years! For more information check out this website http://www.educatingforgnh.com/Home.aspx

Yours,
Krystle Lord-Keller

Sunday 13 March 2011

Excerpt from "First Contact" by Evan Mandery

It all started about a week ago, to the day, I'd found myself nose- to- page of a fantastic book. For years serious books about wholistic health and politics have been dominating my bookshelves giving me a sense of urgency about my place in the world. Yet this book was different, Evan Mandery and his tale First Contact, the story of Aliens Contacting a God-fearing US President offers insight to many current and relevant issues in our country and is written with insatiable wit. Metaphorical stories tailor each page reflecting the state of our world and minds. By coincidence, before purchasing this book I had taken direction from one of my wholistic health interests and began a cleanse to help rid my mind and body of toxic clutter. This has bestowed upon me deep contemplation and wonder if I'm alone in seeing life the way I do - as a series of personal changes to ones' self that indeed must take place in order to find peace and freedom from suffering in life.

In light of this, I am in love with an amazing person he has provided a lot of grounding in my life and yet I fantasize about us driving clear out of range and out from under the expectations of others. As we drove away we would be blasting our favorite music singing like we had the lungs of a harbor porpoise (one of the greatest lung capacities of any animal). Anyway, we would be free to grow and expand beyond the limits of our present environment.

In regards to this, Mandery brought something to my attention today, the main character of the novel Ralph has been told by his love that she quit law school and wants to go to Tibet to teach English, she wants him to leave his "responsibilities" and go with her, see the world, cultivate love and live for happiness. A feeling of anxiousness overtakes him and he begins to question its cause. Through the couple's dialogue Mandery provides us some of his delectable anecdotal thoughts on day-to-day existence:

What really caused the knot in his stomach was that he would never be able to bring himself to do this thing he really wanted to do.
Ralph was, in this respect, like anyone who does something he knows to be bad for himself -- like falling in with a married person or sticking a Q-tip into one's ear to get wax out knowing it will just make matter worse. More accurately, he was like someone who fails to do something he knows is good for himself -- like going to the gym that evening instead of watching television or keeping an appointment with chiropodist to have a bunion filed down. Or traveling somewhere exotic with someone you love.
Ralph sipped some
Broth
" I'm not sure," he said. "I have a sense of responsibility. I have duties. Maybe that will be different someday."
The truth was, though, Ralph didn't understand his own reluctance.
"I don't think that will ever be different," Jessica said as she considered his words. "It never gets easier -- there is only more and more duty."
Ralph nodded.
"Why can't you live like you said you would on the night we first met? Live for the moment. Not just that day, but everyday."
Ralph returned his last wonton to the bowl.
"I don't know, " he said, and that was th
e complete truth.

This dialogue stood out to me because since I started cleansing the toxic clutter from my mind, I feel like I've been having a similar dialogue with myself. It is not necessarily that we do things which are bad for us, but that we don't do things which are good for us. What is stopping our good from going to work? Quite obviously someone may say our ego is to blame which in turn it is actually our fear or our lack of finding a truth other than, I don't know. And if I don't know is really our truth than we need to break through our fear of the unknown to do what good for us.