Enlighten Up!

I so want to see this.

Do You Really Want To Live Forever. . .

It's simmering outside here and my son is home sick from school. So I'm linking today to this nice bit of synchroncity and thoughtfulness from Peter Shankman's blog:

An Open Letter To The Two Kids On The M11 Bus This Morning

I especially like that the piece contains shout-outs to both karma and Marlon Wayans, not to mention an Alphaville reference. This is much of what I wish I'd known at 18, had I been willing or able to hear it. Go find an 18 year old and show this to them, even if they roll their eyes at you, and ask who the hell Alphaville is.

--Jen

Today is Some Day

I woke up with the clear thought in my head that "Today is the day." For what, I don't know. Possibly for my state's governor to step down admidst a sex ring scandal.

I have to say this doesn't surprise me all that much. I'm a Democrat but couldn't bring myself to vote for him. He has a holier-than-thou, Elliot Ness, I'm the good guy and you are the bad guys approach. I've always thought that's just the personality type of the Attorney General, the position formerly held by Spitzer and Guliani, who had the same outlook before becoming America's Mayor. People so hot to damn others, people that mighty, tend to fall.

If you've been waiting for a day to change, to do better, to accept the truth, to go get a donut, go do it today. Today is the day.

Don't Mess With Mr. Strut

While I am back -- and better than ever -- and have lots to write about after my impromptu vacation from this blog and thinking about anything of any worth, well, I'm not going to today. And that's because I'm too delighted by this AP story that came out this morning and the fact that one of the Universe's main priorities is Mick Jagger. I also like that the Hell's Angels are open to signs from the heavens, or at least from the ocean.

From the AP:

BBC: Hell's Angels Sought to Kill Jagger
('LONDON (AP) -- Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger escaped an assassination plot hatched in 1969 by the Hells Angels, a new British Broadcasting Corp. documentary has claimed. By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 3, 2008
Filed at 7:36 a.m. ET

LONDON (AP) -- Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger escaped an assassination plot hatched in 1969 by the Hells Angels, a new British Broadcasting Corp. documentary has claimed.
A program to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Monday says the rock star was the target of the plot following a purported dispute with the motorcycle gang over concert security.

Jagger had vowed not to use Hells Angel members as bouncers following the death in December 1969 of an 18-year-old fan at a notorious free performance at Altamont Speedway in Northern California.

In return, gang members hatched a plan to kill Jagger at his holiday home in Long Island, New York, the BBC claimed.

''The Hells Angels were so angered by Jagger's treatment of them that they decided to kill him,'' Tom Mangold, the presenter of the program, was quoted as telling Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

He said the plan was disclosed during an interview with Mark Young, a former FBI officer, for the BBC's ''The FBI at 100'' documentary.

Mangold said the men tried to reach Jagger by sea. ''The boat was hit by a storm and all of the men were thrown overboard,'' he was quoted as saying. They all survived but made no other attempt on his life, Mangold said.

It was not clear whether Jagger was ever informed of the alleged plot against him.
LD Communications, Jagger's publicists in Britain, did not immediately return calls requesting comment.

The Hells Angels have always denied any connection with the Altamont Speedway killing.

Hey Universe

Anything you can do to get me and my beloved RR here and make the journey a good one will be duly appreciated.

I was thinking about why I want to go. I am a survivor of violence. Many women I love are survivors of violence. Rape is being perpetrated as a war tactic around the world, which is as sickening to me as anyone blowing themselves up, it just doesn't get the same press.

But the real and selfish reason I support all womens' rights to a world without violence is my son. A world where everybody counts, and everyone has basic human rights is a world I want him to live in, and a viewpoint I want him to have. And I know how much more wonderful his life will be if he regards women as equal, and not lesser. I want to be the mom who models that for him, through action, and through deed.

An Answer

I had a conversation with a dreamwalker two weeks ago. In the course of our conversation, he reminded me of something that I've come across before in several different religious traditions and healing practices. That is simply, after conducting a ritual, such as a healing ritual, you are to place your hands on the ground (or floor) and send whatever negative energy you have picked up back into Mother Earth, asking her to clean it and make it positive energy again. This has a practical aspect for the healer, to keep from absorbing the illness or other negative energy they are seeking to remove. It is also a wonderful general concept, that the bad can be turned back into good, renewed and reborn into something positive in our lives.

So often my question is "What do I do?". I think the first answer is always this.

More is happening in my life, so rapidly, than I seem to be able to write, and yet all is wonderfully calm. I hope you are all well.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Salutations to the Guru. Over and Out.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of Transcendental Meditation and guru to the Beatles, among others, died yesterday on February 5th. While I'm sure someone else has figured this out, I have not yet noticed any mentions in the news that he died the day after Across The Universe Day, when NASA beamed the famed Beatles song into space via satellite antenna in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the song's release. The song's chorus includes the mantra "Jai guru deva om" which, according to my beloved and overused Wikipedia "is a sentence fragment whose words could have many meanings, but roughly translate to "salutations to the guru", then the mystic syllable om". While Maharishi was a controversial figure for many reasons, he did believe that TM, a form of meditation using mantras, could help heal the world and bring peace.

So. . . salutations to the guru and the mystical 'om' were beamed quite literally across the universe, to unknown effect, and then he died.

Salutations to the guru. Om.