May Highlights

Exxon

Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson is on Zimbio, and it seems that articles or posts that mention Exxon show up in his account. Imagine my surprise to see that More Doo Doo Hits the Fan, where I bash Exxon mercilessly, shows up in his news feed. I wonder if he thinks that's good PR for his company; not that it matters any to his checkbook.

May 2 Tornado

The beginning of the month saw yet another round of deadly, destructive tornadoes in Arkansas. My last assignment with the newspaper was to cover a little town called Carlisle for that weekend. Tornadoes strike Arkansas Again, Tornado aftermath: cleanup and Tornado Aftermath: Finding the Path Again walk you through the devestation with photos.

Sucker Punched

Let the Bumps Knock You Off the Path and Stay Out of My Underwear will give you a good idea of how I approached my latest round of challenges in my personal life. I'm so glad I'm a positive person.

Horses

NCAApHC's May 10 horse show was both chaotic and fun. I announced during the second half of the show, and was able to meet and talk with quite a few people. The next weekend, we had the pleasure of a free reining clinic that had all that was needed to get a Well Trained Horse.

Helping Hand

The news was filled with more disasters, unimaginable pandemonium, on top of the increasing struggle to weather gas and food prices. That news, those photos make us all feel bad, and we want to reach out and help in a good, effective way. There is no doubt that you can do much more with someone walking with you as you attempt to understand how so much can go so wrong.

A Bumpy Path gets a Facelift

I hadn't realized what a huge thing blogging was until this month. My eyes were opened up quite a bit to a different perspective. I redid the 'look' of the blog and added in some spiffy features to make it come together beyond the basic template Blogger provides. This includes stepping outside my usual box to begin promoting the blog, which in turn, gives more purpose and value to what I write. Take a look at my list of Interesting Blogs at the bottom of every page and visit these exceptional blogs. When people leave comments, their name is also a link to their blog. Give a look-see and you'll see what I mean about the large world of blogging.

Thanks for reading!
Theresa

Notes on Changes

"The voices in your head can be sending you conflicting messages today," started my horoscope for today. Great. When did I become clinically schizophrenic? I assure you, any and all voices in my head are my own.

The last few weeks, I've been working on my blog's layout and features. I hope you like it. It's not something I'm completely comfortable with, but one of the things I added was Entrecard, and it has tripled the number of people visiting here. You'll notice more great comments now, and please, check out their blogs by clicking on commenter names and the little Entrecard in the sidebar. Lots of great reading out there!

I've noticed that my blog will show for people searching for "define positive change." I have my own ideas about that, and I've written them up on my About page. Are those the things you see as evidence of positive change? What is positive change to you?

In three days, gas prices jumped thirty cents a gallon! $20 will get me a quarter tank of gas is all. I'm already a homebody, and now I'll be leaving the house even less often. A news headline yesterday said that employees are going down to a 4 day workweek to save gas. Oh, be careful! I can see that as an excuse for employers to consider you less than full time and cut your benefits.

On that note, I really do work hard at keeping my self talk positive. The benefits to doing so, staying positive, are a thousand-fold. How you think and feel inside is reflected on the outside, so not only are you more confident, you appear more confident and capable to others, and it spreads. As tough as times are, there's no sense adding to it by being negative and miserable too.

I drove down to Little Rock yesterday and noticed that there were fewer cars on the highways and streets. It made the trip more enjoyable, but sad too. It is no longer a bustling capital city. There's not a lot of foot traffic usually anyway, so the lack of cars on the streets gave it a ghost town feel. It's the first time I've seen glaringly obvious effects of the gas prices and the economy.

In the news: More soldiers are diagnosed PTSD and more have committed suicide. No help yet for the Myanmar cyclone victims. China is still struggling to save people from that massive earthquake and is now threatening to publicly humiliate the countries who promised aid and didn't come through. An earthquake in Iceland and India, fires and hurricanes galore. And the ever continuing sagas of our comical political process and the angst in the Middle East.

How far of a leap in logic would it be to say that the Earth is bucking like a wild bronc in response to humanity's stupidity? Think about it. The Earth and its people are one. If one is out of balance, so is the other.

Saying Thank You Out Loud

I hate to shop for clothes. I just don't like it. Everything on the racks look the same and nothing looks like it's made for a real person to wear, especially one with more curves and rolls than the eating disordered models in magazines. I hate spending the money on clothes. No, I wouldn't rather be naked; I'm just more comfortable in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. And, I won't try clothes on. I go for the generic sizing or one-size-fits-all kind of thing.

But, today, I had to shop for clothes. I have two interviews coming up that are important, and I have to present myself in a favorable way. I have to do well in that 'first impression' part of things.

So, I headed on out to the only department store in town. I wandered around, lost as usual in that particular store, and finally stumbled into the right department. I went from rack to rack and back again, going in circles, finding nothing. A woman looks at me and said, "Can I help you find anything?"

"Sure! I have an interview tomorrow, and I don't know how to dress!" She looked me up and down with a glint in her eye. I expected the same remark she gave: "Well, you're dressed now!" Ah, a like-minded person.

After a few questions about the interviews, she heads out to all the racks of clothes with a definite idea in her head of what would be suitable for me to wear. I was just so relieved to have found someone to tell me what I should wear that it took a few minutes for me to realize that she was looking and finding exactly the things I immediately liked. Why can't I find those things when I shop myself?

Now I'm armed with a nice suit, very nice suit. And, she made me try it on. She didn't want me to wake up tomorrow morning, put the clothes on and find that nothing fit. That would be a disaster, she tells me. So, I did, and yep, it fit perfectly!

I came out of the dressing room all grins, and decided I'd better invest in a pair of shoes too. So, she walks me there, talking all the while. Turns out she is also a counselor, only working at the store to be doing something, anything, while waiting for the release to return to her job. We talked and talked, and when we got over to the shoe department, she helped me pick out shoes too.

In all my life, I have never had this great of a shopping experience. And, for once, I came out of a store with exactly what I wanted and needed.

To this lady, I want to say, "thank you," and yes, I will come back in to let you know how the interviews went!

Find Your Path

It's no surprise that we all turn into blubbering fools when we're around babies. Well, the ones that aren't crying for some unknown reason. Right? As if by instinct, one of the first things we 'play' with an infant is Peek-a-Boo. There is something about that pure, joyous sound that makes us even more silly as we try to keep that musical laughter going for as long as possible.

Why is that? We are all born with that purity, that boundless joy, as evidenced by the baby's laugh. We miss it. We lost it somewhere along the way. Surprisingly, few people seem to think it is worth finding again. We were born with it and it's in there somewhere, yet it remains lost. But, why?

As the infant learns to interpret and respond to sensory input, everything is new and a tremendous leap ahead in terms of growth and development. It is raw, concrete data that sets off physical and emotional responses. It is this concrete, what-you-see-is-what-you-get interpretation that will set some infants off into a terrified scream the first time you try Peek-a-Boo. Even the first "boo" will scare those that weren't concerned with the initial disappearance. Then, the adrenaline rush becomes the cause for the glee and laughter once the baby learns that it is just a game. Each infant is different, but each is reacting to the concrete: you disappeared, you came back sooner or later with a "boo" to heighten the surprise. It's so fun!

Jump ahead 5 or so years, and though Peek-a-Boo is no longer played, concrete thinking continues all the way up to around 12 years old. Parents take their kids to church to "pray" and learn about God. To a concrete thinker, all that is understood is that this God will punish you if you are bad, you learn from your parents when you are bad, so you get a double whammy. Not only are your parents mad at you, but God is too. To punish you, God must be some big, bad person to fear more than anything else because your parents fear him too. You start noticing how many other people must have been bad too by the looks of them. The fear of God is solidly implanted.

Rebellious, abstract, independent teen years come and take that child away from church and religion to be replaced by the importance of peers. But, the initial interpretation of God as a big, bad meany remains. God is left to be thought of as an anthropomorphized old man with long, white hair and a beard sitting up there. The infant's purity and joy is buried deeply now.

God is an abstract, not a concrete person, you suddenly realize. You have to dig deeper than all you learned, you have to get past all the concrete deductions in order to intuitively understand the abstract. That abstract is whatever each and every one of us interprets and can be no other way.

If you choose to find guidance in reaching your understanding of God, no matter if it is through a religion, reading or talking with others, the only one that can decide and know what is the truth is you. No one way of thinking, no religion, no teaching is better than any other. No one's interpretation is more right than anyone else's. They are all a piece of the same pie. It may be that you find one that rings most true for you, and that helps you solidify your conceptualization of the ultimate abstract. That is your path and your right.

Some become uneasy, even fearful at the prospect of deciding to dig deep within themselves to think through this abstract. Placing the belief within, inside oneself, outside the symbolism and ritual of a group religion means that the concept of God is something that no one else can give you or decide for you. It must come from within yourself. The only one that can do it is you.

The other side of your struggle to find your God is purity and joy. God is within you.

Believe not what you have heard said; believe not in traditions merely because they have been transmitted through many generations; believe not merely because a thing is repeated by many persons; believe not solely upon the authority of your masters and elders. When upon observation and analysis a principle conforms to reason and leads to the benefit and welfare of all, accept it and hold it. ~~Buddha

Dalai Lama Renaissance with Harrison Ford - UPDATED

This announcement came to my inbox today:

Dalai Lama Renaissance” is the first theatrical film about the Dalai Lama in U.S. since international spotlight on China and Tibet; Narrator Harrison Ford expresses support for the Dalai Lama.

"Dalai Lama Renaissance" playing for ONE NIGHT ONLY at the Boulder Theater in Boulder, Colorado on this Thursday, May 29 at 8 p.m. (Email from the Director-Producer added below.)

“Dalai Lama Renaissance,” an award-winning 80 minute documentary film narrated by actor Harrison Ford, holds its U.S. theatrical premiere on May 23 in San Francisco .

“Dalai Lama Renaissance,” produced and directed by Khashyar Darvich, is the first film about the Dalai Lama and Tibet to open theatrically in the United States since the international spotlight placed on China for its firm handling of Tibetan protestors speaking out against Chinese policies in Tibet.

San Francisco recently experienced protests over the running of the Olympic torch in the city, a few months before the Summer Olympic Games, which are scheduled to begin in Beijing on August 8.

In the documentary, the Dalai Lama discusses the calls for economic sanctions against China , and emphasizes that he could not support economic sanctions towards China since it would hurt the ordinary Chinese poor.

“Dalai Lama Renaissance” opens one day after the premiere of Harrison Ford’s “Indiana Jones 4,” which opens internationally on May 22, and is only among a small handful of documentaries that Ford has chosen to narrate during his career.

"I narrated Dalai Lama Renaissance,” says Harrison Ford, “because I believe His Holiness is making a positive influence in our world. For me, the film represented an opportunity to continue assisting the optimistic efforts of an extraordinary individual.”

In 1995, Ford spoke to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee about Chinese policy in Tibet :

Ford told the Congressional panel: “The Tibetan struggle is no ordinary freedom struggle… It is a path of non-violence… As an American who cares deeply about justice, freedom and democracy, I can tell you that this is a cause that touches at the core of our own values. It is about the survival of a people who seek only to democratically determine their own government, to have the freedom to practice their own religion without interference, and to bring up their children in a safe environment where they can be proud of their unique heritage.”

“Dalai Lama Renaissance” premieres theatrically in the United States on May 23 in San Francisco at the Roxie Theater, and in Santa Fe, New Mexico at the Santa Fe Film Center. On May 29, the film screens theatrically at the Boulder Theater in Boulder, Colorado, and then begins a theatrical run in Portland on June 28. It is expected to play in several additional cities across the U.S.

On October 30, the film opens theatrically in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and will be released in Holland and Belgium in November. It is expected to be released in several other countries around the world before the end of the year.

“Dalai Lama Renaissance” has won 12 film festival awards, and is the official selection of 38 film festivals around the world, where it consistently has attracted sold out audiences.

The film tells the story of 40 Western innovative thinkers who travel to India in the Himalayan Mountains to meet with the Dalai Lama to solve many of the world’s problems. What happened was surprising and unexpected, and was captured by a five camera, 18 person crew.

The film features two of the starring quantum physicists from the hit theatrical documentary “What the Bleep Do We Know,” Physicists Fred Alan Wolf and Amit Goswami. Also appearing in “Dalai Lama Renaissance” are Michael Beckwith (who appears in the film “The Secret” with Wolf), Air America radio host Thom Hartmann, and others.

Visit the film's Web site at http://dalailamafilm.com.

Email from Producer-Director Khashyar Darvich:
May 27, 2008

Hello Everyone,

"Dalai Lama Renaissance" (narrated by Harrison Ford) has it's Boulder-Denver area Theatrical Premiere at the Boulder Theater in Boulder, Colorado on Thursday, May 29 at 8 p.m.

Producer-Director Khashyar Darvich will appear in person for a Q&A after the screening.

Ticket information can be found here: http://www.bouldertheater.com/event_detail.php?id=867

Along with featuring intimate, personal moments with the Dalai Lama, the documentary features Michael Beckwith (from "The Secret"), Quantum Physicists Fred Alan Wolf and Amit Goswami from "What the Bleep Do We Know," Air America radio host and author Thom Hartmann, and others.

"Dalai Lama Renaissance is about Forty of the world’s most innovative thinkers who travel to India in the Himalayan Mountains to meet with the Dalai Lama to solve many of the world’s problems. What happened was surprising and unexpected. Narrated by actor Harrison Ford.

"Dalai Lama Renaissance" is the official selection of 38 film festivals around the world, and has won 12 awards.

Film Critic John Griffin of the Montreal Gazette calls 'Dalai Lama Renaissance' "a provocative, even enlightening film... fascinating, ravishingly beautiful and sonically soothing."

Amy Wong of LA Yoga Magazine writes: "it is a stunning tour-de-force [and an] intimate glimpse into the Dalai Lama's life."

You can read reviews of the film, and find other information here: www.DalaiLamaFilm.com

For Ticket information, please visit: http://www.bouldertheater.com/event_detail.php?id=867

Here are the days and times when "Dalai Lama Renaissance" is playing at the Boulder Theater in Boulder, Colorado:

Beginning Date of Theatrical Exhibition: May 29, 2008 - 8 p.m.
Theater Name: The Boulder Theater
Address of Theater: 2032 14th Street, Boulder, CO
Website: www.bouldertheater.com
Contact Phone: (303) 786-7030
Contact Email: www.bouldertheater.com/contact.php


Thank you for informing others in the Boulder-Denver area about the screening.

I look forward to speaking with you at the screening at the Q&A

Khashyar Darvich
Producer-Director
"Dalai Lama Renaissance"
www.DalaiLamaFilm.com

Memorial Day

Proclamation 3409 Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 1961 ~April 24th, 1961

WHEREAS the high courage and the supreme sacrifice of Americans who gave their lives in battle have made it possible for our land to flourish under freedom and justice; and

WHEREAS the ideals and patriotism of those who answered the call to service stand as an inspiration to every new generation of Americans; and

WHEREAS the same principles and revolutionary beliefs for which our forbears fought and died are still at issue in the world and the challenge against them can be met only through the same qualities of courage, strength, and unflinching determination shown by our noble dead; and

WHEREAS Memorial Day each year provides a fitting occasion upon which our people may not only commemorate the Nation's heroic dead but also unite in prayer for the preservation of liberty and peace free from the threat of war; and

WHEREAS to this end the Congress, in a joint resolution approved May 11, 1950 (64 Stat. 158), requested the President to issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe each Memorial Day as a day of prayer for permanent peace:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOHN F. KENNEDY, President of the United States, do hereby urge the people of the United States to observe Tuesday, May 30, 1961, Memorial Day, by invoking the blessing of God on those who have died in defense of our country, and by praying for a new world of law where peace and justice shall prevail and a life of opportunity shall be assured for all; and I designate the hour beginning in each locality at eleven o'clock in the morning of that day as the time to unite in such prayer.

I also urge the press, radio, television, and all other media of information to cooperate in this observance.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this 24th day of April in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-fifth.

JOHN F. KENNEDY

By the President:
DEAN RUSK,
Secretary of State.


The American Presidency Project