Can you tell I Don't Like Shrub?

These are some anti-war road signs:

War is good for the economy the way cannibalism is nutritious.

Osama + Saddam = Easter Bunny (this one has pictures of each under the name.)

And a joke:

Donald Rumsfeld was giving the president his daily briefing at the White House.
He concludes by saying: "Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed."
"OH NO!" the President exclaims. "That's terrible!" His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President sits, head in hands.
Finally, the President looks up and asks, "How many is a brazillion?

Some republicans are nice:

My niece, Kimberly, purely by fate, was working at a travel agency in Austin, Texas, for her ex-boyfriend's mother, when they were hired by the Bush campaign to arrange travel plans for Bush, Cheney, and their buddies. Kimberly was given a job at HUD in D.C. for helping, in Austin, with Bush's first run for President. Mr. Jackson, her boss is now the head of HUD. She is his assistant. A few years ago he was second in command , until the first director retired.

She was there on 9-11 and could see the smoke from the Pentagon from the HUD offices. Mr Jackson was on the phone to her from his car when the plane hit the Pentagon, it flew over the road he was on and he saw it hit. They were supposed to do a Habitat For Humanity Build that day, and when they heard about the first plane hitting the World Trade Center, they called off the build and he was headed home to change his clothes to proper office attire. She was terrified (no one knew how many more buildings would be hit) she told Mr. Jackson not to come back, but he did. She called her mother, in Austin, and they cried together as the horror unfolded.

We are all proud of her regardless of politics.

Rumi Poems

On the day I die, when I'm being carried toward the grave, don't weep.
Don't say, He's gone! He's gone.
Death has nothing to do with going away.
The sun sets and the moon sets, but they're not gone.
Death is a coming together.
The tomb looks like a prison, but it's really release into union.
The human seed goes down in the ground like a bucket into the well where Joseph is.
It grows and comes up full of some unimagined beauty.
Your mouth closes here and immediately opens with a shout of joy there.
*mevlana jelaluddin rumi - 13th century

I have lived on the lip of insanity,
wanting to know reasons,
knocking on a door. It opens.
I've been knocking from the inside!
*sufi mystic - jelaluddin rumi - 13th century

"... Move beyond any attachment to names." Every war
and every conflict between human beings has happened because
of some disagreement about names.
It's such an unnecessary foolishness, because just beyond the arguing
there's a long table of companionship, set and waiting for us to sit down.
What is praised is one, so the praise is one too, many jugs being poured
into a huge basin.
All religions, all this singing, one song.
The differences are just illusion and vanity.
Sunlight looks slightly different on this wall than it does on that wall
and a lot different on this other one, but it is still one light.
We have borrowed these clothes, these time-and-space personalities,
from a light, and when we praise, we pour them back in.
*mevlana jelaluddin rumi - 13th century

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened.
Don't open the door to the study and begin reading.Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
*sufi mystic - jelaluddin rumi - 13th century

There is some kiss we want with our whole lives, the touch of Spirit on the body.
Seawater begs the pearl to break its shell.
And the lily, how passionately it needs some wild Darling!
At night, I open the window and ask the moon to come and press its face into mine.
Breathe into me.
Close the language-door ,and open the love-window.
The moon won't use the door, only the window.
*sufi mystic - jelaluddin rumi - 13th century

Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing, there is a field.
I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase "each other" doesn't make any sense.
*mevlana jelaluddin rumi - 13th century

Dance, when you're broken open.
Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of the fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance, when you're perfectly free.
*sufi mystic - jelaluddin rumi - 13th century

The grief you cry out from draws you toward union.
Your pure sadness that wants help is the secret cup.Listen to the moan of a dog for its master. That whining is the connection.
There are love dogs no one knows the names of.
Give your lifeto be one of them.
*love dogs - mevlana jelaluddin rumi - 13th century

O love, O pure deep love, be here, be now.
Be all; worlds dissolve into your stainless endless radiance,
Frail living leaves burn with you brighter than cold stars;
Make me your servant, your breath, your core.
*sufi mystic - jelaluddin rumi - 13th century

Dear Daughter Graduates, Ciao & Addio

My only daughter graduated from University last week: Mass Communications degree.
Of my three children, she is the first to complete college. We are so proud of her!

She is going to move to Perugia, Italy soon. First a trip to the U.S. North West. She has traveled Europe on her own dime and loves it there, but I don't know if she has been to Italy yet. Still so much more to see there. I hope she has fun, fun, fun!

She has a smile that lights up a room and I love her, and respect her maturity. Her father and I were decades late in our development of maturity, so the credit goes to her own wisdom. Both of the Grandmothers came to see her graduate; the first of any of their grandchildren to do it.

Maybe I will get to see Pompeii and Herculaneum on a visit to see her. I have wanted to see them all my life!

The Hard Work

This entry is a copy of an email I sent in reply to a Christian oriented chain letter type email that was mostly pretty, but creepy in places. My mother wanted me to reply to it. As usual, I couldn't just say thank you. I had to send a critique. I refuse to be anyone but me! Gets me in trouble with people who have better impulse control:

Greetings, Namaste, Bless You, Allah Rocks, take your pick,

Thanks, nice message, except for the guilt trip and shaming: I don't think God stoops so low. The "god" that would say: "You didn't have time for me, so I didn't make time for you", is just soooo not my image of God.
Church people: makes it seem analogous to racism. Makes me a bit sad that some people believe that by choosing not to attend a designated house of worship, a person will not be able to see God in everything that exists and all that does not exist to our limited senses; in suffering and in joy.
You are not required to do the "Hard Work" gracefully, crying is NOT proof that you don't Love while you suffer or bitch at God for letting you help others, no matter how much it takes a toll on you.
If I'm not mistaken, that is what Jesus was doing: the Hard Work.

No Sleep Last Night

Savant has been out of the mental hospital for about a month. They try to empty the beds there as rapidly as possible and before the medication has had a chance to reach full effectiveness. This puts me in a situation where I, basically spend my days with someone who is seeing a different mental movie than the rest of us. I reached the end of my rope and fell off a long time ago.

Finally tonight he trusted me enough to go, with me, to the emergency room and seek help for his panic and still delusional thinking. They gave him something to quell tonight's panic and enough pills to see him through until he can get an emergency appointment with his psychiatrist. We'll see how that goes, they are usually booked up for at least a month. But he really needs to have his medications adjusted to give him any peace of mind.

Anyway it was such a relief to see him sleep when we got home at 2:00 A.M. He has been frightened and has had such a hard time getting any sleep, for so long.
The computer clock says it is now 5:02 A.M. Time for me to try to get some sleep.