Sophia Makes A Visit

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I'm honoring another blogger today--Sophia from the blog, Visions of the World.

The picture is there because of the obvious "visions" of the world title but also because Sophia likes puzzles and mystery:

"I am a woman who loves puzzles, mostly sudoku and logic problems but especially the puzzles of living what is called life. I am fascinated by the world around me. My purpose with this blog is to try to learn as much about the world around me as I can. On this blog I will post my thoughts on subjects that take place all around the world. What I seek to do - what my main purpose is, my aim - is to experience."

I also chose that cartoon image to, hopefully, bring a laugh to Sophia's life today. She paid me an honor on her blog and I'm trying to pay her back ;-)

I truly love surfing over to her Space on the Web because it's usually happily surprising and often deeply thought-provoking.

Definitely worth a few visits!!!

One more quote from Sophia:

"I am an experiencer experiencing and experimenting with this amazing yet quizzical thing called life. It baffles me yet at the same time amuses me. I am constantly reminded that there are things out there that I have no understanding of, and quite possibly, no one else does either."

Abused and Tortured Women - Mass Murder #2

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This post exists because of a response to the post just before it.

Ihoha, who's blog carried the story I covered in the last post, made a brilliant comment on it.

The comment's right there under the post but I felt it deserved being a post in it's own right.

You may want to back up and read that last post first...

~~~~~~~~~

My Dear Alexander,

Thank you for posting this information in your blog. It is horrifying to know that this kind of behavior continues as we move on in this new millenium. However, this may be one evidence that we have not gone far at all in our hearts and minds as a species. As we think we are the only thinking and feeling beings, those that believe that we are made -- in whose image are we so made that we kill those that bring life into the world?

I have often wondered if we truly believe any of our scriptures or are we simply carrying books out of some force of habit?

May the men of the world truly let go of fear and trust in life and love. How can love not be known to and by them? Women give birth to male children and care for them until they are able to care for themselves. That is an example and position of power.

We are okay -- male and female -- and though the power of the female lies in the time even before birth, there is a power that she does not control during the hosting process and that is the structuring of the being into human. This knowledge and power is beyond her reach. A woman is never closer to death than at the point of birth. Men will never know the pain of it nor the shift in consciousness required to accept something separate from yourself growing inside your very body.

As a female and a mother, I offer this: power lies in knowing who and what you are and that no part of you is missing.

Loving Blessings,
Ihoha Sophia

A Journalist In Darfur

This is Awatif Ahmed Isshag.

She's been a journalist for the last ten years.

She lives in Darfur.

When events like the ongoing crisis in Darfur come to the attention of relatively secure people like me (resident of the USA, not starving, and not seeing death and destruction every day), we feel particularly helpless.

It's going to take more than the combined efforts of all the aid organizations there are to help people in that country [not to mention the horrible happenings in other countries].

It's going to take a massive change of heart--massive change for each individual who could help in any way and massive change for every government and political person who has any influence on secular happenings--a thorough spiritual transformation.

Can you hear it?

The world is crying, screaming for change...

The Dynamist Blog carried a short article about Awatif Ahmed Isshag. Here's just a taste:

"Nearly a decade ago, at 14, Isshag started publishing a handwritten community newsletter about local events, arts and religion. Once a month she'd paste decorated pages to a large piece of wood and hang it from a tree outside her family's home for passersby to read.

"Her grass-roots periodical has become the closest thing that El Fasher, capital of North Darfur state, has to a hometown newspaper. More than 100 people a day stop to check out her latest installments, some walking several miles from nearby displacement camps....

"Isshag complained that despite international attention, the suffering of Darfur remained vastly underreported inside Sudan. There are no television stations in the area, and most newspapers operate under government control or are based hundreds of miles away in Khartoum.

"'The local media don't cover the issue of Darfur,' she said. 'We hear about it when one child dies in Iraq, but we hear nothing when 50 children die' in Darfur."

She is, in a way, blogging without a computer.

If you need some background on the bigger picture, the BBC News has Q&A: Sudan's Darfur conflict and Wikipedia has Darfur Conflict.


A more complete story on Awatif Ahmed Isshag can be had at the Los Angeles Times. Here's a telling detail from that article:

"An advocate for women's education, Isshag credits her parents for allowing her to avoid being tied down by housework and pursue her interest in writing.

"But she occasionally uses her columns to lecture other women on pet peeves. A recent 'For Women Only' article lambasted those who took off their shoes on the bus. 'It's wrong,' she said with a laugh."

Dangerous Blogging

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Blogging can be dangerous ( Check out two and three posts before this one...) .

Just this morning, on the way to a religious party with my best friend, the topic of blogging and controversy came up--the tact necessary, especially when one steps into the arena of Spiritual Commentary On Current Events...

The other day, as I responded to a discussion post on a spiritually-oriented site (mentioning my Faith), I was met with extreme prejudice--"How in the world can you believe that?!" I responded with as much tact and gentleness as I could muster and will lay low for a bit in that particular discussion thread...

I want to mention our B.I.D.E. Global Blog Feed again (down the sidebar on the left).
I found the meat for this post there: Free Kareem: Egyptian Bloggers Speak Out.

A blogger being jailed (if the appeal doesn't work) for speaking his mind. . .

Here's a snippet of a very interesting blog post:

"Once again a religious institution is confusing itself with God: instead of seeing that they are part of the problem, they interpret any criticism of the institution as criticism of Allah, whereas Karim only did what Allah has told every Muslim to do: [Qur'an 4:135]: “O you who believe! be maintainers of justice, bearers of witness of Allah’s sake, though it may be against your own selves or (your) parents or near relatives; if he be rich or poor, Allah is nearer to them both in compassion; therefore do not follow (your) low desires, lest you deviate; and if you swerve or turn aside, then surely Allah is aware of what you do.”

Reprise

Tomorrow's my guest post on the Balanced Life Center's Blog. The title will be The Great Spirit and the content's about my personal experiences with Native American Spirituality.

Even though I was raised by two Christian ministers (Mom and Dad), my Indian experiences were much more "spiritual" then what our family did...

Now that I'm in my 60's I can see the value in all Spiritual Traditions.

~~~~~~~~~

Since I wrote that guest post for Balanced Life Center, I've begun reading Black Elk Speaks
--had to; couldn't help it even though I had other, more "important" things to read...

So, here I am in a rather contemplative mood--a Caucasian with a love for Indians, a blogger who's actually a poet, a man who has his feminine side well-honed, a Baha'i who loves all religions, an American who's striving to be a Global Citizen...

And that Global Perspective brings me back to a focus in this blog's recent past:

Please check out the post, Be The Change.... It's only a couple days old but, in the Blogosphere, that's ancient.

I really want to shift from the Personal Commentaries to a more Global Perspective but I'd really rather have some of You steer me in the direction of the stories or topics or issues You'd like Spiritual Commentary on...

The Truth Shall Set You Free..

Dave Lucas published "Egyptian Blogger Sentenced to Prison" today.

I haven't checked out the facts to assertain the guilt or innocence of the blogger in question, but the posting made me remember a link off the site I've recommended here a few times, GlobalVoices ( Dave likes it, too!) .

The link takes you to a "Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents" which helps those under governmental oppression get their words out to the world.

After this foray into the story's context, I went to GlobalVoices itself and found Much More Coverage...

This in turn reminded me of the oppression of a religious group in Egypt. Here's that story...

Where In The World ?

I have no idea where in the world this picture was taken. That's just fine, though, 'cause I wanted a place that was extremely different from where I am.

I live in southwestern Ohio in the United States--no mountains, just hills; no isolated cabins on the edge of glaciers...

Pictures from space have shown us how "small" our planet is but pictures down here can definitely show how "small" We are.

And, when it comes to my feelings about the big/small world and my small/big place in it, the best way I've seen it said is: "Glory not in love for your country, but in love for all mankind."

There's a service down aways on the sidebar called "B.I.D.E. Global Blog Feed". It comes from a site I want to praise and encourage you to visit: GlobalVoices

Their slogan is: "The world is talking. Are you listening?"

And, here's their agenda:

"GlobalVoices seeks to amplify, curate and aggregate the global conversation online - with a focus on countries and communities outside the U.S. and Western Europe. We are committed to developing tools, institutions and relationships that will help all voices everywhere to be heard."

It's exhilarating just to go there and browse the blogs from so many countries but it's downright uplifting to peruse their Resources:

How-to guides:

Reporters Without Borders Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents
(Mirror sites: here for English and for Chinese here and here.)

Anoniblog Guide: Guide to anonymous blogging by Ethan Zuckerman

Useful Documents:

Infrastructure of Democracy: Statement by a working group at the Club de Madrid on how not to destroy the internet while fighting terrorism

Six recommendations to ensure freedom of expression on the Internet from Reporters Without Borders and the OSCE.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights: including the universal right to free speech for all human beings.

Communities:

The Digital Divide Network: the Internet’s largest community for educators, activists, policy makers and concerned citizens working to bridge the digital divide.

Media Bloggers Association: a non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting MBA members and their blogs, educating bloggers, and promoting the explosion of citizen’s media.

Omidyar Network: online community dedicated to making the world a better place.

Free hosting, free content:

Internet Archive: Universal access to human knowledge.

Ourmedia: free storage and free bandwidth for your videos, audio files, photos, text or software. Forever. No catches.

Creative Commons: a nonprofit that offers a flexible copyright for creative work.

Organizations supporting online free speech:

Berkman Center for Internet & Society: host organization for Global Voices Online.

Internet Freedom of Expression Exchange: defending global freedom of expression. Check out their Tunisia monitoring group.

Reporters Without Borders: fighting for freedom of the press worldwide.

Committee to Protect Bloggers: an independent organization dedicated to bloggers’ rights around the world.

Electronic Frontier Foundation: Defending freedom in the digital world.

Human Rights Watch: Defending human rights worldwide.

Spirit of America: supporting champions of freedom, democracy, and peace.

So Who's Right ?

Here's my Supremely Obvious comment for the day:
"There sure is a lot of conflict in the world !"
From disagreements between friends to bloody sectarian war, it's all around us. Something else that may be obvious to you is that there are a lot of ways being touted to "manage" or "reduce" or "eliminate" conflict.

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I'm reading a book now, The Anvil of the Spirit by Morris Taylor, and I came across a fascinating comment about understanding conflict (seems to make sense that we must understand where it's coming from before we can manage, reduce, or eliminate it...) This quote may seem as Supremely Obvious as that other one up there but if you slow down and think about it (try feeling your way into it, too...) I think you'll find it as helpful as I did:

"Every individual is following a sensible strategy for getting along in the kind of world he thinks he lives in."

This blog really isn't about offering solutions, though I will point to quite a few as time rolls on. It's a place to give spiritual perspective to what we all are living through. Still, I want to offer these results for "conflict" from the B.I.D.E. Custom Spiritual Search Tool.

Many folk will tell you that conflict is inevitable. What matters is how we "deal" with it.

Just to indicate how inevitable it is (and, indirectly, how important it is to learn how to deal with it...) here's a closing quote from a Supremely Spiritual man:

"The shining spark of truth cometh forth only after the clash of differing opinions."

What do You have to say about conflict?

Youth & Spirituality

It's very heartening when you start a blog and a friend comes bopping by and makes an early comment that steers you toward a rich web resource that you must bring right back to the blog.

I'll be working to incorporate this site's information into
this blog from time to time because I honestly can't think of a more central issue in the quest for spirituality in our world or a better way of assuring continual spiritual growth for our civilization than Spiritualizing the Future:
our Children and Youth !

Comments?

Religion ?vs? Spirituality

I posted the following comments in the B.I.D.E. BackYard and got an interesting response:

"The B.I.D.E. Blog is born. It purports to be "Spiritual Commentary on Current Events" and this Group is said to be "an aid to Seeing current events in the Light of Spirituality".
I want to kick-off discussion here by proposing that:

"Spirituality without Religion is near-fantasy
&
"Religion without Spirituality is near-boredom...

"I framed that proposal in a somewhat weird way to stimulate a hearty discussion.

"Wanna jump in?"
~ Alex

Far from God...

I must begin this new blog, in this new year, with this quote:

"Meditate on what the poet hath written: 'Wonder not, if my Best-Beloved be closer to me than mine own self; wonder at this, that I, despite such nearness, should still be so far from Him.'"

~~~ Bahá’u’lláh

I'm not sure when I'll begin regular, nearly daily, posting since I've just recently been overcome with the need to create this blog; and, I'm conferring with my best "spiritual friend" on what the Form of the Theme should be...

The Theme, I'm sure of:
Spiritual Commentary on Current Events

I'd love to see your comments on that Theme...