WithMentalReservations

I have been an atheist for most of my adult life.  At times, I have been an angry one, profoundly enraged by the bigotry and hatred espoused by many different sects of mainstream religion in the U.S. and elsewhere.  Part of this comes from having to battle the "creationists" who will not accept the fact of evolution, and from defending LGBT rights from the condemnations and political machinations of hateful ministers and their followers.  I find myself in the company of some notable folks, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins being two of note.  But some of you will note the tone of the blog I posted about Grandfather William Commanda.  And I must admit, having visited his gathering and been allowed to spend time in the midst of First Nations people, I am conflicted because of their very spiritual way of being.  For them, life cannot be separated from spirit, and they feel a unity with all living things and with the earth, whom they revere as "Mother."...

Today, at the age of 97, Grandfather William Commanda, Keeper of the Sacred Wampum Belts, died at his home at Kitigan Zibi in southern Ontario.  I had the enormous honor of meeting this extraordinary man at a gathering at his home a few years back.  It is difficult to express the aura that surrounded this humble man, but it was palpable even at a distance.  All at the gathering held him in reverent respect. Perhaps a thousand folks, mostly Algonquin, but including other first-nations representatives, and visitors from as far away as New Zealand and South America, gathered for 3 days on his land.  Each morning would begin with a prayer and I was able to arrive early enough on the last morning to participate in it.  Inside the sacred circle where the fire had been burning since the beginning of the gathering, a number of elders were seated.  A young Lakota man led the prayer, and knowing that there were non-natives in the audience, explained the ceremony....

I am not a musician.   I suspect I have not the talent to play an instrument, and certainly, I lack the voice to be a singer.   But I do love music, and most especially, symphonic music.   And I must confess, the entire idea of orchestral music baffles me.   That those scattered, often cluttered symbols on paper can express the ideas of a composer such that a player can read them and translate them into precise movements of muscle and breath, in concert with a hundred others, to make a tapestry of sound that can bring me to tears is utterly beyond my comprehension.   Today, I watched pre-college students do exactly that, playing two pieces I know and love:   Glazunov The Seasons and Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade.   The first was played by a younger group, yet it was extraordinarily well done, and the second by the senior-level students, and they were magnificent.   The young concert master was dazzling and will be heading into a career with a ma...

I just came from a concert up at the Performing Arts Center at WWU, where the Marrowstone students put on a truly amazing concert.  Marrowstone is a summer camp for music students where they get to work with highly skilled professionals and then perform in ensemble performances for the public.  Tonite, the program featured the Brass Choir...many of whom were probably in the younger age range.  They were good...but the performance did show some shaky moments and sounded like a student group.  Still...they had worked hard and are to be commended.  After the intermission, a 17 yr old cellist played the Saint-Saens Cello Concerto #1...and he, and the orchestra were superb.  This lad has talent and, I think, a great professional career ahead of him.  This was followed by Beethoven's 4th Symphony.  For moments, I could have sworn I was listening to one of the great established orchestras.  Amazing.  Having heard the Seattle Symphony this seaso...

         I just came back from a charming bit of gay entertainment at a coffee shop out near the big mall.   The place is called “Cafe Caffé” and is generally open for breakfast and lunch, but on Tuesday evenings, the venerable Betty Desire performs.   Betty is a fixture in the local gay community and has been for many years.   Unlike most DQ’s (Drag Queens), Betty sings instead of lip-synchs, and is a quite passable cabaret singer with a fairly wide repertoire.   No youngster, Betty is in her 50’s, and has grandchildren, one of whom was at tonight’s performance.   Another DQ did a couple of numbers…Sydney Downunder…lip-synching this time.   I must say, this young lady was quite elegant, in a very fetching, green spangled sheath dress, and an auburn wig.   It was a short show, approximately an hour and a half.   Betty chatted a bit about her recent experiences, having attended a SCA event (Society for Crea...

Here are some titles that I'm reading or re-reading that are relevant to my last post about local democracy: 1.  Winner-Take-All Politics by Jacob S. Hacker & Paul Pierson 2. The Fair Society by Peter Corning 3. The Predator State by James K. Galbraith 4. The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger by Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett 5. After Shock by Robert Reich (who, btw, did the foreword to the book above) And something we probably all need to realize...there are forces afoot designed deliberately to mislead the American public about major issues, including climate change. A good introduction to these nefarious characters is:  Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway. In time, I hope to post commentary on each of these...but, to put it quickly...read and weep..and then get angry and do something.

Dispatch from Bellingham, 17 July, 2011 Democracy in Action This past Saturday, I discovered another reason to love this place.   I attended a meeting of the “Rebuild the Dream” project begun by MoveOn.org.   About 30 folks gathered to consider ideas for radically reorienting American politics towards a more humane, fair and (small-d) democratic society.   It was a grass-roots call to action, not a top-down proposal.   Earlier, there had been a request sent out through MoveOn.org to propose ideas to improve the country.   From something like 28,000 of them, selected by around 5 MILLION citizens expressing their choices, 40 top suggestions were chosen for us to discuss and rank-order.   I urge all of you to visit the site http://contract.rebuildthedream.com to find the list and the invitation to participate in this process.   PLEASE…do get involved if you share my concerns for the direction the country is taking. Some of you may know by now that I...

Dispatch from Bellingham…27 June, 2011. It is, as I write, a mostly overcast day so far…much different than yesterday, which was sunny for most of the morning and into late afternoon.   Not too warm, either…low 70’s, which seems roughly normal for this time of year here.   In all, it was a good day for a parade…which is where I spent the day.   Yesterday was Seattle Pride, and I marched with the Bellingham Pride contingent.   Alas, by the end of the march, my feet hurt so badly that I could not enjoy the few minutes we spent at the main celebration at Seattle Center.   Perhaps it was because it is a large parade, or perhaps because of less than stellar organization, our group was near the end of well over 100 units, and waited for more than 2 hours for our part of the parade to get underway.   By the time we made it to the main gathering of parade watchers, many had already left or had headed to the party at Seattle Center.   Still…I’m glad I went, ...