At Gas Works park. All those dots you see are downtown Seattle. You're welcome!

Friends,
Today a little at loose ends I drove around a bit and came to the
cemetary in Somers New York where an old friend, John McMahon is
buried having died suddenly in 2001, I set on a bench by the small
churchyard burial place and said a prayer and then noticed beside
me on the bench a small black figurine which proved to be of
Hotei Sama one of the 7 Chinese gods of good fortune, accepting it
as being,as it were, a gift I put some wildflowers on the grave
marker from the wood nearby...
Driving on a bit in one of my usual drive courses I came to the
Hudson River above Cold Spring and opposite Mount Storm King,
I have taken enough pictures and shared them here of that small
mountain, or large hill, but did find a couple of things perhaps
new, one an angle from the South looking across , not the Hudson,
which is beyond a narrow spit of land beyond the immediate
water and on that spit is a railroad track running upriver,
and there other is of the Hudson and of a sail boat passing
before the face of Storm King. For these , and Hotei,
please click to the right just here.( Read more... )
As to John McMahon no special sadness just passing by and stopped...
He was a friend for some years after I came back from Japan and
he wrote for the little magazine First Hour which I edited then,
he had not really done published writing but he was gathering
material for a go at a book on Tomasso Campanella the 16th
century philosopher, he cut a grave , priestly sort of figure in
a black turtleneck with a celtic cross typically, a classics master,
he loved bad movies of every sort particularly vampire ones. He
wanted for a future birthday that never came the urn with a boy
leading the drunken hercules home from the Met or if that was too
hard to steal then some 'objects' from the oriental room. I doubt
Hotei was one of them as it says 'made in china' on the bottom and
granted that some fine oriental objets d'art are from china I do
not think they say made in china on the bottom. Our mutual friend
Dr Allison of Godard Laboratory said of John's death in London that like
the old Celtic wanderers he died 'seeking his place of resurrection.'

So that and the photos and as always invite all you have on anything
at all... By the way yesterday's Superman proves to be a young Russian
American who apparently meant no trouble but he and Batman were
taking money and playing music without a permit. I hope he did not
punch the cop. Previously he had been arrested in a Tarzan costume.

yours
+Seraphim
.

I've just had a busy week with a team of clergy and students leading a teaching week at Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria. There are a number of
people there preparing for baptism, and some of those already baptised wanted a refersher course, so we've been teaching from Monday to Friday.

The course was held in an orphanage run by Fr Frumentius Taubata and Matushka Evgenia, and about half the children were from the orphanage, and about half from nearby shanty towns Brazzaville and Siyahlala. We had about 25 children and 25 adults attending for the week. At the end Deacon Nektarius said that if they rememberd a third of what they had been taught in the week, they would know as much as, if not more than, most cradle Orthodox in this country.

If anyone is intereted in knowing more, there are fuller reports on my Khanya blog, with pictures.

Current Location: Tshwane, Gauteng

Here's a great interview with Cornel West, Serene Jones and Gary Dorrien by Bill Moyer.
Btw, there's a great interview with Cornel West in the latest issue of Rolling Stone (the one w/ Green Day on the cover).

Tags: philosophy, religion

Friends,
This morning the police in Times Square approached Superman
and Batman and asked them if they had permits to wear
costumes, no, and then for identification. They had none.
Superman resisted being detained and it took seven cops to
wrestle the 20 something year old guy to the pavement.
It speaks for the bureaucratic society we are making in places
like New York at least but also for the unworthiness of a
Superman who would continue a discussion by punching a lady
cop in the face. Still hope it goes not too hard for him...

While looking for the picture below I find some information
about Superman's religion ,from Superman writer Eliot
S! Maggin, and for this and also Eastern Orthodox super heros
and a flower photograph please click to the right.( Read more... )
The flowers whose name I have no idea of at all remind me of a
enlargement of a microscopic or submicroscopic world... that
is a thing that an image does, frees one a little from conventional
consensus definition.

So today these and invite all your thought
+Seraphim
.
Superman taken down in Times Square. From of
course the New York Post our best newspaper.

I would like good links to church positions on end of life issues in hospital. For reference, my 61 year old Nana had a stroke directly caused by malpractice, 2 months ago. Previously she held a full time job, had friends and hobbies, orchestrated a big Christmas gathering every year, vacationed with her husband, etc. Now, she has no use of the left side of her body, almost no vision, her short term memory seems gone - she is basically diapered, in a bed, confused, and she has to be fed by others. There has been no progress made with physical or cognitive therapy since her stroke; rather, she has steadily declined and lost more skill sets, which one of her doctors has said is because other areas of the brain can continue to die for several months following the initial injury.

A neurologist has suggested to my mother and grandfather that they consider "allowing her to die" by no longer feeding her. She does not ask for food and often has to be pressured to allow herself to be fed. I suspect that the neurological connections that would normally signal hunger to her are simply gone/destroyed. My mother and grandfather are facing very hard decisions and asking the opinions of my sister and I, and aside from wanting a second opinion we are at a loss.

We are pro-life and value life and also try to obey God's word and will as we can discern it. We're not Orthodox but believe Orthodoxy holds great wisdom and Truth.

I just value any spiritual input.

Friends,
Often seems like there will be nothing to put on the
journal but then something comes to mind to put in and
it might interest someone so these...
1) Thought that the Grail question, who serves the
Grail? or it can be whom does the Grail serve?
is in fact a 'Koan'(for anyone unfamiliar a Zen question
designed to help one to go beyond simply logical answers)
there could be various answers, the
Fisher King serves the grail on one level etc but it
leads to the irreducible mystery of all its parts
who/whom, serve, Grail.

2)I sort of like a shed I saw the other day with ivy on
it. at end of post.

3)A respondent yesterday noted that Salvador Dali did a
postcard for the 1959 Tour de France apparently this ( Read more... )

4)Dali also, besides cycling , loved the Marx brothers although
probably the silent comedy of Harpo more than the fast talk of
Groucho which his English was likely insufficient to take in
except through translation.
Dali in any case did a proposed film scenario for the Marx
Brothers called Giraffes on Horseback Salads which they
declined to use. Wisely I expect. It is available on line
http://www.miskatonic.org/dali-marx.html
here is just the conclusion which can go with our cycling
picture.( Read more... )
So that is three things to share...the shed reminds me
(because of my limited movie viewing no doubt) of one in
Schwarzenegger's "Commando"...well but surely more interesting
ideas can come to mind they just dont in any definite way
to mine...and yet there is something interesting to me in
the picture...
three things and as always all you have on them or on
anything else is welcome, yours
+Seraphim
.

This whole flu thing is bullshit and I'm tired of dealing with it! Just saying.

I'm supposed to go to Portland today. We'll see how the day develops.

My summer classes are proving to be more intense than I expected.

I'm speaking on a panel in a couple weeks at the church I used to go to about Christianity and homosexuality. Over the last few weeks I've been meeting with the pastors and another lesbian they've asked to be on the panel. I think it's going to be interesting. They seem to be more open now regarding the issue than they were before. They were never terrible. It just seemed like they'd never been challenged on it. So, we'll see how that goes.

Over

Tags: life

You guys.

You guys. Oh my god.

My long-time readers may remember, back in 2005 (when I was a widdle baby college freshman), I posted about the hilarious and distinguished micronation of Molossia. Amanda discovered the website, and we spent hours pouring over it, laughing and making plans for our own micronation, right there in our dorm room. I remember being impressed by the thoroughness of the site, amused by the quirky eccentricity of the President, and generally excited about the idea of making your own country.

Last night, I was sitting at my computer when an email popped into my inbox. I opened it.

And blinked.

And blinked again.

Subject: An Invitation

Greetings.

Some four-plus years ago, you (at least I think it was you) commented very favorably regarding the Republic of Molossia on your blog. I don’t know how I missed it all these years, but I just noticed the entry this evening. I truly appreciate your kind words. Thus, I would like to invite you to come and visit our nation, located some four hours east of San Francisco, over here within the wilds of Nevada. I will gladly escort you around Molossia and show you the sights; it would be an honor.

If you are so inclined, let me know when you might wish to visit – I recommend September, as July and August can be a bit warm. I hope you will favorably consider my invitation and come see our great nation!

Warmest regards,
His Excellency President Kevin Baugh,
Republic of Molossia

I blinked again.

And then I started shrieking.

"Oh. My god. Oh. My god."

I tried calling Amanda, but it was late on the East Coast and she was already asleep, so I called Katie, and we squealed about it for a bit. I'm currently composing a response. Of course I'm going. It's so close, and so awesome. How could I say no?

Tags: amusement, awesome people
Current Location: my apartment - emeryville, ca
Current Mood: awake

I never did post about my birthday.

It was perfect. Lovely and low key. Slept in late, stayed in bed with the boy until 2pm, ate insanely decadent and piping hot Cheese Board pizza for lunch, went and saw Up!, and then met Frances, Jonathan, and Emily for a late dinner at Zachary's.

I had been trying to plan something bigger and more exciting, but in retrospect, it was about as perfect as it could have been.

Last year, I set some personal goals at my birthday dinner.

1. Get some poetry published - legit, paid-for-it, in-a-magazine published.
2. Get properly settled into my new city Apartment, job, dog. Done.
3. Be more fiscally responsible (open up an ING Direct account for savings, etc.) Savings account/nest egg growing as we speak.
4. Possibly meet someone There's a boy / his name is Paul / he's cute and sweet / and very tall.

And I'm making progress re: the publishing - submitting things every few weeks.

So... new goals for this year!

1.) Study for the GREs and do well
2.) Get into graduate school
3.) Continue writing and the quest for publication
4.) Continue to save teh monies
6.) Exercise more

Woo-hoo!

Tags: birthday
Current Location: my apartment - emeryville, ca
Current Mood: awake