“Love is of all passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart and the senses.” -Lao Tzu
Hi Friends,
It has been awhile since I have posted a Turfing for you all. We were getting things sorted (and still are) for the new version of Earthrites.org. We are changing over to WordPress, and frankly I like it, though so far there are difficulties with Firefox and Internet Explorer showing images/videos etc… Load a copy of Chrome, or Safari to see pics and videos.
We have had a nice Holiday season, and now it is actually snowing in Portland. (The weather people forgot to mention it, and people are stuck everywhere at this point.)
We had our annual Solstice Do, and it was a marvel. I love the season, and the best thing about it is friends and family. This is indeed the basic elements that we need in life to my mind.
I am happy to see the tail (tale) end of 2009, though it went by in a flash. The year started poorly, but it did get better. I have higher hopes for the coming year. The site will change out, and there are new art projects ahead. I am concerned about employment for myself and many, many friends yet I think things will shake out okay in the end.
Radio will be back soon as well in some form or another. I am getting excited by it all, really I am.
Enough for the moment, check the format out, and know that more is on the way.
Bright Blessings,
Gwyllm
On The Menu:
Quotes From Lao Tzu
A Video from Alex de’ Guzman
The War Prayer – Mark Twain
Anti War Poetry
Pink Floyd – Dogs Of War (Live)
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Lao Tzu Quotes:
“He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still”
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be”
“One can not reflect in streaming water. Only those who know internal peace can give it to others.”
“Great acts are made up of small deeds.”
“To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.”
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A Video that my friend Alex de Guzman turned me onto…
U.S Soldiers Are Waking Up!
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The War Prayer
by Mark Twain
[1904]
It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety’s sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.
Sunday morning came–next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams–visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! Then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation
God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest! Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!
Then came the “long” prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory–
An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher’s side and stood there waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued with his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, “Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!”
The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside–which the startled minister did–and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said:
“I come from the Throne–bearing a message from Almighty God!” The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. “He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import–that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of–except he pause and think.
“God’s servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two–one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this–keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor’s crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.
“You have heard your servant’s prayer–the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it–that part which the pastor–and also you in your hearts–fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: ‘Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!’ That is sufficient. the whole of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory–must follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!
“O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle–be Thou near them! With them–in spirit–we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it–for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.
(After a pause.) “Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!”
It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.
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Anti War Poetry
Bird With Two Right Wings
And now our government
a bird with two right wings
flies on from zone to zone
while we go on having our little fun & games
at each election
as if it really mattered who the pilot is
of Air Force One
(They’re interchangeable, stupid!)
While this bird with two right wings
flies right on with its corporate flight crew
And this year its the Great Movie Cowboy in the cockpit
And next year its the great Bush pilot
And now its the Chameleon Kid
and he keeps changing the logo on his captains cap
and now its a donkey and now an elephant
and now some kind of donkephant
And now we recognize two of the crew
who took out a contract on America
and one is a certain gringo wretch
who’s busy monkeywrenching
crucial parts of the engine
and its life-support systems
and they got a big fat hose
to siphon off the fuel to privatized tanks
And all the while we just sit there
in the passenger seats
without parachutes
listening to all the news that’s fit to air
over the one-way PA system
about how the contract on America
is really good for us etcetera
As all the while the plane lumbers on
into its postmodern
manifest destiny
-Lawrence Ferlinghetti
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Incitement To Disobedience
I wish that I were able to incite
Young men in every land to disobey
For wars will cease when men refuse to fight.
To kill our brothers for a nations right
Is not a method we can use today.
I wish that I were able to incite.
When leaders threaten to resort to might,
I know that idols all have feet of clay.
For wars will cease when men refuse to fight.
The cause of peace is shared by black and white
And freedom fighters show a better way.
I wish that I were able to incite.
Non-violent resistance has no bite
While undecided pacifists delay.
For wars will cease when men refuse to fight.
With power to reinforce in what I write
The things that protest-singers try to say,
I wish that I were able to incite
For wars will cease when men refuse to fight.
– Tom Earley
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Priorities
Napalm, or bomb,
little hands and little feet,
(Or leave a land-mine behind
to do the job)
Spread a noxious cloud of gas to sear tender throats and lungs
or conscript the helpless ones
to use as fodder
Kill the urchins without pause
in pursuit of your cause
(in alliance or uni-lateral)
Send a stone-faced rambo to emolate a village
exfoliate and pillage
(the damage is only collatoral)
Or, teach young minds of hell,
which you know of so well
and wound without lifting a hand
Damn them before they are born
doom them to despair
As con-artist pols and ghouls without souls
rant from podiums everywhere,
loudly,
on how much they care
-Pandora
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Pink Floyd – Dogs Of War (Live)