If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100
people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would
look something like the following.
There would be
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans
52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would
be from the United States.
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would own a computer
When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the
need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly
apparent.
The following is also something to ponder...
If you woke up this morning with more health than illness... you are
more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.
If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of
imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ... you
are ahead of 500 million people in the world.
If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest,
torture, or death...you are more blessed than three billion people in
the world.
If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof
overhead and a place to sleep...you are richer than 75% of this world.
If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a
dish someplace ... you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
If your parents are still alive and still married ... you are very
rare, even in the United States and Canada.
If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly
thankful..... you are blessed because the majority can, but most do
not.
If you can hold someone's hand, hug them or even touch them on the
shoulder... you are blessed because you can offer healing touch.
If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in
that someone was thinking of you, and furthermore, you are more blessed than
over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.
Someone once said What goes around comes around.
Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.
It's National Friendship Week.
Send this to everyone you consider a FRIEND.
Pass this on, and brighten someone's day.
Nothing will happen if you do not decide to pass it along. The only
thing that will happen, if you DO pass it on, is that someone might smile
because of you.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Zen
The wise people of old who
Took goodness as their way
Were retiring as though shy
Their conduct to all was
Respectful as though to
Honored guests;
They could adapt themselves
Like ice melting before a fire;
They were artless
As blocks of uncarved wood.
- Lao tzu
Took goodness as their way
Were retiring as though shy
Their conduct to all was
Respectful as though to
Honored guests;
They could adapt themselves
Like ice melting before a fire;
They were artless
As blocks of uncarved wood.
- Lao tzu
Monday, November 26, 2007
Political Victory For The Whales
Political Victory for the Whales
The Labor Party of Australia has won the election and they have won by a landslide and this could be wonderful news for the whales ofAntarctica.
Why?
Because Peter Garrett, two weeks ago as the former Shadow Minister for the Environment said that his government if elected would send a naval vessel to the Southern Oceans to monitor the Japanese whaling fleet. Mr. Garrett also promised to take a much more aggressive position against Japanese whaling activities.
The former Liberal government were outspoken against whaling but did very little to actually stop the Japanese from continuing with their illegal activity.
Hundreds of people have notified the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society that they voted Labor because of the threat to the whales. Labor now has the opportunity to demonstrate that they will be a government of their word.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society expects to see an Australian Naval vessel dogging the pirate Japanese whaling fleet this year. Australians are incensed that Japan is targeting endangered humpback whales.
"What Japan is doing is deliberately insulting Australians by saying we are going to kill humpbacks, we may even kill Migaloo and there is not a thing that you can do about it because your government does not have the guts to stop us," said Captain Paul Watson.
Mood:determined
Do you believe in Astrology?
Gemini ~ June 19
I guess I do believe in most of what Astrology tells us. I think you have to take everything in account but it isn't necessary to put all of your belief in one discipline or thought. I am truly a Gemini. I have more than one personality. I change my mind in mere seconds at times.
I guess I do believe in most of what Astrology tells us. I think you have to take everything in account but it isn't necessary to put all of your belief in one discipline or thought. I am truly a Gemini. I have more than one personality. I change my mind in mere seconds at times.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Monday and the blues
I feel rather accomplished today. I completed a knitting set that I had been picking up and putting down for what seems like an eternity. Woo hoo. My days are spent trying to finish hand made Christmas gifts. I am dreading the holidays this year. It seems like my entire family has someone to be with and somewhere to go. I guess I will be spending it with my adult daughter. I am thinking I should volunteer to feed the homeless so I can get out of my own despair. I seem to have lost interest in social things since my divorce.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Day of the Dead
Indigenous people wouldn't let 'Day of the Dead' die
Copyright Patrick MurilloCarlos Miller The Arizona Republic
More than 500 years ago, when the Spanish Conquistadors landed in what is now Mexico, they encountered natives practicing a ritual that seemed to mock death.
It was a ritual the indigenous people had been practicing at least 3,000 years. A ritual the Spaniards would try unsuccessfully to eradicate.
A ritual known today as Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.
The ritual is celebrated in Mexico and certain parts of the United States, including the Valley.
Celebrations are held each year in Mesa, Chandler, Guadalupe and at Arizona State University. Although the ritual has since been merged with Catholic theology, it still maintains the basic principles of the Aztec ritual, such as the use of skulls.
Today, people don wooden skull masks called calacas and dance in honor of their deceased relatives. The wooden skulls are also placed on altars that are dedicated to the dead. Sugar skulls, made with the names of the dead person on the forehead, are eaten by a relative or friend, according to Mary J. Adrade, who has written three books on the ritual.
The Aztecs and other Meso-American civilizations kept skulls as trophies and displayed them during the ritual. The skulls were used to symbolize death and rebirth.
The skulls were used to honor the dead, whom the Aztecs and other Meso-American civilizations believed came back to visit during the monthlong ritual.
Unlike the Spaniards, who viewed death as the end of life, the natives viewed it as the continuation of life. Instead of fearing death, they embraced it. To them, life was a dream and only in death did they become truly awake.
"The pre-Hispanic people honored duality as being dynamic," said Christina Gonzalez, senior lecturer on Hispanic issues at Arizona State University. "They didn't separate death from pain, wealth from poverty like they did in Western cultures."
However, the Spaniards considered the ritual to be sacrilegious. They perceived the indigenous people to be barbaric and pagan.
In their attempts to convert them to Catholicism, the Spaniards tried to kill the ritual.
But like the old Aztec spirits, the ritual refused to die.
To make the ritual more Christian, the Spaniards moved it so it coincided with All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day (Nov. 1 and 2), which is when it is celebrated today.
Previously it fell on the ninth month of the Aztec Solar Calendar, approximately the beginning of August, and was celebrated for the entire month. Festivities were presided over by the goddess Mictecacihuatl. The goddess, known as "Lady of the Dead," was believed to have died at birth, Andrade said.
Today, Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico and in certain parts of the United States and Central America.
"It's celebrated different depending on where you go," Gonzalez said.
In rural Mexico, people visit the cemetery where their loved ones are buried. They decorate gravesites with marigold flowers and candles. They bring toys for dead children and bottles of tequila to adults. They sit on picnic blankets next to gravesites and eat the favorite food of their loved ones.
In Guadalupe, the ritual is celebrated much like it is in rural Mexico.
"Here the people spend the day in the cemetery," said Esther Cota, the parish secretary at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. "The graves are decorated real pretty by the people."
In Mesa, the ritual has evolved to include other cultures, said Zarco Guerrero, a Mesa artist.
"Last year, we had Native Americans and African-Americans doing their own dances," he said. "They all want the opportunity to honor their dead."
In the United States and in Mexico's larger cities, families build altars in their homes, dedicating them to the dead. They surround these altars with flowers, food and pictures of the deceased. They light candles and place them next to the altar.
"We honor them by transforming the room into an altar," Guerrero said. "We offer incense, flowers. We play their favorite music, make their favorite food."
At Guerrero's house, the altar is not only dedicated to friends and family members who have died, but to others as well.
"We pay homage to the Mexicans killed in auto accidents while being smuggled across the border," he said. "And more recently, we've been honoring the memories of those killed in Columbine."
Copyright Patrick MurilloCarlos Miller The Arizona Republic
More than 500 years ago, when the Spanish Conquistadors landed in what is now Mexico, they encountered natives practicing a ritual that seemed to mock death.
It was a ritual the indigenous people had been practicing at least 3,000 years. A ritual the Spaniards would try unsuccessfully to eradicate.
A ritual known today as Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.
The ritual is celebrated in Mexico and certain parts of the United States, including the Valley.
Celebrations are held each year in Mesa, Chandler, Guadalupe and at Arizona State University. Although the ritual has since been merged with Catholic theology, it still maintains the basic principles of the Aztec ritual, such as the use of skulls.
Today, people don wooden skull masks called calacas and dance in honor of their deceased relatives. The wooden skulls are also placed on altars that are dedicated to the dead. Sugar skulls, made with the names of the dead person on the forehead, are eaten by a relative or friend, according to Mary J. Adrade, who has written three books on the ritual.
The Aztecs and other Meso-American civilizations kept skulls as trophies and displayed them during the ritual. The skulls were used to symbolize death and rebirth.
The skulls were used to honor the dead, whom the Aztecs and other Meso-American civilizations believed came back to visit during the monthlong ritual.
Unlike the Spaniards, who viewed death as the end of life, the natives viewed it as the continuation of life. Instead of fearing death, they embraced it. To them, life was a dream and only in death did they become truly awake.
"The pre-Hispanic people honored duality as being dynamic," said Christina Gonzalez, senior lecturer on Hispanic issues at Arizona State University. "They didn't separate death from pain, wealth from poverty like they did in Western cultures."
However, the Spaniards considered the ritual to be sacrilegious. They perceived the indigenous people to be barbaric and pagan.
In their attempts to convert them to Catholicism, the Spaniards tried to kill the ritual.
But like the old Aztec spirits, the ritual refused to die.
To make the ritual more Christian, the Spaniards moved it so it coincided with All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day (Nov. 1 and 2), which is when it is celebrated today.
Previously it fell on the ninth month of the Aztec Solar Calendar, approximately the beginning of August, and was celebrated for the entire month. Festivities were presided over by the goddess Mictecacihuatl. The goddess, known as "Lady of the Dead," was believed to have died at birth, Andrade said.
Today, Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico and in certain parts of the United States and Central America.
"It's celebrated different depending on where you go," Gonzalez said.
In rural Mexico, people visit the cemetery where their loved ones are buried. They decorate gravesites with marigold flowers and candles. They bring toys for dead children and bottles of tequila to adults. They sit on picnic blankets next to gravesites and eat the favorite food of their loved ones.
In Guadalupe, the ritual is celebrated much like it is in rural Mexico.
"Here the people spend the day in the cemetery," said Esther Cota, the parish secretary at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. "The graves are decorated real pretty by the people."
In Mesa, the ritual has evolved to include other cultures, said Zarco Guerrero, a Mesa artist.
"Last year, we had Native Americans and African-Americans doing their own dances," he said. "They all want the opportunity to honor their dead."
In the United States and in Mexico's larger cities, families build altars in their homes, dedicating them to the dead. They surround these altars with flowers, food and pictures of the deceased. They light candles and place them next to the altar.
"We honor them by transforming the room into an altar," Guerrero said. "We offer incense, flowers. We play their favorite music, make their favorite food."
At Guerrero's house, the altar is not only dedicated to friends and family members who have died, but to others as well.
"We pay homage to the Mexicans killed in auto accidents while being smuggled across the border," he said. "And more recently, we've been honoring the memories of those killed in Columbine."
Should have known better!
The old saying, if it sounds to good to be true it probably is has reared it's head in my world. The soon to be ex has completly flipped the script on the divorce settlement. No way am I going to sign anything! I stood by him for years, through thick and thin and now he wants to do this to me? Cold day in hell! I can't believe I loved him once. No good deed goes unpunished.
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