Pray with your windows open

The Talmud reads, "Never pray in a room without windows." Never pray without the world in mind, in other words. The purpose of the spiritual life is not to save us from reality. It is to enable us to go on co-creating it.
- Joan Chittister

“Without justice, what are kingdoms (and corporations) but bands of robbers?”

"In 1965, U.S. CEOs at major companies made 24 times a worker's pay -- by 2004, CEOs earned 431 times the pay of an average worker. From 1995 to 2005, average CEO pay increased five times faster than that of average workers. While CEO pay continues to increase at rates far exceeding inflation, wages for the vast majority of American workers have failed to keep up with rising prices. In fact, real wages for the 90% of Americans who earn under $92,000 a year have actually fallen since 2001."




from
 sojourners  and God's Politics Blog by Jim Wallis and friends


“Without justice, what are kingdoms but bands of robbers?” St. Augustine

LETTER TO THE BANK

Dear Sirs,

One of my checks was returned marked "insufficient funds." In view of current developments in the banking industry, does that refer to me or to you?

Sincerely,
Your customer

how will you speak up?

What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor but the silence of the bystander.

- Elie Wiesel,
Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate

Judas Asparagus and the New Evangelism

A child was asked to write a book report on the entire Bible.  

This is the New Testament through new eyes.



After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is the star of The New. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn. (I wish I had been born in a barn too, because my mom is always saying to me, 'Close the door! Were you born in a barn?' It would be nice to say, 'As a matter of fact, I was.')
During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the Pharisees and the Democrats.
Jesus also had twelve opossums.
The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named a terrible vegetable after him.
Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even preached to some Germans on the Mount.
But the Democrats and all those guys put Jesus on trial before Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn't stick up for Jesus. He just washed his hands instead.
Anyways, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again.
He went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. His return is foretold in the book of Revolution.

Staying Alive

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

- Martin Luther King Jr.

This has more theological implications than a 10,000 word treatise

Mother Goose And Grimm
by MIKE PETERS

03/06/09



someday I'll have to sit down and think those implications through and then perhaps I will share them with you


in the mean time simply enjoy the experience of genius at work in cartoon form

an experience of incomparable value

There remains an experience of incomparable value ... to see the great events of world history from below; from the perspective of the outcast, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed, the reviled -- in short, from the perspective of those who suffer ... to look with new eyes on matters great and small.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
Letters and Papers from Prison

neither safe, nor politic...but right

Cowardice asks the question: Is it safe? Expediency asks the question: Is it politic? Vanity asks the question: Is it popular? But conscience asks the question: Is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular -- but he must take it simply because conscience tells him it is right.

- Martin Luther King Jr.,
from his address, "To Chart Our Course for the Future" (1968).

Well Forest, things do get out of focus sometimes

Wasn't it you who told me;

"Love and life is like a box of chocolates...it's cheaper, but means less, if you give them away after the day has past."

Hang in There

Like I said 27 years ago on our wedding day....Hang with me for a while. I'm sure the fun is about to start anytime now!

Looking Good After All Those Years

You are the greatest joy of my life. Happy Valentines Sweetheart

wisdom all the way from 1866

We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity, and society cannot trample on the weakest and feeblest of its members without receiving the curse in its own soul.

- Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Proceedings of the Eleventh Women's Rights Convention (1866).

and now the best love song of all time (this should atone for that last one)

a little something for my sweet valentine

this is how to play the game

Women have always been smarter than chauvinists

A point of view .

Barbara Walters of Television's 20/20 did a story on gender roles in
Kabul, Afghanistan several years before the Afghan conflict. She noted
that women customarily walked five paces behind their husbands.

She recently returned to Kabul and observed that women still walk behind
their husbands. From Miss Walters' vantage point, despite the overthrow
of the oppressive Taliban regime, the women now seem to walk even
further back behind their husbands, and are happy to maintain the old
custom.

Miss Walters approached one of the Afghani women and asked, 'Why do you
now seem happy with an old custom that you once tried so desperately to
change?'

The woman looked Miss Walters straight in the eyes, and without
hesitation said, 'Land Mines.'

One of the things that I hope is true.

Happy are those who consider the poor;
the Lord delivers them in the day of trouble.
The Lord protects them and keeps them alive;
they are called happy in the land.
- Psalm 41:1-2

Nick Cave came in the name of his father to keep God Alive

that is a mighty big project, but he succeeds on a certain level for me.








Many will find this a bit overblown,

but for me it was very meaningful.

the flesh made word

Happy 67th Casey......You Are A Good Dg

Dog Years

A dog's lifespan is only a fraction of the average human's lifespan, which means that a dog ages more quickly in the same amount of time. This chart shows how a dog's age might be adjusted to compare to a human's age.

Canine Age                   Human Age

2 Months                     14 Months

6 Months                     5 Years

8 Months                    9 Years

1 Year                       15 Years

2 Years                     24 Years

3 Years                   28 Years

4 Years                    32 Years

5 Years                    37 Years

6 Years                  42 Years

7 Years                  47 Years

8 Years                 52 Years

9 Years                 57 Years

10 Years               62 Years

11 Years              67 Years

12 Years             72 Years

13 Years             77 Years

14 Years             82 Years

Proof That Hallelujah is best sung in a congregation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2NEU6Xf7lM

Only 3 things to write about; Love, Death and God

sounds right to me