Thursday, June 26, 2003

 
WOW! Today I've finally seen the most exciting, life-changing court ruling of my lifetime. The Supreme Court of the US struck down the Texas sodomy law (and effectively all other sodomy laws inthe country) AND overturned their previous ruling in 1986 in the Bowers v. Hartwick case. All of the queer folks in the US now have been given full rights to privacy and consentual sex in their own homes!

This will likely impact many adoption and foster care cases that were formerly prohibited because queer parents were assumed to be criminals under the law. It could do many other things as well.

Truly a day for unending celebration. And an unusual beacon of hope in such a dark political time.
soulspirals 9:10 PM

Tuesday, June 24, 2003

 
Sick. I've been sick. I'm still sick, but hopefully getting better.

I had a lovely, but short, visit with my mom at the end of last week. Then I got sick as she was leaving. We cancelled almost all our weekend plans, although still had a couple of friends over for dinner and geeking on Sunday night.

The strangest development, perhaps, is that I've now started playing Baldur's Gate II. I've never had any interest in D&D, and I don't like the way the paper game is played. But this computer game is giving me something fun to bury myself in while fighting off this yucky sickness. Mr. and I are even giving it a whirl to play together a multiplayer game since our computers are networked. Strange things indeed.
soulspirals 12:07 PM

Monday, June 16, 2003

 
The drum circle on Saturday night was amazing. I rarely feel like I reallly connect with the local drum circle - but this was pure ecstatic ritual experience. It's been so long since I've felt that with other folks - since sometime this winter.

As the energy grew and I could see it swirling and coming together, I knew that I should do something with it. "Hey, you're a witch. Do something." It was in that moment that I realized why the concept of "cone of power" has never quite worked for me.

I really don't see it quite that way. I see it more as a distorted hourglass perhaps. The energy swirls and creates a circle at the bottom, but comes together quickly into a stream spurting upwards before being sent out. I guess it sounds mostly the same, but it doesn't feel that way to me.

In those moments in the circle on Saturday, I pondered what that energy should be used for - what intention to direct it with. What would be meaningful and agreeable for most of the folks there - who I didn't really even know that well? It was at that moment that I decided that perhaps magic isn't really always about the contrived things we attach to it.

Maybe a "cone of power" is really a giant fountain. We come together to create and harness energy. Our "focusing" of that energy is really just attuning our awareness with the existence of that energy - which was really there all along. It spurts up, then falls to the ground like water, being absorbed into the earth, then back up through our feet into ourselves before being pumped out again. We then can reconnect with our ability and need to allow that energy to flow through us instead of blocking it and becoming stagnant. Maybe all magic is is the awareness of the existing flow of energy, and consciously allowing it to continue flowing unobstructed.
soulspirals 11:31 PM

Friday, June 13, 2003

 
I usually try to keep my politics on the Action page, but this is just so.... Mark Moford writes for the San Francisco Gate. He's great. And this column really struck to my core. After all, I'm probably going to vote for the guy - since being a Green isn't going to get me anywhere in NY State anymore. And all the things Kucinich stands for are about the REAL issues in life - and much more than politics.

Your Vegan Spiritual Holistic President
Sure an odd, progressive guy like Dennis Kucinich doesn't have a chance
in hell. But it sure is nice to dream
By Mark Morford

And then the new 2004 president had the gall, the unutterable nerve, to
actually set up an official Department of Peace to promote, you know,
nonviolence and human rights. That big jerk.

And then he repealed the snide and vicious USA Patriot Act, and
promoted legit environmental causes and sustainability and actually
tightened EPA restrictions and strengthened the Clean Air Act, gasp oh
my God what the hell is he thinking.

And then it was revealed that, oh dear God what anti-American
blasphemy, he eats no meat or dairy, and prefers organic and kosher
foods and actually cares about issues of personal holistic health and
therefore isn't a smirking well-funded crony of the toxic beef industry or big agribiz, and hence the bloated lobbyists from those groups are no longer swimming in favoritism and payola and what the hell is the world coming to.

And furthermore, he isn't particularly vehemently religious, not in the
normal sense anyway, not Christian or strictly Catholic or Baptist or
whatever Bush claims to be, Born-Again Failed-CEO Warmonger, I
believe.

And in fact he's actually a rather unique amalgam, a loosely observant
Roman Catholic who observes kashruth due to the influence of his
longtime Jewish girlfriend, and yet who also supports alternative beliefs,
has practicing Muslims on his staff, supports spiritual exploration, knows Shirley Maclaine personally, gives his own personal money to alternative spirituality research. What the hell? This cannot be.

And that damn hippie liberal, he actually wants to legalize medical
marijuana, and he supports the rights of the poor and the working class,
and more protections for the oceans, and universal health care and a
reduction in military spending, and actually wants to change the world's
opinion of the U.S. as this despised unipolar rogue into a more
cooperative powerhouse role-model peacemaker. Oh dear. That does it.
We're gonna be invaded by China any day now, for certain.

Let us imagine, just for a moment, just because it's entirely implausible
and because it feels so utterly odd, that such a leadership, such an open and distinctive viewpoint, actually ran this nation.

Let us imagine the horror. Imagine the savage blow to the all-American
mega-machismo, to the hardcore GOP hawks and the freerepublic.com
psychopatriots and the Christian Bible gropers and the stunned CEOs,
the insult to the giant angry fist of self-righteousness America now
represents were someone like, say, Dennis Kucinich, the humble long-
shot progressive Democratic congressman candidate from Ohio -- the one who represents all those viewpoints listed above -- to actually became president.

Is it really all that radical? Is it really all that extreme to try and imagine a truly connected national leadership that promotes international
cooperation and spiritual openness and the sacredness of the
environment and a genuinely holistic worldview, one who actually attempts to connect with and listen to its populace?

Why does this seem so far off, so utterly impossible? Have we gone so
far down the road of BushCo-style isolationism and dread and knives-out
bile that we can't even entertain a serious alternative, the notion that we
actually could, as a country, stand for something as radical as peace?
Are we so deeply and repressively beaten down with war and terror and
fake Orange Alerts and the idea that we absolutely positively must, no
matter what, have a cold and corporatized iron-fisted leadership hell-bent on expanding American empire at all costs, that we can't even conceive of a sincere and pacifistic alternative?

Apparently, we are. That far gone. That far removed from what this nation actually stands for, stood for. At least for the moment. The tyranny of fear is in control. We are so absolutely goddamn certain we are facing a brutal and heartless world that wishes us perpetual violent ill that we simply must have an equally heartless and guns-drawn pseudo-fascist leadership to match it.

This is, quite simply, utter bull. We have chosen our own path. We have
actively elected to become the strong-arm rogue superpower. We have
created our own warmongering circumstance far, far more than it has
been imposed on us.

Get this. According to his Web site, Dennis Kucinich's proposed Cabinet-level peace appointee would seek to not merely make nonviolence an organizing principle of society but actually strive to make war archaic, to "endeavor to promote justice and democratic principles to expand human rights ... and develop new structures in nonviolent dispute resolution."

Man. What a heretic.

Is Kucinich the ideal candidate? I have no idea. He is merely one of the
most interesting, indeed a longshot and probably flawed and it's true that he just recently flip-flopped on abortion rights, and is maybe just a bit overly pro-labor, and who knows what else, and he could be trouble for the Demos in terms of shaking up the unified message the party so
desperately needs right now.

But let's just use him as our example. Let's use his unique candidacy as a mirror to reflect how far we have careened down the path of indignation and megalomania and the idea that we, as a nation, are somehow locked into this warmongering, hateful mode, this hostile role as schoolyard bully of the world.

How shockingly naive it seems, how utterly childish to think we could
have a president who actually promotes peace and empowers the U.N.
and works toward interconnectedness, and in this day and age. Don't you know the world is at our throat? Don't you know it's all eye-for-an-eye and dog-eat-dog and only the strong survive and kill 'em all before they come and eat our innocent babies?

Yeah right. How very sad. No one seems to remember. No one truly
recalls the overwhelming sentiment just after 9/11, a stunned and
saddened nation rethinking its core values, a deeply historic opportunity
for a radical reshaping of America's world position and policy, our
intentions, our national agenda.

We could've chosen a Kucinich-style path. We could've easily chosen
peace and cooperation and humanity and communication. BushCo chose the exact opposite.

And now, here we are. Globally disrespected, almost universally feared
and loathed and resented, our economy hammered, the vicious GOP war machine cranking on all cylinders, openly lying about the justifications for war, huge numbers of misguided citizens truly believing 9/11 is a valid excuse to annihilate Iraq and slaughter thousands, maybe Syria and North Korea and Libya and Lebanon and who knows who else, next.

And Kucinich's Department of Peace? Ha. What a joke. What a sad, far-fetched, disheartening, impossible joke.

soulspirals 12:12 PM

 
Skulls Offer First Glimpse of Early Human Faces
The New York Times
Wed Jun 11, 3:03 PM ET

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD The New York Times

In the 160,000-year-old fossilized skulls of three Ethiopians two adults and a child scientists think they see for the first time the faces of the immediate ancestors of modern humans.

Except for a few archaic characteristics, they are as recognizable as Hamlet's poor Yorick. They are longer than those of earlier ancestors or any contemporary Neanderthals in Eurasia. Their midfaces are broad, but the nasal bones are tall and narrow. The brow ridges are less prominent than the glowering visages looking down from earlier branches of the family tree. And the cranial vaults are higher and within modern dimensions.

The discovery of the oldest near-modern human remains, announced today, is considered a major step in establishing the time and place for the emergence of anatomically modern Homo sapiens probably about 150,000 years ago, as genetic studies have suggested, in Africa.

"We can now see what our direct ancestors looked like," said Dr. Tim D. White, a paleoanthropologist from the University of California at Berkeley, who is a leader of the international team that excavated and analyzed the skulls.

That had been impossible until now because of the frustrating gap in fossil evidence between 100,000 and 300,000 years ago, the presumed interval of transition from prehumans to modern humans.

Dr. Christopher Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London, who did not participate in the research, hailed the findings as "some of the most significant discoveries in early Homo sapiens so far."

Another independent observer, Dr. Richard G. Klein of Stanford University, said, "These are basically modern people, remarkably modern in appearance."

The discovery team and other scientists said in interviews that the research appeared to confirm the idea that modern humans originated in Africa and then spread into Asia and Europe. In that case, they said, the enigmatic Neanderthals, which became extinct in Europe 30,000 years ago, could not have been direct forebears of today's humans.

In a report in new issue of the journal Nature, released online this morning, Dr. White and his collaborators concluded that the Ethiopian skulls "represent the probable immediate ancestors of anatomically modern humans" and that "their anatomy and antiquity constitute strong evidence of modern-human emergence in Africa."

The "out of Africa" hypothesis, forcefully advocated by Dr. Stringer among others, had gained wide support in the two decades since molecular research on the genetic diversity among human populations pointed to a common ancestor in Africa, which inevitably became known as the African Eve. The research was based on evolutionary changes in mitochondrial DNA, which is passed from mother to daughter. Other studies of the male Y chromosome reached similar conclusions.

But scientists had been unable to pin down the time of origin or find supporting fossil evidence. The earliest fossils of modern Homo sapiens, from Ethiopia, South Africa and Israel, are not much more than 100,000 years old.

If correct, Dr. White's group emphasized, the new research ruled out the alternative multiregional hypothesis, held by a minority of scientists. They proposed that modern humans evolved in different parts of Africa, Asia and Europe at roughly the same time from ancient local populations. The Homo erectus species, which had migrated out of Africa much earlier, were thought to have evolved into Asian humans and European humans, possibly through intermediate stages, including Neanderthals.

Dr. Milford Wolpoff of the University of Michigan, who is a leading proponent of the multiregional theory, questioned whether the skulls had any bearing one way or other on the Neanderthals' place in human evolution.

"All the specimens show is that there was a trend of evolution in Africa toward modernity, just as there was in China and Europe," Dr. Wolpoff said.

But Dr. White's group said the fossil skulls showed that Homo sapiens with almost entirely human characteristics had already evolved in Africa before Neanderthals evolved into their classic form. Soon afterward, fully modern Homo sapiens entered Europe, presumably from Africa by way of the Middle East, and the Neanderthals went into their fateful decline.

"We can conclusively say that Neanderthals had nothing to do with modern humans," said Dr. Berhane Asfaw, a co-leader of the discovery team from the Rift Valley Research in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

In a background news release to the journal articles, the discoverers said that even if descendants of the transitional people from Ethiopia "interbred with surviving Neanderthal populations, the latter appear to have contributed very little to the modern human gene pool."

The team concluded, "In this sense, we are all African."

The skull fossils were found in 1997 in an arid valley bordering the Middle Awash River near the village of Herto, 140 miles northeast of Addis Ababa. The fossils were buried between layers of volcanic ash, from which project geologists determined their age to be about 160,000 years. When the people the skulls belonged to lived there, paleontologists said, they hunted and fished on the shore of a shallow freshwater lake teeming with catfish, crocodiles and hippos.

The fossils were so badly fragmented, however, that it took years of cleaning, reassembling and analyzing before the discoverers felt they could report their findings. They also kept hoping they would gather more remains. They collected more than 600 stone tools, including hand axes. But they never uncovered the lower jaws to the skulls or any parts of the skeletons.

Anthropologists suspect that the skulls had been deliberately removed from the bodies as part of some ancient mortuary practice. Close inspection revealed parallel incisions around the perimeter of one skull, more cut marks on the other two. Similar modifications have been observed by anthropologists in societies, including some in New Guinea, in which the skulls of ancestors are preserved and worshiped.

The three skulls, all missing the lower jaws, were excavated a few hundred feet from one another. The most complete one, probably that of an adult male, especially impressed scientists with its humanlike size and shape, very nearly modern.

So the discoverers decided the specimen belonged in the same genus and species as modern humans, Homo sapiens. But there were just enough differences, the scientists concluded, that the fossils were probably a subspecies, Homo sapiens idàltu, to differentiate them from fully modern humans, Homo sapiens sapiens. Idàltu is a word meaning "elder" in the local Afar language.

"When we compared the cranium to thousands of modern human crania, several dimensions and characters were outside the modern range," Dr. White said in an interview. "If we just called it homo sapiens sapiens, that implied it's the same thing, and it's actually not the same, though very close."

In a commentary accompanying the journal reports, Dr. Stringer said this fossil "helps to clarify the pattern of early Homo sapiens evolution in Africa, as it shows an interesting combination of features from archai, early modern and recent humans."

The second skull was of an even larger adult with modern human characteristics. The third was the skull of a child who died at the age of about 6 or 7 years. All the specimens are being studied at the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa.

"The key point is that we now have good fossil evidence of people like us evolving in Africa when the only people in Europe were Neanderthals," said Dr. Klein of Stanford. "The Herto humans are anything but Neanderthals."
soulspirals 8:50 AM

Wednesday, June 11, 2003

 
I heard this on the radio yesterday afternoon, and thought it was a really great exploration of what it means to apologize - and why sometimes an apology doesn't seem genuine.
TechNation - Five Minutes Five Minutes...Moira's Weekly Commentary

Show Originating on
June 10, 2003

Ever Need to Apologize?... Let's take five with Moira Gunn. This is "Five Minutes".

It was pure coincidence that debunked journalist Stephen Glass' new novel came out at the same time the Jayson Blair/New York Times fiasco broke, but there's no doubt that each frames the other.

The Glass story answers the question: How might a journalist put his life back together after he commits professional treason? while the Blair story tells just what happens these days when you get caught. And wherever you turn, these two stories are linked.

In the obvious trick question of the year, Stephen Glass was asked by the Financial Times if he thought Jayson Blair should apologize. Glass saw it coming, and responded directly: "When I walk into a room, no one believes me the way that they would anyone else. An apology from me would be received with skepticism."

But as clever as he was, that's precisely when I knew that Stephen Glass doesn't understand what an apology is.

--

Anyone who's raised children knows that simply saying "I'm sorry" isn't an apology, especially when Buster goes right back out and hits his little brother on the head with a truck. So what is an apology? And how can we tell a real one from a weasely attempt to skip out on the consequences of a person's own actions?

In every instance, the extent of the apology has to somehow match the extent of the damage done, so let's consider the worst case possible.

First of all, you've got to say exactly what you're apologizing for. No waving of the hands. No vague "I apologize for my part in all this." You've got to clearly state what you did, as well as describe specifically the harm you believe it caused. Then you've got to come up with some way to make up for this harm. And since most bells can't be un-rung, you may need to get pretty creative here - substantive, positive, perhaps even symbolic.

Then you can say you're sorry, and don't forget to describe the remorse that you feel. One note of caution, though: "I feel great remorse because I lost my job over this" just doesn't cut the mustard.

--

You've also got to commit yourself to finding out why you did what you did. We're human, and frequently we do things for reasons that stem from fear, from early traumas in our lives and for any number of reasons. But we have choice. We can look at ourselves, and we can figure out what drives us and ends up hurting other people.

So the final stages of an apology are to figure out what in your person drove you to do what you did, and to make a plan for how you will avoid ever harming someone in this very same way again.

It is at this point that something miraculous happens.

The people who have been hurt begin to respond. Your actions and commitment over time helps to heal their grief. They begin to feel compassion toward you, and if you are very, very lucky, true forgiveness will flow.

While wounds never disappear, they can be healed, and there is every reason to try to do just that. It is the unhealed wound which causes hatred and violence, war and revenge. Whether it's an individual or a community, a huge global corporation or a mighty nation, a few real apologies here and there can change the world.

I'm Moira Gunn. This is Five Minutes.

soulspirals 10:46 AM

Tuesday, June 10, 2003

 
After a trip for a family reunion of sorts, I'm back home settling into the mess of boxes and crates of miscellany that currently fills my home. I'm hoping to have some effective bursts of energy over the next few days so that I have some time to relax and enjoy the new place before my mom comes to visit next week.

I have a doctor's appointment today for the first time in years. I'm hoping it will reveal all that I'm looking for.
soulspirals 9:50 AM

Wednesday, June 04, 2003

 
A moderately delightful moment...
I'm in the process of working through "The Twelve Wild Swans" by Starhawk and Hilary Valentine. The book serves as a workbook for personal exploration of the Reclaiming Tradition of Witchcraft. I'm actulaly hoping to start a book group here about it at some point, in the hopes of discussion, connection, and possibly starting a Reclaiming group in the area.

Anyway, I just read that the Springdale, AK public library tried to ban the book two years ago.

Challenged, but retained at the Springdale, AK Public Library (2001) despite a complaint that the book is a "witchcraft manual" and "turns people away from God and Bible scriptures."

Read it for yourself!
soulspirals 10:34 AM

Monday, June 02, 2003

 
The weekend was COLD. Highs in teh 40s yesterday, with massive wind. We had hail in the morning - right after I put out some new herbs the day before.

Didn't make a whole lot of progress on unpacking the new place, but did make a little. My partner started setting up the other computers and teaching himself Linux.

We did, however, finalize everything with the old house. All is done and good.

I've taken care of some chores today. I'll be off to the post office in a little while, then off to half-price day at the Salvation Army (I'd rather not give them money, but there aren't many other gigs in town). After that, a farewell party for a friend leaving town to live in Japan.

In other, more personal news...
I've been contemplating the possibility of children again. We started talking about this about a year and a half ago. Neither of us had really ever planned on having children, but there we were thinking about it. We had made plans to start trying at one point, then put them on the back burner. Now we're thinking about it again. I've almost hit the top of my personal limit on how old I would want to be to have a child, so it seems like its really the time to make a decision.

On one hand, the idea sound great. So many opportunities , new experiences and joy seem possible.

On the other hand, we're pretty poor and financially unstable. We have a ton of debt, and the best way to knock that off would be for me to work for a few years - provided I can ever actually find a JOB. I'm also not in a place where I've found the kind of community in which I'd like to raise my child. Oh yeah, and I haven't had any health insurance for 2 years.

In the meantime, I do endless research, as is my nature. I know who the midwives are in the area, and what kind of options we have for home birth - the only thing I would be willing to do. We know we would be committed to attachment parenting, baby-wearing, co-sleeping, breastfeeding, cloth diapering, and all that sort of thing. We also know that I would probably home-school for at least six years unless some other wonderous opportunity presented itself.

More things to think about - or perhaps more accurately - things we need to meditate on and do some real soul-searching about. We need to determine what the plan of the universe is, and if the is a soul waiting to be born through us. Then we'll be ina better place to make a real decision. Then again, the universe might make it for us anyway!
soulspirals 1:28 PM