thinking thursday.

January 17, 2013 in General

mind

Is Delhi so different from Steubenville? A few quotes from this insightful article: “Americans watched the events after the Delhi gang rape with a whiff of condescension at the barbarity there, but domestic violence and sex trafficking remain a vast problem across the United States.” “Gender violence is one of the world’s most common human rights abuses. Women worldwide ages 15 through 44 are more likely to die or be maimed because of male violence than because of cancer, malaria, war and traffic accidents combined. The World Health Organization has found that domestic and sexual violence affects 30 to 60 percent of women in most countries.” “And in Washington, our members of Congress show their concern for sexual violence by failing to renew the Violence Against Women Act, a landmark law first passed in 1994 that has now expired.” This is a topic that deserves our immediate attention.
First words in seven years are a joke. On many levels.
“Games are the most elevated form of investigation,” Einstein wrote. I think we learn best through play. And this is an awesome list of games aiming to change the world. I’m going to be checking them out.

body

Even if you don’t “go vegan,” this article can provide some great vegan options to incorporate into your diet.
I will be making a vegan version of this soup this week. Maybe even today.
Wash your hands, people. And again. And again.

soul

We need to see. We need to stop looking away. As Emmett Till’s mother said in showing a photo of his body: “There was just no way I could describe what was in that box … No way. And I just wanted the world to see.” Little Noah Pozner died in the Newtown school shooting, and his mother, Veronique–in much the same way–decided she needed to see:

“I owed it to him as his mother, the good, the bad, the ugly … It is not up to me to say I am only going to look at you and deal with you when you are alive, that I am going to block out the reality of what you look like when you are dead. And as a little boy, you have to go in the ground. If I am going to shut my eyes to that I am not his mother. I had to bear it. I had to do it.”
This is a moving, honest essay that I urge you to read. Thanks to Clara Boza for pointing me to it. “The world can be a horrible place at times, but we don’t have to participate in this, we don’t have to harden our hearts as we’re taught and told to do, in order to survive or be sexy or attractive lovers or perfect parents or interesting people. We do not have to make ourselves into mysterious gifts, waiting to be chosen or read or understood by those who will earn us, unwrap our secrets, and then what? We can be something more authentic, and speak from a different place, a different planet.” There is so much in this essay. Please do read it.
Well, this I love.

word

“Yoga is the practice of tolerating the consequences of being yourself.” -Bhagavad Gita

[Image from here]

Patti Digh is an author, speaker, and educator who builds learning communities and gets to the heart of difficult topics. Her work over the last three decades has focused on diversity, inclusion, social justice, and living and working mindfully. She has developed diversity strategies and educational programming for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.

1 comment to " thinking thursday. "


Laura Hitt

January 18, 2013 AT 12:31AM

Thanks for pointing us to Emily Rapp’s powerful essay about…so much. That’s writing – the necessity of writing – the image of Stacey down on her knees reaching up toward young, hung over Emily – having the capacity to reach out and then 15 yrs later finding the way to be the one who is present. Yeah…it’s the real work and somehow she found out how to write that down in a way that in turn opens us, her readers, through story of truth telling. How the hell did she do it? Being honest to start. The act of humbling. Again, thanks for posting, Patti.