Many may have already seen this vimeo clip, but I love it and thought those who hadn’t might appreciate the link.
The music is produced and performed by Devon Gundry and Kelly Snook; and the cast includes Alex Rocco, Eva La Rue, Kaya La Rue, Darrow Igus, Shannon Rocco, Red Grammer, Benny Cassette, Melissa Ordway, Lindsay Lugsch, Tom Baker, Joe Sanchez, David Wilson, and Devon Gundry.
Shastri’s Cranium Sculpturade.
Clue: Thing (the photos represent two different attempts at demonstrating the same thing)
Miraculously, Maram got it.
Though children giggled and glided with glee astride a gorgeously illumined tree and an equally enormous menorah; an anxious, frantic mob of holiday shoppers circled a frenzied underground battle for parking as a general foul mood stink cloud seemed to hang over the entire square!
It was exactly the type of scene I try to avoid around this time of year, but a meeting in the city and some last minute inspiration for a birthday present landed me smack in the heart of San Francisco’s holiday shopping this week. After a dizzying yet fruitless foray down-up-back down-and back up the labyrinth that is the Union Square underground parking lot, I decided to cut my losses and head for the exit.
“That’ll be $3.00 maam.”
“But I didn’t even get out of my car?”
“Well, you’ve been in here for 15 minutes so you need to pay for a full hour.”
“But I’ve been searching for parking this whole time.”
“Well, I’m sorry but you need to pay if you want to exit.”
“Me pay you for 15 minutes of aggravation? If we’re insisting, shouldn’t you be paying me for 15 (or, by your rules, 60) minutes of my wasted time?”
“Ok, maam. This time I will void your fee, but next time you have to pay…”
Just breathe, it’s the holidays, people are stressed, just be polite, just get outta here…
After more stop-and-go-but-mostly-stop on the exit ramp, I reemerged into daylight and starting thinking of how best to use my time and where next to head. Well, apparently there was only one option: nowhere.
With complete disregard for the honking horns or changing lights, a steady stream of shoppers scurried around the square. I was waiting to make a right, and it seemed those ahead of me had been waiting to do the same for quite some time. A woman driving a minivan at the front of the queue rolled down her window and pleaded with the pedestrians to no avail. Then she got out of her car and screamed, “Can you please wait for your F*#!!*# light? I’ve been waiting to make a beep-beep-da-beep-beep right forever!!” Would you believe? We moved!
I was happy to escape the square, but wound up in a similarly tense scene a few days later at the airport. Delays, lost luggage, long lines, the dumping of gels and removal of shoes, and travelers desperate to arrive on time…. a tried and tested recipe for frustration. But what really seemed to push folks over the top were the added fees for checked luggage.
I’m not sure how much revenue has been generated by United (et al)’s decision to charge passengers for checked luggage, but I am sure it resulted in aggravation at the check-in counter and delays on-board as tired travelers struggled to smoosh their gift bags, coats, and overstuffed carry-on’s into any available crevice. I overheard one agent condescendingly inform an annoyed passenger (who had been caught unawares by the fee), “Sir. Nothing is free anymore.” Didn’t go over too well. Another exasperated family was trying to understand why they all had to pay to check their bags within their multi-leg Air Canada (which doesn’t assess a fee for checking a bag) journey, just because one of the hauls was actually aboard an Air Canada flight operated by United. Star Partner Alliance, you say? More like one very fractured and dimming constellation.
In any case, I know that the real joy of this season comes from religious reflection and time with loved ones, but at times doesn’t it seem we’ve let layers of stress, aggravation, and anxiety separate happiness from these holy days?
On more than one occasion in recent weeks, I’ve been one in a party of fully-fledged/disclosed email recipients to’ve been blind-sided by a reply-to-all from a Bcc-line lurker. So now I’m curious…
1.) How common an occurrence is this? Have you ever reply-to-all’ed from the Bcc line? Or, have you ever been on the receiving end of a ‘Hey! Where’d s/he come from??’ email?
and
2.) Why is it even possible to reply-to-all from the Bcc line? When would it ever be useful? I think some email systems have removed the possibility, but shouldn’t the coding powers-that-be save the general emailing public at large from all such potential embarassment?
A family member forwarded the clip below (it might take a second to load) concerning the impending deportation of religious minorities from Yemen. It’s a particularly alarming situation in that several of the condemned are being sent into a well-known climate of persecution and torture in Iran.
The approximately 300,000 Bahá’ís currently living in Iran constitute the largest religious minority in the country, and have for decades been subjected to a campaign of persecution including execution, imprisonment, torture, the desecration of cemeteries and holy sites, confiscation of property and inheritances, restrictions on travel and worship, non-recognition of marriages, prohibitions against meetings and institutions, discrimination in employment, and denial of the right to higher education.
In 1993, the Special Representative of the United Nations Human Rights Commission uncovered a secret memorandum of the Iranian government, which had been authored by the Supreme Revolutionary Cultural Council and signed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Feb. 25, 1991. The memo identified Bahá’ís as “unprotected infidels” and decreed “that their progress and development shall be blocked.” Included within the memo were guidelines that, “they must be expelled from universities, either in the admission process or during the course of their studies, once it becomes known that they are Bahá’ís.”
A number of justifications for this persecution have been adduced, among which are suggestions of subversive collusion with the state of Israel. While it is true that the administrative center of the Baha’i world is located in northern Israel, it is an historical fact that the religion had been centered in Iran until authorities forced its founder into exile and eventual imprisonment in Acre (across the bay from Haifa) under the Ottoman Turkish Empire.
If you’d like to read more, you can find further information and updates on the situation of the Bahá’ís in Iran here. Meanwhile, I appreciate the forward and thought others might find this video informative.
Coming home to my mother’s computer is a bit like unearthing a time capsule.¹ Buried beneath the surface (/”recent items”) are our old essays, outdated playlists and forgotten photos. Each click provides passage back to emotions and experiences past. I cringe over some items and quickly return them to the vault, but mostly this process elicits an intense sense of appreciation for my family, friends, and hard-earned life lessons.
This morning I embarked on one such expedition and uncovered treasured images from a 2001 visit to Bosnia. Perhaps it’s symptomatic of hindsight, but rediscovering this particular folder now has me reflecting… strive as we might to grasp the full profundity of certain moments as they transpire, layers and layers of yet deeper significance inevitably manifest with the passage of time.
Though Bosnia’s interstate conflict had officially ended in 1995, its vestiges were clearly visible that summer. Many of the buildings remained in disrepair, standing out like melted candles of glass and rubble upon the horizon. It seemed as though sprawling cemeteries had claimed every spare space — along roadsides, at freeway intersections, and in city hearts.
Yet, within cafés whose walls bore shrapnel scars life, laughter, and friendships abounded. In the capital city, “Sarajevo roses” (mortar wounded pavement filled with resin) decorated the cityscape in a conspicuously chilling juxtaposition of death and life, acceptance and perseverance.
Our group of twelve traveled to Bihac, Banja Luka, Tuzla, Zenica, Travnik and Sarajevo to offer a dramatic arts presentation and lead interactive workshops on topics such as prejudice, gender equality, ethnic divides, drug and alcohol abuse, extremes of wealth and poverty, group consultation, youth empowerment, and global citizenry.
I remember thinking I was at least somewhat prepared for the visit. I’d had the fortune of befriending a truly remarkable individual during my freshman year in college, and over the course of rooming together for two years and spending time with her family, I’d gained scattered glimpses into her childhood in Sarajevo. I’d also taken a few courses on international conflict, and had read analyzes and accounts of the war in Bosnia. Yet when we arrived at a camp for the women and children of Srebrenica, what once were statistics and characters in a removed reality greeted me with smiles and introduced themselves as Ajla and Amina. For some moments I guess we’re never fully prepared, but these often constitute the moments that stay with us and from which we continue to learn.
¹ Mum is slightly horrified by this unfair characterization, but I figured “coming home to my mother’s computer and plugging in her back-up external hard disk drive” was a bit too geek speak for most to relate. Maybe not? In any case and for the record, my mother has impeccable electronic filing habits.
Last weekend Payam and I drove down to Los Angeles to take part in a series of 41 conferences taking place literally all across the world.
In what strikes me as a powerful display of global unity within extremely diverse local contexts, Baha’is are gathering in Abidjan, Accra, Almaty, Antofagasta, Atlanta, Auckland, Baku, Bangalore, Bangui, Battambang, Bologna, Bukavu, Chicago, Dallas, Frankfurt, Guadalajara, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Kiev, Kolkata, Kuala Lumpur, Kuching, Lae, London, Los Angeles, Lubumbashi, Lusaka, Madrid, Managua, Manila, Nakuru, New Delhi, Portland, Quito, Sao Paulo, Stamford, Sydney, Toronto, Ulaanbaatar, Vancouver, and Yaoundé.
How many can you place on a map? I’ve been following the reports and was particularly moved by news of a gathering in the DRC which brought people to a war-struck community to deliberate on how they could best serve their friends, families, neighbors, and colleagues. I also love the perspective of this nine year-old in NYC who believes her friends really do question and care about “spiritual” ideas.
After our own conference concluded, Payam and I had the fortune of spending a few days with friends and of visiting the resting place of Thornton Chase, the first American Baha’i.¹ As we stood aside his grave and gazed out across hundreds of others within the Inglewood cemetery, we offered a prayer for the progress of these souls.
I also thought about how often friends and colleagues have asked me what Baha’is think about life after death, the concept of heaven/hell, prayer, the nature of the soul, the purpose of life, and similar topics. Well, I can say with total confidence that if you happen to be curious about these topics, no matter where on the planet you might live, you would be welcome to explore them with people in your own neighborhood. Email me and I’ll be happy to connect you.
¹Here is a link to one of my favorite prayers, which was revealed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for Thornton Chase.
In you,
colors of sunset
envelope juice so succulent
sugar and honey blush.
And sticky rivers of laughter
trickle from fingers to elbows
as strands of delicious memories
stick between my teeth.
For in you,
I still taste our childhood joy
perched high in grandma’s tree
so busy searching for the ripest, sweetest prize
that we rarely managed to make it
past the front yard and into the house
for weekly afternoon tea.
Ravi, Singapore (circa 1985)
By a vote of 48 for, 0 against, and 8 abstentions (Belorussia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Ukraine, USSR, and Yugoslavia), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by a United Nations General Assembly session in Paris on 10 December 1948.
Now, on its 60th birthday, how do you score? If not so well, try this quiz instead.
Happy learning and happy Human Rights Day!
 | Nima on Conference of the Birds* |
 | Shirin on Conference of the Birds* |
 | Karina on Conference of the Birds* |
 | SeanG on Conference of the Birds* |
 | Sarah on Conference of the Birds* |
 | Lessan on Conference of the Birds* |
 | Tina on Conference of the Birds* |
 | Greg on Conference of the Birds* |
 | Anonymous on Where Gluten Lurks |
 | Mum Jenny on Where Gluten Lurks |
| Karina on Where Gluten Lurks |
 | Justin on Where Gluten Lurks |
