War is terrorism

I've been listening to a recorded lecture of the late and great historian Howard Zinn talking about the role of artists during times of war (name of the CD is Artists in a time of war). For a person who grew up in the shadow of the Vietnam war and have reflected a great deal about violence and non-violence, hearing his thinking about war and the role of the artist echos my own thinking.

As he puts it plainly, war is terrorism, sanctioned by the state. I have struggled mightily that the US invades countries far weaker in power and resources, killing millions, and justifies in with all sorts of pretexts (stopping Communism, terrorism, whatever ism might justify the ends). When I think of the enormity of the loss that Vietnam suffered...millions dead, it fills me with remorse and shame. I have Vietnamese friends (refugees from that very war), whom I long to ask for their forgiveness. We owe that country an apology....and while I cannot imagine our government offering that to the Vietnamese people, I wonder if I simply offered it to my dear friends, who have personally suffered.

As a believer in non-violence, I cannot find any justification to kill another.....I really cannot. That my tax dollars go towards invasions, occupations, the making of armaments....it is something I will forever struggle with and against. How do I come to terms with the huge gap between my own values and those of the government that carries out this violence?

During this sacred time of Easter, our Lord spoke about those who live by the sword die by it, and that he implored that his followers let him be taken by Roman soldiers and not resist. That courage and that love....to me, that is the very essence of our faith.

Being real

I loved reading the latest on research that meaningful deep conversations make you a happier person. This weekend I had some pretty deep talks about God, sacrifice, and what Easter is all about. What about you?

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/talk-deeply-be-happy/?src=me&ref=homepage

The garden

This weekend was a blur of activity.....Saturday was a glorious spring day. Sunny, warm. We rode our bikes to the pool, played around, and then biked home....ate arepas on Alberta (worth the wait)...then wrapped up the evening with a home-made pizza party and a movie. This is a documentary that is well-worth watching, and since we are all gardeners it was powerful stuff. Miss G. was in her glory since Deb brought the puppies. We got to get a dog.

Here is the trailer...check it out.

What I'm reading

I've been immersed in the real world lately. Non-fiction that is....

• Peter Senge and "The Power of Presence"....
• Barak Obama's "Audacity of Hope"
• Some Buddhist stuff and Thomas Merton

It all starts to blend together at some point. Listening, forgiveness, love.....I'm enjoying it all.

A budding farmer

Selling the fruits of the garden (aka excess cilantro) has been such a fun adventure with Gladys. We sold 10 cilantro starts ($2 each) in 30 minutes!! A huge success for our first day selling in front of the Alberta Co-op.

Here are just some of the skills she's used:

• public speaking skills and learning to be assertive. She was shy at first talking to total strangers on the street, but then she found her groove as the dollars rolled in.
  
• marketing skills (painting signs for our veg stand - the bench in front of the food coop)
• gardening skills (how to divide little cilantro starts to get more product and help the plants thrive)
• math skills (making change for customers and counting the profits)
• planning skills (we started planning this 2 weeks ago, and we will continue to plan and organize for future sales until all the cilantro starts have homes).
• sharing with God - I asked that she give $1 of her earnings to the church basket as a way of thanking our Creator for the abundance of the earth and cilantro (and the land we have to grow it)

This is such a cool learning experience, and I realize that this beats selling cookies any day of the week (because I cannot eat away any profits!).

Catching up

This morning we spent in the garden, digging up cilantro starts, dividing up kale and watering the blueberries. I let Gladys know that we should remove all the flowers and fruit this first year, to make the branches stronger and produce more fruit in the future. This is just the sort of tough life lesson that one learns when gardening. Short term loss for long term gain. Strength over beauty.

The snow peas are sneaking out of the ground, and I hope that the slugs munch out on the bait. The biggest piece of excitement is awaiting the lily of the valleys that I planted all over the place. This is my THIRD try, and I should say a Hail Mary that they come up. I really really love this flowers, which have a very intense and happy childhood memory attached to them.

Elementary school. Catholic. May Day procession for the Virgin, and we girls are all carrying little bouquets of lily of the valley. The hymns were my favorite, the smell of the flowers, the warmth of spring after a long midwestern winter. Crowning the statute of the Virgin, which seemed too cool and a bit crazy (like was she going to materialize from marble to flesh once we put the crown on? These are the thoughts that a 7 year-old with a ripe imagination would ponder.) I don't think I could have been more happy or connected to my faith. Funny how a plant can trigger all that?