Word of the Day

heterotelic \het-er-uh-TEL-ik\, adjective:
Having the purpose of its existence or occurrence apart from itself.

I see this as being a perfect word to describe a persons' involvement in a volunteer organization - we are there to purpose the facilitation of a communal idea(l).  Personalities, opinions, and power - other than for getting things done in specific areas - are irrelevant and should be curtailed individually for the success of the purpose.

Word of the day/week

my word of the day: palpable
1. if a mood or feeling is palpable, it is so strong that you seem to feel it physically yourself
The mood of Occupy is palpable, even across the globe
2. obvious or very easily noticed
There are palpable differences between the old and new denizens of Wall Street

Hitting 2 top topics in one...

 

 

 

 

Equally Dead

On the first anniversary of you-know-when they held a ceremony. The names of the dead were carefully read out, as if each name was a special and delicate seedling, each reader seeming to imply: “That particular office worker, burning, instead of him it could've been me.” It took them two and a half hours to read the names so I decided I wanted to perform a poem reading out the names of everyone killed since 1998 in the Congo War. The only thing that stopped me was the cruel cost of all the lager and twiglets needed to sustain the audience for 4 months and 3 weeks. War is an insinuating therapist challenging our belief that everyone is equally special and delicate. The challenge is to be able to say: “That particular child-soldier, machine-gunned, instead of him it could've been me.” Even though it plainly couldn't.  © Will Holloway 2007 http://www.willholloway.com/

9-11

I love a window seat,

Whenever I fly.

But not this time,

When I came to New York.

I didn’t want to see the skyline,

And how different it would be.

I grew up here in New York,

And we are proud of our city.

But it doesn’t look the same,

Since they knocked her down.

I went to ground zero today,

It’s been four years since.

It hurt to think other human beings,

Could hate us all so much.

They called it a war,

I just don't understand,

How anyone can hate that much

But then just look

At Family wars

©2005

Children Need To Be Taught

            As I was walking in a church parking lot, to register for a craft show, I met a woman who was picking up her daughter from a Girl Scout meeting.  As we went down the stairs, two girls about eight years old came out the door and started up the steps.  One little girl said, “Hi, Mom.”  The woman walking with me, said, “Hello, Megan.”  The woman turned around and began walking back up the stairs with the girls.  Then Megan asked her friend, “Is that your mom?” while pointing at me.  Megan’s mom and I both slowed to hear the answer.  The other girl looked carefully at me, almost as if not sure.  I smiled.  The answer came slowly, “Nooo, my mom’s a little darker.”  Megan’s mom and I smiled.  The little girl had not identified either of us by race or nationality.  Megan obviously had no idea that there was any difference between any of us, either.  As you read this, you may surmise that we were of different skin color.  We could have been from the same racial heritage, with different coloring.  We could have been from widely different racial heritages, but you will never know for certain.  As the children perceived us, they saw no difference and placed no importance on skin.  I want to thank their parents.

            Lest you think this is an isolated incident, I will tell you of another.  While living in the South Bronx, in a racially diverse area, there was group of people, of which I was a part, who were attempting to reclaim an apartment building and turn it into a co-op.  We were from all walks of life, as well as widely divergent ethnic groups.  Many people confused a young woman, Gail, with me.  While we were similar in build and coloring, there were many more differences.  We were both addressed as Pierre’s wife.  Perhaps the neighbors really believed he had two wives, but I doubt it. 

            One day, two neighborhood boys, Thomas and Tony, were visiting.  There were four adults present – Gail, Pierre, James and I.  Between the six of us, three races, and at least eight countries were represented.  We were of quite distinctly different height, coloring, and features.  The only two who were even remotely similar, were Gail and I.  Thomas asked whether James, 6-foot, 6-inch and stocky, and Gail, 5-foot, 4-inch and slender, were brother and sister.  In addition to the height and weight differences, there were coloring and feature variations.  James seemed shocked, and asked, “Do we look like we could be brother and sister?”  The boy answered, “Yeah, why not?”  Tony said, “Sure; are you?”  James said they were not related.  Then Thomas asked whether James and I were brother and sister.  Again, the answer was no.  Isn’t it awesome that children do not see these differences?  Isn’t it awful so many are taught that those differences are cause for hatred?

            That wonderful poem, which has been made into cards and posters, tells us that “Children Learn What They Live”.  The truths contained therein are self-evident although I believe the author forgot to include mention of racism and discrimination.  It is sad that the Civil Rights movement of the 50’s and 60’s has not progressed enough to eliminate this type of discrimination and that there has been much racial profiling of late, which has expanded even more since 9/11.  While traveling all over the United States, I have learned about bigotry in action, on a daily basis.  You cannot imagine my shock and dismay as I experienced, as a witness, as well as, as a victim, the hatred of people for the color of their skin, and for speaking English poorly or properly,  or for coming from another country.  The only people who have not come from another country are still among the most discriminated against, and many of them are bigoted too.  I have learned that this behavior is learned behavior.  Children are color blind, and would remain so if permitted.  I have shared proof of this.

            Our grandparents raised my brother and me until we were eleven and twelve.  It was not until I was in my twenties that I learned they had some prejudices.  This made me wonder about an episode that happened after busing began to even out racial groups in schools.  I was about eight years old at that time.  One little girl of another race and I struck up a friendship.  She would call me about homework and girl stuff.  Then she invited me to her home to play.  My grandmother said it was too far for me to travel alone, and that it was too expensive for her and my brother to go along.  We would have to take a train and a bus – six fares – each way.  I suggested we ride our bicycles, but it was too far and there would be dangerous traffic.  I will continue to believe, as I did at age eight, that the reasons for refusal were purely financial and logistical. 

In any case I will be eternally grateful, that if  racial fear did play a part in my grandmother’s decision, that she found a way NOT to communicate that to me; that both she and my grandfather did everything they could, to see that I remained color blind.  My parents are color blind too; I have been lucky.  I hope I do as well in carrying on that tradition.  I pray that the world begins to do better in this regard.  As I often have in the past, I currently live in an area where I am the minority.  As I was waiting for this to print out for editing, at the library, I had a conversation with the librarian.  It was about our mutual fear of becoming our mothers.  We are pretty much the same, in our basic desires in life.  We want a good man in our lives.  We want a better world for our children to live in.  We have the same values and moral system.  If we will all play our part honorably, there is hope.  All we have to do is see the similarities, and rejoice in the differences.

           

 

© 2004

Dinner

Potato sliced almost chip thin, large green onion, minced garlic, sauteed in oil til partially crispy. add fresh spicy basil. while that is cooking, mince some more garlic, and some ginger, add some basil, a little vinegar and plain greek yogurt. When potatoes are almost done, shove them aside in the pan and add chicken chunks. Let brown and add some veggies... today mixed color peppers, a little broccoli and snow peas. Keep potatoes separate from chicken and place all on plate and add yogurt dressing to the chicken mix. mmmmmmmmm

Suck the dressing off a largish piece of chicken, bite in half and give to stalking kitties...

A third of the chicken is more than enough for the kitties no matter what they say... 

A little dressing on the taters is good too.