From Times Online:
From Marilyn Monroe’s curvacious wiggle to the catwalk strut of a supermodel, scientists have decoded the secrets of a woman’s walk — and have found that those swaying hips are not always intended to impress the opposite sex.
Watch it fellas. Don't jump to conclusions. You must know the code.
If she flaunts herself too openly at fertile times, she could be made pregnant by an unsuitable man, so women may have an evolutionary interest in sending out mixed messages, says Meghan Provost and her team, from Queen’s University, Ontario.
Be careful of those mixed messages, guys. Remember the code.
The women who were ovulating walked with smaller hip movements and with their knees closer together, New Scientist magazine reported. When 40 men were shown the images of the women walking they rated those in the less fertile part of their cycle as having the sexiest walks.
This is how "scientists" at Queens University spend their time. Previous studies showed that lap dancers earned more tips during their fertile periods, however, this study contradicts those findings.
Dr Provost said: “If women are trying to protect themselves from sexual assault at times of peak fertility, it would make sense for them to advertise attractiveness on a broad scale when they are not fertile.”
Well, of course! How women walk the walk is due to evolutionary concerns, good genes, etc. Because of the study, we now know that women don't want to be raped during their fertile periods. When women "advertise attractiveness on a broad scale when they are not fertile", what should we conclude?
The comments to the article indicate that not everyone is convinced that this study provides useful information.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Friday, November 9, 2007
Words on Iraq War From Bush 41
From USA Today:
"Do they want to bring back Saddam Hussein, these critics?" the elder Bush told USA TODAY in a rare interview. "Do they want to go back to the status quo ante? I don't know what they are talking about here. Do they think life would be better in the Middle East if Saddam were still there?"
Well, then why didn't Bush 41 take Saddam out during the first Gulf war and save his son the trouble? Or perhaps the proud father has done some rethinking, since things have gone so well in Iraq under Bush 43.
We can't poll the opinions of the dead in Iraq, but we could ask their families and friends. We could ask the wounded and their families. We could ask the 1 to 2 million refugees inside and outside of Iraq what they think. After all, it is their country.
Thanks to Lapin, who keeps me supplied with material.
"Do they want to bring back Saddam Hussein, these critics?" the elder Bush told USA TODAY in a rare interview. "Do they want to go back to the status quo ante? I don't know what they are talking about here. Do they think life would be better in the Middle East if Saddam were still there?"
Well, then why didn't Bush 41 take Saddam out during the first Gulf war and save his son the trouble? Or perhaps the proud father has done some rethinking, since things have gone so well in Iraq under Bush 43.
We can't poll the opinions of the dead in Iraq, but we could ask their families and friends. We could ask the wounded and their families. We could ask the 1 to 2 million refugees inside and outside of Iraq what they think. After all, it is their country.
Thanks to Lapin, who keeps me supplied with material.
Bush Speaks - Again
From Holden at First Draft. Holden quotes a few of our leader's bons mots from his comments after a visit to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio:
On his home state:
I am here to highlight one of the world's top rehabilitation facilities -- right here in my home state of San Antonio, Texas.
On one of the wounded troops that he met there:
I'll never forget looking at Christian's eyes, and wondering whether or not he was going to make it. See, both his legs were blown off, and he didn't look good.
Do these words seem to come from a person with all his wits about him? San Antonio is a state? When he looked at Christian, did he feel even a little guilt or regret? I expect not, or he would have kept quiet instead of uttering this insensitive inanity.
Holden does this day after day, combing through the exchanges between Dana Perino and the White House Press Corps, as she stumbles, evades, and weasels her way out of answering hard questions. He brings us Bush's press conferences and his impromptu exchanges with the press - Bush unscripted - which yield the "best" material. He's been doing this for years, and my hat is off to him for his perseverance. It can't be easy.
On his home state:
I am here to highlight one of the world's top rehabilitation facilities -- right here in my home state of San Antonio, Texas.
On one of the wounded troops that he met there:
I'll never forget looking at Christian's eyes, and wondering whether or not he was going to make it. See, both his legs were blown off, and he didn't look good.
Do these words seem to come from a person with all his wits about him? San Antonio is a state? When he looked at Christian, did he feel even a little guilt or regret? I expect not, or he would have kept quiet instead of uttering this insensitive inanity.
Holden does this day after day, combing through the exchanges between Dana Perino and the White House Press Corps, as she stumbles, evades, and weasels her way out of answering hard questions. He brings us Bush's press conferences and his impromptu exchanges with the press - Bush unscripted - which yield the "best" material. He's been doing this for years, and my hat is off to him for his perseverance. It can't be easy.
Racial Heritage In New Orleans
Ormonde at Through the Dust writes about the gumbo mixture of racial heritage in New Orleans and south Louisiana and links to a story about Bliss Broyard, the daughter of writer Anatole Broyard, a critic and essayist for the New York Times, who was of mixed white and African-American heritage. He moved north to attend college and became a passablanc, a person of mixed heritage who "passed" for white. Only on her father's deathbed did Bliss learn of her mixed heritage.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
On Being Holy And Being Good
Beginning in my teen years, I had a religious conversion of sorts, probably as a result of something that I read or a sermon I heard at the mandatory, yearly retreat that we were required to attend by my Roman Catholic high school superiors. I began attending daily mass at 6:30 in the morning at an Ursuline convent within walking distance of my home.
I wanted to be holy - holy in the sense of being close to God and desiring to do his will, but I thought that I was not "good" enough and that, very likely, I would never be "good" enough in the context that I understood "being good". While I was present at those early morning masses, I felt holy for half an hour or so, and I kept my feeling of being close to God for a time afterwards - but not for very long - only until I did something "bad". For a teenager in the RCC in those far-away times, trying not to "be bad" was like walking through a minefield. The "bads" were lying in wait.
After high school perhaps, and definitely after college, my fervor diminished, and, although I still tried to follow the rules, I had much more of a sense of going through the motions, knowing I was falling short, but hanging on to the rituals anyway.
Then in my early forties, I had another spiritual awakening that took the form of a sureness of the presence of God in my life - a God who would always love me and always be with me, whether I was "being good" or not. That certainty has remained for 30 years now, thanks be to God.
I won't say that I have not had periods in my life when I cried out, "God where are you? Have you abandoned me?" But deep down, I knew that he had not.
Sometime after the consecration of Gene Robinson as a bishop in the Episcopal Church, I was drawn more and more to reading the Gospels with closer attention to the words and actions of Jesus, with the result that I made a 180 degree turn from thinking that it was wrong for Robinson to have been consecrated to believing that it was very right. In a sense, this was another spiritual awakening that I believe has drawn me even closer to God, with a stronger desire to follow the way laid out by Our Lord Jesus Christ, sinner though I am.
To make this not too long, I'm telescoping the story and glossing over periods of preparation of the ground and planting of the seeds that took place before the seemingly abrupt transitions in which the love of God flowered and bore fruit. I'm probably not even aware of much of the the work of God in my life before the reality of his love and his presence became sure.
I have come to a new understanding of "being good". It is God who makes me (and you) good. He is my Creator, and he has declared that his creation is good. My new understanding of holy has not so much to do with "being good" - I'm already good. God has declared it to be so - but with being close to God, with being a friend of God. That is the desire of my heart, and however awful some of the things that I do may seem to me, or to others, I want to be holy in that sense, and I pray to God to make me holy and to keep me holy.
Upon my bed at night
I sought him whom my soul loves;
I sought him, but found him not;
I called him, but he gave no answer.
"I will rise now and go about the city,
in the streets and in the squares;
I will seek him whom my soul loves."
I sought him, but found him not.
The sentinels found me,
as they went about in the city.
"Have you seen him whom my soul loves?"
Scarcely had I passed them,
when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him, and would not let him go
until I brought him into my mother’s house,
and into the chamber of her that conceived me.
Song of Solomon 3:1-4
I wanted to be holy - holy in the sense of being close to God and desiring to do his will, but I thought that I was not "good" enough and that, very likely, I would never be "good" enough in the context that I understood "being good". While I was present at those early morning masses, I felt holy for half an hour or so, and I kept my feeling of being close to God for a time afterwards - but not for very long - only until I did something "bad". For a teenager in the RCC in those far-away times, trying not to "be bad" was like walking through a minefield. The "bads" were lying in wait.
After high school perhaps, and definitely after college, my fervor diminished, and, although I still tried to follow the rules, I had much more of a sense of going through the motions, knowing I was falling short, but hanging on to the rituals anyway.
Then in my early forties, I had another spiritual awakening that took the form of a sureness of the presence of God in my life - a God who would always love me and always be with me, whether I was "being good" or not. That certainty has remained for 30 years now, thanks be to God.
I won't say that I have not had periods in my life when I cried out, "God where are you? Have you abandoned me?" But deep down, I knew that he had not.
Sometime after the consecration of Gene Robinson as a bishop in the Episcopal Church, I was drawn more and more to reading the Gospels with closer attention to the words and actions of Jesus, with the result that I made a 180 degree turn from thinking that it was wrong for Robinson to have been consecrated to believing that it was very right. In a sense, this was another spiritual awakening that I believe has drawn me even closer to God, with a stronger desire to follow the way laid out by Our Lord Jesus Christ, sinner though I am.
To make this not too long, I'm telescoping the story and glossing over periods of preparation of the ground and planting of the seeds that took place before the seemingly abrupt transitions in which the love of God flowered and bore fruit. I'm probably not even aware of much of the the work of God in my life before the reality of his love and his presence became sure.
I have come to a new understanding of "being good". It is God who makes me (and you) good. He is my Creator, and he has declared that his creation is good. My new understanding of holy has not so much to do with "being good" - I'm already good. God has declared it to be so - but with being close to God, with being a friend of God. That is the desire of my heart, and however awful some of the things that I do may seem to me, or to others, I want to be holy in that sense, and I pray to God to make me holy and to keep me holy.
Upon my bed at night
I sought him whom my soul loves;
I sought him, but found him not;
I called him, but he gave no answer.
"I will rise now and go about the city,
in the streets and in the squares;
I will seek him whom my soul loves."
I sought him, but found him not.
The sentinels found me,
as they went about in the city.
"Have you seen him whom my soul loves?"
Scarcely had I passed them,
when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him, and would not let him go
until I brought him into my mother’s house,
and into the chamber of her that conceived me.
Song of Solomon 3:1-4
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Quality Time At Walmart
Tonight, I made my once-in-several-months visit to Walmart. I despise Walmart, but in my small town, sometimes it's the only place to find certain items like a plain, simple, landline phone without an answering machine or any other gadgets. While I was there, I picked up a few other items.
As I walk through the store, I feel something like panic rising in my chest, so I take a few deep breaths and try to chill. It's a terrible place, with the noise, the high ceilings, near chaos in the grocery area, with carts coming at you from every direction and around every corner.
I finish my shopping and go to checkout where the lines are long. I spot a self-checkout machine with no one around and decide to try it, although, in the past, I've most often been unsuccessful in completing the process without help from a human being - which Walmart resents, because if you are using self-checkout, you're then supposed to do it YOURSELF. With the scan of my first item the machine yells at me to put the item in the bagging area or press the button to skip bagging. I put the item in the bagging area, and the machine yells at me that there's something in the bagging area that does not belong there. I move the item to the cart and that seems OK, so I continue, and the rest of the process goes well. I have to slice the card a few times as I try to figure out which side goes where from the little picture, which is very confusing, at least to me, but that is a minor complication.
Then I look for my receipt, which is nowhere to be seen. I stop an employee and ask her about my receipt. "It's right here," she says, around the corner of the machine and out of sight. Should it be in view? Of course not! This is not supposed to be easy. It's a challenge! The noise and the chaos and the high ceilings are to get you rattled so that you thoroughly appreciate the fact that shopping at Walmart is a daunting undertaking and not for the fainthearted.
I check my receipt, and my print paper is scanned twice. It costs $1.88. I think, "I'll let it go." Then I think, "No. This is Walmart. I want my $2.00 back." I'll have to go to Customer Service to have that done, which can be an ordeal worse than eternal damnation, but tonight the gods are smiling on me, and no one else is there. I get my $2.04 refund, and I go out the doors feeling semi-triumphant but determined not to repeat a visit to the place for at least several months.
As I walk through the store, I feel something like panic rising in my chest, so I take a few deep breaths and try to chill. It's a terrible place, with the noise, the high ceilings, near chaos in the grocery area, with carts coming at you from every direction and around every corner.
I finish my shopping and go to checkout where the lines are long. I spot a self-checkout machine with no one around and decide to try it, although, in the past, I've most often been unsuccessful in completing the process without help from a human being - which Walmart resents, because if you are using self-checkout, you're then supposed to do it YOURSELF. With the scan of my first item the machine yells at me to put the item in the bagging area or press the button to skip bagging. I put the item in the bagging area, and the machine yells at me that there's something in the bagging area that does not belong there. I move the item to the cart and that seems OK, so I continue, and the rest of the process goes well. I have to slice the card a few times as I try to figure out which side goes where from the little picture, which is very confusing, at least to me, but that is a minor complication.
Then I look for my receipt, which is nowhere to be seen. I stop an employee and ask her about my receipt. "It's right here," she says, around the corner of the machine and out of sight. Should it be in view? Of course not! This is not supposed to be easy. It's a challenge! The noise and the chaos and the high ceilings are to get you rattled so that you thoroughly appreciate the fact that shopping at Walmart is a daunting undertaking and not for the fainthearted.
I check my receipt, and my print paper is scanned twice. It costs $1.88. I think, "I'll let it go." Then I think, "No. This is Walmart. I want my $2.00 back." I'll have to go to Customer Service to have that done, which can be an ordeal worse than eternal damnation, but tonight the gods are smiling on me, and no one else is there. I get my $2.04 refund, and I go out the doors feeling semi-triumphant but determined not to repeat a visit to the place for at least several months.
Neil's Greedy Fingers In The Pie
From The New York Times:
WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 — The inspector general of the Department of Education has said he will examine whether federal money was inappropriately used by three states to buy educational products from a company owned by Neil Bush, the president’s brother.
School districts in Texas, Florida, and Nevada have purchased products from Ignite Learning at the cost of, at least, $1 million, according to the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The group says that this is only the amount that they have documented so far.
Members of the group and other critics in Texas contend that school districts are buying Ignite’s signature product, the Curriculum on Wheels, because of political considerations. The product, they said, does not meet standards for financing under the No Child Left Behind Act, which allocates federal money to help students raise their achievement levels, particularly in elementary school reading.
Investors in Ignite, Neil Bush's company, include Barbara Bush and George H. W. Bush. Was this investment by the senior Bushes another bailout of a Bush son?
Ken Leonard, the vice president and chief financial officer at Ignite, said the company had no way of knowing if districts were using federal money to buy its products.
....
“We have absolutely no influence or control over decisions our individual customers make about how they choose to purchase our products,” Mr. Leonard said, adding that Ignite sold its products in “an ethical, straightforward manner.”
....
Ignite has a program known as Adopt-a-Cow (a cash cow for Neil Bush?) in which companies buy the Ignite products and donate them to public schools. In 2006, Barbara Bush donated eight units to schools in Texas serving Katrina evacuees, but here's the catch. Neil sent an email to the school district telling them “in order for the schools to keep the Cows in subsequent years they will have to pay an annual fee of $1,000”. These folks never give up.
...This week, the Houston Independent School District is set to consider whether to authorize schools to spend an additional $300,000 from various financing sources on the Curriculum on Wheels.
Jay Spuck, a former curriculum director for the district, has criticized spending on the Ignite product, saying: “It’s not helping kids at all. It’s not helping teachers. The only way Neil has gotten in is by his name.” Ya think?
Neil is planning to expand his sales throughout the US and into China. Neil Bush and China? That rings a bell.
From the Washington Post if you have the stomach for it.
Thanks to Roger for the tip on the NYT story and the cash-cow idea.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 — The inspector general of the Department of Education has said he will examine whether federal money was inappropriately used by three states to buy educational products from a company owned by Neil Bush, the president’s brother.
School districts in Texas, Florida, and Nevada have purchased products from Ignite Learning at the cost of, at least, $1 million, according to the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The group says that this is only the amount that they have documented so far.
Members of the group and other critics in Texas contend that school districts are buying Ignite’s signature product, the Curriculum on Wheels, because of political considerations. The product, they said, does not meet standards for financing under the No Child Left Behind Act, which allocates federal money to help students raise their achievement levels, particularly in elementary school reading.
Investors in Ignite, Neil Bush's company, include Barbara Bush and George H. W. Bush. Was this investment by the senior Bushes another bailout of a Bush son?
Ken Leonard, the vice president and chief financial officer at Ignite, said the company had no way of knowing if districts were using federal money to buy its products.
....
“We have absolutely no influence or control over decisions our individual customers make about how they choose to purchase our products,” Mr. Leonard said, adding that Ignite sold its products in “an ethical, straightforward manner.”
....
Ignite has a program known as Adopt-a-Cow (a cash cow for Neil Bush?) in which companies buy the Ignite products and donate them to public schools. In 2006, Barbara Bush donated eight units to schools in Texas serving Katrina evacuees, but here's the catch. Neil sent an email to the school district telling them “in order for the schools to keep the Cows in subsequent years they will have to pay an annual fee of $1,000”. These folks never give up.
...This week, the Houston Independent School District is set to consider whether to authorize schools to spend an additional $300,000 from various financing sources on the Curriculum on Wheels.
Jay Spuck, a former curriculum director for the district, has criticized spending on the Ignite product, saying: “It’s not helping kids at all. It’s not helping teachers. The only way Neil has gotten in is by his name.” Ya think?
Neil is planning to expand his sales throughout the US and into China. Neil Bush and China? That rings a bell.
From the Washington Post if you have the stomach for it.
Thanks to Roger for the tip on the NYT story and the cash-cow idea.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
This Is So Sad
From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Army General Russel Honoré said the general public shouldn't be so quick to condemn the use of waterboarding as an interrogation technique.
"I don't know much about it, but I know we're dealing with terrorists who do some very awful things to people," he said after Friday morning's speech to about 900 students at Flat Rock Middle School in Tyrone. "I know enough about [waterboarding] that the intent is not to kill anybody. We know that terrorists that we deal with, they have no law that they abide by. They have no code, they kill indiscriminately, like they did on 9/11."
Honoré is from Louisiana. He grew up in Pointe Coupée Parish, across False River (a lake, really) from where Grandpère lived. He comes from a large African-American family, and growing up in that area must not always have been easy. He made his way up the Army chain of command to become a three-star general. His arrival in New Orleans several days after Katrina and the flood began a process leading to the establishment of a measure of order into the chaotic situation there.
How sad to find that he thinks torture is sometimes allowed - in my humble opinion, waterboarding is torture. If General Honoré does not know much about waterboarding, perhaps he should not speak publicly about it. But then, it doesn't kill anyone. Is that the standard by which he judges what is torture?
"If we picked up a prisoner that could tell us where the next 9/11 plot was, we could sit there and treat him nice, and that may not work," he said. "We could sit there and give him water and we could be politically correct.
"But if we have to use sources and methods that get information that not only save American lives, but save other people's lives or could prevent a major catastrophe from happening, I think the American people can decide [whether to allow waterboarding]."
The thing is, General Honoré, experts in gathering intelligence tell us that torture does not succeed in obtaining good intelligence information. The person who is being tortured will say anything to stop the pain or distress.
"As long as we're responsible for hunting those SOBs down, finding them and preventing them from killing our sons and daughters," Honore said, "I think we've got an obligation to do what the hell we've got to do to make sure we get the mission done."
Whatever it takes, even if we think that a person might be a terrorist. No matter that hundreds of "terrorists" have been released after extreme methods of interrogation were used against them, because they were found - oops! - not to be terrorists. No matter that torturing people from other countries may put our troops at greater risk of being tortured in the event that they are captured. That's to say nothing of the ethics of torturing people. I'm thankful that he didn't speak those words to the middle-school children.
I'm sorry to learn that a local African-American man who made good, probably despite a good many obstacles in his path, a hero of sorts, a role model for young people, does not condemn waterboarding.
UPDATE: As I read the article, Honoré made the comments about waterboarding after the speech to the children, not during the speech to them.
UPDATE 2: Please go read Keith Olbermann on an acting assistent attorney general, Daniel Levin, who was forced out of the Bush maladministration three years ago, after he went to a military base and had himself waterboarded and afterwards declared it to be torture.
Thanks to Rmj at Adventus for the tip about Olbermann.
Army General Russel Honoré said the general public shouldn't be so quick to condemn the use of waterboarding as an interrogation technique.
"I don't know much about it, but I know we're dealing with terrorists who do some very awful things to people," he said after Friday morning's speech to about 900 students at Flat Rock Middle School in Tyrone. "I know enough about [waterboarding] that the intent is not to kill anybody. We know that terrorists that we deal with, they have no law that they abide by. They have no code, they kill indiscriminately, like they did on 9/11."
Honoré is from Louisiana. He grew up in Pointe Coupée Parish, across False River (a lake, really) from where Grandpère lived. He comes from a large African-American family, and growing up in that area must not always have been easy. He made his way up the Army chain of command to become a three-star general. His arrival in New Orleans several days after Katrina and the flood began a process leading to the establishment of a measure of order into the chaotic situation there.
How sad to find that he thinks torture is sometimes allowed - in my humble opinion, waterboarding is torture. If General Honoré does not know much about waterboarding, perhaps he should not speak publicly about it. But then, it doesn't kill anyone. Is that the standard by which he judges what is torture?
"If we picked up a prisoner that could tell us where the next 9/11 plot was, we could sit there and treat him nice, and that may not work," he said. "We could sit there and give him water and we could be politically correct.
"But if we have to use sources and methods that get information that not only save American lives, but save other people's lives or could prevent a major catastrophe from happening, I think the American people can decide [whether to allow waterboarding]."
The thing is, General Honoré, experts in gathering intelligence tell us that torture does not succeed in obtaining good intelligence information. The person who is being tortured will say anything to stop the pain or distress.
"As long as we're responsible for hunting those SOBs down, finding them and preventing them from killing our sons and daughters," Honore said, "I think we've got an obligation to do what the hell we've got to do to make sure we get the mission done."
Whatever it takes, even if we think that a person might be a terrorist. No matter that hundreds of "terrorists" have been released after extreme methods of interrogation were used against them, because they were found - oops! - not to be terrorists. No matter that torturing people from other countries may put our troops at greater risk of being tortured in the event that they are captured. That's to say nothing of the ethics of torturing people. I'm thankful that he didn't speak those words to the middle-school children.
I'm sorry to learn that a local African-American man who made good, probably despite a good many obstacles in his path, a hero of sorts, a role model for young people, does not condemn waterboarding.
UPDATE: As I read the article, Honoré made the comments about waterboarding after the speech to the children, not during the speech to them.
UPDATE 2: Please go read Keith Olbermann on an acting assistent attorney general, Daniel Levin, who was forced out of the Bush maladministration three years ago, after he went to a military base and had himself waterboarded and afterwards declared it to be torture.
Thanks to Rmj at Adventus for the tip about Olbermann.
God Of All Creation
We bless you and thank you Gracious God for all of these gifts,
and for weaving us, the web of humanity, into this world.
But instead of caring deeply for your creation,
this earth in which we live
and this universe beyond our comprehension,
we have rebelled against it, against ourselves, against You.
We disregarded the web of life in which we live.
Instead of loving it as a mother loves her child,
we put ourselves above it as something we could own,
as something to control.
Each time you have called us back, called us to understand
that we are part of the earth and not masters of it.
You continually remind us that caring for you
means caring for your creation, and for each other.
Then, All-Holy God, you sent Jesus Christ to be among us.
Through his incarnation, you taught us that you are always with us
and with all your creation.
He showed us the way to grace and freedom,
and how to give compassion to each other and the world.
He gathered a people as your own and filled us with longing
for justice and peace for all of creation.
Keep us ever vigilant to follow his example
that we may bring about your reign—
a reign where all your creation will be one—
heralded for us
in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.
CREATION LITURGY
Holy Eucharist in the Season after Pentecost
This beautiful prayer by Paul at Byzigenous Buddhapalian is taken from the Eucharistic Prayer of his Creation Liturgy. He has graciously given me permission to use brief quotes from the liturgy. I offer it as a meditation.
UPDATE CORRECTION: Paul says that the prayer I quoted is not his, but rather from the Rev. Steve Keplinger's Earth Mass anaphora.
and for weaving us, the web of humanity, into this world.
But instead of caring deeply for your creation,
this earth in which we live
and this universe beyond our comprehension,
we have rebelled against it, against ourselves, against You.
We disregarded the web of life in which we live.
Instead of loving it as a mother loves her child,
we put ourselves above it as something we could own,
as something to control.
Each time you have called us back, called us to understand
that we are part of the earth and not masters of it.
You continually remind us that caring for you
means caring for your creation, and for each other.
Then, All-Holy God, you sent Jesus Christ to be among us.
Through his incarnation, you taught us that you are always with us
and with all your creation.
He showed us the way to grace and freedom,
and how to give compassion to each other and the world.
He gathered a people as your own and filled us with longing
for justice and peace for all of creation.
Keep us ever vigilant to follow his example
that we may bring about your reign—
a reign where all your creation will be one—
heralded for us
in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.
CREATION LITURGY
Holy Eucharist in the Season after Pentecost
This beautiful prayer by Paul at Byzigenous Buddhapalian is taken from the Eucharistic Prayer of his Creation Liturgy. He has graciously given me permission to use brief quotes from the liturgy. I offer it as a meditation.
UPDATE CORRECTION: Paul says that the prayer I quoted is not his, but rather from the Rev. Steve Keplinger's Earth Mass anaphora.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Richard Prince - "Spiritual America"
"Sonic Nurse" by Richard Prince. Image from Wiki.
Perhaps, this is the last post that I'll milk from my few days in New York - very full days, as I look back. But that's always the case on my visits there, as I try to cram in as many activities as possible and end up exhausted.
On Monday morning, I went to the Guggenheim Museum to see an intriguing art exhibit, Richard Prince's Spiritual America. The paintings and sculptures by Prince, a contemporary artist, line the walls and spaces in the alcoves all the way up the circular ramp, from bottom to top - or top to bottom, if you go up the elevator and walk down. I walked smiling or laughing out loud throughout most of the exhibit, and I was laughing with the artist and not at him.
The exhibit includes sculptures, paintings, and rephotography, which I'll talk about later. On the floor at the ground level is the rear half of the body of a car with a sculptured front. That was my first smile, but by no means the last.
Four different versions of photographs of a VO ad were first on the wall as I began my walk up the spiral. Remember Seagram's VO? In the rephotography pieces, Prince photographs ads from magazines, removes the brand lettering, and crops or smudges to get his final work. In the case of the VO works, he left the brand name in. My first reaction to the VO pictures was, "Is this art?" As I continued on, I saw more photographs of ads, high-end furniture ads, with all the lettering and brand names removed.
Then, I came to the masterpieces of rephotography - the "Cowboys" - the Marlboro men. Some of the pictures were quite large, a few on a smaller scale, but seeing the Marlboro men all together is absolutely amazing. I remember the dissonance I felt about the Marlboro men ads when I'd see them in magazines. Here were all these manly men doing rugged work in the pure, clean air, with gorgeous Western scenery in the background, and they're selling cigarettes. All of that came flooding back into my memory, and I came to the conclusion that Prince is an artist with a keen sense of humor. I could not help smiling, as I walked through.
On one side panel was a small picture of two cowboys stooping down. They're nearly silhouettes, but not quite. One cowboy seems to be giving the other a soulful look. I thought to myself, "Brokeback Mountain!" Then, as I backtracked, the whole cowboy exhibit looked gay. When I got back to the hotel that night, I was telling Grandpère about it, and he said, "I always thought the Marlboro men were gay." He was way ahead of me.
The exhibit included paintings of panels of all one color, perhaps with a darker or lighter stripe of the same color. Across the panels were jokes with words running together and breaks in odd places, making them hard to decipher. After you take the time to read something like this, I'ma lwayski ddingabo utmywife. Ea chtimeIin trod ucehertoso meone, thesay, "Yo u'rekiddi ng", the joke is on you for putting such effort in reading a silly joke. My favorite among the jokes is this one, which I'll do without the odd letter spacing. Two psychiatrists. One says to the other, "I had lunch with my mother the other day and I made a Freudian slip. I meant to say, "Please pass the butter," and it came out, "You f**king bitch. You ruined my life".
At that one I laughed out loud. As I walked further along, one of the young museum attendants asked me if I was enjoying the exhibit. Why me? Perhaps he heard me laugh. I told him that I loved it. He said, "I feel the same way".
Moving right along to the "Girlfriend" pictures. The girlfriends are photographs of biker's girlfriends, posing provocatively on the bikes, some topless. The women do not have fashion model bodies. Theirs are not the ideals of beauty that we see on TV, in the movies, or in the fashion magazines. They are real bodies of real women that won't make the rest of us feel bad about ourselves the moment we look at them.
Then there's the "Nurses" paintings room, from which comes the example at the head of the post. The names of the "Nurse" paintings are taken from the trashy romance novels about the racy lives of fictional nurses. Below are the titles of some of the paintings, not all of which were included in the exhibit. Imagine the possibilities in the stories!
A Nurse Involved
Aloha Nurse
Danger Nurse at Work
Doctor's Nurse
Dude Ranch Nurse
Graduate Nurse
Heartbreak Nurse
Island Nurse
Lake Resort Nurse
New England Nurse
Nurse Barclay's Dilemma
Park Avenue Nurse
Piney Woods Nurse
Surfing Nurse #2
Surgical Nurse
Sometimes there's a little blood, a mask. They're somewhat threatening and spooky.
I'm leaving out a lot, including his "Hood" sculptures - that's the hood of a car, and others of his works, because this is running long and is taking me forever to write. Why do I take such time with it? Because I liked the exhibit so. In the beginning, I viewed it with mixed feelings, but I came away loving it. I'm no art critic, and I purposely did not read reviews of the exhibit before writing, since I wanted to give my impression.
The very title of the exhibit, "Spiritual America" is filled with irony. I do not know whether it was chosen by the artist or the curator, but it is apt. The American spirit thrives on fakery. The "Girlfriends" pictures serve as a jolt of reality in the midst of the fakes. Much of the exhibit is pure satire on the advertising trade, which is such a huge part of what keeps the American economy running. And now it plays a rather frightening part in our fake electoral process.
Below are links to two reviews of the exhibit.
From Patricia Zohn at The Huffington Post.
From the East Hampton Star.
Here's a link to further information on Prince's art;
From Art & Culture
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