Actually this is Lucas Sabean’s latest, a small meditation using Jose Gonzales’ How Low and visuals from a couple of bio pics of Martin Luther. Haunting piece… Read more

I enjoy Lucas Sabean’s videos. Here’s his latest, this time with a thin layer of irony… Read more

On this day in 1955, the Mickey Mouse Club made its television debut. Nothing would be the same ever after… In other news, on this day two years later, Alan Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems is ruled to not be obscene. Nothing would be the same ever after… Read more

I see that today would have been Isaac Bonewits‘ sixty-fourth birthday. As he was a regular customer at Moe’s Books in Berkeley at the time I was working there, and there were intersections in our interests, we would talk on occasion. Isaac was a weedy guy, as I recall on the nervous side. Smart as whip. I liked him. He invited me to a party, which I attended for fifteen or twenty minutes, but he was the only person I... Read more

Jalaladin Muhammad Balkhi, the wondrous Jalaladin Rumi was born on this day in 1207. In 2007 he was celebrated as America’s most beloved poet. Probably was true. And if not, should have been… A theologian and mystic he was the founder of the Mevlevi Sufi Order. But, he is best known to us as a poet of love and mystery. A small aside. Of late Rumi’s most popular presenter in North America Coleman Barks has been dragged over the coals... Read more

LIFE’S PILGRIMAGE A Meditation on a Once and Future Spiritual Discipline 29 September 2013 James Ishmael Ford Senior Minister First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text What is rooted is easy to nourish. What is recent is easy to correct. What is brittle is easy to break. What is small is easy to scatter. Prevent trouble before it arises. Put things in order before they exist. The giant pine tree grows from a tiny sprout. The journey of a thousand... Read more

One of the interesting and for once positive unintended consequences of a monumental event like the British conquest of India, was how in their need for administrators, various brilliant young (mostly) men were launched into an alien culture with, as it turned out, a lot of time on their hands. One such was William Jones, who was born on this day in 1746. I gather from the Wikipedia article he is not in fact the first person to notice a... Read more

A friend of a friend on Facebook posted a story from a United Church of Christ regional conference site, called the “Power of God.” The story goes like this. “There is a story of Marie, a devoted church member, who was told, by her doctors that she had a tumor which had to be removed as soon as possible because it presented a life-threatening situation. Marie had strong faith and believed in the power of prayer. She went home and... Read more

Having heard there might be a serious business opportunity in England for a bright and energetic young man, William (the Bastard) and a few friends make a capital investment in some boats and swords and set sail from the mouth of the Somme on this day in 1066. Capitalism without all those pesky regulations or regulators. Ah, the good old days… Read more

In the Anglican church calendar today is the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham, commemorating an apparition of Mary, Jesus’ mother, to an English noblewoman at the dawn of the eleventh century. Me, I’ve always liked appearances of Mary, who I’ve noted elsewhere is flat out my favorite goddess. This particular feast represents a significant revival of pilgrimage within the Anglican church, a spiritual practice I heartily approve of. (For those hoping for a small sign of approval…) This particular... Read more