Singer, songwriter, and artist Grace Slick was born on this day in 1939, making her seventy-six. She fronted the Jefferson Airplane, which became Jefferson Starship, which became Starship. She is legitimately called a rock n roll legend. Unlike many of her contemporaries who didn’t die and are still on the road, she retired from the music industry at forty-nine. According to a 2007 interview recorded in Wikipedia, she observed “You can do jazz, classical, blues, opera, country until you’re 150,... Read more

Continuing our retirement commitment of watching lots of movies, even though neither of us have actually completely retired, and are not yet up to seeing tons of movies – at about half a dozen since late June we have about matched our number for the prior two or three years. We’re now on a mini holiday in Washington DC, taking in a couple of tours arranged by our Representative (Thank you, Alan Lowenthal! We’re having a wonderful time.), or rather... Read more

The good folk at Wikipedia set today in 312 as the moment when Constantine, later called the Great, purported to have a vision of a cross in the sky and heard the words “With this sign, conquer.” What we know with certainty is that he did. And this also sealed the deal for Christianity. Already an important cult with a significant following, it would within a few years become the official religion of the Empire. Sort of cutting a deal... Read more

HOW MANY LIVES? Finding Zen’s Liberation Within a Contemporary Context James Ishmael Ford The mainstream Indian conviction was that each person has a single, permanent soul. The Chinese were inclined to allow that we are each a gathering of several kinds of “spirit” or subtle forms of energy that leave the body at death and return to their separate and proper places in the cosmos. The truth of a person is not, however, given in any one of these departing... Read more

It was on this day in 1901 that Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, and, significantly, to survive. It was her sixty-third birthday. A long time widow whose only child died in infancy, she worked mostly as a teacher, although she tried her hand at a number of enterprises, although none with great success. Facing old age and penury, and desperately wanting to avoid the Poorhouse, she took this gamble hoping... Read more

Just when we thought the last nail was driven, and Mr Cohen would forever be known as “Mr Buddhist Gloom.” Read more

I see that Timothy Leary would be ninety-five today, that is if he were alive. There was a good fifteen minutes that I thought psychedelics might save the world. Turned out I was wrong. But, I did collect some interesting memories… Read more

Derek Bell was born on this day in 1935. Read more

WHOSE LIVES MATTER? A Meditation on What My Grandmother Taught Me A Sermon James Ishmael Ford 18 October 2015 Pacific Unitarian Church Rancho Palos Verdes, California My father was a will-o’-the-wisp with more than a passing affection for the drink. In his life he never held steady employment. As a consequence we were poor, sometimes desperately poor, and we moved, a lot. On occasion as I think about from where I’ve come and where I’ve arrived I find I feel... Read more

Today is the twenty-sixth anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake, which while centered near Santa Cruz in California, wrecked havoc in the San Francisco Bay Area. At 7.1 those of us who experienced it tend to recall it as the “Pretty Big One.” It hit at five oh four in the afternoon. My brother was at Candlestick Park just outside of the City watching the World Series. Because of that event the Loma Prieta became the first major quake in... Read more