On this day in 1790 Rhode Island (known in some circles in those days at Rogue Island) ratified the Constitution. Rhode Island had been the first of the colonies to declare independence from Great Britain. With this it became the last of the states to ratify the constitution. Apparently threats of gunships may have helped the final decision to go on together rather than alone… Read more

ZEN PRIEST HOME LEAVING: Spirit, Principles, and Possibilities Public Talk and Workshop with Dosho Port at Boundless Way Temple/Worcester Zen Center 1030 Pleasant Street Worcester, MA 01602 508-792-5189 | www.worcesterzen.org Public Talk and Dharma Dialogue Friday July 12th 7pm to 9pm Workshop (by invitation only: please contact registrar for information) Saturday July 13th 9am to 4pm Public Talk and Dharma Dialogue: We will discuss traditional home-leaving and contemporary adaptations of actualizing the fundamental point (genjokoan) through the three aspects (food,... Read more

It turns out that Disney’s Silly Symphony released “The Three Little Pigs” on this day in 1933. It won a 1934 Academy Award and has been counted as one of the fifty top cartoons ever. It also brushes up to antisemitism in one scene, cleaned up a bit in this version. The cartoon also introduced the song “Whose Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf, which has become an ear worm haunting the unawares down to this day. Oh. Also. A... Read more

CLOUDS OF WITNESSES A Memorial Day Meditation on the Nonviolent Way James Ishmael Ford 26 May 2013 Bell Street Chapel Providence, Rhode Island Text No man is an island, Entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. As well as if a promontory were. As well as if a manner of thine own Or of thine friend’s were. Each man’s... Read more

Margaret Fuller was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on this day in 1810. She was an author, editor, journalist and literary critic, an educator, a first-wave feminist, and, critically for us one of the leading lights of the Transcendentalist movement. Her accomplishments included a litany of firsts, Fuller was the first woman, who while not allowed to pursue a degree, was allowed to research in Harvard’s library. And she put that access to good use, her magisterial Woman in the Nineteenth... Read more

Today is Harvey Milk‘s birthday. Harvey was the first openly gay person to be elected to office in California, and possibly in the country. He would have been eighty-three if he had not been assassinated by fellow San Francsico city supervisor, well technically ex-supervisor, Dan White. His birthday is an official state holiday in California. As it should be. An incredibly important figure on the way toward full civil rights for GLBTQ people, and therefore an incredibly important person for... Read more

Fats Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943) Read more

A DISCOURSE ON THE TRANSIENT & PERMANENT IN CHRISTIANITY A Meditation on Theodore Parker and the Call of Liberal Religion James Ishmael Ford 19 May 2013 First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text There are seasons, in human affairs, of inward and outward revolutions, when new depths seem to be broken up in the soul, when new wants are unfolded in multitudes, and a new and undefined good is thirsted for… There are periods when the principles of experience need... Read more

AWAKENING & SAMADHI IN ZEN A Review of Gregory Shepherd’s A Straight Road With 99 Cures: Coming of Age on the Zen Path James Ishmael Ford When I was asked if I would be willing to review a new book by a Diamond Sangha member who had once been groomed to be Robert Aitken Roshi’s first Dharma successor, I was, I admit, suspicious. I had not heard his name. And, I understood that person, the first person who was “groomed”... Read more

On this day in 1373 Julian of Norwich began writing down an account of a series of visions that occurred during an illness. I have to admit she seems crazy as a bedbug to me. And… There’s something Hakuin like in her, as well, another bedbug crazy wise person. And, her “all shall be well” echoes for me Yunmen’s sublime and haunting koan, “everyday is a good day…” Strange. Compelling. Lovely, in that great leap of heart way… Read more