I spent Memorial Day weekend at Playa Del Fuego, the East Coast regional Burn (Burning Man-style event). I’ve written before about some similarities between the 10 Principles of Burns and the values of the Pagan festival community. But beyond that, as Burner culture has grown it has taken on ritual (one might even say “religious”, in the broadest sense) aspects, even without a deliberate inital plan to do so. Chief among these is the Temple. The Temple was not originally... Read more
I live in Catonsville, Maryland, a suburb on the southwest side of Baltimore. Catonsville has one claim to national fame: on May 17, 1968, nine anti-war activists raided the draft board office at the local Knights of Columbus hall, grabbed 378 draft records, and burned them with homemade napalm in the parking lot. They then quietly waited to be arrested; they refused bail, and fasted for eight days while imprisoned. It was one of nearly 300 raids that anti-draft activists... Read more
So I’m pretty much in the bullseye of the target demographic for YouTube Red’s new Cobra Kai series, which continues the story of the 1984 classic film The Karate Kid and its sequels. Not only am I an 80s kid, I’m a karate teacher who sometimes quotes Mr. Miyagi to his students. (And coincidentally, series stars William Zabka and Ralph Macchio did a promotional photo shoot at the Manhattan headquarters of my karate style. You can see those photos at... Read more
Well, the Internet is all upset over a dress again. But this time it’s not the color of the dress that’s the issue, it’s the color of the wearer. A white young lady in Utah wore a Chinese cheongsam style dress to her prom and, this being 2018, tweeted pictures. Now, I am not the fashion police — my idea of high style is a black Utilikilt and a purple top hat — and my own prom was over 30... Read more
There’s an Internet meme going around under the hashtag “#filmstruck4”. The idea, initially posted by the movie streaming service Filmstruck, is for participants to post four films that “define” them. Movie are an important part of our culture, sure. But let’s try something deeper. What are four myths that define you? Here are my four. Buddha Touching The Earth If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know this myth by now — it’s right there in the title... Read more
But we must be wary of thinking that more suffering enables more healing, that in order to become better healers we must suffer more. Read more
Product advertising has been with us since some Paleolithic guy boasted that his flint arrowheads were the best and everyone should trade with him; political hucksterism goes back to the Roman Republic. But technology is allowing them to move from the realm of human interaction to the realm of mind-control black magic. Read more
The fault, dear Americans, is not in our guns, but in ourselves, that we are brutal and careless about each other; that we live in a nation where racism and economic injustice and a culture of violent domination can set someone on the path to murder, and poor access to mental health care and a broken criminal justice system makes it unlikely that they will be stopped before they explode. Read more
I was nine years old, give or take a year or two, and I was home sick from school. Mom went to the local branch of the Baltimore County Public Library (all praise be upon it, and upon Mom) and came back with some books for me. I supposed she asked the librarian for something appropriate for my young age, advanced reading level, and interest in science fiction and fantasy. Among the books she brought home was Ursula K. Le... Read more
Even the tools to fix the broken things were broken. But if you write about "spiritual" topics, sometimes people actually expect you to walk your talk. Read more
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