Thursday, December 28, 2006

Burying Joseph/Poetry Reading/Veterans

(P1) Philosophical


Selling Your House? Bury St. Joseph

According to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat-Dec 28,2006, "The patron saint of families and carpenters, St. Joseph has gained renown in real estate for helping homeowners sell houses. Some believe Joseph, the head of the Holy Family would support families hoping to move into a new house, given that he Provided Jesus with a home and at times moved his wife and child at a moment's notice."

TIPS FOR BURYING ST. JOSEPH STATUETTES

1. Pick a spot in the back yard or front yard. Some select a place next to the “For Sale” sign

2. Head down is most common, although some are placed sideways pointing toward the house to be sold

3. Seal in a plastic bag

4. Mark the site

5. Pray to St. Joseph to help sell a house

6. If a house is sold, recover the St. Joseph statuette from the ground and take it to your new home. There, St. Joseph should go in a place of honor or in a warm spot


Get the entire article.

OR you can just try to bury your house as we (or rather the December 26th windstorm) almost did Tuesday. This was one of our mighty oak trees!


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(P2) Poetical

"4 Poets Reading" (Ed Coletti, Katherine Hastings, Rychard Denner, & Kathleen Winter) - Tuesday January 16th from 6-7 PM at Bricks in Petaluma. Come one, Come all!



BRICKS
16 Kentucky Street Petaluma, CA 94952


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(P3) Political



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Saturday, December 16, 2006

Holidays/Crazy Horse Reprise/Breaths/BeatleBush

Every year at this time, I go through the same mantra but at an accelerated rate both of recurrence and realization. "Wasn't it only yesterday that I took down the Christmas lights? So why am I putting them up again today?" Then I wonder how I'll handle the holiday stresses. I'm happy to report that this year, each time some lights blew out in the rain, I've taken the darkness in stride and repaired the problem the following day. How unlike me! Am I, at 62 (going on 63) actually maturing? I like to think so. This year I also realized that my focus is no longer on longevity but rather on lucidity. As long as I continue creating something and sharing it with some one(s), I'm still ticking. Well, I believe that I'm ticking louder than ever before! May all of you have the happiest of holidays. Much love and peace, Ed Coletti

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(P1) Philosophical


The response to Bill Edelen's piece on Crazy Horse was overwhelming. Here's a piece from Duncan Lee that was inspired by Edelen and your responses.

Crazy Horse has long been a hero of mine. North American Indian spirituality makes more sense to me than any I've run across. The basic tenets and beliefs are logical and believable. It is a constant source of mystery and amazement that Indian tribes who had no contact with each other have very similar beliefs in spirituality. Crazy Horse was one of the best known shamans probably because he was also a fearless warrior and highly intelligent leader .
According to Peter Mattiessen, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, the US government has broken every treaty signed with Indian tribes. From the early 17th Century to the end of the 19th, the US government carried out an official policy and practice of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Indian peoples. What was left of the tribes, living on desolate reservations, were taught to become dependent on government hand outs (many of which were stolen by corrupt politicians and bureaucrats), forced to become "civilized" in special schools and encouraged, if not coerced, to convert to Christianity (or as some Indians call it today, "go the Jesus way").
What the US government did do, however, was grant the Indian tribes some special situations that might help them earn a few extra bucks. One such perquisite is not requiring federal or state sales or excise taxes be collected on the sale of goods on the reservations. Indian tobacco shops have long been a source of cheaper cigarettes. How ironic that it was the American Indian who introduced the white man to smoking tobacco. Now the Indians watch thousands of white people die each year from tobacco related diseases. Sweet, if somewhat black, justice. Unfortunately, the Indians are not immune to the same fate.
Another area in which the US government thought it would try to help the tribes was to allow gambling on the reservations, or tribal land. At first this was limited to bingo and other simple games. But the tribes fought, often in court, to be allowed to offer the same types of gambling that the white man had in their casinos. Now, full-blown casinos are springing up all over the country in states that never dreamed of having legal gambling. Some of these casinos are posing serious threats to the business of white owned casinos. The result of this phenomenon is the creation of very rich tribes who are becoming forces to be reckoned with in business and politics. In many states, governments negotiate deals with the tribes to provide funds for the states' coffers. Recently it was reported that the Seminole tribe of Florida has purchased the Hard Rock Hotel/Casino/Restaurant chain, the wisdom of which I question, but nevertheless it illustrates the financial strength the tribes with casinos are achieving. Only about fifty per cent of the American tribes are involved in gambling and there are still many reservations that are locked in poverty and little hope.
The supreme irony would be their purchasing land and real estate that would begin to reestablish ancient tribal lands. Examples would be land in Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota that made up much of the Lakota tribal land. I'm not sure, however, that the Lakota are involved in casinos. It is still an ironic position the casino owning tribes find for themselves. After three centuries of genocide, theft, corruption and discrimination by the white man, the American Indian tribes are becoming rich and powerful from the vices of the same whites. As the saying goes, "What goes around, comes around".

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(P2) Poetical

First Breath Last Breath


When a baby boy is born
and the midwife
holds him up
as he takes
his first breath,
Place him over
the mother's face
so when the baby exhales
his first breath on Earth
the mother breathes it.

And when the mother dies
her middle-aged son
the baby grew up to be,
by her side
his head next to her head,
Follows her breathing with his breath
as it becomes shorter
and as the dying mother
exhales her last breath
her son inhales it.


Antler
Denver Quarterly
Volume 40, Number 1
2005
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(P3) Political







Monday, December 04, 2006

Emily Yipee!/Hero Miles/Crazy Horse

(P1) Poetical

Check out "The Yellow Rose of Amherst"

Did you know that virtually any poem by Emily Dickinson can be sung to the tune of The Yellow Rose of Texas? Here's a good example in the first 2 stanzas of

Poem 27
(to tune of The Yellow Rose of Texas)

Because I could not stop for Death -
He kindly stopped for me -
The Carriage held but just Ourselves -
And Immortality.

We slowly drove - He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility -

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(P2) Philosophical (or whatever)

Donate Airline Miles (to wounded troops and their families)

Regardless of politics, young people serving in Iraq, as well as their families would really benefit from your donation of airline miles to reunite them with their loved ones. I had some U.S. Airways miles that were due to run out next month. I certainly don't need the magazines I could trade for. I donated 5,000 miles to Fisher House, an organization that helps service members and their families. Essentially:

"Your donation will help soldiers wounded in Afghanistan or Iraq to fly home after their treatment or will help their families fly to visit them. More than 7,000 airfares have been donated.'

Go to fisherhouse.org and click on "Hero Miles." It's easy and will make you feel good about at least something having to do with Iraq.

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(P3) Political

In Praise Of Crazy Horse by William Edelen Here are a few poignant ideas about the great misunderstood Lakota, Sioux holy man and leader, Crazy Horse by my friend William Edelen:

Crazy Horse, "Tashunka Witco", in Lakota Sioux. The most accurate translation of his name would be "the enchanted one", or "the one who was mysterious." He was adored, idolized, by the Sioux and the Cheyenne. He was often, out of respect, referred to only as "the man". He was the classic holy man and warrior in one person. He was a loner, spending much of his time in meditation with Wakan Tanka, the Great Mystery of the plains Indians. He and his Cheyenne wife often camped away from the village.

The old ones of the Sioux and Cheyenne nations described him in detail in the late 1800's and early 1900's and what he was like as a person. They said that when he would ride into a village there would be a ground swell, racing from tongue to tongue, saying "the man is coming".

I think that my library contains everything about Crazy Horse that has ever been written. The Crazy Horse image is still very sacred to the Sioux, and the most obscene insult to Crazy Horse, sculpted in stone on stolen Indian land, is the so called 'monument' being carved into the Black Hills. The Sioux nation calls this tourist attraction the ultimate offense. The Black Hills, Paha Sapa, "the heart of everything that is", was and is still, their sacred center, the most holy place of the Sioux nation. To blast out these hills, said the Sioux holy man Fools Crow, is like us going into your St.John the Divine, or the National Cathedral, and carving up your walls and breaking the stained glass windows.

As holy man Lame Dear put it..."good art is not made with a jackhammer. Anything in such disharmony with nature is evil. It fits into the sacred mountains like a red hot iron poker in someone's eyes."

Here's a link to Bill's full Crazy Horse essay.



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