• More Shadow and Faith

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Imbolc and the 78th Birthday Moon

    Sunday gratefuls: Shadow. Ruth. Diminished stamina. Mark(s). Snow. Cold. Skittishness. Gabe. Puzzles. Enigmas. Thoughtful resistance. Learning about the New Apostolic Reformation. Books. Poetry. Lodgepoles. Great Sol. The days of our lives. Our lives in days. Bananas. Pears. Apples. Mandarin Oranges. Subway

    Sparks of Joy and Awe: My dispersed family

    Week Kavannah: Love. Ahavah.

    One brief shining: Oh, Shadow, my Shadow, who chewed through my oxygen concentrator tubes leaving me breathless, who, when I figured out how to have them looped up high, then chewed on the cord of my electric blanket so it ceased working.

     

    Oh. The dog. Challenging me. In good ways. Do I have the stamina for her? Still not sure. Can I, I mean, wait out her puppyhood long enough for her to be easier to care for? If so, then yes, I have the stamina. We’ll see. Ruth recommended I take the full three weeks for the trial. She’s right. And, I will. Honesty. So important.

    I liked having Ruth here. So much so that I asked her if she wanted to commute. Free rent and food. Half her gas. No, she said. Too long a daily drive. Right at an hour both ways. Wise lady.

     

    My son and Seoah will come on Wednesday. It’s been a year a half plus since I’ve seen them. I’m excited. Seeing them and having Shadow. A rich week in my life. Filled with love and caring.

    Annual wellness checkup with Sue Bradshaw, too. And a visit to the medical oncologist’s P.A. A big week for this Shadow Mountain boy.

    My peskyfowlatarian diet has proved easy to handle. Fish, other seafoods like shrimp and lobster, chicken. Gives me choices. Pushes me toward more vegetables. Plan to make chicken bean soup today or tomorrow.

    Learning to love chicken subway sandwiches. A little tasteless. But o.k.

    Shadow spent an hour in my lap, cuddling. I put her outside for about ten minutes, she came back to the door, pleased. I hear my own and others doubts and cautions. As Ruth suggested, three full weeks. Accepting input.

     

    Just a moment: Super bowl. Nah. Too much fluff. Usually a bad game. But the two games leading up to it. Well, yeah.

    More books coming on the New Apostolic Reformation. As I know more, so will you. This group is secretive, amorphous, and focused on political goals. Like creating a Christian nation.

    For now, cue this:

    “President Trump signed an executive order Friday to establish a White House Faith Office in an effort to empower faith-based entities.

    The office will be part of the Domestic Policy Council and headed by a senior adviser tasked with consulting with various faith and community leaders in an effort to defend religious liberty and combat antisemitism, anti-Christianity and other anti-religious bias, according to the order.”  The Hill

    Gotta fight all that anti-Christian bias out there. But, where is it? This is the thin end of the wedge for creating an autocratic, religion focused and dominated form of governance. Not democracy. Follow these bread crumbs. They’re more significant than they may appear.

     

     


    📂This entry was posted in Commentary on Religion Commentary on the news Dogs Family Fourth Phase Politics US History

  • Shadow. One small bite.

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Imbolc and the 78th Birthday Moon

    Shabbat gratefuls: Ruth. Shadow. Loss. Grief. Joy. Close cousins. Mussar. Brother Mark, teaching in Al Kharj. Friend Mark, recuperating in Mexico. Colder, some Snow. Old age. Journalism. NYT. WP. Colorado Sun. Axios. Ground News. Safeway. Grocery pickup. Ruby.

    Sparks of Joy and Awe: Ruth

    Week Kavannah: Love  Ahavah

    Limitations of AI on display here

    One brief shining: Images of others, far away, Mark playing foosball with his Saudi Arabian ESL students, Ode in a deck chair in sunny, warm Mexico, Diane with her sling, healing on Lucky Street with atmospheric rivers overhead, Mary on campus in Melbourne, my son and Seaoh traveling today to Minnesota from Hawai’i while Shadow and Ruth and I enjoy the return of cold weather on the top of Shadow Mountain.

     

    The Shadow puppy saga continues. Put her in the crate while Ruth and I went to Jackie’s for my haircut. After we went to Buster’s natural pet food store. Got a new leash, some treats, a few durable toys. Then, Subway.

    I’m considering a raw diet for Shadow. She’s so small l could feed her a raw diet for what I paid for Kep and Rigel’s food. She’s still a puppy so not yet. More research.

    That’s if I keep her. I’m pretty tired. Haven’t got back to my workouts. They will raise my energy level as my better nutrition already has. It’s a balance.

    Having her here has already buoyed me up in ways I’d forgotten were available. That tail wagging. Her soulful eyes. Her learning curve, so rapid. Engaging my problem solver for another. Her cuddles.

    Ruth came up last night in her green Subaru SUV. She got most of the money to pay for it from the insurance payout after she totaled Ivory, our old Rav4 which we gave to her. She loves her car.

    She’s a sweetheart. Feels so good having her here. We talk a lot. She apparently took Shadow up to sleep with her last night. When I got up… No Shadow.

    Glad I stayed here, didn’t go to Hawai’i. Although, I do find myself watching NCIS: Hawai’i and Hawai’i 5-0. As much for the scenery and the memories as any plot.

    No, my travel bug has not gone dormant. When I see Sue next week, I’m going to ask for an orthopedic consult on my back and right hip, maybe a pain doc. See what I can do further to become mobile enough to fly.

    Though. Moving to the Rocky Mountains has been a journey, a travel experience of long and wonderful duration. Kate felt like she was always on vacation up here. I feel grateful each day to see the Mountains, Wild Neighbors, Trees and Streams. And for the unexpected and improbable Jewish journey unveiled by the Mountain Jews of Congregation Beth Evergreen.

     

    Just a moment: I’m appending the first paragraph of a New York Times editorial with which I am in agreement.

    Ginny, of Ginny and Janice, heard a woman who suggested taking a small bite out of the huge wormy Apple. For example, become an expert on one small field of the Trump mess. Really dig in. Something that interests you, or you have expertise in already.

    I’m picking the New Apostolic Reformation. It’s deep background, yet it forms a large mass of his hardcore base. Something I have knowledge about with seminary education and having been in the ministry.

    Start communicating with others about it. In conversations, blogs, e-mails, letters to the editor, phone calls and e-mails to members of Congress.

    Together there are enough of us to rock this sucker back on its heels. Separately? We’ll get steamrolled.

     

    *”Don’t get distracted. Don’t get overwhelmed. Don’t get paralyzed and pulled into the chaos that President Trump and his allies are purposely creating with the volume and speed of executive orders; the effort to dismantle the federal government; the performative attacks on immigrants, transgender people and the very concept of diversity itself; the demands that other countries accept Americans as their new overlords; and the dizzying sense that the White House could do or say anything at any moment. All of this is intended to keep the country on its back heel so President Trump can blaze ahead in his drive for maximum executive power, so no one can stop the audacious, ill-conceived and frequently illegal agenda being advanced by his administration. For goodness sake, don’t tune out.” NYT, Feb. 8, 2025.

     

     

     


    📂This entry was posted in Commentary on Religion Commentary on the news Dogs Family Politics

  • Caring for the other. Writ small and large.

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Imbolc and the 78th Birthday Moon

    Friday gratefuls: Ruth. Alan. My son and Seoah, headed to Minnesota. Shadow. The beginning of our life together. Ginny. The Granby Shelter. Puppies. Learning to navigate life. Old men. Learning to navigate life. Rascal. Tom. Ruby, her inner beauty. The Night Sky. Space Station. Visible satellites. Mussar online.

    Sparks of Joy and Awe: The Night Sky

    Week Kavannah: Curiosity.  Sakranut

    One brief shining: Shadow, Moon Shadow, Shadow Mountain, my Shadow sits beside my chair here, her black and tan nose thrust over the arm, brown eyes looking to me for affection, a hand on her small soft head.

     

    Realized yesterday as I moved around the house with purpose, doing things relevant to Shadow like water for her water bowl, checking her food, trying to find her, oh there she is, between the coffee table with the cd player on it and the outside wall, that my inner world has changed, grown less self-centered and more outward focused. Not a distinction between selfish and other oriented. Rather a distinction between self-focused and other focused.

    I love being alone with my books, writing, television, thoughts, Shadow Mountain, I do. Not lonely. Yet. That is a world with me and my inner life at its center. And one I could have happily continued.

    Introducing Shadow, whose head I just petted, however returns me to a state of living I’ve experienced for most of the last 35 years. A life with Dogs. With the relationship that only a Dog can bring into your life. Like a marriage it is a relationship of love and caring. Caring for the other and wanting what’s best for them. A two way relationship, too.

    Now there will be a rhythm on Shadow Mountain that includes her needs, her desires, her life as well as the single human life I live.

    This shift is welcome.

     

    I continue to read the news. I know many have given it up, too depressing or upsetting. I get it, too. With the mélange of old man Trump signing, as one pundit put it, bigger and bigger pieces of paper, while brah Elon engages in a search and destroy mission aimed at dismantling the small l liberal consensus in place since FDR, and investigations of investigators become front page news, the US seems to be, maybe is, losing its center.

    For those of us post WWII kids, now staring down the barrel of death’s cold never misses armory, all this disorients us. Who are we in this strange new place? What is ours to do? Do we consider the old ways, the ones of our youth, as permanent and try to wrest political reality back in that direction?

    The FDR consensus that included government as a backstop for its citizens-think Social Security, Medicare, the Affordable Care Act, welfare, regulatory apparatuses to contain and restrain the excesses of our capitalist religion-came out of a time when the Great Depression had scarred all but the most wealthy. Something needed to change and FDR’s vision for an expanded Federal Government, boosted of course by the concomitant challenge of WWII, fit the desires and needs of many of us, our parents and theirs.

    Those challenges have long ago receded into movies and books and history. What should the Federal Government look like today? What is its role? These are legitimate and timely questions. Necessary. Perhaps even urgent.

    We are not, however, having a debate. We have become witnesses to a planned execution with no vision for the future, no rationale other than burn baby burn.

    We must engage the debate. See what new vision fits this new world with a weakened US. What challenges face us now, and what must the Federal Government look like in response to them.

     


    📂This entry was posted in Commentary on the news Dogs Politics

  • Shadow and Shadows on the Country

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Imbolc and the 78th Birthday Moon

    Thursday gratefuls: Shadow (formerly known as Nugget). Sleeping with Shadow under my bed. Her struggle to adapt. Mine. The coup. Feeling alive. Purposeful. Elon Musk. His yetzer hara. Luna and Annie. Leo. Shrimp. Subway. Snow. Vince and Levi. Stable PSA. Shadow’s pooping and peeing.

    Sparks of Joy and Awe: Shadow

    Week Kavannah: Curiosity  sakranut

    One brief shining: All last night when I awoke, I heard Shadow moving beneath the bed, occasionally hitting the wooden slats, once a hard thwock of her head, often moving, then for awhile asleep, repeat.

     

    Felt like a bad doggie dad. I thought Shadow and I were making progress. Then, my nap. I left the bedroom door open as I had the previous night when she slept under me on the floor beneath the bed. She came out that morning and I let her out. She roamed for a while. Came back in. We did this twice.

    Meanwhile she put a tentative paw on my leg, licked my hand. Smiled. Ah, now we’ve gotten somewhere.

    This continued until my nap. Exhausted from the drive to Granby and back I slept two and a half hours. When I got up, I saw Shadow had gone back under the bed. Didn’t think much of it. Then, she wouldn’t come out.

    And, she’s been under there most of the time since. I lured her out with hamburger, but she slipped back under the bed. That was yesterday afternoon and evening.

    This morning I noticed she had two well formed poops and had peed on an old yoga mat. Good girl, missing the Oriental rug. While I slept she got out from under the bed, but she was back there before I woke up.

    Ginny’s going to come after mussar. Shadow responded well to her. I want to get Shadow out from under the bed and into a space where we can interact. I have a dog trainer coming next Tuesday for puppy 101. This is a marathon, not a sprint.

    It will be well, all manner of things will be well.

    About a minute after I wrote this she came out. On her own. The best way. Now she’s in here with me. We can continue the process of getting to know each other.

    I will crate her later today so I can go to mussar.

    BTW: I did close the bedroom door.

     

    Just a moment in oligarch world: First of all. Visit the Egyptian/Israeli Riveria! Swept clean of Palestinians. Home to Trump properties like mega Mar-a-Lago. Adult themed. Rides. Classified documents. And no libtards allowed!

    Have fun in the Sunny Middle East. Visit scenes of actual slaughter and mayhem!

    Or come to D.C. Play with Federal disbursements. Knock your old high school bully off Social Security. Remember that frigid blonde? You can cancel her Small Business loan.

    Never a dull moment when you play Crash the Government. Bring the whole family. Especially the kids and the dogs.

     

     


    📂This entry was posted in Commentary on the news Dogs Fourth Phase Friends Shadow Mountain US History

  • Who knows what treats lurk in the hands of man?

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Imbolc and the Nugget Moon

    Wednesday gratefuls: Ginny. Janice. Granby Shelter. Trinidad shelter. Nugget. Luna. Annie. Dogs. Shadow. Of Shadow Mountain. My first Colorado Dog. Ruth. STEM. Nursing. Nurse Practitioners. Physician Assistants. Education. Alertness. Canine Cognition.

    Sparks of Joy and Awe: Shadow

    Kavannah: Curiosity    Sakranut

    One brief shining: Shadow, my blue Heeler rescue, on trial for three weeks, spent last night dodging me, being uncertain, hyper vigilant, as you might expect for a Dog rescued from a burning house, sheltered first in Trinidad, Colorado then moved a week ago to the Granby Shelter, so I let her be and went to sleep.

     

    Here is your Da Vinci-style sketch of an Australian Cattle Dog named Shadow.

    Where did I find her when I woke up? Sleeping directly under me under the bed. Very sweet. She came to me as Nugget which seems a bit on the nose for Colorado. Thought about names. Star names. Oz? Granby? Then I hit on Shadow. Shadow of Shadow Mountain. That’s what I’m going with.

    She’s gonna require a lot from me. Australian Cattle Dogs are the Mensa crew among Dog breeds. Which translates into busy, smart, need jobs. My current plan is to do some training with her, more than with other dogs of my past and to start her on the word buttons so we can communicate in my language as well as hers.

    She’s already explored the back yard, peed in the house, settled down, then gotten back up. That’s in the first thirty minutes of being awake. Well, not quite. She peed last night.

    Shadow weighs about 28 pounds so I can lift her if she gets sick. She’s the embodiment of my kavannah for the week: sakranut.

    I can already feel a part of me waking up, a part that pays outward attention at home. It’s easy to get very me focused at home. After all, I’m the only one here.

    Not a bad thing over all. I know, for example, who left the closet door open and who hasn’t unloaded the dishwasher yet. Even so, if a mood turns sour, as they do from time to time, say, in advance of a blood draw, that same knowing can result in darker and darker echoes of the mind.

    Having another animal in the house requires outward looking, other oriented thoughts and actions. At home. That has a positive impact on my mood. Even moving the dog bed and the yoga mat to the balcony upstairs for sunshine therapy. I’ve done this kind of thing many times over the last 34 years. And it takes me out of myself and toward Shadow.

    We’ll see if I have the stamina for her. It’s possible I will not. Though I think one of the most positive results of having her will be to get me moving more. That builds stamina, as does the treadmill newly relocated down stairs. I’m hoping for a virtuous cycle to get set up.

     

    Just a moment in oligarchworld: A mussar friend’s children work for USAID. They told a story of having to sleep in their offices over the weekend while Musk cronies removed all their hard drives and selectively removed “bad” art from the walls. Bad enough. Here’s the kicker. This was in Denver.

     


    📂This entry was posted in Dogs Politics Shadow Mountain

  • The Last Roundup

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Imbolc and the 78th Birthday Moon

    Tuesday gratefuls: Rich. Doncye. Ruth. Ginny and Janice. Dogs. Annie. Luna. Leo. Gracie. Findlay. Rufus. Tom and the finding of the phone. My phone, back home. Ruby. New computer. Granby. Going on a short trip. Parsha Bo. A mussar approach to parsha’s. MVP tomorrow night.

    Sparks of Joy and Awe: Dogs

    Kavannah this week: Curiosity   Sakranut

    One brief shining: Why don’t you turn off your hearing aid, Tom suggested, and I did; he kept calling and I walked slowly through the house until, finally, in the newly set up downstairs exercise room, on the black top tray of my treadmill, my all black phone bleated at me, wanting to come home.

     

    And so it ended. A day without my phone. Revealed an Achilles heel. My phone is at the hub of communications in my life. Without it I couldn’t reach out to ask for help. I couldn’t change anything on my computer that required two-step authentication. I felt strange, as if a necessary part of me had been amputated.

    After going all Taoist on it, the phone will reveal itself when it’s ready, Tom called. Thought later I’d given up on the Taoist idea, then realized that no, I’d decided to be calm until the situation resolved and it did. Thanks to Tom and a dash of wu wei.

     

    Vince and Levi came over on Sunday and moved my treadmill, weight bench, weights, stall mats, and kettlebells down to Kate’s old sewing room. Levi was a big guy. Professional football player sized. Vince, on the other hand, is my height, but wiry, strong.

    Levi brought all of my kettlebells down at once, gripping them in two hands, and carrying them like they were a children’s flower basket. As he said, I’m good at picking things up and setting them down.

    He told a story about the Black Mountain Roundup. This Black Mountain is near McCoy, Colorado, north of I-70 and beyond Vail. He and his buddies once a year go to a ranch near Black Mountain. On Friday night they put their stuff in a bunk house, get drunk, and go shooting at the firing range. The ranch chef cooks meals for them. On Saturday they get on Horses to drive in the last of the ranch’s Cattle, then there’s a big meal. And more drinking. Then, he said, the women come because they know Levi and his crew get rowdy.

    He lifted his shirt to display a large rodeo sized belt buckle with Gitt’s Last Roundup on it. it was Gitt’s ranch. He died of cancer a few years back. Colorado, eh?

     

    Just a moment: Even Heather has started calling this a coup. In her Letters From an American today, she said:

    “The replacement of our constitutional system of government with the whims of an unelected private citizen is a coup. The U.S. president has no authority to cut programs created and funded by Congress, and a private citizen tapped by a president has even less standing to try anything so radical.”

     

     

     


    📂This entry was posted in Colorado Friends GeekWorld Mountains Politics Shadow Mountain US History

  • Loss

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Imbolc and the 78th Birthday Moon

    Monday gratefuls: Barb. Jen. Ruth and Gabe. Rabbi Jamie. My phone. My most asked question (to myself): where is my phone? MVP. CU-Boulder. Sushi. Pain. Back. First World Problems. Technology. Uncanny valley. AI. Wi-Fi. CPU’s. Graphics chips. Internet.

    Sparks of Joy and Awe: Electricity

    Kavannah this week:  Curiosity. Sakranut

    One brief shining: Sunday I got up and wrote Ancientrails, signed on to the Ancient Brothers to talk about love, got a text from Vince saying he could come with Levi to move my workout equipment which he did as Bill, the last of us five, still spoke, so I went downstairs to help Vince who stayed until nearly eleven when I had to leave for Boulder to pick up Ruth.

     

    That was when I discovered my phone had scuttled off somewhere secret. Here, I knew, because I’d used it that morning. Conundrum. Keep looking for my phone so I can call Ruth? What if I can’t find it and I show up late? Then she’ll get anxious. I decided to look for five more minutes. Nope. Not here.

    Leaving the house I felt naked and irritated that I wouldn’t be able to listen to the Hardfork Podcast about Deepseek. Drove a bit fast to avoid showing up late. Ruth has anxiety issues, as I have had. So I get it. About a fifty minute drive.

    Got to Boulder. Ruth was in tears. She had, she said, called me five times. Including this voicemail:

    “Hey, Grandpop. I’m waiting outside and you’re scaring me to death, so just call me if you get this, or I don’t know if you left your phone, or I don’t know, but I’m outside, so I’m hoping you’ll get here in a few minutes. Just call me.”

    I felt for her, frustrated that with all the available tech I had I still had no way of connecting with her. We had a good lunch. I’d already set this up in the middle of last week, not knowing that her other grandma, Barb Bandel, would die Friday night. That made me even more frustrated because Ruth didn’t need more on her mind. Barb had been in declining health, but her death came with no forewarning. Her death means Ruth and Gabe lost Kate in 2021, their Dad in 2022, and now Barb. That’s a lot of loss. A lot of grief.

    Meanwhile my back began grouching while we ate. My walking limit seems to be about a block, two at the most. This with an extra Tramadol already on board. The ride back tested my pain tolerance.

    Back home I began looking for my phone. I’ve still not found it. I’m going to have to do a sector search I guess. I know it’s here because I asked Ruth to call me at 5 to see if I could locate it. She did, but, in the first of many confounding situations, the call came to my hearing aid. Which meant it didn’t help me locate the phone.

    Did three what I considered thorough passes through the house last night. No joy. Asked chatbot for help. Alexa has a find your phone feature. Oh. I rarely, rarely use Alexa, but here was good use. Nope. The internet is not usable Alexa says. Odd, since I’m on it right now. We had very high winds last night, power went out four times, generator worked, but apparently it reset Alexa. And the Alexa app, which I need to reconnect her to wi-fi is, guess where? On my phone.

    As is my ability to connect to Google Voice, which required a setup code sent to my phone. Arrrgghhh.

    So, blehhhhh.

     

     

     


    📂This entry was posted in Boulder Family Feelings Fourth Phase GeekWorld

  • Boom!

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Imbolc and the 78th Birthday Moon

    Sunday gratefuls: Rabbi Jamie. Barb, dead. Gabe. Leo, his sore left front foot. Luke, hunting for work. Annie and Luna, two sweet dogs. Toby in Granby. A possible trip up there. Ginny and Janice. The Wren. Kittredge. Bagels and lox. Mandarin oranges. Ruby’s clean inside! Jon Bailey.

    Sparks of Joy and Awe: The Wren

    Kavannah this week: Curiosity.   Sakranut

    One brief shining: After the Bagel Table where we focused on midrash, I drove over to Kittredge, a little town east of Evergreen, but this time instead of passing through I went up into Kittredge itself, the residential part across Bear Creek, and visited Ginny and Janice in the Wren, one of the earliest homes built there, many of which have names even though modest, the Wren for example was 600 square feet when first built, but now has 850 square feet.

     

    Janice’s family goes back to the founding of Kittredge. Her grandfather dug out the basement in this rocky soil.  Across the street in the home where Janice grew up he also dug out a basement, but came upon a huge boulder. It was under the tiny house.

    Janice remembers him going down there with dynamite. Her mother scurried her and her siblings over to the Wren, then, as Janice said, “Boom!” A pretty confident guy, and strong, her grandfather. Also a boxer.

    Terry, whom, I also know, grew up in Evergreen. He’s my age. In his youth there were only dirt roads around Evergreen, and surprisingly to me, he claims, few Wild Neighbors. Gotta run that down at some point.

    Saw a picture from those days which showed a large Meadow where Evergreen Lake now is. Before the damming of Upper Bear Creek.

    As you can tell from these stories, Janice’s grandfather and grandmother as founders of Kittredge, we live out West. The storylines for us white folk don’t go too far back. Up here Evergreen and Conifer were part of the Ute tribal lands though I don’t think there was much settlement right here. But, I really don’t know. In the area where Denver is now was Arapahoe Tribal land and south of them lived the Jicarilla Apache.

    When we first moved here, I read a history of Colorado, but I don’t remember much of it. Since then, I’ve focused more on the Mountains and Wild Neighbors, the Mountain Streams and plant life. Could be interesting to revisit that history, especially that fraught time as the “frontier” for Eastern white folk pushed into the Rockies. Not a frontier for those already here. Of course.

     

    Just a moment: Back in Oligarch World. Strongman Trump pushes his Bully America vision through tariffs, his anger and revenge over being held legally accountable ignited firings and criminal investigations against his “enemies”, and his let the dogs out way of exposing government inefficiency has granted Elon Musk the keys to disbursements from the Federal Treasury.

    I’ve seen headlines asking if this is a coup. Well, sorta. Except for that election thingy. Yet it is the way fascism and dictators often gain power. They win an election, then forget about them later. Remember that Trump promise to far-right Christians, “You only need to come out and vote this once.”

     


    📂This entry was posted in Colorado Politics US History

  • Study and Oh, my

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Imbolc and the 78th Birthday Moon

    Shabbat gratefuls: Candles. Zornberg. Moses. Torah. Bagel table. Evergreen. Mountain Lions on video. Fox, too. Great Sol. The Gray Man. Stable PSA. New pain meds? Journax. Tara. Arjan. Vincent. Alan. Luke. Hawai’ian Blues. Rick. www.clearcreekradio.com. 2 pm today. DJ’ng while old. Flannel Shirts. Vermont Flannel.

    Sparks of Joy and Awe: Passover

    Kavannah this week: Curiosity.   Sakranut

    One brief shining: Unboxed my new curved monitor, 32″, bigger than most of my older television screens, wrestled with putting the stand together, struggled lifting it onto my computer cart, but I got it done, didn’t think I had it in me, but I was wrong. Yay.

     

    With the exception of lunch with Tara I spent the day reading Zornberg’s commentary on parsha Bo. That’s the chunk of Exodus that includes the last of the plagues. Each Torah cycle I gain a new appreciation for how it has shaped, shapes, and will shape generations of Jews. Not because it’s the inspired word of God, which almost no one I know believes it is, but because it is our story. And a story which requires a new hermeneutic each time its read.

    By delving into the midrash*, which Zornberg knows so well, we learn no matter how you may think about a particular passage, somebody has thought the opposite, or had a weirder explanation. Drawn a stranger conclusion. This frees the contemporary reader to look for meanings relevant to our time and space, yet to have them in the context of Jewish history and culture.

    At 8:30 I’ll head over to CBE for bagel table where we’ll construct our own midrash around this seminal Torah portion. I love the communal study, the careful reading, the surprising aha’s. My inner student is so happy being a Jew.

     

    This day in Oligarch world: Trump’s acting Attorney General fired Jan. 6th prosecutors and ordered investigations of every FBI agent who pursued the various lines of investigation necessitated by this complex crime. This is the President, a Republican President, going after the FBI. And after Federal Prosecutors who worked on the cases they were given.

    I know mirror world makes it hard to see the irony here. Trump has weaponized his acting Attorney General to fire and investigate Federal employees he accused of weaponizing justice.

    Tariffs on Mexico and Canada. Our sworn enemies who’ve done nothing but diss us over the 200 plus years since our founding. Not to mention tariffs on China, too. But since they’re been our friend and ally since forever they get much lower tariffs

    Alice, my dear, are you still tumbling through the air toward Wonderland? Stop now. You need proceed no further. The Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen have merged and sit in what used to be the Oval Office. Mirrorworld. Wonderland. Crazyville. All available right here in the United States of America.

    Up, up, and away. The American high speed express to irrelevance has left the station.

     

    *Midrash are collections of commentaries written by rabbi’s throughout the centuries. And, they’re still being written.


    📂This entry was posted in Politics Torah US History

  • Trump, Trump, he’s so cruel

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Yule and the 78th Birthday Moon

    Friday gratefuls: Vince. Alan. Rabbi Jamie. Rick. Rebecca. Veronica. Helen. Engineers. Tom. Bill. Jon Bailey. Mountains. Elk Cows. Moose. The Night Sky. Vega. Rigel. Luna. Cernunnos. Lugh. Arawyn. The Other World. Arthur. Avalon. The Grail. The Fisher King Wound. Chicken wings. The Lazy Butcher.

    Sparks of joy and awe: Taxes

    Kavannah this week: Rachamim, compassion    Listening for the melody of the other

    One brief shining: In this libertarian, oligarchic inflected age, a time, as sister Mary found in an Australian news article, of the morbidly wealthy, it may seem like heresy or apostasy or blasphemy to like taxes, but I do: property, income, sales taxes all of which express a profound understanding of the political raison d’etrê, caring for the common good, like dues at the synagogue.

     

    You probably don’t remember the PATCO strike. I do. I rode on a bus with members of the Minnesota AFL-CIO to a protest in Washington, D.C. 1981. Reagan, Reagan, he’s no good, send him back to Hollywood. We played poker, gin rummy, talked politics. Reagan won. He broke the air controller’s union. We returned to Minnesota.

    Leif Grina invited me along. An organizer for the Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union. (Now UNITE HERE, combined with the Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Workers Union) Leif and I were good friends.

    At the time, the early 1980’s, I worked with the labor movement, church social justice arms, and community organizers to create the Jobs Now Coalition^, which still exists, working on its mission of advocating for policies that promote job creation and economic justice. I did this organizing with Joseph on my hip.

    In 1983 we wrote, lobbied for, and passed the Minnesota Emergency Employment Act (MEED)* I consider MEED and the creation of Jobs Now as a key highlight of my work as an organizer.

    We have allowed labor unions to wither in the years since Reagan. This was/is a mistake. All this came top of mind reading the story this morning about the understaffed control tower which contributed to the helicopter/passenger jet collision over the Potomac. Reagan, Reagan, He’s no good. Send him back to Hollywood.

    Trump, Trump, he’s so cruel, send him off to chesed school.

     

    ^ The Jobs Now Coalition was founded in Minnesota in the early 1980s as an advocacy organization focused on job creation, fair wages, and economic justice. It emerged during a time of high unemployment and economic distress, particularly following the recession of the early 1980s. The coalition played a significant role in pushing for policies that promoted employment opportunities and living wages for low-income and unemployed workers.

    Key Aspects of the Jobs Now Coalition

    • Advocated for job creation programs, such as the Minnesota Emergency Employment Development Act (MEED).
    • Pushed for living wages and fair labor policies.
    • Conducted economic research on wages, employment trends, and workforce issues in Minnesota.
    • Partnered with labor unions, social justice groups, and community organizations to improve economic opportunities.
    • Promoted public and private sector investment in sustainable job growth.

    The Jobs Now Coalition was influential in shaping Minnesota’s progressive labor policies, including wage laws and workforce development initiatives. It played a key role in ensuring that job growth benefited working-class and marginalized communities.

     

    *The Minnesota Emergency Employment Development Act (MEED) was a jobs program enacted in 1983 during a period of high unemployment in the state. It was designed to create temporary jobs for unemployed and underemployed Minnesotans while stimulating economic development.

    Key Features of the MEED Program

    • Provided wage subsidies to employers willing to hire unemployed workers.
    • Aimed to reduce unemployment by incentivizing private-sector job creation.
    • Focused on economic recovery during a recession by addressing job shortages.
    • Often targeted disadvantaged workers, including those facing long-term unemployment.

    📂This entry was posted in Memories Minnesota Politics