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Do You Believe God Loves You?
February 16, 2013
Julia Sweeney of SNL fame performed the opening of her show “Letting Go of God” for this TED talk. She is witty and insightful as she talks about her childhood exposure to religion. We all had different parental models. My parents were not religious but they belonged to a church they rarely attended. They got the big idea that I needed to go to this Presbyterian church when I was about 11. They made no bones about the purpose of my Sunday school enrollment. It was punishment. I am not sure what the infraction was, but I was to atone by being a Sunday school student. It fully sucked. I successfully physically fought off my mother in the ladie’s room the first time she tried to leave me at Sunday school, but eventually I had to go for a couple of years. I even was baptized and confirmed at the same time, since in infancy I was not baptized. My overall impression is that it was a drag, but I do know some of the songs still today. I asked my father why I had to go and they did not. I always remember his answer. He said, “I believe in God, but not like that.” Why they thought I should be indoctrinated like that is still odd to me.
Malachi Rhodes of Pawtuxet
February 16, 2013
— 2 Comments
Pawtuxet, Rhode Island
My 9th grandfather was a founder of the town of East Greenwich, Rhode Island. I am excited to find that in Warwick, RI there is an historical village of Pawtuxet where I will be able to visit the Malachi Rhodes home. It will be a huge thrill. I love preserved history, and am so pleased that the Rhode Islanders decided to preserve entire villages of Rhode’s stuff. The village is the oldest in the US, and contains historic buildings that model the past. This will be my kind of village because the Rhodes are not the only family to whom I am related. Ghost tourism at the highest levels will be savored. These people still dress up and guard the village with a militia..can’t wait!!
Malachi Rhodes (1650 – 1682)
is my 9th great grandfather
Malachi Rhodes (1676 – 1714)
Son of Malachi
Dorothy Rhoades (1705 – 1705)
Daughter of Malachi
MARGARET HAMMETT (1721 – 1753)
Daughter of Dorothy
Benjamin Sweet (1722 – 1789)
Son of MARGARET
Paul Sweet (1762 – 1836)
Son of Benjamin
Valentine Sweet (1791 – 1858)
Son of Paul
Sarah LaVina Sweet (1840 – 1923)
Daughter of Valentine
Jason A Morse (1862 – 1932)
Son of Sarah LaVina
Ernest Abner Morse (1890 – 1965)
Son of Jason A
Richard Arden Morse (1920 – 2004)
Son of Ernest Abner
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Richard Arden
The Gossip Archetype
February 15, 2013
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If you have attended an elementary school you have been involved in gossip. Private information spreading is power for the gossip. It can have two distinct patterns running at the same time. Damaging or false information may be spread as well as flattering or promotional stories. This is a member of the creative family and can be considered to be artful and expressive. Dr. Phil and his ilk fit into this category. Networking can be a positive form of gossip designed to help others. To make the best of your own gossip within notice the news you spread and why you do it. To a certain extent we all make our own PR as well as our own self image. We spotlight or eliminate part of the story for effect, even if we are unconscious of it, and even in our memories.
How can the gossip teach us to respect the feelings of others? If you observe your own communication carefully you can spot trends. The shadow gossip my bring you news of all kinds, but it is not your job to share it. I know plenty of people who do not watch cable TV but are still influenced to believe what they are told, read, or hear. Due diligence is your friend when it comes to discernment and discretion. Know what you mean to say and why.
Punctuality, Politness, Professionalism
February 15, 2013
The the P’s have served me well as a guide since I first saw them on a sign in a panyard in Port of Spain, Trinidad. I hung out at the Neal and Massey Trinidad All Stars yard in the early 1980’s. I took my video camera and shot the practice sessions. I adored the look as well as the sound of the steel drum. The panman was just leaving the shadows of Trini society in the 1980’s. The Despers, The All Stars, and some other very old steel bands were representing very hard neighborhoods in Port of Spain. The idea that you could build an instrument out of an oil barrel and make a professional orchestra of people who did not read music was not yet considered to be a fine art by everyone.
I had some of the best times of my life at that yard. I remember Dane Gulston for his artistry and also his super friendly attitude. He was very young, but was already indoctrinated with the discipline of the All Stars. Dedication and cooperation are the ingredients needed to win in Panorama and in life. Today Pantrinbago oversees educational programs and the nation is proud of their indigenous instrument. Brooklyn has a large contingent of the best musicians for at least part of the year. In the above solo Dane ably demonstrates the benefits of practicing the three P’s.
Virtue and Valentine Sweet, Pioneers
February 14, 2013
— 1 Comment
Virtue and Valentine Sweet
Valentine Sweet was born on 14 Feb, 1791 in New York. The Sweet family had come from Rhode Island. Virtue Kelly, an Irish woman no doubt, married Valentine in New York in 1811. They moved to Polo, Ogle, Illinois between 1850 and 1859. Polo had a tunnel for the underground railroad. Their daughter Sarah married her husband Daniel Morse in Illinois in 1858. Daniel and his young bride and first born son returned to New York in 1860 because he thought he might be drafted to fight in the Civil War. After the war Sarah and Daniel moved to Kansas to farm.
Valentine Sweet (1791 – 1858)
is my 3rd great grandfather
Daughter of Valentine
Son of Sarah LaVina
Son of Jason A
Son of Ernest Abner
I am the daughter of Richard Arden
Know too Much to Argue or to Judge
February 14, 2013
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The limits to your love are set by you. Finding fault is the opposite of finding love.
What is Love?
February 13, 2013
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Brother David Steindl Rast is Catholic Zen teacher. His organization, gratefulness.org is a teaching site. An exercise he recommends is to find one thing for which to be grateful each day. The twist is that you need to find one brand new thing every day. Before going to sleep you will make note of one thing you have never noticed and have found during the day for which you are grateful. This simple practice turns on mindfulness and opens your heart to that which you normally take for granted. To love life and belong fully to it you need to be grateful beyond the typical things like roof over the head, food on the table, healthy family, good dog. Grateful living is love.
“Everything is a gift. The degree to which we are awake to this truth is a measure of our gratefullness, and gratefullness is a measure of our aliveness.”
― David Steindl-Rast, Jesus and Lao Tzu: The Parallel Sayings
Do Not Mess with Cupid
February 13, 2013
— 6 Comments
Apollo and Daphne
The myth of Daphne is an illustration of fate and revenge of the gods. She was part of cruel power play between two archers, Apollo and Eros. The proud Apollo bullied Eros who shot two arrows, one tipped in gold and the other in lead to find revenge. Eros, the son of Aphrodite enchanted his arrows to cause total lust and desire in the golden arrow victim, and total hatred in the recipient of the lead tipped arrow. Apollo was hit with the golden arrow, and the object of his desire, Daphne, was struck by the lead one. The struggle between lust and chastity is ended when Daphne turns into a laurel tree. She begged her father to transform her body forever in order to escape Apollo’s desire for her.
Eros is the god of sexual desire. He marries Psyche, a goddess/human representing the human soul. They have one daughter Hedone. Hedone is the quest for pleasure with only good consequences. The English word hedonism is derived from this word, but has a meaning far from the original. Eros is also known in Rome as Cupid. We know this god as a logo for Valentine’s Day, a time when we honor a Christian martyr by consuming mass quantities of cheap chocolate. Neither Valentine nor Cupid will be impressed nor honored with a mindless mandatory purchase of tacky gifts. That is neither pleasurable nor sexy. Eros, Apollo, Daphne, and Aphrodite are archetypes that exist in the human pantheon of possibility. Which one will you play on Valentine’s Day?
Genealogy is Like Crochet
February 12, 2013
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tatted doilie
My grandmother did tatting, a lace work done with a tiny plastic shuttle which produced doilies. I have a large variegated doilie that she made but it is in the closet. In my house it would be a big dust collector. When I was young I did crochet, embroidery and some knitting. I taught myself to sew at boarding school when I was 14. When I was 17 I learned to weave on a loom. I like the art and enjoyment of crafting things for my own fashion purposes. My mother was an advanced self styler creating matching hats, shoes and belts to go with her dresses. All of these activities are so satisfying until…..you make a mistake. Then you find there is only one way out of your predicament..rip it out and start again. The entire time you are ripping it out you must take care not to damage the materials, which requires that you not enter rip out rage too deeply. This was agony to me, so I became a potter. If you blow your creation before firing you simply quickly turn it back into mud. If my pots were ugly and I did not want them to live I put them in a bush in the desert and shot them with a 22 pistol. There was no ripping and remorse. A different kind of patience is required to make pots. You just accept that a certain percentage will fail and that is fine.
Last week I opened a message on Ancestry.com from a common descendant of Swain Smith. I am always happy to hear from my fam on Ancestry because they bring extra data and sometimes have documents and pictures to share. This cousin pointed out to me that I had an obvious error in my tree. Swain’s father married twice, and I had listed his mother as the second wife. Since he had been born before the second marriage my mistake was easy to spot. I have revised my tree, and now have no clue about the pedigree of Swain’s real mother. I can only rip out the branches of the tree that I built on a specious assumption and start again. I am so totally back in crochet world. I have to go back to the place where I skipped the loop of my 4th great-grandmother, Sarah Archer, born in New Jersey in 1787. She is my new mystery woman.
Sarah Archer (1787 – 1866)
is my 4th great grandmother
Husband of Sarah
Son of Henry and Sarah
Son of Swain
Daughter of Jerimiah
Son of Minnie M
Son of Ernest Abner
I am the daughter of Richard Arden
@Pontifex Punts
February 12, 2013
— 1 Comment
To tweet as the holy father of the Catholics was a much dirtier job than Benedict could ever have imagined. His twitter stream is full of everything that life contains, much of it funny and irreverent. Since he longhand wrote his tweets (in Latin?) and was assisted in the typing of 140 characters, we can only assume he did not read all his tweeps remarks to him. He kept a certain distance from his own stream, since this was the first papal twitter stream and had to be approached with caution. Ironically he is the oldest pontiff elected in 300 years, so his decision to enter social media was a little off beat. The Vatican social media experts will now need to make some decisions.
Does the handle stay with the office or will Benedict be tweeting as @Pontifex in his retirement? Will he start to type his own and read those of his tweeps? Is he finished with twitter? Will the tweeps be more kind to him now that he has end of life issues in public? Will the new Pope have a fan page and G+ account for hanging out? Will the Vatican social media presence develop customer service that wows Catholics back to church? Will prayers be launched to protect the church and the Pope from trolls? These and many other questions will face the new Pope. #Paxvobiscum.
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