announcing postcards-from-nowhere.com!

just found out blogger is discontinuing the service that allowed me to host my blog at karenalonge.com.  so as of ten minutes ago, postcards from nowhere has a new home:  http://www.postcards-from-nowhere.com/.  come by and say hello!  all of my previous entries are there. 

this url here will remain active for another month or so, and then it should automatically redirect you to the new place if you forget how to get there.  

I'm sure there will be some bugs for me to work out, so please let me know if you encounter any problems.  You'll need to resubscribe at the new site to continue receiving email notification of new posts. When you get there, look for the subscribe box in the sidebar on the right. 

Also, I'd love to hear what you think of the colors, readability, layout, etc.  There were so many wonderful options to choose from!  (This green one here is a cookie cutter template that I could not alter.  I don't actually like green very much ...)

now THIS is a creative response to conflict!

Counter protesters carried randomly absurd signs, including I Have A Sign, I'm Tired, and I Was Promised Donuts, in response to a hate campaign mounted by a small group of traveling rabble rousers who were picketing the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco. I love this story on so many levels that I can't even express myself coherently. I just can't stop grinning.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/1/31/832439/-Westboro-Baptist-Church-Pwned

not rowing my boat

I got sick this week, for the first time in a couple years. Nothing major -- a sore throat followed by some sinusy stuff. It took me a couple days to notice that I wasn't terribly annoyed by it. I just blew my nose when it needed blowing and moved on with my life.

This is a nice contrast to past illnesses, which often pissed me off. I wonder if I'm finally starting to experience the distinction between pain and suffering. Pain is just a sensation. Suffering occurs when I resist the sensation by thinking it shouldn't be happening, or I add some layer of meaning onto an experience.

When I have a headache, I still suffer. Maybe eventually I'll stop resisting that flavor of sensation, too. Or maybe not. Anything could happen.

But this week, I was tired so I just went to bed early. I bought some extra kleenex. I gargled with some salt water when I felt like it. And even when my throat was hurting, I didn't feel Bad about it. I didn't devote a lot of time or energy to trying to get better. I felt pretty confident that it would pass on its own soon enough, and I was fine just taking comfort measures while I waited it out.

It's kinda nice living this way. I like feeling the river moving beneath me and knowing that the current will move me to a new experience whether I row myself or not. And since chances are I'll forget this feeling and grab the oars again, I might as well enjoy coasting for now.

remember that woman who carried a pregnancy for her friend?

here's the happy outcome:
http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_14287558?source=most_viewed

wisdom from alan watts

I'm reading a ragged, coffeestained paperback edition of The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts, courtesy of the Boulder Public Library. Gosh this guy has a way with words!

After a very clear and convincing argument that we simply cannot identify an experiencer who is separate from the experience itself, he goes on to say:

The real reason why human life can be so utterly exasperating and frustrating is not because there are facts called death, pain, fear or hunger. The madness of the thing is that when such facts are present, we circle, buzz, writhe, and whirl, trying to get the "I" out of the experience. We pretend that we are amoebas, and try to protect ourselves from life by splitting ourselves in two. Sanity, wholeness, and integration lie in the realization that we are not divided, that man and his present experience are one, and that no separate "I" or mind can be found.

And ... (bolding is mine for emphasis)

If, on the other hand, you are aware of fear, you realize that, because this feeling is now yourself, escape is impossible. You see that calling it "fear" tells you little or nothing about it, for the comparison and the naming is based not on past experience, but on memory. You have then no choice but to be aware of it with your whole being as an entirely new experience. Indeed, every experience is in this sense new, and at every moment in our lives we are in the midst of the new and the unknown. At this point, you receive the experience without resisting it or naming it, and the whole sense of conflict between "I" and the present reality vanishes.

And finally ...

When, on the other hand, you realize that you live in, that indeed you are this moment now, and no other, that apart from this there is no past and no future, you must relax and taste [life] to the full, whether it be pleasure or pain. At once it becomes obvious why this universe exists, why conscious beings have been produced, why sensitive organs, why space, time and change. The whole problem of justifying nature, of trying to make life mean something in terms of its future, disappears utterly. Obviously, it all exists for this moment. It is a dance, and when you are dancing you are not intent on getting somewhere. You go round and round, but you are not under the illusion that you are pursuing something, or fleeing from the jaws of hell.

I find myself circling around these teachings, coming ever closer to just diving all the way in. Today on my morning walk, I was almost brought to tears by the overwhelming joy of simply being able to breathe.

I still feel separated from my experience most of the time, but I think the borders are becoming a bit more diffuse. Not that it matters, really. As long as I sense borders, I can fully embrace and explore the experience of having edges.

And if they happen to drop away, I can fully experience what it feels like to blend. It's all the same when it comes right down to it ... just greet each experience with awareness.

There's no hierarchy of experience -- none more spiritual or evolved than any other -- although some are certainly more pleasurable. Nothing I need to earn or deserve. Just a moment at a time to be lived. And if I miss one for whatever reason, there will be another right on its heels.

dancing inmates

Somehow I missed their first performance -- of Thriller, apparently.
Not sure how great it is for morale to have a bunch of inmates singing they don't really care about us in their heads constantly, but still, this is a pretty cool vid.

an intriguing attempt to reduce poverty

I found this to be an interesting approach to a complex issue: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec09/mexico_12-29.html

Here's an excerpt:

Started 12 years ago by the Mexican government, the program, called Oportunidades -- or Opportunities -- gives a small subsidy every other month to poor mothers, like Santo Domingo resident Sixta Orcasita.

But there is a catch, one that separates Oportunidades from traditional welfare plans. Orcasita and millions of mothers like her across Mexico must first sign a contract to raise healthier, better-educated children.

Orcasita has six children. Both she and her husband, Eraclio Bello, never made it past grade school. To get their cash, they must keep their youngest children, 15-year-old Karina and 13-year-old Alex, in school. They must also bring them in for regular checkups at the health clinic.

And Sixta Orcasita must participate in monthly nutrition classes, so she can cook healthier meals for the family. Attendance is monitored, and the monthly allotment of cash, about $60 for each child, plus a monthly food stipend, will be quickly pulled if mothers fail to get their children to school or clinic. The goal is to break the cycle of poverty.