Magic
Magic
Magic
must be
real.
Bob Schwartz
September 5, 2016
September 5, 2016
International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union
It’s #LaborDay. My Grandpa Harry was a member of the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU). He made beautiful coats. I still keep one of his union dues cards among my treasures.
All this talk about “Made in America” is incomplete. If we want things made in America, instead of all the other countries most of us buy most of our stuff from, we will pay a price. Unless we are planning to pay American workers the substandard wages of many of our import nations, we have to be willing to pay more for our goods. Are we willing? Are you willing?
Meanwhile, here’s the once famous song of the ILGWU. Maybe it can be famous again.
Look for the Union Label
Look for the union label
when you are buying that coat, dress or blouse.
Remember somewhere our union’s sewing,
our wages going to feed the kids, and run the house.
We work hard, but who’s complaining?
Thanks to the I.L.G. we’re paying our way!
So always look for the union label,
it says we’re able to make it in the U.S.A.!
And view this ILGWU singing ad from 1978.
Happy Labor Day.
September 3, 2016
Knots
1
Prayer Rope
Prayer rope
Strung with knots
To count
But not
To untie.
2
Knots
Cut off
The knots
You can’t untie
But keep them.
September 2, 2016
Taco Trucks on Every Corner. Pizza Shops Too.
Latinos for Trump founder Marco Gutierrez said yesterday “My culture is a very dominant culture. And it’s imposing, and it’s causing problems. If you don’t do something about it, you’re going to have taco trucks on every corner.”
This was meant as a comment on immigration, not food. Without going into the complexities of immigration or the bizarre backwardness/cluelessness/meanness of the Trump campaign, it does make you think about the connection.
If we had done something about the Italians (and we tried) maybe we wouldn’t have pizza shops on every block. Same for the Chinese and Chinese restaurants. Same for Eastern European Jews and bagel shops. And so on.
We do have pizza shops and/or Chinese restaurants and/or bagel shops on many blocks, even in the smallest towns. Taco and burrito shops too. We are better for it. This probably doesn’t tell us how to deal with the very difficult issue of immigration. But it does tell us something about America and American values and American culture. Just as the remark by Gutierrez tells us something hard to digest about Trump and some of his followers.
September 1, 2016
While You Are Sleeping
While You Are Sleeping
Messages arrive
While you are sleeping.
Ignore them.
Would you rather
Wake up to a postman
Intruding at the door
Or to the dawn, sun
Silence and thoughts
From eons ago?
You’ve got mail.
September 1, 2016
Music for the Last Gasp of Summer: September
Depending on where you are, September may or may not be the last gasp of summer.
But it is the name of the greatest piece of September music ever recorded.
Play September by Earth Wind & Fire.
The bell was ringing
Our souls were singing
Do you remember
Never a cloudy day
If you’re not moving, check your pulse, or have someone else check it for you (that can be fun).
Me? I’m out front, dancing among the flower and vegetable beds, in front of God and everybody. Who cares how it looks? It’s September.
August 30, 2016
Laughing at Swallowing a Flaming Iron Ball
This morning I laughed at a few translated lines from a great and serious spiritual classic. The Dhammapada is a brief (423 verses in 26 chapters) collection of the sayings of the Buddha. For over two thousand years, there may have been no more succinct summary of the heart of Buddhism.
As with the Bible, there are many translations of the Dhammapada from Pali into English, each with its own character. I keep a number of different translations handy, and given that chapters are short, it is possible to easily compare.
I was reading Chapter 25, called variously The Monk, The Practitioner, The Seeker, The Bhikku. In the very loose and poetic translation by Thomas Byrom, the chapter begins:
Master your senses,
What you taste and smell,
What you see, what you hear.
In all things be a master
Of what you do and say and think.
Be free.
You are a seeker.
Delight in the mastery
Of your hands and your feet,
Of your words and your thoughts.
It is at verse 371 that I got my laugh. There the worthy translation by Ven. Balangoda Ananda Maitreya reads:
Do not allow your heart to whirl in the pleasures of senses.
Do not swallow a flaming iron ball and then,
As you burn, cry out, “Oh, that hurts!”
I can’t explain, exactly, what is funny about that last line. It just is. Compared to the other translations of what you might say swallowing this hot iron ball (“This is woe!”, “This is pain!”, “This is suffering!”, “No more!”), “Oh, that hurts!” just tickled me.
Note: Some other translations of the Dhammapada worth looking at:
Juan Mascaro (The first I ever read, excellent, and an awesome bargain as an ebook: $.95 v. $6.38 for the paperback.)
August 29, 2016
Gravity
Gravity
This beautiful truth
Lifts me up
Weightless in the sky.
This ugly truth
Drags me down
Into the abyss.
I try knowing no difference
To make peace with gravity.
August 26, 2016
Trump Won’t Deport Dudettes & The Trump Magic 8 Ball
CNN reports on the latest version of Trump’s ever-changing immigration policy:
Trump said that on his first day in office, he would authorize law enforcement to actively deport “bad dudes,” such as those who have committed crimes, which he said numbered “probably millions.” But he declined to flatly say whether he would round up other undocumented immigrants, stressing that once the initial deportations occur, “then we can talk.”
“There is a very good chance the answer could be yes,” Trump said when asked if he would deport those who have lived here peacefully but without papers. “We’re going to see what happens.”
What about “bad dudettes”? Will he deport them?
Trump’s statement, “There is a very good chance the answer could be yes” sounds exactly like something from a Magic 8 Ball.
For comparison, here are the five neutral/equivocal answers you would get from a Magic 8 Ball (or Trump):
Reply hazy try again
Ask again later
Better not tell you now
Cannot predict now
Concentrate and ask again
August 23, 2016
Abbeville, Louisiana and the Flood
Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, Louisiana is something more than special.
Here’s the bridge across the Vermilion River. That’s St. Mary Magdalen Church on the right.
Here’s Magdalen Square.
Here’s what Abbevile looked like on Saturday, August 13, during the flood.
This is a link to Vermilion Today, online home of the Abbeville Meridional newspaper, if you want to learn what’s going on after the flood.
This is a link to the Red Cross, if you’d like to donate something for the special people of Louisiana, who are suffering through perhaps the worst U.S. natural disaster in the past four years.
Finally, here’s a picture taken last December at the church. To lift your spirits. And open your hearts.
