Zelda's Inferno exercise: "The Action of a Sentence", from Writing Down the Bones. List 10 random nouns, an occupation, and 15 nouns associated with that occupation. Then make interesting sentances.

nouns: red, food, cart, dog, heart, coat, ice, arrow, sign, earring

occupation: a mechanic. verbs: replace, repair, change, open, roll, lift, turn, rotate, pump, test, inspect, weld, hammer, tighten, charge

His heart barrel-rolled in his chest

The dog followed me as if welded to my heel

Her fingers hammered the earring into her flesh

Red changed everything.

There's just no replacement for food.

Why does no one ever repair the stuck wheels of shopping carts?

The button failed, the coat opened, and the purloined merchandise fell to the floor, leading to a shoplifting conviction -- all for the want of a stitch.

Ice welded the gullible kid's tongue to the flagpole.

As the arrow opened his chest and sought his heart, he could only hope the cause for which he was dying was worthwhile.

The sight of the highway sign for Baltimore lifted his spirits.

The dog inspected the empty bag again and again, as if expecting that food would suddenly appear within it.

Hearts open -- sometimes.

The dog rolled lovingly in the April mud.

Ice lifted the rocks as it froze, rewriting geography.

His coat lifted out behind him in the wind, like a pair of wings, like a superhero's cape.

Zeldas Inferno exercise: connect those lines

"Worry was not mine", and "But pain is always required"

worry was not mine
i had put it down somewhere and forgot to pick it up again
fear was not mine
for I saw what was to come
suffering was not mine
mutually exclusive with acceptance
but pain was still there, sure
pain is always required
part of the package deal

anger was not mine
I no longer had time to be angry
and hatred was not mine
I knew the other too well
greed was not mine
I already had everything
but being alive, pain --
pain is always required

disbelieve the one who promises freedom from pain
there is only one way out of that
and there's too much to do first

the question is not the existence of pain
it is, what will you do about it?

suffering, worry, fear, these are optional
but pain --
pain is always required

Zelda's Inferno exercise: write a poem from the following word list, based on the word "exercise":

stretch "feel the burn" pain breathe sweat muscles mountains water run strain jockstrap "sports bra" gym yoga "downward dog" scream fish endurance hospital relax

breathe
relax
scream, if you must, but then

breathe
relax
again
breathe
relax the shoulders, no need to hold them up and tense
breathe
relax the chest, no need to hold it tight
breathe
relax the neck, no need to hold it forward, let the head sit above the spine
breathe

mountains of doubt appear.
ok. breathe. relax. accept.
muscles of the legs complain of the strain.
ok. breathe. relax. accept.
boredom. distraction. desire.
ok. breathe. relax. accept.
strange voices.
ok. breathe. relax. accept.
again, boredom. distraction. desire.
ok. breathe. relax. accept.
angelic visions.
ok. breathe. relax. accept.
demonic threats.
ok. breathe. relax. accept.
anger. fear. regret.
ok. breathe. relax. accept.
confusion. heartache. worry.
ok. breathe. relax. accept.
triumph. failure.
ok. breathe. relax. accept.

there is no other medicine.

Four years ago, March 17, 2007, I celebrated Irish Pride Day in a bar in Osaka, Japan. It was part of a three month stay in Japan that changed my life -- my forthcoming book, Why Buddha Touched the Earth, grew out of things I wrote on that trip. (Got my first nibble from a literary agent about that book this week, by the way.) I'd been to Japan for shorter stays twice before that, and visited again in December 2007. And I've longed to return.

I only spent a little time in Tokyo, and never got as far north as the area devastated by the recent tsunami and earthquake. But like everyone who's been fortunate enough to spend time in Japan, my attention has been riveted on the horrible situation over there. While most of the people I met are much further south in the Kansai region, I've also met students and teachers in our Tokyo area Seido karate programs. So far as I've heard, all of them are safe, though I'm sure they're all affected by the difficult situation and it's probable that some have lost family or friends in the disaster.

There's a lot of attention focused on the nuclear disaster; there's good ongoing coverage at Mother Jones's "Blue Marble" blog. And there are certainly long term implications for energy policy there. Even if total disaster is avoided and the health effects are small enough to be lost in the statistical noise -- not at all a sure thing at this point -- the resources that could have been used to aid earthquake and tsunami survivors but had to be diverted to prevent a meltdown, are a stark example of the hazards of fission power.

But the other half of this -- the beautiful half, the half I hope more people see -- is the stories of how the people of Japan are dealing with this disaster. No looting or price gouging. Instead, a sense of community and a quiet resilience and forbearance.

And so tonight, as I do this time every year, as an American of partially Irish decent, I salute my Irish ancestors. But also tonight, as a student of Japanese martial and healing arts, I salute my forebearers in those arts, and all the people of Japan.

In a recent op-ed, Paul Krugman cuts through the budget fog and points out, "The whole budget debate, then, is a sham. House Republicans, in particular, are literally stealing food from the mouths of babes — nutritional aid to pregnant women and very young children is one of the items on their cutting block — so they can pose, falsely, as deficit hawks."

That the current budget debate is fraudulent is obvious to anyone who's paying attention. As I've mentioned, Wisconsin is a shining example -- Governor Scott Walker gave away over $100 million in tax breaks to the usual members of the investment class before declaring that the state's fiscal situation was so desperate that state employees would just have to bend over and take one for the team.

Says Krugman, "What would a serious approach to our fiscal problems involve? I can summarize it in seven words: health care, health care, health care, revenue."

It is health care -- not the broad category of "entitlements", but specifically health care -- that is set to rise sharply without action, both as the population ages and as our ridiculous system diverts a greater percentage of money away from doctors and nurses and into the pockets of private insurers like UnitedHealth, a company whose annual profits are greater than the entire budget of several states, and also into the coffers of Big Pharma companies, many of which are even bigger than UnitedHealth.

While Obama's health care reform plan is a weak effort, it's the most serious effort out there to address long term deficits.

Krugman continues, "This brings me to the seventh word of my summary of the real fiscal issues: if you’re serious about the deficit, you should be willing to consider closing at least part of this gap with higher taxes. True, higher taxes aren’t popular, but neither are cuts in government programs. So we should add to the roster of fundamentally unserious people anyone who talks about the deficit — as most of our prominent deficit scolds do — as if it were purely a spending issue."

Zelda's Inferno exercise: free write on one or more of the following phrases:

recess begins to have islands of kids
the freely flowing wine
.we could save billions annually
give up the secrets
not just on the local level

we could save billions annually
says the bodhisattva
every single sentient being
signed sealed and delivered from their suffering
Jizo prying open the gates of hell
but you have to bring the people out one at a time
to save one billion people annually
he'd have to save about 32 every second
he's either got to move fast or have a lot of help
so let's all lend a hand
we could save billions annually
and not just on the local level
all throughout the universe
whereever there is intelligence there is a concept of time
whereever there is a concept of time, there is a projection of the
future and a memory of the past
whereever there there is a projection of the future and a memory
of the past, there is the possibility of fear and of regret
suffering is not the unique inheritance of this bunch of apes
that much more work for the bodhisattva
work not just for the Earth-store bodhisattva but the
Mars-store bodhisattva and the Alpha Centauri IV
store bodhisattva
we could save trillions, quadrillions, quintillions
all in a single instant

Saurian Brandy and Romulan Ale may still be lightyears away, but thanks to Australia's 4 Pines Brewing Company, astronauts and cosmonauts may soon be able to enjoy a beer in orbit. (If you don't think that's important, consider that beer might be the beverage that created civilization.)

Their reduced carbonation stout, named "Vostok" in honor of the first manned spacecraft (flown by Yuri Gagarin in 1961), is designed to avoid the gross phenomenon of the free-fall "wet burp", and also to account for changes in the sense of taste brought on by the space environment. But it's also designed to be tasty here dirtside. Sixpacks are available for in selected stores in Australia for around AUD 20. (If any readers down under care to send me a sixer, I'll pay you back...)

Computers have a simple way of keeping time: generally, they count seconds. Real Computers -- those running Unix-like operating systems -- count the number of elapsed seconds since midnight January 1 1970, UTC. As I write this, it's about 1299218806 in this system. That number, often called "Unix time" or a "time_t", is the same in Baltimore, London, or Tokyo. Simple.

But as experienced by us biological organisms, trying to keep our activities somewhat in sync with the diurnal light-dark cycle and the lengthening and shortening of the day over the seasons, time is much trickier.

Most of us only have to think about that when we change the clocks in the spring and fall, or when traveling to a new time zone. But on the internet, a computer in Baltimore might be connected to one in London, several timezones away; and those computers might be analyzing data containing timestamps -- not time_ts like 1299218806, but human-meaningful times like March 4 2011, 1:06:46 am -- from months ago, when daylight savings time was (or wasn't) in effect. Or even from years ago, when the very rules governing daylight savings time were different. Trying to convert from, say, October 31 1985, 7:00 pm Eastern Time to a pure number, or even to UTC time, requires being able to figure out if daylight savings time was in effect in the Eastern time zone at that moment -- a fairly complex question, as the rules have changed twice since that date!

Timezone information is used in such important Internet protocols as DHCP (the protocol that lets your laptop get an IP address -- as well as the local timezone -- from the WiFi service at the airport) and iCalendar (which is what lets you coordinate your meetings via Google Calendar -- or if you're stuck in hell, Outlook).

To keep it straight, since the early 1980s a group of volunteers has maintained the "TZ Database" -- a.k.a. the Olson Database, after its founder, Arthur David Olson. It's an amazing document, as Jon Udell reports -- rich with bits of history and politics.

Now Olson is preparing to retire, and IANA (the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) is considering how to hand off maintenance of the vital bit of infrastructure to someone new.

It's a good opportunity to stop and reflect on how much of this Internet that we take for granted relies on volunteer efforts -- cyber-Tzadikim Nistarim, if you will.

Surprising no one who's been paying attention, it turns out the despite the body scanners, the "gate rape", and the rest of the security theater to which the TSA has subjected us, it remains so easy to get utility knives ("box cutters") on to planes that you can do it by accident. According to the AP, the TSA is sending three screeners at Kennedy airport (in New York) back for remedial training after they let a passenger carry three knives onto a JetBlue flight: "The box cutters fell out of the passenger's carry-on luggage as he was stowing it in an overhead compartment on Flight 837 to Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, on Saturday night, authorities said. Police evacuated the flight and questioned the passenger, who said he used the box cutters for his work and had forgotten to take them out of his bag."

You know what? One guy with a utility knife -- hell, six guys with utility knives -- are no match for a plane full of passengers. In the post-9/11 world where letting attackers take over the pilot's seat is no longer an option, nobody's hijacking a flight with anything sharp and pointy. Can we please get over The Fear, direct our screening efforts at explosives and illegal firearms, and stop harassing people for carrying legitimate tools on their person or in their carry-on?

At the last Free Spirit Alliance meeting, we talked about coming up with a "mission statement" for FSA. We decided that that officers and trustees will discuss this further and come up with a proposal to bring to the membership.

During the original discussion at the meeting, the phrase "education and celebration" popped into my head. I sat down and worked up the following. To some degree it's aspirational rather than representative of what we currently do, but I think that's inherent in the nature of a mission statement. Your comments are welcome.

The Free Spirit Alliance provides opportunities for education and celebration for the Pantheist community.

What does this mean?

Education
FSA presents events that feature expert teachers and presenters on a variety of topics of interest to the community, including ritual and ceremony, deep mythology, spirituality, magic, healing, art and music, and ecology. We also help facilitate communication within the community, so that we can learn from each other. And we promote religious tolerance by serving as an educational resource about Pantheism and Paganism for people outside the community.

Celebration
FSA's events are celebrations! In our gatherings and rituals and Circles, we celebrate the seasons, we celebrate the world, we celebrate Spirit in all its forms, we celebrate our lives, and we celebrate each other. In the words of noted Pagan bard Billy Bardo, “We're also here to celebrate the best of us in you!”

Pantheist
FSA's articles of incorporation open our membership up to "self-professed pantheist[s]". What is a Pantheist? Since it is a matter of self-identification, our official stance is carefully mute on the subject: if you say you're a Pantheist, then you are. But here are some non-binding ideas for consideration:

• "Pantheism is the deep theology of modern paganism." – Paul Harrison, Practice of scientific pantheism
• "Pantheism is the view that the Universe (Nature) and God are identical. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal, anthropomorphic or creator god. The word derives from the Greek: πᾶν (pan) meaning 'all' and θεός (theos) meaning 'God'. As such, Pantheism denotes the idea that 'God' is best seen as a way of relating to the Universe. Although there are divergences within Pantheism, the central ideas found in almost all versions are the Cosmos as an all-encompassing unity and the sacredness of Nature." – Wikipedia
• "Pantheists are persons who derive their fundamental religious experience through their personal relationship with the Universe. They feel that Nature is the ultimate context for human existence, and seek to improve their relationship with the natural world as their fundamental religious responsibility.

  "Religion is seen as a system of reverent behavior toward the Earth rather than subscription to a particular creed. Because Pantheists identify God with Nature rather than an anthropomorphic being, Pantheists oppose the arrogant world-view of anthropocentrism"– Universal Pantheist Society

• "Pantheism is a metaphysical and religious position. Broadly defined it is the view that (1) 'God is everything and everything is God ... the world is either identical with God or in some way a self-expression of his nature'.... Similarly, it is the view that (2) everything that exists constitutes a 'unity' and this all-inclusive unity is in some sense divine.... A slightly more specific definition ... says ... '“Pantheism” ... signifies the belief that every existing entity is, only one Being; and that all other forms of reality are either modes (or appearances) of it or identical with it.' Even with these definitions there is dispute as to just how pantheism is to be understood and who is and is not a pantheist. Aside from Spinoza, other possible pantheists include some of the Presocratics; Plato; Lao Tzu; Plotinus; Schelling; Hegel; Bruno, Eriugena and Tillich. Possible pantheists among literary figures include Emerson, Walt Whitman, D.H. Lawrence, and Robinson Jeffers." – Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• "Pantheism is sexed-up atheism." – Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion