Bravest generation

Brilliant David France documentary on first days of ActUp and TAG. The documentary is playing on PBS. It is so emotional to see the faces of so many who I knew those days who died. I will go back to the documentary to freeze frame to sort out more in depth. I was also happy to remember the passion and determination of people who were organizing to stop the genocide.

 I am in the background of the film at one of the innumerable ActUp meetings at the lgbt center. The meetings were amazing... hours, packed attendance, anyone could and did speak. Democracy in action. And out of the process people changed our world. It was a fight but it was to save lives. The center was in my neighborhood.. the NYC that no longer remains due to gentrification and Bloomberg.

Looking at the documentary I remember that we really are the bravest generation when I think of the overwhelming hostility, the deaths and fighting for our lives, being a survivor. Phoned and emailed friends, one of whom lived with David France in the East Village in the early 1980s, and another who worked with him at Newsweek. Such a small world but the advocacy world of NYC. Pointed out the documentary to neighbors none of who. m have much experience with the demonstrations of those times.. Bravo to David France for his dynamic history, and thank you for bringing back memories of a time, the love, the people, part of the zeitgeist of my youth.

My love and thoughts again to all of those I loved, the people who loved them, the heroic people who provided care. AIDS is also a story about compassion

http://surviveaplague.com/ on PBS tonight.

Lucid Dreaming

The structures of lucid dreaming: timelines, sounds, visuals, feelings.. Reading "Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" again. The best book on how to meditate, understanding the inner process when one dies, doing phowa, dream consciousness. 

Anoche, involved in 1912, 1945, 1953, 1987 Berlin (at least in Wilhelmine buildings and the Anhalt Hauptbahnhof). Time travelling with Mrs. von Ameringen, a Brigitte Mira lookalike, in sort of a spy/adventure dream.. figuring out who wanted to "silence" von Ameringen. I love the films of Brigitte Mira especially her work with El Hedi ben Salem!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2005/mar/25/guardianobituaries.filmnews

Koln Gut Freitag 10 Avril 2009

Koln is a metaphor for my Good Friday. 3 visits to Koln on Good Friday. 1987, 1988, 1990. Love coming into the hauptbahnhof and seeing the Koln Dom! Certainly one of our world's memorable vistas!

The b/w are in April, 1987, my first visit to Koln. Travelled with a friend and we went to the Dom, then walk along the river, back to the hauptbahnhof. We took the sleeper train to Munich that night! The color photo in January, 1989.

Was in Koln on Good Friday, 1988, but late and decided to leave the area. There was a soccer match and i witnessed the biggest display of public drunkenness that I have witnessed anywhere before or since. The NYC Saint Patrick's Day is relatively sober in relation to that Koln nacht! Not speaking much German nor any dialect, travelling alone, I decided to continue my train journey on German railpass!

Over time religious theology has had less interest for me from any literal sense of course but also as a metaphor. My theology is that there is a spirituality in the world but it has different content and practice. I look at religious practice in an ethnographic lens. Watching, listening, appreciating. Oft times, I like the music or smells or rituals. Religious practice embodies histories.... Dordrecht, Worms, Zwingli, Saint Augustine, Akbar, Sufis, indigenous dieties. Over time, I completely doubt the reason for a cruxification. Why would a God create such a dilemma? I dont think of a Satan although I have certainly seen evil in the world. Sin oftimes is mental illness or sociopathic behavior. I appreciate social activism practiced by religous peoples but I cannot understand all the literal, sin, damnation. I appreciate the Buddhist sense of helping to ease suffering. I believe in the worth of all, social conscience, helping to ease suffering. I have no issues with those who go to "church" although I have problems with the ideological focus to force others to conform to a particular viewpoint. I particularly abhore the orthodoxy of Christians, Muslims, Jews as there is no one answer. My usual retort to Christian zealots about being saved to go to heaven is that "since I dont want to be with them on Earth, I couldnt imagine being with them in eternity". As usual the orthodox are more about what one may only know or the problems in one's head. Once again, thanks to the Obama administration for their actions to adjust the insanity of the orthodox in the hypocritical Bush years.

Happy Oster weekend!

Saw the am news shows heute for the first time in ages. Interesting to watch the spins. Big coverage on the pirate situation off Somalia. Tragic but going on for months. Relief agencies have had their cargos looted, cruise ships have been boarded over time. I last followed news that the French navy was intercepting a few months ago. I dont know how defense protocols have evolved, not following the situation recently. But, the jingoistic news coverage is fascinating! Interesting to hear the posturing about what the US should do. Once again, kudos for President Obama's statement that these are international waters and not much we can concretely do instantaneously at the moment. It is a pleasure not to hear a knee jerk reaction immediately! I will read the UN and affiliate feeds to learn more about the problem solving.

Typical Good Friday... lots of closings, people having the day off. Quiet, or quieter outside. Many parties for the weekend what with a 3day holiday.

peace, hugs, compassion

Black Madonna et faux AfroSwiss

Long chat with one of my almost 30jahre of friendship buddies about her experience in Poland being called the "Black Madonna", her hand stroked, people even bowed! Her visit was during the "cold war" on one of those junkets organized to get Western currency. She went to an international social work conference and then on to the tour junket. Visiting one of the Black Madonna shrines, she encountered many who obviously never met a person of color, or a "Western" person of color. The simplicity of real feelings and simple respect! Great story, and of course in my mind, she is a Black Madonna. She furthermore related the story at a nonprofit board meeting. Most of the members were bewildered having little understanding of the nuances of race, class, geography. The apartheid of class what with a board being primarily very wealthy "white people" helping the poor, primarily working class people of color. The dynamics of high/low... but I say "God Bless Obama" for changing some of the lenses!

Interesting history of the Black Madonnas in Europe. Often destinations for pilgrimages due to histories of "miracles" around the statue/painting. One of the most interesting in Bavaria where the heart of King Ludwig kept. And, the Black Madonna of Croatia!

In April, 1987, travelled in Western Europe with a NYC buddy. In Zurich, on the quai alongside the ZurichSee, an entertainer stopped him, delighting in his being an African American. My buddy delighted in his celebrity at times being an African American in Switzerland and Germany. The simple exchanges of interactions in other locales! A big event in his life being outside the subway universe many of us only traverse for years! Great cross-cultural stories! It was fascinating to watch people interact with him!

Reminder also of how one never really knows how another processes their interpretation of who one is, what one is saying. A similiar notion of how people present who they want others to think they are albeit the reality may be very different. But mostly, the reality that one can change the lenses and be seen and survive in a very positive light. of course, that is the story of American Babylons such as NYC, Los Angeles, Chicago! In more high/low, Madonna uses religious imagery such as in the probably Martin de Porres to comfort her in a video. Reality.. loved seeing Cocteau's La Belle et la bete again! toujours la belle!

Monday, a new, short semester. Happy to have had the story of my friend's experience in Poland whilst thinking of how I will start a new semester. Once again, the importance of my reminding students that they are a distinct minority in actually getting a college degree from an accredited college. Jobs, whatever may come and go, but no one will phone and ask for one's diploma back. Research can be a stress for many students but I remind them that everyone else in their degree area finished and they are no different! It is about changing the lenses so that one can process how much is known research but thinking out of the scientific method, or just critical thinking is not always developed! It is part of the responsibility of being an educated person!

thanks again to the universe for my Black Madonna buddy, and that first Euro tour with a NYC buddy!

hugs, peace, compassion

Turk thoughts March 08, 2009

President Obama is making a brilliant decision to visit Turkey this April after the G20 summit in London! Turkey is one of the countries that I look at in keeping some paradigm about the world. I have known a number of Turks over the years, and I read theorists who see Turkey as that bridge between the Europe and Asia.

1987 pastel of a graduate school friend from Columbia University. She and I would pal around a lot. She came with me to visit my Mom and siblings one holiday. She came to a Citibank company picnic with me one summer. We were residents at the International House. She worked in television. She was one of the political refugees from the Turkish Army coups in the 1970s. She came to NYC from Paris. One of the many who could not go back home. Dunno what happened to her... she moved to Queens and we lost touch.

This past year I read Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul! Wow, such a fascinating read! A book I lived through, looking up references online, looking at my own memories in other ways. A fascinating book.

From my SIPA days, I have thought about the end of the Ottoman empire and the absence of a muslim political entity in international politics. The Ottoman empire was cut up into pretend nations by the European powers after WWI. Today we have nations such as Iraq, almost 100 years old, part of the Ottoman empire for centuries, and still the power vacuum. The whole mideast and the Muslim world does not have that power it had as an international broker for centuries. We have yet, as a world community, to figure that power gap out. Today, we have Iran versus Saudi Arabia, orthodox versus modernists say in Lebanon, and the sad legacy of no resolution for Palestine.

I think it quite astute that Open Society aka the Soros Fund, has an office in Istanbul. Turkey plays a significant role by its years of brokering as a NATO member and part of other multinational relationships. Not only the Ottoman legacy, but also the years of Turkish emigration in the EU. The Turk presence particularly in Holland and Germany. I am quite pleased by Obama's decision!

peace, hugs, compassion