"Ai Weiwei- Never Sorry"

I encourage everyone to learn about and follow the works of an amazing artist-activist in China. Ai Weiwei. On YouTube you can find a snippets of the documentary about him called, "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry." To watch the whole thing you'll have to go to Netflix or some other movie house. It's a perfect example of the kind of action which is desperately needed here in the States!!! Here's a condensed bit of info plus shots from the movie. 

Ai Weiwei's parents were protesters, themselves. His father was a poet who earned himself and his wife more than a few years in a labor camp. Ai spent a few years there, as well. He became an artist which did not graduate from the 'acceptable' academy in China and so his art is known as outsider art. It's all inflammatory, all real, and always relevant. The Chinese government passionately hates him and his international stardom. Trying to rein him in only makes his retaliatory acts more daring.

In 2008 he designed "The Birdsnest" stadium structure for the Olympics. It all went downhill from there because he was finally woken up to what kind of protest was necessary to promote change in China. It's been a battle staying alive since then. 

This  picture below shows the installation art ("Remembering") he created entirely from 9,000 children's backpacks in the wake of the devastating 2008 earthquuake which killed so many thousands. The pictures Ai saw after the incident of backpacks strewn everywhere around these schools haunted him.

"She lived happily for seven years in this world," which was a quote from the parent of one of the victim's mother. This is what the Chinese characters spell out in the installation art. 

Ai and his company were protesting the fact that the Chinese government didn't have an accurate tally of dead and injured. They didn't seem to care at all. The majority of the children killed were in very shoddy government built schools when they collapsed on them. Any time people tried to do compilations of names in these towns the government officials harassed them; obviously something stinky was afoot.

As another form of protest he and his company compiled a list of every child they could find out about. By April of 2009 they had compiled a list totaling 5,385 verifiable names. After he posted their names online the government ripped his blog down. So he had other people post the names to get the word out!! 

Ai is an avid Twitter fanatic. His blog got ripped down a few times by the government so he gave up.  I went to the site and sure enough, it's just a blanket page with a link about the government suing him and a few links. But on Twitter he is a chatterbox.

Here he is eating outside a cafe with a dozen anonymous friends who sat down to eat with him. That act alone was defiance on their part. The police showed up and tried to harass him to leave. He didn't. Everyone finished their meals. The police could only watch and glare at them.

The Chinese government finally got tired of his antics and....

Ai was detained at Beijing airport by police when he was trying to board a plane to Hong Kong. Protests and rallies have helped spread the word of what Chinese officials have done.

They held Ai Weiwei for eighty-one days in an undisclosed location and interrogated him about his 'unlawful activities' within his art. They were interested in his publicity interviews and online activities. They detained him under the guise of investigating his company's finances. He was released after admitting to 'tax evasion(which he later lost in court but is refusing to pay out) and put on probation which prohibited him from speaking to reporters, blogging or tweeting, or leaving the city of Beijing.

The sign above is one which was at a protest rally in China at a police station. Sorry about the movie control area graying out a portion of it. It says, "China Set Them Free!" That is a list of the number of writers, lawyers, artists, teachers, and other intellectuals who were all systematically rounded up around the same time as Ai. 


The artist reappeared over two months later, shaken, and wouldn't talk to anyone for quite some time. He said that he was out on bail and couldn't access his Twitter account or talk about anything that happened. It didn't stop him for long, though. Within weeks he was back at it.

In 2011 the government demolished his art studio which had just been completed. Ai invited people to an outdoor barbecue to celebrate but he couldn't attend the party himself because he was placed on house arrest. Celebrate what, you ask? Friendship!!! Camaraderie! Harmony! The joy of being alive. Later that day the building they celebrated in was demolished by government workers. The party was the only act of defiance they could really make. 

One of his most notable recent works was a short film featuring Ai writing in Chinese characters on a white background and then several people coming to stand before they camera and saying, "Fuck you, motherland," in their native tongue and then walking away from the camera's view. Ai was last. The international art community, along with Human Rights Watch, collectively felt their jaws hit the floor. This was one of his most provocative works. No one could be sure what would happen to him now.

In April of 2012, Ai set up several cameras to monitor him at his house and linked the feed online. His reason was that the Chinese government already had a dozen cameras on him already, 24/7, so what's four more? Forty-six hours after his cameras went live the government demanded he removed them. They received over five million views before being disconnected.  

I'd like everyone reading this to pause for a moment to consider the implications here. The government can watch your every move and it's ok. But if you hook up a live feed to the internet and allow the rest of the world to watch you-- it's NOT ok?  

I know at this point it's not just an act of defiance on his part, it's for his own personal safety.  Still, it is an artist's statement which deserves to be analyzed on a global scale. What would happen if you tried to do the same thing??

And so now we watch and wait to see what happens to this brave man. 

Here is a link to his Twitter account. It's in Chinese.  Does anyone know how I can translate that whole page to English??  

The Nearness of God

∞

Why would the nearness of something so divinely beautiful make you feel unease?

Some fundamentalists/literalists claim to get queasy from his presence. Some feel a bit of fear. Some say "No! It's not fear its... awe." I ask you to further probe that 'awe' and take a big step toward truth. This 'awe' is simply fear in disguise of your shaking knees and loud Hallelujah's. Once you quiet your own voice and turn to really, truly listen, then you hear it. Him. Really listening means that you're not hearing yourself talk. It's a difficult concept, even for those who've studied meditation for years.

Is all the talk getting in the way? 

Is this perhaps a fear of going higher than what you can perceive of as being available currently? 

Is it the fear of lacking structure and getting lost? Why would you think he would let you flounder?

What would it take for you to release your inhibitions; not like a drunkard grabbing yet another bottle and increasing his or her lacking control, but of an adult making the decision to grow and expand beyond what they currently know? 

Electric Universe and other Nerdy Goodness

This title is said with much love. My house is the only house I know of that thinks reading about quantum physics is fun on Sunday morning after a bowl of cereal-- and that's including both kids. Hearing the screaming fights over chess matches which end with spurting bloody noses.. ye gods. My kids are not geniuses but they have been raised to think outside the box.

I tripped over an awesome site and wanted to let you know that it's now been added to Gnostic Unrest in the Alternative News Sources list. Thunderbolts.info!! SPECTACTULAR site jam packed with stuff for everyone to drool over who is of a mathematical/science mindset. Great pics, too! Check 'em out.

The Smallest Particle of God?

The earliest 'God particle' to be conceived of is in this equation: 

 

This is the residual energy thought to be contained within a single energy radiator or a 'vibrating atomic unit.' 

Albert Einstein and Otto Stern wrote about Zero-Point Energy in 1913.

Repentance and Guilt

Guilt = self flagellation  

I've been reading the Songs of Solomon and contemplating the nature of dogmatic driven guilt which is hammered into the mind of every person within ear's reach of a fundamentalist church. 

Also, my own thirteen year old son inspired this post when he said Friday afternoon, "I wish I could just punch myself until I quit doing what I'm doing wrong!" He got a B on an Algebra quiz for criminey's sake. I asked what he thought beating himself up was going to accomplish and he said, "I'd wake up." That was an interesting response, and not one I was expecting. I told him that I'm not going to feed him coffee intravenously and maybe he just needed more sleep and/or to study a bit more. That didn't pacify him and he went off on a rant. Later, we read the following scripture together and talked about it.


Part of Song 11

"I threw off vanity and turned to my god,
and his bounty made me rich.
I threw off the madness of the earth;
I stripped that madness from me
and cast it away.

And the lord renewed me
in his raiment
and held me in his light.
From above he gave me uncorrupted ease,
and I was like land deep and happy in its orchards, 
and the lord was sun on the face of the land."

___________________________________________________

My conclusion is this: Not for god's sake- but for YOUR sake... stop beating yourself up!

He knows you're going to falter in your resolutions to change(and you're not always going to remember precisely how to solve a quadratic equation by factoring every time you're asked to) and He knows the past deeds you regret and are still trying to come to terms with. He knows you're human. He knows. He knows. He knows. He knows ALL. So cast off the guilt and plant his happiness in your heart and soul. That's right where he belongs.

You can move forward, accepting your stumbles along the way. The Good God doesn't want you to feel heavy hearted if you've learned a lesson thoroughly. Shed your guilt. He's not going to beat you up like a boxer on the other side of a ring. He is not an opponent! He is our closest friend, our lover, our dearest everything. He's the pure gold fondant cake topper on the thickest fudge cake in the world, a la mode with Godiva icecream. He's fine caviar, baby. He knows he's the best of everything and makes no issue of hugging the bejesus out of you any time he feels like you might need it and sometimes just because he's thinking of you. He asks for very little in return.

The chains of dogmatic based guilt are heavy and only need to be worn as long as you need to. But growing past that stage is essential. That is what he asks of us.

Have you ever held a colicky baby? Or how about had a friend or loved one who constantly beat themselves up and had nothing else to say but, "You'll never believe how I screwed up now. You gotta help me dig myself out of this hole!" There's only ever going to be a steady stream of crying and unhappiness coming from those types of people, little or big. Victims. Victims of themselves, but victims nonetheless. Victims of their short sightedness and victims of the world itself.

Growing in gnosis means growing up, period. Holding the perpetually crying infant isn't fun. Don't get me wrong, he's not going to drop your or shake you because he's annoyed--(I don't think he gets annoyed)-- but try to see things from his perspective sometime. Like a parent with a whiny kid.

No human being is ever going to be 'good enough' to see god until they shed that guilt of simply being what we are-- human. 

$3.43 Best Pea Soup

At the risk of boring the hell out of my Readers, I have another recipe I wanted to share.  But hey, who wouldn't want to fix a dinner for four people on only $3.43?!!  Times are tough and they're only getting tougher. We've only got one income in our home and I've got two growing adolescent boys who threaten to eat us out of house and home every time the dinner bell rings. If we had a dinner bell, anyway. 

This pea soup recipe is one of my own. I just combined things we like and voila. It's very tasty. Your house will smell so good while it's cooking, too. Give it a try! And if you like it then you can very easily double it and freeze it. That's what I do all summer while the kids are away-- make stews and freeze them. It's very handy when there is a crazed day ahead of us or I just don't feel like cooking.

Best Pea Soup only takes about 45 minutes to make from start to finish. This recipe makes four servings if they're used as a main course. It also fills 1/2 a gallon freezer bag just to give you an idea of possibilities for the future.

Cost	Ingredients
$1.08	1 lb dried split peas
$.22	½ large spicy white onion, diced or chopped, your choice.
$.10	2 heaping tablespoons of minced garlic(jar garlic is cheapest, which is what I use)
$.99	4 oz. finenly chopped raw bacon, smoked. (Chop with kitchen shears. Super easy!)
$.05	One small dash of Kitchen Bouquet Browning Sauce(about 3 tbs.)
	6 cups of water.

We like steamed baby carrots on the side of this dish so that's an additional $.99 for a 1 lb bag. That's how the math adds up to $3.43. Aldi has these bags of baby carrots on sale right now for $.53 so YAY! I can make this particular meal this week for even less!

Here are the directions for the soup.

1. In a medium/large pot fry your onion, bacon, garlic, and browning sauce. Stir well and cook until onions are almost translucent. Bacon will not be crispy. 
2. Rinse your split peas and then add them to the pot plus the six cups of water. 
3. Simmer with tilted lid on medium heat until peas are very soft, almost 30-40 minutes. Six cups of water is the perfect amount. Stir well to bring up the water from the bottom of the pot to convince yourself of this if you need to. When it's done cooking and you've done enough stirring, the soup will look like a thick green gravy. Taste test it to make sure the peas are soft and fall apart. You don't want even slightly crunchy peas.

A sprinkle of course sea salt, to taste, is awesome in this soup. It really makes the flavors pop.

Possible additions: 

• Shredded cheeses on top. Smoked gouda is sublime with this soup.
• A dollop of sour cream.
• Nooch(nutritional yeast).

What else do you like on your pea soup?

Holy Ghost or Pleroma?

As I sat today re-reading an earlier post an idea occurred to me and I wanted to run it by you to see what you think. Here's what triggered it. I wrote: 

"When I was a Christian in the dogmatic sense, I never once felt the Holy Ghost. I did feel(what I now recognize) pleroma trying to bust down my mental doors, but there was nothing Ghostly about it, not in anyway the Holy Ghost has ever been described as a spirit or essence of god."

With the vibrancy and overwhelming love and sense of completion people report feeling when the "Holy Ghost comes upon them" do you think it's possible that the Holy Ghost for hylics/somatics, for your typical literalist Christian is really pleroma?!! 

Is it possible? Has he been trying to sneak in like this all along? Is this just one way literalists are waking up? 

Maybe the people who dogmatically read and study the Holy Ghost are only looking at the tip of the iceberg. Maybe, just maybe, those people who actually experience it are tapping into something those dogmatic intellects aren't seeing at all. And maybe it's not what they've been told it is at all. 

What do you think about this?

Turmeric Ginger Milk

Every once in a while you know I gotta talk about food. I just get the urge to share. My argument is this: There is too gnosis in food!! ... that sounds kinda bratty but ... there ya go. That's the only excuse I'm ever going to give. Food is medicine and good food is good medicine. You'll never hear me say that tofu is good food, though. Sorry. Been there, done that, and got really really weak and sick. Never again.

Well, here's a delicious way to get your dose of turmeric which is super healthy for the immune system and digestion overall. Very relaxing in the evening. I found the recipe on some site which I can't recall now. This stuff is sublime, otherwise you'd never see me yapping about it here. So take a leap and try something unusual in your kitchen with me today.

Some might say, "Ginger tea, ok.. yeah, alright. I go with you on this. But Ginger MILK? And TURMERIC? Angel, what the hell were you smoking?"

No drugs were involved in the making of this milk. I swear. lol. It is delicious and a fantastic way to enjoy the benefits of this spice, of which there are many.

It called for two cups of milk. I halved the milk to make it a single serving but kept the measurement for the spices and it tastes divine. I can't drink 16oz of milk, sorry. Tummy just can't do it. But I can drink 8oz.

Helpful hints for price and other issues are at the end of the post.  It's not expensive to make but I do have some hints to help you out to make it dirt cheap.

Here's how you make it and what you'll need:

• One small stainless steel pot
• One metal spoon for stirring
• 8oz milk(whatever fat content you desire)
• One pinch of ground(or freshly grated) ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• One pinch of fresh ground black peppercorns

Put your milk into your pot and turn on your stove to Medium. If you have a gas stove it'll be a tad bit lower.

Add all three spices.

 

Mix with your metal spoon(now do you see why you need a metal pot without Teflon coating?) while cooking and make sure you're scraping the bottom of the pot. Cook for about three minutes until you see little bubbles formed around the edge. Don't cook until it's boiling, it'll form a skin and you don't want that. Cook until it's steaming.

If you don't scrape the bottom well this is what your pot will look like when you're done. A lot of the spice will sink and will get stuck there. It's not hard to wash off, but that is spice that you're not getting in your drink.

Don't worry if you get this bright yellow milk on your stove or counter. Read the Tips below. Easy cleanup.

Now pour your turmeric ginger milk into your mug and sip to your heart's content!

If you choose to use freshly grated ginger you'll find that some of the slivers will float and some will sink. The ones that sink are really mellow tasting by the time you get to them.

I've even started sprinkling a bit of turmeric in my older cat's mushed up food. Poor thing only has a few teeth left and we have to mash her food up for her. She seems to eat more when I put the dash of turmeric in it. I leave out the pepper, though.

Here is the little princess herself. She just got shaved yesterday that's why you can see her pink skin in some areas. She feels like suede.

Helpful hints:

1.  Do not brush your teeth for at least thirty minutes after drinking this milk. Your toothbrush will turn neon yellow and you'll freak out. I learned this one personally. I don't have any problems with teeth staining from this drink but the turmeric does linger for a while so do yourself a favor and hold off with the toothpaste. Besides, turmeric is antibacterial! You're actually doing something good for your teeth by drinking this concoction.
2. Turmeric is a pretty potent dye. It'll wipe right up off of stoves and any other non porous surface very easily but if you happen to get it on a Formica counter top you'll need to put a dot(yes, just a dot) of bleach or a spray containing bleach on the stain. No scrubbing involved. It wipes right up after you let the bleach spray sit for about ten seconds. This is, yet again, something learned from first hand experience. I hyperventilated the first time I got turmeric laden liquid on the counter. I thought our rent deposit would be gone for sure. Nope. Nothing a little bit of bleach can't take care of.
3. Don't be surprised if you have mild 'hot flashes' by the time you get to the bottom of your cup. Ginger is a warming spice and the body does react accordingly. I tried chilling the concoction and it's horrible. But you may like it. Try it and see. I just don't think this is a very good cold drink.
4. I've found that dried and powdered ginger spice tastes just as good as raw ginger; just... different. Sometimes I like chewing on the tiny bits of ginger and other times I'm not in the mood. I keep a small chunk of ginger in my crisper for this reason. A good way to keep the root fresh as long as possible is to put it in a small ziplock bag, put in a paper towel with it, close the bag and then poke a few holes in it. Every time you use the ginger replace the paper towel with a fresh dry one. It absorbs moisture.
5. Turmeric is a pricey spice in some areas and from certain brands. Buy in bulk if possible. I can buy 14oz of turmeric from my local GFS for only $9.99!  McCormick is over $4 an oz by comparison so definitely shop around for the best deal.  
6. I also buy black peppercorns in bulk. To start off, though, you can get McCormick's pre-filled peppergrinder at Walmart for under $2. Not a bad deal at all. Until you figure that you can buy just under a POUND of peppercorns for under $8 at bulk spice areas, pop off the McCormick grinder lid and refill it. Niice! Now I use the different varieties in peppercorns on just about everything I make including meats.

I think a small dollop of pureed/canned pumpkin might be interesting to stir into this. I'll try it this Fall and if it's any good I'll let you know. 

Coconut milk might be good to use in place of cow's milk. I'm allergic to coconut so I can't try it but if you do then be sure to comment and let us know. Almond milk might be workable, however I read somewhere that almond milk that's heated too long can turn bitter. Anyone know anything about that?