George Harrison R.I.P.

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sat, 01 Dec 2001 12:21:30 GMT
I Know the Way You Can Get

I know the way you can get
When you have not had a drink of Love:

Your face hardens,
Your sweet muscles cramp.
Children become concerned
About a strange look that appears in your eyes
Which even begins to worry your own mirror
And nose.

Squirrels and birds sense your sadness
And call an important conference in a tall tree.
They decide which secret code to chant
To help your mind and soul.

Even angels fear that brand of madness
That arrays itself against the world
And throws sharp stones and spears into
The innocent
And into one's self.

O I know the way you can get
If you have not been drinking Love:

You might rip apart
Every sentence your friends and teachers say,
Looking for hidden clauses.

You might weigh every word on a scale
Like a dead fish.

You might pull out a ruler to measure
From every angle in your darkness
The beautiful dimensions of a heart you once
Trusted.

I know the way you can get
If you have not had a drink from Love's
Hands.

That is why all the Great Ones speak of
The vital need
To keep remembering God,
So you will come to know and see Him
As being so Playful
And Wanting,
Just Wanting to help.

That is why Hafiz says:
Bring your cup near me.
For all I care about
Is quenching your thirst for freedom!

All a Sane man can ever care about
Is giving Love!

(I Heard God Laughing: Renderings of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky)

From "Sunbeams" in the December 2001 issue of The Sun:

Erv had a gift for optimism. He believed what he wanted to. Ruth said that if Erv tossed a ball in the air three times, tried to hit it three times with a bat, and three times missed, he would, undisturbed, conclude: Wow, what a pitcher. -- Steve Fishman
and:
Spiritual awakening is frequently described as a journey to the top of the mountain. We leave our attachments and our worldliness behind and slowly make our way to the top. At the peak we have transcended all pain. The only problem with this metaphor is that we leave all the others behind. ...In the process of discovering our true nature, the journey goes down, not up... Instead of transcending the suffering of all creatures, we move toward the turbulence and doubt... We explore the reality and unpredictability of insecurity and pain, and we try not to push it away. If it takes years, if it takes lifetimes, we will let it be as it is. At our own pace, without speed or aggression, we move down and down and down. With us move millions of others, our companions in awakening from fear. At the bottom we discover water, the healing water of compassion. Right down there in the thick of things, we discover the love that will not die. -- Pema Chodron

From GOP News & Views:

It is God's job to forgive Osama bin Laden. It is our job to arrange a face to face meeting. -- Author unknown

CNN - Beatle George Harrison dies - of cancer, at the young age of 58. [picks]

His family issued a statement saying: "He left this world as he lived in it, conscious of God, fearless of death, and at peace, surrounded by family and friends. He often said, 'Everything else can wait but the search for God cannot wait, and love one another."'

Claire Wolfe at Backwoods Home Magazine - National ID -- Our Line in the Sand - why we must not ever allow a national ID.

There's a broad, indefinite line that separates a free nation from a police state. On one side of that line, the people control the government. On the other, the government controls the people. We've been veering toward that line and into it for decades now. But with national ID we'll have crossed it decisively.

...

Prepare to resist -- and prepare for the consequences of resistance. It will be the job of truly patriotic -- not just flag-waving patriotic -- Americans to break any national ID system thrust upon us.

If national ID and tracking is imposed, people who value freedom will need to ensure that the databases are full of such garbage that the system can't function usefully and that the scanners are constantly non-operative. The more flamboyant among us will need to stage public confrontations (anything from sit-down strikes to surround the scanners, to wearing of Groucho glasses and chemical defacing of fingerprints, to playful acts of public-protest theater, as many groups now perform in front of streetside facial-recognition cameras).

Ultimately, millions will need to refuse to accept the card -- even if it means loss of jobs, travel restrictions, jail, or worse. Right now, few have that will. If enough understand the long-term consequences of national ID, we might -- it's our only hope -- develop the courage that comes from understanding.

It isn't nice. It isn't safe. But if you want to see something really ugly and really dangerous -- stand by and give the federal government the means to control your daily life.

Al Martin Raw - Imperial America and the Homeland Colony: Return of the American Caesars - I've started considering Mr. Martin's columns to be fiction. For example, I've heard nothing from anybody else about this paragraph.

By the way, have you seen what it takes to get on a plane nowadays? You have to get what's called "a temporary federal identification card at the airport." Your driver's license or passport isn't good anymore. You have to present your driver's license and passport at the airport to a booth controlled by the military to receive your temporary federal identification card, which you need in order to get on the aircraft. And they charge you a ten-dollar fee for issuing you this "temporary ID card."

Slashdot - Apple Cease-And-Desists Stupidity Leak - MacFixit reported on Apple's stupidity of shipping a complete OS 10.1 on their $19.95 "update" disk. Simply remove the "CheckForOSX" package, and you can install it on a System that doesn't already have OSX. Presto, MacOS 10.1 for $20. Apple's lawyers sent them a cease-and-desist letter. Pfui. [/.]}

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