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Treasuring the Love That Is Destined to Fail
By Abigail Webster
When I was younger and prompted to consider the concept of love, I imagined finding my one true love, someone I’d be able to share the rest of my life with. Yes, the concept is certainly romantic but, ultimately, misleading.
By Abigail Webster
When I was younger and prompted to consider the concept of love, I imagined finding my one true love, someone I’d be able to share the rest of my life with. Yes, the concept is certainly romantic but, ultimately, misleading.
Madonna Kolbenschlag, Eastward Toward Eve
Women learned better than most of their male peers that you either share or you self-destruct. And because they were not powerful enough to create change by force or by edict, they mastered arts of negotiation in resolving conflict, skills of cooperation, co-responsibility, caretaking, and compromise. These human arts have taught women how to survive through solidarity and cooperation rather than antagonism and competition. This is the wisdom that the world has need of now.
How to survive through solidarity and cooperation
Megan McKenna, Lent
Satan — the word means "the hinderer" — is anyone, anything, any interpretation of reality, or religion, any relationship or situation or philosophy that hinders us from being the children of God, from sharing in the breath of God, life itself, or hinders others from recognizing that life within us.
What hinders us from being children of God
Margaret J. Wheatley, Turning to One Another
Healing is possible because, in all our diversity, we share the experience of being human. We each have the same longings and feelings. We each feel fear, loneliness, grief. We each want to be happy and to live a meaningful life.
Healing is possible because we share being human
Brian J. Pierce, We Walk the Path Together
We must practice attentive and respectful listening, what Thay [Thich Nhat Hanh] calls "deep listening." It presupposes a certain amount of vulnerability, for we must be willing to open ourselves up to receive an unfamiliar gift. Dialogue is a mutual giving and receiving, a sharing of our respective insights into the music of the Great Mystery. It is an opening up of ourselves to the unique gift of the other. What would the world be like today if the world religions were truly committed to this kind of sacred exchange? Do we dare dream of the day when world conflicts will be solved through a mutual sharing of our spiritual riches, a commitment to discern together the music that unites us? What would the city of Jerusalem look like today if Jews, Christians, and Muslims gathered each morning for a three-way sharing of sacred music and chant?
Dialogue is an opening up of ourselves to the unique gift of the other.
Menachem Schneerson, Toward a Meaningful Life
The divine purpose of the present information revolution, for instance, which gives an individual unprecedented power and opportunity, is to allow us to share knowledge — spiritual knowledge — with each other, empowering and unifying individuals everywhere. We need to utilize today's interactive technology not just for business or leisure but to interlink as people — to create a welcome environment for the interaction of our souls, our hearts, our visions.
A welcome environment for the interaction of our souls, our hearts, our visions.
McFarland, USA
In the opening scene of this emotional rich and resonant sports film, Jim White (Kevin Costner), the coach of a high school football team, loses his temper in the locker room and throws a shoe at a player, cutting him on the face. He is promptly fired. This is not the first job White has lost because of his Wild West personality. Leaving behind the suburban life in Boise, Idaho, he and his long-suffering wife Cheryl (Maria Bello), his teenage daughter Julie (Morgan Saylor), and preteen Jamie (Elsie Fisher) drive to McFarland, a poverty-stricken town in California's central valley where most of the population is Mexican-American.
Jim is still upset with himself and hearing a rooster crow to awaken them early in the morning, he is not sure whether he will be able to bear all the burdens and humiliations of being an Anglo coach in a farming community where his students pick crops, go to school, and then go back to work. Hired by the pragmatic principal (Valente Rodriguez), White alienates the head coach of the football team and is left with only a physical education class. But he notices that some of the students are always running from class to their jobs, and they are very fast. He decides to start McFarland's first cross-country team. He gets one of the students to help him put together a seven-man team.
White is immensely impressed with the stamina and the speed of Thomas (Carlos Pratts). The coach makes a special point of praising Danny (Ramiro Rodriguez), a chubby young adolescent who is deeply bonded with his two brothers, who are also on the team. At their first meet, however, they come in last, thanks to White's inexperience and the lack of suitable running shoes for the team. The coach adjusts their training program and they improve enough to make it to the state finals.
Working from a screenplay by Grant Thompson, Christopher Cleveland and Bettina Gilois, director Niki Caro proves once again that she has a knack for delivering rounded and uplifting portraits of communities as the testing ground for the forging of character. We still remember the struggles of the young Maori girl to step into a role of leadership in her chauvinistic tribe in Whale Rider. And Caro's depiction of a feisty miner in North Country trying to fend off sexual harassment at work in a small Minnesota community helped us to see the difficulties which must be overcome by those who are viewed as "outsiders."
It is fascinating to watch White as he slowly begins to bond with his cross-country team. At one point, to better understand the challenges they face every day, this middle-ager joins them in the fields picking crops. He accepts the gift of a chicken from the old woman who lives next door and befriends the owner of a shop in the village who becomes an avid supporter of the runners and arranges a very special ritual when Julie turns 15. His daughter had been the first to criticize the town but she adjusts well in school and starts dating Thomas. Meanwhile, Cheryl gets to know some of the women in the community. At one point she tells him that McFarland feels more like home than anyplace they have ever lived.
Kevin Costner puts in a stellar performance as the flawed coach who teaches these Mexican-American youth to believe in themselves and to realize the extraordinary strength and discipline it takes to work in the fields, attend school, and then practice rigorous running routines. Best of all is Caro's vision of a flourishing Mexican-American community that stands by its own when they need encouragement and support.
McFarland, USA offers an engaging picture of Ubuntu ("I am because you are"). This traditional African expression reflects a philosophy of sharing, community, and generosity.
Special features on the DVD include McFarland Reflections.
An exciting sports film that also stands as an emotionally rich depiction of community, sharing, and generosity.
Great Unity
By Ralph Wang in the KidSpirit Unity and Division issue.
Throughout human history, there have been many attempts to explain society and make the world a better place. Great Unity is one of them.
According to this ancient Chinese philosophy, we will be unified when each person works happily for the public and we have sufficient resources for survival.
The concept of Great Unity first appeared in the Book of Rites, in which Dai Sheng recorded the teachings of the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius. In this book, Confucius lectured on the proper behavior of humans and the ideal society, much as Plato did in The Republic. In the chapter liyun, Confucius complains that Great Unity is hard to achieve and sighs as he illustrates this concept to his student. In his theory, Great Unity describes a society in which people don’t have to shut their doors at night or worry about belongings they left on the road. The old and weak are well taken care of, and there is no war or pain. Every resource is abundant, everyone contributes to society, and everyone is free.
By Ralph Wang in the KidSpirit Unity and Division issue.
Throughout human history, there have been many attempts to explain society and make the world a better place. Great Unity is one of them.
According to this ancient Chinese philosophy, we will be unified when each person works happily for the public and we have sufficient resources for survival.
The concept of Great Unity first appeared in the Book of Rites, in which Dai Sheng recorded the teachings of the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius. In this book, Confucius lectured on the proper behavior of humans and the ideal society, much as Plato did in The Republic. In the chapter liyun, Confucius complains that Great Unity is hard to achieve and sighs as he illustrates this concept to his student. In his theory, Great Unity describes a society in which people don’t have to shut their doors at night or worry about belongings they left on the road. The old and weak are well taken care of, and there is no war or pain. Every resource is abundant, everyone contributes to society, and everyone is free.
Three Lines in a Circle
Although we have long cherished the peace symbol, we knew nothing about its origins beyond its ubiquity in the 1960s and '70s. We owe our newfound appreciation for the symbol's history to Michael G. Long — who in addition to this book has written for all ages on civil rights and peacemaking in mid-century America — and Carlos Vélez, whose illustrations add immeasurably to the tale.
Three Lines in a Circle begins in 1958 at the drafting table of Gerry Holtom, a graphic-design artist and conscientious objector. Wanting to put his wish for nuclear disarmament into a bold and easily recognized design, he chose "three lines in a circle" based on the flag-semaphore alphabet. Flags held to the side, angled toward the earth, represent the letter "N"; and standing erect with one flag lifted and another lowered represents the letter "D"; the two together symbolize Nuclear Disarmament.
Holtom's inspiration for the circle portion of his symbol came from Francisco Goya's painting "The Third of May 1808," a copy of which the illustrator includes in his first picture of Holtom's drafting table. Other intriguing art and objects on the table, like Tolstoy's War and Peace and a globe, add depth to the book. The text — for three to seven year olds — remains simple: "Gerry hovered over his drafting table and began to draw his dream."
This symbol of Gerry's dream — a world free from bombs — begins to energize people around him who share his vision. One colleague mocks him, saying, "It doesn't mean a thing, and it will never catch on." In an encouragement to children everywhere who dream big, the book quips, "Wow — was he ever wrong!"
It's a joy to see, page by page, how many places around the world and how many different movements this symbol came to influence, as it took on broader meanings of peace and acceptance. Not only Ban the Bomb, but also peace "for Black people and Brown people / women and poor people / LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities," ending gun violence, stopping climate change, and more. The bright, colorful, detailed illustrations give us a sense of the great swelling of desire to create a livable, loving world.
The book concludes with a short history of the peace symbol, two pages that give more context for older readers. The final touch is a partial time line of peaceful protests since 1958, which includes events like the 1984 sit-ins against apartheid in Washington, DC and the 2003 Freedom Rides for immigrant workers. All in all, this book inspires a desire to act joyfully on behalf of our best dreams, just as Gerry Holtom did when creating a peace symbol that caught on around the world.
How a simple and bold design representing nuclear disarmament came to inspire people around the world.
Grandma Rose's Magic
Grandma Rose loves to sew and has over the years brought joy into the lives of many people in her community. With a needle, some thread, and a piece of cloth she makes magic in the form of dresses for girls, slacks for boys, curtains and quilts, dolls for grandchildren, tablecloths, and much more. Her dream is to save enough money so that one day she can purchase a set of beautiful dishes with pink and red roses and blue trim.
As we were reading this heart-warming story written by Linda Elovitz Marshall for children ages 3 to 8 years old, we thought of all the love that goes into the craft of sewing and how it creates connections between people. For Grandma Rose it is a major part of her day and provides a source of personal renewal and service to others.
A heart-warming children's story about a community showing its admiration for an elderly woman's talent for sewing.