Steiner on Woman

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was the head of the German Theosophical Society from 1902 until 1912, at which time he broke away and formed his Anthroposophical Society. He may have abandoned the "divine" (theo-) wisdom for the "human" (anthro-) wisdom, hence Anthroposophy. Anyhows, I find it interesting that he stated below written words long before woman's emancipation movements got wind in their sails.
More than eight decades later, his statement might seem as a "fart", but imagine yoursel in the time of the turn of the last century. Would you have had the guts to have uttered those words? (from "Philosophy of Spiritual Activity).

"The social position of women is for the most part such an unworthy one because in so many respects it is determined not as it should be by the particular characteristics of the individual woman, but by the general picture one has of woman's natural tasks and needs. A man's activity in life is governed by his individual capacities and inclinations, whereas a woman's is supposed to be determined solely by the mere fact that she is a woman. She is supposed to be a slave to what is generic, to womanhood in general. As long as men continue to debate whether a woman is suited to this or that profession "according to her natural disposition," the so-called woman's question cannot advance beyond its most elementary stage. What a woman, within her natural limitations, wants to become had better be left to the woman herself to decide."
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I write this now because I am teaching presently at a College that is inspired and enthused by Rudolf Steiner's works. Well, I teach the "visual arts", but believe me, a sound approach to be creative with students and children will be the path of the future. "The Brain" is not the center of the universe, and certainly not the center of a developing human mind.

Cheers, Lukas

Triad

I want to know how it will be
Me and her or you and me
You both sit there with your long hair flowing
Your eyes alive, your minds are still growing
Saying to me
What can we do now that we
Both love you, I love you too
But I don't really see
Why can't we go on as three

You are afraid, embarrased too
No one has ever said such a thing to you
Your mother's ghost stands at your shoulder
Got a face like ice just a little bit colder
Saying to you
Can not do that it breaks all the rules
You learned in schools

But I don't really see
Why can't we go on as three

You know we love each other it's plain to see
There's just one answer comes to me
Sister lovers, some of you must know about water brothers
And in time maybe others
So you see what we can do
If we try something new, that is if you're crazy too

And I don't really see why can't we go on as ... three
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Crosby.

Tried

Yes, so we had a great feast, we shared we sung and we laughed. It is healing to be in good company!


We had a great feast, all the givings and the takings. Played a bunch of music, that is always good - from polka to rap, from blues to classic and folk to punk. Yes, that is always good.
Ttried to rescue a bird today, not an eagle, not a turkey. Looked like some kind of dove, but what do I know... Flew away from where she hovered close to our garage wall before I could catch her/him. Wish the bird good journeys.
Peace in that spirits, the dove might prevail. Let's eat turkeys and get rid of the hawks, at least the hawks that presently rule our nation.

Set the table

THANKSGIVING
probably the most proliferate of holidays in the US, more so than Hanukah - Christmas and all the others.
Somewhat bizarre if you think about it. Thanksgiving is based on the event where the pilgrims and the indians shared their bounty in peace. Thereafter the slaughter of the "red-nation" took its inevitable course, killing more American Indians than Hitler managed to gas Jews.
Let's not ponder about the past too long. But how is Thanksgiving celebrated today? Families gather and share their "what"???? Thanksgiving has almost escalated to a consumer frenzy of not only stuffing the turkey, but stuffing yourself with obese amounts of food.
The spirit of Thanksgiving is centered around a bird, the turkey. A peaceful creature.
America has presently centered around the spirit of the eagle; a less peaceful creature.
Time will come when the "turkey" will get its honored space again.
In the mean time it is snowing in our neck of the woods, "white thanksgiving" perhaps a good omen.

Pre-Thanksgiving

Some of you might know the teacher William Ward, he works at Hawthorne Valley where Walli is teaching as well.
He had a lump removed last week from his brain. They don't quite know yet if it was cancerous. We'll cross our fingers and send him healing thoughts. In any case below letter is from him, dated November 22. I thought it to be an appropriate Thanksgiving contribution.
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Dear Friends and Colleagues,

What would you do if you received the tremendous outpouring of love that rose like the West Wind and came in my direction? I reflect it back to you, and say with a big smile on my face, "Thank you from the center of my heart."

My family thanks you with me for your 10,000 kindness, prayers, offer of help, and practical goodness. Thank you especially for the great Prayer Wheel. We are friends. We are community. All our relatives are here! Thanksgiving!

In honor of your gift of love to me there is a gift I make, my gift of love to you. These gifts are each other's mirror. And we realize that everyone is in the sunlight, including William, who feels, "God, I love this place. Look how people treat you when you need a friend! Anyone would do anything, day or night, to help out!"

Let us all pass through this circle - the loving embrace of our friends. When the chips are down, the food chain starts!

Love to each of us from each of us
(you do the geometry)


PROTECTION
I have been given a gift.I am Scrooge reborn. (I know it's hard to think of me that way). I am living in silence and growing thankfulness in my heart and home. We will find a time to share. But right now, I am keeping a peacful center. Oh, the beauty of Thanksgiving!

Your friend, William

affair of completion

it is interesting, I salvaged the ice cover in a bucket that was standing overnight in the now chilly nights. A maple leaf froze perfectly.

I made myself comfortable in a new room at Sunbridge. It is still a bit bare, but that will change in time. Last weeks work for maintenance at "Three Fold" was good. I feel my life-juices coming back due to the opportunity of using my body, doing some physical work again. And the sweet thing is, that it is not me who has to decide what has to be done. I guess some of us go through those periods in life, where we call all the shots (freelance) and then go back to a frame of mind where others or an employment structure is invited to tell you what to do. It's like a sinus-curve, a frequency that has to go up and down in a harmonious rhythm - or into the red, then into the blue, then repeat itself. The failure of many things we try to achieve in life is due to our stubbornness not to truthfully "ride" these waves, go with a good flow as they say. We tend to get stuck on an oscillating entity that serves us well in the moment and secretly we hope so much that it will last forever (or at least a long time) until we realize that the next rejuvenating "wave" has already passed us by...
Metamorphosis, transition, change, in a fluid though still linear way - is embracing the reality of our earth-existence.
The "spiritual path" of each individual is an whole other story, let's not get into that now, though I do feel compelled to remark before I close, that the "spiritual-path" has nothing to do with a linear approach - it is omnidirectional.

Stones

As promised, I will give you a few more "stone pictures" of Maine.
Then I will leave that alone and give you the latest updates and changes...
Click on "stones", and you will get there.
Stones

In transition

Sorry, don't have much time. But I just wish to say that the trip to Maine was beautiful and exhausting. My "theme" this time was rocks - I will link pictures here when I get to it.
Take care, Lukas.

See you next week

It's fridig here, snowflakes this evening. Vinal Haven is tomorrows destination. Six hour car ride, then an hour and a half on the ferry.Will be a blast though, lots of warmth, great people, lots of music, and good food...
What more can you ask for?!

Words to walk by

Of course it is no use to direct our steps to the woods, if they not carry us thither. I am alarmed when it happens that I have walked a mile into the woods bodily, without getting there in spirit. In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to society.
But it sometimes happens that I cannot easily shake off the village. The thought of some work will run in my head and I am not where my body is - I am out of my senses.
What business have I in the woods, if I am thinking of some thing out of the woods.

Thoreau (1862)

Unity

UNITY
The horse's mind
Blends
So swiftly
Into the hay's mind

Fazil Hüsnü Daglarca
("Blood-Maple" in our front yard and sugar maple in the back yard)

Don't Quit

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low,and the depths are high,
And you want to smile,but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must,but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
And everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
don't give up though the pace seems slow
You might succeed with another blow.
Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt.
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far.
So stick to the fight when you're hardest to hit,
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.
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from Helena, my awesome daughter!

Free Trade Agreement of the Americas

Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay, Paraguay - insisted on waiting for results of the next World Trade Organization meeting in Hong Kong next month before any agreement to this "free trade agreement" of US intrersts. Well, good for them, the bunch of countries above are larger and vaster if combined then the United States.
Riots by anti-Bush protesters marked the opening of the summit in the resort town of Mar del Plata on Friday. You know if I've been there, I might have as well joined the protest, though I doubht I would smash windows; I am too fragile and old for that kind of stuff :)
The leaders were hoping to produce a summit declaration which could call for relaunching talks on the proposed FTAA - an idea raised in 1994 at the first Americas summit in Miami.
But the BBC's James Coomarasamy reports that it was an awkward meeting for Mr Bush - who had to listen to his host, Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, publicly blame American-backed economic policies for his country's ills.
Now there you go, not has Bush only zero success in his own country, but when he travells abroad it gets even worse.

Rap Ass for Pete

Intro:
the de-vilest night in Natick
where leaves are falling down
and October skies are screaming
snow will be around
give me a break, or give me a steak
or something good your baby has.

Rap in very free rendering:
What you gonna be ... blah, blah, blah ... and so on.

Chorus:
Do you understand who's in command?



The movement of the fainting heart
will not brake us apart
but the president of the United States
is the person I blame for our countries mistakes
he beats around the bush everyday
and if we are about here to stay
we got to get rid of him the very next day.

Do you understand who's in command, do you?

Got to be good, got to be brave
otherwise you open up your own grave
things may fall, things may fly
but we can not have more people to die
for a cause that is truly insane
and it is the leadership we have to blame
in the mean time we will pick up
all our things and the reis
and pray for mercy and for peace
and know that the time has come
where people wake up and can be as one.
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I have a new version of that session/song but I still haven't figured out how to compress it to a reasonable size (less than 35 megs) otherwise I would have posted a wave or mpg3 file or something of that nature here.
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PS Whoever wishes to receive a CD of this song and all the other ongoing projects, just let me know. Next weekend will be an other "music-weekend" on the island of Vinal Haven in Maine. 25 people or so, will be fun and I will record what will be going on. I even convinced Walli to come along. That's sort of a miracle... she is usually shy for taking part in these kinds of spontaneous events.
Anyhow, we are working on a PETE LUKE ZAY CD, a collaboration, and it it will be available at some point...

working for money

The wind is blowing like crazy. But the temperature is relatively warm (60F , 18 or so Celsius). I have to pay bills, it's a sad story but I think I am "behind" - so therefore I need to get some cash at hand. Working for the neighbor to do his siding is easy. I just have to walk up the hill and get my gear working - the compressor, the air-gun and all that stuff. The most difficult thing is to maintain strait lines with cedar shakes siding, especially on the corners. Well, I will try my best!
Soon I will get back to my stone though, it's almost finished.

I miss her

Julia has gone to NYC to visit friends and left her stone in my custody. I hope she will make it back in time to finish her project - it's just such an awesome stone she almost finished. I wish to see it finished!



And I miss Lawson Son, he took his finished stone and walked away to unknown shores, perhaps Denmark or Germany...

is the US going mad?

Iraqi officers who served under the regime of Saddam Hussein are being now invited to rejoin the army. The force was disbanded after the US-led invasion in 2003 - a move seen by many as an error as it created large numbers of unemployed, disaffected men. The appeal is part of a drive to build up a military to replace the current multinational troops, who are struggling with a Sunni-led insurgency. Well there you go, have the enemy work for you, slick! I think they should reinstate Saddam Hussein as president, create new sanctions and have the private sector profit from braking the sanctions and simultaneously keep blaming the UN for braking such sanctions.
(just kidding, but it is ineed a frustrating and sad story...)

dinner

Artichokes, mushed potatoes and eggs sunny side up. What a combo! But it was yummy nevertheless.
But in my mind thoughts were rambling. Close to 80,000 people in the Kashmir region are now dead, god knows how many injured and over 3 million (3,000,000) people homeless. This is worse than the earthquake that hit Indonesia/Malaysia...
Some aid worker who got interviewed today said that all available tents in the world would not suffice to give shelter to all in need. It's terrible. Winter is approaching there and the people don't know where to go.
What can we do? I really don't know. So sitting in-front of my dinner I feel super fortunate, thankful and privileged that destiny has it that I am not "in their shoes." Sometimes we forget how privileged we are ...

John writes

Hope you are well. I am enjoying the window into your world. Your stone is coming to life, better watch it closely. I am not sure if the world is on course to meet its next appointment, what do you think? The lakes are shrinking as are the days.
When venus was at the midpoint of scorpio las week a young deer strangled itself in the soccer nets at our school. Not one to ignore a sign, i skinned and burned the skin for peppering the land. Likewise with a gopher skin that had been on ice since last spring. Spoons and bowls are coming along. The new garden is shaping itself on the hill. I will take some photos.
It is Haloween but i have no desire to venture into the night.

Peace, john

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Comment: What do you mean with " ...not sure if the world is on course to meet its next appointment." Which appointment? ?
Cheers, Zee.

So, what are we going to talk about?

The Security Council demands that Syria co-operate fully with the UN probe into the killing of Rafik Hariri. What a scam. The US will not even communicate with Syria about the issue, like asking: "What do you guys have to say!" Is good old Diplomacy dead? In the mean time Bush appointed a nominee to the supreme-court who is as "right-wing" as it gets. I suppose with a lower than 39% approval rating Bush finds himself driven into a corner and will try to appeal to his conservative constituency because those people are the only ones he has left. Well "good luck Bush" - I have the gut feeling your days are numbered. The stakes were too high, the game too shallow. You have served us as a smiling dumb puppy for the masterminds of your administration (your advisors) who now are being charged of miss-doings. Well there you go. Suck it up and go back to the country they call Texas and have daddy give you an other chance to manage an oil-based company which you will ultimately fail successfully to run and drive it into ruin as you did with the previous ones that were placed into your lap. Sorry, have nothing positive to report tonight. Except that the weather was gorgeous for a change, the foliage awesomely beautiful and that my work day was pleasant. Well, there you go - that's something - no?