Monthly Archives: October 2021

Oct11

indigenous people.

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According to the United Nations, there are currently more than 370 million Indigenous people spread across 70 countries worldwide. In total, they belong to some 5,000 different Indigenous groups and speak more than 4,000 languages. Many of these groups have distinct social, economic, and political systems, as well as distinct culture and beliefs. Sadly, they are often marginalized or directly threatened by more dominant powers in society — despite having been the original inhabitants of the land they occupy.

Indigenous peoples often have a strong attachment, understanding, and respect for their native lands, be it the great plains of the United States, the Canadian prairies, or the Amazon rainforest. This connection is frequently apparent in the wise words of Indigenous leaders both past and present. Today, with many Indigenous communities on the frontlines of the battle to protect our natural world, this wisdom is perhaps more important than ever.

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“Even though you and I are in different boats,

you in your boat and we in our canoe,

we share the same River of Life.

What befalls me, befalls you.”

-Oren Lyons, Onandaga Nation Chief

and member of the Indigenous Peoples of the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations

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Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a holiday that celebrates and honors Native American peoples and commemorates their histories and cultures. On October 8th, 2021 President Joe Biden signed a presidential proclamation declaring October 11th to be a national holiday.

 

 

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– credits: Penobscot History Museum, United Nations

 

Oct5

piece of my art.

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the cats have done it again

(the most likely suspects)

a long while after putting my latest puzzle away

without finding a missing piece 

they have left a piece at my feet

now all i have to do is find their secret lair

where i may discover a treasure trove

of all of my missing ‘one-pieces.’

 

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“sometimes the hardest pieces of a puzzle to assemble, are the ones missing from the box.”

-dixie waters

Oct4

out of sync.

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the design i imagined i would be a part of

more what my part looked like

—

it was a last-minute impulse decision

my friend who was on our high school swim team

said she was going to join our new synchronized swim team

(now known as artistic swimming in the olympics)

 i thought it sounded like fun

so i followed along ready to become an aqua artist

looking back

not sure at all why i made this choice

as i clearly remember my p.e. teacher

just weeks before

telling me

(after a 10-minute treading water test)

that i resembled someone who had been shipwrecked

thrashing around just trying to survive

(quite accurate really)

 even so

i jumped into the water

where my vision of grace and being a mermaid

quickly blurred into reality

and one reason why you did not see me in the recent olympics.

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“sometimes you are in sync with the times, sometimes you are in advance, sometimes you are late.”

-bernardo bertolucci

 

 

 

 

 

 

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image credits: google images

 

Oct3

happy 62nd birthday, twilight zone.

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The Changing of the Guard – 1962 

(one of my favorite episodes of one of my favorite shows by one of my favorite writers, rod serling)

 

OPENING: Professor Ellis Fowler, a gentle, bookish guide to the young, who is about to discover that life still has certain surprises, and that the campus of the Rock Spring School for Boys lies on a direct path to another institution, commonly referred to as the Twilight Zone.

Professor Ellis Fowler is an elderly English literature teacher at the Rock Spring School, a boys’ prep school, who is forced into retirement after teaching for 51 years at the school. Looking through his old yearbooks and reminiscing about his former students, he becomes convinced that all of his lessons have been in vain and that he has accomplished nothing with his life.

Deeply depressed, he prepares to kill himself on the night of Christmas Eve next to a statue of the famous educator Horace Mann, with its quote “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” Before he can follow through, however, he is called back to his classroom by a phantom bell, where he is visited by ghosts of several boys who were his students, all dead, several of whom died heroically.

The boys tell him of how he inspired them to become better men, and the difference he made in their lives. One posthumously received the Medal of Honor for actions at Iwo Jima; another died of leukemia after exposure to X-rays during research into cancer treatments; another died at Pearl Harbor after saving 12 other men. All were inspired by Fowler’s teachings. Moved to tears, Fowler hears the phantom bell again, and his former pupils disappear. Now accepting of his retirement, content that his life is fuller for having enriched the lives of the boys, he listens to his current students caroling outside his home.

Closing: Professor Ellis Fowler, teacher, who discovered rather belatedly something of his own value. A very small scholastic lesson, from the campus of the Twilight Zone.

 

 

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credits: imdb, twilight zone