Category Archives: humanity

Jul9

fresh for everyone.

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Pete the Cat is in his bag and he feels safe in there.

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this post is  dedicated to all of the farm workers out there

may they and their families be safe from harm

during this very challenging time

we see you and appreciate you 

 thank you for the hard work you do every day to bring food to all of us.

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‘the people who give you their food give you their heart.’

-cesar chavez

*Cesario Estrada Chavez 1927-1993) was an American labor leader and civil rights activist. Along with Dolores Huerta and Gilbert Padilla, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee  (AWOC) to become the  United Farm Workers (UFW) labor union.

Jun26

they are us.

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                                                                                   “Soul” by Ugo Rondinone, 2013 ​
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​“Stick-to-itiveness” is now included in the dictionary. It’s about perseverance — whether we’re born with it or learn it. It’s about continuing to show up and doing what matters, even when you don’t feel like it, and especially when the world is yelling that you don’t matter, that you’re crazy, that who you think you are and what you have to say doesn’t matter. I’ve been thinking a lot about what matters and why I care so much when someone feels what I think doesn’t matter. Why do we keep having to learn, again and again, that we get to choose what we care about? Today, as I listened to Erin Brockovich tell her story, I was reminded that thinking differently is beautiful, and whatever we think, feel, and care about is valid and matters. It is our responsibility to amplify what we care about. There is no special reward for conformity of thought or action, but there is an internal reward for expressing the uniqueness of who we are.
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Ugo Rondinone made a series of stone figures in a variety of sizes for his exhibition Soul in 2013. Each one is different, but they have a visual uniformity, as if they’re all from the same humanity. When you look closely, though, their heads sit slightly differently on their bodies, their legs are longer or shorter, their torsos are thin or thick. They are us. And we are them.

 -Heidi Zuckerman,  CEO and director of the Orange County Museum of Art and author of Why Art Matters: The Bearable Lightness of Being.​

 

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Installation view, Ugo Rondinone, soul, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Maag Areal, Zurich, 2013. Courtesy of the artist.

Photo: Stefan Altenburger
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Apr8

woven together.

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This drawing is by Anja Rozen, a 13-year-old primary school student in Slovenia.

She was chosen from 600,000 children around the world

to create a piece of art to show what peace looks like.

She is the winner of the international Plakat Miru competition.

“My drawing represents the land that binds us and unites us.”

“Humans are woven together.

If someone gives up, others fall.

We are all connected to our planet and to each other,

but unfortunately we are little aware of it.

We are woven together.

Other people weave alongside me my own story; and I weave theirs,”

said the young designer.

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‘the cause of freedom and the cause of peace are bound together.’

-Leon Blum, three-time Prime Minister of France

 

Feb20

monkey business.

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apes playfully tease each other just like humans

Joking around is a key element of human interaction — one that starts emerging in babies as young as 8 months old, before they can even speak. Now, a new study is suggesting that the human instinct to play goes further back than previously thought.

An international team of cognitive biologists and primatologists documented playful teasing in the four species of great apes: orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas. They identified 18 distinct teasing behaviors, indicating that “the prerequisites for humor evolved in the human lineage at least 13 million years ago,” per a press release.

“Similar to teasing in children, ape playful teasing involves one-sided provocation, response waiting in which the teaser looks toward the target’s face directly after a teasing action, repetition, and elements of surprise,” explained lead author Isabelle Laumer.

The concept of playful primates isn’t new — Jane Goodall previously documented such behavior — but this is the first study to systematically analyze it. “We hope that our study will inspire other researchers to study playful teasing in more species in order to better understand the evolution of this multifaceted behavior,” Laumer said.

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“the very essence of playfulness is an openness to anything that may happen,

the feeling that whatever happens, it’s okay…

you’re either free to play, or you’re not.”

-john cleese

 

 

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source credits: Proceedings of the Royal Society, Laumer, Winkler, Rossano,  Cartmill

photo credit: anup shah, getty

Feb8

hungry.

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“the war against hunger is truly mankind’s war of liberation.”

-john f. kennedy

Nov25

the holdovers.

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after seeing the trailer for this film

i really thought it was going to be a comedy

it did have its funny moments and lines

as the movie played out

 it was so much more

the trio of lead actors were brilliant

the characters

interacted

 revealed themselves

learned about each other

   personal stories emerged

in ways unexpected, tragic, and beautiful

 finding something in each other

perhaps they didn’t even know they needed

but oh, did they ever

because as their understanding

of their humanity

with all of its flaws and challenges

came to the forefront

they chose grace

each was made the better for it

and forever changed.

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“the moment we cry in a film is not when things are sad

but when they turn out to be more beautiful than we expected them to be.”

-alain de botton

 

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image credit: miramax films, focus features

Jul11

anxious people.

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what a funny, sweet, sad, moving book –

 a brilliant story of  the enduring power

of human connection, forgiveness, and hope.  

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“we have all of this in common, yet most of us remain strangers, we never know what we do to each other, how your life is affected by mine. perhaps we hurried past each other in a crowd today, and neither of us noticed, and the fibers of your coat brushed against mine for a single moment and then we were gone. i don’t know who you are. but when you get home this evening, when this day is over and the night takes us, allow yourself a deep breath. because we made it through this day as well. there’ll be another one along tomorrow.”

-fredrik backman (anxious people)

Jun19

on juneteenth.

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“to deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.”

-nelson mandela

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image credit: princeton university, african american studies

Apr22

*good planets.

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good planets are hard to find

 

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on earth day 2023

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photo credit: earthtalk

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Apr5

sow the seeds.

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The image of the child musician crying was classified as one of the most emotional photographs of modern history. This photo was taken of a 12-year-old Brazilian boy (Diego Frazzo Turkato), playing the violin at the funeral of his teacher who rescued him from the environment of poverty and crime in which he lived.

In this image, humanity speaks with the strongest voice in the world:

“Cultivate love and kindness in a child to sow the seeds of compassion. And only then you will build a great civilization, a great nation “.  – dalai lama

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credits: Photographer: Marcos Tristao

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“what wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?”

-jean-jacque rousseau