Monday, April 20, 2009

Things that make you go hmm . . .

(Things that make you go hmm . . . I like this, this is the way it is supposed to be, yo!)
(this is a re-post excerpt from The Other Side blog)
(Wanna take a quiz to see what Asperger traits you have? Check out this online quiz.)


The following excerpt from a paper by Attwood & Gray called, The Discovery of “Aspie” Criteria, further details the strengths of being an “Aspie”…
If Asperger’s Syndrome was identified by observation of strengths and talents, it would no longer be in the DSM IV, nor would it be referred to as a syndrome. After all, a reference to someone with special strengths or talents does not use terms with negative connotations (it’s artist and poet, not Artistically Arrogant or Poetically Preoccupied), nor does it attach someone’s proper name to the word syndrome (it’s vocalist or soloist, not Sinatra’s Syndrome). Focusing on strengths requires shedding the former diagnostic term, Asperger’s Syndrome, for a new term. The authors feel that Aspie, used in self-reference by Liane Holliday Wiley in her new book, Pretending to be Normal (1999), is a term that seems right at home among it’s talent-based counterparts: soloist, genius, aspie, dancer. With fading DSM potential, the authors submit a description of “aspie” for placement in a much needed but currently non-existent Manual of Discoveries About People (MDP I) (Figure 1).

New ways of thinking often lead to discoveries that consequently discard their outdated predecessors. Similarly, the change from Asperger’s Syndrome to aspie holds interesting implications and opportunities. It could result in typical people rethinking their responses and rescuing a missed opportunity to take advantage of the contribution of aspies to culture and knowledge.

Discovery Criteria for Aspie…

A. A qualitative advantage in social interaction, as manifested by a majority of the following:

1. peer relationships characterized by absolute loyalty and impeccable dependability
2. free of sexist, “age-ist”, or culturalist biases; ability to regard others at “face value”
3. speaking one’s mind irrespective of social context or adherence to personal beliefs
4. ability to pursue personal theory or perspective despite conflicting evidence
5. seeking an audience or friends capable of: enthusiasm for unique interests and topics;
6. consideration of details; spending time discussing a topic that may not be of primary interest
7. listening without continual judgement or assumption
8. interested primarily in significant contributions to conversation; preferring to avoid ‘ritualistic small talk’ or socially trivial statements and superficial conversation.
9. seeking sincere, positive, genuine friends with an unassuming sense of humour

B. Fluent in “Aspergerese”, a social language characterized by at least three of the following:

1. a determination to seek the truth
2. conversation free of hidden meaning or agenda
3. advanced vocabulary and interest in words
4. fascination with word-based humour, such as puns
5. advanced use of pictorial metaphor

C. Cognitive skills characterized by at least four of the following:

1. strong preference for detail over gestalt
2. original, often unique perspective in problem solving
3. exceptional memory and/or recall of details often forgotten or disregarded by others, for example: names, dates, schedules, routines
4. avid perseverance in gathering and cataloguing information on a topic of interest
5. persistence of thought
6. encyclopaedic or ‘CD ROM’ knowledge of one or more topics
7. knowledge of routines and a focused desire to maintain order and accuracy
8. clarity of values/decision making unaltered by political or financial factors

D. Additional possible features:

1. acute sensitivity to specific sensory experiences and stimuli, for example: hearing, touch, vision, and/or smell
2. strength in individual sports and games, particularly those involving endurance or visual accuracy, including rowing, swimming, bowling, chess
3. “social unsung hero” with trusting optimism: frequent victim of social weaknesses of others, while steadfast in the belief of the possibility of genuine friendship
4. increased probability over general population of attending university after high school
5. often take care of others outside the range of typical development

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Leave The Oil In The Soil




Leave The Oil In The Soil
Leave the oil in the soil,
the land and oceans we did spoil,
from pollution we must recoil,
we cannot continue to despoil,
and mix toxins to moil and roil,
for our water will start to boil,
then we'll lose all our topsoil,
and all our dreams will uncoil,
while politics continues to embroil,
in a mortal economic turmoil,
the corporate takeover we must foil,
or we'll be buried in the subsoil,
like a gargoyle with a trefoil,
we'll wait through Nature's toil,
as She turns us all into oil.

Leave the oil in the soil,
or from us, Nature will recoil.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Fractilization . . .

An excerpt from New Media Research Studio ( http://www.mushon.com/spr09/nmrs/04/11/reading-summaries/ ) by NA Young on Ralph Koster's lecture: "The Core of Fun"


"“Things that work have underlying structures to them.” You can see this in nature (e.g. the golden ratio), good art, good social media. We often use the term “grammar” to describe the thing that organizes and structures bits together. Grammars are fractal: you can keep breaking down whatever part you’re observing into smaller parts, finding structure at each level. Songs are made of smaller songs or overlapping smaller songs. Games are made out of smaller games. Take Frogger, for example: you have the game of getting a high score. To beat that game, you need to get your frog and fill all five of the spots at the other end. To win that, you need to get one frog to fill one spot on the other end. To win that, you need to cross the road and cross the logs, and to win that, you need to master hopping and timing, and so on, until you get to the interface button, which, hopefully, you can’t lose at (all you need to do is click). And for a game to be fun, it has to be fun at each of these levels. Fun is the act of mastering a problem mentally . . ."

Friday, April 10, 2009

Nature has Rights in Ecuador


Pachamama Rights Recognized


September 28, 2008: Ecuador Approves New Constitution: Voters Approve Rights of Nature

Ecuador: First Country in the World to Shift to Rights-Based Environmental Protection


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

By an overwhelming margin, the people of Ecuador today voted for a new constitution that is the first in the world to recognize legally enforceable Rights of Nature, or ecosystem rights.

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund is pioneering this work in the U.S., where it has assisted more than a dozen local municipalities with drafting and adopting local laws recognizing Rights of Nature.

Over the past year, the Legal Defense Fund was invited to assist the Ecuadorian Constituent Assembly to develop and draft provisions for the new constitution to put ecosystem rights directly into the Ecuadorian constitution. The elected Delegates to the Constituent Assembly requested that the Legal Defense Fund draft language based on ordinances developed and adopted by municipalities in the U.S.

“Ecuador is now the first country in the world to codify a new system of environmental protection based on rights,” stated Thomas Linzey, Executive Director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.

“With this vote, the people of Ecuador are leading the way for countries around the world to fundamentally change how we protect nature,” added Mari Margil, Associate Director of the Legal Defense Fund.

Article 1 of the new “Rights for Nature” chapter of the Ecuador constitution reads: “Nature or Pachamama, where life is reproduced and exists, has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution. Every person, people, community or nationality, will be able to demand the recognitions of rights for nature before the public bodies.”

( http://www.celdf.org/Default.aspx?tabid=548 )

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Find a wild place...

(reposted from The Center for Bioregional Animism http://www.bioregionalanimism.com/ )

Find a wild place...
Stand there... relax... open up... heighten your alertness and awareness... feel... sensitize... breath... pay Attention...
BE receptive and responsive most importantly...
Feel the air move around your hands... your hands and face... the skin is so sensitive... you can feel even the Slightest movements of air around your face and hands... allow those currents of air to move you... follow them... There is a moving stream of consciousness... of spirit that is the intelligence of space, the spirit of place the mind Of place... this is who you are. its a part of all that is... but its still localized here and now all around you and under Your feet....
Open your self up to this... be this... embody this spirit of place... surrender as an offering the delusion that you Are separate entities... and just allow yourself to be this place AS WELL as YOU. you can do it.... its easy if you Try...
Your flesh and bones is its body... your mind is its mind... there's just one... allow it to move you... relax... Breath... feel... allow the feelings to move and guide you... trust... relax...feel the tensions and the resistances in Your body... scan for them... feel them emotionally and with thought... identify them... they are resistances to this Guidance... why are they there... what are you afraid of? surrender for a moment...
There is a stream of warm clear water flowing over smooth stones... slip into it... this is what its like... just slip in... Tune your self, resonate... think of it in what ever way you need... sing a song that is in tune with the voice of the Place, dance a pattern that is a pattern of the place, drum or rattle a rhythm that is the rhythm of the place... you Are Entraining your mind and body to be one with this place that you are... find a way.. ask for a way... this mind Of yours after all and this voice after all is the voice of the wild place you find your self in...
Listen... pay attention... remember... be receptive and responsive...
You feel it... it is moving you... it is guiding you... there is no it no you... the difference, what is between has blurred, There is now a synergy... a new awareness... you are that which is guiding you and what is guiding you is you... This is synergy...
This is it... this is bioregional animism...
It's not just a combination of bioregionalism and animism.
It's not an idea... a belief... or a concept...
It's a felt reality...
An Experience you can have...
Be where you are...
Go out side...
Breath...
Be receptive and responsive...
Breath... move... feel... Be...

Yo.

Yo.


Yo.

I.
I am.
I am here.

I hear your true words,
the meaning I do not miss.
I see where you stand,
I'm with you on this.
I love to hear your mind,
your ideas are my bliss.
I reach out my arm,
my hand a kiss.

I am here.
I am.
I.

Yo.

Your Words Are Cats

Your Words Are Cats

I cuddle every word
you give to the world
I see them swirl and fuzz
becoming cats where words once was
I keep them here around me
because they are good company
they rub against my legs and purr
with their paragraph thick fur
all your prepositions
pounce about as kittens
your verbs get into tangles
like tomcats they wrangles
with adverbs circling 'round
chasing tails they have found
while your adjectives judge the best
from the window seats as they rest
the calico colors of your nouns
and your tortoise shell pronouns.

Dirt Poor

Dirt Poor

It's been a month
I haven't washed
some dirt
has already become
part of me
indistingushable
Me
I'll miss it
when I'm dead.

Sounds of Late Winter in Connecticut

Sounds of Late Winter in Connecticut

honk, honk. honk, honk.
Two geese flew over me today,
telling me Spring is close at bay.

honk, honk, I welcomed them.
It's good to see you again.
Tell me where you've been.

caw, caw. caw, caw.
The crows called back,
"What a silly hack!"

Shiver

Shiver

Feel the lonely kiss
of the icicle caress
of the maiden froze of frost
in the land where life is lost.

Did you know
birds have to
shiver
all night long
in order to live
through the night
every night
in winter?

Feel the icicle caress.

Did you know
people
who are homeless
shiver
all night long
in order to live
through the night
every night
in winter?

Feel where life is lost.

This New Child Ain't Got A Chance In Hell

This New Child Ain't Got A Chance In Hell

This new child ain't got a chance in hell.
Born to ill-educated, ill-motivated, ill-conceived parents . . .
mental children themselves, forever seeking to ring an imaginary bell,
they instead wallow in a life of abuse, hardship and ignorance.

Adults who care less about providing their best
for the children of their own behest
than watching television sitcoms
and emulating one-trick morons
creating a perverted nightmare
where reality has less to spare
for family well-being and cheer
than a six-pack of bottled beer.

Last Day of Winter

Last Day of Winter

Strands of music breeze thin ice
as the land shrugs a fragile freeze
on the last day of winter two thousand nine
as once again the Völva sings her haunting lyre
in a past-life language old and stark
foretelling the days of end to come
when all the gods and Time lie dead
during that Moment . . .
not a single note is becoming sung
at the concert of universal songs
as all await the unwritten music
of the Shira of infinite exponentials
and the tap of the conductor's wand
as one symphony ends and another begins
with all the musicians birthing new notes
as the glittering serpent dances up
from the dark of the hills of the moon.

*Do you still seek to know? And what?

From there come maidens
deep in knowledge
three, from the lake
that lies under the tree.
Uror they called one, "Had to Be" -
the second Verdandi, "Coming to Be" -
they incised a slip of wood -
Skuld the third, "Has to Be."
They laid down the laws
they chose out lives
for mankind's children,
men's destinies.




Notes:
*A refrain of the Völva in the Icelandic "Edda." What follows the refrain is a stanza of the Edda.

The Völva is a woman, usually elderly, who had released herself from the strong family bonds that normally surrounded women in the Old Norse clan society. She travelled the land, usually followed by a retinue of young people, and she was summoned in times of crisis. She had immense authority and she charged well for her services. The Völva referenced here is from the Icelandic "Edda" and is the Seeress who prophecies the cycle of time from creation to ragnarok (the end of the cycle).

The Shira, or Perek Shira, is the song that is sung everyday, individually, by all of creation in some Judaic traditions.

Faerie Houses

Faerie Houses

As I walked a winter-spring path
I saw a child beneath a tree
a girl of about six
sitting
one leg in
one leg out
confidently going about
building ramshackle fairy huts
in a finger manicured clearing
oval
with scenic rocks and pebbles
placed artistically
along narrow wandering paths
following tree roots
and rain gutters
for the fairies
to gather
in welcome
and safety.

I stopped and watched
for a minute
a flicker grin remembrance
of child innocent ignorance
barely reached
the innocently insolent
corners of my mouth
when the child
stopped
cocked her head
and in a piercing
eyespark
asked a question
asked a question of me
asked a question of me in the voice
asked a question of me in the voice of a little girl
with an undertone of royal accusation
tinged with chronic sorrow
but the birds seemed to
play background choir
and tell of stoic hope
of love rekindled
and my world faded away
as the question mark of her voice
stared me eye to eye
one leg in
one leg out

Why don't you build fairie houses?

Anonymity ≠ Freedom

Anonymity ≠ Freedom

The voice that speaks
that speaks no lie
speaks only one way
and speaks to die.

The voice that speaks
that speaks no lie
speaks so to obey
not what others say.

The voice that speaks
that speaks no lie
speaks out its Name
not Anonymously.

The voice that speaks
that speaks no lie
speaks soft and dimpled
because Truth is simple.

All

(on Feb. 11, 2010, this poem won Honorable Mention in the "Unity College Writing Center's Valentine's Day Poetry/Songwriting/Flash Fiction Contest")


All

Every time our eyes meet
and your smile sparkles a starry welcome
of comets and rainbow bridges
exalting in a celestial symphony
with a vortex of black holes bursting
amid gemstone crescendoes of brilliant novas
ever so quietly in a breathless faint
the Butterfly of Love flutters
still within
the lonely soul of my heart
a spell of rapture so intense
the very fabric of the Universe is rent
and the center of All
in a radiance bright and kind
is the giggle of your smile
and the center of All
in a piercing bright and kind
is the daring of your eyes
and the center of All
in a rhythm bright and kind
is the melody of your voice
and the center of All
in a boldness bright and kind
is the fragrance of your form
oh
my heart, my soul, my All
my eyes caress every word set free
by your crimson lush lips
your every happy laugh
bubbles merrily through my mind
in marvelous rippling shivers of delight
the sound of paradise
the carefree Eden
. . .

You laugh
and it All fades away
there's just You
and I'm Yours.

Yo!

Yo!

Yo!

I!
I am!
I am here!

I think my own thoughts,
and will not be dismissed!
I stand my ground,
and fight to exist!
I live only to be me,
of that I must insist!
I raise my arm high,
my hand a fist!

I am here!
I am!
I!

Yo!