The Jo-Mama Book Club

Another day I'll explain the Jo-Mama Book Club, but for now I'll just list the books we read this year:

January:  The Quiet American by Graham Greene (because of our trip to Vietnam)

March:  The Emperor of Maladies:  A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Makherjee  (We also looked into flights for Germany and got an urgent call from Mom.)  I also had the chance to hear the author read at Booksmith and even talk to him--about what?  The play Wit?

April:  Aspects of the Novel by E.M. Forster  & the manuscript by Lia Smith, a friend, colleague, and really good writer--146 pages

May:  Being Wrong by Katherine Schulz (while Nancy Pelosi was speaking a the Ocean Campus--Ram Stadium--at the graduation there) 

June:  Howard's End by E.M. Forster--also saw the video of the movie.
Discussed and read sections.  Read David Lodge's intro in Jonathan's edition.

Jennifer Egan:  A Visit from the Goon Squad.

August:  The Invisible Gorilla by Chabris & Simons

Still Alice by Lisa Genova & Small World by Martin Suter--both pertaining to Alzheimer's, a concern we had because of Mom, of course.  Jutta and Andreas told us about Small World back in June, but it didn't arrive in time for Jonathan to read it.

August:  One Day by David Nicolls  (better than the movie, unlike Sarah's Key, which wasn't as good as the movie because of the voice of the narrator)

September:  Interpreter of maladies by Jhumpa Ludriri

--Jonathan was here.  We saw Mom, who was having a hard day, after Max Christensen's memorial service.  We discussed this at home and continued discussing it at the Ananda Fuara Restaurant before seeing Heart of a Soldier at the War Memorial opera House.


November:  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith--We read this,  following Mom's death, because she had loved it.
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December:  Netherland by Joseph O'Neill  We discussed this--though not in great depth--here at home in San Francisco while Jonathan was visiting for Christmas vacation. 

Christmas 2011

For some reason, this Christmas was a sweet one in spite of losses and sad occurrences.  Mother starred as the angel in my Christmas card.  This was the first draft--as if she were being presented on a tray at the Ritz.   I later added her flying in the window from Berkeley Square and in place of the statue you see in the background and at one of the tables in the foreground.  Since there are twelve days of Christmas, I'll continue that tomorrow. 
My gift to the family--Kathy, Jonathan, Suzy, David, Dana, Erik, Karl, Becky, Jamie, and Megan--was a memory book full of photos of Mom from babyhood on and copies of the tributes people wrote on blue sky-white clouds paper.  But there's a lot I need to add to those, already duplicated and bound.  I'm going to insert additions.

  About David:  On December 10, his birthday, he had (euphamism) digestive issues, so I stored the chocolate birthday cake I'd made for him, and we started our messages back and forth to plan a later celebration, which turned out to be the Wednesday of my final exams--after the two in Comparative Religions and Western Cultural Values but the day before the last three--Government and Politics of the Middle East, Demystifying the Middle East, and Intro to Islam.  The cake was still good, but David had trouble getting up the steps of Suzy's house, and he was very spacy. 

Suzy wrote to Mary Scaler at Garfield and said that we were all shocked at how much he had gone downhill as far as his ability to walk and even his ability to maintain himself standing. His legs had clearly gotten much weaker since he'd been using the wheelchair and his sense of balance had disappeared.Then she got a call from Ann of Garfield, and she said that they found that David had elevated liver enzymes. The numbers in the parentheses are the norms.) 

Friday:

ALT 94 (7-52)

AST 45 (13-39)

Alk Phos 129 (34-104)

They came down somewhat by Saturday's blood test.

Saturday:

ALT 73 (7-52)

AST 40 (13-39)

Alk Phos 124 (34-104)

Ann said that elevated liver enzymes are usually due to toxins, and in David's case, it's most likely meds, but I suspected chew, which he holds in his mouth as long as he can and often swallows.

The doctor was thinking about changing his med to Lacosamide, whatever those were, and it wasn't clear whether she meant change the Felbatol to that or the Depakote or what.

At that time she said David was showing no signs of feeling ill and had no other symptoms.  Later that day (December 19), Dr. Morrell said not to worry about the elevated enzymes.  He might have just caught a bug.  She suggested doing the blood tests again in a week, and there was no change in meds.

As far as his mobility issues were concerned, Mary said they would be "implementing physical therapy" asap.  David would make the transition fromt he wheelchair to the regular walker by way of the merry walker.

Suzy was valiantly dealing with all these communications between the Garfield staff, the doctor and Jonathan and me.  She had originally expressed a desire for all the turkey side dishes without the turkey, but on Dec. 20, she said she was getting a cold and something simple like soup sounded good.  Dana had sent a rubber turkey lift, which I thought we could make the centerpiece--the lift with out the turkey.  We decided against Tofurky.  We set our dinner for 2:00.   Suzy liked the cookies I made the day we celebrated her birthday in SF and asked for the recipe, which I'd gotten for Mom on October 8, the morning of the day she choked (not on the cookies, thank God) and was taken to the hospital.

Jonathan and I planned the menu:

Green beans, potatoes, stuffing, mushrooms, cranberry sauce and cranberry jelly.  yams, salad makings.  

Then on the morning of December 22, Suzy got a call from Ann at Garfield. David's ammonia levels were high, which explains his seeming so spacey. So they increased a med he had to take daily to a higher dose to deal with getting the ammonia out of his system, but the way it got out was through diarrhea. He had two bouts of diarrhea after starting the medicine.  Ann thought it would continue and wondered about Christmas.

One option we always had, I said, was to go to see David there at Garfield and make it as festive as possible.  I couldn't see skipping or even postponing Christmas.   We could always visit him there, and then the three of us could continue here or just have wait until December 27.  I just couldn't imagine having Christmas Day without seeing one another and David.

Suzy agreed that he'd rather be with us than not.

Then David threw up right after lunch. His temperature iwas normal, he said he felt ok (he never complains except for the occasion "Fuck you!"), there were no other signs of illness, or so said the nurse.

"If he is feeling fine today and isn't vomiting or having diarrhea, should we consider having him home for Xmas, assuming, of course, that he's also fine all the way up until I pick him up tomorrow?"  Suzy asked us.  "If he isn't fine today, ie, he has diarrhea or vomiting, perhaps no matter if the report tomorrow morning is a positive one, it'd be too big a risk, since it'd be just for the first part of the day and anything could happen in the second part?"

If we needed to go there on Christmas Day, it'd be much easier to take something with us, and maybe not a whole meal. It could even be a nice pie, for example, plus his gifts and Jonathan's music ideas.

We decided not to do the whole Christmas thing for us all at Garfield. Suzy would like to come to SF, possibly before seeing David rather than after him so he could sleep in.

Since things were so much in the air, I said I'd definitely  like to have some Christmas Day time with Suzy and Jonathan before or after taking Christmas to David if that’s what we wound up doing.  But if that was the case, I thought it might be more fun to eat out—my treat—and have our more “traditional” Christmas fare with Kathy and Tom on Dec. 27.  Thinking that David would be here, I’d planned to start cooking that day, but maybe I would hold off until the next day.  But early on December 24 I told Suzy that she was welcome to come here before or after our meal if we did eat out.  

Then we got a message from Suzy saying that here was the thing:  She had a could.  She had thought I'd nipped it in the bud the week before, but then she had gotten laryngitis for the first time shse could remember, and her nose had begun to run, so she wasn't sure it'd be so smart to bring that into Garfield, so there was one quandary right there. And she thought Jonathan and I might not want to be exposed. She had looked forward to being at our house for Christmas b/c it's so pretty, and b/c she hadn't decorated at all and figured we would have. But she understood that it would make more sense to eat out on her side of the bridge, where Garfield is. But she really wanted to download the second part of Room from my iTunes Library.  "At first I didn't think I'd like to hear a story almost entirely in the voice of a child, but I got caught up in it, and it's one of those that's broken up b/c of size, and I only have part 1. I'd like to get the other part. It's really interested to hear about his experience in the outside world."

She asked us what we thought, and before we could asnwer, she sent another message:

"Just spoke to Garfield. David had no diarrhea yesterday and none so far today. He only vomited the one time yesterday, not again. So it's looking really good for David's being able to come. I'm happy about that b/c I know he'll love coming to your house.  As for her cold, the laryngitis seemed to be gone, so she just needed us to say whether we were concerned about catching it. She really, really would not be hurt if we said yes "because  OMG, it's miserable."  She'd cancelled plans with a friend who'd just gotten done with a really protracted cold and  didn't need to be getting sick again -- or even running the risk of it. But unfortunately, for the Christmas Eve  great rest cancelling out of her plans might have led to, "the sofa-on-the-sidewalk neighbors had put up a massive 'tent' of plastic and warned her of the party they'dbe having that night. "GRRRRR.... But of course people should be able to celebrate."  She asked that we please be honest with her about her germs, and she would continue to give us updates on David.

I wrote back that we'd love to have her with us and were not worried about the cold! 

Jonathan said he was glad to hear that David was doing better and was totally fine with risking catching the cold. "Hopefully you won't be contagious anymore, and we can wash our hands a lot and everything. If we do get sick, getting better will be a good feeling to go with the early days of the new year :)"

To that Suzy said "Oi vey!" and thanked us for making her feel wanted, germ-spreader though she might be.

"I will check in with Garfield tomorrow mid morning, and then again right before I go get him at 1:00, " she said.  She would see us at 2:00 the next day, "barring any bad news." 

But the bad news wasn't barred.

On Christmas Day morning she got a call from Ann at Garfield, saying David had thrown up his breakfast. He had been sitting at the table, very spacy, and Ann helped him eat some breakfast, but then he threw it all up, including his morning meds.  We didn't think it made sense to take him out.  He might just be too out of it to even really enjoy it for one thing, and for another, there was the possibility--even likelihood--that he'd throw up. 

 I suggested that we go by the way we would if he were in the hospital--to visit and let him  we were thinking of him but not with food.  Then, after we visited, we could  come back here, where we had a LOT of food!  I'd made the mushroom stuffing the day before, and on Christmas morning I'd baked a cake at 3:00 am.  (Realizing we were out of flour after I started the nutmeg cookies, I'd made a Bisquick pumpkin cake.)  I woke Jonathan up to ask his opinion, and we decided that we should keep preparing here and have Suzy in for Christmas dinner at 1:00 and then cross that bridge when we came to it and see David at 4:00.

We had a really nice Christmas dinner here and unwrapped presents from one another.  Suzy cried when she saw the card I made, and she cried when she saw the memory book.  I make people cry.  We had a nice time talking, though, including about our way of handling illness.  Suzy and I both just want to die and can't quite grasp how people go on with illnesses more painful and serious than the common cold.  I admitted that I just curl up in the fetal position and say, "Okay, God, I'm ready."  Then we got in two cars and headed to Garfield together, Suzy following Jonathan but not when we missed the right exit.  

But David was so totally out of it.  He didn't recognize the Beatles when Suzy gave him the Beatles puzzle.  I think he said, "Puzzle," and the act of tearing tissues off the gift made him short-winded.  "Indians?" she said, when he saw the picture of the Beatles.  After a very short period, we said this Christmas would be continued when he was feeling better.  I told him we loved him and wheeled him out.  "Do you want to go to the TV area or to your room?'  I asked him.  He said, "Room."  He lay down fully clothed and came pretty close to that fetal position I use.

To be continued

News at Christmas

It's my ritual to begin every day pre-dawn in the living room, on the recliner, with a wine glass of orange juice, six-cup pot of tea, a little pitcher of warm milk, the microwave (to keep re-heating tea and milk), and the newspaper.  The is my breakfast, and this is my medication and meditation, and it takes about two hours. 
Last night I went to two parties with the Club-Toruno-Martin and Bill and Tom and commented that since Jonathan had only the New York Times Book Review, I planned to put the SF Chronicle Book Review in his stocking.  This morning I found other things to roll up and let slid down into his very wide and very long Christmas stocking.  One is the SF Datebook Super Fun Christmas Activity Book showing the contest winners for the Readers' Best 'Crying/Pepper-Sprayed Baby in Santa's Lap' Photos.  Beside it are three drawings of Mayor Ed Lee with the challenge, "Hey Kids, Circle the Drawing Below That Was the REAL poster for the 2011 'Ed Lee for Mayor' Campaign."  Then it has "Run Ed Run" showing him looking normal,  "Shave Ed Shave"showing him with a long black beard,  and "Poop Ed Poop"showing him with his eyes closed the way eyes are during extreme concentration."  That last one reminded me of an other-wise very good instructor I had for my sabbatical course who tries to entertain and connect with the kids by giving "pooping" as something we should do on the floor of  a sacred place.  Apparently pooping on the floor should be reserved for profane places.  Anyway, the super fun Christams activity book was done by Bad Reporter Don Amussen, but they shoudl warn us.  We know where to look for him in the regular newspaper.  On the next page there's something I want to share with Javier, who likes to find--and ask me to find--the five differences in drawings.  This wone has "Spot the 120 Differences and win a prize."  Also on the Christmas theme, yesterday's SF Chronicle's Home & Garden featured "Holiday cards/Naught and Nice," by Alec Scott with a mention of Steve LaBadessa's special cards.  This year it was going to be "Occupy the North Pole," but he decided, after builindg an igloo, that it was t"too bleak, not festive."  I like the one of the mother looking like the Donna Reed model of the 1960s at the kitchen table with her family, all of hom are talking on the phone or texting.  The Travel Section has "The year in weird travel stories," which I haven't finished reading yet, but I did notice the paragraph "My ficus went on vacation and all I go were these aphids," which come from Madrid, where residents can send their plants to the new Hotel Para Plantas, where each plant gets its own botanist to look after it.   I'm sure the whole article is a keeper.  Also on the holiday theme, there was a Leah Garchik column on holiday leftovers on which I was very briefly quoted:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/13/DD4A1M97PO.DTL


Not exactly on the Christmas theme, but still interesting, is a beautifully written Open Forum "On Lowe's and Islam, "Un American act against Muslims" by Ted. W. Lieu., which should be required reading for both Islamophobes and people who want to cure our nation of Islmaphobia and other forms of ignorance and prejudice.  Here's another suggestion:  Take a City College course in Intro to Islam, Demystifying the Middle East, Government and Politics of the Middle East.  Having lived and taught in Algeria a Muslim nation in North Africa, for two years, I was so appalled by the attack on a proposed Islamic Center in Manhattan (the Cordoba House/51 Park Place) that I made Islam and Middle Eastern studies the focus of my sabbatical to see which courses would be comprehensible to my ESL students as wells as to adapt material to their levels.  I found City College's Comparative Religions course also useful, and even Western Cultural Values shows is applicable because it shows how the West has been unfairly maligning Islam  for centuries.  Let's get an education before there are no funds left.  (I guess I've started to editorialize.) 

There's a political cartoon showing a Gladiator labeled HUBRIs with a bloody sword stading on IRAQ:  "Weapon of Mass Descruction."  We found the Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq.  US.  The U.S.

Well, it's time for me to leave blog-osphere, but I want to just cite three more articles:  "Tears of joy as Bieber plays low-income Vegas school" by Michelle Rindels about Whtney Elementary, Sherrie Gahn, principal,
  "Barefoot Bandit' gets 7-year term" by Gene Johnson, and recipes for Bite-Size Pistachio cakes and Apriot-Pistachio Bars.

An Important Date in Peace Corps History

An Important Date in Peace Corps History

            They always say that 1960, when John F. Kennedy introduced the idea of the Peace Corps, was an important date, but here’s another--more-or-less as recorded in one of my 28 Peace Corps diaries, on January 28, 1970 from the Way In Motel in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, in the South Pacific:

            So here we are, almost a decade after I, as a freshman in high school, heard Kennedy introduce the idea of the Peace Corps.  At the time I remember saying, “That’s what I’m going to do someday!”  And sure enough, that’s what I’m about to do.  After being in training for three months, it’s nice to be in country, about to put our training into use.  So far I haven’t been culturally shocked and have taken precautions against being culturally shocking.

            Jim and I held hands all the way here.  We skipped a day, crossing the International Dateline from the sky.   On the plane we flew into Tuesday, and before we knew it, we’d flown into Wednesday. 

            We crossed the International Dateline, where time begins, and landed in Tonga, where we began. 

            We arrived in Tonga in time for lunch, after having dinner in Hawaii and breakfast in Fiji.  We travelled as a group, of course, but in Honolulu Jim and “dated” for the first time.   I know it was a date because we used his Peace Corps living allowance.  Since we won’t have up-to-date movies in Tonga (or even electricity in most places), we decided to see three newly-released films in Honolulu.  The three nights we were there we saw “Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice,” “Hello, Dolly,” and “Cactus Flower.”  We ate and over-ate.  And wherever they’d let me drink without ID, we drank Mai Tais.

            Last night after I finished my third Mai Tai and Jim’s second one, Jim told me the Story of His Life, and I fell asleep in his arms right there in the corner booth of the restaurant.  I fell asleep because I’d never before had the chance to fall asleep in Jim’s arms and now, in my Mai Tai state, I had an excuse.  I thought it was romantic, but Jim thought it was insulting because he thought my falling asleep was a reflection on the quality of his life story.

            “Just wait, Tina,” he said.  “My life story will be a lot more interesting after a few weeks in Tonga.”  So will mine, but I hope mine is never so interesting that no one falls asleep in my arms.

            We rejoined our group after our Mai Tais, and, wearing the traditional leis that had been slipped ceremoniously around our necks, we boarded Pan Am.  We flew to Fiji, where we had breakfast.  Then, just before lunch, we landed at the Tongan airport in a little grass field, where we were given fresh leis and the chance to begin an experience that will enrich our life stories.

            Jim and I held hands as we went by bus through the island’s villages to Nuku’alofa.  Along the way, we passed a horse and cart, and we saw coconut and banana palms and coconut leaf huts, very blue sky, and then gray smoke rising from underground ovens—for our welcoming feasts, someone told us.

            “It looks,” I whispered to Jim, “the way you think it’s not going to look because things never look the way you expect them to look.”

            “Yeah,” he said.

            “You always expect foreign countries to look strange and exotic,” I said, “but they always wind up looking like Los Angeles or Boise, Idaho.”

            “Yeah,” he said.

            “But this,” I continued, “really looks strange and exotic.”

            “Yeah,” Jim said, looking strange and exotic himself.  And that was the last he said until two hours ago when we were at our communal lunch here at the Way In Motel and he leaned across the table over the papaya and said, “You’re the best date I’ve ever had.  Dinner in Hawaii, breakfast in Fiji, and lunch in Tonga.”

            “We should do this more often,” I said. 

            But it’s just about time for us to separate.  He’s going to another island, and I’m staying on this one.

            So here goes doing what I said I was going to do back in 1961, when John Kennedy was President and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King were still alive.  After all the terrible unplanned things that have happened since I started dreaming of joining the Peace Corps, it seems almost miraculous that something planned and hoped for is about to happen.

Note:  Jim Canning dropped out of the Peace Corps early and got into the Chicago cast of Grease.  By the time I got out of the Peace Corps, Grease was ready to Premiere off Broadway.  I read the script and knew it was going to be a flop.  Of course, it turned out to be one of the longest off-Broadway plays ever.  I got to be Jim’s date after opening night at Sardi’s, and that was a pretty good date, too, though not quite as spectacular as our date with dinner in Hawaii, breakfast in Fiji, and lunch in Tonga. Jim, who married just a year or two after I first did, has stayed married--more than 30 years--and has three sons.  He now teaches Latin at a boys' school in Connecticut and is now on YouTube with the original cast of Grease.

Jim Canning and the Reunion of Grease 40 years!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p735D9SxMVU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7ooump_qIE

The above are two links for videos of the reunion of the Grease performers who were in the original NYC cast 40 years ago.  The first like  is of Jim Canning, who took me to Sardi's afterwards to hear what he describes as  "the decidedly mixed reviews."  He says the reunion was "a perfect blend of nostalgia for a glorious past and and pride in a pragmatic present."  He thinks it's pragmatic that he gave up "show business" and now teaches Latin at a boys' school in Connecticut.  Jim is someone I met in Peace Corps staging in San Jose, CA, before we left for training on Molokai, and our perfect date (before Sardi's) is described in an earlier blog:

Hmm.  Well, I looked for it and couldn't find it on my blogs.  I'll include it after this one.


 Anyway, I was on my way to Spain when Grease opened in 1972, and  before opening night,  Jim gave me the script to read.  I thought, "Oh, dear, this is really dumb.  It's going to be a flop.  But it's an honor to be in a NY production even if it folds on opening night."  I wanted it to be more like Bye-Bye Birdie.  Then I saw it and really liked it because they all did it so well.  Of course, it went on to beat all records for  the longest-running off-Broadway show in history. (There are new records now.)  

Jim is wonderful!  It's amazing how well he sings and how young he's stayed.  I, on the other hand, was recently referred to as "the other elder in our class."

Sufism

I'm going to take my final final tonight, so I bring you Sufism!

This is the mystical "esoteric" strand of Islam, but it's still Islam.  Sufis say that the prophet Muhammad was their model because in addition to being a businessman (taking Khadidja's caravan from place to place), he was very contemplative and had a deep prayer life, which they say led to his receiving the Qur'an (recitations).  Muhammad  said, according to Sufis, that every verse of the Qur'an has both an inner and an outer meaning--like the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, I was surprised to learn.  Fitzgerald, who translated it in the version most of us know, thought it was all about hedonism, but it's really pretty much the opposite.  It's all about getting closer to God.  (I was wondering whether the same thing could be said about the Song of Solomon, but I'm not going to go there right now.)  The aim of Sufism is to become so purified of ego and self that you're a perfect mirror for the divine attributes.  I haven't quite mastered the vocabulary, but here are some words:

Fana is the total annihilation of the ego (naf) because the nafs keep us from Truth, which is God, according to the Sufis.  In literary metaphors, it's the annihilation of the lover (ego) in the Beloved (God), but this may require a teacher or spiritual master.

Murshid--teacher

or a shaykh--spiritual master

In this world there's the Zahir (exterior, apparent) and the Batin (what's within the nature of God)

The Ghayb is the unseen, the hidden dimension not visible to our five senses.

Myein is to close our eys and go within

Tawhid means that God is one, but we can unite with that one.

Ecstasy and suffering provide the fuel and the tool to get closer to God.

There's nothing that's not God.

Then a Sufi can receive the barakah--Blessing, sacred power passed down from the shaykh to the shaykh all the way back to Mohammad, who transmitted the barakah to 'Ali.

(Do you suppose that Barakah is the basis of Barak Obama's first name?  Just looked it up:  lightning, blessing, grain farm.  I'll go with blessing.)

Tariqas are esoteric orders, but I wonder whether that's also the path.

tariqah is the way to unite with the Reality. Tariqa is sthe Persian word for path. 

Dhikr is the concentrated, repetitive chanting of the names of God or the shahada (There is no god but God, and Muhammad is his prophet.  But I've read that Sufis think this means "There is nothing but God" because God is all that is real and the only thing that lasts.)

It started when some Muslims were disenchanted with the Umayyad dynasty (661-750) because of the focus on the pursuit of wealth and the overly legalistic religious perspectives.  Sufis wanted to go back to the form they believed Muhammad practiced.  They wore wool, a coarse weave to show they shunned wealth, and from the word for wool, they were given the name Sufis.  According to Sambul Ali-Karamali, the author of The Muslim Next Door:  The Qur'an, the Media, and that Veil Thing, there's sober Sufism and drunken sufism, but those are just figurative words.  Sober emphasizes the Shari'a (pronounced like Maria) and reason, and drunken Sufism emphasizes the ecstatic union with God or nearness to God, and that's where we get Sufi poetry.  We all grew up with the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam, which I've recently listened to with the paraphrasing and extended explanation of Paramahansa Yogananda, the author of Autobiography of a Yogi.  Just to give you an idea, here's the verse most of us remember from high school literature class:

Awake!  for Morning in the Bowl of Night

Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:

And Lo!  the Hunter of the East has caught

The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light.

According to Yogananda, who may base his explanations on the insights of Swami Govinda Tirtha, who wrote The Nectar of Grace:  Omar Khayyam's Life and Works, the Morning is the dawn of awakening from delusive earthly existence, and the bowl of night is the darkness of ignorance that keeps the immortal soul in mortal consciousness.  The stone is spiritual discipline, so when it puts the stars, attractive twinkling material desires,  to flight, it helps us get closer to God.  The Hunter of the East rfers to Eastern wisdom, which knows that delusion shoudl be slain.  The Noose of Light is the divine illumination of wisdom.  You get the idea!

One of my favorite verses is this one:  

For in and out, above, about, below,

'Tis nothing but a Magic Shadow-show

Played ina Box whose Candle is the Sun,

Round which we Phantom Figures come and go.

Without going into a complete paraphrase, I'll just say that I sometimes think that may be life as we know--a Magic shadow show--all illusion.  Also, the sun is God's light, which causes the appearance of all the images.  

A few years ago, Rumi became very popular in the United States, and he's still widely read.  He was a Sufi, and his poetry is like this--full of metaphors that are all about Sufism and God.    Have I mentioned the Whirling Dervishes?  Rumi is the one who inspired the mevlevi Dervish Order in Turkey that's famous for its "Whirling Dervishes," whose dances lead to transcendent rapture.  

Al-Ghazali, a very famous (now I know!) Persian philosopher and the author of The Incoherence of the Philosophers,  legitimized Sufism by staring one of the first Sufi orders.  

But now I think I'll dream, as I did last night but maybe on a different topic?  Last night I dreamed that I was discussing politics or philosophy, and then I excused myself to give birth and went right back to the politics and philosophy.   Then it occurred to me, What about the baby?  Is the baby all right?  I'm kind of old to be giving birth.  Maybe the baby isn't all right.  No one has let me see it.  The baby wasn't all right.  That may just be about taking final exams.  Until tomorrow, when "morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight."

Writing Wrongs against Muslims

Writing Wrongs against Muslims

            How can it be that in Spain the Muslim rulers gave special protection (dhimma) to the Christians and Jews because Muslims understood that people of all three faiths—Christianity, Judaism, and Islam—were People of the Book, and yet 400 years later the West showed no understanding of the beliefs of Islam?  Being monotheistic and having some of the same prophets, they had enough in common to get along during the Golden Age of Islam in Muslim Spain, creating a vibrant culture that coincided with the Dark Ages in other parts of Europe.  Jews (and other religious minorities) were treated significantly better in Muslim-controlled Iberia than in Christian Western Europe, living in a unique "golden age" of tolerance, respect and harmony.   The one limit on the freedom of religion for the Jews and Christians was that they not proselytize.  Even Bernard Lewis, the Orientalist, in his 1984 book The Jews of Islam, allows the following:

            Generally, the Jewish people were allowed to practice their religion and live according to the laws and scriptures of their community. Furthermore, the restrictions to which they   were subject were social and symbolic rather than tangible and practical in character.           That is to say, these regulations served to define the relationship between the two c       communities, and not to oppress the Jewish population.

            On the whole, according the BBC web site on religions http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/spain_1.shtm

“the lot of minority faith groups was to become worse after Islam was replaced in Spain by Christianity.”            So how is it that four centuries later in the late eleventh century, the Song of Roland, as Robert Harrison says in the introduction to the 1970 translation (page 20), Masilla, the Muslim ruler, is described as a person who “does not love God, but worships Muhammad and Apollo”? 

            It is strictly forbidden (shirk) in Islam to worship Mohammad or any other person, and Apollo is a pagan god, so of course the Muslims could not worship him. 

            As Cunningham and Reich say in Culture and Values/A Survey of the Humanities, the unknown writer or writers of The Song of Roland “had little interest in historical accuracy or geographical niceties” (196), so this tale of evil (Muslims) and good (Christians, exemplified by Roland) was used successfully as propaganda.  Cunningham and Reich relate how it was “sung to inspire the Norman army before the Battle of Hastings in 1066” and how Pope Urban II used it to appeal to French patriotism when in 1096 he wanted to raise armies for a crusade to free the Holy land.  It quickly spread to other languages, too, so after the Muslims had translated Aristotle and other Greek philosophers, helping European culture survive, they were rewarded by being vilified in literature.  After The Song of Roland came Dante’s Divine Comedy, in which Mohammad is relegated to the eighth circle of hell for “sowers of scandal and schisms.” 

A cask by losing centre-piece or cant
Was never shattered so, as I saw one
Rent from the chin to where one breaketh wind.
Between his legs were hanging down his entrails;
His heart was visible, and the dismal sack
That maketh excrement of what is eaten.
While I was all absorbed in seeing him,
He looked at me, and opened with his hands
His bosom, saying: "See now how I rend me;
How mutilated, see, is Mahomet;
In front of me doth Ali weeping go,
Cleft in the face from forelock unto chin;
And all the others whom thou here beholdest,
Disseminators of scandal and of schism
While living were, and therefore are cleft thus.
A devil is behind here, who doth cleave us
Thus cruelly, unto the falchion's edge
Putting again each one of all this ream,
When we have gone around the doleful road;
By reason that our wounds are closed again
Ere any one in front of him repass.
- Dante's Inferno, Canto 28 verses 30-31

            This injustice, continuing today in Western nations, makes me think of two quotes.  One is from Woody Allan’s Hannah and Her Sisters,  when a character comments,” If Jesus Christ came back today and saw what was being done in his name, he'd never stop throwing up.”

            Another is from  Gandhi, who was asked what he thought of Western Civilization and replied, “I think it would be a good idea.”

            But giving the Christian West credit where it’s due, I want to praise the Reconciliation Walk, a walk Christians take to the countries where Jews and Muslims were slaughtered by Christians so that they can express their regret for wrong acts committed in the name of Christianity:

            But when have Christians demonstrated (Christian)  love to Muslims or Jews? We have     gone to them with swords and guns. We have gone to them with racism and hatred. We          have gone to them with feelings of cultural superiority and economic domination. We    have gone to them with colonialism and exploitation. We have even gone to them with          the Gospel cloaked in arguments of superiority. Only a few have ever gone with the             message of Calvary...We must do more than carry the message, we must be the message.   Reconciliation Walk

            According to the website http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_cru1.htm  about 2,000 Christians from 27 countries have participated in the Reconciliation Walk.  They have been received with applause and warm expressions of gratitude from the Muslim and Jews who have heard their message.  http://www.reconciliationwalk.org/crusades.htm 

            I think that’s a walk I would like to take. 

Christianity, Islam, Daoism, and Confucianism

Our birthday party for our brother has been postponed, Suzy called to tell me, but the door to the study--so cluttered with my five sabbatical courses and Mom's memorial/Christmas pictures--was closed so Javier wouldn't see it when he came to talk about the future of the Club Toruno-Martin, so I just found out.  We're postponing it until Wednesday, the day before I have three finals, and I hope the cake that I made last night will still be good.  Now I'm going to start reviewing, and as you may have noticed, my blog has become clogged with my review sheets, and today's will be on Christianity, Islam, Taoism (as Jeff Liss has written it), and Confucianism.  As I type, I'll review, and we'll both (in case another person is reading) be better for it.

We won't be tested on Mencius, Hsun Tzu, ren, or yi.

Know these vocabulary terms across different religions:  sacred, profane, ascetic, mystical, secular, fundamentalism

Christianity

Note that Jewish society at the time of Jesus was under political oppression from the Roman Empire.  The following concepts (probably derived from Zoroastrianism) had become part of Judaism:  the afterlife, the coming of a Messiah, and the spiritual struggle of good and evil.

Know the basics of Jesus' career:  how he was preceded by John the Baptist, traveled and preached, modified Jews' understanding of the Law through his famous Sermon on the Mount, and was opposed by traditionalists like the Pharisees and Sadducees, leading to his crucifixion.

Understand the role of the Gospels of the New Testament, and which are called the synoptic Gospels due to their similarity (Matthew, Mark, Luk) and that John is different, far more conceptual and even mystical.

Paul was the major disseminator of Christianity throughtout the Mediterranean world and broadened Jesus' message to include Gentiles.  Understand two major points that Paul set forth in the Book of Romans:
          Abraham was an example of why Gentiles could now be part of the Jewish tradition, since he was a Gentile himself, chosen by God on the strength of his faith and obedience.  Any Gentile could do the same.
          Christians were not to participate in political struggles, like revolting against the Roman Empire.
Recognize that the split in the Roman Empire also led to a split between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church; that the Catholic Church suffered from corruption and too much worldly power in the Middle Ages in Western Europe (including the sale of indulgences and charging pilgrims to see relics), leading to the Protestant Reformation begun by Martin Luther in Germany in 1517.

Have an idea which countries are predominantly Protestant (United States, England), Catholic (Spain, France, Italy, Latin America), and Eastern Orthodox (Greece, Russia, and the Middle Eastern Chrstian minorities, including Egypt and Ethiopia).

Islam

Know the Five Pillars of Islam
      The Muslim creed:  "There is no god by God, and Mohammed is His Prophet."  (shahadah)
     Prayer five times a day (salah)
     regular giving of charity, or tithing (zakat)
     fasting during the month of Ramadan (sawm)
     Making a pilgrimage to Mecca (if possible) during one's life (Hajj)


Understand the many implications of the Muslim insistence on the Oneness of God; major violations (shirk) include:
          idol worship and polytheism
          elevating any human being (including any of the honored prophets from the Jewish tradition, Jesus, Mary, or Mohammed himself)  to the place that only God should have
          God being split in any way; Jesus cannot be considered hsi son, nor can God be seen as the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

This is of special interest to me because in my Western Culture and Values I'm writing a paper on how the West misrepresents Islam in literature like The Song of Roland, which has the Muslim ruler hate God and worship Mohammad and Apollo.

Know kufr as the sin of ingratitude and forgetfulness of God (its most severe form being atheism).

Mohammed lived from 570-632 CE.  Know the basic outline of the life of Mohammed and the struggles of the early Muslims.  Identify the flight from Mecca to Medina as the hejirah.  The Muslim calendar begins with this event.

Understand the difference between Sunni and Shi'a Islam

Sunni, making up 85-90% of the world population of Muslims, is mainstream, traditionalist--supported practical caliphs not of Mohammed's descent; extremist group Al Queda is Sunni, according to Jeff Liss.

The Shi'a, making up 10-15% of the world population of Muslims, is the majority in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Azerbaijan.  They believed in 'Ali and that his line should have succeeded as caliph; the line of Imams and the Messiah-like return of the Imam as Mahdi. (That's something I'd better review!)  Shi'a centers on charismatic leadership and--even more than most of Islam--the fight against oppression.  (Really?)

Confucianism/Taoism

Know the difference between yin and yang and how to identify pairs of principles or natural forces and be able to apply the same logic to pairs not listed here.

Yin:               dark; in the shade                                                          Yang:          light, in the sun
                     passive or yielding                                                                            active or aggressive
                     female                                                                                               male
                     wet/cold/water                                                                                  dry/hot/fire

Understand that there are three aspects to Taoism:  Literary Taoism (including the important text Dao De Jing by Lao Zi); an Organized Taoism with a hierarchy of priests and temples largely destroyed along with all religious life during the Cultural Revolution in mainland China; and Longevity Taoism, in which theories of qi circulation in the body and the basis of Chinese medcine sometims ventured into practices of black magic and alchemy to prolong life.

See Confucius as a figure who, instead of creating a tradition, tried to collect and promote preexisting classics and li (rituals) for the good of society.  he emphasized the importance of society relationships such as ruler-subject, parent-child, husband-wife, older sibling-younger sibling, and the relationships between friends.  This had a religious and spiritual element as well since children owed their parents filial piety and cared for them even after death (known as ancestor worship).