How Can You Support OWS Without Sleeping in a Park?

I am passing along this great blog post from Lauren Leonardi.
I would also like to add, BLOG ABOUT IT!
I will be adding more ways to get involved as they come up. Any suggestions?

They Want to be there

I spent some time in Austin, Tx. this week. As we drove around the city, my work colleagues and I, in our elegant rental car, we passed the Occupy Austin group. One of my coworkers made the comment, "most of those people aren't really Occupy protesters, they are just homeless bums."

I am pleased to announce that I am in Austin, Tx, at a diversity conference, and I am having a good time.
Austin is gorgeous this time of year, and drinking wheat beer with lemons in the rooftop cafe in the middle of downtown is the nicest, most relaxing thing I have done in a while.

I'll be back on Thursday, and continue with the writing.

Oh, what the hell happened to Sasha, you may ask? RL has ahold of him still, I am hoping he will be back, but if not, you will just have to content yourself with me.

See ya soon.

An Open Letter to the Occupy Protesters Worldwide.

Take courage, and stand firm for your convictions. Your movement is Our movement... We, the People.

As you march, and occupy, and hold your ground against those forces who seek to remove you and to still your voice, remember those who have gone before you. Those, who like you, were ridiculed, ignored, discounted, assaulted, accused of being anti-American, and of having nothing important to say...Remember, and take courage.

Antipode

The word antipode refers to things (usually in locational context of parts of the earth) that are diametrically oposed, or to people or things that are the exact oposite or contrary to.

A Day of Atonement

So, after that last little nugget of happiness I thought another post was in order. In my last post I mentioned that I had written a letter to Sasha on Yom Kippur. The ever cynical Israeli had messaged to let me know that he would be out of pocket starting at sundown until the next night. I was, to say the least, surprised. Why? Well, I know he is not religious, we have had discussions about it before, he even goes so far as to deride such things… so why the observance. Immediately my curiosity was peaked. I went to that bastion of information, Google, and learned that Yom Kippur is the highest of the high holy days… the day of atonement. Apparently it involves fasting for 25 hours, a lot of horn blowing, and something to do with a chicken. I was intrigued. From what I was able to find out, this was the day when your sins would be forgiven. I likened it, in the letter, to a Jewish ‘get out of jail free’ card.

So many words, so little time...

Okay, I couldn't stay away for too long. The little birds keep coming back and flapping around with infuriating insistence. Life has been challenging, however, so I am sure I will be posting about that, and hopefully it won't become tedious. Life has Sasha firm in its grips, and he has been finding it hard to make his way here to write, but I am hoping he will surprise us with an acerbic gem or two in the near future.                                                                                                      I found the little picture at the left and thought... "Yes, that is about where I am at." The roof is torn off, the heart is torn out, the head is broken, and everything is a shambles, yet the little birds are still there, cheeping, and scratching, and pecking, and so I pick up the pen and write something down. My life is exploding around me, yet I can still find time to feel deep curiosity about the rituals of Yom Kippur, and what Sasha did on that day... and to write him a long email about said curiosity and what I thought about it.

Seriously, I think my priorities are screwed up. Even in the shit, I am writing.

Now, I am not saying that I am a great writer. I am just saying that I am a prolific one, and I can't help it. It's not that I like to write. I NEED to write. Just like I need to analyse. And, of course, that leads to analysis of why I need to write. I wake up in the middle of the night with this crap going on in my head and have to reach for a pen and paper. It's sick.

I noticed, that while going through all this difficulty, I had two people I spoke to about it. Both of them online. It caused me to question my rationale. Why? Is it because I have no freinds, no "real" person I can turn to for support? Is it because I don't want to face the reality of what is going on so I turn to the virtual? Is it because it is so terrible that I want to keep it hidden from people I would deal with on a day to day basis? No, I think it is because talking to these two friends takes place in written form, so I can express what is going on, and work through what is going on, in the medium I am most comfortable with. That, and Sasha, who is one of those friends, is the most no bullshit person I have ever met and I deeply value his perspective. Maybe one day I can write openly about what is going on with me... but it's not something I want to share here. It's for another blog, one I don't like going to very much. One I am not ready to share. 

I have so many words, so many ideas... and so very little time.