By Dr. Pramila Srivastava

Mothers are a blessing given by the Almighty. Whilst putting all their efforts in nurturing a baby, a mother sacrifices all her ambitions, wishes and identity unknowingly paving a way to personal spiritual attainment. The essence of spiritual attainment is self-sacrifice- thinking about others before thinking about your own self and motherhood is all about helping others grow and develop into a person that God has sent them on earth to be. With Motherhood come complex responsibilities with major emotional shifts and other challenges along the way. The most empowered of all could feel weak at times; being a woman in a patriarchal world is itself a challenge so feeling weak is strengthening as well. Our weakness in the tough times gives us power to overcome them, we learn about our capabilities and we rise above our own stature. We learn to live with joy, love and the positive along with acknowledging daily inequalities, judgements, anxieties and disappointments.

A mother is a spiritual being as a woman in her path of motherhood learns to transcend from her ego and her own self for the sake of another. A woman on this path develops empathy for others and feels compassion and through this is able to enlighten in her the sense of sacrifice. Motherhood is at par with any other spiritual path. Within our daily routine of life lies the traditional spiritual path that encourages us to transcend selfishness, practice compassion and develop empathy for others. Mothers do this every moment of the day in their own way. In the process, a mother learns to develop in all directions rather than getting stalled in any one of them. Motherhood is the most appropriate vehicle to achieve enlightenment. At every step of motherhood, a woman can explore other facets of life and follow other paths but the motherhood can never be taken away. Therefore, it pushes one relentlessly towards consciousness. It allows understanding and embracing what we are while loving another human being unconditionally and helping them to grow in what they are capable of. Through motherhood, a woman is able to get to a place where she can understand the spiritual as well as non- spiritual aspects of life.

Motherhood teaches us to discover who we really are within and beyond and help others to do the same. It is not confined within the boundaries of giving birth, it is about parenting- treating and teaching somebody the values and morals of life through an understanding. It is about believing in someone to achieve what they are capable of. For instance, the nuns and the sisters sacrifice everything that is materialistic or what is perceived as natural for the society; they give up a home, a marriage and conceiving children. Contrary to what the world thinks they believe God to be their spouse and consider all children as their own. Religious women do it through their prayers and live the profoundest moments in the simplest way through the simplest human experiences.

Spiritual Motherhood is about self-giving and caring. It is not just for biological mothers as long as it involves nurturing and caring without self- interest. Limited to the perspectives and the crannies of life, at times we forget to acknowledge a mothers sacrifice, her confusing yet brilliant upbringing methods, her way of seeing the beauty in us that we fail to fathom. We never see people who do not get the nurturing, motherly love and guidance that they should have, but a mother does. A mother after experiencing motherhood becomes a spiritual soul without following any particular path, but only this one. She becomes the spirit herself that guides us through life. Spirituality is a personal journey embedded in our daily lives, which can only be achieve with a peace of mind. Achieving spiritual enlightenment becomes a journey in itself to wisdom. Motherhood helps achieve that light through the mundane. The unseen spiritual potential is reached when a mother is facing her life squarely and committing to the responsibility that comes with the honour of personal spiritual attainment. A mother sees the sacred within the ordinary whenever possible.

Photo Credit : Shutterstock

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New Delhi Times - India's Only International Newspaper- Read ... - New Delhi Times

In a recent interview by Inquirer Entertainment columnist Ruben Napoles, veteran Hollywood actress Goldie Hawn said, Our children are overstressed. A lot of them are on psychotropic (i.e. psychedelic) drugs. This isnt just in the United States.

Indeed, psychedelic (also called psychoactive) drugs have quietly invaded Philippine society without anybody, much less the authorities, noticing them. The governments battle against drugs seems to be limited exclusively to shabu.

But psychedelic drugs are as dangerous as shabu. Thats why they are illegal in 170 countries, including the Philippines, which is a signatory to the 1971 United Nations Convention on Psychedelic Drugs.

Manifesting

The term psychedelic comes from two Greek words psyche meaning soul or mind, and delein to manifest. Thus, psychedelic means soul (or mind) manifesting. The term implies that the drug can access the soul and develop unusual potentials of the human mind.

There are many varieties of psychedelic or psychoactive drugs that are popular since the early 60s such as LSD, mescaline (found in peyote cactus plant), psilocybin and MDMA (or ecstasy).

Its latest and most potent incarnation is DMT (Dimethyltryptamine) contained in the Amazon brew called Ayahuasca.

I find it alarming that this dangerous, highly potent drug is being peddled and promoted as a magical doorway to spiritual enlightenment and awakening akin to cosmic consciousness. The internet is full of such messianic messages, especially YouTube.

Hallucinogen

DMT has been called the biggest secret they dont want you to know, where you can experience the impossible, awaken your Kundalini and your third eye. It has been called the spirit molecule because it supposedly awakens your true spiritual nature and brings about cosmic consciousness or Samadhi.

This is not necessarily true. DMT produces long lasting (over three hours), deep metaphysical experience similar to that of psilocybin mushroombut more intense. The drug is also known to interact with antidepressants. The experience varies from individual to individual.

Ayahuasca produces hallucination and delusions. In a study conducted in 1990-1995, University of New Mexico psychiatrist Rick Strassman found that some volunteers injected with high dosage of DMT reported experiences with perceived alien entities, and visiting other worlds. These beings of light appeared to be expecting them.

Other studies show DMT can induce profound time dilation, visual and auditory illusions and other experiences that defy verbal or visual description. Some report intense erotic imagery and sensations.

Its physical and psychological effects include vomiting, nausea, fear, paranoia, tremors, and other strange physical sensations. Users see physical objects change shape or morph. They feel sensations that seem real but are not.

What an Ayahuasca or DMT user experiences is unpredictabledepending on the personality of the user, the environment, setting and the people around them.

Like LSD, psilocybin and other hallucinogenic drugs, DMT produces its effects though the action of the serotonin receptors in the brain. They produce perception-altering effects by acting on the neural circuitry in the brain that use, serotonin. The more prominent effects occur in the prefrontal cortexan areainvolved in mood, cognition, and perception as well as other regions regulating arousal and psychological response to stress and panic.

Because the chemical DMT is found in its natural state in the brain of humans (and other mammals) in small quantities, it has been theorized that it is responsible for the spiritual awakening that Eastern mystics and masters experience when it is stimulated or awakened by deep meditation and other spiritual practices. Using DMT, it is believed, shortcuts the process. One can have a choice of instant spiritual enlightening instead of decades of sitting still in a lotus position on a mountain top or in a temple.

DMT or Ayahuasca has been described as an entheogen, meaning spiritually enhancing agent. But it is also hallucinogenic or inducing hallucinations.

DMT is a psychomimetic or psychogenic drug, meaning it mimics psychosis. But, in fact, it makes one temporarily psychotic with auditory and visual hallucinations, as well as delusions experienced by psychotics.

To mimic something or somebody means imitating the actions, thinking and behavior of that thing or person. If I am an actor mimicking an insane person, I will imagine and act like him.

But when under the influence of DMT, you dont think you are mimicking or imitating psychotic behavior, but actually become psychotic, if only temporarily. Sometimes, according to some reports, the effect becomes permanent.

The use of psychedelic drugs became popular in the 60s counterculture or hippie community, when Harvard professor Timothy Leary and others began experimenting with LSD and writing about it. They were dismissed by Harvard because one of them gave the drug to an undergraduate student. Leary then began to promote its use for medicinal and healing purposes.

A decade earlier, writer Aldous Huxley took a hallucinogenic drug, psilocybin, and wrote down his experience in a book titled Doors of Perception.

Alarming

What makes Ayahuasca or DMT alarming is that its promoters are like religious crusaders who claim to have found the secret of enlightenment and spiritual awakening by using the drug.

I am not completely against the use of Ayahuasca or other psychedelic drugs. It may be safe when done under the guidance of an experienced shaman or native medicine men in the Amazon jungles, Mexico or Peru. To toy with the delicate brain is to court disaster.

E-mail jaimetlicauco@yahoo.com or visit http://www.innermindlearning.com.

Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. Call 896 6000.

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Don't lose your head over mind-altering drugs - Inquirer.net

By Dr. Pramila Srivastava

Mothers are a blessing given by the Almighty. Whilst putting all their efforts in nurturing a baby, a mother sacrifices all her ambitions, wishes and identity unknowingly paving a way to personal spiritual attainment. The essence of spiritual attainment is self-sacrifice- thinking about others before thinking about your own self and motherhood is all about helping others grow and develop into a person that God has sent them on earth to be. With Motherhood come complex responsibilities with major emotional shifts and other challenges along the way. The most empowered of all could feel weak at times; being a woman in a patriarchal world is itself a challenge so feeling weak is strengthening as well. Our weakness in the tough times gives us power to overcome them, we learn about our capabilities and we rise above our own stature. We learn to live with joy, love and the positive along with acknowledging daily inequalities, judgements, anxieties and disappointments.

A mother is a spiritual being as a woman in her path of motherhood learns to transcend from her ego and her own self for the sake of another. A woman on this path develops empathy for others and feels compassion and through this is able to enlighten in her the sense of sacrifice. Motherhood is at par with any other spiritual path. Within our daily routine of life lies the traditional spiritual path that encourages us to transcend selfishness, practice compassion and develop empathy for others. Mothers do this every moment of the day in their own way. In the process, a mother learns to develop in all directions rather than getting stalled in any one of them. Motherhood is the most appropriate vehicle to achieve enlightenment. At every step of motherhood, a woman can explore other facets of life and follow other paths but the motherhood can never be taken away. Therefore, it pushes one relentlessly towards consciousness. It allows understanding and embracing what we are while loving another human being unconditionally and helping them to grow in what they are capable of. Through motherhood, a woman is able to get to a place where she can understand the spiritual as well as non- spiritual aspects of life.

Motherhood teaches us to discover who we really are within and beyond and help others to do the same. It is not confined within the boundaries of giving birth, it is about parenting- treating and teaching somebody the values and morals of life through an understanding. It is about believing in someone to achieve what they are capable of. For instance, the nuns and the sisters sacrifice everything that is materialistic or what is perceived as natural for the society; they give up a home, a marriage and conceiving children. Contrary to what the world thinks they believe God to be their spouse and consider all children as their own. Religious women do it through their prayers and live the profoundest moments in the simplest way through the simplest human experiences.

Spiritual Motherhood is about self-giving and caring. It is not just for biological mothers as long as it involves nurturing and caring without self- interest. Limited to the perspectives and the crannies of life, at times we forget to acknowledge a mothers sacrifice, her confusing yet brilliant upbringing methods, her way of seeing the beauty in us that we fail to fathom. We never see people who do not get the nurturing, motherly love and guidance that they should have, but a mother does. A mother after experiencing motherhood becomes a spiritual soul without following any particular path, but only this one. She becomes the spirit herself that guides us through life. Spirituality is a personal journey embedded in our daily lives, which can only be achieve with a peace of mind. Achieving spiritual enlightenment becomes a journey in itself to wisdom. Motherhood helps achieve that light through the mundane. The unseen spiritual potential is reached when a mother is facing her life squarely and committing to the responsibility that comes with the honour of personal spiritual attainment. A mother sees the sacred within the ordinary whenever possible.

Photo Credit : Shutterstock

Continue reading here:

Motherhood as a Spiritual Path - New Delhi Times

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Church of Scientology recruiting Irish translators - The Irish News the Irish News FOR SUNDAY THE Church of Scientology is recruiting Irish language translators due to a. and more »

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Church of Scientology recruiting Irish translators - The Irish News - the Irish News

I did a little word association test last Wednesday by asking a variety of people the first thing that came to mind when I said the word Whitman.

From some I got silent, funny looks. Others responded, Sampler, as in the Whitman Sampler box of assorted candies; others said, Slim, as in Slim Whitman, the "countrypolitan," yodeling singer who gained fame in the 1950s with Indian Love Call.

About half responded Walt or poet -- the one I was looking for, it being May 31st, Walt Whitmans birthday.

Whitman, born in 1819, has long been a friend of mine. Weve traveled the open road together, sung songs, swam, reflected on the cosmos, shared our poetry, prayed, explored history, worked, loved animals and looked into the face of death.

Which is why, each year around this time, I sponsor the Walt Whitman Birthday Bash, not only to honor him and reflect on his poetry and personality, but also to gather with others to lend their varied voices to his poems and prose by saying them aloud. (This years Bash will be today, June 4th, at 2 p.m. at Pittsburg Public Library. Everyones welcome.)

Whitman was quite controversial in his time, in no small part because of Leaves of Grass, a collection that was called obscene by many for its overt sexuality.

Hes also known as the father of American poetry and free verse. To my mind, hes not only the best poet America has yet produced, but also Americas finest embodiment of spiritual enlightenment (for more about that, come to the party Sunday).

To be sure he was among the greatest of Americas patriots. He said in the preface to Leaves of Grass, The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.

According to a recent article in The Atlantic by Karen Swallow Prior, Whitmans claim stemmed from a belief that both poetry and democracy derive their power from their ability to create a unified whole out of disparate parts,

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, / Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong, / The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, / The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work, The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing, / Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else, Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

Prior writes further, Whitman is perhaps Americas first democratic poet. The free verse he adopts in his work reflects a newly naturalized and accessible poetic language. His overarching themesthe individual, the nation, the body, the soul, and everyday life and workmirror the primary values of Americas founding. Then and now, his poetry is for everyone. As Whitman asserts later in the preface to Leaves of Grass:

The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges, or churches, or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors, but always most in the common people.

Another reason Im drawn to Whitman is that he was a newspaperman and columnist. In fact, just this week I discovered that he wrote a series of columns entitled Manly Health and Training in which he extolled the virtues of exercising in the open air: walking (both forward and backward), tossing stones, clapping and jumping, as well as taking cold baths and playing baseball. And paying particular attention to ones footwear:Most of the usual fashionable boots and shoes, which neither favor comfort, nor health, nor the ease of walking, are to be discarded.

In closing, I want to again invite you to the birthday party today and share a Whitman selection that speaks to his essence as well as any. It too, is found in the preface to Leaves of Grass:

This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.

-- J.T. Knoll is a writer, speaker and prevention and wellness coordinator at Pittsburg State University. He also operates Knoll Training & Consulting Services in Pittsburg. He can be reached at 231-0499 or jtknoll@swbell.net.

Read the rest here:

Walt Whitman is a friend of mine - Pittsburg Morning Sun

Today, millions of Christians and Jews throughout the world observe Pentecost, each from their own religious perspective. Jewish belief and tradition observe this day as the beginning of the Festival of Weeks. It was also known as the Festival of Reaping and the Day of the First Fruits, at which time the first fruits of the harvest season were presented to the Lord at the Temple (Exodus 34:22).

For Christians, this day acknowledges the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Disciples, as Jesus had promised (John 14:16-17). Peter also links it to the prophesy of Joel 2:28-32, in which the Spirit of God would be poured out upon all flesh.

On the surface for some, these observations may appear unrelated. But with closer biblical study, and with the Holy Spirits enlightenment, there is a direct spiritual connection between the two events.

When one recalls that the Children of Israel were chosen and commissioned by God to be a Light to the Nations who were responsible to lead the other nations (ethnic groups) to God as the One and Only True God. Part of the observance of the Feast of Weeks was to remind each worshiper of God being the source of their fruitful blessings and their continued covenant commitment to Him (which included their continuation to be a Light to the Nations.

At no time in the history of Israel has that Divine invective been rescinded. The true people of God the Seed of Abraham and the Household of Faith in Christ Jesus have both been given the directive to lead the souls of Mankind into the Kingdom of God. Whatever ethnic, national, and theological differences there may be between these two faith groups, the Divine Directive remains the same lead the souls of Mankind into the Kingdom of God!

On that day the 50th day after the Passover Pentecost was being observed by the Seed of Abraham in Jerusalem, an assembly of the Jewish Disciples who believed that Jesus was, not only the Son of God, but also the Promised Messiah, were also gathered together. Not at the Temple, but in a house somewhere else in Jerusalem.

Suddenly, four significant events took place. That house was filled with a sound from heaven like a mighty rushing wind. Cloven tongues like fire then appeared and hovered over each of them. Then, the Holy Ghost filled each of them. And then, the Holy Spirit enabled each of them to speak other tongues or languages as He saw fit for each one to speak.

As amazing as it was for these mostly unlearned and unlettered persons to speak in languages they had not mastered, three other realizations were even more amazing. (1) The multitude who heard them speaking understood what they were saying.

(2) They understood them in their own languages. (3) The message, though in different languages, was the same the wonderful works of God!

Resultant from this/these event(s) and the sermonic explanation of Peter, 3,000 souls received and believed the Gospel message that Salvation was through Jesus Christ, and that those who believed in Him would also receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit.

But where is the Jewish and Christian connection in these Day of Pentecost events? Recall that Divine Directive for the Seed of Abraham to be a Light to the Nations and to lead the other nations (ethnic groups) to God as the One and Only True God. Note also the national groups present and hearing the testimonies of the Disciples represented ethnic groups from all over the known World.

Recall also Jesus directive to His Disciples before He ascended into Heaven Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. (Matthew 28:28) and Ye shall be witnesses unto me in both in Jerusalem, and all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

In reality, those 3,000 souls, from all over the World, became the First Fruits of the Gospel Harvest the Seed of Abraham, who are to be a Light to the Nations and the Household of Faith in Christ Jesus, who are to be a Light to the World!

All Children of God are challenged to keep the Spirit and Practice of Pentecost. The rendering of the First Fruits was just the beginning there was more fruit to be reaped. Jesus reminds us in Matthew 9:37-38 The harvest truly is plenteous but the labourers are few, Pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that he will send labourers into the harvest.

There is more reaping to be done. Pentecost is Now!

Rev. Samuel Hale is the pastor of Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Springfield.

Go here to see the original:

Rev. Samuel W. Hale: Pentecost is now - Entertainment & Life - The ... - The State Journal-Register

Image source: Pixabay

This is Day Seven of the 2017 #30Days30Writers Ramadan series June 2, 2017

By Hosai Mojaddidi

Every year Muslims all across the world usher in the month of Ramadan with hope and excitement. It is a time for deep reflection, spiritual rejuvenation/replenishment and rigorous spiritual works. It is also a time for increased community engagement and activity; many people break fast together with their family and friends and visit the masjid every day to either break fast with their fellow community members and/or pray tarawih (special night prayers during Ramadan). For some, finding a balance between the pressing impulse to focus inwardly and disconnect socially and a deep desire to strengthen ties and connect with others, can be one of the most difficult challenges during the month. This is especially evident on social media platforms like Facebook, where before Ramadan even begins, many people write posts announcing that they are deactivating (i.e., fasting from social media as well as from food and drink) for the month and will be back after the Eid celebration.

While many are able to successfully keep their commitment and wean themselves for the entire month, a great number struggle and eventually reappear after a short hiatus. The former group is usually applauded for exhibiting the strength and willpower to stay off social media for the whole month, while the latter group languishes in self-loathing, conceding to the notion that they are somehow spiritually inferior. This vacillation between needing/wanting spiritual intimacy and spiritual cohesion, which I have personally experienced on many occasions and not just during Ramadan, is something that has always fascinated me about the modern Muslim experience and in particular during this blessed month.

I have often wondered why, for so many, it is difficult to justify fulfilling the outward and the inward in Ramadan; and why they feel they must sacrifice one aspect of their nature to reap the rewards in the other? For example, just a couple of days ago, I was speaking to someone who expressed her need to completely isolate herself during the month. She said that she was so averse to socializing that she wished she could make a public request to her friends/family not to invite her to any iftars; she just wanted to be at home. This is just one of countless examples of conversations Ive had with others over the years whove expressed a similar sentiment: Ramadan is a time for spiritual retreat/isolation and not a time for socialization. Is this true, though? Are we supposed to cut ourselves off from others and retreat in our homes for the whole month in order to reach some heightened level of spiritual enlightenment? Is socializing during Ramadan a categorically blameworthy act? Or are there positive ways to socialize that are also spiritually uplifting and enlightening, and if so, what are they?

And most importantly, what was the practice of our Beloved Prophet (Gods peace and blessings upon him)? Did he isolate himself completely from others for the duration of the month?

When we study the seerah, we find that the Prophet did in fact engage with others throughout the month. He met with people frequently, counseled them, taught them, continued his normal daily affairs and broke fast with them in the evening. There were even major military campaigns, like the Battles of Badr and Tabuk, which took place during Ramadan; clearly suggesting that the Prophet and his Companions didnt isolate themselves, but carried out their normal affairs.

Of course, we know that during the last ten days of the month, the Prophet retreated in the masjid for itikaaf (immersing oneself in worship at the masjid and avoiding worldly affairs), but even then he was in the masjid surrounded by his Companions. Ramadan is undoubtedly the most spiritually significant time of the year for Muslims. Our time is precious and we should absolutely use it wisely, but we dont necessarily have to do everything alone. We are after all, a deen of jamaa, and as they say, there are strength in numbers. While theres no denying the immense benefits of praying alone in a private sanctuary, we can also benefit tremendously by praying with our fellow brothers and sisters and listening to the melodious voices of our gifted and talented reciters.

Eating iftar with our families and loved ones in the comfort of our own homes is without doubt a great blessing, but so is breaking the fast with perfect strangers who share your faith and seek the same reward of pleasing their Lord as you do. And, while withdrawing from friends, whether in real life or virtually, may feel empowering in the moment, just imagine how much strength it takes to engage with others mindfully, purposefully, and completely aware of the presence of your Lord?

And, imagine how much it pleases Allah, subhana wa ta`ala, to see us gathering and communing with our fellow brothers and sisters for His sake.

The Prophet Muhammad said, True spiritual excellence is devotion to God as if you see Him; and though you do not see Him, you at least know that He sees you. (Al-Bukhari & Muslim) The Prophet Muhammad said, After obligatory rites, the action most beloved to God is delighting other Muslims. (At-Tabarani)

The key of course is moderation, and that is the point here. We are a people of the middle way, not one extreme or the other. May we all learn to find the balance between our needs and wants this Ramadan and every day after that. May we strengthen our hearts and our community bonds, and may God accept all of our prayers, fasts, and good deeds.

Ameen.

Hosai Mojaddidi is the coFounder of MH4M (www.mentalhealth4muslims.com), where she advocates for and writes about various mental health related topics tailored for Muslims. She has served the American-Muslim community for nearly 20 years as an activist, writer/editor, mediator, interfaith organizer, and public speaker, covering a variety of topics including womens issues, marriage/family, education, self development, interfaith bridge building, spirituality, seerah, etc. She offers monthly self-development and spiritual wellness classes at Taleef Collective in Fremont and offers regular educational workshops for students and teachers at local Islamic schools. Find her onFacebook and Twitter.

Originally posted here:

Turning Inward vs. Social Commitments Finding the Balance in Ramadan - Patheos (blog)

Scott Lee Utterbeck, 57, began his new adventure May 26, 2017, at the home of a beloved lifelong friend, Kris Denning, in Idaho Falls, Idaho, after a year-long battle with brain cancer.

Scott was born September 8, 1959, in Arcadia, California, to Robert Utterbeck and Jacqueline (Gunderson) Utterbeck. Scott lived in Covina, California, during his adolescent years, then moved to Idaho Falls, Idaho, and graduated from Bonneville High School in 1976. After high school, Scott started work for his fathers construction company, Utterbeck Construction, as a framing carpenter. During this time Scott was married twice, both of them were beautiful women, and both only for a brief period.

In 1995, Scott reassessed his life and started traveling the earth seeking spiritual enlightenment and a greater purpose. Scott started his journey in Montana and Wyoming as a snowboard instructor in the winters and whitewater rafting guide in the summers. While this calmed his soul, it was not the purpose he was looking for. After a few years of soul searching through Arizona and California, Scott attended the International Professional School of Bodywork in San Diego, California, and completed his education in Rolfing and structural integration. Scott then continued to travel the western region of the United States seeking spiritual instruction through meditation and yoga, and spent several years near Portland, Oregon, near a Hindu Ashram where he expanded his spirituality practicing meditation and yoga. Throughout this time Scott continued to pursue a career in Rolfing and Bodywork while using his construction expertise to help people he befriended obtain the visions and dreams of their homes. His last full-time occupation was at an organic fruit and vegetable farm overlooking Lake Washington in Kettle Falls, Washington. Scotts final months were spent inside the loving embrace of Kris Denning and her two daughters. These three earth bound angels took every measure and made every preparation possible to send Scott off within his own terms, maintaining dignity, and providing peace.

Scott liked fast engines and spent his younger years customizing Volkswagen beetles, Jeep CJ7s and sprint boats with the Lewis Family. He also built a 1936 Ford Phaeton hot rod with his brother, Keith, for their father. Scott loved being outside, with many different purposes throughout his life. With the Lewis family it was to race beetles and sprint boats, surf, and water-ski in California. Scott loved to water-ski, wake board, back country split board, snowboard, mountain bike, rock climb and whitewater raft in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. No matter the occasion, if it was outside and involved an adventure (or later in life, meditation), he was always ready to go. This would probably explain why some of his last thoughts and words were Busy, busy, busy I cant wait to move forward and start my new adventure. So many things to do when I get there, if you know what I mean.

Scott is survived by his siblings, Danny Utterbeck and his life partner Tim Willmorth of Boise, ID, Keith Utterbeck of Idaho Falls, ID, nieces, Kortnee Utterbeck Johnson and Caysie Utterbeck Marshall of Idaho Falls, ID, and Journey Utterbeck of Boise, ID, nephews Nathan Means, Anthony Utterbeck, and Nick Utterbeck, all of Idaho Falls, ID, extended family and lifelong friends of the Utterbeck family, Terry Lewis and Judy Lewis, of San Juan Capistrano, CA, and Randy Lewis of San Diego, CA, and an enormous list of people that were lucky enough to know Scott and call him friend. To Scott, friends were family.

Scott was preceded in death by his parents, Robert and Jacqueline Utterbeck. Following his wishes, Scott will be cremated and his ashes scattered amongst some of his favorite places in nature including the middle fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, Rendezvous Bowl at Teton Village, WY, Glory Bowl near Wilson, WY, and the Pacific Ocean near the Lewis family residence in San Juan Capistrano, CA, near Dana Point.

A life celebration will be held at Museum of Eastern Idaho, 300 South Capital Ave, Idaho Falls, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, June 10, 2017, with food from Tacos Mi Pueblo, Scotts favorite food truck.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations be made to Hospice of Eastern Idaho, 1810 Moran Street, Idaho Falls, ID 83402, or online at http://hospiceofeasternidaho.com/donate/. Condolences may cast outward to combine with the spiritual energy of the world to aid in the enlightenment of others. Online condolences may be sent to the family online at http://www.woodfuneralhome.com.

Link:

Scott Utterbeck - Bonner County Daily Bee

Columnist Laurie Roberts has one word for the Chandler 'Pastafarian' who insists his religion requires him to wear a colander in his driver's license picture. Hannah Gaber/azcentral.com

The state of Arizona actually issued a driver's license to a guy exercising his "religion" by wearing a colander on his head.(Photo: Courtesy of ABC15)

Congrats are in order, it appears, to Sean Corbett.

ThisChandler Uber driver has succeeded in what is apparently his lifes mission.

After two years of trying two years of trying he has succeeded in getting the state of Arizona to issue him a drivers license that features a photo of him with a colander on his head.

Yep. A colander.

It seems Corbett is a devout Pastafarian and as such, believes he has the right to have his government ID feature his mug in all his kitchen gizmo glory.

To do otherwise, apparently, would be a violation of his religious beliefs.

"Pastafarianism is part of the church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which says the World was created 5,000 years ago by a Flying Spaghetti Monster," Corbett told ABC15.

Who knew that the path to spiritual enlightenment runs through a spaghetti strainer?

Corbett took his crusade to several MVD offices over the last two years until finally he found an office dumb enough to respect his religious beliefs and issue a license featuring Corbett in his colander.

"The whole process is intimidating, especially when people are yelling at you and scorning you for making a mockery out of their system," he told ABC15. "This has been this type of discrimination, and religious persecution that I've been going through for the last couple of years."

Generally speaking, your head must be bare in your drivers license photo but most states, including Arizona, make exceptions for religious headgear.

Corbett says his religion should be treated like every other religion and if the MVD is going to let Muslims and Sikhs wear headgear, well then it should let Pastafarians wear it, too.

The problem: a federal judge in Nebraska last year ruled that the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster -- created in 2005 to fight the teaching of creationism in schools -- isnt a real religion.

This, after a prison inmate sued the state alleging religious discrimination because unlike inmates of other religions he wasnt allowed to dress in religious garb (read: like a pirate) and was denied communion (read: spaghetti and meatballs).

Arizona MVD, by the way, plans to void Corbetts drivers license. Naturally, he plans to sue.

"It's kind of been a personal mission to keep pushing and not let the naysayers say I can't," he told the TV station.

While its a little unsettling to have the government declare what is and isnt a religion, its difficult to seriously take up for guy whose religion promises an afterlife featuring a beer volcano and a stripper factory.

Still, Ive got to admire Corbett for the sacrifices hes willing to make in the name of his religion.

I mean, seriously. If I call for an Uber and my driver shows up with a colander on his head, I know exactly whatd Id say.

Taxi?

MORE FROM ROBERTS:

Kathy Griffin's punishment is ironic, really

Is the Arizona Corporation Commission corrupt?

Is UA scrapping its plan to hire speech police?

Read or Share this story: http://azc.cc/2rJO2ks

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Roberts: Arizona issues driver's license to a guy wearing WHAT? - AZCentral.com

Position: BKD CPAs & Advisors, partner.

Birth date/childhood home: Sept. 7, 1969/Del City.

Education: University of Oklahoma, bachelor's in accounting; Oklahoma City University, Master of Business Administration/finance.

Family: Johanna, a native of Costa Rica, former orthodontist assistant and wife of 17 years (They met at a Dallas gym.); daughter Karina, 20, a junior accounting major at the University of Arkansas (Brian adopted her when he married her mother.) and sons Alec, 17, a junior at Crossings Christian School; and Brian Andrew B.A., 9, a fourth-grader at Haskell Elementary School in Edmond.

Housing addition: Mesa Pointe in southwest Edmond.

Church: Crossings Community Church.

Professional/community involvement: A new board member of the Oklahoma City Chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditors, he's chairing the 30th reunion of his Del City High School Class of 1987 and serving on the OU advisory-corporation board of his fraternity, Delta Upsilon.

Favorite nonfiction book: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle. I try always to be 100 percent present.

Hobbies: OU football (He started going to the home games when he was 3 with his dad who passed on his season tickets. Amend now takes his sons.); boating and camping on Lake Texoma, where they have a place; competing in triathlons and marathons (He's done some 50 and 17, respectively, including the original marathon in Greece.); collecting Corvettes and Harleys; and powered paragliding.

Read this article:

Personally speaking: Brian Amend | News OK - NewsOK.com

Submit the press release

Iowa City, IA (1888PressRelease) March 11, 2017 As per antiquated Vedic intelligence, the spiritual enlightenment is looped three and a half circumstances at the base of the spine of each person. At the point when the spiritual enlightenment is stirred, extraordinary euphoria, astuteness, peace, innovativeness, and energy are discharged. The spiritual enlightenment is mending and transformation by its exceptionally nature and can lead us to unity with the celestial pith of all reality. A definitive objective of this is to stir the energy and to feed the energy as it ascends through and enters the seven chakras, coming full circle in the seventh chakra, the Sahasrara, at the highest point of the skull. At the point when the spiritual enlightenment punctures the Sahasrara Chakra incredible bliss emerges, and significant information of the Divine, said one of the representatives of this organization.

The spiritual enlightenment likewise battles exhaustion from stress, uneasiness, and outrage, by bringing down abnormal amounts of adrenalin. The breathing activities and the development help to enhance the flow of blood all through the body and furthermore help to ease physical torment. A portion of the more articulated physical illnesses that spiritual enlightenment is powerful at alleviating are hormonal awkward nature, menstrual anomalies, coronary illness, ceaseless cerebral pains, gloom, and asthma, said another worker of this organization.

To find out about spiritual enlightenment, you can visit their site today

###

Go here to read the rest:

Bliss-music awarded highlighting the advantage of spiritual enlightenment - satPRnews (press release)

Iowa City, IA (1888PressRelease) March 11, 2017 As per antiquated Vedic intelligence, the spiritual enlightenment is looped three and a half circumstances at the base of the spine of each person. At the point when the spiritual enlightenment is stirred, extraordinary euphoria, astuteness, peace, innovativeness, and energy are discharged. The spiritual enlightenment is mending and transformation by its exceptionally nature and can lead us to unity with the celestial pith of all reality. A definitive objective of this is to stir the energy and to feed the energy as it ascends through and enters the seven chakras, coming full circle in the seventh chakra, the Sahasrara, at the highest point of the skull. At the point when the spiritual enlightenment punctures the Sahasrara Chakra incredible bliss emerges, and significant information of the Divine, said one of the representatives of this organization.

The spiritual enlightenment likewise battles exhaustion from stress, uneasiness, and outrage, by bringing down abnormal amounts of adrenalin. The breathing activities and the development help to enhance the flow of blood all through the body and furthermore help to ease physical torment. A portion of the more articulated physical illnesses that spiritual enlightenment is powerful at alleviating are hormonal awkward nature, menstrual anomalies, coronary illness, ceaseless cerebral pains, gloom, and asthma, said another worker of this organization.

To find out about spiritual enlightenment, you can visit their site today

###

Go here to read the rest:

Bliss-music awarded highlighting the advantage of spiritual enlightenment - MilTech

Posted on March 10, 2017 | 9:00 a.m.

Santa Barbara Middle School continues to cultivate connection with Tibetan people and culture

Venerable Lama Losang Samten works on sand mandala with Santa Barbara Middle School students. (Santa Barbara Middle School)

Santa Barbara Middle School (SBMS) is hosting Venerable Lama Losang Samten who will be on campus through Friday, March 10, creating the Mandala of Compassion. Samten has also been visiting classrooms and teaching students about Tibetan art and culture.

In 2014, Samten visited SBMS to create the first mandala at the local middle school. Shortly after his visit Ngodup Tsering, the secretary of Education for Tibet in Exile visited the school as well. In continuation of these efforts, Samten has returned for his second visit to SBMS.

In honor of his visit, SBMS is raising $10,000 for a renewed effort to support Tibetan education, art and culture.

Over the past 40 years, SBMS has cultivated a deep connection with Tibetan culture and people, including students, educators, lamas, monks, nuns and others, including a lunch audience with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

In 1999, a Tibetan Art teacher traveled to SBMS and an SBMS teacher traveled to India to establish a digital connection between SBMS and the Tibetan Home Foundation School in Mussoorie, India.

Samten has been sharing teachings of loving-kindness, joy and compassion, as well as the path to enlightenment for almost 30 years.

He lived and studied over 20 years in the Namgyal Monastery (the monastery of His Holiness the Dalai Lama) earning the highest degree attainable at the monastery, equivalent to a doctoral degree in the West.

He also became a master of ritual dance and sand mandalas, and was the personal attendant to the Dalai Lama prior to moving to the U.S. in 1988.

Samten is one of the mandala masters who created the first public sand mandala in the West in 1988. He is the spiritual director of several Buddhist Centers in North America, with a home base currently in Philadelphia, known as the city of brotherly love.

Samten has led an illustrious career creating sacred sand mandalas that follow the ancient Buddhist tradition. These have been created in museums, universities, schools, community centers, and galleries throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Europe.

He has received the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a PEW Fellowship, and two honorary doctoral degrees from Trinity College in Hartford, Ct., and the Maine College of Art.

He played the role of the attendant to the young Dalai Lama in Martin Scorsese's film Kundun, where he also served as the religious technical advisor and sand mandala supervisor. He has written two books, one in Tibetan on the history of the Monastery of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and one in English, Ancient Teachings in Modern Times: Buddhism in the 21st Century.

Losang embodies the qualities of loving-kindness, patience, and joy, which have touched the hearts of all those whom he meets.

Kara Petersen for Santa Barbara Middle School.

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Tibetan Scholar Creating Spiritual Mandala with Students - Noozhawk

Benjamin Booker's new album, Witness, comes out June 2. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Benjamin Booker's new album, Witness, comes out June 2.

What does it mean to say you've witnessed something? Maybe you were simply in the right place at the right time; maybe you were a bystander who watched silently as an event played out before you. But to bear witness implies something more powerful. When you bear witness in a courtroom or a church, you're an active party, testifying as to what you've seen. One who bears witness speaks of her firsthand experience of an incident, of spiritual enlightenment, of truth itself back into the world so that it might change an outcome or a life.

It's that second sort that interests Benjamin Booker in "Witness," the title track from the follow-up to his explosive 2014 debut. The New Orleans-based songwriter who's favored a sound like the blues, soul and rock 'n' roll mixed with gasoline and a lit cigarette leans into more explicitly gospel territory here, letting his strepitous guitar take a backseat to an upright-piano melody and choral harmonies. Booker mourns violence against black bodies and hints at the insidious consequences of bearing false witness: "Thought that we saw that he had a gun / Thought that it looked like he started to run." Meanwhile, Mavis Staples sings the song's chorus, lending her typical moral urgency to its central question: "Am I going to be a witness ... just going to be a witness?"

To accompany the announcement of the album, Booker has written an essay detailing the experience that led him towards writing the album's title song, which you can read in full below.

"Once you find yourself in another civilization you are forced to examine your own."

James Baldwin

By February of 2016, I realized I was a songwriter with no songs, unable to piece together any words that wouldn't soon be plastered on the side of a paper airplane.

I woke up one morning and called my manager, Aram Goldberg.

"Aram, I got a ticket south," I said. "I'm going to Mexico for a month."

"Do you speak Spanish?" he asked.

"No," I answered. "That's why I'm going."

The next day I packed up my clothes, books and a cheap classical guitar I picked up in Charleston. I headed to Louis Armstrong Airport and took a plane from New Orleans to Houston to Mexico City.

As I flew above the coast of Mexico, I looked out the plane window and saw a clear sky with the uninhabited coast of a foreign land below me.

I couldn't help but smile.

My heart was racing.

I was running.

I rented an apartment on the border of Juarez and Doctores, two neighborhoods in the center of the city, near the Baleras metro station, and prepared to be mostly alone.

I spent days wandering the streets, reading in parks, going to museums and looking for food that wouldn't make me violently ill again. A few times a week I'd meet up with friends in La Condesa to sip mezcal at La Clandestina, catch a band playing at El Imperial or see a DJ at Pata Negra, a local hub.

I spent days in silence and eventually began to write again.

I was almost entirely cut off from my home. Free from the news. Free from politics. Free from friends.

What I felt was the temporary peace that can come from looking away. It was a weightlessness, like being alone in a dark room. Occasionally, the lights would be turned on and I'd once again be aware of my own mass.

I'd get headlines sent to me from friends at home.

"More Arrests at U.S. Capitol as Democracy Spring Meets Black Lives Matter"

"Bill Clinton Gets Into Heated Exchange with Black Lives Matter Protester"

That month, Americans reflected on the murder of Freddie Gray by Baltimore police a year earlier.

I'd turn my phone off and focus on something else. I wasn't in America.

One night, I went to Pata Negra for drinks with my friend Mauricio. Mau was born and raised in Mexico City and became my guide. He took me under his wing and his connections in the city made my passage through the night a lot easier.

We stood outside of Pata Negra for a cigarette and somehow ended up in an argument with a few young, local men. It seemed to come out of nowhere and before I knew it I was getting shoved to the ground by one of the men.

Mau helped me get up and calmly talked the men down. I brushed the dirt off of my pants and we walked around the block.

"What happened?" I asked him.

"It's fine," he said. "Some people don't like people who aren't from here."

He wouldn't say it, but I knew what he meant.

Benjamin Booker, Witness Courtesy of the artist hide caption

It was at that moment that I realized what I was really running from.

Growing up in the South, I experienced my fair share of racism but I managed to move past these things without letting them affect me too much. I knew I was a smart kid and that would get me out of a lot of problems.

In college, if I got pulled over for no reason driving I'd casually mention that I was a writer at the newspaper and be let go soon after by officers who probably didn't want to see their name in print.

"Excuse me, just writing your name down for my records."

I felt safe, like I could outsmart racism and come out on top.

It wasn't until Trayvon Martin, a murder that took place about a hundred miles from where I went to college, and the subsequent increase in attention to black hate crimes over the next few years that I began to feel something else.

Fear. Real fear.

It was like every time I turned on the TV, there I was. DEAD ON THE NEWS.

I wouldn't really acknowledge it, but it was breaking me and my lack of effort to do anything about it was eating me up inside.

I fled to Mexico, and for a time it worked.

But, outside of Pata Negra, I began to feel heavy again and realized that I might never again be able to feel that weightlessness. I knew then that there was no escape and I would have to confront the problem

The song "Witness" came out of this experience and the desire to do more than just watch.

If you grew up in the church you may have heard people talk about "bearing witness to the truth."

In John 18:37, Pilate asked Jesus if he is a king. Jesus replies, "You say that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, that I may bear witness to the truth. Everyone being of the truth hears My voice."

In 1984, the New York Times printed an article titled "Reflections of a Maverick" about a hero of mine, James Baldwin.

Baldwin has the following conversation with the writer, Julius Lester.

Witness is a word I've heard you use often to describe yourself. It is not a word I would apply to myself as a writer, and I don't know if any black writers with whom I am contemporary would, or even could, use the word. What are you a witness to?

Witness to whence I came, where I am. Witness to what I've seen and the possibilities that I think I see. ...

What's the difference between a spokesman and a witness?

A spokesman assumes that he is speaking for others. I never assumed that I never assumed that I could. Fannie Lou Hamer (the Mississippi civil rights organizer), for example, could speak very eloquently for herself. What I tried to do, or to interpret and make clear was that what the Republic was doing to that woman, it was also doing to itself. No society can smash the social contract and be exempt from the consequences, and the consequences are chaos for everybody in the society.

"Witness" asks two questions I think every person in America needs to ask.

"Am I going to be a Witness?" and in today's world, "Is that enough?"

Witness comes out June 2 via ATO Records.

Read more:

Benjamin Booker Announces New Album, Shares 'Witness' : All ... - NPR

Camille Paglia has come a long way since the late 1960s, when, as a fledgling firebrand, she went head to head -- if not fist to fist -- with the defenders of American academic feminism, whose ideas she considered puerile, prudish, and puritanical.

Inspired far more by Katharine Hepburn, Amelia Earhart, and Simone de Beauvoir than Gloria Steinem or Catharine McKinnon, Paglia developeda personal brand of cultural criticism in her books and essays, includingSexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson(1990),Vamps and Tramps(1994), andGlittering Images(2012).

At 69, the University of the Arts professor is now a grand dame of lipstick feminism, a movement she anticipated in an infamous 1990 piece in the New York Times about Madonna that declared the pop singer the future of feminism.The essay was slammed by academics, but it put Paglia on the map as a public intellectual and made her catnip to journalists and pundits looking for acerbic commentary on everything from philosophy to bondage. (See Paglia discuss the effect of the Madonna essay on her career ina video posted by the New York Times.)

The Madonna piece is included inFree Women, Free Men: Sex, Gender, Feminism, a collection of 35 short pieces published over the last 25 years in newspapers, magazines, and general interest journals.Paglia brings that book toa free event at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Free Library of Philadelphias Central Library.She spoke to me recently in her famous rapid-firedelivery.

You are due to publish a collection of weightier -- dare I say more academic -- essays next year. So why this book? We are [still] preparing for that book, but my editors at Knopf Doubleday thought that the material on sex and feminism is absolutely as fresh now as it was 20, 25 years ago and as prophetic as the pieces about the decline of the universities and my warnings about political correctness. So they asked me to cull out the most forward-looking ones and to write an introduction demonstrating the continued topicality and relevance of the material.

You once declared, I want to save feminism from the feminists. Two decades have passed. How fares that project now that youre no longer considered Enemy No. 1? The most important for me to keep stressing is that my feminism predated second-wave feminism [of the mid-1960s]. Thats why I was so out of synch with so many fellow feminists. I came to it earlier through my passion for Amelia Earhart. Through her I discovered that great period of the 1920s and 30s of very high-achieving women that followed the gain of womens right to vote in 1920. I was getting, at the age of 14 and 15, a real bolt of energy from first-wave feminism.

Why should that have alienated you so much from the movement in the 60s and 70s? There was a real inability by some feminists to accept alternate views. There was just an appalling closed-mindedness to it. ... Now, Im an atheist, but I believe that, psychologically, people need religion. And some people who drift away from religion become committed to a political movement. They feel they have to become feminists, or progressives, or whatever it is. And the tenets of the movement will become their dogma. Thats why you cannot reason with anyone who is part of a movement, ultimately, because their identity becomes so intertwined with the dogma, with the doctrine.

You write that the60s are being remembered for all the wrong reasons. To say the 1960s should be addressed only in terms of political movements is to say the 60s are incompletely understood, that they are misunderstood. I lived it. I was there.

I know you were. It wasnt all about politics. It was about religion and spirituality, and it was about a cosmic vision, and all of that has dropped away, and weve been left with this endless sermonizing about politics. The 1960s vision was far more comprehensive. It wasnt about bourgeois entitlements, and it wasnt about careers. The hippies were dropping out of the system, they were going back to nature, and there was a whole search of spiritual enlightenment. The boldest of my contemporaries were the ones most interested in a cosmic perspective and in world religions and so on. And they were the ones who took LSD and their minds turned to Jell-O, so the books that should have been written by them ... dont exist.

You werent part of the drug scene? I call my work psychedelic criticism, but I never took any psychedelics. Thank God I didnt. Today, instead of that cosmic point of view, theres this perpetual state of anger and entitlement, and this sense that if things dont go the way people want politically speaking, they have a nervous breakdown because they have no larger perspective about the cosmos.

You feel that your peers also have overpoliticized art and literary criticism. In a sense, you accuse them of trying to rub out beauty. Surely, you dont deny theres a sociopolitical dimension to artworks? Its absolutely important to situate the artwork in its historical context and to ask certain material and economic questions around its production. But thats an incomplete way to understand art. ... You also need to appreciate the artistic and aesthetic values of art. Whats happened today is that the capability to respond to aesthetic issues in art has dropped away, and all thats taught is how art is nothing but ideology. And thats garbage. Its just garbage. ...You actually hear from people today that every work of art has a secret ideological formula. Every work of art! That every work is used by a power group to assert its own power. The problem is that, once you accept that art is nothing but politics, then you start getting demands that the artwork must convey the currently approved social message. And thats how we get political correctness.

So how do you define art? Beyond the social context, theres a spiritual dimension. The importance of the artwork is how its inner meaning ultimately makes it transcend its social context.

Youve used all these words that I think would surprise some readers, such as spirit and transcendence. You want more talk of spirituality from your peers? Look, I was calling for this 25 years ago. True multiculturalism and true multicultural education would be teaching the world religions and comparative religion to everyone. If people had listened to me back then, then you wouldnt have all this confusion today about Islam. I feel that the central legends and tenets, the ideas of all the great religions, should be taught everywhere in the world. That would be the No. 1 way to understand other cultures. Not political science.

Published: March 9, 2017 3:30 PM EST The Philadelphia Inquirer

Over the past year, the Inquirer, the Daily News and Philly.com have uncovered corruption in local and state public offices, shed light on hidden and dangerous environmental risks, and deeply examined the regions growing heroin epidemic. This is indispensable journalism, brought to you by the largest, most experienced newsroom in the region. Fact-based journalism of this caliber isnt cheap. We need your support to keep our talented reporters, editors and photographers holding government accountable, looking out for the public interest, and separating fact from fiction. If you already subscribe, thank you. If not, please consider doing so by clicking on the button below. Subscriptions can be home delivered in print, or digitally read on nearly any mobile device or computer, and start as low as 25 per day. We're thankful for your support in every way.

Read more here:

Camille Paglia on politics, art, spirituality - Philly.com

What does it mean to say you've witnessed something? Maybe you were simply in the right place at the right time; maybe you were a bystander who watched silently as an event played out before you. But to bear witness implies something more powerful. When you bear witness in a courtroom or a church, you're an active party, testifying as to what you've seen. One who bears witness speaks of her firsthand experience of an incident, of spiritual enlightenment, of truth itself back into the world so that it might change an outcome or a life.

It's that second sort that interests Benjamin Booker in "Witness," the title track from the follow-up to his explosive 2014 debut. The New Orleans-based songwriter who's favored a sound like the blues, soul and rock 'n' roll mixed with gasoline and a lit cigarette leans into more explicitly gospel territory here, letting his strepitous guitar take a backseat to an upright-piano melody and choral harmonies. Booker mourns violence against black bodies and hints at the insidious consequences of bearing false witness: "Thought that we saw that he had a gun / Thought that it looked like he started to run." Meanwhile, Mavis Staples sings the song's chorus, lending her typical moral urgency to its central question: "Am I going to be a witness ... just going to be a witness?"

To accompany the announcement of the album, Booker has written an essay detailing the experience that led him towards writing the album's title song, which you can read in full below.

"Once you find yourself in another civilization you are forced to examine your own."

--James Baldwin

By February of 2016, I realized I was a songwriter with no songs, unable to piece together any words that wouldn't soon be plastered on the side of a paper airplane.

I woke up one morning and called my manager, Aram Goldberg.

"Aram, I got a ticket south," I said. "I'm going to Mexico for a month."

"Do you speak Spanish?" he asked.

"No," I answered. "That's why I'm going."

The next day I packed up my clothes, books and a cheap classical guitar I picked up in Charleston. I headed to Louis Armstrong Airport and took a plane from New Orleans to Houston to Mexico City.

As I flew above the coast of Mexico, I looked out the plane window and saw a clear sky with the uninhabited coast of a foreign land below me.

I couldn't help but smile.

My heart was racing.

I was running.

I rented an apartment on the border of Juarez and Doctores, two neighborhoods in the center of the city, near the Baleras metro station, and prepared to be mostly alone.

I spent days wandering the streets, reading in parks, going to museums and looking for food that wouldn't make me violently ill again. A few times a week I'd meet up with friends in La Condesa to sip mezcal at La Clandestina, catch a band playing at El Imperial or see a DJ at Pata Negra, a local hub.

I spent days in silence and eventually began to write again.

I was almost entirely cut off from my home. Free from the news. Free from politics. Free from friends.

What I felt was the temporary peace that can come from looking away. It was a weightlessness, like being alone in a dark room. Occasionally, the lights would be turned on and I'd once again be aware of my own mass.

I'd get headlines sent to me from friends at home.

"More Arrests at U.S. Capitol as Democracy Spring Meets Black Lives Matter"

"Bill Clinton Gets Into Heated Exchange with Black Lives Matter Protester"

That month, Americans reflected on the murder of Freddie Gray by Baltimore police a year earlier.

I'd turn my phone off and focus on something else. I wasn't in America.

One night, I went to Pata Negra for drinks with my friend Mauricio. Mau was born and raised in Mexico City and became my guide. He took me under his wing and his connections in the city made my passage through the night a lot easier.

We stood outside of Pata Negra for a cigarette and somehow ended up in an argument with a few young, local men. It seemed to come out of nowhere and before I knew it I was getting shoved to the ground by one of the men.

Mau helped me get up and calmly talked the men down. I brushed the dirt off of my pants and we walked around the block.

"What happened?" I asked him.

"It's fine," he said. "Some people don't like people who aren't from here."

He wouldn't say it, but I knew what he meant.

It was at that moment that I realized what I was really running from.

Growing up in the South, I experienced my fair share of racism but I managed to move past these things without letting them affect me too much. I knew I was a smart kid and that would get me out of a lot of problems.

In college, if I got pulled over for no reason driving I'd casually mention that I was a writer at the newspaper and be let go soon after by officers who probably didn't want to see their name in print.

"Excuse me, just writing your name down for my records."

I felt safe, like I could outsmart racism and come out on top.

It wasn't until Trayvon Martin, a murder that took place about a hundred miles from where I went to college, and the subsequent increase in attention to black hate crimes over the next few years that I began to feel something else.

Fear. Real fear.

It was like every time I turned on the TV, there I was. DEAD ON THE NEWS.

I wouldn't really acknowledge it, but it was breaking me and my lack of effort to do anything about it was eating me up inside.

I fled to Mexico, and for a time it worked.

But, outside of Pata Negra, I began to feel heavy again and realized that I might never again be able to feel that weightlessness. I knew then that there was no escape and I would have to confront the problem

The song "Witness" came out of this experience and the desire to do more than just watch.

If you grew up in the church you may have heard people talk about "bearing witness to the truth."

In John 18:37, Pilate asked Jesus if he is a king. Jesus replies, "You say that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, that I may bear witness to the truth. Everyone being of the truth hears My voice."

In 1984, the New York Times printed an article titled "Reflections of a Maverick" about a hero of mine, James Baldwin.

Baldwin has the following conversation with the writer, Julius Lester.

Witness is a word I've heard you use often to describe yourself. It is not a word I would apply to myself as a writer, and I don't know if any black writers with whom I am contemporary would, or even could, use the word. What are you a witness to?

Witness to whence I came, where I am. Witness to what I've seen and the possibilities that I think I see. ...

What's the difference between a spokesman and a witness?

A spokesman assumes that he is speaking for others. I never assumed that I never assumed that I could. Fannie Lou Hamer (the Mississippi civil rights organizer), for example, could speak very eloquently for herself. What I tried to do, or to interpret and make clear was that what the Republic was doing to that woman, it was also doing to itself. No society can smash the social contract and be exempt from the consequences, and the consequences are chaos for everybody in the society.

"Witness" asks two questions I think every person in America needs to ask.

"Am I going to be a Witness?" and in today's world, "Is that enough?"

Witness comes out June 2 via ATO Records.

See the original post:

Songs We Love: Benjamin Booker, 'Witness (Feat. Mavis Staples)' - KRVS

We're creating a positive news network. We need your help.

Sex is often considered a taboo topic,even though the media constantly uses it to divert our attention to advertisements, music, and the entertainment industry as a whole. In reality, sex is not only a gift that allows us to procreate, but also a tool we can use to learnmore about ourselves, our bodies, and even our inherent spirituality.

Thanks to the media and the porn industrys portrayal of sex, many people seem to think the entire point of intercourse is the end game: the orgasm. Not only is that extremely short-sighted. since sex is just as much about connection as it ispleasure, but a lot of people dont orgasm during intercourse, particularly women. A new study looked at the sex lives of 52,000 adults with varying sexual preferences in hopes of finding an explanationfor the orgasm gap, or, in other words, whypeople seem to think that men orgasm more frequently or more easilythan women.

A team of researchers from Indiana University and Chapman University recentlypublished a study in the Archives of Sexual Behavioron the orgasm gap, or the notion that some groups of people, particularly men over women, orgasm more frequently during sex than others. This is often brushed offas a hoax,or another sexist statement, but their survey showed thatit does hold some truth.

The team surveyed 52,000 people with different sexual preferences, including straight, gay, lesbian, and bisexual men and women between the ages of18 and 65. The survey results indicated that 95% of heterosexual males orgasmed during sexual acts with their partners, whereas only 65% of heterosexual females did. In fact, of all the categories the team looked at, heterosexual women always reported the lowestpercentage of orgasms.

Bisexual women reported they orgasmed 66%of the time, so slightly better than heterosexual, and lesbian women reported 86% a significant increase. 88%of bisexual men surveyed said they orgasmed every time, and this number reached 89% for gay men.

The study explains:

Compared to women who orgasmed less frequently, women who orgasmed more frequently were more likely to: receive more oral sex, have longer duration of last sex, be more satisfied with their relationship, ask for what they want in bed, praise their partner for something they did in bed, call/email to tease about doing something sexual, wear sexy lingerie, try new sexual positions, anal stimulation, act out fantasies, incorporate sexy talk, and express love during sex.

I dont think any of that necessarily has to do with being a woman, but rather being a human being who seeks connection with others. Clearly, sex is more pleasurable when its not just that sex. Id like to bring your attention to the final element of the equation, which is to express love during sex. Isnt sex itself an expression of love? Whether that be love for the Self and/or for your partner, this act represents an intimate bond between two people, or more specifically, betweentwo souls.

Thanks to the current sex culture,theres a stigma surrounding people forming attachments after sex. Numerous people engage in one night stands or relationships withno strings attached. Theres nothing inherently wrong with this, as its not beneficial to form attachments to anyone(though it may be difficult); however, there is no such thing as no strings attached when sexual intercourse is involved.

Have you ever felt such a strong bond to someone that you feel extreme empathy toward them, even if you dont know them well at all?From an energetic perspective, this is because were all deeply connected and because were vulnerable to other peoplesfrequencies. It is said that you should choose your fiveclosest friends wisely for this reason, astheir vibration will affect your own. I would argue that you should exercise caution when choosingyour sexual partners for this exact same reason as well.

Ifyoure having sex with someone, an act that physically connects you in the deepest way possible, it makes sense that their energy wouldbe imposed on you. Furthermore, it is said that when you have sex with someone, their aura leaves an imprint on youthatis difficult to energetically cleanse yourself from. So, if youre sleeping with someone who has slept with ten people in the past, and that individual hasnt cleansed themselves from their former partners energies before,you may be susceptible to eleven peoples energies. This also creates an energetic tie between you, and if youre not mindfully detaching yourself from your sexual partner, then it makes perfect sense that we become attached and disregard the whole no strings attached theory.

I believe that ourcurrent sex culture perpetuates the idea that the orgasm is the be all andend allof sex. Its considered the goal, which is perhaps why so many people in this generation refer to intercourse as scoring. However, I believe that this concept is extremely short-sighted, as I think that sex is meant to be an intensely spiritual practice, and one that can offer you more pleasure than the actual orgasm itself.

I believesex can be used as a tool to deepen our inherent love and connection to one another through practicing tantra, which is Sanskrit for woven together, and Taoism. Both tantra and Taoismencourage different methods of creating and building sexual energies between two partners for spiritual enlightenment.Although tantric sex is typically practiced with a partner, I believe that, through this practice, youcan come to understand yourself better on a spiritual level. In fact, a neuroscientist recently conducted a study which suggests that orgasms feel so good because they allow us to access an altered state of consciousness (read more about that in our CE article here).

One of the ancient practices within Taoism is controlling the male ejaculation during sex. Taoist practitioners believe thatthe loss of ejaculatory fluids equates the loss of vial life force (or jing), so by learning to conserve the sperm, men can redirect the energy of the orgasm throughout the body.

This doesnt mean that men should never orgasm; its simply a spiritual practice worth practicing on occasionthatcan actually bringmorepleasure than ejaculation when practiced correctly. Some Taoists believe that by redirecting the energy upwards toward the crown chakra, it can provide nourishment to the brain. In modern sex culture, some people refer to this as edging, although many men may do this for different reasons.

Women can also redirect their sexual energy by moving it upwards, although this wasnt studied in the practices nearlyas much. However, sex was viewed as an empowering act for females, as they can bring forth life and act as tutors for their partners during intimacy. Women were and still should be viewed as equals to men during sex, so it should be noted that these practices are only useful when both parties are consensual.

I also think the female orgasm is vastly misunderstood, as so many people seem to think that its more difficult for women to orgasm. Although the study clearly suggests there is truth within this, and the researchers actually suggest a golden trio of moves you can read about here, Id argue thatits more so the lack of connectivity that prevents women from orgasming. Im not just referring to the absenceof romance, but also the tendency for partners to only focus on themselves during intercourse.

I believe weve lost touch with the inherent connectivity that takes place during sex. Both women and men are treated like meat, as if their physicality is the only reason sexual intercourse should take place. When it all comes down to it, the physical realm is an illusion, so the real question here is: Who is the soul youre physically connecting with, and why were you drawn to them in the first place? Perhaps by answering that, you can actually improve your sex life.Who knows, maybe in your questfor a more connective sex life, youll end up learning more about yourselfalong the way.

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Your life path number can tell you A LOT about you.

With the ancient science of Numerology you can find out accurate and revealing information just from your name and birth date.

Get your free numerology reading and learn more about how you can use numerology in your life to find out more about your path and journey. Get Your free reading.

See the article here:

The Orgasm Gap: Why Some People Orgasm More Than Others & Why Orgasms Are So Misunderstood - Collective Evolution

What does it mean to say you've witnessed something? Maybe you were simply in the right place at the right time; maybe you were a bystander who watched silently as an event played out before you. But to bear witness implies something more powerful. When you bear witness in a courtroom or a church, you're an active party, testifying as to what you've seen. One who bears witness speaks of her firsthand experience of an incident, of spiritual enlightenment, of truth itself back into the world so that it might change an outcome or a life.

It's that second sort that interests Benjamin Booker in "Witness," the title track from the follow-up to his explosive 2014 debut. The New Orleans-based songwriter who's favored a sound like the blues, soul and rock 'n' roll mixed with gasoline and a lit cigarette leans into more explicitly gospel territory here, letting his strepitous guitar take a backseat to an upright-piano melody and choral harmonies. Booker mourns violence against black bodies and hints at the insidious consequences of bearing false witness: "Thought that we saw that he had a gun / Thought that it looked like he started to run." Meanwhile, Mavis Staples sings the song's chorus, lending her typical moral urgency to its central question: "Am I going to be a witness ... just going to be a witness?"

To accompany the announcement of the album, Booker has written an essay detailing the experience that led him towards writing the album's title song, which you can read in full below.

"Once you find yourself in another civilization you are forced to examine your own."

--James Baldwin

By February of 2016, I realized I was a songwriter with no songs, unable to piece together any words that wouldn't soon be plastered on the side of a paper airplane.

I woke up one morning and called my manager, Aram Goldberg.

"Aram, I got a ticket south," I said. "I'm going to Mexico for a month."

"Do you speak Spanish?" he asked.

"No," I answered. "That's why I'm going."

The next day I packed up my clothes, books and a cheap classical guitar I picked up in Charleston. I headed to Louis Armstrong Airport and took a plane from New Orleans to Houston to Mexico City.

As I flew above the coast of Mexico, I looked out the plane window and saw a clear sky with the uninhabited coast of a foreign land below me.

I couldn't help but smile.

My heart was racing.

I was running.

I rented an apartment on the border of Juarez and Doctores, two neighborhoods in the center of the city, near the Baleras metro station, and prepared to be mostly alone.

I spent days wandering the streets, reading in parks, going to museums and looking for food that wouldn't make me violently ill again. A few times a week I'd meet up with friends in La Condesa to sip mezcal at La Clandestina, catch a band playing at El Imperial or see a DJ at Pata Negra, a local hub.

I spent days in silence and eventually began to write again.

I was almost entirely cut off from my home. Free from the news. Free from politics. Free from friends.

What I felt was the temporary peace that can come from looking away. It was a weightlessness, like being alone in a dark room. Occasionally, the lights would be turned on and I'd once again be aware of my own mass.

I'd get headlines sent to me from friends at home.

"More Arrests at U.S. Capitol as Democracy Spring Meets Black Lives Matter"

"Bill Clinton Gets Into Heated Exchange with Black Lives Matter Protester"

That month, Americans reflected on the murder of Freddie Gray by Baltimore police a year earlier.

I'd turn my phone off and focus on something else. I wasn't in America.

One night, I went to Pata Negra for drinks with my friend Mauricio. Mau was born and raised in Mexico City and became my guide. He took me under his wing and his connections in the city made my passage through the night a lot easier.

We stood outside of Pata Negra for a cigarette and somehow ended up in an argument with a few young, local men. It seemed to come out of nowhere and before I knew it I was getting shoved to the ground by one of the men.

Mau helped me get up and calmly talked the men down. I brushed the dirt off of my pants and we walked around the block.

"What happened?" I asked him.

"It's fine," he said. "Some people don't like people who aren't from here."

He wouldn't say it, but I knew what he meant.

It was at that moment that I realized what I was really running from.

Growing up in the South, I experienced my fair share of racism but I managed to move past these things without letting them affect me too much. I knew I was a smart kid and that would get me out of a lot of problems.

In college, if I got pulled over for no reason driving I'd casually mention that I was a writer at the newspaper and be let go soon after by officers who probably didn't want to see their name in print.

"Excuse me, just writing your name down for my records."

I felt safe, like I could outsmart racism and come out on top.

It wasn't until Trayvon Martin, a murder that took place about a hundred miles from where I went to college, and the subsequent increase in attention to black hate crimes over the next few years that I began to feel something else.

Fear. Real fear.

It was like every time I turned on the TV, there I was. DEAD ON THE NEWS.

I wouldn't really acknowledge it, but it was breaking me and my lack of effort to do anything about it was eating me up inside.

I fled to Mexico, and for a time it worked.

But, outside of Pata Negra, I began to feel heavy again and realized that I might never again be able to feel that weightlessness. I knew then that there was no escape and I would have to confront the problem

The song "Witness" came out of this experience and the desire to do more than just watch.

If you grew up in the church you may have heard people talk about "bearing witness to the truth."

In John 18:37, Pilate asked Jesus if he is a king. Jesus replies, "You say that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, that I may bear witness to the truth. Everyone being of the truth hears My voice."

In 1984, the New York Times printed an article titled "Reflections of a Maverick" about a hero of mine, James Baldwin.

Baldwin has the following conversation with the writer, Julius Lester.

Witness is a word I've heard you use often to describe yourself. It is not a word I would apply to myself as a writer, and I don't know if any black writers with whom I am contemporary would, or even could, use the word. What are you a witness to?

Witness to whence I came, where I am. Witness to what I've seen and the possibilities that I think I see. ...

What's the difference between a spokesman and a witness?

A spokesman assumes that he is speaking for others. I never assumed that I never assumed that I could. Fannie Lou Hamer (the Mississippi civil rights organizer), for example, could speak very eloquently for herself. What I tried to do, or to interpret and make clear was that what the Republic was doing to that woman, it was also doing to itself. No society can smash the social contract and be exempt from the consequences, and the consequences are chaos for everybody in the society.

"Witness" asks two questions I think every person in America needs to ask.

"Am I going to be a Witness?" and in today's world, "Is that enough?"

Witness comes out June 2 via ATO Records.

Originally posted here:

Songs We Love: Benjamin Booker, 'Witness (Feat. Mavis Staples)' - 90.5 WESA

Great album titles serve as skeleton keys to deeper understanding of the themes explored in the music. Nevermind echoed the fatalist sigh of Nirvanas 1991 calling card Smells Like Teen Spirit and the ennui clouding Kurt Cobains emotional thermostat. To Pimp a Butterfly illustrated the war between integrity and celebrity broiling inside of Kendrick Lamar throughout his 2015 opus. In his flagship outfit, the Magnetic Fields, New York singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Stephin Merritt has used album titles as ground rules for writing exercises. Charm of the Highway Strip, from 1995, is a song cycle about lives in geographic motion. The beloved 1999 triple album 69 Love Songs is literally 69 love songs; 2004s i is a string of first-person romance narratives, and 2008s Distortion bathed a batch of peppy surf-rock nuggets in a thick and forbidding squall of reverb.

This weeks 50 Song Memoir is another clever thematic conceit. As per a pitch put forth by Nonesuch Records president Robert Hurwitz, Merritt was to write a single song about each year of his life, to commemorate his 50th birthday. Hurwitzs request was sneaky: 69 Love Songs alongside a trickle of albums from his side projects Future Bible Heroes, the 6ths, and the Gothic Archies is proof the Magnetic Fields mastermind can bang out a couple dozen songs in a year or so, but 50 Song Memoir complicates matters by forcing Merritt, a lover of the three-minute story song and a writer blessed with a novelists devotion to fictitious lives and neatly arranged character development, to turn the lens on himself. It was a lofty request and, for this band at this specific moment in its journey, a risky one.

Magnetic Fields albums have grown incrementally and at times gratingly more twee in the 2010s, from cloying teen pop like The Only Boy in Town and Id Go Anywhere With Hugh to drier but still cutesy observational yarns like We Are Having a Hootenanny and The Dolls Tea Party. Merritt is a wryly funny, famously terse figure who, even when he feels like giving, still retains a certain air of distance. I am the least autobiographical person you are likely to meet, he says in a lengthy interview in the 50 Song Memoir liner notes with friend and collaborator Daniel Handler, better known to fans of Gothic childrens literature as Lemony Snicket of A Series of Unfortunate Events. If Memoir indulged Merritts schmaltzier instincts, or revealed a life less intriguing than his formidable gallery of character sketches, it could fail spectacularly.

These worries are assuaged on Memoirs first side alone, as Merritt turns in 68: Cat Called Dionysus, a wistful, tragicomic remembrance of an escaped family pet he loved unrequitedly, set to clattering folk-rock recalling the orchestral bits of the Byrds 1968 classic Notorious Byrd Brothers, and 70: Theyre Killing Children Over There, which sways between psych rock and new wave as kid Stephin is taken to a Jefferson Airplane concert, where he mishears Airplane singer Grace Slicks onstage protest of child death in the Vietnam War as a warning that a massacre is taking place inside their very concert hall. From there, its apparent what 50 Song Memoir intends to accomplish, and what it ultimately delivers: a pointillist sketch of an entire life, rendered in quick, close readings of kooky personal milestones.

Memoir carries Stephin Merritt from ashrams and tropical islands in his mothers globe-trotting quest for spiritual enlightenment to self-discovery on New Yorks gay club scene as disco gave way to new wave and synth-pop under the shadow of the AIDS pandemic; struggles as a starving musician; and romantic pitfalls that complicated his professional triumphs. The man turns out to be just as lively as any of his inventions, whether hes 8 and giving his moms boyfriend hell for writing a song using a lyric sheet he stole from the kid, or 30 and shaken by the notion that he has failed in his chosen profession, or 47 and mourning how quickly his favorite stores and bars close up whenever he spends significant time away from the city.

Memoirs pillars are change, heartbreak, and a profound love of music. Like a true music obsessive, Merritts stories feel inextricably tied to the songs that soundtrack them, so in the early-80s stretch where he begins to fixate on synth-pop and while away school nights in the gay nightclub and Madonna haunt Danceteria, the instrumentation runs cold and electric, just as the pre-millennial stretch from 98: Lovers Lies to 00: Ghosts of the Marathon Dancers mirrors alt-rocks stately embrace of cinematic electronics at the time. (See also: Radioheads OK Computer, Blurs 13, and Grandaddys The Sophtware Slump.)

Thats not to say 50 Song Memoir is merely an exercise in the excavation of personal tastes or a successor to music-geek autobiographical-playlist projects like Nick Hornbys Songbook. Really, it is a celebration of Merritts sky-high range as a writer and a player, through the exploration of the circumstances that helped cultivate it. It is the Magnetic Fields love letter to itself. (Merritt notes in the interview with Handler that a few of the recordings used for the album actually date back to whatever year theyre meant to commemorate. So 00: Ghosts of the Marathon Dancers is a holdover from the shelved soundtrack to a film from that period that also never surfaced, and the intro to the sitar reverie 87: At the Pyramid is really lifted from Merritts and longtime bandmate Claudia Gonsons late-80s sound experiments.)

The sheer audacity of this project is unshakable. The album is two-and-a-half hours long, for starters, and sprawled out over five separate discs in its physical form. Theres too much of it to get through in a single sitting, although your patience is rewarded in hooks and withering turns of phrase. Still, its hard to argue that every single one of these tracks is essential, especially bits that appear to circumvent the albums theme. (89: The 1989 Musical Marching Zoo doesnt really cover Merritts experience of 1989, since its really about a pop record from the late 60s. And technically, the inclusion of certain period pieces originally intended for inclusion in films, like 00: Ghosts of the Marathon Dancers and 10: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, bends the concept a little. But hey, they work!)

The chronological order of the sequencing doesnt engender much stability either, the way the intentional compositional constraints of the blistering Distortion and 2010s mostly acoustic Realism facilitated more controlled listening experiences than 69 Love Songs. Memoir gets a little drunk on its own reach sometimes, like on 91: The Day I Finally , which is more intriguing as a lo-fi one-man-band recording experiment than an expression of the rage in its lyrics. More often than not, though, this restlessness feels like a good-faith gesture toward rescuing a long listening experience from the slightest hint of predictability: One minute were served an atheist gospel song in 74: No, and then were shoved through the ringing, washed-out sonics of 75: My Mama Aint and the disco beat and fake British accent of 76: Hustle 76.

Stephin Merritts deliberate hand as a lyricist helps steady 50 Song Memoir as his collectives wanderlust as arrangers and instrumentalists keep it in stylistic flux. No matter the subject, the lyric hooks by the end of the second line, and the rhyme is impeccable. The cat songs kickoff is concise but foreboding: We had a cat called Dionysus / Every day, another crisis. The philosophical student/teacher tte--tte 86: How I Failed Ethics sets up its plot, academic obsessiveness, and extreme attention to detail in less than 30 seconds: Though majoring in Visual and Environmental Studies, and minoring in History of Sci / I had to retake Ethics from my Mennonite professor, for whom my skepticism didnt fly. The album flits between storytelling that lets the absurdity of a situation do all the talking and personal writing that obscures names and locations, selling the bare emotion an incident provokes ahead of any formal details. 04: Cold-Blooded Man passionately wishes the worst for an ex-boyfriend, losing no efficacy for never explaining why.

50 Song Memoir is just as incisive with melody as with words. If youre a 69 Love Songs diehard pondering the value of wading through another four-dozen Merritt tunes, know that this set is a few degrees more daring in its melodic composition and also in the singers delivery of it. (The latter is a gift, since the albums first-person-narrative conceit ostensibly prevents lead vocals from any of the bands other more limber singers.) The lead on the polyamorous 93: Me and Fred and Dave and Ted is both beguilingly offbeat and surprisingly catchy, as is the sparse, dubby Young Marble Giants nod 85: Why Am I Not a Teenager. The vocal affectations on the albums dance tunes are a blast as well. Check the too-excited acid house homage 97: Eurodisco Trio or the rigid, instructional 81: How to Play the Synthesizer as well as sporadic nods to British synth-pop singers like Depeche Modes Dave Gahan and Ultravoxs John Foxx. The albums production is just as audacious and varied. Stepping out of 69 Love Songs into 50 Song Memoir feels like slipping out of a favorite house shoe into an elaborately cushioned runner.

The new set isnt out to dethrone the Magnetic Fields signature album, though. Were here for Merritt on Merritt, finally, definitively, for our edification as much as his. The projects enduring value to its creator is laid bare in the closing-stretch tearjerker 14: I Wish I Had Pictures, where he regrets not taking more photographs in his youth, because all these old memories are fading away. Eventually he decides that these songs will have to suffice. 50 Song Memoir is a chance for Merritt to nail his memories down in an indelible document, a delightful flip through the untold back pages of one of rocks most singular voices, and, all in all, the best damned Magnetic Fields album in the last ten years.

First Photos From Thor: Ragnarok Reveal That It May Be Part of the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards Universe

Rough Night Trailer: Scarlett Johansson and Kate McKinnon Have a Wild and Murderous Bachelorette Weekend

Another star is also born.

The show only takes seven weeks.

Were all just laughing with him.

This Cape Fear continuity photo reminds the viewer of the intensity of Robert De Niros performance and of the iconic collaboration that produced it.

The 1965 science-fiction novel has long intrigued talented directors, only to leave their dreams in tatters.

The presidents entire staff appears to treat him like a dangerously strong show chimp.

That darkness aint mood lighting.

Welcome to the revolution of love, to our refusal as women to accept this new age of tyranny.

The time for competing El Chapo projects is nigh.

McLean previously pleaded guilty to domestic violence assault.

Another season of making money happen.

David Haller has officially lost control.

Contrabrand zooms out to show us the literal landscape of slavery.

Charlie Hunnam and his mustache meet their destiny.

Twelve seasons in, the FXX sitcom has a bona fide breakthrough.

Recent legislation and rhetoric have put decades of progress for girls and women at risk.

King George III the First returns.

The Night King and Dragons are coming.

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Album Review: The Magnetic Fields' '50 Song Memoir' - Vulture - Vulture

My very first Lent, I thought it would be a cool idea to fast with my best friend, Greg. He loves coffee to the extent that his coffee machine means more to him than the kitchen in which it resides. He gave up coffee, so I gave up tea. It was difficult. What was more difficult was coming to terms with the broader understanding of sacrifice, and thats something that has come with time.

According to the Bible, Jesus Christ sacrificed himself to save the world from sin. Islam tells us that the Prophet Mohammed sacrificed his material wealth and comfort to further Islamic teachings. In Hinduism, it is encouraged that worldly possessions and thoughts are discarded for the sake of spiritual enlightenment. Sacrifice is an integral part of Judaism, with the word for sacrifice korban, meaning drawing near is a way of drawing oneself closer to God.

These teachings are the basis for which most people hold their fasts and it is in the spirit of the ones who came before that they keep them.

I grew up with a very different notion of sacrifice. My parents struggled each day to make ends meet. I saw the sacrifices they made to give me and my sister the best of everything, be it education or shoes. I also saw how they sacrificed their youth, time, leisure, and even relationships for the freedom of South Africa. Late night meetings turned into violent protests, and time spent in jail under the 90 Day Act. Months of planning turned into years of struggle, and they sacrificed the best years of their lives for others.

So 40 days is quite doable.

The purpose may be different but the essence is the same. My grandfather once told me that hands offered outward in service to others are of no less value than hands put together in prayer.

Since that first Lent, I realised that sacrificing something just for the sake of it can be an insult to its intention. Giving up tea that year showed me that I could make a small sacrifice. Now, there needs to be something bigger behind each sacrifice.

One year, it was fizzy drinks. Then it was taking up projects, like completing reading lists, and later giving my time to libraries and volunteer programmes. One year, a friend and I took to boycotting Israeli and animal-tested products something that has lasted to this day. Last year, I launched a website that gives survivors of sexual assault a platform to tell their stories anonymously.

My attempt to give up refined sugar isnt going as well as I had hoped but Ive been better with refusing plastic cutlery and takeaway boxes, and walking half an hour a day. Its been just one week, and its been a journey.

I have walked just under 10 kilometres in total, each day driving me to be a little more active so I can have more energy to give to my family and work. I have declined takeaway packaging on three polystyrene boxes and countless forks, which is hopefully lessening my carbon footprint. If each person thought about what they can do, even in the smallest ways, to positively affect those in their sphere of influence, perhaps we can change the world.

The key is to start small. Know your limitations. Know where you can go big. Regardless of your creed, you can make a difference; giving things up or giving to others is in our hands.

Nikita is managing editor of The Daily Vox by day and music Jedi master by night. She can be seen in the photography pit or stage left with her camera in hand. You could also try spot her around inner city Johannesburg trying to be cool. She can also be found trying to source corn dogs. If you see her, buy her a corn dog. She loves corn dogs.

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An atheist fasts for Lent: Week 2 big returns on small sacrifices - The Daily Vox (blog)