Category Archives: Immortality

After earning an all-expense-paid trip to Minneapolis this week by virtue of its win over Texas Sunday night, Stanford now finds itself on the cusp of Bay Area college basketball immortality.

The Cardinal head to the Final Four knowing theyre just two wins away from a second straight national championship.

If Tara VanDerveers squad can survive a battle against Connecticut and then either top-ranked South Carolina or Louisville, it would join the mid-century University of San Francisco men as the Bay Areas only back-to-back NCAA Division I basketball champs.

For those needing a quick history lesson or merely a reminder, USF once represented basketball royalty. And more. The Bill Russell-era Dons won NCAA titles in 1955 and 56 while leading the nation in nearly everything, including hyperbole. USFs path to a second consecutive NCAA title was dubbed the story of the century as the Dons won a record 60 straight games and recorded the first unbeaten season in history while being led by Russell, who many called The Babe Ruth of college basketball.

A championship parade down Market Street in 1956 seemed impressive enough, but Russell, who would go on to lead the Boston Celtics to 11 NBA championships, probably knew bigger things were in store for him after USFs second NCAA championship.

I played on the greatest team in the world, Russell matter-of-factly told reporters after the Dons 83-71 title-clinching win over Iowa in the 1956 finale. The wheels kept turning and the band played on.

No Bay Area team since has hit the high notes like that in consecutive seasons a couple came close, though.

There have been three subsequent NCAA championship teams here since the days of the Dons running roughshod over teams the Cal men in 1959 and VanDerveers Stanford teams in 1990 and 92. But none of the three teams could cash in a second straight title.

Cal followed up its only mens title by reaching the NCAA title game the following year, but lost to Ohio State at the Cow Palace.

The closest the Stanford women came to a back-to-back title under VanDerveer was in 1991 when the Cardinal was knocked out by eventual champion Tennessee, 68-60, in the Final Four in New Orleans.

In addition to trying to match USFs feat, Stanford is a pair of wins away from becoming the first womens team other than Connecticut to repeat as national champs since Tennessee (2007 and 08).

As noted by many over the years, repeating as champions is usually much more difficult than winning the first one. Stanfords Haley Jones, the star in last years championship run, said the team has embraced the idea of trying to defend its championship this year.

I think having that target on our back all season has led to really competitive practices, competitive scrimmages, whatever it may be, being ultracompetitive in games, being gritty, Jones said Sunday night. I think we know what it takes to get there. But were going to have to work twice as hard because everybodys coming after us.

Beginning Friday, the Cardinal get a second chance to take home the trophy as they embark on the schools 15th all-time trip to the Final Four after dispatching No. 2-seeded Texas, 59-50 in the Spokane Regional championship Sunday night.

Its crazy to say this but youre always happy to go to the Final Four, but sometimes youre like really happy. And Im like really happy, VanDerveer said after Lexi Hull (20 points), Jones (18 points, 12 rebounds) and Cameron Brink (10 third-quarter points, six blocked shots) helped Stanford keep the nations longest winning streak alive at 24 in a row.

Stanford (32-3) hasnt lost a game since losing to No. 1 ranked South Carolina on Dec. 21. And, after exacting revenge against Texas for an early-season loss to the Longhorns, the Cardinal could get another shot at redemption. If both Stanford and South Carolina win on Friday, the two powerhouses would meet Sunday with the national title on the line.

At the risk of getting too carried away with the numbers, we must also recognize that winning NCAA championships has become second nature at Stanford.

When VanDerveers squad won the trophy by beating Arizona last season, it extended the schools ongoing streak of earning at least one NCAA title to an astounding 45 consecutive years. Last year, Stanfords mens gymnastics team and its synchronized swimming team joined the womens basketball team in earning NCAA championships.

Now, Stanford is one great weekend in Minneapolis away from owning an NCAA championship for the 46th year in a row.

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Final Four: Stanford women 2 wins away from repeat NCAA ...

Helena Christensen wants to live forever and would willingly let a vampire bite her to grant her immortality.

The 53-year-old fashion icon doesn't want to die and is "so ready to live forever" that she would become a blood-sucking creature of the night, just like Dracula, in order to never pass on.

In an interview with Grazia magazine, she said: It comes from being frustrated that everything will end at some point. So if I dont plan ahead too far, I keep the future a little bit at bay.

It p***** me off no end that Ill die one day and not experience the future. If a vampire passed by me in the night I would totally give my neck. Im so ready to live forever.

Helena shot to fame in the 1990s, first achieving global recognition when she appeared in the video for Chris Isaak's song 'Wicked Game' and then conquered the catwalk and advertising market, becoming one of the original Victoria's Secret Angels.

The Danish supermodel isn't surprised that a lot of '90s clothing and pop culture is being revisited now, because it was such an awesome decade to live through.

She said: "Theres always been a lot of interest in it because the 90s were just great. I mean, how often do you sit and surf for movie and youre like, I just want to watch a great 90s action movie?

In the interview, Helena also discussed what it was like to be one of 'The Magnificent Seven' supermodels along with Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Elle Macpherson and Claudia Schiffer.

She mused: I see Cindy quite a lot. Every time she comes to New York, we hang out, and when I go to LA we hang out. Ive seen Karen [Elson] a bit, Christy [Turlington] a bit.

We all had that unique trajectory. We went through the same situation, living a very intense, different life. Leaving your friends back home and going on this strange journey that will always bind us together. I mean, I still cannot believe it. I wake up and go, Oh my God, what?! I will never really understand what happened, it was so fast in a way that its still coming back to me.

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Helena Christensen dreams of vampire bite giving her ...

On the way to have an ultrasound, I listened to Jentezen Franklins sermon Life After Life. With every mile I drove, I became more and more pumped about my resurrection body. Later, I sent it to my mother and after listening she replied, Kind of gets me excited about dying.

Once I checked in and had a seat in the large waiting room, my excitement began to wilt into sorrow. Everywhere I turned, patients struggled to walk. Broken bones, diseases that twisted spines, and trauma that gnarled joints were almost unbearable to look upon after I had just spent the car ride there imagining eternal bodies raised in power and victory.

I didnt want my day to fall into a slump and so I played a little game while I waited. Each time a person came by that was bent over and could only walk three steps to my thirty, I imagined them being changed into their new bodies. I could almost hear the sound of crutches falling to the floor and the sight of new legs sprinting painlessly with speed and agility that can far outrun an Olympic track star. I imagined spines lengthening on command arching towards the heavens with shouts of Hallelujah.

but we will all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: Death is swallowed up in victory. 1 Corinthians 15: 52-54.

Death swallowed up in victory! It has a nice ring to it doesnt it? In a moment, your body will either burst forth from its grave or if you are living it will be caught up in the air. And in the time it takes us to swallow, death turns to victory. You will be in your physical body in the new heaven and earth, only no body you have every experienced. Your resurrection body will be supercharged with supernatural intelligence, strength and agility; capable of accomplishing feats that are not possible in our earthly bodies.

I recently had a dream in which the roof of my car peeled off and I flew through the air and towards the heavens with a speed like a rocket. It was the greatest dream and I can only imagine that is how our everlasting bodies will be. Some of the patients I witnessed in the waiting room put every put every ounce of energy into getting one foot to go in front of the other. I can just imagine their joy when they are soaring, running and jumping.

Whether your body experiences mild aches and pains or severe chronic pain, I invite you to play my game. Imagine a day when your body is instantly upgraded to a heavenly standard. It will take less time than updating your iPhone. If there is anything we can learn to be thankful for in our sickness and pain it is that it is only temporary, but our perfect body will be forever!

Nadolyn has served in the local church for over thirty years. Creator ofDIRT ROAD BELIEVER YouTube, Nadolyn delights in sharing her faith, family and community to help believers slow down and deepen their relationship with Christ.

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Total Body Makeover - All On Georgia

Liverpool are eight games and soon to be 28 days away from immortality, the stakes are high and unforgiving to any misstep. Just how are your nerves, Steven Scragg asks?

These are unmistakably the days. From Saturday, a potential 28-day mission of footballing madness will erupt, during which Liverpool will make a bid to win the lot, via a projected eight games in three different competitions, and with only two of these to take place within the comforts of home.

It is going to be an enormous ask to pull off the seemingly impossible; every game is now the biggest one of the season. A domino effect will need to take place and Liverpool will have to be faultless if they are going to fulfil the most outrageous of footballing dreams.

I dont always buy in to the concept of taking things one game at a time, as contemporary football is far too demanding for that. Play a Champions League game on a Wednesday night with another one to follow six days later, an away Premier League fixture nestled in-between and it isnt as simple as sending out the same 11 players and saying, we go again.

There must be a methodical approach to it. At St James Park on Saturday, given the stakes, Jrgen Klopp might only make two or three changes to the starting line-up that took on Villarreal in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final, but he will already have an idea of who he will be hooking around the hour mark.

Dependent upon the scoreline at 60 minutes on Tyneside, this will mean these changes will be interpreted as either a rest given to those being removed, with the game all but won and El Madrigal in mind, or that those entering the fray will be handed the task of breaking an air of frustration as we chase a vital win.

Klopp will already have the script to all eventualities written for the Newcastle game, and he will now be working on all the possible scenarios for next Tuesday, with some of those dictated by how close the Premier League title race remains by Saturday evening, as four days beyond our trip to Castelln we will welcoming Antonio Conte and his shape-shifting Tottenham Hotspur to Anfield.

Every game interlocks with the one before it, and the one beyond it. Within the eye of this type of glorious storm taking one game at a time becomes a myth, but despite all talk of a potential quadruple, you can compartmentalise each competition as a separate entity, deconstructing the concept of the cluster of potentially winning all four trophies we set out in pursuit of this season.

The League Cup is won, and rather than being of consequence to the wider end-of-season target, it can be consigned to a past, where the best thing all round is to forget all about it. Champions League hat taken off again, we now reach for our Premier League one before switching around once more next Tuesday. Its like Liverpool are on a world tour with many different outposts visited and costume changes galore.

There is no time to bask in the possible history that is in the making. Should we achieve the impossible, the time to let that wash over you will be within the celebratory throng of a homecoming parade, or when youre stretched out on a sun lounger next to the pool with an ice-cold beer at hand.

Right now, it is all about us as supporters living each moment for all they are worth, and to provide the soundtrack to each game while Klopp meticulously plots the route, and his players live the same moments we do, except at much closer quarters and with the power to mould our fate with a ball at their feet, rather than their voices.

On Wednesday evening, patience was the key for Liverpool in giving themselves an advantage to take to Spain. There were similarities to the Merseyside derby in that we went in at halftime with the scoreline locked at 0-0 and frustrations to work through; it made for an almost identical experience, apart from the visitors in yellow being less panicked by being in possession of the ball than our visitors in blue were on Sunday.

Villarreal were put under the most intense pressure for most of the evening and it is a credit to them that they were breached only twice. At times they passed the ball well, utilising space in a way we cant permit them to next Tuesday. Unai Emerys team will need to come at us at some stage and it will be up to us to be resolute in defence, commanding in midfield, and for our front three to make hay with the extra space they should be able to find.

Attention now turns to Saturday though, and a trip to Newcastle that Pep Guardiola will have earmarked as one of his biggest hopes of Liverpool dropping points. Fresh off the back of four successive victories and with ambitions of questionably funded brighter horizons, Eddie Howe and his players will see us as the benchmark by which to aim, and a timely test of their current status.

A pivotal weekend in the Premier League title race, Manchester City have their own away trip, theirs against a team with safety from relegation far from assured, but they will do it within an eight-day gap between the two legs of their Champions League semi-final.

Advantages of the fixture list, the easier run-in and the one-point lead, our rival has everything in their hands, yet at one stage they also had a 14-point cushion. The mind games belong to us.

While we cant completely go at this within an air of one game at a time, what we have are some carefully plotted steppingstones to navigate our way across. It is suggested that we are eight games away from immortality, yet one false move can bring it all crashing down.

How are your nerves?

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8 games from immortality: We all have a role to get Liverpool there - This Is Anfield

The secret of immortality isnt the Lazarus Pitits family. This might sound like the tagline to an all-ages animated movie about Ras al Ghul, but its actually an epiphany that hits Ras at the beginning of Shadow War, the new Joshua Williamson-penned Batman crossover event. The currently in-progress storyline features an all-out war between the worlds greatest assassins sparked by the apparent murder of Ras al Ghul. Talia has reason to believe Deathstroke did it, even though Slade Wilson insists hes been set up.

Needless to say, things get pretty destructive, and Batman finds himself caught in the middle. Dont sleep on this storyline, the action is intense, the twists are shocking, and the emotional stakes are high. There is a mystery afoot, and I cant help but wonder if the death of Ras is connected to his last minute change of heart.

The story begins in Shadow War: Alpha #1 with Ras lovingly watching his grandson Damian spar with his daughter Talia. Its a sweet grandfatherly moment that almost makes you forget that the Demons Head is a tyrannical ecoterrorist who is responsible for countless deaths. Either way, when you look at Ras in that moment, its clear that hes feeling pride and that changes something within him.

Talia lays it out to Batman in this weeks Deathstroke Inc. #8: Our son finally showed him that his legacy would live beyond him. That someone could change for the better. I know this because Damian has shown me as well.

Ras had even begun to reject the Lazarus Pits he once relied on for immortality. They say that old age mellows people out. With Ras it just took a few centuries longer.

Our world may not have rejuvenating pits of liquid that can revive the dead, but as Ras discovered, there are other ways to achieve immortality. It gets back to my opening statement: family is the key. When you teach your children, those lessons become a part of them. You leave a piece of yourself in their mind, and that will stay with them long after you die. They will pass those lessons down to their children, who will in turn pass it down to theirs. Our bodies dont last forever, but we achieve immortality with what we leave behind, whether its family or art.

Consider Denny ONeil, the iconic writer who passed away in 2020. He co-created Ras al Ghul, Talia and the Lazarus Pits, and its safe to say the Shadow War storyline wouldnt exist without him. In a way, Ras is Dennys Lazarus Pit, since the creation has granted him immortality. Deathstroke, a character created by Marv Wolfman and George Prez, is also heavily featured in this story. Last week, DC announced that June would be George Prez month, with the legendary artist celebrated for thirty days. Slade Wilson is one of many creations that will ensure that Prezs legacy is eternal.

Speaking of Deathstroke, hes also going through his own introspection about family and immortality thanks to the arrival of Respawn. The young assassin is a genetic experiment with the combined DNA of Slade Wilson and Talia al Ghul, but Deathstroke looks at him as a son. Respawn isnt Slades first child, but his track record as a father hasnt been great, so he sees Respawn as a final chance to make things right. Throughout Robin #13, you can see Slade beaming with fatherly pride as he tells Batman, Thats my boy. Not yours.

With Respawn, Slade is trying to avoid the mistakes he made with his earlier children, Grant, Joey and Rose. In Deathstroke Inc. #8, Respawn considers cutting his own eye out to be more like his father, but Slade stops him. This echoes a moment from 2004s Teen Titans #12 where Rose cut her eye out to prove her loyalty to Slade. He sees how he failed Rose, but rather than repair his relationship with her, hes trying to fix those mistakes with Respawn.

Speaking of repairing relationships with your children, the fractured bond between Batman and Robin is at the center of this saga. When the Dark Knight runs into his son during Shadow War: Alpha #1, Oracle aggressively tells Bruce to hug his son. Unfortunately, healing the rift between father and son isnt as easy as catching crooks. Damian still feels guilty over the death of Alfred, and Bruces attempts to talk it through only make things worse. Batman has been trained for many things, but dealing with teenagers can be challenging no matter how powerful you are. The death of Ras al Ghul only makes things worse, with Damian blaming Bruce for allowing his grandfather to die.

In a way, its ironic that a villain like Ras found comfort in family harmony while Batman continues to struggle. Ras spent thousands of years believing that the secret to immortality meant bathing in a mystical pit only to discover that real immortality was far easier to achieve. Family is forever, and the legacy you leave them will last centuries longer than your flesh and bones. When he realized this, Ras stopped using the Lazarus Pits. He no longer needed them. After centuries of prolonging his death, he was finally ready to die.

The question is, can Batman and Slade come to the same realization before its too late? Its not too late to fix things between Slade and Rose. Respawn has given him another chance as a father, and perhaps it could give him the clarity he needs for a reconciliation with his daughter. Batman and Robin may have a long way to go, but the Dynamic Duo have come back from worse (and the ending of Robin #13 is certainly a step in the right direction for them). The opening shots of the Shadow War have been fired, and I cant wait to see how everyone will fare once the dust settles.

Deathstroke Inc. #8 and Robin #13 are now available in print and as digital comic books.

Joshua Lapin-Bertone writes about TV, movies and comics for DCComics.com, is a regular contributor to the Couch Club and writes our monthly Batman column,"Gotham Gazette."Follow him on Twitter at@TBUJosh.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of Joshua Lapin-Bertone and do not necessarily reflect those of DC Entertainment or Warner Bros.

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Shadow War and the Real Lazarus Pit - DC Comics

Writer B.D. McClay was prompted to ask the question in the above headline by remarks from Jason Stanley (Yale), who on Twitter said, I would regard myself as an abject failure if people are still not reading my philosophical work in 200 years. I have zero intention of being just another Ivy League professor whose work lasts as long as they are alive.

Stanley is not the only philosopher who has as an aim and standard for their work that it have an influence well into the distant future. (Stanley might have talked about his work being read in 200 years, but he probably didnt mean just 200 yearspresumably hed be upset if his work lasted 200 years but then was completely forgotten a day after that.)I recall one established philosopher telling a group of graduate students at a workshop, I am not writing for today; I am writing for posterity, and others in various conversations over the years taking as their goal to have their writings talked about through the ages.

[Kano Sansetsu, Old Plum]

Humans are unique in this world in that, as opposed to all other animals, they have developed a consciousness so advanced that it has one awful byproduct: they are the only creatures aware of their own mortality. This truth is so terrifying that from a very early age humans bury it deep in their unconscious, and this has turned people into red-blooded machines, fleshy factories that manufacture meaning. The meaning they feel becomes channled into their immortality projectssuch as their children, or their gods, or their artistic works, of their businesses, or their nationsthat they believe will outlive them The irony of their immortality projects is that while they have been designed by the unconscious to fool the person into a sense of specialness and into a bid for everlasting life, the manner in which they fret about their immortality projects is the very thing that kills them This is my warning to you So what do you think?

I have no idea what you just said.

One neednt understand the lethality of the desire for immortality literally it may just be that pursuing its satisfaction may involve sacrificing the actual goods of your life for the merely possible goods of your works afterlife.

Whether, as the storytellers insist, the quest for immortality is congenitally ironic, there remains the question: is being important in the distant future a standard to which we should hold our work, our projects, or ourselves?

I dont think it is. On this, I find myself largely in agreement with Brooke Alan Trisel, who takes up the matter in the thoughtful Human Extinction and the Value of Our Efforts, (2004). Trisel writes:

The problem in allowing an unrealizable desire, such as immortality, to become part of a standard for judging whether our efforts are worthwhile or important is that it predetermines that we will fail to achieve the standard. Furthermore, it can lead us to lose sight of or discount all of the other things that matter to us besides fulfilling this one desire.

Since there is no way to satisfy the desire for quasi-immortality, one may fall into a state of despair, as did Tolstoy. Furthermore, because the desire may be concealed in the standard, the person may be unable to pinpoint the source of the despair and, consequently, may be unable to figure out how to overcome it. The person may believe that he or she has a new perspective on life that suddenly revealed that human endeavors are and have always been futile, when, in fact, the only thing that changed was that this person increased the standard that he or she had previously used to judge significance. Therefore, it is crucial to recognize when an unrealizable desire, such as the desire to have our works appreciated forever, has infected our standards and, when it has done so, to purge it from these standards. The original standard that we used to judge significance was likely realistic and inspiring before it became corrupted with the desire to achieve quasi-immortality.

Suppose that there is a god who created humanity and who told us that our efforts would be significant only if we create works that will last forever. Suppose also that humanity will not last forever and that we live in a universe that will not likely last forever. Thus, there is a clear, objective standard for judging whether our efforts are significant. If this were the standard handed down to us by this god, would we try to achieve the standard, or would we reject, as I believe, the standard on grounds that it is unreasonable, assuming that we were not compelled by this god to try to achieve the standard? Ironically, we are free to choose a reasonable standard to judge what is significant, yet some people unwittingly adopt, or impose upon themselves, a standard that they would reject if it had been imposed upon them by an external entity.

Though Trisel writes about the impossibility of immortality, the points are almost as compelling when read as being about the unlikelihood of being thought important in the distant future. I recommend the whole essay, an ungated version of which is available here.

Instead of a direct longing for immortality (or distant impact), one might think that the standard we should hold our writing to is not that it be read through the ages, but rather that it have some other qualities that, as it turns out, make it more likely to be read through the ages. One might hope that ones work is wise, for instance, and think that if it is wise, it will be discussed for generations to come. If thats the case, it seems it would be better to focus on and articulate which qualities we have in mind, rather than ones impact on posterity. One reason for this is that there are less desirable qualities that might contribute to a works longevity, such as it being maddeningly unclear, or especially evil. Another is that we may wish to avoid holding ourselves to standards the meeting of which is largely out of our control; I cant dictate what future generations do, but maybe I can make what I do good in some wayand isnt that enough?

There are a constellation of issues here about which Im sure theres a variety of opinion. Discussion welcome.

(Note: this is not a discussion about Jason Stanley or his work. Comments about him will be deleted.)

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Most scholarship is not going to live forever. Is it therefore not worth doing? - Daily Nous

THE OXFORD BROTHERHOOD, by Guillermo Martnez, read by P.J. Ochlan. (Blackstone Publishing.) In this brainy thriller, an Oxford grad student in mathematics finds himself embroiled in the shadowy history of Lewis Carroll.

LOVE THAT STORY: Observations From a Gorgeously Queer Life, by Jonathan Van Ness, read by the author. (HarperAudio.) The comedian, hairstylist and Queer Eye star follows up his 2019 memoir, Over the Top, with a collection of essays about gender identity, mourning his cat, a history of his hometown of Quincy, Ill., and more.

FINDING TAMIKA, by Erika Alexander, Kevin Hart, Charlamagne Tha God, Ben Arnon, Rebkah Howard, David Person and James T. Green, read by Erika Alexander. (Audible Originals.) This audiobook original for mature audiences tells the disturbing but important true-crime story of 24-year-old Tamika Huston, who went missing from her Spartanburg, S.C., home in 2004.

BRAZEN: My Unorthodox Journey From Long Sleeves to Lingerie, by Julia Haart, read by the author. (Random House Audio.) The star of My Unorthodox Life, and former chief executive of a modeling and talent agency, recounts her unusual path from housewife in an extremist religious sect to fashion insider.

LIARMOUTH: A Feel-Bad Romance, by John Waters. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26.) The acclaimed filmmaker known for his boundary-pushing comedies has written a twisted and sleazy caper following a con artist on the run and filled with genitalia, violence and plenty of satire.

ONE DAY I SHALL ASTONISH THE WORLD, by Nina Stibbe. (Little, Brown, $27.) In this tender and comical novel, a middle-aged woman navigates the changes in her life as her husband begins seeking immortality and her lifelong best friend is propelled to professional glory.

THE HATED CAGE: An American Tragedy in Britains Most Terrifying Prison, by Nicholas Guyatt. (Basic, $32.) A historian at the University of Cambridge draws on archival material to tell the story of the thousands of American prisoners of war held at Dartmoor Prison, the first racially segregated prison in U.S. history, during the War of 1812.

LETS NOT DO THAT AGAIN, by Grant Ginder. (Holt, $27.99.) Ginders satirical fifth novel follows a dysfunctional family as Nancy Harrison, a widowed New York politician running for the U.S. Senate, finds her campaign in jeopardy when her daughter is caught throwing a champagne bottle through a Parisian bistros window at a nationalist rally.

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Newly Published, From Cults to Con Men - The New York Times

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Tamil poet-saint Thiruvalluvar was way ahead of his times even 2,000 years ago. Predicting the shrinking size of human attention span, he cleverly packed pearls of wisdom on almost every virtue of life in his magnum opus Thirukkural in just 1,330 couplets, leaving its immortality and universality unquestionable. Even today, its timelessness is cherished and celebrated by the present generation through various artistic expressions. Contributing her part in popularising the kurals and their profound meanings to a larger audience, through an ongoing art series on Instagram, is Puducherry-based visual artist R Sowmya Iyal.

Painting philosophiesThe novel idea to give a visual representation to all the couplets from the literary work was born during her five-year stint as a freelancer. I used to draw illustrations for textual poems and stories. I studied many papers on reimagining poems into paintings. I wanted to explore the concept with our own Tamil literature. Thirukkural seemed like the right muse, shares the electronics media graduate, who has specialised in visual art, animation, and illustration. She worked as a guest faculty for visual communication at Pondicherry University, and is looking for opportunities to pursue a full-time PhD.

The series that began as an experiment on January 1, 2020, currently has artworks for 846 couplets so far. Explaining how the project transformed her life, Sowmya shares, This project came as a much-needed escape from reality during the lockdown when everyone was going through something in life. Its been a great learning experience since I commenced the series. Exploring the poets works offered me solutions to all my problems. I stopped procrastinating work and stayed focussed. It altered my approach to life. Every kural is relevant and speaks to you on so many levels. Had I learned it from childhood, it wouldve prepared me to handle life better. Many followers have been taking inspiration from my work to read the masterpiece. Sowmya aims to complete all the 1,330 couplets by August 2023.

The greatness in versesFor the last two years, Sowmya has been dedicating an hour or two to the art series every morning. She wakes up, recites a kural, understands its meaning, and reimagines it visually. I use surrealism and metaphorical realism in my works. Metaphors are used to depict human emotions and convey the message with the right interpretation. We have allegories such as mudhalai kanneer and paambu kaadhu in Tamil. Thirukkural also handles such metaphors.

Some kurals may seem abstract and take time to replicate as artworks. I use symbols and appropriate colours to convey the meaning. Thirukkural has stood the test of time for the wide range of topics it addresses; from the dynamics of human relationships and emotions to moral values. When presented visually, even kurals with in-depth meaning become easier to consume, and leave a lasting impact, she suggests.

Every post has the Tamil version of a couplet, the English version, the transliterated version, and the meaning. The artwork, in a reel format, has Sowmyas nine-year-old daughter reciting the kural in the background. Even before I wake up, she memorises the kural for the day and recites it to me. Im happy that shes picked it up so fast. I hope this work helps people introspect and implement it in their everyday life. I want viewers to be part of the artwork, she notes.

After completion, Sowmya wants to compile her artworks into a book; she also wants to have an exhibition. Ive been seriously looking to do my thesis on Thirukkural, only to be turned down by many. I would be grateful to find research scholars who are experts in this area and can guide me, she requests.

For details, visitiyal_artinsta or mail to sowmi3d@gmail.com

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Kural in colours - The New Indian Express

All this month we have been focusing on the Resurrection of Jesus and the meaning of everyone who inhabits this world. This has a special place in the hearts of all those who are followers of Christ. We have a new hope and assurance that we will gain a new way to live life both in this present life and in the life to come.

1 Corinthians 15:50-58 offers to us this assurance and hope. The fact that our bodies, as they are presently constructed, are not conducive for heaven; notice how Paul uses the comparison of corruption to incorruption and mortal to immortality.

Knowing our world is riddled by illness, disease, sickness, the inability to just get along with one another in a civil manner and fundamental care, and concern for our neighbor, shows that our present state is incompatible to the kingdom of God.

So, yes, we need a change, and in Christ we get to put on Incorruption and Immortality. The change happens instantly allowing us access to enter the kingdom of God.

Paul gives a doxology of praise when he says in verse 57, But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The fact of the Resurrection means Victory, and that our Savior is now head of all things in His church, and He reigns over heaven and earth and hell and possesses the keys of life and death.

When we experience the effects of sin in our world, the victory lies in how we handle lifes tough moments. The death of a loved one, a friend, what we do to answer that as a believer lies in the Resurrection and our belief in Christ and hopefully my family members and friends believe this as well, so that when standing at the grave, this is not goodbye but farewell for we will see them again in heaven. That is our great hope and assurance.

Finally, verse 57 commands us to be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lords work, because you know that your labor is not in vain. Steadfast, meaning firm, unwavering, and stable. Immovable means not easily moved or changed. Abounding, which means spiritual abundance.

Knowing that our faith is stable and that we are on solid ground; it is unchanging and does adjust to current trends or ideas, as it is good for us to be excelling in Gods work.

All we do as Christians is marked with these traits whether in spiritual endeavors or even in our temporal activities, the reason being that what we do is not in vain or empty because God places value on what we do.

Do everything to the Glory of God.

And someone has said, Only what we do for Christ will last that makes perfect in that what He did for each and every one of us has and will last forever.

Christs resurrection has given us a new life which rests on His resurrection power, He rose to newness of life and He extends that new and better life to all who believe and trust in His finished work of redemption and reconciliation.

Praying for all a New and Better Life for all who Believe In Him.

Byron McGee is Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Wilmington.

See the article here:

Road to a new and better life - Wilmington News Journal, OH

This story is part of Future Tense Fiction, a monthly series of short stories from Future Tense and Arizona State Universitys Center for Science and the Imagination about how technology and science will change our lives.

For someone like me, Nefirahs client said, its not a question of whether or not Ill be remembered. The question is precisely how.

This high up above New York City, the roof penthouse of one of its tallest buildings, the view was a gray boil of smog, and sometimes the glint of windshields as pedal cabs moved through the streets. A few electric-powered vehicles here and there, like the chauffeured one that had brought Nefirah, but for the most part foot or pedal traffic.

Shed had to get up early to take the car. Never a case of a client accommodating her schedule. Always the other way around.

This one, K, had chosen an outdoor balcony for the audience. A smear of glass showed where the reality of air was walled off. The genetically modified houseplants showcased olive and purple blossoms, shaped like open-walled cages. Thumb-sized finches flitted among them, their colors matching the blossoms. Every once in a while, a lizard made of silver wire flickered across the tiles underfoot, cleaning up bird droppings or falling petals.

The only overt artifice was a subtle letter etched into the glass in one corner. When you were singular and rich enough to take a single symbol as your name, you didnt need to wallow in it.

But you wouldnt want anyone to miss it, either.

You will make me immortal, the woman who was a single letter said to Nefirah. Ive read about your installations.

You understand that its not you in the installation, Nefirah said wearily. Shed had this talk before. The I-word. Immortality. Impossible. Its a differentiable neural computer.

I want to be a tree, K said. The biggest tree outside thisworld.

K just shrugged. I understand that. How could you

A look raking up and down Nefirahs form, the sort of look shed had before from clients used to being paid the most attention in the room, a sort of how could I possibly be dependent on this person expression that mingled irritation and contempt, as K continued, hope to put all of me in a container? I know it wont be me. Ill stay here on Earth.

Bitterness salted that statement. Neither of them said the truth: that K, unable to handle the rigors of space travel, would be one of the few super-wealthy left behind on the devastated Earth. Others had gone long ago to living centers on Mars or the moon. Rumors said Elon Musks most recent clone planned still to conquer Venus.

The Earth had been used up. Its fruits and flowers taken. The rest crumpled and discarded by people like this.

Nefirah knew better than to say, You cant afford it, the way she would have to most. Instead she asked, What do you want me to put your mind in?

I want to be a tree, K said. The biggest tree outside this world.

A finch hopped onto her shoulder, pecking at the fabric as though she were a tree already. She brushed it away with an efficient gesture.

Outside the world? Nefirah said, and thought she knew what the woman would say next. But the words were not what she expected.

Ill fund the entire Love project if you do what I want.

Generation ship Love was the largest, longest-running crowdfunding campaign of all time. Kicked off by an initial, rare cooperation between multiple countries, it had limped along for over four decades now. Its initial crew had aged out of eligibility, and others after them.

Love had inspired three different reality shows; one ran for nearly a decade, doing its best to stir up drama while the people whose existences they were documenting tolerated them for the sake of the revenue they brought in. You could still buy plenty of merchandise; gear from the earliest, least successful show was the most collectible.

Countless podcasts and blogs were devoted to analyzing the Love, decrying it, hinting that it was part of a vast conspiracy, outright stating that it was part of a vast conspiracy, shipping various personnel together in fanfic couplings, on and on.

So many documentaries, and one tell-all memoir, which was why no one spoke to her Aunt Samirah anymore and also why Samirah had retired to the most luxuriant of Mars living centers.

A late-night talk show punchline: the project that kept going and going and going. The countries involved in its genesis had long ago given up, leaving the individuals involved in the project to keep it lurching forward. Still, it had come closer to success than any other generation ship project. And unlike any of the others, it still had hope.

Nefirah knew the details of the ships journey toward completion intimately. How could she not? The project had eaten the lives of so many close to her.

The countries had given up on the Love project within a decade, but it continued due to the six families who had taken to the Love with revolutionary zeal. They were why the idea had persisted so long, staggering from one iteration of its budget to another. Six families, though by now there were enough intermarryings that it seemed a single entity, a mass of Hernandezes, Ibrahims, Kims, Muhammeds, Parks, and Smiths that most of them just called the Family.

So many worked on the project, knowing they wouldnt be on it. Some might have been hoping for a place, sure, who wouldnt? But Family members committed themselves to the Love, regardless of where they fell on its potential roster. Nefirahs grandmother had been part of the original group, and shed borne six children, five of whom had followed in her footsteps, and brought others into the fold as well.

But enrollment on the Loves crew wasnt a hereditary thing, just as it wasnt for sale. Either would have been antithetical to its spirit. Instead, there were formulas and calculations. The denizens of the ship would be chosen for a variety of characteristics that they would pass onto their descendants. That would be incorporated in humanity to come.

And here was K, with an arrogance that marked so many of Nefirahs clients, proposing something just as antithetical, because it suited her. She would make it entirely her memorial, a ship dedicated to her and her wealth.

K would pay any price for that. But what would it cost Nefirah?

Shell fund it all, said cousin Ali. Ive confirmed it. He looked dazed, breathless.

Since Nefirah had seen him last, hed gotten a full-body mobile tattoo, writing flickering under the skin, spelling out Love in dozens of languages. A recent style in the family, another fundraising measure. Ali would be prepared to tell anyone who asked about the project, ready to sign them up for the notification list.

She says youll be able to describe the modifications to the core gardens she wants.

A redwood, she said. Sequoia sempervirens.

What?

The innermost garden space. She wants a redwood tree in it. The tree will be so large that the space will need to be reconfigured to be built around the tree.

Ali was quick to piece things together. And that tree will hold one of your installation computers?

It will be a computer, she said. Im working with neural computers. Living ones.

Why a redwood?

Nefirah had asked that, too.

Theyre a very American tree, K told her at their first meeting. Larger than life.

Monumental.

K continued as though Nefirah had not spoken. They dont exist anymore the way they used. A couple of small groves in biodomes, the one in Bezos-ball-land, the hollow earth project.

A gesture out at the city. My ancestors built this country, but the place they started was California. San Francisco. I hiked among redwoods as a child. Some of those trees were over 2,000 years old.

Nefirah had left it at that, but she wasnt dumb. She knew what was going on. She told Ali, Its her way around the restrictions on naming things after people.

Restrictions that had been a deliberate choice by the original Love designers, even though it shot down a major chance at fundraising. Nothing exalting individuals, everything celebrating the communal, including the name Love, an emotion that only existed in the spaces between people.

Ali thought. Amor flickered on his cheekbone, then was replaced by kanji characters. She could tell he didnt like the idea. But he was weighing it against the chance of the Love getting finished in their lifetime.

She wanted him to say no. Instead he said, Ill check with the planners.

When the word came back from the group that steered all design decisions, they had come to the choice that she knew they would. This wasnt the smallest of compromises, but the gardens could be adapted.

So much of the original plan had been adapted over the years as new technologies appeared and made some things obsolete, others smaller and more efficient, or precipitated new needs, changing specifications or models or even underlying tech.

At the projects start, they hadnt even known how theyd propel the ships! Plans for Bussard engines, for solar sails, and other, wilder possibilities before someone finally made Deuterium reaction drives practicable.

But someday it would simply change too far away from the original and everything would be lost. Love had to be implemented soon. Because the day was coming when the world would simply be too poor to keep the project going.

And that made it impossible to say no to K.

When she turned 18, Nefirah had opted to become one of the family members who devoted themselves to study and aimed for a lucrative career to bring in money for the project.

Upon graduation, shed surveyed the possibilities. Someone joked that morticians always had money and shed thought about her interestsarchitecture, computers, landscape design. Then that jumble coalesced in her mind into a single idea: memorials.

Dannefer v. Lucky the Lockman had established in 2033 that what the mem-tech created was a replica and not an actual person, no matter how many times they passed the Turingtest.

The Atelier was the first project she had created by herself. Bankrolled by a billionaire fashion designer who had taken a scattershot approach to immortality. Nefirahs proposal had been one of several hundred.

Had the designer known that hers would be the one to launch the fad, that the wealthy would flock to the idea? Start a career that stretched 20 years now? She thought they might have, but when she asked, they said it had been the only one that appealed to them.

Why? She wasnt sure. Shed designed as she would have designed for herself, a cathedral carved into a hillside, and aeolian pipes in it and grown into the trees outside. Shed picked pines for that installation, since they grew quickly. Nowadays it was much easier to accelerate growth and she would have opted for something deciduous, so the songs would change over the seasons, affected by the amount of leaves.

It was the only installation among all the submissions that didnt reference clothing. Shed tried to create the feeling that shed thought underlay the design aesthetics underlying their clothing, rather than the garments themselves.

She came to the designers site in simple black-printed clothing, the anonymity of mass culture, and didnt go in through the special entrance, but rather the one that anyone could take.

Every installation contained a version of the mind it had been patterned after. But it was, as shed told K, not immortality. Dannefer v. Lucky the Lockman had established in 2033 that what the mem-tech created was a replica and not an actual person, no matter how many times they passed the Turing test.

Tiny rooms offered private spaces where one could commune with that mind. Hers was barely big enough to hold her. Shed patterned the rooms after anchorite cells, bare stone and lines, so all you had to think about was the communion.

But she didnt speak for most of the time she was there, simply sat on the stone floor, listening to the winds cadences and thinking about the design decisions shed made.

Not just this place, but how shed structured her life. Her existence was a sculpture in time, dedicated to the Love. She didnt need anything more than that, to know that shed help the human race survive. That her Familys dream would come true.

When she finally stood, she said to the air, Why did you want this memorial? Youd already affected history.

To remind them I was a person, came the designers soft tones. No recognition tinged it. Another design decision. Shed kept herself out of the data. The slight friendship had been theirs. It didnt belong to time.

What did belong to time? Could K claim it the way she proposed to? Or ratherNefirah knew that she could. But should she?

She returned to her lab and began creating proof of concept trees.

The advantage of wetware computers was their complexity; instead of the 0/1 gates that made up a binary computer, a cell could hold much more sophisticated data structures. A tree would work well. But she didnt want the scale of space a redwood would take. She started with a simpler tree, the gingko.

That was something they had perfected in working on the generation ship, developing technology that was closer to living things than anything before. It made it able to self-heal, self-administer like a living creature.

The ship would be one of the most amazing things ever created by humanity, and it was so close. Theyd ridden the waves of public funding, of crowdfunds and grant-chasing, no matter how small.

Now they had K. All that the Family wanted, in exchange for Nefirahs work. Shed given so much of her life to the project and now here was the expected day, arriving when shed learned to no longer expect it.

She printed out little blue pots, over-glazed with circuitry, for them, set them in the growth inducers, watched them sprout over the coming days. The tiny gingkoes were charming with their delicate, fan-shaped leaves. When the first was ready, she showed it to another cousin, Sammi.

How does it work? Sammi said dubiously.

Here, give me your arm, she said, and tapped at the panel set in Sammis forearm, then passed it back so Sammi could tap in the access code to authorize the app shed just installed.

They waited for it to install.

Where are you on the List? her cousin asked, not meeting her eyes. That signaled some change in Sammis own status, probably upward.

Still below the line, she said. Still not close enough to the top of the list to make it aboard.

Not by far, though? Sammi said.

She shook her head and shrugged all at once. You could do that, could pretend that you hadnt tracked this figure as obsessively as everyone else close to the line. The line fluctuated, that was one of the things about it. Rumor says theyre going to do a refactoring, major criteria changes, in a few months.

No one could predict how the line would shift, let alone the ordering, in a major refactoring.

This could make you a Contributor.

Thats someone who makes a major change or addition, she protested. Not about fundraising.

Not just because you secured the funding, her cousin said. At her blank look, she scoffed and pointed at the trees. Theyll add more organic life to the project. Did you really not think how major this was?

I was always part of the garden group, she said.

Implementing your trees will be a group effort, Sammi said. But you came up with all of this on your own.

Sammis arm dinged to indicate the app was ready, and she held it back out to Nefirah. She opened the app and clicked through the +organism screen, adding new options.

Hello, she said to it.

Hello, maam! it piped cheerfully.

Thats the Sporty default, isnt it? Sammi said.

Yup, same one that drives a lot of todays toys, she said. I needed a personality to put into it, and that ones public domain.

Because youre advertising the company every time you use it, said with folded arms. Most of her family had strong opinions on advertising and ethics, not a trait that had helped them advance the ships progress, but understandable.

Itll get rewritten before anyone else accesses it, she said. Thats one of the differences between the end result and these.

How so?

They learn from everyone around them and add it to the mix. And personalities get created, amalgamations of those among them, storing strands of memory.

Is that how the redwood will function?

No. Thats not at all what K wants. She wants herself undiluted.

Sammi shook her head, expression incredulous. Youd think she started, poised to reignite a thousand Family discussions about the fate of humanity, of the necessity of setting aside individual ambition and petty pride for the common good, but Nefirah cut her off.

Shes the customer, she said. If shes paying the tab, she gets to decide whats on it.

Originally posted here:

The Woman Who Wanted to Be Trees, by Cat Rambo. - Slate