Out With The Old?

There's a flaw in my perception that I have known about for years and not been able to eradicate...

Somehow, somewhere I have come to believe that everything will change/get better once realisation occurs...

Or after an energetically special time (like Solstice/Yule/Christmas/New Year)...

And I ALWAYS have to deal with the disappointment that things have not magically transformed...

Or at least not in any discernible way in that time frame...

And then its back to dealing with the reality of the chaos we are creating/living through on the way to a new pattern in the kaleidoscope of life...

 

Russ offered: " It's been my experience that even broken bones once set properly and healing correctly still hurt and the change is imperceptible for a time! Just remember that even seeds of change need time to grow!" 

 

And Doug sent me these words and this clip:
"Halfway into the third part of this very informative presentation, this segment examines exactly what you're talking about. And after years of feeling this way, this clip finally helped be break this mental pattern. Highly recommended watch."

 

 

Christmas Arrived Early In Seattle...

I've already got my Christmas present,

as have many Seattle public education advocates:

"Seattle scores victory over GATES and BROAD; evicts education deformist superintendent, kicks out/dumps two education deform puppet school board directors and the deformist interim super resigns rather than having to compete for her job against other qualified applicants in an open search..."

Not a bad score for the second half of this year...

Get rid of Teach For America and MAP standardised testing and kill charters and common core curriculum before they get their feet under the table and all will be well with the world!!! 

Big grin...

Seriously though, our progress here in Seattle, education deform head honcho Bill Gates' own backyard, is giving a sense of hope to other school districts all over the country, fighting the same hostile corporate takeover of public education...
 

They think that if we can do it here, they can do it anywhere!

Thanks Santa, elves, fairies etc...

 

And the Seattle "establishment" - ie those sycophantic people hanging onto the coat tails of Bill Gates and Eli Broad - is pissy that we parents have not fallen hook, line and sinker for the lies, manipulations and half truths that have been fed to us...

They've been whining in the Seattle "media" over the past couple of weeks about us and our apparent lack of understanding and appreciation of the need for their brand of education deform...

Seattle has the most educated population in the country, in terms of the adults in the city...

And MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, if all of these educated adults have not embraced the Eli Broad and Bill Gates vision of education deform, MAYBE, JUST MAYBE corporatist education deform REALLY IS BAD FOR OUR KIDS - ALL OUR KIDS...

It requires local knowledge of the situation and the players involved to really appreciate the following contributions by parents and teachers within the community, but the visuals should be enough to get the gist:

As AuntyBROAD points out - in 2007 Big Business bought itself a school board:

 

Big Business again used big money to try to keep its school board puppets in power this year, enabling the incumbents to outspend the challengers by an average of 4-1; guess the oligarchs learned that "money can't buy me love"...

LYRICS:
Can't buy me love, love
Can't buy me love

I'll buy you a diamond ring my friend
If it makes you feel all right
I'll get you anything my friend
If it makes you feel all right
Cause I don't care too much for money
For money can't buy me love

I'll give you all I've got to give
If you say you love me too
I may not have a lot to give
but what I've got I'll give to you
For I don't care too much for money
For money can't buy me love

Can't buy me love
Everybody tells me so
Can't buy me love
No, no, no, no

Say you don't need no diamond ring
And I'll be satisfied
Tell me that you want those kind of things
that money just can't buy
For I don't care too much for money
For money can't buy me love

Can't buy me love
Everybody tells me so
Can't buy me love
No, no, no, no

Say you don't need no diamond ring
And I'll be satisfied
Tell me that you want those kind of things
that money just can't buy
For I don't care too much for money
Cause money can't buy me love
Ooh, can't buy me love, love
Can't buy me love, no

Deformist Superintendent does her thing:

Parents: We're Not Stupid...

and from Seattle public school parent Arch Stanton:

 

If you want all the gory details, you can find them at the Public Disclosure Commission, at the Seattle Schools Community Forum and the Seattle Education Blog 

 

Happy Holidays To One And All

 

and Get Ready...

2012 Will Be A Wild Ride

In More Ways Than One...

 

 

Life Is Full...

... of such delicious ironies...

Was told a few hours ago, in no uncertain terms, to leave as soon as possible from where we are staying because our presence is causing friction between the husband and wife in this 4,200sq ft house... 

9 days we have been here...

They took us in (had offered any help we needed a few months ago) after we were evicted from a week-to-week place...

But they have relationship issues - serious ones - and we appear to be the trigger for them boiling to the surface... 

The wife acknowledges that's what's going on, but still needs us out... not that we want to stay under this hostility...

And - 4,200sq ft they have here, with just themselves, their daughter, two cats and a puppy...

And the irony part???

Husband, wife and their child (and my boy) RIGHT NOW are putting up Christmas decorations INCLUDING the piece de resistance - a humble wooden nativity scene... you know - the hut/stable where Jesus was born/laid in a manger because there was no room in the inn?

The extent of the unconscious hypocrisy is hysterically hilarious...

"Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think..."

~ La Bruyere

Postscript (added 1 December 2011):

Well we are now staying with a social activist friend and her family  on Vashon Island...

Gorgeous views - quiet, the water and the green close by, just as I asked for...

One cat here; the other playing hard to get, hiding in the ceiling of the house we had been staying at... expect to retrieve him tomorrow...

"Man of the House" packed us up yesterday afternoon (while we were out!), and helped move our gear across to the island...

Saying goodbye, he apologised for being an "arsehole", as he put it... said he didn't really know why he behaved as he did and then came up with a whole bunch of 'reasons'...

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, myself and the "woman of the house" had had this email exchange:

"As I told P this morning, we are moving on today...

We are going to stay with an activist colleague on Vashon until the Dec 16 court hearing which will determine if I can go back to Australia WITH C...

We'll be moving late afternoon/early evening as my colleague is a teacher and has a meeting after school; she would prefer that we go across to Vashon together since I have not met her family...

She anticipates being in West Seattle around 5.15pm...

I dont know if P still wants to help move our stuff, seeing the location will be Vashon...
 

I can take us, our clothes and the cats today, plus some items can go in my friend's car; if it is possible to put the rest of our gear in your garage, I can come across tomorrow (Thursday) and pick them up...

Thanks for giving us a roof to shelter under for the past week and a half...

I am sorry for the inconvenience and conflict our presence exacerbated - if I had known you and P had these issues and that our presence would further fuel them, I would not have said "yes" to staying here...

Sahila"

"Great Sahila, I’m glad you have what sounds like a nice place until mid-December.   P would be glad to help load up for the ferry trip and then unload at the other end.  I told him the timeframe, so he may stay at work a little later, and show up around 2:30.

No apologies necessary or warranted.   My situation with P was the same before and will remain after.   No big.   He is rather brittle.   At times generous to a fault, then overreacts the other direction whereas I am quite resolute.   Privacy is obviously something we value greatly, and you can see how busy our schedules are.

I will probably see you around 4 today.
 

C..."

So, we're all happy(?) and I guess that's the end of that...

For Ellen, Sarah & Callum - Christmas 2010

To Ellen, Sarah and Callum...

Seattle Christmas

 

Brisbane Christmas

We Miss You and We Love You

from Mum and Connor

For Connor - Christmas 2010...

For Connor, when he comes home - one last present...

I Love You, Mr Connor

from Mama...

 

The Manhattan Transfer Sings Christmas...

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas Now...

And that's the last Christmas post from me this year (except maybe a debrief in the next couple of days)...

Thank you for indulging me in my Christmas obsession these past few days... 

I hope and wish for you that whatever your connection is with the sacred in life, that if this is the time of year when you pay special attention to that divine nature, your holy days are full of peace and joy...

Namaste

(the Divine in me recognises and honours the Divine in you)

The Real Goss...

Reality for the young and naive, the innocent and the pure at heart... 












What really happens when no-one's looking...

Last laugh...

 

Christmas Un-Wrapped...

All you ever wanted to know (or not!) about the origins of Christmas:

 

Blessed Are The Peacemakers...

Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be known as the Children of God.

But I say to you that hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 

To those who strike you on the cheek offer the other also, and from those who take away your cloak, do not withhold your coat as well.

Give to everyone who begs from you, and of those who take away your goods, do not ask them again. 

And as you wish that others would to do you, do so to them.

~ Christian Prayer for Peace

My Mother's Christmas...

The sound of Christmas as my mother Agnes would have liked it, with her favourite opera singers Mario Lanza, Enrico Caruso and Maria Callas...

All I Want For Christmas...

O Lord God Almighty -  may there be peace in celestial regions.
May there be peace on earth.
May the waters be appeasing.
May herbs be wholesome, and may trees and plants bring peace to all.
May all beneficent beings bring peace to us.
May thy Vedic Law propagate peace all through the world.

May all things be a source of peace to us.
And may thy peace itself bestow peace on all.
And may that peace come to me also.

~Hindu Prayer for Peace 

May we all find deep compassion, love, joy and peace within ourselves, within our relationships and within the world...

If reconciliation and healing with self and others is what you wish for this year, may it be so...

May there be reconciliation and healing between humans, 

between humans and all sentient life,

between humans and our mother, Gaia, 

between humans and the Life Force...

And so it is...

Blessings Be

AUM

 

Drumming For The King...

I had no gift to give, so I played my drum for him...

O Christmas Tree...

Christmas Truce 1914...

Here am I, wondering why, if they could stop the shooting and killing because it was Christmas Day, they just couldn't stop their shooting and killing for good?   

Isn't a human life worth just as much any other day, as it is on Christmas Day?   

Isn't it just as morally repugnant to kill someone on any other day, as it is on Christmas Day?

Each of us makes a personal choice to pick up a weapon and agree to kill others - strangers we don't know, have no personal interest in hurting...

If they made the choice to put down the weapons for one day, could they not have made the choice to put down the weapons for good?

War can only continue if we as individuals agree to participate...

Refuse to fight and wars end... simple logic really... 

Or is that the logic of woman, who gives birth and so knows what taking life really means?

The Royal Guardsmen Sing Christmas...

Christmas Bells, those Christmas Bells,

Ringing through the land...

Bringing peace to all the world,

And goodwill to man....

John Lennon Sings Christmas...

The soldiers...

... and the civilians...

So - we all hate this, abhor this, cry about it, want it to end... 

But... peace doesn't happen by itself...

WHAT

WILL

WE

DO

  

TO

MAKE

PEACE

REAL

FOR

US

ALL?

Bob Dylan Sings Christmas...

Bob's version of Christmas...
 
What do you think?

First Celebration Of The Season...

It's time for me and my son to get into the spirit of this season, which in one way or another, is celebrated by most cultures in both hemispheres...

We'll get a small tree tomorrow, decorate it and it will stay up until the end of the first week of January...

I'm going to search for music from as many cultures as I can to honour our diversity, but also to acknowledge how much more we humans are alike than we are different...

I'm going to start with a Christian expression tonight and will post something different each night until I run out of offerings...

May we all find peace and joy at this time, and in the year to come...

Happy Saturnalia...

Christmas, Hanukkah & the Hajj emerged from the Sacred Roman Festival of Saturnalia...

Kind Friends We Have Never Met...

A very kind Facebook friend and fellow public education activist - whom I have never met - knows I was born in Holland and miss Dutch food and traditions.

She spent yesterday in her kitchen making a traditional Dutch Christmas treat - Kerststollen - and she made one for me!!!   

It's travelling across country in the next couple of days for me and my son to enjoy...

This world is filled with wonderful, kind, thoughtful, giving people....

Thank you Conny...

Namaste

(the Divine in me recognises and honours the Divine in you)