India Coffee Beans

Interesting story (or gross?) -

Somewhere in India, monkeys harvest the coffee beans. They eat the berries and spit out the beans. Humans pick up the beans and wash and roast them. Preferring the sweetest berries, means the ripest beans.

Hmmm....

Weather

The radio is on in the distant and do you know what I keep hearing about? Sure there's the democratic convention soon to happen here in Denver, and there's the olympics, and then the Russia-Georgia conflict (didn't know there's an oil pipeline at issue - heard several stories with world-traveled geologists talking at meal times).

SNOW in mid August! Tonight a cold front is supposed to move in. The temperature is supposed to drop at least 20 degrees. That means the night temp could freeze. There's talk of snow dusting in some places in the Colorado mountains. I'm hoping it doesn't freeze here!

Woman

One of my best friends, Ellen, has begun a blog. She's an excellent writer (she has a chapter in a recent book) and I've so waited for her blog so I could 'read her heart' on an almost daily basis. I've been waiting for her most recent post I knew she was going to write, to mention what I'm about to mention...

Just as China has been preparing for hosting the Olympics and trying to improve their image before the world (and I've posted long ago about their involvement in Darfur, which is in the news again this morning, that I learned about from reading a Lost Boy of the Sudan story), Denver Colorado is preparing to host the Democratic National Convention in August. So close to home, we probably hear a lot more of the stories than the rest of the country.

One thing you don't hear about in all the preparations is the human trafficking that goes on behind the scenes. Ellen has a huge heart for women and the misogyny that goes on around the world and throughout time. She's attended world gatherings where women share their stories. Being her friend, I've heard the stories. Her love for the church, and what it can look like, is what she likes to ponder, and write about. How can we help God co-create the world?

Reading Lolita in Tehran

I just read a news item on Iran cracking down again on women's dress code. No lose wisps of hair, nor anything showing their figure - must be loose-fitting long clothing that disguises them.

I read Reading Lolita in Tehran a few years ago - great read! A professor of literature had to eventually stop teaching after the 1979 crackdown on women and dress code and all. Her students didn't want to stop, so they met in her home, only the men could not come.

They would shed their burkas at the door, and underneath wore tie-dyed t-shirts and jeans and hoop earrings... After gay get-togethers and book discussions, not only would they have to put back on their burkas, but they had to remember to mask their gay emotions when walking home. If they had so much as a lilt in their walk, a male might 'be tempted', and they could be imprisoned and even disappear. In fact you heard of such stories in the book.

How sad.

Ramblings

I'm supposed to be working on my piece in next week's church services, but first I'm writing some stuff I've thought of but not written. I'd have lots more written if there were such a device that could transfer thinking to paper or computer! Monte's finishing roto-tilling the next part of the garden I need to plant. Then all that's left is the borders. Dawson's digging a trench all around to put chicken wire. We're going to see if we can prevent the pocket gophers from burrowing in. I'm going to put week block around the edges and plant edible bushes like currants, jostaberry, cherry, serviceberry ...

We've past a few Saint Feast Days, just to mention -
27- There is another Augustine, Italian, and sent by Pope Gregory in 596 to England, and he ended up living in Canterbury, so he's Augustine of Canterbury. He was supposedly a tedious prig and did not get along with the Anglo-Saxon 'savages' - and even less so with the Celts. Gregory had told him to respect the local customs and not destroy pagan temples and give witness by their lives.

The 30th was Joan of Arc Day. Her hearing of voices from Catherine of Alexandria, Margaret of Antioch, and Michael the Archangel, led her into the Hundred Year's War in its 87th year as a teenager, and led her to her death, because she would not deny them. Though somewhat of a French victory for a doubtful French Prince, she was sold to the English, who found her guilty of heresy and burned her at the stake in 1431, as a 'witch', at nineteen. Authors Mark Twain and George Bernard Shaw were madly in love with her. Many plays and movies have been done on her story.

The 30th in 1483 is the day Le Morte d'Arthur, by Sir Thomas Malory, was published. King Arthur tales have captured imaginations of every generation and spawned other literary classics and movies. Malory claims he was a hapless medieval soldier who identified himself as "a servant of Jesu, both day and night." He didn't invent the tales but collated them from documentary histories, ballads, and minstrel songs, turning them into a coherent narrative structure. When did King Arthur live? Legend has it, he died on May 30th in 542 from wounds in a battle.

31- Visitation of Mary to Elisabeth

And oh ... In reading the news, today is Celebrate the Child day in China, but most aren't celebrating. It's interesting that most recent news, other than the lakes, is why schools seemed to be the buildings that didn't hold up. I don't hear anyone holding rallies against the One Child rule. Does China still only allow one child per couple? So you have a child die in the earthquake - it's your only child!

A week ago I was going to write and say you can go to the World Vision website and donate money. Monte and me have done work with World Vision. It's more than just adopt a child for $30 a month. They have storage facilities all over the world, ready in an instant to mobilize to disasters. The NGO's (Non Government Organizations) that work around the world know each others strengths and call upon one another for help. The Red Cross and World Vision are allowed into most countries right away - World Vision with their kits for families for tents, clean water, etc. Some of the Child Adopt organizations work through churches so are not allowed into a lot of countries. World Vision was allowed into the Muslim countries following earthquakes and tsunamis. Little Christ's walk the world!

Organics

I found this picture at this site.

I'm glad there are watchdogs out there.

Olympic Torch

The Olympic torch is now in China. The BBC News has an interactive map to follow the torch through China and learn about the various places through video, etc.

I learned new things about Hong Kong. I didn't know it was a British colony just recently handed back to China.

Ethanol

Did you know that the grain it takes to fill the tank of a sports utility vehicle with ethanol could feed one person for a year?!

The government is subsidizing farmers to grow more corn and soybeans. I overheard at a local wild bird store that was closing down that less fields are being planted in the plant varieties needed for food, not just bird seed, but us humans.

100 million tons of food will be diverted this year to feed cars.

Variety

I just read a blog I get RSS feeds from that told of being at a prayer breakfast with seventeen differing faiths attending, and told of dialogue between the Dalai Lama and Desmund Tutu.

The blog reminds me of two things:
1) I remember reading that today's info from the internet is like "word of mouth". I had posted earlier about JFK being the first president where we viewed the whole election (and then death) process from TV - the timing being when most homes had television. Prior to that it was radio, newspapers, and "word of mouth" for news and electing a president.

What's happening with the internet during this current presidential candidating is "word of mouth" spreading of info on a massive scale. And journalism is happening in the bloggosphere - like what I just read - it was an eye-witness account at a world-affecting event.

2) Such varieties of people and how they live by faith (Christian or not, everyone really does live by faith). And like the blog says, within faiths, there are good people and bad people.

And like the picture, there's so many varieties of flavors - both good and bad jelly beans.

Fires!

I heard on the news this morning that at least three fires in very different parts of Colorado started yesterday. "Oh Dear." We've had good moisture this winter, but if it doesn't continue, the good growth dries.

It was so beautifully warm yesterday! We got so much done outside yesterday and the roofers totally finished and cleaned up. Monte got our parking area in front of the house reworked with a little bobcat so the area slopes away from the house, and gravel was delivered and he got that all spread. We've loaded up stuff for taking to the dump. And I even walked around picking up trash.

The snow is finally all melted from my garden and there's onions and spinach coming up. I always leave last year's salad stuff in the ground and they come up early spring for good eating, way before I'm able to get seeds in the ground. I will have to dig them out eventually, since last year's crops live into another year for the production of seeds.

It did get really windy yesterday. It's been a windy winter. I guess the wind is what wrecked havoc with the started fires. Many homes burned in southern Colorado. We've lived some summers with the danger of fire. Many of the large fires have been close to home and we can smell them. I hate waking in the night smelling smoke, wondering, getting up and looking out all the windows.

There's a local website that began about a decade ago because of wanting more close-to-home updates on what's going on. Now there's pictures posted from all over so we can even check on snow conditions for various mountain roads. When I smelled smoke last summer I went to this pinecam.com and there were questions posted about the smoke and someone in the area wrote answering, as to what was going on, so no worrying further.

What to grab from your home if you do have to get out fast?! It's because of this question and stories told that I've tried to get as much on my computer as I can. I've put most all our important data on my computer creating spread sheets, and I've even scanned in old photo albums and have lots of photos on my computer.

It was supposed to snow overnight but I guess that's changed to tonight. They say the snow/rain will help with the fire fights.

Redeeming Oppression?

Today is the birth date of Booker T Washington in 1856. Yesterday was remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr's assassination 40 years ago.

I've read Booker's autobiography Up From Slavery. It was a good read. He was so much a part of reconstruction of the rubble of the South and the repercussion of slavery. His legacy is not just what he accomplished himself, but what he helped thousands of others accomplish--both black and white.

I'm old enough to have vivid memories of the day John F Kennedy was assassinated. School was a very quiet place other than all the teachers crying. And I remember all Saturday morning cartoons and regular programming on the few networks were dominated by his funeral and the constant replay of the open convertible car scene.

Kennedy and King were both at the beginnings of every home having a TV. Though slavery was abolished in the 1860s, blacks were not free. We saw that on TV. Though Martin Luther King Jr learned from Gandhi, OT Daniel and his three friends, and early Christians, that nonviolent resistance is the way to bring change, we did see violence. I hold these images still in my memory too. 

King clung to nonviolence because he profoundly believed that only a movement based on love could keep the oppressed from becoming a mirror image of their oppressors ... Nonviolence, he believed, "will save the Negro from seeking to substitute one tyranny for another." 

King accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Philip Yancey in his Soul Survivor has a chapter on Martin Luther King Jr and says, "Because he stayed faithful, in the short view by offering his body as a target but never as a weapon, and in the long view by holding before us his dream of a new kingdom of peace and justice and love, he became a prophet for me, the unlikeliest of followers."

Above Picture by Jacob Lawrence

Color?

I saw this picture in the news about Toyota - these are new recruits. Did they give them a dress code prior to the meeting? What if someone wore color, like red? Boy wouldn't they stand out!!