by Naomi Shihab Nye (shared with me by the beloved Mad Johnson)
The Arabs have a saying:
When a stranger comes to your door
feed him for 3 days without ever asking his name,
where he has come from and where he is going.
Because by then he will be able to answer,
But of course, by then, you won’t care.
Let’s [...]
As we all keep the citizens of Haiti in our prayers, also check out this interesting website. Solar power in a suitcase, designed for use in health care facilities in places where the power supply is unsteady:
We Care Solar
They’ve been working hard to send a bunch of these to Haiti.
Let us know what other opportunities [...]
by Robert E. Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing [...]
Happy Gregorian New Year, everyone!
A short while ago, Lev and I had a discussion about perfect songs. My criteria are straightforward but exacting: everything about the song must be perfect, with nothing about it to make you wince or wish it was different. A good tip-off is that every time you hear the song, you [...]
In preparation for a postdoc position I’ll be applying for, I’ve been reading up on public health, and came across this article, by S. Leonard Syme, which honestly portrays a lifetime of learning in interventions to improve community health: “Social Determinants of Health: The Community as an Empowered Partner”
The messages here mirror the ones that [...]
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who was an advisor of one of my advisors, and therefore in a way my academic grandfather or great-uncle or something, was arrested in his own home for disorderly conduct. The details have been described in a number of places, and I won’t belabor them, but it looks like this: Dr. [...]
Dear ones,
I’m writing to call your attention to the two new pages on our blog. To the right, you’ll see links to them. The first, “Life, Death, and the End of the World” is a collection of Baha’i quotes I quickly compiled for an interfaith panel where each of seven religious representatives were given [...]
This video is a delightful exploration of how the face of our society is changing, as people break down the racial barriers and love each other! Check it out: Something Other Than . The last minute (of the 7:16) will make you fall in love too.
I’m going to Ireland in a week! Can anyone offer me advice on what to do while I’m there? (I’ll be there a week and a half, mostly in Dublin but would like to find ways to get out to the countryside.) Thanks!
There’s a lot of buzz in Iran over Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of the presidential hopeful Mousavi who is going up against Ahmadinejad in June. A recent article by Ali Akbar Dareini of the Associated Press offers the following description of her:
She brings a rare mix: the liberal cry to fire up reformers, paired with [...]