Category Archives: buoys

Beloved Mother

This week, we pause to commemorate the life of Buddhist monk, poet, writer and spiritual teacher Thích Nhat Hạnh (1926-2022).

Beginning in 1982, Hanh realized his dream of building a Beloved Community in Plum Village, France; creating a healthy, nourishing environment where resident monks and nuns practice the art of living in harmony with one another and with Mother Earth.

Below, one of his Love Letters to Mother Earth, Beloved Mother of All Things. Image relayed from the inspired/inspiring Plum Village website.

 

 

 

 

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Just A Dark Hole

This week, marking the twentieth anniversary (!) of the “detention” facility at  Guantánamo Bay, we hear from former detainee Mansoor Adayfi and former chaplain James Yee, himself a victim of psychological “no touch” torture.

Excerpts from recent interviews below, with paintings by another detainee, Muhammad Ansi.

 

SHIPWRECK

 

 

TITANIC

 

Next, we hear from James Yee himself:

 

STATUE OF LIBERTY

 

Relayed from artfromguantanamo.com, we find the following bio for artist Muhammad Ansi:

Muhammad Ansi, originally from Yemen, was detained at Guantánamo for almost 15 years before being released to Oman in January 2017. He learned to paint and draw at Guantánamo, working mainly in landscapes and still life. His art often features cities seen from far away, paths without beginning or end, and empty boats adrift at sea. These images are most often imagined – based on photographs and scenes glimpsed in movies or on television, rather than directly observed by him, such as a depiction of the Titanic, remembered from being shown the movie during an interrogation.

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Storm Warnings

YEAR ELEVEN IN THE JOURNEY OF THE GOOD SHIP DESPERADO

We originally conceived DP as a five year research expedition. Five years then extended to ten. From here, we shall take the journey one year at a time, in search of viable bearings through increasingly threatening seas.

To summon the experience of the Titanic: in our considered view, it’s time to talk about lifeboats; that will be surely be one focus for 2022. On the “unsinkable” Titanic, lifeboats were an afterthought. Such hubris did not end well.

As always, we shall rely heavily on readers to alert us to both shoals and lighthouses. Onwards into the chop.

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Lully, Lulla, Lullay

 

 

 

 

 

 


When We Love the Earth

This week we note the untimely death of the brilliant writer, scholar and activist Gloria Jean Watkins, widely known by her pseudonym “bell hooks”, a name that descends from her maternal grandmother, referenced as “Baba” in a characteristically prescient essay first published in Orion way back in 1996. Every word still carries weight today.

Excerpts below with images by Alma Thomas, as relayed from the Smithsonian website.

 

 

BEFORE FALL

 

 

FALL BEGINS

 

 

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Viral Revelations

Across the duration of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, we have refrained from saying much about Queen Corona, once it became clear we would blithely ignore her deepest lesson, namely that we must change how we are living in relation to the web of life that sustains our earthly presence.

A recurring theme within DP for the past decade: we humans will do anything to avoid changing our basic behavior. Yet that avoidance, typically accomplished through various tech fixes and fetishes, always releases consequences unanticipated by the fixers; the social and political complexities of the inverted utopia in which we live makes it impossible for us to imagine the implications of our clever inventions. Through time, this predicament tends towards what Anders identified as a world in which “we make ourselves superfluous, eliminate ourselves, liquidate ourselves.”

With this theme in mind, we bend an ear to a recent essay by Paul Kingsnorth, distinguished novelist and co-founder of the Dark Mountain Project. The entire essay is worthy of close reading; brief excerpts below, with images and captions added by DP.

 

PLAN FOR A FUTURE RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT

 

 

FROG SLOWLY BOILING WITHIN THE ALGORITHM

 

 

We strongly recommend this related interview, as well:

 

 

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Where Poetry Sings

Now comes the 23rd Poet Laureate Joy Harjo with her signature project, Living Nations, Living Words. Click on the image to explore the story map.

 

 

 

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Bounty

Now come Penobscot national tribal ambassador Maulian Dana; Penobscot Nation citizen Neptune Adams; and Upstander Project co-founder Adam Mazo, announcing the limited public release of their timely documentary, Bounty, linked through the below image.

 

 

 

For more discussion of the Phips Bounty Proclamation: http://www.masscouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/Phips-Bounty-Proclamation.pdf

 

“They tried to bury us, but they did not know that we were seeds.”

 

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Conference of the Polluters

Now comes indigenous climate activist Tom Goldtooth with a few cogent observations following the opening days of COP26, as relayed from a recent interview. Images added by DP.

 

 

 

 

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Compassion’s Exile

We are grateful to DP friend and correspondent Janet Coster for steering us towards a passage from A Spirituality Named Compassion, by Mathew Fox. First published in 1979, every word still rings true during a time when compassion seems not only exiled, but extinguished.

Images from a series titled “Entanglement,” relayed from the website of artist Diana Scherer.

 

 

 

 

 

A slightly elaborated context for the quote from Simone Weil:

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