BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//The Open Road:  a learning community - ECPv6.15.3//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://openroadpdx.com
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for The Open Road:  a learning community
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/Los_Angeles
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0800
TZOFFSETTO:-0700
TZNAME:PDT
DTSTART:20240310T100000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0700
TZOFFSETTO:-0800
TZNAME:PST
DTSTART:20241103T090000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240903
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20241013
DTSTAMP:20260425T003301
CREATED:20240903T170527Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240903T171359Z
UID:4925-1725321600-1728777599@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Paintings by Jake Scharbach at Froelick Gallery
DESCRIPTION:painting by Jake Scharbach \n  \nJake Scharbach’s paintings will be exhibited at Froelick Gallery\, September 3-October 12. \n  \nThe First Thursday Reception is September 5\, 5-8 pm. \n  \nHe will give a talk at the gallery on Saturday\, September 7th\, at 11 a.m.  \n  \nFroelick Gallery is at 714 NW Davis\, in Portland.  \n  \n  \n  \nJake is Nancy’s nephew. We’re very excited about the show!   \n  \n  \npeace\, love & happiness   \nJohnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/paintings-by-jake-scharbach-at-froelick-gallery/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240913
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20241116
DTSTAMP:20260425T003301
CREATED:20240904T012436Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240918T215713Z
UID:5002-1726185600-1731715199@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:¡Bardaphilia!  FALL 2024
DESCRIPTION:Leonardo DiCaprio & Claire Danes in the Bay Lehman film “Romeo + Juliet” \n  \n“All the world’s a stage\, and all the men and women merely players…” \n  \n¡Bardaphilia! \n  \n If you don’t already love Shakespeare\, this class will remedy that. And if you do…you know there’s nothing more fun than reading the plays and poems together with friends. Actor and director Johnny Stallings (stallingsjohnny@gmail.com) is the genial host. \nFriday evenings\, 7-9 pm\, at Taborspace\, 5441 SE Belmont \nSeptember 13th\, Muir Hall: Shakespeare the Storyteller (with special guest J Kahn) (This was changed to an online event because of Covid exposure.) \nOctober 25th\, Artspace Room: Measure for Measure \nNovember 15th Artspace Room: Shakespeare on Film \nThis is a FREE Open Road Event
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/bardaphilia-fall-2024/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20241003
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20241107
DTSTAMP:20260425T003301
CREATED:20241003T222858Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241003T223215Z
UID:5140-1727913600-1730937599@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  10/3/24
DESCRIPTION:  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nOctober 3\, 2024 \n  \nI’ve been having a conversation with myself in my journal for the past 54 years\, or so. Here are excerpts from the entry for January 16th\, followed by a brief essay\, “perfect moments\,” that I wrote on January 17th\, followed by excerpts from what I wrote on January 23rd: \n  \nmonday\, september 16th \n  \nperfect day \nperfect silence \nperfect coffee \nthis home is a well-ordered place of refuge for two human beings \noutside these walls\, in some places\, perfect chaos and confusion \nperfect fear… \nperfect sorrow… \nperfect healing… \nperfect love \nthe neon sign says: LOVE WINS \nso it must be true… \nthe dance of shadows on the wall… \nhelping to co-create culture that nurtures—a local and a global culture of peace\, love\, happiness & understanding—begins with my own deep peace\, love\, happiness & understanding \na silence that is free of fear and hatred \nlove for everyone and everything \nboundless joy \ncontinuing to improve my understanding of what’s going on here by learning from wise thoughtful intelligent people \nin order to be more helpful \nto choose wisely \nto not utter words that are hurtful \nthere’s a rough and tumble aspect to human life \ndon’t be too attached to non-attachement \nor to ideas of no-self\, ātman\, et cetera \ndon’t forget to laugh and have fun \ndon’t take yourself or your opinions too seriously \nfeel the beauty of the blue sky and the puffy white clouds \nthe green of the leaves on the trees and bushes and grass \nthe bright flowers \nthe bright flowers! \ni know why buddha held up a flower \nthe surprising thing is that everyone in the assembly didn’t get enlightenment at that moment \nthe bewildering thing is that we live in a world that has flowers in it and yet people hurt each other \nhow can this be? \ni guess it’s because there are other things besides flowers in the world \nthere are\, for example\, guns… \ni feel bad for the people who have lots of guns and no flowers… \nin a world teeming with life\, everything dies \nand new things arrive \nnew people and plants and birds and bugs and elephants are always arriving \nelephants! \nwonderful beings! \nmonarch butterflies! \nwhat a world! \nit’s amazing that shakespeare wrote a midsummer night’s dream and king lear \nit’s amazing that there are elephants and monarch butterflies \nand hummingbirds and pansies \nyellow pansies and little bright purple flowers  \ni’m in love with this world! \n  \nperfect moments \n  \nis this moment perfect? \nyes! \n  \ni would like to sing the praise of perfect moments \nand so i shall \n  \neveryone has experienced perfect moments \nand yet many people are dissatisfied\, unhappy\, miserable \nthis is puzzling \nthis very moment might be felt to be perfect \nand if it’s not\, the next perfect moment might be right around the corner \n  \nthe older i get\, the more perfect moments i enjoy \ni get a lot of blessings \ni’m a happy man \n  \nto the extent that happiness is an art\, and not just an accident\, it might be the art of noticing and appreciating perfect moments \n  \nlike this one \n  \ni like to start the day slowly\, in silence \nwith a cup of coffee and two shortbread cookies \nnot by checking my inbox\, or reading the new york times \ni sit on the couch and look out the window \nthe backyard is filled with flowers \nthey are glorious\, perfect! \nperfect little birds come to the bird feeder \nthis morning: song sparrows\, goldfinches\, house finches\, juncos \nsometimes puffy white clouds float by in the blue sky \nevery one perfect \n  \nthis morning the sky is overcast \nhave you ever noticed that some people say\, “i love the rain!”? \non sunny summer days that are not too hot and not too cool\, people seem to be in a good mood\, more cheerful\, more friendly \nin portland\, where i live\, it rains a lot \nit makes everything green \nbut people complain about the rain\, and even get depressed \nthe person who says\, “i love the rain!” is doing a kind of jiu jitsu \nsomething that makes most people sad makes them happy \nthat’s a pretty neat trick \n  \nthich nhat hanh used to say\, with a warm smile\, “the present moment is a wonderful moment” \nyou might notice that most problems are elsewhere \n  \nif there is so much to take delight in\, why isn’t everybody happy—at least most of the time? \nthere are countervailing forces in play \nsome are external and some are internal \n  \nto start with inner obstacles to happiness\, we might look at “bad mental habits” \nin this computer age\, to say we have been “programmed” is a useful metaphor \nour experiences\, our society\, our family of origin have instilled habits in each of us \nsome of those habits promote well-being \nsome do the opposite \nsome people are open\, cheerful\, friendly \nsome are anxious\, some are angry\, some are sad \n  \nof course a sad moment can be\, and often is\, a perfect moment \nbut to be sad all the time is to miss something that’s good for you—joy! \n  \nour external circumstances play a role in our feelings of well-being\, or lack of them \na prison environment does not tend to promote happiness and well-being \nand yet one of the happiest people i know is living in prison \nhe has mastered the art of appreciating perfect moments \n  \npeople in ukraine and gaza and lebanon and sudan and israel are currently experiencing the terrible tragedy of war \nand yet the experiences of people in those places are not uniformly bleak \nthere are perfect moments \nthere have to be\, because an act of kindness is a perfect moment \nand surely there must be many many acts of kindness under those terrible conditions \n(ceasefire now!—everywhere\, always and forever) \n  \nhuman life on earth includes tragedy\, violence and injustice \nthey are exacerbated by fear\, hatred\, anger and greed \nthey are mitigated by love and kindness and joy and tranquility \n  \nto enjoy a perfect moment is to live—for a moment—in paradise \nnot the imaginary paradise that will arrive someday if we all just do everything differently than the way we’re doing things now \nbut a real paradise in this perfect moment \n  \nbankei calls this our unborn buddha mind \nand asks why anyone would want to exchange their unborn buddha mind for the mind of a hungry ghost \n  \nperfect moments don’t necessarily have anything to do with religion or spirituality— although spiritual practices and religious symbols create perfect moments for many people \nperfect moments are democratic \nthey’re available to anyone\, anywhere\, anytime \nspecial environments\, like japanese gardens\, are sometimes created so that people who go there are more likely to experience perfect moments \na garden is a paradise \nmy local tea shop\, the tao of tea\, is a place where people go to enjoy perfect moments\, alone or with friends \n  \nin quest of perfect moments\, people go for walks in nature\, listen to and play music\, make art\, read and write poems\, make love \nmy own predilection is for simple pleasures \nthey’re readily available\, cost nothing\, and require no effort \n  \nit is my hope that while reading these meandering words you had a perfect moment \nor remembered a perfect moment \nor felt the importance of appreciating perfect moments \nso that\, over time\, you enjoy so many perfect moments that you can’t believe how lucky you are to live in a world filled with miracle and beauty \n  \nmonday\, september 23rd \n  \nit’s hard to get used to the idea that we don’t know \nbecause we like to pretend we do \n  \nfrom Endymion \n  \nBOOK 1 \n  \nA thing of beauty is a joy for ever: \nIts loveliness increases; it will never \nPass into nothingness; but still will keep \nA bower quiet for us\, and a sleep \nFull of sweet dreams\, and health\, and quiet breathing. \nTherefore\, on every morrow\, are we wreathing \nA flowery band to bind us to the earth\, \nSpite of despondence\, of the inhuman dearth \nOf noble natures\, of the gloomy days\, \nOf all the unhealthy and o’er-darkened ways \nMade for our searching: yes\, in spite of all\, \nSome shape of beauty moves away the pall \nFrom our dark spirits. Such the sun\, the moon\, \nTrees old and young\, sprouting a shady boon \nFor simple sheep; and such are daffodils \nWith the green world they live in; and clear rills \nThat for themselves a cooling covert make \n‘Gainst the hot season; the mid forest brake\, \nRich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms… \n  \n—John Keats (1795-1821) \n  \ni was talking with howard on the phone last night \ni was trying to say something about pansies and moments \n  \nwe have ideas that there are bad times and good times \n“the dark ages\,” “the enlightenment\,” et cetera \nwe don’t know \nthe perfect moment in which i enjoy the pansies on our porch and the little purple flowers (lobelia!) beside them—that moment has no boundary \nto say that the moment is “fleeting” is an idea about the moment \nthe moment itself has no idea\, no duration \nit is neither long nor short \nit has nothing to do with “time” \ntime is another idea \nfor me\, one yellow pansy is more important than the War of 1812 \n“more important” isn’t right \nit has nothing to do with the relative importance of one thing or another thing \nfour and a half billion years is not longer than a moment \nthe bonneville dam is not more important or less important than a yellow pansy \nthe question of whether things are getting “better” or “worse” has nothing to do with the pansy \n  \nkeats said it perfectly: \na thing of beauty is a joy for ever \nhe was right \nthat’s true \nthe pansy gives me boundless pleasure \ninfinite delight \nenjoying a pansy for a moment makes my whole life “worthwhile” \ni’m happy that i got to come to planet earth and enjoy the pansies and lobelia \n  \nwhat about the horrors of war? \nthe horrors of war are unspeakably horrible \npeople should be growing pansies instead of killing each other \nwhy they’re not remains a mystery \nwe have theories about the causes of war \nhere’s my theory about what causes war: \nunhappiness \n  \nthe cure for war? \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nby living in love and peace and joy we are setting a good example for our fellow mortals \n  \nwalt says:  \neach moment and whatever happens thrills me with joy \n& \nthis minute that comes to me over the past decillions\,  \nthere is no better than it and now \n  \nkrishnamurti speaks of “freedom from the known”… \n  \nblake says: \neternity is in love with the productions of time \n& \nto see a world in a grain of sand \nand a heaven in a wild flower \nhold infinity in the palm of your hand \nand eternity in an hour… \n  \nthere’s no such thing as death \neither you’re alive\, or you’re not \nonly people who are alive can read this \nsquirrels can’t read it \nthey don’t need to \nthey’re busy “living in the present moment” \n* \n  \nIn 1971\, Charles Erickson and I met a Dutch sailor in India named Jules Dams. Jules posted something about John Wesley on Facebook that Charles forwarded to me: \n  \nJohn Wesley’s Manifesto \n\nReduce the gap between rich people and poor people\nHelp everyone to have a job\nHelp the poorest\, including introducing a living wage\nOffer the best possible education\nHelp everyone to feel that they can make a difference\nPromote tolerance\nPromote equal treatment for women\nCreate a society based on values and not on profits and consumerism\nEnd all forms of slavery\nAvoid getting into wars\nShare the love of God with everyone\nCare for the environment\n\n  \nJohn Wesley (1703-1791) was founder of the Methodist Church. This “manifesto” “based on his writings” is on display at the Wesley Museum in Bristol\, England. As a kid\, my family went to the Methodist Church. Maybe some seeds were planted. \n  \n—Johnny Stallings \n* \n  \nInspired by Martha and Elizabeth during Bibliophiles\, I went back to read a mystery by an author I loved. In 1975 Wilhelm Van de Vettering wrote Outsider in Amsterdam\, whose main character reflected his own—a zen student\, jazz musician\, cat-loving policeman living in Amsterdam. Very low key plot.  \n  \nAt one point this character meets a housebound sedentary old man on a house call. He feels that his life is thankfully so different from this man’s world\, when he spies the man’s record collection.  They share the same taste in music and they have all the same records!   \n  \nEverything stops…they have this moment. \n  \nWhen asked\, the old man says\, yes\, he has had these moments before…    \n  \n“I never quite understood them. Something occurs\, you notice something\, and suddenly the moment is there. You can’t explain it\, maybe you don’t want to explain it. I remember when it happened for the first time. I saw a hornbill in the zoo. Some people call them rhinoceros-birds. It looked so weird that suddenly my whole life changed. I saw my life differently. I knew it would change back again and become boring again\, ordinary\, everyday life. But that moment it was all different. The logic had been knocked out of it….Nobody can explain a hornbill to me. That’s the beauty of it maybe.”  \n  \nThat was very satisfying in itself; I thoroughly enjoyed reading the fifty year old book again. The next day I went with my grandkids to the zoo; I hadn’t been to the zoo for ever. We were going through the giraffe’s area and there was a most unusual bird staring up at us. A sign said\, The Hornbill! I had read 11-year-old Sylvan the passage from Outsider in Amsterdam\, and he asked me\, with a smile\, “Are you having a hornbill moment\, Grandma?” I laughed and told him\, “No\, but I have had them before.” \n  \nTo these moments that always stay with us\, however absurd\, and make no sense to anyone else’s reality\,  but are so meaningful to us! \n  \nThis makes me think of a great William Stafford poem –  \n  \nWhy I Am Happy \n  \nNow has come\, an easy time. I let it \nroll. There is a lake somewhere \nso blue and far nobody owns it. \nA wind comes by and a willow listens \ngracefully. \n  \nI hear all this\, every summer. I laugh \nand cry for every turn of the world\, \nits terribly cold\, innocent spin. \nThat lake stays blue and free; it goes \non and on. \n  \nAnd I know where it is. \n  \n—William Stafford \n  \npeace and joy\,    \n—Katie Radditz
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-10-3-24/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/0-3.jpeg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR