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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200827
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SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  8/27/20
DESCRIPTION:  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \nAugust 27\, 2020 \n  \nMeditation & Mindfulness \n  \nAnd when he was demanded of the Pharisees\, when the kingdom of God should come\, he answered them and said\, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: \nNeither shall they say\, Lo here! or\, lo there! for\, behold\, the kingdom of God is within you. \n  \n—Luke 17: 20-21\, King James Version \n* \n  \nThe Open Road is inaugurating a Meditation & Mindfulness Project for people who live in prison and for those who don’t. We aren’t promoting any religious tradition\, we just want to support and encourage each other to be more peaceful\, loving\, happy and free. It seems to me that whatever one’s religious beliefs\, and for atheists and agnostics as well\, meditation and mindfulness are a doorway to the Golden World—a feeling of perfect well-being. Everyone experiences these perfect moments. Meditation and mindfulness are ways to nurture and strengthen the feeling that our life on earth is a blessing and a miracle. Meditation and mindfulness can be enjoyed by anyone. \n* \n  \n“…Our blessedness\, like His\, is infinite. \nHis glory endless is and doth surround \nAnd fill all worlds without or end or bound. \nWhat hinders then but we in Heaven may be \nEven here on Earth did we but rightly see?” \n  \n—Thomas Traherne (1636-1674)\, from “Thoughts—IV” \n* \n  \nTo people in our society\, where working hard\, making money\, high achievement and getting things done are considered so important\, to sit still and do nothing seems like a big waste of time. \n* \n  \nGoing nowhere\, as Leonard Cohen would later emphasize for me\, isn’t about turning your back on the world; it’s about stepping away now and then so that you can see the world more clearly and love it more deeply. \n  \n—Pico Iyer\, from The Art of Stillness \n* \n  \nWalt Whitman spoke to his friend Ellen O’Connor of his ability to stop thinking at will\, and to make his brain “negative”: \n  \nThere is that in me—I do not know what it is—but I know it is in me…. \nI do not know it—it is without name—it is a word unsaid\, \nIt is not in any dictionary\, utterance\, symbol. \n  \n—Walt Whitman\, from “Song of Myself” \n* \n  \nI began practicing meditation at the age of nineteen. That was fifty years ago! I can’t imagine my life without it. I’m certain I would have suffered a LOT more.  Ninety-nine per cent of our suffering is self-inflicted. Here’s a little poem I wrote: \n  \nwhen you see how simple it is to be happy \nyou’ll kick yourself \nfor spending so much time being miserable \n  \n—Johnny Stallings\, from everything I touch \n* \n  \nNautilus Hall Press has just published three chapbooks by Deborah Buchanan: “Layers of Sediment\,” “The World A Well\,” and “Moment Before.” The covers are beautifully illustrated by Andrew Larkin. They are grouped as a set\, “Like Fluttering Silk\,” and can be ordered from Deborah by emailing her at dlbadger@gmail.com. The cost of the set is $25\, plus $5 for shipping and handling. Here’s a poem from “Layers of Sediment”: \n  \nEarly Morning Hours \n  \nFrom the house silence flows \nto the ebony lawn \nglittering like a river. \nA small candle flickers\, \nmirroring the moon \nsliding down night’s curve. \nFir branches stand against the sky\, \nthe hours’ tall sentinels\, \nand the hum inside silence \nfills each shadowed crevice\, \nthe world inundated. \n  \n—Deborah Buchanan \n* \n  \nThe word “meditation” can mean a lot of different things. It can mean sitting still with your back straight. Other things that give us a feeling of inner peace can also be ways of meditating: going for a walk\, listening to music\, or playing music\, drinking that first cup of coffee in the morning\, reading. Even thinking and talking can be done in a meditative way. \n* \n  \nAsk the world to reveal its quietude— \nnot the silence of machines when they are still\, \nbut the true quiet by which birdsongs\, \ntrees\, bellworts\, snails\, clouds\, storms \nbecome what they are\, and are nothing else. \n  \n—Wendell Berry from Given \n* \n  \nWhy meditate? One reason is: “to stay sane.” The noise inside our heads can actually drive us completely mad. Here’s what Aldous Huxley says about it: \n  \nUnrestrained and indiscriminate talk is morally evil and spiritually dangerous….If we pass in review the words we have given vent to in the course of the average day\, we shall find that the greater number of them may be classified under three main heads: words inspired by malice and uncharitableness towards our neighbours; words inspired by greed\, sensuality and self-love; words inspired by pure imbecility and uttered without rhyme or reason\, but merely for the sake of making a distracting noise.  These are idle words; and we shall find\, if we look into the matter\, that they tend to outnumber the words that are dictated by reason\, charity or necessity.  And if the unspoken words of our mind’s endless\, idiot monologue are counted\, the majority for idleness becomes\, for most of us\, overwhelmingly large. \n  \n—Aldous Huxley\, from The Perennial Philosophy \n* \n  \nWhat is mindfulness? Thich Nhat Hanh says: \n  \nMindfulness is when you are truly there\, mind and body together. You breathe in and out mindfully\, you bring your mind back to your body\, and you are there. When your mind is there with your body\, you are established in the present moment. Then you can recognize the many conditions of happiness that are in you and around you\, and happiness just comes naturally. \n  \n—Thich Nhat Hanh\, from Your True Home\, #218 \n  \nHe’s fond of saying: “The present moment is a wonderful moment.” \n* \nKim Stafford sent this: \n  \nFinding Deep Calm \n  \nI have a Palestinian friend named Gheed living in Gaza City\, where life is hard and much of each day is spent trying to be safe. Most days\, power is only on for four hours\, and then darkness. Food is hard to come by. There is often danger in the streets. \nI know how in prison\, some are put in “segregation\,” in solitary. But in Gaza\, the whole country is in segregation\, surrounded by walls\, razor wire\, under frequent attack. \nBut my friend Gheed seeks beauty\, anyway. She takes photographs of her cup of coffee…of a flower…of light at the window. And she sent this message to the world\, in Arabic: \n  \nعظيمٌ هذا الهدوء العميق الذي أحيا فيه وأنمو ضدّ هذا العالم، هدوءٌ أحصدُ فيهِ ما ليس في استطاعةِ أحدٍ أنْ ينتزعه مني، ولو بقوة الحديد والنار ..” \n— غوتة \n  \nI was able to find a translation\, and it turns out she has been reading Goethe\, a writer in Germany in the early 19th century. This is what she has translated into Arabic from Goethe: \n  \nGreat is this deep calm in which I live and grow against this world\, a calm in which I reap what no one can take away from me\, even by the power of iron and fire. \n– Goethe \n  \nI love to think of my friend in the danger and difficulty of Gaza finding deep calm. And I love to think that this calm can be sought by anyone anywhere. It is our right to feel this. And it is possible. \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nPeople who live in prison who want to participate in the Open Road Meditation and Mindfulness Project can write to me at this address: \n  \nJohnny Stallings \nThe Open Road \nPMB 268 \n4110 SE Hawthorne Blvd. \nPortland\, OR  97214 \n  \nPeople who don’t live in prison\, who want to be part of our merry band of mindful meditators can email me at stallingsjohnny@gmail.com\, or contact me through the Open Road website (openroadpdx.org). \n* \n  \nMeditation and mindfulness can be very simple. Hafiz says: \n  \nAnd at times\, when we really need to know \nsomething about perfection \n  \nthe movement of your breath might do\, or the \nbeating of our hearts. \n  \n—Hafiz  (1320-1389)\, version by Daniel Ladinsky \n* \n  \nSeng Ts’an says: \n  \nwhen the mind is still \nall views disappear \n  \nand \n  \nempty\, clear\, your light shines \nwithout mental effort \n  \n–Sent Ts’an (529-606 A.d.)
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-8-27-20/
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SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  9/3/20
DESCRIPTION:After The Winter’s Tale at Two Rivers prison in 2014: Ashley Lucas and Jeffrey Sanders.  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \n  \nSeptember 3\, 2020 \n  \nInterview with Ashley Lucas \n  \nJohnny Stallings.  Your book Prison Theatre and the Global Crisis of Incarceration comes out today\, published by Methuen Drama. Can you tell our readers what it’s about and how you came to write it? \n  \nAshley Lucas.  I traveled to ten different countries to see as much theatre inside prisons as I could. When I started\, I thought the book might be more focused on how theatre in prisons gets made\, which is certainly something the book discusses\, but I realized when I really started talking to incarcerated people about their work that what I most wanted to know was why theatre matters to them. The vast majority of people I met in my research had little to no relationship to theatre prior to their incarceration\, yet somehow once they started doing theatre inside the walls\, it became deeply important to them. I wanted to find out what that was about. Most of these folks didn’t see themselves as training to become professional theatre makers after their release from prison. They told me stories that revealed that they were using the theatre to accomplish other things besides the staging of plays. They were building communities\, developing professional skills\, creating social change\, and maintaining hope as a way to survive the harsh world of the prison. The book endeavors to make the people that I met feel alive and present to readers who likely will never get to meet the extraordinary folks I encountered in prisons. \n  \nThe process of how I came to write the book is multifaceted. On a very practical level\, back in 2013\, Methuen Drama invited me to write a book about theatre in prisons around the world\, but in a certain sense I had begun this journey long before that invitation arrived to mark the official start of my research. My father spent twenty years in Texas prisons\, and in a sense I grew up in prison visiting rooms. I started acting in community theatre productions when I was in middle school\, just a few years before my father’s incarceration began. In that sense\, both theatre making and visiting prisons have been major cultural practices that shaped my life from adolescence. Nearly a decade into my father’s incarceration\, I was in graduate school working on my Ph.D. in theatre and ethnic studies when I decided to write an interview-based play about people who have family members in prisons. When I started performing my play Doin’ Time: Through the Visiting Glass as a one-woman show\, I started getting invited into prisons to share it with incarcerated audiences. People began introducing me to other folks who made theatre in prisons\, and that was how I came to realize that theatre was actually happening inside these facilities. My work as a scholar shifted to follow my artistic practice\, and I began to research prison theatre companies. That led me to a job at the University of Michigan\, which recruited me to teach theatre and also become the Director of the Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP). (I’m now the Former Director and continue to teach in the program\, while the fabulous Nora Krinitsky serves as the current Director.) My work as a playwright/performer\, administrator of a prison arts program\, teacher of students who facilitate theatre workshops in prisons\, and scholar who studies such programs informs how and why I wrote this book. Fundamentally\, my experiences as the daughter of someone who served two decades in prison shapes my approach to writing this book more than anything else. \n  \nJohnny.  Before asking my next questions\, I want to mention that the Prison Creative Arts Project is the largest prison arts organization on Planet Earth. So\, my next questions… After seven years of travel and work on the book\, are you excited that it’s coming out today? Who do you hope will read it? What do you hope the book will do to them? \n  \nAshley.  I am so grateful that I was able to finish all of my research travels as planned before the advent of the global pandemic. It would have made me so sad to miss out on meeting any of the extraordinary theatre companies and artists I had the honor to meet in my journeys. I am both excited and a little overwhelmed that the book is finally coming out. At the PCAP we’re just starting new correspondence programming in lieu of the work we have always done in prisons in person. It’s very sad not to be able to be physically present with all of the people we care about inside prisons\, but the fact that we are being allowed to start this new correspondence programming gives us the ability to send books into prisons for the first time in PCAP’s thirty-year history. We’re sending all participants in our theatre workshops a copy of my book\, and I pray that the men and women who receive it will find it both a consolation and an inspiration in this terribly difficult time. It’s always really tough to be in prison\, but the pandemic adds layers of pain\, fear\, and physical torment that are not always part of an incarcerated person’s daily life. Good books have helped me through the hardest moments of my life (and are helping me now). I pray that my book can be a layer of support for people on both sides of prison walls who really need it right now. I think Prison Theatre has the potential to do this for folks because it’s full of stories of people who have used their artistic talents as mechanisms for survival in very trying circumstances.  \n  \nJohnny.  I get the impression from your book that you are also making a case to prison administrators and the general public that theatre in prison is more than just a way for prison residents to while away the time. It has value. You’ve already said that prison theatre helps to build community\, develop professional skills\, create social change\, and maintain hope. Let’s talk about love. In your travels\, in 2014\, you visited Open Hearts Open Minds’ production of Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale  at Two Rivers prison in Umatilla\, Oregon\, and you write about that experience in your book. What happened in the Visiting Room where the play was performed? \n  \nAshley.  Yes\, I hope that the book has many audiences. I hope that prison administrators with open hearts who truly wish for the world to be a safer place rather than a more punitive one will read the book and see how much theatre programming can do to improve the lives of everyone inside the prison—the incarcerated folks and the staff—and the lives of those connected to them in the outside world (ie. their families and the general public coming to see the plays). \n  \nI am so happy that you brought up love! I find that people are terrified to talk about the concept of love in connection with prisons. There seems to be an automatic assumption that the only kind of love that can happen in prisons is sexual\, romantic\, or aggressive\, and of course\, the truth is that because people in prison are complex human beings\, just like the rest of us\, all forms of love and affection exist inside prisons. We love our friends\, our mentors\, the people who become our chosen families. A prison that recognizes the humanity of the people inside it and actually wants them to be empathetic and driven to make positive contributions to the lives of others should actually cultivate a broad range of opportunities for safe and loving relationships among people\, in much the same ways that a good school\, religious congregation\, or community organization would. The theatre is an extraordinary vehicle for emotional openness\, vulnerability\, and love. If we can’t enable one another to be vulnerable in safe ways\, then we are cultivating a culture of isolation and aggression. Since the vast majority of people in prison will live again in freedom some day\, we need to invest in their emotional wellbeing and stability. People cannot be well if they do not feel that they are loved\, admired\, and appreciated for their unique gifts and abilities. \n  \nI hope that the chapter I wrote in Prison Theatre about the Open Hearts Open Minds production of Winter’s Tale helps readers to feel in some measure the magic of that production. The acting\, costumes\, music\, and sets were all absolutely beautiful\, but the incredible joy and love that that performance brought to everyone in the room really altered the world of the prison. The visiting room where the performance was held was full of families and children. I was blessed to sit by a woman named Sharon Lemm whose son Joseph Opyd was in the cast. She had been at Two Rivers prison for the Open Hearts Open Minds production the year before\, and when she realized that a number of men in the cast had no families there to support them—indeed some no longer had contact with their families at all—she promptly adopted the entire theatre troupe and became known as Momma Sharon. Her extraordinary spirit exemplifies something larger that was happening at Two Rivers that day. All kinds of human connections were forming. Families were mixing with one another to celebrate the cast. The prison staff were engaged and even proud of the work they’d seen the incarcerated men do. Audience members like me who were until that day strangers to almost everybody in the room were welcomed with open arms—literally\, there were people hugging all over that prison visiting room! It was such a glorious evening\, a celebration of life in spite of the prison in which we found one another. That play helped break down all kinds of barriers that divide people and helped us all to see what we shared in our common humanity.    \n  \nJohnny.  One thing that keeps people away from theatre is money. Not charging admission means that more family members\, and even small children\, come to see the plays. By making the play free it is a pure gift from actors to audience. What we discovered is that\, in the case of our prison productions\, the gift was reciprocal. It means so much to the actors that family and strangers have traveled a long way\, and come inside a prison(!)\, to see them\, and to appreciate them with thunderous applause. For the volunteers with Open Hearts Open Minds programs\, volunteering in prison is not some kind of noble act of charity. It’s a profound reciprocal giving. Have you noticed something similar in your work supervising college students who go into prisons in Michigan? \n  \nAshley.  Yes\, absolutely! Many people I meet want to talk about what a great thing our program is doing for folks in prisons\, but in truth the most demonstrable growth I can see\, as someone whose worked with the program for years\, is in the college students. Most of them have never set foot in a prison prior to joining PCAP and don’t believe they have any connection to the carceral system. Then they spend a semester collaborating with incarcerated people and come to love and respect those folks in a way that reshapes their entire world view. The experience of meaningful and prolonged interaction with people who live in very different circumstances than you do expands your understanding of how things like state power\, structural inequality\, racism\, and social justice work. My students and the currently and formerly incarcerated folks with whom we work also come to see the arts as active forces that can help us to build coalitions\, address problems\, and create opportunities. Fundamentally\, my students are not going into prisons to teach or to provide social services. Our mission is to equalize power dynamics as much as the prisons will allow us to do so and approach one another as collaborators with a shared stake in the community and artistic outcomes of our projects. In this way\, we all learn and grow together. My students will often tell me that going to prison is the best part of their week\, and none of them like prisons. Being in community with other people who take you and your artistic gifts seriously is an incredible joy\, a great blessing—one that can be harder to find in the outside world where our presence in a classroom or other public space is often taken for granted. People in prison treasure their time with people from the free world\, and they remind us of what a gift it is to be truly present with others. \n  \nJohnny.  Thank you so much\, Ashley\, for taking the time to share with our readers. Congratulations on completing this vast project! It’s going to make the world a kinder place. How can people order your book?    \n  \nAshley. Thank you\, Johnny! I’m so grateful that this book project enabled me to get to know you better and to meet the extraordinary folks at Open Hearts Open Minds. I hope very much to return to visit you and the incarcerated folks with whom you work. \n  \nMy book is available from all major booksellers\, and I encourage you to support local and independent bookstores when ordering. My favorite independent bookstore is Literarity Book Shop in my hometown of El Paso\, Texas: https://www.facebook.com/LiterarityBooks/. My friend Bill Clark who owns it has my book in stock and ships anywhere in the United States. You can reach him through the store’s Facebook page or by emailing him directly to order: bclark@literarity.com. Local bookstores sustain our communities\, and they need our support! \nYou can also order directly from the publisher’s website: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/prison-theatre-and-the-global-crisis-of-incarceration-9781472508416/. \n  \nNote to our readers:  Ashley will be doing a virtual book tour\, which includes being the special guest of The Open Road’s Bibliophiles Unanimous! Zoom gathering on Sunday\, September 20th\, at 3 pm\, Pacific Time. Here’s the link:   \n  \n https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82169567543 \n  \nI hope you’ll join us! \n  \nAnd to clarify a couple of points… I’m no longer doing theatre inside Oregon prisons. Open Hearts Open Minds is moving forward under the leadership of the amazing Carla Grant as Executive Director. To learn more about what they’re doing\, here’s a link to their website: www.openheartsopenminds.net.  \n  \nI do have a lot of prison pen pals\, and The Open Road (openroadpdx.org) has a Prison Education Project and a Meditation & Mindfulness Project for people who live in prison and for those who don’t. This “peace\, love\, happiness & understanding” journal is mailed every week to 33 friends inside prison walls and emailed to 130 friends on the outside. \n  \npeace & love \n  \n—Johnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-9-3-20/
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SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  9/10/20
DESCRIPTION:THE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nSeptember 10\, 2020 \n  \nThe Paradise of Books \n  \nCervantes says that Don Quixote stayed up day and night reading books until he fried his brain and went completely mad. The hero of Salman Rushdie’s latest novel\, Quichotte\, has watched so much television that he can’t tell what’s real from what’s not. \nSince June 7th\, I have been hosting a Zoom gathering on Sunday afternoons at 3 pm\, Bibliophiles Unanimous! \n  \n (https://openroadpdx.com/event/bibliophiles-unanimous/). \n  \n We’ve been having a lot of fun with it. It’s not like a “regular book club\,” where each month everyone agrees to read the same book and then talk about it. I think the impetus for that kind of book group is that we all hunger for more connection with each other\, especially a shared cultural framework that is not limited to Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad. It’s why\, when we’ve just read a book or seen a movie\, we say to all our friends and to anyone who will listen: You must read this book! (Or see this movie!) \n  \nOur weekly Zoom gathering is a meandering dialogue. Topics have ranged from poetry\, to books with pictures\, to oddball books\, to books that changed the way you see and experience the world.  \n  \nOur house is filled with books. The bookshelves are filled to overflowing. I’m sitting in a nest of books. I think of many of the books and their authors as my friends. Even though I’m just sitting here\, I can easily imagine myself to be walking along the open road with Walt Whitman by my side. On my life journey\, he has taught me so many things! Like this one: “I am not contained between my hat and boots.” And: “All truths wait in all things.” And: “Seeing\, hearing\, feeling are miracles\, and each part and tag of me is a miracle.” It’s good to know these things. \n  \nThings I read are constantly changing my inner landscape. Want to see the world in a new way? Try this: \n  \nIn the Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge\, it is written that animals are divided into:  \n  \n\nthose that belong to the Emperor\,\nembalmed ones\,\nthose that are trained\,\nsuckling pigs\,\nmermaids\,\nfabulous ones\,\nstray dogs\,\nthose included in the present classification\,\nthose that tremble as if they were mad\,\ninnumerable ones\,\nthose drawn with a very fine camelhair brush\,\nothers\,\nthose that have just broken a flower vase\,\nthose that from a long way off look like flies.\n\n  \n—from Other Inquisitions\, by Jorge Luis Borges \n* \n  \nAs a young man\, Jack Kerouac’s books On the Road and The Dharma Bums gave me permission to explore the big world\, follow my heart’s desire\, and live a life relatively free of societal constraints. \n  \nAnd then there were books that furthered my exploration of the nature and meaning of my human existence. The Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda\, inspired me to become a vegetarian\, and to begin meditating in quest of samādhi—“the peace which passeth understanding.” J. Krishnamurti spoke of “freedom from the known\,” and other radical ideas. The I Ching\, Tao Te Ching\, and the poems of Han Shan were a window into the ancient Chinese ways of seeing and being. More recently\, I’ve added the Hsin Hsin Ming of Seng Ts’an to that list. Shunryu Suzuki’s Zen Mind\, Beginner’s Mind taught many hippies of my generation about Zen meditation. I’ve learned about Haiku\, Zen and Japanese Culture from R. H. Blyth. My favorite books by him are Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics and Volume 1 of his four-volume series\, Haiku\, titled Eastern Culture. \n  \nI learned about Advaita Vedanta from the Bhagavad Gita\, Talks With Ramana Maharshi\, the Vivekachudāmani of Shankara and The Philosophy of the Upanishads by Paul Deussen. Aldous Huxley’s Perennial Philosophy shows how the world’s religions express the same fundamental truths. Joseph Campbell’s vast knowledge of world mythology also illuminates how “Elementary Ideas” are given different costumes or masks in different cultures. (I enjoy listening to talks he gave more than reading his books—they bring out his lively mind and engaging personality better.) \n  \nFor now\, I’ll mention just a few books that gave me a better understanding of the world in which we live. Woman and Nature by Susan Griffin woke me up to the centuries of oppression of women by men\, and gave me a sense of the importance of listening to women’s voices and helping to co-create a more just world. Magical Child and Evolution’s End by Joseph Chilton Pearce\, and For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty In Childrearing and the Roots of Violence by Alice Miller gave me unforgettable lessons in how our systematic physical\, emotional and psychological abuse of children thwarts human potential and sows seeds for every kind of violence—from suicide to genocide. In my view\, the one thing that the world needs most is more lovingkindness. \n* \n  \nSome poems came my way this week. Josh Barnes sent me this sonnet: \n  \nSonnet #1 \n  \nEach snowdrift piles higher than the last\, \nThe ground’s surface has long frozen over; \nA frigid picture—Nature’s wild past \nThat beckons the heart—taunting\, Come closer; \nBut as times change the beauty is melted\, \nLeaving a dreadful Silence in its stead\, \nFor the ones that would’ve truly felt it \nAre lying inside their graves\, long dead; \nBut beauty shed need not mean beauty lost\, \nAnd life has many a surprise in store\, \nLike rivers that spring from ‘neath the frost\, \nThen freely flow from the glaciers to pour; \nEndless the stream of life in its beauty\, \nThe circle of life doing its duty. \n  \n—Joshua Barnes \n* \n  \nDoug Marx shared some poems from his “Sheltering In Place” series. He prefaced his reading by saying that the poems are not his voice\, but the voice of a persona. He said it’s as if these poems are being dictated to him. Here’s one: \n  \nSheltering in Place #12   \n  \nThe crows are freaking out about the mask. \nWe’re not speaking.  \n  \nNow they squawk \nand flee me when they see me coming up the walk \nin my orange and yellow \ntie-dye pandemic disguise.   \n  \nI can’t blame them. \nThey can’t see what I’m hiding from \nand neither can I.  \nThey don’t know the real me anymore \nand neither do I.  \n  \nI don’t ask why\, I just don’t want to die.  \n  \nHow explain four million \nnine hundred and eighteen thousand \nfour hundred and twenty  \ndown\,  \n  \nor one hundred and sixty thousand \ntwo hundred and ninety \ngone.  \n  \nTheir world isn’t falling apart right now. \nThe spider webs are still holding.  \n  \nFlashbacks of the old life come at me \nlike phantom reds and blues  \nin the mind of a man five months blind.  \n  \nSome humans freak out about the mask too  \nand would as soon kill you as wear one.  \n  \nI can’t explain anything to them either. \nThe death look in their eyes terrifies me.  \n  \nWhen I see one coming I squawk \nand cross the street.  \n  \nWelcome to the masquerade. \nYou are on your own. \n  \n—Doug Marx \n* \n  \nDear Readers:  \n  \nPlease send me your poems and short writings\, or poems and short writings you love\, and which have inspired you\, that were written by somebody else. \nWe’ll end this issue with a poem that Nick Eldredge wrote. It hangs on his wall as a reminder… \n  \n¡Gracias! \n  \nJuanito \n  \nYARD SALE  \nsat & sun 9 to 4 \neverything I know \nmust go \nslightly used certainties \npreowned philosophies \nrefurbished realities \nbargains galore \n  \n 
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-9-10-20/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200915
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201015
DTSTAMP:20260503T115118
CREATED:20200915T225612Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211130T020006Z
UID:1274-1600128000-1602719999@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue
DESCRIPTION:Open Road Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue \n  \nSeptember 15\, 2020 \n  \nWelcome to our first meditation and mindfulness dialogue! The numbers below refer to passages from the book Your True Home by Thich Nhat Hanh. (JS) \n  \n#159  A Healing Mantra \nAlthough I myself am locked within walls & a structure of rules\, the cosmos still sustains me and it still nourishes me. I am isolated yet I feel no alienation from the world. I cannot touch a tree or a cloud\, but yet I still feel them. I know they are there for me just outside the walls. For now\, my friends & my family are the light of the sun\, and the door of my heart is filled with love\, light & sun from theirs. Being stripped to the simplest form of oneself will allow you to be filled full of all the beauty that the cosmos has to offer. Empty yourself to be filled with the wonders of life. \n—Rocky Hutchinson \n* \n#49 – What is a leaf? \nIs one of my favorites! In segregation we have paintings that are of different scenes. At first it was cool\, then I and others got over it. But since putting this wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh in perspective you see more than a painting. For it opens my eyes to the time\, the painter\, the painter’s years of art skills\, everything down to what makes paint…paint. There are so many miracles that came together to make these paintings! It’s amazing. Now I try to be mindful of what miracles come into place to make people I meet\, foods I eat. Being conscious of what had to come together to create your best friend or your favorite food gives you much more appreciation for how they come to be in your life. \nThank you for giving me a chance\, Johnny. I’m really working on myself. My goal is day by day. (Today be less ego-oriented.) Trying to not care who judges me for being me. Because that’s not my problem\, I am happy and peaceful. It’s been a sacrifice\, but as I’m learning sacrifice is the way to a peaceful life! \nPeace Love Happiness \n—Jake Green \n* \nOriginally\, I had no intention of sharing this\, as it was written by inspiration to myself as though it were a summation of what I see as the core of my soul\, for lack of better words\, and also like a mantra and daily meditation. Here it is: \n  \nI am the good man. \nI am the good decisions that I make. \nI am compassion\, I do not fake. \nI am kindness\, I am love. \nI am by choice\, not by chance. \nI am intent\, not happenstance. \nI am in servitude of good. \nI am alive and I am living. \nI am grateful I am. \n  \n—Joseph Opyd \n* \n#6  Concentration \nConcentration is an interesting concept in prison—Why should I want to concentrate on my situation being what it is? But as I’ve grown spiritually\, I’ve come to realize how useful concentration can be.  \nThere is a lot to complain about in life\, but there is also a lot to enjoy! Concentration\, or focusing on what I think as I’m thinking it\, and what I feel as I’m feeling it\, has taught me that my life is richer if I concentrate on the “good” and the “bad”—accepting both for what they are and their role in my life. The passage in the book (#6) talks of the power of concentration in creating happiness at any time. I do think this is important\, however the more useful aspect of concentration for me is being able to be fully—(or as close as I can come for now)—aware of the situations that I find myself in\, and what ripples I make in that environment. Concentration\, or mindfulness\, has also helped me embrace the “bad” parts of life. By being mindful of the roots of my reactions and feelings when a “bad” thing happens I have learned to cope\, embrace and/or overcome these situations\, while gaining a little more skill in mindfulness. \nMy point is that by being mindful I have learned that there is value in all situations. While I suffer I learn\, while I’m happy I learn. Mindfulness is our tool to dig through the layers of our minds and be really truly in the moment\, allowing us to remove reaction and embrace each event for what it is truly worth\, “good\,” or “bad.” \n—Cody Dalton \n* \nI find myself\, my soul\, my beliefs and my being saturated in belonging—belonging to a love so deep\, so real\, so unreal. Coming from a life of nothing and going to a life full of love I never knew I could be a part of. A love that I knew was there\, there for others\, but for me…well\, it was only window shopping. \nNow I long to be drenched in the core of my soul\, always and forever drowning in this love\, this love that has pierced my cosmic veil. This love for all\, for beauty\, for the ones who opened so many doors into and onto the mind\, heart and truth that dwells within my being. \n  \n#191  Love is Understanding \nWhen we do not understand things we fear them. There was a time for myself\, and not too long ago\, when I was fearful of myself. Fearful of who I used to be\, and fearful of the things I had done. Fearful of what I was capable of. I did not fully understand myself\, because I was hiding from myself. When I opened up and allowed someone in\, someone who is truly there for me—only then did I have the strength to face myself and understand why I did what I did\, who I am\, and who I was. Only then did I find the compassion to forgive my demons\, and leave them\, and forgive myself. Love is understanding not just our own faults\, but the faults of others—loving them and loving ourselves. \n—Rocky Hutchinson \n* \n#4  Ambassador of the Cosmos \nI love Thich Nhat Hanh’s word “interbeing” and what it suggests to my imagination—the interdependence and interconnectedness of everyone and everything! In this passage he doesn’t use the word\, but he describes how when he looks deeply into a piece of bread\, he sees the sunshine\, the rain and the earth without which there would be no bread. Some people imagine that they are somehow “independent\,” but with every breath we take\, oxygen revitalizes our blood\, and we exhale carbon dioxide which nourishes the trees\, which produce oxygen… I’m glad I get to be part of this whole miraculous process that has no beginning or end. \n—Johnny Stallings \n* \nWhat is it that you really know? Not just what you have been told or what you think or have read or surmise but something that you deeply know. And how is that different from the other kind of knowing where you think it or have heard it? I think starting with what your base understanding is one of the most crucial steps in meditation. Knowing your own inner ground….and what you don’t know. Write it down. And maybe a few months or years from now you can come back to it and see if anything has changed. \n  \nWhat Do I Know? \n  \nClosing my eyes\, \na silent darkness\, \nlight \nat the edges. \nMy breath moves \nup and down\,  \nholding each moment\, \ninhalation \nthen release. \nThe human heart \nis quixotic\, \nmalleable\, \nalmost like a berry \nin the palm of my hand. \nIn my ears\, \na deeper space \nthat stretches out\, \na disappearing \nreverberation. \nWe touch nothingness. \n  \n—Deborah Buchanan\, from Layers of Sediment \n* \nWhen I invited people who don’t live in prison to be part of our new meditation and mindfulness community\, I included Jake Green’s meditations on “What is a Leaf?” Scott Teitsworth was reminded by Jake’s “sweet words” of a passage from a book he edited by his guru\, Nitya Chaitanya Yati. (JS) \nEven when you do something as simple as sip a cup of coffee or tea\, think about what you are doing. Your morning tea begins in some far-off land\, where very poor people get up at four o’clock. They crowd onto a battered bus\, then walk to the plantation where ripe leaves are waiting to cut into their fingers. Leeches climb on them to drink their blood. All day long they fill their baskets\, then they go home to a meager supper. The tea leaves are hauled to huge mills employing hundreds of people\, where they are cleaned\, dried\, and made into the kind of blend you want. Then it is put in tins or boxes\, and sent by truck down the mountains and out to the coast. The shipyard is filled with more poor laborers\, who load the tea onboard ships. Then across the ocean it comes to your port.The distributors parcel and package it and send it to your local market\, where you buy it and take it home. Thus the whole world participates in one cup of tea. If you like sugar with your tea\, there is another world of production and distribution behind that spoonful of white grains you tip into the cup. So should you not look into the numinous aspect of just a cup of tea? \nIf you become sensitive to the numinous aspect of life\, gratitude will naturally fill your whole being. Each time you put a morsel of food in your mouth or sip your tea or coffee\, you will become so grateful to the corporate life of mankind for giving you so much for so little effort. You will see nothing but the unity underlying the many forms of the world. Great will be your joy to share\, to give\, to receive. Then you won’t fight. The belligerency comes in where you see only your own personal interests—“my home\,” “my family\,” or just“my self.” The superficial form of your self interest should be subsumed in the ocean of the general interest\, and you should feel the world is your country\, your home. That humanity is your family\, filled with your brothers and sisters. \nThe Guru* wants us to really feel this: to stand united\, to find peace and become peacemakers. We have to first be peacemakers in our own lives. We bring peace to ourselves. By putting all the peaces together\, we make peace with the world.If you fragment it\, you lose it. So let us gather all the peaces together in one meaning\, in one divine thread of love and compassion and understanding. \n  \n—from That Alone: The Core of Wisdom by Nitya Chaitanya Yati pp. 140-141 \n*Narayana Guru (1856-1928). This book is a long commentary inspired by a philosophical poem by Narayana Guru\, Ātmopadeśa Shatakam. \n—Scott Teitsworth \n* \n#7   Why we suffer \nThich Nhat Hanh reminds me that all things change\, and I will suffer if I refuse this truth\, like a stone in the river trying to stop water’s journey\, I will be rolled and all my rough edges worn away. When he speaks of the river\, I remember a time we went to a back channel and wandered along in a canoe\, and I entered a kind of trance of well-being as the river flowed and sunlight splashed everything alive. When I suffer sometimes\, when I wake at night and remember my failures\, I go back to the river in my mind\, and try to see it for what it is: \n  \nCall me the scruffy hermit of willow islands. \nCall me the skipping stone eager to squander all \nfor a few joyful episodes of buoyancy. I could be \ncounting money? I could be a hero of fame? \nCall me one lost to water’s wonders\, far gone \ndown a back channel gaping at water beads \ndripping brilliant from the paddle’s blade.  \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \nI look through my study cards. Today’s contemplation is “Observation of the Mind.” Do I have solid mindfulness established\, or is my mind more of the scattered quality? To what degree are desire/lust\, anger\, and confusion present or absent in my mind? This is not about judgement; as humans\, we spend so much time with these mental qualities that we might as well use them as meditation tools. This is more like a checklist\, is a quality present or absent? The card reminds me: all mental contents arise and pass away. Can I observe that right now? Can I see that my thoughts now are different than my thoughts 10 minutes ago? Bonus points if I can train myself to have some awareness of others\, that other people also have rapidly changing mental qualities. “Your True Home” (YTH) speaks about this exercise at item 120\, “Mindfulness of the Mind.” Another exercise I can do with my mind\, and its contents\, is to ask if current thoughts are beneficial to my wellbeing and the wellbeing of those around me\, or if they detract from wellbeing. Again\, this is not about judgement or criticism\, it is about taking inventory of the mind. Flipping through YTH\, I find this in item 47. \n—Shad Alexander \n* \nSpaciousness \nIt is 4:45 am. A small glimmer of light in the eastern sky\, but a mass of stars still predominates in the dome above. My favorite time of the day: mornnight. My mind is rested and fresh\, still empty. \nI have two and a half days of precious spaciousness. My husband is away for a couple days of bike riding while I had planned to go away camping with women friends. My outing was cancelled because of high winds\, falling trees and fire danger. David said\, “Oh well\, I won’t go if you’re going to be here alone.” I said\, with a duplicitous smile\, “Oh no\, you go ahead. You don’t want to disappoint your friends by not showing up. I’ll be fine.” \nDon’t get me wrong; I love my husband\, but he should know\, after 36 years\, that I treasure these infrequent\, but cherished times of aloneness. And this one is serendipitous spaciousness. I am never lonely being alone. I am filled with empty spaciousness. The house feels bigger. It is breathing and expanding\, and I breathe and expand\, in tandem\, like singing a harmonious duet. \nDuet. Round: In my family we played duets on the piano and sang rounds. “Go to Joan Glover and tell her I love her\, and by the light of the moon I will come to her.” Repeat one bar after the first has been sung. Etc. And\, “Orléans\, Beaugency\, Notre-Dame de Cléry\, Vendôme\, Vendôme…”  Sung as a round\, it sounds like cathedral bells tolling throughout the city. We sang dozens of rounds. \nSpaciousness allows my mind to remember things like this. My mind can rest or wander; either way\, it awakens refreshed\, mindful. \n—Jude Russell \n* \nReading some passages in Your True Home\, I was again impressed with how beautifully Thich Nhat Hanh expresses complex Buddhist concepts in clear\, easy to understand language. One of these concepts that touched me this morning was #9: I Have Arrived. So much of our lives are concerned with striving–we want to learn things\, we want to get better at things\, we want to excel\, we want to create. And this striving is wonderful: it has produced our art\, science\, architecture\, literature\, airplanes\, medicine…our civilization\, the civilizations that came before us and those that will come after us. But the most important thing about life–greater than any discovery\, creation\, or attainment– is the simple fact that we are alive. When we’re in great danger\, or facing a serious illness\, we often remember that nothing is more important than protecting our precious life. But the practice of meditation is taking time to appreciate this fact without the stimulus of danger. If we open our eyes and ears we can remember how fantastic it is\, how precious\, how exciting\, how beautiful\, how crazy it is that we are here. We have arrived. We are not only alive but we can be aware of our life and we can appreciate our life. Meditation practice is taking time to appreciate this amazing fact.  \n—Howard Thoresen \n* \nI’ve tried to learn meditation a few different times and I’ve never succeeded. My self-discipline is spotty\, my posture’s always off\, and I forget the proper hand positions. My body gets uncomfortable and my brain rebels against meditating. My thoughts increase instead of quieting down. Plus\, I’m not a very Buddhist-like person\, thanks to my intemperate ways. I gave up trying to meditate years ago.   \nAfter giving up\, though\, a funny thing started happening. I noticed that my mind would sometimes quiet down on its own\, without much effort from me. When I’m outside I get absorbed by the awesome fullness of life. When I sit in my house and pay attention I feel content with my heartbeat and the peace in my local airspace. When I let my thinking and my judgements be calm the outer and inner worlds do just fine. This balance doesn’t last indefinitely; there are things to do—groceries\, e-mails\, etc. But I can return pretty easily to what Alan Watts calls “sitting quietly\, doing nothing.”  I’ll leave the meditating to the pros. I’m simply grateful for the moment\, and being part of it\, and having people to share it with. \n—Bill Faricy \n* \n78  The Wounded Child \nI was planning on writing about another part of the book\, but I read this\, this morning\, and it kind of hit me like I needed to write about this instead. \nI guess a good question is: what is the child inside of us? I suppose it is part of us\, the child that is\, just because we grow into adulthood we don’t necessarily leave that child behind—he or she comes with us. I believe children are more susceptible\, at a young age\, especially to trauma. I think a traumatic experience as a child can have more of an effect than experiencing that same trauma at an older age. \nI sometimes struggle with a lack of self worth\, and have some insecurities. I am sure most people do\, and maybe being in prison just heightens them. For instance\, sometimes I struggle to even call my family. I will convince myself that they don’t want to hear from me and they have better things to do than talking to me. \nI have recently reconnected with a girlfriend from my past. Talking to her has been great\, but when she says\, “I love you\,” in my mind I say that doesn’t make sense. I have made so many mistakes. Am I worthy of Love? I feel I have worked very hard these last fourteen years to become a better human being. I try to be kind and compassionate to others. Is that enough? I don’t have much else. What if I screw up again? I think maybe that is the child inside of me that is scared. \nI think in these moments of insecurity if we are able to recognize the source\, and why we are feeling this way\, we can begin to heal them. I realize I have done some amazing things with my time in prison. I have met some amazing people along the way that have taught me so much about life and its true meaning. I am not angry anymore and have become a very patient\, understanding person. Maybe sometimes too patient—it may take me a couple days to answer someone’s  question sometimes. I want to make sure I understand what they are asking before I answer though. Geez! I do truly believe that all humans are worthy of being loved\, so I guess that includes myself. Dang it! I know the best thing I can do for myself is continue to live a healthy clean life\, love others\, and surround myself with like-minded people—and when she answers my call\, enjoy it for all it’s worth in the here and now. My hope is that someday I will be a successful productive member of society\, and when that child inside comes calling I can reassure him that we have the tools to live a healthy life\, and everything is going to be okay. \n—Aaron Gilbert \n* \nYour True Home: It is in the now\, the breath\, the fully aware moment. I can’t add to or take away from it. And\, if I hold on to it\, I get stuck because new “now” moments have begun piling up behind this one. If I touch it\, let it go—not holding on to anything—then I can flow from one now to the next\, feeling everything.  I see a connection to Kristen’s topic of “Contentment.” When I can be content with life as it is\, instead of wasting energy with how it was\, I have one less roadblock to the “now” moment.” When I can allow my guard down\, for myself at least (if not for others)\, I can enter that moment to begin the experience as it is. Then I can breathe and allow each “now” moment to come and go as they wish. \nIn spite of all this “now” mindfulness\, “in the moment” talk is that I can’t\, (won’t or don’t)\, just let go of ego\, barriers\, worries past and present\, judgements\, etc. Well\, not for as long as I think\, or tell myself I should. I tell myself that I “want” to do this. I attend the Zen practice sessions so I can practice being more skilled at this—sometimes I even succeed at something\, which leads me back to all that I judge. (Thanks\, Jake.) I “need” to let go. Once in a while\, I do somehow\, more by happy accident than skillful action\, manage to set everything down\, breathe\, and contentedly exist. The more often I struggle with this\, the more often I manage to stumble into aware\, conscious breathing\, where thoughts come and go without my bidding\, or following another white rabbit. Someday\, I want to arrive at my True Home. \nEven this work is plagued by ego\, self-aware judgement\, criticism\, worry about the opinions of others—that I don’t somehow measure up to some arbitrary standard. (All of this is more in my head than in reality.) It all comes from awareness that I am no expert\, guru\, or skilled practitioner of mindfulness\, but find myself at the beginning. Always At The Beginning!!—just like everyone else: breathing\, just breathing\, being gentle and kind when I see I have followed another wild hare off into some dark forest and away from my thoughtful breath. \n—Michel Deforge \n* \nThis is one of my favorite guided meditations from Thich Nhat Hanh.  \nIt begins with his signature meditation on being aware of our most basic source of life. \nTake three deep breaths then breathing normally\, gently\, follow someone saying to you the following\, or say to yourself:  \n  \n“Breathing in I am aware that I am breathing in.  Breathing out I am aware of breathing out.”  \nIn\, out. . . . . in\, out . . . .  \nIn\, out. . . . . in\, out . . . .  \nIn\, out. . . . . in\, out . . . .  \n  \nBreathing in\, I see myself as a flower. \nBreathing out\, I feel fresh. \nFlower/Fresh  (say this to yourself\, for three in and out breaths) \n  \nBreathing in\, I see myself as a mountain. \nBreathing out\, I feel solid. \nMountain/Solid \n  \nBreathing in\, I see myself as a mountain lake. \nBreathing out\, I reflect things as they are. \nWater/Reflecting \n  \nBreathing in\, I see myself as the sky or space. \nBreathing out\, I feel free. \nSpace/Free. \n  \nSome of my reflections on this practice. \nOn being a flower: \nWhen I sit and see myself as a plum blossom\, I feel delicate and careful\, I want to be aware of the subtle fragrance and the fresh air. I feel still and listen for the insects and the breeze in the tree.   \nLater\, when I want to thank someone\, like my yoga teacher or a friend that brings a gift\,  I remember feeling like a flower\, and I will put my palms together and offer a “flower bud” of thanks.  \nOn being a mountain: \nMoving from feeling like something delicate to feeling solid as a mountain\, grounds me and I feel a strength\,  and a knowing  that makes me feel more steady than any fleeting emotions.  \nOn being a mountain lake: \nThe water is still\, we can reflect what is aroud us\, like trees on the shore that are inverted but without distortion.  Such a sense of calm.   \nOn being the sky : \nThe feeling of spaciousness fills me with each breath.  Beyond judgement\, I feel space in and out\, and appreciate the space we need to give one another to be fully human and unique. \nThis simple meditation moves us through an expansive experience with just four images that are familiar to us all\, because we are alive on this planet.   \nThere is a song that goes along with this meditation\, that can help tune us up.   I will find a copy with the music and send it next time if you all are interested.  \nI hope you will find some peace\,  be well.   \nA plum blossom to you\,  Katie \n(I wish I could send you some plums that are growing now on the plum tree) \n—Katie Radditz \n* \nOur dialogue begins. Thank you. We’re off to a good start!  \nToday\, on September 15th\, I’m mailing this to just under a dozen people living in prison and emailing it to just under two dozen people who aren’t. It’s a conversation. Feel free to write and email me in response to something somebody shared. That will be the basis of the next letter\, which will go out on October 15th. Also\, between now and then\, please send me your ruminations on passages from Your True Home or other poems or texts. Or just your thoughts. Or a poem. \nMay all people be happy. \nMay we live in peace and love. \n  \n—Johnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/meditation-mindfulness-dialogue/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200917
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200924
DTSTAMP:20260503T115118
CREATED:20200917T234643Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250718T120733Z
UID:1284-1600300800-1600905599@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  9/17/20
DESCRIPTION:The Platters \n  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nSeptember 17\, 2020 \n  \nIt’s smoky. For the past week\, Portland has had the worst air quality of any major city on the planet. And there’s a lot of competition! But\, for now\, our air is worse than the air in Delhi\, India or Shanghai\, China. Nancy and I have been joking about meeting in smoky places\, like in the song by the Corsairs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGDvR-7ughY). And then\, of course\, there’s the Platters’ hit: “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2di83WAOhU). And we can’t forget Smokey Robinson (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv9cWgkpIZ4). My friend Nick Eldredge is a fan of Smokey Stover. Notary sojack. \n  \nAaron Gilbert wrote that he has been fighting fires. Kim Stafford sent me an email on Monday: \n  \nThis morning early\, reading about inmates on the fire lines\, it came to this. \n  \n                     Inmate Fights Fire  \n  \nWhen it gets really bad\, they want me out—out there \non that fire-line\, sweating sparks\, staring down flames \nI look up to as I dig like some fiend. Dollar an hour \nto be a crispy critter to save somebody’s home. Yeah\, they \nfigure the same jinx of brave and stupid got me convicted \nmight make me right to stand my ground for fire.  \n  \nLike these boots? Like this hickory handle I flick \nback and forth so my shovel slashes dirt\, leaves \nno food fire can eat? I like leaning back to see \nthat red sun staring through these skeleton trees \nlike bars in my cellblock window. And the wind \nbrings me smoke for free. Free?  \n  \nWhen my sentence ends\, you think I’ll walk free? \nYou think they’ll look at me to say\, “He’s good”? \nThey plot their own fire-line to keep me on the dark side. \nGot it? Like my face tattoo says “Bad Man. Don’t Hire.” \nYou can walk out the prison gate\, but try walking through \nthe reputation wall to freedom after they call you felon.  \n  \nI served my time. Serious good behavior. And after? \nGive me a chance. Or shall I say\, I’ve been burned. \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nPart of that poem reminded me of Randall Brown’s song “One Second Chance.” I met Randall in the Arts In Prison group at Columbia River Correctional Institution. At one point in his life he was living in Nashville and earning his living writing songs. Just as Kim adopted a persona for his poem\, Randall\, who never imagined he would actually go to prison\, wrote a song about a guy who has just gotten out of prison. Here are the lyrics: \n  \nIt says here you’re from Houston \nAnd you’re certified to drive a truck \nBut it doesn’t say what you’ve been doin’ \nFor the last five years \nThen he watched his eyes keep readin’ \nThen he watched his eyes look up \nAnd he watched another job he needed just disappear \n  \n‘Cause when they get to the line \nHave you been convicted of a crime \nThey say thanks for comin’ and they don’t call you back \nI ain’t askin’ for every job under the sun \nI just want one \nSecond chance \n  \nOn August 22nd  \nLittle Jacob’s turnin’ nine \nBut his momma moved him \nA half a state away \nI left another message \nOn her phone at home last night \nAnd she finally had her lawyer \nCall today \n  \nShe knows he can’t afford  \nTo take this thing to court \nAnd I’m tryin’ hard to make her understand \nI’m not askin’ for every weekend of every month \nI just want one \nSecond chance \n  \nI was young and I was stupid \nI regret it everyday \nI ain’t saying I didn’t do it \nBut I’ve paid for my mistakes \nIt’s a lost and empty feeling when they don’t want you around \nI’ve finally got my freedom but what good is it now \n  \nThere’s some day’s when it feels like it’s been a 100 years \nSometimes it seems like only yesterday \nWe were painting Jacob’s nursery \nCounting days until he was here \nNext thing I knew I’d thrown it all away \nNow I know I can’t go back \nTo the life I used to have \nWhen I still held the whole world in my hands \nI had a job I had a wife I had a son \nNow I just want one \nSecond chance \n  \n—Randall Brown \n* \nRandall says:  \n  \nI’ve been out almost 2 years. My current job is foreman for a construction company. I’ve just accepted a position as an operations manager for a commercial construction company in Portland.  \nWhen I got out I was nervous because of the stigma we get as inmates. But my reentry to society went great. I was able to find work within a few days. I did get divorced while in\, but I’ve found a woman who accepts me for me and not my past.  \n* \n  \nThinking about smoke and fires\, I naturally thought of Gary Snyder’s “Smokey the Bear Sutra”: \n  \nSMOKEY THE BEAR SUTRA \n  \nOnce in the Jurassic about 150 million years ago\, the Great Sun Buddha in this corner of the Infinite Void gave a discourse to all the assembled elements and energies: to the standing beings\, the walking beings\, the flying beings\, and the sitting beings–even the grasses\, to the number of thirteen billion\, each one born from a seed\, assembled there: a Discourse concerning Enlightenment on the planet Earth. \n“In some future time\, there will be a continent called America. It will have great centers of power called such as Pyramid Lake\, Walden Pond\, Mt. Rainier\, Big Sur\, Everglades\, and so forth; and powerful nerves and channels such as Columbia River\, Mississippi River\, and Grand Canyon. The human race in that era will get into troubles all over its head\, and practically wreck everything in spite of its own strong intelligent Buddha-nature.” \n“The twisting strata of the great mountains and the pulsings of volcanoes are my love burning deep in the earth. My obstinate compassion is schist and basalt and granite\, to be mountains\, to bring down the rain. In that future American Era I shall enter a new form; to cure the world of loveless knowledge that seeks with blind hunger: and mindless rage eating food that will not fill it.” \nAnd he showed himself in his true form of \nSMOKEY THE BEAR \n     A handsome smokey-colored brown bear standing on his hind legs\, showing that he is aroused and watchful. \n     Bearing in his right paw the Shovel that digs to the truth beneath appearances; cuts the roots of useless attachments\, and flings damp sand on the fires of greed and war; \n     His left paw in the mudra of Comradely Display–indicating that all creatures have the full right to live to their limits and that of deer\, rabbits\, chipmunks\, snakes\, dandelions\, and lizards all grow in the realm of the Dharma; \n     Wearing the blue work overalls symbolic of slaves and laborers\, the countless men oppressed by a civilization that claims to save but often destroys; \n     Wearing the broad-brimmed hat of the west\, symbolic of the forces that guard the wilderness\, which is the Natural State of the Dharma and the true path of man on Earth: all true paths lead through mountains— \n     With a halo of smoke and flame behind\, the forest fires of the kali-yuga\, fires caused by the stupidity of those who think things can be gained and lost whereas in truth all is contained vast and free in the Blue Sky and Green Earth of One Mind; \n     Round-bellied to show his kind nature and that the great earth has food enough for everyone who loves her and trusts her; \n     Trampling underfoot wasteful freeways and needless suburbs\, smashing the worms of capitalism and totalitarianism; \n     Indicating the task: his followers\, becoming free of cars\, houses\, canned foods\, universities\, and shoes\, master the Three Mysteries of their own Body\, Speech\, and Mind; and fearlessly chop down the rotten trees and prune out the sick limbs of this country America and then burn the leftover trash. \nWrathful but calm. Austere but Comic. Smokey the Bear will Illuminate those who would help him; but for those who would hinder or slander him… \nHE WILL PUT THEM OUT. \nThus his great Mantra: \n     Namah samanta vajranam chanda maharoshana  \n     Sphataya hum traka ham mam \n     “I DEDICATE MYSELF TO THE UNIVERSAL DIAMOND  \n     BE THIS RAGING FURY DESTROYED” \nAnd he will protect those who love the woods and rivers\, Gods and animals\, hobos and madmen\, prisoners and sick people\, musicians\, playful women\, and hopeful children: \nAnd if anyone is threatened by advertising\, air pollution\, television\, or the police\, they should chant SMOKEY THE BEAR’S WAR SPELL: \nDROWN THEIR BUTTS \nCRUSH THEIR BUTTS \nDROWN THEIR BUTTS \nCRUSH THEIR BUTTS \nAnd SMOKEY THE BEAR will surely appear to put the enemy out with his vajra-shovel. \nNow those who recite this Sutra and then try to put it in practice will accumulate merit as countless as the sands of Arizona and Nevada. \n  \nWill help save the planet Earth from total oil slick. \nWill enter the age of harmony of man and nature. \nWill win the tender love and caresses of men\, women\, and beasts. \nWill always have ripened blackberries to eat and a sunny spot under a pine tree to sit at. \n  \nAND IN THE END WILL WIN HIGHEST PERFECT ENLIGHTENMENT \nthus we have heard. \n  \n(may be reproduced free forever)  \n  \n—Gary Snyder \n* \nThat reminds me of a joke… \n  \nWhat do Alexander the Great and Smokey the Bear have in common? \nSame middle name. \n  \nAnd now it’s time to sing along to the Smokey the Bear Song with Eddy Arnold: \n  \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Myz93sXW66Y \n  \npeace & love \n  \n—Johnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-9-17-20/
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200920T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200920T170000
DTSTAMP:20260503T115118
CREATED:20210317T173526Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210318T174422Z
UID:1869-1600614000-1600621200@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Bibliophiles Unanimous!: PRISON THEATRE Book Tour with Ashley Lucas
DESCRIPTION:On Sunday\, September 20th\, we hosted a virtual book for Prison Theatre and the Global Crisis of Incarceration by Ashley Lucas. We had a good turnout on Zoom–Ashley was in Michigan\, Howard in New York\, Al and Nick in Seattle\, lots of friends in Portland and Carlos from Peru! Prison Theatre was published by Methuen Drama on September 3\, 2020. An interview with Ashley is featured in the September 3rd issue of the peace\, love\, happiness & understanding journal.  \n  \nThe fourth Shakespeare in Prisons Conference is highlighting Ashley’s book. Here are some links: \n  \nAshley being interviewed about her Prison Theatre book: \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76dfvyk_bB0&t=6s \nAshley talking with returned citizens who have performed in plays in prison: \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28mGM-3t30g \nConversation between Ashley and prison theatre directors. (Note. I’m in this one (JS)): \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGYQEqUIUdQ \n 
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/bibliophiles-unanimous-prison-theatre-book-tour-with-ashley-lucas/
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200924
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201001
DTSTAMP:20260503T115118
CREATED:20200924T173440Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250718T120856Z
UID:1300-1600905600-1601510399@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  9/24/20
DESCRIPTION:  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nSeptember 24\, 2020 \n  \n  \nHOW HIPPIES MAY STILL SAVE THE WORLD \n  \nShortly before the Era of Social Distancing began\, my friend Bill Faricy and I were eating granola for breakfast and we got to thinking about hippies and what we have given to the world. Granola\, for one. And whole wheat bread. Brown rice. Organic food. Recycling. Yoga. Vegetarianism. Holistic medicine. Natural childbirth and breastfeeding. Nonviolence. Massage. Bright colors! Free love. Good vibes. The list got longer and longer. \n  \nThe most challenging problem that we humans face is that the way we are living is destroying the ecological health of our planet. Hippies intuited this\, and began trying to live in harmony with Mother Earth. The changes were not just on the outside\, with long hair and geodesic domes. There were deeper changes in thinking\, feeling and imagining. \n  \nIt was obvious that hippies were not going along with the status quo. The status quo is by its nature static\, and resistant to change. The hippies clothing styles were mocked\, but the peace symbol and the peace hand gesture—which are now emojis—represented something which threatened the foundation of an economy built on militarism and endless war. \n  \nThe hippies laid-back attitudes were inimical to the Protestant ethic of Hard Work\, and to the Spirit of Capitalism. Great efforts had been made and billions of dollars spent to turn citizens into Consumers and the hippies were opting out!—making their own sandals and growing their own food. At every turn the hippies weren’t going along with The Program\, and The Program was designed to create Endless Progress and Prosperity. What was wrong with them? \n  \nIt turned out that there was something wrong with the global project of turning the planet into a Theme Park for Humans. The War On Nature is one we don’t want to “win.” The hippie chanteuse sang: “They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot.” \n  \nI was born in 1951\, and I didn’t hear the word “ecology” before 1968 or ’69. Around 1970\, the year of the first Earth Day\, it became evident to anyone who was curious and who read books that there were too many people on the planet for its “carrying capacity\,” and that we were not only cutting down all the trees and catching all the fish\, but we were poisoning the world with our toxic chemicals and nuclear waste. \n  \nHippies may have invented granola\, and coined the expression “Have a nice day!\,” but most of the things on my list of contributions made by the hippies are older things that hippies revived and gave momentum to\, like yoga\, massage and good vibes. Hippies weren’t the first vegetarians. Credit Buddha and Mahavira for that\, about 500 BC\, with their doctrines of nonviolence (ahimsa). Hippies didn’t discover organic food. Before pesticides were invented\, no one ate food with poison on it. And the alarm was sounded not by hippies\, but by Rachel Carson—definitely a non-hippie scientist. But the hippies read her book Silent Spring\, which was published in 1965\, and started organizations like the Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides (www.pesticide.org). \n  \nHippies started nonprofit organizations by the tens (or hundreds) of thousands. There are currently 1.5 million nonprofit corporations in the United States. I started two myself. There are an estimated 10 million non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the world. Hippies didn’t start them all\, but hippies are part of a long tradition of nonviolent revolutionary change from the bottom up. \n  \n“Hippies” is a word like “gypsies” that can refer to all kinds of people\, all over the world. There is a caricatured picture of the long-haired\, barefoot\, stoned hippie that the mainstream media perpetuates. And surely there is a shadow side to hippie culture. I’m just giving one hippie’s perspective on positive contributions that hippies have made\, and how the Hippie Way of understanding and being-in-the-world can help us to make the transition to the Post Fossil Fuel Era as gently and beautifully as possible. \n  \nI don’t want to convert anybody to Hippieism. I became a hippie effortlessly. I looked a certain way\, dressed a certain way\, and thought and acted in certain ways\, and people pointed at me and said: “Look\, Martha\, a hippie!” I wrote an email to a woman in Lebanon in 2012 and signed it: “peace & love\, Johnny.” She knew I was a hippie. \n  \nMy hair isn’t long at present\, and I only occasionally wear a hippie-style shirt from somewhere like Nepal or Africa or Guatemala. But I think like a hippie. I believe in Peace and Love—the core hippie values. I love Mother Earth and everyone who lives here—people\, plants\, animals\, clouds\, rivers\, stones. \n  \nThis subject is too big for this kind of short essay. Here are the most important hippie ideas: \n  \nNature is Sacred \nMoney isn’t Everything; (Money and Wealth are not the same thing) \nLocal Organic Agriculture \nLocal Economics \nCommunity \nPeace & Nonviolence \nChildren raised to be free\, rather than obedient \nMeditation & Mindfulness \nLive the life you love; (Do your own thing) \nLove Everyone! \n  \nI don’t have room to elaborate on all these ideas\, but I’ll say a few more things. We can’t continue to destroy the ecological health of the planet. Short term financial profit is not a good enough reason to do it. It’s suicidal. And omnicidal.  \n  \nOne hundred years from now\, food will be grown closer to where it is eaten. And most things we need will be made locally. The ecological damage inherent in large scale industrial production is unsustainable. The current economic system is unjust and inherently unstable. That which is unsustainable can’t be sustained. \n  \nIf all children were raised in a loving\, nurturing environment\, respected as people\, allowed to realize their full human potential and follow their hearts’ desires\, our world would be transformed utterly. It’s a tall order. To do it\, adults will have to become more loving and kind. At present\, at home and around the world\, physical\, psychological and emotional abuse of children is the norm. (See For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Childrearing and the Roots of Violence by Alice Miller.) \n  \nMeditation and mindfulness\, which hippies were instrumental in helping to bring from the East to the West\, can help us to co-create a Culture That Nurtures\, a culture of Peace\, Love\, Happiness & Understanding. \n  \nWe need to aspire to love everyone unconditionally. No exceptions. No enemies. No “others.” One Human Family. It’s easy! (Much easier than what we’re doing now.) As Bob Marley sang:  \n  \nOne love! \nOne heart! \n  \nI’ll close this issue of peace\, love\, happiness & understanding with some Good Vibes: \n  \nLove’s In Need Of Love Today \n  \n(Spoken.) “When you say that you kill in the \nName of God or in the name of Allah\, \nYou are truly cursing God\, for that is not of God. \nWhen you say that you hate in the name of God or Allah\, \nYou are lying to God\, for that is not of our Father. \nLet us pray that we see the light.” \n  \nGood morn or evening friends \nHere’s your friendly announcer \nI have serious news to pass on to everybody \nWhat I’m about to say \nCould mean the world’s disaster \nCould change your joy and laughter to tears and pain \n  \nIt’s that \nLove’s in need of love today \nDon’t delay \nSend your’s in right away \nHate’s goin’ round \nBreaking many hearts \nStop it please \nBefore it’s gone too far \n  \n—Stevie Wonder \n(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paZEqzrrO-4) \n* \n  \nWhat the World Needs Now \n  \nWhat the world needs now is love\, sweet love \nIt’s the only thing that there’s just too little of \nWhat the world needs now is love\, sweet love \nNo\, not just for some\, but for everyone \n  \n—Burt Bacharach  \n(sung by Dionne Warwick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfHAs9cdTqg)  \n* \n  \nAll You Need Is Love \n  \nLove\, love\, love \nLove\, love\, love \nLove\, love\, love \n  \nThere’s nothing you can do that can’t be done \nNothing you can sing that can’t be sung \nNothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game \nIt’s easy \n  \nNothing you can make that can’t be made \nNo one you can save that can’t be saved \nNothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time \nIt’s easy \n  \n[chorus]  All you need is love \nAll you need is love \nAll you need is love\, love \nLove is all you need \n  \n[repeat]  Love\, love\, love… \n  \n[chorus] \n  \nNothing you can know that isn’t known \nNothing you can see that isn’t shown \nNowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be \nIt’s easy \n  \nAll you need is love \nAll you need is love \nAll you need is love\, love \nLove is all you need \n  \n—John Lennon \n(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7xMfIp-irg) \n* \n  \nGet Together \n  \nLove is but a song we sing\nFear’s the way we die\nYou can make the mountains ring\nOr make the angels cry\nThough the bird is on the wing\nAnd you may not know why \n[Chorus]  Come on people now\nSmile on your brother\nEverybody get together\nTry to love one another right now \nSome may come and some may go\nWe will surely pass\nWhen the one that left us here\nReturns for us at last\nWe are but a moment’s sunlight\nFading in the grass \n[Chorus] \n  \nIf you hear the song I sing \nYou will understand (listen!) \nYou hold the key to love and fear \nAll in your trembling hand \nJust one key unlocks them both \nIt’s there at your command \n  \n[Chorus]  Come on people now \nSmile on your brother \nEverybody get together \nTry to love one another right now \n  \n—Chet Powers (recorded by The Kingston Trio and by The Youngbloods) \n(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deW7_D5qems) \n* \n  \nAnd a hippie classic: \n  \nSan Francisco \n  \nIf you’re going to San Francisco \nBe sure to wear some flowers in your hair \nIf you’re going to San Francisco \nYou’re gonna meet some gentle people there \n  \nFor those who come to San Francisco \nSummertime will be a love-in there \nIn the streets of San Francisco \nGentle people with flowers in their hair \n  \nAll across the nation  \nSuch a strange vibration \nPeople in motion \n  \nThere’s a whole generation  \nWith a new explanation \nPeople in motion \nPeople in motion \n  \nFor those who come to San Francisco \nBe sure to wear some flowers in your hair \nIf you come to San Francisco \nSummertime will be a love-in there \n  \n—written by John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas (performed Scott McKenzie) \n(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I0vkKy504U) \n  \n  \npeace & love \nJohnny
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-9-24-20/
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