A Tree of Many Seasons (a special Black History note) February 13, 2023

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in "Impossible" People, Buddhism, Changing Perspectives, Dharma, Faith, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Hope, One Hoop, Pain, Philosophy, Suffering, Texas, Volunteer, Wisdom, Women, Yoga.
Tags: Black History Month, Black Women Oral History, Civil Rights Movement, Dallas Texas, Dorothy R. Robinson, Juanita Jewel Craft, Lisa Young, NAACP, Suffragists, Tuscaloosa, Yoga Sutra 3.53
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Peace and ease to all during this “Season of Non-violence” and all other seasons!

This is a special post for February 9^th. The word for this date is contemplate and the following post is full of things for you to contemplate with a focus on non-violence.Click here if you are interested in other events I’ve covered on this date.

“[The president of the Tuscaloosa Branch of the NAACP, Lisa Young,] she was ‘angry and part of me feels like we failed our students. We want to see what we can do to assist them, and make their school a safe place.’”

– quoted from the Tuscaloosa News article entitled “Hillcrest High students say they were told to limit Black History Month program” by The Associated Press (pub. Feb. 9, 2023)

This past Wednesday (2/8), about 200 students from Hillcrest High School, part of Tuscaloosa County Schools System in Alabama, staged a walkout. According to some of the students, they were told to focus their special Black History Month program on “recent history.” School officials have denied the allegations. No one, however, is denying that a lot of students were protesting… something.

It’s hard to know if the allegations are true – except for the fact that it passes the sniff test. There are a lot of people, even in education, who might not see the idea as problematic. To me, it’s problematic, because the idea of focusing on “recent” Black history reminds me a little to much of the recent use of the phrase “make America great again.” The inevitable (and unavoidable) question is: When was America great? No shade, and this isn’t even about my opinions on the matter. It’s more about defining a statement that is very vague and open to interpretation. Everyone has a different idea of when the country was great and/or if it’s ever been great (whatever that word means to you at this moment). It’s a very subjective idea – as is the concept of “recent history.”

In the Tuscaloosa County situation, students were allegedly given very specific parameters: focus on Black history after 1970; so, nothing related to slavery, the Civil War and the end of legal slavery in the United States; and/or anything related to the Civil Rights Movement.

That’s weird, right? I mean, Black History – just like the history of every other group in America – is part of American History. How weird would it be if you attended a celebration of American History and there was no mention of the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolutionary War, and/or the moon landing?

Oh, “Wait,” you say? Summer of 1969 is close enough to 1970 to talk about the moon landing? (Well, it’s OK, unless you don’t believe it happened.) But, how do you explain that Project Apollo was conceived during President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration (in the 1950s) and that President John F. Kennedy mentioned it in a speech to the joint sessions of the United States Congress in 1961? After all, history does not exist in a vacuum.

“Mexican-Americans, Mexican youth who were born in this country, whose heritage is this country, are not accepted. At the City Council of which I am a member at this time, we have not a single Mexican down there in a policy-making position. I am concerned because I think that they should have representation. If taxation without representation was important in the founding of this country, it is important now.

I had a woman say to me one day that, ‘I think these Mexicans should go back to Mexico where they came from.’ Immediately I said to her, ‘This is Mexico – this part of Mexico has been sold to us. These people have a right here, just like every other ethnic group.’ It‘s amazing to me that this country is a melting pot, made up of people from all over the world – of lands all over the world – and yet they would want to deny those of color, they‘re rights and privileges.”

– Mrs. Juanita Jewel Craft, quoted from The Black Women Oral History Project, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University (interview conducted by Mrs. Dorothy R. Robinson (01/20/1977)

History, as we experience it, is a linear, one-dimension continuum – even though, we are able to learn about it in a multi-dimensional way. We are simultaneously able to learn about things that happened at the same time, but in different parts of the country or world – just as we are able to comprehend how one event layers over another event… and then another, to bring us to the present moment. In fact, in Yoga Sūtra 3.53, Patanjali wrote that the highest form of discernment comes from applying concentrated awareness on “the moment and its sequence/succession.”

Again, it’s important to remember that nothing happening now is happening in a vacuum. For instance, when we talk about women who influence politics today, we have to acknowledge, on some level, that women in this country have always been influencing politics – even when they couldn’t vote and/or run for office. Women like Stacy Abrams are directly connected to women like Mrs. Phoebe E. Burn, a.k.a.“Miss Feeb” or “Feeb” (not to mention Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton). They are connected through their activism and by way of a lot of unnamed women throughout history. Of course, that comparison may rankle if you know the history of Black women and the suffragist movement so, maybe we don’t go back that far. Maybe we stick to “recent history” and just say that the women of today (regardless of their race and/or ethnicity), are directly connected to Mrs. Juanita Craft of east Texas.

“Mrs. Craft, on behalf of the project, I want to thank you for lending yourself to this interview. Personally, I think it is a tremendous project and that it fills an urgent need in our nation. It isn‘t that Black women have not made history; it is that the history they made has not been extensively recorded and carefully preserved.”

– Mrs. Dorothy R. Robinson, quoted from The Black Women Oral History Project, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University (Juanita Jewel Craft interview conducted by Mrs. Dorothy R. Robinson (01/20/1977)

Born in Round Rock, Texas on February 9, 1902, Juanita Jewel Craft (née Shanks) was on only child for most of her life. Her grandparents were enslaved people transported directly from Virginia and by way of Tennessee. Her father, David Shanks, was a high school principal. Her mother, Eliza Shanks (née Balfour), was a teacher and seamstress who taught her daughter the skills that she valued. Given that background, it makes sense that, after graduating from high school in Austin, the future Mrs. Craft went to Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College (now Prairie View A&M University), where she earned a certificate in dressmaking and millinery (in 1921) and then went back to Austin in order to earn a teaching certificate from Samuel Huston College (now Huston-Tillotson College). She taught kindergarten in Columbus (about halfway between Austin and Houston) and then she moved to Galveston, where she got married. Unfortunately, here first marriage ended and moved to Dallas, where she worked as a maid at the Adolphus Hotel, as well as as a dressmaker.

By her own account, she didn’t make a lot of money, but she figured out a way to manage. She wanted, however, to do more than just manage. So, in 1935, she joined the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She married Johnny Edward Craft (on October 2, 1937), but that didn’t stop her activism. in fact, her marriage just allowed her to focus on the activism without having to work and she was appointed the Dallas NAACP membership chairman in 1942. Two years later, when the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled in Smith v. Allwright, 321 U.S. 649 (1944) that Texas laws allowing things like “white primaries” were unconstitutional, Juanita Craft became the first African American* woman in Dallas County to vote in a Democratic Party primary.

Several things happened, in 1946, that started advancing Juanita Craft’s prominence in the state and in the country. In addition to being named the Texas NAACP field organizer, she was also named as Youth Council advisor of the Dallas NAACP, and became the first African American woman deputized by the State of Texas to collect the poll tax. During this same time period, she and Lulu Belle White (of the Houston chapter of the NAACP) began organizing new Texas chapters of the NAACP. Over an eleven year period, they would organize 182 Texas branches.

“In 1961, we started working on the theatres and the lunch counters. At which time, we picketed. We stood-in at the theatres. And you know, it got to be quite interesting. The way we performed. A youth would walk up to the window at the theatre and ask for an admission ticket. And when that youth was denied – without any further conversation – he would walk back to the end of the line, and go right through it again.

There was a complete circle. Students from SMU and other areas around Dallas joined us in our protest.

The thing that would worry me was that a lot of older people could not see our need, or did not join us. I‘ve had friends to say, ‘I came down to see the line.’ I would immediately ask them, ‘Did you bring a bottle of Coke? Or did you bring a sandwich to one of those kids?’

And I have seen those kids so dedicated to breaking the chain that was binding them. But they were, would [pause] – They would walk until their shoes became unbearable and they would continue to walk until they‘d worn out the feet of their hose.”

– Mrs. Juanita Jewel Craft, quoted from The Black Women Oral History Project, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University (interview conducted by Mrs. Dorothy R. Robinson (01/20/1977)

The impact of Juanita Craft’s organizing is most obvious when you look at her work with the Youth Council, work that made the Dallas group a model for other chapters. She fought to get African American students enrolled at North Texas State College (now North Texas State University). Then, as more educational opportunities opened up for African American students, she fought to ensure that the students were physically safe and given what they had been promised. When fraudulent trade schools were promising luxury dorms, meals, and jobs – but providing none of what was promised – she fought for better housing and found jobs for the students. She also fed them. Sometimes you took meals to the students who were facing discrimination at the universities. Other times, the students came to her home for meals. All the while, she was feeding information to officials.

She organized protests at the State Fair of Texas – which, at the time, only admitting Blacks on “Negro Achievement Day” – and organized anti-segregation protests at lunch counters, restaurants, theaters, and public transportation to protest segregation. There were sit-ins, stand-ins, and freedom walks. In one instance, members of the Youth Council would buy something inside of a store and then take their purchase to the store’s lunch counter (where they could not be served), each student would politely ask why they could buy something like poster board in the store, but not be served. After asking the server, they would ask for a manager. Then, after speaking to the manager, they would leave and the next student would enter, also with a purchase of some kind.

The systems the Youth Council used were effective and adopted by adults who continued the fight, but everything the council did was not overt activism. Above and beyond anything else, Juanita Craft mentored the youth of Dallas. She raised money in order to take members of the council, as well as integrated student groups, on field trips to learn about running a business, to visit NAACP chapters in other states, and to visit members of Congress in order to better understand how the state and country were governed. She also took the kids sightseeing to see places like the Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns, the Pacific Ocean, and the Eastern seaboard. On every trip, she ensured that the students visited colleges and universities in the area. She also ran “Stay in School” and “Anti-Riot” campaigns that featured bumper stickers and placards with catchy slogans in English and Spanish, including: “Learn and Earn; Stay in School.”, “I’m Going Back to School. What About You?”, “Keep It Cool. Don’t Be Fool.”, “Think Before You Act.” and “Don’t.”

“The only thing that I could say, in defense of my being on the [City] Council, is an old stupid woman who wasn‘t satisfied with those persons that were running to fill the unexpired term left on the Council in this district. I think that that‘s a slogan that I‘ve carried with me – If I don’t like what the other fellow‘s doing, I get up and do it myself.”

– Mrs. Juanita Jewel Craft, quoted from The Black Women Oral History Project, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University (interview conducted by Mrs. Dorothy R. Robinson (01/20/1977)

Her civic engagement continued even after her husband died in 1950. Juanita Craft served as Democratic precinct chairman (1952 – 1975) and served two terms on the Dallas City Council for District 6 (1975 – 1979). While on the City Council, she focused on a major drug and alcohol reduction program, subsidized housing, historic preservation, strengthening code enforcement and environmental ordinances, and animal control. Additional , she was an active member of the Munger Avenue Baptist Church, the Democratic Women’s Club, the YWCA, the League of Women Voters, and the National Council of Negro Women, as well as local, state, and national boards of the Urban League of Greater Dallas, Goals for Dallas, Dallas United Nations, and the Governor’s Human Relations Committee. Her took her from Dallas to San Francisco to St. Paul, Minnesota, to Washington, D. C. to Arlington, Virginia, and then back down to the South. Through it all, she continued to work with the NAACP.

Much of Juanita Craft’s activism led to litigation that led to new legislation on the local, state, and federal level – like aforementioned investigation into fraudulent trade-schools in Dallas – and that kind of legal activism meant students were not the only people congregating around her dining room table. People like future SCOTUS Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall (then-lead council for the NAACP’s national office) and Martin Luther King Jr. were frequent visitors. They were not, however, the only political luminaries that graced her presence. By the end of her life, she would meet Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Jimmy Carter, and she would be invited to the White House on multiple occasions.

Mrs. Juanita Jewel Craft received a lot praise and accolades in her day. However, when she was asked to name one of the awards that was most significant, she couldn’t do it; saying instead that “all of them are precious to me because all of them have had… a little something that was indeed outstanding. It would be hard for me to say which one was most important or which activity had been most important.” Then, she related a story about a horrible incident in Dallas that led to activism that resulted in people being able to vote. She didn’t care about the awards; she cared about the rewards of people having the Constitutional rights.

“I was really disturbed when they told me there that there wasn‘t a law in the State of Texas that would protect them. Well, I said, ‘If we don‘t have a law, we‘re going to get some laws, because this is ridiculous.”

– Mrs. Juanita Jewel Craft, quoted from The Black Women Oral History Project, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University (interview conducted by Mrs. Dorothy R. Robinson (01/20/1977)

Practice Notes: My maternal grandmother was passionate about a lot of things, including registering people to vote. I never thought to ask her if she knew Juanita Craft, because the fact that they ran in the same Texas circles was not on my radar. That said, if I led a class dedicated to Mrs. Craft, I might think about what kind of practice my grandmother would have appreciated and what kind of practice might be appropriate for those students standing in the picket lines. So, it would be something “restorative” in nature, maybe with supported backbends, “Humble Warriors,” something for the hips, and something for the feet (like a little ball rolling). I would encourage props – especially for some prone heart-releasing – and there would definitely be “Legs-Up-the-Wall/Chair” (variations of Viparita Karani).

Remember, activism takes it’s toll and you can not be of use to anyone if you burn out.

“My life does not belong to me. I have no particular family, some cousins, but I have nobody that I‘m particularly responsible to. Therefore, I have adopted everybody. and I feel that if I can make any contribution to the lives of any person I want to be about that.”

– Mrs. Juanita Jewel Craft, quoted from The Black Women Oral History Project, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University (interview conducted by Mrs. Dorothy R. Robinson (01/20/1977)

*NOTE: Regarding nomenclature, I have spoken before about the different names legally applied to people of color in the United States, as well as how those legal terms are adopted and/or rejected by the people to whom they are applied. The names, just like the idea of race, are social constructed and have changed over time. Most biographies about Juanita Craft use the word “Black,” but she was very clear that she did not appreciate the term and, therefore, I have not used it here in the way I have in other notes.

### “I wish I could share all the love that’s in my heart / Remove all the bars that keep us apart / I wish you could know what it means to be me / Then you’d see and agree /
That every man should be free” ~ Nina Simone ###

Space and the Power of Hearing(s) (a special Black History note, w/a Tuesday link) February 8, 2023

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in "Impossible" People, Art, Books, Buddhism, Changing Perspectives, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Faith, Gandhi, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Hope, Life, Men, Minnesota, Music, One Hoop, Pain, Peace, Poetry, Suffering, Tragedy, Wisdom, Women, Writing, Yoga.
Tags: Alabama Supreme Court, Andy Wright, Beth Birmingham, Bhamwiki.com, birthdays on February 7, Black History Month, Charlie Weems, Christopher Isherwood, Civil Rights Movement, Clarence Norris, Countee Cullen, Creed Conyers, dreaming, Dred Scot, Eeva Sallinen, Ella Virginia Eaton Adams, Emily Sarmiento, Eugene Williams, Frank “Doc” Adams, Garth Brooks, Hallie Rubenhold, Haywood Patterson, HBCUs, James Baker, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Mann Act, Myal Greene, niyamas, Olin Montgomery, Oscar William Adams Jr., Oscar William Adams Sr., Ralph D. Cook, Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, Roy Wright, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, santosha, santoşā, Scottsboro Boys, SCOTUS, Season of Non-violence, Season of Nonviolence, Sinclair Lewis, Supreme Court, Swami Prabhavananda, Tom Gordon, U. W. Clemon, Willie Roberson, yamas
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Peace and ease to all during this “Season of Non-violence” and all other seasons!

This is a special post for Tuesday, February 7^th. Please note that only the Tuesday evening practice references this profile. You can request a recording of the Tuesday practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

WARNING: The following includes a recounting of the Scottsboro Boys trials.

Post revised March 2024.

“It’s a bad habit we have: We tell the tale of the murder and not the murdered.”

“I’ll also explain why my research has enraged so many people who claim to be experts in the Ripper case.”

“If you want to know how we got the Ripper story so wrong, what those mistakes tell us about ourselves, and why putting the record straight makes some people so very angry, join me, Hallie Rubenhold for Bad Women: The Ripper Retold.”

— quoted from the podcast trailer for Season 1of Bad Women: The Ripper Retold, hosted by Hallie Rubenhold

How we tell a story, especially a story about real life and real events, says a lot about how we feel about our circumstances. Same goes for what we read (if we are in the habit of reading for pleasure) and/or what other kinds of media we consume. On a certain level, it is all about escape. But, are we “escaping” because we need to decompress and give our brains a rest? Or are we “escaping” because we’re not satisfied with our lot in life? If it’s the latter, what would it take to be content, satisfied — happy even — with our lot?

These are the kinds of questions I pose during classes on February 7^th. They’re questions that serve as entryways into the practice of santoşā (“contentment”), which is the second niyama (“internal observation”) in the Yoga Philosophy. (Of course, for today, you can think of it as Number 7 in the philosophy’s list of ethics.) Answering the question requires turning inward and doing a little svādhyāya (“self study”), which is the fourth niyama. One way to turn inward and take a look at yourself is to reflect on what you would do and how you would feel in certain situations. Classically, it might be understood that such reflection would be done in the context of sacred text; however, it is also possible to simply put yourself in someone else’s shoes.

For example, would you be content, satisfied — happy even, if you were a girl born in “a little house on the prairie” — or, would you dream of something more? Would you stay on the prairie, unsatisfied, like “a hard luck woman” waiting for your man? Or, would you be like Laura Ingalls Wilder (b. 02/07/1867, in Pepin Country, Wisconsin) and make your dreams come true by writing about your experiences (and all the people you knew)? Even then, how many of your dreams would need to come true for you to be grateful and, therefore, satisfied?

Or, perhaps, like Sinclair Lewis (b. 02/07/1885, in Sauk Centre, Minnesota) you were born in a northern town with “one light blinking off and on.” Would you be content, satisfied — happy even — or, would you dream of something more? Would you be the one in the song who never does the things they thought they would and never knew they could leave? Or, would you be the one, like Mr. Lewis, who left for the big city, wrote about your experiences (and all the people you knew), and became what everyone’s talking about down on Main Street? Even then, would you be grateful (and, therefore, satisfied) or would you be like Carol Milford and want to change everything?

The thing is, there is nothing wrong with dreaming, hoping, and praying for change. There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to improve your situation and/or the situations of others. Nor is there anything wrong with wanting to change injustice laws and breakdown systems of inequity. You could be a common man, a simple man, a sweet man born in Tornado Alley — like Troyal Garth Brooks (b. 02/07/1962, in Tulsa, Oklahoma) — and dream of sharing your storytelling gifts with the world. But would you be satisfied? Would you be “happy in this modern world? Or do you need more?” And when would the “more” be enough for you to be grateful and, therefore, satisfied?

Take a moment to consider being yourself in one of those other people’s circumstances. Then, let’s go a little deeper.

Click here to read my 2021 post about practicing santoşā on the 7^th.

On Monday, I referenced the daily contemplation elements offered by the Mahatma Gandhi Canadian Foundation for World Peace during this Season for Nonviolence. Remember, these are elements found in the teachings of both Mahatma Gandhi and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The element for February 7^th is dreaming and it brings to mind the fact that MLK (as well as Gandhi) dreamed of better worlds, more just worlds, more equitable worlds. They were committed to practicing non-violence and passive resistance, but they were not satisfied. They were not content (with the social status quo). Nor should they have been. Some things, after all, are unacceptable.

To practice santoşā, however, we must accept what is (i.e., what exists as it exists in the moment — or as we understand it to exist). Acceptance, in this case, does not mean that we just casually throw our hands up and accept violence, injustice, and inequity as basic staples of life. Neither does it mean that we ignore what is happening around us. Instead, the practice requires us to be truthful about the situation, our roles in the situation, and what we can do to change the situation. The practice also requires us to proceed with clear-minded awareness of how we are connected to everything and everybody and to be dedicated and disciplined in our practice of non-violence and non-harming. Finally, the practice requires that we practice non-attachment; meaning that we do all we can do and then let go with a kind of trustful surrender. This is basically a summary of 9 of the 10 elements that make up the ethics of the Yoga Philosophy.

The elements that make up the corner stone of the Yoga Philosophy overlap commandments found in the Abrahamic religions, precepts found in Buddhism, and values found in philosophies and indigenous religions around the world. These are shared values that stretch back into eons and yet we still have problems… big problems — which means we still need leaders, thinkers, and speakers who can hear what is needed in the world and respond wisely, safely, and justly. Such a man was born in Alabama, during the period of violence that directly preceded the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. His life and his legacy are yet another illustration of a dreamer who was not satisfied, yet made choices for which we can all be grateful.

“Editorials expressed hope that through participation in war, black citizens would gain opportunities at home. Among the outrages that the Reporter chronicled were frequent lynchings across the South, a topic that led [Oscar William Adams, Sr.] to write, ‘It is a shame before the living God and man that we should continue to preach democracy and permit such autocracy and savagery within our own borders.’”

— quoted from Bhamwiki.com (citing Gordon, Tom (May 2, 2018) “Civil decency. Human honesty.” B-Metro

Born in Birmingham, Alabama on February 7, 1925, Oscar William Adams, Jr. was the oldest of two sons born to Oscar William Adams, Sr. and Ella Virginia Adams (née Eaton). His brother, Frank “Doc” Adams became a great jazz clarinetist, saxophonist and bandleader, who was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. Meanwhile, Oscar, Jr. became the first African American member of Birmingham Bar Association (in 1966) and co-founded Birmingham’s first integrated law firm and its first African American law firm. He also litigated a variety of civil rights cases before becoming the first African American to serve on an Alabama appellate court and a well respected member of the Alabama Supreme Court.

Just like with the other dreamers born on this date, to understand the story of Judge Adams, we have to look back at the causes and conditions of his circumstances — which means going a little deeper into history. And, if we are going a little deeper into Alabama history that informed the dreams of the Adams brothers, we can start with their father, Oscar William Adams, Sr., a journalist and publisher who founded The Birmingham Reporter in 1906.

Unlike Black newspapers published in the North at the time, southern media outlets like The Birmingham Reporter had to tread carefully and be circumspect in it’s coverage of race-related news. To be too critical in opinion pieces or — in many cases — too honest about the facts of certain news stories, might mean that the newspaper, the journalists, and their families could be physically attacked. By all accounts, Oscar William Adams, Sr. had a real knack for creating layouts and crafting articles that told the whole story without explicitly telling the whole story. He couldn’t always tell his readers what happened, but he could show them. He could juxtapose articles about 9 Black kids being tried for rape with articles about almost twice as many white teenagers being exonerated before a trial. His readers had to perfect the skill of reading between the lines. It was like his readers understood the practice of focusing, concentrating, and meditating on the space between the ears and the process of hearing.

“In this state of withdrawal, ‘Great Disincarnation’ the mental coverings composed of rajas and tamas dwindle away and the light of sattwa is revealed.”

— quoted from How to Know God: The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali (3:42), translated and with commentary by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood

That aforementioned example is not random; it is one of the ways Oscar William Adams, Sr. covered the Scottsboro Boys, a group of nine African Americans teenagers (age 12 – 19 years old) who were accused of raping two white women on a train full of “hoboes.” Nowadays, people might think of hoboes, tramps, and bums as one and the same. During the Great Depression, however, people very clearly understood that a hobo was someone who was traveling in order to work (but didn’t have the means to pay for their travel). On March 25, 1931, a fight broke out (in Tennessee) on a Southbound train full of Black and white hobos, because a group of white teenagers declared the train “whites only.” Even though there were reportedly the same number of hoboes of each race on the train, the white teenagers ended up leaving the train. Defeated and angry, they told the local sheriff that they had been attacked by the Black teenagers. The sheriff — plus some local residents that he deputized — intercepted the train in Paint Rock, Alabama, and arrested the Black teenagers.

They also arrested two young white women (age 17 and 21 years old).

Now, if you know anything about “bad women,” you know that two unaccompanied white women traveling in the presence of men — especially Black men — didn’t have a lot of choices. They could be labeled as prostitutes — which, in this case (because they crossed state lines) would mean they had violated The White-Slave Traffic Act of 1910, also called the Mann Act, and could face lengthy prison terms. The other option was to say they were raped. Unlike most of the men, the two women knew each other and were actually traveling together. They decided (or, possibly the older one convinced the younger one) that it was in their best interest to say they were raped. A doctor was called in to examine them, but could find no signs of rape or trauma. It would later turn out that no one could truthfully confirm if the women and the teenagers were ever even in the same car. But, none of that mattered: it was 1931; the teenagers would go to court in Scottsboro, Alabama.

At the end of three speedy trials, all eight of the nine teenagers — including one who was almost blind and another who was so disabled that he could barely walk — were convicted and sentenced to death by all-white juries. The youngest of the nine was convicted, but his trial ended in a hung jury, because they couldn’t agree on the penalty: some wanted him to receive the death penalty, despite his age. All of the cases were appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court and then the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), which overturned the convictions and sent the cases back down to Alabama. A change of venue was granted and all nine headed to court in rural Decatur, Alabama in the Spring of 1933.

Despite the decision for the cases to be re-tried, all nine were under heavy guard and the eight previously sentenced to death were in prison garb. Despite arguments from the defense attorneys (Samuel Leibowitz and Joseph Brodsky, who had also served as second chair on the earlier trials), the trials again had all-white juries. Despite the fact that the youngest of the alleged victims recanted, the defendants were again convicted. The first of the nine was convicted despite the fact that many of the jurors knew he was innocent. But, Decatur was Klan country and the Ku Klux Klan made it very clear what they thought the outcome of the trials should be and what would happen to any juror who didn’t convict and recommend the death penalty. Judge James Edwin Horton set the verdict aside and indefinitely postponed the other trials. He did this, knowing it would end his political career. He also considered a change of venue, but, in the end, the first of the Scottsboro Boys faced his third trial in Decatur.

With a new judge, but no National Guard protection, the second set of retrials took place in Winter 1933. They resulted in two more convictions. Appeals to SCOTUS, in 1935, resulted in the convictions being overturned and the Scottsboro 9 were back in court. This time, however, there was one African American juror: Creed Conyers, the first Black person to serve on an Alabama grand jury since 1877. The newly elected Attorney General served as the prosecuting attorney and the trials lasted from January of 1936 until the summer of 1937. After spending over six years in prison (as adults on death row), the legal fate of the Scottsboro Boys was as follows:

After 4 trials, Haywood Patterson (18 when arrested) was convicted and sentenced to 75 years in prison. This was the first time a Black man in Alabama had been convicted of raping a white woman and had not received the death penalty. He escaped in 1949; end up in Michigan; but then went back to prison on a different case in 1951.
After 3 trials, Clarence Norris (19 when arrested) was convicted and given the death penalty. His sentence was commuted in 1938; he was paroled (and jumped parole) in 1946. He was pardoned in 1976.
After 2 trials, Charlie Weems (19 when arrested) was convicted and sentenced to 105 years. He was paroled in 1943.
After 2 trials, Andrew “Andy” Wright (19 when arrested) was convicted and sentenced to 99 years. He was paroled; violated his parole; and then was placed on parole again (in New York) in 1950.
During his 2nd trial, Ozie Powell (16 when arrested) was shot by a sheriff and suffered brain damage. Somehow, he pleaded guilty to assaulting an officer and received 20 years. The initial rape charges were dropped as part of his plea agreement. He was paroled in 1946.
After 2 trials, the final prosecutor declared Olin Montgomery (17 when arrested) “not guilty” and dropped all charges.
After 2 trials, the final prosecutor declared Willie Roberson (16 when arrested) “not guilty” and dropped all charges.
After 2 trials, Roy Wright (12 when arrested) was deemed “too young” to be convicted and all charges were dropped.
After 2 trials, Eugene Williams (13 when arrested) was deemed “too young” to be convicted and all charges were dropped.

NOTE: The number of trials (noted above) does not count appeals or the fact that the defendants were often in the courtroom when others were being tried. Nor does it reflect the fact that sometimes jurors were swapped (like school kids moving between classrooms). Several of the aforementioned had additional legal issues, but I have not listed them all.

In 1938, the Governor of Alabama (Bibb Graves) made plans to pardon those who were imprisoned, but changed his mind because he didn’t like their attitude and the fact that they continued to declare themselves innocent. In 2013, 82 years after they were arrested, the state of Alabama issued posthumous pardons for Haywood Patterson, Charlie Weems, and Andy Wright.

“Remembering their sharp and pretty
Tunes for Sacco and Vanzetti,
I said:
Here too’s a cause divinely spun
For those whose eyes are on the sun,
Here in epitome
Is all disgrace
And epic wrong.
Like wine to brace
The minstrel heart, and blare it into song.

Surely, I said,
Now will the poets sing.
But they have raised no cry.
I wonder why.”

— quoted from the poem “Scottsboro, Too, Is, Worth Its Song” by Countee Cullen

The trials and tribulations of the Scottsboro Boys inspired a plethora of writers, including Langston Hughes (Scottsboro Limited), Harper Lee (To Kill A Mockingbird), Ellen Feldman (Scottsboro: A Novel), Richard Wright (Native Son), Allen Ginsberg (America), Countee Cullen (“Scottsboro, Too, Is, Worth Its Song”), Jean-Paul Sartre (The Respectful Prostitute [La Putain respectueuse]), Utpal Dutta (মানুষের অধিকারে [The Rights of Man]); as well as creators of the musicals The Scottsboro Boys and Direct from Death Row The Scottsboro Boys; musicians like Lead Belly (“The Scottsboro Boys”) and Rage Against the Machine (“Scottsboro, Too, Is, Worth Its Song”); and filmmakers and political cartoonists.

The events also, inevitably, shaped the thoughts and desires of Oscar William Adams, Jr. — who would have turned 6 years old shortly before the teenagers were arrested and his father started covering the story. He was 12 (the same age the youngest had been when arrested) when the final trials concluded and around 18 (the same age the first to be convicted was when arrested) when the first man was paroled. Can you imagine what it would have been like to grow up in the Birmingham at that time? Regardless of if you visualize yourself as you are, in that situation or if you see yourself as the junior Mr. Adams, can you imagine how this situation might have informed your opinions — of yourself, of people who look like you, as well as of people who don’t look like you? Can you imagine how this situation would have informed your dreams and your decisions about the world?

And, this is all without considering “The Talk.”

I can’t imagine any Black child being satisfied with these circumstances. I can’t imagine any Black kid being content with these circumstances. I can’t imagine any Black teenager not dreaming about a better world; a more just, equitable, and peaceful world.

“The black man does not wish to be the pet of the law. The more blacks become enmeshed in meaningful positions in our society, then the more that society will be come non-discriminatory. His goals and ideals will become identical with goals and ideals of the rest of society. To insist on special treatment, and demand and get integration in other aspects of society is to pursue inconsistent approaches. If a black man is allowed to go as far as his talents will carry him, he will not need special protection from the courts. If he is not, the courts will once again be asked for special protection.”

— quoted from the special concurrence opinion for Beck v. State, 396 So. 2d 645 (1980) by Alabama Supreme Court Justice Oscar W. Adams

We can never know what dreams he would have had and decisions he would have made if Oscar William Adams, Jr. had been someone else’s son and/or had experienced Birmingham in the mid-20th century through someone else’s circumstances. What we do know is that after he graduated from high school, Mr. Adams, Jr. attended two historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs): Talladega College, Alabama’s oldest private HBCU, where he earned a degree in philosophy (1944) and Howard University, where he earned a law degree (1947). We also know that he came back to Alabama to practice.

Soon after he graduated, Mr. Adams, Jr. was admitted to the Alabama State Bar and opened up his own private practice, where he specialized in civil rights cases. He worked very closely with the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, founder of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) and co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which was instrumental in organizing the Selma-to-Montgomery marches in 1965. He became the first African American member of Birmingham Bar Association (1966) and, in 1967, he and Harvey Burg co-founded the first integrated law firm in Alabama. Two years later, in 1969, he co-founded Birmingham’s first African American law firm with James Baker, an Ivy League lawyer from Philadelphia. The firm became known as Adams, Baker & Clemon, when the original partners were joined by U.W. Clemon, who would become a lot of notable firsts (including Alabama’s first African American federal judge).

Throughout his career as an attorney in private practice, Oscar William Adams, Jr. litigated various kinds of cases on behalf of Martin Luther King Jr. and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), as well as cases focused on school desegregation (e.g., Armstrong v. Board of Education of City of Birmingham, Ala., 220 F. Supp. 217 (N.D. Ala. 1963)); discrimination cases (e.g., Terry v. Elmwood Cemetery, 307 F. Supp. 369 (N.D. Ala. 1969) and Pettway v. AMERICAN CAST IRON PIPE COMPANY, 332 F. Supp. 811 (N.D. Ala. 1970)); and voting rights cases.

He became the first African American to serve on an Alabama appellate court on October 10, 1980, when an Alabama Supreme Court justice retired due to health issues. Eleven days before he was sworn in, the court heard arguments for Beck v. State, 396 So. 2d 645 (1980), a case about the death penalty and how it was applied. The court’s decision would include a history of the death penalty in Alabama and highlight a period of injustices. However, the court’s statement that “during part of Alabama’s history, [what offenses authorized the imposition of death] reflected the interaction and relative position of the races, especially during the period prior to the Civil War, when slaves and free Negroes were admittedly singled out for special treatment insofar as capital punishment was concerned. Nevertheless, with that one exception…” made it sound as if the death penalty was rarely applied to innocent people purely based on their race — completely negating the fact that (in their lifetimes) it had been thusly applied multiple times. Mr. Adams, Jr. was sworn in on December 17^th, listened to a recording of the argument and, two days later, wrote a special concurrence. It was his first official statement from the bench.

“In the early seventies, blacks argued for bifurcated jury trials, and this Court today has mandated such for the State of Alabama. In the seventies, blacks asked that sentences for rape and other offenses be not discriminatorily and freakishly imposed.”

— quoted from the special concurrence opinion for Beck v. State, 396 So. 2d 645 (1980) by Alabama Supreme Court Justice Oscar W. Adams

After completing the remaining two years of the unexpired term he had assumed, he decided to run for the office. The largest bar associations endorsed him, rather than his white counterparts, and in 1982, he became the first African American to be elected (by popular vote) to a statewide constitutional office in Alabama. He served on the Alabama Supreme Court until October 31, 1994, when retired from the bench. After his retirement from being behind the bench, he returned to the front: working with the Birmingham law firm of White, Dunn & Booker (now White, Arnold & Dowd). He also served as co-chairman of the Second Citizens’ Conference on Judicial Elections and Campaigns.

Oscar William Adams Jr. was replaced with the state’s second African American Supreme Court Justice, Ralph D. Cook. It would make for a great story if, in the intervening years — between 1980 and 1994 and between 1994 and today — more African American lawyers had become judges who became justices in the state of Alabama. That would be super satisfying.

Unfortunately, I can’t truthfully tell that story.

Associate Justice Cook retired from the bench in 2001. John H. England Jr served as a justice on the Alabama Supreme Court justice from 1999 until 2001. (His son, John H. England, III is one of a handful of African American judges serving in Alabama’s federal courts.) According to the Brennan Center for Justice’s 2022 update, Alabama is currently one of 28 states with no Black justices. Furthermore, it is one of six states where Black residents make up at least 10% of the population. Specifically, 35% of Alabama’s population is classified as people of color and 27% of the total population identifies as Black. Yet, all nine of the Supreme Court justices, all five members of the Court of Criminal Appeals, and all five of the Court of Civil Appeals are white.

Quite often, when statistics like these are presented, some people will say representation doesn’t matter as much as education and experience. Well, I am just grateful that more and more people are getting the education and the experience that puts them in the pipeline. That appreciation for the way things are changing is part of the practice of santoşā. If you ask me if I am actually satisfied and content to wait, I can honestly say that I have no choice; because I can’t (directly) do anything about it. And that acceptance (and awareness of what is and is not in my control) is the non-attachment part of the practice.

Of course, the next logical question is: Well, when will you be satisfied? When will you be content? When posed with a similar question, SCOTUS associate justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg had a pretty succinct answer. I’m not sure if it would be my answer; but it is worth considering what the country would be like — what the world would be like — if the tables turned.

“Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg famously said, ‘I’m sometimes asked, “When will there be enough [women on the Supreme Court]?” And I say when there are nine. People are shocked. But there’d been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that.’

Asking, ‘How diverse is diverse enough?’ still represents a tick–the–box mentality rather than embracing the types of cultural, innovation, and bottom–line changes we have described here. When organizations start to embrace the breakthrough diversity can represent, we can move beyond thinking about quotas and targets. The real change we are talking about takes us far past ‘the one/the few’ to as many hires as it takes to create a culture of belonging and move our sector into the future.”

— quoted from “What Is Diverse Enough” in “Chapter 4. A Clear Case” of Creating Cultures of Belonging: Cultivating Organization where Women and Men Thrive by Beth Birmingham and Eeva Sallinen Simard (forward by Myal Greene and Emily Sarmiento)

PRACTICE NOTES: I don’t necessarily have a standard sequence for a February 7^th practice, but it is a practice that leans towards having a fair amount of balance. Sometimes, after completing a portion of the practice, I pose the questions, “Would you be satisfied if this was the end of the practice? Would you grateful (if you got what you needed), or would you still be wishing, hoping, praying for what you wanted? What would cause you to be more grateful and, therefore, more joyful?”

Every once in a while, I’ll even throw in a tolāsana (scale pose).

### 7 of 9 (1857) ###

Having the Mettle/Metal to Mix it Up (a special Black History 2-for-1 note) February 6, 2023

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in "Impossible" People, Baseball, Changing Perspectives, Faith, Food, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Hope, Life, Music, New Year, One Hoop, Pain, Religion, Suffering, Wisdom, Yoga.
Tags: Barbara Lucas, Billye Suber Williams, Black History Month, Bread, David Chang, dumplings, Fannie Farmer, Hank Aaron., Henry Lewis Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, Lantern Festival, Lonnie Wheeler, Lunar New Year, Nina Simone, pinyin, Spring Festival, tangyuan, Tommie Lee Aaron, Willis Johnson, Yuan Xiao
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Happy Lantern Festival! Happy Carnival! Peace and ease to all during this “Season of Non-violence” and all other seasons!

This is a special post for Sunday, February 5^th. Click here if you are interested in details about the Lantern Festival, which takes place on the final day of the Spring Festival, and other elements related to Sunday’s practice.

“[Food] sort of intersects so many different parts of culture throughout the world. So, in so many ways, you know, creating the show with Morgan Neville and Eddie Schmidt, we decided that food could be sort of a Trojan horse to talk about many of the great things in culture and many of the bad things in culture.”

– David Chang talking about his Netflix series “Ugly Delicious” on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (May 2018)

One of the things for which I will be eternally is that I grew up exposed to so many different kinds of food from so many different cultures. Sometimes the food came from restaurants; sometimes the food came from friends and families who were from other parts of the country and/or other parts of the world. A lot of meals came with stories or lessons – like, for instance, why I could eat certain foods when we went out, but not at home. Having those kinds of experiences, as a kid, makes it hard for me to imagine going to a restaurant and only ever ordering pork chops like Henry Lewis “Hank” Aaron and Tommie Lee Aaron did when they were playing Major League Baseball.

If you are a baseball fan, you might already know that Henry Lewis “Hank” Aaron was born February 5, 1934, in Mobile, Alabama (the city with the third largest number of players in the Baseball Hall of Fame). You might have heard stories about how he had seven siblings and that his family was so poor he made his own baseball bats. You might already know that “Hammerin’ Hank,” also known simply as “Hammer” (or Henry to his friends), started playing for the semi-pro Mobile Black Bears (a.k.a. the Mobile Black Shippers) when he was still in high school – but only at Sunday home games. You probably know that he also played professionally in the Negro Leagues when he was in high school and that his team, the Indianapolis Clowns, won the Negro American League (NAL) championship in 1952 – just a few months after he joined the team. You might even know that while he idolized Jackie Robinson and tried out for the Brooklyn Dodgers when he was 15, he didn’t make the cut in 1949. After winning the 1952 NAL championship, however, he was offered Major League Baseball (MLB) contracts from two different teams.

Even if you’re not a baseball fan, you’ve probably heard the name Hank Aaron and know that he was one of the greatest players in baseball history. So, I could just focus on Mr. Aaron’s phenomenal stats. After all, by the time he retired, he had spent 23 seasons in MLB; held records for the most career runs batted in (RBIs) (2,297), extra base hits (1,477), and total bases (6,856) – a record that meant he travelled12 miles farther (on the base paths) than any other player in MLB history; and he had broken Babe Ruth’s claim to most home runs – a record Hank Aaron held for 33 years.

“And when it was over, my real job was only starting. Once the record was mind, I had to use it like a Louisville Slugger. I believed, and still do, that there was a reason why I was chosen to break the record. I feel it’s my task to carry on where Jackie Robinson left off, and I only know of one way to go about it. It’s the only way I’ve ever had of dealing with things like fastballs and bigotry – keep swinging at them. As a ballplayer, I always figured that I had a bat and all the pitcher had was a little ball, and as long as I kept swinging that bat I’d be all right.”

– quoted from Chapter 3 of I Had A Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story by Hank Aaron with Lonnie Wheeler

The thing is: I really wanted to mix things up today.

Of course, if you’re a Hank Aaron fan, then you’re thinking, “That’s perfect, because the Hammer started off a cross-handed hitter and then switched it up.” Which I believe is true. The power hitter started his career as a right-handed hitter who swung the bat with his left hand above his right and he racked up some pretty impressive stats like that until he started in the minors. Even after he switched to the standard grip (with his dominant hand on top), he out hit and out ran pretty much every one on the diamond. During the bulk of his career in the majors, he hit at least 24 home runs every year and is one of only two players to hit 30 or more home runs in a season at least fifteen times. He is also ranked third of all-time for career hits (3,771); fifth in runs scored (2,174); and is one of only four players to have at least 17 seasons with 150 or more hits.

In his first season in the minors, Henry “Hank” Aaron was named as a Northern League All-Star and Rookie of the Year. A year later, in 1953, he was named Most Valuable Player in the South Atlantic League. The following year, in 1954, he was off the farm and playing for in the majors for Milwaukee (in between their time as the Brewers). He continued playing for the team when they moved to Atlanta and then spent his final year playing for the new Milwaukee Brewers (née Seattle Pilots). By the time he retired, he had made the National League (NL) All-Star roster 20 times and the American league (AL) All-Star roster once; played in 24 All-Start games (with 25 total selections); earned two NL batting titles; won three Golden Glove awards (as the best defender in a league); and won the 1957 NL Most Valuable Player award. That 1957 MVP award came after he clinched the pennant for Milwaukee by hitting a two-run walk-off home run against the St. Louis Cardinals. (I think that’s still the only time someone has won a pennant during a regular season game by hitting a game-ending homerun in the final inning). Milwaukee would go on to beat the New York Yankees and win the 1957 World Series.

“The day after Baltimore, we were rained out of a big Sunday doubleheader at Griffith Stadium in Washington. We had breakfast while we were waiting for the rain to stop, and I can still envision sitting with the Clowns in a restaurant behind Griffith Stadium and hearing them break all the plates in the kitchen after we were finished eating. What a horrible sound. Even as a kid, the irony of it hit me: Here we were in the capital in the land of freedom and equality, and they had to destroy the plates that had touched the forks that had been in the mouths of black men. If dogs had eaten off those plates, they’d have washed them.”

– quoted from Chapter 3 of I Had A Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story by Hank Aaron with Lonnie Wheeler

Of course, life wasn’t all sunshine and homeruns for Henry. Remember, there were fast balls and bigotry. And sometimes life itself was the fast ball. For instance, he met and married his first wife, Barbara Lucas, just as he was hitting his stride in MLB; but, the couple lost one of their newborn twins not long after Milwaukee won the 1957 World Series. Just as he dealt with racism when he was playing with the Negro Leagues, he had to deal with it when he was one of the only African American players in the majors. Opposing teams gave him pejorative nicknames. People sent him so much hate mail that the U. S. Postal Service gave him a plaque. Unfortunately, so much of that mail was full of death threats that journalists had (secretly) written his obituary. There was even a Peanuts cartoon about his situation!

Then there was the segregation, especially in the South, that people had come to expect – e.g., at hotels, restaurants, and public facilities. One sportswriter even noted, “Henry Aaron led the league in everything except hotel accommodations.” However, Mr. Aaron found he also had to deal with segregation with regard to his faith. As a Catholic (covert), it was recommended that he attend mass, even during Spring Training. But, the training camp was in Bradenton, Florida and there were no services available to him as a Black Catholic.

While he was active in the Civil Rights Movement, Mr. Aaron wasn’t known to stand out – except in the way he played. So, even if you are a fan, you may not know that he supported the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) or that he and his second wife, Billye Suber Williams (a history-maker in her own right) co-founded the Hank Aaron Chasing the Dream Foundation, which provides scholarships for underprivileged youth. In January 2021, he and several other notable African Americans publicly received the COVID-19 vaccine in order to demonstrate its safety.

These are just a few highlights that illustrate why Henry Lewis “Hank” Aaron is part of Black history and part of American history. But, like I said before, I really wanted to mix things up today… and part of the reason I wanted to mix things up was because of the dumplings.

“[The] object of my invention is to provide a machine wherewith eggs, batter, and other similar ingredients used by bakers, confectioners, Src.; can be beaten or mixed in the most intimate and expeditious manner. The machine consists, essentially, of a main frame within which is journaled a driving-wheel and a pinion or pulley, the horizontal shaft of the sockets, with which are engaged square or other [non-circular] arbors at the inner extremities of a pair of beater-shafts

…cylinders that occupy detachable trays or racks applied to the opposite sides of the main frame, hooks and staples or other convenient devices being employed for retaining said racks in their proper places. As a result of this construction, either one or both of the cylinders can be readily applied to the racks, and the latter be coupled to the machine, so as to insure a very rapid revolution of the beater shafts, as soon as power is applied to the driving-wheel, as hereinafter more fully described.”

– quoted from part of Letters Patent No. 292,821, dated February 5, 1884, issued to Willis Johnson, Cincinnati, Ohio

The first full moon of the Lunar New Year marks the end of the Spring Festival, a 15-day celebration that culminates with the Lantern Festival. Of course, lanterns are a big part of the celebrations – as are fireworks and the color red. However, sweet-rice dumplings are another key element in some celebrations. They are called tangyuan ( 湯圓 or 汤圆, pinyin: tāngyuán) in southern China and yuanxiao ( 元宵, pinyin: yuánxiāo ) in northern China. As I mentioned in the regular Sunday post, these round dumplings, that are enjoyed at a variety of events and festivals throughout the year, are associated with the story of Yuan Xiao and are a staple during the Lantern Festival, which is actually 元宵節 or 元宵节 (pinyin: Yuánxiāo jié) – Yuan Xiao’s Festival.

The dumplings come in different sizes and flavors and can have different texture and fillings, depending on the region. They are typically served in a soup or broth in some provinces. In fact, the southern name literally means “round balls (or dumplings) in soup.” Sweet fillings include a sweetened black sesame mixture, a sweetened mixture of crushed peanuts, Jujube paste, chocolate paste, red bean paste (Azuki bean), lotus seed paste, Matcha paste, or custard. Savory fillings include (regular) crushed peanuts, minced meat, mushrooms, or cabbage.

Full disclosure: I’ve never made these dumplings. Although, I have eaten them and I know that the different shapes come from the different ways in which the balls are formed. Also, the I know that the dough (and the filling) has to be well mixed. In many cases, you could easily mix the dough with a spoon or chopsticks before you knead and shape it – in fact, that’s what most recipes online recommend. Some fillings, however, require a little extra effort. I mean, you can still use a spoon or chopsticks – which is what people probably used in the old days – but it would be much easier (and faster) to use a mixer.

Patent No. 292,821, dated February 5, 1884, was issued to an African American inventor named Willis Johnson. The patent was for “new and useful improvements in Egg-beaters” and the design featured a handle which could be attached to blades, beaters, or stirrers. The machine was multi-purpose since it also had detachable trays or racks, on opposite sides, so that a cook or baker could beat eggs on one side and batter on the other side. Similarly, you could rotate the containers out – cleaning as you go without having to stop everything because you ran out of clean bowls. This improvement on existing “egg-beaters” was the direct predecessor of modern day electric mixers.

Although I couldn’t find a ton of personal information about Willis Johnson. His residence on the patent is listed as Cincinnati, Ohio and it appears that he was born 1857. According to some sources, he was enslaved for some portion of his life. Given the time frame, it would be interesting to find out how Mr. Johnson learned to read and navigate the patent process.

“[With] this double-acting machine one kind of batter can be mixed in the cylinder H H while another kind of stuff is being beaten up in the other receptacle, I I. It is also apparent that with this double-acting machine one of the cylinders [may] be kept in operation while the other receptacle is either being cleaned or charged. Finally, it is apparent that the wheel B, pulley C, and band D may be omitted and the desired speed of shaft c be obtained by a system of gear-wheels jonrnaled [sic] in the frame A.”

– quoted from part of Letters Patent No. 292,821, dated February 5, 1884, issued to Willis Johnson, Cincinnati, Ohio

Practice Notes: See the Friday note for details on how I lead baseball-inspired practices. For a practice related to Willis Johnson (that didn’t happen on a full moon or new moon), I would probably “mix things up” with different Sun Salutations and maybe some poses that we don’t do very often. There would also be a a little something extra for the shoulders and core (and, maybe also for the feet). As far as music goes, I think this calls for “Fannie’s Recipe Ingredients” or “Bread & Chocolate.”

### “I want a little sugar in my bowl / I want a little sweetness down in my soul” ~ NS ###

FTWMI: Focus+Concentrate+Meditate = Sweet Heaven (w/expansion) January 30, 2023

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Bhakti, Changing Perspectives, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Faith, Gandhi, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Hope, Lent / Great Lent, Life, Meditation, Mysticism, New Year, Pain, Peace, Philosophy, Religion, Suffering, Swami Vivekananda, Tragedy, Wisdom, Yoga.
Tags: Ahimsa, Arun Gandhi, Banlam, Bogside Massacre, Datuk Teh Kim Teh, Grace Chen, Hokkien, Hoklo, Jade Emperor, Lunar New Year, Martyrs' Day, Minnan, Mohandas Gandhi, Patanjali, Samyama, School Day of Non-violence and Peace, Season of Nonviolence, Shi Fa Zhuo, Yoga Sutra 3.4, Yoga Sutras 3.1-3.3
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Happy New Year! Happy Carnival! Many blessings to those celebrating the Jade Emperor’s birthday! Peace and ease to all during this “Season of Non-violence” and all other seasons!

For Those Who Missed It: A version of the following was originally posted in February of 2021. Even though this was posted first, it is a continuation of yesterday’s “Getting Ready & Being Ready” post. Class details have been updated and a slight expansion has been added with regard to Martyrs’ Day / School Day of Non-violence and Peace.

“The Indriyas, the organs of the senses, are acting outwards and coming in contact with external objects. Bringing them under the control of the will is what is called Pratyahara or gathering towards oneself. Fixing the mind on the lotus of the heart, or on the centre of the head, is what is called Dharana. Limited to one spot, making that spot the base, a particular kind of mental waves rises; these are not swallowed up by other kinds of waves, but by degrees become prominent, while all the others recede and finally disappear. Next the multiplicity of these waves gives place to unity and one wave only is left in the mind. This is Dhyana, meditation. When no basis is necessary, when the whole of the mind has become one wave, one-formedness, it is called Samadhi. Bereft of all help from places and centres, only the meaning of the thought is present. If the mind can be fixed on the centre for twelve seconds it will be a Dharana, twelve such Dharanas will be a Dhyana, and twelve such Dhyanas will be a Samadhi.”

– quoted from “Chapter VIII: Raja-Yoga in Brief” in The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 1, Raja-Yoga by Swami Vivekananda

Take a moment to consider where you put your energy, resources, effort, and focus. How much time, money, effort, or awareness do you put into loving someone? Or, actively disliking someone? How much energy do you spend dealing with fear or grief, anger or doubt? How much on joy or gratitude? It is generally understood that what you get out of a situation or your life is partially based on what you put into a situation or life. A more nuanced understanding of such an equation would highlight the fact that our energy, resources, effort, and focus/awareness all combine to produce a certain outcome – and this is in keeping with Sir Isaac Newton’s Laws of Motion. It is also consistent with text in Ecclesiastes and with what Rod Stryker refers to as the Creation Equation.

The problem many of us run into isn’t that we don’t know or understand the formula. The problem is that we don’t pay attention to what we are putting into the equation. Our time, energy, efforts, and resources get pulled in different directions, because our attention is distracted – that is to say, our focus/awareness is pulled into different directions. But, what happens if/when we sharpen our focus? What happens when we pull all our awareness and senses in and focus/concentrate/meditate in such a way that we become completely absorbed in one direction? Consider the power of that kind of engagement.

Yoga Sūtra 3.1: deśabandhah cittasya dhāranā

– “Dhāranā is the process of holding, focusing, or fixing the attention of mind onto one object or place.”

Yoga Sūtra 3.2: tatra pratyaya-ikatānatā dhyānam

– “Dhyāna is the repeated continuation, or unbroken flow of thought, toward that one object or place.”

Yoga Sūtra 3.3: tadeva-artha-mātra-nirbhāsaṁ svarūpa-śūnyam-iva-samādhiḥ

– “Samadhi [meditation in its highest form] is the state when only the essence of that object, place, or point shines forth in the mind, as if devoid even of its own form.”

Yoga Sūtra 3.4: trayam-ekatra samyama

– “Samyama is [the practice or integration of] the three together.”

In the third section of the Yoga Sūtras, Patanjali outlined the last three limbs of the Yoga Philosophy and then, just as he did with the other elements, he broke down the benefits of practicing these final limbs. Similar to sūtra 2.1, there is a thread that highlights the power of three elements when practiced together. What is different about the final limbs, however, is that Patanjali devoted the majority of a whole chapter – “The Chapter (or Foundation) on Progressing” – to breaking down the benefits of integrating dhāranā (“focus” or concentration”), dhyāna (“concentration” or “meditation”), and Samādhi (“meditation” or “absorption”).

We can unintentionally find ourselves in a state of absorption, just as we can consciously progress into the state. We may think of it as being “in the zone” and it is something our minds are completely capable of experiencing. Even people with different types of ADHD can find themselves in this state of absorption. However, what Patanjali described, as it relates to the practice, is a very deliberate engagement of the mind – and, therefore, a very deliberate engagement of the mind-body-spirit.

There are, of course, times, when as individuals or groups we truly harness the power of our awareness and engage the mind-body-spirit in a way that could come under the heading of Samyama. Consider people coming together to raise a barn or to support a family in need. Think about grass roots efforts to register people to vote or change unjust laws. Think about how people raise money for a cause, an individual, or a community. Contemplate how someone’s focus shifts when they give something up for Lent. Although it is an extreme example, another example of a time when every fiber of someone’s being is focused on a single goal is when that goal is survival. One might do multiple tasks during such a period, but each task has the intention of ensuring survival. This is true of an individual and it can also be true of groups of people. In fact, throughout history there have been stories of individuals and groups of people who found themselves in such a situation.

One of those situations – where everyone focused every fiber of their being on survival is remembered and commemorated on the ninth and tenth days of the Lunar New Year. Legend has it that the Hokkien people (also known as Hoklo, Banlam, and Minnan people) found themselves under attack. The Hokkien were not warriors, but they came in close proximity with warriors because they were known for building great ships. One version of their story states that the events occurred during the Song Dynasty (between 960 and 1279 CE), while they were being hunted and killed; another indicates that they were caught between warring factions. Ultimately, to escape the carnage, they decided to hide in a sugar cane field – which, in some versions of the story, just miraculously appeared. They hid until there were no more sounds of horses, warriors, or battle. Legend has it that they emerged on the ninth day of the Lunar New Year, which is the Jade Emperor’s Birthday.

This year (2023), the Jade Emperor’s birthday falls on January 30^th, which is one of six days designated as “Martyrs’ Day” in India. This Martyrs’ Day is the one observed on a national level, as it is the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination in 1948. Today is also the day, in 1956, when the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s house was bombed and the day, in 1972, that became known as “Bloody Sunday” in Northern Ireland. Since 1964, when it was first established in Spain, some school children around the world observe today as a “School Day of Non-violence and Peace.” In 1998, Gandhi’s grandson (Arun Gandhi) established today as the beginning of the “Season for Nonviolence” (which ends on April 4^th, the anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination in 1968. All of these remembrances and observations, just like the observation of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, are dedicated to the goal of honoring the lives of the victims (or martyrs) of past injustices and eradicating the violent tendencies that create more tragedies, crimes against humanity, and overall suffering. Today’s observations are also based on the foundation of ahimsā, one of the guiding principles of Gandhi, King, and those unarmed protesters in Northern Ireland. Click here to read more about these events and about how focusing on non-violence is part of the practice.

“‘From this story, we learn that unity, solidarity and the active participation of the community is necessary when it comes to facing challenges,’ said [Klang Hokkien Association president Datuk Teh Kim] Teh.”

– quoted from The Star article (about a version of the story where only some hide) entitled “Legend Behind Hokkien New Year emphasizes unity and solidarity” by Grace Chen (2/24/2018)

The Jade Emperor is sometimes referred to as “Heavenly Grandfather” and “Heavenly Duke.” He is recognized as the ruler of heaven and earth in some Chinese religion and mythology. In Taoism, he is one of the Three Pure Ones or the Three Divine Teachers. Fujian province (in China), Penang (in Malayasia), and Taiwan are three areas where there is a large concentration of Hokkien people and, therefore, places where the ninth day of the Lunar New Year is a large celebration. In some places the celebrations begin at 11 PM on the eighth night and can be so large that they eclipse the celebrations of the first day of the Lunar New Year (in those areas). In fact, the ninth day is actually called “Hokkien New Year.”

Those who are religious will go to a temple and engage in a ritual involving prostration, kneeling, bowing, incense, and offerings. For many there is a great feast full of fruits, vegetables, noodles, and (of course) sugar cane. The sugar cane is an important element of the Jade Emperor’s birthday celebrations and rituals – not only because of the aforementioned story of survival, but also because the Hokkien word for “sugarcane” (kam-chià, 甘蔗) is a homonym for (or sounds like) a Hokkien word for “thank you” (kamsiā, 感谢), which literally means “feeling thankful.”

Every version of the Hokkien people’s survival story is a great reminder that we can give thanks no matter how hard, how challenging, how infuriating, and/or how tragic our situation. Take last year – or the last few years, for instance: When we look back at all the hard stuff, all the grief, all the fear, all the anger, all the disappointment, and all of the trauma, we can get distracted and forget that there were moments of sweetness. Over the last few years, there were moments of kindness, moments of love, moments of birth and rebirth, moments of compassion, moments of hope, and moments of joy.

In other words, in spite of all the hard stuff, there were moments of sweetness. Take a moment to remember one of those moments; and feel thankful.

“‘Although we may not have an image of this deity in our temple, as long as devotees have the Jade Emperor in their hearts, their prayers will be heard,’ said [the Kwan Imm Temple’s] principal Shi Fa Zhuo.”

– quoted from The Star article entitled “Legend Behind Hokkien New Year emphasizes unity and solidarity” by Grace Chen (2/24/2018)

Please join me on the virtual mat today (Monday, January 30^th) at 5:30 PM for a 75-minute virtual yoga practice. You can use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below.

This is a 75-minute Common Ground Meditation Center practice that, in the spirit of generosity (dana), is freely given and freely received. If you are able to support the center and its teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” my other practices. Donations are tax deductible)

There is no playlist for the Common Ground practices.

The Lunar New Year Day 9 playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “Lunar New Year Day 9 2022”]

The Martys’ Day playlist is also available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “01302021 Peace for the Martyrs”]

### DON’T BE GREEDY, BE GRATEFUL ###

Cèlèbrer Une Vie & FTWMI: Recuerda Todas Almas November 2, 2022

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Books, Faith, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Life, Loss, Love, Mysticism, One Hoop, Religion, Yoga.
Tags: 2 Maccabees, Alain Baudry, All Souls' Day, Allhallowtide, Death, Dia de los Muertos, Dia de Muertos, e e cummings, grief, Halloween, Kevin Brockmeier
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Many blessings to those observing All Souls y Día de (los) Muertos!

“That was what the living did: they died.”

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– quoted from The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier

On Sunday (10/30/2022), I was shocked to hear that one of my Minneapolis yoga buddies was terminally ill. Just a few hours later, I was shocked and saddened to hear that he had passed. His family hosted a celebration of life so that he could spend his final hours surrounded by people who loved and respected him. It was hard; but I heard the opportunity gave him and them some comfort.

For years, AB practiced yoga at the old Downtown Minneapolis YMCA. He was partially responsible for me meeting one of my favorite people on the planet and, additionally, his mother once joined us for a class during one of her visits to the Twin Cities. (I have a vague idea that she might have taught yoga at one time; however, since I never read her autobiography, don’t quote me on this point. Either way, she definitely started practicing long before I ever did!)

AB loved the music and especially appreciated my Christmas-story playlist. For many years, he gave me an Amazon gift card so I could purchase more music for class! In addition to swapping music, we swapped a few books – including Kevin Brockmeier’s The Brief History of the Dead, which I mention at this time every year. We also shared an occasional meal. For better or for worse, I got to watch his life change.

I also got to see his practice change. (NOTE: For those who knew whom as an esteemed attorney and French academic editor, here I am talking about his yoga practice.) At one point, while we were still at the old Y, he asked me what would make certain aspects of the practice more accessible to him. Later, he decided he was getting enough cardio and strength from boot camp (and other cardio classes) and that what he needed/wanted from his yoga practice was the meditation and deep tissue work he experienced when he dropped into one of my Yin Yoga classes. Unfortunately, the Yin Yoga classes didn’t always fit into his schedule. So, we talked about how he could add a little Yin to the very yang vinyasa practices that worked for his schedule. Eventually, when the Y moved to it’s fancier digs and more classes overlapped, he made the decision (as so many did) to take classes that were more active than yoga. We still caught up in the lobby and, occasionally, outside of the Y; but…. Time marches on.

As reports and tributes come in from all over the world, I can’t help but notice how “one of those random people who came to yoga and became a friend,” meant so much to so many different people and for so many different reasons. AB’s life and death are a reminder that a person can affect the lives of a lot of different people in a lot of different ways.

Today’s sequence reflects the yin/yang that AB appreciated. It’s also an opportunity to celebrate a life that touched so many. Repose en paix, mon ami. Nous nous souviendrons de toi. Nous nous souviendrons de toi.

For Those Who Missed It: The following was originally posted November 2, 2020. Class details and links have also been updated or added.

“i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

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my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)“

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– quoted from “[i carry your heart with me(I carry it in)]” by e e cummings

Take a moment to bring your awareness to your hearts. Not just your physical heart, or even just your emotional heart – take a moment to bring your awareness to your energetic heart and all of its connections. You can even think of that energetic heart as a spiritual heart and all of its connections. Either way, when I talk about the various ways we can map out our energy – and especially when I specifically refer to the energy system of nadis (“rivers”) and chakras (“wheels”) as outlined by Yoga and Ayurveda, as they come to us from India, I often mention that we can be genetically and energetically (even spiritually) connected to people we have never met and will never meet. Similarly, we are connected, genetically and energetically (even spiritually), to people we will never meet again… people who have passed from the physical world (back) into the energetic and spiritual world.

Throughout history, people from various cultures around the world have had (and continue to have) different ways of honoring these connections – especially the spiritual and energetic connections we have with those who passed on into another realm of existence. Yes, I said, “another realm of existence;” because, while someone ceases to exist in the material and physical sense, they can continue to exist in an emotional, energetic, and spiritual sense – as long as we remember them.

“No two reports were ever the same. And yet always there was the drumlike thumping noise.

Some people insisted that it never went away, that if you concentrated and did not turn your ear from the sound, you could hear it faintly behind everything in the city….”

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– quoted from The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier

Today, November 2^nd, is All Souls’ Day, also known as the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed – the last day of Allhallowtide in the Western Christian tradition and the final Día de (los) Muertos in Mexico and the Mexican diaspora. Like All Saints’ Day (which was yesterday), there was a time when this holy time was celebrated in the Spring – and, in fact, there are still traditions, like the Eastern Orthodox Churches, which remember the dead around Easter. However, the fifth Benedictine Abbot of Cluny, St. Odilon of Cluny, established this Western observation in the 10^th century and the practice has endured. Unlike All Saints, today is a day dedicated to all departed souls and, in particular, to those who may or may not have lived a “faithful” life according to the Church.

While it is not a national holiday in Catholic countries, nor is it one of the five days of holy obligation within the Catholic Church, it is a day of prayer (and, for some, quite a few masses). Here, the prayers are not so much as for the living as for the dead, because Christians who have a “fundamental belief that there is a prayerful spiritual bond between those in heaven (Christian triumphant) and the living (the Christian militant)” may also believe that those who die without being baptized and/or living a faithful life (the Church penitent, also known as “the Church suffering” and “the Church expectant”) will languish in Purgatory without God’s grace.

So, today people pray for that grace so their dearly departed loved ones will no longer suffer. In addition to the vibrant Día de (los) Muertos traditions I mentioned yesterday, as well as the traditions of guising, souling, and the exchange of soul cakes (that I mentioned on Halloween), All Souls’ Day is known for bell tolling and candle lighting, which both represent the cleansing of souls and power of light overcoming darkness.

“If he had not believed that the dead would be raised, it would have been foolish and useless to pray for them. In his firm and devout conviction that all of God’s faithful people would receive a wonderful reward, Judas made provision for a sin offering to set free from their sin those who had died. It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.”

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– 2 Maccabees (12:44 – 46)

Please join me today (Wednesday, November 2^nd) at 4:30 PM or 7:15 PM for a yoga practice on Zoom. Use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You will need to register for the 7:15 PM class if you have not already done so. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

Tuesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “11022021 All Souls / Dia de los”]

In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)

“One particular issue of the L. Sims News & Speculation Sheet—the Sims Sheet, people called it—addressed the matter of this sound. Fewer than twenty per cent of the people Luka interviewed claimed that they could still hear it after the crossing, but almost everyone agreed that it resembled nothing so much as—could be nothing other than—the pounding of a heart. The question, then, was where did it come from? It could not be their own hearts, for their hearts no longer beat. The old man Mahmoud Qassim believed that it was not the actual sound of his heart but the remembered sound, which, because he had both heard and failed to notice it for so long, still resounded in his ears. The woman who sold bracelets by the river thought that it was the heartbeat at the center of the world, that bright, boiling place she had fallen through on her way to the city. ‘As for this reporter,’ the article concluded, ‘I hold with the majority. I have always suspected that the thumping sound we hear is the pulse of those who are still alive. The living carry us inside them like pearls. We survive only so long as they remember us.”’

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– quoted from The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier

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### “BA-DUM. BA-DUM. BA-DUM.” ###

FTWMI: Generally Coming Together October 17, 2022

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Books, Buddhism, Changing Perspectives, Depression, Faith, Fitness, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Health, Hope, Life, Loss, Meditation, Music, One Hoop, Philosophy, Religion, Science, Shemini Atzeret / Simchat Torah, Sukkot, Wisdom, Yoga.
Tags: David DeSteno, Mother Teresa, Rabbi Yehuda Shurpin, T. K. V. Desikachar, yoga
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Chag sameach!” to those celebrating Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah.

For Those Who Missed It: The following was originally posted in September 2021. If you’re on my Monday class list, I’ve sent you a recording of this practice since there is no Zoom practice tonight. If you are not on the Monday list, you can request an audio recording of either practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.

Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.]

“Another classic definition of yoga is ‘to be one with the divine.’ It does not matter what name we use for the divine – God, Allah, Īśvara, or whatever – anything that brings us closer to understanding that there is a power higher and greater than ourselves is yoga. When we feel in harmony with that higher power, that too is yoga.”

– quoted from “1 – Yoga: Concept and Meaning” in The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice by T. K. V. Desikachar

If you take even the most rudimentary survey course on the Yoga Philosophy, you will learn that the Sanskrit word yoga means “union” (and you will probably learn that it comes from the root word for “to yoke”). Go a little deeper, however, and you will find a lot of different classical (as well as modern) interpretations of the word, including the idea that it is “to come together” or “to unite.” In our physical practice of yoga, hatha yoga, there is often an emphasis on bringing the mind, body, and spirit together. The reality, however, is that there is already a mind-body-spirit connection. The practice is simply a way to recognize and reinforce the connection. And, just as we are individually connected in a variety of ways, we are collectively connected – we just need a way to recognize and reinforce those connections.

Dr. David DeSteno has a Ph.D. in psychology from Yale University and is currently a professor of psychology at Northeastern University, where he directs the Social Emotions Group – a psychology lab that focuses on “ways to improve the human condition.” To be clear, the lab is not focused on technological hardware but on social behavior. As his bio states: “At the broadest level, his work examines the mechanisms of the mind that shape vice and virtue. Studying hypocrisy and compassion, pride and punishment, cheating and trust, his work continually reveals that human moral behavior is much more variable than most would predict.”

Recently, I came across a Wired article that was adapted from his book How God Works: The Science Behind the Benefits of Religion, in which he points out that in many areas of his (20 years worth of) research, psychologists and neuroscientists are simply (re)codifying systems that have existed for thousands of years in religions all over the world. The overlapping points –where east meets west; where ritual and tradition meet science and the scientific method; where faith meets reason – always fascinate me and also make me chuckle. I chuckle at the hubris that Dr. DeSteno identifies within himself (and other scientists), which relegates ritual and tradition to superstition and myth – forgetting that every old wives’ tale or story from the old country was a way for ancient civilizations to understand the university, just as “science” is the way the modern world understands the university. That same element of hubris is also why sometimes modern scientists forget that they don’t know everything.

At the same time, I am fascinated by the connection between faith and reason and by the way we human beings (sometimes) trust certain things when we experience them directly; trust things for which we have no other explanation than that it is; and at other times can only trust something that has been “scientifically proven.” In this case, “scientifically proven” means that it is quantified and also that the cause and effect can be duplicated. Of course, this makes me laugh, sardonically, because thousands of years of “evidence” is often thrown out as “anecdotal” because of who experienced it and how it was originally documented.

“But if we remove the theology—views about the nature of God, the creation of the universe, and the like—from the day-to-day practice of religious faith, the animosity in the debate evaporates. What we’re left with is a series of rituals, customs, and sentiments that are themselves the results of experiments of sorts. Over thousands of years, these experiments, carried out in the messy thick of life as opposed to sterile labs, have led to the design of what we might call spiritual technologies—tools and processes meant to sooth, move, convince, or otherwise tweak the mind. And studying these technologies has revealed that certain parts of religious practices, even when removed from a spiritual context, are able to influence people’s minds in the measurable ways psychologists often seek.”

– quoted from the (09/14/2021) Wired article entitled, “Psychologists Are Learning What Religion Has Known for Years: Social scientists are researching what humans can do to improve their quality of life. Their findings echo what religious practices perfected centuries ago.” by David DeSteno

Throughout the year I reference a lot of different rituals, customs, and traditions from a variety of different cultures, religions, and philosophies. I do this because I firmly believe that we human beings have more commonalities than differences. Some of those commonalities involve the ways in which we come together as spiritual communities and the power of those get-togethers. As I have mentioned before, there are certain times of year – often around the changing of the seasons – when everyone and their brother seems to be getting together for some communal ritual. These times are powerful in that they are steeped in faith; however, when you look at the Jewish community around this time of year, it becomes obvious that the power is in the faith as well as in the coming together – the yoga, as it were – of the community.

For instance, there are some devout Jews who will begin preparing for the New Year 40 days before Yom Kippur. Then there are people who only come to services during the High Holidays, the “Ten Days of Awe / Ten Days of Atonement.” This latter group includes people who identify as culturally and/or ethnically Jewish. Then, just a few days later, people celebrate Sukkot – and now the coming together includes, according to the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament, people who are not Jewish in any way, shape, or form. Power is increasing, as is knowledge – which is also power.

“The Talmud tells us that one of the things that is in constant need of “bolstering” and improvement is Torah study. Thus, we say “Chazak” to strengthen ourselves in Torah study.

It’s crucial to review the Torah we’ve learned so as not to forget it. This is why, after finishing a portion of the Talmud, we say “Hadran alach,” “I will return to you.” Similarly, when we finish a book of Torah, we say “Chazak,” in other words, “We should have the strength to review what we learned.”

Likewise, when a person does a mitzvah, we say “Yasher koach” (“More power to you”), meaning, “Just as you did this mitzvah, may it be G‑d’s will that you do many more mitzvahs!”

– quoted from “Why Say ‘Chazak’ Afer Finishing a Book of Torah?” by Rabbi Yehuda Shurpin (posted on chabad.org)

When I explain Sukkot to my yoga community, I specifically mention that it takes place over seven days (as explicitly stated in Devarim – Deuteronomy 16:15) and is celebrated over eight days in the diaspora. The extra day is actually “a second day festival” which, when observed, applies to all major holidays. For the Jewish diaspora (i.e., the community residing outside of Israel), a “second festival day” was established about 2,000 years ago to reconcile the fact that a new month started with the sighting of the new moon at the Temple in Jerusalem and then that sighting had to be communicated to the world at large. In addition to building in travel time (since this was before telecommunication and the internet), religious leaders took into account the fact that messengers may not arrive (in an appropriate period of time or at all). People within the Orthodox and Conservative Jewish communities are primarily the only people within the diaspora who still observe this second day, but the timeline can get a little confusing when holidays overlap.

While I often reference the extra day when it comes to Sukkot, I haven’t always mentioned that for some (excluding the diaspora) the eighth day is its own separate celebration: Shemini Atzeret, literally “The Eighth [day] of Assembly.” Furthermore, this eighth day has its own rituals, traditions, and prayers – specifically, the prayer for rain and the prayer to remember departed souls. Traditionally, this is NOT a celebration for “[all] who live within your city.” It is immediately followed by Simchat Torah (or, for some, the second day of Shemini Atzeret), which is a celebration of an ending that is also a beginning.

As prescribed by the Talmud, the Torah – which consists of the “Five Books of Moses” – is read publicly over the course of the year and traditionally people are not meant to go more than three days without reading the Torah. The five books are divided up into 54 portions, known as Parshah (or Sidra), which are read weekly and accompanied by special blessings. Each week a special group of people are selected to read the designated portion during services. There are times when two portions are combined. The most notably combination occurs when the end of Devarim – Deuteronomy (33:1 – 34:12), known as V’Zot HaBerachach Parshah, is immediately followed by the reading of the first chapter of Bereishit – Genesis. This double reading occurs on Simchat Torah (or the second day of Shemini Atzeret). Simchat Torah literally means “Rejoicing with/of the Torah” and services are traditionally filled with singing, spontaneous dancing, and more gratitude… which is more power.

“Gratitude, for instance, is something we had studied closely, and a key element of many religious practices. Christians often say grace before a meal; Jews give thanks to God with the Modeh Ani prayer every day upon awakening. When we studied the act of giving thanks, even in a secular context, we found it made people more virtuous…. We’ve also found that when feeling gratitude to a person, to fate, or to God, people become more helpful, more generous, and even more patient.”

– quoted from the (09/14/2021) Wired article entitled, “Psychologists Are Learning What Religion Has Known for Years: Social scientists are researching what humans can do to improve their quality of life. Their findings echo what religious practices perfected centuries ago.” by David DeSteno

The playlist for this practice is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “06162020 Abe’s House & Soweto”]

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”

– Mother Teresa

If you are interested in more information about the work of Dr. David DeSteno, click here to check out the Wired article referenced above.

### Peace, Strength, Courage, Wisdom, Love, Kindness, Compassion, Joy, YOGA ###

FTWMI: What Does It Mean to You? October 16, 2022*

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Books, Buddhism, Changing Perspectives, Faith, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Hope, Life, Meditation, Music, Philosophy, Religion, Suffering, Sukkot, Tragedy, Wisdom, Yoga.
Tags: Alan Watts, avidya, Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Buddha, Dalai Lama, Donald T. Campbell, Friedrich Nietzsche, Hod, Matthieu Ricard, mental health, Noah Webster, Oscar Wilde, Philip Brickman, Pirkei Avot, Rabbi Noah Weinberg, Sukkot, Tal Ben-Shahar, Tenzin Gyatso, Yoga Sutra 2.46
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Chag sameach!” to those celebrating Sukkot and getting ready for Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah.

*As some of you know, I haven’t been posting my normally verbose content because I’ve been working up to some big projects (which are all come together in the next 2 weeks). Since I haven’t posted much during this Sukkot – and since today is the anniversary of the birth of Noah Webster (b. 1758) and Oscar Wilde (b. 1854), here’s a revised post with links to some of my other Sukkot-related content.

For Those Who Missed It: This was originally posted in September 2021. You can request an audio recording of the related practices via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

“I believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. From the moment of birth, every human being wants happiness and does not want suffering. Neither social conditioning nor education nor ideology affect this. From the very core of our being, we simply desire contentment.”

– Tenzin Gyatso, the 14^th Dalai Lama in July 2015

During Sukkot, people are commanded to be happy. But what does happiness even mean? Happiness is, after all, a really personal thing, a really personal experience. I can ask, “What do you need to be happy?” But it would be really ignorant to believe that if I surround myself with the things and people that “make you happy” that I will also be happy. In fact, that’s an example of several different types of avidyā (“ignorance”) and klişţa (dysfunctional/afflicted) tendencies that lead to suffering. Furthermore, if you’ve studied a little philosophy, especially a little Eastern philosophy, you know it’s a trick question; because you know that happiness is a state of mind. So, it is more important to know (a) what you value and appreciate and (b) what happiness means to you (at this moment and in any given moment).

As I’ve mentioned before, Hod, the fifth sefirot or attribute of the divine on the Tree of Life, translates into English as “humility,” “gratitude,” “splendor,” and “glory.” Thinking of all of those together gives us some insight into what it means to be thankful – in other words, pleased, relieved, and grateful. To be grateful is to feel and/or show an appreciation for a kindness or courtesy. Gratitude, then, is defined as the “quality of being thankful; [the] readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.” Finally, appreciation is the defined as “recognition and enjoyment of the good qualities of someone or something.” Even though anyone can say “thank you,” for the smallest demonstration of kindness – and we absolutely must as it is a way of returning some of that kindness – it can sometimes feel like a throwaway line. A true expression of gratitude, however, includes a little detail to demonstrate “a full understanding” of why something or someone is valued.

“Western society commonly perceives happiness as the outcome of what you achieve and acquire….

Happiness is not a happening. Happiness is a state of mind. You can have everything in the world and still be miserable. Or you can have relatively little and feel unbounded joy.

The Talmud says:

‘Who is rich? The one who appreciates what he has.’ (Pirkei Avot 4:1)”

– quoted from “Way #27: Happiness” in 48 Ways to Wisdom by Rabbi Noah Weinberg

Once we establish what we value and appreciate, we can look at happiness as the embodied expression of our enjoyment and appreciation. Then, too, we must recognize that “happiness” (whatever that means to you at this moment) is not one-size-fits-all. For some people, happiness is an ecstatic kind of joy. For others, it is “just not being miserable.” Then there is every experience in between – plus the fact that the way we experience happiness today may not be the way we experienced happiness yesterday or the way we will experience it tomorrow.

At the Happiness Studies Academy (HAS), where you can get a certificate in “Happiness Studies,” the experience that is happiness falls into the rubric of positive psychology, which is defined as “the scientific study of positive human functioning and flourishing on multiple levels that include the biological, personal, relational, institutional, cultural, and global dimensions of life.” In other words, scholars like HAS co-founder Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar are concerned with the interdisciplinary science of living a good life – whatever that means to you at this moment. As I mentioned on September 25^th, the anniversary of the creation and initial approval of the United States Bill of Rights (in 1789), the founding fathers had definite ideas about what was needed in order for the citizens of their new nation to experience “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Similarly, the Buddha expressed ideas about what a person needs to be happy and the HAS definition fits the Buddha’s teachings on the happiness of a householder. Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, a Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist monk, summarizes the overall Buddhist concept of happiness as “not suffering” or being free of suffering. Then there is the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (an October baby), whose ultimate meaning is not exactly like Patanjali’s instructions in the Yoga Sūtras; and yet, sounds very similar to YS 2.46 (“sthirasukham āsanam”). In both cases, there is an emphasis on finding balance between effort and relaxation (i.e., power without resistance).

“Happiness is the feeling that power increases – that resistance is being overcome.”

– Friedrich Nietzsche

One thing to remember, when applying Nietzsche’s words to our physical practice (or to society), is that there is resistance in too much power. Think about a power lifter who has very muscular arms and legs. They might have some flexibility in their spine and hips, but their most muscular parts tend to be their least flexible parts. So, while they might be able to move easily in one direction, they might find it really hard to move in a direction that is counter to the way they have trained their body. Furthermore, finding balance between effort and relaxation, finding that state where there is power without resistance, is not just physical; it requires mental and emotional effort as well. Happiness, after all, is a mind-body-spirit experience.

Science has shown that our propensity for happiness is based on a cocktail of genetics, personality, and attitude. That mixture of elements combined with our circumstances creates what was referred to by Drs. Philip Brickman and Donald T. Campbell as a “hedonic treadmill” (or “hedonic adaptation”), whereby as our circumstances change our expectations (and desires) also change – creating a baseline for happiness. Accordingly, research in positive psychology shows that regardless of how extreme an event is (e.g., we win the lottery or experience a debilitating accident) people return to their happiness baseline (or “hedonic set point”) in a relatively short period of time. We just need recover time.

During that recovery time there are things that promote good mental, emotional, and physical health. In fact, Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar’s “Six Tips for Happiness” encapsulate the best ways we can spend our time if we want to cultivate happiness, including: eating well, sleeping, staying hydrated, exercising, and the practices of acceptance and gratitude. Some of those things we may not always want to do, but we feel better when we do them. We also may or may not (automatically) feel grateful for what has happened to us, but not being grateful for something is definitely detrimental. Furthermore, science has shown that even thinking about something for which we could be grateful is beneficial.

The benefits of thinking, contemplating, and/or meditating on “positive” emotions are some of the reasons why Matthieu Ricard, considers happiness a skill. M. Ricard is a French Tibetan Buddhist monk who has served as a translator for the 14^th Dalai Lama and has been called “the happiest man in the world.” He is also one of the monks whose brain has been observed and studied to learn the clinical benefits of meditation. What researchers have learned about M. Ricard’s brain, however, is about more than just mindfulness. While hooked up to 256 electrodes, the brains of Matthieu Ricard and the other mediators indicated that even adult brains have some neuroplasticity and, therefore, can be changed. The research shows that we can not only change our brains; it shows that in doing so we can change our baseline for happiness.

M. Ricard equates changing one’s baseline for happiness to training for a marathon. It’s about pacing and using the appropriate techniques. In the documentary “A Joyful Mind,” Dr. Richard Davidson, a psychologist and neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin, states that brain scans indicate someone new to meditation can meditate 30 minutes a day over a 2-week period and see a change in brain activity. If you specifically want to change your baseline for happiness, one of the most effective “training techniques” is cultivating benevolent thoughts – like meditating on loving-kindness and compassion (which takes us right back to Leo Tolstoy’s answer of “do that person good”). Another effective method for changing your happiness baseline is giving thanks.

“You don’t start by the action; you start by the motivation, and motivation is something that can be cultivated…..

It is the inner quality that you need to cultivate first, and then the expression in speech and action will just naturally follow. The mind is the king. The speech and the activities are the servants. The servants are not going to tell the king how it is going to be. The king has to change, and then the other ones follow up.”

– Matthieu Ricard, speaking about generosity and other mental attitudes in a 2011 Sounds True interview with Tami Simon, entitled “Happiness is a Skill”

In 2020, when World Mental Health Day (Oct 10^th) fell during Sukkot, I mentioned that happiness could be considered an aspect of good mental health. I also mentioned that The Mental Health Foundation, the largest charity in the United Kingdom devoted to mental health, points out that “Good mental health is not simply the absence of diagnosable health problems, although good mental health is likely to protect against development of many such problems.” I ultimately concluded that when we look at happiness through this mental health lens, “happy people,” just like people with good mental health, are capable of doing certain things that may not be possible when experiencing mental health issues and/or when unhappy. This is consistent with the Yoga Philosophy.

Rabbi Noah Weinberg made the same observation in 48 Ways to Wisdom in “Way #27: Happiness,” when he dispelled certain myths about happiness and contentment by pointing out that a happy person has the energy and inclination to do things like spontaneously go for a boat ride. The unhappy person, however, only seems to have the energy and inclination to stay stuck in a downward spiral. Here, again, it is important to remember that if we don’t have a recovery period – after experiencing something really good or something really tragic – any one of us can get stuck in that downward spiral.

Just as we can raise our baseline for happiness, circumstances can lower our baseline. In either case, there is a change in brain chemistry as well as in behavior. We may welcome the physiological changes that come from being a happier person. However, if our baseline is going down, we may find we need some help – possibly even some professional help – in order to get ourselves and our baseline back to a functioning level. Because, again, the key to happiness fits our mind, body, and spirit.

“Happiness is a sense of harmony, completion, and wholeness.”

– quoted from The Meaning of Happiness: The Quest for Freedom of the Spirit in Modern Psychology and the Wisdom of the East by Alan Watts

Please join me for a 65-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Sunday, October 16^th) at 2:30 PM. You can use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

Sunday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “10102020 World Mental Health Day (also Sukkot 4)”]

“Give yourself permission to be human.

Happiness lies at the intersection between pleasure and meaning.

Keep in mind that happiness is mostly dependent on our state of mind, not on our status or the state of our bank account.

Simplify!

Remember the mind body connection.

Express gratitude, whenever possible.”

– quoted from the Harvard University’s Psychology 1504 (“Positive Psychology”) course by Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar

You can find portions of this post, in slightly different contexts, in the linked posts highlighted above.

If you are thinking about suicide, worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, you can dial 988 (in the US) or call 1-800-273-TALK (8255). You can also call the TALK line if you are struggling with addiction or involved in an abusive relationship. The Lifeline network is free, confidential, and available to all 24/7. YOU CAN TALK ABOUT ANYTHING.

If you are a young person in crisis, feeling suicidal, or in need of a safe and judgement-free place to talk, you can also click here to contact the TrevorLifeline (which is staffed 24/7 with trained counselors).

Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.]

### Be Joyful! Whatever that means to you at this moment. ###

Revisiting “The Other Plan B” (the “missing” Tuesday post) September 14, 2022

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Art, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Life, Movies, Philosophy, Science, Wisdom, Women, Yoga.
Tags: 1 Samuel, Beau Lotto, Catherine Johnson, David, Donatello, Dorothy Vaughn, Goliath, Hidden Figures, International Literacy Day, Mary Jackson, Michelangelo, Taraji P. Henson
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The following “missing” post for Tuesday, September 13^th contains some information previously posted in two 2020 posts. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.

Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.]

“David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart….”

– quoted from 1 Samuel – The Old Testament (17:32 NIV)

Today, I’m going to tell you a story. It’s not the story I used to tell on September 13^th, back when we were doing all of this in person. This is a story I started telling in 2020. It’s the story about what you do when things don’t go according to plan – or, you find out things will work just as you planned, but that that’s not the way you want things to work out. Have you had days like that?

Every once in a while it happens. I start off the day, working on a plan, and something in me says, “No, not that today.” So, I go to Plan B – and sometimes I get really into it, get really excited about it, and then something in me will say, “Naw, I don’t think so.” So, I either go back to the drawing board or… I fight it. Yes, it’s true; sometimes I don’t listen to that “still quiet voice.” Sometimes I think the big capital “I” (which is my ego) knows better than whatever is moving around in my heart. Sometimes, I get halfway through the day, or all the way to the end of the day, and think, “Oh, maybe that’s why I should have paid more attention and been more present.”

There are, however, times when I absolutely am open to the Spirit and open to the moment. There are times when I let go of my frustration at things not going the way I planned and I breathe…. That’s it. I take a breath and open to the moment. I still have a plan. In fact, it’s the best of all plans, That Other Plan B: Breathe – keep breathing; be open to the present; believe and be aware of “what it is you have to offer.”

Today, I offer you a story about David. It’s actually two stories… about the same David – even though it is simultaneously the same story about two different Davids… with a little side note about two additional Davids. (You might especially appreciate that “confusing” statement if you were around for this past Saturday’s practice, but that’s a whole other story.) To clarify today’s offering(s), the first story and the first David is the one from the Bible, specifically the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. You remember that David?

People love the story of that David, because it is the story of the underdog. When faced with the towering figure of Goliath, David used his inner resources. He drew from the experience he had as a shepherd (rather than being preoccupied by the experience he didn’t have as a soldier). He focused on what he could do (not on what he was “trying” to do). His inner strength, courage, and wisdom were what he took into his reign as king. Yes, King David made mistakes – he was human; but his legacy is firmly established by the story of his victory against Goliath, his son Solomon (who is considered the ruler with the wisest heart in the history of the world), and the statue by Michelangelo.

This brings me to the “second” David and the second story: the story of Michelangelo’s David.

You may already be familiar with the basic premise of the story: On September 13, 1501, a 26-year old artist named Michelangelo was commissioned to create a statue of the legendary David. That marble statue, unveiled in Florence, Italy on September 8, 1504, continues to captivate people to this very day. At various times throughout history, it has represented the epitome of the male form. It established Michelangelo as an artistic powerhouse, a giant in the art world. People started calling him “Il Divino” (“the divine one”). They praised, and even envied, his terribilitá – his ability to provoke intense emotion through his work.

But, Michelangelo was not the original sculptor. In fact, when the piece was first commissioned by the Overseers of the Office of Works of the Florence Cathedral (the Operai), it was part of a series of large Old Testament statues intended for the Florence Cathedral. And, at that time, in the early 1400s, Michelangelo wasn’t even on the short list of those being considered. Granted, the main reason he wasn’t on the list was because he hadn’t been born yet, but that’s beside the point. The point being that Michelangelo, like David, wasn’t Plan A or Plan B.

“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”

– Michelangelo

In 1408, at the same time that Nanni di Banco was commissioned to carve a marble statue of the prophet Isaiah, Donatello was commissioned to sculpt a marble statue of David. Both statues ended up abandoned in the workshop for about seven years. In 1410, Donatello made a statue of Joshua (an assistant to Moses) and may have been Agostino di Duccio’s mentor when the latter was commissioned, in 1463, to create Hercules. (Hercules is an odd choice for the series, yes, but there he is.) Donatello’s Joshua and Agostino’s Hercules were terracotta – and Donatello would create a statue of Saint John the Evangelist shortly after those terracotta pieces were finished.

In between all that, around 1416, Donatello was asked to make some changes to his David – perhaps to make it more “generic” – and that altered David was placed at the Palazzo della Signoria, on top of an engraved pedestal. This clothed version of David is not, however, the primary David (statue) of today’s story. (Neither is it Donatello’s most famous depiction of David; the mostly-nude bronze he created in the 1440s, which was initially placed in the Palazzo Medici).

“Pro patria fortiter dimicantibus etiam adversus terribilissimos hostes Deus praestant victoria”

[Latin for “God provides victory for the country fighting strongly even against the most terrible enemy.”]

– Possibly the original (1416) engraving on the pedestal of Donatello’s marble statue of David (which currently reads “Pro patria fortiter dimicantibus etiam adversus terribilissimos hostes dii praestant auxilium”*)

In 1464, Agostino accepted the commission for the second marble statue of David. The idea was to create the statue from several blocks of marble. However, in 1465, Agostino found a large block of marble in the Fantiscritti quarry in northern Tuscany and had that transported – by sea and river – to Florence. He didn’t get much done – just blocked out the shape of the legs, feet, torso, and some drapery – before Donatello’s death in December of 1466. At that point, Agostino lost the commission and yet another artist (possibly Antonio Gamberelli, a. k. a. Antonio Rossellino) was commissioned to finish the statue in 1476. However, it doesn’t seem like this second artist got very far. The marble, that may or may not have even had a gap to distinguish the two legs, was left abandoned, exposed to the elements for 26 years.

So much for Plans A and B.

Of course, that hunk of “badly blocked out” marble was expensive (and represented the additional expense and effort of its acquisition). So, in 1501, the Operai started looking for a master artist – someone with experience – to take on what they referred to as “Il Gigante” (“The Giant”).

Yes, it is kind of ironic that the unfinished statue of the biblical underdog who took on “the Giant” was referred to by officials of the Church as “The Giant.” Perhaps it is most fitting, then, that while several artistic giants, like Leonardo da Vinci, were considered; they did not receive the final commission. Instead, the commission went to the artistic equivalent of the underdog, a young Michelangelo.

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”

– Michelangelo

Consider what it would be like to be 26-year old Michelangelo, staring at a chunk of marble. To the outside observer, it is nothing. But he sees inside. Seeing inside takes effort and may be harder for some than for others, but the artist who is literate in their craft may not think much about the process: They just do what they do.

To someone who is not an artist, the artistic process may seem magical and impossible. If a non-artist were to undertake such a task, without knowing what to look for and what steps to take, the process would be frustrating. The final effort might even be embarrassing. That’s not to say that one of us non-artists couldn’t do it, it just means that we would require more steps, maybe more training and more practice.

As neuroscientists Dr. Beau Lotto pointed out in a 2017 Big Think video entitled, “The Neuroscience of Creativity, Perception, and Confirmation Bias,” we all have “a space of possibility” that, based on our history and experiences, establishes our logical next steps. Ergo, what the artist does can be very similar to you reading this post (or even me writing this post). Yes, it takes effort and energy; however, if you are a literate adult – who learned how to read as a child and doesn’t have a reading impairment – you don’t think back to the struggle of the learning process every time you read or write. Even though the yoga philosophy defines this exchange of words and meaning as one of the “powers unique to being human,” we don’t always think of our ability to communicate as anything more than a tool. It’s simply part of our landscape… like the rocks on the ground before David picked them up. Or, like the hunk of marble before Michelangelo got to it.

Post Script: I didn’t love the way I wrapped up the 2022 Noon practice. Serendipitously, just before the evening practice started, some of us had a conversation about the movie Hidden Figures and it made me think of the acceptance speech Taraji P. Henson gave when the cast won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast (or Ensemble) in a Motion Picture. Her opening words (“Steady yourself heart; talk to me God; listen…”) could be the words anyone says before undertaking a big task. But, what she says about the women at the center of the movie – Catherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, Mary Jackson – the giants on whose shoulders the cast stood, perfectly described the mindset of underdogs like David and Michelangelo:

“They didn’t complain. They focused on the solutions.”

– quoted from Taraji P. Henson’s speech during the 23rd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, January 29, 2017

Tuesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “09132020 What Is Inside, II”]

*NOTE: According to some historians, the current pedestal engraving for Donatello’s marble David is not the original and may have been changed for political/religious reasons. Interestingly, the most common English translation – “To those who fight heroically for the fatherland (or motherland) the gods provide help even against the most terrible foes” – may obfuscate an error (in the Latin) made by someone in the 16^th century.

This past Thursday (September 8^th) was the anniversary of the unveiling of Michelangelo’s David and it was also International Literacy Day. For the approximately 775 million people worldwide who are functionally illiterate and lack the basic reading and writing skills to manage daily living and employment tasks, my blog posts can be like Goliath. (I know, I know: Even when you are literate, these blog posts can be like Goliath – but, if you are literate, you are David and you have what it takes to conquer!) To read more about why International Literacy Day is important, you can click here and scroll to the end of my original “David” post or go directly to the official United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) International Literacy page.

### DREAM. BREATHE. DREAM. BREATHE. ###

FTWMI: The Impossible Cornerstones of Liberty August 5, 2022

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in "Impossible" People, Art, Changing Perspectives, Donate, Faith, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Hope, Karma Yoga, Poetry, Super Heroes, Wisdom, Women, Writing, Yoga.
Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Civil Rights, Civil War, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, Gertrude Rush, Gustave Eiffel, inspiration, Jessie Carney Smith, Joseph Pulitzer, Judith Weisenfeld, National Bar Association, Richard Morris Hunt, Richard Newman, slavery, Statue of Liberty, Thurgood Marshall, yoga
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A portion of the following was originally posted in 2020. Class details and links have been added.

“‘Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!’ cries she

With silent lips. ‘Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’”

– from the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus

Today (August 5^th) in 1884, when the cornerstone of the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal was placed on a rainy Bedloe’s Island, it seemed impossible to complete the project meant to be a testament to freedom, friendship, and the spirit of the people. People in France provided the funds for the statue designed by the sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi (with scaffolding created by Gustave Eiffel), while people in the United States were meant to pay for the base and pedestal designed by Richard Morris Hunt. The only problem was that the Americans were short…about $100,000 short.

Hunt’s design for the pedestal and base incorporated the eleven-point star foundation of the army fort (Fort Wood) which had been built in 1807 and abandoned during the Civil War. He always intended his design to be simple, so as not to take away from the statue itself, but raising money for his design turned out to be such a challenge that he scrapped twenty-five feet from the height of his original design. He also cut back on materials so that instead of the pedestal and base being constructed entirely out of granite, he had to make do with concrete walls covered with a granite-block face. His cost cutting measures still might not have been enough if a certain newspaper man hadn’t decided to tap into the spirit of the people and, in doing so, overcame what some viewed as an impossible obstacle. That newspaper man was Joseph Pulitzer and on March 16, 1885 he implored people in the United States to give what they could, even if it was a penny, in order to pay for the base and pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. Starting with an ad and a series of front page editorials, he was able to crowd fund over $100,000 in about 5 months.

“We must raise the money! The World is the people’s paper, and now it appeals to the people to come forward and raise the money. The $250,000 that the making of the Statue cost was paid in by the masses of the French people – by the working men, the tradesmen, the shop girls, the artisans – by all, irrespective of class or condition. Let us respond in like manner. Let us not wait for the millionaires to give us this money. It is not a gift from the millionaires of France to the millionaires of America, but a gift of the whole people of France to the whole people of America.

Take this appeal to yourself personally. It is meant for every reader of The World. Give something, however little. Send it to us. We will receive it and see that it is properly applied.”

– quoted from The New York World editorial by Joseph Pulitzer, 1885

Joseph Pulitzer offered people a six inch metal replica of Lady Liberty (described as a “perfect fac-simile”) if they donated a dollar to the “Pedestal Fund” established by Pulitzer’s paper the New York World and a twelve inch replica if they donated $5. While that may not seem like a lot today, keep in mind that this was after the Financial Panic of 1873 (which created a depression in the United States and Europe). Also, interest seemed to be in short supply since the United States was still trying to recover from the Civil War – which left many Americans desiring heroic public art rather than allegorical public art. But, Joseph Pulitzer had a way with words and there were a group of people – immigrants – who were inspired to donate specifically because of the symbolism of the statue. Ultimately, over 125,000 people donated – most donating a dollar or less. They not only donated to receive the replicas, they donated via auctions, lotteries, and boxing matches. They donated by depriving themselves of things they needed or things they wanted. Some kids donated by pooling their “circus” and candy money. Some adults donated what they would normally spend on drinks. At the end of the fundraising, Joseph Pulitzer printed every donor’s name in the New York World – regardless of how little or how much they donated.

The cornerstone is the first stone set in the foundation of a building or structure. All other stones are set in reference to the cornerstone; thereby making it the very foundation of the foundation. It determines the overall position of the structure and is often placed with a certain amount of pomp and circumstance. It is usually inscribed with the date of its placement and often includes a time capsule, which includes some clues as to what was important to the people who attended the ceremony. Such was the case with Lady Liberty’s pedestal cornerstone, which was placed over a square hole dug for a copper time capsule. The time capsule contained a number of articles, including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States – both documents considered to be the cornerstones of the United States and the ultimate law of the land.

Although we don’t always think of it this way, one of the cornerstones of the legal system in a commonwealth is a bar. It might be wooden railing, it might be metal railing; however, historically, this bar separated those within the legal profession (specifically the judge and those who had business with the court) from everyone else. In particular, “everyone else” referred to law students whose aspirations were to “pass the bar” – meaning they would be on the other side of the symbolic railing. This symbolic railing is also used to refer to professional organizations, membership in which is sometimes required in order for an attorney to practice law in a particular jurisdiction. Let’s skip “state bars” for a second and just focus on “voluntary” bar associations – which, in the United States are private organizations which serve as social, educational, and lobbying organizations. Legal professionals can not only use these bar associations to network with other professionals and the general public (hence expanding their practice), they can also advocate for law reform. I place “voluntary” in quotes, because I’m not sure how possible it is to practice law in the United States without being a member of a “bar association” (not to be confused with a state bar).

Even if it’s possible to practice without being a member of a bar association – and I trust one of you lawyer yogis will educate me with a comment below – I imagine it would be quite challenging (maybe even impossible) to successfully practice. Especially, back when there was only one major bar association in the United States. And, especially back in the 1920’s when your race and gender prevented you from joining said association. Such was the plight of Gertrude Rush (née Durden), born today (August 5^th) in 1880 in Navasota, Texas. Ms. Rush not only became the first African-American woman to be admitted to the Iowa (state) bar, for about 32 years she was (sometimes) the ONLY female attorney practicing in the state of Iowa (1918 – 1950). She placed a particular emphasis on women’s (legal) rights in estate cases and had a passion for religion, extensively studying the 240 women whose stories are featured in the Bible. Many within the local court referred to her as the “Sunday school lawyer.” She took over her husband’s law practice and, in 1921 (just a year after women’s right to vote was ratified by the United States Congress) she was elected the president of the Colored Bar Association; however, it was impossible for her to be admitted to the American Bar Association. She tried. So, did several other African-American lawyers. They tried because the ABA had one Black lawyer and was, therefore “integrated.” Eventually, however, they stopped trying to join an organization that didn’t want them and started their own organization.

“…a very worn Bible is almost as prominent as the well-thumbed Iowa code on the desk of Mrs. Gertrude E. Rush.”

– quoted from “Iowa’s Only Negro Woman Lawyer Firmly on the Golden Rule” article about Gertrude Rush, located in Iowa Public Library (excerpt printed in Notable Black American Women, Book 2 by Jessie Carney Smith

Gertrude Rush was one of the founding members of the Negro Bar Association, which was incorporated on August 1, 1925 with 120 members (which was about 11 – 12% of the Black lawyers in the US at the time). Eventually renamed, the National Bar Association, the NBA ” addressed issues such as professional ethics, legal education, and uniform state laws, as well as questions concerning the civil rights movement in transportation discrimination, residential segregation, and voting rights.” The NBA supported civil rights groups by providing legal information, filing outside legal briefs (amicus curiae), and blocking federal court nominees who opposed racial equality. As a bar association, however, the NBA did not directly participate in civil rights activities. Instead, NBA members like Gertrude Rush and (eventual) Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall became members of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

It was as part of the NAACP’s legal team that Justice Marshall argued cases like Donald Gaines Murray in Murray v. Pearson, 169 Md. 478, 182 A. 590 (1936) and Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). Raymond Pace Alexander founded the National Bar Journal (1941), which became a way for Black lawyers to challenge legal principles which conflicted with the interest of African-Americans. The Rev. W. Harold Flowers, a co-founder with Ms. Rush and a former president of the NBA (who would eventually be appointed as an associate justice of the state Court of Appeals), was the attorney whose motions in 1947 resulted in a reconfigured jury after he pointed out that the Arkansas court had not had a Black juror in 50 years. Additionally, the NBA established free legal clinics in 12 states, thereby creating the foundational cornerstone for the poverty law and legal clinics of today.

Gertrude Rush was also one of the organizers of the Charity League, which coordinated the hiring of a Black probation officer for the Des Moines Juvenile Court; created the Protection Home for Negro Girls, a shelter; and served on the boards of a host of other women’s organizations. She also served as a delegate to the Women’s Convention (WC), which was a political auxiliary to the National Baptist Convention (NBC).

“In 1919 Mrs. Gertrude Rush, a prominent black lawyer and [WC] delegate from a Baptist church in Des Moines, Iowa, posited that the vote would enable women to fight for better working conditions, higher wages, and greater opportunities in business. Through suffrage, Rush maintained, women could better regulate moral and sanitary conditions, end discrimination and lynch law, obtain better educational opportunities, and secure greater legal justice.”

– quoted from “Religion, Politics, and Gender: The Leadership of Nannie Helen Burroughs” by Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (Chapter 8 of This Far By Faith: Readings in African-American Women’s Religious Biography, edited by Judith Weisenfeld & Richard Newman)

Please join me on Zoom (tonight), Friday, August 5, 2022, 7:15 PM – 8:20 PM (CST), for “The Impossible Cornerstones of Lady Liberty and Lady Justice” (a “restorative” practice featuring pawanmuktasana and gentle movement inspired by Somatic Yoga and Universal Yoga).

Use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or by emailing myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

Prop wise, you will mostly need something that allows you to be comfortable when seated, prone, and/or supine. There may also be some kneeling. [NOTE: You can always practice without props or use “studio” props and/or “householder” props. Example of Commercial props: 1 – 2 blankets,2 – 3 blocks, a bolster, a strap, and an eye pillow. Example of Householder props: 1 – 2 blankets or bath towels, 2 – 3 books (similar in size), 2 standard pillows (or 1 body pillow), a belt/tie/sash, and a face towel.]

You may want extra layers (as your body may cool down during this practice). Having a wall, chair, sofa, or coffee table may be handy for this practice.

Friday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.

NOTE: If you interested in a more active practice related to this date, check out the “Lady Liberty” post and playlists from June 17^th.

ERRATA: The original post listed the wrong year for the Statue of Liberty’s cornerstone placement.

### OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTHI OM ###

Remember, What’s Important (& You Can Still Practice! Part II) June 19, 2022

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in "Impossible" People, Books, Changing Perspectives, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Hope, Life, Maya Angelou, Men, Music, One Hoop, Pain, Poetry, Suffering, Texas, Tragedy, Wisdom, Yoga.
Tags: Brandan Odums, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Michael Novosel Sr., Dad's Big Day, Darius Simpson, Father's Day, General Richard Cavazos, Juneteenth, Maya Angelou, samskāras, The Naming Commission, vasanas
2 comments

Happy Juneteenth! Happy Dads’ Day!!

“Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.”

*

– quoted from the poem “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou

It is kind of wild to think about what it means to be a dad, a pa, a da, a papa, a daddy, a pappi, a paw-paw, a gran-daddy, a pepaw… today, Juneteenth, – especially if you are in the United States… especially if you are in Texas. And, if you are new to me, then maybe you’re wondering why I didn’t mention being a father. It is, after all, Father’s Day for much of the world. However, as I have mentioned in the past, today is about more – so much more – than someone’s ability to beget a child. Today, like Mothers’ Day, is about people who raise children. Sometimes they are known by different names than the ones I listed above (and my apologies to the uncle-pappies out there), but they are all still doing they job.

They are still sticking, staying, and raising the children who will be the future.

The thing is, it hasn’t always been easy to stick, stay, and raise a child. I’m not saying it’s easy now. However, now more people have a choice. Go back to yesterday in 1865, in my home state (let alone the little island where I was born) and there were a lot of people who didn’t have a choice. They sometimes didn’t get a say in when, if, and/or how they beget a child. Neither did they often get a say in whether or not they stayed to raise the child. On some level, that changed today, June 19, 1865, with General Gordon Granger’s reading of “General Order No. 3.” However, as history has shown us, the order that announced the (legal) end of slavery – in the Confederate states – didn’t change much for the emancipated people. And, not to seemingly digress, but neither did it change much for “dirt poor” white people in said states. At least, however, people had a choice.

Or did they?

In yoga, I often mention samskāras (“mental impressions”) and vasanas (the “dwelling places” of habits), which – just like neural pathways and culture – are created through repeated behavior. They are the legacy of being alive. Slavery and having choice stolen are also part of the legacy of being alive, especially if you are in the United States, and so we can’t ignore what that legacy has given us: a culture where people who beget a child don’t always know how to stick AND a culture where stereotypes abound about the people who don’t stick.

“[We are our] ancestors’ wildest dreams!”

*

– variations attributed to Brandan Odums, Darius Simpson, and others

I’m fortunate in that I have a father, known as Daddy (or Hey), who had a hand in raising me to be the person I am. In fact, for all the ways I am like the women in my family, those are all the ways I grew up wanting to be just like my dad – who, as my Mommy (or Ahma) was fond of saying, I thought was the smartest person on the planet. (He taught doctors and married my mom, so… just saying.) He is a man who was raised by a man who was raised by a man and they all grew up in rural Texas (on hard clay).

The fact that I grew up knowing all these Black men, and got to touch the soil that they owned, is one of the greatest gifts I’ve been given.

My dad went to a “Negro” school (because that was his only option), earned an undergraduate degree and a PhD from HBCUs, served in Vietnam, and then went on to teach doctors who are practicing medicine all over the world. He also raised two sons… who, along with their many accomplishments, raised their own kids and now have grandkids.

All of these things are gifts I cherish to this day. All of these things I appreciate with the understanding that everyone can’t say the same. Everyone doesn’t get the same gifts, but we get something. We get someone, a teacher, an uncle, a neighbor, a Big Brother…

And today is about celebrating those gifts.

Since today is also about celebrating emancipation and freedom, I think back to my Texas elders and ancestors – my parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and all the generations I never met. I think about their dreams. I think about their dreams of freedom. I think about the dreams they had for the generations that were coming after them. I think about the fact that if I had any ancestors listening to General Order No. 3, today in 1865, they could not – in their wildest dreams – have dreamed the details of my life.

Yet they dreamed of me and a world where I could dream of things they never conceived.

In their wildest dreams, they never would have dreamed of people still fighting and struggling to rise in 2022.

Yet, in the words of Dr. Maya Angelou, WE…

“…rise
…rise
…rise.”

*

– quoted from the poem “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou

There is no class today, but I will be back on schedule (and on Zoom) tomorrow. If you are on my Sunday recording list, I have sent you a copy of the 2020 Dad’s Day practice and a copy of the 2021 Juneteenth practice. If you want to be added to my Sunday list (or any other list), please email me or comment below.

The “Dad’s Big Day” playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.

The “0619 Juneteenth” playlist is also available on YouTube and Spotify.

The embedded links in the first paragraph of this post will take you to the appropriate date-related posts from 2020. In a 2022 update (of my Juneteenth 2020 post), The Commission on the Naming of Items of the Department of Defense that Commemorate the Confederate States of America or Any Person Who Served Voluntarily with the Confederate States of America (a. k. a. The Naming Commission) has recommended that Fort Rucker be renamed Fort Novosel – after Chief Warrant Officer 4 Michael Novosel Sr. (the son of Croatian immigrants), who flew more than 2,500 extraction missions in Vietnam, rescuing more than 5,500 soldiers – and that Fort Hood be renamed Fort Cavazos – after General Richard Cavazos, a Mexican-American Texan who served during the Korean and Vietnam Wars and was the Army’s first Mexican-American four-star general. These recommendations, along with seven others (including 1.5 which would be named after women who served in the military) will be in the hands of Congress in October of this year.

Let’s keep dreaming, y’all, and let’s keep dreaming (and working) on those dreams coming true.

*

In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)

*

### DREAMS OF FREEDOM (should be part of all our bios) ###

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A Joyful Practice

A Tree of Many Seasons (a special Black History note) February 13, 2023

“[The president of the Tuscaloosa Branch of the NAACP, Lisa Young,] she was ‘angry and part of me feels like we failed our students. We want to see what we can do to assist them, and make their school a safe place.’”

– quoted from the Tuscaloosa News article entitled “Hillcrest High students say they were told to limit Black History Month program” by The Associated Press (pub. Feb. 9, 2023)

– Mrs. Juanita Jewel Craft, quoted from The Black Women Oral History Project, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University (interview conducted by Mrs. Dorothy R. Robinson (01/20/1977)

– Mrs. Dorothy R. Robinson, quoted from The Black Women Oral History Project, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University (Juanita Jewel Craft interview conducted by Mrs. Dorothy R. Robinson (01/20/1977)

There was a complete circle. Students from SMU and other areas around Dallas joined us in our protest.

The thing that would worry me was that a lot of older people could not see our need, or did not join us. I‘ve had friends to say, ‘I came down to see the line.’ I would immediately ask them, ‘Did you bring a bottle of Coke? Or did you bring a sandwich to one of those kids?’

And I have seen those kids so dedicated to breaking the chain that was binding them. But they were, would [pause] – They would walk until their shoes became unbearable and they would continue to walk until they‘d worn out the feet of their hose.”

– Mrs. Juanita Jewel Craft, quoted from The Black Women Oral History Project, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University (interview conducted by Mrs. Dorothy R. Robinson (01/20/1977)

– Mrs. Juanita Jewel Craft, quoted from The Black Women Oral History Project, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University (interview conducted by Mrs. Dorothy R. Robinson (01/20/1977)

“I was really disturbed when they told me there that there wasn‘t a law in the State of Texas that would protect them. Well, I said, ‘If we don‘t have a law, we‘re going to get some laws, because this is ridiculous.”

– Mrs. Juanita Jewel Craft, quoted from The Black Women Oral History Project, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University (interview conducted by Mrs. Dorothy R. Robinson (01/20/1977)

“My life does not belong to me. I have no particular family, some cousins, but I have nobody that I‘m particularly responsible to. Therefore, I have adopted everybody. and I feel that if I can make any contribution to the lives of any person I want to be about that.”

– Mrs. Juanita Jewel Craft, quoted from The Black Women Oral History Project, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University (interview conducted by Mrs. Dorothy R. Robinson (01/20/1977)

### “I wish I could share all the love that’s in my heart / Remove all the bars that keep us apart / I wish you could know what it means to be me / Then you’d see and agree / That every man should be free” ~ Nina Simone ###

Space and the Power of Hearing(s) (a special Black History note, w/a Tuesday link) February 8, 2023

“It’s a bad habit we have: We tell the tale of the murder and not the murdered.”

“I’ll also explain why my research has enraged so many people who claim to be experts in the Ripper case.”

“If you want to know how we got the Ripper story so wrong, what those mistakes tell us about ourselves, and why putting the record straight makes some people so very angry, join me, Hallie Rubenhold for Bad Women: The Ripper Retold.”

— quoted from the podcast trailer for Season 1of Bad Women: The Ripper Retold, hosted by Hallie Rubenhold

Click here to read my 2021 post about practicing santoşā on the 7th.

— quoted from Bhamwiki.com (citing Gordon, Tom (May 2, 2018) “Civil decency. Human honesty.” B-Metro

“In this state of withdrawal, ‘Great Disincarnation’ the mental coverings composed of rajas and tamas dwindle away and the light of sattwa is revealed.”

— quoted from How to Know God: The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali (3:42), translated and with commentary by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood

“Remembering their sharp and pretty Tunes for Sacco and Vanzetti, I said: Here too’s a cause divinely spun For those whose eyes are on the sun, Here in epitome Is all disgrace And epic wrong. Like wine to brace The minstrel heart, and blare it into song.

Surely, I said, Now will the poets sing. But they have raised no cry. I wonder why.”

— quoted from the poem “Scottsboro, Too, Is, Worth Its Song” by Countee Cullen

— quoted from the special concurrence opinion for Beck v. State, 396 So. 2d 645 (1980) by Alabama Supreme Court Justice Oscar W. Adams

“In the early seventies, blacks argued for bifurcated jury trials, and this Court today has mandated such for the State of Alabama. In the seventies, blacks asked that sentences for rape and other offenses be not discriminatorily and freakishly imposed.”

— quoted from the special concurrence opinion for Beck v. State, 396 So. 2d 645 (1980) by Alabama Supreme Court Justice Oscar W. Adams

“Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg famously said, ‘I’m sometimes asked, “When will there be enough [women on the Supreme Court]?” And I say when there are nine. People are shocked. But there’d been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that.’

— quoted from “What Is Diverse Enough” in “Chapter 4. A Clear Case” of Creating Cultures of Belonging: Cultivating Organization where Women and Men Thrive by Beth Birmingham and Eeva Sallinen Simard (forward by Myal Greene and Emily Sarmiento)

### 7 of 9 (1857) ###

Having the Mettle/Metal to Mix it Up (a special Black History 2-for-1 note) February 6, 2023

– David Chang talking about his Netflix series “Ugly Delicious” on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (May 2018)

– quoted from Chapter 3 of I Had A Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story by Hank Aaron with Lonnie Wheeler

– quoted from Chapter 3 of I Had A Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story by Hank Aaron with Lonnie Wheeler

– quoted from part of Letters Patent No. 292,821, dated February 5, 1884, issued to Willis Johnson, Cincinnati, Ohio

– quoted from part of Letters Patent No. 292,821, dated February 5, 1884, issued to Willis Johnson, Cincinnati, Ohio

### “I want a little sugar in my bowl / I want a little sweetness down in my soul” ~ NS ###

FTWMI: Focus+Concentrate+Meditate = Sweet Heaven (w/expansion) January 30, 2023

– quoted from “Chapter VIII: Raja-Yoga in Brief” in The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 1, Raja-Yoga by Swami Vivekananda

Yoga Sūtra 3.1: deśabandhah cittasya dhāranā

– “Dhāranā is the process of holding, focusing, or fixing the attention of mind onto one object or place.”

Yoga Sūtra 3.2: tatra pratyaya-ikatānatā dhyānam

– “Dhyāna is the repeated continuation, or unbroken flow of thought, toward that one object or place.”

Yoga Sūtra 3.3: tadeva-artha-mātra-nirbhāsaṁ svarūpa-śūnyam-iva-samādhiḥ

– “Samadhi [meditation in its highest form] is the state when only the essence of that object, place, or point shines forth in the mind, as if devoid even of its own form.”

Yoga Sūtra 3.4: trayam-ekatra samyama

– “Samyama is [the practice or integration of] the three together.”

“‘From this story, we learn that unity, solidarity and the active participation of the community is necessary when it comes to facing challenges,’ said [Klang Hokkien Association president Datuk Teh Kim] Teh.”

– quoted from The Star article (about a version of the story where only some hide) entitled “Legend Behind Hokkien New Year emphasizes unity and solidarity” by Grace Chen (2/24/2018)

“‘Although we may not have an image of this deity in our temple, as long as devotees have the Jade Emperor in their hearts, their prayers will be heard,’ said [the Kwan Imm Temple’s] principal Shi Fa Zhuo.”

– quoted from The Star article entitled “Legend Behind Hokkien New Year emphasizes unity and solidarity” by Grace Chen (2/24/2018)

### DON’T BE GREEDY, BE GRATEFUL ###

Cèlèbrer Une Vie & FTWMI: Recuerda Todas Almas November 2, 2022

“That was what the living did: they died.”

.

– quoted from The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier

“i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

.

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)“

.

– quoted from “[i carry your heart with me(I carry it in)]” by e e cummings

“No two reports were ever the same. And yet always there was the drumlike thumping noise.

Some people insisted that it never went away, that if you concentrated and did not turn your ear from the sound, you could hear it faintly behind everything in the city….”

.

– quoted from The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier

.

– 2 Maccabees (12:44 – 46)

.

– quoted from The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier

.

.

### “BA-DUM. BA-DUM. BA-DUM.” ###

FTWMI: Generally Coming Together October 17, 2022

– quoted from “1 – Yoga: Concept and Meaning” in The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice by T. K. V. Desikachar

### “I wish I could share all the love that’s in my heart / Remove all the bars that keep us apart / I wish you could know what it means to be me / Then you’d see and agree /
That every man should be free” ~ Nina Simone ###

Click here to read my 2021 post about practicing santoşā on the 7^th.

“Remembering their sharp and pretty
Tunes for Sacco and Vanzetti,
I said:
Here too’s a cause divinely spun
For those whose eyes are on the sun,
Here in epitome
Is all disgrace
And epic wrong.
Like wine to brace
The minstrel heart, and blare it into song.

Surely, I said,
Now will the poets sing.
But they have raised no cry.
I wonder why.”

FTWMI: What Does It Mean to You? October 16, 2022*

– Tenzin Gyatso, the 14^th Dalai Lama in July 2015