Waste and Green Living and the Web of Life

Want to do your part to change the world for the better?
Take a look at Raj Patel's Blog. It is mind fodder for finding how you can influence change, in your life and in your world.

Think change will take HUGE alterations in how we live, think we need whole sale Revolution? I'd like to suggest that you should think again. I think that the only way we can change is in an evolutionary fashion. Granted some times external events cause the "punctuated equilibrium" type of evolutionary change to appear more obvious. Cataclysmic changes (Flood, Nuclear War, The Plague, Meteor, Ice Ages, Climate Change) result in only those with the "winning genes/skill sets", or luck to be in the right location, to survive. But all change is gradual, even the change that happens in the larger global community.

These days much of what "happens to us" as a global community (part of the web of life) is done to us and for us by "Market Forces". These market forces are like a large, fast flowing river, seemingly hard or impossible to fight against. But there are back eddies were interesting things are happening. Nature teaches that even large fast flowing rivers change their flow, in features like oxbow lakes, or deltas. It's our challenge to find how to work with the large, fast flowing river of Market Forces until we figure out how to influence them so that they serve the web of life as well as they have served corporations.

So far I've figured out a few ways to waste less.

I have learned how to eliminate plastic bags and replace them with cloth.

I learned the joy of shopping at the Salvation Army or Thrift City or Goodwill. And of returning "gently used" items from our home to those same places.

I recycle, even though I have to pay $140.00 a year for it which some people consider ridiculous. But the thought of usable stuff ending up buried in a Landfill just seems stupid.

Another is to shop locally as much as possible. I shop in the following order:
Every Saturday I get produce via a Farmers Market so that my eating and actions more directly support the people who are growing the food.
I then infill with goods from Local grocers, and as much as possible local producers milk, butter, yogurt, local seafood,
I admit that sometimes economics still forces me to buy somewhere big boxish. But when I do this I buy in bulk just like our ancestors did. Think Buckboard into town type shopping trips. If I go more than quarterly I'm doing it wrong.
and only the things I need that I'm not really buying locally even when I shop at a local store. These shopping trips take no less than 4 hours. These 4 hours include the list making, it's important to know exactly what you are going for and to stay on task, travel time of course, the actual shopping, the loading and unloading of the buckboard and then storage. Storage includes lugging the stuff into place of course but it also includes separation into the smaller packets of mostly meat that we freeze for later use, just like our ancient ige age ancestors.

Raj's says that research indicates that "US per capita food waste has progressively increased by about 50% since 1974 reaching more than 1400 Calories per person per day".

Not quite 3 years ago I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Some times change feels Cataclysmic. Even though, as it turns out its been in my genes all along, but my dad died from cancer before he had a chance to be affected by diabetes. I only discovered that his brother, my uncle, had diabetes after my brother and I were diagnosed. But I digress.

Last February, after 2 years of figuring out how to eat as a diabetic, I cleaned out our pantry, condiment cupboard and refrigerator. I did this because the pantry & fridge just didn't look the way they used to. The condiment cupboard is essentially my husband's domain but since I was working on the pantry & fridge it got tackled too.

As I stood back and looked at the pantry it was quite amazing at how much space I have now that I (and we as a family) don't eat as much carbohydrates. Today there is much less pasta and rice on the shelves, but more variety (especially in the local rice types available in our area) in both. There are fewer dry cereals and even less flour and sugar for baking. Now don't get me wrong... we still have sweets. There are the boxes of brownie mix for school bake sales and a brown sugar for my husband's grandmother's famous Pillsbury Prize winning "Chewy Cake". I still bake bread. There are nuts for adding to sugar free yogurt and the perennial tomato paste and diced tomatoes. There are some canned soups, grapefruit and tomato juice leftover from hurricane season, along with some canned meats. There are lots of various condiments. My cooking husband LOVES his condiments. But all in all there is less food.

The refrigerator/freezer has slowly transformed as well. I still buy in meat in bulk and mostly from big boxes because it is cost effective. But now we separate the bulk packages into almost twice the number of portions before we freeze it. This way defrosting a package of flank steak or pork tenderloin ends up being an easy way to exercise portion control. Cook less, eat less, store less leftovers. These days we are able to look at the leftovers at the end of the week and toss any leftovers we haven't and therefore aren't going to eat (or feed to the pups) and because the portions are so small feel a bit less guilty about doing it. At the end of the week there is less food in the fridge as well.

We're trying to do what we can to change our lives and in the process changing the world by gradually changing our little corner of it. But it seems that we still have a long way to go. I think if we each do what we can in our own eddies of the global river of existence we can gradually change via market forces how we evolve.

Sometimes its hard for folks to express their spiritual teachings or personal values in their everyday world. But I to think that I'm learning to do what I can to follow Aradia's Words on Nature:

Respect Nature in all ways. Take only that which you must from Her, and remember nothing can be taken except that something be given.

Nature teaches all living things all that must be known. She teaches birds to make their nests, animals to hunt and survive, children to crawl and walk. She teaches life. Once She taught all people of Her ways, but they chose to go their own way. They chose to oppose and to control Her. But for Strega there can be no other way than Nature. A Strega must live in harmony with the Forces of Nature.

It seems that Raj wants the rest of the world to figure this out as well.

Heros & Symbols

Before you read the Mark Lorando article below let me do a bit of stage setting. Bacchus is one of the big weekend before Mardi Gras Parades. Bacchus has a history of having celebrity kings. Drew Brees was chosen as monarch way before the Saints won the SuperBowl. He was chosen because he embodies what is best about us all. Football was just the mechanism to bring him to our and the world's attention. His work off the football field and his ambassadorship for New Orleans was why the Bacchus organization wanted him regardless of how the Saints season ended. “Truthfully, we’re not honoring Drew for his accomplishments on the football field,” Brennan said. “His philanthropy, what he does for children…he’s an incredible ambassador for New Orleans. He’s a pillar of our community. You could not pick a better man in the city of New Orleans to be the king of Bacchus."

Even though the 2010 SuperBowl broadcast was watched by more people than ever before, if you aren't in the Gulf South you probably have no idea what the Saints winning the Superbowl means to this region. Maybe the article below will help those of you who live outside the region to begin to understand. And, during the end of the "God Year", maybe it will help you to appreciate the power of Myth and Symbols.

Hey Drew!
If the Mardi Gras Nation had more time to talk, here's what we would tell Bacchus as he passes
Sunday, February 14, 2010 By Mark Lorando Staff writer

This is what he will hear:

"Drewwwwww!!! Ohmygod!!! Ohmygod!!! Right here, Drew!!! I'm open!!! Throw me something, Drew!!! I love you, Drewwwwww!!! Who Dat, Baby!!! Will you marry me, Drew?!?!?!? I know you're married, so am I. We can work that out!!! Really!!! My husband won't mind, he's got a crush on you, too!!! Drewwwwww!!! Drewwwwww!!! Ohmygod, did you see that?!?!?!? He threw it right to me!!! You da man, Drewwwwww!!!"

But that's not exactly what the Who Dats on the parade route want to say.

It's hard to be eloquent when a float is rolling past. So little time, so much pressure -- you wait seven hours on a curb in the hopes of catching something, anything, directly from the hand of Super Bowl XLIV MVP and Bacchus 2010 Drew Brees. How can you possibly be expected to get his attention AND snag a flying doubloon AND put everything you're feeling into words in just a few, fleeting seconds?

You can't. So Drew is going to have to read between the lines. He's going to have to know that when we say all of that, what we really want to tell him is this:

Thank you.

Thank you for bringing your broken shoulder to town and rebuilding yourself right alongside us.

Thank you for teaching us how to finish strong.

Thank you for always facing adversity with your shoulders back, your head up, your upper lip stiff, your eyes on fire.

Thank you for giving us Feb. 7 to ease the pain of Aug. 29.

Thank you for reminding every woman in New Orleans, and Katie Couric, how it feels to have a schoolgirl crush. (Katie, sweetheart, we know he's a dreamboat, but try not to be so obvious next time.)
Thank you for making your beautiful family part of our beautiful city. So many star athletes parachute in for the season and catch the first flight out. You put down roots. That means a lot to us. It makes you one of us.

One suggestion: The next time you play in the Super Bowl (Feb. 6, 2011, in Dallas, see you there!), have Brittany and Baylen watch the game on the sideline on a Mardi Gras ladder. Every time you get flushed out of the pocket, he can scream, "Throw me something, Daddy!"

How cool would that be?

If we're going to go to the Super Bowl every year, we might as well give it a little New Orleans flavor.

Remember how you felt when you held Baylen in your arms after the Super Bowl? How you held him close and saw all of your hopes and dreams for the future in his little face and you cried?

Well, that's how the Who Dat Nation feels when we look at you. You are a son of New Orleans now. In you we see the best of ourselves, and a future filled with possibilities, and a pride that moves us to tears, too.

This is the part the national media always gets wrong. They see us crying, and they think it's because you have "given the people of New Orleans a reason to feel good about themselves."

If we heard that once last week, we heard it a hundred times.

But that's not it at all. We've always felt good about ourselves. New Orleans is home to some of the most fascinating, fun-loving, hard-working, resilient, creative, smart, sexy, generous, loving, tolerant people on the planet. We have some of the richest culinary, musical, artistic and architectural traditions in the world. What's not to feel good about? Do Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest look like events organized by people with an inferiority complex?

Please.

We celebrate ourselves from January to December. What we have needed is someone worthy to represent us. Someone the rest of the world can associate with New Orleans who is not on the way to jail, hell or an NFL Films blooper reel.

The national symbols of New Orleans have too often been laughingstocks and losers. We've always known we deserved better.

You're better.

That's why we get choked up. Not because we don't think we deserve you. Because we know how much we deserve each other.

So, like we said: Thank you. For representing. And for allowing us to go completely overboard about you. We know that nobody could be as good as we're making you out to be right now. But we've been a little bit hero-deprived around here lately. If it's not too uncomfortable up there, we'd like to keep you on the pedestal a little while longer.


And one last thing, Drew.

You know that fistful of black-and-gold doubloons you're holding? Right here, big boy. Come to papa. The game is on the line and I'm Jeremy Shockey. Cock that golden arm and let 'em fly. Put them where you've put everything since the day you hit town:

Right in the sweet spot.

. . . . . . .

Features editor Mark Lorando can be reached at mlorando@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3430. Comment and read more at NOLA.com/living.

Unity, Teamwork, Symbology

Saints victory teaches us about unity, teamwork: A letter to the editor
By Letters to the Editor
February 10, 2010, 1:36AM

History has taught us that although it might not happen immediately, eventually the unanimity and camaraderie that pervaded our beautiful Crescent City will, more than likely, wither and die.

For several weeks, and peaking in what will, in all likelihood, shamefully come to pass as a few short hours, all the things that we so ignorantly see as separators -- race, gender, socioeconomic status and sexual orientation, to name a few -- just didn't matter.

All too soon, some slight -- real or imagined -- will redraw the lines that were erased as we cheered on our blessed "Boys."

Perhaps the Black and Gold are showing us a solution. Part of the enjoyment of watching them work their magic is the very manner in which it was worked.

They played hard. They played as a cohesive team. There was little individual grandstanding. They played like gentlemen. And, finally, they appeared to genuinely enjoy themselves -- win or lose.

Tragedy and triumph alike have shown us that we can function as that thing we hold so dear in these parts: a family.

As is usually the case, the solution is so simple that we look past it every day: We must make a choice, have faith and work every day toward our goal.

Here's to us, as we have yet another thing of which we can be proud. Here's to the New Orleans Saints! May the brotherhood, and sisterhood, they fostered not be lost.

Eric Ettinger
New Orleans

Muses & Little Girls growing up

In 10 short years MUSES has become one of New Orleans signature parades (and my daughter's favorite). This parade is a must see for her and her friends, this year despite the fact that it was COLD! and the parade had to be postponed until Friday and it was the last parade of the night. What happened at the Friday night parade celebration this year is that my daughter found her Mardi Gras Mojo. She found out that she can get the attention of people in a crowd, look them in the eye, have them react positively to her. It is a taste of what it means to be a blossoming female. It was empowering for her.

At Mardi Gras, Krewe of Muses puts its best foot forward
By John Pope, The Times-Picayune
February 10, 2010, 10:40PM

While Staci Rosenberg was watching a male colleague rollick in the 2000 Krewe of Druids parade, a thought came to her that would eventually change the way hundreds of women celebrate Mardi Gras.

“I thought, ‘That looks like so much fun, and there’s not a parade I want to be in,’” said Rosenberg, a lawyer. When she returned home, Rosenberg started calling some of her female friends, asking, “If I started a krewe, would you be in it?”

What resulted was the Krewe of Muses, a hard-charging, wildly creative, women-only Carnival club.

Thursday night, toting bags full of shoes bedecked with glitter, nearly 800 Muses will climb aboard floats for their 10th anniversary ride, reveling in the notion that their Type-A approach to everything from satire to swag has catapulted their parade to the top of revelers’ must-see list. Another 800 women are on a waiting list to ride.

“We’re all perfectionists, and we always want to outdo ourselves — and everyone else,” said Virginia Saussy, who is in charge of floats and themes. “We’re very competitive, but our biggest competition is ourselves.”


Muses’ processions have become known for their humor, whimsical marching groups that include platoons of male Elvis Presley impersonators and batonless majorettes of a certain age, jabs at politicians, and just the merest hint of naughtiness.

How naughty? For the first parade, members dressed in virginal white, and the title of the last float was “Is That It?” The next year, the final float proclaimed, “It’s Always Better the Second Time.”

“I realized after Year One that there was room for bad girls in Mardi Gras,” Kathy Conklin said with a smirk. ‘I tend to think of (the all-female Krewe of) Iris as well-behaved women. I think Muses struck a chord for not being so well-behaved.”

The sole of the parade

And of course, there are the shoes. Lots of shoes.

Riders throw all kinds of outlandishly spangled footwear — from high heels to platform shoes to boots — and marchers carry outsize, brightly colored fiber-optic outlines of high heels between floats.

Finding and decorating shoes for the parade is a year-round affair. In addition to real shoes, members toss beads with little red high heels that have become iconic — and coveted.

Originally, those trinkets were supposed to be limited to the first parade.

But shortly after Muses’ debut, when Saussy and Rosenberg were wearing red-shoe beads at a party, Saussy said a police officer told them: “You guys are going to be big. There was a brawl in a gay bar last night over a pair of Muses beads.”

“We thought, damn, this could be something big,” Saussy said. “Now we’re all about shoes.”

In addition to the beads, some members sport charm bracelets with all manner of high heels, and shoe-shaped plastic earrings dangle from earlobes. The riders of one float call themselves Soul Sistas, proclaiming their affiliation with black shirts, each of which sports a dramatic high-heel shoe with an ankle strap.

And, of course, there is Muses’ dominant symbol: a huge pump, covered with 350,000 points of fiber-optic light, in which each year’s honorary muse rides. This year’s luminary is political consultant Mary Matalin, chosen because one of the attributes of Calliope, this year’s muse, is that she is the goddess of eloquence, Saussy said.

No one is exactly sure why shoes have become such an important part of Muses, although some members suggested that it stems from an inherent female interest in footwear. Another member pointed out that the krewe’s early years coincided with the popularity of “Sex and the City,” in which Carrie Bradshaw and her gal pals were obsessed with stilettos bearing such high-fashion — and high-price — names as Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo.

Foot in the door

During this year’s party, where members inspected the floats and socialized, Rosenberg sat near the big shoe’s toe. The krewe has clearly taken over her life: Rosenberg wore a Muses jacket over a Muses T-shirt over a Muses turtleneck, and on her right wrist, a black bracelet spelled out “MUSES” in big rhinestones.

At first, she said, it was difficult for anyone to take the women seriously, even after the City Council voted to let the krewe take to the streets in 2001.

Dionne Randolph, who books bands and marching groups for the parade, said it was tough to get bands to participate in the first parade because they weren’t sure whether the new krewe would be able to pay them. And because Muses paraded on a week night, Randolph knew some schools might be reluctant to let their musicians march.

But organizers knew that if they could book a major band, others would follow.

Randolph, an environmental engineer, had a distinct advantage: Her husband was a graduate of St. Augustine High School, where he played drums in the Marching 100.

“I knew I could do it,” she said — and her charm offensive was rewarded: St. Augustine signed up.

With that booking, other groups joined and have returned year after year, Randolph said, along with marching groups, some made up of men whose wives are riding.

Extending a hand

But there’s more to Muses than flashy footwear and a spiffy parade. From the beginning, the organization wanted to be active in community organizations, especially those benefiting women and children, said Conklin, who is in charge of outreach.

At first, the krewe enlisted elderly shut-ins to make riders’ masks, and they let schoolchildren design headdresses. In the wake of the destruction associated with Hurricane Katrina, Muses gave the New Orleans Police Department $50,000 to help cover Carnival overtime.

Muses members also stepped up during the organization’s darkest hour, after Latasha Bell, a 20-year-old single mother, was fatally shot while watching the 2004 parade.

One member helped pay for Bell’s funeral, Saussy said, and the organization set up a trust fund for her son, David Anthony Powell, raising about $25,000 in the first year.

The next year, when the parade passed the spot on St. Charles Avenue where the shooting occurred, “across the street was the family with a big sign that said, ‘David Anthony Powell loves the Muses,’” Saussy said.

After Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005, members said there never was any doubt that Muses would roll in 2006.

Cecile Tebo, a social worker and administrator of the New Orleans Police Department’s Crisis Unit, described riding in Muses in 2006 as “mental health at its finest.”

“It was a moment to escape out of the heartache,” she said, “and to be members giving the city such a wonderful party and give people a moment when they could escape as well.”

As Muses gets ready for Thursday night’s 10th parade, Saussy had a simple explanation for the organization’s survival.

“We want all the little girls who are on the street to grow up and do what we’re doing, to perpetuate it.”


John Pope can be reached at jpope@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3317.

On our own terms

Pride in New Orleans Saints fills a city that is All-American and all New Orleans: A guest column by C.W. Cannon
By Contributing Op-Ed columnist
February 09, 2010, 3:22PM

One thing that observers of Super Bowl XLIV, here and elsewhere, agree on, is that for the Crescent City, the win is about "more than football." But what does this mean? What is it about?

Most commentators point out that the suffering wrought by Hurricane Katrina is what makes the victory especially meaningful. It's true that the Super Bowl puts New Orleans back in the media spotlight for the first time since 2005, and in far more pleasant circumstances. If nothing else, this time we had time to do our hair and select our best outfits. But a consideration of how Saints fans have reacted to their star turn on the national stage suggests that something even more than triumph over unnatural disaster is afoot. The drama of the Saints season represents nothing less than the attempt of New Orleanians to control their own representation in the national culture, and to define their membership in the American community on their own terms.

The biggest sign of this process of self-definition is a linguistic phenomenon -- yes, dat one. The very notion of a "Who Dat Nation," rather than simply "Saints fans," suggests that New Orleanians, wherever they are, wish to be considered a type of special entity within the broader "America." While this type of exceptionalism existed before Katrina, it was greatly exacerbated as a result of the storm, when admirers of the region's unique cultural aspects began to cherish more than ever what they feared could be lost in the post-K era. In a more complex sense, the idea that the "Who Dat Nation" is not limited to the New Orleans area media market suggests that New Orleans is a state of mind, a cultural attitude, more than a geographic entity.

The vernacular origins of "who dat," and the way "dat" is inserted in a variety of other formulations, bespeak aspects of a New Orleans character that fans wish to promote: working class, casual, playful, colorful. The racial ambiguity of the phrase is also significant, especially in light of post-Katrina media coverage of the city's racial difficulties.

Like so much in New Orleans culture, the chant has African-American provenance but has been embraced and claimed, comfortably and convincingly, by people of all hues.
(Nola here: and with respect to Mr. Cannon In New Orleans talking this way is more than just African American. My German grandparents and great aunts & uncles said: "des" - these, "dat" - that, "dem" - them and "dose" - those.)

While there's no question that racial animus complicates day-to-day life in the metro area, white and black residents alike chafe when outsiders emphasize this disagreeable fact too much. A mayoral election offers citizens an opportunity to vent legitimate frustrations, but for a national football championship, New Orleanians put on their best face for national observers -- who, for a tourist town like ours, we all realize are also potential paying guests.

While New Orleanians love being different, they don't want to be so different that they're not considered American at all. This is the other thread in the drama of Super Bowl XLIV. The Lombardi trophy is only available to a limited fraternity of major American cities. As much as they emphasize their own special character, Who Dats insist that this victory is evidence that this special character does not exclude them from the American community.

This, too, is a sensitive issue given the last time New Orleanians were on TV. The paradox of wanting to be different and wanting to be true-blue (or gold) American is illustrated best by the flap over the NFL's attempt to claim "who dat" as its own intellectual property. The message from the black-and-gold tribe was clear: we deserve to go to the Super Bowl and win, but we'll make our own t-shirts, thank you.

It will be very interesting to see how Mardi Gras 2010 compares to Mardi Gras 2006. Anybody know how to dye blue tarp gold?

C.W. Cannon is the author of a novel, "Soul Resin." He teaches English at Loyola University and can be reached at cwcannon@loyno.edu.

Characters Welcome

When people hear New Orleans (and the surrounding area) they think lots of things that they don't think about other places. It's a blessing and a curse.

We are a place filled with what other places might call oddity but with what we know to be character.

What do you think of when you hear "NFL Cheerleader"? I bet you it's not Chrissy Hamilton, white girl from St. Bernard Parish and graduating from the College of Pharmacy at historically black Xavier University.

What do you think of when you hear Male dance team? Betcha it's not the 610 Stompers who participated in the Buddy D Parade and then Saints SuperBowl Parade. In a city of characters, a group of ordinary men with extraordinary moves. Indeed.

These samples were both taken from the February 10th Living Section of the New Orleans Times Picayune. There are many more where these come from.

Fairy Tales & Magic

Perhaps you're tired of hearing me talk about the symbolic and mythical proportions of a football team and its season. But

Here in New Orleans a political pundit has used Fairy tales to describe our 5 year journey from PreKatrina to PostSuperBowl.

And Sports Writers talk of Magic.

Given the folks talking are older males, I'd say myth and symbology still has a place in how we humans relate to the world.

New Orleans enjoys fairy-tale endings: James Gill
By James Gill
February 10, 2010, 6:24AM
Once upon a time, there was a town where gingerbread houses lined the streets and men could become king for a day, although not everyone believed it was real.

Even those who kinda liked the place figured time had passed it by. And bad things kept happening there.

After a big flood killed many of the inhabitants and drove many more away, the ones who remained seemed to have fallen under some malign influence. Nothing else could explain their bizarre behavior and affections.

They passed up opportunities to get rid of their burgomeister, who was plainly pixilated, or their man on Capitol Hill, who was just as plainly crooked.

They didn't care because they were consumed with more important matters. Their biggest fear was that the town's football team would move away. When the owner hankered for a distant land where the stars at night are big and bright, gloom would descend on the old town by the river.

Outsiders could not understand why, because the team had been letting everyone down for decades. It was not as though the team were ever going to win the biggest game of the season, for crying out loud.

Wipe the town off the map, the cry went up. Only idiots would live at such a low elevation in a hurricane zone. Besides, all the aid sent their way gets stolen. T
hey party all the time, shoot one another in the street and half of them can't read.
The calumnies multiplied. It seemed we'd need a bigger miracle than Cinderella to get out of this jam, but fortune began to smile at last.

The crook -- Dollar Bill they called him -- came up for election again and this time he lost, although maybe the inhabitants of the funny old town didn't deserve much credit for that. A new system was in place and a lot of people were so confused they didn't show up for the last round. No matter. It made no difference in the long run because old Bill soon got sentenced to prison.

No magic was required to persuade Tom Benson to abandon plans to move his team. Benson was no more saintly than any cut-throat businessman, but he got such a good deal that he discovered a deep and abiding affection for the old town.

Suddenly the Saints demonstrated that nice guys -- and they brought in lots of guys who really helped with the recovery of the old town -- could play football too.

The curse had not been lifted yet. The goofy mayor was on the way out, but he was working on a legacy of racial strife and urging citizens to keep resentment in their hearts as they went to the polls to choose his successor.

But the town was by now weary of Ray Nagin and decided the only question was who was qualified to run the town he had brought so low. The election went off without rancor at the first go, so that there were no distractions from the big game the next day.

There was no more talk of letting the town die. If football heroes could grow so dedicated to it, the world could see the old place couldn't be a dead loss after all.

Suddenly, millions wanted the town to win the big one and sat glued to their TVs.
But they don't go for Cinderella stories in Vegas, and the experts said the old town was in for a disappointment. They got that wrong and the hooting and a hollering and hugging of strangers went on in the streets for hours.

When the players got back home, they put on a parade. And, even in its darkest days, everyone agreed that the old town could organize a parade like nowhere else.

They all lived happily ever after, except for the town lawman Mr. Letten, who completely ran out of crooked officials to put in jail.

Right. It's a fairy tale.

James Gill is a columnist for The Times-Picayune. He can be reached at jgill@timespicayune.com or at 504.826.3318.

The New Orleans Saints season was "magical"
By Peter Finney, Times-Picayune
February 09, 2010, 10:28AM

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. -- On the morning after, having saluted the winning coach Sean Payton and MVP of Super Bowl XLIV Drew Brees, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell still was shaking his head after leaving the media center.

"You think of the story and all you do is keep coming back to the word 'magical,' " he said Monday.

All week long, it was a story told -- over and over -- how this championship was more than just a football game, how the New Orleans Saints were more than just a football team, how the success of the Saints demonstrated the "value of sports," not only to a city, but to a region.

The "magic" was the most widely watched Super Bowl, attracting in the range of 106.5 million viewers.

As the party continued -- non-stop -- in the Crescent City, Drew Brees was on his way to New York for a Monday night appearance on the "Late Show with Dave Letterman."

Sean Payton, who spent Sunday night sleeping with the Vince Lombardi Trophy after New Orleans defeated the Colts 31-17, was preparing to join his players for a parade in New Orleans today.

And that was only the beginning.

On Saturday, Tom Benson will be the Grand Marshal of Endymion.

On Sunday, Brees will reign as Bacchus.

On Monday -- Mardi Gras Eve -- Payton will go from head coach to Orpheus.

Next Tuesday, for the first time, the city will be celebrating Mardi Gras II, March Gras I having begun sometime in September, when the Who Dat Nation began serious marching to Roman Numerals XLIV.

Let me be honest.

I still have a hard time believing what I'm experiencing.

On Sunday, I arrive in the press box at Sun Life Stadium, I look down at the end zone painted black and gold, I see the letters S-A-I-N-T-S, and I'm asking myself, "is this for real?"

Then you watch a football game, having witnessed some hard-to-believe magic two weeks earlier, and, sure enough, there was more.

First you see some Peyton Manning magic, an 10-0 deficit for the Saints, and then you see some Who Dat magic: an unbelievable gamble at the start of the second half ("I wasn't worried, I was terrified," said Tom Morstead about executing a knuckleball onside kick).

There was more magic, of course.

Brees completed his last 10 passes, something exceeded in a Super Bowl only by Joe Montana. He also completed passes to seven receivers on a single drive, something no quarterback has done -- and he did it on the winning drive. Tracy Porter's game-clinching interception of a Manning pass was magic at its finest.

Think about it.

This season, Payton's Who Dats beat five teams with quarterbacks who won Super Bowls -- the Giants, Patriots, Cardinals, Vikings and Colts.

Now the Who Dats have one.

You look at Brees, and you realize, among the impressive attributes he has, one is the manner in which handles celebrity.

He mixes a warrior mentality with a genuine modesty that sets him apart from many in the business operating at the elite level.

During the week, he told the story of a phone call he once received from Manning when the Colts' quarterback was in the early stages of his NFL career -- and Brees had won a big game at Purdue.

"Peyton had already done some great things as a professional," Brees said. "He had established himself. I felt honored by the call from someone like him."

Brees meant what he was saying. From his high school days, a 6-foot quarterback had been one of the game's classic overachievers, clearing one hurdle after another, a journey that included major surgery on his throwing shoulder.

Once more Sunday, he proved to the world, at age 31, he has the credentials of a legend whose impact now carries far beyond someone who throws touchdown passes.

Drew Brees believes in destiny.

He has made all Who Dats believe in magic.

. . . . . . .

Peter Finney can be reached at 504.826.3405.

Only in New Orleans

They did it.
The Saints won the SuperBowl.
The Who Dat Nation is euphoric!

If the locally made video doesn't do it for you.... (Shame on the NFL.... GREEDY.... GREEDY.... GREEDY....)

watch this short CBS segment
to see how myth and symbols help create community.

Dancing in Drag with the Dead

New Orleans is and always has been full of characters. Buddy Diliberto was one of them. He was a local sports caster who once claimed that if the Saints made it to the SuperBowl he'd wear a dress on Bourbon Street. Buddy died in January 2005.

Last Sunday thousands of men, most straight, but I'm sure some gay, danced in drag down Bourbon street in his honor and in honor of the fact that the Saints made it to the Superbowl. So that's:
- years of sports casting by a local character,
- a Win in the last playoff game of the football 2009 season the Sunday before,
- one week for, Bobby Hebert the guy to who took over for Buddy D (and who probably had a good deal to do with the original reasons Buddy D made the off hand comment) to plan a parade resulting in thousands of people on the street , mostly straight men in drag.

There are more than a few theories floating around about why 5 years after his death people remembered his promise and followed through en mass.
"He's the connection people have to when they were younger, watching the games with their dad or grandpa," he said. "There are all these people whose parents lived through all the bad times but died before this day finally came. Buddy connects to all of them, because he was there from the very beginning. He's the common thread."

But I think another reason is that New Orleanians understand the importance of honoring the ancestors and maintaining the link to those on the other side. It is just a part of who we are and what we do here, naturally. We celebrate death with our Jazz Funerals and we celebrate the dead. Granted in unique ways. Last weekend Bourbon Street was one big offering on the collective New Orleans Lare Shrine for Buddy D.

Mythic Proportions & Lupercus

On January 30th I posted about the Mythic Proportions of the New Orleans Saints.
Yesterday there were 2 articles in the Times Picayune newspaper about how the football team had shown that while New Orleans has a complex racial history this amazing football team and season has shown that we can and do have Racial Harmony in the Who Dat Nation.

There was one article on the Front Page
Here are 2 excerpts:
"Is it an illusion? Of course it is; it's a sporting event," he said. "But if this sense of optimism and unity is this universally shared, it's a powerful illusion and maybe it's not entirely illusionary."

"I say, enjoy the feeling, enjoy the moment and understand that if we want to feel this way for a long time, it will take a lot of work, sacrifice and compromise after the Super Bowl," he said. "One thing for sure, it's a good taste of what community feels like."

There was another article in the Sports Section. Here are a few excerpts:
"If you spend most of your professional life writing about games people play, you also will spend plenty of time listening to friends asking: Why?"

"Walk down any New Orleans street and look at the smiling faces, the Who Dat fist bumps, and you'll know this is why sports are relevant. It has the potential to touch and unite an entire community unlike anything else in our culture."

"This wasn't just a victory lap for the sports fan. It was a cathartic scream, a cheer, a dance, a hug, a high five, chest thump, fist bump, a lay-on-the-lawn-and-kick-my-hands-and-feet-in-the-air-in delirium. It was a community feeling not just of overwhelming joy, but the release of mountains of frustrations, disappointments and sorrows that had nothing to do with football."

"And during that moment, when everything else escaped, when the entire city was cheering and crying together and letting it all go, something very, very nice was left behind. Suddenly, we were all family again."

OK, since it is Lupercus, let's stop and think about this a minute. Wild Catharsis. Letting it all go. Done, like wolves howling, in a group and driven by God energies blending with Goddess energies to create community.

And as quoted by 2 'outsiders' doing a documentary, just so you know this isn't all local navel gazing.
"In fact, we actually saw people coming together over something as, in some respects, weirdly irrelevant as a sports team," he said. "But maybe that's what it takes, that sort of oddball thing to bring a town together.

"And it was very, very real. We were witnessing this cathartic moment of unity, and that was a cool thing -- and it remains a very cool thing. This football team accomplished this very cool thing."

And this folks is what myth and ritual are all about. This is what our stories and rituals done in the company of others should be all about. Our myths and rituals should seek to reach deeply into the human psyche and bring people together. The Sports Section article also speaks to why it is important to repeat rituals regularly whether every Full Moon or annually.

"I'm not saying this solves all the problems, but I believe it will bring people a step in that direction. Wherever they were before, they will be a little bit higher, a little bit further along the road than they were before the game -- and they'll stay there."

Helping Haiti

Shirts, shoe drives benefit Haitian earthquake survivors
Monday, February 01, 2010 By Susan LangenhennigFashion writer
Marilyn Cutrone's "Be A Saint, Heal Haiti" shirt is black and gold, but its message is bigger than any football season.

"I was obsessed with CNN, watching the coverage of Haiti," said Cutrone, whose New Orleans design company, AnnaDean, makes shirts with local themes. "I have two children of my own, and what I was seeing was breaking my heart. I wanted to do something, and I wanted to do it quick, before people forget."

Cutrone researched Haitian culture, picking the saint reference not as a way to capitalize on the home team's success, but as a representation of Haiti's deep spiritual roots. "The cross is an authentic Haitian religious symbol," she said.

All proceeds from the $28 shirt, which are sold at Mirabella, Azby's, Palm Patch, Angelique's and Ah-Ha boutiques, will go to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.

Other designers and retailers also are helping to keep Haitian survivors in the public consciousness. If you've already text- messaged a donation to charity and want to do more, here's a list of ways to get involved.

Jaclyn McCabe of The Voluptuous Vixen boutique in the French Quarter is offering customers a 10 percent discount if they donate a box of feminine hygiene products for Haitian women.

"I got an e-mail from a friend of a friend looking for supplies for a local hospital in Haiti," McCabe said. "While at the store shopping for supplies to send, I walked down the feminine hygiene aisle, and it occurred to me there would be a great need. I filled my cart."

McCabe will send the products to the Haitian Community Hospital. For a view of the medical staff at work, check out the Haitian Community Hospital on Facebook. To donate, drop off products at The Voluptuous Vixen boutique, 538 Madison St., or call 504.529.3588.

Local Feet First boutiques are accepting donations of men's, women's and children's shoes for Soles4Souls, a Nashville, Tenn.-based nonprofit that helps to get needed footwear to disaster victims around the world.

Soles4Souls coordinated more than 1 million pairs of donated shoes to people in need in the aftermaths of hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the Asian tsunami.

Though the drive is particularly seeking sturdy shoes for people living in the rubble and twisted metal of the earthquake zone, no donations will be turned away. Shoes may be dropped off at the Feet First stores, 4119 Magazine St. and 526 Royal St. For details, call 504.899.6800.

Creed, the renowned French perfume house, uses Haitian vetiver grass for one of its signature fragrances. To help the Caribbean island nation, the company will donate 5 percent of proceeds from sales at creedboutique.com to ADRA, an organization working to provide medical services and water purification.

Shepard Fairey, the graphic designer who became famous for the red, white and blue Obama Hope poster, has designed a T-shirt to support recovery efforts. The gray shirts with the heart design sell for $15 at Cafe Press. All proceeds benefit the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

. . . . . . .
Susan Langenhennig can be reached at slangenhennig@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3379.



You can also download this video to help send funds to Haiti.

The power of symbols and myth

I know pagans and football fans, strange bedfellows.

But in case you haven't heard the New Orleans Saints are going to the SuperBowl. For the first time in the teams 40+ year history. The dichotomy between the New Orleans world of 4+ years ago and today would have to be measured in light years. Our New Orleans Saints football team has been a symbol of our PostKatrina journey. The arrival of Sean Payton and Drew Brees the year after Katrina and team's journey to the SuperBowl has, for the people of this city, been traveled in lock step with our city's recovery. The football team loves the city. The city loves their football team.
When New Orleanians were spread across the globe and yearning to be home. The Saints didn't have a home either. There was the talk of the team not returning and finding another permanent home in another US city, say San Antonio. But the repair of the Superdome and the teams first game in Home Sweet Dome put that talk to bed.

We've (the Saints and the City) had our ups and downs since then. But these past 4 years have been mostly good. The Saints fans, who attended games with bags on their heads, but attended! even then the team was loosing, pitifully and painfully week after week, year after year have responded in larger and larger number to this years powerful show of drive, hard work and tenacity.

Now we layer on the fact that the SuperBowl and the New Orleans mayoral, city council, assessor and other election IS THE SAME DAY as the SuperBowl. We have a chance to change the things that haven't worked for us these past 4 years and the Saints have another chance to change franchise history. The mythic bonds between the Saints and the City weave more tightly together.

Now with these bonds of mythical portions associated with a city and a team the NFL decides that it is going to try to be the biggest dog and get their lawyers to say that the chant used by New Orleanians to support their team is trademarked and can't be used by small businesses or others. Who Dat! is part of the local lexicon and has been for longer than there has been a Saints football team. But the NFL, in the throws of SuperBowl sales greed, decided that they were going to claim not only a part of the local lexicon but the Fleur di Lis. Seems they forgot about the French Court or the mythic proportions this symbol already has for New Orleanians. New Orleans is a lot of things but the one thing it isn't is like other places or more specifically in this instance like other NFL cities. The NFL had no idea what it was stepping into. Senators & Representatives came out against the NFL. The ever creative Locals started purchasing what they needed to make their own Who Dat paraphernalia. Then there were the endless letters, eMail, phone calls, and blogosphere buzz about how greedy and ogreish the NFL was being. The hose was turned full force on the big dog and it seems they have backed down a little.

And the mythic proportions of the New Orleans Saints Football Team and their fans and the recovering Greater New Orleans and Gulf Coast Area grow larger. Which brings us back to the power of symbols and myth. Pagans love their myths because myths speak to many people many ways. Myths serve to unify and guide us and give us strength in adversity. The Saints and the City and the Recovery are bound together forever. Ours is a story of devastation and loss, of hope and unity, of family of blood and beyond blood, of the power of the people, of tenacity. It's David and Goliath. It's The Little Engine That Could. It's Persephone rising from the underworld. It's the complex story of Lupercus. It's the power of myth and the magic of a little place called New Orleans.

Not how I roll

Via a letter to the editor of the (Minneapolis) Star-Tribune:

Dear Pat Robertson,

I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I'm all over that action.

But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I'm no welcher.
The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished. Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth -- glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake.

Haven't you seen "Crossroads" ? Or "Damn Yankees"? If I had a thing going with Haiti, there'd be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox -- that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it -- I'm just saying: Not how I roll.

You're doing great work, Pat, and I don't want to clip your wings -- just, come on, you're making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad.

Keep blaming God. That's working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract.

Best, Satan

****
Nola here. There is no Satan in Stregheria. BUT this letter to the Editor was too good to pass up. One more reason why the Words of Aradia on Christianity are important to understand and apply. Let the Christians believe as they wish. Follow your own path. But be CAREFUL.

You also might want to read this bit of research on the history of the legend refered to by Pat Robertson.

Global Climate Change

Map above shows the difference between the Average September temperatures (recorded since 1880) and the Average September temperature in 2009.

Granted NOT all places are warmer. BUT much of the globe is warmer.

When you think about how much of the surface of the earth is water (~70%) and look at how much of the water area is red, meaning hotter... It's hard not to say that the earth (on average and on the whole) is getting hotter.
Even as the much of the US is covered !to the Gulf of Mexico! with a winter blast from the artic.

I suggest taking another look at the Words of Aradia on Nature.
with special emphasis on this phrase:
Therefore observe the ways of Nature around you both great and small. Everything has a purpose and reason. Be not confused by its seeming cruelty, for there is a duality in all things.

Words of Aradia: Arranged for Teaching

The Foundational Tenants:
Concerning Nature
Concerning the Earth

The Cycle of Being:
Concerning Life
Concerning Death
Concerning Rebirth
Concerning the Act of Rebirth
Concerning Luna

The Gods and Worship
Concerning the Gods
Concerning the God
Concerning the Goddess
Concerning the God & Goddess
Concerning Worship

Love and Freedom
Concerning Freedom
Concerning Love
Concerning Sexuality
Concerning Marriage

Worship and Magick
Concerning the Law of Return
Concerning the Astral Plane
Concerning the Elementals
Concerning the Grigori
Concerning Magick

Parting thoughts
Concerning the Prophecies
Concerning Christianity

Lavender Rosemary Dragons

For all you folks covered in snow


There's a new digital camera in the house, which officially belongs to my daughter, but that I occassionally am allowed to use. This is one of my first attempts to use it and figure out how the macro function works. The folks who cut my neighbor's grass whacked the rosemary bush this weekend. So I took a closer look. Who knew the lavender flowers looked like dragons. Well they do to me. Look at how cute the fuzzy, puffy, little rosemary flower buds are. Who knew? Now I do. Now you do. Enjoy.

Babylon Rising - Amanda Boyden

Part of my commitment to New Orleans recovery and greener living is to support local businesses. So it seems fitting that I start the list of books read in 2010 with a novel by a "local" author.

The author's bio in the beginning of the book states that "Amanda Boyden was born in Minnesota and raised in Chicago and St. Louis. Formerly a trapeze artist and contortionist, she earned her MFA from the University of New Orleans, where she now teaches writing. Her first novel, Pretty Little Dirty, was published in 2006."

Some would argue Amanda is not local. Read her book. Yes she is. She has captured the complexities of life in a complex city. Nothing is easy. Very little is exactly as it seems from the outside. The good are not so good. The bad are not all bad. Everyone struggles to survive in their own way.

Amanda also captures New Orleans street speak. I had read her brief bio and wondered how a gal from the north could capture then re-read her bio and realized that any one who teaches in the English department at the University of New Orleans would get a far dose of a wide variety of street speak. I say this as a UNO graduate and as someone who has a typical 9th Ward accent and who was told by her professors that she needed to "clean up her accent". I claimed it was part of "ma culcha" and that I'd keep it thank you and then managed to get a job with a very large corporation out of New York and fit right in because I sounded a lot like a New Yorker. Think about a New York Brooklyn accent and then don't say your R's and you get real close. Even the pace of 9th Ward and most of New Orleans speak is faster than any other "southern" accent. New Orleans is really not the south, we're the northern most tip of the Caribbean. But I digress a bit if only to justify my capacity to vouch for the accuracy of Amanda Boyden's representation of New Orleans. She gets it. She really gets it.

The back cover of the book (purchased at a local, independent book store) captures the story like this: "Ariel May and her husband, Ed, have just moved to New Orleans with their two small children. Their neighbor, Fearius, is a fifteen-year-old newly released from juvenile detention. Across the street, an elderly couple, the Browns, try to pass their days in peace, while Philomenia Bouregard de Bruges, a long time resident and "Uptown lady" peers through her curtains at the East Indian family next door.
With one random accident, a crash across front lawns, the whole neighborhood converges. Together the offer help and cast blame and the lives of these five families intertwine, for better and for worse."

New Orleans neighborhoods are very much like the one portrayed in Babylon Rising. This book is a complex gumbo of people and the lives they live and at only 301 pages an interesting, inherently human and introspective first read of the new year.

Paper, Plastic, Cloth, Ritual and Yoda

I'm going to betray my age. When I was a little girl the only option we had for taking groceries home from the store was paper. Large, brown paper bags. Later when plastic bags became common, I would ask for paper because the plastic bags were so weak that they always ended up with breaks and tears. Either you used paper or you had to double or triple bag the plastic bags to ensure that you didn't end up with your stuff all over the ground. Somewhere between 1977 (when plastic grocery bags were 1st introduced) and ~2003 or 2004, paper all but disappeared and plastic became the norm. The only good thing about the plastic bags was that if I strung multiple the bags over my arms, both arms, I could carry more in a single trip up the stairs than I ever could with paper. This gives me grocery shopping as a form of weight lifting aerobics. With repeated use and over time, plastic bags became an accepted part of American life. And we stopped thinking about it. Now, paper is back as an option too but more importantly there is a large, global push to eliminate plastic bags and move to reusable bags.

But this means that we need to change. And we have established practices that work. We have grocery store rituals, decades of muscle memory in consumers and grocery clerks. I want to move from plastic bags to reusable bags. I have my zip into a pouch, reusable, holds a lot of stuff, Whole Food grocery bag. But each time I go the store it is still a struggle to avoid ending up with plastic bags. Those "zip into a pouch" Whole Food bags are so dang useful that I end up unzipping them for a grocery run and then using them for other things. So sometimes the bag I want to use is being used elsewhere. Or if I have the reusable bag, I have to remember to take it out and give it to the clerk. Even if I take it out and have it read I often have to interrupt the grocery clerk and stop them from putting things into the readily available plastic bags. Or if I have this bag and I remember to use it and I get the clerk to use it I still need another bag because my groceries won't all fit. So I acquire additional bags and keep them in the truck so that I always have one. Then I have to remember to take the bags, all of them, and get the clerk to use them and then return them to the truck to use them again. I've been at this for a number of YEARS now so I've established the necessary rituals to ensure that this happens. But it literally took YEARS. 2009 was the first year that I can say I succeeded in using reusable bags.

What I had to do, what anyone else who wants to change has to do, is to create a new pattern, to instill a ritual.

How do we change? Especially when it is so hard to get into a new pattern.
We change by committing to the change.
We change by acquiring the things that will facilitate the change.
We change by changing. If we want to be different, we have to be different.

For the plastic/reusable bag switch, we have to buy the reusable bags, we have to consistently remember to take the bags with us to the store or have the bags with us all the time. We have to take the bags out and insist the clerk to use our bag instead of the ubiquitous plastic bags. We have to return the bags to a spot where they can be used again next time. We have to have these rituals as a part of our life.

One of the things I was taught as a beginning Strega, was the importance of doing ritual. But as a solitary pulling together all the bells and whistles to do a ritual seemed more trouble than it was worth. I could just follow the cycle of the moon and the solar seasons. I didn't need a black altar cloth and a bell and elemental bowls and... It was a significant change from not doing the detailed ritual. It required energy be raised and consistently directed. I didn't have ritual muscle memory so it seemed hard. It was easy to do ritual whenever my group of eclectic pagan friends wanted to get together. It was easy whenever I met with other Streghe. But doing smells and bells ritual as a solitary required that I conquer the inertia I had not to do it.I was confronted fully by one of Newton's description of nature's laws: An object at rest, stays at rest unless acted on by another force.

So my guidance and encouragement to any one who is a beginning strega (or cloth bag user wannabe) is keep trying. Collect the necessary tools: Candles, bells, black cloth, God & Goddess Icons, ritual bowls, round altar. Now before anyone starts complaining about how difficult times are there are ways to do this inexpensively. Candles cost money. So I'll give on that one. But God & Goddess Icons don't have to be expensive statues. I started out with fossils. A cast of the inside of a clam shell is surprising erotic and goddess invoking. A cast of an ammonite shell with just the right curve was appropriately god invoking. These cost nothing. I already had them on hand AND I had acquired them via walks on the land during trips to the Texas Hill Country. But I'd bet that if you keep your eyes and spirit open suitable icon items will come to you from nature and your environment as well. Ritual Bowls... try garage sales or use small bowls you have already in your kitchen. Be creative. I bet if you dig around in what you have already that you have enough to start. My round altar was discarded spool used to hold wire that I spray painted white to clean up the edges and stop the altar cloth from catching. Eventually I upscaled to a circle bit of plywood that could be placed on top of the spool. Now I use the discarded bottom of a papasan chair and a round piece of glass from a local hotel surplus store on top of the plywood that I spray painted silver. When not in use the table looks like a mirror.

You have to commit to the change and gathering what you need to do the ritual is part of the energy you have to expend. As it says in the Myth of Descent "Nothing is given unless something is received." It is fully expected that you will have to expend energy. But you will also get something back.

With or without all the appropriate tools you still have to commit the time to do the ritual. The first few times you set things up you won't have it all right. And this is ALL RIGHT, specifically because you are committing the energy. You are doing it. This will highlight what you need to do next time and eventually you will have the ritual tools and the ritual memory. Each time streghe cast a circle we are recreating the universe. This in and of itself is a powerful experience, even if you don't do any ritual. But a full moon ritual is actually quite easy to do alone, once you get over the fact that you are doing it alone (or at least without other corporeal humans). Read the all the parts of the ritual out loud. Do all the motions. Read the Veglia, out loud. It never ceases to calm and center me and YES the experience is different IN CIRCLE, in ritual from just reading it out loud any other time.

I'm going to steal a line from my mother-in-law: "Fake it til you make it." When I first heard this I wasn't sure I liked it. Faking it? Really Fake it? That can't be right. But the essence was the equivalent of saying, Do it, even when it feels false, even when it feels like you're not doing it right. Eventually all the parts will come together and it will be fine. Or as Yoda says to Luke: "No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."

The sun has returned. It's start of the new calendar year.
What will you DO differently?

Secular New Year

Many Pagans start their new year at Shadowfest (Oct 31). And to be fair "The Manuals" indicate that the ritual year starts at Shadowfest.

But I've always felt that there were Ritual Seasons which fade out of and into each other. There are no hard and fast rules for when each "ritual season" starts. The environment, which is primarily influenced by the weather but which can be affected by other things as well, influences the edges of these seasons.
The "Growth & Harvest Season" typically includes Summerfest and Cornucopia.
The "Introspective Season" typically includes the Autumn Equinnox and Shadowfest
The "Rebirth Season" typically includes the Winter Solstice and Lupercus.
The "Renewal Season" typically includes the Spring Equinox and Lady Day.

The whole cycle of rituals is designed to work together, to create a web of life, inner and outer life. We have been culturalized to a Cartesian Separatist approach to life. We break things down into their component parts. We categorize things, ideas, experiences, responsibilities. I am wife, mother, breadwinner, supervisor, strega, neighborhood activist... But in reality these are all connected. Experiences and influences of one area or idea affect the others, affect the whole. The rituals both Solar and the monthly Full Moon rituals are designed to ensure that we experience this fullness, this integrated cycle, the web of life.

During Cornucopia we are to review what is good and worthwhile and what can be eliminated. During the Autumn Equinox we are to look at what is passing or has past and work the hidden, introspective aspects of our lives, at Winter Solstice we experience the potential for rebirth in the darkness, at Lupercus we attempt to connect to the past and to what is wild and natural in all of us, at Spring Equinox appreciate tender new growth.

The secular new year starts at the calendar change in January. Considering that this month is named for Janus, a god who looks both forward and backward, it seems that the secular new year works perfectly to bridge the fruits of the Introspective Season to those of the Renewal Season during the Season of Rebirth. So take the time The New Year,the secular world gives you and do as Janus encourages us and look back and forward at the same time and weave your own web of life.

1st Pagan Invocation at governmental function

Many legislators open their meetings by what is supposed to be a secular prayer. Most of these are done by Christian ministers though on occasion another religious leader may be allowed, usually with some controversy. One by a Pagan minister only happened the first time October this year at the Wisconsin State Assembly. This event comes only after decades of dedicated and public service as a pagan. See details in a interview that Selena Fox gave to Christopher Blackwell for his Yule 2009 edition.

Below is a copy of the opening Remarks & Prayer written & delivered by Rev. Selena Fox, Senior Minister, Circle Sanctuary for Wisconsin State Assembly Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at Assembly Chamber, Wisconsin State Capitol Madison, Wisconsin

"Greetings from the colorful forests and fields of Brigham Township, near Barneveld, in Iowa County in Southwestern Wisconsin.

In this Autumn season, let us appreciate Nature’s beauty in the many colors and patterns on the land throughout our whole great state of Wisconsin.

And, let us also recognize and appreciate the beauty and richness of the diversity of all of us gathered here today in this Assembly Chamber.

We are from many places, many backgrounds, many walks of life, many viewpoints: yet we converge here to serve, and also today, to remember those who have given their life in service of our great nation.

Let us now reflect a few moments on being part of a collaborative and creative community of service, helping the people of Wisconsin and the greater Circle of Nature of which we are all part. (short pause)

And now, in the next few moments of quiet, each in our own way, let us connect with Creative Source, according to the religion, spirituality, and/or philosophy that informs our lives. (longer pause)

O Creative Source, Within and Beyond, You who are known by No Name and by Many Names, including: Higher Power, Great Spirit, Divine Mother, Divine Father, Still Small Voice Within, God, Goddess, Truth, Eternal Light, Reason, Love, and by many other names, across religious traditions, spiritualities, and philosophies.

Watch over and bless this Assembly, its members and its staff -- and all those who are here today.

Bless All with Wisdom, Understanding, Creativity, Love, and Compassion,
in Considerations, Deliberations, Communications, and Decision-making.

Bless All, so that that there is a spirit of cooperation and success in finding effective solutions to the challenges before us,

And so that we can work together for more liberty and justice -- and environmental well-being for all.

So Be It, So Mote It Be.

Amen, A’ho, Ashe, Namaste.

Let It Be So."

Thank you Selena. Thank you Christopher.

To view Selena delivering the invocation Click here,
then go to Wisconsin State Assembly Floor Session (Part 1) for 10.27.09. The first ten minutes of the proceedings is the roll call. That is followed by an introduction of Selena (starting at time stamp 10:10 or 12:11 PM) and then her invocation (starting at timestamp 11:22 or 12:12 PM).

"It is all connected" - Tribes buy back land

Indian tribes buy back thousands of acres of land
By TIMBERLY ROSS - Associated Press Writer
Published: 12/27/09

OMAHA, Neb. — Native American tribes tired of waiting for the U.S. government to honor centuries-old treaties are buying back land where their ancestors lived and putting it in federal trust.

Native Americans say the purchases will help protect their culture and way of life by preserving burial grounds and areas where sacred rituals are held. They also provide land for farming, timber and other efforts to make the tribes self-sustaining.

Tribes put more than 840,000 acres - or roughly the equivalent of the state of Rhode Island - into trust from 1998 to 2007, according to information The Associated Press obtained from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs under the Freedom of Information Act.

Those buying back land include the Winnebago, who have put more than 700 acres in eastern Nebraska in federal trust in the past five years, and the Pawnee, who have 1,600 acres of trust land in Oklahoma. Land held in federal trust is exempt from local and state laws and taxes, but subject to most federal laws.

Three tribes have bought land around Bear Butte in South Dakota's Black Hills to keep it from developers eager to cater to the bikers who roar into Sturgis every year for a raucous road rally. About 17 tribes from the Dakotas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana and Oklahoma still use the mountain for religious ceremonies.

Emily White Hat, a member of South Dakota's Rosebud Sioux, said the struggle to protect the land is about "preservation of our culture, our way of life and our traditions."

"All of it is connected," White Hat said. "With your land, you have that relationship to the culture."

Other members of the Rosebud Sioux, such as president Rodney Bordeaux, believe the tribes shouldn't have to buy the land back because it was illegally taken. But they also recognize that without such purchases, the land won't be protected.

No one knows how much land the federal government promised Native American tribes in treaties dating to the late 1700s, said Gary Garrison, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. The government changed the terms of the treaties over the centuries to make property available to settlers and give rights-of-way to railroads and telegraph companies.

President Barack Obama's administration has proposed spending $2 billion to buy back and consolidate tribal land broken up in previous generations. The program would pay individual members for land interests divided among their relatives and return the land to tribal control. But it would not buy land from people outside the tribes.

Today, 562 federally recognized tribes have more than 55 million acres held in trust, according to the bureau. Several states and local governments are fighting efforts to add to that number, saying the federal government doesn't have the authority to take land - and tax revenue - from states.

In New York, for example, the state and two counties filed a federal lawsuit in 2008 to block the U.S. Department of Interior from putting about 13,000 acres into trust for the Oneida Tribe. In September, a judge threw out their claims.

Putting land in trust creates a burden for local governments because they must still provide services such as sewer and water even though they can't collect taxes on the property, said Elaine Willman, a member of the Citizens Equal Rights Alliance and administrator for Hobart, a suburb of Green Bay, Wis. Hobart relies mostly on property taxes to pay for police, water and other services, but the village of about 5,900 lost about a third of its land to a trust set up for the state's Oneida Tribe, Willman said.

So far, Hobart has been able to control spending and avoid cuts in services or raising taxes, Willman said. Village leaders hope taxes on a planned 603-acre commercial development will eventually help make up for the lost money.

The nonprofit White Earth Land Recovery Project has bought back or been gifted hundreds of acres in northwestern Minnesota since it was created in the late 1980s. The White Earth tribe uses the land to harvest rice, farm and produce maple syrup. Members have hope of one day being self-sustaining again.

Winona LaDuke, who started the White Earth project, said buying property is expensive, but it's the quickest and easiest way for tribes to regain control of their land.

Tribal membership has been growing thanks to higher birth rates, longer life spans and more relaxed qualifications for membership, and that has created a greater need for land for housing, community services and economic development.

"If the tribes were to pursue return of the land in the courts it would be years before any action could result in more tribal land ... and the people simply cannot wait," said Cris Stainbrook, of the Little Canada, Minn.-based Indian Land Tenure Foundation.

Thirty to 40 tribes are making enough money from casinos to buy back land, but they also have to put money into social programs, education and health care for their members, said Robert J. Miller, a professor at the Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Ore., who specializes in tribal issues.

"Tribes just have so many things on their plate," he said.

Some tribes, such as the Pawnee, have benefited from gifts of land. Gaylord and Judy Mickelsen donated a storefront in Dannebrog, Neb., that had been in Judy Mickelsen's family for a century. The couple was retiring to Mesquite, Nev., in 2007, and Judy Mickelsen wanted to see the building preserved even though the town had seen better days.

The tribe has since set up a shop selling members' artwork in the building on Main Street.

"We were hoping the Pawnee could get a toehold here and get a new venture for the village of Dannebrog," Gaylord Mickelsen said.

The pantheistic gospel of Avatar

Heaven and Nature
By ROSS DOUTHAT Published: December 20, 2009
(Published in TP 12.27.2009)

It’s fitting that James Cameron’s “Avatar” arrived in theaters at Christmastime. Like the holiday season itself, the science fiction epic is a crass embodiment of capitalistic excess wrapped around a deeply felt religious message. It’s at once the blockbuster to end all blockbusters, and the Gospel According to James.

But not the Christian Gospel. Instead, “Avatar” is Cameron’s long apologia for pantheism — a faith that equates God with Nature, and calls humanity into religious communion with the natural world.

In Cameron’s sci-fi universe, this communion is embodied by the blue-skinned, enviably slender Na’Vi, an alien race whose idyllic existence on the planet Pandora is threatened by rapacious human invaders. The Na’Vi are saved by the movie’s hero, a turncoat Marine, but they’re also saved by their faith in Eywa, the “All Mother,” described variously as a network of energy and the sum total of every living thing.

If this narrative arc sounds familiar, that’s because pantheism has been Hollywood’s religion of choice for a generation now. It’s the truth that Kevin Costner discovered when he went dancing with wolves. It’s the metaphysic woven through Disney cartoons like “The Lion King” and “Pocahontas.” And it’s the dogma of George Lucas’s Jedi, whose mystical Force “surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together.”

Hollywood keeps returning to these themes because millions of Americans respond favorably to them. From Deepak Chopra to Eckhart Tolle, the “religion and inspiration” section in your local bookstore is crowded with titles pushing a pantheistic message. A recent Pew Forum report on how Americans mix and match theology found that many self-professed Christians hold beliefs about the “spiritual energy” of trees and mountains that would fit right in among the indigo-tinted Na’Vi.

As usual, Alexis de Tocqueville saw it coming. The American belief in the essential unity of all mankind, Tocqueville wrote in the 1830s, leads us to collapse distinctions at every level of creation. “Not content with the discovery that there is nothing in the world but a creation and a Creator,” he suggested, democratic man “seeks to expand and simplify his conception by including God and the universe in one great whole.”

Today there are other forces that expand pantheism’s American appeal. We pine for what we’ve left behind, and divinizing the natural world is an obvious way to express unease about our hyper-technological society. The threat of global warming, meanwhile, has lent the cult of Nature qualities that every successful religion needs — a crusading spirit, a rigorous set of ‘thou shalt nots,” and a piping-hot apocalypse.

At the same time, pantheism opens a path to numinous experience for people uncomfortable with the literal-mindedness of the monotheistic religions — with their miracle-working deities and holy books, their virgin births and resurrected bodies. As the Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski noted, attributing divinity to the natural world helps “bring God closer to human experience,” while “depriving him of recognizable personal traits.” For anyone who pines for transcendence but recoils at the idea of a demanding Almighty who interferes in human affairs, this is an ideal combination.

Indeed, it represents a form of religion that even atheists can support. Richard Dawkins has called pantheism “a sexed-up atheism.” (He means that as a compliment.) Sam Harris concluded his polemic “The End of Faith” by rhapsodizing about the mystical experiences available from immersion in “the roiling mystery of the world.” Citing Albert Einstein’s expression of religious awe at the “beauty and sublimity” of the universe, Dawkins allows, “In this sense I too am religious.”

The question is whether Nature actually deserves a religious response. Traditional theism has to wrestle with the problem of evil: if God is good, why does he allow suffering and death? But Nature is suffering and death. Its harmonies require violence. Its “circle of life” is really a cycle of mortality. And the human societies that hew closest to the natural order aren’t the shining Edens of James Cameron’s fond imaginings. They’re places where existence tends to be nasty, brutish and short.

Religion exists, in part, precisely because humans aren’t at home amid these cruel rhythms. We stand half inside the natural world and half outside it. We’re beasts with self-consciousness, predators with ethics, mortal creatures who yearn for immortality.

This is an agonized position, and if there’s no escape upward — or no God to take on flesh and come among us, as the Christmas story has it — a deeply tragic one.

Pantheism offers a different sort of solution: a downward exit, an abandonment of our tragic self-consciousness, a re-merger with the natural world our ancestors half-escaped millennia ago.

But except as dust and ashes, Nature cannot take us back.

Solstice Wreath & Offerings

The Fire Pit was full of water because it's been raining, a lot. This December is the wettest December on record, ever. We cut the branches off of the bottom of our "Noble Fir". When I saw the water in the pit, I put the branches into the Fire Pit to stop them from drying out. When the rain stopped and we were finally able to see the sun again I spread them out in a circle creating a large wreath. A candle in the center will be a great way to mark the Solstice outside.



Very early New Orleanians typically used Citus Trees instead of firs & pines as their Christmas Trees. The citrus trees bear golden hued fruit at this time of year and are perfect for the Solstice celebration. My kumquat tree never fails to ripen by the Winter Solstice. The Sweet Gum a block away drops its balls. They look remind me of sputnik and also of the Sun and its solar flares. I spray painted them gold and added to the Solstice Offering.

Plants Know

Plants know naturally the science of seasons
By Dan Gill

In just a few days, on Dec. 21, the 2009 winter solstice will occur.

Here in the Northern hemisphere, we are tilted farthest away from the sun on that day. That means the period between sunrise and sunset is shorter than on any other day of the year, making the night the longest of the year.

The length of our days and nights vary from season to season because the Earth’s axis of rotation is tilted in respect to its plane of orbit around the sun.

The winter solstice marks a turning point: While days have been getting shorter and shorter and the nights longer and longer since the summer solstice in June, after Monday, the days will gradually begin to lengthen and the nights shorten. From ancient times until today, humans around the world have marked this time of year with various celebrations, festivals and religious rituals.

Plant sense
What does this have to do with a column on plants?

Well, I could mention that for thousands of years certain plants have played a role in human observances of the winter solstice.

In Europe, plants that stay green during the winter often had special significance. They were a reminder of life in the midst of freezing cold and leafless, dormant trees and shrubs. Evergreen plants such as holly, English ivy, mistletoe, and conifers such as fir, spruce, cedar and pine, are still used today to decorate our homes, along with winter-flowering plants such as poinsettias.

Speaking of poinsettias, have you ever wondered why these colorful plants bloom now, rather than for the Fourth of July?

Here’s where the horticultural lesson about the winter solstice comes in. It is important for gardeners to understand that the changing length of days and nights from season to season has an effect on the way many plants grow and what they do throughout the year.

Just like us, plants living in temperate climates where major temperature changes occur during the year need to be able to tell when the seasons are changing.

Two ways that plants do this are by measuring hours of darkness that occur in a 24-hour period, and by measuring how much cold they have experienced.

Counting the hours
The fact that seasonal changes in light during a 24-hour period have an effect on plants was researched thoroughly back in the 1900s, and the term photoperiodism was created to describe the phenomenon.

In 1920, two employees of the U.S. Department of Agriculture discovered a mutation in a type of tobacco called Maryland Mammoth that prevented the plant from flowering in the summer as normal tobacco plants do. Maryland Mammoth would not bloom until late December.

Experimenting with artificial lighting in winter and artificial darkening in the summer, they found that Maryland Mammoth was affected by the relative length of light to darkness in a day. Because it would flower only when exposed to the short-day lengths that naturally occur in winter, they called it a short-day plant.

Once this behavior was discovered, it was found to take place in many kinds of plants, such as chrysanthemum, poinsettia, Christmas cactus, camellia and kalanchoe.

Other plants, such as spinach and radish, flower only after exposure to long days and short nights, and so are called long-day plants. Still others, including many annuals and vegetables (such as the tomato), are day-neutral; their flowering is not regulated by photoperiod.

As it turns out, the terms short-day and long-day are not quite accurate. It is not how long or short the period of light is, but the length of the darkness. Photoperiodic plants actually need a sufficiently short or long period of darkness to develop a response. However, once people start using a term and get familiar with it, it’s hard to get them to change, so we still use the terms short-day and long-day plant.

Ready for a change
Plants don’t only determine when to bloom by measuring the length of night. Increasing darkness also plays a large role in some plants’ ability to anticipate the coming of the winter and respond.

It’s why, for instance, shade trees drop their leaves in November and early December, even if the weather is not intensely cold. Because the nights have been getting longer, they know colder weather is on the way.

What mediates this remarkable response are various pigments, called phytochromes, which allow photoperiodic plants to measure how many hours of dark they receive in a 24-hour period. The phytochrome, in turn, can trigger the release of various hormones or growth factors that may cause the plant to bloom or to drop its leaves or to begin forming a bulb.

How do plants know when spring is arriving, so as not to be deceived by an early warm spell?

Some photoperiodic plants can perceive the shortening of nights to know spring has sprung. Many others are able to measure the amount of cold that has occurred to determine when winter is over. When a sufficient number of chilling hours accumulate, they are triggered to bloom or send out new growth.

As the winter solstice approaches, it’s interesting to note how remarkable plants are. They have abilities to sense the world around them and to respond to it.

It might not have occurred to you that it is just as important for a plant to know when it is time to bloom or drop its leaves, as it is for a farmer to know when its time to plant a crop.

And just as we have used Earth’s movement around the sun to develop calendars that allow us to do this, many plants can also determine the time of year based on similar perceptions

Living with the Land

I'm a New Orleanian. A relatively recent one as my maternal German family only arrived here in New Orleans from German around the 1850s. My father's family was 1700's from Spain and Scotch-Irish from before the American Revolution. But my mother drug him to New Orleans.

You may have heard about a little event and its aftermath called Katrina. Katrina was a terrible storm. But I was here and we survived only to have the man made levees and drainage canals and shipping canals built and maintained by the Corps of Engineers fail and flood our home. We floated bicycles and ourselves out on air mattresses and then rode to dry land were we were, after a day on the side of the Interstate and under the guns (literally) of what passed for law and order, rescued by family.

This makes what is said about this place and why we should or shouldn't live here something I can at least have an opinion about.

Today the Huffington Post published an article highlighting just how unnatural the aftermath of Katrina was for us.

The real problem with the Corps of Engineers is that they are run by as an arm of the miltary and they are (primarily) engineers. I have nothing against engineers as people or as a profession. But engineers who work rearranging and controlling the natural landscape need to work closely with other scientists who specialize in understanding how the natural landscape works. Geologists and Coastal Scientists have been saying FOR DECADES that the Corps approach was onesided and not working with Nature. Katrina showed the flaws in their mechanism. We need to learn from this and begin to undo what the Corps has done.

For too long the people of South Lousisana have assumed that those making the decisions were making good decisions. We know better now. We watch many things more closely. We're learning. New Orleans PostKatrina was the canary in the coal mine for our future. We've had our "awakening". I think there are many things that we have done technologically across the globe that will have to be rethought and undone. I'm sure there are examples in your backyard. Pay attention. It's not all about CO2 levels. There's lots more. The Web of Life is rich and complex.

Winter Dress

Information below taken directly from International House in New Orleans

For generations New Orleanians have upheld the tradition of altering their homes for summer and winter in response to climactic conditions. Homes are often outfitted with formal wool rugs and furnishings in the winter which add warmth to tall, drafty rooms. As winter gives way to summer, wool gives way to sisal rugs and cotton slip covers, which allow furnishings to breath during the months of heat and humidity found in this semi-tropical climate International House continues this temporal tradition by dressing the hotel for summer each Easter and for winter each Labor Day.

From Labor Day through Easter, or the "not so hot" months in New Orleans, International House dresses the lobby for fall and winter. Exuding almost living room warmth, set in an exalting space with 23" ceilings and enlivened with activity from the candlelight only bar, intimate groupings of lobby furniture have been tailored in the most sensuous fabrics. Colors are derived from those found in New Orleans' native spices and in her verdant, semi tropical landscape. Fern greens and a gallery of earth tones, for instance, compliment a subtle reaux-like cayenne, and formal wool rugs coupled with flora, such as Vetiver and palms, complete the sartorial composition for the cooler season.

Equally important is staff dress, for in New Orleans people not only dress their homes but themselves in response to climate. In contrast to the cream colored seersucker suits worn in summer, staff members dress in a classic, tropical weight, black suit from Banana Republic and an earth tone shirt, reflective of the more autumnal palette during the winter months. As such, with seasonal change International House celebrates the rich traditions and mores of this temporal city.

Moonlight Sonata

Just listen

I think this could be perfect music for a mediation during a Vegilone.