Happy Birthday To . . Harriet & Che
June 14, 1811 Harriet Beecher Stowe "Any mind that is capable of real sorrow is capable of good." June 14, 1928 Che Guevara "The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall."
Poem: “The Scream,” by Gűnter Kunert
The scream renowned and polyglot up close to the viewer, not a man, not a woman, just pure human essence, an expression of archaic horror. Meanwhile we are walking in the background side by side undeterred, as far as we could tell, by the painter’s view of our own...
Happy Birthday To . . . Augusto & Eleanor
June 13, 1917 Augusto Roa Bastos "The great principle of Justice: prevent crime rather than punish it. All that is needed to execute a guilty man is a firing squad or a hangman. To prevent there being guilty men requires great astuteness." June 13, 1937 Eleanor Holmes...
Hell, Heaven and Long Spoons
A woman died and was taken to heaven. The angel wanted her to see hell, so they stopped there first. Hell had a lake of nutritious stew, but the people had only 12-foot spoons and so were frustrated when they tried to feed themselves. So the people were miserable and...
Happy Birthday To. . . Harriet & Anne
June 12, 1802 Harriett Martineau "You better live your best and act your best and think your best today; for today is the sure preparation for tomorrow and all the other tomorrows that follow." June 12, 1929 Anne Frank "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a...
Poem: “Beginners,” by Denise Levertov
Dedicated to the memory of Karen Silkwood and Eliot Gralla “From too much love of living, Hope and desire set free, Even the weariest river Winds somewhere to the sea—“ But we have only begun To love the earth. We have only begun To imagine the fullness of life. How...
Happy Birthday To . . . Ben & Jacques Yves
June 11, 1572 Ben Jonson "There is no greater hell than to be a prisoner of fear." June 11, 1910 Jacques Yves Cousteau "People protect what they love. "
Poem: “The Same Inside,” by Anna Swir
Walking to your place for a love feast I saw at a street corner an old beggar woman. I took her hand, kissed her delicate cheek, we talked, she was the same inside as I am, from the same kind, I sensed this instantly as a dog knows by scent another dog. I gave her...
Poem: “Singularity,” by Marie Howe
after Stephen Hawking) Do you sometimes want to wake up to the singularity we once were? so compact nobody needed a bed, or food or money— nobody hiding in the school bathroom or home alone pulling open the drawer where the pills are kept. For every atom belonging to...
Happy Birthday To . . . Bertha and Kiran
June 9, 1843 Bertha Von Suttner "How can justice be attained when, in the expiation of an old wrong, another wrong is to be committed? No reasonable creature would conceive of the idea of obliterating ink stains with ink, or spots of oil with oil. Only blood must be...
Gandhi’s Shoe
Gandhi was boarding a train one day with a number of companions and followers, when his shoe fell from his foot and disappeared in the gap between the train and platform. Unable to retrieve it, he took off his other shoe and threw it down by the first. Responding to...
Happy Birthday To . . . Eric and Gustavo
June 8, 1917 Eric Hobsbawm "Utopianism is probably a necessary social device for generating the superhuman efforts without which no major revolution is achieved." June 8, 1928 Gustavo Gutiérrez "So you say you love the poor? Name them."
Become a Lake
An aging master grew tired of his apprentice’s complaints. One morning, he sent him to get some salt. When the apprentice returned, the master told him to mix a handful of salt in a glass of water and then drink it. “How does it taste?” the master asked. “Bitter,”...
Happy Birthday To . . . Samuel & J.B.
June 7, 1857 Samuel McChord Crothers "Try as hard as we may for perfection, the net result of our labors is an amazing variety of imperfectness. We are surprised at our own versatility in being able to fail in so many different ways." June 7, 1893 J.B. Morton "Justice...
Poem: “Lilies More Than Bread,” by Thérèse Lentfoehr
(for a philanthropist) Go not empty-hearted Into the marts of men, The brightest coin will darken And lose its luster when The hand that gives is loveless And folds in pride again. There is a spirit-hunger Sharper than body’s need; There is an infinite thirsting For...
Happy Birthday To . . . Frederico & Bill
June 5, 1898 Federico García Lorca "I will always be on the side of those who have nothing and who are not even allowed to enjoy the nothing they have in peace.” June 5, 1934 Bill Moyers "What's right and good doesn't come naturally. You have to stand up and fight for...
Poem: “Say Yes,” by Andrea Gibson
Say Yes When two violins are placed in a room if a chord on one violin is struck the other violin will sound the note If this is your definition of hope This is for you The ones who know how powerful we are Who know we can sound the music in the people around us...
Happy Birthday to . . . Robert & Jim
June 4, 1937 Robert Fulghum "It will be a great day when our schools have all the money they need, and our air force has to have a bake-sale to buy a bomber." June 4, 1948 Jim Wallis "We are prophetic interrogators. Why are so many people hungry? Why are so many...
The Mousetrap
A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. What food might this contain?” The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning. There is a...
Happy Birthday To . . . Richard & Scilla
June 3, 1804 Richard Cobden "For every credibility gap there is a gullibility gap." June 3, 1943 Scilla Elworthy "Wherever there is injustice, there is anger, and anger is like gasoline - if you spray it around and somebody lights a matchstick, you have an inferno....
Empathy — poem by Louis Asekoff
In the Dream of Almost-Perfect-Peace, you wave out the window to your enemy, who looks up from his cup of coffee, the blue flicker of morning news, to cautiously wave back at you & smile. There's a strangely familiar scent in the air — oranges? oleander? myrrh? —...
Happy Birthday To . . .Thomas & Cornel
June 2, 1840 Thomas Hardy "A resolution to avoid an evil is seldom framed till the evil is so far advanced as to make avoidance impossible." June 2, 1953 Cornel West "You've got to be a thermostat rather than a thermometer. A thermostat shapes the climate of opinion;...
Who Will Clean Out The Desks: a Crowdsourced Poem
Teachers make a dent. A soft curve in the gray matter A crevice where light shines in a seed to germinate. They open eyes kick open Imagination Make us see encourage change of mind and change of heart NOT to force the walking of a single path But the revelation of...
The Blessing of Faces: A Zoom Prayer
So many beautiful faces, So many radiant souls, Shining forth Into our hearts. Look at those eyes. The smiles. The hopes. The fears. The yearning. The questioning. The compassion. The love. Take it in. Take it all in. The tenderness. The humanity. The blessing of...