Coffee from a Reusable Ceramic Mug

Dedication

Summoning artists to participate
In the august occasions of the state
Seems something artists ought to celebrate.

Today is for my cause a day of days.
And his be poetry’s old-fashioned praise
Who was the first to think of such a thing.

This verse that in acknowledgment I bring
Goes back to the beginning of the end
Of what had been for centuries the trend;
A turning point in modern history.
Colonial had been the thing to be
As long as the great issue was to see
What country’d be the one to dominate
By character, by tongue, by native trait,
The new world Christopher Columbus found.

The French, the Spanish, and the Dutch were downed
And counted out. Heroic deeds were done.
Elizabeth the First and England won.

Now came on a new order of the ages
That in the Latin of our founding sages
(Is it not written on the dollar bill
We carry in our purse and pocket still?)
God nodded his approval of as good.

So much those heroes knew and understood,
I mean the great four, Washington,
John Adams, Jefferson, and Madison
So much they saw as consecrated seers
They must have seen ahead what not appears,
They would bring empires down about our ears
And by the example of our Declaration
Make everybody want to be a nation.

And this is no aristocratic joke
At the expense of negligible folk.

We see how seriously the races swarm
In their attempts at sovereignty and form.

They are our wards we think to some extent
For the time being and with their consent,
To teach them how Democracy is meant.

“New order of the ages” did they say?
If it looks none too orderly today,
‘Tis a confusion it was ours to start
So in it have to take courageous part.

No one of honest feeling would approve
A ruler who pretended not to love
A turbulence he had the better of.

Everyone knows the glory of the twain
Who gave America the aeroplane
To ride the whirlwind and the hurricane.

Some poor fool has been saying in his heart
Glory is out of date in life and art.
Our venture in revolution and outlawry
Has justified itself in freedom’s story
Right down to now in glory upon glory.

Come fresh from an election like the last,
The greatest vote a people ever cast,
So close yet sure to be abided by,
It is no miracle our mood is high.

Courage is in the air in bracing whiffs
Better than all the stalemate an’s and ifs.
There was the book of profile tales declaring
For the emboldened politicians daring
To break with followers when in the wrong,
A healthy independence of the throng,
A democratic form of right devine
To rule first answerable to high design.

There is a call to life a little sterner,
And braver for the earner, learner, yearner.
Less criticism of the field and court
And more preoccupation with the sport.

It makes the prophet in us all presage
The glory of a next Augustan age
Of a power leading from its strength and pride,
Of young amibition eager to be tried,
Firm in our free beliefs without dismay,
In any game the nations want to play.

A golden age of poetry and power
Of which this noonday’s the beginning hour.

In case you were wondering, a little video here and an interview with the author of “The Story of Stuff” on Stephen Colbert inspired the name change on the blog.

Westerners who do practices from “Eastern” traditions tend to try to create a persona around that practice. “I’m a Yogi” “I’m a Chanter” etc., but it’s not like that. We are always who we are. We are not what we do. These practices will give us the strength to love totally and completely — to offer ourselves to Love wholeheartedly and sincerely. But we have to let them work in our psychological and emotional bodies, to create pathways for the love to flow to our own hearts. If we don’t love ourselves, who can we love? How can we love?

There is a nice article by Krishna Das here. For those of you who have never heard of him, I discovered his music by accident during grad school. it was totally out of character to be astounded by traditional Hindu chanting, but his music truly moves my heart. It happened from the first time I saw him play. He showed up at an important time in my life. His chanting got me through writing my thesis (if for no other reason than the other scientists left me alone when I had the crazy chanting playing in my office), and he gets me through every gym workout. I still love his music, though I am interested in his new album, which is in English. Should be interesting.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

_________________________________________

For Immediate Release March 8, 2010

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AND THE FIRST LADY

AT INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY RECEPTION

East Room

4:52 P.M. EST

MRS. OBAMA: Thank you so much. So I get to speak first while he stands and watches. I love this. (Laughter.) Look at me adoringly. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: I can do that.

MRS. OBAMA: With sincerity. (Laughter.) Anyway.

I’m thrilled to see everybody here. Welcome, welcome. This is a wonderful event as we celebrate Women’s History Month at the White House. It’s so exciting. (Applause.)

And let me start by recognizing all of the amazing leaders who have taken time out of their very busy days and schedules to be here with us today. We have our Cabinet Secretaries, congresswomen and other leaders who are serving as such powerful role models for the next generation.

But we have some of the members of the next generation here, as well, and I want to take a moment to acknowledge some of them, as well. We’ve got young people here from the Girl Scouts, from Mount Vernon. (Applause.) From Mount Vernon and Hayfield Secondary in Virginia. (Applause.) From High Point High School in Maryland. (Applause.) From Eastern High School. (Applause.) And Georgetown Visitation here in D.C. (Applause.) All of you stand. Everybody stand. (Applause.)

I had a chance to meet with each and every one of them, to get a hug and a picture, and we talked. They are beautiful, they are inquisitive — yes, it was a hug, it was a good hug. (Laughter.) And what I told them is that they should make sure they take advantage of this evening by making sure that they take time out to meet all of you extraordinary women, right; that they come up and introduce themselves with confidence; and that you make sure you have a little fun, right? So you’re going to make that promise.

Make sure you get to meet everyone here today, because today all of you are joining the long line of incredible women who have graced these halls both as visitors and as residents, from admirals and actresses to civil rights pioneers — my good friend, Dorothy Height, is here. (Applause.) Nobel Prize Winners — you name it, this house has hosted some of the most accomplished women and some of the most accomplished Americans in the history of this country.

But we’re here today not just to pay tribute to leaders and icons and household names. During Women’s History Month we’re also here to honor the quiet heroes who’ve shaped this country from the very beginning. We honor the women who traveled those lonely roads to be the first ones in those courtrooms, to be the first ones in those boardrooms, to be the first ones on those playing fields, and to be the first ones on those battlefields.

We honor women who refused to listen to those who would say that you couldn’t or shouldn’t pursue your dreams. And we honor women who may not have had many opportunities in their own lives, and we all know women like that: Women who poured everything they had into making sure that their daughters and their granddaughters could pursue their dreams; women who, as the poet Alice Walker once wrote, “knew what we must know without knowing it themselves.”

All of us are here today because of women like these who came before us. And during this Women’s History Month, may we recommit ourselves to carrying on their work for our own daughters and granddaughters, and also for our sons and our grandsons too.

Now, speaking of sons, it is my pleasure to introduce one of the few men in the room — (laughter and applause) — my husband, and the President of the United States, Barack Obama. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: That would be me. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Please, have a seat. Let me begin by just thanking some of the people who are participating here today. Michelle mentioned my outstanding Cabinet members, the extraordinary members of Congress and people who are in our senior White House team. I also want to thank Ms. Kerry Washington for emceeing today. Give Kerry a big round of applause. Where is she? There she is. (Applause.)

Ms. Katharine McPhee, who’s going to be performing a song in the program. Where’s Katharine? She’s around — she’s practicing. (Applause.) She’s here, I just saw her.

Secretary Madeline Albright is here today. (Applause.) and Ms. Mozhdah Jamalzadah is also going to be here performing a song in the program, so we want to thank her, give her a big round of applause. (Applause.)

And then there’s this lady here. (Laughter.) FLOTUS, that’s what we call her — FLOTUS. (Laughter.) She is — I’m biased, I acknowledge; but I think she’s a pretty good First Lady. (Applause.) Don’t you think? She’s pretty good. (Applause.) And I’m very sincere when I look at you adoringly. (Laughter.)

The story of America over the past 200 years — past 233 years is one of laws becoming more just, of a people becoming more equal, of a union being perfected. It’s a story of captives being set free and a movement to fulfill the promise of that freedom. It’s a story of waves of weary travelers reconsecrating America as a nation of immigrants. It’s a story of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters making the most of that most American of demands — to be treated the same as everybody else. And it’s a story of women, from those on the Mayflower to the one I’m blessed to call my wife, who looked across the dinner table, and thought, I’m smarter than that guy. (Laughter.)

The story of America’s women, like the story of America itself, has had its peaks and valleys. But as one of our great American educators once said, if you drew a line through all the valleys and all the peaks, that line would be drawn with an upward curve. That upward curve — what we call progress — didn’t happen by accident.

It came about because of daring, indomitable women. Women like Abigail Adams, who brought on the ridicule of her husband John by advising him to “remember the ladies” in our founding documents. Women like the pioneers and settlers who, in the words of one, said, “I thought where he could go, I could go.” Women like Dorothy Height and Sylvia Mendez and Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem and Sandra Day O’Connor and Madeline Albright, upending assumptions and changing laws and tearing down barriers. Women like Hillary Rodham Clinton, who, throughout her career, has put millions of cracks in America’s glass ceiling. (Applause.) It’s because of them — and so many others, many who aren’t recorded in the history books — that the story of America is, ultimately, one of hope and one of progress, of an upward journey.

But even as we reflect on the hope of our history, we must also face squarely the reality of the present — a reality marked by unfairness, marked by hardship for too many women in America. The statistics of inequality are all too familiar to us — how women just earn 77 cents for every dollar men make; how one in four women is the victim of domestic violence at some point in her life; how women are more than half the population, but make up only 17 percent of the seats in Congress, and less than 3 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs.

These, and any number of other facts and figures, reflect the fundamental truth that in 2010, full gender equality has not yet been achieved; that the task of perfecting America goes on; and that all of us, men and women, have a part to play in bending the arc in America’s story upward in the 21st century.

I’m proud of the extraordinary women — and the extraordinary Americans — I’ve appointed to help take up this task. In addition to our outstanding Secretary of State, we’ve got Hilda Solis serving where the first female Cabinet Secretary, Frances Perkins, once served, at the Labor Department. (Applause.) We’ve got Kathleen Sebelius leading our Health and Human Services Department; Janet Napolitano running the Department of Homeland Security. Susan Rice is our ambassador to the United Nations. The chair of my Council of Economic Advisors is Christy Romer. We got Lisa Jackson, who’s doing great work at the EPA.

We have just extraordinary talent all across this administration. And from health insurance reform, to climate and energy, to matters of domestic policy, I’m seeking the counsel of brilliant women. And that list doesn’t include, by the way, the Justice I appointed to the Supreme Court — Ms. Sonia Sotomayor. (Applause.)

So, yes, I’m very proud to have appointed so many brilliant women to so many essential posts in our government. But I’m even prouder of what each of them is doing — and what all of us are doing — to make life better in America and around the world, because lifting up the prospects of our daughters will require all of us doing our part. And that’s why we’ve established a new White House Council on Women and Girls, chaired by my friend and senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett, that will help make sure that every part of our government is working to address the challenges faced by women and girls.

At a time when women are on the verge of making up the majority of America’s workforce, the very first bill I signed into law — a bill named after Lilly Ledbetter — was designed to help keep America’s promise: If you do the same work as a man, you ought to be paid the same wage as a man. (Applause.) To help parents balance work and family, we’re offering states more support for quality, affordable child care and paid family leave.

At a time when we are waging two wars and fighting a global network of hatred and violence, we need the service of all those patriotic Americans who are willing to do their part. And that’s why Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mullen and top Navy officers decided to end an old barrier against women, so our skilled and brave Navy women, as well as men, can serve on submarines.

At a time when it’s still legal for health insurance companies to discriminate against the victims of domestic violence in eight states plus the District of Columbia, we’re seeking health insurance reforms that would finally rein in the worst practices of the insurance industry. And I’m also proud to note that I’ve appointed the first White House Advisor on Violence against Women, Lynn Rosenthal. (Applause.)

At a time when the jobs of tomorrow will go to workers with the knowledge and skills to do them, we’re ramping up efforts to educate our young people in science and technology, engineering and math, and we’re making a special effort to recruit women to those fields — because I want to see more teenage astronomers like Caroline Moore. In fact, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has launched a new partnership with Spelman College to train women engineers and help put them to work rebuilding our highways and our infrastructure.

And since today happens to be International Women’s Day, it’s also worth mentioning what Secretary Clinton, and Ambassador Rice, and this administration are doing on behalf of women around the globe. We lifted what’s called the global gag rule that restricted women’s access to family planning services abroad. (Applause.)

We’re pursuing a global health strategy that makes important investments in child and maternal health. We sponsored a U.N. resolution to increase protection for women and girls in conflict-torn countries — to help make it possible for more women like Mozhdah, who traveled from Afghanistan to join us here today — to reach for their dreams. We created the first Office of Global Women’s Issues at the State Department, and appointed Ambassador Melanne Verveer to run it. (Applause.) We’re investing $18 million — we’re investing $18 million to combat the unconscionable cruelties being committed against girls and women in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And next month, I’ll host an entrepreneurship summit to help fulfill a commitment I made in Cairo; a summit that will focus, in part, on the challenges facing women entrepreneurs in Muslim communities around the world.

We’re doing all of this not only because promoting women’s empowerment is one of the best ways to promote economic development and economic success. We are doing it because it’s the right thing to do. I say that not only as a President, but also as the father of two daughters, as a son and a grandson, and as a husband.

Growing up, I saw my mother dedicate most of her life to promoting the rights and well-being of women overseas; to empowering them to take more control over their economic lives and be able to empower their families as well. I saw my grandmother work her way up to become vice president at a bank in Hawaii, starting as a secretary, never had more than a high school education. But I also saw how she hit a glass ceiling, and had to watch as men, no more qualified than she was, rise up the corporate ladder.

Before we got to the White House, where we are grateful for the extraordinary support that we receive from the White House staff, I’d see the challenges Michelle faced as a working mom. And as usual, she handled it with grace and skill, but she’d be the first one to tell you it wasn’t always easy balancing the responsibilities of being a hospital executive with those of being a mother, and sometimes worrying about the girls when she was at work, and sometimes worrying about work when she was with the girls.

And today, as I see Sasha and Malia getting older, I think about the world that they — and all of America’s daughters — will inherit. And I think about all of the opportunities that are still beyond reach for too many young women and too many of our brothers and sisters — too many of our sisters and mothers and aunts — all of the glass ceilings that have yet to be shattered.

We have so much more work to do, and that’s why we’re here today. I think about this because it reminds me of why I’m here. I didn’t run for President so that the dreams of our daughters could be deferred or denied. I didn’t run for President to see inequality and injustice persist in our time. I ran for President to put the same rights, the same opportunities, the same dreams within the reach for our daughters and our sons alike. I ran for President to put the American Dream within the reach of all of our people, no matter what their gender, or race, or faith, or station.

If we can stay true to that cause, if we can stay true to our founding ideals, then I’m absolutely confident that the line that runs through America’s story will, in the future, as it has in the past, be drawn with an upward curve. And I’m especially pleased that these young ladies are here today because they’re the ones who are going to help bend that curve towards justice and equality.

Thank you very much, everybody. God bless you. God bless the United States of America. (Applause.)

You get three guesses to figure out who said this (I used this quote as part of a Yoga practice in remembrance of this day in 2007):

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today’s mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the land. “And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.”

I have an itchy head and some sore spots where the latest Laser burns are healing, and I am getting impatient with feeling sore in my body. Then I remember that I felt like my body was never going to heal from the shattered wrist found myself with just over 8 years ago.

This is me after just having earned my shattered wrist (note the legs on the ground just in front of the kneeling EMT).

Then, less than a year later (about 11 months), I was doing this:

That recovery time seemed to have lasted forever, but in the end, a year doesn’t seem like that much time to go from shattered bones to supporting my body weight. Must remember that when I feel impatient with this body. The body’s ability to heal is amazing.

Wow! It is great to have a president who can inspire me to work harder. Even after a ‘big’ controversy over ASU’s decision not to offer Obama an honorary degree because ‘his accomplishments are yet to come’, he gave them an amazing and humble speech about what success really means. Awesome. This is the kind of success I was reminded of in the Honors program at Temple University many year ago thanks to a couple of amazing professors who ran the program.

For anyone curious about what I study in my yoga practice, here is the first from a set of 85 UTube videos of Swami Rama teaching on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. This is a source text for the Yoga tradition. Swami Rama is a teacher I am just starting to learn from because he has wrote a nice introduction to meditation called ‘Meditation and It’s Practice,’ which is grounded in the Sutras. He has a sanctuary in the Poconos if anyone is ever interested in learning more from him - I would LOVE to go there some day.