reason for hope

One of the world's most admired women - acclaimed scientist and conservationist, Dr Jane Goodall - Dame of the British Empire (DBE), Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace -visited Anglia Ruskin University for a lecture on 'Reason for Hope'.

She is one of those rare people who provoke reverence wherever she goes. She is frail but tremendously strong at the same time. I told her that one of my daughters wanted to study biology and asked whether she could dedicate the book to her. She wrote:

'For B,

Follow your dreams'

She once said: "Every individual matters, human and non-human alike. Only if we understand can we care. Only if we care will we understand."

She is a very beautiful woman.

compassion

a week after political unrest in Burma which resulted in arrests by the thousand and death by the hundred, one must wonder what kind of dark forces have made people in power feel threatened by barefoot monks with no more weapons than their saffron tunics and their hard earned moral authority

this flame expresses my deepest thoughts:
may compassion and love prevail

autumn

Calendar of the Soul

September 09, 2007 - September 15, 2007

There dims in damp autumnal air

The senses' luring magic;

The light's revealing radiance

Is dulled by hazy veils of mist.

In distances around me I can see

The autumn's winter sleep;

The summer's life has yielded

Itself into my keeping.

English translation by Ruth and Hans Pusch

object or mirror?

Whitney Chadwick argues in her book ‘Women, Art and Society’ that ‘Among the founding members of the British Royal Academy in 1768 were two women…. (yet)… women were barred from the discussions about art and the study of the nude model which formed the academic training and representation from the sixteen to the nineteen centuries.’
And she continues: ‘…binary oppositions of Western thought- man/woman, nature/culture, analytic/intuitive- may have been replicated within art history and used to reinforce sexual difference as a basis for aesthetic valuations.’
A lot has been said, and a lot more has been wasted in misunderstandings and extrapolations, yet still today if you type the words women and art in your internet searcher, quite possibly you’ll be directed to something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUDIoN-_Hxs&mode=related&search=
How many of these beautiful creatures were painted by men? How many of them had been painted by women?

Calendar of the Soul

21st week, August 26, 2007 - September 01, 2007



I feel strange power, bearing fruit
And gaining strength to give myself to me.
I sense the seed maturing
And expectation, light-filled, weaving
Within me on my selfhood's power.


(English translation by Ruth and Hans Pusch)