pjthompson | Entries tagged with action and activism

Random quote of the day:

“We who are old have nothing to lose! We have everything to gain by living dangerously! We can initiate change without jeopardizing jobs or family. We can be the risk-takers.”

—Maggie Kuhn, speech at the Institute of Politics (IOP), March 19, 1981

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Bert and Ernie, Celine Dion, or the Band of the Coldstream Guards. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Random quote of the day:

“The thought manifests as the word,
The word manifests as the deed,
The deed develops into a habit,
And habit hardens in character,

So watch the thought and it’s ways with care,
And let it spring from love,
Born out of concern for all beings…

As the shadow follows the body,
As we think so we become.

—Buddha, The Dhammapada

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Desus and Mero, Beyoncé, or the Marine Corps Marching Band. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Random quote of the day:

“Our nature lies in movement; complete calm is death.”

—Blaise Pascal, Pensées

Random quote of the day:

“Sometimes people feel powerless and overwhelmed by it all. One doesn’t have to be a frontline activist…Everyone in the community has a role to play in transforming our community. Everyone must ask themselves, what is at stake in these times?”

—Bree Newsome Bass, Cornell Chronicle, February 14, 2019

Random quote of the day:

“To ignore injustices such as the few we address in the film [You Can’t Hear Me] simply because they may not seem to affect you directly right now, is to leave yourself unprepared when their effects show up at your front door. That’s the awareness we want to continue to bring to light as we stand in solidarity with activists and the politicians who really are doing their work for the people.”

—Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Huffpost, May 2, 2017

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Key and Peele, Celine Dion, or Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Random quote of the day:

“People often think they can’t make a difference like our civil rights icons, but every person in the movement mattered—those who made the sandwiches, swept the church floors, stuffed the envelopes. They, too, changed America. And so can we! The baton has now been passed to each of us.”

—Mayor Keisha Lance Bottom, DNC speech, August 20, 2020

Random quote of the day:

“People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically...No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

—Rosa Parks, Rosa Parks: My Story

Random quote of the day:

“I think that it’s much more important to do than to say. And you learn that a lot from your kids, who are watching you, you know? Living by example—that’s always a better teacher than trying to preach. You should do what you’re supposed to do and hope that that ripples out. And speak up when you’re supposed to, as opposed to trying to write prescriptions for the way people should live.”

—Don Cheadle, interviewed by Maranda Pleasant for Origin Magazine, May 1, 2014

Random quote of the day:

“I am the owner of my actions, heir to my actions, born of my actions, related through my actions, and have my actions as my arbitrator. Whatever I do, for good or for evil, to that will I fall heir.”

—Buddha, Upajjhatthana Sutta: Subjects for Contemplation
(tr. Thanissaro Bhikkhu)

Watch on YouTube

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I finally got around to reading my thank you and goodbye email from Elizabeth Warren. It made me just as sad as I thought it would.
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Clearly, I need to get out more. I'm watching a show on the search for Queen Boudicca's treasure and I just yelled at the TV, "Boudicca's booty!" Somebody help me.
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Mike Bloomberg on Super Tuesday: "Please, sir, can I have Samoa?" #DickensPuns
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No matter how much you do in your life there will always be people who say it isn't enough. So do what you can and realize that most mortals have to choose their battles.
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Certain songs always make me start doing my very bad Billie Holiday impression. (And I always resent it when other singers try to do these songs because, dammit, they belong to Billie.)
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Yep, the three tones in E10 of Hellier S2 still make me nauseated and anxious even after 5 watchings. And when episode 10 finished Amazon suggested I watch A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.
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We had a squirrel living in the yard for many years that we nicknamed Twofer because he would come up and take a peanut out of our hands, shove it into his cheek and reach up so you'd give him another one. And we always did.
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Disabled people aren’t included in most emergency evacuation plans. I found this out when I could no longer easily walk down 3 flights of stairs from my office for evacuation drills. "Stay at your desk & someone will get you after everyone else is out." Using a cumbersome evacuation chair that the one time we tried it no one knew how to operate.
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What my VRS thinks of this election: "Doesn't matter who I want to be president, if Bernie is the eventual nominee he'll get my boat." It's a leaky boat but whatever.
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I attempted to read a book by Louis L'Amour in the last couple of days but I have failed in that attempt. The writing was just so clunky I very soon ceased to care about the resolution of the mystery and consigned it to the recycle bag. Go ahead, call me a snob, I don't care.
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We always walk beside the Veil, but most times we choose to look straight ahead.
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Big brother with a kink? The alarm went off to tell me to take my chicken out of the oven and I said "I'm coming." (Because doesn't everyone talk to their alarms?) And the Google speaker on my phone said "That's good."
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One of the web crawlers that shows up frequently on my Statcounter account is China Unicom, but I ALWAYS read it as China Unicorn.
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I was watching Vienna Blood on PBS and they had a corpse lady laying out naked on a slab with boobs on full display. Later, they had a live lady with boobs on display but blurred them out. So I guess on PBS dead boobies are okay but live boobies are not okay to show. Go figure.
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I whine, therefore I art.

Yesterday, I decided to try a new deck of tarot. I had a reproduction of the Marseille deck that I'd never used and was going through it preparing to ask what they call interview questions to get to know the cards. I was shuffling them, hadn't even asked a question yet, but one of them leapt from my hands and fell on the floor, which is always supposed to be significant. It fell sideways so it was neither upright nor reversed.

What card was it? This guy:

I stared at it, gobsmacked, then laughed. What else could I do? I picked him up and immediately opened the Marseille interpretation booklet.

Upright: "Energy and resources to advance, still looking for the right direction. Hovering above practical constraints. Determination and perseverance."

Reversed: "Confusion, negative and inhibiting thoughts, self defeat. Sloppy use of one's own tools may cause damage."

I was still puzzled as to what the Knight was trying to tell me, but in the interval between then and now, I think I have a clearer picture. I went back to when he first started making his appearance, when he came up twice in the same reading, both times reversed. It occurred to me that I should perhaps always read him from the reversed position? But then I thought about the way he’d landed on the floor, sideways. As if I were at a tipping point and it could go either way.

It also occurred to me that I am at somewhat of a tipping point in my life—physically, spiritually, and in my creative life. I’ve been treading water, not really pushing myself too hard, allowing rationalization to dictate my momentum (or lack thereof) rather than just getting on with things.

So maybe Mr. Knight is telling me to get over myself and get moving.

If that’s not what he’s saying, I’m sure he’ll crop up again because I firmly believe the Universe repeats itself until you do get the message. Sometimes with slaps upside the head. And the slaps get harder the longer you refuse to listen.

I’m listening, Universe. I just hope I’m understanding.

Random quote of the day:

“Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.”

—Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

Random quote of the day:

“When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.”

—Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Laurel and Hardy, Ariana Grande, or the Salvation Army Band. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

Random quote of the day:

“My actions are my only true belongings: I cannot escape their consequences. My actions are the ground on which I stand.”

—Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of Buddha’s Teaching

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Lucy and Ethel, Justin Bieber, or the Kardashian Klan. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

Random quote of the day:

“The Things to do are: the things that need doing, that you see need to be done, and that no one else seems to see need to be done. Then you will conceive your own way of doing that which needs to be done—that no one else has told you to do or how to do it. This will bring out the real you that often gets buried inside a character that has acquired a superficial array of behaviors induced or imposed by others on the individual.”

—R. Buckminster Fuller, letter dated 2/16/70 to Michael, a 10 year old boy who asked if he was a “doer” or a “thinker”

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

Random quote of the day:

“Ye cannot live only for yourselves; a thousand fibres connect you with your fellow-men, and along these fibres, as along sympathetic threads, run your actions as causes, and return to you as effects.”

—Henry Melvill, “Partaking in Other Men’s Sin,” Golden Lectures

(This quote is often paraphrased and misattributed to Herman Melville.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

Random quote of the day:

“We all have different desires and needs, but if we don’t discover what we want from ourselves and what we stand for, we will live passively and unfulfilled. Sooner or later, we are all asked to compromise ourselves and the things we care about. We define ourselves by our actions. With each decision, we tell ourselves and the world who we are. Think about what you want out of this life, and recognize that there are many kinds of success.

—Bill Watterson, “Some Thoughts On the Real World By One Who Glimpsed It and Fled,” Kenyon College Commencement, May 20, 1990

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

Random quote of the day:

“Doing is a quantum leap from imagining.”

—Barbara Sher, I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

Random quote of the day:

“I learned in Murder in the Cathedral that it’s no use putting in nice lines that you think are good poetry if they don’t get the action on at all.”

—T. S. Eliot, interview, The Paris Review, No. 21, Spring-Summer 1959

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

Random quote of the day:

"A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury."

—John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

( Illustrated version. )

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

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Echoes in a Hollow Space

I'm here because I'm here because I'm here

Entries tagged with action and activism

Risk

Shadow

Movement

At stake

Front Door

Baton

Miss Rosa

Teach

Actions

Musings

My tricksy Knight

Uncontrollable

Bonfire

True belongings

That which needs to be done

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When good men do nothing

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