Maya Lin has a new exhibit at Washington’s Corcoran Gallery of Art.
It grew out of a desire to take what I do outside and bring it inside …. I thought, what if I could bring a hill inside - take it up to the ceiling, maybe even let people walk on it. … These works are asking us to pay close attention to the world around us.”
- Maya Lin, via The Baltimore Sun.
Maya Lin @ Wikipedia.
~ Karl Jones
For about a year I had been worrying that maybe I have never really been in love. As a woman 6 months shy of 40, this is saying something.
And then recently I realized that the feeling a friend was describing to me about falling in love with his partner was the same feeling I am having about my whole life: Chest filled with joy! Heart asking, “How did I get so damned lucky?”
I am having this feeling about myself, about my life, rather than about any particular person, and yet I am finding myself surrounded by love—all different kinds of it—a kind of love continuum. Friends, lovers–all wonderful people who enrich my life.
And I have also allowed myself–finally–to fall in love with other people.
I think what it means to me now is, “I feel all this love in my life, and [the person I'm saying it to] is a focus for this love.” I think what must have kept me from really feeling free to love others was a fear that they would not return the love, or that they would leave and take their love away–it has certainly happenned like that in the past.
Now, I don’t fear that their leaving would take the love away because I am not getting love from others so much as I am giving it to myself through them.
It is not the other person who gives us love
It is we who love ourselves though this other person; thus, when they go away, they don’t take the love with them because it was never theirs to give us, it is only ours to give ourselves through them.
Thus, we can hope that our lovers are loving themselves through us, as we are loving ourselves through them, but we are also not going to take their self-love away by no longer being in their lives.
Love Corollary: This kind of love never has to be selfish or jealous, because there is no fear of losing it–so it does not need to be restrictive.
My Lesson: To be in love, first find yourself and love yourself.
Go easy on yourself, be gentle; don’t be afraid and never abandon yourself (to love with wild abandon need not mean abandoning yourself or your heart’s well-being).
~Wei Ming Dariotis
CORPORATE ORGANIZATIONS: PATRIOTIC CALL
I have watched with disgust over the past few months, an act which I feel is very unpatriotic, selfish and disturbing.
I watched adverts of some Nigerian firms on CNN and I became very disappointed. As a matter of fact, I have decided to distance myself from such firms. You and I know that there is a huge demand for the rebrand of our national identity which has been tarnished over the past few years and yet, some firms are forgetting that fact; instead, they have chosen to promote their firms at the expense of the nation that provided them with the soil and foundation to exist.
I have vowed to be accountable in all I do and so I will go ahead and do exactly that. God bless Glomobile for joining millions of Nigerians who are challenged by the fact that this country needs rebranding while promoting their organization. Have you seen their advert on CNN? Well, I feel that you should see it! Listen to this…
“The future is coming. This time it is different because it is coming from Nigeria!”
- Glomobile
This is the part I loved most in the advert; using Nigeria as a base to project a prospective bright future. This is what I call, patriotism.
I have watched countries with more terrible situations; give their country huge patriotic branding via adverts on CNN. I have also seen, corporate firms contributing to the huge success of such patriotic branding. I have seen Chaka chaka, the popular South African musician, spear head such effort.
Why can’t we have an advert that says, “Incredible Nigeria”, why cant we have our own sights and sounds advert for our dear nation, Nigeria? The adverse effect of the demand for us to redeem our image is huge. I have heard various stories of distrust in Nigerians and this have caused them huge inconvenience.
I had once heard the panicking voice of my sister who misplaced her ID card and wanted to receive money via western union money transfer at a great time of distress. By the way, she schools in France and was at that time, 18years of age. She narrated how she had to beg an American to help her receive the cash after being told to her face that the reason why her story was not believed was because she was a Nigerian.
These stories I am sure are not new to you. But should the world despise US because of the 10% of Nigerians (or less) who are doing the damage? Should we be judged by this few percentages of us who caused the damage?
Our corporate organization need to see themselves first as Nigerians before considering themselves as a member of one organization or the other. We appreciate their efforts in stimulating our economy but we would rather have corporate organizations who truly have the development of Nigeria at heart while doing their business, than some organizations who claim to be global yet, selfish, unpatriotic and insensitive to the developmental need of the Nigerian state.
I challenge as many of you (Corporate and public institutions) reading this piece to prove me wrong and join in this noble course of rebranding Nigeria and reawakening the interest of Nigerians in Nigeria by sponsoring a patriotic advert on any international medium as a first step towards achieving the aforementioned goal.
Nigerians have accepted you guys, created an enabling environment (though not perfect), patronized and have helped your firms to grow to their current heights, all we could in the least ask of you is support our quest to rebrand our dear nation and save our identity from the shackles of negative branding.
We are endowed with people, resources and culture which the world out there needs, let’s showcase them for the world to see. Let’s invite the world to come and see us from a different perspective; a perspective that you and I can be proud of.
We are not short of ideas, neither are we short of the resources to embark on this noble course. Therefore, I challenge us all to say, yes we can! To those who say we can’t.
I look forward to your participation in this noble course.
Best Regards,
‘Kayode Ajayi-Smith,
Member, Editorial Team,
Development Report Magazine,
www.developmentreport.org
+2348055316398, 07025813561
Green Map System energizes a diverse global movement of local mapmaking teams charting their community’s natural, cultural and green living resources with our award-winning universal icons and adaptable multi-lingual resources.
Via “Social mapping for green living” @ Yahoo: Link.
~ Karl Jones
[lang_en]“A love of Jute has had Sandra Thompson developing new ways of using the material. Her latest innovation is in the funeral business.”
Three years ago, she unexpectedly veered in a different direction: funerals. “I went into the office and said, ‘Why don’t we try a jute shroud?’ ” she says. “Everybody thought, ‘What’s she talking about now?’ ”
Thomson’s timing was impeccable. Jute is 100% biodegradable and her jute shrouds complemented the growing market for green funerals. Soon Thomson’s repertoire included coffins, urns for the ashes of loved ones, caskets, and books of remembrance.
Jute coffins are proving popular. Several layers of the plant fibre are compressed tightly together to make the jute boards that are used to build the coffins. They look wooden, and feel wooden, but they break down quicker in the soil than hardwood coffins and produce lower emissions when used for cremations, Thomson says.
- Richard Wilson @ Times Online: Link.
[Article uses both "Thompson" and "Thomson". I don't know which is correct. ~KGJ]
[/lang_en] (more…)
Technology for human needs:
Ulzii has sold two yurts already–real, whole room, boiled wool felt yurts–for only 3000 Euros each. The full sized yurts are advertized by a much smaller table-top model that looks like an interesting child’s toy.
Ulzii, who is Mongolian and was trained as a water engineer, has the most lovely cashmere shop–which is the most dangerous place in all of Brussels. For me and my friend Alvilda. And our pocketbooks.
Ulzii knows Alvilda, who lives in Brussels and works a little too close to Ulzii’s shop. And now, I’m afraid, Ulzii also knows me. Her cashmere is amazing, and she comes up with her own designs and orders them made in various colors and sizes from her suppliers in Mongolia. She has found a way to support the economy of her country and make a living. This model reminds me of those efforts by many Asian Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area Asian American arts community to develop cottage industries in Cambodia, the Philippines, etc. especially to help support poor women in those countries. In particular, I had met one Khmer (Cambodian) American woman, a designer, who had woman and girls in Cambodia whose primary income was sex work, trained to sew together chic T-Shirts, which she then later silk-screened with her own socially conscious designs in the SF Bay Area. Another woman I know works to raise money for the Aeta, a tribe in the Philippines. It takes about $500 to buy a single carabao/kalabaw (water buffalo) which can bring a family out of poverty. To raise funds, she has created a children’s book, My Kalabaw Friend (http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/272665), holds community events, and sells goods made by the Aeta.
Of course, it is not merely enough to have things made — one must also know the market in the cities in which these products will be sold. Ulzii’s cashmere is incredibly soft–and reasonably priced. So far, I have only gotten the open drape lavender sweater–a prototype–which seems as though it has been custom made for me. But, I get paid on July 1st! At least in this case, Ulzii has her market nailed (in other words, when I step back in her store, I am doomed).
Ulzii’s eponymous shop is at Espace Louise 18 - 1050 Bruxelles.
~Wei Ming Dariotis
[lang_en]To Be “Hapa” or Not to Be “Hapa”: What to Name Mixed Asian Americans?
Preface: I have been struggling for several years with this apparently un-resolvable issue: what to do about “Hapa”? I finally decided I had to start writing about it, had to start engaging the dialog. The essays and talks I have been giving on this issue represent my commitment to be fully involved in this dialog, this journey, no matter where it might take us.
Asian American Studies was founded by student and community activists in the Bay Area who proposed the revolutionary idea that positionality—how people are situated within, on the edges of, and in opposition to various kinds of groupings is a valid perspective from which to shape analysis, scholarship, and critical inquiry. The positionality of mixed race and mixed heritage Asian Americans became more solidly located within Asian American communities at least partially through the naming of them/us as a coherent, identifiable group through the use of the Native Hawaiian term “Hapa.” “Asian American” itself is a term of collective identity that grew out of a political movement—before 1968, one was “Oriental” or Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, or Korean. Asian American as a term provides a space in which these diverse ethnic communities can come together—but it also creates it’s own sense of identity—what Yen Le Espiritu calls “Asian American pan-ethnicity.” As opposed to ethnic-specific terms like the Filipino “mestizo” or the Japanese “haafu,” “Hapa” is a word that specifically situates mixed Asian Americans within this pan-ethnic Asian American community. “Hapa” also provides the important function of giving mixed Asian Americans a safe space. Growing controversies over the use of the Native Hawaiian word “hapa” to identify mixed race Asian Americans could possibly destabilize this unifying identity—or could provide an interesting opportunity to push out the boundaries we may have drawn around ourselves in the process of coming together.
~Wei Ming Dariotis[/lang_en]
Walking through my new home town (Siena, Italy) the other day, I found myself drawn to the various window displays with cute summertime dresses, sunglasses, sunhats, and bathing suits.
Different variations of “I want” thoughts passed through my head, sprinkled with feelings of lack: Not having a perfect body, not having enough money, and not having a great wardrobe.
As I walked past the final clothes shop before turning down the street on which I live, I caught a glimpse of my reflection. I was wearing my long black jacket that I bought in Dublin just over a year ago, a skirt that cost me only $7 at a high-end consignment shop in Oakland, California last September, simple brown pumps I bought in Brescia just a few days before my departure to Siena, and a three week old button-down white shirt that I bought at the open-air market shortly before devouring a tasty cinghiale panino (wild boar sandwich). I had to face the facts: I looked classy, pretty even, in the clothes on my body, and I already own them. At one time I desired, too, the clothes on my body. Where did the “want” for the clothes I already have, go?
It struck me as weird that the want of something new never completely goes away. “Want” is a free agent. It’s a playboy who is never satisfied with its latest conquests. “Want” only knows want and is empowered by the lies told by “Lack”.
In other news…
-I went to the medieval village of San Gimigno on Sunday. It’s small, charming, hilly, and has stunning views of the Tuscan countryside outside of its walls. San Gimigno has many towers. The rich and wealthy amused themselves by building towers back in the day. What else would you do if you were young, wealthy, and sports cars had yet to be invented? Or, conversely, if you were hitting mid-age, needed to feel young and vibrant, and sport cars had yet to be invented? Come on, admit it: building towers would be at the top of your list, too!
-Here’s a link to a free condensed e-book about living a happy life. It’s a nice read, but after I thought that it’s just a recycling of all the other self-help books out there–they make you feel good, commit to reevaluation and change, but 2 or 3 years later you are reaching for another Zen and the Art of Living book.
Perhaps the happy life isn’t behind glass on a mannequin. Chances are that you are wearing it now, but simply forgot.
*This post is an edited version of a recent post from my personal blog.