Closed mind always wants to protect its right to be closed

Some insights from Deepak Chopra on how to open your mind:

clipped from www.sfgate.com 1. Stop believing that you're right. Examine the compulsion that forces you to be right all the time. 2. Don't make every argument us versus them. 3. Be less attached to winning and more attached to the truth. 4. Don't color every issue with morality. Right and wrong are generally useless when it comes to finding creative solutions. 5. Write down the five fundamental beliefs that guide your life. Now write down the best arguments against those beliefs. 6. When you are the most emotional about any issue, assume that you are blinding yourself. An open mind is calm, centered, flexible, and tolerant of opposing views. 7. When you are thinking of saying an idea that you know came from someone else, let go of it. 8. Most people either automatically agree or automatically disagree. Examine this trait in yourself and give it up. 9. Be aware of how you feel before you speak. Feelings are closer to the truth than words. 10. Walk in someone else's shoes before you judge them.

We need to create a new culture

clipped from www.counterpunch.org To reverse what is happening, we must create strong alternative ideas and hardy alternative institutions and communities, a counter culture that rejects the myths of Washington and Wall Street just as, in the 1960s, a generation put the establishment on the defensive or in the closet. In any case, we need to act, but independent of those responsible for the mess, those exculpating them, those offering remedies that are mere manipulated shadows of the failure, and those engaged in misleading or misguided organizing on their behalf even if with purportedly noble intent. The collapse of American culture was an inside job. Its cure is to be found on the outside, in a counter culture that is clear and worthy in its goals, eclectic in its alliances, and which builds community, recovers integrity and helps us to sing again. If we can't save our culture, we can at least create a new one.

No greater love

A friend of mine played Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is" to accompany the crucifixion scene from Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth. I so loved that combination that I worked for a couple of hours early Easter morning to mash it up for my blog. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how the crucifixion speaks to me and what it means (I'm not your "usual" Christian --- whatever that looks like), but I cannot deny its power in my life.

Happy Easter, whatever you may believe!