O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills, For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding, For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; Here Captain! dear father! This arm beneath your head! It is some dream that on the deck, You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; Exult O shores, and ring O bells! But I with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.
“To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight.”
BY MARIA POPOVA (brainpickings.org)
“No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life,”wrote the thirty-year-old Nietzsche. “The true and durable path into and through experience,” Nobel-winning poet Seamus Heaney counseled the young more than a century later in his magnificent commencement address, “involves being true … to your own solitude, true to your own secret knowledge.”
Every generation believes that it must battle unprecedented pressures of conformity; that it must fight harder than any previous generation to protect that secret knowledge from which our integrity of selfhood springs. Some of this belief stems from the habitual conceit of a culture blinded by its own presentism bias, ignorant of the past’s contextual analogues. But much of it in the century and a half since Nietzsche, and especially in the years since Heaney, is an accurate reflection of the conditions we have created and continually reinforce in our present informational ecosystem — a Pavlovian system of constant feedback, in which the easiest and commonest opinions are most readily rewarded, and dissenting voices are most readily punished by the unthinking mob.
Few people in the two centuries since Emerson issued his exhortation to “trust thyself” have countered this culturally condoned blunting of individuality more courageously and consistently than E.E. Cummings (October 14, 1894–September 3, 1962) — an artist who never cowered from being his unconventional self because, in the words of his most incisive and competent biographer, he “despised fear, and his life was lived in defiance of all who ruled by it.”
A fortnight after the poet’s fifty-ninth birthday, a small Michigan newspaper published a short, enormous piece by Cummings under the title “A Poet’s Advice to Students,” radiating expansive wisdom on art, life, and the courage of being yourself. It went on to inspire Buckminster Fuller and was later included in E.E. Cummings: A Miscellany Revised (public library) — that wonderful out-of-print collection which the poet himself described as “a cluster of epigrams, forty-nine essays on various subjects, a poem dispraising dogmata, and several selections from unfinished plays,” and which gave us Cummings on what it really means to be an artist.
Illustration from Enormous Smallness by Matthew Burgess, an illustrated tribute to E.E. Cummings
A poet is somebody who feels, and who expresses his feelings through words.
This may sound easy. It isn’t.
A lot of people think or believe or know they feel — but that’s thinking or believing or knowing; not feeling. And poetry is feeling — not knowing or believing or thinking.
Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know, but not a single human being can be taught to feel. Why? Because whenever you think or you believe or you know, you’re a lot of other people: but the moment you feel, you’re nobody-but-yourself.
To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
Cummings should know — just four years earlier, he had fought that hardest battle himself: When he was awarded the prestigious Academy of American Poets annual fellowship — the MacArthur of poetry — Cummings had to withstand harsh criticism from traditionalists who besieged him with hate for the bravery of breaking with tradition and being nobody-but-himself in his art. With an eye to that unassailable creative integrity buoyed by relentless work ethic, he adds:
As for expressing nobody-but-yourself in words, that means working just a little harder than anybody who isn’t a poet can possibly imagine. Why? Because nothing is quite as easy as using words like somebody else. We all of us do exactly this nearly all of the time — and whenever we do it, we’re not poets.
If, at the end of your first ten or fifteen years of fighting and working and feeling, you find you’ve written one line of one poem, you’ll be very lucky indeed.
And so my advice to all young people who wish to become poets is: do something easy, like learning how to blow up the world — unless you’re not only willing, but glad, to feel and work and fight till you die.
Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak 2019-20 in astrology and astrogeography. Data and analyses for the new SARS related virus outbreak on the climax of the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of Jan 12 2020.
Some thoughts on the timeline of developments of the Corona Virus epidemic for the USA through rhythmical activation of the 1 year/per house rhythm
I had several requests from clients asking when the Coronavirus pandemic will come to an end in Germany. I replied that in the current situation it is unrealistic to discuss an end of the epidemic as long as humanity has not gone through the collective and individual, political, social, cultural, informational, ecological, psychological, spiritual and technological learning processes that have apparently caused the rise of a new global pandemic at a moment in time when humanity has proven that it is unable to handle its destructive influence on global warming and the rise of fascism, hate and militarism on our planet.
Neptune transit conjunct Wuhan and square to Beijing and Rome
Looking at the whole global learning process from an astrogeographica point of view – I have already shown that the transit of Neptune over the exact square position to the 17°Sagittarius (topic of unhindered expansion) of the Chinese capital Beijing, Neptune`s simultaneous conjunction with the 15°Pisces coordinate of Wuhan (where the epidemic broke out) and his square transit to the 14°Gemini coordinate of Rome (2nd most hit nation during the early stage) explain the holistic reconnective healing process of the destructiveness of mankind`s slavery to hypercapitalism through as the global issue of the Corona crisis.
An astrological analysis has to consider all planetary transits as regulative stimulation. And processes related to Neptune transits as helping us to look back at our mistakes – our bad karma in terms of destructive behavior so to say. Viruses bring back the information of mother nature and mother earth in order to help us organize against self-destruction of mankind. They help us distinguish spirituality from pseudo-religion in the form of fasctistoid islamism, christianism and judaism.
Rhythmical activation in the chart for the Saturn – Pluto conjunction in relation to the capital of the USA
Saturn – Pluto conjunctions are known to be related to endemic processes as in the case of the European plaque epidemic related to the Saturn – Pluto conjunction of April, 21 1350.
Astrological chart for the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of January, 12 2020 calculated for Washington as the capital of the USA and center of the national morphic field
For the center of the national morphic field of the USA the Corona Virus outbreak began under the atmosphere of an activated Uranus at 2° Taurus (Moscow: 2°Taurus) the astrological sign of mother earth itself on the ascendant. Uranus stands for the effective neglection of environmental issues, the fracking industries, the ruthless exploitation of the last small resources of oil and an atmosphere of hate, racism, neo-fascism and self-destruction in the name of money and the markets (Taurus).
Direct or primary activations of signs and planets
The first year of the Coronavirus for the USA: from the Ascendant to the cusp of house 12
Stage 1 – Jan 12 – Jan 20 2020: from Taurus into Aries – a sudden plunge into house 12 shortly after the full activation of the Saturn – Pluto conjunction.
The pandemic crisis found the nation and government completely unprepared as the extinction of Neptune (holistic sustainable reality) from valid reality has been the state religion in the form of the “alternative reality” manipulation. Neptune as the final sweeper of the material world had been expelled to house 12 where true religion had been banned from perception through the neo-fascist Trump presidency and pseudo-christianism which had been so symptomatic of the US state cult since the start of the era of neo-fascism through the George W. Bush presidency in 2001.
Stage 2: Jan 20 – Sep 1 2020: from 30° to 0°Aries in house 12 – undecided action
The phase of the direct activation of the topics of Aries under the main rulership of Taurus and its sign ruler Venus will end in September 2020. The whole period can be understood as a phase in which the government can be expected to tend to concentrate on a battle of neglection and of trying to mislead public consciousness about the holistic aspects of events in regard to spirituality aka lastingness.
The plunge from Taurus into Aries activated Mars in house 8 the house of the domination of the perceived and ruling version of reality and on a degree (6°Sagittarius) of calculated manipulation. Through its house 8 position the extreme of this aggression of Mars can be understood to concentrate on the manipulation of the coming presidential election and control over public opinion in order to allow no recapitulation of the problems of the destructiveness of US society and political institutions in regard to the topics of lastingness and sustainability (Neptune) and the common learning of society in regard to the responsibility of the political institutions and government, the ruling party, lobbyists and of the state cult for the pandemic.
The direct activation of Chiron as the sign ruler of Virgo the sign of medical treatment, health, doctors. protected places and quarantine on the 2nd degree of Aries by mid – August of 2020 stands for a climax of organisation of measures to fight the pandemic, its medical, social and economical effects and possibly also for steps in the development of an efficient treatment and vaccination.
Stage 3: Sep, 1 2020 – Jun, 15 2021 : from 30° to 0°Pisces
During this phase the fuller impact and long-lasting effects of the pandemic can be expected to become effective, visible and openly public. Pisces is the sign of depression in many ways but from the point of view of astrology for a particular purpose: to help us confront suppressed truth and holistic reality after periods of lies, disguise and destructiveness. Pisces therefore stands for self-cleaning and deeper processes of self-healing.
The first planet to be directly activated in this process will be Lilith the indicator for the suppressed unconscious by the end of September 2020. Lilith stands for the activation of the awareness about the suppression, its victims, actors and profiteers.
The actual climax of this phase will be reached at the moment of the direct activation of Neptune between Christmas of 2020 and New Year`s day of 2021 and as the sign ruler of the 12th systemical astrological sign and factor Pisces, in his own sign and in the 12th house 12 the sphere of suppressed identity, spirituality, self-awareness, true identity and of the awareness about the contamination of the material plane through the lies and negativity of society, economy and capitalism (economy) as such. This planetary position of Neptune can serve as a stunning image of the completeness of the extinction of spirituality, good mind, true belief, conscience, readiness to speak true, accept ones own limitations and any attempt for self-healing through the current US government.
This Neptune activation cannot be expected as the deepest point in the crisis but rather as an attempt to further eliminate the perception of its reality.
And even in case some solutions may be found and improvements achieved before that deepest point of the crisis for the USA has to be expected at the end of May and beginning of June 2021 when the first degrees of Pisces will be triggered as the moment of bankruptcy of the old patterns
Stage 4 – Jun 15 2021 – Jul. 10 2022: from 30°Aquarius to 0°Aquarius
Through his position on the ascendant Uranus represents the main planet and issue of the Pluto-Saturn conjunction of 2020 for the USA during the whole period of its effectiveness between January 2020 and the next conjunction event in June 2053. The activation of Uranuses own sign Aquarius should therefore pave the way for steps in the restructuring of the political system and society. Such changes are t be seen as the main topic of the whole period between Jun 15 2021 and July 2022.
Shortly after the beginning of this period Venus as the ascendant ruler and sign and house ruler over Uranus over the whole period will be directly activated in Aquarius by late July 2022 pointing at when political conclusions from the Coronavirus crisis have to be put into practice.
The Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak 2019-20 in astrology and astrogeography
The 2019–2020 novel coronavirus outbreak, also known as the Wuhan coronavirus, the China pneumonia outbreak or the Wuhan pneumonia began in mid-December 2019 in the city of Wuhan in central China, as an emerging cluster of people with pneumonia of unknown cause, linked primarily to stallholders who worked at the Huanan Seafood Market (華南海鮮市場), which also sold live animals. Chinese scientists subsequently isolated a new coronavirus, the 2019-nCoV, which has been found to be at least 70% similar in genetic sequence to SARS-CoV. As of 20 January 2020, there has been increased testing with more than 200 confirmed cases, four deaths and evidence of human to human spread. It has not however shown the same severity as SARS.
Neptune`s return to the astrogeographical position of Wuhan
During the SARS outbreak of 2002 which started in Foshan Neptune at 8°Aquarius was exactly square the 7°Scorpio resonance coordinate of the City of Foshan. That explained the role of Neptune in that type of epidemics in China in these times we`re in.
Astrogeographical resonance coordinates of the City of Wuhan for morphogenetic field level 1 which describe the supra-regional. global topics of Wuhan and also the outbreak of the new SARS derivative virus: one coordinate of Wuhan is located at 15°Pisces currently transited be Neptune the indicator of the re-connection of systems with their holistic origin, essential purpose of existence, potentials and of clearing up processes that question and/or dissolve the formal outward stability of negative and destructive structures, patterns, believe systems that pollute, manipulate and destroy the self-cleaning and self.healing reflexes of such the systems. The 2nd resonance coordinate of Wuhan is at 22° in solid, fixed, defensive water sign Scorpio.
On the role of Neptune and Pisces in systemical astrology
Spiritual water sign Pisces is the sign of the sea and of fish and a direct resonator with the sea-food topic. As the 12th and final sign, aspect and stage of the zodiac Pisces resonates with the subtle, invisible, unconscious, neglected, suppressed and holistic aspects and elements of systems and those treated as invalid by the mental control. Pisces and its planetary ruler Neptune (named after the roman god of the ocean) therefore stand for the re-connection of systems with those aspects of their potentials that its control organs and management system have prevented from integration. It is the sign of the floods, epidemic diseases, natural disasters and the destabilization of structures.
Wuhan Sea Food Market in Pisces with Libra
Wuhan Seafood Market is located in Pisces with Libra
Astrogeographical position of the Wuhan Seafood Market for morphogenetic field level 4 (exact position) which describes the energetical topics of the market itself: according to my calculation system the area of the Wuhan Seafood Market is located in service orientated air sign Libra the sign of openness, stage-presentation, relationship and meeting places. The 2nd coordinate is in spiritual water sign Pisces, the sign of the sea and of fish and a direct resonator with the sea-food topic. As the 12th and final sign, aspect and stage of the zodiac Pisces resonates with the subtle, invisible, unconscious, neglected, suppressed and holistic aspects and elements of systems and those treated as invalid. Pisces and its planetary ruler Neptune (named after the roman god of the ocean) therefore stands for the reconnection of systems with those aspects of their potentials that its control organs and management system have prevented from integration.
The Astrological Chart of the pneumonia outbreak
Astrological chart for the 2019–20 outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)calculated for Dec, 8 2019 when the pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan was first recorded. Source
The first wave of the outbreak seems to have been notices during the exact transit of the Sun indicator of light and heat over 15°Sagittarius the sign of observation, mental understanding and science in exact square to the transit position of Neptune exactly conjunct the 15°Pisces resonance coordinate of Wuhan. The Sun seems to have cast its light over Neptune and over Wuhan and from an aspect of challenge and tension.
The stimulating trine aspect of the position of Jupiter the planet of growth and expansion as sign ruler of Sagittarius along with the Sun position to Uranus as the astrological factor related to mutations and in Taurus the sign of physical manifestation can be read as a the more complex astrological simile for the expansion of a mutated virus. The fact that Uranus was joined by the Moon as the planetary indicator für lung related diseases such as pneumonia and tuberculosis is to be examined as part of the chain of events.
The Coronavirus outbreaks of 2002/03 (SARS) and 2019/20 as symptoms of processes in the National Morphic Field of China
Reported Infections with the 2019 Coronavirus in the Chinas by Jan 22 2019 ph: 董辰兴 , ccbysa4.0
Given that all events inside a country are of nationwide significance and part of an exchange of information between all places and beings in the national morphic field, events are manifestations of a common process of development and of a collective learning and are punctuations of the landscapes (and mindscapes) of the land itself as well as of the collective psyche (conscious and unconscious) of living beings (humans, animals and plants).
My astrogeographical perspective attempts to recapitulate which type of information is transferred in the morphic field through a comparison of the morphogenetic surface field structure with planetary transits. As a method dedicated to the structural analysis of the qualities of time the astrological analogies allow systemical conclusion of the qualities of the topics that are carried out by the national field at a specific place during a specific moment in time.
National capitals are central places in the organisational, psychological, cultural, political self-identification and the processes of development that nations and the individuals that connect them as members, visitors or neighbors undergo. Their astrogeographical resonance coordinates can often be retraced as central astrological topics of the energetical centers around which nations develop as distinguishable fields within the global morphic field of our mother earth for periods of time long before the foundation of the nations and their capital cities.
Parallels of the 2002/03 Fushan SARS and the 2019/20 Wuhan Coronavirus outbreaks:
Foshan (17°Virgo – 7°Scorpio) and Wuhan (15°Pisces – 22°Scorpio) both have one astrogeographical resonance coordinate square to the 17°Sagittarius coordinate of Beijing. Both epidemics are therefore to be evaluated as events that challenge problematic issues (blocks of development and of the flow of energies) having to do with the intense expansion (Sagittarius) of the National Morphic Field of China under the negativity of structures related to the centralism of the Chinese government and political system in Beijing.
An exact astrogeographical transit of Neptune – from square to conjunct: the Foshan outbreak of 2002 had Neptune at 8° Aquarius in exact square to the 8°Scorpio coordinate of Foshan – whereas the Wuhan 2019 outbreak had Neptune at 15° Pisces exactly conjunct the 15°Pisces coordinate of Wuhan.
The direct astrogeographical resonance between the cities of Foshan located at 17°Virgo and Wuhan in exact opposition at 15°Pisces. The Wuhan outbreak appears as a consequence and new step in the reconnective healing, transformation, new developments in the national morphic field of China.
The 17°Virgo and 15°Pisces astrogeographical resonance coordinates of Foshan and Wuhan are in aspects of intense tension to the 17°Sagittarius resonance coordinate of the capital Beijing. The Coronavirus epidemics are therefore to be considered as parts of processes that deal with problems of the extreme expansion (Sagittarius) of China`s economy, social, cultural and political developments, inequalities between the Chinese provinces and problems of the concentration of priorities onto the super-centralist national government in Beijing.
The opposition of the two places and its relatedness over a time span of 17 years through the Neptune transit suggests an overall process of learning of the humanoid defense system in dealing with its capacity to stimulate the development of the human system, psychosomatic learning and handling discrepancies between the 4 bodies: material, emotional, mental and spiritual.
FRANCE 24 English Shoe shops, perfumiers, and even ministry reception counters were left eerily empty in Mexico on Monday as the country’s female population staged a nationwide “Day Without Us” strike to protest against gender-based violence. FRANCE 24’s Laurence Cuvillier, Matthieu Comin, and Alison Sargent report.
The word corona comes from crown. meaning king or authority. The word virus comes from Latin word meaning virulent or deadly. So the coronavirus is the king of virulence, the queen of deadliness?
Scientists tell us that coronaviruses have been around since at least the ’60s. So what are we trying to tell ourselves with the latest manifestation of consciousness known as the coronavirus?
Is there an astrological basis for this worldwide pandemic? German astrologer Georg Stockhorst indicates that there is connection with the new SARS related coronavirus outbreak on the climax of the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of January 12, 2020. When asked when the pandemic is likely to end, he said:
It is unrealistic to discuss an end of the epidemic as long as humanity has not gone through the collective and individual, political, social, cultural, informational, ecological, psychological, spiritual and technological learning processes that have apparently caused the rise of a new global pandemic at a moment in time when humanity has proven that it is unable to handle its destructive influence on global warming and the rise of fascism, hate and militarism on our planet.
And this is what Louise Hay, the late author and metaphysical leader, says underlies the disease pneumonia: “Desperate. Tired of life. … Inability to break down ideas for analysis and decisions, emotional wounds not allowed to heal.” (Courtesy of William P. Chiles)
In The Prosperos we are taught a system of rethinking apparent truths in light of Universal Truth. We call it Translation.
Got this email from a member of the Bathtub Bulletin community this morning:
“I’m probably not alone in wanting to reach out and join others in a collective action. I’m throwing this out on the table in the spirit of group dynamics: How about a call to the BB Community for no-name, single-sentence sense testimony, print that on a given day, then whoever is up for it Translate that.”
If you are interested in participating in this group effort, please email me at zonta1111@aol.com and give me your sense testimony. I will post them anonymously as they come in.
I like men who are cruel to me; men who know how I will end; men who, when they touch me, fasten their shadows to my neck then get out my face when certain they haven’t much use for being seen. I like men to be cruel to me. Any men who build their bodies into widths of doors I only walk through once will do. There’s a difference between entrances and exits I don’t have much use for now. I’ve seen what’s left behind after a hawk has seized a smaller bird midair. The feathers lay circled in prattle with rotting crab apples, grasses passing between the entrances and exits of clover. The raptor, somewhere over it, over it. Cruelty where? The hell would grief go in a goshawk? It’s enough to risk the open field, its rotten crab apples, grasses passing out like lock-kneed mourners in sun. There I was, scoping, scavenging the damage to drag mystery out of a simple read: two animals wanted life enough to risk the open field and one of them took what it hunted. Each one tells me he wants me vulnerable. I already wrote that book. The body text cleaved to the spine, simple to read as two animals wanting to see inside each other and one pulling back a wing to offer—See? Here—the fastest way in or out and you knew how it would end. You cleaved the body text to the spine cause you read closely. You clock damage. It was a door you walked through once before pivoting toward a newer image of risk.
“This poem emerged by treating as true an assessment of me that was declared to me: You like men who are cruel to you. Fine. Meanwhile, I had written several drafts and fragments of poems that obsessed over the single image of a circle of feathers strewn atop the grass of a backyard I used to have, which bothered me for at least two years, and which Carl Phillips elucidated for me as ‘what’s left behind after a hawk has seized a smaller bird in midair.’ The assessment and the image shuffled forms of my usual questions: what is natural (about) violence/ dominance/ power/ resistance among animals, including people? and what, if anything, does it have to do with my speciesistic tendency to rationalize, or my poetical desire to magnify? In addition to maintaining a three- and four-beat line for its occasion, the poem uses a villanelle-y formal device that I cooked up in the margin of my notebook while bored at a poetry reading, and which arranges repetitions as links of chain—forcing a lull of time and distance (in which change could happen) against saying a thing I’ve said before, as happens in relationships, politics, poetry, blues, etc.” —Justin Phillip Reed
Justin Phillip Reed is the author of Indecency (Coffee House Press, 2018), winner of the 2018 National Book Award and the 2019 Lambda Literary Award, and The Malevolent Volume (Coffee House Press, 2020). He is the Fellow in Creative Writing at the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics at the University of Pittsburgh.
Wellness, mindfulness, and self-care are all pretty buzzy words right now, and have been for some time now. Is there anyone you know who doesn’t have a meditation app on their phone? Group meditations and sound baths are becoming as popular as cycling classes, and, of course, athleisure is still ruling the runways and the streets.
However, wellness can mean different things for different people. One person may love going to the gym, but doesn’t know the first thing about meditation, while another may be a seasoned cab and subway meditator (believe me, it’s possible), yet despises the idea of going to a group fitness class. We all have our own practices, and none of them are right or wrong. But yet, not all of us know where to begin, especially when it comes to the specifics. How can we be mindful? How can we learn to love taking care of our physical wellbeing?
I recently spent some time in the Miami Design District for The Retreat, a four-day getaway thrown by Funkshion, the brains behind Miami Swim Week, in collaboration with Mini. At this retreat, virtually every aspect of wellness, self-care, and mindfulness was touched upon—from food and meditation to whipping our asses into physical shape in fitness classes with top instructors (admittedly, the only non-relaxing part about the whole weekend, but well worth it).
Through the series of workouts, panels, dinners, fashion shows, and more, I got to learn first-hand how the leaders of this very buzzy industry interpret wellness. They also shared their own tips for becoming a more mindful human being and how to create a more well-rounded practice, whether you’re a wellness newbie or a seasoned yogi. Read all about it, below.
Focus on the Now, Not the Later
A lot of the time we find ourselves completely overwhelmed, it’s because we’re stressing out over our seemingly never-ending to-do lists. Usually, these future tasks we’re stressing over have nothing to do with the present moment. Christina Powter, co-founder of activewear brand Chill by Will, wants us to learn to stop “future tripping” (aka, freaking out about everything we have to get done) and focus on the now. “When I feel overwhelmed, it’s usually because I’m future tripping—I’m not in the present,” she says. “It’s overwhelming and stressful to think about the many things and activities [I have coming up], but when I’m feeling that way, I try to focus on what’s needed of me at the present moment and slowly chip away at the tasks.” So slow it down, and take it one thing at a time—starting with what’s most important for right now.
Learn to “Monotask”
Multitasking is a skill we’ve honed over the years, learning to first balance school with homework and hanging out with our friends. Nowadays, every aspect of our life consists of multitasking. We’re plugged into our texts and e-mails while taking notes in an important class or meeting, or we find that our jobs or school schedule require constantly working on ten things at once—and doing so with perfection. When this happens, we likely find ourselves wondering how the time flew by; we’re totally worn out, and never once are we able to take a moment to truly be present.
How do we remedy that? Bianca Cheah, founder of Sporteluxe.com, wants us to learn how to “monotask,” really striving to do one thing—and only one thing—at a time. “[I practice mindfulness] by being present in every moment, whether that’s enjoying every spoonful of my lunch or putting down my phone and listening to the person who is talking to me,” she says. “Sometimes it’s challenging, as multitasking was once the skill to have. But nowadays? It’s monotasking.”
Meditate in the Shower
Are you the type that blames a lack of free time for your lack of meditating? Believe me, I hear you, but there is a way to squeeze it in to even the busiest of schedules, no excuses. Tiffany Noelani, co-founder of Chill by Will, recommends making time for meditation in the shower. “I’m still working on my own ritual, but I think the shower is a great place to sneak in a quick mini meditation,” she says. “It’s something we all do every day, and adding a few extra minutes won’t have an effect on your timeline, yet could have a huge impact on your mindset.” Sink-side candles and in-shower incense, optional.
Find the Best Form of Meditation for You
When meditation comes to mind, most of us immediately picture ourselves sitting silently in a quiet room for anywhere from ten to 45 minutes. While many people do choose to practice that way, it’s definitely not the only form of meditation out there. “Most people think meditation only happens when you sit in a quiet room, close your eyes, and focus, but that’s not the only way,” says Nima TaherZadeh, founder of athletic wear brand Heroine Sport. “Try to find what naturally clears your mind, instead of trying to force your mind to be quiet.”
This could be a number of things, of course, and it doesn’t always have to involve sitting still. Whether it’s during yoga, going for a run, or cooking, people will find their zen in all sorts of places. How does TaherZadeh do this? “By trying to have a portion of my day only for myself, whether it’s my fitness class or a run in the park. I have my best clarity when I’m physical. That’s my personal form of meditation.”
Do a bit of trial and error and find when you feel your best.
Take 30 Seconds to Connect to Your Breath
Whether or not meditation is a part of your daily practice (or daily shower), we all should strive to take a moment to give our buzzing minds a break when they need one. Thankfully, there small things we can do to practice mindfulness each and every day.
Myk Likhov, founder of Miami meditation club Modern OM, suggests taking 30 seconds to focus on your breath—and it really is as simple and easy as that. “Connect with your breath. Our breath is the one constant in life, yet we rarely pay attention to it. Take 30 seconds to simply notice your breath,” he says.
This especially comes in handy for stressful moments. “What’s pretty wild is that when your attention is on the breath, you can’t actually think about your problems,” says Likhov. “Our minds can’t concentrate on two things at once, so just following your breath for 30 seconds or more, you’re giving your mind (and nervous system) a rest from that anxious state.”
Simply Just Get Moving
Look, being active is crucial to our physical and mental health, but this doesn’t necessarily mean we have to become the type to hit the gym at 6am each morning or join the latest cult-y fitness craze, either—especially if those aren’t things you’re passionate about.
What it comes down to is that we choose to simply move a little each day, and we can totally start small, especially if fitness isn’t really our thing. Fitness trainer Ron “Boss” Everline suggests setting some simple daily goals. “You can incorporate fitness into your wellness practices by setting a daily goal of small movements—such as going for a walk,” he says. He points out that not only is movement beneficial to heart health, but also it could reap benefits for those who are stressed out or overwhelmed (which, let’s be honest, is probably all of us). “You can use working out as a means of releasing anxiety and tension, and it also helps with freeing your mind and putting yourself in a better place.” So whether it means trying out one of his ass-kicking classes for yourself, doing a few sets of squats while watching TV, or adding an evening stroll to your daily rituals, just, simply, get moving!
This article was originally published on May 11, 2018, by NYLON, and is republished here with permission.
Pope Francis speaks as he celebrates an outdoors mass during a visit to Bari, southern Italy, on February 23, 2020 to address a conference entitled “Mediterranean: Frontier of Peace” which sees the participation of some 60 Catholic bishops from 19 nations bordering the Mediterranean. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP) (Photo by ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images)
VATICAN CITY—Stressing that ensuring the safety of all clergy members remained the Holy See’s primary concern, Pope Francis issued a statement Monday urging priests worldwide to refrain from molesting children over escalating coronavirus fears. “During this trying period, we are recommending all priests do their part to stem the spread of this deadly virus by temporarily ceasing all fondling of children in their congregations,” said the supreme pontiff, acknowledging that the announcement represented a severe measure but one justified by the increased susceptibility to the virus shown by elderly priests, deacons, and bishops who engage in pedophilia with infected boys or girls. “In the event a priest feels compelled to molest a child, we’re recommending they wear a face mask and thoroughly wash their hands with soap and warm water both before and after. Of course, we understand this is an urgent concern and hope to have it sorted out within the month.” Francis also cautioned priests against succumbing to the natural impulse to touch an altar boy’s face or mouth every few minutes. (theonion.com)
Alongside Homer Plessy, Mixed-Race Activists Used a Unique Legal Arsenal to Attack White Supremacy
A photo of Arnold Bertonneau, taken around 1880. Bertonneau and other Creole activists fought racism by challenging the very concept of race itself. Courtesy of Thomas Bertonneau/The Orthosphere.
by DANIEL BROOK | MARCH 8, 2020 (zocalopublicsquare.com)
It took years of research for me to track down a photograph of the mysterious New Orleanian E. Arnold Bertonneau. Born in 1834, this Civil War-era civil rights pioneer was famous in his day but somehow has disappeared from the national consciousness. In 1864, Bertonneau lobbied President Lincoln in the White House for African American voting rights. In 1877, he filed the first-ever federal case challenging school segregation, Bertonneau vs. Board of Directors of City Schools, on behalf of his two school-age sons, who had been excluded from a whites-only school. Yet today, Bertonneau’s portrait hangs not in the Smithsonian but sits instead in the out-of-the-way upstate New York home of his great-grandson.
Finally coming face-to-face with Bertonneau’s image, I was shocked. I had been reading about Bertonneau for book research. But while Bertonneau fought valiantly for the rights of black Americans, he didn’t look “black” himself. In the photo, his skin was fair, his eyes were light, and his hair was wavy. In contemporary America he might read as Latino, with a complexion somewhere on the spectrum between Pope Francis pale and Marco Rubio tan. Looking at the late great Bertonneau reminded me that the way passersby perceive a stranger’s race on the streets of America doesn’t necessarily match their actual background. Indeed, one’s own ethnic background may not even be what one assumes it is—as genetic testing has recently made clear to millions of Americans.
The leading civil rights litigants of the Reconstruction era, including Bertonneau, lived these complex racial realities—and it led them to challenge racism by challenging the concept of race itself. Most were openly mixed-race Creoles from New Orleans with roots in both Africa and Europe. This gave them a piercing perspective on American white supremacy and a unique legal arsenal for attacking it.
The most famous civil rights plaintiff of them all, Homer Plessy, who challenged railcar segregation at the U.S. Supreme Court in 1896, was described in the African American New Orleans Crusader newspaper as being “as white as the average white Southerner.” To launch his case, he had had to out himself to the train conductor as mixed-race to get ejected from the whites-only car. Plessy’s ethnic background was estimated to be seven-eighths European and one-eighth African but it was impossible to pin down for sure. That was the whole point. As Plessy’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court justices, “Is not the question of race … very often impossible of determination?” Plessy’s case was an attempt to resist not merely segregation but binary racial labels like “white” and “colored” altogether.
It was only after Plessy, Bertonneau, and the other leaders of the first civil rights movement had been defeated—and indeed because of their defeat—that the black-white binary solidified. Even on the Census, multiracial options dwindled and then died out. Tellingly, on the 1910 Census, Homer Plessy was black but, in 1920, white.
These early Creole civil rights activists who fought against the constricting racial categories of “black” or “white” defined themselves not by color but by culture—much as Latinos in the U.S. do today. Creoles came in every shade and had no pretense to racial purity. What bound the community together was their linguistic roots in a Romance language—French and its Caribbean Kreyol off-shoots—and their Mediterranean-influenced mindset.
Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, as Latin American Nouvelle-Orléans/Nueva Orleans was turned into Anglo-American New Orleans, the Creole community was racialized by outsiders. Anglo-Americans, who were wary of influential free-born Creoles and who were increasingly making “whiteness” a prerequisite for citizenship, obsessed over who among the Creoles had family-tree roots in African soil. The Anglo-Americans began revoking rights, including suffrage, on the murky basis of “race.” Soon after the purchase, they passed an “anti-miscegenation” law requiring whites to marry whites, blacks to marry blacks, and biracial people to marry one another.
Activists like Bertonneau and Plessy, who descended from this third group, fought against all racial categorizations. They were skeptical of the Anglos’ concept of race and their arrogant presumption to assign it on sight. After all, Plessy had had to explicitly tell the train conductor that he was mixed-race to launch his test case.The leading civil rights litigants of the Reconstruction era, including Bertonneau, lived these complex racial realities—and it led them to challenge racism by challenging the concept of race itself.
For nearly 30 years, Creole activists brought a series of cases that needled the Anglo-Americans’ binary view of race. This legal tradition was launched at the height of Radical Reconstruction when the light-skinned newly elected Orleans Parish sheriff, Charles St. Albin Sauvinet, was refused a drink in a French Quarter bar in 1870 and responded by suing for “violation of his civil rights.” In court, the Creole Sauvinet explained that his roots were in the Caribbean, where race was no black-or-white matter. “Whether I am a colored man or not is a matter I myself do not know,” he told the court. And he pointed out that no one could know anyone’s race for sure. Of his two drinking buddies, he remarked, “Finnegan and Conklin who were with me are said to be white men. I do not know. To all appearances they are.” But, of course, as Sherriff Sauvinet himself proved, you couldn’t necessarily ascertain people’s backgrounds by sight.
Sauvinet’s line of argument was seconded by Creole civil rights plaintiff Josephine DeCuir in her challenge to riverboat segregation. In 1872, she’d bought a first-class “ladies’ cabin” ticket for a journey upriver from New Orleans only to be asked to move to the inferior “colored cabin.” The ship’s crew cuttingly referred that section as “the Freedman’s Bureau,” which DeCuir took as a grave insult since she’d been born free into a wealthy slave-holding family. In court, DeCuir, who had roots on the European, African, and North American continents, was described as being the color of a “law book.” To problematize the whole concept of race for the jury, her attorney called to the stand a light-skinned French Quarter resident of Caribbean descent, one Mr. Duconge. In New Orleans, where his Creole heritage was widely known, Duconge explained, he was considered a person of color but in the rest of America, where he was a stranger, he was considered a white man. Hoping to show the jury how absurd the American racial system looked—and, indeed, still looks—to the rest of the world, he offered the statement: “the difference between a white man and a colored man is that the colored man has a darker face than the white man, but you can find a quantity of colored men reputed to be colored men who have white faces.”
Creoles then, like Latinos now, accepted that in the New World—in the U.S. no less than the Caribbean and Latin America—people from different continents have been mixing for centuries. Ultimately, in this view, New World people have become a race unto ourselves—referred to as la raza in Spanish. But Anglo-Americans rejected this reality by engaging in the dastardly fool’s errand of retroactively sorting New World people back out into definitive races, a practice that continues to this day.
Unfortunately, the brilliant Creole legal strategy to challenge racism by challenging race did not win in its time. While Sheriff Sauvinet’s civil rights victory was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, the justices overturned DeCuir’s state court victory and Homer Plessy lost his precedent-setting case 7-to-1.
Learning of their defeat, the Creole Citizens’ Committee that had planned Plessy’s civil disobedience and funded his suit put out a statement: “Notwithstanding this decision … we … still believe that we were right.” Indeed, they were. The Supreme Court could permit the states to draw stark lines between black and white but that didn’t make actual Americans any less mixed.
An older Cuban-born gentleman illustrated this point precisely when he raised his hand after I presented at the Miami Book Fair last November. Recounting his introduction to race in America, he explained that he’d moved to Miami as an 8-year-old boy, in 1960, and at the neighborhood supermarket encountered his first segregated water fountains. Florida had lived under Jim Crow for more than half a century but to the boy it was brand new. Flummoxed, he asked his mother which fountain he should drink from. To the child, the people on the streets of Florida with their full range of skin tones didn’t look much different from the people on the streets of Cuba. But while Cubans acknowledged that they had mixed roots on different continents and thought of themselves, even in the same families, as lighter or darker, the Americans insisted that everyone was distinctly either “white” or “colored.” While Cubans considered “Cuban” to be an ethnicity, Americans refused to see “American” that way—even though they too were a New World melting-pot society.
On his mother’s advice, the boy chose the whites-only water-fountain—after all, he was light-skinned and it was clearly the superior appliance. His decision echoed E. Arnold Bertonneau’s in the previous century. After losing his federal case challenging school segregation and the racial binary, Bertonneau moved out to California and he, too, became “white.”
Americans long ago abolished the segregated water fountains but the binary racial mindset survives both in the American psyche and in American outcomes in health, wealth, education, and criminal justice. But the Latino concept of la raza has the potential to again take up the torch of challenging American racism by challenging the idea of race itself. Through this lens, America is not a society of warring tribes but a dysfunctional family. Warring tribes can only make peace treaties; dysfunctional families are better adept to reconcile and heal. At the dawn of Jim Crow, W.E.B. DuBois observed, “the problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color-line.” The question of the 21st century may be whether we continue to see ourselves divided by race or unified as la raza.
In much of the world, gender is viewed as binary: man or woman, each assigned characteristics and traits designated by biological sex. But that’s not the case everywhere, says France Villarta. In a talk that’s part cultural love letter, part history lesson, he details the legacy of gender fluidity and inclusivity in his native Philippines — and emphasizes the universal beauty of all people, regardless of society’s labels.
This talk was presented at a TED Institute event given in partnership with Wells Fargo. TED editors featured it among our selections on the home page. Read more about the TED Institute.
