As happenstance would have it, last Friday, April 25, 2008, I came upon a rally for Tibet that was held in Union Square in NYC. Sometimes, just putting one foot in front of the other, intuitively following one’s nose, will land one in the best place. I was walking to the subway after hearing a book talk at East West Books, followed by trip into the Guitar Center for a thumb pick, which led into sampling steel string acoustic guitars, then following my stomach to a recommendation for frozen yoghurt down the street.
It was the Tibetan monks chanting that drew me in. I’d heard it before in a fabulous and moving Gyuto Monks world tour when they performed in Berkeley, CA. Such a grounding eye-opener that keeps you riveted, feeling the depths and spans of culture in their throat and belly-sourced tones and robes. Moving in closer, this early Friday eve, I then saw the candles, hundreds and hundreds of them in simple clear plastic cups, spaced evenly to spell out FREE TIBET, with several large peace signs below. The monks sat cross legged in burgundy and saffron robes, encircled by hundreds of Tibetans in support. The rally to remember the ongoing and recent atrocities by the Chinese who have been persecuting this ancient wisdom religion, was occuring on the nineteen birthday of their exiled leader, The Panchen Lama.
I’m attempting without success to post some of the video I took with my little Canon 8mp digital camera, for now here are a couple of stills from the videos.
Before you think I’ve gone completely complacent, I’m a few days late, and many dollars short, before it’s ancient and not just old news, I wanted to highlight Jamie Rubin’s CNN Late Edition appearance last Sunday, April 27. (I’m not actually able to embed it, and pardon the commercial, but I haven’t found it elsewhere besides CNN, so here it is linked.) Call it what you will, here was one Dem man who refused to be bullied and insisted on shaping the conversation.
Perhaps I feel this way, because I went into a slump after Hillary won PA. Something inside of me just wouldn’t let me celebrate or open the bubbly like so many others. Perhaps I could hear the impending steps of doom from down the hall. Perhaps, I knew instinctively like Hillary seems to that the battle is still on and always will be.
And sure enough, after a slight nod to her blow up punching clown ability to keep popping back up after each slug, they began slugging her again after her 10 point win in PA. “But she can’t really win, can she?” And they keep on, but Rubin refused to be dumped in that box and came out swinging, pulling no punches. Same ole, same ole slice em dice em politics, you say? For once, and maybe only for that one time, it felt good to hear a surrogate who had grown some, and was willing to use them in service of our gal, (who has an impressive set herself), refusing to succumb to another round of Obama surrogate spin. Oy vey, a set of what? What am I saying? Knockers. Don’t hate me. I’m still respectful and have some myself. Wouldn’t it be great to have a President with a set of those for once? Tee hee.
John Lennon took a step back in his life to really enjoy and meditate on the world he was indeed living in. Yet he was a political guy, who tried to create change by his actions, using his voice in many ways, in the end dedicating his life to peace and love. He left us with the very sweet, zen-like, “Watching the Wheels” where he portrayed his new life of “householder yogi,” as we used to call it. It’s one thing to go live on a mountain top, another to live amongst your family, the day to day world, and remain centered, calm, kind, get something done, and enjoy your life while doing it — despite or because of the expected or unexpected.
I wrote in an earlier entry that Hillary was like me, only somewhere our roads diverged, and I took a more hippie, country, back to nature, creating a hopefully better society path to “saving the world” than did our gal Hillary. She took the route of attorney serving those who were unjustly treated, confident woman action figure, heroine route. To restate, how does she do it?
I’ve mentioned, I’m a new blogger who began in March 2008, and am also new to even reading them. I’m learning the technology — I still don’t have buttons and badges and bells, oh my — I almost grok what they mean and what they’re used for. I’ve been on a big learning curve with all that, and got quite wrapped up in it. Is that being addicted? Maybe a bit compulsive. Hmmm. It’s true whatever I do, whether it’s writing, reconciling my checkbook, or using the power of the pen, computer, and internet to stump for Hillary, I just have to do that project whole-heartedly. I focus and go all out, and my cleaning, food shopping, running my business, exercising all fall by the wayside.
I’d see perfectly sunny and newly budding Spring days pass into twilight, darkness, and 3am, while sitting in this chair, impassioned by Hillary’s capacity to stave off countless slings and arrows, fueled by my observations of Obama and his followers, feeling my common sense of fairness being trampled, needing to write to express it all — I read up on news stories and other blogs, felt my emotions flow and ebb, my body contract, my breath shorten, and I wrote out my heart, as I figured out how and where to cut and paste an embed, or how to increase my traffic and join this fast-paced world. While some blogs get thousands or millions of views, it felt quite heady to go from seven to two hundred thirty views in one day, as an author, imagining even that many people reading my work.
In the real world, I try to live by practicing what I preach, which would be living a balanced life. Well, okay here goes, I’ll admit that after one month of attempting to run this blog in the above manner, I had hemarrhoids, probably from sitting on my ass so consistently some days without even a walk around the block, or a ride down the elevator to get my mail. I got a sharp stomach cramp that lasted for two days, and had to miss our family’s Passover Seder, which is for me basically unheard of. I’m a sucker for a Seder, it’s a freedom holiday, after all. And I wouldn’t be here, had the Jews not gotten out of Egypt, ‘lo those five thousand plus years ago.
But there I was lying in bed, a victim of my own blogging addiction. You did hear of those three blogger guys who had heart attacks, two of whom died, right? Techie NextSTEP had some lovely tips in her April 8, 2008 piece promoting blogger relaxation that I recommend. It helped me immediately, mind you I know all this stuff, but somehow, as I’ve been saying, lost my body in all this.
My hats go off to all bloggers, especially the non-paid, the women I read at The Confluence, Taylor Marsh, The Democratic Daily, and yes the men too, who maintain sites like Hillary Clinton Forum, and to all who have company and corporate jobs, in some cases with kids still at home (mine are off and grown), go to rallies in other states, and research and resource their topics in-depth, are up on the latest, and produce a prolific turnout of amazing words and opinions. There are so many more blogs and websites, linked on all these sites, that I can’t even keep up with them.
Anyway, after all this, I return, but will be taking a bit more laid back approach to my writing commitment here. In politics, gossip, innuendo, outrage, and slinging will always be an igniting force. I remember feeling politically indignant as a kid for the first time when Adlai Stevenson lost, feeling that there was an injustice being done to the world. But I also have my own little mission and corner of the world to contribute to, and it’s not politics: I’ve a book to write, and people to help in my domain of work. Additionally, there are some other recent happenings that I want to report on or highlight through this, my cultural and political blog.
Let’s all om, breathe, keep sounding our voices, and remember to visit, support, campaign, contribute money, or whatever you feel moved to do to support HillaryClinton.com, our lady of the left, linked here on the right.
Lady Boomer NYC 
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