21 October 05
Davis Fast For A Day
Today the city of Davis was encouraged to fast in solidarity with the Muslim community, culminating in this evening’s Iftar celebration at the Davis Senior Center. About 500 people were in attendance, a chaotic mix of voices and colors, ages, languages, starting with dates and milk and ending with baklava and almond pastries.
I fasted. I don’t do this very often; the last time I did was for Yom Kippur a few years ago. It draws you inward, making you slightly apart from the world. I went for a walk at lunchtime, enjoying the day; I felt a little misted. It’s hard to describe.
People whose tradition calls on them to fast regularly speak of this apartness, how it’s an important part of their spirituality. I can see how that would be.
Fasting has kind of gone away in Christianity, at least in the earnest form being practiced this Ramadan by students in Davis. Maybe people miss a meal on Ash Wednesday or Good Friday but mostly not; “fasting and abstinence” implies some kind of food since abstaining from food should include abstaining from meat. I’m not sure where this went, or why, but it seems an important spiritual practice in most traditions, and gets you in touch with your core pretty quickly.
And then there’s the useful reminder that the majority of people in the world fast every day, not from choice…
17 October 05
Iftar
Today was the opening event of this fall’s Campus Community Book Project, which this year is The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. The first work of fiction we’ve done, it seems to be drawing quite a different crowd than the past three. We’ll see when it’s all over just how different.
Today featured a kite-making demonstration and an introductory film about Islam followed by a panel discussion, a break-the-fast (it’s Ramadan), and delicious community meal catered by Kabul Restaurant here in Davis.
I sat next to a sociology professor who teaches at Sacramento State and a student in child development. At our table we were pretty evenly split, muslims and non-muslims, but everyone was eager to learn about each other, and about each other’s beliefs, in an atmosphere of respect and tolerance.
I think we should do this kind of thing more often. We’ll have a chance, next week. There’s a community Iftar for the whole of Davis.
15 October 05
SuperDog
Earlier this year I posted about a friend who had lost her dog, Bruno. More than just a dog, Bruno was the first wheelchair/blind trained dog in the country. She and Bruno muddled through law school, the job market, disappointments, the craziness leading up to the Iraq war, Natalie’s growing leadership in Code Pink.
But he got sick, and two years later, it was time to let him go.
Nugget’s the new pup fresh from training in Michigan. They had intensive training together as a pair for a week, and are doing ongoing training now. Nugget was attacked by a tethered dog outside a cafe on Thursday. He kept going. Natalie didn’t know what was going on but the trainer said, when they turned the corner: “We need to wipe the slobber off Nugget’s face.” That was when Natalie discovered he’d been attacked.
Oh, he’s a good dog. It’s good, she says, to be pulled in her wheelchair rather than be pushed even by a human, because it allows her to anticipate things. SuperDog, she says.
I’ll meet Nugget on Thursday when I’ll be reading poetry at the Cafe Roma in Davis: Women’s Voices, Women’s Votes. But no petting him then: he’s working. He’s being SuperDog.
15 October 05
Pesto With That?
The oldest noodles ever discovered were just found at the Lajia archeological site on the Yellow River in China. The settlement at Lajia was hit by a catastrophe, probably flooding following an earthquake, 4000 years ago. These noodles were made from millet flour.
It is not known whether the researchers tucked on in to their culinary find after documenting it for science. But followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster are rejoicing at this new evidence.
(From Slashdot)
11 October 05
We Arrive Home to the Plumber
“We go brass to copper, galvanized is no good, we’ll be fine. Teflon inside.”
“Oh, no, this is great” (in response to an offer of a blanket to lie on)
“We may have to drill through the sheetrock, gotta see what we got here”
“They ain’t gonna warranty shit, are they?”
7 October 05
Enhorabuena
I don’t have children so I can barely imagine what it must feel like to give birth to a baby who within seconds has medical personnel screaming for oxygen, transfusions, needles, and who is then whisked off to intensive care.
This happened to some friends of my parents’ in Spain some 33 years ago. Aránzazu was born with a hole in the heart. By age 12 she’d had at least five open heart surgeries.
She got married last week in the village of Aránzazu in the Basque country, and she wore the biggest of her scars like a precious necklace, urging us all to embrace life, the life she’d had to fight so hard for.
Hermosa, te queremos mucho…
26 September 05
Move Over, Darwin Fish
Those who wish to proclaim the Revelation of the Flying Spaghetti Monster can now do so on the back of their vehicle.
(From Shakespeare’s Sister )
18 September 05
Not Supposed To Happen
I pay scant attention to college football, but yesterday the UC Davis Aggies managed to beat Stanford in the closing seconds 20-17. This was a long-anticipated matchup. Several years ago, the UCD student body voted to move the student athletics programs from NCAA Division II to Division I, joining the big leagues as it were. I wasn’t very excited by this move, expecting a decade or so of mediocrity to follow, but the choice wasn’t up to me. Anyway, Stanford is the first major Division I foe the football team has faced, and they’re my alma mater Berkeley’s great rival as well. I just became a little bit more of a believer in the Aggie football team!
13 September 05
Stinking Bishop
A British cheesemaker is terrified that the next Wallace and Gromit film will lead to demand for this cheese, which is what happened with Wendsleydale in an earlier film.
Stinking Bishop is made from milk of Gloucester cows and its rind is seasoned with perry, cider made from pears. It is said to smell like “old socks” which may temper the demand, I think…
3 September 05
Velveteen
During Passover this year we went to a seder at a friend’s house. She used a haggadah—a prayer rite, said throughout the course of long meal—put together by a blogger who has long been on our blogroll, Rachel (Velveteen Rabbi). Only she’s not really a rabbi—yet.
Rachel has just been accepted for rabbinic study, a feat in itself and a huge challenge for the future. It is a delight to read about this journey by someone so intelligent, so committed to the paths of understanding of different faiths, so willing to share her own experience.
Mazel tov, Rachel.