Culture

The Present Hidden Holocaust

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As my physical body grows old and older, there is in parallel, an essence aware of itself that becomes younger and younger. Two opposite movements that don’t contradict each other in any way as there is a sense of wonder in becoming older/younger at the same time. When life is seen as a miracle even the Holocaust is perceived as a gift of the One and Only Force of Nature. When we are identified with our physical body, trying endlessly to meet its corporeal needs for food, sex, family, money, respect control and knowledge we see the world from the 1st story of a 10-story building. This perspective does not enable us to see much.

Culture

Misrepresentations of Trans Women in Media

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There is a misconception that Trans women are performing femininity; they are feminine in their minds and bodies. “There are big women, small women, tall women, short women and trans women; it’s just different,’’ says Minerva, who identified as a female from the beginning. “It just felt right, we have to respect each other’s feelings, no?”

Culture

Earth Day 2015

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When we celebrate Earth Day, we are giving thanks for the wondrous gift of life on Earth and are recognizing the paramount importance of protecting the Earth’s fragile life support system. This is a responsibility we can all share and when we embrace this humbling and unifying perspective our lives take on new meaning.

Culture

The Radical Empathy of a Chestnut Tree

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The chestnut tree possesses a sense of empathy and a moral conscience, observing Anne writing in her diary and remarking: “She wrote that as long as she could see blue sky and clouds and me, she could be happy. Her words made me happy too.” This connection is generative: “Being a tree doesn’t stop you from feeling what people feel. And when someone loves you, you know it and it helps you grow.”

art

A Muslim's Reflections on Holocaust Remembrance Day

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I am a Contributing Scholar for the State of Formation, an online program of the Journal of Interreligious Dialogue. Earlier this month the State of Formation sent me and a few other scholars to the National Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. What’s the big deal, you ask? I’m Muslim who grew up in Pakistan, and I had never thought much about the Holocaust until this visit.

art

My English Teacher’s Son Won the PEN/Faulkner Fiction Award

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I met Lish half a century ago in a high school classroom in Millbrae, California. His kindness helped me survive four years as a strange, arty, activist teenager in a suburban world I found entirely incomprehensible, the first adult I met who looked at me and saw something other than an annoyance or a perpetual misfit.

Christianity

Religious Justifications for Oppression: A Brief U.S. History

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The United States of America was founded on Christian justifications for oppression. But when clergy and lay people pronounce their conservative dogma on sexuality and gender expression, race, women, on other religions and on atheists, they must expect opposition to their ideas and to their dominant group privileges, to their interpretations of scripture, and to their constructions and revisions of history.