Hawaii the Beautiful and the Truth About Militarization and Colonization
By: Kit Evans
Last week I was privileged to visit the beautiful island O'ahu in Hawaii. On Tuesday I volunteered with a friend of a friend at the ocean; they say it was actually a pond! For 3 and a-half hours we moved large rocks as a 13 person team to build a rock wall. For me this was labor intensive! The wall was built so that the employees of the pond could see the height of the water as it related to the ocean current.
The rain fell upon us on the chilly, yet gorgeous night. As I looked down the shining rock wall and assembly line team I smiled. I saw much beauty in the teamwork happening. The team was passing rocks, building, laughing, joking, and setting a rock foundation. I was inspired.
At the end of the building I wanted to take a picture of the rock wall. Not because I was a tourist, but because the wall was extraordinarily beautiful. I wanted to remember it. As I got one of the women to use her cell phone to take the picture, a native Hawaiian laughed and said, “humph, tourists!” I thought to myself, “Me, a tourist!” My heart started to beat a little faster. Without hesitation I said, “ If I were a normal tourist do you really think I would have spent my evening in the cold rain in the ocean moving super large rocks? If I were here as a tourist I would be at a nice resort right now drinking a pina colada.
Read more here.
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Racism and Pluralism: Two Sides of an American Coin
By: Edward Anderson
It is an early Tuesday morning and the sun has just peeked from behind the mountains in the not-so-distant backdrop of my classroom. The course is Inter-Religious Dialogue and Leadership, and today’s topic is a panel on “pluralism in action.”
The panel includes an openly gay Christian white man, and a white Jewish rabbi. Both are directors of prominent non-profit organizations in the Los Angeles area, and both serve as vessels that bend the arch of equality toward justice. The class and both men begin to engage in a discourse about why pluralism in a social justice context is paramount for those seeking to engage in a multi-faith world.
Read more here.
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The Triple Goddess: India, the Ganges, and the Maiden Path
By: Bridget Liddell
The solo journey is an archetype across myths, cultures, and religious traditions. This past year, I took my own earth-spiritualist, goddess-focused, pilgrimage-journey in India.
Preparation involved study, and I read Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces and found my story in its pages: the individual setting out into the unknown on a quest. My religious tradition had its own archetype to offer: the Maiden form of the Goddess is that heroine, and also explorer and initiate. It was important that I travel alone so that I had the best chance of engaging new people, while also being free to dedicate the overall structure to seeking interfaith opportunities and sites of goddess worship.
Read more here. |
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