Moral Courage

Irshad Manji is out to change the world with her Moral Courage Project.  The following images and text are from her website http://www.irshadmanji.com/.  This is a woman we should learn about, celebrate and emulate.  See what you think:

      Irshad & Christiane Amanpour of CNN




"The New York Times describes Irshad Manji as "Osama bin Laden’s worst nightmare." Oprah's magazine has given Irshad the first annual Chutzpah Award for "audacity, nerve, boldness and conviction." She takes both as compliments.

Irshad is Director of the Moral Courage Project at New York University. It aims to develop leaders who will challenge political correctness, intellectual conformity and self-censorship. In the best spirit of liberal education, the Moral Courage Project teaches that rights come with responsibilities, that we are citizens rather than members of mere tribes, and that meaningful diversity embraces different ideas and not just identities.

Through her commitment to Muslim reform, Irshad is putting these principles into practice. She is the internationally best-selling author of The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith. Her book has been published in more than 30 countries, including Pakistan, India, Lebanon and Indonesia - the world's largest Muslim nation.

In those countries that have censored The Trouble with Islam Today, Irshad is reaching readers by posting free translations on her website. Collectively, the Arabic, Urdu and Farsi editions have been downloaded more than one million times. The Indonesian edition has become the most popular download on this website since its launch last year.

As a scholar beyond NYU, Irshad is Senior Fellow with the European Foundation for Democracy. She has served as a Visiting Fellow at Yale University and Journalist-in-Residence at the University of Toronto, where she wrote The Trouble with Islam Today.

Irshad is creator of the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary, "Faith Without Fear," which chronicles her journey to reconcile Islam with human rights and freedom. Faith Without Fear is now being screened across Europe and South Asia. It's also circulating in the Muslim underground via digital technologies. To view clips of Faith Without Fear, visit her official YouTube channel, IrshadManjiTV.

As a journalist, Irshad’s columns appear frequently in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Times of London, Al-Arabiya.net and other major news sources. She writes a regular feature for Canada’s Globe and Mail. A comprehensive collection of Irshad's columns, as well as articles about her, can be found in the media archives of this website. You can also watch debates and interviews on IrshadManjiTV.

As a social entrepreneur, Irshad has founded Project Ijtihad, a global campaign to popularize Islam’s own tradition of critical thinking. Project Ijtihad is helping to build the world’s most inclusive network of reform-minded Muslims and non-Muslim allies. To recognize the success of this campaign, the World Economic Forum has selected Irshad as a Young Global Leader.

In her continued quest to promote critical thinking, Irshad has created spaces for open dialogue on the World Wide Web. Her Facebook and MySpace pages are home to vigorous debates about Muslim reform and moral courage."

WHAT IS MORAL COURAGE?

"Put simply, it's the willingness to be original, unique and different from everyone else in your group.

And it's one of the hardest things to do. Because you'll have to take criticism from parents, friends, preachers, teachers and bosses who want you to conform.

Here's what Bobby Kennedy said about moral courage. He was speaking to South African students in 1966 -- the heydey of apartheid:

"Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change."

That's why I've founded the Moral Courage Project at New York University's Wagner School of Public Service. The Moral Courage Project teaches young leaders to break silences for the sake of a greater good."

The Moral Courage Project asks you to complete the following statements:


* I disagree with my community about...


* If I say what I think, the worst that can happen is...


* If I say what I think, the best that can happen is...


* Should I say what I think? I've decided that...

Send me (Irshad Manji) your answers to the questions above at http://www.irshadmanji.com/. When you do, you're ready to make moral courage a part of your life."

           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An amazing woman, don't you think?  She is a dynamic, articulate speaker and debater, so I hope one day you get to see her in action in her documentaries, in television interviews, or at a conference.  In the meantime, let's use her example and encouragement to further develop our moral courage and our critical thinking skills.  Here are a few questions that could help: 

How have you exhibited moral courage in your life? 

How are you using critical thinking to examine your values, choices, actions? 

What examples of quiet, everyday moral courage have you witnessed in your lifetime that inspired you? 

If you developed a stronger sense of moral courage, what would you be doing for yourself, your community, or the world right now?

Cleome

Let me introduce you to Cleome

(Cleome hasslerana, Capparidaceae)

Also known as the Spider Flower

For a full appreciation of their beauty

Click on each image to enlarge it.

Cleome is a fast-growing, bi-annual re-seeder

So while not being a perennial

Once you introduce it to your garden

It will pop up next year (in the most unexpected places)

Because it self sows.

It has tall, sturdy stems and palm-like leaves.

If you enlarge the image above

You can see the seed pods

at the ends of the stamens.

To my eye, it is beautiful

At all the stages of bloom.

Note the long stamens

Which give a spidery appearance.

And the erect buds

With deeper hues of pink.

Do you see the curlycue loops

That I think (not sure) are the stamens

That eventually pull away

to reach out and become

the long spidery antenna

 seeking insects?

While they are said to

attract butterflies

This year they seemed to attract

Mainly bumble bees and wasps

in abundance!

The photo above and the one below were taken

Just after an afternoon shower

And if you look closely

You can see droplets of water

Still clinging to the stamens.

Cleome grow 3-4 feet (90-120 cm) in height

And spread to 18 inches (45 cm).

They like full sun to light shade.

Cleomes should be planted in the back of flower beds

However, this flowerbed has no "back"

As it stands in the middle of an area of land

And although you can never predict where they will emerge
They are always coveted, because

They arrive in late summer and are still blooming now

At the end of September.

Arriving late in the season

I do not mind their wayward habits

As I am less concerned with the design and form of the garden

By that point in the summer.

They are a delightful, showy surprise

That is always welcome.

Autumn Leaves in Quebec

These are some photographs taken last Saturday (the 26th) while on a walk with my DH.  The trees are just beginning to don their autumnal vestments.  Many seem to be resisting the change and stand staunchly in their green garb.  They make the trees that have turned red, orange, pink or gold stand out all the more.  I hope you will enjoy this little view of autumn leaves here in la belle province of Quebec (northeast section of North America for those of you on other continents).  For the best view, click on each photo to enlarge it. 

~ cool blue shadows ~

Approaching my clinical work

from an

existential point of view,

I am forever mindful

of each human's need

to come to terms with -

even make friends with,

their own mortality.

Regardless of what beliefs you hold

about an afterlife,

you must confront this unavoidable

given of human existence on planet Earth:

 your physical body

is mortal

and will, at some point

cease to exist.

If you avoid confronting this

because of the anxiety

that arises when you do,

many neurotic behaviors

that interfere with a peaceful life

may ensue.

Better to come to terms

with your eventual physical demise

now

than to dissolve into an

undignified puddle of

anxiety

when death approaches.

Once you have truly faced

your mortality now

you can then proceed to

ask yourself the question:

Given that I will die, how then do I choose to live?

(Poem by Lew Sarett, background painting by BZ)

Just looked up this quote from Irvin D. Yalom, M.D. that eloquently adds to the point I am making above.  Yalom says:  

"I do not wish to advocate a life-denying morbidity.  But it must not be forgotten that our basic dilemma is that each of us is both angel and beast of the field, we are the mortal creatures who, because we are self-aware, know that we are mortal.  A denial of death at any level is a denial of one's basic nature and begets an increasingly pervasive restriction of awareness and experience.  The integration of the idea of death saves us; rather than sentence us to existences of terror or bleak pessimism, it acts as a catalyst to plunge us into more authentic life modes, and it enhances our pleasure in the living of life."  (The Yalom Reader, 1998, p. 188)

                                                        

                                                                                

Beneath the Cosmos

                                                                                            Bonnie Zieman, 2009

                                                                                             Bonnie Zieman, 2009

May your weekend be full of light and love.

I don't think I can do it . . .

                                                                Bonnie Zieman 2008

It's too hard

I don't know how

I've never done it before

I won't make it

Really . . .

Please . . . . . . .

I can't

It's too much

I'm not that strong

I'll collapse

I won't survive

Please

Spare me

Help me

I'm so alone

This should not be

It's more than anyone can bear.

But . . . . . . . . .

If I don't . . .

Give me a moment . . .

Breathe . . . .

Alright

This is it

I must

I will

I am

Done.

bz

reality

Words by Masahide, Painting by moi (Bonnie)

Our World Condensed Down to a Village Would Have These Ratios:

Like me, you have probably seen the following information floating around the internet.  However, reading it a second time, was just as powerful as the first.  If you have never seen it, I'm sure you will feel its impact.   It is a good reminder to never take the privilege and abundance in our lives for granted.

(In a comment on Thursday, Wanda reminds us that gratitude is not enough.  We have to use our privilege and abundance to help eliminate the imbalance and resulting suffering in the world.  We should all ask ourselves if we are using any of our resources to right these wrongs.)

Our World as a Village:



If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, the world would look something like this:


There would be - 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the western Hemispheres (North & South) & 8 Africans.


52 would be female, 48 would be male; 70 would be non-white & 30 would be white.


70 would be non-Christian, 30 would be Christian.


89 would be heterosexual, 11 would be homosexual.


6 people would possess 64% of the world’s wealth and all 6 would be from North America.


80 would live in sub-standard housing, 70 would be unable to read, 50 would suffer from malnutrition.


1 would be near death, 1 would be near birth.


1 (yes, only 1) would have a University education & 1 would own a computer (and that 1 person would dwell in North America).


When you consider our world from such a compressed perspective, it becomes glaringly apparent that there is a need for acceptance, understanding & education.



Also consider the following:


If you woke up this morning with more health than illness…….you are more blessed than the 2 million people who will not survive this week.


If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the pangs of starvation…….you are ahead of 500 million people on this planet.


If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death……you are more blessed than 3 billion people in the world.


If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep………you are wealthier than 75% of the people on earth.


If you have money in the bank, in your wallet and spare change somewhere in a dish or bowl someplace…..you are among the top 8% world’s wealthy.


If your parents are still alive and still married…….you are very rare, even in North America!


If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful…….you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.


If you can hold someone’s hand, hug them, or even touch them on the shoulder…….you are blessed because you can offer a healing touch.


If you can read this message, you have received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you, and furthermore, you are more blessed than over 2 billion people who cannot read at all.

mary shares another lesson

A previous post, Lessons from Mary, drew a big response.  Last week I received an e-mail from Mary outlining the salient points from a workshop she and her beloved attended by Harville Hendrix, Ph.D.  Hendrix is an educator and psychotherapist specializing in working with couples.  He is the founder of Imago Relationship Therapy, which is taught and practised internationally.  He teaches effective communication skills for couples, and Mary in her e-mail below, outlines a few.

The other evening my beloved spotted this couple quietly sitting side by side witnessing the descent of day into night.  Their quiet, peaceful, non-interfering presence with each other was a delight to behold and I felt their demeanor embodies a little of what Mary brings to us from her participation in the Hendrix workshop.

Here is Mary's e-mail lesson to me . . . and now for you:

Hi Bz


Last nite Dh and I and D and P went into the big city to see and hear Harville Hendrix and what a good time we had. I have summarized his message below.  The good part was that he had us do an exercise of having the couples work with their loved one, appreciating each other . It was so much fun and the Vertical vs Horizontal dialogue example was so impactful. I have been trying to get that message across to my loved one recently, and Harville Hendrix had us experiment with it and we had FUN.


Here is the gist of the 4 Non-Negotiables from the Hendrix event.  It consists of being "KIND":


K ~


I ~


N ~


D ~


K = Know that your partner is different. That person feels, thinks, knows, perceives differently than you do. Thus you must get curious about that other and find out what's up and what's happening with that other that you love every day and night.




I = Increase appreciation. The other is AMAZING! Be amazed with the other. Appreciate, appreciate, appreciate!  Let them know.   Become the other's advocate. Celebrate the other. Take the other's side.




N = Never be negative. period ........................... period!


This lack of negativity fosters SAFETY. We cannot experience connection without safety. Judgment is TOXIC! Negativity causes the production of cortisol, the stay alert, beware hormone. This reduces health because it drains the body of immunity and thus health. This leads to chronic pain and ill health in your body and in your relationship.




D = Dialogue.


Get out of the monologue state (ranting) Ranting or lecturing is vertical communication ( up to down focus). Vertical communication leads to inequality, put downs, thus depression or "murder" (killing the self or the other in small cuts leading to a big cut). Anyone can see terrible effects of vertical communication out there in the world and in families.


Utilize dialogue or "level to level" communication = equality. This requires listening to understand, clarifying and asking for more information to understand. This is horizontal communication which begets safety and equality in the relationship also leads to CONNECTION and respect. Horizontal communication requires each other (both of you) to use it. Must take turns using it to enable equality.


We did some practice sessions with each other right there in the 7-9 pm event, so Dh and I fell in love again!  :-)

The Hendrix communication methods, and his many books, have been around for ages and you and I talked about it back in Mtl, years ago, as I recall.


So that is the latest  x x x x x x   mary

Ram Das

This morning in Barry's post from An Explorer's View of Life, he asks an important question - of himself.  After leaving a comment I recalled a quotation I had ready to post from Ram Das

that offers an important thought for us all.

You need search no further

than right where you are - here and now.

Rich, deep terrain
immediately available

for all

inveterate explorers

of life.

The way is so simple.

Not always easy,

But simple.

Start where you are.

 

Pink!

Lately I have been posting artwork and photographs featuring one particular colour per post.  Today it is pink.  These photographs are of an indoor, exotic orchid brought outside to photograph in sunlight with clear blue sky as backdrop.  Enjoy!  Tell me which one you like . . .

loneliness

What is the difference
between
solitude and loneliness?

Both afford us time

inside

with the gates shut.

Both ignore the noise

from without

and

 offer an opportunity

to sit, to think, to be

alone.

Discoveries there are made,

not the least of which

can be the rich, sweet

center

known as

self.

Then,

if we are wise,

self born of solitude or loneliness 

can open the gates

to greet and gift the world

anew.

Bonnie Zieman

Would you describe yourself as an introvert or an extrovert?  Regardless of which 'category' you choose, have you ever experienced a period of loneliness?  How did it affect you?  Would you agree with the words of Hermann Hesse in the above quotation - that loneliness can serve a beneficial purpose?

RED

Here are a few of my photographs and paintings.  The acrylic and mixed-media paintings are from last year, while the phographs were taken this summer. 

~  My deepest condolences to Renee

of "Circling My Head"

 on the death Friday of her nephew Sheldon.

 Renee, may you feel surrounded and held by the love

 of the community of friends and admirers

 you have built here on the internet.  ~

butterfly dreams

I do not know whether I was then a man

dreaming I was a butterfly,

or whether I am now a butterfly

 dreaming I am a man.
(*which is really weird, 'cause I'm a woman!) 

~Chuang Tzu

(This is a photograph I first saw used in an advertising campaign for Absolut Vodka. It is hard to believe it has not been "photoshopped", but that is what they claimed. I cut it out of magazines every time I saw it, and still occasionally find a page of blue butterflies tucked away in a drawer or a book. Recently, I found it again on the web and wanted to share it with you, in case you have not seen it. I have added the verse below it from Chuang Tzu.  Hope you like it as much as I do.)

* My words, not those of Chuang Tzu!

P.S.  Sherry from "Q" kindly identified these butterflies as "Blue Morpho".  I googled it and they are precisely that colour with shimmer and iridescence.  So the colours have not been edited to appear more intense.  They are that intense!

ebb and flow

These beautiful words of Andre Gide serve as a reminder to let go.  A reminder that clinging to what I treasure in this moment will prevent me from embracing the gifts that arrive in the next.
A clinging stance is a contracted and closed one.
A willingness to let go is an open stance
 embracing the ebb and flow of life,
A stance that invites in
the next moment's 
offering

what can i say? it's a popular spot II

Another sneaky guest

who like previous guests would not be deterred -

arrived yesterday

for supper.

Oh, and another guest

perched up in a tree.

In fact, there are two -

What is that hanging from his mouth?

"Hey guys, I thought you were creatures of the night?"

You let one or two stay for supper

And the whole family shows up . . .

Marched right up the stairs

They did.

And even knocked over

Quan Yin

Who has been stationned as a compassionate guard

In the hollow treel

(She is laying face down, half in the tree)

I was not prepared for so many incognito dinner guests.

Did not have my glasses at the ready

Like they had their masks

So could not make the proper settings on the camera.

(Thus the poor quality of the photographs.)

They were quite unaccomodating

Refusing my suggestion

To gather together for a family shot.

There were six of them

But only caught 4 or 5, at a time, in my range.

"Hey lady

I don't like being watched

while I'm eating!"

A couple of them stayed down underneath the bridge

Perhaps that's where they live -

And they see me as the uninvited guest.

Or perhaps they are the timid ones.

"Lady, this is my sleeping area

Do you mind . . .?

Do I come peeking in your bedroom?"

Two scurry up the giant tree

Right past me

As I stand on the bridge trying to 'capture' them with my camera.

Once they get above me

They pause to turn around

And get a good look

At the strange creature below with the clicking habit.

What can I say,

It's a popular spot!