The World Illusion, Truth, and Literal Facts

Traditional Wisdom teaches that the material world is an illusion from which we will all someday awaken. What does this mean?

I have not reached Enlightenment, and anyone reading this who has reached Enlightenment already knows the answer(s) to this. From an Unenlightened state, we can not fully understand this. The World Illusion seems very real to us, and indeed, it should. In the Late Iron Age, we are firmly entrenched in the material world, so the material world is more real to us than ever before.

Yet, every Tradition teaches that there are worlds other than the material world. There are worlds that are higher and those that are lower than that which we live in. The Christian Tradition simplifies this greatly by calling everything higher than the material world Heaven and everything lower than it Hell. From a Traditionalist perspective, there are many Heavens (places above the material world) and many Hells (places below the material world). All of these worlds are a part of manifestation and Creation, and all will eventually return to the One at the inbreathing at the end of time. Any state other than reunion with the One is temporary, even Paradise.

From an Unenlightened state, however, our understanding of this can only be a theoretical understanding. Even to talk about the inbreathing at the end of time is not really accurate, as time itself is a part of the World Illusion. Because we are bound in space and time, we really can not understand that which is not bound in space and time. For this reason, we have been given Mythos and stories. These Mythos and stories are told as if they were in space and time, so that we can understand them, but the Truth is beyond space and time. That is the meaning behind the statement, “The Tao that can be spoken is not the True Tao.”

Literal facts are details about the material world. History tells what happened in space and time in the context of physicality. Literal facts can be true or false within the context of the World Illusion, but they are not Truth so far as the Reality that exists beyond the material world. Filianist Scripture contains a Creation Mythos, which we believe to be True, or more accurately, we believe it to tell the story of Truth in a way that we can understand it in this day and age. We believe it to be the Only Truth, which means that we believe it tells us enough for us to live our lives and attain Liberation; however, we also believe that other True Creation Mythos exist, and are also the Only Truth which can lead to Liberation. We do not believe that this story itself as it is told in our Scripture happened in space and time in the material world, nor do we believe that any True Creation Mythos could have happened in space and time.

GuanYin4This being said, the material world is a reflection of the spiritual world, and what happens in physicality is a reverberation of the Truth. An example of this is the Mythos of the Sacrifice of the Daughter, which is found in almost all Traditions in one form or another. Filianst Scripture tells a version of this Mythos. The Sacrifice of Quan Yin is a different telling of the story, but it is the same story. The Daughter descending to Hell and dying and the vow of the bodhisattva to remain in the physical world until the “last blade of grass” is redeemed is the same sacrifice told of in a different way.

Modern Christianity teaches that a person by the name of Jesus lived and died at a specific place and time and was resurrected. It has been noted, and rightfully so, that this story is not new to Christianity and that the God Sacrifice is found everywhere in many different Traditions. From a Traditionalist perspective, if the historical story has relevance, it is because it is a reflection of the True Story, which happened outside of space and time. It may have happened in the material world or it may not have, but if it only happened in the material world in time and space, than it would not be a story of Truth, but merely one of historical fact. From this perspective, the question is not whether or not the actual events happened in history, but whether the Story itself rises to the level of Mythos, and thus able to lead to Liberation and Truth.

What does this mean for our lives within the physical world as time and space bound creatures? Does this mean that what we do in the physical world does not matter? Filianism teaches that there is a balance. It is neither world affirming nor world denying. We believe that the material world is a beautiful gift from Our Mother, the Creator God, and our relation to it should be that of humble appreciation and gratitude. We should enjoy what we have been given, and do our best to live the life that we have been given striving to manifest our True Selves, which in the context of manifestation, are our best selves. On the other hand, we try to remember that this world is not all that there is, and to avoid excessive entanglement within it.

Our thoughts and actions in the material world do have an effect on our souls, which we believe are eternal. We can not be permanently separated from Our Mother, but we can experience separation. Within manifestation, there is Light and Dark, and Good and Evil. On one hand, even Evil is a necessary part of Creation and will return to the Mother in the inbreathing at the end of time; on the other hand, Evil also represents profound separation from Our Mother, and from a Filianist perspective, as well as a general Traditionalist perspective, is something to be avoided. This is a paradox and cannot be understood from an Unenlightened state.

A Light in the Darkness

Tomorrow, it will be the Deanic/Filianic celebration of Nativity.  This is the celebration of the birth of the Daughter.  In the Filianist Mythos, we hear how before the dawn of time our souls danced and laughed with the Mother who created us.  We were tempted by the Snake to ask the Mother for Darkness and to embrace it so that we could rest.

After we turned from Her, a chasm opened between the Mother and our souls, a gap She bridged by giving birth to the Daughter, who could  be our Light in the Darkness. On Nativity we celebrate the birth of the Daughter.

Do Filianists believe this to be a factual, literal recording of history for which we can dig up physical artifacts?  No, of course not.  Filianists believe that historical fact is the lowest form of knowledge, as the material world is much lower than the spiritual realms.  This Mythos is at a much Higher Level of knowledge than that.  We believe that this Mythos is a description of Truth that is beyond space and time and is one way of understanding Truth.  Are there other stories and Myths that describe Truth?  Of course, there are.  While we believe that there is only One Truth, we also believe that the Truth may be described and taught in many ways.

Nativity TreeNativity is celebrated near the Winter Solstice, the darkest time of the year, when Light starts to reassert itself, as the Daughter was born to re-Light our Path back to the Mother.  This is also the time of the year when Christians celebrate Christmas.  Many Filianist traditions surrounding Nativity are similar to Christmas traditions, such as the date, the Nativity tree, and the symbolism of candles and light.  These Christmas traditions were taken from older traditions surrounding Midwinter.

In the West, there is a tendency towards controversy on many matters, and the controversies around Christmas can be particularly intense.  These controversies often center around religious symbolism as opposed to secular symbolism.  There are also controversies about traditional symbolism being of a “pagan” nature.  I have nothing to say about these controversies, except to say that they do not arise in Deanism/Filianism.  We do not have the same separation between the “religious” and the “secular,” nor do we have any notion that our way of seeing the Truth is the only way or that our forms of worship and celebration are the only right ways to celebrate.

When I listen to Christmas music and see Christian religious symbolism, I can see this as another form of the Truth, with a clear conscience.  I can see this as a re-enactment of the Nativity in time and space without any contradiction to the Mythos of the Daughter.  If I see a Christian Nativity scene when outside, I can give honor to it, even if it no longer my tradition.  I am speaking for myself in this.  I am not saying how anyone else should view these matters, but the differences between these celebrations need not really concern us, I think.

Golden-Christmas-GiftThis is a time of return to Light after a time of Darkness, and is a joyous one!  So, for all of my readers….

Happy Nativity!

Merry Christmas!

Gud Yul!

Happy Solstice!

Happy Midwinter!

Enjoy the season, and rejoice in the return of Light!

See also:

All About Nativity

Honoring Our Ancestors

As I am writing this article, it the day after Halloween, or for Deanists and Filianists, the second day of the three day festival of Tamala.  In addition to being a festival to face some of the scarier parts of life and to honor the dearly departed, Tamala is also a festival to honor our ancestors.

Ancestor worship is a practice in most traditional cultures, and remnants of it can be found in the Christian celebration of All Saint’s Day.  In the modern world, there is a misconception that ancestor worship is a superstitious or primitive type of spirituality.  Actually, in the truest meaning of the word, it is a “primitive” type of spirituality, in that it is one of the earlier forms, and closest to the Primordial Tradition.

So, one may ask, why would people honor their ancestors?

To answer that question, I think it is important to understand who is being worshiped when we honor our ancestors.  Yes, on one level, we are honoring departed parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, but there is another level to ancestor worship that is far deeper than this.

To explain this, I need to refer back to two previous articles that I wrote, The Unfolding of the Ages and Where We Come From, and Why it Matters.  The most important part of these articles is that the Traditional understanding of our origins as Axial Beings is that we have been created from before the dawn of time.  There was a period before time that we existed in Union with Dea as Primordial Maid.  Each generation that passes is a generation further away from Primordial Maid.

The current movement of physical manifestation is away from the Center, or away from Dea.  We believe that at the end of time, all of us will be re-united with Dea, although, that understanding is a bit beyond our comprehension from an un-Enlightened state.  Tamala is, in part, a celebration of this end of time.  Yet, for now, we are aware that the movement is towards decline and separation.

Ancestor worship is one way of holding on to a line to Dea even though we live in a time of decline and separation.  Each previous generation was one generation closer to Primordial Maid, and in worshiping our ancestors we keeping a connection all the way back to Primordial Maid, who lived in Union with Dea.  We are also worshiping Dea in this fashion, and remembering the time that our souls were much closer to Her than they are now.

Essentialism, Rationalism, and Post Modernism: A Parable

Astrology and the Gunas of Time

It is for this reason, that I see the present movement towards the study of Classical Astrology a very positive development in astrology.  In the Feminine Universe, Miss Trent explained that it was not possible to return to a Traditional, Sattwic society directly from an Inverted, Tamasic one.  For this reason, the antidote to the Tamasic poisons is a return to healthy material existence in a process termed re-racination, or returning to our roots.  As some of my readers may know, I am one of the writers for another blog, The Temple of the Home, which is devoted to discussion regarding our personal efforts towards re-racination.

See also:

Traditional Astrology or Traditional Cosmology

Who Am I? Spirit and Soul

Who am I?  This is an age old question that has dominated philosophy and spiritual thought for millenia.  In the Enlightenment, René Descartes made the well-known statement, “Cogito ergo sum,” or “I think, therefore, I am.”  This idea has dominated Western thought since that time, and it is the Rationalist approach to this question.

Traditional thought has a much different answer to this question, and this answer can be seen in the symbols of the glyphs for the Janyati and their planets.  Each of the Janyati/planetary glyphs are made up of three symbols, the circle, the crescent, and the cross.  In my last article, I included a very humble drawing that I made showing the Traditional Model of the Cosmos, and I used the glyphs in that drawing.  If you look at the glyphs, you will see that each of these glyphs is made up of one, two, or three of these symbols in various combinations.

The cross is the symbol of the material world.  It is also the symbol of humans as Axial Beings with the capacity for Free Will.  I have spoken at length about the symbol of the cross in previous articles.  My introductory article regarding the symbol of the cross is here.  As you can see, the symbol of the cross is found in all of the non-luminary planetary glyphs.

The luminaries, the Sun (Sai Raya) and the Moon (Sai Candre), are the only glyphs that contain only one symbol.  The cross is  not contained in either of these glyphs.  This is because the principles that they represent are beyond and independent of the material world.  These are the pure solar and lunar principles, and these principles are the answer to the question, “Who am I?”

Sai RayaAt the very deepest level, we are One with the Divine and with all of existence.  This is stated in many places in feminine Scripture:

“For the Spirit is One, and I am the Spirit, and you are the Spirit also, in the innermost temple of your heart.” – The Temple of the Heart

“Raise not thy voice above a gentle tone except it be in song, nor seek to place thyself above another, for the spirit in each is a ray of the Spirit My Mother, and as thou render service unto them, so servest thou also Her.” – The Heart of Water

“If thou wouldst find union with our Mother, know that thou has never left Her.” – Cry Marya

This Mystery is not only found in the Deanic/Filianic tradition, but is found deep in the teachings of all legitimate traditions.  This is the Mystery of the Atman and the Spirit.  The circle is the symbol of this Mystery.  The glyph for the Sun is a point* surrounded by a large circle, which is the Mystery of the Spirit that is both deep within us and far outside of us.  The Mystery is explained (as well as it can be explained in words), in the Temple of the Heart:

Know your own heart and make examination thereof; for if you know not your own heart, there can be no true knowledge of anything.  But within the innermost temple of your heart shall you find the seas and the heavens and all the illimitable cosmos; For the space within this temple is as vast as the manifest universe.

The ignorant eye shall not see this temple from without, For it is smaller than the seed of an apple, and the seventh part of a seventh part divided again until what part remains can be seen nor touched nor tasted.

The ignorant eye shall not see this temple from within, for it is vast as the manifest universe.

Beyond life, beyond death is the temple, for it is a temple of the Spirit.

Within this Mystery is a paradox.  We are One with the Divine, yet we are also separate from the Divine.  The Deanic/Filianic Mythos, as well as the Mythos of many religions, teach of our turning from the Divine, or our choosing separation from the Divine.  In the Temple of the Heart, it says, “About this temple and encompassing it round grows a garden rank with thorns, which are the thorns of khear.”  In the Deanic/Filianic tradition khear is that which keeps us separate from the Divine.  Khear is similar to sin in the Christian tradition, but it has slightly different connotations.  In the Creation Mythos of the Deanic/Filianic tradition, after Axial Beings choose separation, the Light of the Mother became too bright to look upon, and needed to be mediated by the softer reflected Lunar Light of the Daughter.

Our-Lady-of-GraceThe symbol of the crescent is the symbol of the softer Lunar Light.  This symbol is also the symbol for our individual souls, seen in the crescent within a crescent in the symbol for the Moon.  Our souls are the lesser reflection of the Solar Spirit within, and they are the part of us that is both eternal, but also experiences death and rebirth.  The Mystery of our soul is complex, and I have been told that one Eastern meditation exercise is to contemplate one’s own soul and the boundaries of one’s soul.  Any astrologer who has studied Nativity charts knows how complicated and intricate each individual is, filled with contradictions and twists and turns.  Even Modern psychology, as limited as it is, recognizes concepts such as our Inner Child.  Many of us function with multiple personae, such as our work persona, our parent persona (for those with children), and our persona with friends.  Do these personae represent who we are, are they functional, are they something in between?  The answers to these questions are not always all that clear, are they?

As stated before, the non-luminary planetary glyphs are symbolic of the way that each of these Janyatic/planetary principles mediate the Light of the Solar Spirit and the Lunar Crescent in the material world.

See also:

Mummies and Luminaries

*Below is an excerpt from a comment from Cure Tadashiku regarding the point in the center of the Solar Glyph:

The center of the Solar glyph is…….the Point without extension:

2. Yet from the still point all movement comes; and Earth is the shadow of Heaven. 3. Space doth extend without limit, nor is there any boundary to the worlds, but the Point is without extension; yet from the Point alone all space proceedeth. 4. All manifest things are bound to the three times; of that which is, which was, which is to come; but the Moment is without time. It neither is nor was, nor ever will be.

The Solar glyph is precisely the extension of manifestation with the non-extended, unmanifest Point at its Center.

Thank you for the information, Cure Tadashiku.

The Gunas and Societal Choices


British Schools designed to replace Grammar Schools and Secondary Modern Schools, but combining most of what was bad about the latter with little of what was good about the former. The stereotypical Comprehensive School is made of grey concrete and was built in the 1960s. Anyone wanting better education now has to pay for it, in the interests of equality.


Pity or revulsion?  Which do you feel for Macbeth? Why?Pity or revulsion?  Which do you feel for Macbeth? Why?

Expert Answers
mwestwood eNotes educator| Certified Educator

In tragedy, by Aristotle's definition from his Poetics, the reader must feel pity and emotion--some critics suggest compassion and awe as better terms --for the tragic figure. However, although the audience feels this compassion, they are not dejected by it.  With the fall of the hero and his gain in wisdom or self-knowledge, there is, besides the sense of human waste, a fresh recognition that life has unrealized potentialities.

While, indeed, it is much easier for an audience to feel more of such "catharsis" for Brutus or for Romeo and Juliet or King Lear, there must be some of this feeling for Macbeth if Shakespeare is to fulfill the definition of tragedy. So, there does seem to be a compassion for Macbeth when Lady Macbeth dies and he ponders the futility of life in his soliloquy in which he depicts life as "a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing."  And, there is pity in the audience that contemplates the potential of such a brave warrior as Macbeth, who vanquished his enemies and was loved by his king; certainly, one senses the waste of such a leader who was seduced by the preternatural world.

We must always pity those who have had the potential for greatness but, being exigent, have sacrificed it for the temptations of immediacy.

Lori Steinbach eNotes educator| Certified Educator

I'm thinkin' both--but way less pity and way more revulsion.  He is in control of his behaviors and he chooses to transform himself--in a very short time, I might add--from a loyal soldier and subject of the King to a murderous, treacherous usurper.  I know we're supposed to feel pity and awe in a tragedy, and I do feel some sense of pity for him in the end when he realizes the witches' predictions have given him a false sense of security.  Other than that, though, he behaves in despicable fashion against lots of innocent people who are simply in his way.  Nothing very redeeming in that.

pohnpei397 eNotes educator| Certified Educator

To me, it is mostly revulsion and very little pity.  I think that is because we do not see much of a human side to Macbeth in the play.

Really most of what we see of him is violent.  He is in battle, killing people (not bad, but not something that will make us love him).  Then he hears the prophecy and starts killing people.

So I guess you can pity him for being too weak to resist temptation.  But mainly he revolts me because he is so willing to kill to advance himself.


I can be reached at amy@sassyglassonline.com or (509) 710-7879

I can recreate any of the pieces you see on my website, but feel free to dream up your own design.  Maybe you'll want to change the size of a piece, the color of glass or the shade of grout.  Much of my work is custom, but I have listed the price of existing pieces that are for sale or the amount the piece sold for as a guideline on general price ranges.  Some want simplicity while others crave complex patterns. Prices can vary significantly for the same base size depending on the intricacy and price of materials.  It's nearly impossible to give quotes until I know the full scope of your ideas...  When we speak, I can quickly put your wishes in to a time and materials formula and come up with a price that fits your budget and your creativity.


As Carmelo Anthony ages, disappearing Derrick Rose joins a long list of failed Knicks teammates

Well, that should pretty much do it. Whatever hope there was of rescuing something of significance from the remaining prime years of Carmelo Anthony’s career with the Knicks has been squandered. It most likely became set in stone on Monday night, when New York’s prized offseason point-guard acquisition, Derrick Rose, failed to show for a loss to the Pelicans, the eighth in nine games for the Knicks.

But the Bulls will have the difficult task of pulling off a midseason blockbuster at a time when other teams know there is a whiff of desperation within the organization.

It’s what makes last summer all the more confounding. The Bulls were in position to make a Butler trade that would have landed them a Top 5 pick and other assets. Now, it’s a little dodgier. This is expected to be a strong draft class, and without the security of knowing how the lottery will play out, teams are more leery about trading picks. On the flip side, a strong closing run by whichever team’s pick the Bulls might acquire and bad luck on lottery night could mean that the Bulls wind up with a pick that falls out of the Top 5.

This could have gone much better for the Bulls and Hoiberg if they’d approached this season determined to rebuild, if they sent away Butler and gave more chances to young players like Doug McDermott, Jerian Grant and Bobby Portis. Instead, they brought in more veterans, and more Hoiberg headaches. Now they’re stuck trying to unravel the mess.

Butler will have a much more receptive market, but the Bulls are expected to ask for a massive return, though they’re not in a great position to demand it. Butler is having a monster season—25.2 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.5 assists—and there is no doubt that there will be a long list of suitors. Thibodeau Nike NFL Jerseys still would love to bring him to Minnesota, and there will be interest from the Lakers and NBA Jerseys Wholesale Boston, among many others.


The promise of improved herd health and an extra two litres of milk yield per cow from improved forage maize processing will be highlighted by Claas at the Lamma show.

“Shredlage” technology licensed from its developers in the US involves chopping maize much longer than usual – 26-30mm – and passing it between shredding rollers that maximise the surface area of the processed crop, resulting in improved bacterial fermentation in the clamp and during digestion in the cow’s rumen.

See also: Claas Lexion 780 gets more power and a bigger tank

Studies by the University of Wisconsin found significant improvement in the structural suitability of Shredlage-processed maize silage for the rumen, while also improving availability of starch from all parts of the plant.

The MCC Shredlage rollers, which are interchangeable with two existing corn cracking systems for Jaguar forage harvesters, rotate with a 50% difference in speed and have spiral grooves that pull the crop fragments apart as they are shredded and kernels are crushed.


Le Château du Clos Luce

Lernado da Vinci's vegetable garden
Lernado da Vinci’s vegetable garden

Le Château du Clos Luce greatest claim to fame is as the final home of Leonardo da Vinci and the garden is set out as a celebration of his work. It does though have two redeeming features; one is the reconstruction of da Vinci bridges and the other is his vegetable garden. If you ever wanted inspiration for a garden bridge design a walk around the grounds would be a good place to start. The vegetable garden does allow you to get an idea of what a 16th century vegetable garden in the Loire valley might have looked like.Flat-timber-bridge-at-Le-Chateau-du-Clos-Luce-France

Le Château de Chambord

Chateau_de_ChambordLe Château de Chambord looks like the archetypal grand French château, built in the 16th century and believed to have had some of its features designed by Leonardo da Vinci. If Disney was to build a château this is what it would build. The truth is though that it was in fact only ever used as a hunting lodge! An extremely large, grand and elaborate hunting lodge, but a hunting lodge all the same. The fact it was never really lived as a main residence means there has been little in the way of a 16th century French garden associated with it.

The château is very much the star of the show; immediately around it the surrounding woodland is cleared and left as grass to afford a better view of it. Several paths radiate out from this area to create vistas of it and the river Le Cosson has been reshaped to form a reflecting lake on two sides of the building.

Of more recent design is the English Garden which is said to be based on plans from 1889, but is only a small area of trees, shrubs and hardy perennials. Of more interest is the ornamental vegetable garden which is set out with an eclectic range of plants set between paths of gravel coloured glass.

Les Jardins Suspendus de Marqueyssac

Les_Jardins_Suspendus_de_MarqueyssacPerched on a rock outcrop high above the fertile flood plain of the Dordogne river and surrounded by the rivers meander on three sides the garden enjoys dramatic views across the country side. There has been a château and garden on this site at least since the 17th century when the then owner, Bertrand Vernet, employed Poacher (a pupil of Le Nôtre) to lay out gardens there. Little appears to have been recorded about what this looked like but in 1860s Julien de Cerval became the owner and he developed the in Italianate style; creating a lot of what is seen today.

What is there now is a garden of two halves; one close around the château and a second Les_Jardins_Suspendus_de_Marqueyssac#3stretching away from it to the north east following the natural ridge, but both making great use of the dramatic views across the Dordogne valley. Around the chateau is hot with little shade from sun and dominated by elaborate topiary using box. As is the norm in this area; all the hedging is cut by skilled gardeners by hand. Using hand shears and plumb lines the complex curves and shapes are created by eye and the gardeners have a lot of freedom to mould the shape as they seem fit. It is not possible to say what the original topiary looked like in the 19th century as the garden had been allowed to fall in to serious neglect. It was only in 1996 that its restoration was begun and it is a testament to the regenerative nature of box that the hedges now look so good.

Les_Jardins_Suspendus_de_Marqueyssac#2The area to the north east of the chateau is far less formal and cool as the result of the topography and the canopy of trees which cover it. This woodland garden blends into the more formal area with a gradual move away from clipped plants but throughout the garden the range of plants is kept very limited and no part of it is what you would describe as a flower garden in the English sense.

Marqueyssac is a stunning example of what you would expect of a 19th century chateau garden in this part of the world and worth visiting if only for the elaborate topiary as a display of man’s control of nature.

Les Jardins d’Eau

Les_jardins_d'EauIn truth this is more a resource than a garden but a very attractive one all the same. It is though a celebration of water lilies and lotuses which cover about 3 hectares. Started in only Les_jardins_d'Eau#2 1999 and opened to the public in 2000 the gardens make use of a site which slopesdown to the river Dordogne with a series of ponds and lakes. The most interesting feature though is the labyrinth; a 2800 m2 lake filled with different (labelled) water lilies and lotuses which are accessed by a network of decking walkways which allow you to get close up to the individual flowers.

Monet's waterlilie pond
Monet’s waterlilie pond

Les Jardins du Manoir d’Eyrignac

The white garden at les Jardins du Manoir d’Eyrignac
The white garden at les Jardins du Manoir d’Eyrignac

The most remarkable thing about this garden is how young it is. I have often been faced with the modern demand for instant gardens resulting in the only hedges being of the much over used leyandii conifers and the problems they can cause. Yet in the early 1960s Gilles Sermadiras de Pouzols de Lille, with no formal horticultural training, decided to replace the English style garden around the family’s hereditary home with one in the French style. I’m sure if someone was to decide to replace an original English landscape garden today there would be an uproar, but then again that only replaced an early garden in the French style, but I am glad he did.

This is not an original garden 17th century garden reconstructed but a 20th century garden created in the style of a formal 17th century French garden. This is a modern garden, which the owners continue to develop, that just uses and re-interprets the underlying design principles of this style garden. To this end a very limited range of plants are used and they are controlled to create a very artificial environment.

The dominant feature of the garden is the topiary which uses the traditional plants hornbeam, box and yew and is all hand trimmed by a team of 6 gardeners repeatedly through the growing season. This may seem laborious and I do not believe a more plant oriented garden could justify this much labour being spent on hedge trimming. That said I have seen the same thing in other gardens in the same region and it is indicative of the essence of the garden and further more French believe in artisans working in traditional ways.

At close to 10 acres this is a large garden filled with clever and complex topiary and using many tricks of light and perspective. The colour palette is deliberately very restrictive, and there is a particularly nice white garden, though in a very different style to the famous one at Sissinghurst Castle. Eyrignac is not a plantsman’s garden but a celebration of the gardener’s art and what can be achieved with foresight and imagination.

Le Château de Losse

The stables garden at le Château de Losse
The stables garden at le Château de Losse

The château and garden are situated on a rock outcrop which forms the west bank of the river Vézère and the château and stables are protected on the remaining three sides by a deep dry moat as fits its original purpose as a fortress. The hall of the château dates from 1576 and has remained unaltered since the 16th century.

The gardens are principally in three areas one to the north in what was the area for the stables, one to the south of the courtyard and one immediately south of the moat. The gardens rely on careful pruning to form a controlled ad inward looking style with little regards to the countryside or views of the river.

The stables garden is dominated by four symmetrical shapes each a reflection in the cardinal axes using clipped box with lavender and cotton lavender. This simple design is lifted by a simple rill running north/south from a wall fountain at the south end. What would be a rather flat design is then lifted with carefully placed fastigiated conifers and by clothing the soft gold stone wall with green foliage.

The area to the south of the moat is a simple design using hornbeam hedging with some areas of colourful planting in the enclosed space. By this area is an unusual pleached hedge with a conventional low hedge at the bottom and then three tires of pleaching above it.

Chateau Cheverny

Water feature at Chateau Cheverny
Water feature at Chateau Cheverny

Cheverny is a 17th century chateau approximately 16 km south east of Blois in the Loire Valley but any sign of the geometric gardens of that period have sadly gone. The chateau itself is approached across a large expanse of plain gravel which contrasts well with the ornate building. Behind is a small garden with an arbour and an attractive pond which leads to a café. These have been carefully aligned with the axis of the chateau to provide an attractive view of the north elevation of the chateau as it is view from the cafe Each side of this central axis is planting and shady walk.
Though modern in origin the gardens are nice if limited and to the south there is a very nice wall garden though the contents is a little eclectic.


TNB Member Spotlight: Suzanne Sutton

By Gabe Teeple

How long have you been a member of TNB Fitness? Since June 2014

What attracted you to TNB? What motivated you to join TNB?
I was attracted to TNB because it is geared to women of middle age and over. I felt out of control. I was feeling old and fat and wanted to gain control over my health.

I feel much stronger and more energetic. When I began the program I had knee and foot pain that I assumed was arthritis. I no longer experience this pain.

How has TNB helped you reach your goals?
TNB provides personalized work-out plans that are based upon my current level of strength and flexibility. I am never allowed to settle into a plateau which results in steady improvement.  Adjustments are made when any injuries or pain may occur. Nutritional guidance is also offered.

You will not find a more skilled and supportive team of trainers.  All you have to do is show up and be ready to work.  You will get results.  You will be inspired by the other TNB clients.   There is no judgment and no competition.

TNB Fitness is ... about empowering women by giving them the tools, guidance and support needed to reach health and fitness goals.


Pretty darn great, that's what.

For someone who covers Japanese pop culture, seeing one's own work absorbed and digested by said culture is quite thrilling. Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential, my tome to the impact Japanese schoolgirls have made on the country's society and popular culture, has gone on sale in Japan.

I never intended the book solely for foreigners, nor is it intended solely for male readers — hence the reason why I wanted to work on the book with my better half. The goal was to examine a cultural phenomena and do it with insight and breadth and not simply slog something off superficially without fully understanding it. The book examines how Japanese schoolgirls have made an impact on everything from video games to fine art and why they appeal to women, men and children alike. And no, it's not *simply* that they are cute, and no, it's not *simply* about sex. There is far more at play.

Mr. Geek, who runs Akiba Blog, has been very supportive of the book — something that's truly appreciated. In his post, Mr. Geek links to a blog post by Yasuomi Umetsu, who has also been very supportive of this book and incredibly generous with his time. Umetsu is best known for the classic adult anime Kite. Kite influenced Quentin Tarantino during the making of Kill Bill. If you haven't seen Kite, please do.

Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential will be released in The West this August. Facebook group is here.


Interview with César Astudillo

Within the first two minutes of sitting down with César, it became readily apparent that he is well spoken, informed, and cynical; those characteristics paired with his drive and community-involvement made our discussion particularly engaging.

When asked to define inequality César led with, “for me, inequality is first and foremost a political concept…I think design is overrated and politics are underrated.” He quickly followed with a line of reasoning that political apathy and cynicism of politicians is “fashionable,” just as identifying as a designer is trendy.

Going in to our conversation, it seems César was of the opinion that crafting a just community is work that may be best left to politicians and government – that designers shouldn’t pretend that their for-profit work has a role in alleviating poverty. In many ways, his arguments are completely compelling, especially when considering that many designers are at the whim of large, for-profit companies to bring in revenue. However, from our conversation two seeds of potential progress towards opportunity equality stand out:

Designers should hold themselves accountable for caring about current events. What struck me about his brand of cynicism is that César very aptly identified a present reality that does not necessitate individuals to be engaged citizens. In a Clickbait and Buzzfeed world, political aptitude is often traded for shiny headlines and top ten lists. Assuming designers, with their skillset to manipulate the masses, hold additional responsibility for doing good, which César is apprehensive of, opting for “10 Tricks You Didn’t Know Cats Were Capable Of” over “The detention of Fosun’s boss shows the fragility of the private sector in China” could have serious ramifications. For example, a designer asked to craft a pay day loan experience may do customer research, but it seems less likely that they are required to understand the political landscape of banking and loans. Especially if you’re a consultant who moves from one industry to the next as projects dictate, realizing the larger ramifications of your design may not be a feasible responsibility. Assuming political awareness offers that path to differentiation for designer, which is certainly is an assumption, can designers be asked to care more about the events and laws around them that affect their users?

Design skillsets can be harnessed to mobilize masses and affect change. Most designers take offense to the request to, “make it pretty,” but César makes the argument that prettying up an interface could be more detrimental for reasons other than ego. From his vantage point he’s seen that designers are often responsible for sugarcoating things that strengthen classism. What if designers used their storytelling skill-set to shed light on a political process? At this is the point in our conversation, César said something which fully convinced me that I was lucky to be talking to him,

“As I see it, there is a small number of very intelligent people who are establishing the rules of the game in terms that will create more inequality, and as designers we can only improve the very superficial aspects of that. If we want to fight inequality, we must do politics and we must work with political activists to create awareness of what is happening, to create a narrative of why this is happening, or how it can be fought, and to get the people who want to fix that a vote, so they can go to the institutions and change that. And that is political. It can only happen within democratic means.”

His words instigated a “what if…” scenario for me: In July, I brought my car to Fernando, a father from Mexico who loves cars so much he fixes them in between being a janitor, school, and time with his family. We got to chatting about Trump, as is usually the case these days when discussing politics, and I asked him who he was going to vote for. He told me he doesn’t really care about voting. There are so many other things in his life that figuring out which candidate he should vote for in any local or national election isn’t a high priority for him. Demographically speaking, Fernando falls into the population that is anticipated to play the largest role in our upcoming 2016 presidential election, and yet, I can completely sympathize with his logic. What if Fernando realized that his vote could affect legislation that would allow him to visit his family in Mexico, which is currently hindered by our immigration system? Is there a place for designers to participate in clearly and concisely conveying election process, politician platforms, or interaction with local government?

César touched on how unification and mobilization of the masses, in place of our current intense focus on the “self,” could reform the political structures which perpetuates inequality. He cheekily mocked, “please help yourself with this self help book but don’t organize,” which alludes to a topic I continue to see pop up in literature about the ever-widening income gap revolution(As it turns out, during the publication of this article, news of Spain’s own mini political revolution is breaking.)

To hear about his opinion of Change Management, how Spanish politics spurred the Occupy Wall Street Movement and more, click here for a downloadable MP3 of my conversation with César.

A summative image of his opinion on the topic shared by César


How to Speak Zombie: A Guide for the Living

by ,

This guide features an electronic sound module that demonstrates proper zombie pronunciation, helpful text that explores the customs and etiquette of the zombie world, and detailed illustrations that show the undead going about their daily activities.


NASA telescope finds 10 more planets that could have life

NASA centre

It's important to note that NASA's rules for what defines a "planet" are incredibly exacting.

In a press briefing at NASA's Ames Research Center, scientists revealed the "most comprehensive" catalog yet of potential planets in our galaxy, bringing the total to 4,034.

This artist rendering provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech shows some of the 219 new planet candidates, 10 of which are near-Earth size and in the habitable zone of their star identified by NASA's Kepler space telescope.

The analysis pushes Kepler's tally to 4,034 planet candidates overall, of which 2,335 have been confirmed through additional observation and analysis. Instead of directly spotting individual planets and identifying them with something like high-powered optics, Kepler watches for "transits".

The habitable zone is the range of distances from a star where liquid water - one of the building blocks of life - could pool on the surface of a rocky planet.

Almost all the planet candidates are in between the sizes of Earth and Neptune. More than 30 of 49 terrestrial candidates have been confirmed orbiting in habitable zones where water can exist as a liquid and life as it's known on Earth could, in theory, exist. But if a planet starts out with more hydrogen, is larger, or forms further out before moving inwards, it may end up as a mini-Neptune.

The Kepler mission only looked at one particular part of the sky, so while it only identified a select number of planets and stars even though there are billions more out there. It's a rocky planet that is only 30 percent wider than Earth and has an orbit of nearly exactly one year.

Until KOI-7711 is verified and earns an official Kepler planet name - a process that requires a different telescope (usually ground-based) to observe it transiting - this is all speculation.

One of Kepler's other big surprises was a profusion of planets intermediate in size between Earth and Neptune. Scientists with the mission expect that Kepler's K2 mission will continue until sometime in 2018.

"I'm looking forward to 2030s", said Courtney Dressing, NASA Sagan Fellow.

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Evaluate your SWOTs through Competitor Mystery Shopping – It’s Critical for Your Success

I first learned the importance of competitor intelligence in business graduate school. There, our professors emphasized that every business is duty-bound to understand not only who its competitors are but also their competitive strengths and weaknesses. Only then can you evaluate your own business’ relative “SWOTs” (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats). Knowing more about your competitors will thus help your business grow and succeed.

While traditional market research is a tactical, methods-driven discipline that measures beliefs and perceptions through surveys or focus groups, competitor intelligence uses both primary and secondary research and goes beyond answering existing questions to raising new ones and guiding action. A broad definition of competitive intelligence, or CI, is “the legal and ethical activity of systematically gathering, analyzing and managing (publicly available) information on competitors”. This is in sharp contrast to industrial espionage which can be described as attempting to obtain trade secrets by dishonest means, as by telephone-or computer-tapping, infiltration of a competitor, etc.

Customer Perspectives first started offering competitive intelligence in 1992 by conducting product comparison mystery shops. These consisted of either visiting or telephoning key competitors to ascertain the pricing of various products. Since then we have been asked to “shop” the competition for a wide variety of reasons, primarily focusing on relative prices and customer service skills.

Case Study

Several financial institutions wanted to know what their top competitors charged for 10 to 20 key products as well as various features of those products. Of course this involved multiple calls as mystery shoppers were acting as potential customers and couldn’t reasonably ask the cost structure of more than a few products at a time. For example, when exploring checking accounts, the shoppers needed to find out from each financial institution their interest rates, activity charges, balance required to earn interest, minimum balance service charge, exemptions from that charge, overdraft protection fees, annual fees/interest, and whether combined statements and preauthorized transactions were offered. Clients used this valuable information to re-structure, and sometimes re-price, their own products and services.

Case Study

A company that supplies furnishings and equipment for trade shows and events wanted to know what its key competitors charged for delivering and renting chairs, tables, bar stools, plants, wall hangings, etc. so they could review their prices, and learn what was included in delivery and set-up fees as well as assess lead time needed by competitors. Mystery shoppers first checked specific competitor websites, then asked a few questions via e-mail and, if necessary, called those competitors personally, asking such questions as “Does your rental furniture meet state standards? How many of each item do you carry? What colors do you offer? What are the prices for rental, delivery, set up, tear down? What is the minimum order?” etc. Sometimes this required several calls in order to gather all the information requested by the client. This client also used the information when re-structuring and re-pricing its offerings.

Case Study

A client offering TV, internet and telephone services needed to know how prominently their products were being displayed and promoted in the big box stores, and how well that promotion was being done. Mystery shoppers visited specific stores to observe point-of-sale displays and ask about specific products to see which brands were recommended – and why. For example, they looked for signs and brochures from that client, then asked the salesperson a question and noted which providers were mentioned and promoted by that salesperson, and how positively each company was promoted. They also ascertained product knowledge and sales ability. This study helped them measure not only the effectiveness and thoroughness with which their offerings were displayed and promoted but also how that compared with the displays and promotions of their competitors.

However, many sophisticated clients appreciate that real competition is based not only on prices, product features or promotions but perhaps even more on the overall customer experience. This is the reason one of our bank clients has periodically asked us to “shop” the competition for the multiple assessments.

Case Study

When a new financial institution was moving into our bank client’s market area(s), mystery shoppers went to branches of that competitor to ascertain the product knowledge, customer service and sales ability of front line employees, as well as what products were being emphasized and promoted. This was also the case when the client planned on expanding into a new market area. In both cases, shoppers focused on traditional mystery shop questions such as wait time, greeting skills, friendliness, attentiveness, product knowledge, need exploration, cross selling, etc. Shoppers were asked to convey a sense of the culture and atmosphere of the competitors compared to the client’s branches. This client also wanted data reports which compared the average mystery shop results of the “shopped” institutions to their own institution. In both instances, the client was assisted in positioning their products, services and employee presentations by the information gathered.

Case Study

As more and more prospects and customers are shopping online, several clients have had us “shop” the websites of both their own business and those of major competitors to evaluate the look, feel and friendliness of the website, how easy it is to navigate, what products were being offered and response times to an inquiry. The mystery shoppers answered such questions as “Were you able to locate the website easily? What was your impression of the bank (or store) after reviewing their website? What three words best describe the website? How easy was the website to navigate”? They then reported their overall impressions qualitatively by explaining which financial institution or store they would do business with based on their overall experience-and why. Obviously, this helped the clients determine whether to re-design their website to be more competitive and, if so, how.

As you can see from these examples, competitor intelligence involves all aspects of business management, not just the products, services and prices that are traditionally the focus of market research. And competitive mystery shopping is a great way to acquire this necessary information. It is an ethical, legal and vital business practice, invaluable in growing your business and improving your bottom line.


Chronic Fatigue

Don’t just blame it on Monday, or a long week, or the lack of coffee. You could very well be a victim of chronic fatigue. Don’t be referred from doctor and doctor and take the time out of your days only to come out with no results or solutions. Chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia are possibly the most misunderstood diagnosis in conventional medicine, and can often be ignored by doctors for years, resulting in the patient’s symptoms and condition grow worse and worse. With modern and conventional medicine, usually the only hope is potential experimental therapies being used over time, and while waiting, you only feel worse as time passes.

Why does this always seem to be the case? Because the issue is that there is not only one answer.

Alternative medicine and naturopathic medicine are the path to take for finding an approach to these syndromes. Approaches vary depending on the case and the patient, but that only means that each treatment and medicine will be formed around you, your body and what works best for you, resulting in your own personal solution. However, the only way to achieve this is with individualized care.

Chronic fatigue is a growing concern, with more and more cases in the last few decades. This condition costs billions of dollars between loss of productivity in the workplace, to stressful situations brought upon families, medical tests, and more. Both men and women can experience chronic fatigue at any age and it is not alleviated by sleeping in or resting more. The root cause can vary from patient to patient, making it hard to diagnose. However, with functional medicine, you can live an energetic and more productive life.

In order to begin receiving the relieving results that you’ve been dreaming of (during your sleepless nights), individualized care is a necessity. With that, Dr. Coplin will examine your case in great detail, and the proper care will be administered based on your individualized needs. Because these symptoms and syndromes are complex and detailed, cases vary from patient to patient.

No two treatments are the same, so rely on our holistic doctor for patient-centered therapy that will take you down the right road to reach results.

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Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

A Picture Says a Thousand Words

March 21, 2015 Leave a comment

A Picture Says a Thousand Words.

Categories: Uncategorized

The Black Founders of Chinese Civilization

August 12, 2014 1 comment

At its earliest epoch, Blacks lived and ruled in southern China. French anthropoligist H. Invert wrote in “Les Negritos Dr la Chine: “The Negroid races peopled at some time all of the south of India, Indo-China and China. The South of Indo-China actually has now pure Negritos as the Semangs, and mixed as the Malays and the Sakais…”

In the earliest Chinese documented history, it speaks of diminutive blacks living in southwest China, and having black and oily skin. Chinese historians called them “black dwarfs.

The founders of the Xia (c. 2205-1766 B.C.E.) and Shang (c.1700-1050 B.C.E.) Dynasties were black.  According to Prof. Shun-Sheng Ling, the founders of these two dynasties came from Africa via Iran.

Genetic studies show that the first modern human arrived in China about 60,000 years ago, migrating from Africa.

 In 2005, DNA testing conducted by Chinese geneticist Jin Li proved that the first inhabitants of China were black Africans. After collecting more than 12,000 DNA samples from 165 different ethnic groups, Li and his team of scientists concluded that modern humans descended from East Africa.  Li added “We did not see even one single individual that could be considered of the no no erectus in China, rather everybody was a descendant of our ancestors from Africa.”

Categories: Uncategorized

Black Presence of Ancient Britain: an Addendum

August 11, 2014 Leave a comment

I would like to thank the readers of the material on this site. While searching the Internet, I have found various forums in which readers have posted material from the site to dispute opinions and theories place by people with counter views. I do not choose to respond to anyone on open forums, as I view it as counter-productive and a waste of time.

The material that I post is well-documented, as I spend time researching material before I write. I purposefully try to use documents, whenever possible, written by white historians about my subject matter. Not because I trust their research more than my fellow Black sources, but because there are always white people who choose to try to discredit anything that a Black historian says that is contrary to what they have learned or believe.

 With that being said, I would like to use a few quotes from white historians to augment my article about Blacks in Ancient Britain, and please feel free to post them when being confronted by ignorance on the Internet.

Gerald Massey, a British archaeologist, wrote in his book “Book of the Beginnings, Volume one” about the evidence of Blacks in ancient Britain. He firmly believed that Stonhenge was built by Blacks. Massey carefully dissected the language, religion and customs of the Celts and concluded that they had an Egyptian origin.

Roman historian Tacitus was clear in his description of the Silures, calling their complexion “swarthy” and hair unusually “curly.”

Sir Godfrey Higgins, in his book Anacalypsis, Vol. I stated that he believed that “The Buddhist Negroes were the first colonists of Britain.” In addition, Higgins writes “A great nation called the Celtae, of whom the Druids were the priests, spread themselves almost over the Earth and are to be traced in their gigantic monuments from India to the extremity of Britain. Who can these have been but the early individuals of the Black nation…”

Pliny described the Silures as “short stature with skin as dark as an Ethiopians.”

David MacRitchie wrote extensively about the presence of Blacks in Early Britain in his book, Ancient and Modern Britons.

People who refuse to accept the truth are usually the ones with the most to lose.

Categories: Uncategorized

The Pelasgians: The Black Original inhabitants of Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is without question the beginning of Western Civilization, but the first civilization in Grecian history was the Pelasgians. The Pelasgian civilization sprung its roots around 2500 BC., but who were the Pelasgians and where did they come from? Before we address this issue, we must first go back to the beginning. The oldest race of mankind is the Hamitic, or Black race. The Hamitic people were civilization builders. They spread out into every culture of the world. When you look at the most remote civilizations of Asia and Europe, you will find that these Hamites, or Blacks, at the epoch. They were the founders of civilization in Europe. Blacks branched out from North Africa and spread across the Mediterranean and southern Europe, and then left its mark on the entire European continent.

The Pelasgians were undoubtedly members of this Hamitic race. Five of the main Greek city-states were said to be founded by descendants of Ham: Corinth (Phoenicians); Thebes (Cadmus from Phoenicia); Laconia (i.e. Sparta and Lacedemonia) by Lelex, an Egyptian; Athens by Cecrops of Egypt; and Argos was founded by the Phoenician Inachus. The Greeks own mythology states that these cities were founded by Hamites. According to Plutarch, the Pelasgians founded Athens, which equates the Pelasgians as colonizers from Egypt. The Pelasgians were made of of various tribes including the Carians, Leleges, Cadmeans, and the Garamantes.

The Pelasgians chief centers were Crete, Argos, Laconia and Attica. The Mycenaean Bronze-age culture belonged to the Pelasgians.

As previously noted, the Greek city-states were founded and developed by maritime colonizers from Phoenicia and Egypt. The Egyptians and Phoenicians were descendants of Kush. The land of Kush was the land presently known as the Sudan. The Greeks called it Aethiopia, meaning “land of the burned faces.” The Egyptians called it Nubia. The Phoenicians were great cultural diffusionists, who spread Egyptian culture to Greece and Rome.

The Pelasgians were described as dolichocephalic (long-headed) people who were short, black, dark haired, and dark eyed. (Celtic Myth and Legend by Charles Squire. London: The Gresham Publishing Company, LTD, 1905, pp 19-20.) Dolichocephalicism is a characteristic of the Black race. They spoke a non-Indo-European language. Herodotus confirmed that it was not Greek. They are identified as a “pre-Greek”, “pre-Hellenic” people. The Pelasgians were also described as “highly intellectual, receptive, active and simple people, chiefly occupied with agriculture; war like when necessary, though preferring peace. We are told that they built canals, subterranean water-works, dams, and walls of astounding strength and most excellent construction.” (Five Years of Theosophy Edited by George Robert Stow Mead. London: Reeves and Turner, 1885, pg. 417) The deities of the Pelasgians were predominately the same as the Egyptians. (Primitive History, from the Creation to Cadmus by William Williams. J. Seagrave, 1789, pg. 344) They were a matrilineal society and worshipped female deities.

The Pelasgians were eventually subjugated by the Hellenes, and later, assimilated into the Indo-European Hellenic population. But when we speak of Greece as the origin of western civilization, let us not forget that it was the Pelasgians, the black people who were the original inhabitants, who were the bearers of civilization in that area.

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Categories: Uncategorized

History records the Age of Reason, or The Enlightenment, during the time period of 1685-1815.  The American and French Revolutions were heavily influenced by the thoughts that were developed during The Enlightenment.   Though it was billed as the Age of Reason, European thinkers built wild theories about the inferiority of Blacks, which were used to justify the denial of Black civil liberties.  European thinkers created racist ideologist as a way to justify the slave trade and colonialism.  Yet how could people who espoused such great ideas regarding liberty and limitations of government power be in support of limiting the freedoms of the African? It is important to understand the times in which these Enlightenment thinkers were developing these ideas.

Europe before the Enlightenment period saw a growth of powerful monarchs who ruled with absolute power, and the rise of tightly-centralized national governments.  Due to a rise in violent wars due to the Reformation, people were willing to have local autonomy taken away in exchange for peace and safety.    Much of Enlightenment thought focused on man and his relationship with society.  At the same time as the Enlightenment, slavery was at its height.  Many Enlightenment thinkers wrote from a Eurocentric view, which analyzed society with a supposition that non-whites were clearly inferior to whites.

Francois-Marie d’Arouet, better known as Voltaire, believed that Africans were a sub-human group.  He believed “Nature has annexed to this principle these different degrees of genius, and the characters of nations that are so rarely seen to change.  It is for this reason that Negroes are slaves of other men.  They are bought on Africa’s coasts like beasts, and the multitudes of these blacks, transplanted to our American colonies, serves a very small number of Europeans. (Essay on Universal History, 2:335)  Voltaire accepted that a slave ship be named after him, and he speculated and profited in the slave trade. (Constitutional Sentiments by Andras Sajo. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011, pg. 160).  His friend Rene Montaudion, a rich merchant from Nantes, named one of his slave ships after him. Voltaire believed Africans were naturally inferior, which justified them being slaves.  He believed in the superiority of the White race.

Voltaire also said about Blacks: “Their round eyes, their flat nose, their lips which are always thick, their differently shaped ears, the wool on their head, the measure even of their intelligence establishes between them and other species of men prodigious differences.  If their understanding is not of a different nature from ours, it is at least greatly inferior.  They are not capable of any great application of ideas, and seemed formed neither in the advantages nor the abuses of our philosophy.”

David Hume

David Hume (1711-1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian and economist, who is recognized as a precursor of contemporary cognitive science.  He was a close friend of Adam Smith, and his essays on money and International Trade heavily influenced Smith.  Hume also had a strong influence on philosophers Charles Darwin, Immanuel Kant, and Thomas Henry Huxley.  Hume was a harsh critic of religion and metaphysics.

Hume was a racist who believed that dark skin color was linked to moral and mental inferiority.  Hume’s attitude toward the Black race can neatly be summed up in this quote: “I am apt to suspect the negroes and in general all other species of men, to be naturally inferior to the whites.  There never was a civilized nation of any complexion than white nor even any individual eminent in action of speculation.  No ingenious manufacturer among them, no arts, no sciences.  There are Negro slaves dispersed all over Europe of which none ever displayed any symptoms of ingenuity. (David Hume, Essays, Moral and Political 1742)

Hume subscribed to the pseudo-scientific racism that was prevalent in his time.  In his work, Of National Character, Hume  expressed the belief that there was never a civilized nation of any other complexion than white. (David Hume, footnote to ‘Of National Character’ (1748), in The Philosophical Works of David Hume, Volume III, Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1996, pg 228.)  Hume even compared Black Africans to parrots, in that they could only achieve very low level accomplishments.  Hume’s remarks were used to support slavery.  He was a Eurocentric thinker who could not grasp the thought that Blacks could ever achieve any high level of civilization.

Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant had this to say about Blacks: “The Negroes of Africa have received from nature no intelligence that rises above the foolish.  Hume invites anyone to quote a single example of a Negro who has exhibited talents.  He asserts that among the hundred thousands of blacks who have been seduced away from their own countries, although very many of them have been set free, yet not a single one has ever been found that has performed anything great whether in art or science or in any other laudable subject; but among whites, people constantly rise up from the lowest rabble and acquire esteem through their superior gifts.”

Kant believed that Africans were incapable of any form of education other than learning how to be a slave.  He divided humankind into four races: Hunnic, White, Hindu and Negro.  Kant believed that the “Negro” was the lowest of all races, and that the white race was the greatest perfection of humanity.  He viewed Blacks as primitive and barbarian, possessing inferior cognitive ability.  Later, Kant condemned European colonialism and chattel slavery.

Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) was a French philosopher.  Born to a wealthy family, but after the death of his mother when he was just seven, Montesquieu was placed into the custody of a poor family as a child.

Montesquieu believed that slavery was not good for the slave owner or the slave.  He supported slavery, and believed that if there were a group fit for slavery, it would be the Black race.  He believed that climate had an effect on race.  He believed that people were more vigorous in cold climates, and that cold climate makes people more courage, and a greater sense of superiority.  People in warm climates however, were more timid, afraid, and in a state of total incapacity. He believed that warmer temperature made people lazy, and thus he believed that slavery would be justified there in order to get them to work.  In addition, Montesquieu commented that because Africans were “black from head to toe, and they have such flat noses that it is impossible to feel sorry for them.  One cannot get into one’s mind that God, who is a very wise being, should have put a soul, above all a good soul, in a body that was entirely black.” (Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws, pg. 250)

Montesquieu wrote in 1748: “It is impossible for us to suppose these creatures to be men, because, allowing them to be men, a suspicious would follow that we ourselves are not Christian.”  Yet, while reaching this conclusion, Montsquieu also concluded, in regards to colonial slavery, that “Weak minds exaggerate too much the injustice done to Africans” (Montesquieu, “Spirit of the Laws” pg 204)  Montesquieu even questioned whether blacks had a soul. (The Limits of Ethics in International Relations: Natural Law, Natural Rights, and natural rights in Transition by David Boucher. London: Oxford University Press, 2009)

Montesquieu believed in, and supported the rights of property holder, even when the property that was held were slaves.

Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes believed that human nature was greedy and warlike.  Thomas Hobbes theorized that the Native Americans were primitive and where incapable of development.   Hobbes believed in the inferiority of Blacks.  Hobbes believed that slaves should not complain about slavery since were provided with security and sustenance in for labor and being governed.  He considered slavery a part of the world’s system of subordination and authority. (Slavery and Servitude in Colonial North America: A Short History by Kenneth Morgan. New York: NYU Press, 2001, pg. 32) Hobbes saw slavery as a necessary element of society.

John Locke

John Locke(1632-1704), whose theory of natural rights helped to define the principles of modern democracy, invested in the slave trade. While he wrote that slavery is vile, he held stock in the Royal Africa Company. It is difficult to marry the concept of the duality of his ideas. Locke theorized in Two Treatises of Government, that the right to govern came from the consent of the people to be governed. The irony in Locke’s stance on slavery is that he believed that if a government ruled absolutely and arbitrarily, it forfeited its subjects’ loyalty. Yet he had no problem with slave owners doing the same to the slave, yet the slave had no right to be governed. It can be understood then that Locke’s position only makes sense if he did not see the African as people, but merely as property.   Locke believed in in the natural liberty of human beings, yet was an integral part of the drafting of the Fundamental Constitutions of the Carolinas, which was the Constitutions of North and South Carolina. These two states openly embraced slavery in their Constitutions, which granted absolute power over slaves. Therefore, Locke believed that slavery excluded slaves from the natural right to withdraw their consent when governed in an unjust manner. If governments are created to protect the natural rights of the people, why wouldn’t governments protect the African slave? Obviously, it was because the governments did not recognize the slave among “the people.”

Locke taught that everyone had a right to life, liberty, and property but was in support of denying those same rights to Blacks.

Jean Jacques Rousseau

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was opposed to slavery, but like his contemporaries, he was a white supremacist.  He believed that Blacks were naturally mentally inferior to Whites. Yet Rousseau was against slavery. It was Rousseau who observed that people are born free and yet in chains everywhere. He believed in the ideals of democracy, and in his view, no man had the right to enslave another. He did not embrace the idea that military might gave man the right to justify slavery.

 The Age of the Enlightenment is considered a time when social philosophers used reason to revolutionize human thought. Enlightenment thinkers embraced the concept of natural rights, yet believed that Blacks were inferior, two concepts that are difficult to marry. If intellect and social behavior are associated with physiognomy, or physical appearance, then it is easy to assume “the white man’s burden” to govern and control those who are deemed inferior. The idea of natural rights then would not apply to those who are labeled inferior. This is how slavery, racism and colonialism were able to coincide with the growth of Enlightenment thought.

Give Me Liberty

April 30, 2014 Leave a comment
Categories: Uncategorized


My New "Yearn for Freedom" Blog;

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Hope. . .for Humanity

What is happening to "Targeted Individuals" soars way beyond INHUMANE. . .and into what can be accurately described as a Holocaust!

I am one of those innocent people who is being targeted for reasons I am no longer sure of. I have tried to figure out who has done this to me and why. . .and have come to the conclusion that, due to the manipulations and sly tactics of those who target me, I'd rather not make anymore guesses into their darkness and put more of my energy into surviving it. Prior to being targeted I was an average middle class woman raising two children in an average middle class NH neighborhood. I was certainly not a threat to anyone. (I had not yet been putting my writings into the world) There appears to be no reason for me to be targeted. It appears that my whole family has been ripped apart by the targeting.

I pray with all my heart
For this hell to come to an end -
For those who tear us apart
To find their Hearts again.

Please do what you can to AT LEAST spread the word so that we can start heading in the direction of preventing these horrific crimes. PLEASE!

My own situation remains unpredictable, due to these crimes not being recognized by most of those who could help. Many other people, whom I know, are in similar situations and I have no idea what the future holds for us. It does not look very good, at this point. Those who know nothing about it seem to find it too outrageous to believe. And most of those who are aware are either fading victims or are too scared to get  involved.
   But I feel  certain that HOPE will grow when the good parts of the US government start aiming at catching the terrorists who are running this organization. . . and when local law enforcement officials get involved enough to aim at stopping local organized stalking and harassment groups.

P.S.  PLEASE don't let this continue happening to people. Help to educate the public on this issue so that TIs - "Targeted Individuals" do not continue being crucified by not only the criminals and those whom they manipulate, but also by the people they love, through their assumption that victims are just "mentally ill" and that none of this is really happening. PLEASE!

(Public awareness can help more than anything right now.
Help the media get a hold of this and expose it. Please.)

The following statement, which I found on another website, is something I could deeply relate to. I hope this brings some level of understanding to those who care and have witnessed and misunderstood my desperate gropes for finding validation and help, through the past decade.

"The reader needs to understand that the tactics and technologies used by today's organized stalkers are customized, taking elements from a huge "master menu," for each individual target. This, in turn, means that targets will tell different stories, and relate many different theories as to who is responsible, why they, personally, are being targeted, and how the technological harassment is being carried out.
   Readers should understand that these sometimes seemingly conflicting reports by targets are not an indication that organized stalking "isn't real," but rather a result of the customization of individual harassment programs.
   I ask the reader to understand the position of targets of organized stalking. Out of the blue, they experience blizzards of harassment for which there is no apparent cause. Every facet of their lives has come under attack, both by strangers and even some of their acquaintances. They can be forced out of their jobs by unceasing harassment. Their children, pets, and family members can be harassed as well. All in ways carefully designed so that outside observers can dismiss complaints as "over-active imagination."
   It is a perfectly natural response for a target to grasp at any article at all that mentions organized stalking or electronic harassment, and post it, without regard to whether the claims in that article are valid.
   It is perfectly natural to develop personal theories as to why this is suddenly happening to them, because there is almost no official information available.
   Just as a drowning person will sometimes try to force a rescuer under water in a desperate bid to get above the water, organized stalking targets will proclaim their information and claims loudly, on the Internet, trying to get public attention to end their nightmare. They are not able to exercise the laid back critical thinking that they could before the targeting began.
   So for you, reader, it is essential to understand that the many web sites with unsupportable claims are not necessarily an indication of delusion, but instead, the natural result of desperation, perpetrator secrecy, and having all public officials deny organized stalking is even possible." (I'm sorry I do not remember what website I got this from.)

I am in desperate need of financial help. Please help me if you can.

Sharon Rose Poet
PO Box 383
Mont Vernon, NH 03057
(If you try to reach me please keep trying, because they have been interfering with my phones, emails, fb account...etc.)


Do you have a teacher discount?

We can all attest to having an awesome teacher at one point in our lives, and at Bonobos we are no different. We're happy to offer college and K12 teachers a 15% discount for five orders throughout the year.

All you have to do is head to this link:

When verified, you'll receive an immediate pop-up with your unique code that works for five orders. You'll also receive an email with the code as well. It's important to note that this code has five uses, and that those uses are not based on user, so if someone else gets ahold of your code, they can use it too! In the words of Gandalf the Grey, "Keep it hidden, keep it safe!"

If the verification is unsuccessful, you'll be asked to upload a piece of documentation showing that you are, in fact a teacher. Once SheerID receives this, they will email you back shortly with your code!

Your discount codes are good for 1-school year, and are not renewable on a year-by-year basis. For example, if you get a code in March of 2017, the codes will still expire in September of 2017.

If for any reason you run into issues setting up your teacher discount, never hesitate to reach out to the Ninjas via live chat, email, or phone.

Thank you teachers!

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Middle Adolescence

In mid-adolescence, when they reach the age of 14-15 adolescents strive to loosen their ties to their parents. This is the stage in which their emotions and intellectual capacities increase, and they begin to take more control of their own educational and vocational pursuits. They become more self dependent and develop a sense of responsibility and find satisfaction in in contributing to the welfare of the society. They become somewhat more adventurous, and try out all sorts of ideas.  This is the time when they develop their own set of values, which may be in conflict with those of parents and that of society. Dr. Vimlaraghavan (2000).


Climate change is a threat to the health of people, not just polar bears.

And the way shifting climatic patterns are affecting the environment is not a theoretical, faraway threat; it is causing real, measurable harm.

Those are the overarching messages from the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health (MSCCH), a group representing 11 large medical societies and more than 400,000 U.S. physicians.

With its new report, entitled Medical Alert! Climate Change Is Harming Our Health, the consortium hopes that the high level of trust people place in their physicians will translate into the public taking the threat of climate change more seriously.

The MSCCH urges front-line doctors to talk to their patients about how climate change is making them sick, just as smoking or excess drinking does.

To be fair, Canadian doctors have spoken out on the dangers of climate change; both the Canadian Public Health Association and the Canadian Medical Association have taken stands. But this new report is noteworthy, and encouraging, because it comes out of the United States, a hotbed of climate-change denial. However, polling done by the MSCCH shows that two in three Americans (and an equal number of doctors) actually believe climate change is real – President Donald Trump and his administration not being among them.

At the same time, only one in three Americans believe climate change poses a personal risk to them. The Medical Alert! report underscores that the threat is real, and current, in eight different ways:

  • Extreme temperatures: Climate change is causing more hot days, greater humidity and longer, hotter, more frequent heat waves. This is a particular threat to outdoor workers, athletes and city dwellers, especially if they don’t have air conditioning. The 10 hottest days on record in history have all occurred since 2000. (In Canada, extreme cold is also a threat to health.)
  • Extreme weather events: The frequency and severity of weather events, such as torrential downpours, droughts, storms and tornadoes, continues to increase. Extreme weather can knock out power and damage homes and infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, all of which can reduce access to medical care, food and water. The Louisiana flooding of 2016 and Hurricane Sandy are just two recent examples.
  • Outdoor air quality: Climate change reduces air quality because it increases smog and pollen production. Air pollution poses a serious threat to people with respiratory illnesses such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and allergies.
  • Wildfires: Increasing temperatures and more frequent droughts have fuelled wildfires worldwide. The smoke and particles are a serious threat to people with respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses.
  • Ticks and mosquito-borne infections: As climate patterns change, so does the range of disease-carrying ticks, mosquitoes and fleas. Lyme disease is spreading, Zika is a new threat and warming temperature could even allow malaria to return to the United States.
  • Water-related infection: Higher water temperatures, rising sea levels, heavier storms and flooding can lead to contamination of drinking water and the proliferation of algae and water-borne pathogens such as E.coli and Vibrio.
  • Food-related infection: Extreme weather events affect not only waterways, but surrounding land; flooding and downpours can spread fecal bacteria and other pathogens.
  • Mental health and well-being: Aside from the physical harm caused by climate change, extreme weather events can cause a lot of stress and anxiety. The mental-health effects have been obvious in the aftermath of the devastating Fort McMurray wildfires.

That list, which is not exhaustive, focuses only on threats to the health of individuals. It doesn’t mention the devastating economic impacts of climate change, nor the social upheaval that follows.

The MSCCH also notes that the burden of climate change is not evenly distributed – it is children, the elderly, those with chronic illnesses and the poor who suffer the greatest harm.

The U.S. physicians’ consortium stresses that there is a clear scientific consensus that climate change is real, fuelled by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels that release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

The doctors also call for urgent action, specifically to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. As the report states: “Addressing climate change is the greatest public-health opportunity of the 21st century, and failure to adequately address it could undo the progress in global health over the past century.”

The Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Mar. 21, 2017 5:00AM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, Mar. 21, 2017 10:11AM EDT


Power Rangers: Austin St. John Reveals Which Marvel Hero He Would Love To Team-Up With

The Power Rangers have plenty of power at their command, but what if they were to get some help from the Marvel universe?

That was the premise of a question asked at San Francisco Comic Con, where Mighty Morphin Power Rangers' Red Ranger Austin St. John was asked who he would like to team up with (via Steven Alvarez). The choice was between the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Avengers, and there was definitely a clear favorite.

"I would have to get down and jam with the Hulk," St. John said. "I just like "Hulk Smash". That would be stupid cool. I would have a blast with that."

While St. John would love to battle alongside the green goliath, he would also like to meet Captain America. You might think the two would get along quite well, but the meeting would really be about putting the Avengers leader in his place.

"Captain America, ehhhh, cool shield. Check out the Power Sword," St. John said.

That fight would be amazing to see in live-action, as it would clearly come down to straight fighting skills. Both of their weapons would likely cancel each other out, and both possess superhuman strength and combat abilities.

Where the Red Ranger outshines Cap though is in the Zord department, as Captain American does not have a giant robotic dinosaur to call on whenever he chooses. Sorry cap, but a Zord beats a shield any day of the week.

Can you imagine what a Zord Hulk team-up would look like? It would be insane, especially if the team-up used the original Power Rangers footage.

Despite a low budget and technology restrictions, those original Zords are still beloved to this day, and St. John explains why.

"Well, the originals were iconic because they were the first," St. John said. "I remember the old TV show Voltron which was big and had the robots, that's what I saw and I loved it. I wanted one of those immediately, it shot the missiles, I can remember that to this day, so I think the first are iconic because they were the first. They weren't incredibly well shot, I mean it was guys in costumes in a miniature city, so you know you can't say that a lot of money was put into it, but they sure made a couple of billion dollars selling them."

While it won't include the Red Ranger, Hulk will appear once again in Thor: Ragnarok, which hits theaters on November 3, 2017.

[Embed id=998966]Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV Series (TVShow: mighty-morphin-power-rangers-tvshow)[/Embed]


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Vigilante Investigator, Writing

Vigilante Investigator: Hardboiled

February 13, 2017, Author: admin

The hardboiled genre of crime fiction has traditionally been steeped in a masculine ideology with its rigid loner code, the mythical detective an urban cowboy (ride in, solve the problem, ride out again), tough, cynical, and ever more isolated from his corrupt society. Controversies have arisen however as to whether generic conventions can remain intact when the private investigator is female. Can a female protagonist stay true to those conventions without becoming ‘Philip Marlowe in drag’?  There is a volume of fiction featuring women detectives who have attempted to transcend such generic codes and rewrite the archetypal male detective from a female perspective, but do the codes remain?

Contemporary female writers have been preoccupied with gender difference. In deference to the idea that society constructs the identity of people, I started writing my own female protagonist from a position of a belief in similarity, in the idea that men and women want the same things: status, love and freedom, and similarly are capable of the same things: corruption, violence and lust. My appropriation of the archetype aims to uphold generic codes.

Literary critics question whether transposing the gender of the private investigator is possible, if it can be successfully realised while still being true to the constraints of the genre. Bestselling author Sue Grafton, whose series of hardboiled mystery novels feature the female investigator Kinsey Millhone, is considered by some to challenge patriarchy and assert female autonomy. Critics claim however that either Grafton transforms the hardboiled style or genre for her feminist purposes, or that her feminism is negated by her appropriation of generic characteristics inherently marked by the male gender.

Why are the detective’s attributes of independence, assertiveness and problem-solving often seen as exclusively male qualities? I do not believe that the qualities attributed to hard-boiled heroes such as Marlowe are inherently male and think we can all relate to the idea of being someone who is cynical, ever more isolated from a corrupt society with a sure knowledge of the world and a keen moral sense. Chandler’s appeal was claimed to be that he wrote about personal spiritual survival, the crime in his novels a symbol for threats to the conscious control of personal life.

The idea of this being ‘an unsuitable job for a woman’ possibly stemmed from the claim that the hardboiled detective represented a fictional resolution of the challenge to patriarchy posed by the twentieth-century Women’s Movement. When women had shown they could work and support themselves without men, the original hard-boiled tradition gave rise to the femme fatale, a site for the exploration of the angst and fantasies surrounding notions of gender difference. Though she had largely the same traits as those of the loner male detective: cynical, independent, unfettered by domesticity, as a woman, she had to be punished for her divergence from society’s ideological ideal.

From the very beginning of the genre there were often contradictions and double standards at play. When it came to female characters, traits defined as feminine seemed to be bywords for lack. Early women detectives only seemed able to solve crime because of a special warning sense of evil. Visionary psychic ability and clairvoyance generally remained the female detective’s modus operandi and her often derided feminine intuition, never logic, played a large part in her success. In comparison, when male detectives employed intuitive deduction it was described instead as a hunch and their intellect was never called in to question. Apparently, there was no contradiction when Chandler had Philip Marlowe demonstrate vulnerability and complexity, or when his successor Ross Macdonald drew Lew Archer as sympathetic, humane, and compassionate, even though these were deemed somehow to be feminine attributes.

Traditionally women in the protagonist’s role then were seen to reinforce conventional attitudes. They were a long way from being tough and cynical loners. Even today, the idea of a woman being an autonomous loner seems to come largely with negative connotations. While it appears to be acceptable for a man to be alone without the notion that he is somehow incomplete, if a woman is not deemed to be an integral part of society she is seen to be failed in some way. The male detective operates outside society’s conventions because that is what male heroes do, that is not what female heroes should do.

Sara Paretsky’s novels have been hailed as exemplifying some of the important shifts that have occurred in the hardboiled formula. Her protagonist, V.I. Warshawski, often enjoys the help of (mostly female) friends. When it comes to emotional refuge, women often seek to be nurtured by a community of friendships in a way that most men do not and it is this support that has led some critics to claim that Warshawski seems rooted in a modern mythology which has little connection to “accepted” literary detectives such as Dashiell Hammett’s or Raymond Chandler’s.

To construct the character of Angela McGlynn as a cynical loner whose code of behaviour sets her outside the community and the law, I created her as a computer hacker who tracks down and dispenses her own brand of justice to paedophiles. In this way, not only is she set apart as someone with superior powers and insight, a true ‘Great Outsider,’ while online she is in an authentically gender-neutral landscape. She is both inside and outside the law, both criminal and the law. Her role as a private investigator enables her to utilise these skills while affording her a cover for a secondary more covert and antagonistic identity.

Critic Marilyn Stasio records that Paretsky and her contemporaries agree a female detective should not compromise her femininity. But how does one define a valid form of feminine behaviour? It leans toward the idea that we are either exclusively masculine or feminine as defined by gender as opposed to attribute, rather than viewing gender as a construct designed to encourage men to devalue or disallow their capacity for compassion and sensitivity, and to deny in women any femininity should they demonstrate power or assertiveness. If, in defining femininity, women are not supposed to display those attributes traditionally deemed to be male, woman are, by definition, only allowed to be passive and inadequate.

The femme fatale archetype seemed an interesting blueprint to rework for the kind of modern woman I wanted to portray. Angela McGlynn was to be sexual, uninterested in domesticity, with no desire (or ability) to maintain a long-term romantic relationship and to possess a capability for violence however, at the same time, she was to be compassionate, have a keen sense of justice, to be in essence liberated rather than cruel. In effect, I soon realised, she could embody the very same hardboiled characteristics as Marlowe and Spade yet be free from the societal stigmas of a time that sought to restrict women’s alternatives to marriage.

The notion of an inferior physicality, is often a charge levelled by those who maintain the detective role is an unsuitable job for a woman. Military and paramilitary forces employing women in combat roles around the world would surely disagree. Physical strength is taken out of the equation of any fight where superior martial skills are present and a firearm of course, is the ultimate leveller. Critics see the fictional male detective as a superior solitary figure, and although he may require assistants and other forces to supplement his activities, these figures are subordinate in every way. I had to question then my shaping of the story in terms of the additional male manpower that McGlynn employs. Utilising the character of John Knox was useful to explore gender expectations and to create sexual tension. By having him remain invested throughout the story in the idea of saving McGlynn it alludes to the crisis in his masculinity. McGlynn also remains, by virtue of her criminality and what she keeps hidden from him, very much self-contained.

Grafton, Muller and Paretsky’s heroines have been accused by critics of shying away from, and never initiating violence and I sought to change the idea that women are not, or cannot be, inherently violent. Violent women call into question our conceptions of masculinity and femininity, and reveal the limits of, or failures of, ideology.

So can a female protagonist fulfil the loner convention? I believe I have remained true to the imperatives of the genre. McGlynn, as a hacker, is autonomous and outside of societal structures in a neutral non-gendered landscape. The skill affords her a visionary ability based on logic. She is tough and cynically uses patriarchy as a double game to exploit men’s assumptions of what they deem to be her weaknesses. She is a maverick, a vigilante with her own brand of justice. She is an outsider in her criminality and in her emotional landscape. She works covertly outside of the system, consciously in control, while using her credentials within it as cover.

The hardboiled formula detective is increasingly isolated and cynical, forced into compromise, limited in maintaining satisfying love affairs, is psychologically complex, and physical violence is common. Patrolling the new frontier of cyberspace, Angela McGlynn I believe is a twenty-first century urban cowboy. I’ll leave it to readers to decide.


Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day. These are my babies.

Having four healthy children is not lost on me. A friend from nursing school - Ali - had a baby boy on July 1, 2014: her Ethan and my Jesse are birthday twins. While on the outside, they might be somewhat identical in terms of milestones and toddler behavior, on the inside, this "twin" status ends abruptly. Ethan has multiple congenital heart defects due to his heterotaxy syndrome. I won't lose you with the technical characteristics of his complexities, but if you saw him on the outside, you'd never suspect his insides were so mixed and twisted. His "typicalness" is itself a miracle. While I in no way can empathize with her as a mother handing her seemingly normal and healthy child over to a surgeon, I've seen families do it over and over again when I cared for cardiac patients in the pediatric intensive care unit. It's heartbreaking every time, but this time it feels different. With Ali, since I have my own same-aged toddler, my heart feels the weight with a vigorous intensity.

This morning, Ethan is slated for surgery at Boston Children's Hospital. This is no routine surgery. The full extent of the repair they will attempt is not even known until they get in there and see his anatomy before them. My heart weighs so heavy for Ali. If there ever was a modern day Abraham and Isaac, it looks like this.

During their twenty-week prenatal ultrasound, the routine test turned their entire world upside-down. They lived on a boat - a Mercy Ship - off the coast of Africa with their toddler daughter. Ethan's prenatal diagnosis demanded care from the best pediatric cardiac surgeons in the country. Having family in New Jersey, they moved to the States and delivered at CHOP where Ethan underwent surgery at just a few days of age. He was a rockstar through his first two surgeries, and in the past twenty-two months, Ethan has exceeded every expectation and met every milestone early. (Since he and Jesse are birthday twins, I could see this miracle so clearly because he did everything before Jesse - sitting up, crawling, walking.) While he bumps and bruises along as any toddler boy does, he's had far more doctor appointments and hospitalizations and needle sticks and ultrasounds and EKGs than other typical children his age, but Ethan is everything and more than Ali could have imagined. And today, she has to hand her sweet baby boy over to a surgeon. My heart sinks to my stomach, and words fumble to communicate the admiration I have for Ali's selfless and courageous mothering - and her ability to write about it so eloquently.

Not only is Ali a gifted nurse and a brave mother, she is also a beautiful writer. Over the past two years, she has penned their narrative on her blog and Ethan's facebook page where you can follow their journey - especially over these next few days.

Happy Mother's Day.

Hug those babies.