UPDATE FROM YESTERDAY:

I rode my back to Kenmore and back on the Burke-Gilman trail:

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and we watched "Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad" at the Wedgewood Co-Op (Sean's house).

It was an awesome day!

Regardless of the dominant paradigm, regardless of the encouragement to get ahead by working more and more, regardless of the need to work for an income, I am aware this morning that I will never get today back. I will likely have tomorrow and all the tomorrows after that, but I will never have this today ever again.

I've been growing up, becoming an adult... I've taken on the responsibilities (in partnership with my wife) of a mortgage and recognized the need to build a financial basis to raise children within. I've been curbing my appetite for instant gratification, for material consumption. All of that is fine and good.

In the midst of planning for tomorrow, though, I've neglected the art of living today.

So, TODAY, I aim to recapture that spirit... and how will I do this?

It's time to go for a bike ride, to draw in my sketchbook, and to watch a movie with friends!

Hey friends and family! Yasmin and I recently sent out our holiday cards and included the addresses for each of our blogs. In light of this fact, I'll be posting here again (after a 2+ year hiatus) in the coming weeks and months. I look forward to sharing with you, reading your responses, and seeing what you have to say on your blogs.

Talk to you all soon,
-Dave

it strikes me that two very good things are makin the press past few days:
stan "tookie" williams on deathrow... will gov schwarzenegger grant clemency?
Christian Peacemaker Teams members held hostage in iraq... will their lives be spared?

The Internationale

C'est la lutte finale/Groupons-nous et demain/L'Internationale/Sera le genre humain

"This is the final struggle/Let us join together and tomorrow/The International/Will embrace all the human race."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Internationale

could we sing socialist pop songs? could we make socialist art with mass appeal, not easily pastiched, but instead robust, as a way of maintaining broad hope for a socialist future?

and could it be... that in this socialist state... people would do what they are made to do? could education include teaching that helps people understand their innate giftedness while being linked to vocational skills?

AMERICANISM
can we as people on "the left" of the spectrum work to enhance the concept of american nationalism? can the most radical, protest-oriented lefties be in support of the nation and the state? can i claim americanhood, and usher others into that idea while firmly maintaining feminist, multicultural, and even subversive ideas?

i am a child of God... i am a jesus follower. i am here to speak up for the poor. and i am an american by birth, who loves the land, the people, and the culture of this country.

Of Montreal :

Of Montreal gives me the ability to live a more romantic life. Through my songs I add beauty and mystery and happiness and love and new landscapes and sadness and laughter to a life that's not very interesting by itself. My life is elevated to a better place through my songs. It's the same sort of thing that happens to me when I listen to someone else's music that I love or when I read Franz Kafka's stories or when looking at my brother's and Tim Roots drawings. They both contributed art to the package for my album. Just knowing that there is a secret world inside those people too, entering that world, being inside those worlds is when I'm most happy.

Listening to Brother West's commentary on the passing of Jacques Derrida last October (2004)
Cornel West: The Legacy of Derrida

deconstruction is a form of skepticism
david hume (finest skepticist in the english language)
derrida was a colonial subject in algeria, and a jew, who moved to metropo paris, imperial paris
called into question various hierarchies that justified imperialism
skepticism is a THREAT to those who want to preserve a certain status quo, to those who
want to preserve a certain hierarchical view of the world

critical of anti-semitism, american imperialism
jacques derrida was very different from many of his followers, similar to marx and jesus
he was not a deconstructivist in any narrow sense

in the end, there is a mystery, an ineffability of truth... we have to make certain leaps of faith
"i have tried to remain true to kierkegaard"
deeply religious, fundamentally tied to a notion of justice... keeping a limelight on the least of these: "others", subordinates, overlooked

Interview with Wendell Berry

from an Amazon.com review (by reviewer Charles D. Hayes) of The Twilight of American Culture (by Morris Berman):

I suggest you pass this by in favor of Neil Postman's "Technopoly" or Scott Nearing's "Living The Good Life". The single best strategy for dealing with whatever horrors as may face us is to live a life of meaning and purpose, and to do so as far removed from dependency on the current regime as possible.

an article on sleep:

http://www.catapultmagazine.com/issues/article.cfm?issue=58&article=516

thank God someone is saying this! not because i need every portion of my day to be justified with christian doctrine... but because the author's sentiment matches my own and flies in the face of american culture and even american christian culture, and EVEN american prophetic christian culture.

sleep: it's good for you, it's in line with rhythms that were created, it's one way in which we can move towards sabbath lifestyle.