Athena's Messenger Bag

I don't really share my pagan practices with my children, much. We sometime talk about myths or about different ways to think about spirituality, but I pretty much leave them out of most of it.

Having said that...

We recently bought Tiny Daughter M a new lunch box. School starts a little early here so we are starting to get ready. It is shaped like a tiny messenger bag covered with owls, her favorite bird, all in her favorite color. She is so in love with it that she wears it all over the house. Because of its shape and pattern, The Husband declared that she was "Athena's Messenger". After reminder her who Athena is, she really liked the title. She now declares that it is her Athena's Messenger Bag. At least until it starts hauling food to school.

Nothing about this encounter was especially deep, but I just really liked the idea of spreading wisdom. Maybe I just like it when the girls like things that I like and I have always resonated with Athena. My daughters have certainly helped me to become wiser. I like the goal: to become Athena's messenger maybe just even to myself.

Coulter-flavored Irony

So when I clicked Publish Post on a my last post praising Jon Stewart, an ad for Ann Coulter's book popped up. I was not prepared for that. At least I can be pretty sure they are not tailoring the ads to the content.

Jon Stewart is the Most Trusted Newsman in America

This makes me giddy. I may have once casually referred to Jon Stewart as "my personal lord and savior" but only because he made it possible to get throught the Bush years still somewhat sane.

My only trouble now is that I cannot watch The Daily Show and Rachel Maddow at the same time. Life is full of difficult choices.

Star Trek and UU

This weekend the Husband and I went to see Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan at the local theatre pub. I hadn't seen it on a big screen since I was seven. I can still remember waiting in line with my parents for over an hour for tickets. It may have been the first time I ever cried at a movie. This was a great nostalgia moment for me.

I got to thinking about how much Star Trek has meant to me and shaped my life. I have been a Trekkie since before I was old enough to go to school. There is actually an embarrassing Kirk-related kindergarten story about this. I probably wouldn't be a Humanist and I definitely would not be a UU without the lessons Trek taught me.

Star Trek taught me to accept different points of view for being as valid as my own. It taught me to stand up for the rights of everyone, but that no one needs to be right all of the time when it comes to matters of opinion. People are generally the best guide to how they live their own lives. I learned that sexuality is normal and healthy, and that is OK to be a precocious kid who loves science. Trek taught both the beauty and value of reason, and its limits. I learned that there may be other types or expressions of consciousness, but they don't have to be supernatural. It is possible to have a valuable spiritual practice that does not involve chalking everything up to, "because God said".

I know that Gene Rodenberry was an avowed atheist, and he would have been horrified to know that his creation helped to push me in a more religious direction, but I truly believe I would not have gravitated towards UU'ism without it.

I recently introduced my girls to Deep Space 9. The older stuff is a hard sell for them. They may never love Star Trek like I do, but I want to at least expose them to it. It did more to shape my personal ethics than anything else I can think of and I hope it will be a great guide for them.

Jonesing For Harry, and Hermoine, and Dumbledore, and the Weasleys...

I still have six hours to go and I can't wait to see the new Harry Potter movie tonight. Daughter E and I have gone to each of the HP movies either on the opening weekend or opening day if it starts on a Wednesday. It's our tradition and I'm excited.

I've been jonesing to re-read the last two books, but I am about to finally finish the Dune series so I have to finish Chapterhouse Dune first.

I'm sure I'll have more to say later, either celebration and glee or scorn and dissappointment, but for now I'm just counting down the hours. I shall leave you with this: Hermoine rocks!

Choosing Chanting

I've started to incorporate chanting into my meditations. So far, I've been using a couple of the most famous Buddhist mantra. So far, the chanting has been much easier for me than simple breathing meditation. I realize that easiness may not be the ideal trait for choosing spiritual practices, but I've been enjoying it. It hasn't changed my whole life or anything, but I've been doing it for the past five mornings and I haven't had a bad morning since and that says a lot.

Any other chanters out there? What works for you? What are you focusing on while chanting? Any fantastic mantra to recommend? I'd be particularly interested in goddess-themed chants, but I would be intrigued to hear what works for you. Do you prefer to chant in English (or your native tongue) or in Sanskrit, Japanese, etc.? This whole practice couldn't be more antithetical to my previous experience and background so I would really love to hear what, if anything, works for other people.

Eagle Encounter and Great Alaska Weekend

It is my firm opinion that no one loves summer like Alaskans do. I love it even more than most. Weekends like this are what makes it worthwhile to live with winter seven months of the year. Just beautiful.

We had a great 4th of July weekend here in south-central Alaska. The extended fam, my best girlfriend, and I went to the Girdwood Forrest Fair on Saturday. Girdwood is a bedroom community based around a ski resort and also the infamous home of Ted Stevens's re-modeled house. They have a music festival there every year that features lots of booths selling only hand made goods, sort of like a small state fair run by hippies. We brought a pic nic and spent the day in the sunshine in the mountains. I think I'll plan the logistics differently next time, but it was a good time. I was the driver so no bier garden for me, but maybe next year.

Yesterday, the girls and I went to the local swimming hole lake and got up close and personal with an eagle. Anchorage residents can be pretty blase about encounters with wildlife; we frequently have moose in our yard in the winter and bears are becoming more of a problem in some parts of town. (I'm not kidding, a bear recently ate a co-worker's cat. She lives sort of out in the woods though.) This was amazing even by Anchorage standards. We often see bald eagles flying around our house. They like to hunt for fish in the local lakes, but I have never been this close to one before. The eagle had its eye on some delicious looking goslings, when some seaguls chased it into a tree. They usualyl stay up pretty high so you don't see them down in the cottonwoods, but there it was trying to get one of those fuzzy little floating snacks. We finally went up near to the tree when we realized the seaguls weren't going to let it go anywhere, they are quite insistant, and we were only about 35 feet from the eagle. It was amazing and I will probably never get that close to an eagle outside a zoo ever again.

I made a big batch of Alaska-style bouillabaisse last night with salmon, halibut, cod, clams, and crab stock, all caught wild by someone I know. Real Alaskans consider me too much of a city girl to count, but I felt authentic last night. We finished up the evening on my deck with my husband and a good friend and a mojito watching the squirrels in the trees. The hot temperatures made the evening shade feel just perfect. I often dread the hassle and expectations of holidays, but this was the perfect ending to a great 4th of July weekend.

Palin Resignation

Well, at least I know what everyone will be talking about at the office on Monday. I am working very hard right now to remember the inherent worth and dignity of Sarah Palin.

There is a lot that bothers me about this, but one of them is discourtesy. Palin had a meeting with Mark Begich, our newest U. S. Senator two days ago and never mentioned she was considering stepping down. The President of the Alaska State Senate didn't get so much as a courtesy phone call or e-mail. The President of the Republican Governors Association got a phone call minutes before her announcement. Unfortunately, that lack of consideration is what I've come to expect from Palin by now.

The lefty Alaska blogs are abuzz about possible federal corruption charges. I don't know if there is anything to them, so they are just rumours at this time. That's all Alaska needs, another corruption scandal. I almost hope it's true because quitting your responsibilities because people pick on you is not a reason to leave executive office. Welcome to politics. I've never voted for Palin, but those Alaskans who did should be pretty pissed off right about now. Right or wrong, the feeling up here is that she has abandoned this state for the national stage, but we elected her to do a job for four stinkin' years. She has a little over a year left in her term and she couldn't stick it out?

Once upon a time, before July 2008, I disagreed with Palin about a lot of things, but I thought she was a good role model for my girls. She balanced a family, a successful carreer, and faith and she did it all in style, without seeming to break a sweat. Over the last year I've pretty much done a 180 on that one. The message she sent to girls today was that when the going gets tough, just quit and find something more exciting to do.