5 Wishes for our Second Term

I only have five small wishes for the next four years. Okay, they're big wishes. But they're good ones that will make the country more safe, sane, and sustainable.

1. End oil subsidies*
2. Stop Education Reform
3. Overturn Citizens United
4. Bring back the Public Option
5. Ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Some of these are links to petitions, others are still links are to more information. Please share any new developments and serious petitions in the comments here or on FB.

*(subwishes include subsidizing renewables, ratifying Kyoto protocols, and adopting 350ppm as a national security priority)

Caveman Fever

I've just had the most interesting conversation with my old roommate, Daniel Suelo, who is now very famous for giving up money. (No, that's not why we stopped living together.) I kidnapped him after his booksigning last night, so I could give him some free stuff and feel good about myself. (Actually, I wanted him to meet my family.) And now the time comes for him to get back to San Francisco so he can meet up with the author of his biography and get on to the next stop on their freakishly popular (thank you, the 99%) book tour.

Rockin' the new caveman fan fashion trend....

Daniel and I reminisced about living in a six-person household in Boulder, Colorado in the mid 1980s. We were a ragtag bunch of ungrounded youth, unsure of what to do with our lives, collected by my big brother Damian, who had met Daniel in a Religion course at CU. All we wanted to do was talk philosophy, listen to the new Sting solo album, and eat leftover rice from The Harvest, Boulder's most happening natural restaurant, where my little brother Felix was a busboy. We managed to get along okay with little to no money, not (of course) by choice, being resourceful and helping each other through our problems. We built important life skills together, like home dentistry. (Today's Obamacare kids have it so easy, enjoying dad's health insurance 'til age 26!)

Boulder has, or at least had, at the time, anti-commune laws leftover from the 1960s, so when the landlord found out there were six unrelated people living together in his suburban home, he evicted us. Before we moved, we contemplated easier solutions. For example, since three of us were related already, I could just marry Daniel, and then the household would be over 50% related. It was almost worth it to get married just so we could hyphenate our names: "Daniel and Kristen Shellabarger-Baumgardner." Even better: Shellabaum-Gardnerbarger.

Back to today. Since my almost-hubby doesn't use money, I'm planning to give him the gift of a BART ticket. But hmmm.... He has to make a Muni connection. How to deal with that? Daniel's choice to break up with money brings up so many curious and interesting questions. (FAQs are here.) Is it aesceticism or aestheticism? How do you live in a mindset of acceptance? What if you break your leg? How do you eat a thistle? We discussed the many options of him getting from BART to Muni. Would he hop the train? Could he stand around with the book in his hand and hope someone came up to offer him a ticket? Hold up a sign that says, "I don't use money. Help me get on this train."

I've been peppering him with questions all morning, (help him train for the Santa Cruz audience, of course,) but now I really want to know: "Do you EVER use money, if someone gives it to you?"

He replies, "sometimes people will give me money to buy something they need, but I don't use it to buy something for myself."

"So, If I gave you $2, could you buy a Muni ticket for my friend Daniel?" Ha HA! I trapped him with my clever logic! He grins and blushes, deeply.

But I don't want to be the one to come between a man and his art—and I do believe he is living his art. I'll just give him a ride and enjoy the adventure.

St. John's ForNever...

Awww... I didn't win the contest to update the lyrics for my alma mater.  So, here's what the world missed...

(Click here to start soundtrack...)

here's the old version:

St. John’s forever; her fame shall never die.
Fight for her colors! We’ll raise them to the sky!
Each loyal son pledges you his heart and hand;
For her united, we as brothers stand.

here's my new version:
St. John’s forever! Your wisdom through us flows.
Bless your sons and daughters with knowledge that grows.
Johnnies eternally discussing love and law
For her united, we fight for ta kala! *

At convocation our odyssey begins
And with each page’s turning the mind of Man opens
The logos of freedom to seek reality.
Dialogues and elements our only rivalry.

As we continue our journey of the mind
Through discourses and amalgests, a greater truth we find.
Our nature strives toward beauty through sonnets, songs, and art:
The eidos of creation within the human heart.

Through fables, treatises, pensées, we feel the years fly by
Critiques, essays, principia our knowledge amplify
Contracts, novels, theories fill our precious days
Declarations, constitutions, operas, preludes, plays.

Speeches, fragments, poems, phenomenology;
Thoughts of great minds forming our own philosophy.
Past war and peace and quantum leaps, our epic journey ends,
And we become liberis, your books our cherished friends.

Now we have walked with giants, yet for all we’ve learned,
Endings are beginnings; for knowledge we still yearn.
Not content with laurels, the examined life’s our goal.
St. John’s eternal! The mater of my soul.

St. John’s forever! Your wisdom through us flows.
Bless your sons and daughters with knowledge that grows.
Johnnies eternally discussing love and law
For her united, we fight for ta kala! *

© 2012 Kristen Baumgardner Caven

*Alt: We read and waltz and play croquet and fight for ta kala!

10 powerful actions to start on 10-10-10

1. Calculate your carbon footprint if you haven't already.
2. Find 10 appliances that use electricity in your house and find ways to keep them off. (Here's a good helper.)
3. Get a good bike, find a good route, or make some friends to carpool with to your regular places.
4. Learn the 10-second rule of idling and cut your car's carbon 10% or more.
5. Find 10 ways to make better food choices.
6. Start a recycling and composting plan in your home or workplace if you haven’t already.
7. Plant 10 trees in your neighborhood or in a national forest. (Here's how.)
8. Tell 10 people about 350ppm! It's easy to forward links from Youtube.
9. Write a letter to a newspaper or tv station and ask them to report the daily carbon ppm count with the weather report.
10. Commit to writing 10 letters, going to 10 rallies, or signing 10 petitions to demand responsible climate leadership this year.

What else should be on this list? Any other or better ideas?

Letter to Gary Craig

Dear Gary,

EFT is amazing. Who would think that tapping on certain pressure points with a mental focus could actually relieve pain, release stress, and cure everything from PMS to PTSD? But I have a problem. Whenever I try to explain EFT to other people, their eyes either glaze over or roll. I don't feel like "Emotional Freedom Technique" gives the right impression. It's so serious, but EFT is so fun! When the energy shifts, for me, there's a giddy feeling that follows. It can feel like a magic trick.

When I was a kid I was part of the 'Episcopal Youth Congregation.' We thought EYC should stand, instead, for 'Eat Your Cauliflower.' In that spirit...

The T should stand for tapping.
The E should stand for energy

Energy tapping....
Energy something tapping....

Energy Fomething Tapping....

Energy Freedom Tapping?
Energy Feeling Tapping?

Energy Field Tapping...

Energy Flow Tapping!

Feel free to use any of these new names if you like. (I bet the domain names are available!) I'd like to think of new acronyms as my contribution to the Endless Finger Tapping revolution!

Think about it: people could now approach kids with hurt feelings with this invitation: "Want to try an Energy Fluffing Trick?"

Ever Full of Trouble,

Kristen Caven

What Happened to Fern?

It's All God's Fault

I just found this poem, written by Clare Boothe Luce (creator of "The Women") at age ten:

"Thou madest man perfect
Then Thine alone is the blame
If Thou leftest in womankind
The flaw that bought him shame.

I couldn't have said it better. Women can't HELP but try new foods sometimes! Insert "homokind" for "womankind" and you've got a whole new reading of it.