Baha'i Views http://bahaiviews.posterous.com Pithy excerpts, personal learnings, and the institute process posterous.com Wed, 16 May 2012 12:54:00 -0700 On Cooking in the Kitchen: Give your preschooler a peeler http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-cooking-in-the-kitchen-give-your-preschool http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-cooking-in-the-kitchen-give-your-preschool

Give a child meaningful work to do. "Here, Daniel. Please take this camping chair to the garage." I could have taken it myself, but giving him the task makes him feel special, provides a learning experience, and enhances the bond between us.

Let's not let our children grow up in isolation. Let's allow them to be around us, so they can imitate us, hang with us. Cooking in the kitchen? Give your child a carrot and a dull peeler and have him have at it. -gw

O my Lord! make the wings of prosperity to grow upon their shoulders, so that they may ever soar toward the apex of their aspirations; strengthen their loins in the service of Thy people, and confirm them in the thralldom and adoration of the threshold of Thy Holiness.

Tablets of Abdul-Baha Abbas

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1825185/FB_profile_4.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4avA6GTDKlxL George Dannells gw George Dannells Mon, 14 May 2012 14:43:09 -0700 On Believing Is Doing: A continual refinement http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-believing-is-doing-a-continual-refinement http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-believing-is-doing-a-continual-refinement
 
Sizing up our actual practices to see if it's in accordance with our beliefs. It's works for conducting parent-infant groups to promote child-parent attachment, and it works for life. Are things not working out like they should? Perhaps it's because our beliefs aren't matching up with our actions. Tweety Yates comments at the Early Childhood Conference in Tacoma may seem a bit out of context here, but I think not. The learning culture that characterizes the Baha'i institute process means that we are constantly reviewing our progress to make further refinements, and those refinements are based on our beliefs, our guidance, our texts. -gw
 
Say, O brethren! Let deeds, not words, be your adorning.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1825185/FB_profile_4.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4avA6GTDKlxL George Dannells gw George Dannells Mon, 14 May 2012 14:01:57 -0700 On the Role of the International Criminal Court: Faith in the possibility of justice being done http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-the-role-of-the-international-criminal-cou http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-the-role-of-the-international-criminal-cou
The International Criminal Court (ICC) was established on July 1, 2002 with the intention of acting as a permanent tribunal for heinous international offenses (crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes, and more recently, crimes of aggression).  Unlike the International Court of Justice—the judicial branch of the United Nations—the scope of cases, jurisdiction and mandate of the ICC are extremely narrow.   Given its limited function, it is not surprising that the ICC has only opened 7 cases and indicted 28 people.   The utility of such a court has been the subject of much debate and continues to spark controversy in political, military and academic circles.
 
Throughout the twentieth century, the international community contemplated the establishment of a permanent tribunal as a means to bring justice for serious international crimes and to hold accountable the perpetrators of those crimes.  Particularly after WWII, and then again following the genocides in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the outrage against these criminals drove many countries to take action.  Ad hoc tribunals were established to hold accountable those responsible for war crimes and massive ethnic killings.  Although these temporary courts were deemed successful in their limited scope, further atrocities demanded consideration of a permanent judicial body that could potentially deter future crimes. 

Crime is down in Tacoma, I read in the paper this morning. But globally, crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes, and more recently, crimes of aggression are not. A man held responsible for terrible crimes in Sierra Leone is up for sentencing. Permanent international institutions for meting out justice were foreseen in the Baha'i Writings. -gw
Olara Otunna, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, one of two keynote speakers, stressed the importance of the International Criminal Court as a mechanism for accountability, truth-seeking, and healing in cases of extreme conflict — especially those involving children.xHe also said that religious groups have a key role to play in healing and reconciliation. He said, for example, that religious leaders and women's groups were among the first actors to denounce rebel atrocities in Sierra Leone .

Further, Mr. Otunna said, faith and religion were often the last resort of innocent people in the face of extreme conflict.

http://www.onecountry.org/e154/e15412as_ICC_meeting_story.htm

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1825185/FB_profile_4.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4avA6GTDKlxL George Dannells gw George Dannells Mon, 14 May 2012 12:23:00 -0700 On Fixing the Health Care System: A community mental health agency up to the task http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-fixing-the-health-care-system-a-community http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-fixing-the-health-care-system-a-community
 
The little ol' community mental health agency I worked for since the early 90's has been awarded a 1.8 million dollar grant from the feds, the only community mental health agency on a list of 26 grand recipients. The KMH director wrote: "I am very confident we will develop a nationally replicable model to help fix the health care system and advance health care reform." Let's hear it for health care reform and Kitsap Mental Health!

Over coffee this noon I read an article that says that the movement towards universal health care is strong in many developing countries. -gw

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1825185/FB_profile_4.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4avA6GTDKlxL George Dannells gw George Dannells Sat, 12 May 2012 09:39:47 -0700 On an Alternative to Rushing Around: Refresh my Heart, O my God http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-an-alternative-to-rushing-around-refresh-m http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-an-alternative-to-rushing-around-refresh-m

Life is such a rush. Take this Muskkrat Sally, for example. Redwing blackbirds fuss and fight. Humans, on the other hand, take it easy. - gw

Refresh my heart, O my God, with the living waters of Thy love and give me a draught, O my Master, from the chalice of Thy tender mercy. Let me abide, O my Lord, within the habitation of Thy glory, and suffer me, O my God, to emerge from the darkness in which Thy divine obscurity is shrouded. Enable me to partake of every good Thou hast vouchsafed unto Him Who is the Point and unto such as are the exponents of His Cause, and ordain for me that which beseemeth Thee and well becometh Thy station. Do Thou graciously forgive me for the things that I have wrought in Thy holy presence, and look not upon me with the glance of justice, but rather deliver me through Thy grace, treat me with Thy mercy and deal with me according to Thy bountiful favours, as is worthy of Thy glory.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1825185/FB_profile_4.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4avA6GTDKlxL George Dannells gw George Dannells Sat, 12 May 2012 09:23:10 -0700 On Better Than Any Party: This http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-better-than-any-party-this http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-better-than-any-party-this It happened last night around 7:30. the energy of junior youth vibrant in the room, preparatory to devotions for UTYA Tigers/ Tacoma Invaders/ young people/ old people/ all people, as is the tradition for this Salishan home on a Friday night. -gw

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1825185/FB_profile_4.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4avA6GTDKlxL George Dannells gw George Dannells Sat, 12 May 2012 09:11:27 -0700 On Outdoors, a Place to Visit: And have spiritual conversations http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-outdoors-a-place-to-visit-and-have-spiritu http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-outdoors-a-place-to-visit-and-have-spiritu  

Thursday night I set up the canopy at the Tacoma Invaders practice and got a charcoal grill going. That's all I had to do. Kim took over, grilling 28 smoked sausage and polish dogs for families and players. I had a chance to talk junior youth with Coach Bruce, and visited with Quanda, Sharp, Mookie, Charles, Kim, Gianna, Isaiah, Eliza, Matt, Karen.... Mookie could come to junior youth Friday, if can be picked up. Trying to figure out when to have the Book 1 so Sharp can attend.  -gw

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1825185/FB_profile_4.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4avA6GTDKlxL George Dannells gw George Dannells Sat, 12 May 2012 08:42:33 -0700 On Outdoor Play: As good as any book http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-outdoor-play-as-good-as-any-book http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-outdoor-play-as-good-as-any-book  

At the 2012 Early Childhood Conference in Tacoma attendee Oralia, a bilingual family resource coordinator for early intervention birth to three, describes a visit she made to Mexico to visit family in which she sees a boy playing outside by the side of a road and notes just how unique and special that experience can be for a child -- and for the adults who love that child. 


Hers is a passionate plea. Reading books to children is great, but taking time to be outside is just as valuable, if not more so. There is so much to see. When is the last time you saw a cow, a deer, a muskrat, an owl, a squirrel, a red-winged blackbird? Have you ever seen a flock of pelicans soaring high in the air? - gw

... make ye an effort in order that these children may be rightly trained and educated and that each of them may attain perfection in the world of humanity.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1825185/FB_profile_4.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4avA6GTDKlxL George Dannells gw George Dannells Sat, 12 May 2012 07:44:53 -0700 On Focusing on the Grassroots: Both in the Faith and on the blog http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-focusing-on-the-grassroots-both-in-the-fai http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-focusing-on-the-grassroots-both-in-the-fai
The new Councils, serving, in most cases, a somewhat more limited number of clusters will thus be in a better position to work more closely with the friends laboring at the grassroots.

The U.S. Baha'i National Assembly announced an expansion in the number of regional councils, citing the reason above. This fits so closely my personal experience.

Big picture is good, but the work is at the grassroots. In my Baha'i community the teaching is now so robust, I cannot keep up with it. And so I focus on the area I have carved out, with the encouragement of the Area Teaching Committee, my social  space. Just today I learn my son has been tapped to animate a junior youth group at the Swan Creek Apartments on the Eastside. Didn't know that. He didn't tell me. That's the way it is today. So much happening I can't possibly intimately assimilate it all as I felt I once did.

Baha'i Views, the family of blogs that have been a focus of my energy since January of 2006, has undergone a slow transformation from a vehicle looking broadly at the world to a blog reflecting primarily the activities within my personal space, including the social space I have adopted within which to expand the core activities. It has, too, become more focused at the grassroots. -gw

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1825185/FB_profile_4.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4avA6GTDKlxL George Dannells gw George Dannells Tue, 08 May 2012 15:05:20 -0700 On Camping Cook Station: He had kindled a fire http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-camping-cook-station-he-had-kindled-a-fire http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-camping-cook-station-he-had-kindled-a-fire
Cooking food outside can be an exquisite pleasure, Who needs McDonald's when you've got this set up.  -gw
 
 
One day, in the course of one of His riding excursions into the country, Bahá’u’lláh, accompanied by His companions, saw, seated by Me roadside, a lonely youth. His hair was dishevelled, and he wore the dress of a dervish. By the side of a brook he had kindled a fire, and was cooking his food and eating it.
 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1825185/FB_profile_4.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4avA6GTDKlxL George Dannells gw George Dannells Tue, 08 May 2012 06:16:00 -0700 On Sometimes Math Isn't a Problem: If children seek the solution http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-sometimes-math-isnt-a-problem-if-children http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-sometimes-math-isnt-a-problem-if-children

Those familiar with the Baha'i-inspired Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program know about its use of math story problems that illustrate the principle of justice. Did you also know that mathematics is a focus of Head Start and even Early Head Start (for kids birth to 3)? Here our dear presenter to the Peninsulas Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation group can hardly hold his enthusiasm describing a challenge for kids.  Math isn't a problem if that problem is presented to a group of children to solve and pizza is a part of it. -gw

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1825185/FB_profile_4.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4avA6GTDKlxL George Dannells gw George Dannells Mon, 07 May 2012 22:47:21 -0700 On Biggest Moon of the Year: Conforming to the good-pleasure of God http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-biggest-moon-of-the-year-conforming-to-the http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-biggest-moon-of-the-year-conforming-to-the

"Where's the moon?" Bonita said at dusk. Just as we were ready to go to the tent, after having watched the fire forever, there it was. The biggest moon of the year. Coming up over the rise behind the van. -gw

THE acts of Him Whom God shall make manifest are like unto the sun, while the works of men, provided they conform to the good-pleasure of God, resemble the stars or the moon… 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1825185/FB_profile_4.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4avA6GTDKlxL George Dannells gw George Dannells Mon, 07 May 2012 22:22:00 -0700 On Matt & Christy Are Excellent Animators: With help from the dollar store http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-matt-christy-are-excellent-animators http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-matt-christy-are-excellent-animators

 

With help, Matt & Christy are excellent animators, Christy went to the Dollar Store and bought a poster to keep attendance from week to week. She also got some items for a treasure box. There were nine junior youth there Friday at 5 p.m. NINE! -gw

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1825185/FB_profile_4.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4avA6GTDKlxL George Dannells gw George Dannells Mon, 07 May 2012 21:28:11 -0700 On a Here Today Dog: Perfect in its own place http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-a-here-today-dog-perfect-in-its-own-place http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-a-here-today-dog-perfect-in-its-own-place

Everybody could use a here today dog. Christy and Lisa walk a dog that chose to hang around for a while, until its owners showed up and said, "Hey, that's our dog." -gw

‘Abdu’l-Bahá said: “Even the most developed dog has not the immortal soul of the man; yet thedog is perfect in its own place. You do not quarrel with a rose-tree because it cannot sing!”

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1825185/FB_profile_4.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4avA6GTDKlxL George Dannells gw George Dannells Mon, 07 May 2012 21:15:22 -0700 On Crime Happens in Every Neighborhood: As to the difference between that material civilization now prevailing http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-crime-happens-in-every-neighborhood-as-to http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-crime-happens-in-every-neighborhood-as-to

So Bonita is out on the neighbors porch for a while after we got back from the garden this evening. I hear animated discussion. Everybody has a story of being burglarized to share. We're not alone. Happens in every neighborhood. -gw

Divine civilization, however, so traineth every member of society that no one, with the exception of a negligible few, will undertake to commit a crime. There is thus a great difference between the prevention of crime through measures that are violent and retaliatory, and so training the people, and enlightening them, and spiritualizing them, that without any fear of punishment or vengeance to come, they will shun all criminal acts. They will, indeed, look upon the very commission of a crime as a great disgrace and in itself the harshest of punishments. They will become enamoured of human perfections, and will consecrate their lives to whatever will bring light to the world and will further those qualities which are acceptable at the Holy Threshold of God. 

 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1825185/FB_profile_4.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4avA6GTDKlxL George Dannells gw George Dannells Mon, 07 May 2012 21:03:00 -0700 On What Sensitive Teachers of Young Children Do: Anticipate, notice, respond & provide support http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-what-sensitive-teachers-of-young-child-do http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-what-sensitive-teachers-of-young-child-do

I will plumb the depths of the early childhood conference I attended last week for the next year, there was so much to contemplate. Here is a start. -gw

.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1825185/FB_profile_4.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4avA6GTDKlxL George Dannells gw George Dannells Mon, 07 May 2012 20:47:38 -0700 On Our Hawaii: Eastern Washington http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-our-hawaii-eastern-washington http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-our-hawaii-eastern-washington

Our Hawaii is this part of Eastern Washington. Bonita and I go there whenever we are free to go forth. We say our prayers from there. -gw

The year was 1913, and Miss Alexander recalls: “My only desire was to serve His Cause. The words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá rang in my ears: ‘I have a lamp in My Hand searching through the lands and seas to find souls who can become heralds of the Cause. Day and night I am engaged in this work.’
“I prayed that His lamp might find me. For nearly twelve years I had been privileged to assist in establishing His Cause in Hawaii. Now the time had come when I was free to go forth to serve in other parts of His lands…"

http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/c/JWTA/jwta-3.html.utf8?query=hawaii&action=highlight#gr1 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1825185/FB_profile_4.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4avA6GTDKlxL George Dannells gw George Dannells Fri, 04 May 2012 18:19:06 -0700 On We Are Lovers of Sunlight: And so we go east of the mountains http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-we-are-lovers-of-sunlight-and-so-we-go-eas http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-we-are-lovers-of-sunlight-and-so-we-go-eas

Bonita and I will be going east of the mountains for our first camping experience of the year. I was in Yakima taking pics for the Tacoma Invaders football team the end of March and felt the warm sun that Saturday. Temperatures may not be as warm as they were then, but no matter. We're going. There will be full sun on Sunday. We'll bask in it with our winter coats on if we have to. -gw

 

We must recognize the sun, no matter from what dawning point it may shine forth, be it Mosaic, Abrahamic or any personal point of orientation whatever, for we are lovers of sunlight and not of orientation. We are lovers of illumination and not of lamps and candles. We are seekers for water, no matter from what rock it may gush forth. We are in need of fruit in whatsoever orchard it may be ripened. We long for rain; it matters not which cloud pours it down. We must not be fettered. If we renounce these fetters, we shall agree, for all are seekers of reality.  

Abdu'l-Baha,  28 May 1912
Talk at Reception at Metropolitan Temple
Seventh Avenue and Fourteenth Street, New York

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1825185/FB_profile_4.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4avA6GTDKlxL George Dannells gw George Dannells Fri, 04 May 2012 06:52:18 -0700 On A Meditation on Umbrellas: On the way to Bahji http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-a-meditation-on-umbrellas-on-the-way-to-ba http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-a-meditation-on-umbrellas-on-the-way-to-ba


 ...

Moments with Baháʾuʾlláh: Memoirs of the Hand of the Cause of God ...

 By Ṭarāz Allāh Samandarī

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1825185/FB_profile_4.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4avA6GTDKlxL George Dannells gw George Dannells Fri, 04 May 2012 06:37:39 -0700 On Learning to Share Stories: A practice of Baha'i study circles http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-learning-to-share-stories-a-practice-of-ba http://bahaiviews.posterous.com/on-learning-to-share-stories-a-practice-of-ba Bonita said how she loved that Christy, Eliza, and later Matthew, Jessica, and Isaiah were able to join us for Book 4 Baha'i study at our home. It gave the rest of us -- tutor Deb, Kay, Jim, Farhad, and Lisa -- the opportunity to practice sharing the stories of the Founders of our Faith. -gw

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1825185/FB_profile_4.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4avA6GTDKlxL George Dannells gw George Dannells