Today is the 800th birthday of the Sufi poet Rumi. There have been celebrations by people of all sorts of cultures and religious beliefs and "semas" with Whirling Dervishes all over the globe today. It's fascinating to read about him and the beautiful tenants of Sufi Muslim thought. (The info about him and The Whirling Dervishes is from Wickopedia) . . . . "Love’s nationality is separate from all other religions, The lover’s religion and nationality is the Beloved. The lover’s cause is separate from all other causes Love is the astrolabe of God’s mysteries." . (from The Masnavi-ye Manav) . . "The "Masnavi" weaves fables, scenes from everyday life, Qur’anic revelations and exegesis, and metaphysics, into a vast and intricate tapestry. Rumi is considered an example of "insan-e kamil" — the perfected or completed human being. In the East, it is said of him, that he was, "not a prophet — but surely, he has brought a scripture". Rumi believed passionately in the use of music, poetry and dancing as a path for reaching God. For Rumi, music helped devotees to focus their whole being on the divine, and to do this so intensely that the soul was both destroyed and resurrected." . . . . "It was from these ideas that the practice of Whirling Dervishes developed into a ritual form. He founded the order of the Mevlevi, the "whirling" dervishes, and created the "Sema", their "turning", sacred dance. In the Mevlevi tradition, Sema represents a mystical journey of spiritual ascent through mind and love to "Perfect." In this journey the seeker symbolically turns towards the truth, grows through love, abandons the ego, finds the truth, and arrives at the "Perfect"; then returns from this spiritual journey with greater maturity, so as to love and to be of service to the whole of creation without discrimination against beliefs, races, classes and nations." . .
. . "Come, come, whoever you are, Wanderer, idolater, worshipper of fire, Come even though you have broken your vows a thousand times, Come, and come yet again. Ours is not a caravan of despair" . . Peace, T
Marc's On Opiates And He's Popping Out Extraneous Organs Left And Right Over Here
Marc went into surgery around 8:30 this morning. They were able to do a laparoscopic cholecystectomy to remove the hateful gall bladder and we left the hospital at noon. That freaking amazes me.
(He told me that the first thing he heard when he came to in the recovery room was a baby crying, and...he asked the nurse if he had just given birth. My old man sure is a funny one alright...apparently ESPECIALLY funny when he's hopped up on mass quantities of Daluadin and Percocet.)
Note to self: I hope he has extra Percocet left after he recovers all the way.
So aaaaanyways, he'll rest and get waited on hand and foot for a few days and take happy pills. I'm really relieved the surgery and the gall bladder attacks will be over.
We just watched a Nina Simone live concert from Montreaux 1976. Awesome awesome awesome. What an incredible talent. What a woman. What a human.
I know I've posted this video of her a couple of times already, but I never get tired of seeing it. It's a beautiful and bittersweet song, and she nails it.
Many Blogstream members are there
already! Quotes from members: "It's like blog lite!" -- "I like the instant
gratification!" -- "Stop spectating, get in the game!"
If you have not joined in, you are really missing out!
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T 
