NRU, including some snark

I think this book review proves that it is not always a great thing to be mentioned in the New York Times. OUCH! I don't know if I would have been tempted to pick up this book as I have so much other reading to do, but this is certainly a persuasive treatise on why one should not.

As I write this, not on the day it will be posted, it has been a day of "wow" and this piece on "The Wizard of Watts" fits neatly into WOW.  I probably won't watch it because I am fan of neither adult cartoons or musicals.  But, I sure will be interested to know how others liked it.

Sometimes, I stumble on to something that is just a good read.  This is one ... there are probably a million things I could say, relate to or disagree with here, but I just wanted to share it.

Maybe it is just the strong memories of passing that drew me to this story, I don't know.  But I read with interest.  A couple of weeks ago, I decided that I didn't want to be buried in the ground at the cemetery with my paternal grandparents.  We were there to take my brother a christmas tree my mom had decorated for him.  We didn't realize the cemetery had been affected by the mudslides.  Instead of a quiet visit to the headstones, I spent the time cleaning off my brother's marker, then digging out my grandparents, great aunt and uncles' headstones.  My grandmother and great aunt had big rocks over the two inches of mud that was already sprouting.  The others had no rocks but another inch of mud.  My body ached for days after scraping off the mud.  It occurred to me as I crouched over their graves that I could not expect anyone I know to do anything of the sort for me.  I am the last of the grave visitors in my family.

Jean Jullien

There are no words that can truly soothe the people of France (or anyone who believes in the freedom of speech or that does not see the value of intolerance) for the actions against Charlie Hebdo this week.  I searched around for something in the media, but the most salient seemed to be Jon Stewart's Nazi Cows...

The Daily Show
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Of course, comedy and satire require an answer in comedy and satire.  But, within that satire, there was a kernel we can take away... we cannot meet the killers intolerance with intolerance of our own.  Rather the only thing we can do is practice compassion ... even when it seems like the most difficult thing to do for the people seemingly least deserving of compassion.  That is the thing about compassion, it does not ask first, do you deserve it...it needs to be piled on indiscriminately, like love.

Finally ... there is activism for all people, apparently, as the Yarn Bombers (yes they are a thing) are planning their own reaction to murder in lieu of civil protection.  It will appear in LA on Monday...