---------------------
Welcome to
*CATLINES*
the MEWsletter!
For cat-loving Home Business PURRSons:
home business workers desiring to
share what they know
---------------------
Brand new! another newsletter for you!
Especially for your friends who
are not as into cats as we are!
Home Business Tips/BIZLINES:
http://www.bizofchoice.com(our new
sister publication)
--------------------
Remember to Help the feline population by adopting or fostering
stray,
hungry, frightened cats!
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
New entries on our website; come check them out!
Something there just
for you!
New Ebooks, new posters and more!
http://www.catliness.com
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Animal Lovers' Jewelry is Now Open for Business:
Sterling silver items
made in Italy; and hand-made gemstone cat
jewelry made by none other
than:
YOUR EDITOR/PUBLISHER!
http://www.animalloversjewelry.com
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
*******
Proud Members:
This ezine is listed at Ezine Publishers Association
Inc.
(EPAI)
**********************
>^..^< >^..^< >^..^<
*CATLINES*
vol. 2, Issue 6, August 15, 2003
(in nine lives of progress)
=====================
Editor: Lauren Merryfield
=======>^..^<=====
*******
*******
********
=====================
*******
If you are receiving this newsletter, either you subscribed
recently or
received a copy from a friend. Thank you for joining
and accepting our catly
ezine, ads and other notices from
catliness.com!
*******
---------------------
>^..^< >^..^< >^..^<
(3 kitty heads, representing Jaspur, Mikey and Gabrielle,
suPURRvisors
and helPURRs in these adventures into catliness.)
=====================
>^..^< >^..^< >^..^<
And now! ... 3cats present...
* CATLINES *
=====================
Table of contents:
1: Kibble Nibble: mewsings from the food bowl (editorial)
2: Kitten Kabootle's Kubbyhole (catly writings) (in loving memory
of
Kitten Kabootle, now living at Rainbow Bridge)
3: biz-catskills (home-business, motivational or general
biz
articles)
4: look what the cats dragged in (jokes, quotes, very brief
verse)
5: from Outside the catbox (questions, comments from readers)
6: subscription info and other strays
---------------------
---------------------
Your Treats for August
(copy the links into your browser for them to
work properly)
=====================
DISCOVER THE HIDDEN TRUTH ABOUT PET FOOD!
Do YOU really know "what" your pet IS eating? Healthy Pet Net
is
Dedicated to Pet Healthy Ideas. Love animals?
=====================
1: Kibble Nibble: mewsings from the food bowl (editorial)
Hi, Cat-loving Home-Business PURRSons,
Typically, this time of year is spoken of as the "dog days" of
summer;
not a very catly idea, huh? It has been unusually warm
here but we
always have a reprieve as the night-time brings the
temperature down, without
exception. Not necessarily true out in
the midwest where we lived
formerly.
August 13th is Gabrielle's adoption date, which we treat as
her
birthday, so a nice "happy birthday to you!" comes from us
to
her. Go ahead and sing it, wherever you are!
Our daughter is coming to visit us next week, so we're busy
trying to
think up some ideas that a 22-year-old would enjoy.
She asked if we knew
anyone here her age; strangely, we do not.
We're not making it big on Ebay yet, but a slow start is better
than no
start. Wow, a quote worth remembering!
Anyone out there know whether the term "catly" made it into
the
dictionary yet? I'm still checking.
Well, now, on with the issue.
*******
For those you know who are not into catliness to the extent that
we are,
and/or if you'd like another home-business-oriented ezine
to PURRuse, check
out:
http://www.bizofchoice.comYour ads
will eventually appear in BIZLINES.
BIZLINES is a part of your subscription
there and it comes out
when it's ready, lol.
*******
Please remember the free ad board for placement of your
ads--read
below. Here's a major hint for advertising in CATLINES.
One's
ad is much more likely to place in CATLINES if it is composed so
as
to keep with our catly theme. Thanks.
(Don't you just *love* people who don't practice what
they
preach?) lol. I'm thinking on this one! One snag is
that some
companies want us to use their ads and our catly creativity
could
be frowned upon in a not-at-all aMEWSing way.
Lauren Merryfield,
(see bio elsewhere in this issue)
*********************
*******
*******
*********************
=====================
Thanks. LM
=====================
How can you save on gas, time and effort, yet have all the health
and
beauty products you need? Have them shipped right to your
door. I'm talking
about everyday items: toothpaste, deodorant,
beauty items, safe cleaning
products, nutritional supplements
that taste good!, lip balm (the best) and
so much more! Just shop
at *our* store; items shipped to your door!
http://safe4u.toxicfreehomes.com
"Household cleansers are the major source of home toxins.
Approximately
500,000 tons of liquid cleaners are washed down
U.S. drains annually. Most of
these products rely on petroleum-
based surfactants, solvents and other
chemicals, some of which
are known to be acutely toxic in large doses. Others
have been
linked to reproductive illnesses and cancer. Most of
these
chemicals have not been tested for their impact on human health."
-
Judy Morgan, Environmentalist
---------------------
=====================
2: Kitten Kabootle's Kubbyhole (catly writings)
Definitely not the cat's Meow
by Lauren Merryfield
Has anyone who is a true catlover noticed lately how uncatly some
people
speak of or behave towards cats? I cringe, and often let
out a meow,
upon being exposed to such uncatly remarks or
behavior.
Someone wrote to me not long ago explaining that her family was
moving
to Canada, so they needed to sell a bunch of items. This
sounded
intriguing, and, in fact, I did purchase a used laptop
from her.
However, a few emails later, she mentioned how they had a dog and
a cat
and they "guessed they could travel okay with the dog, but
not the cat," she
said. Why not? I dared to ask.
"Well, to tell the truth, the kids are more attached to the dog.
The cat
is more aloof and probably won't mind getting a new
home," she
continued.
I asked what their arrangements were for the cat's new home.
Rather
off-handly she said "Oh, he's staying here. If the people
who buy our
house don't want him around, they can take him to the
Humane
Society Cats are survivors."
Humane? Survivors? No, I didn't say it, but I sure thought it.
There is entirely too much second-class treatment of cats in
this
world. To make it worse, it appears that many people do not
even
realize they are regularly one-downing their cats in one way
or
another.
Another person told me that her grandmother decided, after 12
years, to
get rid of her cat, because "I am old and she is old
and she keeps waking me
at 4AM and asking for food when I am too
tired, and I just don't have the
energy to play with her
anymore." (something like that.
This woman had asked her kids, all of whom had families of their
own, if
they'd take on Snowshoes but they all had their own
routines, their own pets,
and did not seem to want to be bothered
by the problems of "Mom's old
cat."
Didn't want to be bothered????
The final straw that brought on this article was an utterly
uncatly
experience I had on Monday evening of this week.
I have recently joined a support group for people who have
fibromyalgia
and/or chronic fatigue syndrome, which has been very
enlightening and
something I could have done well to find much
sooner.
The August program was touted as the most popular meeting of the
year,
due to their speaker; a physician who really believes that
fibromyalgia and
chronic fatigue syndrome are real and he's come
up with some rather
unorthodox treatments. This naturally brings
in a crowd.
I attended this meeting with the same hopes as others, wanting
helpful
information that might help me and others I know with
these conditions.
After struggling over where to put the overhead, he gave us each
a
handout and began a very informative case-study-type report,
using a patient,
Sara, as his focal point.
He discussed allergies, environmental effects, chemical
intolerance,
metal poisoning, and other interesting topics.
However, in the near beginning of Sara's treatment, he advised
Sara,
whose cat slept with her each night, to get rid of the
cat--"the cat has got
to go," he stated firmly.
Sara, being more compliant than I ever would be, obliged halfway.
She
could not make herself get rid of her beloved cat, so her
next best option
was to put the cat out.
Put the cat out? I almost yelled! It seemed that neither Sara
nor
her doctor were very knowledgeable or concerned about the
plight of an
outdoor cat--especially a cat who has been indoors
since kittenhood.
The doctor went on to relate that the cat kept banging on the
door so
hard that Sara could not sleep, and eventually it managed
to get back in the
house, so Sara had to put him back out yet
another time, feeling somewhat bad
about it.
Not badly enough, I thought. I don't usually want to
encourage
anyone to feel guilty, but in this case, I might have felt
better
if Sara or the doctor had felt more guilt about the cat's side
of
the story. The loneliness, the lack of safety, the
extreme
weather conditions, the cat wondering what on earth he did
to
deserve this punishment and what would become of him. "Will
anyone ever
love me again?" "Will I ever find someone else to
love, if she just
won't let me back in?"
That is not the end of this cat tale. Sara reported to the
doctor
that she put a card table in front of the door so that the
cat could not get
back in.
And that, sadly *was* the end of the doctor's story of Sara and
the cat,
as he went on to explain further treatments to help Sara
to become more than
bedridden.
Okay, I know I am weird. I went "reeeeeeeeeeeow" whenever
the
speaker made these uncatly remarks, to the extent that before he
left
he did comment that he thought he had helped several people
feel much
better--except the cat, and we all laughed, but I still
wanted to "reow"
again.
This was a doctor with whom many felt so comfortable and members
of this
group were looking so forward to hearing him speak.
Well, he may know
something about the conditions he came to us to
discuss, but I am not at all
impressed with his uncatliness.
And neither are Jaspur, Mikey and Gabrielle,
for that matter.
join CATLINES:http://www.catliness.com
"People are like stained-glass windows. They
sparkle and shine when the
sun is out, but when
the darkness sets in, their true beauty is
revealed
only if there is a light from within."
-Elizabeth Kübler-Ross
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Cat Out!
I'm not sure when it happened. This afternoon I was dragging
a
huge, heavy box of toys in that will be auctioned off soon
on
Ebay. I knew the box was too heavy for Jim to lift, and
wondered
if I could do any better, but it did drag well.
Or it could have been when Jim and I left for a ride as we
listened to
the Mariners' Baseball game.
Or, PURRhaps, it was when we came back? No, because Jim said
immediately
"Only two cats coming to greet us."
Jaspur had gotten out! Again!
The other day, a friend was visiting and she said "You know, the
cats
really need to get out. They'd get more fresh air, they'd
have more
room to run around and they'd find friends out there."
Thing is, Jaspur
understands way too much and I bet those words
etched into his little kitty
heart!
We heard awful cat fights down the hill from here. We called
for
Jaspur, Jim looked around but we found no signs of a cat up here.
Our daughter and I were instant-messaging and she said she bet
he'd come
back. I, of course, was going into all of his funny
stories, his
looooong black tail, his nicknames, how cute he was
when he was a kitten;
like he was already gone.
I am familiar with the song "the cat came back the very next
day," which
comes in quite a number of variations.
But Jaspur--would he really come back?
When? I couldn't sleep.
At 1-51AM, as I was instant-messaging with Lynden, (who is coming
to
visit us next week, by the way) I heard this blood-curdling,
huge, full yowl
right out near our porch. Actually it came
*from* our porch. It
woke Jim and I hurried to the front door
calling "Jaspur!" as he streaked in
and hid.
Mikey, the laid-back one, growled at Jaspur as he re-entered
our
home. Jim and I both said "Good for you, Mikey; you tell
him!"
lol.
Well, he's back! At least for now!
--Lauren Merryfield
*******
08/14/03 - 7:23 pm Video Available
Protecting Your Pets
News 36
Video
Here is the
story:
. Coyotes
Coyote attacks in Austin are on the rise. Biologists say they'll
jump
fences for food and have even threatened humans.
Meet an Austinite who found out the hard way why scientists want
you to
watch out for coyotes these days.
"I never dreamed they'd come in the yard, and I never dreamed our
cats
wouldn't be able to get away. She was the wildcat. She
caught the birds. We
thought
she was hiding somewhere," Austinite Susan Power said, "Then
we
saw a big pile. He said it as a whole lot of fur. My husband
suspected
coyote."
He's not alone.
"Coyotes love cats. So if the cat's outside, and they're
anywhere
around, they're going to take that cat," wildlife
biologist
Janean Romines said.
If you live anywhere near any of Austin's abundant waterways
and
greenways, your risk is high.
"They're probably not living on this creek but they use it as a
highway
for them there's a water source here and small animals,"
Romines said, "I've
been tracking this for four years and at the
time I was probably getting 25
to 30 calls a year now it has
increased to two to three calls a week."
"We had raccoons possums with a fence we thought we were pretty
OK,"
Power said.
As she posts signs to teach neighbors what she learned for
herself,
biologists warn the problem could get worse.
"This is the time they have pups. Pups are getting older not so
we're
seeing a lot of activity cause of that and we ill see a lot
more pet kills as
a result of coyotes feeding pups," Romines
said, "We really had no idea our
cars were in danger or we
wouldn't let them outside we will never let our
other cats be
outside at night again."
Romines says the problem is Austin wide and that coyotes also
attack
small dogs. That's why she recommends removing what
attracts them like food
and water
and pets.
--contributed by Niki Behrikis Shanahan
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
From: Ev <(cat writers' list.)
Sorry to hear about Candy's passing. A few days ago the following
poem
was posted on another list in memory of a cat who just
passed away this
week.
Listen closely.
Shhhh.there!
Did you hear that?
Just
the softest rustle.a little breeze
just barely moving the
leaves on that tree over there?
No..close.
but somehow
not.
the sound, more felt than
heard
when you walk barefoot thru soft grass
in summer?
No.
this was more wonderful than
those
yet sad too.
as it
will never be heard again.this way.
The sound of a shining new angel taking
flight.
~ Author Unknown
=====================
Subject: FW: Animal Rescue Site
It only takes a second, and hopefully it helps!
Please Help....
Please tell ten friends to tell ten today!
The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to
click
on it daily to meet their quota of getting free food
donated every day to
abused and neglected animals.
It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on
"feed an
animal in need" for free.
This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors /
advertisers
use the number of daily visits to donate food to
abandoned/neglected animals
in exchange for advertising.
(Editor's note: They have catly jewelry there, too, proceeds
going
to help animals)
=====================
MEOWMEOWMEOWMEOWMEOWMEOWMEOWMEOW
Lauren Merryfield is the editor/publisher of CATLINES. She and
her
husband, Jim, live in Washington with their three feline
"kids," Jaspur,
Mikey and Gabrielle.
And even *more* "Heaven forbid," she's on Ebay:
She is enjoying spreading her catliness around!
MEOWMEOWMEOWMEOWMEOWMEOWMEOW
---------------------
InstantAudio
Join us today:
- increase sales
- improve customer
satisfaction
- reduce selling costs
- gain a competitive edge
- grow
your market share
- strengthen customer loyalty
- demonstrate how
innovative you are
- motivate your team
- brighten your image
- inspire
repeat business
- sign-up new subscribers
- launch viral marketing
efforts
- establish yourself as a leader
http://instantaudio.com/specialinfo.asp?x=34122
---------------------
(It is quite possible that many of the "author unknown"
catly
writings appearing in CATLINES are those of Mark Mason at:
http://www.catdiary.com )
=====================
Attention advertisers: The Free Ad Board I promised you is now
here for
your convenience at CATLINES.
=====================
Bring unheard of amounts of traffic to your site with 95%
less
effort!
Come visit us for the real "down & dirty" about traffic
generation
and why you are missing out on the easiest system on
the web to generate
insane floods of traffic for the life of your
site!
Stop trying to generate steams of traffic! You can discover how
to
generate rivers, floods, and waterfalls of traffic that run
for a lifetime in
this report!
=====================
=====================
3: BizCat Skills
Note:Now that we are on Ebay, we'd like to encourage those of you
who
have not dared to go there yet! Interesting place, Ebay!
Can't buy
cats, though, unless they're more of the Beanie-Baby
type. No live
cats!
CBS News | eBay's Bid For Success | October 30, 2002 20:36:19
eBay CEO Meg Whitman (CBS)
Pierre Omidyar (CBS)
(CBS) When the dot.com boom went bust, most Internet
companies
disappeared.
But not eBay, the online auction company that in just a few years
has
become one of America's biggest business stories and
something of a cultural
phenomenon.
The company, which connects buyers with sellers, is used by 50
million
people worldwide who spend an estimated $41 million
every day.
With growth that no one could have predicted, eBay went from
Beanie
Babies to BMWs in just four years, its CEO, Meg Whitman,
tells correspondent
Charlie Rose.
"I think I am most surprised by the fact that we have become the
largest
site on the Web for the buying and selling of used cars,
motorcycles and auto
parts," she says. "You have to remember
that in September of 1998, eight
percent of the items on eBay
were Beanie Babies."
The company sells a motorcycle every 18 minutes and an SUV every
30
minutes. As many as 150,000 people have literally given up
their jobs to
create their own businesses selling on eBay.
Laurie Liss and her mother, Darlene, armed with little more than
a
computer, a camera, and something to sell, built their own
eBay business
that is now selling $30,000 to $40,000 in goods a
month.
The lure of a bargain, combined with the excitement of a Las
Vegas
gamble, is what brings in millions of Internet customers.
"It's a gamble; am I going to get the auction," says Kathleen, a
buyer
who claims she now looks first on eBay "for anything I
need in the house,
before I go out. Including Tupperware, small
appliances, clothing, Christmas
gifts, wedding gifts."
An eBay auction works exactly the same way as an old-fashioned
one: the
highest bidder wins.
For example, Mike Benson, a St. Louis lawyer, is looking for a
rare
baseball card of Stan Musial. In seconds, he finds 84
different Stan Musial
cards up for auction on eBay, including
one for the very card he wants. To
bid, he simply enters the
highest amount he's willing to spend . in this
case, $50.
When it was over, Mike lost the card to a higher bid of $63.
Every time there's a sale, eBay takes a cut of the action. As a
result,
eBay 's market value is now higher than that of
Bloomingdale's, Macy's,
Sears, and Toys 'R Us combined.
"It was an entirely new idea that took advantage of the Net,
says
Whitman. "There's no land-based analog for eBay. We hold no
inventory; we ship no product."
Yet every day, 12 million items are up for sale.
This is a marketplace where a Madonna fan can buy an outfit from
the
singer's world tour, where NASA shops for obsolete computer
parts to keep
the space shuttle running, and where a prospective
homeowner can spend - as
happened just last week - $2,100,100
for a country house in New York State
with its own missile silo.
Four years ago, Laurie Liss began selling discounted designer
clothes
and shoes that she picked up on sale at department
stores. Now, the entire
family is part of the action. Laurie
models an outfit, her sister snaps the
picture, her brother-in-
law puts it on eBay. As the bids start coming in,
her mother
monitors the auction.
The shipping department is in the kitchen, where mom and dad are
packing
boxes to send around the globe. They keep their
inventory - their Prada
shoes, their Guccis, and their Chanels -
in the garage. They ran out of room
in their original home, so
they just bought three new houses all in a row
with their eBay
profits.
"We don't do it to make a fortune," Laurie says. "We do it just
so we
can stay home. I stay home with my son."
Liss has become so established on eBay that the deals now come
to
her.
"The day the manager tells the salesman, 'Hey, this stuff is
going to
get marked down 50 percent tomorrow,' our phone rings,"
she says. "They call
us, so we tell them to pull everything.
They pull it all and just ship it to
us."
It doesn't take long before it's sold on eBay and shipped to the
buyer.
"I had a Prada shoe," Liss says. "I got home with it,
took a picture, listed
it and, I think, 17 minutes later it was
purchased. I had it going to
Germany in less than an hour. It
was already on it's way."
Why does she enjoy the work? "It's almost like gambling in
Vegas," she
says, "because you'll buy something and you'll
think, 'Oh, these are gonna
be really hot.'"
About a year ago, eBay augmented its auctions with something it
calls
"Buy It Now". Sellers no longer had to set up an auction,
they could sell
retail directly to the customer, just as Laurie
Liss did with the Prada
shoes. That's when the heavy hitters
arrived.
Now, IBM sells home computers on eBay and Disney offers vacations
and
all things Mickey and Minnie.
Profits are up 70 percent in the last three months, almost a
quarter of
that from these direct sales.
"Big companies do sell on eBay," says Whitman. "And they find it
to be a
very cost-effective distribution channel. But they sell
on the same terms as
you, an individual, would sell."
That democratic idea, the core principle of the company, comes
from
Pierre Omidyar who started eBay as a hobby and now, at 35,
is worth about
$4.5 billion.
"I sat down, frankly, over Labor Day weekend 1995, after having
kind of
thought about these issues for a couple of months, and
I just whipped up
some code, " he tells Rose. "By Monday
afternoon, Labor Day, I had the site
up."
He sees its potential as limitless and has even developed a
feedback
system, rating customer satisfaction. The reputation
of a seller is
critical: too many negative comments and you're
banned as an eBay seller
forever.
It does investigate fraud claims, but relies mainly on buyers
and
sellers to police themselves. He estimates that only 30 sellers
out
of a million fail to deliver on their promises.
If it sounds a little too perfect, it may be. Omidyar and Whitman
were
named in a recent Congressional investigation for accepting
special prices
on new stock offerings from eBay's investment
banker, Goldman Sachs, and
selling their shares for quick
profits. Both say there was nothing improper
or illegal in what
they did, or in their relationship with Goldman
Sachs.
Meanwhile, eBay's reputation on Wall Street is better than ever,
and
Whitman believes her company can challenge Walmart.
"Our business model is to connect buyers and sellers," she says.
"And so
ultimately our buyers and sellers may do more economic
activity than a
Walmart. But it is not one group of people
deciding what to buy. It is the
power of many sellers."
Thousands of successful sellers from all over the world showed up
at
eBay's first national convention in Anaheim last summer, and
the company had
a reward for its big sellers: access to low-cost
premium health insurance: a
fitting reward for the mom-and-pop
sellers who form the backbone of eBay,
offering treasures from
the attic, garage or yard sale.
Whitman says that the buyers and sellers are eBay. "We actually
do work
for them," she says. "That is not a myth. That is not a
p.r. spin. That
actually happens to be the case."
© MMII, CBS Worldwide Inc.
CBSNews.com
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER
Sermon prepared and given by
Rev. Karen J. McFarland
Cache Valley
Unitarian Universalists
February 23, 2003
From the Christian tradition:
There once was a woman who wanted peace in the world and all
sorts of
good things, but she was very frustrated. The world
seemed to be
falling apart. She would read the papers and get
depressed. One
day she decided to go shopping, and she went
into a mall and picked a store
at random. She walked in and
was surprised to see Jesus behind the
counter. She knew it
was Jesus, because he looked just like the
pictures she'd seen
on holy cards and that famous one of him praying in the
garden. She looked again and again at him, and finally she
got up
her nerve and asked, "Excuse me, are you Jesus?"
"I am."
"Do you work here?"
"No," Jesus said, "I own the store."
"Oh, what do you sell in here?"
"Oh, just about anything."
"Anything?"
"Yeah, anything you want. What do you want?"
"She said, "I don't know."
"Well," Jesus said, "feel free, walk up and down the aisles, make
a
list, see what it is you want, and then come back and we'll see
what we can
do for you."
She did just that, walked up and down the aisles. There was
peace
on earth, no more war, no hunger or poverty, peace in
families, no more
drugs, harmony, clean air, careful use of
resources.
She wrote furiously.
By the time she got back to the counter, she had a long list.
Jesus took
the list, skimmed through it, looked up at her and
smiled.
"No problem."
And then he bent down behind the counter and picked out all sorts
of
things, stood up, and laid out the packets.
She asked, "What are these?"
Jesus replied, "Seed packets. This is a catalog store."
She said, "You mean I don't get the finished product?"
"No, this is a place of dreams. You come in and see what it
looks
like, and I give you the seeds. You plant the seeds. You
go home
and nurture them and help them to grow and someone else
reaps the
benefits."
"Oh," she said. And she left the store without buying anything.
This is a story written by Megan McKenna in her book "Parables."
From the Jewish tradition:
The Hasidic masters tell the story of the rabbi who disappeared
every
Shabat Eve, "to commune with God in the forest," his
congregation
thought. So one Sabbath night they deputized one
of their cantors to
follow the rabbi and observe the holy
encounter. Deeper and deeper
into the woods the rabbi went
until he came to the small cottage of an old
Gentile woman, sick
unto death and crippled in a painful posture. Once
there, the
rabbi cooked for her and carried her firewood and swept her
floor. Then when the chores were finished, he returned
immediately
to his little house next to the synagogue.
Back in the village, the people demanded of the one they'd sent
to
follow him, "Did our rabbi go up to heaven as we thought?"
"Oh no," the cantor answered after a thoughtful pause, "our rabbi
went
much, much higher than that."
The prophet Muhammed said,
What actions are most excellent?
To gladden the heart of a human being.
To feed the hungry.
To help the afflicted.
To lighten the sorrow of the sorrowful.
To remove the wrongs of the injured.
That person is the most beloved of God who does most good to God'
s
creatures.
An Ojibway prayer goes like this:
Grandfather,
Look at our
brokenness.
We know that in all
creation
Only the human
family
Has strayed from the
Sacred Way.
We know that we are
the ones
Who are
divided
And we are the
ones
Who must come back
together
To walk in the
Sacred Way.
Grandfather,
Sacred One,
Teach us love,
compassion, and honor
That we may heal the
earth
And heal each
other.
From the Buddhist tradition:
Stopping at high noon for a moment of reflection is a
spontaneous
gesture of human consciousness. When Tetsugen Glassman
Sensai
was being ordained the Abbot of Riverside Zendo in New York it
was
a grand affair. Zen teachers from all over the country were
gathered
together to celebrate the event, with candles and
incense and white
chrysanthemums and black and gold brocade
garments. In the middle of
this solemn celebration, the beeper
on somebody's wristwatch suddenly went
off. Everybody was
surreptitiously looking around to find the poor guy
to whom this
had happened, because generally you are not even supposed to
wear a wristwatch in the Zendo. To everybody's surprise, the
new
Abbot himself interrupted the ceremony and said, "This was
my wristwatch,
and it was not a mistake. I have made a vow that
regardless of what I
am doing, I will interrupt it at noon and
will think thoughts of
peace." And then he invited everyone
there to think thoughts of peace
for a world that needs it.
Today, in our monthly discussions about our UU seven principles
and the
six sources of inspiration, I'm speaking about the
second and sixth
principles and the second source. Whew! Does
that sound like a
lot? Well, I hope it won't be in the sense
that I feel they are all
linked to doing justice, having
compassion, and promoting peace, liberty and
justice for all
and using the words and deeds of prophetic women and men
who
challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with
justice,
compassion, and the transforming power of love.
But whew! These are huge and important ideas we confront
today.
And how timely as we face the threat of war. And a new kind
of
war for us as Americans. If we do go to war, it will be the
first time we've made a pre-emptive strike on another country.
A
sad precedent indeed.
I want to let you know that I am a pacifist. That means that
I
believe that war is a sign of failure. Our failure as humans
to
be able to solve our problems in an intelligent, thoughtful,
compassionate
way. It's a horrible, destructive, violent
endeavor, which is most
often promulgated to insure the
protection of privilege, and which causes
untold destruction to
human life on both sides. No matter what the
outcome, everybody
loses.
I would not join an army. I will not carry a gun. But I
don't
know if my passivism would permit me to not defend myself
if
physically attacked or if my loved ones were in danger. I give
thanks every day that, so far, I have not had to encounter
personal
violence or face this dilemma.
However, I honor those who do fight back. I remember after a
panel
discussion about rape, talk turned to whether one should
be passive or fight
back. One of the panelists said we should
not judge other people's
actions in this area. The real issue
is did you survive? So,
maybe defense is acceptable.
And I pray for those who've chosen a military career and put
themselves
in harm's way for our sakes. They do not deserve
violence either.
And I do not know why they've chosen this
path. Maybe it offered them
an opportunity for education and
skill training they wouldn't have been able
to get otherwise.
Maybe my light skin and college degree help me be a pacifist.
But I am reminded every day also that most religions condemn
violence
and war; even those which acknowledge the rightness
of what is termed a
"just" war. For me, the difficulty comes
when trying to decide what a
just war is. Who determines the
justness of the cause? And who
do we ask? Our side or theirs?
Clearly a just war, or jihad, is what militant Muslims call for
and
commit themselves to while we claim the justness of trying
to end a
dictatorship.
And yet, who, with an absolute certainty, has weapons of
mass
destruction? We do.
And who has used weapons of mass destruction in the past?
We
have.
That doesn't mean others haven't or won't, but as Gandhi said,
"If you
love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate
greed - but hate these
things inside yourself, not in another."
Creating peace and justice requires that we speak truth to power.
I'm
not sure where this saying originated but I heard it most
often in my classes
on anti-racism with Katie G. Cannon at the
Episcopal Divinity School in
Cambridge, MA over a decade ago.
Speaking truth to power doesn't mean
we have to be mean or nasty,
but rather, fully present and stating what we
believe. And
acting on those beliefs.
I've thought a lot about the title of this sermon after having
submitted
it to the newsletter over a month ago. Now, I might
title it BEING
truth to power. Being truth to power, because
one doesn't always have
to speak to be effective.
Sometimes our actions speak as loudly as our words. Or louder.
Do we really need all that oil? Did I buy an SUV or a hybrid
car
the last time?
Is my house energy efficient? Is it larger than I really need?
Did I treat my partner with respect when asking if he'd forgotten
again
to push his chair in, pick up his dirty socks, leave his
shoes in the living
room; take out the papers and the trash, you
ain't got no spending cash,
etc., etc., etc.???
Did I offer too much unsolicited advice to my sons?!
Did I show up at the peace rally? Send rice to George?
Participate
in the "virtual march" on Washington?
Did I give money to a worthy cause? Did I remember to bring
my
canned food the first Sunday of the month?
In a recent speech, Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia said,
"To contemplate war is to think about the most horrible of
human
experiences.
On this February day, as this nation stands at the brink of
battle,
every American on some level must be contemplating the
horrors of war.
Yet this Chamber is, for the most part, silent -
ominously, dreadfully
silent. There is no debate, no discussion,
no attempt to lay out for
the nation the pros and cons of this
particular war. There is
nothing."
He went on to describe the turning point in US policy to a
preemptive
war and asks if nations around the world wonder if
they will be next on our
hit list - or someone else's. And he
said that high administration
officials refuse to take nuclear
weapons off the table when discussing a
possible attack on Iraq.
He told his fellow senators that calling
heads of state pygmies,
labeling whole countries as evil, and so on, can do
us no good.
He questioned whether attacking a nation that has over 50%
of
its citizens under the age of 15 is, as Bush calls it, "in the
highest moral traditions of our country." And finally, we may be
provoking unprecedented terrorist attacks on our own soil.
"Yet this Chamber is silent."
So, our pledge to affirm and promote justice, equity, compassion
in
ourselves, CVUU, our community, our country and our world is a
heavy burden
and at the same time, a high calling full of
challenge and
inspiration.
The subject is not one to be dealt with lightly. I hope I have
not
done so here today. And yet it seems as if words fail me.
They're not
enough. I wish I could move you to tears or to high
resolution and
determination. I hope and pray that each one of
you will leave here
today with new resolve to make your life
count.
Make your life count for compassion in your home and community;
for the
ones you love and those you don't.
Make your life count for justice by writing a letter, sending
rice,
giving money, donating your time at a shelter or soup
kitchen; whatever it
is that you can do.
BE truth to power. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that
"Injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in
an
inescapable network of mutuality tied to a single garment of
destiny."
The Hebrew Bible says in Amos 5: "Let justice roll down like the
waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."
Compassion - the heart that opens and flows with sadness for
human hurts
and the anguish of our world - leads to the desire
for justice. And
justice demands that we act. That we ARE be-
ings of truth speaking to
power.
Again, the Hebrew Bible asks: "What does God require of you?
That
you love one another, do justice and walk humbly with your
God."
May it be so.
AMEN
ASCHE
AND BLESSED BE!
==============
Get more subscribers and advertisers for your ezine-FREE!
Free directory listing includes: free ad in newsletter, free web
page,
affiliate program that earns you MORE free ads, site
membership w/22 free
ebooks to jumpstart your ebiz & more!
*******
__________________________________________________
ePublishing Master's Course
We have uncovered ALL the SECRETS and WILL GIVE YOU 100%
FULL support while helping YOU reach your FULL potential.
NO
frills, NO hype.
*******
TO FIND THE BEST DEALS YOU NEED THE BEST EZINES!
......
We will also throw something in FREE for your time
~~~~~~~
HUGE DISCOUNT ON MASTER RIGHTS
The Ultimate Package of Resell Reprint Rights for BIG MONEY
PRODUCTS -
at a truly Unbelievable Price! Selling Quick, so
*******
---------------------
Free Website??? Read On!
Complete Money Making Site Setup FREE
Launch your very own money making website today that's 100% ready
to
take orders and pull in MASSIVE PROFITS for you right
now...
GUARANTEED.
Plus, you'll get your own pre-written ezine-in-a-box
customized
and setup for you absolutely free WITHIN 24 HOURS.
(Slightly different from the above url; check both thoroughly; so
many
great choices just for you!)
---------------------
Over 1,000+ PAGES of the Hottest, Proven Profitable Internet
Business
Secrets Broken Down Into An EASY-TO-DUPLICATE System.
Corey Rudl is the owner of four highly successful online
businesses that
attract more than 6 million visitors and
generate over $5.2 million each
year. He is also the author
of the #1 best-selling Internet Marketing course
online.
To check out his site that's jam-packed with THE EXACT
INFORMATION YOU
NEED to start, build, and grow your very
own, profitable Internet business, I
highly recommend
visiting:
This guy really knows what he's talking about!
---------------------
MEOWMEOWMEOWMEOWMEOWMEOWMEOWMEOW
REMEMBER to help provide for the kitties
--yours and
ours-- by visiting our sponsors!
Thanks.
MEOWMEOWMEOWMEOWMEOWMEOWMEOWMEOW
---------------------
4: look what the cat dragged in
=====================
OptinCity - The Ultimate Publisher's Resource Home to the hottest
prices
on quality subscribers, and discounted publisher
resources. It's free to
join, and thousands of high quality
subscribers are given away every month to
our members just for
being a member.
=====================
ATTENTION !!
YOU MUST READ THIS WORD FOR WORD !
This is Information that you may not
receive again so PLEASE take it
SERIOUSLY !!
Let us share with you an income stream that
is unlike ANYTHING you have
seen before
NO HYPE - NO FALSE PREDICTIONS!!
Ground Floor - Top Positioning
Duplicable - Hands Off System
That Does Everything for YOU!
The FASTEST WAY to start earning a
LIFE CHANGING INCOME TODAY
-NOT
MONTHS FROM NOW
Get this FREE INFORMATION:
Make an Educated Decision !!
We GUARANTEE you'll be THANKFUL you DID !
=====================
5: from Outside the catbox
*******
I want to thank those of you who have sent in such catly
writings,
home-business articles and your having been so willing
to share them!
Keep sending them in!
PURRingly,
LM
====================
6: subscription info and other strays
a catly site!
The CATLINES MEWsletter is a member of the Ezineville Club @
Village of
Tidbits.
---------------------
>^..^< >^..^< >^..^<
CATLINES is published by Lauren Merryfield
co-owner of
catliness.com.
========================
=====================
Sub and unsub info:
(much easier now!)
---------------------------
>^..^< >^..^< >^..^<
