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Brandon WilliamsCraig Teaching Videos
NEW FEATURE
At http://teaching.culturesmith.com my public offerings on video are arriving and available in one place! Please have a look, share it with friends, and comment. Special additional content is available for those who subscribe at Culturesmith.com.
20120513+BW+Recommendations
Lisa's Mother's Day card:
Rainbow pooping, virgin schlepping, singularly horny white chargers..not so much
For you, sparkling in flight, with darkness to glitter before, wingéd, enwrapped with gold...
Rosie ran her fingers over the card front, looked up at me, and said with a smile "Mmmmmamama."
"You said it," I said.
Smart kid.
20120510+BW+Recommendations
At the beginning of May 2010, Epworth UMC Berkeley's most excellent Pastor, Odette Lockwood-Stewart wrote
"I have only just begun to reflect on rather than react to General Conference and the amazing ways the Spirit is at work in this global human connection. On May 20th Epworth's adult study will be dedicated to our reflections and responses. This is a paradoxically powerful time to baptize and to receive new members at Epworth. Resistance is the secret of joy. Grace and peace. Odette"
It is "Resistance is the secret of joy" that caught my eye. What could she mean?
Linda Haverty Rugg responded on Facebook:
I knew an elderly lady in Germany who had lived through two World Wars and imprisonment of her sons in concentration camps for refusal to serve in the military. She had herself been a resister under Nazism and later under Soviet Bloc rule in East Germany. She said, "We have been lucky! We have always been able to afford resistance." That is "Wir haben uns Widerstand immer leisten können." I've always thought that this was one of the most profound things anyone ever said to me.
20120508+BW+Recommendations
To Violent encounters with random strangers…
http://www.internationalpeaceandconflict.org/profiles/blog/show?id=780588%3ABlogPost%3A730205&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_post
I responded:
Original post here with comments: http://apeaceofconflict.com/2012/05/08/violent-encounters-with-random-strangers-14/
.
20120503+BW+Recommendations
A spouse who calls
reaching out to both suffer with and love you
A child who smiles
lighting up the shadowy depths of history with the promise of a future with beauty in
A dog who watches
his mind on welcoming trees nearby, his body curled on the feet of your soul
A life worth living
The Renaissance School - Peace Practices staff training 20120223 video introduction
This is an introduction to Peace Practices, which takes my Martial Nonviolence method and puts it into a curriculum for a specific organization, in this case The Renaissance School, a particularly well regarded Montessori community in Oakland, California. Martial Nonviolence, or MNv, begins with aikido movement and themes, which lead to non-destructive self-defense in physical conflict, and then takes the student through theater improvisation techniques, so that they are more comfortable with non-violent verbal interactions while under pressure and can deal with bullying and other forms of hostility. More advanced practitioners are invited to learn the third phase, which involves facilitating groups such that responsible citizenship is possible, which is to say that everybody involved gets what they need and a chance at what they really want.
20120426+BW+Recommendations
Tai Sai 2012 at Aikido of Berkeley with Quentin Cooke Sensei - comments on aikido and Aiki Extensions
Please also have a look at https://vimeo.com/29786397
20120423+BW+Recommendations
- Come tomorrow night.
- Reply (email brandon@peacepractices.com) to let me know you'd like to help make Peace Practices at TRS possible.
- Join our Facebook Cause at http://cause.peacepractices.com/ and have a look at the images there.
- Go to our website http://peacepractices.com/ to get more information and make a contribution via our non-profit partner "Beamish Process Arts" d.b.a Association Building Community.
- Let us know of any organizations which might be open to supporting children learning to practice peace, or might want a training for their staff.
20120422+BW+Recommendations
REVIEW: Mountains of Light by Mark Liebenow
It is lovely to discover a newborn classic, especially when sent as a gift unlooked-for, out of nowhere, with no prior contact with the author or story. In the narrative tradition of John Muir, but suggestive of the more explicitly metaphorical images of the Robert Frost or Annie Dillard, Liebenow's poetics and meaning match in a way that includes the reader in an experience of congruence, rather than offering a passing nostalgia. The simple ritual of reading Mountains of Light brings the reader into the experience of parallel journeys, often divided into "inner" and "outer" life, such that the usual practice of estranging the two becomes less and less possible. Faithful to the best of nature writing, Liebenow writes naturally, "dissolving the boundaries" so that the organic mutuality of being a creature and alive warms the everyday while opening a door to an understanding of what hurts most, uplifts, challenges, and opens the eyes of the heart to see that "Grace collects on the mountain peaks in the high country and flows down the Merced Canyon into the valley as fog..." This kind of reading experience is not just recommended, it is essential.