US Education

My sister who works in social work asked me to read this doc called Reclaimging the American Dream and comment.  Okay I agree it is a bad title.  However they are trying to help low-income kids get higher education.  The more eyes that see it the better.  So check it out and give some feed back.

Piñata Maker

This week is Arts Week at Regent where the students showcase their art for the community. It seems like it was arts week at Latino USA as well. On Friday, Feb. 23 Latino USA highlighted a Mexican/American and a Salvadorian/American artists. The Salvadorian artist Osorio was inspired to return to paper mache art because he saw a documentary on the massacre of more than 100 Salvadorian children. He has dedicated his time to make piñatas.

Listen to the whole podcast here:

[odeo = http://odeo.com/audio/239089/view%5D

What an incredible way to participate in life. I was frustrated a few days ago after I saw Quinceañera the movie because I did not want a film like that just to be entertainment. It makes me very proud to see a person take a positive step after seeing a documentary that does not let one ignore the despair of the world. I love the creativity and the life giving action. I hope that I can find a similar way.

Reading

Last week was my reading break, but unfortunately I had not done much reading.  So this week is going to be full of reading every waking hour.

Today I started reading Caring: How Can We Love One Another by Morton T. Kelsey.  Something that caught my attention in the introduction is his quote from Charles Williams’ novel All Hallows Eve:

Why isn’t one taught to be loved?  Why isn’t one taught anything?

Kelsey goes on to write:

It became clear that we human beings do not know instinctively how to love one another.  We need to learn how to be loved and how to love.

Wow.  I don’t know about you but this statement hit me really hard.  I think I know how to do things that can express love, but I feel most sufficient in feeling loved.  Now that I read the introduction I am very excited to see what he had to say about how to do that.

para el cantante de los cantantes

Here is video of Ruben Blades and Willie Colon singing a medley dedicated to Lavoe. I was looking at the other videos on youtube with stuff about Lavoe and this one came up. It is a great clip. You will want to get up and dance when you see this video.  The tail end of the video is great, but unfortunately it is cut off early.  I guess you had to be there to hear the whole thing.

El Cantante

Here is the trailer to the movie El Cantante about Hector Lavoe one of the classic salsa singers.

I don’t know when it is coming out, but it looks like it is going to have some good music.

Here is a little youtube video of the man himself.  Youtube always surprises me on how much stuff they have.

Product Wiki

Here is a web sight that looks promising.

It is called Product Wiki.

I still think Amazon’s customer’s review is the best place to get product advice.  I find that site the most helpful because you get a wide variety of people reviewing the product they themselves bought.

However, Product Wiki has some cool things I did not know about.  I wonder if they are real.  Like an exoskeleton that increases your strenght to 10x your actual strength.  Or how about the faux bacon strip bandages.  Cool idea.  I like it.  Overall I find this sight not to be very well organized and it lacks a broad range of products.  Some of their items seem way overpriced.  It is worth a browse.

Another wiki that has been highly recommended to Lisa and me has been Pregnancy Wiki.   Lisa has learned a lot about her body from this site.

Quinceañera

So last week I saw the movie Quinceañera.

You can stop reading if you haven’t seen the movie.

There is this scene where the great great uncle goes to his garden.

In the garden he has a beautiful glass sanctuary like thing.

He would go there to pray.  And on the little altar he had the pictures of his niece and nephew.  He would go there to pray for them.  When he dies this is the first place his
nephew goes.  It was such a beautiful representation of the uncle’s care and love for his family.  It was powerful to see the power of prayer.  The nephew a guy who struggled to feel loved and accepted knew his uncle’s love not just by the prayers, but by the home he provided for his nephew.  It was my favorite scene in the film.

The thing that bothered me the most was the way the wealthy neighbors treated the nephew.  He was like some kind of pet that they could use on a whim.  One of my friends was treated that way and I did not know how to support him.  He said he would feel like some kind of tv show they could get their kicks hearing about his past. They never got to know the real him and when something bad happened in the community they blamed him for the crime.  This stuff happens in real life.  And then I realized that I am guilty for that when I watch the movies.  So how do I watch a film without treating the subject matter like an object?  I saw Three Needles and I felt that way.  AIDS/HIV is a serious problem and how could I watch that movie and not let it just be entertainment?  It has to be more than just reflecting on the movie.  Or watch Paradise Now and just let it go by?

What are these films calling us to?  Is is just raising awareness?  I don’t have the answer. It is something I am thinking about.

What a week

We will all return to ashes.

Although I didn’t go to a Ash Wednesday service I feel like this week has been a reminder of the frailty of humans and the precious life I take for granted often times.  I went out for a run yesterday.  The sun was so warm and beautiful.  It is my longest run yet.  I can celebrate that!

As a Church, we begin our journey to the cross.  We bring all our brokeness.  Catherine Sine writes: The reason we focus on our brokenness and need for repentance is so that
we can be healed and enabled to become all that God intends us to be.

It is easy to jump to the healing part but there is something about the dark shadow of the cross.  Christ willingly entered the pain of the world.  Sine in her devotional also talks about how that is part of our call as Christians.  We are to enter the suffering of the world.  That is challenging, especially when the violence and pain of the world invades our peaceful life.

Seong Hoon No

I just found out that Hoon was killed by a robber behind the counter of his families corner store in MD.

There are two articles.   One in the W. Post and  the other in the NBC DC news.

Please keep the No family in your prayers because his brother is still in the hospital.  He was shot too.

Farwell

This has been a tough week.

Lisa and I were at Glen Turning Robe’s memorial service at Glenhaven in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver.  It was a beautiful service.  Some men and one woman sang some native songs for Glen.  We danced out the memorial service.  It was a great way to exit.

I just heard that one of my good friends from JEB Stuart High School just died.  My friend Seong Hoon No died.   I don’t know the details.  I am deeply sad
that Hoon and I had not talked since I got married.  We had a great conversation before my wedding and we talked about having dinner together with Lisa.  I hate not being able to see Hoon again.  Farwell my friend.