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Aberdeen and Grampian
The "Granite City" is Scotland's third largest and boasts great shopping and restaurants. Aberdeen is famous for its stunning buildings made of this sparkling stone. The Balmedie Beach is a short walk from the city centre. With sandy bays and rugged cliffs watch the seabirds or spot the dolphins playing in the harbour. The St Cyrus National Nature reserve is in the East, with rolling hills and open farmland, towering mountains coastal cliffs and all the city has to offer you Aberdeenshire is a place to be. Further afield you can find the Whisky Trail and Castle Trail, there are more castles here than anywhere else in the UK. Visit the Stately castles in Royal Deeside or the splendour of the Cairngorms National Park with waterfalls and wildlife, red squirrels, red deer, or if your lucky a golden eagle. The River Dee, River Don and River Deveron are a fishermans dream with Salmon and trout regularly caught. Winter tours around Balmoral castle or the galleries and Duff House in Banff.
Visitors are welcome at all the local golf courses, make time to enjoy the stunning scenery while playing the course.
A visit to Scotland would not be complete without enjoying the Whisky trail, watch how the whisky is made and enjoy a sample at the end of your tour at the Royal Lochnagar Distillery.
Angus and Dundee
A fascinating City with the 1 Billion waterfront development offering a fresh new look. The V&A Museum Of Design Dundee, due to open in 2018.
The journey hugs the coast through the towns and villages of Arbroath and Montrose. Visit the Arbroath Abbey Visitor Centre or the Arbroath miniature Railway which is the oldest passenger carrying miniature railway. View the migrating waders at Montrose Basin wildlife centre.
The gateway to the Glens Kirriemuir is best known as the childhood home of JM Barrie, creator of Peter Pan. The stunning Angus Glens of Isla, Prosen, Clova and Esk where you will be surrounded by sights to help you relax. This dramatic scenery is part of the Cairngorms National Park, well marked with walking trails that suit all levels of ability. You can also enjoy fishing, cycling, or skiing at the Glen Shee Ski resort.
From the industrial heritage of the city to the key role played in the Declaration of Independence, Dundee and Angus has museums, Abbeys and Castles which all share a part in the important history of this area.
Argyll and the Isles
The region is home to 23 inhabited islands. With seven National Nature Reserves you are in the best place to see Scotlands wildlife, including red deer, otters, seals, puffins, porpoises the golden eagle and the rare white tailed sea eagle. On the Isle of Tirree you can enjoy the white sandy beaches or join in with the watersports. If you enjoy a tipple then the Isle of Islays eight world famous whisky distilleries would be worth a visit as are the Campbelltown and Highland distilleries. On the Isle of Bute explore the interior of the fabulous Gothic Mount Stuart and Dunadd Fort. Known as 'Eagle Island the Isle of Mull is one of the best places in Scotland to spot the Golden Eagle and white tailed sea Eagles.
Visit ruined castles in impossibly romantic locations, marvel at historic houses and gaze in wonder at Bronze Age standing stones. The landscape of Argyll and the Isles is dotted with signs of the past, including chambered cairns and cup-and-ring marked rocks. Grab a map and take your own journey into the history of this fascinating part of Scotland.A stunningly beautiful coast with varied terrain offering opportunities for cycling, hiking, fishing, and cruises. Attractions include Inverary Castle and Old Town Jail, Cruachan "Hollow Mountain" power station and Oban. Fantastic seafood restaurants and a variety of activities to enjoy.
Ayrshire is one of the most agriculturally fertile regions of Scotland. Potatoes are grown in fields near the coast, using seaweed-based fertiliser, and in addition the region produces pork products, other root vegetables, and cattle and summer berries such as strawberries are grown abundantly.
Ayrshire shares with Dumfries and Galloway some rugged hills country known as the Galloway Hills. Glen Afton runs deep into these hills.
The area that today forms Ayrshire was part of the area south of the Antonine Wall which was briefly cooupied by the Romans during the reign of Emperor Antoninus Pius. An interesting historic building in Ayrshire is Turnberry Castle which dates from the 13th Century and is believed to be the birthplace of Robert the Bruce.
The area used to be heavily industrialised with steel making and coal mining and most famously Johnnie Walker whisky.
Ayrshire is best know for giving the region Robert Burns the first National Bard. Visit the Burns museum and his birthplace. Take a wander round the ancient castle or learn about Vikings who once set foot on these shores.
Just a short ferry ride across the Firth of Clyde and you can explore either Arran or Cumbrae. Experience perfect island life or enjoy the outdoor activities and spectacular views.
Dumfries and Galloway is located in the Western Southern uplands. It comprises of the historic Counties of Dumfriesshire, Kirkcudbright and Wigtownshire.
If your looking for rolling hills and friendly towns this is the place for you. You will see the contrasting views of the rocky and sandy Solway Coast looking out across the see to the extensive forests and hills. Robert Burns was inspired by these views.
If you are a keen photographer have your camera ready when you spot the red kites in the sky, the red deer or red squirrels in the forest.
For outdoor enthusiast you can take your mountain bike and experience the forest path or take advantage of the windsurfing and yachting on offer. For the extreme enthusiast take the longest zipwire or for the less ambitious take a gentle stroll or cycle
Edinburgh and the Lothians
Scotland's capital is known throughout the world for the famous Castle, Fringe Festival and Military Tattoo. With great shopping and visitor attractions it is always worth a visit. . The region is bursting with historical attraction. Out of the city you can explore some great coastal towns, such as North Berwick with its striking clifftop fortification, or the Blackness Castle nr Linlithgow to the Arniston House in Gorebridge and the Gadstones Land at the top of the Edinburghs Royal mile. and the Seabird Centre and Dunbar, the birthplace of John Muir and beginning of the John Muir Way walking trail where you can enjoy Belhaven Bay with the spectacular views of sandy beaches and landscapes. Portobellos pretty beach is a short distance away from the city centre. The Pentland Hills Regional Park is on the outskirts of the city. You may also like to visit the Polkemmet Country Parkland. You can climb to the top of Arthurs Seat, or enjoy the North Esk cycle loop by bike. At night the city is alive with bars, restaurants and the theatre. If you are visiting for the ever popular New Year celebrations you will not be disappointed.
St. Andrews is famed for its golf courses there are 50 to choose from and university of course wher our future king met his wife. There are some great historical sights to explore as well as a number of small towns and villages along the rugged north-east coast, castles, palaces, museums and galleries there is plenty to see, some hold Royal connections like Dunfermline Abby. Fifes key pioneers are Andrew Carnegie and Adam Smith.
You can follow the Fife Coastal Path right around the coastline stopping to enjoy Fifes towns and villlages all with their individual charm. From St Andrews to the quaint fishing village of Crail, Anstruther, Pittenweem, St Monans and Elie picturesque sea towns and villages all offering outdoor activities and plenty of wildlife.
Fife enjoys good farmland where you can pick your own berries or dine out on locally grown produce, caught seafood, craft beers, gins and whiskies can all be enjoyed when dining out here.
Glasgow and Clyde Valley
Glasgow is the place to be for young people. With great music and arts events at the SSE Hydro exhibition centre and venues across the city offering live music and comedy gigs throughout the year. Glasgow, voted the worlds friendliest city is the largest city in Scotland, and third-largest in the United Kingdom. A wealth of museums, galleries, gardens and a top shopping district make this a must visit. Home to over 90 parks and gardens, one to visit is the Strathclyde Country Park in Motherwell for a walk around the Loch. New Lanark is a great day out with the family. The Falls of Clyde Wildlife Reserve is also at New Lanark. The natural beauty of the falls and scenery is never forgotten. Go see the tall ship outside the Riverside museum which in itself is a trip back in time at this transport museum or visit the David Livingstone Centre in Blantyre.
If you prefer shopping in the centre then visit the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Tea Room called the Willow Tea Room on Sauchihall Street. The nightlife is vibrant with restaurants, bars and theatres for you to enjoy. The New Year Fireworks celebration is a spectacle to see.
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park
Scotland's first National Park is the perfect playground for those with a passion for outdoor pursuits. With fishing, cycling and walking trails, golf courses and more outdoor activities to experience. The Loch Lomond Sealife Centre is an enjoyable day out for families and there are Highland Games events on throughout the summer in many villages. Steeped in myths and legend, the Trossachs area became popular when Sir Walter Scott wrote the poem, "The lady of the Lake". You can take a trip on the steamship named after the poem on Loch Katrine you can walk or cycle along the path running along the side of the Loch too. Another famous person living in this area was Rob Roy Macgregor whos grave lies at the Balquhidder Kirk. Rob Roy spent much of his time around Aberfoyle and Glen Gyle near Loch Katrine where he was a cattle breeder and herder but not always with his own cattle.Take a short boat ride to visit the Inchmahome Priory where Mary Queen of Scots visited.
Take a cruise on Loch Lomond with a great view of Ben Lomond, Scotlands most Southerly Munro. You could also climb Ben Lawers, Ben More, Ben Vorlich to name a few in the Park.
Trossachs refers to the area of sparkling lochs, mountainous terrain, forests and welcoming villages, To the East of the Loch Lomond you have the villages of Lochearnhead, Killin, Callander all hosting annual Highland Games and poplar summer events. Loch Earn is popular with the watersport enthusiast.
With 70 islands many uninhabited Orkney is a place to relax and enjoy the surrounding breathtaking beauty whatever the time of year. Neolithic sites allow you to step back thousands of years when you visit The Ring of Brodgar, the Maeshowe tomb and Skara Brae which few know is older than the pyramids. Wildlife is abundant with seals and seabirds a common sight. Orkneys people are friendly welcoming visitors for many years. With museums galleries, craft workshops there is plenty to do. Kirkwall is the largest town on the Island with its Viking cathedral, distillery and fishing port. Stromness being the second largest with winding streets, gift shops and art galleries. With award winning white sand beaches and the rugged cliffs towering the turquoise waters Orkney is the busiest flight path for migrating birds. You could also spot the dolphins and whales around the shoreline. Orkney is considered to be one of the best places in the UK to see the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis.
Set in the heart of Scotland Highland Perthshires main towns and villages are, Aberfeldy, Birnam, Blair Athol, Dunkeld, Pitlochry and Kinloch Rannoch. All within a short drive of each other.
With wonderous mountains, lochs and glens Perthshire showcases Scotland at its best. There is something for everyone from ancient castles, fishing on rivers and lochs, you can Tee off on some of the oldest golf courses in the World or walk in the 'Big tree Country' on paths and trails. You will not be short of adventure in this area of outstanding beauty. Perthshire offers year round entertainment and events. Pitlochry theatre has regular shows, and the enchanted forest light show in Fiscally Wood is a popular attraction, you need to book tickets way in advance.
Sitting along the banks of the River Tay, Perth is Scotlands newest city. With two public parks and a host of good eating places, and a vibrant shopping centre.
If you are here to see as much as you can, you are within easy reach of the cities Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness.
The city of Stirling is Scotland's heritage capital where the wars of independence were fought and won. Towering over the city is the Old Town with historic buildings like the Old Town Jail the cobbled streets wind up to the impressive Stirling Castle where you will see the opulent royal apartments with costumed interpreters bringing the castle to life. You may also like to join in one of the ghost tours. From the castle you can stand and see for miles around with the Wallace Monument built to honour the freedom fighter William Wallace. Nearby is the Bannockburn visitor centre where you can experience the battle of Bannockburn a pivotal triumph over the English lead by Robert the Bruce in 1314.
The heritage mile links Stirlings Old Town to the modern city centre.
Stirlingshire is not all about the history though and there is a lively community, shopping, cinemas and more to enjoy in the city centre. There are also good rail links to Glasgow and Edinburgh. The wider Stirlingshire area encompasses a number of smaller villages and rural communities.
Inner and Outer Hebrides
The Hebrides on Scotlands west coast are known as the Inner and the Outer Hebrides , separated by the Minch to the north and the sea of the Hebrides to the South
The Outer Hebrides are the most westerly islands off the Scottish mainland and are in close proximity to each other. They consist of a chain of more than 100 islands and small skerries. The main regions are Lewis, Harris, North and South Uist, Taransay, Benbecula and St Kilda. Visit Harris and see the stone circle which predates the pyramids. If you like birds then St Kilda is the place to see a variety of birdlife and an abandoned village. Visit North Uist where 9000 seal pups are born every year. On Barra at Castle Bay you can see the Kisimul Castle once seat of the Macniel Clan.
The Inner Hebrides consist of 36 inhabited islands , lying closer to the mainland of Scotland, these islands are divided into the Northern Islands and the Southern Islands and include Islay, Jura, Skye, Mull Raasay, Staffa and the small isles. The Isle of Skye and a few of the smaller Islands form part of the Northern Inner Hebrides. Mull, Jura and Islay are in the Southern Inner Hebrides.
The Islands have an amazing natural awe inspiring beauty, the coastlines and landscapes are varied and dramatic. The Isle of Skye is the most popular of the Islands.
Eilean Donan castle is the most photographed but there are many other castle to see like Castle Moil or Dunvegan Castle, the longest inhabited Scottish Castle, still being inhabited by the Clan Macleod. The 1500 year old silk called the fairy flag and Rory Mor's Horn can be seen here.
The Outer and Inner Hebrides hold appeal to historians and wildlife enthusiasts, with the natural beauty of the landscapes and views not to be forgotton.
The Scottish Borders also referred to as the Borders stretched from the Penland, Moorfoot and Lammermuir Hills marking the boundary with the Lothians in the North to the Ceviot Hills, running along the River Tweed marking the border with England in the South. This area is also referred to as the Southern Uplands along with Dumfries and Galloway. On the journey from England to Scotland you will see spectacular views over the Scottish Borders. The western side of the Borders has rolling hills and beautiful Lochs. The Central area of the Borders is more rural, go East where the area borders the North Sea to find the villages of St Abbs and Cove.
On the banks of the river Tweed you will find the villages of Peebles, Innerleithen and Melrose.
If you visit the borders for relaxation you will find it but if you want to take part in the outdoor pursuits on offer you can fish, walk, play golf or for the more extreme enthusiast try the 7 stanes centres for mountain biking or quad biking, archer and tree top adventure at Go Ape.
This rural setting and unspoilt coastline means that there is an abundance of tantalising food on offer so you may like to try the locally sourced produce prepared by a local chef along with a wee dram.
Scottish Highlands and Cairngorms National Park
As the name suggests the Scottish Highlands are known for the rugged mountainous terrain, including Scotland's tallest mountain Ben Nevis. Winter sports enthusiasts won't be disappointed by the Glen Coe ski resort, and for history buffs there is the Culloden battlefield. The Cairngorms National Park offer a variety of outdoor activities and a chance to get closer to some of the incredible wildlife in Scotland.
In the heart of the Scottish Highlands the Caringorms National Park has castles, distilleries and a great choice of outdoor activities, watersports and snow sports, Cycling the options are endless. For keen walkers the area is a place to be with the natural formation of gorges, mountains, forests, lochs, rivers and waterfalls, the many paths take you on a wonderous adventure.
If you like wildlife you need to know that Cairngorms is a great place to visit where you may see wild brown trout, Otters Ospreys, Eagles, Wildcats, Red Squirrels and Reindeer. Loch Garten is made famous by the Osprey Visitor Centre.
The Cairngorms Mountain Centre offers Skiing and snowboarding in the winter months ,during the summer months take advantage of a number of guided walks to explore this beautiful area.
The Shetland Isles made up of more than 100 Islands of which 15 are inhabited lie closer to Norway than the mainland of Scotland. The remote northern islands are a link between Scotland and Scandinavia. Visit the well preserved Mousa Broch, the internationally renowned Jarlshor and Old Scatness. Cultural events such as the Up Helly Aa Viking festival, the annual folk festival are held annually and complimented by a variety of great places to eat and drink with fresh food sources locally.
It was not only the Vikings that left their mark on Shetland, there are traces of ancient sketchings as far back as the Neolithic era you can visit these Neolithic sites, Iron age brochs, the standing stones, Pictish wheelhouses or a traditional croft house to take a journey through the ages.
With miles of breathtaking coastline, pristine beaches and crystal clear blue waters the Shetland Islands landscape is unlike any where else you may visit. For artists and photographers, poets or writers you will gain inspiration from the heather clad mountains, glistening sea lochs, the towering clifftops all creating a dramatic scene whatever the weather.
Fantastic Facts about Scotland
Scotland's national animal is the unicorn
The oldest yew tree in the world (over 3000 years old) can be seen at Fortingall in Perthshire
The oldest building in Scotland dates to 3100BC at Skara Brae
The highest mountain is Ben Nevis at 4400ft
Scotland's motto is "Nemo Me Impune Lacessit" which translates as "No-one provokes me with impunity"
The smallest distillery in Scotland is the Erdradour Distillery at Pitlochry
St. Andrews is known as the home of golf with the first recorded rounds played there in the 15th Century
The Old Course St Andrews dates to 1574, and is seen as a place of pilgrimage for golfers from around the world
Scotland has produced many great inventors including John Logie Baird (Television: 1925), Alexander Graham Bell (Telephone: 1876), and Charles Rennie Macintosh (Raincoat: 1824)
There are over 4000 registered tartan designs, although many of these have never been woven
Mary Queen of Scots played billiards. First recorded order by Louis XI in 1470. After she was executed, her body was wrapped in a billiard cloth
Bagpipes were imported from Rome 2000 years ago by Roman army
The lawnmower was invented in Scotland
Shortbread known from 12C but generally thought to have been refined use and name credited to Mary Queen of Scots 16C
Black bun fruitcake covered with pastry. Origins Scottish was eaten at Twelfth Night but now associated with Hogmanay
Scotland's first licensed distillery was Glenlivet in 1823
Ice skating began in Scotland. Primitive ice skates of bone and antler used by Scandinavian hunters as early as300 AD. In 1572 the first all-iron skates were manufactured in Scotland. The first skate club in Edinburgh dates from 1742
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The show was a success for Team Heugly as our 6 competitors brought home 9 top 5 placings including Lani Tamaki's first place victory in the figure short class. Lani also went on to win the Overall and her NGA pro card!
2011 NGA MOUNTAIN STATES Martha brought conditioning that was second to none!
Kimberly's second show! She looked fantastic! Lisa's 3rd show of 2011. She brought home her 5th and 6th trophies of the year!
Doug's first show! 2 top 5 placings! Lilly's first show! She placed top 5 in a fierce lineup!
Lani won the figure short class and Overall for the second show in a row! 2 shows, 2 first places, 2 Overalls! It was only her second figure competition! Way to go Lani!


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Tello History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms
The surname Tello comes from the personal name Tello derived from the Latin "tellus" meaning "land" or "earth."
Early Origins of the Tello family
The surname Tello was first found in Galicia, in the northwest corner of Spain.
Early History of the Tello family
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Tello research. Another 39 words (3 lines of text) covering the years 1337, 1370, 1583 and 1648 are included under the topic Early Tello History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Tello Spelling Variations
Spelling variations of this family name include: Tellez, Talles, Tello, Tell, Tel, Telo, Teles and others.
Early Notables of the Tello family (pre 1700)
Con la Reconquista guerra con la que los cristianos bajo las órdenes del rey Fernando y la reina Isabel reconquistaron a España y expulsaron a los musulmanes invasores en el año 1492. Dentro de estos nombres de familias se han destacado, por ejemplo, Tello of Castile (1337-1370), born in Seville, the seventh of the ten illegitimate children of Alfonso...
Another 58 words (4 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Tello Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Tello Ranking
In the United States, the name Tello is the 6,512nd most popular surname with an estimated 4,974 people with that name. [1]
Tello migration to the United States +
Tello Settlers in United States in the 16th Century
Juan Tello and his family were among the first settlers of Spanish America, arriving in 1513
Garcia Tello to Venezuela in 1534
Francisco Tello, who sailed to the Spanish Main in 1536
Maria Tello and her two daughters sailed to New Spain in 1581
Juana de Medina Tello to the Philippines in 1595
Juan Tello, who arrived in America in 1813 [2]
Garcia Tello, who landed in Venezuela in 1834 [2]
Antonio Tello, who landed in New Spain in 1835 [2]
Francisco Tello, who arrived in Spanish Main in 1836 [2]
Jose Maria Tello, who landed in Puerto Rico in 1845 [2]
Contemporary Notables of the name Tello (post 1700) +
Stephen "Steve" J. Tello (b. 1950), American television executive, Senior Vice President and General Manager of FOX Sports Houston
Manuel Diego Tello Jorge (b. 1984), Spanish footballer
Cristian Tello Herrera (b. 1991), Spanish footballer
Jorge Manuel Sotomayor Tello (1942-2022), Peruvian-born, Brazilian mathematician who worked on differential equations, bifurcation theory, differential equations of classical geometry
Claudio Tello (1963-2014), Chilean footballer who played from 1988 to 1992, member of the Chile National Team in 1988
Edier Tello (b. 1990), Colombian football forward
Gary Tello Mery (b. 1993), Chilean professional footballer
Carlos Tello Macías (b. 1938), Mexican socialist-oriented economist, academic and diplomat, former ambassador to Cuba, Portugal and Russia
Manuel Tello Baurraud (1898-1971), Mexican diplomat who represented his country at the League of Nations (1938 to 1941)
Julio César Tello (1880-1947), Peruvian archaeologist, the "father of Peruvian archeology"
... (Another 1 notables are available in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.)
Tello (Spanish)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Anna Aguilar-Amat
Anna Aguilar-Amat (full name: Anna Aguilar-Amat i Castillo; born 31 January 1962[1] in Barcelona) is a Catalan poet, translator, researcher and university professor in Terminology and Computational Linguistics. She writes primarily in Catalan (as a poet, she writes exclusively in Catalan, a language which she also uses for some of her essays and studies as well) but also has some work in Spanish (primarily essays and studies). She has a PHD from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona where she now teaches Terminology applied to Translation at the Translation Faculty. She published five collections of poems and was awarded several awards for Catalan poetry. Her poetic work is present in several anthologies of Catalan poets and she has been translated into Spanish, English, French, Italian, Sardinian, Macedonian, Finnish, Arabian, Turkish, Greek, German and Slovenian. She was included in the Anthology New European Poets by Wayne Miller & Kevin Prufer, Minnesota 2008.[2]
2.1 Poetry
2.2 Anthologized as a poet
2.3 Essay
Anna Aguilar-Amat has a PhD from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, where she now teaches Terminology and Computational Linguistics at the Translation Faculty and has written several specialised texts in that field.[3] Although she received some literary awards as a student and has written the lyrics for various musicians, she came to the foreground of the contemporary Catalan poetry scene when she was awarded three of the most prestigious and traditional prizes for Catalan poetry in two consecutive years: the 'Jocs Florals' of the city of Barcelona (Premi Englantina d'Or als Jocs Florals de Barcelona 2000)[4] for her first published work, the book Petrolier (Oil Tanker, series "Edicions de la Guerra", Editorial Denes, Paiporta, València, 2003), the 'Carles Riba Award' (Premi Carles Riba 2000) for Trànsit entre dos vols (Transit between Two Flights, Edicions Proa, Barcelona, 2001), and the 'Màrius Torres Award' (Premi Màrius Torres 2001) for Música i escorbut (Music and Scurvy, Edicions 62, Barcelona, 2002, published in English as an e-book by Sandstone Press).
Together with the well-known Catalan poet, Francesc Parcerisas, she has also published the poetry book Coses Petites : poemes a quatre mans (Little Things: Poems by Two Hands, Miquel Plana, Olot, 2002), with illustrations by the publisher, Miquel Plana, and the book of essays, El placer de la lectura (The Pleasure of Reading, Editorial Síntesis, Madrid, 2004, in Spanish).
Her fourth book of poems is Jocs de l'oca (The Goose Games, Servei de Publicacions, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, 2006). The poems in the book are laid out like the 63 squares of the board game (Game of the Goose) and the book can be "played" as well as read.
Her poetic work is included in various anthologies of Catalan poetry and she has been translated into Arabic, English, Finnish, French, Italian, Macedonian, Sardinian, Slovene, Spanish and Ukrainian. She has been included in the anthology New European Poets, edited by Wayne Miller & Kevin Prufer (Greywolf Press, Minnesota, 2008, ISBN 978-1-55597-492-3, translations of Aguilar-Amat's poems by Anna Crowe).[5] She also forms part of the Scottish Poetry Library (Project Ariane, European Union, 2001 and 2004).[6][7]
Since 2003, she has been president of QUARKpoesia (Aula de Poesia de la Universitat Autònoma),[8] a university association promoting poetry and translation of poetry from less translated languages (minority literatures). In 2006, she organized and launched the poetry publication series, Refraccions (Refractions), dedicated primarily to publishing bilingual poetry books, through the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona's publishing office, the Servei de Publicacions.
As a performer, she has toured far and wide reciting her poetry. She has participated in the major festivals of Catalonia and Valencian Community, including the "Setmana de Poesia de Barcelona 2001" (Barcelona Poetry Week, considered the most prestigious poetry festival of Catalonia),[9] and has organized a number of poetry readings at the university, as well as inviting guest speakers from abroad. In (2007) she was invited to participate at the first Festa de la Poesia a Sitges,[10][11] created by the also poets Joan Duran and Cèlia Sànchez-Mústich, where she was honoured for her contribution to the Catalan Poetry. On the international level, she has recited in various countries, the latest being Argentina (2010) and Ukraine (International Literary Festival of Lviv, September 2010), earlier festivals including StAnza, Scotland's Poetry Festival (2000),[12] as well as a recital at the Nuyorican Poets Café ("Catalan Poets Pay Homage to Pedro Pietri", World Voices Festival, NY, 2007).[13]
Her poetry surprises with its radical authenticity, which manifests itself through a combination of narrative, lyricism and original imagery.[14]
Works[edit]
Poetry[edit]
Petrolier (Oil Tanker), series "Edicions de la Guerra", Editorial Denes, Paiporta, València, 2003 (awarded the "Jocs Florals" of the city of Barcelona = Premi Englantina d'Or als Jocs Florals de Barcelona 2000).
Trànsit entre dos vols (Transit between Two Flights), Edicions Proa, Barcelona, 2001 (Premi Carles Riba = Carles Riba Award, 2000).
Música i escorbut (Music and Scurvy), Edicions 62, Barcelona, 2002 (Premi Màrius Torrs = Màrius Torres Award, 2001)
Coses Petites : poemes a quatre mans (Little Things: Poems by Two Hands), co-authored by Francesc Parcerisas, with illustrations by the publisher. Miquel Plana Publisher, Olot, 2002.
Music and Scurvy, translation from the Catalan of the book Música i escorbut by Anna Crowe, Sandstone Press, Scotland, 2005 (ISBN 978-1905207022).
Jocs de l'oca (The Goose Games), Servei de Publicacions, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, 2006.
Càrrega de color (Color Load), Editorial Meteora, Barcelona, 2011.
Numerous contributions to Catalan literary journals.
Anthologized as a poet[edit]
Anna Aguilar-Amat has been anthologized as a poet in the following books, among others:
Sol de sal. La nueva poesía catalana (Sun of Salt: New Catalan Poetry), translated into Spanish by Jordi Virallonga. DVD Ediciones, Barcelona, 2001.
EPIC poem-postcards. Scottish Poetry Library, 2001.
The EmLit Project: European minority literatures in translation, Brunel U. Press, 2003 (ISBN 1902316363).
Bouesia 2006, regsexcital de bouversos (Anthology of poems from the poetry festival called Bouesia, Deltebre). Arola Editors, Tarragona, 2006.
Light off water : XXV Catalan Poems 1978-2002, Carcanet, Scottish Poetry Library, 2007 (ISBN 1857549163).
New European Poets, edited by Wayne Miller & Kevin Prufer. Greywolf Press, Minnesota, 2008 (ISBN 978-1-55597-492-3).
Eròtiques i despentinades. Un recorregut de cent anys per la poesia catalana amb veu de dona (Erotic and with their hair down: A trip through a hundred years of Catalan poetry with a woman's voice), Encarna Sant-Celoni i Verger, ed. Illustrations by Maria Montes. Arola Editors, Tarragona, 2008.
Poetàrium: Contemporary Catalan Poetry, Institut Ramon Llull (Government of Catalonia & Government of the Balearic Islands), Barcelona, 2009 (the anthology is a selection of 34 contemporary poets the government wished to showcase from among the many that are active). (In English).
Essay[edit]
El placer de la lectura (The Pleasure of Reading), Editorial Síntesis, Madrid, 2004 (collection of essays, in Spanish).
Numerous articles in journals.
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-10-04. Retrieved 2010-07-29. CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ Llull, Institut Ramon. "Anna Aguilar-Amat, poet-in-residence at Ledig House, reading in NYC - News - Institut Ramon Llull – Catalan Language and culture abroad". www.llull.cat. Archived from the original on 2016-10-31. Retrieved 2016-10-30.
^ "Currículum Vitae - Anna Aguilar-Amat". Retrieved 25 March 2017.
^ Jocs Florals de Barcelona - list of awards, Catalan Government Archives.
^ New European Poets, edited by Wayne Miller & Kevin Prufer (Greywolf Press, Minnesota, 2008, ISBN 978-1-55597-492-3). Sneak preview of the book in question at Amazon.
^ Scottish Poetry Library Archives, several books with Aguilar-Amats works are listed here.
^ Scottish Poetry Library, page on Anne Crowe (translator) Archived September 28, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
^ "Presentació - QUARKpoesia". Retrieved 25 March 2017.
^ Setmana de la Poesia 2001, the program.
^ "Es presenta la I Festa de la Poesia a Sitges que tindrà lloc a la vila entre els dies 6 i 8 de juliol". Retrieved 25 March 2017.
^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2014-09-06. CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ StAnza International Poetry Festival, list of past participants Archived July 28, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
^ PEN Club, "Catalan Poets Pay Homage to Pedro Pietri" Archived October 5, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
^ Diccionari de la Literatura Catalana, Enciclopèdia Catalana, Barcelona, 2008
Anna Aguilar-Amat's official website (in Catalan)
"Qui és qui de les lletres catalanes" (Who's Who in Catalan Letters), official website of the Catalan Government (in Catalan)
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Faculty, Curriculum Vitae of Anna Aguilar-Amat (in Catalan)
Biography at "Corpus Literari" (in Catalan)
Six poems in the "Barcelona Review", Catalan edition, No. 43, July–August 2004 (in Catalan)
Anna Aguilar-Amat, biography, poemes and recordings of her reading her poems at Poetàrium, LlullTV, Institut Ramon Llull website (biography and poems in the Catalan original, and in English, French, Italian and Spanish translation)
REVIEW: THE EMLIT PROJECT: EUROPEAN MINORITY LITERATURES IN TRANSLATION, by Thalia Pandiri, in Metamorphoses, a Journal of Literary Translation, with a poem by Anna Aguilar Amat in the Catalan and English.
Anna Aguilar-Amat at internationales literaturfestival berlin
BNF: cb14594710n (data)
NLP: A32159869
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anna_Aguilar-Amat&oldid=918580794"
Catalan-language poets
Catalan translators
Autonomous University of Barcelona alumni
Autonomous University of Barcelona faculty
21st-century Spanish poets
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Home » Tournament in Focus » - English Premier League » Manchester United trigger Martial extension
Manchester United trigger Martial extension
Posted by: Andy Dalziel December 18, 2018
Manchester United have triggered an option in Anthony Martial's contract which allows them to extend his stay at Old Trafford by a further year to 2020.
However, for United fans who are ready to celebrate the good news, their enthusiasm should be tempered by the news that hopes of a more permanent long-term deal for the French international seem distant, with the BBC quoting Martial's agent as saying ""They have already sent us offers that do not meet our expectations, starting at bases very far from our wishes. We are far from an agreement for the time being," he said.
Martial joined United from French side Monaco in 2015 and he has since gone on to make 99 Premier League appearances for them, scoring 31 goals. He is the club's top scorer this season with seven goals from nine starts, despite not always enjoying the best of relations with his manager Jose Mourinho, who has benched him on a number of occasions, and criticised the 23-year old when he refused to return promptly to the club's pre-season tour of the USA, following the birth of his child.
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Manchester United MUFC Premier League 2018-12-18


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City firm pays out £22,000 for dumping over 40 bags of rubbish in Square Mile street
A City of London business has been forced to pay out nearly £22,000 for fly-tipping over 40 bags of rubbish and cardboard on Vine Street in the Square Mile.
Local authority the City of London Corporation prosecuted Empire Inc Limited, of 37 Jewry Street, London EC3, under Section 33 (1) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 on Thursday 26 January.
The firm was fined for dumping on three separate occasions dating back to November 2015.
Empire was fined £20,000 with £1,756 costs.
No-one appeared on behalf of the company and there was no response to the summons.
Wendy Mead, Chairman of the City of London Corporation's Environment Committee said:
"We will not tolerate fly tipping on City streets.
"Our job is to ensure that the Square Mile is kept clean and safe for businesses to operate, residents to live and visitors to enjoy.
"The City's workers and residents rightly expect the street scene to be of a very high standard and we will always prosecute fly tippers."
The City Corporation is committed to maintaining London's position as the world's leading financial services centre, and upholding its reputation as one of the cleanest cities in the world.
A total of 16,580 businesses operate in the City of London – the vast majority being small and medium enterprises.
The offences
10/11/15 - 40 plus large unidentifiable black refuse sacks dumped on Vine Street, London EC3.
30/11/15 - Two fly tips of black and white refuse sacks and a collection of cardboard found on opposite sides of the junction of Vine Street and India Street EC3.
07/12/15 - Pile of waste in a fire exit doorway which exits onto Vine Street consisting of cardboard and black refuse sacks.
The City of London Corporation provides local government and policing services for the financial and commercial heart of Britain, the 'Square Mile'. In addition, the City Corporation has three roles:
We support London's communities by working in partnership with neighbouring boroughs on economic regeneration, education and skills. In addition, the City of London Corporation's charitable funder, City Bridge Trust, makes grants of around £20 million annually to tackle disadvantage across London.
We also help look after key London heritage and green spaces including Tower Bridge, the Museum of London, Barbican Arts Centre, City gardens, Hampstead Heath, Epping Forest, Burnham Beeches, and important commons in London.
We also support and promote the 'City' as a world-leading financial and business hub, with outward and inward business delegations, high-profile civic events and research-driven policies, all reflecting a long-term approach.
See www.cityoflondon.gov.uk for more details.
Carl Locsin, Media Officer, City of London Corporation
T 020 7332 3654 / M 07388 862 229
E carl.locsin@cityoflondon.gov.uk


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'Remodeled's' Paul Fisher Wants a Woman Who is Beautiful Inside and Out
Posted In: Celebrity Interviews, Love
Paul Fisher. Photo courtesy of Anderson Group PR.
By Nisha Ramirez
Paul Fisher is surrounded by beautiful women everyday — he is a modeling agent, after all. The passionate, no-nonsense agent, who has represented fashion icons like Naomi Campbell and Kimora Lee-Simmons, made it big in the 90's and is now the star of television reality series Remodeled on the CW Network. But, Remodeled isn't just another show about models; it actually provides Fisher with a platform to change the face of the modeling industry and what society deems beautiful.
From doing drugs to getting dumped, Fisher opens up to us about his career, love life and his fight to redefine beauty.He admits to being "girl crazy" and spiraling out of control as he climbed to the top. "When I decided to get back into the modeling industry again, I had to beg for forgiveness because I was an animal for 20 years. I did drugs; I slept with the girls; I was just an animal," he explains. "But I did find my faith about five years ago. I walked into The Kabbalah Centre, and it literally changed my life."
Related Link: Five Hollywood Relationships That Spiraled Out of Control
Fisher decided to rejoin the modeling world and transform the industry into a safe place for young models. In doing so, he created The Network, a company that helps to create models who are also role models instead of models who are defined by their looks and beauty. It's quite the undertaking. Right now, his firm is comprised of 12,000 models represented by small agencies around the world.
Comfortable with his role behind-the-scenes, Fisher first declined to star in Remodeled. He says, "My partners came to me, but I'm a private man. I didn't want to be out there in the public eye; that's just not who I am. Then they came back to me and said, 'Paul, this show could really expedite our mission.'"
What is the mission? To contact the fashion magazines and designers and ask them to rethink their definition of beauty. "I want to go to war with any designer that has a thin, 16-year-old girl walk down the runway, who inadvertently encourages young girls around the world to put their finger down their mouth because they think they have to weigh 116 pounds," he says. "The average woman is 5'4 and 143 pounds. That is beautiful. That is sexy!"
Expanding on this idea, Fisher believes that the fashion industry has created a false picture of what a woman should look like. Through The Network and his work on Remodeled, he inspires his female and male models to be confident and healthy in an industry that scrutinizes their every feature. The powerhouse agent knows that self-esteem issues caused by magazines and designers extends to real women everywhere.
Related Link: 4 Things Men Worry About
"This isn't a business to me. It's a movement, and you're a part of my movement. I'm really working, with every fiber of my being, to change the industry," he reveals. "And I am going to sit at a Calvin Klein fashion show a year or two from now, and we're not going to see skinny kids walking down the runway."
Since Fisher is representing models in an industry that he calls "destructive," he tells his clients that beauty is only skin deep. "You are going to find a man or woman out there who is going to think that you are perfect and that you shouldn't change one little thing about yourself. Your physical reality is irrelevant anyways."
Despite his work in an industry that focuses on appearance above all else, Fisher believes that looks aren't everything. "I've dated the most beautiful women in the world, and I've lived with the most beautiful woman in the world," he says. "Yes, physical attraction is important, but much more important is being on the same path spiritually, wanting the same things as far as giving back to the world and truly trying to make a difference."
Fisher is looking for a woman in his personal life who is beautiful inside and out. "About two years ago, right before I was supposed to get married, I got dumped by my beautiful fiancée, and I have not been with anyone since then."
Related Link: Rachel A. Sussman Helps Us Recover After a Breakup in 'The Breakup Bible'
Going into more detail, he adds, "I am very passionate about my family, my faith and The Network because I really believe that we're trying to do something special. I hope that soon, I become passionate about finding my soul mate because I certainly would love to have children and be a role model for a couple of kids."
With a mission to reinvent the fashion industry like he reinvented his life, Fisher is excited for the new season of Remodeled. As he explains, "We're creating some stars, and it's pretty damn exciting. I give these models some pretty damn tough love, and I think people are going to really enjoy it."
If you want to be a part of Paul Fisher's fashion movement and learn more about The Network, check out his www.TheNetwork.com. Remodeled returns to the CW network on Monday, July 9th at 9/8c – be sure to tune in!
Related Tags: Beauty, Celebrity Interviews, Fashion, Paul Fisher, Reality TV
'Remodeled's' Paul Fisher Wants a Woman Who is Beautiful Inside and Out


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Republicans' consultant problem — especially in CA
15 Feb, 2013 by CalWatchdog Staff
By John Seiler
Republicans continue to mull over their two defeats by President Barack Obama. And their virtual dissolution in California, which once produced presidents who won landslides: Nixon and Reagan.
One of the best GOP strategists is Morton Blackwell, whom I met in the mid-1980s when I lived in Washington, D.C. He just wrote a new analysis attacking the party's increasing dependence on high-paid consultants, "The GOP's consultant problem." He doesn't specifically mention California, but what he says applies here more than elsewhere. He writes:
"Most consultants take a 15% commission (over and above client-paid production costs and his retainer) from media vendors for all placements."
So for the $180 million of her own money that Meg Whitman spent on her losing 2010 gubernatorial campaign, $27 million went to the consultants — plus production costs and retainers.
Now, get this. The consultant only gets paid for big media splashes on TV and radio. He gets nothing, Blackwell writes, for "precinct organization … Voter ID phone banks … voter registration drives … youth efforts … the election day process to get out the vote." That is, the essence of politics is avoided by the GOP consultants because it doesn't earn them a 15 percent commission.
In the 2012 election, as well as in 2010, Democrats excelled at all those things. Maybe it's a difference of culture. Democrats, especially in California, are dominated by unions, who are used to membership drives and organizing to fight for or against ballot initiatives. They always have had strong grassroots organizations.
By contrast, Republicans have a business background. They think you offer a "product," put up some ads for it, and people either buy it or they don't. If they buy it, you make a profit (or win the election); if they don't buy it, you take a loss (or lose the election) and move on to the next product offering.
Rich candidates
Blackwell specifically attacks, "The suckering of many rich candidates who are falsely led by consultants to believe they can win."
We certainly saw that in California in 2010 with Whitman's campaign. The eBay billionaire had no idea what she was getting into. She talked about "running the California government like a business." But politics isn't business. Business means offering somebody a product that the purchaser can refuse and buy something else; it's voluntary. Government is coercion. It's putting a gun to the heads of taxpayers, taking their money, and spending it on special interests. Elections are, as H.L. Mencken wrote, "the advance auction of stolen goods."
The same thing happened to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who thought he could bring his Hollywood bluster and contract negotiating skills to "running the California government like a business." His personal charisma and the recall circus of 2003 brought him to power; the real-estate boom of the mid-2000s kept him in power in 2006.
But in the end, he was rolled by the Capitol power players for spending increases that blew out the budget and led to his record $13 billion tax increases of 2009. The state economy tanked much faster than the U.S. economy and he left office in disgrace followed by personal scandal.
The consultants to his campaigns took their 15 percent.
In addition to all their other problems, Arnold's folly took a severe toll on the California Republican Party. After losing his 2005 special election slate of reform initiatives, Arnold shifted fast to the Left, embracing AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. It's projected to kill 1 million jobs — long after he left office, of course.
And to show how things have changed, in the seven years since then, environmental extremists no longer even refer to "global warming," but to "climate change," which President Obama referred to three times in his State of the Union address this week. That way, any bout of bad weather becomes an excuse to increase government control over our lives vastly more than it already does to prevent a potential ecological catastrophe.
The result was that Arnold tarnished what was left of the anti-tax, small-government "brand" of the California GOP. Some say that was a good thing because they needed to move away from "extreme" right-wing positions. But now the CA GOP has no brand at all. It's even losing seats in the Legislature in former Republican strongholds such as Orange County.
Blackwell recommends a return to grassroots organizing and online efforts such as those that have worked for the Demcorats. Incoming CA GOP Chairman Jim Brulte is recommending something similar. In California, it's going to take a lot more than that. But it's a start.
Consultants are a big part of the problem 15 February, 2013, 09:35
Political consultants are human like the rest of us; they want to be rich, and if some rich executive with limited political experience wants to take an ego trip and pursue government statesmanship, the consultants are happy to oblige at a rate that the client is willing to accept.
A rich newbie candidate is a sitting duck!
We'll see a few rich ones running for governor in 2014, with the same result.
If you remember Al Checchi, you know that Democrats can fall into this trap too.
double l 15 February, 2013, 13:06
There was a prominent rancher in the Mid-West who was widely known for the quality livestock that his ranch produced. One year he found himself in a cash flow squeeze so he invited his banker out to the ranch for lunch, specifically to admire his prized bull. This bull had sired many grand prize winning cattle through out the area. As they were sitting on his patio, they watched the bull in an adjacent pasture. The bull put on a magnificent show, stomping, pawing the ground, snorting, bucking, and charging the fence of the pasture next to his pen. The cause of the exhibition was a young heifer that was coming into heat. All of a sudden the bull charged the fence and made a graceful leap. At that moment they heard a terrible scream, a loud thud, and a strange thp,thp,thp coming from the barbed wire fence. They abandoned their lunch and ran over to the bull who was in terrible agony. The Vet was called and the bull (now a steer) was sedated and patched up. The banker turned to the rancher and said that his services were no longer needed, the rancher replied "But he would make one helluva consultant".
us citizen 15 February, 2013, 14:13
Well this explains why in every election in CA……..no one knows who the republican candidate is!
You also cant tell the gimme gimme crowd……that things are going to be ran like a good tight business…….because they KNOW, their free stuff would come to an end.
We are doomed.
Douglas 15 February, 2013, 19:04
" Government is coercion. It's putting a gun to the heads of taxpayers, taking their money, and spending it on special interests."
Government is obviously not perfect (nor is "business"), but I feel sorry for you. Maybe you're in the wrong business.
Rex the Wonder Dog! 16 February, 2013, 05:43
Like the buisness of public unions-scamming and stealing.
Hondo 16 February, 2013, 09:02
I give full credit to the democrats. They are far better at politics than the Republicans are.
They are masters of the low information voters.
Hondo………..
Hondo- the party dominance comes and goes, in the early 980's it was Rugs for 12 hardcore years, Clinton changed that, the Bush changed it back, mark my words, it will change again……………..I personally think both the parties are special interest whores and have been Independent for 15
stoopid auto correct
SeeSaw 16 February, 2013, 20:14
Oh Rex, I wondered if you were talking about leaders with toupees.
Arnold SchwarzeneggerJohn SeilerMeg WhitmanMorton BlackwellRepublican Party
12 Politics and Elections 4 years ago
Hearings dissect Prop. 46 on medical malpractice
California's state and local governments could be hit with an increase of tens of millions to several hundred million
2 Regulations 4 years ago
9th Circuit throws out San Jose suit against MLB
San Jose has been trying to snatch the A's from Oakland. But Major League Baseball has said, "You're out!" MLB
8 Investigation 9 years ago
Arnold's seven wasted years
SEPT. 7, 2010 By JOHN SEILER With Labor Day marking the traditional beginning of the campaign season, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's
Bill blocking 'rent gouging' draws buzz in Capitol
Actually, Jim Jones cult was Bay Area Democrats


Stronghold is a quiet, tree-lined neighborhood located in the northeast quadrant of Washington, DC adjacent to the Brookland community. Legend has it the neighborhood's name comes from a 1950 era baseball team organized for local boys dubbed "The Strong Hold." Because five of the six streets that comprise the neighborhood are dead ends, Stronghold has very little traffic – neighbors connect with each other via a network of alleys crisscrossing the area and are able to avoid the main streets. Properties in Stronghold are Federal-style row houses featuring big yards and front porches that are popular for socializing in the warmer months.
The Rhode Island Avenue and Brookland Metro Stations on the Red Line are each a 15 minute walk away. Stronghold boundaries include Michigan Avenue to the north, North Capitol to the west, and the Glenwood and Prospect Hill Cemeteries to the east and south.


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On Being? Start Here
On Being On Being
Civil Conversations Project
On Being with Krista Tippett
Khalid Kamau, Ellen Williams, Oana Marian, et. al.
Repossessing Virtue: Living Differently, Beyond Economic Crisis
We're bringing the voices of our listeners into the conversation we've been building online and on-air since the economic downturn began last year. Many are grappling with the shame that comes in American culture with the loss of a job, and many are seeking community in old places and new. For some, economic instability — a kind of life on the edge — is not new. They've been cultivating virtues of patience, self-examination, service and good humor that might help us all.
Ellen Williams is a cancer survivor and grandmother.
Oana Marian is a Romanian-born American citizen interested in film, poetry, and photography.
Lia Hadley is a freelance business owner focused on visual communication, educational technology, and teamwork.
Marc Mullinax is an associate professor of religion at Mars Hill University.
Emily Muschinske is a print designer, art teacher, and mother.
KRISTA TIPPETT, HOST: I'm Krista Tippett. Today, "Living Differently, Beyond Economic Crisis," a new installment in our ongoing series "Repossessing Virtue." Hundreds of listeners have joined our conversation about the human and the practical spiritual aspect of our economic present. This hour you'll hear eight of their voices putting words around experiences many of us are having and imparting some wisdom from disparate angles on life.
KHALID KAMAU: When I lost my job, I experienced this shame. Even though it happened really through no fault of my own, I was afraid to tell people. It was almost like contracting a disease.
ELLEN WILLIAMS: It's sort of like the search for money has become a sacred thing, as opposed to the care and love of people, you know, and our common life together.
MS. TIPPETT: This is Speaking of Faith. Stay with us.
[Announcements]
MS. TIPPETT: I'm Krista Tippett. This hour, a new installment in our ongoing series "Repossessing Virtue," bringing the voices of our listeners into a conversation we've been building online and on air since the economic downturn began in the fall of 2008. We've been tracing the spiritual and moral contours of our economic present, how changed circumstances are confronting many of us with questions of what matters in life and what most deeply sustains us, what we are learning in this moment and how we might live differently beyond it to shape the next American dream. Many are grappling with the shame that comes in American culture with the loss of the job. Many are seeking community in old places and new. For some, economic instability — a kind of life on the edge — is not new. They've been cultivating virtues of patience, self-examination, service, and good humor that might help us all.
From American Public Media this is Speaking of Faith, public radio's conversation about religion, meaning, ethics, and ideas.
Today — as part of our ongoing series "Repossessing Virtue" — "Living Differently, Beyond Economic Crisis," featuring you, our listeners.
OANA MARIAN: What's going on in the world around me is somehow now matching the way that I have been living my life for a while.
LIA HADLEY: When I think of the word "crisis," I always think it is something we always think of as coming unexpectedly or going away quickly. I don't think that is going to happen in this case.
ELLEN WILLIAMS: It's sort of like the search for money has become a sacred thing, as opposed to the care and love of people and our common life together.
MARC MULLINAX: Maybe we would have an American dream that is more of a right, a human right, and not just an American purchase
We received beautiful, thoughtful essays from disparate places, vocations, and spiritual perspectives. We chose a cross section of these and called people up at home or at work. They read from the stories they'd written and had a conversation with our producers. We selected eight voices who put words around experiences many of us are having and who also impart some wisdom from their particular angle on life.
We begin with Khalid Kamau. He grew up in Atlanta but now lives in New York City where he was, until January, a financial analyst for a nonprofit. He responded to our questions with this story, which we asked him to read.
KHALID KAMAU: Once when I was young, I came home after school and baked a cake for my mom for dinner. I wanted to surprise her. She's a nurse and had been at work all day, you know, before starting her second shift as our mom. So I pulled down a box of cake mix. And after I emptied the cake mix in the bowl, I saw that the recipe called for eggs, and we were out. I remembered the stories my family would tell about growing up in the rural segregated South. Though Jim Crow blacks suffered severe institutional oppression, their communities were strong and neighbors were always helping one another out. People would come over and ask for a cup of sugar or a loaf of bread, and "if you had it, you gave it," my mom would say.
So that day, I went across the street to Miss Jessie, our retired neighbor, who kept an eye on my brother and I in the afternoons until my mom or dad got home. I knew she would have some eggs and maybe even fondly recall the same traditions of sharing my parents spoke of. Well, Miss Jessie did have eggs and stories of her own about communities sharing their resources in the Great Depression and the segregated South. I got my two eggs and finished baking the cake.
When my mother arrived, I presented her with the cake and proudly recounted all my efforts and resourcefulness. But the glow from her face quickly faded when I got to the part about borrowing the eggs. She called my father into the kitchen, and together they scolded me about going around the neighborhood begging for food. "But I thought that's what you guys did in the olden days," I asked. "That was a long time ago," my mother said. "Things are different now."
It appears that in today's culture, strong communities are those where estranged neighbors live on islands with no need for one another. Where sharing is not a practice of healthy community-building, but an act of last resort for the desperate and destitute. I have only once since borrowed pantry supplies from a neighbor, and they were also my best friends.
In October 2008, when the market began to collapse, I secretly hoped the crash would be so complete that our middle-class pretenses would fall with our capitalist system. Instead, what I see is a president, a Congress, and a marketplace eager to maintain the status quo. But they're just taking their marching orders from us, the American people. It seems we're still willing to do anything to keep from knocking on our neighbor's door to ask for eggs.
[Sound bite of music]
KHALID KAMAU: I live in Harlem, and a lot of my friends are in finance and a lot of them have been laid off. Most of us are young and single. Our situations individually are not as desperate as things that I've seen go on around me, but one of the first things that happened when I lost my job is I that experienced this shame. You know, even though it happened really through no fault of my own, I was afraid to tell people. It was almost like contracting a disease, you know, that has some sort of stigma around it. But one of the things that I've done is now I tell everyone, you know. Probably by the end of that day if not by the next morning, like, I got up and I called everyone that I knew and I told them that I didn't have a job. You know, I went to church at night, and I would tell people. I mean, I wouldn't necessarily make an announcement, but it would just come up. Or I would make sure that it came up because I think there is a sort of way that people will just assume that you still have a job, and you can let people assume that.
So that's sort of been my first step in asking for help, is to just let people know that I might need it sometime soon in the future because I don't have a job. But it's still hard to bring that up. I live with roommates, and sometimes we'll buy things together or we'll go in for purchases together, and I haven't been able to necessarily do that all of the time and there still is some shame around that. I don't know. I guess I work through it every day.
KHALID KAMAU: In this other life that I had — I was a financial analyst — I was just always busy. You know, I was too busy to do everything. And I have to say that I don't think — though I don't have as many material things, I feel like I have more time. And so I actually feel wealthier in a way. And one of the things we hear often in a workplace is you have to leave your personal problems at home, but very often you bring the stress from your job home, and your job isn't really too concerned with what you're taking home as long as you don't bring anything back.
Now I really do just feel like a weight has been lifted. All of these worries that I had at work — which were really all about, like, paperwork and office politics and things that really in the long run don't even matter — I am doing more chores on my own, and I'm able to pursue things like school and writing that I'm more interested in. But I also think that there is — sometimes I don't do anything. You know, sometimes I lay in bed and watch television all day. Or I lay in bed and don't do anything for an entire morning. I think there's this urge and I really think it's this capitalist urge, It's this urge of consumption, to wherever there is an empty space that it needs to be filled with something, and we usually have to spend money to fill it.
And the same thing happens with time. I think the first week I was off I was feeling really guilty and unproductive because I had all of these extra hours that weren't filled up with things. But I kind of decided that instead of filling them up with things that aren't important that maybe I just won't do anything. I don't think necessarily that — I mean, this is the sort of thing that will sound completely irresponsible and completely lazy, but I think in some other society I don't think that there's really a need to fill time up just to fill it up. And I think it's sort of made me reevaluate time.
MS. TIPPETT: Khalid Kamau of New York City. Just before we went to broadcast, he let us know that he recently took a new job as operations manager of an elementary charter school in the Bronx.
MS. TIPPETT: Emily Muschinske of South Orange, New Jersey, is a designer and illustrator of children's books. And even before she herself lost her job recently, she's watched several rounds of economic downturn in the publishing industry.
EMILY MUSCHINSKE: Publishing is an industry that's kind of all over the map. You know, one year you're having a good year, the next year it's terrible and they cancel Bagel Day and they tightened up the purse strings. Nobody gets a raise. And that's been my experience ever since my career started, so I think I'm a little bit jaded at this point as much, as I wish I weren't. But the way you see the company and the way you see your department and your co-workers and the people who you sit next to, that's very different.
MS. TIPPETT: Emily Muschinske is thinking a lot these days, she says, about the emotional toll that cycles of layoffs are taking, as she wrote to us, "on those of cut off suddenly from the life and people we came to know, trust, and sometimes even love." In her essay, she posed these questions: How do we fight the bitterness, the powerlessness we feel after a layoff? How do we return to our work with an expansive open spirit ready to share our lives with new people and contribute to the group in a good way?"
Emily Muschinske has two young children, and she's also trying to be more intentional every day about what sources of ideas and inspiration she invites into her mind and her home.
EMILY MUSCHINSKE: I really love comedy, and I always think, you know, these are people who are on this earth to make people smile and they're committed to it. People like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert and Tina Fey can make us laugh at what's going on in the news. So I started pursuing these people. I started sort of searching around, you know, are there any podcasts that I can listen to? And I try to, as much as I can, take that in. And I feel like at its core laughing is so nourishing to the spirit, and that's an act of faith right there.
You know, I have some people in my family that are survivors of the Holocaust, and it's just really inspiring. They came through so much and they had to restart their lives. And they came to the U.S. and started from scratch and had families and raised their children and they thrived. So I try to look at that and say this isn't even close to that scale, and hopefully we'll come through it and we'll recover as they recovered and as the people who survived the Depression recovered. I'm hoping that it'll just be, looking back, a blip on the screen rather than something that defines a huge swath of your life.
EMILY MUSCHINSKE: There's a tendency to feel sorry for yourself and to sort of pity yourself if you have been laid off. You know, it's a rejection. Even if you know it's not personal and even if your whole department got laid off and you weren't singled out, it's still very hard to avoid these thoughts, that somehow you've failed and it's your fault. I'm trying not to go there, and there's a choice you can make about how far you go into those thoughts. I've been home with my son, who's three, a lot and he's at this stage where he's learning how to ask for something without throwing a temper tantrum. He wants something and he feels he has to ask for it in a whine. And you're trying to say, "Just ask for it in a normal voice. Just ask for it and don't feel self-pity and don't feel sad. Just ask for what you need and it's going to be OK if you don't get exactly what you think you want." So I've been kind of trying to apply that to myself a little bit. Just put it out there, put yourself out there, and don't whine about it and don't throw a fit. Just wait and something's going to come to you. It might not be the thing that you think you want, but it'll be something.
MS. TIPPETT: to speakingoffaith.org to listen to our extended interviews with Emily Muschinske of South Orange, New Jersey, and with Khalid Kamau of New York City.
MS. TIPPETT: I'm Krista Tippett, and this is Speaking of Faith from American Public Media. Today, our listeners reflect on living differently in and beyond economic crisis, part of our ongoing series "Repossessing Virtue."
MARC MULLINAX: How are my students responding? I cannot get them to talk that much about it. I don't know if they're provided words by their faith traditions or their families on how to embrace or see themselves as part of this new day. It's really difficult to gauge what they're thinking when they go home for break. I don't get a sense of the table conversations that they have at home. It often comes when I learn that someone is not coming back.
MS. TIPPETT: Marc Mullinax is a professor of religion and philosophy of Mars Hill College in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville, North Carolina. He's also an ordained Baptist minister. In recent years, he's taken the Christian season of Lent seriously, though it was not a big part of the Protestant world he grew up in. He's come to call it a discipline of holy interruption, which he's now extending into other parts of his life. He's using the notion of holy interruption as he works with his students in navigating new economic realities and prospects. In a course on human nature, for example, he uses scenes from the movie The Matrix . He challenges himself and his students to examine ways they are living virtually and not concretely and to take breaks from that, unplugging their cell phone batteries for 24 hours, for example. And beyond Lent, he's continuing to fast one day a week.
MARC MULLINAX: I'm spending a lot more of my excess — for example, the food money I save by not eating I'm donating. I do weddings, so I ask people to donate any fees they might give to me to a local food bank called MANNA FoodBank. So it's little things like that that that's slowly letting creep in and interrupting the usual flow of basically how I see money. I believe the pressure from the economic crisis is certainly part of this, but since I've been teaching this human nature course and Socrates for the last eight years, it's been doing this quiet number on me of examining your life and seeing The Matrix time and again and realizing that we are either agents or we are unplugged. And I don't like to think in such dualistic terms all the time, but it helps to make those stark contrasts so that we can check ourselves out to see if we are living an examined life or life that someone else has pretty much scripted out for us and we are just puppets at the end of someone else's strings.
One of my students, her name is Miley, I was teaching the same course in Socrates about four years ago and talked about how the unexamined life is not worth living. And she said, thoughtfully, "Well, Mullinax, if the unexamined is not worth living, does that mean that the examined life is worth dying for?" And I just got goose bumps from that.
And this is where my Christianity comes in. It's a matter of sacrifice for the greater good.
MARC MULLINAX: The American dream that I grew up with, I think, is unsustainable. And I think we've just learned how unsustainable it is in the United States of America, but I think the rest of the world has already known it to be an unsustainable effort, where 6 or 7 percent of the population can, year in, year out, consume 40 to 50 percent of the world's resources. That is just an unsustainable picture.
So I think we're recognizing it maybe for the first time. And I call this a time of hope because as we are forced into a kind of Lent, as we are forced into these interruptions, maybe, just maybe there can be enough critical mass of people to see these as transforming times. That what we used to do really did not bring us closer together. It really didn't bring justice to everybody. It really didn't bring human rights or health care to everyone. It seemed to be a time of American dream for those who could purchase it. And maybe we will have an American dream that is more of a right, a human right, and not just an American purchase.
MS. TIPPETT: Marc Mullinax of Asheville, North Carolina.
MS. TIPPETT: Lia Hadley was born in Venezuela to Canadian parents. She grew up in Caracas, Grenada, Palo Alto, and Montreal. She's now settled in northern Germany with her husband and children. She began her conversation with us by noting that though she considers the present in moral and spiritual and not merely economic terms, she hesitates to use the word "crisis."
LIA HADLEY: When I think of the word crisis, I always think it denotes something that we always think of as being short-term or coming unexpectedly or going away quickly. And I don't think that is going to happen in this case.
MS. TIPPETT: Lia Hadley currently has work she loves at a computer science research institute on a project to implement digital media into K–12 classrooms, but she makes her living as a consultant and she is facing unemployment when this project ends. A dramatic downturn in her economic outlook actually came nine years ago with the IT crash of 2000, and she has been adjusting her understanding of work, money, community, and life ever since.
LIA HADLEY: I read recently that there are a hundred million photos that people can access and use on Flickr alone, and a hundred of my collages are a part of that hundred million. And I know, about two years ago or three years ago, when Kiva started — this as a microfinancing blog where you can — or a platform where, as individuals, you can contribute to entrepreneurs in third-world countries. So I helped this shop owner in Ukraine, and in the proceeding two or three years it came to a point where now I'm setting up microfinance businesses with women in Kenya and Rwanda and Uganda and Cameroon. I just find that because of these people who have shown me that you don't have to be an expert or you don't have to be powerful or even necessarily particularly smart, everyone can just redefine what it is to live successfully in a community.
My grandmother, she was the all-time community worker. She was this Irish Catholic woman living in Quebec, and of course the Church was bigger than politics. It was everything. And so her community was a church community. I mean, my community is literally the elderly neighbor living across the street or the young neighbor living in the orphanage in Kimilili, Kenya, that I'm working together with. I mean, it can be very loose and broad.
MS. TIPPETT: Listen to longer interviews of the two guests you just heard, Lia Hadley of Lübeck, Germany, and Marc Mullinax from Asheville, North Carolina, on our Web site, speakingofffaith.org.
MS. TIPPETT: What started out as an online project last fall has resulted in several radio programs, including this show with our listeners, but the conversation does not stop here. We've crafted a dynamic map, weaving together a rich tapestry of stories and audio, images and geographies from the hundreds of people who have written to us, including a listener from Thailand who finds solace in the annual Thai celebration releasing paper lanterns with prayers. And Careen Stoll, a potter from Portland, Oregon, who says she feels needed as never before in this new economy. Add your own perspective at speakingoffaith.org and download other shows from our series "Repossessing Virtue."
MS. TIPPETT: After a short break, the stories and wisdom of a Romanian-American filmmaker, a Mennonite businessman, a Muslim student of economics, and the poetry of Wendell Berry.
I'm Krista Tippett. Stay with us. Speaking of Faith comes to you from American Public Media.
MS. TIPPETT: Welcome back to Speaking of Faith, public radio's conversation about religion, meaning, ethics, and ideas. I'm Krista Tippett.
Today, a new installment in our ongoing series "Repossessing Virtue," bringing the voices of our listeners into a conversation we've been building online and on air since economic downturn began in the fall of 2008. We've been tracing the spiritual and moral contours of our economic present, how changed circumstances are confronting many of us with questions of what matters in life and what most deeply sustains us, what we are learning in this moment, and how we might live differently beyond it, shaping the next American dream.
We heard from hundreds of listeners, often in the form of beautiful, thoughtful essays. We called people up at home or at work. We chose eight voices for this hour who put words around experiences many of us are having and who also impart some wisdom from their particular angle on life. Abeer Raazi of Columbus, Ohio, is just about to graduate from college with a degree in economics. He wrote this to us:
"I have seen problems looming for my generation grow from hurdles into mountains before my eyes: the tensing political and economic climate, the wracked Social Security system and my parents that it might not be providing for, the severe economic limitations of oil, water, and food. Sometimes it feels like I'm in over my head and the anxiety gets to me. These problems have really provoked me and have got me questioning many of the assumptions I was raised with."
He continues, "My religion, Islam, teaches me to hold my material possessions in my hand and not my heart. It teaches me to count my wins and my losses as one, both important facets to a far more important journey."
Abeer Raazi.
ABEER RAAZI: So initially I was interested more in international relations and politics, and I thought the way to understand that best is to follow the money. And naturally that led me to economics. So when I started studying the discipline, I was pretty disappointed in that it didn't really shed much insight into what's happening in the world. It was very disconnected from real-world phenomena. And when you sort of tap into that economic world of academics and finance and corporations, then you understand what sort of principles are driving these people. And if you have a critical perspective, you see how that relates to society and politics. But you need that critical perspective to be able to do that, since the discipline it doesn't do it itself.
As a Muslim, I naturally draw heavily from the Islamic tradition, and it's reflecting a lot on the Qur'an, which heavily emphasizes the temporary nature of this life and death and preparation for the next life, which many of the spiritual traditions do. And I think associating that type of heavy spirituality with the founders of the discipline like Adam Smith and their ambition for social betterment — he's written quite a bit on that — and on social allocation. And he wrote in The Wealth of Nations often that the invisible hand that you hear of so often nowadays, it often fails and that we need to reconcile for these failures. And he acknowledged that. And he wrote an entire book on the theory of moral sentiments, which is an interesting secular book which creates a whole system of ethics which is forgotten in applying economics nowadays. And I think that's really sort of keeping that perspective on what's important and trying to apply the tools in that direction. That's some of the change we need to be making.
ABEER RAAZI: Personally, I want to do something where I'm changing communities. So there's a few things I want to learn about microfinance. In fact, I'm going to be going to Pakistan in a few months to work with a microfinance organization so that's going to be an interesting experience. And specifically I'd also like to study my religion a little more, Islamic intellectual tradition. It has a very strong intellectual tradition but it's been lost for, you can argue, several decades or a couple centuries. But it's certainly been lost, and I'd like to get back in touch with the primary sources, the different ways they've been applied to different times. Pakistan is probably — I think it is the first country where microfinance was started by a man named Akhtar Hameed Khan, and so it's being heavily applied there and a few successful models. And so I'll be going to work with a couple of those. In fact, they're applying it to cities. You often hear of microfinance being applied in rural areas, but it's working in some — they call it kachi abadi — the slums around the big cities. So I want to go see how that works.
It's interesting, you know, now we see in America these tent cities popping up in Sacramento and it seems like things are just going to get worse, so this might be a tool we can even utilize here at home.
MS. TIPPETT: Abeer Raazi of Columbus, Ohio.
MS. TIPPETT: Ellen Williams was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer around the same time the economic crisis hit. Her medical bills skyrocketed, in other words, as her investment income dropped. As she's weathered these multiple crises, she's read widely and pondered questions of meaning. She's become increasingly aware, she wrote in her essay to us, of how we define ourselves in American society by signifiers, she calls them, of age, gender, accomplishments, education, and membership. She's intrigued by one of the questions we've been posing to listeners these months. With the economic crisis in mind, who will we be for each other? But Ellen Williams insists that who we will be for each other will flow out of a more basic question: Who am I?
ELLEN WILLIAMS: Based on who I am, that is how I treat other people. And the basis of any spiritual discipline begins with compassion, kindness, fairness, and it seems to me that those virtues, those spiritual concepts, have been basically lost sight of lately. But the other aspect of that is when one has a personal crisis, whether it's caused by health or whether it's caused by economic loss or whatever, then you do have to ask yourself again, "Well, who I am? How do I handle this based on who I am?" If who I am is only what I own or it's only the amount of money that I've saved and then lost, or the job I've lost, if that's the only thing that's grounding one's sort of faith on, then it really is a crisis. So even in the midst of my crisis —which is a health crisis, but is also a financial crisis — I've been lucky to still get very good care. I have to think, you know, what are the things that really sustain me? What are the things that are really important to me? And not only focus on whatever things that I have lost, whatever identity I might have lost through it.
MS. TIPPETT: Ellen Williams is Episcopalian, and she's also been a practitioner of meditation across the years. She says that these dual traditions are helping her live through extremely difficult experiences in the spirit of one of her favorite poems by Wendell Berry. It is called "The Peace of Wild Things," and it goes like this:
"When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound, in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world and am free."
MS. TIPPETT: I'm Krista Tippett, and this is Speaking of Faith from American Public Media. Today, our listeners reflect on "Living Differently, Beyond Economic Crisis," part of our ongoing series "Repossessing Virtue."
MS. TIPPETT: Oana Marian lives in Los Angeles. Her family immigrated to the U.S. from Romania when she was eight years old. Like so many of the people who wrote to us, our query about changed life in and beyond economic crisis spurred Oana Marian to write about humanity and community. She told of the generosity of one elementary school teacher in particular named Mary, who took her and her mother under her wing when they were settling in the U.S. and whose practical kindness has shaped the way she has lived ever since.
OANA MARIAN: Actually, the most poignant part of that story was my mom was sort of overwhelmed with a feeling of indebtedness, and Mary wrote my mother this note once that said, "Please don't ever say again how I don't know how I'm every going to be able to repay you." She said, "What else makes sense in this crazy world if we're not helping each other?" So she just was kind of a genuine angel, and we're still friends with her. We have Christmas and Thanksgiving with her family every year.
So what that means for me now is that — I've moved around a lot in the last two years but wherever I've gone I've tended to seek that. While I was in Italy, I met this chef who lives in Los Angeles and when I came back to L.A. a year and a half ago I started working for her as her personal assistant and also working at her restaurant. For me, working at that restaurant is like having a family in Los Angeles.
MS. TIPPETT: That family at work is more important to Oana Marian than the salary she makes, she says, though it barely sustains her as she struggles to create a career as a filmmaker. She writes, "I work in the film industry, an industry defined by uncertainty, risk, dreams, and largely egotistical ambitions. For the nonunion filmmaker there is no health insurance. Paid work comes unexpectedly or not at all. Rewarding work is sporadic. But great communities are possible as a result. There's a tenuous sense of meaning in all this, and I can honestly say that during the past five years I have had the fullest, most enriching experience of my life though I was broke or badly bent the majority of the time." Oana Marian.
OANA MARIAN: In some ways I feel what's going on in the world around me is somehow now matching the way that I have been living my life for a while. I mean, for my entire adult life. So it's hard for me to say that I'm living any differently. But in some ways, there's some comfort knowing that more people are asking the same questions that I've been asking all of these last years because I've been living in kind of an insecure world of my own. And suddenly the cracks start to show. And then in some ways, you fee like, OK, I haven't been crazy this whole time. For example, maybe it's a silly example, but this overwhelming idea in Los Angeles that you can't get around without driving. Well, you can get around. There actually is the subway that most people who live here don't know about. There's public transportation. So even before the cracks started showing, to try to live in a simpler way even in a complicated environment, I think that this feeling that a lot of people have that suddenly everything is going to fall apart and there's nothing we can do, you know, there are very simple solutions. And I think that that's what happening more now as the structures that we trusted and that were the foundations of how we maneuvered our lives, that these are kind of falling apart. In some ways, I'm hoping that one of the results of that is that people will realize the value of human relationships. And what it can mean to be in Los Angeles and to work at a restaurant like Angeli, that it's not about the money and that you have this community of people who will stand behind you and will be there and will come to your screening when you have your first movie out. This is what seems really necessary to me right now, is finding people who have the real ability to build a community.
MS. TIPPETT: Oana Marian of Los Angeles, California. She concluded this essay to us with this sentence, which is counterintuitive, perhaps, in a moment of economic uncertainty but which echoes other younger people who wrote to us. "It is an exciting time to be alive. Almost overwhelmingly exciting."
MS. TIPPETT: We hear finally from Jim King who lives in Telford, Pennsylvania, where he is president of an industrial scrap plastic recycling company. He finds sustenance in a weekly gathering of businessmen he attends where they have recently spent much time in discussion and supportive strategy on the repercussions of economic downturn both practical and personal. Jim King is also a devout Mennonite, and he routinely participates with his family in Mennonite social service projects.
In response to our question about moral and spiritual aspects of economic crisis and how we might live differently in and beyond it, he sent this story.
JIM KING: Several weeks ago I went with 12 other men to Benton, Kentucky, with our chainsaws to work with Mennonite disaster service, cleaning up properties for mostly elderly people who had been affected by a recent ice storm. I was asked by a local person there why we were doing this. Why did we come all the way from Pennsylvania to help them? I responded that back home our economy is not doing well either. In fact, several of the Amish men in my group were presently out of work because the construction industry is at a standstill. And since their companies were not expecting a bailout, why not use the time to go give someone else a bailout? What better stimulus is there than to help a neighbor in need, even if they are 800 miles away? To me, seeing the joy in an elderly person's face and listening to people's stories about the ice storm was ample reward. Hearing 12 chainsaws in a back yard is stimulus enough for me.
JIM KING: I look at it as maybe we lost or ignored our spiritual compass. I think we assumed we had the right to drive whatever type of vehicle we chose, buy a house larger than we could afford, and then fill it with things we can barely use. So now we come to find out our environment can't take it anymore, and we can't afford the bills, either.
I have to think back now when I was in Sunday school as a child, we used to sing that song. It went something like this: "Wise man built his house upon the rock. The wise man built his house upon the rock, and the rains came tumbling down." Then that song goes on to describe what happened to the foolish man who built his house upon the sand, and I think about now a lot of us are feeling a little foolish for what we had our faith in.
I look back now and think of the times that we as a family worked in the garden, and this year I'm planting a bigger garden. And I enjoy taking care of it anyway. I know that the food pantries in my community will need the extra food I have and it's a hobby. And also, I think as I look back on my childhood, I was raised in a family that we were taught to manage our money as children fairly well, and I want to work on that with my family, and sometimes that's a struggle. My son wants the same things that he sees other people have. And at the same time, I don't want to come across as being stingy. I want to be generous in an environment like this. The world needs people who are generous and willing to look out for each other.
JIM KING: We've had a family meeting at home a couple of times and have discussed how the world is different than it was in 2007 and what is it we're going to do about it. And a couple of those things was planting a bigger garden, turning off lights in a room if we're not using it. It has to be pretty simple, pretty basic. Otherwise, we lose sight of the bigger picture, or it seems like we're not making a difference anyway. And I'm not only looking for leadership, but I think we have the challenge to be leaders. We have the challenge to find a new perspective that might challenge us to live differently. I see it as the beginning of a new American dream. This is now the opportunity for us to get it right.
MS. TIPPETT: You can listen to longer interviews with Jim King of Telford, Pennsylvania, and with the other voices you just heard: Oana Marian from Los Angeles, Ellen Williams of Richmond, Virginia, and Abeer Raazi from Columbus, Ohio, and all the voices of this hour on our Web site, speakingoffaith.org.
"Repossessing Virtue" began as an online project, as our way of exploring the moral and spiritual aspects of economic crisis, reaching out to former guests on the program and to you, our listeners. We quickly decided to showcase these evocative, helpful conversations on our Web site and to turn them into a series of radio programs. Listen to the other two programs we've created with Quaker author Parker Palmer and with a range of wise voices from religion, science, industry, and the arts. And find other stories and perspectives from all over the world by way of our dynamic map. We'd love for you to tell your story while you're there. All of this is possible at speakingoffaith.org.
And on May 20th, I'll have a live public conversation with President Obama's director of faith-based partnerships, Joshua DuBois. That will take place in St. Paul, Minnesota, and we realize many of you can't attend in person but that doesn't stop us from including you. We're bringing the event to you online. Watch a live video stream of that conversation and submit your questions in real time. We want as rich a conversation as possible. Sign up on our Web site to tell us how you'd like to participate and to be on our list for reminders about details as the event approaches. Look for links on our homepage, speakingoffaith.org.
MS. TIPPETT: The senior producer of Speaking of Faith is Mitch Hanley, with producers Colleen Scheck, Shiraz Janjua, and Nancy Rosenbaum, and with help from Larissa Anderson. Our technical director is John Scherf; our online editor is Trent Gilliss, with Web producer Andrew Dayton. A special thanks for this program to Counterpoint for permission to broadcast Wendell Berry's poem "The Peace of Wild Things," from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry . This program is part of the "Next American Dream" series from American Public Media. Kate Moos is the managing producer of Speaking of Faith. And I'm Krista Tippett.
Artist: Joseph Curiale
Who Loves the Sun: Original Film Score
Un Autre December
Lowflow
Viscous Solid
Blue Eyed in the Red Room
From The Plantation To The Penitentiary
Master View
This piece is a part of:
Rachel Naomi Remen, Prabhu Guptara, Sharon Salzberg, Et Al.
Repossessing Virtue: Wise Voices from Religion, Science, Industry, and the Arts
As the global economic crisis began to unfold this past fall, we wanted to respond immediately, in our way. We began to conduct an online conversation parallel to but distinct from our culture's more sustained focus on economic scenarios. For in each of our lives, whoever we are, very personal scenarios are unfolding that confront us with core questions of what matters to us and what sustains us. We made a list of our guests across the years who we thought might speak to this in fresh and compelling ways.
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