FEARS OF A GLOBAL SWINE flu epidemic are pressuring stocks, increasing options volatility, and depressing commodity prices.
Investors are afraid that global travel and trade could be impacted if the flu outbreak reaches epidemic proportions.
Indeed, European Union Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou said people should avoid traveling to areas of Mexico and the United States that have been impacted by the flu. The U.S. government has declared a public health emergency.
The options market is reflecting these fears in bearish trading in airline and cruise-ship stocks, and in bullish activity in Glaxo Smithkline, which makes a flu vaccine.
The options market's fear gauge, the Chicago Board Options Exchange's Market Volatility Index, was recently up about 4% at 38.22.
Aside from buying defensive put options to hedge stock portfolios, many investors are rushing into risk-adverse securities like Treasury bonds and the U.S. Dollar.
Some speculators are looking to profit off the swine flu in stocks of companies that make vaccines -- especially Glaxo Smithkline (GSK) which has seen an explosion in bullish options trading.
Glaxo's May and June 30 and 32.50 call options are unusually active as investors bet the $30.80 will continue to edge higher.
According to Trade Alert, an options-flow analytics firm, Glaxo's options are trading four-times more actively than usual with more than 7,300 calls trading, compared to 1,000 bearish puts.
Bears, meanwhile, are mauling travel stocks on fears swine flu will keep people at home.
Carnival Cruise (CCL) usually does not attract much attention in the options market, but its bearish put options are trading with unusual vigor. With the stock down about 10% at $25.61, traders are primarily buying at-the-money puts that could sharply increase in value if Carnival's stock trades lower still.
The action in the airline sector is very similar. AMR Corp. (AMR) Delta (DAL), JetBlue (JBLU), US Airway (LCC), Southwest Airlines (LUV), UAL Corp. (UAUA) are all, to varying degrees, attracting at-the-money put buying in anticipation the stocks will head lower.


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You are here: Home / The Blog / Smashing the Crystal Ball: Talking with Teens About the Jewish Future
Smashing the Crystal Ball: Talking with Teens About the Jewish Future
May 24, 2011 By eJP
by Beth Cooper Benjamin EdD and Adam Gaynor
Central to our work – Adam's with The Curriculum Initiative and Beth's with Ma'yan – is a commitment to creating spaces and opportunities for Jewish youth to speak from their own experience about issues and policies that affect them. So when we were invited to convene a panel of high school and college students to speak about the Jewish future at the Judaism2030 Conference, we were psyched.
Based on our own experiences working with and studying Jewish youth, we had some hunches about what they might have to say, about what they might include and exclude if they were to build a future Jewish community that would feel like home to them. And we were curious whether some of the ideas and perspectives we've heard in our work with Jewish teens would come through in their responses to the questions we were preparing. Among other things, we wondered:
Would it make sense to Jewish teens to envision a Jewish future distinct from a broader or collective future?
Would teens view Jewish identity as something separate and apart from (in tension with) the other identities they encounter and inhabit: race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, geography, socioeconomic status, etc.?
Would they endorse the prevailing model of Jewish teen programming, the notion that separating Jewish youth from their non-Jewish peers is necessary and valuable for building Jewish identity? Might they experience themselves as Jewish in different and meaningful ways when non-Jewish peers are present?
How would they view Jewish adults' expectations for them – of the "Jewish presents" definition of what it means to be Jewish, or to be a good Jew, or to have a strong Jewish identity? How would their own definitions differ?
Wait a minute, though: wasn't this supposed to be about giving the teens space to define and articulate their experience for themselves? Even with the best intentions, it's easy to fall back into putting our own perspective first. Working collaboratively with youth inevitably involves some complex power-sharing and negotiation, and requires some discipline on our part to privilege their voices and perspectives over our own. Ideally, the panel would have been designed with the teens' participation from start to finish. In this case, given the logistical challenges of arranging a diverse group of Jewish teens to gather in New York City, on a school day, we compromised: we developed an outline based upon the "Judaism2030" theme and our observations as educators, then held a conference call with our teen panelists so we could make revisions based on their feedback.
Given the nature of the conference, the panel will likely be a conversation between teenagers and established professionals. Thus, our initial idea was to have the teens reflect on inter- generational challenges such as the differences between adults' expectations and teens' lived experiences. As self-confessed pop culture junkies, we decided to introduce the panel using selected clips from the TV show "Glee" as a prompt. For the uninitiated, Glee is both a hit with teen audiences and also – as one of our teen panelists noted during the conference call – a rarity in TV-land as it explicitly and frequently explores themes related to Jewish teen experience and identity.	The clips we selected show a teen contending with a parent's expectations about what it means to be a "good Jew." Two responses from our panelists came as instructive surprises. First, it turns out that Glee is not universally beloved by teen audiences. Oh well. Second, and more important, one of our participants commented that while she recognizes pressure to conform to a Jewish norm, she perceives this pressure as coming primarily from her peers, many of whom don't even "see" her as Jewish because of her cultural and family history. If there's one thing we have successfully transmitted from generation to generation, it is that Jewish identity continues to be a contested topic.
We have entitled our session, "Smashing the Crystal Ball," hoping to dispense with any fantasy that these Jewish youth have psychic powers to predict a monolithic future for the Jewish community. Similarly, writing this column ahead of the Judaism2030 conference, we can't predict exactly how our conversation with this group of Jewish youth will unfold. But the experience has already reinforced for us something about the process of working with teens that we feel is crucial for Jewish professionals, educators, parents, and funders to understand. We might have experience and even wisdom on our side, but adult expertise is simply not a reasonable substitute or stand-in for the voices of young people themselves. Building a Jewish future that these teens will want to join (and ultimately, hopefully, to lead) demands that we step back and give them the space to define their own experience and priorities, even – and perhaps especially – if their vision for the future is very different from our own.
Beth Cooper Benjamin, Ed.D., is Director of Research at Ma'yan, a Program of The JCC in Manhattan. Adam Gaynor is Executive Director of The Curriculum Initiative (TCI) and a doctoral student in Education and Jewish Studies at NYU.
This article is from a series prepared by presenters at Judaism2030: A Working Conference for a Vibrant Jewish Future.
Filed Under: The Blog Tagged With: Judaism2030
Marilynn Rothstein says
I am anxious to read about the results of this upcoming session. It seems to me that having teen participants who have already experienced a meaningful extended program inIsrael would produce very different results than having the participants be composed of those who have not had such an experience. Could two such programs could be run simultaneously?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Tag: #Children'sMentalHealthWeek
Author, Poet and Educator
Laura Mucha: What Makes for a Happy Life?
WHAT MAKES FOR A HAPPY LIFE?
Just before the pandemic, the Office for National Statistics asked young people across the country what makes for a happy life. The answer? Having positive, supportive relationships and feeling loved.
Little did they know that a global killer virus was about to lock them away from friends, family and teachers, leaving them more susceptible to the health and happiness of their relationships at home. One year on, what do we know about how happy and healthy those relationships are?
People living with children are more anxious and depressed than those who aren't, according to the Covid-19 Social Study. Unsurprising given parents are more likely to be struggling financially right now, which in turn can be difficult for children. "Finance is really stressful… it can stress the family out and then that can have an effect on the child," said one young person to the ONS, long before the world ended.
Source: UCL Covid-19 Social Study
Many parents are also struggling to balance holding down a full-time job with homeschooling – and it's not going very well. A significant proportion think homeschooling is having a negative impact on their kids' behaviour (24%), wellbeing (43%), their own wellbeing (28%) and their job (30%). Perhaps that's why the current main causes of arguments among couples are children and finances.
Court applications relating to domestic abuse have reached record levels, so for a horrifying number of children, being stuck at home will mean being trapped in an abusive or neglectful situation. Not only is witnessing violence a form of emotional abuse, but those living with parental violence are also more likely to be abused themselves.
If the pandemic follows the trend of other disasters, we're likely to see a spike in divorces, as well as marriages and births. While some of these will be for the better (e.g. ending an abusive relationship), for other children it will mean yet more transitions in a world that has already been turned upside down and inside out.
Let's not forget bereavement. Many children have lost people they love – as well the ability to comfort or say goodbye to them, attend the funeral, or get support from friends, family or teachers. Bereavements may also impact their parents or caregivers, who may be overwhelmed as it is.
If a happy life means feeling loved and having positive, supportive relationships, some children will be living pretty unhappy lives right now. The stats back that up: 75% of teens believe their mental health is worse thanks to Covid. Jennie Hudson of Black Dog, Australia, explains, "All of the factors that we know contribute to children's poor mental health have been exacerbated by COVID: an increase in poverty, parent mental health problems, overcrowding and/or violence at home, parental substance abuse, and social isolation."
Of course for some, spending more time with parents or caregivers will be hugely positive – and by having to homeschool their kids, many will get a better understanding of their child's education and ability. But that's unlikely to be the case for families under extreme pressure. There's been a 107% increase in food parcels given to children and 40% of low-income families lack at least one of the resources they need to homeschool. We were one of the most unequal countries in the world before the pandemic – Covid is only making this worse.
Thankfully there is some hope (if you look hard enough). Another ingredient for a happy life, according to the ONS research, is living in a country where children are given a say, a country where their needs are considered by people in power. "They should listen to children," one young person explained, "because sometimes the children are right."
We may not be the people in power, but as children's poets, teachers, academics and organisations, we're in a unique position to help children's voices be heard. And that will only become more important as we start to understand the long-term impact of Covid, both on young people themselves, and the people they love.
Laura Mucha
Laura Mucha is an ex-lawyer turned award-winning poet, author and children's advocate. Her debut poetry collection, Dear Ugly Sisters was one of the Independent's top ten poetry books for children and BookTrust described it as "stunningly original". She also writes for adults. As well as writing, Laura also works with organisations around the world (including the National Literacy Trust, Royal Society of Medicine and UNICEF) to try to improve the lives of children. lauramucha.com @lauramucha
February 4, 2021 February 4, 2021 #Children'sMentalHealthWeek, Children's Mental Health, Covid19, Homeschooling, Laura Mucha, What Makes for a Happy Life?


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Home Top Trending AstraZeneca pauses clinical trials of coronavirus vaccine due to adverse effect on...
AstraZeneca pauses clinical trials of coronavirus vaccine due to adverse effect on participant
AstraZeneca voluntarily paused the clinical trials of the coronavirus vaccine after it saw an adverse effect on a participant
British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca made an announcement on September 9, 2020 that it has temporarily halted its phase three trial of its potential coronavirus vaccine. The trial was paused after one of the participants suffered a severe adverse reaction. The potential vaccine has been developed by the pharmaceutical company in collaboration with Oxford University. The vaccine is currently being tested on a large scale on humans in the United Kingdom, United States, Brazil and South Africa.
The trials have been paused for the time being. The scientists meanwhile will be ruling out the reason for the reaction and would also be going through data. The researchers will also be ruling out, if the individual who had showed the adverse reaction was due to the drug or it was due to some other factor. A spokesperson from the company has said that they have voluntarily paused the vaccination that will allow an independent community to safely review the data.
The spokesperson added that it is a routine decision and need to be done as they have noticed an unexplained illness in one of the trials. The company has assured that it is doing their bit by investigating in to the matter. However, AstraZeneca has not specified as to what kind of adverse effect the participant had suffered or when the trial is expected to resume.
The company has also said that they are fast-tracking the review with an intension that it should not cause any drastic delay. Dr. Mohamed Slaoui, the chief advisor to Operation Warp Speed while talking to a leading daily spoke about the pause and said that it is a standard procedure when an adverse effect is seen on a participant during clinical trials. The vaccine team at Oxford University has confirmed that this is the second time the trials had to be paused due to an adverse effect.
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NAPLES, Fla. – A day after he was asked to resign his post as provost and leave the campus March 21, Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio agreed to continue to have a role at Ave Maria University, including teaching and serving as a theologian in residence.
A statement sent the evening of March 22 by the university's public relations firm said Father Fessio accepted the school's offer that he continue his relationship with Ave Maria in a nonadministrative capacity.
Father Fessio, 66, had served as chancellor or provost of the Catholic university in Florida since its founding was announced in 2002. He also has continued to serve as editor of Ignatius Press, a San Francisco-based Catholic publishing company he founded in 1978.
The March 22 press release repeated that "the separation of Father Fessio from the university's administration had nothing to do with our shared commitment to our mission as a Catholic university 'ex corde ecclesiae.'" The version of the press release posted on the university's Web site was signed by Ave Maria President Nicholas J. Healy.
"Ex corde ecclesiae" means "from the heart of the church" and is also the title of Pope John Paul II's 1990 apostolic constitution on Catholic higher education.
Father Fessio will be designated a theologian in residence and maintain a room on campus, it said. He also will participate in commencement exercises, teach an already scheduled 2007 summer program for high school students, and in the spring 2008 semester will assume as-yet-undefined teaching responsibilities at the university.
In interviews with Florida daily newspapers, Father Fessio said he had no indication before the meeting in which he was dismissed that such an action was coming.
"I asked for a reason but was not given one," the News-Press of Fort Myers quoted Father Fessio as saying.
As provost, Father Fessio had duties that involved overseeing the university's academic functions.
In 2002, the priest's Jesuit superiors cut short his involvement with another fledgling Catholic school, Campion College in San Francisco. The school, which has apparently closed, was to offer a two-year humanities program. It was started out of Ignatius Press to embody the spirit and curriculum of yet another school started by Father Fessio, the St. Ignatius Institute.
The institute, started in 1976 when Father Fessio was on the faculty at the University of San Francisco, emphasized traditional Catholic values and Jesuit teaching methods. In 1987, the institute severed ties with Father Fessio and Ignatius Press and continues to operate as a four-year program of the University of San Francisco.
Ave Maria University was founded by Tom Monaghan, founder and former owner of Domino's Pizza. The university in Florida opened in temporary quarters in 2003, with plans to move this summer to permanent buildings on a 5,000-acre site nearby, planned as a whole city with an oratory and the university as its center.
In 1998, Monaghan sold his pizza chain and donated some of the proceeds to the Ave Maria Institute, a two-year Catholic college in Ypsilanti, Mich. The school grew into the four-year Ave Maria College, which is now Ave Maria University.
The Monaghan-founded Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Mich., which opened in 2000, announced in February it would move to Florida in 2009.


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Luxury and high performance sports car manufacturers recommend using PFPE oil and PFPE/PTFE grease to eliminate noise and deterioration of rubber seals due to vibration.
Inside an automobile's interior, there are a variety of places where different materials come into contact with one another. Examples include metal on plastic, leather on leather, weather-stripping, and many others. Movement between these surfaces often results in a series of noises typically described as squeak, itch, or judder. PFPE/PTFE lubricants can permanently eliminate these noises with just a small amount of lubricant at the interface.
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The UAE's stock markets gained approximately AED 15 billion ($4 billion) in market capitalisation of trading companies in two successive sessions, with the general indices of the country's two main bourses hitting several-month highs.
Of the total, AED 7.4 billion ($2 billion) in market capitalisation occurred on Wednesday.
The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index grew 0.88 percent to 4481 points, while the Dubai Market General Index rose 1.4 percent to 3458 points.
The realty sector drove the rises, with Emaar's share prices closing 3 percent over their last traded price at AED 7.40, with total transactions worth AED 47 million ($12.8 million). Emaar Development, for its part, spiked 3.8 percent to AED 5.49, followed by Emaar Malls (AED 2.23) and Union Properties PJSC (99 fils).
Other sectors also contributed, with Dubai Islamic Bank rising to AED 6.29 per share and Dubai Investments to AED 2.48.
In the Abu Dhabi bourse, Etisalat was the best performer after rebounding to AED 17.55, while FAB increased to AED 10.65 and ADCD rising to AED 7.10.
In terms of liquidity, 6,505 transactions were conducted worth a total of AED 593 million ($161 million) over 379 shares, with 40 of 65 companies closing high, while 15 closed down and 10 closed on their last traded prices.


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Inslee releases new state school reopening standards
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INSLEE
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By The Seattle Times and Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
It's time to get more students back into classrooms, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Wednesday.
In a push to get hundreds of thousands of Washington students in front of teachers again, Inslee — who ordered the temporary shutdown of schools nine months ago — announced new, significantly less-stringent disease metrics for school districts to follow when making reopening decisions.
Under these new benchmarks, which are not legally binding, there are no longer broad recommendations to keep most students remote, no matter how high the transmission rates for the coronavirus. Previous guidance urged districts to stay mostly remote if their county posted an infection rate above 75 cases per 100,000.
A Walla Walla Public Schools email to district colleagues Thursday morning state Inslee's announcement makes "significant changes to ... guidelines for when school districts can offer greater in-person instruction. These reflect the experience of schools that have successfully served students in buildings, as well as an evolving scientific understanding of how this virus impacts schools and communities.
"... The district will carefully evaluate this new information over the winter break, then work collaboratively with our associations, parents and Department of Community Health to determine what adjustments we should make to our existing roadmap for bringing kids back to schools.
"In the near term," the email continued, "we anticipate changes will prioritize our most fragile students, our younger learners and those older students who are being least well-served under the existing remote learning circumstances. Any modifications to our current roadmap would need to include the support of association members, as well as the Board."
Young children are the priority group for in-person instruction, even in regions where coronavirus rates are highest. Bringing high schoolers back is "not recommended" unless transmission rates have plateaued or decreased in an area, Inslee said.
And, in the case of an outbreak or increasing transmission rates, school districts do not need to revert to distance learning if they can contain the spread in their schools, said Lacy Fehrenbach, deputy secretary for COVID response at the state Department of Health.
Despite earlier pushback from the statewide teachers union over adjusting the metrics, which were among the most cautious in the nation, Inslee said he was swayed by data that suggests schools are not significant drivers of coronavirus transmission as long as proper safety protocols are in place.
"The thing that is impressive is that they differ very little," said Inslee, pointing to a chart comparing the number of people that a person with coronavirus could infect in an all-remote, partially in-person, and all in-person setting. "That has been an important consideration."
Inslee said only about 15% of the state's 1.2 million K-12 students are getting any in-person schooling, which has raised concerns about inequities. That figure is an estimate from the state education department, which hasn't been asking districts exactly how many students have been learning in person — only for a percentage range of their total enrollment learning inside buildings.
"I am urging all districts to double down their efforts today: labor and management, sitting down immediately to plan for reopening," said Chris Reykdal, the state schools chief.
"Get to the work of it, follow the safety protocols, and take note we are in the business of serving young people."
Along with the new guidance came a warning to school districts about following safety and health protocols, including masks, social distancing and contact tracing. Unlike the health metrics, those rules are legally binding, and districts could be subject to "enhanced" inspections if state officials hear of deviations.
The new guidelines still use a hands-off approach to school reopening decisions, which have created power struggles in districts all over the state and wide variance in how school districts have chosen to respond.
Inslee stressed that while he has the authority to close schools, he does not have the authority to order them to reopen — that remains a local decision. When asked why he didn't include disease metrics as part of the legal protocol school districts must follow, such as mask-wearing, he didn't elaborate.
Inslee's new standards tell schools to reopen for all students when the number of cases in a region are fewer than 50 cases per 100,000 residents. If cases are between 50 and 350 per 100,000 residents, the new standards encourage districts to open elementary and middle schools. And in regions with more than 350 cases per 100,000 residents, the new standards say elementary school students can go back to school in groups of 15 or fewer.
"We have held students' and educators' well-being foremost in our minds with these decisions," Inslee said. at a news conference in Olympia. "There is risk in returning to campuses, but we are confident now that the risks will be mitigated as long as there is adherence to health and safety measures, like wearing masks, maintaining six feet of physical distance, increased cleaning and improved ventilation."
He said there have been a few infections traced to schools, but "most have been relatively small with two to five cases, including in counties where COVID activity is far higher than we want it to be."
Larry Delaney, the president of the Washington Education Association, said he appreciated the governor's stressing of the guidelines for health and safety protocols, but like other union leaders, he expressed skepticism at reducing the disease thresholds.
"My hope is that the governor and those who are advising him are correct," said Delaney. "This is quite a gamble to take, and ultimately, it's gambling with the safety of 140,000 educators."
Delaney said he's not aware of any teachers who have died of the virus in Washington state. Some educators have caught it, but it's unclear if it was linked to exposure in a school.
Several teachers unions have filed complaints against their employers with the state Department of Labor and Industries, citing inconsistent safety protocols at schools.
The presentation and new decision tree left Stephen Morse, a Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health epidemiologist who has researched coronaviruses, with a few questions. Morse has advised governments as they developed early warning systems to detect diseases before they spread.
"I'm surprised that they haven't apparently been doing much actual testing for the virus in schools," he said. Washington's data on school-level outbreaks is based on the students who are back in school now, he said, who skew younger. And since research shows the majority of young children are less likely to show symptoms, "if that's your standard, you're going to see fewer outbreaks."
Morse noticed that the state's new guidelines differ from those of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which set the lowest risk at 5 new cases per 100,000, moderate at 20-50 and high risk at over 200.
In general, Morse said, if schools adhere to the state's safety guidelines strictly, there will be little risk to children. But, he asked, "can you be sure they're not bringing it back to their grandparents?"
It's also hard to say how a vaccine could change the timeline of school reopening. Morse anticipated that it may be possible to get significant coverage for adults by mid-spring or early summer, but he noted that the vaccine has not yet been tested on children. And, he added, "I would not throw my mask away until I had more experience of the duration of the vaccine's protection."
Inslee also announced other measures, including the expansion of coronavirus testing pilots early next year, which are now in place at nearly a dozen school districts. They provide same-day, no-cost tests to anyone with symptoms, a way to foster trust in the safety of school buildings. Inslee is also dedicating $3 million from the state's share of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act from the federal government to help school districts implement safety measures.
He acknowledged the risks and nervousness some may feel about going back into school buildings. But he expressed confidence in the research he saw.
"Deciding when to close schools is a difficult decision," Morse said, then added: "It's much harder to decide when to reopen."
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…. Paint: paint pictures which can become objects of meditation, paint pictures of the inner sky of buddhas. The modern painting is pathological. If you look at Picasso's paintings you cannot look long, you will start feeling uneasy. You cannot have Picasso paintings in your bedroom, because then you will have nightmares. If you meditate on a Picasso painting long enough you will go mad, because those paintings are out of Picasso's madness.
Go to Ajanta, Ellora, Khajuraho, Konarak, and you will see a totally different world of creativity. Looking at the statue of a buddha, something in you starts falling in tune. Sitting silently with a buddha statue, you start becoming silent. The very posture, the very shape, the face, the closed eyes, the silence that surrounds a marble statue will help you to get connected with your own inner sources of silence.
Gurdjieff used to say that there are two kinds of art. One he used to call objective art, and the other he used to call subjective art. Subjective art is absolutely private, personal. Picasso's art is subjective art; he is simply painting something without any vision for the person who will see it, without any idea of the person who will look at it. He is simply pouring out his own inner illness; it is helpful for himself, it is therapeutic.
I am not saying that Picasso should stop painting, because if he stops painting he is bound to go mad. It is painting that is keeping him sane; his painting is like vomiting. When you have eaten something wrong, when you have a food poisoning, vomiting is the most healthy way to throw the toxins, the poisons, outside the system; it will help. Picasso's paintings are like vomiting. He is suffering from many illnesses, all the illness that humanity is suffering from. He simply represents humanity, he is very representative.
He represents the whole madness that is happening in millions of people. He is a sensitive soul; he has become so attuned with the pathology of mankind that it has become his own pathology. Hence the appeal of his paintings, otherwise they are ugly. Hence his great name — because he deserves it, he represents the age. This is Picasso's age: what you cannot say about yourself, he has said it. What you cannot pour out of yourself, he has poured it on the canvas. But it is a subjective phenomenon. It is therapeutic to him, but it is dangerous to everybody else.
But people who go to Khajuraho are foolish people. They look either at Khajuraho sculpture as obscene — then they miss the whole point, then they are seeing something which is within their own unconscious; or they are too moralistic — then they don't meditate on any statues, they are in a hurry to get out of the temple somehow, they just throw glances.
So too is the Taj Mahal. On a fullmoon night, if you sit silently by the side of it, not being bothered about the history of the Taj Mahal and who created it and why — those are all nonsense, irrelevant facts, they don't matter: Shah Jahan and his beloved, and his memory of his beloved, he created it…. Don't be bothered by the guides; tip them before they start torturing you, and get rid of them!
Shah Jahan has nothing to do with the Taj Mahal, in fact. Yes, he created it, he created it as a memorial for his wife, but he is not the essential source of it. The essential source is in the Sufi way of life, it is in Sufism. Basically it was created by Sufi masters; Shah Jahan was just instrumental. The Sufi masters have created something of immense value. If you silently sit in the full moon night just looking at the Taj Mahal, sometimes with open eyes and sometimes with closed eyes, slowly slowly you will feel something that you have never felt before. Sufis called it zikr, remembrance of God.
The beauty of the Taj Mahal will remind you of those realms from where all beauty, all benediction comes. You will become attuned with the Sufi way of remembering God: beauty is God.
WHAT DO YOU SAY ABOUT MODERN ART?
Asang, the first thing is, it is not art. For the first time something exists in the name of art which is not art at all. It is more a therapy than an art. Look at the modern paintings and you will be convinced of what I am saying. The painters must be insane; they have poured their insanity on the canvas. It helps them because it releases some tensions inside their being. It is a catharsis, but it is not art. It is therapy through art, but not art itself.
If Picasso is prevented from painting, he will go mad. Vincent van Gogh went mad before he committed suicide. And I have been looking into his life deeply and my feeling is he went mad because he could not paint as much as he wanted. He had no money to paint. His brother was giving him money enough just to survive, and he was not eating for four days per week. He would eat only for three days and four days he will fast to save money to paint. How long can you do that? But painting was more important for him than food — and it ended in madness. He could not paint as much as he wanted, and when he saw that there was no possibility to paint anymore — the brother is tired, the family is tired and nobody wants to help him and nobody wants to purchase his paintings — he committed suicide.
The same would be the case with Picasso if he was prevented from painting: he would go mad or he would commit suicide. Suicide is the ultimate in insanity. But his paintings are a great help, a great relaxation.
And it is not only so with painting; it is so with poetry, music, dance. Everything modern is a little crazy because modern man is a little crazy, off the center.
Gurdjieff has divided art into two categories. The modern art he calls subjective art. The ancient art — the real art — the people who made the pyramids, the people who made the Taj Mahal, the people who made the caves of Ajanta and Ellora, they were of a totally different kind. He calls that art objective art. Subjective art is like vomiting. You are feeling sick, nauseous; a good vomit helps you to feel good. The poison is thrown out, you feel relieved. It is good for you, but not good for others.
Now, in the name of modern painting, you are hanging vomited, nauseous, sickening things in your rooms. In the name of modern music you are simply getting into crazier spaces within you. It is subjective art.
Objective art means something that helps you to become centered, that helps you to become healthy and whole. Watching the Taj Mahal in the full moon, you will fall into a very meditative space. Looking at the statue of Buddha, just sitting silently with the statue of the Buddha, something in you will become silent, something in you will become still, something in you will become buddhalike. It is objective art, it has tremendous significance.
Modern art is childish — not childlike, remember, childish; not innocent but stupid, insane, pathological. We have to get rid of this trend. We have to create a new kind of art, a new kind of creativity. We have to bring to the world again what Gurdjieff calls objective art.
If you ask me, that should be precisely the reason to make pictures that DO make sense. Otherwise, how is the world going to be helped? It needs music, it needs poetry, it needs dance. It needs paintings which can help it to rise above its misery, its schizophrenia, its neurosis, its psychosis.
But Picasso himself is only a representative of the neurotic mind. Picasso became so famous for the simple reason that he represented us very clearly.
The marriage broker introduced a really ugly girl to a young man. The victim protested that the lady had misplaced eyes, a broken nose and a deformed face.
Looking at Picasso's paintings, have you not felt it? Everything is deformed, misplaced.
I have heard that a very rich lady wanted a portrait of herself done by Picasso. He agreed for a fantastic sum. The lady was ready to pay. Six months he took to make the portrait.
His paintings are nightmarish. And it is not only Picasso; Picasso simply symbolizes the whole of contemporary art. He is the most representative modern artist. He is right, in a sense, because the world makes no sense.
The world has never made any sense, but there have been people who created such art that it helped people to find some sense in a senseless world. And that finding of sense helps you tremendously to become centered.
Things are topsy-turvy. Things are becoming more and more topsy-turvy. The world seems to be less a cosmos now and more a chaos.
In the ancient philosophies, cosmology was one of the most important things to be discussed. Now there seems to be no cosmos, no cosmology. The whole world seems to be in a chaos, as if all is accidental. Nothing seems to be essential, intrinsically valuable; everything seems to be just happening as an accident. And this is reflected in everything. It is reflected in art, it is reflected in science, it is reflected even in religion.
We need again a cosmology. I know the world IS a chaos; that is a challenge for human consciousness to create a cosmos out of it. It is a tremendously valuable opportunity to create a cosmos. Just to say that it is a chaos, remain with it as it is, is to fall below human dignity; it is not accepting the challenge. It is really a great challenge to change yourself AND the world. It IS a puzzle, but it is a puzzle only if you have already concluded that there can be no meaning at all; otherwise it is a mystery, not a puzzle.
A mystery may not have any meaning, but it has significance. And there is a difference between meaning and significance — and significance is far more meaningful than meaning itself; significance is far more important. What meaning is there in a roseflower? — but significance certainly is there. Just think of a world without roses. It will be a poor world; some significance will be lost. What significance is there when you hear the sound of running water? Have you not felt some significance? Yes, meaning you cannot prove.
Meaning seems to be imposed by the mind upon existence; significance seems to be part of existence itself. We have lost contact with the language that can understand significance; we only understand meaning. Meaning is intellectual, significance is existential. There is no meaning in love, but great significance; no meaning in God, but great significance; no meaning in meditation, but great significance, great splendor.
I would like to say to my sannyasins, Asang, that my sannyasins have to be not only meditative, they have also to be creative. And they have to create what Gurdjieff calls objective art. They have to create something which can help a wandering humanity to come to a resting place. Yes, much can be created that can give shelter, that can become a deep, deep experience of communion with nature.
That is the real function of art: helping people to commune with nature, because out of that communion arises religion. Science is an intellectual effort to understand nature, art is an emotional effort to understand nature, and religion is an existential effort to COMMUNE with nature. Art is higher than science, religion is higher than art. Science has to be objective; if science is subjective it will be just fiction — science fiction. Art has also to be objective; otherwise it will be fiction. And that's what modern art is — fiction. And religion has also to be objective, really authentic; otherwise it is speculation, philosophy.
Gurdjieff used to call Eastern art "objective art" and Western art "subjective art." He means by objective art, art which has some intrinsic quality which can be imparted for thousands of years. The work of art is a code word. After experiencing meditation for thousands of years, meditators have come to recognize that a certain posture, a certain way of sitting, a certain way of the eyes, can create in anybody a synchronicity, a sympathy; some sympathetic note can be stirred by the statue.
In the East a statue is not made for its own sake. It is made as a code language for centuries to follow. Scriptures may disappear, languages may change, words may be interpreted. Doctrines can be wrongly interpreted, commented upon. There may be dispute about theories — and there has been — so they thought there must be a different way than language.
Now what dispute can there be about the statue of a Buddha or Mahavira? There is no question of dispute, there is no need of any commentary. Anybody who is capable of sitting silently by the side of this statue will have a certain thing stirred in his heart. This is objective art.
Almost all the painters in the West have gone mad once or twice in their life, and have been put into mad asylums. Many of the Western painters have committed suicide. This has never happened in the East. There is not a single instance in ten thousand years that a painter, a musician, a poet, has been mad, or has committed suicide. The reason is, it was art on the surface, but meditation in depth. In the West it is just surface, there is no depth in it. And the surface is without any compassion, without any consideration, without any responsibility.
When you compose music or poetry you are to understand that somebody will be reading it — what effect it is going to have on the person? Will it drive him sane or insane?
Western society lives under an affliction — their ignorance about meditation; hence, whatever they do is out of the mind.
And mind is not the source of joy.
It can only create agony, but never ecstasy.
So learn to be more meditative, and let your creativity be secondary to your meditativeness. Then you will have a totally different state of being — that of ecstasy; and out of ecstasy, whatever is created has also some flavor of it.
In the West, perhaps Gurdjieff is the only man who has divided art into two sections: the objective art and the subjective art. Subjective art is from the mind, and is out of anguish. Objective art — the Taj Mahal, the caves of Ellora and Ajanta, the temples of Khajuraho — has come from meditative people. Out of their love, out of their silence, they wanted to share; it is their contribution to the world.
The Western artist has lived under a very heavy burden. It is time that he should be made aware that there is something more beyond mind. First reach to that beyond, and then you can create stars; and they will not only be a great joy to you, they will also be a great joy for those who see them.
Just on a full-moon night, sit by the side of the Taj Mahal — don't do anything, just look at it — and you will find suddenly a silence descending on you, a peace filling your heart. The mind is stopping its constant chattering.
An objective piece of art like the Taj Mahal is not just to be seen, but to be lived — and then you will be in a certain way connected with the creators of that beautiful architecture. It was created by Sufi masters. Its very shape somehow creates within you a new blissful space. But the Western tourist comes with the camera, takes a few shots from here and there and runs away to some other place. He does not know how to appreciate an objective art. One has to meditate on it — it may be that thousands of years have passed between the creator of that piece and you. Suddenly that distance disappears; you become part of that creative joy, of that creative dance.
Milarepa, creativity is secondary, meditation is basic and fundamental; everything should come out of your meditation. Then it will give you a beatitude, your being a new song, and it will help others to experience something of it. It will depend on their meditativeness.
I would like to make one very strange statement: that a great meditator will find more joy, more peace, more blissfulness, than even the creator himself. If a Gautam Buddha sits by the side of the Taj Mahal, then what those Sufi Masters had experienced by creating it will be left far behind. Gautam Buddha will experience something far deeper, far more truthful, far more beautiful.
Whether you create, or you observe an objective piece of creativity, meditation should be the key. Without it, mind can only spread on the canvas its nightmares. Most of the paintings of the great painters like Paul Gaugin or Picasso are almost like vomit. They could not contain their agony and suffering — it was so much they threw it on the canvas to get relief. The real objective art is not a relief; it is not a sickness that you want to get rid of. It is a blissfulness that you want to share. And by sharing, it grows; you have more of it, the more it is shared.
WHAT ABOUT ART AND ENLIGHTENMENT?
WHEN YOU ARE CREATING A POEM, A PAINTING SCULPTURE, MUSIC, YOU CAN FEEL VERY CLOSE TO THE MEDITATIVE STATE. YET, IT IS NOT PURE NOTHING-NESS — BECAUSE IT HAS AN END, A GOAL. IT ALSO ENHANCES THE EGO. WON'T YOU ULTIMATELY HAVE TO TRANSCEND THIS KIND OF CREATIVITY?
If you go to Ajanta, Ellora or Khajuraho, you will find a totally different kind of art. If you listen to classical music, you will find a different quality of art. If you listen to modern music, a different kind of art will be found there. If you see Picasso's paintings, they ARE pathological. Something is ill — something is ill in Picasso and something is ill in the world that Picasso is going to represent in those works of art.
Never keep a Picasso painting in your bedroom, otherwise you will have nightmares. It is very representative of this society. The society is ill, neurotic, but the art depends on you. The art does not descend out of the blue, it comes through the artist, it brings the artist. It makes the artist visible to the world — that's what art is. That which is hidden in your heart, you bring it into a painting, sculpture, song, dance. You make it available. You open your heart.
The pathological art comes out of inner conflict, tension, ego need. It relaxes you like any catharsis relaxes you. If you are angry and you shout and you hit — even if you hit a pillow — that helps. You feel relaxed. Now there are schools in the West which think mad people can be helped through art — therapy through art. And they are right. If a mad person is given painting to do, if he simply paints, it is going to help, because whatsoever he paints will dissipate his madness. It will come out, it will be thrown out. He will feel unburdened and clean.
But ninety-nine percent of art is like that. It is certain that if Picasso is not allowed to paint, he will go mad. It is certain that if Van Gogh is not allowed to paint he will go mad. He did finally.
Art out of madness, art out of neurosis, art out of pathology, is not real art. Gurdjieff used to divide art into two kinds. He used to call this kind of art subjective, and another kind — the Taj Mahal, or Khajuraho — objective, because when you have painted, your work is finished but the painting will live. If you have put in the painting a certain pattern of neurosis, whoever will see the painting and think about the painting and look at the painting will have the feeling of the same kind of illness arising in him — the same nausea, the same sickness. The painting will become a mandala; it will become a yantra. That's how in the East we have used paintings: as yantras.
Art has nothing to do directly with enlightenment, but enlightenment has much to do with art. When many enlightened people exist in the world, they create a different kind of world, they create different kinds of things, naturally. Zen art has a quality of its own. Watching a Zen painting you become meditative; watching a Zen painting you are transported into another world. Listening to an ancient song like Bhagavad Gita, just listening — even if you don't understand, even if you don't know the language, the Sanskrit language — just listening, just the tonality of it, just the timbre of it, just the music, the melody of it, and suddenly you feel great silence arising in you, flowers showering inside you, something opening, something blossoming.
Whenever somebody arrives at his innermost core, he is bound to express it. Every enlightened experience is bound to bloom into a thousand and one lotuses. When Buddha became silent, when Buddha arrived home, when he knew who he is, he started speaking — his words are his expression. When Meera arrived, she started dancing — her dance is her expression.
EACH enlightened person w8ill find a way to express that which has happened to him, because is PART of that happening that it has to be expressed. You cannot hold it, it overflows. But to different enlightened persons it will happen in different way. Buddha never danced; that was not his way, that was not HIS thing. He never sang, he never composed poetry — that was not his thing! But if you watched deeply, the way he walks is poetry, the way he sits is poetry, the way he gestures is dance. Even while sitting under his Bodhi Tree, unmoving, there is a great dance inside. Those who have eyes, they will be able to see it. This is his way of expressing.
So different people arriving will express differently. Somebody may become a painter and somebody may become a singer — it depends! It depends on what potentiality you are carrying. Your enlightenment will become a rider on that potentiality and will be expressed through it.
But the basic thing is not art — the basic thing is samadhi. Let there be samadhi first, and then whatsoever you are capable of giving to the world, will be given. Whatsoever you are capable of sharing, will be shared. And there will be no ego arising because you have painted, because you have sung, because you danced — there will be no ego arising. And there will be no motive in it. There will be no tension behind it. If nobody comes to listen to you, you will not miss. You will remain like a flower, blooming in the deep, dark forest — nobody passes by, but the fragrance goes on being released to the winds. It does not matter.
The artist hankers to express. To an enlightened person expression is natural, like breathing; there is no hankering. The artist is continuously fighting to pave his way; the artist is motivated; hence, he lives in great tension. It is not just accidental that artists suffer more than anybody else from mind diseases — too much tension. They have to create, and they have to compete, and they have to prove, and they have to leave a signature in the world — all ego efforts.
Then Jung became aware that whenever a person who has been suffering with a divided personality again becomes one, undivided, he starts painting something like a mandala — a circle. That circle, that mandala, shows somehow a deep relationship with his own inner circle that has been regained. Now, inside, he has become a circle, joined together. He has become one. Then in his paintings suddenly circles will erupt. So Jung came to conclude that your inner mind can express certain things in a certain state. If the state of mind changes, then your visions will change, your expressions will change.
Hindu mythological gods are certain visions of a certain state of mind. When you come into that state of mind, visions start happening to you. They will have a similarity. All the world over they will have a similarity. There will be minor differences because of culture, education, training, but deep down there will be a similarity.
For example, the mandala is one of the mythological symbols. It has been recurring all over the world. In old Christian paintings it is there. In old Tibetan paintings it is there. In Chinese, Japanese and Indian art the circle has a fascination. Somehow, when your sight becomes circular, when it becomes a current, joined together, undivided, you begin to see a circle in your vision, in your dreams. That circle represents your reality. In the same way, all symbols represent inner subjective realities. And if a society gives a particular shape to a deity, it becomes very helpful. It becomes very helpful for the seeker because now he can decode many inner visions.
This whirling, Sufi whirling, is one of the most ancient techniques, one of the most forceful. It is so deep that even a single experience can make you totally different. You have to whirl with open eyes, just like small children go on twirling, as if your inner being has become a center and your whole body has become like a wheel, moving- a potter's wheel, moving. You are in the center, but the whole body is moving. Start slowly, clockwise. If somebody feels it is very difficult to move clockwise then anti-clockwise, but the rule is to move clockwise. If a few people are left-handed then they may feel it difficult; they can move anti-clockwise. And almost ten percent of people are left-handed, so if you find that clockwise you feel uneasy, move anti-clockwise; but start with clockwise, then feel. Music will be there, slow, just to help you. In the beginning move very slowly; don't go fast, but very slowly, enjoying. And then, by and by, go faster. The first fifteen minutes, go slowly; the second fifteen minutes, fast; the third fifteen minutes, faster; the fourth fifteen minutes, just completely mad. And then your total energy, you, become a whirlpool, an energy whirlpool, lost completely in it: no witnessing, no effort to observe. Don't try to see; be the whirlpool, be the whirling. One hour.
In the beginning you may not be able to stand so long, but remember one thing, don't stop by yourself, don't stop the whirling. If you feel it is impossible the body will fall down automatically, but don't you stop. If you fall down in the middle of the hour there is no problem; the process is complete. But don't play tricks with yourself, don't deceive; don't think that now you are tired so it is better to stop. No, don't make it a decision on your part. If you are tired, how can you go on? You will fall automatically. So don't stop yourself; let the whirling itself come to a point where you fall down. When you fall down, fall down on your stomach; and it will be good if your stomach is in direct touch with the earth. Then close the eyes. Lie down on the earth as if lying down on the breast of your mother, a small child lying down on the breast of the mother. Become completely unconscious. And this whirling will help.
Whirling gives intoxication to the body. It is a chemical thing, it gives you intoxication, to be exact. That's why sometimes you may feel giddy just like a drunkard. What is happening to the drunkard? Hidden behind your ears is a sixth sense, the sense of balance. When you take any drink, any alcoholic thing, any intoxicating drug, it goes directly to the center of balance in the ear and disturbs it. That's why a drunkard cannot walk, feels dizzy. The same happens in whirling. If you whirl, really, the effect will be the same: you will feel intoxicated, drunk. But enjoy this drunkenness is worth something. This being in a drunken state is what Sufis have been calling ecstasy, masti. In the beginning you may feel giddy, in the beginning sometimes you may feel nausea, but within two, three days, these feelings will disappear and by the fourth day you will feel a new energy in you that you have never known before. Then giddiness will disappear, and just a smooth feeling of drunkenness will be there. So don't try to be alert about what is happening. Let it happen and become one with the happening.
And then fall down on the ground on your stomach. If anybody feels any sort of pain in the navel center lying down on the ground, then he can turn on the back, otherwise not. If you feel something, a very deep painful sensation in the stomach, then turn on your back, otherwise not. The navel in contact with the earth will give you such a blissful feeling — just the same as once you had, but now you have forgotten, when you were a child lying down on your mother's breast, completely unaware of any worry, any anxiety, so one with the mother, your heart beating with her heart, your breath in tune with her breath. The same will happen with the earth because earth is the mother. That's why Hindus have been calling earth the mother and sky the father. Be rooted in it. Feel a merger as if you have dissolved. The body has become one with the earth; the form is there no more. Only earth exists; you are not there. This is what I mean when I say break the cup completely: forget that you are. The earth is, and dissolve in it.
During the one hour of whirling the music will continue. Many will fall before the hour but everybody has to fall by the time the music stops. So if you feel that you are still not in the state of falling then go faster and faster. After forty-five minutes go completely mad, so by the time the hour is complete you have fallen. And the feeling if falling is beautiful, so don't manipulate it. Fall, and when you have fallen then turn on your stomach, be merged, close your eyes. This merger has to be there for one hour.
So the night meditation will be of two hours, from seven o'clock to nine o'clock. Don't eat anything before it. At nine o'clock the suggestion will be given to come out of this deep drunkenness, this ecstasy. Even out of it you may not be able to walk correctly, but don't be disturbed, enjoy it. Then take your food and go to sleep.
Different masters… For example, Jalaluddin Rumi did nothing but whirling. He became enlightened after thirty six hours of continuous whirling, without any stop — non-stop whirling. In fact every child likes to whirl. Parents stop him; they say, "You will fall. You may have a fit or you may get hit by something — don't do such a thing." But all children all over the world love whirling, because somehow while the child is whirling he finds his center. Without finding the center you cannot whirl. The body goes on whirling, but the whirling has to happen on a center; so slowly, slowly he becomes aware of the center.
After thirty-six hours of continuous whirling, Rumi became absolutely clear about his center. That was his experience of the ultimate, the fourth. Then his whole life he was not doing anything but teaching whirling to people. It will look absurd to a Buddhist, it will look absurd to any other religion — because, what you can get out of whirling? It is a simple method, the simplest method, but it may suit you or it may not.
For example, for me it does not suit. I cannot sit on a swing, that is enough to create nausea in me. And what to say about sitting myself on a swing? — I cannot see somebody else swinging! That is enough to give me a feeling of nausea. Now, Rumi is not for me. And there may be many people to whom whirling will give nausea, vomiting. That means it is not for them.
We are individually different. And there is no contradiction. One can experience the universal, and yet when the question of expression arises, he has to be individual.
You whirl in a Dervish dance. In the beginning you are there. Soon you feel nausea, but that nausea is not only physical, it is deeply spiritual. You start feeling nausea when the moment comes for control to be dropped. When that moment nears, you start feeling nausea. The nausea is that the control is being lost. You feel dizzy; you feel that you may fall down. These are not just physical things — deep inside the ego is feeling as if it is being thrown off the track. The ego is feeling dizzy. It is feeling that if this whirling continues for even a little longer, I will not be able to be there. You start to feel like vomiting. In fact, that vomit is not only physical, just one part is physical, a deeper part is the vomit of the ego. If you continue to feel disturbed, there will be a physical vomiting, but if you don't bother about it, soon physical vomiting will disappear. And then the real vomit will happen: one day, suddenly, the ego is vomited. Suddenly an ugly phenomenon within you escapes; suddenly the disease from you is thrown out; suddenly you are ego-free. It happens unexpectedly. When it happens for the first time, you cannot even believe it; you cannot believe that, without the ego, you are. There is nobody inside, and you are; and you are so perfect and so beautiful and so blissful — without anybody being there!
The ego has to be thrown off-center, because it has become so deeply rooted in your mind, through many lives. It has usurped the whole being; emptiness has been thrown into the background, into the unconscious, and the ego has usurped the throne. Now the ego has become the king, and it goes on manipulating everything.
For example, all over the world, children like to twirl, to whirl, and naturally the parents will stop them: "Don't do that, you may get dizzy. You may fall, you may hurt yourself." But all over the world, children enjoy it. And it was from seeing children enjoying whirling that Jalaluddin Rumi got the idea that there must be something… because whenever you see a child whirling, his face changes. A strange grace comes to his face; he starts radiating a certain aura, and when he stops he is so full of joy….
Jalaluddin Rumi tried — in the forest, so nobody makes a laughingstock of him — just to know what these children find in twirling. And he was amazed: he discovered one of the greatest methods of meditation, and for twelve hundred years after him, his school has been a living school. His school is called the Whirling Dervishes; in their temple, that is their prayer, that is their meditation. That is their whole religion. They go on twirling for hours together.
Alima, the words of Mevlana Rumi are immensely significant. There have been very few people who have moved and transformed as many hearts as Jalaluddin Rumi.
In the world of the Sufis, Mevlana Rumi is the emperor. His words have to be understood not as mere words, but sources of deep silences, echoes of inner and the innermost songs. He is the greatest dancer the world has known. Twelve hundred years have passed since he was alive.
Jalaluddin Rumi made a meditation of whirling. The meditator goes on whirling for hours — as long as the body allows him; he does not stop on his own. When whirling a moment comes that he sees himself utterly still and silent, a center of the cyclone. Around the center the body is moving, but there is a space which remains unmoved; that is his being.
… Nobody can say this is a prayer; nobody can say this is great dance; nobody can say in any way that this has something to do with religion, spirituality….
But after thirty-six hours when they saw Rumi so luminous, so radiant, so new, so fresh — reborn, in a new consciousness, they could not believe their eyes. Hundreds wept in repentance, because they had thought that he was mad. In fact he was sane and they were mad.
And down these twelve centuries the stream has continued to be alive. There are very few movements of spiritual growth which have lived so long continuously. There are still hundreds of dervishes. `Dervish' is the Sufi word for sannyas. You cannot believe it unless you experience, that just by whirling you can know yourself. No austerity is needed, no self-torture is needed, but just an experience of your innermost being and you are transported into another plane of existence from the mortal to the immortal. The darkness disappears and there is just eternal light.
A few people I love immensely. Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi is one of them, and the reason I love him is that he was not life-negative, but life-affirmative. And the meditation that he has found and which has continued for seven hundred years among a small stream of mystics was the meditation of a certain kind of dance. His followers are called whirling sufis.
You must have seen small children — they like to whirl; and everybody stops them, because the fear of the parents is that the child may fall, may have a fracture, may get hurt. But in spite of all prohibitions, children love to whirl. And nobody has inquired why children love, all over the world, irrespective of race, nation, religion, why children love to whirl.
Jalaluddin Rumi, seeing children whirl, thought that there must be something that the children feel but they cannot express, and perhaps they are not fully aware what it is. So he tried whirling himself, and he was amazed that if you go on whirling there comes a moment when the center of your being remains static and your whole body, mind, brain, everything, whirls.
And that center which does not whirl, is you, the center of the cyclone. The whirling is almost like a cyclone, but exactly in the middle of the cyclone you will find a point which has not moved at all. Every wheel needs a center on which to turn, and the center has to remain unturning. You see in bicycles, in bullock carts, wherever there is a wheel, there is something in the center which is unmoving.
Once Jalaluddin became aware that you can find the unmoving center of your being, he tried for thirty-six hours non-stop, without eating, without drinking — he was determined to whirl to his absolute capacity, not to hold back anything… unless he falls, he is not going to stop. Thirty-six hours he whirled, a great crowd watched. The crowd went on changing; people had to go to eat and then they came again. People had to do their work and then they came again; thirty-six hours is a long period. And after thirty-six hours he fell down. And people heard a great laughter.
The followers of Rumi don't have great scriptures, don't have any rituals, except whirling, and a few beautiful poems by Jalaluddin Rumi, which he used to sing after whirling and falling. He will get up and he will be so drunk — in that drunkenness he will sing a song, and those songs have been collected. That is the only literature the followers of Rumi have.
There is a method, a Sufi method know as dervish dancing. Sufis dance. Their sect, a particular sect of Sufis is know as the whirling dervishes. You might have observed small children whirling, dancing round and round and then getting in a whirl. They get dizzy and their parents will stop them, check them, prevent them: "Stop! You will get dizzy! You may even get nausea!" But small children often like it very much, and the reason is that small children are still not too much in the body. They are entering by and by. Remember this: when a child enters into the womb, he has to adjust; the soul has to adjust with the body. It takes nine months, but still it is not completely adjusted. When the child is born, then by and by the soul adjusts. And small children like whirling. Why? — because when they whirl, they get a deep kick, and in that kick they again feel themselves beyond the body. And that's a beautiful experience — that's why they like it.
Studying this whirling of children, Sufis have developed a method, a meditation method — they turn, whirl. If you go to them, they will tell you to dance, and go on in a mad whirl, and remain a witness — as if a wheel is moving, and the axis is there and on the axis, the wheel is moving. The axis is just non-moving, and the wheel moves on — just like a wheel of a cart, the wheel goes on moving. It moves on the axis which is unmoving, non-moving. The axis remains constantly in one position, centered, and the wheel moves on it. Whirl like a wheel, and remember your witness inside as a center. Suddenly you will feel you are the center and the body is just a wheel.
If you can feel this, you are separated — you have become different from the body. You have know that the center and the periphery are different. Once you know this you will be a different man — and this is not knowledge, this is not information; this is a lived experience.
For example, all children in every culture around the world like to whirl. And every parent stops them from whirling and says, "You will fall down." It is true, there is a possibility they may fall down. But that falling down is not going to harm much.
But why do children like whirling? While the body is whirling, small children can see it whirling. They are no longer identified with it, because it is such a new experience.
With everything they are identified — with walking they are identified, with eating they are identified, with anything they are doing, usually they are identified. This whirling is such an experience that the faster the body moves, whirls, the less is the possibility of their remaining identified.
Soon they are lagging behind; the body is whirling but their being cannot whirl. It stops at a point and starts seeing its own body whirling. Sometimes it can come out of the body too. If the whirling child is not staying at one place but goes on moving — whirling and moving around the place — then his essential self can come out and watch it.
You are not centred, because your knowledge has forced you out of your centring. A child is centred. The moment he starts growing and starts knowing things, he becomes more and more uncentred, goes astray. An old man completely forgets where his centre is.
It is exactly what the word says: in tensity. The opposite word is ex tensity: you are spread out, you have a thousand and one desires, many fragmentary desires, one going to the north, one going to the south. You are being pulled apart. You are not one, you are a crowd. And if you are a crowd you will be miserable, if you are a crowd you will never feel any fulfillment. You don't have any center. Intensity means creating a center in yourself.
There are two words which are significant to understand. One is 'centrifugal': it means arrows moving from the center going in different directions, extroversion. Small pieces, small parts of your being flying all over the place, in all directions, in all possible directions: that is centrifugal. That's how people are — they are centrifugal. Another word is 'centripetal': when all the arrows are coming towards the center, when all the fragments are joined together. In the first you are falling apart, you are in a kind of de-centering. In the second you are falling together, a kind of integration arises. You are getting centered, concentrated IN: that is the meaning of intensity.
Sometimes you have known moments, in some danger… suddenly, in a dark night, you are faced with a naked sword, and you will know what intensity is. Suddenly ALL your thought will disappear, the crowd will become one. In that moment you will be one single individual.
The word 'individual' means indivisible. You will be undivided, you will be a unity — not only a union but a unity. You will be utterly one. The death facing you has created the intensity.
The whole yoga is nothing but centering, moving towards the center, getting rooted there, abiding there. And from there the whole perspective changes. Now still the waves may be there, but they don't reach you. And now you can see they don't belong to you, just a conflict on the surface with something foreign. And from the center, when you look, by and by, the conflict ceases. By and by, you relax. By and by, you accept that of course there is strong wind and waves will arise; you are not worried, and when you are not worried even waves can be enjoyed. Nothing is wrong in them. The problem arises because you are also on the surface. You are in a small boat on the surface and strong wind comes and it is tide, and the whole ocean goes mad. Of course, you are worried; you are scared to death. You are in danger. Any moment the waves can throw your small boat; any moment death can occur. What you can do with your small boat? How can you control? If you start fighting with the waves you will be defeated. Fight won't help. You will have to accept the waves. In fact, if you can accept the waves and let your boat, howsoever small, move with them not against them, then there is no danger.
But people have been taught about direction and nobody has been taught about centering. No culture has yet existed which teaches centering, and that's what is needed. Direction drives people crazy because you lose contact with life. It is unreal — direction is unreal. Direction moves into the future. And life knows no straight line — it knows only circles, life is very circular. The seasons move in a circle, and the stars, and the earth and the moon and the sun and life itself. Birth, youth, old age, death, birth; it goes on moving in a circle, it is a cycle.
So when you start thinking of direction you go against life, you make a line, you become linear, you become one-dimensional — and that's what madness is. Obsession is one-dimensional: an obsessed person is one who can only move on one line. That's not natural; that is not close to reality.
So don't bother about direction — there is no need. Simply think of one thing: when you start feeling energy, just remain centred so that you will have a centre, a hub and the wheel… the wheel can move on the hub, and all its movements are beautiful. It is a pure play of energy.
Life has no goal. It is just leela — a pure play of energy.
So never become goal-directed — never ! We are not going anywhere; we are simply here to delight, to dance, and to enjoy.
This moment is all — the whole existence converges on this moment — we are not going anywhere. All going is wrong. Just being here is right.


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Posted inLibraries
Calvert Library Announces Mid-January through Early Feb Events
by Calvert County Public Library January 11, 2021 January 11, 2021
Monday, January 11, 2021: It's Elementary! 9:00am-9:15am. Science, technology, engineering, art, math? What will we talk about this week? Kindergarten through fifth graders are invited to join Calvert Library each week for It's Elementary! Enjoy a story followed by a fun at-home STEAM based activity using common household items! Watch this and all It's Elementary clips on Calvert Library's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist- Check out Calvert Library's It's Elementary! on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter and don't forget to invite your friends! Calvert Library Prince Frederick, 850 Costley Way, 410-535-0291 or 301-855-1862. http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Tuesday, January 12, 2021: Storytime Online. 9:00am-10:00am. Storytime is back in session online! Join your favorite librarian as we continue to develop early literacy skills through movement, music and stories. We will introduce early literacy and demonstrate ways to nurture pre-reading skills while you are at home. You can find all our Storytime Online presentations on Calvert Library's Facebook and YouTube. Checkout Calvert Library's Storytime Online on our Facebook page or our Youtube channel and don't forget to invite your friends! Calvert Library Prince Frederick, 850 Costley Way, 410-535-0291 or 301-855-1862. http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Tuesday, January 12, 2021: Saving for When 'Life Happens' (Teleconference). 6:30pm-7:30pm. We all know 'life happens' and presents challenges along the way. Join Patricia Maynard and Crystal Terhune for a discussion about ways to prepare financially for the unexpected! Brought to you by the University of Maryland Extension and Maryland State Library for the Blind and Print Disabled. http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Wednesday, January 13, 2021: Garden Smarter: Annual Seed Swap (Virtual). 9:00am-9:00pm. Getting ready for the 2021 Gardening Season? Join the fun collecting seeds for this year's garden. Registration for seeds must be completed by January 13, 2021. Limit 15 seeds per household. The seeds will be mailed to you. To order your seeds, please use the link below. Register Here: https://extension.umd.edu/events/sat-2020-12-12-0000-calvert-county-mg-annual-seed-swap-2021 Calvert Extension Office http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Wednesday, January 13, 2021: Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids. 12:00pm-1:00pm. Listen to the first chapters of popular, new and recommended books. New chapters are posted every week. Search "Calvert Library's Book Bites" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Calvert Librarians read the first chapters of popular, new and recommended middle grade books that are available in our digital collection. New episodes post every Wednesday at noon. Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Simplecast and more! http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Wednesday, January 13, 2021: Calvert Library's Book Bites for Adults. 12:00pm-1:00pm. Listen to the first chapters of popular, new and recommended books for adults. New chapters are posted every week. Search "Calvert Library's Book Bites for Adults" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Calvert Librarians read the first chapters of popular, new and recommended books that are available in our digital collection. New episodes post every Wednesday at noon. Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Simplecast and more! http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Wednesday, January 13, 2021: Calvert Library's Book Bites for Teens. 12:00pm-1:00pm. Listen to the first chapters of popular, new and recommended books for teens. New chapters are posted every week. Search "Calvert Library's Book Bites for Teens" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Calvert Librarians read the first chapters of popular, new and recommended young adult books that are available in our digital collection. New episodes post every Wednesday at noon. Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Simplecast and more! http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Wednesday, January 13, 2021: Dungeons & Dragons – TEENS (Roll20/Zoom). 6:00pm-8:00pm. Welcome back adventurers! Let's meet up through Zoom and go on a quest with our experienced Dungeon Masters. All levels of experience are welcome. http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Thursday, January 14, 2021: Strawberry DNA At Home Experiment. 5:00pm-5:35pm. Ever wondered how you can see DNA without expensive lab equipment? Using simple household supplies, you can turn your kitchen into a DNA research lab! An email with the meeting link will be sent out an hour before the event. If you don't receive one, please check your spam folder. What you need before joining the Zoom call: Put a bottle of rubbing alcohol in the freezer, ask an adult for help, liquid dish soap (like Dawn, not dishwasher soap) salt water, sealable plastic bag, scissors, coffee filter, fork/toothpick (something to pick the DNA from the container), tablespoon measuring spoon, teaspoon measuring spoon, 1/4 teaspoon measuring spoon, 2 or 3 strawberries, small drinking glass or small bowl, tall/thin drinking glass or test tube if you have one. http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Friday, January 15, 2021: Pulitzer Prize winning author Isabel Wilkerson. 7:00pm-8:00pm. Maryland Libraries Together presents, Isabel Wilkerson discussing her critically acclaimed book, "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents". In this brilliant book, Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. Isabel Wilkerson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Humanities Medal, is the author of The New York Times bestsellers The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. A gifted storyteller, Wilkerson captivates audiences with the universal human story of migration and reinvention, as well as the unseen hierarchies that have divided us as a nation, in order to find a way to transcend them. She has become an impassioned voice for demonstrating how history can help us understand ourselves, our country and our current era of upheaval. In her writing, Wilkerson brings the invisible and the marginalized into the light and into our hearts. In her lectures, she explores with authority the need to reconcile America's karmic racial inheritance ; a notion she has expressed in her widely-shared Op-Ed essays in The New York Times. Wilkerson captivates audiences with the universal story of migration and the enduring search for the American dream, the origins of our shared commonality. She draws a direct link between the leaderless revolution known as the Great Migration and the protest movements for social justice today, both of them responses to unacknowledged and unaddressed history.The Warmth of Other Suns tells the true story of three people among the six million who made the decision of their lives during the Great Migration, a watershed in American history. Wilkerson spent 15 years working on Warmth, interviewing more than 1,200 people to tell what she calls one of the greatest underreported stories of the 20th Century. In addition to the National Book Critics Circle Award, the book won the Heartland Prize for Nonfiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Award for Nonfiction, the Lynton History Prize from Harvard and Columbia Universities, and the Stephen Ambrose Oral History Prize and was shortlisted for both the Pen-Galbraith Literary Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. The Warmth of Other Suns became a New York Times and national bestseller. It was named to more than 30 Best of the Year lists, including The New York Times' 10 Best Books of the Year, Amazon's 5 Best Books of the Year, and Best of the Year lists in The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, among others. It made national news when President Obama chose the book for summer reading in 2011. In 2012, The New York Times Magazine named The Warmth of Other Suns to its list of the best nonfiction books of all time, and in 2019, TIME Magazine named it one of the ;10 Best Non-Fiction Books" of the decade. Her latest book, Caste: The Origins of our Discontents, published in August, 2020 to critical acclaim, with Dwight Garner of The New York Times calling it, An instant American classic; and Oprah choosing it for her monthly book club pick. Picked as a Time's 2020 must-read book, the book examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how a hierarchy of social divisions still defines our lives today. Wilkerson brings the past's complexities to vivid life through her passionate research and her profound gift for connecting with audiences of all backgrounds. Caste is being adapted into a Netflix film directed, written, and produced by Ava DuVernay.Wilkerson won the Pulitzer Prize for her work as Chicago Bureau Chief of The New York Times in 1994, making her the first Black woman in the history of American journalism to win a Pulitzer Prize and the first African-American to win for individual reporting in the history of American journalism . She has lectured on narrative nonfiction at the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University and has taught at Princeton, Emory and Boston universities. She has lectured at more than 200 other colleges and universities across the United States, Europe and in Asia. Her work has garnered seven honorary degrees, most recently from Bates College and Southern Methodist University. She has appeared on national programs such as CBS's 60 Minutes, NPR's Fresh Air, NBC's Nightly News, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN, and others. In conferring Wilkerson the 2015 National Humanities Medal, the National Endowment for the Humanities honored her for championing the stories of an unsung history. Her masterful combination of intimate human narratives with broader societal trends allows us to measure the epic migration of a people by its vast impact on our Nation and on each individual life. Sponsored by Friends & Foundation of Howard County Library System and Maryland Libraries Together. Copies of Caste available to borrow from Calvert Library or purchase a copy from Books with a Past. For more information on this speaker please visit prhspeakers.com. http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Monday, January 18, 2021: It's Elementary! 9:00am-9:15am. Science, technology, engineering, art, math? What will we talk about this week? Kindergarten through fifth graders are invited to join Calvert Library each week for It's Elementary! Enjoy a story followed by a fun at-home STEAM based activity using common household items! Watch this and all It's Elementary clips on Calvert Library's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist, Check out Calvert Library's It's Elementary! on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter and don't forget to invite your friends! Calvert Library Prince Frederick, 850 Costley Way, 410-535-0291 or 301-855-1862. http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Tuesday, January 19, 2021: Online Book Discussion (ZOOM). 7:00pm-8:00pm. Join us this month on Zoom for an online discussion of "The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry" by Gabrielle Zevin. Please register so we can email you the link to join the discussion. The link will come an hour before the event. Put a hold on The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry through the library app or website and once it comes in make an appointment to pick it up Curbside or get the ebook from Overdrive. http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Wednesday, January 20, 2021: Maryland Workforce Exchange Workshop (Online). 9:00am-11:00am. Offered by Maryland Department of Labor, American Job Center, this is an interactive workshop with information on how to navigate the MWE website and set up an account, as well as basic resume and cover letter writing help. Looking for a job, or a better job? Don't miss this free class. There will be an opportunity for one-on-one help as well. Registration closes one day before the event. Job search help is available on https://mwejobs.maryland.gov/vosnet/Default.aspx Creating an account on Maryland Workforce Exchange before the workshop is recommended, but not required. For more information email: tanya.wallace@maryland.gov http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Wednesday, January 20, 2021: Maryland Workforce Exchange Workshop (Online). 1:00pm-3:00pm. Hone your interview skills with Maryland Department of Labor, American Job Center! Interactive workshop with mock interviews and advice for in-person, as well as virtual meetings. Registration ends one day prior to the event. Job search help is available on https://mwejobs.maryland.gov/vosnet/Default.aspx. Creating an account on Maryland Workforce Exchange before the workshop is recommended, but not required. For more information email: tanya.wallace@maryland.gov http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Wednesday, January 20, 2021: Book Discussion (Zoom). 2:00pm-3:30pm. Join us for a lively discussion about Harry's Trees by Jon Cohen! Register for the discussion and you will receive a link to the zoom event prior to the discussion. http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Wednesday, January 20, 2021: Dungeons & Dragons – ADULT (Roll20/Zoom). 6:00pm-8:00pm. Dungeons and Dragons – Adult is back! Join us through Zoom and Roll20 on an adventure with our experienced Dungeon Masters. All levels of experience are welcome. Registration is required. http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Wednesday, January 20, 2021: Zines! Publishing on the Edge (Zoom). 7:00pm-8:00pm. Join us online for a history and how-to with Yago Cura of HINCHAS Press! http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Saturday, January 23, 2021: Garden Smarter: Deterring Deer in Garden. 10:00am-11:30am. Join us on Zoom! Learn about gardening practices that deter deer such as fencing, repellents, devices, and plants that deer don't like. http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Monday, January 25, 2021: It's Elementary! 9:00am-9:15am. Science, technology, engineering, art, math? What will we talk about this week? Kindergarten through fifth graders are invited to join Calvert Library each week for It's Elementary! Enjoy a story followed by a fun at-home STEAM based activity using common household items! Watch this and all It's Elementary clips on Calvert Library's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist. -Check out Calvert Library's It's Elementary! on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter and don't forget to invite your friends! Calvert Library Prince Frederick, 850 Costley Way, 410-535-0291 or 301-855-1862. http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Monday, January 25, 2021: Monday Night Movie Musings "Japanese Story" (Zoom). 7:00pm-8:00pm. From IMDB: "Sandy, a geologist, finds herself stuck on a field trip to the Pilbara desert with a Japanese man she finds inscrutable, annoying and decidedly arrogant. Hiromitsu's view of her is not much better. Things go from bad to worse when they become stranded in one of the most remote regions on earth. Japanese Story is a journey of change and discovery for its two lead characters." http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Tuesday, January 26, 2021: Books & Toys. 8:00pm-9:00pm. Book discussion for adults, playtime for kids! http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Wednesday, January 27, 2021: Tween/Teen Chess (Virtual). 5:00pm-6:00pm. Tweens and teens, join us for some online chess! All ability levels are welcome, and we will be happy to provide an overview of the game if you are just getting started. An email with the meeting link will be sent out an hour before the event. If you don't receive one, please check your spam folder. http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Thursday, January 28, 2021: Literary Bites. 6:00pm-8:00pm. Join us each month as we read, discuss, and digest one of our favorite culinary novels. We begin this brand-new series with The Widow Clicquot, the story of a woman who left her indelible mark on one of the most famous champagne houses in the world. http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Monday, February 01, 2021: It's Elementary! 9:00am-9:15am. Science, technology, engineering, art, math? What will we talk about this week? Kindergarten through fifth graders are invited to join Calvert Library each week for It's Elementary! Enjoy a story followed by a fun at-home STEAM based activity using common household items! Watch this and all It's Elementary clips on Calvert Library's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist. -Check out Calvert Library's It's Elementary! on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter and don't forget to invite your friends! Calvert Library Prince Frederick, 850 Costley Way, 410-535-0291 or 301-855-1862. http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Tuesday, February 02, 2021:Storytime Online.9:00am-10:00am. Storytime is back in session online! Join your favorite librarian as we continue to develop early literacy skills through movement, music and stories. We will introduce early literacy and demonstrate ways to nurture pre-reading skills while you are at home. You can find all our Storytime Online presentations on Calvert Library's Facebook and YouTube. Checkout Calvert Library's Storytime Online on our Facebook page or our Youtube channel and don't forget to invite your friends! Calvert Library Prince Frederick, 850 Costley Way, 410-535-0291 or 301-855-1862. http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Wednesday, February 03, 2021: Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids. 12:00pm-1:00pm. Listen to the first chapters of popular, new and recommended books. New chapters are posted every week. Search "Calvert Library's Book Bites" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Calvert Librarians read the first chapters of popular, new and recommended middle grade books that are available in our digital collection. New episodes post every Wednesday at noon. Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Simplecast and more! http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Wednesday, February 03, 2021: Calvert Library's Book Bites for Teens. 12:00pm-1:00pm. Listen to the first chapters of popular, new and recommended books for teens. New chapters are posted every week. Search "Calvert Library's Book Bites for Teens" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Calvert Librarians read the first chapters of popular, new and recommended young adult books that are available in our digital collection. New episodes post every Wednesday at noon. Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Simplecast and more! http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Wednesday, February 03, 2021: Calvert Library's Book Bites for Adults. 12:00pm-1:00pm. Listen to the first chapters of popular, new and recommended books for adults. New chapters are posted every week. Search "Calvert Library's Book Bites for Adults" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Calvert Librarians read the first chapters of popular, new and recommended books that are available in our digital collection. New episodes post every Wednesday at noon. Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Simplecast and more! http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Wednesday, February 03, 2021: Book Discussion (Lotus Kitchen). 6:00pm-8:00pm. Join us this month to discuss "The Water Dancer" by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Hosted by Calvert Library Southern Branch and Lotus Kitchen, via Zoom. Please register to receive an emailed link to the discussion. The even begins at 6:30 p.m., but you may log in as early as 6:00 p.m. to chat. Registration closes at 6p.m. the day before the event. Zoom http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Thursday, February 04, 2021: Pints and Private Eyes Book Discussion (Zoom)- The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian. 7:00pm-8:00pm. Have you always longed to drink beer and talk detective books with a librarian? Pints and Private Eyes is a book group for fans of noir, detective and crime fiction. We are currently meeting online on the first Thursday of the month from 7 – 8pm. Register for the link! From Goodreads: "Cassandra Bowden is no stranger to hungover mornings. She's a binge drinker, her job with the airline making it easy to find adventure, and the occasional blackouts seem to be inevitable. She lives with them, and the accompanying self-loathing. When she awakes in a Dubai hotel room, she tries to piece the previous night back together, already counting the minutes until she has to catch her crew shuttle to the airport. She quietly slides out of bed, careful not to aggravate her already pounding head, and looks at the man she spent the night with. She sees his dark hair. His utter stillness. And blood, a slick, still wet pool on the crisp white sheets. Afraid to call the police—she's a single woman alone in a hotel room far from home. Cassie begins to lie. She lies as she joins the other flight attendants and pilots in the van. She lies on the way to Paris as she works the first class cabin. She lies to the FBI agents in New York who meet her at the gate. Soon it's too late to come clean or face the truth about what really happened back in Dubai. Could she have killed him? If not, who did?" The Flight Attendant is available as an ebook and eaudiobook on Libby by Overdrive, and as a physical book or audiobook in Cosmos here: https://bit.ly/PPEFlightAttendant http://CalvertLibrary.info.
Friday, February 05, 2021: JobSource Mobile Career Center (Rod & Reel Parking Lot). 1:00pm-4:00pm. Stop by to visit the JobSource Mobile Career Center for your job search needs! Get job counseling and resume help, search for jobs and connect with Southern Maryland JobSource. NEW LOCATION:Rod & Reel Parking Lot4160 Mears Ave, Chesapeake Beach, MD 20732 This 38′ mobile center features 11 computer workstations, smart board instructional technology, satellite internet access, exterior audio visual and broadcasting capabilities; state-of-the-art workforce applications and connectivity for wireless mobile device access. Rod & Reel Parking Lot 4160 Mears Ave, Chesapeake Beach, MD 20732 Calvert Library Twin Beaches Branch, 3819 Harbor Road, Chesapeake Beach, 410-257-2411. http://CalvertLibrary.info.