The Scourge of E-waste

Most of us don't think twice about where it will wind up when we throw out that monitor or keyboard (and about all of the toxic chemicals that are present in that electronic waste) .  Well, it goes to third world countries in Asia and Africa, where children are paid pittances to recycle the e-waste at the expense of their development and health.

Where does e-waste end up? | Greenpeace International

Ultimately, the large computer companies like Apple, HP, Dell, Lenovo, etc. need to take responsibility for their waste.  The most progressive companies have discovered that it's possible to make waste = food (make their products 100% biodegradable, so that when it's discarded in landfills, over time it will break down and replenish the soil, rather than poison it).  Apple in particular, I find to be hypocritical for it likes to present itself as progressive and edgy but 100% of its products are manufactured in China and Greenpeace has found that it still uses many toxic materials (more so than its competitors).

On a smaller scale, mobile phone companies, like Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, etc., also should be pressured to reduce their environmental impact.  People, nowadays, discard their mobile like it's a candy wrapper and don't realize how detrimental their actions can be towards children on the other side of the world.

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

I sat within a valley green

I sat me with my true love

My sad heart strove to choose between

The old love and the new love

The old for her, the new that made

Me think on Ireland dearly

While soft the wind blew down the glade

And shook the golden barley

Twas hard the woeful words to frame

To break the ties that bound us

But harder still to bear the shame

Of foreign chains around us

And so I said, "The mountain glen

I'll seek at morning early

And join the bold United Men

While soft winds shake the barley

While sad I kissed away her tears

My fond arms 'round her flinging

The foeman's shot burst on our ears

From out the wildwood ringing

A bullet pierced my true love's side

In life's young spring so early

And on my breast in blood she died

While soft winds shook the barley

I bore her to some mountain stream

And many's the summer blossom

I placed with branches soft and green

About her gore-stained bosom

I wept and kissed her clay-cold corpse

Then rushed o'er vale and valley

My vengeance on the foe to wreak

While soft winds shook the barley

But blood for blood without remorse

I've taken at Oulart Hollow

And laid my true love's clay-cold corpse

Where I full soon may follow

As 'round her grave I wander drear

Noon, night and morning early

With breaking heart when e'er I hear

The wind that shakes the barley

-Robert Dwyer Joyce


I think this beautiful ballad can speak to anyone, you merely have to replace Ireland with your nation of choice.  While there are many elements that I don't necessarily agree to — for instance, violence as a recourse and favoring patriotism over unity of mankind, etc.  I still think there is a nobility in this passionate, heart-wrenching ballad.  I believe there is a sense melancholic nobility when man fights for a cause with all his heart, even if it may not be the wisest choice.

Sung by Dick Gaughan:


What is it though about this pastoral notion of 'homeland' that is universally accepted?  My parents hearken back to the charmed days in their homeland but then are disappointed when they return.  This yearning for a place to call home, I think may be predisposed in all mankind as we are all aching to return to Eden.


The female interpretation (sung by Dead Can Dance):

One of my mottoes/mantras...

Living in a hectic, modern age, it's easy to lose focus on what's really important in life.  I know that sounds very trite but it's still true.  I have a short temper and I get ticked off very easily by others because I am such a perfectionist, Type A person.  I know it's something I need to work on continually, 24-7.  One of the tools I use to put things in a better perspective is intoning in my head or under my breath the quote by Wayne Dyer:

People are really doing the best they can given the awareness they have. 

Deepak Chopa said something very similar.  I don't know who came up with it first or if it was merely divine inspiration.  In any case, it's a very simplistic quote, but profound, inherent truths usually are.

This isn't about being haughty and looking down on others considering yourself to be more "enlightened." It's about showing compassion for every living creature because we are all struggling to live together on this overcrowded planet of ours.

This personal mantra reminds me of how Christ on the cross pleaded, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).  (I apologize for the recent Christian-heavy entries but it is what I am most familiar with).  In the same respect, we should forgive those that trespass against us since they do it out of ignorance rather than hatred.

Most people are not actively trying to be spiteful or mean, but they are moving through life as if in a haze or a blur.  Their thoughts, actions, and motives are unconscious.  They live as if in "The Matrix." The Masters tell us to live each moment of our precious life as if it was our last and with deliberation.  In the monotony and routine of our daily lives, we lose ourselves to the automatic drudgery and forget to stop and contemplate and deliberately make positive intentions in every thought and action that we perform.  I also want to add that this is also a good way to remind yourself to be kind not only to others but to your very self.  I have a tendency to be my own worst critic.  As we should forgive others for living as if in a trance we should also give ourselves some leeway for slipping up occasionally/often as well.

So the next time someone ticks you off (or if you do something out of character due to ignorance or 'unconsciousness').  Remember that "everyone is doing the best they can at their level of awareness" (Deepak Chopra).

Wisdom, Chapter 9 (Scriptures, Apocrypha)

So at Mass this morning, I mistakenly thought today was the 23rd Sabbath in Ordinary Time C, so I read the wrong First Reading, which was Wisdom 9:13-18.

Well, nonetheless, I thought it was a beautiful and apt passage for me:

13	For what man can learn the counsel of God? Or who can discern what the Lord wills?
14	For the reasoning of mortals is worthless, and our designs are likely to fail,
15	for a perishable body weighs down the soul, and this earthy tent burdens the thoughtful mind.
16	We can hardly guess at what is on earth, and what is at hand we find with labor; but who has traced out what is in the heavens?
17	Who has learned thy counsel, unless thou hast given wisdom and sent thy holy Spirit from on high?
18	And thus the paths of those on earth were set right, and men were taught what pleases thee, and were saved by wisdom."

(I wasn't previously aware that the Vatican approved of usage of Apocryphal texts even in official readings during Mass. Interesting.)

Don't Worry about Tomorrow

^{I find that we often lose sight of what is actually important and get boggled down in myriad banalities and trivialities of daily life.  Today in church I was flipping through the book and found this inspiring passage from Matthew 6:}

²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

  ²⁸"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Amen.