2009 June

GodsBigBlog: Will Obama Meet with Muslims This Weekend?

June 30, 2009 By Barbara Leave a Comment

The Islamic Society of North America will hold its convention in Washington, D.C., over the Fourth of July weekend. The society is hoping that President Obama will appear.

Even if the President doesn’t make it, attendees will hear Rick Warren of Saddleback Church participate in a panel discussion along with noted Islamic scholar Hamza Yusuf.

The Islamic Society expects the conference to attract 40,000 Muslims from across the country.

“It is critical for us to have positive relationships with people of other faiths,” said Sayyid Syeed of the Islamic Society. Syeed’s focus in the organization is building interfaith ties in America.

Filed Under: My Rocky Spiritual Journey Tagged With: hamza yusuf, islamic society of north america, muslim, rick warren

GodsBigBlog: Hindus in America

June 30, 2009 By Barbara Leave a Comment

Want to know more about Hinduism in America? Check out the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) website. Some interesting topics:

• Hindu and Jewish leaders meet in D.C. to talk.

• The National Day of Prayer — Christians only?

• Obama neglects to mention Hinduism in his Cairo speech.

Filed Under: My Rocky Spiritual Journey Tagged With: hindu american foundation, hindus and jews, national day of prayer, obama cairo

A Case of the Human Condition: I Did It — I Offed Those Frightful Snapdragons

June 29, 2009 By Barbara Leave a Comment

Before . . .

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

I did it. I pulled those bloody maroon snapdragons up by the roots. My front yard color scheme has been restored, and all is right with the world.

It occured to me, I pull up weeds all the time, I kill mosquitos, I eat lamb chops, for heaven’s sake.

And so, once again, my rock garden pleases the eye, my eye, with its delicate pinks, lavenders, roses, creamy whites and modest yellows–all colors that get along with each other and wouldn’t think of screaming for attention across the front yard.

Now that those gloomy snapdragons are gone, there’s a nice hole in the landscape all set to go, with rich soil and fat earthworms. What shall I plant?

. . . after.

My son Peter commented yesterday that he loves snapdragons. He was too late by just hours. I’d already yanked those puppies out–fortunately, or I might have spared the homely things, and then I’d have to look at them all summer.

Maybe I’ll put in some nice pink and yellow snaps in Peter’s honor.

Their fate . . . Photos c 2009 B.F. Newhall

Filed Under: A Case of the Human Condition Tagged With: earthworms, killing plants, mother and son, rock garden, snapdragons, weeds

A Case of the Human Condition: I Want to Kill My Snapdragons

June 26, 2009 By Barbara 9 Comments

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

I don’t like the snapdragons growing in my front yard. Their color, somewhere between scarlet and maroon, gets on my nerves. I don’t like scarlet. I like maroon even less.

The snapdragons are innocent. They are doing what they are supposed to do. They’re sending down roots, sucking up water, opening up blossoms. If I rip them out of the ground – now or just before they go to seed – am I an assassin? They may be ugly, but they are alive.

When I spotted the six-packs of baby snapdragons at the nursery, all I could see were a few creamy buds. And something pinkish. They looked good to me. But now they are taking over my garden.

Their dark, aggressive coloring shouts in my face, leaving the more modest blossoms in the yard, the lavender and the bacopa, to go unnoticed.

My mother, who turned 92 on Wednesday, has shelves and tables of potted plants growing with fervor out on her patio. One plant, philodendron, is not doing so well. It has only a few leaves, most of them dead or yellowing.

“Do I throw it out?” she asks. “It doesn’t look very good.”

I think of my snapdragons. And my cypress tree.

When Peter was little, we found out he was allergic to cypress. “Hmm,” I said to the pediatrician. “We have a cypress tree growing in our back yard a few feet from the house – and Peter’s bedroom.”

”Cut it down,” the doctor said.

Jon and I conferred. Our cypress was massive — five stories tall — and older than both of us put together. It was a magnificent tree, timeless, a steady presence at our house. Its branches had grown over and around our deck, so that you could go out there at any time, day or night, stand inside that tree and forget where you were in time and space.

No way were Jon and I going to get rid of that cypress tree. Peter would have to take antihistamines. Or grow out of his allergies. We’d move to another house.

Peter outgrew the allergies. The cypress tree, as stately and self-sufficient as ever, lives on.

But the awful snapdragons? The scraggly, deadish philodendron in the pot on my mother’s patio? They’ve got to go. Somehow.

Filed Under: A Case of the Human Condition Tagged With: aging parent, cypress, garden, snapdragon, unwanted plant

Book Openers: Barack Obama — How He Got So Smart

June 23, 2009 By Barbara 2 Comments

The official White House portrait. 2009.

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

If you haven’t yet read President Obama’s memoir, Dreams from My Father, don’t miss it. It explains, I think, how Obama got so smart. As he grew from boy to man, Obama had to reconcile the many cultures that surrounded him – middle class white America in Hawaii, semi-poverty and Islam in Indonesia, urban African America in Chicago, rural Kenya, upper class Harvard.

To survive emotionally, this man had to think.

Dreams from My Father was published in 1995 and again in 2004. If you find an autographed copy of the orignal hardcover lying around, don’t lose it. It’s rare. It’s worth thousands.

I especially liked the Random House abridged audiobook version. Obama’s reading earned him the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.

Here’s the Amazon link to the book.