Magic with Family

Our adult kids visited for the holidays. The oldest gave all of us Magic starter decks.

Magic: The Gathering (colloquially known as Magic or MTG) is a tabletop collectible trading-card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast, Magic was the first trading card game. We played daily when they were small.

The back face of a Magic card, showing the “Color Pie” central to the game’s mechanics.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/10/magic-the-gathering-pop-culture-hit-where-next?CMP=fb_gu

February Reading Project

Creating Black Americans: African-American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present, by Nell Irvin Painter,

I read books to find relevant knowledge and absorb it. For Black History Month I am reading textbook on black history.

This textbook – Creating Black Americans: African-American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present, by Nell Irvin Painter, is not part of the class syllabus but I think parts amplifies what we are covering in Civil Rights class.

The textbook views the Black experience in North American through the lens of art and culture. The book included African American art to illustrate the book. Each piece reflected on a historical event, important person, or feeling created by an African American artist to show black Americans as creators of their own history.

Preface

The textbook has 2 central themes – material conditions and meaning.

Material conditions relates to politics, economics, and demographics.

Meaning relates to the changing production of historical narrative in two ways: first, knowledge as a process, and, second, historical commemoration.

historical commemoration = holidays, monuments, museums

Black Americans – numerous, diverse, creative, personal history richly varied

Historical narrative: constructs a coherent story of the past that makes sense to us now by endowing certain people and events with importance while denying importance to others

Historical narratives changes over time based on the historian’s motive. The writing of history continues to evolve.

Before the civil rights revolution of the 1960’s Black americans were not seen by whites as american so history was the story of white america.

Visual artist view the past in personal, subjective terms

Black artists struggle with racism in the art world. Art school would not admit them. Galleries would not represent them. Museums do not see value in their work. Art history includes racial and gender discrimination

Until the 1920s Harlem Renaissance the art world did not consider black people as appropriate subject for fine art

Black artists depicting lynching = “this is meaningful; we need to pay attention to this.”

Day in the History of Racial Injustice

February 1, 1965 ~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and more than 250 Martin Luther King Jr. led more than 250 activists to the Dallas County Courthouse in Selma, Alabama, to register to vote. All of them were arrested during the peaceful demonstration and charged with parading without a permit. In a letter written from the local jail that same night, and later published in the New York Times, Dr. King decried the racist conditions in Selma and observed that “there are more Negroes in jail with me than there are on the voting rolls.”

Thích Nhất Hạnh

Much of our suffering comes from wrong perceptions. To remove that hurt, we have to remove our wrong perception.

Thích Nhất Hạnh (October 11, 1926–January 22, 2022)

The Fourteen Precepts of Engaged Buddhism

  1. Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. Buddhist systems of thought are guiding means; they are not absolute truth.
  2. Do not think the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. Learn and practice nonattachment from views in order to be open to receive others’ viewpoints. Truth is found in life and not merely in conceptual knowledge. Be ready to learn throughout your entire life and to observe reality in yourself and in the world at all times.
  3. Do not force others, including children, by any means whatsoever, to adopt your views, whether by authority, threat, money, propaganda, or even education. However, through compassionate dialogue, help others renounce fanaticism and narrowness.
  4. Do not avoid contact with suffering or close your eyes before suffering. Do not lose awareness of the existence of suffering in the life of the world. Find ways to be with those who are suffering, including personal contact, visits, images, and sounds. By such means, awaken yourself and others to the reality of suffering in the world.
  5. Do not accumulate wealth while millions are hungry. Do not take as the aim of your life Fame, profit, wealth, or sensual pleasure. Live simply and share time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need.
  6. Do not maintain anger or hatred. Learn to penetrate and transform them when they are still seeds in your consciousness. As soon as they arise, turn your attention to your breath in order to see and understand the nature of your hatred.
  7. Do not lose yourself in dispersion and in your surroundings. Practice mindful breathing to come back to what is happening in the present moment. Be in touch with what is wondrous, refreshing, and healing both inside and around you. Plant seeds of joy, peace, and understanding in yourself in order to facilitate the work of transformation in the depths of your consciousness.
  8. Do not utter words that can create discord and cause the community to break. Make every effort to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small.
  9. Do not say untruthful things for the sake of personal interest or to impress people. Do not utter words that cause division and hatred. Do not spread news that you do not know to be certain. Do not criticize or condemn things of which you are not sure. Always speak truthfully and constructively. Have the courage to speak out about situations of injustice, even when doing so may threaten your own safety.
  10. Do not use the Buddhist community for personal gain or profit, or transform your community into a political party. A religious community, however, should take a clear stand against oppression and injustice and should strive to change the situation without engaging in partisan conflicts.
  11. Do not live with a vocation that is harmful to humans and nature. Do not invest in companies that deprive others of their chance to live. Select a vocation that helps realize your ideal of compassion.
  12. Do not kill. Do not let others kill. Find whatever means possible to protect life and prevent war.
  13. Possess nothing that should belong to others. Respect the property of others, but prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on Earth.
  14. Do not mistreat your body. Learn to handle it with respect. Do not look on your body as only an instrument. Preserve vital energies (sexual, breath, spirit) for the realization of the Way. (For brothers and sisters who are not monks and nuns:) Sexual expression should not take place without love and commitment. In sexual relationships, be aware of future suffering that may be caused. To preserve the happiness of others, respect the rights and commitments of others. Be fully aware of the responsibility of bringing new lives into the world. Meditate on the world into which you are bringing new beings.

From “Interbeing: Fourteen Guidelines for Engaged Buddhism,” Revised edition: Oct. 1993 by Thich Nhat Hanh, published by Parallax Press, Berkeley, California.