Violin strings superimposed on hip hop rhythms

Doodles on loose sheets of scrap paper-

Leaves falling from the skies,
Like tears drift from your eyes
Action potential to reach out and connect
Resurrect humanity
From the depths of tragedy
Contained in monetary obsessions

When it comes to love we remain taciturn,
Afraid to return,
To that which we've yet to become
The song goes unsung
I sit back and wait
My fatal flaw
Staring into the maw of self-induced fear
of getting too near.

I'm sick of sitting still but uncertain on how to stand
Feeling rather ill in this strange and foreign land...
The pathos of the world brings me to rise in the morning
Growth, progress, peace, pull me through the day.

Humanistic and Existential Psychology

Were it not for theories that resonate with Rollo May, Cushman, and Maslow, I would consider giving up on psychology entirely. The idea that we would fix somebody so the could re-enter the pathological realm of the conformist functioning individual disgusts me. I would rather let a person be sick than provoke them to adapt to something so inherently unhealthy and contradictory to the things I personally and inherently value: creativity, spontaneity, humor, freedom, anxiety, awareness, authenticity).

Today in class I picked up a few thoughts I found significant and generated a few ideas of my own. I don't know if I intend to keep them for fear of losing ideas (which I associate with the self) or whether I sincerely think I will ever use them. But here I leave them in case I need to return to them:

1. It is not the job of the therapist to know what is right or wrong for the client, but to help them discover this for themselves.
2. Our ethical values are removed from the experience and reality of the client.
3. A shitty job can be recontextualized/reconceptualized as a way of supporting self and being in pursuit of something great. You may not find your job to be perfect, but so long as you are on the path of growth, there is no regret.
4. Challenge yourself. Every moment. Every decision. Let it be a battle
in the war for growth, a war waged against self, that ends up being just a game in the roda of life.
5. Absolute safety detracts from the ability to actualize.
6. The fear of freedom is not just the burden of responsibility, but borne in the fact that at any moment, I can annihilate myself physiologically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally and socially. Having walked that line and nearly falling off but to be saved by the mercy of this universe and the love of others, I realize how easy it is to kill ones' aspects of self.

Axiom to 6 - In reflection of these aspects, I recognize the ways I have nearly killed myself.

7. In accepting the freedom to make a choice, the freedom to commit one of these suicides becomes a possibility

8. There is no "not being" but we must be aware of our being, of our potentials. We must be aware of this act of being that is our "patterns of potentialities." This authenticity reminds us of our humanity.

9. Existentialism denies the inherent nature. But the internal capacity to grow is an inherent aspect of our nature. In this sense, there is an absolute to each individual that cannot be clearly defined, but is more real than any abstract concept.

Boston GuluWalk 2008

"The Situation

An Unresolved Crisis

After two decades of neglect, peace may finally be on the horizon for the people of northern Uganda. Current negotiations between the Ugandan government and Lord's Resistance Army present the best opportunity yet to achieve an end to this war, which has displaced millions of people and condemned generations of children to lives unsettled by insecurity, violence and fear. But international support and engagement is urgently needed to ensure a peace agreement is reached and to address the longstanding consequences of displacement and insecurity. Having long overlooked the conflict, policymakers can now show decisive leadership to support the people of northern Uganda in their unwavering desire for peace.

Here's a look at how the conflict has developed and why current negotiations present such a crucial opportunity.

A History of Division

The war in northern Uganda arose out of a divisive political climate, originating in British colonial policies and perpetuated by post-independence Ugandan politics. This climate created deeply entrenched regional and social divisions, particularly between the North and the South. When the current president, Yoweri Museveni and his southern-based army took power through a military coup in 1986, northerners were marginalized, and mobilized for war. However, by 1988, two stages of this popular rebellion had ended peacefully. Still, a remnant of fighters refused to negotiate. It was these fighters, led by Joseph Kony, a self-proclaimed spiritual messenger who formed the cultish Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Though initially claiming to represent northern grievances, the rebel movement received little public support. It has since terrorized the local population, abducting as many as 60,000 children, to fill its ranks.

The Consequences of War

The toll of this crisis has been massive, not only on the people of northern Uganda, but also on the surrounding region. Current negotiations have seen a significant decrease in LRA activity, but until recent months the rebels wreaked havoc in three countries, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan, causing widespread instability. The Ugandan government's strategy of moving northerners into "protected villages" has turned into a displacement nightmare for 1.7 million people - over 80% of the region - who now live in squalid camps and lack access to basic resources. According to recent reports, 1,000 people are dying each week as a result of camp conditions. Again, children have been the primary victims. One-half of those displaced are under fifteen years of age and more than a third of boys and one-sixth of girls bear the scars of forced soldiering and sexual slavery in northern Uganda. For many years, upwards up 40,000 of these children "commuted" up to two hours every night to sleep on town streets to avoid abduction.

Attempts to Resolve the Conflict

In 1994, the parties were hours away from signing a peace agreement, but negotiations collapsed due to mistrust and lack of international support. Since then, the Ugandan government has primarily attempted to end the conflict militarily, but this has only perpetuated violence and exacerbated northern grievances against it. However in July 2006, changing dynamics led the Government of South Sudan to mediate peace talks between the warring parties, a development widely hailed as the best opportunity for peace since the war began. In August 2006, a breakthrough truce, renewed several times and now extending until the end of January 2008, brought relative calm to the region for the first time in years. Yet, negotiations have remained fragile due to lingering mistrust and a lack of capacity and accountability to keep the parties at the negotiating table.

Role of the International Community

Given this unprecedented opportunity for peace, the international community has a critical role to play in building confidence and bringing leverage to the negotiations. Despite this potential, the U.S. government, the most powerful external actor, has remained largely silent and chosen to perpetuate its legacy of neglect in the region. For the Juba peace process to succeed, it will require that this legacy be overcome through serious engagement by policymakers. The July 2007 appointment of a State Department official, Tim Shortley, with a mandate to support the Juba peace process was a welcome shift, but has been tempered by statements from US officials that the US might support a renewed “military solution” to the conflict. World leaders must renew their commitment to a negotiated agreement at the Juba talks as the most viable means for ending the conflict and allowing displaced northern Ugandans to return home. International leadership to support the efforts of UN special envoy Joaquim Chissano, address regional instability and help implement recovery efforts in the north also will be crucial if any lasting peace is to be attained. "

- ResolveUganda, http://www.resolveuganda.org/situation

For more information:

www.resolveuganda.org

www.guluwalk.com

www.invisiblechildren.com

J'avance; Yo Baila

J'y vai, j'avance,
Je me lance
Contre le murrai
qui me separre,
Ce n'est jamais trop tard
D'apprendre de voler, sans ailes
Quand je pousse, le granite me lache,
Suivi seulement d'une tache,
Mon hombre, un moment derriere tous mes movements,
Des movements que je ne peut pas vivre sans
Le sense qui dance dans mes veins.
Fluide et ephemeral comme la Seine, comme la tiene,
Qui passe en tours
Qui avance, toujours
------------------------------------
Los movimentos de mi pensamentos
Bailan como mi cuerpo
Sin efuerto, piernas y manos
Cintura y cabeca, Mueva de una
Sin punta, o fin.

Images that pervade - Child Soldiers

The human body deconstructed, stripped of the spark that animates, is a most powerful image. A dead body, skeletal remains, a pinch of ash...

For the children of war, I can cry. There is nothing that rouses my emotions, that brings me to the door of ultimate compassion, like the innocent suffering the torments of war. An uprising of emotion, a welling of tears, a promise to strike down the self-imposed dam...

No words can capture these thoughts and feelings, but actions can give them meaning.

Dance of the Plant Kingdom

Colors subtle, and movements more so
A gentle swaying
Like a transfixed believer praying

No questions asked
That time has passed
The time has come
To listen
to
Chlorophyll manifest, as vibrant greens,
Photosynthesis manifests in the unseen
Radiation manipulated into satiation
This cellular dance, we are too blind to perceive

Minds explore, Climbing out of the Sea, and onto the Shore.

thoughts of messianic abstractions
derived from truth-induced refractions
7 colors is an illusion
and a misused microscope is an intrusion
into the impenetrable nature of nature of nature
there is no intellectual deduction
seeking eternal seduction
nothing exists without contrast
and no boundaries last
the slowest still moves immeasurably fast
and we leave behind impressions of days and hours
nothing like the blooming of a flower
who counts no minutes
since the big banging from which we all spring and fall
contained in a speck is the all
and our movement is an exploratory crawl
one single movement contained within 14 billion years
like the wanderings of a single cosmic tear.