Are You Rapture Ready?

So are you rapture ready? Me and my homegirls decided to dress up in our hooker-best for the occasion! (That’s me all hooker-licious in the photo to the left) Gina got busy drinking the Shiner Bock, Vicki was sippin back on the UV Lemonade Vodka with Diet 7 Up and I started off with Fat Tire beer, rounded second with a Samuel Adams Boston logger, and last but not least made sure that my glass never reached empty on the cheap ass vodka I picked up at the Discount Liquor store down the road. Of course I gotz to mixed that stuff with a little Sierra Mist Natural. Geez, do I sound like a commercial?

The other day Noah tells me this strange news…”Mom” he said cracking a smile, “Did you know the world is going to end on Saturday?” I thought thought to myself “Why didn’t I get that memo?” You’d think that would be really important information right? It must be that damned computer of mine acting up again, because it never allowed through the memo that the world was going to hell in a hand basket. (Can you tell I’ve been partying a little tonight?) Ok, so yesterday Mr. Sexy news anchor Anderson Cooper comes on and talks about the end of the world and this is what he has to say:

And of course since the dreamy Coop said it, it must be true right? Anyway, as I said in the beginning of my post, we dressed in our hooker best, and decided to document the whole thing from beginning to end. Only one problem…we were never taken up like Harold Camping said would happen. I thought for sure I was on the right track when we put on our make up, got a good buzz going and had a LOT of fun taking all the pictures. I was hoping for a little levitation, but that never happened as you can see from the photos that will follow. What did we do wrong ya’ll? Maybe I didn’t drink heavily enough to watch something float! Why do I say that? Well, because you have to be totally drunk or high to believe that God would set a date for the end of the world. Shit, even I got that memo!

We had sooooo much fun though, I must say. Thanks Uncle Jack for inspiring us to dress like hookers, drink like lushes and hope for the best! Here are some photos of our night LOL ENJOY!

My homegirl (and daughter Gina) asking the vital question of the evening.

Vicki in the first photo looking all sexy and rapturous, and in the second photo proudly displaying her rapture birds. Aren’t they so cute?

The Denver Airport Murals

I do lots of research for my own curiosity, enjoyment and also to learn more about the different kinds of people that exist in our world…especially in this information driven age. You can go online and look up a bevy of information, all at your fingertips. You can find health information, connect with people from your distant past, explore cultures and religions, read blogs about anything that interest you, find ‘love’ and marriage prospects, make new friends, and the list will just keep going and going of what is possible at your fingertips. It seems endless what you can find online, doesn’t it?

Well, in my research of some medical curiosities, I found this random link to these rather terrifying paintings that are displayed at the Denver International Airport. I was jarred at first, looking at the depictions of the death of children, Nazi imagery, flowers, dead animals, happy children, and what seemed to be this collection of life and death, hope and despair, victory and defeat. What is one supposed to think of such things when viewing such a huge piece of artwork in a place like the Denver airport? At first glance, I thought to myself “what the hell is going on here?” And then I decided to read the “interpretation” according to the conspiracy theorist who’s site I stumbled on. It was a conspiracy of hate, the devil, mass extinction and servitude the author of the blog would proclaim. I began to look more on other sites after putting “Denver airport murals” into the google image search and found that all of them had theories about prison camps located under the Denver airport, places for aliens, mason and Illuminati conspiracies, reptilian people (that one was truly funny!) and I was left with this gnawing feeling in my gut that something just didn’t seem right about all this conspiracy talk. I searched for the artist’s name and found out that this man was a celebrated artist. His name is Leo Tanguma and once I got past all the minutia about how he was paid by some “shadow government”, I decided to go his website. Mr. Tanguma has the most beautiful artwork, and what he brings out through his art is no less than the truth driven home with feeling! So often artists are misunderstood, and I guess he is no exception to that rule.

There is a saying in the bible “From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” and this is true of those who make comments on an artists work. The saying is really true in all situations though isn’t it? If your heart is true, you’ll speak the truth, if your heart is filled with lies and deceit and fear that’s what will come out of you, if you lack compassion in your heart, it will be known by how you speak and act toward others. This is an essential truth concerning the abundance of the heart.

I’d like to take another look at some of these paintings because Leo Tanguma has poured out his heart on canvas for the world to see. Are these really a dark conspiracy to kill man kind? Or is this a record of things that have already taken place? Some want to say the images are gruesome and macabre, and to that I would say yes! it is gruesome and macabre in that war and death is nothing pretty to look at. I would have to say it took courage and conviction for Mr. Tanguma to tell the truth about war and how it devastates humanity. We have no problem saying “We will never forget” when it comes to  9/11 and show images of the trade towers before and after. Why? Because we claim we will never forget. Well what about war? When others take the lives of the innocent? Should we just brush that aside? Or shall we never forget that as well? Mr. Tanguma’s portrayal of death and carnage is a way of saying “we will never forget” what has happened. Women, children and the elderly are often the most devastated by war and violence, and I feel that he captured that beautifully.

But I guess that others can view the death, carnage and mourning in his work as a clue as to what will happen to the rest of us in the future. In that, I must give them a little credit, because as the saying goes “those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.” But to me that is where the interpretation ends. We will all subjectively see what we want to see. Some will see only the carnage and death, hidden images of the devil and aliens, and others, like myself, will see an artist who decided to spit in the face hatred and bigotry and show it for what it truly is. In his portrayal of death, Mr. Tanguma showed the utmost respect and beauty of each of his subjects, as can be seen in the first photo of the black woman. Check it out again, and look at the fact that he didn’t take away her humanity, her beauty, her suffering. Even more relevant is the fact that she is clothed in her cultural identity. Each of his subjects alive or dead have a cultural identity…something that seems to get brushed aside in our modern times. His portrayal of the masked nazi holding different weapons is also culturally relevant through the ages. He combines all the attributes of war and destruction in the garb of a killer. Whether it is the German Nazi, the Arabian saber, the flowing robes of a Catholic monk, the modern machine gun, simple aggression at the tip of a knife, handguns, gassing, they are all accounted for in the aggressor. There is one thing I found extremely clever about his work in painting the aggressor with all his “equipment”, Mr. Tanguma included a hair brush on the shoulder of the aggressor. LOL How clever of him to include this item, because to me the hair brush stands for the vanity of war.

With compassion and heartbreaking meticulous care, he showed women mourning the loss of their children, people displaced and herded off like cattle, and the sadness of what happens during war. When viewing these images, I don’t think only of the past, I think of all the women and children that are being harmed right now in these needless wars in Afghanistan and around the world.  This is what the vanity of war does to humanity. It strips us down, and for what? For resources? For power? All war is vanity. Yet conspiracy theorists act like there is no war right now, so it MUST be what is to come. Are we so impotent in thought and deed that we do not realize that the wars going on at present are our responsibility? So yes, if you want to make a theory that these paintings are about some nefarious shadow government, well you better include yourself in that little factoid you’ve contrived, because you are just as guilty for the war, death, bloodshed and genocide as those who order it. If you voted for the war or were too apathetic to realize what the wars are really about, then that painting is about YOU. Don’t go blaming others for something that you had your hand in. If you want to really make a difference, then END THE WAR. Isn’t this a democracy? Leo Tanguma implicitly shows human suffering that has happened and many don’t really see that? Incredible.

But Mr. Tanguma doesn’t stop at war, he continues on with another topic…environmental devastation. There are four paintings he’s done at the Denver airport.

Everyone will see what they want to in these paintings. I’m no different obviously. I have my own interpretation of a few very controversial images in the paintings, but I’ll keep those to myself, because as I have viewed his other work, I have come to understand why he uses certain imagery. If you check out some of his other work on his website, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

In closing, before I show the rest of his work, I want to say that I hope that his work and the beauty of his heart will not be cheapened by conspiracy theories. With love and respect he captured what has happened to humanity at the tip of a weapon. His hope for mankind is poured out into his art as he shows children of different waring countries unite and wrap up the weapons of war to end the bloodshed. The hope of humanity rests in the hearts of our little ones, and they must learn the ways of peace, not the vanity of war. If not, they and we are doomed to repeat the past.

Here are more images from the Denver airport:

The above painting has a description from Mr. Tanguma’s website:

Smaller mural – The Present State of the Environment

Humanity, represented by multi-racial children, is shocked and saddened at finding our natural world in a trampled and abused state. Surrounding the youthful group are endangered or extinct wildlife species. The bewildered children view the Snow Leopard, said to be the most beautiful of the large cats, laid out lifeless before them displaying its exquisite fur and colors. To the left, a young girl gazes at a Great Auk in a display case, a vanished species made extinct in 1844. On the right front, a young boy touches a display case containing the last of the Passenger Pigeons, a species existing in immense numbers throughout the Eastern U.S., and finally extinguished in 1914. Shown also are a harpooned Gray Whale, a Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle enmeshed in a fishing net, and a wall mounted buffalo head. Fluttering over the central scene, is an agitated Quetzal bird, with parts of a display case ominously surrounding it, as if foretelling its extinction.

Behind these central images, a fire rages, consuming a rainforest, while in the foreground we see endangered plant life, such as the Holy Ghost Orchid, from Panama, the Flower of the Gods, South Africa and others. In the immediate foreground are three concrete coffins, each containing a young girl clutching cultural articles. These three girls symbolize our own humanity as victims of our self destruction, notably through war, slavery, genocide, exploitation and violence of all kind.

This second mural also has a description from his website:

Larger mural – A Hopeful Future in which Humanity Rehabilitates the Environment

On this mural, I depict humanity, represented by children of the world arrayed in national or folkloric costumes. They move from both ends towards the center, and are shown smiling optimistically as they strive to rehabilitate our natural environment. On the background to this jubilant procession, are depicted various temperate zones of our planet beginning, on the extreme left with the ocean, temperate forests, frigid, tropical rainforest, and desert.
These “zones” are pictorially described with relevant geographical features, as well as wildlife indigenous to those regions. For example, the Quetzal bird signifies tropical rain or cloud forests, while the Snow Leopard is representative of frigid mountainous environments. Moreover, these different zones are shown as robust and healthy, as are the various wildlife species depicted. This portrayal is confluent with the ideal of a rehabilitated natural environment resplendent in all its beauty.

The elated children, in the colorful and lively costumes of thirty-two nations, move happily to where a special and unique flowering plant is about to be placed in the soil. This flower, its radiating leaves reflecting all the colors of the rainbow, reveal within its folds the configuration of a small white dove (reminiscent of the Holy Ghost Orchid). With this image, I sought to symbolize a new appreciation of our environment as a spiritual as well as a physical entity, a precious and delicate domain entrusted to our care.

Does Torture Really Keep America Safe?

Does torture really keep America safe? Who actually believes that? Beyond the fact that torture of any human being is reprehensible and disgusting is the “belief” by Mr. Dick Cheney himself that the release of the “Torture Memo’s” will make our country less safe. It will piss off the terrorists and allow them to “train” for such events if they are ever captured. Is it any wonder the Bush administration lied about it for such a long time? Isn’t it easier to cast doubt and make it look like some sort of open conspiracy than to actually admit to something as sociopathic and psychotic as torture? Who are we? We have known that torture has been going on since around 2002, yet we have chosen to blindly believe what the past administration told us.

Mr. Bush is a born again Christian after all! He believes in the sanctity of life, preservation of marriage between a man and a woman, oh and lets not forget about the ban embryonic stem cell research. I guess people taken in for questioning against their will because someone somewhere had possible credible evidence that the person had some kind of knowledge about an incident involving some kind of group, and then tortured repeatedly and kept against their will and against our laws without proper representation or even being charged with something makes them less than human and therefore open to such treatment. Did you understand what I just said? Should people be taken into custody, held against their will, tortured for YEARS because they “might” know something? How does that keep us safe? I wonder how many men actually know NOTHING at all, and instead of admitting that they were taken in and kept against their will and releasing them, the government just keeps holding on to them. What could be worse than the prison releasing them and sending them back to their country? Well, what would be worse is if those innocent people went back and told their story and their government bringing charges against us. So lets just keep them imprisoned. There are a lot of people being held not only in this country, but around the world, and the thing most certainly forgotten is the fact that these men haven’t been convicted of anything. Everyone is afraid of closing down Gitmo because where will the detainees go? EXACTLY! Where do they go? We don’t even know if they are guilty of anything. We just keep holding on to them.

The thought of releasing them to possibly go back to their country and plan an attack on us strikes terror in so many and is a part of the conditioning that we have had about Muslims or Islam since 9/11 happened. Part of that conditioning has been the ability to fling the law behind the previous administrations back and keep people detained for years without representation and without being charge with a crime.

So how do Christians feel about all this? Do you believe that it is a means to an end? That a little evil is ok for the greater good? I have noticed that the Religious Right has been very quiet about it. Why? You’re vocal about abortion, which is the snuffing out of human life and in many cases actually torturous for unborn children to endure before they are killed…so is the torture of an innocent full grown man any different? And if he is guilty, does that make it more acceptable? I guess the much quoted bible verse “Love your enemies” means something else huh? Now don’t get high and mighty with me, I’m not saying that you would have to invite these people into your home for a spot of tea, but how about speaking up for those who have no voice right now? You do it for the unborn, so why not for the ethical and humane treatment of real live human beings? Even PETA has nothing to say about this. I guess the torture of animals is far worse than the torture of humans.

Torture does not make our country safe. What it does is erode the moral fiber of our country and turn us into sadistic people if we continue to support such things. Christians may say that abortion and gay marriage and embryonic stem cell research actually erodes the moral fiber, as does pornography or drugs, but I will leave you with a final thought-

What does it mean to be godly? Do we really know? To be like the most High God, what does it take? I was asked that once and I had to really sit and ponder it for a while before I answered. My answer to that question was simple. In order to be like the Most High God, you must first realize that others have free will. God does not prevent us from making mistakes or from living our lives. While some might say the answer is to hate sin, or not be a homosexual, to not have sex before marriage, to not lie or manipulate, I believe that it goes even deeper. Its hard to give others free will. We live in a land full of laws. But when do we allow free will to kick in? Another thing I have heard is “Love the sinner and hate the sin.” Such things are directed at us, not the other person. We are to love those who may sin AND not do that thing we call sin. It isn’t meant to prevent others from living their lives, it is meant to offer up our own free will to our Creator out of love for Him and at the same time, reflect that same love back to those we believe are “sinners.” Free will was given so that we may love our Creator freely…to make a choice to direct our hearts towards Him and abide with Him. If we do not offer the beautiful gift of free will to others, are we reflecting the Will of God or the will of ourselves yet standing behind the words of God concerning His thoughts on a matter?

I’m sure that I have opened up a theological can of worms, but I had to say it. I have been pretty silent when it comes to topic of religion, so there it is. Religion is such a deeply personal choice, but I’m really interested to know what Christians in particular feel about the subject of torture. Is it a sin to you? Do you condone it? Or maybe you will take the moral high ground and claim that it was the free will of Dick Cheney and George Bush to institute such tactics. To that, I say that while they have free will, they are not above the law, and as such, while they do have free will and used it, there are consequences according to the law. So should they face those consequences and be charged with war crimes? Part of morality is justice, so will justice be denied? I have far too many questions and of course my own ready opinion…what I want are your opinions. What are your thoughts?