Dimensionally Barrett

In the foreground is one of Sonny’s pieces. From Artists Beyond Boundaries Group Exhibit, 2017 Not that there is anything “usual” about these Myanmar updates, but if anything, this one is more personal. One of Myanmar’s great artists passed from this world from COVID. U Sonny Nyein was a great sculptor and a fine human being. I did not know him well, but I liked him and enjoyed our limited time together.   All of these updates are personal, though. Not that I might not have acknowledged the devastation afflicting Myanmar for less personal reasons, but the simple fact is that if you spend time with people in a country so warm and welcoming, especially artist peers and colleagues, this becomes family. I don’t really want to spend much time on the Tatmadaw. I don’t want to pay them any mind today nor do I particularly want to discuss COVID and how these twin disasters are laying waste to this beautiful country and its people.  I do want to offer support to my friends and the...

Source:  https://www.citizen.org/news/texas-and-the-cost-of-climate-change/ Living in one of the premier Red States is not a joy. Being vaccinated while knowing that the state is only at 41% of the population vaccinated is not comforting . The reason you need at least 70% of the populace is to reach that herd immunity that so many of the unvaccinated, gaslit, ill-informed, my freedom over your well-being, idiots tout.   I am weary from the state’s attack on  voting rights and their fervent desire to damage and damn my home state, to reduce it to a hellhole beyond the climatic one it is swift becoming (along with much of the western and southwestern states ). Shrugging shoulders at the latest stupidity issuing from Austin is a great work-out, but a useless political stance.  Sadly, it’s not just that Texas is red because of a sizable Republican population and voter turnout is often disappointing; there really is very much an intransigent sense of “going it ...

His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Chenrezig Institute, Eudlo, Queensland, Australia, June 2011. Photo by Bonnie Jenkins. Source:  https://fpmt.org/mandala/archives/mandala-issues-for-2011/october/remembering-the-kindness-of-his-holiness-the-dalai-lama-and-the-courageous-people-of-tibet/ On July 6, 1935, the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara emanated into a small village in Amdo, Tibet. The child was recognized as the fourteenth Dalai Lama and enthroned as the leader of Tibet on his turning fifteen years of age, three years ahead of schedule.   With no exposure to the geopolitics of the world at the time and an inquisitive and far-reaching mind, Tenzin Gyatso assumed the duties of a leader of a state that was on the precipice of destruction. Mao Zedong and the People’s Republic of China had already made overtures and incursions to “peacefully liberate” the Tibetan people and bring Tibet back into the Motherland. There are enough lies in that last sentence to choke ten ...