Category Archives: Words

A story about Franz Kafka

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Kim Turner

February 4 at 10:02 PM  · 

At 40, Franz Kafka (1883-1924), who never married and had no children, walked through the park in Berlin when he met a girl who was crying because she had lost her favourite doll. She and Kafka searched for the doll unsuccessfully.

Kafka told her to meet him there the next day and they would come back to look for her.

The next day, when they had not yet found the doll, Kafka gave the girl a letter “written” by the doll saying “please don’t cry. I took a trip to see the world. I will write to you about my adventures.”

Thus began a story which continued until the end of Kafka’s life.

During their meetings, Kafka read the letters of the doll carefully written with adventures and conversations that the girl found adorable.

Finally, Kafka brought back the doll (he bought one) that had returned to Berlin.

“It doesn’t look like my doll at all,” said the girl.

Kafka handed her another letter in which the doll wrote: “my travels have changed me.” the little girl hugged the new doll and brought the doll with her to her happy home.

A year later Kafka died.

Many years later, the now-adult girl found a letter inside the doll. In the tiny letter signed by Kafka it was written:

“Everything you love will probably be lost, but in the end, love will return in another way.”

Embrace the change. It’s inevitable for growth. Together we can shift pain into wonder and love, but it is up to us to consciously and intentionally create that connection.

Category: Blog, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Story, Words

Them

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by Tariq EQ Amawi

Them: You won’t be able to attend a concert or football games
Me: I don’t mind
Them: You can’t go to a large shopping mall
Me: I’ll survive
Them: You can’t drink at the pub
Me: I no longer drink
Them: You can’t enter night clubs
Me: I don’t go out at night
Them: We’ll tell your employer
Me: I don’t have one
Them: We’ll take it from your salary
Me: I don’t have a salary
Them: You can’t go to your job
Me: I don’t have or want your job
Them: You can’t be in the city
Me: I prefer living out in nature
Them: You can’t go to McDonald’s or Burger King
Me: I haven’t in years anyway
Them: You can’t eat at restaurants
Me: I’ll order takeaway
Them: You can’t shop at large grocery stores
Me: I grow my own food and buy from local farmers
Them: You can’t be part of society
Me: I already checked out
Them: Your kids can’t come to school
Me: I’ll homeschool
Them: You’ll be on your own
Me: I’m surrounded by my family and tribe and all the people reaching the same conclusion all over the world
Them: You can’t choose for yourself
Me: I just did
Them: What can we tempt you with?
Me: Nothing
***
When they have nothing you want they have no power.
And that’s when power comes to the people.
by Tariq EQ Amawi

Category: Blog, Editorial, Non-Fiction, Story, Words

Japanese Ancient Forestry Technique Produces High-Grade Lumber

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ANCIENT HISTORY

Japan’s Ancient Forestry Technique Produces High-Grade Lumber With No Need to Chop Down Trees
The daisugi technique, like bonsai, is a forestry technique that involves heavily pruning the mother tree which allows narrow saplings to shoot upwards.

(TMU) – For people who reside in the West, few countries are as fascinating as Japan. With its unique and striking blend of modernity and ancient culture, natural beauty and urbanism, the country has long beguiled foreigners.

From its storied feudal traditions to its contemporary quirks, Japan is a nation that has been thoroughly romanticized and idealized in the Western imagination.

However, beyond the superficial and orientalist mythology about the so-called “Land of the Rising Sun,” Japan is a captivating and multifaceted culture quite unlike others.

It’s a diverse country where traditions dating back millennia stand strong while fads and trends come and go, and its cutting-edge technological development hasn’t stamped out the time-honored customs of the East Asian nation.

One well-known Japanese art form that has fascinated the West is bonsai, which is the technique of producing tiny trees that mimic the attributes of fully-grown trees. Yet bonsai trees are only the tip of the iceberg of Japanese horticultural and arbor mastery.

read all about this at Source: Japanese Ancient Forestry Technique Produces High-Grade Lumber

Category: Blog, History, nature, Non-Fiction, Words | Tags: , ,

How To Escape The Age Of Mass Delusion

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“Crowds and Power,” by Elias Canetti, is a classic work that explores in detail the draw of the crowd for human beings. With the continued chipping away of the organic family of mother-child-father, human relationships inevitably become diluted and more subservient to a mass state. This detachment cultivates human alienation, which draws more people to answer to the call of the mass state’s mob.

Read the whole thing at Source: How To Escape The Age Of Mass Delusion

Category: Analysis, Blog, History, Non-Fiction, Words | Tags: , ,

Quebec’s Magpie River becomes first in Canada to be granted legal personhood | National Observer

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In a first for Canadians, a river in Côte-Nord, Que., has been granted legal personhood by the local municipality of Minganie and the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit.

The Magpie River, (Muteshekau-shipu in the Innu Coet) is an internationally renowned whitewater rafting site, winding nearly 300 kilometres before emptying into the St. Lawrence. The river has one hydroelectric dam managed by Hydro-Québec, and environmental groups have long sought a permanent solution to protect the river from further disruption.

It is unclear how this will affect attempts to build developments on the river, including dams, moving forward, as legal personhood for nature doesn’t exist in Canadian law and could be challenged in court. Minganie, Innu council and several environmental groups — collectively called the Alliance — hope international precedents set in New Zealand, Ecuador and several other countries will help pressure the Quebec government to formally protect the river.
“This is a way for us to take matters into our own hands and stop waiting for the Quebec government to protect this unique river,” explained Alain Branchaud, executive director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Quebec chapter. “After a decade of our message falling on deaf ears in government, the Magpie River is now protected as a legal person.”

In accordance with Innu customs and practices, the Alliance has granted the river nine rights: 1) the right to flow; 2) the right to respect for its cycles; 3) the right for its natural evolution to be protected and preserved; 4) the right to maintain its natural biodiversity; 5) the right to fulfil its essential functions within its ecosystem; 6) the right to maintain its integrity; 7) the right to be safe from pollution; 8) the right to regenerate and be restored; and perhaps most importantly, 9) the right to sue.

Source: Quebec’s Magpie River becomes first in Canada to be granted legal personhood | National Observer

Category: Blog, nature, Words | Tags: , ,
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