Tonight I doubled the number of quotes that are in the box at right. Oh, you didn’t notice that there would be a different quote in that box when you come here? ahem. Pay attention!

My collection of quotes started out being about art and art-making. I’ve thrown in others from time to time, just things that grabbed me. Today I added a whole lot of quotes about peace and peace-making, a few more about art and some others just because.

There’s a whole lot in the world being quoted. There’s not enough people making art and there’s sure not enough people in the world making peace.

I feel strongly that everyone can make art in their own space, in their own lives, for themselves and others. I feel even more strongly that each person can make peace, starting in their own space, inside their own heart and then giving it to each person they touch along the way.

Think how many people you come in contact with each day. If your kindness or smile makes a difference to one or two of them and that one or two is kind or smiles on one or two more… what a difference those individual acts have made. We do make a difference in the world.

Change and peace come by each small act as much as by standing strong for what we know is right and against what is wrong.

Read the thoughts of others at: Poets Against The War

My contribution to the National Day of Poetry Against the War — February 12, 2003:

Art and Peace

Within each of us is
the making of art.
Big people come along
and squash that out of us
while we’re impressionable.
And we live in fear that
if we try to make art
or speak beauty
we are fools.

Within each of us is
the making of peace.
Important people tell us
that only killing makes a difference
and we come to believe that too.
And we live in fear that
only war is the answer and
are afraid to ask, well,
what’s the question?

Let’s be foolish then and make art
Some beautiful thing that speaks
from our soul and heart.
We each can .

Let’s ask aloud, why not be peaceful?
Why not be kind and generous?
Let me start here today.
We each can.

Hey blogging folks – here’s some great video of bloggers talking about blogging. What’s not to like about that?

After watching the clips of the “restaurant slave” talking about her years of journalling/blogging, I felt like I’d known her forever. That’s not true of course, but I did share many of her thoughts about why blogging is a good thing and that most people have interesting lives that would be well-shared with others. Made me think of a book about a mid-wife in the late 1700’s that I’d read. I learned so much about what a woman’s life could be like in that time and the perils and hardships.

It’s the reason strangers talk on busses and planes. We’re all here and in many ways our experience is similar. But perhaps you’ve already dealt with something that is in my future. Or perhaps something that’s on your mind as a worry is something that I know something about already. Or maybe you do something that will open a new path of thinking for me, even if I never do it myself.

And so we blog – to share our lives and thoughts and the funny and sad things we encounter along the way.

I’m in the middle of the migration from my Pismo to the new 12″ powerbook. It’s had a few rough spots, but generally smooth going. In between installations and stuff, I’ve been using one of the non-involved computers to surf etc and well, there was Bill’s blog post. I had to try it.

Becoose-a I hung oooot veet Beell, I cun’t help boot be-a emoosed und inspured by hees muny interests. Um gesh dee bork, bork! Su vhee I sev thees deeelectizer oon hees veb seete-a, I hed tu try it tuu. Let’s joost sey thet unless it’s scutteesh, it’s a lued ooff vell, ya knoo. courtesy of The Dialectizer

Let’s just say when you’ve been moving computer stuff around, it might as well all be borked.