№ 513. Future Tense

 

"Be patient. Your future will come to you and lie down at your feet like a dog who knows and likes you no matter what you are." Kurt Vonegut

№ 512. Grace

 

 FORWARDED MESSAGE: 

One of my earliest contemplative prayers was about Jesus walking on water. I'm Peter and I see Jesus walking on water. I call out to him and he invites me to walk to him. Seeing the rough seas, I jump out of the boat and swim effortfully to Jesus. In between breaths, I could hear Jesus laughing. 

 It took me some time to figure out that prayer. When I did years later, I realized that, in the end, it is often not effort that matters but grace. We are sometimes not called to swim to Jesus by our effort but we are called to walk on water by his grace. 

Seems apt nowadays when seas are rough and times are uncertain. We're being called to walk on water.

№ 511. Zombie Preparedness. Since 2018.

The CDC, yes, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a Zombie Preparedness page. 

For real. 

Its says:

"So what do you need to do before zombies…or hurricanes or pandemics for example, actually happen? First of all, you should have an emergency kit in your house. This includes things like water, food, and other supplies to get you through the first couple of days before you can locate a zombie-free refugee camp (or in the event of a natural disaster, it will buy you some time until you are able to make your way to an evacuation shelter or utility lines are restored). Below are a few items you should include in your kit, for a full list visit the CDC Emergency page.

• Water (1 gallon per person per day)
• Food (stock up on non-perishable items that you eat regularly)
• Medications (this includes prescription and non-prescription meds)
• Tools and Supplies (utility knife, duct tape, battery powered radio, etc.)
• Sanitation and Hygiene (household bleach, soap, towels, etc.)
• Clothing and Bedding (a change of clothes for each family member and blankets)
• Important documents (copies of your driver’s license, passport, and birth certificate to name a few)
• First Aid supplies (although you’re a goner if a zombie bites you, you can use these supplies to treat basic cuts and lacerations that you might get during a tornado or hurricane)."

 

   

№ 510. Sorrows & Remedies

 

№ 509. Meanwhile, Inside Netflix

GodSpaceLight

Netflix ends the write-up on its organizational culture with a vision:

"Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author of The Little Prince, shows us the way:

If you want to build a ship,
don't drum up the people
to gather wood, divide the
work, and give orders.
Instead, teach them to yearn
for the vast and endless sea."

Wow.

№ 508. The Paradoxes of Enclosure

At a time when the rule of life across the globe has been disrupted by the paradoxes of collective isolation, a sensitivity to “the small,” to containment and enclosure, presses upon individuals, families, and society in unexpected and often confounding ways. Like Jones’s experimental letter forms, we awkwardly jostle for space within the confines of our homes, balconies, and gardens. Even communal spaces like parks and grocery stores seem to have shrunk, as attempts to heed social distancing alter our awareness of space. Our sense of what counts as crowded has changed, as we learn to accommodate these new rules. Meanwhile, many of us, particularly those in self-isolation, are simultaneously learning just how vastly vacant even a small space can feel.

We can recalibrate our senses to the mysteries of the small through meditation on that paradox of paradoxes, the Incarnation, with the help of this little wood block by David Jones. Throughout Jones’s work there is a marked affection for “things familiar and small.” It is inseparable from a spiritual practice of attention—tuning our senses to that which is easily overlooked or undervalued. Wrapped up in this sensitivity to the small is a care for the fragile, the vulnerable, and a discovery of the surprising resilience of the delicate. It is guided above all by the conviction that it is through refinement of our attention that the wonder and mystery of the created world, particularly in its relation to the divine, reveals itself most fully to us. Focusing on what is small and seemingly commonplace becomes a portal for seeing all things in light of the love of God and thus yields, paradoxically, the most generous and capacious of vantage points.

As the whole world fights to contain a contagion through the mantra “stay at home,” uniting and separating lives in various ways, our spiritual labor in this time may be to find these openings for grace within the multiple circles of our everyday circumstance as these widen and intersect with others, and in light of their relation to the divine Other. We are in truth, as Julian of Norwich reminds us, enclosed not by walls or government guidelines, but by the enduring intimacy of the love of God. For “he is our clothing that for love wrappeth us and windeth us, holdeth us and all becloseth us, hangeth about us for tender love that he may never leave us.”

Grand Mosque at Djenne, Mali

№ 507. Happy Feet: Palazzo Ducale

Bocche di leone or Lion's Mouth, or a lion head letter box, through which it was possible to post anonymous denunciations of crimes or misdeeds. Renaissance Wing, 2nd level, Doge's Palace or Palazzo Ducale. 

Is this a 16th Century Ombudsman?

The inscription below the face reads: "Secret denunciations against anyone who will conceal favors and services or will collude to hide the true revenue from them".

№ 506. Economic Recovery During & After the Pandemic: Subways

Wikipedia says, "the London Underground (also known simply as the Underground, or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom.

The Underground has its origins in the Metropolitan Railway, the world's first underground passenger railway. Opened in January 1863, it is now part of the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines; the first line to operate underground electric traction trains, the City & South London Railway in 1890, is now part of the Northern line. The network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 2017/18 carried 1.357 billion passengers, making it the world's 12th busiest metro system. The 11 lines collectively handle up to 5 million passengers a day."

The first subway opened in 1863 London. 

It's now 2020. That's 157 years since that landmark urban infrastructure was built. Subway is an essential feature of all modern cities. Metro Manila's first subway system is still a work in progress. I hope they finish it quickly and build more connected networks underground.

Transportation officials are one step closer to constructing the 17-station Metro Manila Subway Project, as the first of the six Japan-made tunnel boring machines (TBMs) will be shipped to the country in January 2021.

Measuring 6.99 meters in diameter and 95 meters in length, the 700-ton TBMs will be used to dig underground and lay the tunnels for the 34-kilometer project, spanning Barangay Ugong in Valenzuela City and Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City.

The first-ever subway in the country is expected to partially operate in 2022 and serve 370,000 passengers daily in its first year.

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) hopes all stations will be fully operational by 2026, with a design capacity of 1.5 million passengers per day.

The Metro Manila Subway is designed to connect with other urban rail transit services in the region. Riders may transfer to LRT Line 1, MRT Line 3, and MRT Line 7 at the North Avenue Common station, which is also currently under construction. Other connections include the existing LRT Line 2 and PNR Metro Commuter Line, as well as the planned Makati Intra-city Subway and MRT Line 8. 

 

Please build more. Then connect them into a logical, convenient network of transportation.