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HEADS-UP SAN MATEO, CA: Justice Action Mondays, Flash Advocacy

Unitarian Universalists of San Mateo California
Rev. Benjamin Meyers, Minister, Unitarian Universalists of San Mateo

Rev. Ben Meyers and the Unitarian Universalists of San Mateo (UUSM) invite our neighbors in North Central San Mateo to join with us for Justice Action Monday on  May 1 from 5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. at UUSM, 300 E. Santa Inez Avenue, San Mateo, CA  94401.  Phone: 650-342-5946  Office Hours:  Tu-Fri 10-5

This week we’ll write (or draw if you’re inclined) the seven-step scientific process on postcards and send them to climate science deniers. Don’t worry, we’ll have a cheat sheet with the seven steps and the six deniers and their addresses ready for you to use. Materials, snacks and stellar company provided.

“The race is now on between the technoscientific and scientific forces that are destroying the living environment and those that can be harnessed to save it. . . . If the race is won, humanity can emerge in far better condition than when it entered, and with most of the diversity of life still intact.”
― Edward O. Wilson, The Future of Life

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my ears are deaf, my eyes hear a song – a poem …. And your Wednesday Writing Prompt

mountains rise round, Mother’s ever pregnant belly
and the aspens dance with paper-barked madrone
screeching their yellows and reds, brindle and feral
like the snaked hairs of Medusa, they are warning

looming over me as I lay miles away on a mesa
the bones of my ancestors, the heart of my child
the pelts of the brown minks my father sewed
the vultures circle, mesmerized by my demise

I feed on the pinion and ride mountain lions
down slopes, into valleys, a wanderer, lost and lost
looking eastward, seeking John Chapman
he has something to say, or maybe it’s westward

John Muir, my ears are deaf, my eyes hear a song
emerging from brown bear, a surfeit of salmon
burning sage, clearing America, the wild beasts
are defanged and declawed and I am hawk-eyed

© 2012, poem, Jamie Dedes, All rights reserved; photo credit ~ Axel Kuhlmann, Public Domain Pictures.net

WEDNESDAY WRITING PROMPT

Climate change is on our minds these days – perhaps more than in the past given the regime – and we are feeling one with Mother Earth and all her creatures and gratitude for the people who marched on Saturday. What pictures come to mind when you think of our home? How do they make you feel or respond?  Tell us in prose or poem.  If you feel comfortable, leave a link to your work in the comments section below or leave the entire piece if it’s short enough. I’ll post all responses on this site next Tuesday.

THE WORDPLAY SHOP: books, tools and supplies for poets, writers and readers

We continue with the current recommended read: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder. Left, right or center – American or not – it’s a must read.

LESSON TWELVE: MAKE EYE CONTACT AND SMALL TALK  “This is not just being polite. This is part of being a citizen and a responsible member of society. It is also a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, break down social barriers and understand whom you should and should not trust. If we enter a culture of denunciation, you will want to know the psychological landscape of your daily life.” Prof. Snyder,  On Tyranny, Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

Go to art, not war.

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