Monday, November 26, 2007

IF--Rudyard Kipling


If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

(1910)


Monday, November 5, 2007

World musics


Tired of electric instruments? Try these musics:



And some World music sites:
http://www.songlines.co.uk/

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Awareness of the world

Mankind and the Universe

Where are we? what does it look like far away in the sky? What are we made of? (what we are actually)



Saturday, November 3, 2007

Hippy happiness

Love-ins
The hippies invented the love-in: a "gathering to engender and promote love, as for the satisfaction of the participants or as a form of social activism". (American Heritage dictionaries). Well, this is amazing: people who don't know each other gather to create & promote love in their hearts. Organizing an event for creating love is so beautiful and special. It implies inclination to love in the participants. As they gather to give in to this sentiment, express it, let it flow and grow and embellish. At its best, this kind of love practised by the Hippies is of spiritual flavor. It reminds of the love embodied by the Boddhisatvas, Jesus, the Sufi sheiks... The love-ins have disappeared. Will they ever reappear and thrive? I wish they could, but anyway they inspired the Summer of love Festival in San Francisco. At the 2007 edition, Starra Rubenstein was there. She's a cool photographer. Some of her photos of that love-in are in this slideshow. The other photos and her other superb albums are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarastarra/.