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A little girl changing diaper in the MTR station, and I was spotted by her ; )
Nikkor 80-200 at f2.8
Quarry Bay, Hong Kong
So I randomly decided to try this wig on him and...I guess there will be some changes in my doll family.
Isafjordur, Iceland, Oct 10 2010
At 3:50 in the afternoon, a community Work Party came together in the colors blue, white and red to represent Iceland and France and to symbolize the need for collective action on climate change.
This was one of over 7,000 climate action events taking place in 188 countries around the world on 10/10/10 as part of “The Global Work Party.” This synchronized international event is organized by 350.org, and is expected to be the largest day of environmental activism in history.
Photo credit: 350.org/ Halldor Sveinbjornsson
Copyright info: This photo is freely available for editorial use and may be reproduced under an Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 license
ODC - SOOC This is sorghum or grain. I have been watching the fields as they change from just all the same color green to the auburn color on the head. It will get deeper and then they will harvest it. This field is farmland inside the city limits.
I grew up in farming country in West Texas and still enjoy the farming around me in South Texas.
!
"Beached Walkers” Installation of shoes washed ashore near and around LA Harbor Southern California . View more artwork #Lowell Nickel art. Lower- Digital imaging using beached rubbish as subject matterlocal beaches.
This work began by building clusters of flotsam
and making digital photomontages. As this project evolved a
formal image-making strategy developed via toying with these
beached objects and placing them within layered compositions.
The intention: the renewal of this wayward material by displaying
it, with all it’s seasoned attributes, as somehow elegant.
As a devoted beachcomber and lifelong roadside treasure
hunter I have regard for these distressed and decomposing
products. These materials are our own footprints to be washed
away in time by the elements. The weathering forces of nature
serve as the ultimate liberator of all manmade materials… this
does not come without alterations of risky consequence.
Currently, this flotsam theme is also being explored with video,
installation work and billboard public presentations.
Thank you for the work that you do to change minds and better our Planet in need!
Sincerely lowell nickel
Venice Biennale / Colonel at the MALDIVES PAVILION : "IS CLIMATE CHANGE STILL AN EMERGENCY ? " ( part 2)
In 2013 Thierry Geoffroy / Colonel is represented at the Malives pavilion at the Venice Biennale and then went further and received hospitality at the Zimbabwe pavilion with the Emergency Room Mobile .
He ask in his installation made of different steps : "IS CLIMATE CHANGE STILL AN EMERGENCY ? "
www.emergencyrooms.org/biennalist.html .
at the Zimbabwe pavilion he open an Emergency Room mobile open to all emergencies around the tent was the Delay museum
www.emergencyrooms.org ( please ask permission for use of photos =1@colonel.dk )
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lists of artists participating at the Venice Biennale :
Hilma af Klint, Victor Alimpiev, Ellen Altfest, Paweł Althamer, Levi Fisher Ames, Yuri Ancarani, Carl Andre, Uri Aran, Yüksel Arslan, Ed Atkins, Marino Auriti, Enrico Baj, Mirosław Bałka, Phyllida Barlow, Morton Bartlett, Gianfranco Baruchello, Hans Bellmer, Neïl Beloufa, Graphic Works of Southeast Asia and Melanesia, Hugo A. Bernatzik Collection, Ștefan Bertalan, Rossella Biscotti, Arthur Bispo do Rosário, John Bock, Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Geta Brătescu, KP Brehmer, James Lee Byars, Roger Caillois, Varda Caivano, Vlassis Caniaris, James Castle, Alice Channer, George Condo, Aleister Crowley & Frieda Harris, Robert Crumb, Roberto Cuoghi, Enrico David, Tacita Dean, John De Andrea, Thierry De Cordier, Jos De Gruyter e Harald Thys, Walter De Maria, Simon Denny, Trisha Donnelly, Jimmie Durham, Harun Farocki, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Linda Fregni Nagler, Peter Fritz, Aurélien Froment, Phyllis Galembo, Norbert Ghisoland, Yervant Gianikian & Angela Ricci Lucchi, Domenico Gnoli, Robert Gober, Tamar Guimarães and Kasper Akhøj, Guo Fengyi, João Maria Gusmão & Pedro Paiva, Wade Guyton, Haitian Vodou Flags, Duane Hanson, Sharon Hayes, Camille Henrot, Daniel Hesidence, Roger Hiorns, Channa Horwitz, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, René Iché, Hans Josephsoh, Kan Xuan, Bouchra Khalili, Ragnar Kjartansson, Eva Kotátková, Evgenij Kozlov, Emma Kunz, Maria Lassnig, Mark Leckey, Augustin Lesage, Lin Xue, Herbert List, José Antonio Suárez Londoño, Sarah Lucas, Helen Marten, Paul McCarthy, Steve McQueen, Prabhavathi Meppayil, Marisa Merz, Pierre Molinier, Matthew Monahan, Laurent Montaron, Melvin Moti, Matt Mullican, Ron Nagle, Bruce Nauman, Albert Oehlen, Shinro Ohtake, J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere, Henrik Olesen, John Outterbridg, Paño Drawings, Marco Paolini, Diego Perrone, Walter Pichler, Otto Piene, Eliot Porter, Imran Qureshi, Carol Rama, Charles Ray, James Richards, Achilles G. Rizzoli, Pamela Rosenkranz, Dieter Roth, Viviane Sassen, Shinichi Sawada, Hans Schärer, Karl Schenker, Michael Schmidt, Jean-Frédéric Schnyder, Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern, Tino Sehgal, Richard Serra, Shaker Gift Drawings, Jim Shaw, Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons e Allan McCollum, Drossos P. Skyllas, Harry Smith, Xul Solar, Christiana Soulou, Eduard Spelterini, Rudolf Steiner, Hito Steyerl, Papa Ibra Tall, Dorothea Tanning, Anonymous Tantric Paintings, Ryan Trecartin, Rosemarie Trockel, Andra Ursuta, Patrick Van Caeckenbergh, Stan VanDerBeek, Erik van Lieshout, Danh Vo, Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, Günter Weseler, Jack Whitten, Cathy Wilkes, Christopher Williams, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Kohei YoshiyUKi, Sergey Zarva, Anna Zemánková, Jakub Julian Ziółkowski ,Artur Żmijewski.
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other pavilions at Venice Biennale
Andorra Artists: Javier Balmaseda, Samantha Bosque, Fiona Morrison
Commissioner: Henry Périer Deputy Commissioners: Francesc Rodríguez, Ermengol Puig, Ruth Casabella
Curators: Josep M. Ubach, Paolo De GrandisAngola Artist: Edson Chagas Commissioner: Ministry of Culture
Curators: Beyond Entropy (Paula Nascimento, Stefano Rabolli Pansera), Jorge Gumbe, Feliciano dos Santos
Argentina Artist: Nicola Costantino Commissioner: Magdalena Faillace Curator: Fernando Farina
Armenia Artist: Ararat SarkissianCurator: Arman Grogoryan /AustraliaArtist: Simryn Gill Commissioner: Simon Mordant Deputy Commissioner: Penelope Seidler Curator: Catherine de Zegher /AustriaArtist: Mathias Poledna ,Curator: Jasper Sharp /AzerbaijanArtists: Rashad Alakbarov, Sanan Aleskerov, Chingiz Babayev, Butunay Hagverdiyev, Fakhriyya Mammadova, Farid Rasulov /Commissioner: Heydar Aliyev FoundationCurator: Hervé Mikaeloff
Bahamas Artist: Tavares Strachan Commissioner: Nalini Bethel, Ministry of Tourism Curators: Jean Crutchfield, Robert HobbsDeputy Curator: Stamatina Gregory/BangladeshChhakka Artists’ Group: Mokhlesur Rahman, Mahbub Zamal, A. K. M. Zahidul Mustafa, Ashok Karmaker, Lala Rukh Selim, Uttam Kumar Karmaker. Dhali Al Mamoon, Yasmin Jahan Nupur, Gavin Rain, Gianfranco Meggiato, Charupit School/Commissioner/Curator: Francesco Elisei. , Curator: Fabio Anselmi./BahrainArtists: Mariam Haji, Waheeda Malullah, Camille Zakharia /Commissioner: Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa, Minister of Culture /Curator: Melissa Enders-Bhatiaa/BelgiumArtist: Berlinde De Bruyckere
Commissioner: Joke Schauvliege, Flemish Minister for Environment, Nature and Culture .Curator: J. M. Coetzee ,Deputy Curator: Philippe Van Cauteren /Bosnia and Herzegovina
Artist: Mladen Miljanovic .Commissioners: Sarita Vujković, Irfan Hošić
Brazil Artists: Hélio Fervenza, Odires Mlászho, Lygia Clark, Max Bill, Bruno Munari
Commissioner: Luis Terepins, Fundação Bienal de São Paulo,Curator: Luis Pérez-Oramas ,Deputy Curator: André Severo
CanadaArtist: Shary Boyle /Commissioner: National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada ,Curator: Josée Drouin-Brisebois/Central AsiaArtists: Vyacheslav Akhunov, Sergey Chutkov, Saodat Ismailova, Kamilla Kurmanbekova, Ikuru Kuwajima, Anton Rodin, Aza Shade, Erlan Tuyakov
Commissioner: HIVOS (Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation)
Deputy Commissioner: Dean Vanessa Ohlraun (Oslo National Academy of the Arts/The Academy of Fine Art)
Curators: Ayatgali Tuleubek, Tiago Bom
Scientific Committee: Susanne M. Winterling
ChileArtist: Alfredo JaarCommissioner: CNCA, National Council of Culture and the Arts Curator: Madeleine Grynsztejn
ChinaArtists: He Yunchang, Hu Yaolin, Miao Xiaochun, Shu Yong, Tong Hongsheng, Wang Qingsong, Zhang Xiaotao
Commissioner: China Arts and Entertainment Group (CAEG) ,Curator: Wang Chunchen
Costa Rica Artists: Priscilla Monge, Esteban Piedra, Rafael Ottón Solís, Cinthya Soto
Commissioner: Francesco EliseiCurator: Francisco Córdoba, Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo (Fiorella Resenterra)
Croatia Artist: Kata Mijatovic ,Commissioner/Curator: Branko Franceschi.
CubaArtists: Liudmila and Nelson, Maria Magdalena Campos & Neil Leonard, Sandra Ramos, Glenda León, Lázaro Saavedra, Tonel, Hermann Nitsch, Gilberto Zorio, Wang Du, H.H.Lim, Pedro Costa, Rui Chafes, Francesca Leone ,Commissioner: Miria ViciniCurators: Jorge Fernández Torres, Giacomo Zaza
CyprusArtists: Lia Haraki, Maria Hassabi, Phanos Kyriacou, Constantinos Taliotis, Natalie Yiaxi, Morten Norbye Halvorsen, Jason Dodge, Gabriel Lester, Dexter Sinister /Louli Michaelidou
Deputy Commissioners: Angela Skordi, Marika Ioannou/Curator: Raimundas Malašauskas
Czech Republic & Slovak RepublicArtists: Petra Feriancova, Zbynek Baladran ,Commissioner: Monika Palcova, Curator: Marek Pokorny /DenmarkArtist: Jesper Just in collaboration with Project ProjectsEgypt
Artists: Mohamed Banawy, Khaled Zaki
EstoniaArtist: Dénes Farkas ,Commissioner: Maria Arusoo ,Curator: Adam Budak
FinlandArtist: Antti Laitinen , Commissioner: Raija Koli , Curators: Marko Karo, Mika Elo, Harri Laakso
FranceArtist: Anri Sala ,Curator: Christine Macel
GeorgiaArtists: Bouillon Group,Thea Djordjadze, Nikoloz Lutidze, Gela Patashuri with Ei Arakawa and Sergei Tcherepnin, Gio Sumbadze/Commissioner: Marine Mizandari, First Deputy Minister of Culture Curator: Joanna Warsza
GermanyArtists: Ai Weiwei, Romuald Karmakar, Santu Mofokeng, Dayanita Singh Commissioner/Curator: Susanne Gaensheimer /Great BritainArtist: Jeremy Deller ,Commissioner: Andrea Rose , Curator: Emma Gifford-Mead
Holy SeeArtists: Lawrence Carroll, Josef Koudelka, Studio Azzurro ,Curator: Antonio Paolucci
Hungary , Artist: Zsolt Asztalos , Curator: Gabriella Uhl
Iceland , Artist: Katrín Sigurðardóttir ,Commissioner: Dorotheé Kirch
Curators: Mary Ceruti , Ilaria Bonacossa/IndonesiaArtists: Albert Yonathan Setyawan, Eko Nugroho, Entang Wiharso, Rahayu Supanggah, Sri Astari, Titarubi
Deputy Commissioner: Achille Bonito Oliva , Assistant Commissioner: Mirah M. Sjarif
Curators: Carla Bianpoen, Rifky Effendy
IraqArtists: Abdul Raheem Yassir, Akeel Khreef, Ali Samiaa, Bassim Al-Shaker, Cheeman Ismaeel, Furat al Jamil, Hareth Alhomaam, Jamal Penjweny, Kadhim Nwir, WAMI (Yaseen Wami, Hashim Taeeh)
Commissioner: Tamara Chalabi (Ruya Foundation for Contemporary Culture)Curator: Jonathan Watkins.
IrelandArtist: Richard MosseCommissioner, Curator: Anna O’Sullivan
Israel , Artist: Gilad Ratman , Commissioners: Arad Turgeman, Michael GovCurator: Sergio Edelstein
ItalyArtists: Francesco Arena, Massimo Bartolini, Gianfranco Baruchello, Elisabetta Benassi, Flavio Favelli, Luigi Ghirri, Piero Golia, Francesca Grilli, Marcello Maloberti, Fabio Mauri, Giulio Paolini, Marco Tirelli, Luca Vitone, Sislej Xhafa ,Commissioner: Maddalena Ragni
Curator: Bartolomeo Pietromarchi /Ivory Coast Artists: Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Tamsir Dia, Jems Koko Bi, Franck Fanny
Commissioner: Paolo De Grandis , Curator: Yacouba Konaté
Japan ,Artist: Koki Tanaka ,Curator: Mika Kuraya
KenyaArtists: Kivuthi Mbuno, Armando Tanzini, Chrispus Wangombe Wachira, Fan Bo, Luo Ling & Liu Ke, Lu Peng, Li Wei, He Weiming, Chen Wenling, Feng Zhengjie, César MeneghettiCommissioner: Paola Poponi ,Curators: Sandro Orlandi, Paola Poponi /Korea (Republic of)Artist: Kimsooja
KosovoArtist: Petrit Halilaj ,Commissioner: Erzen Shkololli ,Curator: Kathrin Rhomberg
KuwaitArtists: Sami Mohammad, Tarek Al-Ghoussein
Commissioner: Mohammed Al-Asoussi ,Curator: Ala Younis /Latin AmericaIstituto Italo-Latino Americano
Artists:Marcos Agudelo, Miguel Alvear & Patricio Andrade, Susana Arwas, François Bucher, Fredi Casco, Colectivo Quintapata (Pascal Meccariello, Raquel Paiewonsky, Jorge Pineda, Belkis Ramírez), Humberto Díaz, Sonia Falcone, León & Cociña, Lucía Madriz, Jhafis Quintero, Martín Sastre, Guillermo Srodek-Hart, Juliana Stein, Simón Vega, Luca Vitone, David Zink Yi. /Harun Farocki & Antje Ehmann. In collaboration with: Cristián Silva-Avária, Anna Azevedo, Paola Barreto, Fred Benevides, Anna Bentes, Hermano Callou, Renata Catharino, Patrick Sonni Cavalier, Lucas Ferraço Nassif, Luiz Garcia, André Herique, Bruna Mastrogiovanni, Cezar Migliorin, Felipe Ribeiro, Roberto Robalinho, Bruno Vianna, Beny Wagner, Christian Jankowski ,Commissioner: Sylvia Irrazábal ,Curator: Alfons Hug
Deputy Curator: Paz Guevara /Latvia Artists: Kaspars Podnieks, Krišs Salmanis ,Commissioners: Zane Culkstena, Zane Onckule ,Curators: Anne Barlow, Courtenay Finn, Alise Tifentale
LithuaniaArtist: Gintaras Didžiapetris, Elena Narbutaite, Liudvikas Buklys, Kazys Varnelis, Vytaute Žilinskaite, Morten Norbye Halvorsen, Jason Dodge, Gabriel Lester, Dexter SinisterCommissioners: Jonas Žokaitis, Aurime Aleksandraviciute Curator: Raimundas Malašauskas /LuxembourgArtist: Catherine LorentCommissioner: Clément Minighetti Curator: Anna Loporcaro /MexicoArtist: Ariel Guzik ,Commissioner: Gastón Ramírez Feltrín ,Curator: Itala Schmelz
Montenegro ,Artist: Irena Lagator Pejovic .Commissioner/Curator: Nataša Nikcevic
The Netherlands ,Artist: Mark Manders
Commissioner: Mondriaan Fund ,Curator: Lorenzo Benedetti
New Zealand Artist: Bill Culbert ,Commissioner: Jenny Harper ,Deputy Commissioner: Heather Galbraith ,Curator: Justin Paton /Finland: ,Artist: Terike Haapoja ,Commissioner: Raija Koli ,Curators: Marko Karo, Mika Elo, Harri Laakso
Norway:Artists: Edvard Munch, Lene Berg
Curators: Marta Kuzma, Pablo Lafuente, Angela Vettese
Paraguay Artists: Pedro Barrail, Felix Toranzos, Diana Rossi, Daniel Milessi ,Commissioner: Elisa Victoria Aquino Laterza
Deputy Commissioner: Nori Vaccari Starck , Curator: Osvaldo González Real
Poland Artist: Konrad Smolenski Commissioner: Hanna Wróblewska Curators: Agnieszka Pindera, Daniel Muzyczuk
Portugal Artist: Joana Vasconcelos Curator: Miguel Amado
RomaniaArtists: Maria Alexandra Pirici, Manuel Pelmus Commissioner: Monica Morariu Deputy Commissioner: Alexandru Damia Curator: Raluca VoineaArtists: Anca Mihulet, Apparatus 22 (Dragos Olea, Maria Farcas,Erika Olea), Irina Botea, Nicu Ilfoveanu, Karolina Bregula, Adi Matei, Olivia Mihaltianu, Sebastian MoldovanCommissioner: Monica Morariu ,Deputy Commissioner: Alexandru Damian ,Curator: Anca Mihulet
Russia Artist: Vadim Zakharov ,Commissioner: Stella Kasaeva ,Curator: Udo Kittelmann
Serbia Artists: Vladimir Peric, Miloš Tomic .Commissioner: Maja Ciric
SloveniaArtist: Jasmina CibicCommissioner: Blaž Peršin ,Curator: Tevž Logar
South Africa Commissioner: Saul Molobi ,Curator: Brenton Maart
Spain Artist: Lara Almarcegui , Commissioner/Curator: Octavio Zaya
Switzerland Artist: Valentin Carron Commissioners: Pro Helvetia - Sandi Paucic and Marianne Burki
Curator: Giovanni CarmineVenue: Pavilion at Giardini
Syrian Arab RepublicArtists: Giorgio De Chirico, Miro George, Makhowl Moffak, Al Samman Nabil, Echtai Shaffik, Giulio Durini, Dario Arcidiacono, Massimiliano Alioto, Felipe Cardena, Roberto Paolini, Concetto Pozzati, Sergio Lombardo, Camilla Ancilotto, Lucio Micheletti, Lidia Bachis, Cracking Art Group, Hannu Palosuo
Commissioner: Christian Maretti Curator: Duccio Trombadori
Taiwan Artists: Bernd Behr, Chia-Wei Hsu, Kateřina Šedá + BATEŽO MIKILU Curator: Esther Lu
Thailand Artists: Wasinburee Supanichvoraparch, Arin Rungjang
Curators: Penwadee Nophaket Manont, Worathep Akkabootara
Turkey Artist: Ali Kazma Commissioner: Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts Curator: Emre Baykal
Ukraine Artists: Ridnyi Mykola, Zinkovskyi Hamlet, Kadyrova Zhanna Commissioner: Victor Sydorenko
Curators: Soloviov Oleksandr, Burlaka Victoria
United Arab Emirates Artist: Mohammed Kazem /Commissioner: Dr. Lamees Hamdan Curator: Reem Fadda
Uruguay Artist: Wifredo Díaz Valdéz
Commissioner: Ricardo Pascale Curators: Carlos Capelán, Verónica Cordeiro
USA Artist: Sarah Sze Commissioners/Curators: Carey Lovelace, Holly Block
Venezuela Colectivo de Artistas Urbanos Venezolanos , Commissioner: Edgar Ernesto González Curator: Juan Calzadilla
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Encyclopedic Palace is curated by Massimiliano Gioni
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Other Biennales (Biennials ) : Venice Biennial , Documenta Havana Biennial,Istanbul Biennial ( Istanbuli),Biennale de Lyon ,Dak'Art Berlin Biennial,Mercosul Visual Arts Biennial ,Bienal do Mercosul Porto Alegre.,Berlin Biennial ,Echigo-Tsumari Triennial .Yokohama Triennial Aichi Triennale,manifesta ,Copenhagen Biennale,Aichi Triennale
Yokohama Triennial,Echigo-Tsumari Triennial.Sharjah Biennial ,Biennale of Sydney, Liverpool , São Paulo Biennial ; Athens Biennale , Bienal do Mercosul ,Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art
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in preparation of the COP 19 to be held in Warsaw Poland 2013 ( climate change conference on global warming ) . Can artist performa and activate a debate ?
St Peter and St Paul, Salle, Norfolk
During their awesome reign over the other great teams of Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, Liverpool football club placed a huge sign in the changing room corridor, so that it was the last thing visiting teams saw before they walked out on to the pitch: This is ANFIELD, it warned. The name alone was enough. Similarly, the cover of the guidebook here proclaims, in a single word, SALLE. Again, it suffices; the word, pronounced to rhyme with call, stands for the building. Perhaps only the name Blythburgh has the same power in all East Anglia.
The greatest East Anglian churches were built in the 15th century. It is often observed that there can never have been enough people to fill them, but this is to miss the point. They were never intended for the forms of worship to which they now play host.
The shape of a late medieval church is not an accident. East Anglian parish churches of the 15th century had many common features; wide aisles to enable liturgical processions, a chancel for the celebration of Mass, places for other altars, niches for devotional statues, a focus towards the Blessed Sacrament in the east, a large nave for social activities, large windows to fill the building with light, a roof of angels to proclaim a hymn of praise, a pulpit for the preaching of orthodox doctrine, benches to enable the people to hear the preaching, and carvings, stained glass and wall paintings of the sacraments, Gospels and rosary mysteries, of the catechism and teaching of the Catholic Church.
As Le Corbusier might have said if he'd been around at the time, a late medieval East Anglian church was a machine for making Catholicism happen.
No longer, of course. The radical and violent fracture in popular religion in the middle years of the 16th century gave birth to the Church of England, and the new Church inherited buildings that were often unsuitable for congregational protestant liturgy - a problem that the Church of England has never satisfactorily solved.
Over the centuries, the problem has been addressed in different ways; celebrating Communion at a table in the nave, for example, and blocking off the chancel for other uses. Although this was challenged by the Laudian party in the early part of the 17th century, it was the way that many parishes reinvented their buildings, and most were to stay like that until the middle years of the 19th century. Some went further: a pulpit placed halfway down the nave, or even at the back of the church, meant that the seating could be arranged so that it no longer focused towards the east, thus breaking the link with Catholic (and Laudian) sacramentalism. For several centuries, Anglican churches focused on the pulpit rather than the altar.
With the rise of the 19th century Oxford Movement, all this underwent another dramatic change, with the great majority of our medieval parish churches having their interiors restored to their medieval integrity, reinventing themselves as sacramental spaces. This Victorian conception of the medieval suited itself to congregational worship, and responded in a satisfactory way to the structure of the building. But still, of course, they weren't full.
This 19th century re-imagining is the condition in which we find most of them today, and Anglican theologians everywhere are asking the question that the Catholic Church asked itself at Vatican II in the 1960s - is a 19th century liturgical space really appropriate for the Church of the 21st century?
It requires a shift in the mind to recall that these were not originally Anglican buildings, but it is a shift we need to make. The idea of a previously unchanging Church now confronting the demands of the modern age is wholly incorrect. These buildings have faced a variety of challenges over the centuries; they have only ever been truly suitable for the use for which they were originally built six hundred years ago.
Two of the largest late medieval churches in East Anglia are just three miles apart, at Cawston and Salle in the middle of Norfolk. These clusters are not uncommon; think of Blythburgh, Southwold and Walberswick in Suffolk, for example, or Lavenham and Long Melford in the same county. But Cawston and Salle are really close - you can see the tower of one from the other. St Peter and St Paul is a complete example of a 15th century rebuilding; St Agnes at Cawston retains its elegant earlier chancel.
If not merely for congregational worship, why were these churches built so big? Impressive as they seem now, they must have been awesome at the time they were built, since they were the only substantial buildings outside of the towns, and would have dwarfed the houses of the parish. Some were in villages; but many were not. Salle church has always been out in the fields. Why are earlier East Anglian churches not so massive? Certainly, East Anglia has its cathedrals; Norwich and Ely pre-date the great churches by several centuries, and Bury Abbey was bigger than either before its destruction. The great majority of East Anglia's churches are piecemeal affairs; typically, a 13th century chancel, which must have been the most substantial part of the building when it was first erected, an early 14th century nave and tower, and perhaps later elaborations of the piece with aisles and a clerestory. Salle and Cawston churches are both rebuildings of earlier structures, but a surprising number of East Anglian churches were not rebuilt, until perhaps the Victorians saw the need for a new chancel, or new aisles. Often, these smaller churches are exquisitely beautiful, as if beauty rather than grandeur was the imperative.
And then, towards the end of the 1340s, a great pestilence swept across Europe; in East Anglia, outside of Norwich which got off lightly, it killed perhaps a half of the population. In emptying the countryside, it completely altered the economic balance; a shortage of labour gave new power to the survivors, perhaps setting in place the preconditions for the capitalism that we can recognise by the 16th century. And, in extinguishing the flower of Decorated architecture, it also gave birth to the great love affair between the late medieval mind and death.
In Catholic theology there is no great divide between the dead and the living. For the medieval Christian, communion was something that existed between all members of the parish, whether alive or dead. Thus, prayers were said for the souls of the dead (who, it was presumed, were saying prayers for the souls of the living).
To ensure that prayers were said for them after their death, the very richest people endowed chantries. These were foundations, by which priests could be employed to say masses for their souls in perpetuity. A priest in such a capacity was called a chantry priest. The masses would be said at a chantry altar, probably in the nave; if the person was rich enough, this might be enclosed in a specially constructed chantry chapel. Many churches had them. After the Reformation, many were pressed into service as family mausoleums or pews.
For the poorest people, there was the opportunity to join a guild, where, for a penny or so a week, they could ensure that the guild chantry priest would say masses for their soul after their death (along with those of the other dead members of the guild). Many of these guilds were organised around particular occupations or devotions, and became a focus of social activity. The investment that produced the income to pay the chantry priests was most commonly in land. The church or guild oversaw the management of the land, which is one of the reasons we have an image of a wealthy pre-Reformation church. Land bought to produce income in this way was known as chantry land, a name surviving in many places today. Those who invested in chantries (and few and far between must have been those who didn't) presumed that they were ensuring prayers and masses in perpetuity; but, of course, this was not to be.
Bequests and chantries seem to have reached their peak in the 15th century. Perhaps the Black Death reinforced the urgency of the task. People did not merely want to be remembered; they wanted to be prayed for. And so, those who could afford it ensured that this was not forgotten by leaving their wealth in the very place that was at the centre of communion: the parish church. The richest paid for the additions of aisles and chapels, or for a new font or rood screen. This was not just a naked desire for the recognition of their family status. There was an underlying insecurity to the new landed classes. They wanted to control their destiny beyond their deaths. And so, their gift would be recorded in the form of a dedicatory inscription. One of these survives on the screen at Cawston, and another on the base of the font at Salle. Orate pro anima, they begin, "Pray for the soul of...", an injunction urgently emphasised by the pre-Reformation liturgy, only to be cursed and defaced by the later Anglicans and puritans. Stained glass was another common gift, as well as images, candlesticks, furnishings. Thus were many churches developed piecemeal.
But sometimes, where a parish could rely on a steady supply of substantial bequests, they might be channelled into a complete rebuilding, as at Salle, a summa cum laude apothesosis, where the new church of the late 15th century survives in pretty much its original form. Sometimes, a single wealthy family would shape and direct the rebuilding of a church. One of the richest families in East Anglia in the 14th and 15th centuries was the de la Poles, the Earls of Suffolk. Their mark can be found throughout East Anglia, but most famously and substantially at Wingfield in Suffolk, and at Cawston in Norfolk. Theirs was a long term project; at Cawston, the tower predates the furnishings of the nave and chancel by almost a century.
So why so vast? Certainly, it was ad maiorem deo gloria, to the Greater Glory of God; but it was also to the greater glory of the de la Poles and their contemporaries. The great landed families of England came into the late middle ages full of confidence, and they were determined to demonstrate it. They had survived the Black Death. They had grown richer on its consequences. They had assumed a political power unthinkable a few centuries before. They controlled not just the wealth but the imagination of their parishes. They asserted orthodox Catholic dogma in the face of rural superstitions and abuses. They imposed a homogenised Catholicism on late medieval England. And, as they increased their secular power and influence, a time would come when they would embrace the Great Idea already beginning to take shape on the continent - protestantism. But that was still in the future.
And so, to Salle. St Peter and St Paul is big. This is accentuated by the way in which it stands almost alone in the barley fields, with only a couple of Victorian buildings and a cricket pitch for company. What an idyllic spot! And yet there is an urban quality to the building, as if this was some great city church in the middle of Norwich or Bristol. It went up in the course of the 15th century, a replacement for an earlier building on the same site, broadly contemporary with neighbouring Cawston. While Cawston was largely the work of a single family, here the building benefited from an accident of history; several very wealthy families owned manors and halls in the parish at the same time, and it so happened that the time was the greatest era of rural church building.
Among them were the Boleyns, the Brewes, the Mautebys, the Briggs, the Morleys, the Luces and the Kerdistons, and some of their shields appear above the great west door, along with two mighty censing angels, characteristic of late medieval piety. A steady stream of hefty bequests meant that no expense needed to be spared, and the mighty tower with its vast bell openings was topped with battlements and pinnacles on the very eve of the Reformation.
As at Blythburgh, St Peter and St Paul benefited from the restraint of a late restoration, and the building as we see it now has no external Victorian additions. It is all of a piece. The porches either side are huge affairs, matching the transepts, and give the effect of a vast animal, a dragon perhaps, sprawling with erect head in the Norfolk countryside. Its tail is the chancel, in itself longer and higher than many Norfolk churches. The aisles are tall, austere, parapeted, the Perpendicular windows arcades of glass. In the porches, the vaulted ceilings are studded with bosses; the central one in the north porch depicts Christ in Majesty, sitting on a rainbow in judgement.
You enter the building from the west, an unusual experience in East Anglia, and your first sight is of the seven sacraments font with its tall 15th century canopy, similar to the cover at Cawston. This one is so big it is supported by a crane attached to the ringing gallery under the tower. The font below is interesting because each panel is supported by an angel holding a symbol of the sacrament above - a pot of chrism oil beneath Baptism, for example. The panels themselves are simply done, and are not particularly characterful, apart from the way that Mary turns away and is comforted at the Crucifixion. This panel faces west, and then anticlockwise are the Mass (viewed sideways, as at nearby Great Witchingham), Ordination (the candidate kneeling), Baptism (a server holds the book up for the Priest to read), Confirmation (the candidate obviously a child), Penance (perhaps the most interesting panel - the penitent kneels in a shriving pew), Matrimony (the couples' hands joined by a stole, she in late 15th century dress) and finally Last Rites (the dying man on the floor under blankets also as at Great Witchingham). The font step has a dedicatory inscription to John and Agnes Luce, asking for prayers for their souls. We know that John died in 1489. Perhaps the fabric of the building was complete by this date.
Beyond the font stretches the vastness of the building, the arcades gathering the eyes and leading them forward to the great east window. The chancel arch is barely there at all, just a simple high opening; but as MR James pointed out, it was never intended to be seen.The sheer bulk of the rood screen dado tells us quite how vast the rood apparatus must have been here, and the arch would have been pretty well hidden. Everything is built to scale; although everything has been cut off above the panels, probably in the late 1540s, the panels themselves are enormous, almost six feet high. As at Cawston, St Gregory, St Jerome, St Ambrose and St Augustine, the four Doctors of the Church, are on the doors. Either side are just two surviving paintings; to the north are Thomas and James, to the south are Philip and Bartholomew. The empty panels are a mystery; the screen stood here for a century before its destruction, so it must have been finished; and the dado seems too high to have been hidden by nave altars. And yet, it has all the appearance of never having been painted.
Because the building is so vast, the surviving medieval glass seems scattered, but there is actually a lot of it and some of it is very significant. Some was moved during the restoration of the early 20th century, when the modern glass in the north transept was installed, and the yellow galley lozenges were thankfully replaced with clear glass in the 1970s. The images in the east window are mainly figures; old kings kneel before young princes, there are armoured men and angels, the remains of a scaly dragon. In the centre at the bottom is a perfect Trinity shield, displayed by an angel looking askance.
Some of the panels are now in the south transept. These include fragments of a set of the orders of angels. A kneeling figure is Thomas Brigg, donor of the transept; the scroll behind him begins Benedicat Virgo, 'Blessed Virgin'. The mother of God sits surrounded by red glory, and two women holding croziers, one of them crowned, may be St Etheldreda and St Hilda. Certainly, the crowned figure holding a cross is St Helena.
Despite the wonders of the font, the screen and the glass, the crowning glory of the building is the set of bosses that line the roof of the chancel. They are easily missed, being very high. There are nine altogether, the first and last set against the walls at the ends of the roof ridge, and they form a kind of rosary sequence of joyful and glorious mysteries. They start with the Annunciation in the west (see left) and then continue with the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Adoration of the Magi, the Presentation in the Temple, the Entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension into Heaven.
There is a fine set of return stalls in the chancel. Although Salle probably never had a college of Priests, all those Masses for the dead must have provided plenty of employment, because we know that there were seven Priests here at a time when the population of the parish was barely 200. Bench ends include heads, a dragon tied up in a knot, a cock, a restored pelican in her piety, and a monkey. The misericord seats feature faces, including one that is quite extraordinary.
Although the roof isn't up to the glory of neighbouring Cawston, it includes lots of original angels and paintwork, including sacred monograms, and around the wallplate part of the Te Deum Laudamus and Psalm 150. These particular texts seem to have provided the inspiration for many late 15th century interiors; the angels in the roof, the animals on the bench ends, the Saints on the rood screen all in harmony: Let everything that has breath Praise ye the Lord!
The nave benches are mostly renewed now, but the pulpit is an elegant example of the 15th century, from the time when a priority began to be placed on preaching. Curiously, it has been rather awkwardly converted into a three-decker arrangement, probably in the 18th century, with the addition of a platform and desk from a set of box pews. A large sounding board has been placed overhead. The box pews suggest that the medieval furnishings were replaced at an early date, although the replacements too have gone now.
Salle is one of those churches full of intriguing little details that might easily pass you by, so great is the wonder of everything around. Those two little corbel heads above the south door, for instance - what were they for? Perhaps they supported an image that could be seen from the north doorway as people entered, although not a St Christopher as the guidebook suggests, I think. There is a pretty piscina in the unfortunate north transept that has been outlined in wood, a memorial and helm above, a tall image bracket in the corner of the wall of the south transept, a floreated piscina nearby.
There are many brasses and brass inlays in the nave floor; one of the most interesting is a chalice brass (although the chalice is now gone) to Simon Boleyn, a Priest, who died in 1489, and to the east of it a pair of brasses to Geoffrey and Alice Boleyn, great-grandparents to Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII. Another pair of brasses are to Thomas and Katherine Rose and their eight children. Unlike many churches, Salle actually retains some of the 'missing' brasses, now locked away for safety. It would be nice to think they could eventually be reset in the floor.
One part of the building that many visitors must miss is the chapel above the north porch. There is no sign indicating it; but the doorway, at the west end of the north aisle, is always open. Inside, the vaulted roof is punctuated by spectacularly pretty bosses which you can view at close quarters. The colour is a bit fanciful, but they are fascinating, particularly the central boss of the Coronation of the Queen of Heaven - how on earth did that survive the Reformation?
This is a tremendous building, a box of fascinating delights. What purpose does it serve now? As I said in the introduction, its size was not in response to the needs of a congregation, and as far as worship is concerned it will never be full. It remains constantly in use, however; for regular services in the chancel, sometimes for concerts and recordings, but also of course for the poshest sort of wedding, the kind only the Church of England can provide, and no doubt other elements of the core business of CofE PLC. It is easy to be cynical, but if they ensure the survival of the building, then so be it.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
~Reinhold Niebuhr
"THOSE WHO CANNOT GO TO THE BEACHES MAY DO THEIR BATHING THUS
Berlin is so far north that it enjoys from 16 to 18 hours of summer daylight. Short as the season is, the city has numberless boat and bathing clubs, and is famous in the athletic world for its excellent swimmers."
Agfacolor Plate by Hans Hildenbrand
(This historic photograph is from a National Geographic article in the February 1937 issue titled "Changing Berlin". It offers a fascinating look at Berlin, Germany, a few years before the start of World War II.)
Beggars Opera / Waters of Change
Track listing:
- "Time Machine"(Park/Griffiths/Gardiner) - 8:00
- "Lament" (Park/Wilson) - 1:51
- "I've No Idea" (Park/Griffiths) - 7:42
- "Nimbus" (Sellar/Griffiths/Gardiner) - 3:43
- "Festival" (Park/Griffiths/Erskine) - 6:00
- "Silver Peacock / Intro" (Griffiths/Scott) - 0:22
- "Silver Peacock" (Park/Griffiths/Scott) - 6:33
- "Impromptu" (Gardiner/Scott) - 1:14
- "The Fox" (Gardiner/Griffiths/Scott) - 6:52
Ricky Gardiner - lead guitar, vocals, acoustic guitar
Martin Griffiths - lead vocal, Cow Bell
Alan Park - organ, piano
Gordon Sellar - bass and acoustic guitar, vocals
Virginia Scott - Mellotron, vocals
Raymond Wilson - percussion
Marshall Erskine - bass, flute on "Festival"
Recorded at Command Studios and De Lane Lea Studios, London
sleeve design: ?
Label: Vertigo Records / 1971
ex Vinyl-Collection MTP
101108 - photomanip for fun - Obama Went to Don King's Hairstylist
politics aside, just for fun, no political statement intended
Caption: A thousand students from Rizal High School, in Pasig City,
Philippines form a human banner that reads: “Act for our Future,” to call
for a strong and fair global climate agreement ahead of the international
climate talks in Paris that will start on November 30. This activity was
made possible through the#NowPH
project of the
National Youth and the Climate Change Commission, which aims to gather
voices of the Filipino youths to take part in the battle against climate
change. Photo: Gerald Niu/350.org
Made these quilted changing pads for my nephew. I loved to use these when my kids were babies to cover those horrid changing tables in public restrooms.
The fabric of this skirt is very delicate and in fact is a bit see thru. It feels so fem when I’m wearing it!💕
Tries a skirt on in a Quiz store, something I never thought I would be bold enough to try. Unfortunately skirt just too small. Shame changing room so small.
In the front left corner of the 1/76 scale London Tramway layout I have built a 'change pit'.
In the central areas London trams drew their power from rails in an underground conduit, by means of a 'plough' that passed through a slot in the road between the running rails. This did away with the untidiness of overhead wires, but was expensive to build and to maintain. As the system extended further out from the city, overhead wire was used. Trams needed to change from one method of current collection to the other - this was done at the change pit.
Trams running on the conduit (from right) would have their ploughs ejected following the centre slot, which, as can be seen, diverged to a point between the two tracks. As the car slowed the conductor would be raising the trolley pole to contact the overhead wire.
Trams approaching on the wire (from left) would slow and an attendant would use a fork like implement to manouvere a plough that was already in the slot, underneath the car to be supported by a pair of angle irons. Meanwhile the conductor would be stowing the trolley pole.
Ploughs would thus be deposited and then picked up by cars going back to the centre. Change pits were generally marked by a pair of lamps (here illuminated) , a canvas hut for the attendant to shelter in and a stock of ploughs and a fork. I need to make some ploughs and a fork and find a suitable recruit!
The scene fills an awkward corner space on the layout and will also serve to answer the question - "Why don't the trams have overhead wires?"
The tracks here are simply scenic and so won't actually be used by the model trams - indeed as can be seen they run off the edge of the baseboard.
The Dakshinkali Temple is located 22 kilometers from Kathmandu next to the village of Pharping. It's one of the main temples in Nepal. Twice every week thousands of people come here to worship the goddess Kali by sacrificing life animals, particularly cockerels and uncastrated male goats.
GODDESS KALI
Kālī (/ˈkɑːli/; Sanskrit: काली & Bengali: কালী; IPA: [kɑːliː]), also known as Kālikā (Sanskrit: कालिका), is the Hindu goddess associated with empowerment, or shakti. She is the fierce aspect of the goddess Durga. The name of Kali means black one and force of time; she is therefore called the Goddess of Time, Change, Power, Creation, Preservation, and Destruction. Her earliest appearance is that of a destroyer principally of evil forces. Various Shakta Hindu cosmologies, as well as Shākta Tantric beliefs, worship her as the ultimate reality or Brahman; and recent devotional movements re-imagine Kāli as a benevolent mother goddess. She is often portrayed standing or dancing on her husband, the god Shiva, who lies calm and prostrate beneath her. Worshipped throughout India but particularly South India, Bengal, and Assam, Kali is both geographically and culturally marginal.
ETYMOLOGY
Kālī is the feminine form of kālam ("black, dark coloured"). Kāla primarily means "time", but also means "black"; hence, Kālī means "the black one" or "beyond time". Kāli is strongly associated with Shiva, and Shaivas derive the masculine Kāla (an epithet of Shiva) from her feminine name. A nineteenth-century Sanskrit dictionary, the Shabdakalpadrum, states: कालः शिवः। तस्य पत्नीति - काली। kālaḥ śivaḥ। tasya patnīti kālī - "Shiva is Kāla, thus, his consort is Kāli".
Other names include Kālarātri ("black night"), as described above, and Kālikā ("relating to time"), and Kallie ("black alchemist"). Coburn notes that the name Kālī can be used as a proper name, or as a description of color.
Kāli's association with darkness stands in contrast to her consort, Shiva, whose body is covered by the white ashes of the cremation ground (Sanskrit: śmaśāna) where he meditates, and with which Kāli is also associated, as śmaśāna-kālī.
ORIGINS
Hugh Urban notes that although the word Kālī appears as early as the Atharva Veda, the first use of it as a proper name is in the Kathaka Grhya Sutra (19.7). Kali is the name of one of the seven tongues of Agni, the [Rigvedic] God of Fire, in the Mundaka Upanishad (2:4), but it is unlikely that this refers to the goddess. The first appearance of Kāli in her present form is in the Sauptika Parvan of the Mahabharata (10.8.64). She is called Kālarātri (literally, "black night") and appears to the Pandava soldiers in dreams, until finally she appears amidst the fighting during an attack by Drona's son Ashwatthama. She most famously appears in the sixth century Devi Mahatmyam as one of the shaktis of Mahadevi, and defeats the demon Raktabija ("Bloodseed"). The tenth-century Kalika Purana venerates Kāli as the ultimate reality.
According to David Kinsley, Kāli is first mentioned in Hinduism as a distinct goddess around 600 CE, and these texts "usually place her on the periphery of Hindu society or on the battlefield." She is often regarded as the Shakti of Shiva, and is closely associated with him in various Puranas. The Kalika Purana depicts her as the "Adi Shakti" (Fundamental Power) and "Para Prakriti" or beyond nature.
WORSHIP AND MANTRA
Kali could be considered a general concept, like Durga, and is mostly worshiped in the Kali Kula sect of worship. The closest way of direct worship is Maha Kali or Bhadra Kali (Bhadra in Sanskrit means 'gentle'). Kali is worshiped as one of the 10 Mahavidya forms of Adi Parashakti (Goddess Durga) or Bhagavathy according to the region. The mantra for worship is
Sanskrit: सर्वमङ्गलमाङ्गल्ये शिवे सर्वार्थसाधिके । शरण्ये त्र्यम्बके गौरि नारायणि नमोऽस्तु ते ॥
ॐ जयंती मंगल काली भद्रकाली कपालिनी । दुर्गा शिवा क्षमा धात्री स्वाहा स्वधा नमोऽस्तुते ॥
(Sarvamaṅgalamāṅgalyē śivē sarvārthasādhikē . śaraṇyē tryambakē gauri nārāyaṇi namō'stu tē.
Oṃ jayantī mangala kālī bhadrakālī kapālinī . durgā śivā ksamā dhātrī svāhā svadhā namō'stutē.)
YANTRA
Goddesses play an important role in the study and practice of Tantra Yoga, and are affirmed to be as central to discerning the nature of reality as are the male deities. Although Parvati is often said to be the recipient and student of Shiva's wisdom in the form of Tantras, it is Kali who seems to dominate much of the Tantric iconography, texts, and rituals. In many sources Kāli is praised as the highest reality or greatest of all deities. The Nirvana-tantra says the gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva all arise from her like bubbles in the sea, ceaselessly arising and passing away, leaving their original source unchanged. The Niruttara-tantra and the Picchila-tantra declare all of Kāli's mantras to be the greatest and the Yogini-tantra, Kamakhya-tantra and the Niruttara-tantra all proclaim Kāli vidyas (manifestations of Mahadevi, or "divinity itself"). They declare her to be an essence of her own form (svarupa) of the Mahadevi.In the Mahanirvana-tantra, Kāli is one of the epithets for the primordial sakti, and in one passage Shiva praises her:At the dissolution of things, it is Kāla [Time]. Who will devour all, and by reason of this He is called Mahākāla [an epithet of Lord Shiva], and since Thou devourest Mahākāla Himself, it is Thou who art the Supreme Primordial Kālika. Because Thou devourest Kāla, Thou art Kāli, the original form of all things, and because Thou art the Origin of and devourest all things Thou art called the Adya [the Primordial One]. Re-assuming after Dissolution Thine own form, dark and formless, Thou alone remainest as One ineffable and inconceivable. Though having a form, yet art Thou formless; though Thyself without beginning, multiform by the power of Maya, Thou art the Beginning of all, Creatrix, Protectress, and Destructress that Thou art. The figure of Kāli conveys death, destruction, and the consuming aspects of reality. As such, she is also a "forbidden thing", or even death itself. In the Pancatattva ritual, the sadhaka boldly seeks to confront Kali, and thereby assimilates and transforms her into a vehicle of salvation. This is clear in the work of the Karpuradi-stotra, a short praise of Kāli describing the Pancatattva ritual unto her, performed on cremation grounds. (Samahana-sadhana)He, O Mahākāli who in the cremation-ground, naked, and with dishevelled hair, intently meditates upon Thee and recites Thy mantra, and with each recitation makes offering to Thee of a thousand Akanda flowers with seed, becomes without any effort a Lord of the earth. Oh Kāli, whoever on Tuesday at midnight, having uttered Thy mantra, makes offering even but once with devotion to Thee of a hair of his Shakti [his energy/female companion] in the cremation-ground, becomes a great poet, a Lord of the earth, and ever goes mounted upon an elephant.The Karpuradi-stotra clearly indicates that Kāli is more than a terrible, vicious, slayer of demons who serves Durga or Shiva. Here, she is identified as the supreme mistress of the universe, associated with the five elements. In union with Lord Shiva, she creates and destroys worlds. Her appearance also takes a different turn, befitting her role as ruler of the world and object of meditation. In contrast to her terrible aspects, she takes on hints of a more benign dimension. She is described as young and beautiful, has a gentle smile, and makes gestures with her two right hands to dispel any fear and offer boons. The more positive features exposed offer the distillation of divine wrath into a goddess of salvation, who rids the sadhaka of fear. Here, Kali appears as a symbol of triumph over death.
BENGALI TRADITION
Kali is also a central figure in late medieval Bengali devotional literature, with such devotees as Ramprasad Sen (1718–75). With the exception of being associated with Parvati as Shiva's consort, Kāli is rarely pictured in Hindu legends and iconography as a motherly figure until Bengali devotions beginning in the early eighteenth century. Even in Bengāli tradition her appearance and habits change little, if at all.
The Tantric approach to Kāli is to display courage by confronting her on cremation grounds in the dead of night, despite her terrible appearance. In contrast, the Bengali devotee appropriates Kāli's teachings adopting the attitude of a child, coming to love her unreservedly. In both cases, the goal of the devotee is to become reconciled with death and to learn acceptance of the way that things are. These themes are well addressed in Rāmprasād's work. Rāmprasād comments in many of his other songs that Kāli is indifferent to his wellbeing, causes him to suffer, brings his worldly desires to nothing and his worldly goods to ruin. He also states that she does not behave like a mother should and that she ignores his pleas:
Can mercy be found in the heart of her who was born of the stone? [a reference to Kali as the daughter of Himalaya]
Were she not merciless, would she kick the breast of her lord?
Men call you merciful, but there is no trace of mercy in you, Mother.
You have cut off the heads of the children of others, and these you wear as a garland around your neck.
It matters not how much I call you "Mother, Mother." You hear me, but you will not listen.
To be a child of Kāli, Rāmprasād asserts, is to be denied of earthly delights and pleasures. Kāli is said to refrain from giving that which is expected. To the devotee, it is perhaps her very refusal to do so that enables her devotees to reflect on dimensions of themselves and of reality that go beyond the material world.
A significant portion of Bengali devotional music features Kāli as its central theme and is known as Shyama Sangeet ("Music of the Night"). Mostly sung by male vocalists, today even women have taken to this form of music. One of the finest singers of Shyāma Sāngeet is Pannalal Bhattacharya.
In Bengal, Kāli is venerated in the festival Kali Puja, the new moon day of Ashwin month which coincides with Diwali festival.
In a unique form of Kāli worship, Shantipur worships Kāli in the form of a hand painted image of the deity known as Poteshwari (meaning the deity drawn on a piece of cloth).
LEGENDS
SLAYER AND RAKTABIJA
In Kāli's most famous legend, Devi Durga (Adi Parashakti) and her assistants, the Matrikas, wound the demon Raktabija, in various ways and with a variety of weapons in an attempt to destroy him. They soon find that they have worsened the situation for with every drop of blood that is dripped from Raktabija he reproduces a clone of himself. The battlefield becomes increasingly filled with his duplicates. Durga, in need of help, summons Kāli to combat the demons. It is said, in some versions, that Goddess Durga actually assumes the form of Goddess Kāli at this time. The Devi Mahatmyam describes:
Out of the surface of her (Durga's) forehead, fierce with frown, issued suddenly Kali of terrible countenance, armed with a sword and noose. Bearing the strange khatvanga (skull-topped staff ), decorated with a garland of skulls, clad in a tiger's skin, very appalling owing to her emaciated flesh, with gaping mouth, fearful with her tongue lolling out, having deep reddish eyes, filling the regions of the sky with her roars, falling upon impetuously and slaughtering the great asuras in that army, she devoured those hordes of the foes of the devas.
Kali consumes Raktabija and his duplicates, and dances on the corpses of the slain. In the Devi Mahatmya version of this story, Kali is also described as a Matrika and as a Shakti or power of Devi. She is given the epithet Cāṃuṇḍā (Chamunda), i.e. the slayer of the demons Chanda and Munda. Chamunda is very often identified with Kali and is very much like her in appearance and habit.
DAKSHINA KALI
In her most famous pose as Daksinakali, popular legends say that Kali, drunk on the blood of her victims, is about to destroy the whole universe when, urged by all the gods, Shiva lies in her way to stop her, and she steps upon his chest. Recognizing Shiva beneath her feet, she calms herself. Though not included in any of the puranas, popular legends state that Kali was ashamed at the prospect of keeping her husband beneath her feet and thus stuck her tongue out in shame. The Devi-Bhagavata Purana, which goes into great depths about the goddess Kali, reveals the tongue's actual symbolism.
The characteristic icons that depict Kali are the following; unbridled matted hair, open blood shot eyes, open mouth and a drooping tongue; in her hands, she holds a Khadga (bent sword or scimitar) and a human head; she has a girdle of human hands across her waist, and Shiva lies beneath her feet. The drooping out-stuck tongue represents her blood-thirst. Lord Shiva beneath her feet represents matter, as Kali energy. The depiction of Kali on Shiva shows that without energy, matter lies "dead". This concept has been simplified to a folk-tale depicting a wife placing her foot
on her husband and sticking her tongue out in shame. In tantric contexts, the tongue is seen to denote the element (guna) of rajas (energy and action) controlled by sattva.
If Kali steps on Shiva with her right foot and holds the sword in her left hand, she is considered to be Dakshina Kali. The Dakshina Kali Temple has important religious associations with the Jagannath Temple and it is believed that Daksinakali is the guardian of the kitchen of the Lord Jagannath Temple. Puranic tradition says that in Puri, Lord Jagannath is regarded as Daksinakalika. Goddess Dakshinakali plays an important role in the 'Niti' of Saptapuri Amavasya.
One South Indian tradition tells of a dance contest between Shiva and Kali. After defeating the two demons Sumbha and Nisumbha, Kali takes up residence in the forest of Thiruvalankadu or Thiruvalangadu. She terrorizes the surrounding area with her fierce, disruptive nature. One of Shiva's devotees becomes distracted while performing austerities, and asks Shiva to rid the forest of the destructive goddess. When Shiva arrives, Kali threatens him, and Shiva challenges Kali to a dance contest, wherein Kali matches Shiva until Shiva takes the "Urdhvatandava" step, vertically raising his right leg. Kali refuses to perform this step, which would not befit her as a woman, and becomes pacified.
SMASHAN KALI
If the Kali steps out with the left foot and holds the sword in her right hand, she is the terrible form of Mother, the Smashan Kali of the cremation ground. She is worshiped by tantrics, the followers of Tantra, who believe that one's spiritual discipline practiced in a smashan (cremation ground) brings success quickly. Sarda Devi, the consort of Ramakrishna Paramhansa, worshipped Smashan Kali at Dakshineshwar.
MATERNAL KALI
At the time of samundra manthan when amrit came out, along with that came out poison which was going to destroy the world hence on the request of all the gods, Lord Shiva drank it to save the world but as he is beyond death he didn't die but was very much in pain due to the poison effect hence he became a child so that Kali can feed him with her milk which will sooth out the poison effect.
MAHAKALI
Mahakali (Sanskrit: Mahākālī, Devanagari: महाकाली), literally translated as Great Kali, is sometimes considered as a greater form of Kali, identified with the Ultimate reality of Brahman. It can also be used as an honorific of the Goddess Kali, signifying her greatness by the prefix "Mahā-". Mahakali, in Sanskrit, is etymologically the feminized variant of Mahakala or Great Time (which is interpreted also as Death), an epithet of the God Shiva in Hinduism. Mahakali is the presiding Goddess of the first episode of the Devi Mahatmya. Here she is depicted as Devi in her universal form as Shakti. Here Devi serves as the agent who allows the cosmic order to be restored.
Kali is depicted in the Mahakali form as having ten heads, ten arms, and ten legs. Each of her ten hands is carrying a various implement which vary in different accounts, but each of these represent the power of one of the Devas or Hindu Gods and are often the identifying weapon or ritual item of a given Deva. The implication is that Mahakali subsumes and is responsible for the powers that these deities possess and this is in line with the interpretation that Mahakali is identical with Brahman. While not displaying ten heads, an "ekamukhi" or one headed image may be displayed with ten arms, signifying the same concept: the powers of the various Gods come only through Her grace.
ICONOGRAPHY
Kali is portrayed mostly in two forms: the popular four-armed form and the ten-armed Mahakali form. In both of her forms, she is described as being black in color but is most often depicted as blue in popular Indian art. Her eyes are described as red with intoxication, and in absolute rage, her hair is shown disheveled, small fangs sometimes protrude out of her mouth, and her tongue is lolling. She is often shown naked or just wearing a skirt made of human arms and a garland of human heads. She is also accompanied by serpents and a jackal while standing on a seemingly dead Shiva, usually right foot forward to symbolize the more popular Dakshinamarga or right-handed path, as opposed to the more infamous and transgressive Vamamarga or left-handed path.
In the ten-armed form of Mahakali she is depicted as shining like a blue stone. She has ten faces, ten feet, and three eyes for each head. She has ornaments decked on all her limbs. There is no association with Shiva.
The Kalika Purana describes Kali as possessing a soothing dark complexion, as perfectly beautiful, riding a lion, four-armed, holding a sword and blue lotuses, her hair unrestrained, body firm and youthful.
In spite of her seemingly terrible form, Kali Ma is often considered the kindest and most loving of all the Hindu goddesses, as she is regarded by her devotees as the Mother of the whole Universe. And because of her terrible form, she is also often seen as a great protector. When the Bengali saint Ramakrishna once asked a devotee why one would prefer to worship Mother over him, this devotee rhetorically replied, "Maharaj", when they are in trouble your devotees come running to you. But, where do you run when you are in trouble?"
According to Ramakrishna, darkness is the Ultimate Mother, or Kali:
My Mother is the principle of consciousness. She is Akhanda Satchidananda;
indivisible Reality, Awareness, and Bliss. The night sky between the stars is perfectly black.
The waters of the ocean depths are the same; The infinite is always mysteriously dark.
This inebriating darkness is my beloved Kali.
—Sri Ramakrishna
This is clear in the works of such contemporary artists as Charles Wish, and Tyeb Mehta, who sometimes take great liberties with the traditional, accepted symbolism, but still demonstrate a true reverence for the Shakta sect.
POPULAR FORM
Classic depictions of Kali share several features, as follows:
Kali's most common four armed iconographic image shows each hand carrying variously a sword, a trishul (trident), a severed head, and a bowl or skull-cup (kapala) catching the blood of the severed head.
Two of these hands (usually the left) are holding a sword and a severed head. The Sword signifies Divine Knowledge and the Human Head signifies human Ego which must be slain by Divine Knowledge in order to attain Moksha. The other two hands (usually the right) are in the abhaya (fearlessness) and varada (blessing) mudras, which means her initiated devotees (or anyone worshipping her with a true heart) will be saved as she will guide them here and in the hereafter.
She has a garland consisting of human heads, variously enumerated at 108 (an auspicious number in Hinduism and the number of countable beads on a Japa Mala or rosary for repetition of Mantras) or 51, which represents Varnamala or the Garland of letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, Devanagari. Hindus believe Sanskrit is a language of dynamism, and each of these letters represents a form of energy, or a form of Kali. Therefore, she is generally seen as the mother of language, and all mantras.
She is often depicted naked which symbolizes her being beyond the covering of Maya since she is pure (nirguna) being-consciousness-bliss and far above prakriti. She is shown as very dark as she is brahman in its supreme unmanifest state. She has no permanent qualities - she will continue to exist even when the universe ends. It is therefore believed that the concepts of color, light, good, bad do not apply to her - she is the pure, un-manifested energy, the Adi-shakti.
Kali as the Symbol of Creation , Freedom , Preservation and Destruction
The head that hangs in Kali's hand is a symbol of Ego and the scimitar which she is holding represents power and energy.It is believed that Kali is protecting the human race by that scimitar and also destroying the negativity and ego within human being. The body lying under Kali symbolizes ruination, is actually a form of Shiva. Kali steps her leg on the chest of the body and suppress ruination . Since she is standing on the pure white chest of Lord Shiva who, as pure primal awareness, lays in a passive reclining position, peacefully lies with his eyes half open in a state of bliss. Her hair is long, black and flowing freely depicting Her freedom from convention and the confines of conceptualization. The white teeth which Kali has stands for conscience and her red tongue represents greed. By pressing her white teeth on her tongue Kali refers to control greed.The goddess may appear terrible from outside but every symbol in Kali signifies truth of life. Since the earth was created out of darkness, the dark black color of Kali symbolizes the color from which everything was born. Her right hand side arms she shows the Abhaya mudra(gesture of fearlessness) and Vara mudra (gesture of welcome and charity) respectively . But on the other arm in left side she holds a bloody scimitar and a severed head depicting destruction and end of ego.
Kali as the Symbol of Mother Nature
The name Kali means Kala or force of time. When there were neither the creation, nor the sun, the moon, the planets, and the earth, there was only darkness and everything was created from the darkness. The Dark appearance of kali represents the darkness from which everything was born. Her complexion is deep blue, like the sky and ocean water as blue. As she is also the goddess of Preservation Kali is worshiped as mother to preserve the nature.Kali is standing calm on Shiva, her appearance represents the preservation of mother nature. Her free, long and black hair represents nature's freedom from civilization. Under the third eye of kali, the signs of both sun, moon and fire are visible which represent the driving forces of nature.
SHIVA IN KALI ICONOGRAPHY
In both these images she is shown standing on the prone, inert or dead body of Shiva. There is a legend for the reason behind her standing on what appears to be Shiva's corpse, which translates as follows:
Once Kali had destroyed all the demons in battle, she began a terrific dance out of the sheer joy of victory. All the worlds or lokas began to tremble and sway under the impact of her dance. So, at the request of all the Gods, Shiva himself asked her to desist from this behavior. However, she was too intoxicated to listen. Hence, Shiva lay like a corpse among the slain demons in order to absorb the shock of the dance into himself. When Kali eventually stepped upon Shiva, she realized she was trampling and hurting her husband and bit her tongue in shame.
The story described here is a popular folk tale and not described or hinted in any of the puranas. The puranic interpretation is as follows:
Once, Parvati asks Shiva to chose the one form among her 10 forms which he likes most. To her surprise, Shiva reveals that he is most comfortable with her Kali form, in which she is bereft of her jewellery, her human-form, her clothes, her emotions and where she is only raw, chaotic energy, where she is as terrible as time itself and even greater than time. As Parvati takes the form of Kali, Shiva lies at her feet and requests her to place her foot on his chest, upon his heart. Once in this form, Shiva requests her to have this place, below her feet in her iconic image which would be worshiped throughout.
This idea has been explored in the Devi-Bhagavata Purana [28] and is most popular in the Shyama Sangeet, devotional songs to Kali from the 12th to 15th centuries.
The Tantric interpretation of Kali standing on top of her husband is as follows:
The Shiv tattava (Divine Consciousness as Shiva) is inactive, while the Shakti tattava (Divine Energy as Kali) is active. Shiva and Kali represent Brahman, the Absolute pure consciousness which is beyond all names, forms and activities. Kali, on the other hand, represents the potential (and manifested) energy responsible for all names, forms and activities. She is his Shakti, or creative power, and is seen as the substance behind the entire content of all consciousness. She can never exist apart from Shiva or act independently of him, just as Shiva remains a mere corpse without Kali i.e., Shakti, all the matter/energy of the universe, is not distinct from Shiva, or Brahman, but is rather the dynamic power of Brahman. Hence, Kali is Para Brahman in the feminine and dynamic aspect while Shiva is the male aspect and static. She stands as the absolute basis for all life, energy and beneath her feet lies, Shiva, a metaphor for mass, which cannot retain its form without energy.
While this is an advanced concept in monistic Shaktism, it also agrees with the Nondual Trika philosophy of Kashmir, popularly known as Kashmir Shaivism and associated most famously with Abhinavagupta. There is a colloquial saying that "Shiva without Shakti is Shava" which means that without the power of action (Shakti) that is Mahakali (represented as the short "i" in Devanagari) Shiva (or consciousness itself) is inactive; Shava means corpse in Sanskrit and the play on words is that all Sanskrit consonants are assumed to be followed by a short letter "a" unless otherwise noted. The short letter "i" represents the female power or Shakti that activates Creation. This is often the explanation for why She is standing on Shiva, who is either Her husband and complement in Shaktism or the Supreme Godhead in Shaivism.
To properly understand this complex Tantric symbolism it is important to remember that the meaning behind Shiva and Kali does not stray from the non-dualistic parlance of Shankara or the Upanisads. According to both the Mahanirvana and Kularnava Tantras, there are two distinct ways of perceiving the same absolute reality. The first is a transcendental plane which is often described as static, yet infinite. It is here that there is no matter, there is no universe and only consciousness exists. This form of reality is known as Shiva, the absolute Sat-Chit-Ananda - existence, knowledge and bliss. The second is an active plane, an immanent plane, the plane of matter, of Maya, i.e., where the illusion of space-time and the appearance of an actual universe does exist. This form of reality is known as Kali or Shakti, and (in its entirety) is still specified as the same Absolute Sat-Chit-Ananda. It is here in this second plane that the universe (as we commonly know it) is experienced and is described by the Tantric seer as the play of Shakti, or God as Mother Kali.
From a Tantric perspective, when one meditates on reality at rest, as absolute pure consciousness (without the activities of creation, preservation or dissolution) one refers to this as Shiva or Brahman. When one meditates on reality as dynamic and creative, as the Absolute content of pure consciousness (with all the activities of creation, preservation or dissolution) one refers to it as Kali or Shakti. However, in either case the yogini or yogi is interested in one and the same reality - the only difference being in name and fluctuating aspects of appearance. It is this which is generally accepted as the meaning of Kali standing on the chest of Shiva.
Although there is often controversy surrounding the images of divine copulation, the general consensus is benign and free from any carnal impurities in its substance. In Tantra the human body is a symbol for the microcosm of the universe; therefore sexual process is responsible for the creation of the world. Although theoretically Shiva and Kali (or Shakti) are inseparable, like fire and its power to burn, in the case of creation they are often seen as having separate roles. With Shiva as male and Kali as female it is only by their union that creation may transpire. This reminds us of the prakrti and purusa doctrine of Samkhya wherein prakāśa- vimarśa has no practical value, just as without prakrti, purusa is quite inactive. This (once again) stresses the interdependencies of Shiva and Shakti and the vitality of their union.
Gopi Krishna proposed that Kali standing on the dead Shiva or Shava (Sanskrit for dead body) symbolised the helplessness of a person undergoing the changing process (psychologically and physiologically) in the body conducted by the Kundalini Shakti.
DEVELOPMENT
In the later traditions, Kali has become inextricably linked with Shiva. The unleashed form of Kali often becomes wild and uncontrollable, and only Shiva is able to tame her just as only Kali can tame Shiva. This is both because she is often a transformed version of one of his consorts and because he is able to match her wildness.
The ancient text of Kali Kautuvam describes her competition with Shiva in dance, from which the sacred 108 Karanas appeared. Shiva won the competition by acting the urdva tandava, one of the Karanas, by raising his feet to his head. Other texts describe Shiva appearing as a crying infant and appealing to her maternal instincts. While Shiva is said to be able to tame her, the iconography often presents her dancing on his fallen body, and there are accounts of the two of them dancing together, and driving each other to such wildness that the world comes close to unravelling.
Shiva's involvement with Tantra and Kali's dark nature have led to her becoming an important Tantric figure. To the Tantric worshippers, it was essential to face her Curse, the terror of death, as willingly as they accepted Blessings from her beautiful, nurturing, maternal aspect. For them, wisdom meant learning that no coin has only one side: as death cannot exist without life, so life cannot exist without death. Kali's role sometimes grew beyond that of a chaos - which could be confronted - to that of one who could bring wisdom, and she is given great metaphysical significance by some Tantric texts. The Nirvāna-tantra clearly presents her uncontrolled nature as the Ultimate Reality, claiming that the trimurti of Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra arise and disappear from her like bubbles from the sea. Although this is an extreme case, the Yogini-tantra, Kamakhya-tantra and the Niruttara-tantra declare her the svarupa (own-being) of the Mahadevi (the great Goddess, who is in this case seen as the combination of all devis).The final stage of development is the worshipping of Kali as the Great Mother, devoid of her usual violence. This practice is a break from the more traditional depictions. The pioneers of this tradition are the 18th century Shakta poets such as Ramprasad Sen, who show an awareness of Kali's ambivalent nature. Ramakrishna, the 19th century Bengali saint, was also a great devotee of Kali; the western popularity of whom may have contributed to the more modern, equivocal interpretations of this Goddess. Rachel McDermott's work, however, suggests that for the common, modern worshipper, Kali is not seen as fearful, and only those educated in old traditions see her as having a wrathful component. Some credit to the development of Devi must also be given to Samkhya. Commonly referred to as the Devi of delusion, Mahamaya or Durga, acting in the confines of (but not being bound by) the nature of the three gunas, takes three forms: Maha-Kali, Maha-Lakshmi and Maha-Saraswati, being her tamas-ika, rajas-ika and sattva-ika forms. In this sense, Kali is simply part of a larger whole.
Like Sir John Woodroffe and Georg Feuerstein, many Tantric scholars (as well as sincere practitioners) agree that, no matter how propitious or appalling you describe them, Shiva and Devi are simply recognizable symbols for everyday, abstract (yet tangible) concepts such as perception, knowledge, space-time, causation and the process of liberating oneself from the confines of such things. Shiva, symbolizing pure, absolute consciousness, and Devi, symbolizing the entire content of that consciousness, are ultimately one and the same - totality incarnate, a micro-macro-cosmic amalgamation of all subjects, all objects and all phenomenal relations between the "two." Like man and woman who both share many common, human traits yet at the same time they are still different and, therefore, may also be seen as complementary.
Worshippers prescribe various benign and horrific qualities to Devi simply out of practicality. They do this so they may have a variety of symbols to choose from, symbols which they can identify and relate with from the perspective of their own, ever-changing time, place and personal level of unfolding. Just like modern chemists or physicists use a variety of molecular and atomic models to describe what is unperceivable through rudimentary, sensory input, the scientists of ontology and epistemology must do the same. One of the underlying distinctions of Tantra, in comparison to other religions, is that it allows the devotee the liberty to choose from a vast array of complementary symbols and rhetoric which suit one's evolving needs and tastes. From an aesthetic standpoint, nothing is interdict and nothing is orthodox. In this sense, the projection of some of Devi's more gentle qualities onto Kali is not sacrilege and the development of Kali really lies in the practitioner, not the murthi.
A TIME magazine article of October 27, 1947, used Kali as a symbol and metaphor for the human suffering in British India during its partition that year. In 1971, Ms. Magazine used an image of Kali, her multiple arms juggling modern tasks, as a symbol of modern womanhood on its inaugural issue.
Swami Vivekananda wrote his favorite poem Kali the Mother in 1898.
KALI IN NEOPAGAN AND NEW AGE PRACTICE
An academic study of Western Kali enthusiasts noted that, "as shown in the histories of all cross-cultural religious transplants, Kali devotionalism in the West must take on its own indigenous forms if it is to adapt to its new environment."[60] The adoption of Kali by the West has raised accusations of cultural appropriation:
A variety of writers and thinkers have found Kali an exciting figure for reflection and exploration, notably feminists and participants in New Age spirituality who are attracted to goddess worship. [For them], Kali is a symbol of wholeness and healing, associated especially with repressed female power and sexuality. [However, such interpretations often exhibit] confusion and misrepresentation, stemming from a lack of knowledge of Hindu history among these authors, [who only rarely] draw upon materials written by scholars of the Hindu religious tradition. The majority instead rely chiefly on other popular feminist sources, almost none of which base their interpretations on a close reading of Kali's Indian background. The most important issue arising from this discussion - even more important than the question of 'correct' interpretation - concerns the adoption of other people's religious symbols. It is hard to import the worship of a goddess from another culture: religious associations and connotations have to be learned, imagined or intuited when the deep symbolic meanings embedded in the native culture are not available.
INCARNATIONS OF KALI
Draupadi, Wife of Pandavas, was an avatar of Kali, who born to assist Lord Krishna to destroy arrogant kings of India. There is a temple dedicated to this incarnation at Banni Mata Temple at Himachal Pradesh. The vedic deity Nirriti or the Puranic deity Alakshmi is often considered as incarnations of Kali.
WIKIPEDIA
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'I promise change"
~ Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney's Biggest Flip Flops
ABORTION
Flip: "I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country. I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years, that we should sustain and support it. I sustain and support that law and the right of a woman to make that choice." — Debate with Sen. Edward Kennedy, 1994
"I will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose and am devoted and dedicated to honoring my word in that regard." — Massachusetts Gubernatorial Debate, 2002
Flop: "Look, I was pro-choice. I am pro-life. You can go back to YouTube and look at what I said in 1994. I never said I was pro-choice, but my position was effectively pro-choice. I changed my position." — Iowa Straw poll debate, 2007
"What I would like to see happen would be for the Supreme Court to say, look, we’re going to overturn Roe v. Wade and return to the states the authority to decide whether they want to have abortion or not, state by state. That’s the way it was before Roe v. Wade. So I am firmly pro-life." — Town hall meeting, Hopkinton, NH, 2011
VIETNAM
Flip" "I was not planning on signing up for the military. It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam." — Quoted by the Boston Herald, 1994
Flop: "I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there and in some ways it was frustrating not to feel like I was there as part of the troops that were fighting in Vietnam." — Quoted by the Boston Globe, 2007
HEALTH CARE REFORM
Flip: "I like mandates. Mandates work." — Presidential primary debate, 2008
"I'm proud of what we've done. If Massachusetts succeeds in implementing [Romneycare], then that will be a model for the nation." — Speech in Baltimore, 2007
Flop: "At the time I crafted the plan in the last campaign I was asked is [Romneycare] something that you would have the whole nation do, and I said no. This is something that was crafted for Massachusetts. It would be wrong to adopt this as a nation." — Presidential primary debate, 2011
Bret Baier: "Governor, you did say on camera and in other places, at times you thought [Romneycare] would be a model for the nation."
Mitt Romney: "You're wrong, Bret." — Fox News interview, 2011
CLIMATE CHANGE
Flip: "I believe the world’s getting warmer. I can’t prove that, but I believe based on what I read that the world is getting warmer. And number two, I believe that humans contribute to that. ... And so I think it's important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may well be significant contributors to the climate change and the global warming that you're seeing." — Town hall meeting, Manchester, NH, June 2011
Flop: "My view is that we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet. And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us." — Q&A session, Pittsburg, PA, October 2011
BUSH TAX CUTS
Flip: "[R]omney spoke at the 10th annual legislative conference organized by U.S. Rep. Martin T. Meehan (D-Lowell) and met with the Massachusetts delegation. ... Congressional sources said that a point of contention arose when Romney refused to take a position on Bush’s massive, 10-year tax cut plan.” — Boston Herald, 2003
Flop: "McCain opposed President Bush’s tax cuts, Romney noted. 'I supported them,' the former governor said." — Quoted in The State (SC), 2007
Mitt Romney: The character of a loser
For Mitt Romney, the only prize is that of a loser, and that has never been more plainly evident than in his talk with his political campaign donors Wednesday when he blamed his loss on “the gifts” he said President Obama gave to Hispanics, blacks and young voters during his first term.
Romney said this just a week after delivering a surprisingly magnanimous concession speech that, had he walked away quietly afterwards, would have left even those who would never have voted for him feeling that perhaps they had misjudged his character during a campaign in which he made it so easy to do so.
But now, I suspect that we can all see that it wasn’t the primaries nor the debates that truly defined the Romney character so much as two talks he had with his deep-pocket donors, rich fat-cats some would call them, with whom the former Massachusetts governor obviously has more in common than he does with the common American who so astutely rejected his bid for the presidency last week.
For it was that speech back in May that fortunately was recorded and made public as the campaign was heating up that probably was the single factor, if any one thing was, that cost Romney a presidential victory that was his to lose, given the fact that no incumbent had ever been reelected with the kind of unemployment rate currently plaguing the country.
That was the speech in which Romney told his supporters that 47 percent of American voters were deadbeats who didn’t pay taxes and that he could more easily win the presidency if only he were Hispanic.
Forty-seven percent of America should have rejected him after that speech. And if they all didn’t, then at least almost eight out of every 10 Latinos who voted – and it turned out to be a record Hispanic turnout – said hasta la vista, deadbeat Mitt.
Romney tried to weasel out of those words by saying that sometimes his thoughts didn’t come out as he intended. It didn’t seem to matter, as Romney appeared headed toward certain defeat until the evening of October 3 when an overconfident Obama stumbled so badly in their first debate that the Romney campaign was given new life.
Thankfully, Romney lost. But if there was ever any doubt about the kind of president he would have been and whose interests he would have protected, it was removed Wednesday in his pathetic attempt to suggest that Obama had somehow bought the votes of Hispanics, blacks and the young with everything from the Affordable Health Care Act to his deferred action program to undocumented Latino youth, as if Romney’s own intentions to protect the wealthy from a fare share of taxation were some kind of benevolent act.
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Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
` Matthew 19:23-24
Religious leaders and chiefs play a vital role in driving positive change throughout communities. So far 2,188 community leaders committed to abandon FGM/C during public ceremonies in Burkina Faso.
Father of seven, Chief Naba, led the fight against FGM/C in his community in central Burkina Faso.
"Education and talking is important. Cutting women is very bad for them and causes suffering. If women suffer, men also suffer", he says.
"It's been a long process, but we've abandoned the practice in our community now".
UK aid is supporting peer education through the UNICEF and UNFPA Joint Programme in Burkina Faso and across Africa.
The UNICEF-UNFPA Joint Programme has been critical in the creation of networks of influential people that can support the campaign against FGM/C.
Find out more about our work: www.gov.uk/government/news/breaking-the-cycle-of-female-g...
Take a stand. Pledge to end FGM, child marriage and forced marriage now: www.girlsummitpledge.com/
Picture: Jessica Lea/DFID.
Teri asked Kevin if he wanted to help change the diaper. He said, "Wait one minute." And returned like this.
Changing pad with a dedicated pocket for your wipes and another amply sized pocket for diapers and baby-changing accoutrements.
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