today marks the end of combat troops in iraq.

7 years and 5 months.

the lives of more than 4,400 American soldiers and more than 70,000 Iraqis.

the cutest

this story is amazing.

Transformative

At some point in my life, I will go on this trek. I imagine it will be a completely transformative experience. I would love to go not this March, but next...

R.E.M. - It's the End of the World

It's the End of the World

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane -
Lenny Bruce is not afraid. Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn -
world serves its own needs, regardless of your own needs. Feed it up a knock,
speed, grunt no, strength no. Ladder structure clatter with fear of height,
down height. Wire in a fire, represent the seven games in a government for
hire and a combat site. Left her, wasn't coming in a hurry with the furies
breathing down your neck. Team by team reporters baffled, trump, tethered
crop. Look at that low plane! Fine then. Uh oh, overflow, population,
common group, but it'll do. Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its
own needs, listen to your heart bleed. Tell me with the rapture and the
reverent in the right - right. You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright
light, feeling pretty psyched.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign tower. Slash and burn,
return, listen to yourself churn. Lock him in uniform and book burning,
blood letting. Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate. Light a candle,
light a motive. Step down, step down. Watch a heel crush, crush. Uh oh,
this means no fear - cavalier. Renegade and steer clear! A tournament,
a tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives
and I decline.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

The other night I tripped a nice continental drift divide. Mount St. Edelite.
Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom! You symbiotic, patriotic,
slam, but neck, right? Right.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine...fine...

(It's time I had some time alone)

Jonsi and Alex

Jonsi (from Sigur Ros) is a fav., during my road trip last year (in fact a year ago today, i was sleeping among giants in redwood forest), their music was often found on repeat. Here are some haunting sounds from a (not so) new partnership in music making...i love.

gone fishing...

or really camping, but heck maybe i'll fish too :)heading out to dingmans with some friends for a nice relaxing weekend out of the city. i am sooooo looking forward to campfires and swimming in the Delaware and good friends!!! this is much needed after a busy week at work and continued dialogue with family members and their misinformation about things like gay marriage, health care reform, the stimulus package and of course the "Ground Zero Mosque". there are days where i am consumed with hope and there are days where i fear where we are headed. today's a fear kinda day - i worry all this hate in the world, in our country. tomorrow Glenn Beck is holding a rally where 47 years ago to the day Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I Have A Dream" speech - Beck says it was a coincidence, as an organizer, i call BULLSH*T.

more soon.

our better angels

I have always loved this quote:

"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." ~ Abraham Lincoln