KOMA

 

The story read something like this: "A  kitten was found  on the streets of Japan. The vet said he probably wouldn’t live. A boy named him 'Koma' and decided this was a job for Ultraman".

Confirmation

 

On my walk before dawn,  I was thinking about how many Persian Baha'is I have been blessed to have known over the years.  Rather than the extermination, the effect of the persecutions at home has been  the spreading of the Faith around the world by the beloved sons and daughters of Iran who so gloriously mirror the love of Baha'u'llah.  

For steadfastness and protection, I pray each morning for the imprisoned and persecuted Baha'is and their families, and have done so since the imprisonment of the Yaran* (Friends).

So to my great surprise, I found a birthday greeting posted by Mahvash Sabet Shahriari, a distant friend on Facebook who had been imprisoned for ten years as a member of the Yaran and for whom I have prayed daily.

*Circumstances related to the forming of the Yaran.

3 Sep 1983

In response to the Iranian authorities banning all Bahá'í administrative and community activities and the making of membership in a Bahá'í assembly a criminal offence, as their last act the National Spiritual Assembly of Iran sent an open letter to the Prosecutor General of the Islamic Revolution refuting the false charges made against the Bahá’ís and informing him of their willingness to obey the government and disband the Bahá'í administration. [BW19:43]

In a gesture of good will and in accordance with their law of obedience to the government the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Iran and all local assemblies were dissolved. In its place, they formed groups of three persons in cities and villages called Khadimeen (“Servants”), and on the national level named the Yaran-e Iran to address the immediate needs of the community such as births, marriages, divorces, burial ceremonies and other services. [BW19:62] LINK

The Yaran prior to arrest and imprisonment in 2008

Mahvash upon release after ten years imprisonment.

19 Sep 2017

"Mahvash Sabet, one of the seven members of the former leadership group of the Bahá'ís in Iran known as the Yaran, was released after 10 years of confinement in Iran's notorious Evin and Raja'i Shahr prisons.

She had been arrested in March 2008 and was now 64 years old. Mrs. Sabet distinguished herself by the loving care and kindness she extended to her fellow prisoners. As has occurred with prisoners of conscience, writers, thought-leaders, and poets who have been wrongly imprisoned throughout history, the power of Mrs. Sabet's ideas and beliefs was only amplified by her persecution. The plight of its author attracted attention to this deeply moving collection of poetry, inspiring PEN International to feature Mrs. Sabet in a campaign to defend persecuted writers. Her poems also inspired a musical composition by award-winning composer Lasse Thoresen, performed at an international music festival in Oslo earlier this year. " [BWNS1198] 

Carmel Dunes

 

Untitled

Christian A. Jorgensen

1949 Chevrolet Fleetwood Deluxe

 

1949 CHEVROLET FLEETWOOD DELUXE

A ____walks into a bar

A dangling participle walks into a bar. Enjoying a cocktail and chatting with the bartender, the evening passes pleasantly.

A bar was walked into by the passive voice.

An oxymoron walked into a bar, and the silence was deafening.

Two quotation marks walk into a “bar.”

A malapropism walks into a bar, looking for all intensive purposes like a wolf in cheap clothing, muttering epitaphs and casting dispersions on his magnificent other, who takes him for granite.

Hyperbole totally rips into this insane bar and absolutely destroys everything.

A question mark walks into a bar?

A non sequitur walks into a bar. In a strong wind, even turkeys can fly.

Papyrus and Comic Sans walk into a bar. The bartender says, "Get out—we don't serve your type."

A mixed metaphor walks into a bar, seeing the handwriting on the wall but hoping to nip it in the bud.

A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves.

Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They converse. They depart.

A synonym strolls into a tavern.

At the end of the day, a cliché walks into a bar—fresh as a daisy, cute as a button, and sharp as a tack.

A run-on sentence walks into a bar it starts flirting. With a cute little sentence fragment.

Falling slowly, softly falling, the chiasmus collapses to the bar floor.

A figure of speech literally walks into a bar and ends up getting figuratively hammered.

An allusion walks into a bar, despite the fact that alcohol is its Achilles heel.

The subjunctive would have walked into a bar, had it only known.

A misplaced modifier walks into a bar owned by a man with a glass eye named Ralph.

The past, present, and future walked into a bar. It was tense.

A dyslexic walks into a bra.

A verb walks into a bar, sees a beautiful noun, and suggests they conjugate. The noun declines.

An Oxford comma walks into a bar, where it spends the evening watching the television getting drunk and smoking cigars.

A simile walks into a bar, as parched as a desert.

A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to forget.

A hyphenated word and a non-hyphenated word walk into a bar and the bartender nearly chokes on the irony.

CZU Lightning Complex fire

 

The 2020 California CZU Lightning Complex fire burned more than 86,500 acres in Santa Cruz and San Mateo Counties.

The Bosch Baha'i School, located off Empire Grade in the Santa Cruz Mountains, had significant loss of cabins and other structures. The main buildings were spared and there was no loss of human life..

baha'i.org

Destroyed accommodations.

Looking West towards the Pacific Ocean.

Erfan's tour.

The Value of Things is Relative

After Baha'u'llah's death, an official in Haifa--having been bribed with items belonging to Baha'u'llah by usurpers of 'Abdu'l-Baha's authority --had  Baha'u'llah's prayer beads in his hands. 'Abdu'l-Baha immediately recognized them.

Perhaps taunting 'Abdu'l-Baha, the official asked, "How much do you think these beads are worth?"    

"It depends in whose hands they are." 'Abdu'l-Baha answered.  

LINK

Stars and Saguaro

 

Stars and Saguaro, Arizona

The Valley of Search

 

And what of the advent of Judaism's "Lord of Hosts"; Christianity's "Return of Christ in the glory of the Father"; Islam's "Great Announcement"; Buddhism's Maitreya Buddha; Hinduism's new incarnation of Krishna; and Zoroastrianism's "Sháh-Bahrám"?

"Consider the past. How many, both high and low, have, at all times, yearningly awaited the advent of the Manifestations of God in the sanctified persons of His chosen Ones. How often have they expected His coming, how frequently have they prayed that the breeze of Divine mercy might blow, and the promised Beauty step forth from behind the veil of concealment, and be made manifest to all the world. And whensoever the portals of grace did open, and the clouds of divine bounty did rain upon mankind, and the light of the Unseen did shine above the horizon of celestial might, they all denied Him, and turned away from His face—the face of God Himself."  -Baha'u'llah

Link

Chloe Got Around

 

Lasso

 

Can't blame the Wisteria for trying, but it's time to bring out the shears.

Hidden Message

A girl left a note in a camper for the next owner to find.

 

LINK

Light Rain

 

Light rain today, and boy does the yard need it.

From: Selections From the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

 

O ye loved ones of God! In this, the Bahá'í dispensation, God's Cause is spirit unalloyed. His Cause belongeth not to the material world. It cometh neither for strife nor war, nor for acts of mischief or of shame; it is neither for quarrelling with other Faiths, nor for conflicts with the nations. Its only army is the love of God, its only joy the clear wine of His knowledge, its only battle the expounding of the Truth; its one crusade is against the insistent self, the evil promptings of the human heart. Its victory is to submit and yield, and to be selfless is its everlasting glory.--Abdu'l-Baha

The Salish Sea

 

"In the fall of 2009 and winter of 2010 the Washington State Board on Geographic Names, the Province of British Columbia Geographic Names Office, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names and the Geographical Names Board of Canada each approved the name ‘Salish Sea‘ as an official designation for the inland marine waters of Washington and British Columbia."  LINK

A Broadcaster

 

My father was the sales manager at a radio station on Cannery Row in the early '60s.  He had a small office in the Bear Flag Building, whose infamy was made popular by John Steinbeck.  At the time of his employment, the Row was transitioning from processing seafood to processing tourists. I would often read of fires of undetermined origins burning down abandoned canneries, only to have hotels appear soon after the debris was cleared. 

Interviewing California Governor Earl Warren for KSRO

San Francisco, Fog and Container Ship, 1994

 

San Francisco, Fog and Container Ship, 1994 

Robert Campbell

Randon Yard Pictures

Cotoneaster needs a trim.

Gator is on guard.

Letter to a Jehovah Witness

 

Exploring my documents file, I came across this letter I wrote years ago to a Jehovah's Witness.

Dear Sir,

During your recent visit, I am afraid the answer I gave to your question was not very well presented.  I would like to take this opportunity to clarify.

Your question was simply this:  “Who do you believe has dominion over the world?”  Without hesitation, I answered “God”.  You then said that “God” was a good answer, but you referred me to a passage in the Bible which indicates that Satan has dominion over the world.  As you seemingly put me in the position of believing something that contradicts the Word of God, I was naturally defensive, especially considering how you were standing at my front door at a time you chose, wearing a suit and tie and having prepared yourself to use the Bible to prove to me that I was incorrect in my beliefs, while I, on the other hand stood before you unshaven, wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt and fearing that my cat would dart out the open door into traffic. I believe you had both the mental and physical advantage over me, and so in the interest of fairness I decided to write to you and explain my belief in the realm of ideas, being stripped from physical appearances.

As a Baha’i, I believe that God, the Creator, has dominion over all things visible and invisible, and has no partner or equal nor has He ceded authority of any part of His creation.  

And so what of the Bible passage that says unequivocally that Satan has dominion of the world?

Baha’is believe that we have two natures: spiritual, and physical.  Satan is the personification of our animal, or lesser nature, which prompts us to avarice, greed, jealousy, envy and the like.  Being born into the physical world we each have this physical nature, and as we learn from the Word of God, we are to overcome the promptings of this aspect of our reality on Earth through the spiritual guidance given to us by God’s Manifestations.  When the Bible says that Satan has dominion over the world, it refers to the inescapable physical matrix into which we are born and struggle with every day. 

Baha’is believe the Bible is the Word of God given unto men two thousand years ago.  Passages such as the one you questioned me with were written to convey spiritual truths in a manner appropriate for the times. 

There is a passage that states that in the Last Days, the Books would be opened.  As a Baha’i, I believe these are those days, and Baha’u’llah has opened them.

Thank you for your time—I hope you visit me again some day.  There are many things to talk about!

Sincerely,

/be

What Will Scare a Curious Kid?

My father owned this book (11th printing, 1955), and kept it on a small bookshelf as I do now.  How mysterious and disturbing my curious ten year old mind found it to be.  In it, there's a sketch of a Venusian (Earthling's twin in a jumpsuit),  his odd footprints, and photographs of his flying craft.