Some Filler for Ya

I have been out of cyberspace for awhile with an annoyingly contagious flu-like "thing" that has enveloped the Catholic Worker House. I am still not up to par, and will just insert some interesting links and a video to amuse bored readers. :P

Since my last post, another sit-in took place here in LA (this time in Glendale). Eric was among the 7 arrested at the Glendale Cigna office in the name of Mobilization for Healthcare for All.



A couple of links I came across today:
"I live without cash and I manage just fine"  (about a man living without money in Great Britian).

And another "is he a freeloader?" analysis of my buddy Suelo, found as a link on the previous article:
"Daniel Suelo: Free Spirit or Freeloader?"

Wishing better health and better healthcare for all. Peace out.

Civil Disobedience Video

I am in this video, which was made by my new friend Sheila and her boyfriend, Jay.

Let's Get Arrested!

I'm pretty excited because I just got back from a meeting in which I and a handful of other excited activists (or activists in the making) were preparing to be arrested tomorrow. This will be my first civil disobedience action.

Here's the scoop: The Center for the Working Poor, another Catholic Worker community in the area (also known as the Burning Bush Community), is working with the Mobilize for Healthcare for All campaign to plan a demonstration. The directive is to being attention to the lives which are being put in jeopardy unnecessarily by an unfair, profit based system. We will go to the office of a big insurance company and demand that care is provided to all terminally ill patients. Of course, they won't meet our demands, so our plan is sit in until they change their minds, or arrest us. The former is highly unlikely, so we are ready to go to jail to bring attention to this crucial aspect of the healthcare debate. Not only are we Angelinos doing this action tomorrow, but we will be joined (well, thanks to time zones, preceded) by 9 other cities in our huge nation. Chicago and NY got quite a bit of media time for their single actions, but hopefully such a large number of cities participating on the same day will make a large splash.

Why I Love Cats, Part 2

9 Chickweed Lane - October 9

So Much Waste, So Little Time

Here are some pictures of Eric's and my last dumpster outing. We actually brought home quite a bit more fruit than what is pictured here. In fact, we had to leave a lot of perfectly good fruit behind in the dumpster because even the Catholic Worker can't use that much fruit fast enough.

Eric's full fridge, with only about a quarter of what we found last night.

Most of what we found, including 3/4 of a bottle of wine and so much beautiful fruit (I have to make pie now, with dumpstered flour, too).

Eric's hands washing fruit.

Kenyan Reflection

Today has been a day of memories. Monday is my day of rest, and my favorite thing to do on such a day is to stay at Eric's apartment by myself after he goes to work and the kids have gone to school. I bustle restfully around the place cleaning up after a week's worth of busy people on the go, listening to Internet radio and frequently sitting down to the computer. Often that time results in contemplation and reminiscing (and blogging!).

During my breaktime browsing I found myself looking up Takatifu Gardens, the beautiful Quaker community in Kenya at which I spent three months earlier this year. The official website has new pictures that blew my mind. When I was there, we worked very hard on the compound (community/volunteer center)'s garden and grounds. So to see pictures of less than six months after the work was really gratifying. The garden is flourishing, the baby rabbits I raised are full grown (and having rabbits of their own).

I also read blog entries from other international volunteers who have worked at TG at times when I was not there. It is inspiring to read of other lives that were touched by the very work that touched me so deeply.

The local schoolchildren are a big focus at Takatifu Gardens and I thought that this post from a fellow blogger was a beautiful capturing of that.

I still feel that my trip to Kenya was the best thing that I have done in my life so far. How I would love to go back.

Six months of Funkiness in LA

This is just a post to recognize that, as of today, I have been living in LA for six months. That is a strangely sad and yet happy fact. It has definitely been a major change in my life, a "new chapter", if you will.