The ocean of true understanding

Yesterday I went with some friends to the Minneapolis Institute of Art, which reminded me that I had some art to share as well. I made these watercolor paintings at Louhelen Baha'i School this month during the Youth Eagle session:









They all depict the ocean, and the writing across them is the opening verse of Bahá'u'lláh's Kitáb-i-Íqán (Book of Certitude):

العباد لن يصلوا الى شاطئ بحر العرفان الا بالانقطاع الصرف عن كل من في السموات والارض.

"No man shall attain the shores of the ocean of true understanding except he be detached from all that is in heaven and on earth."

Detachment is a concept that I've been pondering a lot lately.  It seems to me that it is very important to be detached, not only in the quest for mystical knowledge, but also to really understand the divers situations life throws at us.  It helps us to separate that which is true and meaningful from our vain imaginings and idle fancies and thus to make better decisions.

Minneapolis Bike Map Google Earth Overlay

In the past few days I've been doing a lot of biking and studying a lot of maps. I had the idea to draw a map of all Minneapolis bike paths and bike lanes into Google Earth, but it turns out that wasn't necessary due to the awesome Image Overlay function.

I simply converted the PDF map available from the City of Minneapolis website to JPEG and, using some points of reference, overlaid it precisely where it belonged in Google Earth.

You can easily add this overlay to Google Earth by downloading and opening the following file:

Minneapolis Bike Map.kmz (5.2 MB)

The key is visible in the upper-right of the map image. Basically, green lines are bike paths and blue lines are bike lanes. The opacity can be adjusted by right-clicking on the overlay in My Places and selecting “Get info...”.

Enjoy!

Final Papers

At times it seemed like it would never be over, but the semester has finally come to a close.  The last few weeks involved lots of stress and occasional feelings of hopelessness, but everything turned out well in the end.

I thought I would share some of the fruits of my labor, in case anyone is interested...

The first (in Spanish) is a translation of Chapter 2 of Ina May's Guide to Childbirth titled "What happens during labor" (haha, get it?  fruits of my labor?)

The second (also in Spanish) is about children of immigrants who are used as interpreters for their parents who don't speak English.  It discusses research done about them and the implications for other sociolinguistic topics such as language maintenance and change, language attitudes, and bilingual education.

The third (in English) is about marriages and transnationalism.  It discusses transnational endogamy (immigrants "importing" marriage partners from the country of origin) and intermarriage (immigrants marrying someone from the dominant culture of the host country), and their effects on integration and maintaining ties across borders.

The last (and sure to be the most controversial) compares and contrasts disaster capitalism, as described in Naomi Klein's book The Shock Doctrine, and the Bahá'í Faith.

Comments are welcome.  (Plagiarism is not.)

2inspire.us

Last night I was up until 5am with my friend Eddie launching a new website. Working on it together for the past month or so has been a lot of fun, and we both have pretty high hopes and expectations for its success.

The idea is to create an alternative news source that spreads the word about progressive and innovative things happening around the world. Instead of being depressing like the mainstream news, it will excite and inspire readers. The stories will focus on four areas: Justice, Knowledge, Unity, and Creativity.

It is definitely the most complex site I have worked on, and I've learned a bit of PHP in the process. (My role is Web Developer and Editor – Eddie researches and writes all the posts at this point.) We will likely expand our staff in the future, so if anyone is interested in collaborating, drop us a line. In the meantime, we're trying to get as many people as possible reading and commenting on the posts. Tell all of your friends!

Link: 2inspire.us

El meu gener

My January will be full of stress and travel. My itinerary, starting tomorrow, is as follows (with no space in between, mind you):

4 days in which to write 13 more pages of a Pragmatics paper and study for a Translation exam.
1 early morning exam, followed by packing for...
4 days and 3 nights in Haifa, Israel.
3 days to say goodbye to Barcelona and study for a Semantics exam.
1 more early morning exam, followed by packing all of my things and embarking upon...
17 hours of travel across the Atlantic, followed by...
1 day in Wisconsin with my family
1 day moving back to Minneapolis
1 day to settle in and get ready for...
Spring Semester classes.

Phew. I can't believe how close all of this is to happening. It is absolutely crazy.

--
Also, at the end of December, I spent 5 days in the Basque Country in the northern part of Spain. Pictures can be found here.

Créixer / Masá'il

This week I've been reading a novel in Catalan called Tots els ports es diuen Helena by Joan Barril. I'm 65 pages in, and I'm really enjoying it so far. The other night, I read a few passages that I liked so much that I got out of bed to write them down in my notebook:

"Un dia vaig voler saber com eren els Reis i quan vaig treure el cap per la porta de la sala vaig descobrir la mare embolicant regals. Vaig maleir la meva curiositat, perquè a vegades el plaer del misteri és infinitament més gran que la certesa de tal com són les coses. Però la temptació de saber la veritat sempre és massa gran. Créixer és no negar-se a buscar."

"Créixer deu voler dir explorar i acceptar la vida tal com l'anem descobrint, fent-li preguntes amb la mateixa naturalitat amb què la vida ens dóna respostes."

Translated into English:

"One day, I wanted to find out what the Three Wise Men looked like, and when I peeked my head into the living room, I discovered my mother wrapping presents. I cursed my curiosity, because sometimes the thrill of mystery is infinitely greater than being certain about how things really are. But the temptation to know the truth is always even greater. To grow up is to not refuse to search."

"Growing up must mean exploring and accepting life as we find it, asking questions just as naturally as life gives us answers."

I didn't realize it at the time, but it is a very befitting concept to be pondering at the beginning of the Bahá'í month of Masá'il (Questions).

A Flag of Hands

A friend brought it to my attention that Juanes has a new album. One of the songs on it is called Bandera de Manos. Since I couldn't find an adequate translation of it into English, I decided to try my hand at it: (ha!)

A FLAG OF HANDS (Bonus Version)
Juanes, La Vida Es un Ratico

Let’s all make a flag
A flag with black hands
A flag with white hands
For a better world

Right now, let’s all make a flag
A flag with mixed hands
A flag with immigrant hands
For a better world

We’re tired of hearing
The same old outworn stories
Tired of so many unfulfilled promises
Let’s lift up our souls and voices

Let’s hold a demonstration of love
Show that war is no excuse to continue like this
Burning the skin of your hands,
Which are my hands
Of your soul, which is as my soul

How ironic life can be:
While thousands die of hunger
Our leaders buy arsenal and sow agony

Let’s all make one flag together
Let’s all break down barriers
For a better world
Right now, let’s sow peace
More justice, more dignity
Freedom, equality
For a better world

The original Spanish lyrics can be found here.

Flying

It was a blustery autumn day in Barcelona
The wind carried me on my boomerang
Past fallen palm branches
And motorcycles, lying in the fetal position on the pavement

Dried leaves scattering about
Sign posts wobbling to and fro
I zoom by effortlessly
Down the diagonal

Door County Syndrome

Those who know me well know that I put a lot of thought into most decisions, big or small. Whether picking classes, deciding on a paper topic, spending a gift certificate, or choosing tea, I usually take longer than normal to make up my mind. I even caught myself recently spending entirely too much time in the bottled water aisle at the supermarket. There were so many to choose from!

My dad has labelled this phenomenon "Door County Syndrome" and calls me on it from time to time. Many years ago, when I was younger, during a family camping trip to Door County, Wisconsin, we visited an ice cream shop that offered so many wonderful flavors. I probably vacillated for fifteen minutes trying to decide which one I wanted.

I was reminded of my syndrome when I read this yesterday, in a post on lifehack.org:

Embrace limits: There can be no creativity without limits. Sounds strange, but limits are the cause and reason of creativity...

Infinite choice is paralyzing; limits give us something to work with — or against — so we can at least get started.

The truth and wisdom in these words is astounding. Here are some examples of ways in which I embrace this philosophy:

1) Vegetarianism - After 8+ years of not eating meat, being a vegetarian has become very much my modus operandi, and it's mostly inertia that keeps me going. But from time to time I am reminded of the actual reasons why I restrict my diet thus. It's potentially healthier, better for the environment, less gross, etc. Another positive aspect, however, is that at restaurants it drastically reduces the number of menu items that I have to decide between. Sometimes it is a bummer when there are few or no veggie options, but I do a lot better with 4 choices than with 24.

2) Translation - I think one of the main reasons why I am so attracted to translation is that it allows for an incredible amount of creativity, but within bounds. The translator is very much a writer--he can and must be resourceful, play with words, re-express ideas in any of a number of ways, and exploit the subtleties of language, with one key restriction: the meaning of the original text must be preserved. Thus, I can write (which I have always enjoyed) without having to deal with the unpleasant "what am I going to write about" stage. Score!

Another area in which this concept of infinity vs. limits comes into play is entirely open-ended questions, which I abhor. I don't need you to formulate everything as a "yes" or "no" question, but give me something to work with, geez!