Daily Zen - Thursday, October 18

When you get there, there isn't any there there.
     
                  ~ Gertrude Stein

Daily Zen - Wednesday, October 17

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth. 

                      ~ John F. Kennedy

Daily Zen - Tuesday, October 16

If you shut your door to all errors, truth will be shut out.
                   
                 ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Daily Zen - Monday, October 15

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the unknown place where it leads. 

                      ~ Erica Jong

Weekend Zen, October 13-14

Who am I to blow against the wind? 

               ~ Paul Simon

Celebrating National Coming Out Day and Remembering Matthew Shepard

This is a 2018 update of an article that was originally published in October 2011.

What a strange coincidence that the celebratory National Coming Out Day event occurs each year on October 11, the day before the anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death.

At the risk of dampening the uplifting message of NCOD, I like to use this time each year to remember Matthew, and in so doing, bring attention to the enormous need we have for greater tolerance in our society, as well as the importance of showing support for those among us who struggle to accept their own sexuality.

Matthew Shepard

Matthew Shepard was 21 years old when he died twenty years ago on October 12th, 1998.

He was one of two sons born to his mother Judy and his father Dennis, along with his younger brother Logan.

He was a student at the University of Wyoming. He loved politics and traveling.

He was a slight kid, measuring only 5'3" tall and weighing not much more than 100 pounds. Matthew was gay.

Just after midnight on one cold night in early October, Matthew met Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson at the Fireside Lounge in Laramie, Wyoming. Under the guise of giving Matthew a ride home, the two men, also both in their early twenties, drove Matthew to a ranch in a remote area outside of Laramie.

It was in this secluded setting on the outskirts of town where McKinney and Henderson brutally pistol whipped Matthew and beat him savagely. They delivered repeated blows to Matthew's head, which fractured his skull in multiple places and left more than a dozen lacerations on his face and neck. The two men pummeled Matthew so badly that his brain was no longer able to regulate his heart rate, body temperature, or other vital functions.

The fence.

And when they were finished ruining this young man, McKinney and Henderson took his wallet and shoes, tied him to a fence, and left him to die alone in the near freezing darkness of a cold Wyoming night.

Eighteen hours later, Matthew was discovered by a cyclist who found him tied to the fence, and who at first, believed him to be a scarecrow. Matthew was taken to the hospital where his injuries were deemed too severe for doctors to operate. He survived a few days in intensive care, never regaining consciousness, and having no chance to say goodbye to his mother, father or brother, before he was pronounced dead at 12:53 a.m. on October 12.

The world has changed dramatically in the twenty years since Matthew's murder.
 

Daily Zen - Friday, October 12

Will is of little importance, complaining is nothing, fame is nothing. Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything. 

                    ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Daily Zen - Thursday, October 11

In a perfect world, I don't think it [one's sexual orientation] is anyone else's business, but I do think there is value in standing up and being counted. 

                ~ Anderson Cooper

Daily Zen - Wednesday, October 10

Sometimes we look for those thunderous things to happen...for our lives to change or go in the other direction. We seek the parting of the seas, the moving of the mountains. But no, it's a quiet thing.

                    ~ Ben Vereen

Daily Zen - Tuesday, October 9

You're just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You've got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It's all down to you, mate. 

                   ~ John Lennon

Daily Zen - Monday, October 8

The power of a man's virtue should be measured not by his special efforts, but by his ordinary doing.

                   - Blaise Pascal

Forgiving a Serial Killer (And Saving Yourself)

Linda Rule, 1966-1982

I can think of nothing more cruel in this world than having your child brutally raped and murdered.

Robert Rule doesn't have to wonder how that might feel - he is the father of Linda Rule, a sixteen year-old girl who was a victim of Green River serial killer Gary Ridgway. 

At Ridgway's trial, after he was convicted of murdering 49 women, Mr. Rule and family members of other victims were given the opportunity to address the killer directly.

Understandably, the suffering and anguish of those who lost loved ones was clearly on display, as one family member after another wished a painful death on Ridgway and assured the killer that an eternity in Hell awaited him.

The rape and murder of a child is an event of such horrific magnitude and power that it would surely shatter any parent, leaving them broken, bitter, and empty - with a life in ruins.

It's hard to imagine anything strong enough to heal that kind of wound. How could anyone move forward from that kind of awful destructive grief? How could you fight such permanent darkness?

Apparently, there is a way.

It's an unthinkably difficult path that perhaps runs counter to our most fundamental instincts - but it's probably the only way out, and when Robert Rule spoke to Gary Ridgway, he illuminated it brilliantly.

I have never seen the power of forgiveness and human kindness so simply and honestly displayed.

Weekend Zen, October 6-7

         Get mad, then get over it. 

 

                   ~ Colin Powell

Facts About Jobs Before and Since Obama (September 2012 - Election Edition)

UPDATE (NOV 4 2012): October 2012 employment results were released on Friday 11/2/2012. The 170,000 jobs created exceeded expectations and are a sign of continued consistent recovery.

ORIGINAL POST (OCT 2012)

While GOP conspiracy theorists (like former General Electric CEO Jack Welch) embarrass themselves with baseless allegations that the White House somehow manipulated the numbers, President Obama spent the day touting the undeniably positive facts included in the Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

1. September saw 114,000 new jobs added, making it the 31st consecutive month of private sector job growth. 
2. The unemployment rate dropped dramatically from 8.1% to 7.8%, the lowest point in four years. (Notably, this month's decline was NOT due to workers who "gave up" and dropped out of the workforce.)
3. The economy has added 5.2 million jobs since March 2010.

Chart created by Steve Benen of Maddow Blog, using BLS numbers

A few months of consecutive private sector job growth might be luck, but thirty-one consecutive months of increases is an undeniable positive trend that is evidence of a steadily improving economy and the directional correctness of our nation's economic policy.

Romney and his GOP supporters can (and probably should) continue to key on the unacceptable pace of the economic recovery, but results like these take much of the sting out of any election season barbs they throw at the President.

In a November 2011 post, I said that Obama only needed continued consistent forward motion in U.S. labor results to re-secure his place in the White House for four more years. With this year's employment trends, which have been capped off nicely by September's significant reduction in the nation's unemployment rate, I stand by my prediction.

Daily Zen - Friday, October 5

To fly we have to have resistance. 

                     ~ Maya Lin

Turn of Phrase - Federer Receives Death Threat

"On October 6, I plan to assassinate Federer for the purpose of tennis extermination." 

- From a threatening message posted on baidu.com under the name Blue Cat Polytheistic Religion Founder 07. 

The message, which was published on a popular Chinese website, was accompanied by an image showing a decapitated Roger Federer on his knees on a tennis court, with a masked executioner holding an axe next to him.

Federer and his family recently arrived in China in advance of the Shanghai Masters tennis event. In light of the threat, tournament organizers have stepped up security around Federer, as well as other players. 

Why anyone would want to assassinate Roger Federer, a gracious and well-liked international tennis star who is essentially a-political and non-controversial, is beyond me. I have to assume there is some heavy-duty lunacy afoot in China.

Daily Zen - Thursday, October 4

Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. 

                ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Daily Zen - Wednesday, October 3

Don't be dismayed at goodbyes, a farewell is necessary before you can meet again and meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends. 

                    ~ Richard Bach

Daily Zen - Tuesday, October 2

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. 

                 ~ Ernest Hemingway

Daily Zen - Monday, October 1

It's only in uncertainty that we're naked and alive.

                   ~ Peter Gabriel