The Truth..Through Relation

Martin Buber was an “Austrian-Jewish theologian and philosopher” influenced by Hasidism (a Jewish mystical movement) in Eastern Europe. Buber went through this scenario, having a vision he originally interpreted as a mystical union with God. Buber later reinterprets his vision to be more in line with traditional Jewish understandings of relation with God. From Buber’s experiences he wrote “I and Thou” to ruminate his theological and philosophical ethic of relation and dialogue (a product of his reflection on his experience). Through experience with this religion Buber forms a relational ethic towards God and Human relations. Buber views God and Human’s as being in a mutual dialogue of I-thou relation. This I-thou relation helps complete creation. Maurice Friedman clarifies Buber’s ideas: “If God did not need man, if man were simply dependent and nothing else, there would be no meaning to man’s life or to the world. ‘The world is not divine sport, it is divine destiny.’”

The Eternal Thou needs humans for relation and existence. For Buber all human I-Thou relation culminates in the Eternal Thou. The Eternal Thou instills grace through which all other I-Thou relation is possible. Buber insists “extended lines of relations meet in the eternal Thou.” Buber characterizes all relational I-thous between humans are in one sense fodder for the fire of divine relation. With each I-thou relation we get “a glimpse through to the eternal Thou.” Therefore, humans may access the divine by entering into the relational I-thous where “the primary word addresses the eternal Thou.” Buber sees God in every human being and the ultimate gift of God is a mutuality of dialogue in I-thou relation where the eternal Thou allows the “inborn Thou” to be realized. The “inborn Thou” is God’s presence inside of humanity allowing man to use the primary world I-thou and rise above the I-It world.

Martin Buber utilizes dialogue symbolism to highlight the inherent important of I-Thou relation to expose God’s need of humanity to fulfill existence. The I-Thou relation creates a conversation between God and people. Think of God speech as happening “solely alongside or above the everyday.” Yet, God’s speech “penetrates” all of the world, life, history and present. God’s speech transforms all importance into “instruction, message, demand” for humanity. Buber insists all life and events is a confrontation urging man to make a choice in the world of how to relate. Thereby all life and events are “enabled and empowered by the personal speech of God to demand of the human person that he take his stand and make his decision.” This demand on the human person to make a decision deals with the complex need of God for humanity. As Buber continually asserts all real existence is relation. God’s existence is contingent upon the relation of humanity. True existence and relation is fulfilled by God and given by God to the mutual benefit of both parties. Such a need of God is not arbitrary or limiting. God self-imposes this need on himself to allow for mutuality, relation and existence. Buber passionately insists I-Thou relation fulfils Human existence, calling humans to share mutuality with God to “speak of it, bears witness[to], and calls to witness him to whom he speaks—whether that witness is now or in the future” of God’s existence.

Just a recipe for all those Cheesecake Lovers...

Extremely Delicious...give it a shot. Make it let it set over night have a piece for breakfast the next morning with a deep dark cup of strong coffee. MMMMM...Que Magnific!

Sicilian Ricotta Cheesecake
INGREDIENTS
2 pounds whole milk ricotta cheese , drain in cheesecake
2/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
6 eggs
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons orange zest or lemon zest
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt or instead of cinnamon, orange zest and vanilla use 1/3 cup amaretto

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Set rack in the middle of the oven. Butter and flour a 9 1/2 inch springform pan, and tap out excess flour.
Place the ricotta in a large mixing bowl, and stir it as smooth as possible with a rubber spatula. Stir the sugar and flour together thoroughly into the ricotta. Stir in the eggs 1 at a time. Blend in the vanilla, cinnamon, orange zest, and salt. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
Bake in the center of the oven for about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, until a light golden color. Make sure the center is fairly firm, and the point of a sharp knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. It will sink slightly as it cools. Cover, and chill till serving time.

#1 on my list of things I'd like to see before I die...

Wieliczka Salt Mine

These polish salt mines are on my list of places to see before I die. They are completely fascinating. I first heard of the Wieliczka mine on a history channel special about odd places in the world. Its funny that places so capture a persons interest.

Wieliczka is in the town of Krokaw in southern Poland. Polish people began to mine salt since the late 13th century. The mine is a vast labriynth of over 200 km of underground passages, connecting more than 2000 excavation chambers on 9 underground levels extending down to 327m.

Miners spent most of their lives down in the mines. Spending all waking hours in the caverounous mines, they began to carve sculptures, chapels, religious icons...etc out of the salt deposits. Consequently, the mine contains numerous underground churches, altars, reliefs, and life-size or larger statues. The quality of this art is amazing. They are gorgeus like they are from the Cathedrals in rome.

It also houses an underground museum a sanatorium for people suffering from respiratory ailments, a soccer field, dance hall, huge dinning hall and other special rooms. The largest of the chapels is call ed the Chapel of the Blessed Kinga. The Chapel is 101 meters below the surface... over 50 meters long, 15 meters wide, 12 meters high, with a volume of 10,000 cubic meters.

I just hope, I can see it before I die....its on my BUCKET LIST...

The French...Well....Of Course...

Who would have guessed? I had no idea...I wouldn't have guessed any type of glass could be modeled after this...it can't be true can it? I mean champagne glass are not shaped like that....if they were I am afraid lots more people would be getting tipsy on the bubbly. Its not all that plausible...but isn't Marie-Antointette the queen who said "if there isn't enough bread...Let them eat cake?" Now remember next time your sipping champagne...wine or sparkling cider...and ask, Who modeled for these? Just think of the American glass choices...Madonna? Beyonce? Speares? I may have to give up drinking wine from beautiful crystal goblets...maybe start using dixie cups...

The Champagne Glass and the Breast Diane de Poitiers'? Marie-Antoinette's? Lee Miller's?
By Tony Perrottet

How best to worship the perfect breast? Men have long dreamed of sipping fine wine from their lovers’ busts cast in glittering crystal. In antiquity, a temple on the island of Rhodes displayed a goblet believed to have been modeled on the breasts of Helen of Troy by her paramour Paris. In the Middle Ages, love-besotted French king Henry II had his wine cups fashioned on the “apple-like” breasts of Diane de Poitiers. And in the late 1700s, the legend sprang up that Queen Marie-Antoinette’s breasts were the model for the shallow, broad-rimmed champagne coupes that are still often used today. (Although the modern fashion is more for the tall, thin and very un-breast-like champagne flutes).

There is no evidence at all that this is true of Marie-Antoinette, although the Queen did have a passion for bubbly. If nothing else, her ample figure, admired by her letch of a father-in-law King Louis XV and others, would have provided a higher-volume glass than the shallow coupes. But the royal breast-stemware connection may have begun with another, slightly more plausible story: Marie-Antoinette definitely did have a set of breast-shaped porcelain milk bowls created for her by the French porcelain factory, Sèvres – and tradition holds that they were modeled on her own. Known as the jattes tetons, the creamy white gourds balance on a tripod base that is decorated with carved goat’s heads.

Marie-Antoinette was a devotee of the “back-to-Nature” movement that brought breast-feeding back into fashion in France, and she had ordered the cups for use at her fairy-tale dairy Rambouillet, where the queen liked to dress up as a shepherdess and frolic with her children and ladies-in-waiting. The shamefully expensive service was delivered during the troubled year of 1788, the year before the Revolution exploded.

If the story is true, the cast of the Queen’s breast would probably have been made from wax under the control of one Jean-Jacques Lagrenée, the factory’s co-artistic director. The four original bowls survive in the Musée National de Céramique de Sèvres in Paris, and the porcelain company still makes reproductions for connoisseurs.

SOURCE/FURTHER READING: Yalom, Marilyn, History of the Breast, (New York, Knopf 1997); Caroline C Yung, “Marie-Antoinette’s Dairy at Rambouillet,” Antiques Magazine, (October, 2000); Antonia Fraser, Marie Antoinette: The Journey, (New York, Doubleday 2002).

A New Contender

The most recent breasts supposed to have inspired champagne coupes belong to the American model and photographer Lee Miller. As she cut a swathe through 1930s Paris as the lover of surrealist artist Man Ray, Miller was widely regarded to have the most beautiful breasts in the city – thus, it’s said, inspiring a French glass company to model a new coupe on her form. Miller’s lovely figure appeared in many Man Ray images, but was discreetly hidden when, as a war photographer in 1945, she posed nude in Hitler’s bathtub in liberated Munich.

Emu Update!

They are so darling...it a prehistoric way....they remind me of those PBS and BBC specials on prehistoric life forms. They are geniunely from another variety than that of your average everyday pets. In the first couple of days of their life with me...they both tried to hange themselves in the fence....in response anothor roll of fencing went up to save them from an untimely death. A few days later one tried to jump out and broke a claw...they have sharp little claws...they have real rippers. Now....the little darlings have quadrupled in size since they were hatchlings. They are about 3 feet tall now....about 1/3 of the size of their parents.

Now for all you terribly interested people...especially....Maxxo...Here are a few quick Emu facts:

• Emu's are part of the Ratite family
• Their scientific name: Dromaius novaehollandiae
• Reach an adult height of 6 to 6' 3" (1.9 metres)
• An Adult wait of 85lbs(55kg)
• Run close to 40 mph in adulthood
• Can jump nearly sixty feet in maturity
• Lay eggs and sexually mature at 3 to 4 years of age
• Each egg contains about 3 cups of goo...yolk ant whites
• Drink like a duck
• Love to roll in mud and play in sprinklers
• Have a 3 hour digestive system
• Eats almost anything: nearly 1 to 2 lbs a piece...even as chicks!

What do they eat?
Alfalfa, Weeds, Apples, Dog food, Chicken mash, corn, bread, rolled oats, greens, peas...just about anything including shiny things if they get the chance...bugs, lizards, small snakes...but not usually. My little darlings like Turkey finisher, bread, Weeds, and Cabbage. They especially go nuts for leafy veggies.

Where do you get Emu Chicks?
That all depends where you live. I bought mine from an old man who lived in the country. His Emu's raised the chicks. I paid $25 a piece.

How can you tell if they are male or female?
I don't know...you need to be a lot more experience than me to tell...you can't just ask.

They grow up so fast!

Money, Money, Money

My words exactly....Well sort of...even if it was recorded by Abba in 1976 and sung beautifully by the beautiful Anni-Frid Lyngstad. Maybe I am a swede at heart? Nah...great minds think alike...that is me and the writers of the song Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus.

I work all night,
I work all day,
to pay the bills I have to pay,
Aint it sad,
And still there never seems to be a single penny left for me,
Thats too bad,
In my dreams I have a plan,
If I got me a wealthy manI wouldnt have to work at all,
Id fool around and have a ball...

Money, money, money,
Must be funny,
In the rich mans world,
Money, money, money,
Always sunny,
In the rich mans world,
Aha-ahaaa,
All the things,
I could do,
If I had a little money,
Its a rich mans world,

A man like that is hard to find but I cant get him off my mind,
Aint it sad,
And if he happens to be free I bet he wouldnt fancy me,
Thats too bad,
So I must leave,
Ill have to go,
To las vegas or monaco,
And win a fortune in a game,
my life will never be the same...

Money, money, money,
Must be funny,
In the rich mans world,
Money, money, money,
Always sunny,
In the rich mans world,
Aha-ahaaa,
All the things I could do,
If I had a little money,
Its a rich mans world,

Money, money, money,
Must be funnyIn the rich mans world,
Money, money, money,
Always sunny,
In the rich mans world,
Aha-ahaaa,
All the things I could doIf I had a little money,
Its a rich mans world,
Its a rich mans world.

What A World....How True!