Thoughtful Thursdays, Stayed on Freedom with the Call of Freedom, and Public Libraries?

Libraries are part of the community gathering and information sharing system for all Americans that must not be forgotten, nor underfunded. 

So, how do we each help our society to become more fully inclusive for all of us, and to give more money for local branches of Public Libraries?

I believe that attention to connecting community institutions, like Public Libraries, may provide part of an answer.  I started a note about that, a few years ago, on page nine of my book Stayed on Freedom’s Call:

“Chapter 1: Shared Oppression, Shared Cultures, Shared
Resistance, Shared History Of Oppression:

“You accepted 400 years of oppression, I have just accepted three thousand years of
oppression!”

-African-American Dr. Jean Cahn, upon converting to Judaism, by permission, E. Cahn

   The rabbis say that it took one man plunging into the Sea and wading in
up to his neck before the waters parted and the Children of Israel were finally
able to be free. As Moses led the Hebrew slaves out of the land of Egypt, up
and out of bondage, so the Negro slaves looked to their faith, even as the
spiritual waters of oppression seemed to rise up to the necks of people of color,
both free and enslaved.

People of color formed communities in spite of the
oppressive atmosphere, overcoming great prejudice to do so, as mistrusted and
often denigrated Jewish citizens also had to do. From Benjamin Banneker in
1791, to Isaac Polock in 1795, the first non-White residents of the city faced
unique challenges, having to prove themselves to their White contemporaries.
In 1850, abolitionists and free people of color advocated for the rights of slaves,
while Captain Jonas P. Levy and the Sons of Israel fraternal members had to
advocate for the rights of Jews, overlooked in our very own treaties.
Just as free individuals and families of color formed connections in the Capital, as with…

Page 9″

So, it turns out that my endnote references to this page were too “dense” for some reviewers.  Some fresh reviews would help me decide that specific.

Page eight was last week…

Action Items:

1.) What are your thoughts on the function of libraries as community information centers?

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.

3.) Share your thoughts on how continuing empathy-building cooperation might help, or hinder, inclusive thinking.

4.) Write a story, post or tweet that uses those thoughts.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking at least for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write -one can add Stayed on Freedom’s Call via this

GoodReads button: ,  Vote, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

 

Nih sakh sh’lekk, sleem wa.   Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

ShiraDest

March, 2021 CE = March 12021 HE

(The last GED lesson 67/67 , and the first lesson 1/67…), and Babylon 5 review posts, and

Stayed on Freedom’s Call
(free: https://archive.org/details/StayedOnF…)
includes two ‘imagination-rich’ walking tours, with songs, of Washington, DC. New interviews and research are woven into stories of old struggles shared by both the Jewish and African-American communities in the capital city.

Shared histories are explored from a new perspective of cultural parallels and parallel institution-building which brought the two communities together culturally and historically.

Free copies are available at https://archive.org/details/StayedOnF…

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Wondering Wednesdays, Baby Acres, and Human Rights as Justice

This post  goes on to begin the rough draft of my current non-fiction WiP, Baby Acres: A possible Vision for Making Society Suck Less, in 60 Years.   (Thanks, once again, to JYP and Tammy for the title ideas!!)  The overall goal has been to lay out a roadmap for a fully inclusive society for all of us, so, I am turning, this week, to the introductory chapter, Chapter 0, of the book, in the hope that All HumanKind  will eventually have each person’s basic needs  met.  This book lays out one possible path for getting to that point.

Introduction part II: Peace and Justice

 

   Peaceful change revolves around various types of justice.  Social justice is perhaps the first type of justice that comes to mind, but economic justice, both of outcome and of opportunity, and also climate and other sorts of justice count heavily when considering the factors involved in building a just society.

 

  Social justice is one of the more obvious types of justice, or more visible, in terms of how we human beings treat one another.  The basic human rights to dignity, equal treatment under the law, and equal access to resources as seen in the right to due process, competent legal representation, etc, have been the focus of civil rights activism and litigation, most prominently in the 1960s, but reaching much farther back than that, in the United States (Jones, Stayed on Freedom’s Call, P. 20). Cooperation between many oppressed groups over time has led to a variety of policies aimed at addressing mistreatment of vulnerable people in public venues, often based on visible characteristics such as race, gender, etc.  The right to associate and travel, live in safe areas, access social venues, etc, has often been addressed, however, without actively acknowledging the fact that the realistic exercise of these rights is dependent upon the actual ability to pay for access to these rights, as most of our venues in the US require some form of entrance fee, or payment.  What often goes unaddressed, and ignored, is the right to economic justice that forms the bedrock of one’s ability to gain access to nearly all of these rights, in practical usage.  Yet, this lack of acknowledgment and action is not due to lack of warning.  Many have pointed out over the years that providing social justice, without providing economic justice, is paying mere lip service to the ideal of a just society.

 

   The calls for economic justice as part of social equity in the United States go back far, but a convenient start might be the most well known of those calls, from the 1960s.  In 1963,The March on Washington was a march for “jobs and freedom” as part of the long struggle to end Jim Crow, implemented both as social segregation, and also as economic segregation.  The economic part of Jim Crow, preventing most Negroes from working in most professional job positions, was the true motor of inequality, leading to both the formation and enforced permanence of a deliberately poverty-stricken underclass constantly obligated to accept any jobs offered by the dominant members of society.  The codification of this system based on skin color meant that even after the end, de Jure, of social Jim Crow, the majority of the members of that underclass remained stuck in the position of living in substandard housing and having to accept the lowest paying of jobs because the dominant culture had not changed, even when the laws did.  Thus, the legal ability to attend the same cinemas, the same schools, and the same concerts did not grant the financial ability do take advantage of these new rights.  Jim Crow was still, economically speaking, alive and well despite new social justice laws.  Many observers, from Dr. King himself, who called for a Citizen’s Income just a few years after that famous march (King, Where Do We Go From Here, 1967), to Joseph Stiglitz, to Steve Pressman, to Thomas Piketty, have continued to point out that economic inequality both hampers all forms of justice for vulnerable groups.  They also argue that economic inequality exerts increasing pressure toward injustice on all groups, from the dominant down to the most vulnerable, in that society.  Thus, social justice and economic justice must really be considered one: two sides of the same coin.

 

A society which would like to consider itself just toward all of its members, and indeed attempts to provide social and economic justice for all groups, would still be missing something crucial, if social and economic justice were the only types of justice to be considered.  While public goods such as libraries, health care, transportation, and education may be considered part of the social or economic spheres, these systems are also part of a set of pieces of social infrastructure which work in our society both as common touch stones, and as common points of concern.  Each person needs access to information, and to community level places for gatherings and  entertainment, provided by local libraries.  Each person needs health care, and the health of every resident in a society affects every other resident, from the hospital system right down to the sewage and water treatment systems.  Transportation is a concern that touches every resident as well, whether driving in a private car, or riding on a trolley, and the culture and education of every resident of a society inform how those modes of transportation will be used, or abused.  Yet, information and communication systems, sanitation, transportation, and even schools all impact the local environment, and also pull resources from the local environment.  And, as many Native American Tribal councils, like that of the Black Hills, in South Dakota, can confirm, not all lands are treated with equal care.  Thus, climate and land or commons based justice must also be considered, as part of the foundation of any just society.  Hence, social, economic, and commons based justice must all form part of any discussion or offering of a potential vision for a just society.  Those three fundamental forms of justice must also then be made tangible by codifying specific examples of what that might look like.  One offering of an example was given to us by a president who saw the need to end both segregation and to list necessary freedoms.

 

That is the rough draft of the first part of my introductory chapter. 

Last week was the third installment of this series…

Action Items:

1.) Search for two different sources related to visions for a better world.

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.

3.) Share your thoughts on how Commons Justice (or bad) can affect a society that might be built, in 50-100 years.

4.) Write a story, post or tweet that uses those sources and your thoughts.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind?

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write -one can add Stayed on Freedom’s Call via this GoodReads button:

, Vote, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

 

Nih sakh sh’lekk, sleem wa.   Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

ShiraDest

March, 2021 CE = March 12021 HE

(The previous lesson 51/67 , and the most recent lesson 52/67…)

Stayed on Freedom’s Call
(free: https://archive.org/details/StayedOnF…)
includes two ‘imagination-rich’ walking tours, with songs, of Washington, DC. New interviews and research are woven into stories of old struggles shared by both the Jewish and African-American communities in the capital city.

Shared histories are explored from a new perspective of cultural parallels and parallel institution-building which brought the two communities together culturally and historically.

Free copies are available at https://archive.org/details/StayedOnF…

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Thoughtful Thursdays, Stayed on Freedom with the Call of Freedom, and Pro-bono Adulting

Terms change over time.  So do laws.  Thus, the importance of a free and continuously self-updating public consumer legal local education system for all Americans  must not be underestimated. 

So, how do we each help our society to become more fully inclusive for all of us, with a fully inclusive system of free continuing financial education which includes updates on debt and tax laws for all of us (by state and/or locality…), and build the needed empathy to make that happen?

I believe that attention to terminology may provide part of an answer.  I noted that, a few years ago, on page eight of my book Stayed on Freedom’s Call:

“

*Notes:

This book will use the terms Colored, Negro, Black, and African-American interchangeably, depending on the time frame under discussion.

This refers to the terms which were in use during the periods in question.

Also, the term Community Cooperation will be defined here as institutional groups, such
as religious and community-based organizations, which bring people in the
aggregate together to cooperate or act together collectively, rather than simply
on the individual level.

Page 8″

So, it turns out that  this note refers to words that we no longer use, for the most part, today.  The sources I looked up used those terms, as they were often written during different time periods, but some authors seem to be using only the phrase African-Americans, these days, even when referring back to times when that phrase was not yet in use.  Some more reviews would help me decide that specific.

Page seven was last week…

Action Items:

1.) What are your thoughts on the importance of everyone having access to free and on-going legal and financial information, especially in the context of this pandemic and medical debts that many people have incurred as a result, and the next pandemic to come?

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.

3.) Share your thoughts on how continuing empathy-building cooperation might help, or hinder, inclusive thinking, and inclusive health care, and

4.) Write a story, post or tweet that uses those thoughts.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking at least for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write -one can add Stayed on Freedom’s Call via this

GoodReads button: ,  Vote, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

 

Nih sakh sh’lekk, sleem wa.   Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

ShiraDest

March, 2021 CE = March 12021 HE

(The last GED lesson 67/67 , and the first lesson 1/67…)

Stayed on Freedom’s Call
(free: https://archive.org/details/StayedOnF…)
includes two ‘imagination-rich’ walking tours, with songs, of Washington, DC. New interviews and research are woven into stories of old struggles shared by both the Jewish and African-American communities in the capital city.

Shared histories are explored from a new perspective of cultural parallels and parallel institution-building which brought the two communities together culturally and historically.

Free copies are available at https://archive.org/details/StayedOnF…

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Wondering Wednesdays, Baby Acres, and Human Rights as Equity

This post  goes on to begin the rough draft of my current non-fiction WiP, Baby Acres: A possible Vision for Making Society Suck Less, in 60 Years.   (Thanks, once again, to JYP and Tammy for the title ideas!!)  The overall goal has been to lay out a roadmap for a fully inclusive society for all of us, so, I am turning, this week, to the introductory chapter, Chapter 0, of the book, in the hope that All HumanKind  will eventually have each person’s basic needs  met.  This book lays out one possible path for getting to that point.

Introduction: Empathy-building as an ongoing part of all
4 Phases

Having cited some of the reasoning which led up to the inception of this project, we now delve into the foundational concepts behind each phase. Empathy-building, through various means, is a continual part of each phase, as without empathy, no society can be just or safe or kind.

This vision of one potential just society is based on the ideas that such a society must be defined by its levels of both empathy and of full respect for the Human Rights of every living person. Such rights as the right to equity, the right to help create peaceful change, and to have each of those four freedoms that President FDR spoke about, embody the essence of a just society. But that essence still requires some tangible way to measure the level of justice, change institutions and systems that need changing, and to define specific ideals upon which those justice seeking institutions build, and to what particular ends.

Human Rights must be the starting point for any society which seeks to be a just society.  The application of named rights for each human being in an equitable manner is essential for a
society to be truly just. Some way to measure that application is also necessary. John Rawls proposed a test for determining whether a given society could be considered just, via a thought experiment. While that test will neither be debated nor explained in full here, further exploration of his writings will show that his proposal involved imagining oneself, after having designed a just society, as being given the choice to become part of that society, but without any knowledge of the position in which one, personally, would enter it. Rawls suggested that if a person would not be willing to enter a given society with no knowledge, or under a thick veil of ignorance, as to what that person’s position would be in the society, then that society might not be a just society. For example, no reasonable person, not knowing what position he or she might have, would consent to become part of US society, because if the position of that person turns out to be one of a homeless person, then the lived experience of the vast majority of people who experience homelessness would indicate that entering society in that position would very nearly doom one’s chances in life. Thus, Rawls’ test would show that the current state of American society is not that of a just society. As many have pointed out. Like Noam Chomsky.

Chomsky and others have written many books and articles detailing a variety of critiques of US and other current societies, in terms of the damage that governments of the United States and other developed nations allow to be done in the name of economic competition. A just society must be just for its own citizens, and must also promote the ideals upon which it is founded in its dealings with other societies. On that basis, Chomsky finds that US treatment of other nations is especially unjust, and that injustice is a reflection of treatment withing US society of the most vulnerable communities within US society, as well, such as Black Americans, refugees, and women of all races. So, the treatment of citizens within a just society must also be mirrored by how that society treats those outside of its boundaries with whom it has dealings, as Chomsky points out on page 83 of his book Profits over People: unfairly vilifying and then crushing a nation for the sake of economic competition is unjust not only to those outside of a society, but even to those within the ‘winning’ society, as the reality of such behavior is evident even to small children, when viewed without the coloring of propaganda. The effects within US society, for example, of the embargo against Cuba over the long term, have been to harden views in some quarters against any compromise or opening of discussion on the topic, while others in American society have come to see hard-liners insistent on the embargo as both anti-Cuban and even anti-immigration. Thus, unfair treatment of outsiders by members of even a just society affects all members within that society, causing divisions and even justifying mistreatment of dissenting opinions, rendering that formerly just society unjust in the act. This shows that even a just society would have to have ways of interacting with other societies that set boundaries and spell out ideals to which all connected societies could aspire.

Eleanor Roosevelt, in helping to redact the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, drew heavily on the concept enshrined in the US Declaration of Independence “that all
men are created equal… that they are endowed with certain inalienable rights…” which include the right to be treated with equal dignity to that of every other human being, regardless of momentary state of being, such as poverty or wealth, gender, religion or lack thereof, etc. As crucial as to whom these rights apply, the document defined an international standard of what rights should be considered as basic to all human beings. The right not to be tortured is, for example, a basic human right which applies to each and every human being at all times and under all circumstances. Likewise with “the right to life, liberty, and security of person.”
Certain rights, such as that negating slavery, which is in direct contradiction to the 13th
Amendment to the US federal Constitution, were visionary in their global scope, considering that many nations had not yet completed the rebuilding from the destruction of the second world war, and even that of the first, the Great War. The UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights is thus a fitting starting point for our definition of what, in terms of tangible rights, a just society ought to look like. The definition of those rights does not, in itself, show us all of what a just society looks like, but it is a start, beginning at where we are today, from a documentary and international legal point of view. It shows that to build a truly just society, we do not really have that far to go. With a set of basic human right in place to which everyone around the world has agreed, in principle, we can move on to look at ways in which those rights could potentially be implemented in a way that would be equitable for all human beings on the planet. Given that the current global systems of finance, trade, etc, are clearly highly inequitable, a just society must therefore have mechanisms in place to allow the peaceful changing of the systems of governance, and even of government, allowing citizens within the society to change parts of the system of governing that show themselves to be unjust. Such peaceful revolution, though, revolves around several connected but distinct types of justice, and depends upon the ability of all citizens to make their voices heard in absolutely non-violent, non-threatening, and non- aggressive manners, so that all citizens can feel both heard, and protected.

That is the rough draft of the first part of my introductory chapter. 

Last week was the second installment of this series…

Action Items:

1.) Search for two different sources related to visions for a better world.

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.

3.) Share your thoughts on how good governance (or bad) can affect a society that might be built, in 50-100 years.

4.) Write a story, post or tweet that uses those sources and your thoughts.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind?

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write -one can add Stayed on Freedom’s Call via this GoodReads button:

, Vote, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

 

Nih sakh sh’lekk, sleem wa.   Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

ShiraDest

March, 2021 CE = March 12021 HE

(The previous lesson 51/67 , and the most recent lesson 52/67…)

Stayed on Freedom’s Call
(free: https://archive.org/details/StayedOnF…)
includes two ‘imagination-rich’ walking tours, with songs, of Washington, DC. New interviews and research are woven into stories of old struggles shared by both the Jewish and African-American communities in the capital city.

Shared histories are explored from a new perspective of cultural parallels and parallel institution-building which brought the two communities together culturally and historically.

Free copies are available at https://archive.org/details/StayedOnF…

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Day 59/67 of GED in Five Months, elements of an argument, and elements of a molecule

We use words every day, which many have different meanings in different contexts.  Pros, cons, and rebuttals are elements of a basic argumentative essay, while hydrogen and helium are basic chemical elements.  Language is important, and shouldn’t it be?

Today’s reading starts looking at one of the basic tools of understanding the world around us:

“The Periodic table characterizes the known elements in increasing order of atomic number. It starts on the top right hand corner with Hydrogen and continue from left to right which then repeats in the horizontal row below the last element. This is not just a list of elements it is organized in very different ways like properties and atomic mass. At first glance the periodic table may seem disorganized with only a couple elements on the top row and a block on the last row but it is very specific in the way that they are organized.”

 Week 16/18

Day 59 Lesson Plan, Week 16

Grammar: individual help to finish essay

Math: review linear inequalities

Science: Elements of life

Please see the Lesson plan for Day 59’s Exit Tickets

Action Items:  

1.) If you found a mistake, typo, or other concern with the web page you were reading, how would you find out who to contact in order to raise that concern?

2.) Please tell us where your information for your essay comes from, how you know that the sources are reliable, and who funded them,

3.) Write a book, story, blog post or tweet that uses your essay idea, and then, please tell us about it! If you write a book, once it is published please consider donating a copy to your local public library.

4.)  Feel free to answer the exit ticket questions in the comments, or pose any other questions you may have about the lesson, if you wish.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  &  for heavens sake: please #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19 (or even for good!)!:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write -one can add Stayed on Freedom’s Call via this GoodReads button:

, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

ShiraDest

January, 2021 CE = January 12021 HE

(Day 58 … Day 60)

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Day 59/67 of GED in Five Months, elements of an argument, and elements of a molecule

We use words every day, which many have different meanings in different contexts.  Pros, cons, and rebuttals are elements of a basic argumentative essay, while hydrogen and helium are basic chemical elements.  Language is important, and shouldn’t it be?

Today’s reading starts looking at one of the basic tools of understanding the world around us:

“The Periodic table characterizes the known elements in increasing order of atomic number. It starts on the top right hand corner with Hydrogen and continue from left to right which then repeats in the horizontal row below the last element. This is not just a list of elements it is organized in very different ways like properties and atomic mass. At first glance the periodic table may seem disorganized with only a couple elements on the top row and a block on the last row but it is very specific in the way that they are organized.”

 Week 16/18

Day 59 Lesson Plan, Week 16

Grammar: individual help to finish essay

Math: review linear inequalities

Science: Elements of life

Please see the Lesson plan for Day 59’s Exit Tickets

Action Items:  

1.) If you found a mistake, typo, or other concern with the web page you were reading, how would you find out who to contact in order to raise that concern?

2.) Please tell us where your information for your essay comes from, how you know that the sources are reliable, and who funded them,

3.) Write a book, story, blog post or tweet that uses your essay idea, and then, please tell us about it! If you write a book, once it is published please consider donating a copy to your local public library.

4.)  Feel free to answer the exit ticket questions in the comments, or pose any other questions you may have about the lesson, if you wish.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  &  for heavens sake: please #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19 (or even for good!)!:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write -one can add Stayed on Freedom’s Call via this GoodReads button:

, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

ShiraDest

January, 2021 CE = January 12021 HE

(Day 58 … Day 60)

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Thoughtful Thursdays, Health Care, and NaNoWriMo for mental health management?

While Universal Health Care would help many people managing a wide variety of illnesses, mental, emotional, and physical, there are stop-gap measures that one can take as an individual, as well.  Here is what I learned during NaNo2015WriMo…

–

My second practice novel actually started on Wattpad , but much easier to track the deadline on the NaNoWriMo2015 website, has taught me several things about managing Depression (or PTSD -> anger->depression, sort of…).

First: Making a deadline feels good, even if it is Just/Only YOUR deadline. You DID it.
Second: Physical activity every day, like running  or dance, etc, is, at least for me, imperative (and also read, and have a sun lamp).
Third: Making a deadline a second time, better than you did the first time, proves you can repeat the feat, thus showing discipline and perseverance. This makes me feel like less of a waste of oxygen, provided I can find a way to use that to help other folks.
Fourth:
Writing 1.) When writing your first/second/fifth practice novel, be sure to have a physical workout routine, preferably involving boxing gloves, AND several people to talk to about all of the crap your writing will drag out of you.

(Remember NOT to use the gloves on the people…)

Writing 2.) For me, at least, plan the ending first…
Writing 3.) Plan setting, time and weather for each scene, not just the plot!!
Writing 4.) Outline by scene, not by # of words (I outlined by 300wds, which ended up driving me nuts toward the end…)
Writing 5.) Do not write a chapter per file, it is a formatting nightmare to insert 18 files (one for each chapter) into one ‘book’ file on an exhausted day 28!
Writing 6.) Lay out the chapter plan on one large calendar in the same notebook (if at all possible) as the planning notebook (and resist the temptation to plan each chapter on small scraps of paper!! You cannot believe the number of scraps I now have floating around…).
7.) Start on day one, and don’t punish yourself for not planning ahead. A planner is not a pantser, and you will feel annoyed if try to write stream-of-consciousness just because you have 2000 words to finish That Day.

Better to take the day to plan out the next two scenes and write them the next day, at least for me.

I found that when I knew the time of day and year and weather as well as what the MC was supposed to do in the next couple of scenes, I could just imagine the flow and zap, 2000 words came out of no where (I did NOT say 2000 Good Words, but that is for the next 3 or 4 re-writes!!!).

and the real

Writing 7.) Set a new notebook aside for the 30-Day 50k challenge, because it will turn into at least a year, and probably 80k words. Before it goes back down to 60k again.

In Solidarity with All Kind People,
Peace via Cooperation and Non-Cooperation,

ShiraDest
29 November 12015 HE

Shira

–

 

So, it turns out that writing helps, but helps a lot more in the presence of a community of friends who are willing to act as family.  In the absence of such community, writing and walking or running can still help, but staying in the same place is not going to help, unless the region has a strong safety net for All residents (citizen or not).

Action Items in support of stop-gap writers:

1.) Consider whether a writer you knew was isolated, emotionally or physically.

2.) Did the writing show signs of emotional distress, and if so, how did the work show that distress?

3.) Were you able to find a way to reach out to that writer?,

4.) Did it seem to help?

Dear Readers, any additional ideas toward learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning as part of on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write

, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

 

Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

ShiraDest

End of NaNoWriMo 2020 CE

30th of November, 2020 CE = 12020 HE

(The previous lesson plan since this post, and the most recent lesson plan…)

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Ancient Greek Wednesday, pedal-powered writing, and Health Care

The ancient Greeks probably would have approved of the author who wrote her 2nd novel using a pedal-powered laptop. 

Why?  Well, not only was she keeping her mind sound by writing, and her body sound by pedaling, but she was also taking care of her intellectual health (if one considers writing to be related to emotional health) by using a new invention.  If we assume that such technology requires a bit of learning in order to use it, and a bit more learning in order to maintain it (as many of us who bought baseline stick-shifts in order to have a simple car that we could do repairs on ourselves if need be: oh, was I the only one who did that?).  So, you meet three of the basic criteria the ancient Greeks used for being a well-rounded person: mind, body and psyche.

What do you think, Good Readers, about well-roundedness, pedal-power, and Universal Health Care?

Happy End of NaNoWriMo 2020!

Action Items in support of well-rounded health that you can take right now:

1.) Search for two different ways to make a simple electric generator for a laptop.

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.

3.) Share your thoughts on how practical you find these ideas and whether you would use them,

4.) Write a book, blog post or tweet that uses this technology, tells a good story, and makes a difference. I’m working on that through my historical fantasy #WiP, #WhoByFireIWill. Once published, donate one or more copies to your local public library, as I intend to do.

Dear Readers, any additional ideas toward learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning as part of on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write -one can add Stayed on Freedom’s Call via this GR button:

, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

 

Yassas,   γεια σας!    

ShiraDest

November, 2020 CE = 12020 HE

(The previous lesson plan since this post, and the most recent lesson plan…)

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Moody Mondays, Community Cooperation, and Adulting Education

As part of the responsibility for knowing how cooperation had previously taken place in order to improve cooperation in our present and future, I recommend that you read my free and short book:

–

Seeking reviews for my second book, available for free, on Community Cooperation and shared history in the Nation’s Capital (applicable all across the USA):

GoodReads (the Archive link is in the GR book description)

Open Archive: https://archive.org/details/StayedOnFreedomsCall

WP : https://shiradest.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/stayed-on-freedoms-call.pdf

ShiraDest, in the year 12015 HE

Edit:  1st Walking Tour: Early Integration Neighborhoods of DC -Shepherd Park
Many thanks to those who joined us for this tour today!
Join us, if you missed this one, or again!, on Sunday, 8 Jan. 2012!!
Please feel free to leave feedback and suggestions for me on the reply comments below!
Peace.  Join us for a musical walk back in time, to the turbulent times of BlockBusting and Cooperative struggle to integrate neighborhoods, drawing together White, Jewish and Black neighbors to form a new and unique thing of beauty.
(The response to this tour, particularly by Andra, inspired me to continue with the Black-Jewish Cooperation Tours, and then to write the book…)
Read, Write, Dream, Teach !

ShiraDest
23 February, 12016 HE

–

Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

Action Items in support of literacy and hope that you can take right now:

1.) Download Stayed… in your favorite format from the Archive (see GoodReads description for the link),

2.) Share your thoughts on the book  with us in the comments, here, please.

3.) Share your thoughts as a review on your GoodReads please!

4.) Write a book, blog post or tweet that uses something from Stayed, tells a good story, and makes a difference. I’m working on that through my historical fantasy #WiP, #WhoByFireIWill. Once published, donate one or more copies to your local public library, as I intend to do.

Dear Readers, any additional ideas toward learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning as part of on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write

, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

ShiraDest

NaNoWriMo 2020 CE

November, 2020 CE = 12020 HE

(The previous lesson plan since this post, and the most recent lesson plan…)

Thoughtful Thursdays and is organization a sign of poor Self-Health Care?

Or the lack of organisation?

And a side comment on the need for Universal Health Care: writing is so often fraught with the dangers our past traumas uncover, or prevent us from covering, that yet another reason we need far more accessible, affordable, and long-term trauma (especially childhood based and C-PTSD trained trauma specialists) therapy, for everyone.

In working on the various versions of my first NaNo (2012) novel, I ended up wishing that I’d written it all out on paper:

–

Organisation is definitely another key element of writing a novel. Too many backup files and changes in one directory make for lost edits -a novelist’s nightmare. This is why I prefer paper.

Here is the real Draft #6, with major changes to the chapter headings, and far cleaner prose, but still two main hero(ine)s.

And then I submitted a (very bad) synopsis:

Submitting old material -ouch! This, submitted yesterday, was what I thought was a synopsis of my most recent Draft, but is actually a major revision ago! (Book of The Catalyst, i.e., is now Book of Hayat!!)
Too late.
Synopsis: “Creator, Friend or Foe? Book One -Beginnings

by Shira Destinie Jones

Chapter 1. Before The Beginning/Encounters
In the moment … Worst place to be; Alone? Why bother to exist?
-from “The Book Of The Catalyst Of Illumination”

An energy being, the Ancient One, lonely, forces a younger energy being to join him.

Chapter 2. Cooperation Lost
Community is one of the key values in our philosophy, because constructively cooperative and fully inclusive community strengthens the ability of every being to reach its full creative and loving potential. -from “The Book Of The Catalyst Of Illumination”

The Ancient One insists on running an experiment which the younger considers unethical, leading to his deception and then banishment of the younger being.
Chapter 3. Light Bearer
“Just as a catalyst is not the end result, but merely what triggers or brings about the process leading to that result, so light is not the end result, but rather makes it possible to arrive at the goal.” -from “The Book Of The Catalyst Of Illumination”

The Ancient lonely, unlocks the parallel universe to which he had bannished the younger, then pressures the younger being, now called The Light Bearer, to help him carry out his ‘sentient-biengs’ experiment.

Chapter 4. Stages
Cultivating seed / Cultivating a friendship … Sounding the depths -from “The Book Of The Catalyst Of Illumination”
They create a universe with Guardians for the galaxies and animals. Disagreements as to how the experiment should be run keep tension muted, displayed visually/ironically.

Chapter 5. Evolving Creation
Hold the Creator to account
For his misbegotten creation
For his ill-conceived plan
-from “The Book Of The Catalyst Of Illumination”

The Light Bearer argues for patience, fights the orders given by the Ancient One. Humanity’s intelligence is helped along, despite argument over interference in the experiment, breaking a fundamental rule, and increasingly violent confrontations. Man is modified, monitored, then threatened lightly before a female is created as his companion. A key agreement:

”Then we shall take care to intervene as necessary to prevent or correct gross abuses, and instill a code of ethics as they develop. The guardians will help see to it. You have my word, Young Creatrix. Proceed as you wish.”

”I am not sure I trust your word, …” and woman, as soon as she is created, falls in love with The Creatrix, instead of the man.

Chapter 6. How Rage Took Form
By all of the turmoil, roiling
By every good thought, turned
…
My case shall be heard
-from “the Book Of The Catalyst Of Illumination”

Various guardians argue amongst themselves, pick sides with the Ancient One or the Light Bearer, show contempt or love for humanity after an earth-scorching argument between Creator and Creatrix. Creatrix must decide: risk her destruction and that of the experimental universe for justice. Small tendril of rage begins to form self-awareness.

Chapter 7. Eternal Love (thought I’d changed this chptr name)
Quiero hacerte temblar
Sentir nuestros pechos juntos…
-from “The Book Of The Catalyst Of Illumination”

Light Bearer asks woman how she plans to build a world with the first man, getting ideas of children
and family, shared land, with a mischievous cat in the way. Woman kisses L.B. And is gently put off, for humanity’s own good. Romantic tension begins. Same-sex marriage in community context agreed good, full potential for all children via cooperation. Love-making scene after caution.

Chapter 8. Mars and Venus
“My quest, though stopped
Is not yet done…”
-from “The Book Of The Catalyst Of Illumination”

Man develops, Creator gives orders, LB protective of creation, especially of the First Woman, wary of loving her, as she must marry the man. Rage-monster gains in power. (this is cut out of the novella…)

Woman explores and names animals and plants with several different words, but man uses his own word for each animal/plant, and yells at woman when she speaks differently. LB wants to protect, hindered by Creator, who insists on observation only.

Chapter 9. The Bet
“I play the role You bid, Mourning within
Each failure, Every loss,
Despairing, each time I ‘win’”.
-from “The Book Of The Catalyst Of Illumination”

The Creatrix sends woman on learing quests. Creator insists humans mate immediately. Parting of ways over planned tests of endurance once human population is large enough.
Marriage ritual used to delay forced procreation.

Story told to build a sense of cooperation, and gave a power to the oldest women then sad parting.

Ominous entity watching. Creator growing more impatient as LB works to bring man and woman together gently to avoid worse fate.

Chapter 10. Expelled
How I long to climb
To go up to the mountain
There to rest, and reflect.
-from “The Book Of The Catalyst Of Illumination”

Creator pissed off, LB fights to prevent rape of woman by man, gives knowledge to woman, who shares with man, causing Creator to expell both into cold area, sending LB into hiding. Ominous rage entity hiding with humans, waiting. Everyone is miserable. Flaming sword = volcano, various guardians are demoted or promoted, first woman is named Hayat, children, misses Creatrix. Hayat starts to create writing, arguments grow over languages and names and stories. First murder, kidnapping, punishment, rape.
Her guardian began to cry.

Chapter 11. Thinking of Escapes
Your place of birth marks you … Whether you like it or not.
-from “The Book Of The Catalyst Of Illumination”

Aclima remembers childhood, longs to go home, to mother Hayat, endures abuse. Hayat refuses to have other children, is finally persuaded by L.B. To save all by having more sons. But on condition of being together w/L.B. At end of Hayat’s life.
Rage entity openly in charge of city.

Chapter 12. How Tyrants Fall
When I arise, trembling,
It shall be with sword drawn
To see justice done.
-from “The Book Of The Catalyst Of Illumination”

City is tyranny, ready to make war on first family. Aclima kills brother.

Chapter 13. Becoming Artemis
I will arise, again, to fight … As the light always returns
So do I, to the strugle. -from “The Book Of The Catalyst Of Illumination”

Entity stunned, Aclima flees, guardians confused.

Chapter 14. The Pleasant Drummer
Put aside your rages, righteous, true
No more can they help now, only harm
-from “The Book Of The Catalyst Of Illumination”

Guardians negotiate while women run, soldiers pursue, names change. Back West, missing messengers sent to city to reconcile family provoke worry.

Chapter 15. Discoveries
Your fury, Father, I feel
your anger, I know
-from “The Book Of The Catalyst Of Illumination”

Son of first murderer discovers body, orders executions. Back West, first man and woman still trying to have more children, with L.B.’s help. L.B. Intercepting guardian messages to keep Creator from destroying everyone. Destroys rage entity. Creator losing control of his secret.

Chapter 16. Contention in the Wind
Let my wings embrace you
As my arms
Hold each part of you…
-from “The Book Of The Catalyst Of Illumination”

Guardians arguing, manipulating humans, amassing power.

Lilith ritual prepared.

Chapter 17. Heroes and Lies
“Alas, how few
True words are heard.”
-from “The Book Of The Catalyst Of Illumination”

Aclima/Artemis and Naamah found after Lilith ritual in city. Allowed to leave as exiles, on pain of death.

Chapter 18. Home Comings
“Hold me tightly, gently
…
Tell me that all will be well”
-from “The Book Of The Catalyst Of Illumination”

Reunion of first mother and daughter, romantic possibilities with Naamah and young man, funerals, leaving to form new community. Lawlessness and mixing among human beings and hybrid guardian offspring leads Ancient Warrior, destroy all:

“Tell the Light Bearer that I am amenable to allowing the children of her precious first woman to continue, if she insists, through the family of this Reposo, who seems to be the best of the lot. He is the only one who has found my favor, so if she insists on continuing this experiment, it must be with him. If the young Creatrix agrees, then perhaps my compassion will overcome my judgment. Now go.”

Fin “

–

 

But now, it turns out that I have too many small bits of paper floating around with too many different colors (I had a color mark-up system until I lost one of my colored markers in a move earlier this year).

I can also see, now, that this is not a proper synopsis format.  I’m not sure why that was unclear to me earlier, but I have read a bit more now, and my situation is also rather different, as well.

I got encouragement from 3 friends to try submitting right away, back in 2013:

A friend likes this novel alot, having critiqued draft #5: “Well, the story will never “date”, for one thing–someone can read this and
> not necessarily know when it was written. they might know it is based on Old
> Testament if they are familiar, but they do not have to know in order to
> enjoy the story. Plus there are cool elements in this story that show how
> religion in many ways is universal and descended from a common source. The
> multi-armed goddess and the women decorated in henna, the use of the various
> languages to nod to our ancestry and give an opinion on masculine and
> feminine language, thought, etc…plus the dialogue is often quite funny,
> and all of this breathes life into an ancient story.”

which I think pushed me to submit as I was in the process of one of the largest moves in my life. Since I feared losing all of the material that I’d worked on, it made sense at the time, but I can see the problems with it now.

It’s been so tiring that all I really want to do is throw up my hands and simply write, yet I’m terrified of going through this horrible 2012-2015 editing experience all over again!  More on my continuing striving with writing next time, friends:

Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

Action Items in support of writing that you can take right now:

1.) Remind me again, please, why I should draft my new novel now?

Dear Readers, any additional ideas toward learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning as part of on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write

, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

 

ShiraDest

NaNoWriMo 2020 CE

November, 2020 CE = 12020 HE

(The previous lesson plan since this post, and the most recent lesson plan…)