Monthly Archives: June 2009

Reminder – Theano’s Day (blog about a female philosopher) this Wednesday the 24th

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Theano’s Day, the international day to blog about a female philosopher, past or present, of your choice, is this Wednesday, June 24th. If you would like to participate, simply write a post of any length using whatever blogging or social networking software you already use to talk about the contributions of any woman philosopher. You may comment here with a link to your post and we’ll compile all the posts together on the 24th into one place for easy reading.

The woman you pick does not have to be primarily known for her philosophical work – and Theano was actually picked as a mascot because she represents a work/life balance. As Pythagoras’ wife she helped him raise five children and put together writings on a wide variety of topics, including advanced mathematics, child-raising, and the role of proportion and balance in art/aesthetic theory. The point is that people who tackle the Big Questions – who we are as living beings, our place in the universe, theories of knowledge and how we know what we know, freedom and destiny, etc can still be people with lives and families and other responsibilities. They’re just people who chose to follow that intellectual path and extended the logical framework with some new ideas.

Theano’s Day is intended to honor the contributions of people throughout history who may have had some worthwhile or logical ideas but were not properly recognized for whatever reason. And to stimulate interest in the field of philosophy in general…with the world economic crisis people are turning away from financial/moneymaking enterprises and finding themselves out of work more often than before, and perhaps philosophy is a field which can continue to move ahead as it is dependent more on thought, study, and communication than expensive technology. There is more to life than financial success … coming back to valuing thought and philosophy might bring some balance back into our societies. With the world in the state it’s in, perhaps rediscovering old and unexplored, or looking into new ideas might lead us down different and better paths.

Anyway, everyone here is welcome to participate in Theano’s Day – you may visit the Pledge Bank site for more information or just simply blog on the 24th and comment with the link so we can compile the posts!

Pledge Bank site: http://www.pledgebank.com/theanosday

Here’s a list of a few women philosophers to get you started: http://www.women-philosophers.com/

Site about current women philosophers: http://portal.unesco.org/shs/en/ev.php-URL_ID=10740&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Some women to start with if you need help thinking of someone: Hypatia of Alexandria (mathematician and scholar), St. Catherine (mystic and humanitarian), Sor Juana (Mexican nun and intellectual) and Florence Nightingale and Jane Austen, each of whom developed a worldview and philosophy through their writings on various subjects.

Discovered the Box Project, community-based way to help rural families while facilitating cultural exchange

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I would like to use this space to acknowledge the work and the simple, effective grassroots approach of the Box Project to helping rural families in the southeast/midwest United States. People and families sign up to be matched with a family living with an income below the U.S. government’s poverty level. Many families have several members who work full time, or who may be elderly or disabled…and sponsors continually comment on how strong, resourceful, and uncomplaining the rural families are.

People send periodic boxes of gifts…dishes, towels, socks, canned food, etc…things which would help out a family with few resources. And some families have gotten more education/better jobs and no longer need the boxes, but still value the friendship and letter exchange.

I’m spotlighting this organization as an example of a group which came out of a real, observed need ‘on the ground’ in the back country areas of the United States, and which has a practical, simple solution. Also, the low-cost grassroots aspect of this has worked well for them, as has staying adaptable (incorporating some aspects of long-term disaster response, focusing increasingly on education and school supplies, etc.) The relationship building and cultural exchange parts of the program…where people in different areas of the U.S. can educate each other about their locales and cultures also helps to educate people as we have a large, diverse country.

I know many of Synchronized Chaos’ readers come from outside the United States, and I spotlight American programs mostly because I am more familiar with them, but am very open to hearing about interesting humanitarian or other ideas elsewhere. We here try to uncover interesting models for getting things done which seem to be working and put them out there as possibilities to see if they might also work with some changes in other cultural contexts.

If people are interested in learning more about the Box Project’s approach, their website is available here: http://www.boxproject.org/index.html

They are also fundraising by selling lithographs from a Maine artist…so maybe some of the visual artists here might be interested in seeing if they could use more donated artwork.

Interesting commentary, taken from a featured letter from a family who sends boxes regularly: The kids’ schools are doing drives for food, clothes, hats, gloves, books, stuffed animals…you name it. The principal told the kids in an assembly that some of the things they donated would be used right here in our community. Later, some of the kids were talking to the first grade teacher and said that they didn’t know any poor people. My son said HE knew some poor people, and told about packing these boxes. He became the class expert, and he expounded on how some people are poor, but others are poorer and can’t even afford enough food or clothes, and that people are not poor because they don’t have money, they are poor because they don’t have opportunities to make enough money. Then he told them that once you have one kind of problem, you automatically get others along with it, like if you don’t have enough money to buy meat and vegetables, you eat a lot of cheap spaghetti and gain weight and get sick and then you can’t work anyway and you can’t afford a doctor and it gets harder to find clothes that fit and other things. He’s six, remember. I thought that was a pretty interesting understanding of poverty!

His teacher told me that the class was totally awed by the concept that it was possible to become poor, that poor people could be victims of circumstance and not just lazy people who didn’t want to get a job at McDonald’s or maybe people who weren’t born into poverty. The idea that you could become poor threw them for a loop, I think. One of the kids asked my son why our match family just couldn’t all go work at McDonald’s and get free food, too. So my son said there weren’t any McDonalds around them. When asked why, he had to think a minute, then he said “because no one can afford to eat there, so McDonald’s just built them where there were people with enough money to eat there.”

I didn’t tell them any of this stuff (well, not in so many words!), so you can just see how much they’re learning.

Fellow independent magazine folks open to submissions

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Announcement for a new magazine seeking submissions of writing and visual art, from anyone, anywhere. First issue of Bread and Circuses came out last March, new issue due this summer. First heard about and became intrigued with this project last winter at the San Francisco Writers’ Conference.

Please read below for more information, email breadandcircuseszine@gmail.com with questions or submissions.

Bread & Circuses is a new zine produced by the members of the Orinda Poetry Project. We welcome submissions of original and unpublished poetry, prose, letters, recipes, reviews, interviews, manifestos, photos, scripts, confessions, paintings, collages, essays, cartoons, found art, etc., from anyone, anywhere.

The first issue of Bread & Circuses will be published in March 2009. There’s no formal deadline to submit, but we review work in the order it’s received, so submitting sooner is to your advantage.

Submissions should be emailed to breadandcircuseszine(at)gmail(dot)com with “Submission” in the subject line and your full name and phone number in the body of the email.

Attach .doc, .rtf, or .txt files for written work, and .jpgs for artwork. You may include a bio if you like. Artwork should be reproducible in black and white, and nondigital work may be scanned at high resolution or photographed with good lighting and focus. To submit art or writing by postal mail, please email us for guidelines.

You may submit as many things as you like, but keep in mind that we are a small group of students with a relatively small amount of money and aren’t going to publish your 50-page love poem. On a similar note, by submitting to Bread & Circuses, you grant permission for us to publish your work in print and/or online, so do make sure your boyfriend won’t mind that love letter being printed before you send it.
Contributors get a free copy and our unending adoration and admiration. If we ever start actually making money, we promise we’ll share it. For now, the printing costs of our first issue are subsidized by a generous grant from Youth Speaks.

Feel free to email us at breadandcircuseszine(at)gmail(dot)com with questions, comments, interesting facts, and, of course, your submissions. Don’t hesitate- we want what you’ve got. Thanks for your interest!

Contact

Annelyse Gelman
Orinda, CA
(925) 254-5358