Wait, let me get this straight. Slavery was religiously justified in America because Africans, as the decendents of Ham, were cursed to suffer after their ancient ancestor saw his father naked? Wiki Curse of Ham.
Cagnacci
Men clearly have issues. 
Obhi Hazarika stopped by and ate dinner with us on my mother's birthday. Obhi, who used to be the drummer for MGMT, took me to India my first time in 2001. It was so good seeing him again.
Cat, Leigh, Wylie, and I spent an afternoon picking chestnuts at a local farm.
Every Thursday we have sitting meditation and vegi potluck at our house. It's so wonderful.
Eli and Raphael visited from out of town. Heaven on earth.
And here is Taka, Ishita, and Leigh at the Indian Puja we attended Saturday. Taka is an exchange student from Japan I've been acculturating (a favorite hobby of mine), taking him to the haunted houses downtown, queer dance parties, mexican restaurants, etc. After watching Shortbus at my house he said "My worldview has now been changed." I asked him how and he answered, "Because I could empathize with the gay and queer characters in the movie, I feel they are no different from me." 
My Japanese friends came over and made us all okonomiyaki for dinner. Leigh made inarizushi,手作り. 
Here we are eating breakfast with Michael Garfield. I was so thrilled he stopped by. We stayed up all night chatting in my studio with Lauren, who was visiting from Chicago. Best best best.
And the new painting in progress. Can you tell what it is? 
Endless Coupling...Light-dark, emptiness-form, visible-invisible, sound-silence, figure-ground, presence-absence, mind-matter, chaos-order, yin-yang, masculine-feminine, spontaneous-intentional, individual-universal, heaven-earth, open-closed, love-fear, nirvana-samsara, one-many, formally we usually like patterns of multiple mirror relationships of variations on a theme (Jazz). Teepee-house, there is a large transparent cathedral behind our wooden one there. Can you see it? You can sleep in there, in that wooden temple. Seriously, shrines and churches in Japan become huts, tents, teepees, refuges, to keep you warm and alive at night. I've slept in one of these well kept communal forest shrines and've had wonderful dreams,... I miss them so. And who out there dreamed of living in a teepee? I think I had a small teepee growing up as a kid. I actually used to think I was an Indian, I remember. On top of my nanny being half black half cherokee, the tribe I belonged to with my father was called Indian Guides. I'm Golden Eagle, son of Bald Eagle (we chose our own names). I recently heard Indian Guides will become "Adventure Guides," Princesses (girl version) will be "Explorers" and "tribes" will be known as "circles," as the YMCA programs "curriculum" shifts to a more generalized one "based on nature." I'm also a native American in that i was born here, from Kansas, the "Wind tribe". Aquarius is an air sign too, interstingly. The "Water Carrier" is the air? Here is the Indian Guides pledge: "We, Father and son, through friendly service to each other, to our family, to this tribe, to our community, seek a world pleasing to the eye of the Great Spirit.”"Ahhhhhmen. Each of these artists move beauty into space like fingers making mudras."
I miss you!
And I've almost finished this one. Can you see the feathers and tadpoles?
I went to Yuba City, California this weekend to meet some new family. I got to explore "the smallest mountain range in the world," the Sutter Buttes, with my nephew, father, and uncle. It was golden.
I just learned that in June Colorado joined the 13 other states in legalizing medical Marijuana and decriminalizing possession of up to an ounce! Wow.
And last week the conservative republican openly gay federal judge Vaugh Walker overturned California’s same-sex marriage ban “Proposition 8”!
"Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples," the judge wrote in a 136-page ruling that laid out in precise detail why the ban does not pass constitutional muster.
"Because Proposition 8 disadvantages gays and lesbians without any rational justification, Proposition 8 violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment."
California may soon join Massachusetts, Iowa, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Washington, D.C. in allowing same sex marriage.
The upward drift towards legalizing marijuana and gay marriage is happening! Finally.
What beautiful, glowing, friendly people! I took these Kansans all over my town. It was a hot, sunny day. Ikku Shrine with the 1000 year-old camphor totoro trees,
the river and holy tree with Tasuku,
Emily's preschool, we met some of her kids--heaven on earth. We also went to 4 hours of karaoke!
I finished my teaching work, gave my goodbye speech at some of the schools about the Japanese proverb "Ten People, Ten Colors," cried in front of all the kids, thanked them for teaching me, took lots of pictures and got presents and flowers....
Here is Peter at the tree. What a great tree. 
