These are the topics for this month's newsletter and my pic of books to peruse, from purposeful living to full moon baths on the year of the dragon, with Frederick Douglas as our guest to wrap up the month. The good news is that CAMP is a 501c3 organization welcoming your donations.
But first a note from our sponsor.
Welcome to the Blog of Angela Terga's "Memoirs of a Mad Teacher" which recounts in a randomly sequential way the best and worst moments of a 22+ run career in the languages and language arts at public and private institutions across two continents in both rural and urban settings. You can click on any image to purchase any of these books. As an affiliate of the biggest bookstore in the world, I get to choose from a great variety of titles and authors. I choose titles aligned with the principles of CAMP - they communicate in a higher consciousness, aware of its purpose and intent for the benefit of all sentient beings. As a bodhichitta, I aspire to practice the four immeasurables (equanimity, love, compassion, and joy) by perfecting generosity, discipline, patience, diligence, meditation/concentration, and wisdom needed to .
"The secret to happiness is to acknowledge and transform suffering, not to run away from it." Thich Nhat Hanh
Here, Thich Nhat Hanh offers practices and inspiration transforming suffering and finding true joy.
Being moved by the need to tell new stories with a far reaching effect, like the Buddha, I left my comfort zone and sailed into the unknown. I can't say I have even made it half way to the other side, if there is such a thing. What matters is the journey, every end is but a new beginning every step of the way, unending, intentional, free, rooted in loving kindness.
Welcome to my virtual classroom.
HOW DOES THE MOON INFLUENCE OUR PERSONAL STORIES:
The moon affects life in three ways: 1. time 2. light 3. tide. The moon affects our circadian rhythm, wake and sleep hours, mating seasons, migration, and the water in our brain and body. Check out this interesting article by the National History Museum of UK.
Raven Kaldera explains the creative gifts and emotional challenge born under each Moon archetype as well as how to nurture the positive traits discourage the negative ones.
Do you pay attention to the phases of the moon in your daily life? Keeping a moon journal, even just a mental check can help you be more grounded. How do you feel on certain moon phases as opposed to others? Have you discovered discovered a pattern?
Connecting to nature with simple moon awareness can help you get more in touch with yourself.
it's The year of the dragon this full moon - feb 24,202
closes the festivities that began on Feb 10 with auspicious Good Luck and Prosperity in 2024! Why is the year of the dragon considered so lucky? Check out this Smithsonian Magazine article
This southwestern province in China is decoratively illuminated to celebrate the mythical zodiac creature and Lunar New Year, Huang Zhiling reports in Chengdu.
The only fictitious creature in the 12 zodiac animals, the dragon is composed of 9 animals, including the body of a snake, the horns of a deer, the head of an ox, the mouth of a crocodile, the claws of an eagle, and the scales of a fish. In Chinese culture the Dragon represents auspiciousness and imperial power since ancient times.
This guide brings Chinese astrology back to its ancient roots, providing all the information you need for understanding one of the world's oldest systems of divination.
Packed with practical application tips and frequently used tables and charts, this almanac will prove to be your indispensable desktop companion.
Written with economy and wit, the short, one- or two-page tales exhibit those distinct aspects of the Chinese character and approach to life which derive from the values of Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. These include moderation, the value of promises, respect for one's elders, justice and injustice, and the power of wisdom. Lack of support and injustice make teachers and all employees realize the level of control over their life and work and the unlikely prospect of making any meaningful change in the system makes them bitter and give up trying.
was it the full moon?
It may have happened on a full moon, or maybe not. Taking the step of a thousand miles to conquer my fears and live for my dream, alone in the world without a nickel to my name, was the best thing I could do. this woman survived and thrives on sharing with the world ideas and thoughts about peace, education and compassion through the power of storytelling.
Self Reliance and CAMP
Going through the transformational stages of self-reliance in business has led to the creation of a window of hope for financing: a non profit business structure certified to accept donations in exchange for a service to mankind. As applied, 501c3 certification was recently granted to Conscious Arts Media Productions, CAMP. We can now develop a story or idea to the top following all the steps necessary to make it to market with a competitive edge. Where one fish swims, there go others. Creating that funnel is important.
CAMP's mission is to create, publish, produce, and disseminate works of multimedia arts that meet the purpose of peace education and compassion.
With your donation, young and old individuals, families, and organizations, will have the support they need to take a story or idea from start to finish using multimedia styles of production, publishing, and distribution. To reach the desired competitiveness that will position the product in the market with its unique advantage and predictions based on audience preferences.
Multimedia arts includes visual, performing, TV, film. video, books, eBooks, screenplays, poetry, and art forms not mentioned and not yet imagined. We offer free consultation. We don't try to sell you anything. we listen to you as you figure out what you really need to do first second and third, based on facts.
America needs more artists making a living of their art, self reliant. As consumers, we must allow artistic expression to expose and heal societal pressures and existential crises. The full moon is not the cause of our misery it is simply the boiling point, the enough is enough. Wake up world. What really matters is us! Our children and theirs.
At CAMP we will always focus on getting the product polished, first and foremost. You don't have to purchase a package or get a subscription. Not yet, anyway. Right now we are learning about the needs of artists who are stuck in the rut and can't let go for fear of losing their livelihood. By the time retirement comes around, the wheel of time has passed you by.
A common scenario is when artists already have the vision and some significant practice but do not have the funding to develop it. It boils down to the budget needed to get on the road to success.
CAMP WILL FOSTER YOUR ARTistic endeavor
CAMP will take you by the hand during All facets of the Artist's Journey, from inception to dissemination, from tale to film, from distribution to receptivity. Reaching audiences accessed through data research forms an integral part of the agency's purpose. Raising start-up capital depends on the effectiveness of the plan the agency can present to donors and public generals.
You see, one thing I learned during those wonderful years of teaching youngsters, was that everyone learns at their own pace and through their own means of interpretation. Artistic expression is an accelerator of learning and a disruptor of trends and markets. Art also disrupts sadness and depression causing great joy and satisfaction.
Whether you are employed full time or getting by, it is very difficult to get into your art.
For example, teachers' salary steps are tied to the county they serve. Move to another and you'll lose grandfathering. Taking leave means cutting your income by 100%. It only gives you the right to return to the position you were in and not lose the steps. Many jobs, not just in education have the similar restrictions. Do you have the means to support your art with your current income?
We will help you devise and design a course of action with several peripheral choices. We believe "No one should ever go without playing their music" to the world.
To end the month of February I am going take you on a journey from disunionism among abolitionis to reparations vs self reliance. I don't know if I made my point clear. Perhaps there is no point to be made.
Frederick Douglas speaks
Social Reformer, Orator & Journalist
Douglas sided with Garret Smith and broke ties with William Lloyd Garrison in 1851 on the issue of "disunionism" He initially agreed with the Garrisonians that the Constitution was proslavery, and he advocated disunionism. But after debating him on such issue, he wrote to Smith that he was “sick and tired of arguing on the slaveholders’ side” with the argument that slavery is sanctioned by the Constitution.
Library of Congress Collection Summary of Douglas' papers
“Unlike Garrison’s attacks on the colonizationists or his endorsement of women’s rights…in which his intentions were clear and his gestures compelling, his assault on the Constitution began ambiguously as prophetic utterances and only gradually developed into a political and philosophical critique.” https://www.libertarianism.org/columns/william-lloyd-garrison-frederick-douglass-disunionismNew North Star, 2021; 3:64–66
“Is God Dead?”: Frederick Douglass’s Recollection of a Contentious Moment in Antislavery History
Edited by Alex Schwartz IUPUI
One of the most dramatic ideological confrontations in the history of Black abolitionism occurred when Sojourner Truth interrupted a speech in which Frederick Douglass advocated violent antislavery tactics by posing the question “Is God dead?” While it is one of the best remembered of Truth’s public remarks, historians have foundcontradictory evidence about where and when this confrontation occurred. An 1885 letter from Douglass to Rhode Island antislavery journalist Elizabeth Chace Wyman (1847–1929), reproduced below, provides his most complete recollection of the event.1
The screenplay I wrote, I am Sojourner Truth, begins with a scene between Frederick and Sojourner setting the stage for her stand on war and his stand on how power will not concede unless there is blood. This moment embodies her spiritual and moral courage to speak up in a room full of orators, politicians, feminists, and abolitionists talking to the general public.
Sojourner remained deeply connected to God and Jesus Christ was her savior. He showed up one day and since then her life became his. A prophet came along and pretended to be him, but she caught on and went out to put some sense into the Millerites, then preaching the end of the world. This is why I will never stop talking about Sojourner and the great riches I discovered in her death bed. She stayed current to her times and showed up at the polls to take her rights to vote stirring the pot like she'd say and encouraged all to do.
Truth’s question is memorialized on her gravestone, and it embodies her spiritual and moral courage as an antislavery activist. Truth believed God had a central role in the quest towards the abolition of slavery; she placed God’s will over human agency. Truth’s question highlights the connection between Christianity and the antislavery movement, her role as a Black female abolitionist, and her ability to question men and figures of authority despite the social consequences of doing so.
When I took that leap of faith I landed in Michigan writing the story of non other than Sojourner Truth and stayed with her 6th generation grandchild Thomas McLiechey in whose heart Sojourner's voice flamed.
Of course I encountered more than Sojourner at Battle Creek, so much more that I don't think a single film could ever capture the entire lifespan of a woman's imprint on American history and social reform. From slave to itinerant preacher, from abolitionist to women's liberation activist, from social reformer to equal rights advocate, from abused child to world renowned speaker. She stepped into all these sets like a queen. Tall, elegant, strong, unabashedly her. I am Sojourner Truth, I make myself be as I have the right to, for being the child of God that I am.
Sojourner vs Frederick
Oh, what a scene: 1857- Faneuil Hall standing room only, Frederick Douglas, 30s. on stage says: "For if there is no struggle there is no progress. their is She can't hold it any longer, she springs from her front row bench where she sat with other abolitionist-feminists of the time, and called out and in a husky E4-C4 tones.
According to Frederick, therefore, there would have to be blood. And there was!
"Frederick, is God dead?"
When she interrupted Frederick her voice projected throughout the hall and there was a moment of total silence before everyone erupted in cheers for her.
"Frederick, is God dead?"!
Neither the Libertarians of the era on whose platforms Sojourner spoke abolition and women's rights, nor the feminist activists whose campaign for liberation she stood up for, none followed her on her campaign quest to give back to the Freedmen that which had been taken from them, the land under their feet.
She crossed the land with Thomas, her beloved grandson asking to be heard and collecting signatures, selling her books and speaking on behalf of the Freedmen, to procure for them the wild lands to the west territories with a homesteaders' grant of 40 acres and a mule—a chance at self reliance.
But it was not in Power's best interest to concede land ownership to the Freedmen and Sojourner's years on the road to produce generational wealth for her people to emancipate were truncated by the Welfare State.
One of my favorite poems:
IDEAL - "THE GREATEST IDEAL HUMANITY COULD HAVE IS TO REACH SOMEONE WHO WILL LISTEN AND SPEAK IN MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING...." by T.A. Terga
To which I add, "OF EACH OTHER'S ARGUMENT- AND WORKING TOGETHER TO SOLVE PROBLEMS."
Have we been able to stop massacres? Power doesn't concede, the way it operates remains unchanged as long as it empowers Power. So it is necessary to keep doing the same thing, committing the same crimes against humanity, in order to keep the war machine healthy. Can we expect a different outcome any time soon?
Not unless there is struggle, says Frederick. Peace is not a fantasy. It is an ideal. How do you fight without blood?
is the American philosophy of self reliance opposed to reparations
Note how gloomy the TIME cover image s. Why are people against reparations? Who you gonna tax?
Sojourner went north and east and west and all around until she had no more a=energy and no more momentum, they world had forgotten about the Freedmen, no longer a slave, with voting rights. Woohoo! But still chained and now reliant on the 'system' for survival.
She told them loud and clear. But they would not listen. They made her go.
PTSD- FLASHBACK
Before signing the contract administration doesn't "mention" that you will be giving up your planning time, which although partly remunerated, isn't a reflection of your actual rate. They "mention" it just before you sign, after you have "decorated" your classroom the day before school starts or later.
*Decorating classrooms entails dressing the barren set of the daily 6 hour TV show that will take place there for 108 days.
Months into the year without T. Planning and responsible for three different courses and levels. you are suddenly "ruled" to spend a few more hours of your time each week, uncompensated, entering data for a pet program that cost millions to acquire, but did not include continued assistance to operate at the implementation level.
Want to live hell on earth? Become a Miami Dade Language Arts/English Teacher for a week. After seeing the grim faces of my colleagues counting time before release from the prison they were in,
I decided I would take a chance on chance and split. Check out the current salary scales here. https://www.utd.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/UTD-TA-2022.pdf
END OF FLASHBACK
Oh, to navigate the waters of self-reliance!
We, the free thinkers are in for the feast of the ego as takers and givers. Then when you see that everywhere you look it is just the same, you wonder, is there such a thing as freedom? We are a web, we are each other's bounce back, push and pull—the key to getting ahead.
Business, creativity, making it, competing, selling your idea— That's what schools could get kids ready for. Knowledge is not just in the books, it's in the doing, applying theories for a purpose.
But the world has yet to shift from believing there is a "them" to seeing there is only One, and we are it. We are all in this together. What hurts one hurts all, what benefits one benefits all. It's not "you have more when they have less" or "you have less when they have more."
But it starts by not taking advantage of a situation that you know is not fair to peoples. Miners in Congo should not be barefoot unprotected 7 year olds and expecting mothers looking for scraps of cobalt for $1 a day, while democratic America signs off on millions of people's lives to one family that controls all for less through a third source, China.
That's not what democratic capitalism is. For example, we depend on cobalt but we're looking for the next best thing to it and once we find it, cobalt and its people will no longer be of interest. If there is no compassion in financial deals between nations, there will never be peace. Peace starts somewhere.
It MAY start with the democratic foundation that rule our daily lives. If the trickle down effect from the top leaders of the nation to the public servant is devoid of democracy, how will undemocratic rule affect the public?
There may not be a path ever made yet to where I'm going. On my way I will leave a trail behind for those to see the pitfalls and landing strips.
What is democracy exactly?
Is it not the rule of the people? why do you coerce me to sign off on giving up my rights? How can you ignore contract agreements and dump even more sh*** on me? I'm a teacher not a doormat. I am an example of democracy. I teach freedom. I am unwilling to stay here and bow to inequities.
Three quarters of all teachers are women. Does mysoginy have anything to do with it?
Implementing self-reliance, teaching yourself HOW TO breakaway from a path in favor of an unknown one is the hardest thing one can ever do. But it is necessary to transform.
misoginy
