Having spent so much time near the ocean, this image horrified me.
How could the ocean open up in such a way?

You can find Buzzfeed’s 45 most powerful photos from 2011 by clicking the photo.

This underwater sculpture garden, called Silent Evolution, was created by
Mexico-based British sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor, off Isla Mujeres
is intended to eventually cover more than 4,520 square feet

National Geographics Best News pictures (click the photo)

This image represents Denver to me -
you can see the fear, insecurity and anger on BOTH the police and the protesters faces.
It’s almost as if they are actors in someone else’s play.

What do you think is the most powerful image of 2011?

Dear Adele,

When you break up with someone, and you truly love them, do not show up in middle of their life uninvited. That’s just personality disordered crazy.

I can’t think of a more horrible thing to do to another person than to show up in the middle of their dream came true – a new partner, a new life –  and beg them to see how important you are.

Peacockery at it’s very best.

Now you turn around to tell them that you’ll just find someone like them.  (In the mental health world, we call this borderline personality disorder – ‘I can’t live without you; You? You mean nothing to me.‘) Plus, if finding someone like them is easy, why haven’t you? Your partner has moved on. You need to move on to.

Therapy helps.

This week’s peacock award goes to Courtney Stodden for talking about her lack of plastic surgery with Dr. Drew. After the release of these photos:
First, how stupid are we?? She’s the one who most likely released the photos. (Remember a peacock shows his feathers to get attention.) Now, she gets attention for the faux controversy. Then she gets even more attention for the denial.

Of course,  they did an ultra-sound and found something that looked exactly like a breast implant. All the while, she’s protesting she’s never had surgery. Go figure.

That’s peacock-ery at it’s best.

 By the way, please feel free to snag the peacock and start an award ceremony of your own. I’m sure there are one or fifty peacocks in your world. 

I posted this photo to Facebook. It’s a photo of a fresco in the Basilica of Saint Francis in Giotto, Italy. The fresco was painted by Giotto in the 13th Century and depicts the life and death of Saint Francis.

Do you see a face? Art historian Chiara Frugone sees a devil with black horns.

The face, or devil as it were,  cannot be seen from the ground. Yet for all these years, it’s lingered here on the ceiling looking down at everyone.

The article fascinates me for a number of reasons. First, as you may know, I have a fondness for the wacky world of Capuchin Franciscan Friars.  Maybe it’s a past life thing, maybe it’s just a quirk in my personality, but I have, more than once, looked through tourist photos taken of this very fresco and the ones next to it. You see, this church is one that many Friars visit to commune with Saint Francis.

So I’ve gazed on this fresco and not seen the devil. This fact is not all that surprising since I looked at this photo for more than five minutes and didn’t see a devil.

I’m not all that certain I see one now.

Anyway, as Facebook things go, an old Adventure-16 friend, Brett Bigelow, reminded me of the Grilled Jesus. I’m not referring to the one depicted on Glee, but rather this one:

Do you see Jesus?

Do you see a devil?

I see a grilled cheese sandwich.

I know the human brain, much like the honeybee brain, is designed to pick up facial impressions. In fact, our minds will turn almost any random pattern into a face.

Which leads me to wonder, are there more cheese Jesuses? Devils in clouds?

It turns out that I have merely scratched the surface of the Devil/Satan/Jesus foot/cloud/smoke sightings.

Here’s Satan in the fire and smoke of the World Trade Towers of 9/11:
        

To me, the first one looks like something out of the extended directors cut of the Lord of the Rings, the second one looks like God in some Italian fresco and the last one looks like Mr. Magoo. (He’s probably hunting rabbits.)

Devils? Really??

But it’s not just the Devil. Turns out Jesus took some time off the grilled cheese appearance circuit to appear in Google Earth. (Click the photo to go to an article about other places Jesus has appeared.)

Why would the devil and/or Jesus spend their time hanging out in smoke, grilled cheese sandwiches or fields in Hungary?

If it’s not them, then who? And why do want so badly for a devil or Satan or Jesus or Mary to appear to us?

I’m fresh out of answers. What do you think?

Blog Blast for Peace was created in 2006 by the incomparable Mimi Lenox. Click here to find out more.

There’s nothing I can add.

“First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
- First they came… by Martin Niemoller

I’m not sure I can articulate why, but this statement has has been on my mind a lot lately. It might be because I’m working on the fourth Alex the Fey book. The book is called “Lean on Me” and is about friends and friendship. More likely, it’s the horror of watching mad men and women act in Washington DC attempting to gut programs for the poor, ill, elderly and veterans.

It seems like ‘they’ are coming for the poor and sick. ‘They’ will soon come for anyone who is not Christian. ‘They’ have already come for the trade unionists.  ’They’ already gutted programs to support the treatment and care of military Veterans. The entire scenario is terrifying.

And it’s been on my mind.

“This is your life, your work, your family, your friends.
All of these things are like plates of food in front of you,
and you’re getting so caught up in what’s next,
your food is getting cold.
I say, eat it all up! It will sustain you.”
Playwright Eve Ensler as quoted by Rosario Dawson from Best advice I ever got

I tell myself something very similar when I get out of bed every morning to write. It doesn’t matter how late we were up the night before, I bully myself out of bed at six and write until noon. The scheduled is new for me.  I’ve only done it for a little more than a week.

Of course, I  stole it from Isaac Asimov. He wrote over 400 books in 40 years. I figure if it worked for him, it would work for me. So far, it’s been amazing.

I’ve had to do something this drastic because I have so much to writing do this year. Adding the Queen of Cool to my writing schedule (Denver Cereal and the Alex the Fey thrillers) is… overwhelming and fabulous. (Most authors are considered prolific if they write ONE book a year. I’m need to get four done this year. Eep!) With this concentrated time, I can get some real writing done. I spend the afternoons working on marketing, editing, relationships, and deliverables.

If I’m completely honest, I started doing this after I received some advice from Seth Godin. He says he learned it from Zig Ziglar. It’s the first rule of doing work that matters – Go to work on a regular basis. It was Seth who told me about Isaac Asimov. Of course, I didn’t learn this from a private conversation with Seth. I heard it on the link above. It’s from another one of his fabulous books, Poke the Box.

What the advice that gets you out of bed in the morning? What advice matters to you most?

We’ve all heard the news stories. Corporations, supported by their employees the US Congress, pay no taxes. They rip resources from the country in the form of police protection, schooling for their children and their employees children, and military support here and abroad. Yet, they don’t bother to pay for what they use.

To many people, this makes these corporations thieves.

To my mind, people and companies who don’t pay taxes are the lowest kind of traitors. They don’t believe or support my country so why should I believe and support them?

This is more than just greed. It’s straight up, unadulterated terrorism against the heart of America.

I won’t shop, buy or use any of these corporations products. And I continue to fight to rehire Congress for the American people.

What are you going to do?

“The aim of Life is to Live,
and to Live means to be Aware,
joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely, Aware.”
- Henry James

I worry that in our smartphone, hooked in world, we are not aware. I am not aware. This quote is a great reminder.

Happy Friday!