Conversations

Twice weekly - in addition to my regular daily entry - I will be directing readers to other blog posts in the spirit of generating conversation, and also in the hopes of adding depth and variety to our ongoing dialog about Buddhism, culture, and politics. I hope it proves useful!

Today I'll be focusing on the theme of compassion.

• Find me a Bluebird: In this blog full of wonderful poems and images, MB discusses her recent encounter with the writer's worst nightmare...a plagiarist! MB's response to the discovery of a cyber-thief in her midst is worthy of a read. She writes, in part:
  

  I chose not to immediately move to shut this blog down. Instead, I sent a polite but firm “cease and desist letter” that gave this person a little time to remove my poems. Again with my husband’s help, I tried to phrase the letter in ways that they would understand that I saw them as a real person. It wasn’t much, but it was my attempt to avoid creating more negativity than was necessary to protect my work.

• Intent Blog - Anita Roddick: Founder of The Body Shop, a leader in corporate social responsibility, Roddick writes her first post in Intent Blog about the Angola Three, social activists who have been wasting away in solitary confinement in Louisiana for 35 years. She begins her excellent post this way:

  Today, two of my best friends will spend a day as they do every other – 23-plus hours alone in a 6-by-9 foot cell, with poor ventilation, little human contact beyond the blurred cacophony of the prison tier beyond. The hour or less they will spend on the other side of their cell doors they may spend exercising in a tiny cage by running in tight circles under the razor wire, or showering. All that will make this day different is that it marks the 35th anniversary of their placement in solitary confinement, a fact I still cannot fathom.

• Postsecret: This site filled with secrets spilled onto postcards, cannot but add to the net amount of compassion in this world.