Angels in Shipwrecks: Place, Politic and Spirit in Modern Life
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Kaitlin Murphy: Posted on Tuesday, May 17, 2011 10:10 PM
Expectations were high. This was the Dalai Lama after all. Was it too much to expect the most profound insights we'd ever heard, solutions to the problems of the world at large and our smaller worlds within it?
This past weekend the Tibet House, the Drew Katz Foundation, Columbia professor and Buddhist scholar Robert Thurmanand Newark Mayor Cory Bookerhosted His Holiness the Dalai Lamaat the Newark Peace Education Summitin New Jersey. With the heightened security, bows of deference and the craning of thousands of ears toward his every word, it was hard for me to imagine what it would be like to face such out-sized expectations when traveling--feeling their weight in the very air between you and everyone you meet, people who want something important from you that they cannot quite name but expect nonetheless. |
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Kaitlin Murphy: Posted on Wednesday, May 11, 2011 4:36 PM
Nonetheless, His Holiness the Dalai Lamaand like-minded Nobel laureates will join poets, educators, other peacemakers in their fields, a few thousand attendees and most importantly, 1,000 of Newark’s students to discuss what it will take to get to peace and, I hope, to get started in making it happen.
That sounds like a nice and fluffy way to spend time. |
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Kaitlin Murphy: Posted on Sunday, May 08, 2011 8:06 AM
Thank you to all who mother--whether your own children or anyone who needs your mother-love in order to thrive.
If you miss your mother today, or have lost her in one way or another, Sinead says it better than I can.
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Kaitlin Murphy: Posted on Monday, May 02, 2011 10:56 PM
I arrived early and worked from Starbucks while waiting for the line to begin, overhearing snippets of students’ conversations while plucking straightforward prose from my mind for a freelance assignment. The task was practical with no need for the poetic, and the words were lining up in formation across my screen when I overheard one student pleading with another. |
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Kaitlin Murphy: Posted on Sunday, May 01, 2011 11:02 PM
I earned my first paycheck as a writer when I won an elementary school contest for my story about a tiger's troubled
friendship with an incompatible bee. It was the first time I realized I
was in love with shaping words and images into story, and that if I
worked hard enough at it, someone else may read it too.
Growing
up in Rhode Island, whenever we had visitors my parents made my five
siblings and I lead the same tour: along the terrifying but stunning
cliff walks of Newport, followed by days at Second Beach where our skin
crunched tight with salt and we dined in our bathing suits on picnic
tables, feasting on clam cakes and watching the shadows move in until
we shivered violently enough to go home. |
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