Lantern Books Blog

Wealthy Business Leaders Told To Go Vegan

kate [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Kate Lawrence) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:02:50 CST

A Practical Peacemaker Ponders . . .

Here was a surprising link in my inbox: CPI Financial, a website dedicated to offering advice and analysis for bankers and business leaders throughout the Middle East, headlined the recommendation to go vegan.

The article, begins as follows:
Ok, here's the bad news. You're going to have to become vegetarian. Sorry. As soon as possible, so you may as well put down that chicken sandwich and start now. Not just you though, all of us are going to have to stop eating meat and dairy products if the world has any hope of not going to hell in a hand basket.

What? Did I read that correctly? Of the myriad reasons for veganism, why were investment bankers being urged in that direction? The answer is water, already scarce in some parts of the world, facing increasing demand due to increasing population and affluence, and wasted unconscionably by livestock agriculture. Water is the new oil, a resource that is being alarmingly depleted, yet unlike oil, is absolutely necessary for life.

But if these guys are investment bankers, there must be some way to make money off this advice, right? Are you sitting down for this? If access can be gained to a scarce resource, in this case water, it can be sold at a profit. To keep it profitable over the long term, the investor is continually looking for more water he can buy up and resell, and this is where veganism comes in. If meat consumption drops significantly, more water becomes available to sell--from one part of the world which is--pardon the pun--flush, to another part of the world where water may be desperately needed.

The report concludes by suggesting that meat eating be made illegal. Now that idea is right as rain.

Related Titles

The Practical Peacemaker
How Simple Living Makes Peace Possible
Kate Lawrence

Bird Flu

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:00:00 CST

Michael Greger: Nothing to sneeze at

From age-old scourges like smallpox and tuberculosis to emerging threats like AIDS and SARS, our interactions with animals have played a pivotal role as the source of human disease.

Before there was swine flu (H1N1), there was bird flu (H5N1). In spite of the visibility of H1N1, leading public health authorities still predict as inevitable a pandemic of influenza, triggered by bird flu and expected to lead to millions of deaths around the globe. The influenza virus has existed for millions of years as an innocuous intestinal virus of wild ducks. What turned a harmless waterborne duck virus into a killer? In Bird Flu, Dr. Michael Greger traces the human role in the evolution of this virus, whose humble beginnings belie its transformation into a killer mutant strain with the potential to become as ferocious as Ebola and as contagious as the common cold. In the face of the coming pandemic, Dr. Greger reveals what we can do to protect our families and what human society to can do to reduce the likelihood of such catastrophes in the future.

Amid the growing panic surrounding this issue, Dr. Greger takes a sobering look at a deadly cycle and offers a solution to ending it.

Related Titles

Bird Flu
A Virus of Our Own Hatching
Michael Greger, MD

Sistah Vegan

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 05:51:18 CST

Join the conversation

I've now read Sistah Vegan four times, and each time the book grows on me. What I find particularly gratifying is that, unlike many anthologies, the twenty-five or so voices contained between the pages are not only very diverse in terms of the educational, social, and economic backgrounds, but they have markedly different—and sometimes completely antithetical—perspectives. In other words, the book is like a large and rambunctious conversation between friends who have no trouble calling each other out, but remain respectful and supporting. I also love the honesty of the contributions. Sometimes it's painful, and sometimes you want to say "too much information!" But it's always truthful and direct and passionately argued, and enlightening. pattrice jones' beautifully composed afterword is a pleasure to read, and she ties the themes of the book together wonderfully.

Of course, you don't have to judge this book by the color of its cover, but by the content of its pages. You certainly don't have to purchase it because you may be black or vegan or a woman. And you certainly don't have to do so it in Black History Month (February) or Women's History Month (March).

But another book to commemorate for Black History Month and Women's History Month is called Sister Vegetarian's 31 Days of Drama-Free Living by Donna Beaudoin who for a full month, provides personal stories, practical tips, mouthwatering recipes, and empowering thoughts that will help you avoid the drama and negativity of family members, coworkers, and your own doubts as you set about supercharging your day by eating healthily, exercising with energy and joy, and becoming aware of your own strength.

Related Titles

Sistah Vegan
Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health, and Society
A. Breeze Harper, pattrice jones

Aftershock
Confronting Trauma in a Violent World: A Guide for Activists and Their Allies
pattrice jones

Sister Vegetarian's 31 Days of Drama-Free Living
Exercises and Recipes for a Healthy Mind, Body, and Spirit
Donna Michelle Beaudoin

The Fish Stories in the New Testament

(Keith Akers) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:11:33 CST

Jesus disrupting the animal sacrifice business

One of the big problems that people have with the idea that Jesus was a vegetarian is the "fish stories" in the New Testament -- stories in which Jesus distributes fish as food to people, or in one case actually eats fish. If Jesus was a vegetarian, then what are these stories doing in the New Testament?

We can get an important clue as to what they are doing in the New Testament if we take a quick look at what their effect is and has been. From the point of view of a meat-eater, these fish stories are very convenient. Jesus ate fish, therefore eating meat must be all right. The letters of Paul, which predate the gospels by decades, also explicitly reject ethical vegetarianism at several points. "Eat whatever is sold in the meat-market without raising questions of conscience" (I Corinthians 10:25).

Whatever we say about the historical authenticity of these references to eating meat, it's clear what the effect has been: it has been to make ethical vegetarianism a heresy. You can be vegetarian for your health, if you want, but not for ethical reasons. During the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars in the middle ages, suspected heretics were given an animal to kill. If they refused, they were determined to be heretics.

1. Let's start with the one case where Jesus actually eats fish, after his resurrection. (There is a similar passage in John 21:4-13, but in John, Jesus only distributes the fish, he doesn't eat it.)

And he said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do questions rise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have." And while they still disbelieved for joy, and wondered, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them. (Luke 24:38-43, emphasis added)

Historically this passage is suspect right at the outset; the resurrection stories are the latest in the tradition and wildly contradictory to each other. This particular passage in Luke is especially suspect, because Jesus talks to his disciples and wants to convey that he is not a mere spirit (just as in the case of his appearance to "doubting Thomas").

Anyone familiar with the history of early Christianity can immediately see the problem. Some, such as the famous second-century heretic Marcion, had exactly the belief to which Jesus is "replying" -- that Jesus never existed on a physical plane, but was just a spirit or ghost. Most likely, this verse was penned as a specific response to Marcionism, which didn't even become an issue until many decades after Jesus and the original disciples had all passed from the scene. Jesus says he isn't a spirit, and when the disciples still don't believe, only then does he eat the fish, something a ghost could not do. This passage can't be taken seriously as real evidence about the historical Jesus. It is likely written as a response to Marcion and those like him.

2. What about the feeding of the multitudes with bread and fish (Matthew 14:13- 21, 15:32-38 and parallels)? There are many parallel versions of this basic story. Not only is it in the Bible, it is mentioned several times by early church fathers. Ireneaus twice states that Jesus fed the multitudes with bread alone (Against Heresies 2.22.3, 2.24.4). Arnobius also describes this incident without mentioning fish (Against the Heathen 1.46) as does Eusebius (Proof of the Gospel 3.4). Indeed, even Jesus himself, when referring back to this miracle (Matthew 16:9-10), mentions bread but doesn't mention fish.

The bread is everywhere present, but the fish only sometimes. This strongly suggests that the original tradition was about distribution of bread, not bread and fish. In the case of Matthew 16:9-10, the insertion of fish becomes obvious, because the editors of Matthew changed the original story to include fish but forgot to change Jesus' backward reference.

3. "Fish" was a well-known mystical symbol in early Christianity, because the Greek word for "fish" is transcribed "ichthys" or "ichthus," which is an acronym (in Greek) for "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior." Many early writers speak of fish in a clearly symbolic way, e. g. Tertullian On Baptism 1. Because of this, it isn't clear that the original "fish stories" were even intended to be literal accounts of actual events, but were allegories about the distribution of the sacred message. Jesus wasn't distributing physical fish, but rather himself and his message as spiritual food.

So what is the real origin of these fish stories? Rather than fight this issue out on the terrain of historical criticism, I'd suggest that curious students look at the whole controversy about vegetarianism in the early church. We are blessed in this respect: unlike the gospel accounts, where we have second-hand or third-hand stories warmed over and heavily edited, in the authentic letters of Paul we have first-hand accounts from one of the key participants in this dispute. Romans 14, I Corinthians 8 - 10, and Galatians 2 all give accounts of a divisive dispute between Paul and the Jerusalem church (James, Peter, and John) over food. This left Paul isolated from the rest of the church; "even Barnabas was carried away," Paul ruefully admits.

We know that the leader of the early church, James the brother of Jesus, was not only a vegetarian, but was raised a vegetarian, and didn't drink alcohol either (Hegesippus, quoted in Eusbius, Ecclesiastical History 2.23.5-6). It is clear from this and other evidence (discussed in depth in my book, The Lost Religion of Jesus) that there was a group of people in the early church who thought that eating meat was an issue of conscience, and that we should be vegetarians. Otherwise, why would Paul feel the need to "refute" these views? When Paul stresses the need not to offend those who do not eat meat or drink wine (Romans 14:20-21), he is likely referring to James or people like him.

These passages in the New Testament were not just an impartial record of historical events; they were a belated effort to settle a divisive dispute in the early church by incorporating fish stories into the original gospel. In this they were unfortunately rather successful, but as historical evidence it's pretty transparent what their origin was.

Ethical vegetarianism as a "heresy" has survived in numerous forms, all the way from the Jewish Christian Ebionites, down to modern Christian thinkers such as Charles and Myrtle Fillmore (founders of Unity) and Ellen White (founder of the Seventh-day Adventists). If you trace this "heresy" back to its origins, it becomes clear that it comes from Jesus himself, who was killed after entering the temple and disrupting the animal sacrifice business there.

Related Titles

The Lost Religion of Jesus
Simple Living and Nonviolence in Early Christianity
Keith Akers

How to Give All Your Food to the Hungry, and Eat It Too

kate [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Kate Lawrence) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:21:33 CST

A Practical Peacemaker Ponders . . .

With over seven billion people crowded onto the planet and increasing numbers of them hungry, what can compassionate people do to help? The most important action we can take, beyond being careful not to waste food, is to go vegan, because growing plant foods for direct human consumption is the most efficient use of farmland, water, fuel and other resources. But what if we could make even more food available? Beyond even the efficiency that veganism provides, what if we could make 100% of our food available to the hungry? That is, be able to offer the same amount of food we eat every day to the starving? (In some cases, this might not mean that food would get sent anywhere, but it would free up the resource potential to grow and ship an equal amount of food.) And what if we could compound the additional food with 100% of our water consumption, 100% of the fuel we use for cooking, heating and transportation, 100% of our cars, household appliances, clothing, and everything we use as an average American? Did you ever stop to think that remaining childless does exactly that? Let me explain.

If a typical American couple has two children, each parent has effectively added one more person to the planet. That child, later adult, grows to consume about the same as the parent would, which in the U.S. is much more than most of the world's people can ever hope to enjoy. Although the child eventually replaces the parent, there are an average of 50 years during which both are alive and consuming double what just one of them would. Grandchildren of course add even more. Now let's go back and assume that this couple did not have children. 100% of the resources necessary for two offspring are now not being used, and can ease the stress on the planet and make a better life for people already here.

As practical peacemakers we can, in everyday conversations and blog posts, encourage more people to remain childless, or at least to limit family size. We can strengthen societal approval of the childless and point out the many benefits. We can help deconstruct the belief that childless adults are either deprived or selfish. (For more on this, including research showing that childless marriages are happier, see the chapter on overpopulation in my book The Practical Peacemaker.) In this time of unprecedented droughts and floods that reduce harvests, of food riots, precarious economies leading to increased unemployment, and water scarcity affecting 1.2 billion people (according to the UN), what we do NOT need is unquestioned encouragement of childbearing, especially in the affluent West where each person consumes so much.

I am grateful that by not having any children or grandchildren I continue, every day for decades, to make a profound contribution to the well-being of the planet and our worldwide human family. I invite others to do likewise.

Related Titles

The Practical Peacemaker
How Simple Living Makes Peace Possible
Kate Lawrence

Interreligious Dialogue

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:00:00 CST

Circle of faiths

After a twenty-year period as abbot of St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts, Thomas Keating moved to St. Benedict's Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado, called by the late Fr. Theophane Boyd, the "Magic Monastery" because of the beauty of its surroundings, the peace inside its walls, and the extraordinary transformations that take place there.

Sundays at the Magic Monastery collects the inspiring and witty homilies of four members of St. Benedict's: Fr. Thomas, Abbot Joseph Boyle, the late Fr. Theophane Boyd, and Fr. William Meninger. Together, they explore the scriptures through the important feast days of the Christian calendar and provide great insight into the contemplative life.

During his time at Snowmass, Fr. Thomas was deeply involved in interreligious dialogue (see www.monasticdialog.com). Over a twenty-year period, a series of interreligious dialogues took place at Snowmass, the proceedings of which were kept private so that the participants could explore freely the wealth of their own traditions and dialogue from the heart about the differences and similarities between their paths of wisdom. These dialogues have now been captured in The Common Heart. Participants include Fr. Thomas, Roshi Bernie Glassman, Swami Atmarupananda, Dr. Ibrahim Gamard, Imam Bilal Hyde, Pema Ch�dr�n, Rabbi Henoch Dov Hoffman, and others.

For over a decade, Benedictine nun Sr. Mary Margaret Funk has engaged in a dialogue with American Muslims in an effort to bridge the gap that seems to divide Christianity and Islam, and to get to the heart of faith itself. In Islam Is. . ., Sr. Meg reveals what she has learned about Islam, lays out its fundamental beliefs, and courageously examines the controversial issues of terrorism, women's rights, and economic power. Discovering startling similarities to her own deeply held Catholic practice and beliefs, Sr. Meg offers Christians everywhere a way of viewing the spiritual essence of Islam in a way that is honest and authentic. The book contains a similarly honest and heartfelt afterword by her dialogue partner Shahid Athar, M.D.

The Attentive Voice is a collection of essays from individuals in the Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (MID), which bringing individuals from faiths with a monastic tradition—Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism—to discuss the deeper rhythms and structures of their traditions. The authors describe the ways dialogue with other religious traditions has enhanced their spiritual life, explain why interreligious relations have become such an important element of modern Catholic life, and reflect on the meaning of interreligious dialogue vis-à-vis the Catholic Church's teaching on revelation and salvation in and through Jesus Christ. In so doing, they show that interreligious dialogue is an engaging, enlightening, and spiritually enriching way to respond to religious plurality.

For more on the work of interreligious dialogue, see Sr. Mary Margaret Funk's website and Monastic Interreligious Dialogue, both of which websites are maintained by Lanternmedia.

Related Titles

The Spiritual Life A Dialogue of Buddhist and Christian Monastics Prof. Donald W. Mitchell, Fr. James A. Wiseman	Green Monasticism A Buddhist-Catholic Response to an Environmental Calamity Prof. Donald W. Mitchell, William Skudlarek, O.S.B.	God's Harp String The Life and Legacy of the Benedictine Monk, Swami Abhishiktananda William Skudlarek, O.S.B.
Finding Peace in Troubled Times Buddhist and Christian Monastics on Transforming Suffering Prof. Donald W. Mitchell, Fr. James A. Wiseman	The Attentive Voice Reflections on the Meaning and Practice of Interreligious Dialogue William Skudlarek, O.S.B.	Sundays at the Magic Monastery Homilies from the Trappists of St. Benedict�s Monastery Thomas Keating
The Common Heart An Experience of Interreligious Dialogue Netanel Miles-Yepez, Ken Wilber, Thomas Keating	Islam Is... An Experience of Dialogue and Devotion Sr. Mary Margaret Funk, Shahid Athar, MD

Gethsemani Encounters

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CST

Thomas Merton: Primum Mobile

In 1996, a group of monastics from the Buddhist, Hindu, and Christian traditions met at Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky to share their experiences of the monastic life. This meeting took place for two reasons. The first was Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, who resided at Gethsemani, and pioneered interreligious dialogue, when he met His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1968. It was perhaps partly out of that curiosity and faithfulness to the idea of dialogue that the Vatican started an organization eventually called Monastic Interreligious Dialogue in the mid-1970s to encourage continued dialogue between those faiths with monastic traditions (Buddhism, Christianity, and Hinduism), an effort that continues to this day.

Lantern has published a number of titles on interreligious dialogue, including Islam Is. . . and The Common Heart. However, it is even prouder to now be the publisher of all three books to emerge from the three Gethsemani Encounters that have taken place thus far: 1996, 2002, and The Spiritual Life, Finding Peace in Troubled Times, and Green Monasticism. The extraordinary range of voices—which include in The Spiritual Life the Dalai Lama—represent the fullness of a life dedicated to the principles of discipline, devotion, authenticity, practice, and compassion.

Related Titles

Islam Is... An Experience of Dialogue and Devotion Sr. Mary Margaret Funk, Shahid Athar, MD	Green Monasticism A Buddhist-Catholic Response to an Environmental Calamity Prof. Donald W. Mitchell, William Skudlarek, O.S.B.	God's Harp String The Life and Legacy of the Benedictine Monk, Swami Abhishiktananda William Skudlarek, O.S.B.
Finding Peace in Troubled Times Buddhist and Christian Monastics on Transforming Suffering Prof. Donald W. Mitchell, Fr. James A. Wiseman	The Common Heart An Experience of Interreligious Dialogue Netanel Miles-Yepez, Ken Wilber, Thomas Keating	The Spiritual Life A Dialogue of Buddhist and Christian Monastics Prof. Donald W. Mitchell, Fr. James A. Wiseman

An Inadmissible Comparison

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CST

The Union Stock Yard: The beginning and end of the line

What can we say about the Holocaust, and can we in any way talk of it in the same breath as the routine slaughter of billions of animals on today's factory farms?

In a thoughtful and thought-provoking contribution to the study of animals and the Holocaust, The Holocaust and the Henmaid's Tale, Karen Davis makes the case that significant parallels can, and must, be drawn between the Holocaust and the institutionalized abuse of billions of animals in factory farms. Carefully setting forth the conditions that must be met when one instance of oppression is used metaphorically to illuminate another, Davis demonstrates the value of such comparisons in exploring the invisibility of the oppressed, historical and hidden suffering, the idea that some groups were "made" to serve others through suffering and sacrificial death, and other concepts that reveal powerful connections between animal and human experience, as well as human traditions and tendencies of which we all should be aware.

In Eternal Treblinka, scholar Charles Patterson shows the links between the Chicago meat-packing industry, the assembly lines of Henry Ford, and Hitler's embrace of mechanized slaughter and eugenics perfected on animals: a deadly combination that led to the killing of over six million Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and communists. Thoughtfully showing the ideology of purity and dehumanization that led to the Holocaust, Patterson reveals how the fascist mentality exists even today in the destruction of life unworthy of life in the factory farms of today.

In a related book, He Walked Through Walls, Myriam Miedzian describes the extraordinary life of her father as he managed to shepherd his immediately family to safety during World War II, and before that, himself survived numerous moments where he could have lost his life.

All in all, these three titles provide much food for thought about how cruel the twentieth-century was to both human being and animals.

Related Titles

The Holocaust and the Henmaid's Tale
A Case for Comparing Atrocities
Karen Davis

Eternal Treblinka
Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust
Charles Patterson, Ph.D

He Walked Through Walls
A Twentieth-Century Tale of Survival
Myriam Miedzian

The Commoditization of Paula Deen

(Keith Akers) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:27:56 CST

Photo: Bev
Sykes

Doubtless you have already heard the latest news story, so thick with irony that it is its own satire. Paula Deen, the "queen of butter," not only announces that she has Type 2 Diabetes, but -- wait! there's more! -- announces that she has become a paid spokeswoman for pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk. She's even got a web site to promote her bad habits.

Since the irony will likely be lost on a lot of people, I'll spell it out. This is a perfect example of the commoditization of food, medical care, and information. Things which make good commodities are not necessarily good for us. Paula Deen has now become a commodity, and can't even see it. On the one hand the big corporations sell you the foods that give you diabetes, and on the other they'll also sell you the drugs that will control your diabetes.

Money can sell bad food, bad information, and bad medical care. Good information, good food, and good medical care are not easily made into a commodity, because there aren't that many ways to make a profit on it. You can write some books, I suppose, or maybe invest in broccoli futures, but that's about it. But this is nothing compared to the money to be made by pharmaceutical companies, drugs, big agriculture, and high-powered medicine. And in our society, guess which wins out?

We can only speculate as to why Paula Deen has sold herself out, but the obvious suspicion is that it has something to do with her bank account. The "diabetes-friendly" lasagne recipe she provides gets 2/3 of its calories from protein and fat, has 55 mg of cholesterol per serving, and features 4 1/2 cups of cheese, 2 eggs, and a half pound of beef. It's "diabetes-friendly" all right; I'll bet her diabetes will flourish with it. The recipe and materials, we are told, have been reviewed by "Diabetes Care and Education" -- evidently another organization bought out by the influence of corporate money, which now controls our political system, our medical care, our food, our information, and our entire lives.

A vegan diet can not only treat diabetes, but can actually reverse diabetes. Drugs can sometimes lower blood sugar, but at increased risk of heart attacks and bone fractures. When the American Diabetes Association diet was put head-to-head against a vegan diet in a clinical trial, the trial demonstrated that the vegan diet was clearly superior and actually reversed some cases of diabetes.

Get a grip, Paula. If Bill Clinton can do it, you can do it. Go vegan.

Related Titles

The Lost Religion of Jesus
Simple Living and Nonviolence in Early Christianity
Keith Akers

The Practical Peacemaker
How Simple Living Makes Peace Possible
Kate Lawrence

Challenging the "Religion" of Economic Growth

kate [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Kate Lawrence) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:48:19 CST

Growthbuster Dave Gardner in action against growth profiteers.

A Practical Peacemaker Ponders . . .

For those of us concerned about poverty, environmental degradation, and climate change, the idea that economic growth underlies these problems will probably not come as a surprise. Growth-- higher production of consumer goods, stepped-up extraction of resources, more and bigger houses, freeways and shopping malls--has been accepted almost unconditionally as the best way to run governments and assure prosperity. It is seen as the most potent answer to lifting people out of poverty and assuring full employment. Go out and shop more, we are told. Few people dare to publicly challenge the American religion of growth, and those who do should be read, supported, and discussed.

Or in the case of one new documentary, watched. I'm referring to Growthbusters: Hooked on Growth (remember Ghostbusters?), in which Dave Gardner, a courageous citizen of Colorado Springs, Colorado, becomes sufficiently fed up with the development, congestion, and depletion of resources he sees around him to run for his city council. The film follows his campaign, interspersed with headlines and newsclips from around the world praising growth, and shows the destructive effects of such growth. Gardner keeps it from becoming too heavy with a generous dose of humor; for example, he calls the Pope to offer him Endangered Species condoms.

Growthbusters is effective because it not only provides viewers with the reasons to oppose growth, but shows an average guy stepping forward and challenging his city officials. He comments that his campaign for city council often took him outside his comfort zone, but he did it anyway. I was glad to see a long segment on overpopulation, a subject often considered too controversial to address. I hadn't realized how many countries are actually encouraging couples, by giving tax breaks and bonuses, to have more children--this is madness! A segment on the Transition movement was included, but I would have liked to see more on what a steady-state economy might look like, as well as something on the environmental effects of diet, specifically showing the benefits of plant-based diets. However, the film is still powerful; its message is critically important to share with as many people as possible. Keith and I hosted a screening last night, and attendees were favorably impressed. Here's how to schedule a screening in your area.

Related Titles

The Practical Peacemaker
How Simple Living Makes Peace Possible
Kate Lawrence

Effective Activism

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CST

Hillary Rettig: An effective advocate

Many of us want to create change in the world, but face tremendous obstacles in getting our message out. The powers that be have vastly more resources at their disposal than activists do—but these Lantern authors have discovered how to shift the balance of power.

In Strategic Action for Animals, Melanie Joy explains how to use strategy to exponentially increase the effectiveness of activism for animals. Drawing on diverse movements and sources, she offers tried and true tactics and explains how to address the most common problems that weaken activists' efforts. Whether you are working alone or with a group, whether you are a seasoned activist or new to the movement, this book can help you make the most of your efforts to make the world a better place.

Without question, one key strategic element of activism is maximally effective presentation—whether your audience is a single individual, a small group, a large audience, or the world media. In Move the Message, communications consultant and activist Josephine Bellaccomo delivers a step-by-step process, complete with tactics, strategies, examples, and exercises, to ensure that your message is focused, powerful, and reaches the power holders for winning results. The book not only makes a wonderful guide for those who wish to be an activist, it is an astonishing repository of tips on successful communication, and, as such, should be read by all those who want to become more effective in the world.

It’s important as activists that we also take care of ourselves. Too often, however, we think that bringing about social change involves personal deprivation, poverty, rootlessness, and misery. We don't deserve to lead rich and fulfilling lives, we tell ourselves, while others are suffering. The tragedy is, however, that denying ourselves our needs makes us less and not more effective, and may in fact make us a burden for others trying to bring about the same change.

The Lifelong Activist teaches you how to avoid burnout by integrating activism consciously and joyfully into a well-balanced life. Its four sections ("Managing Your Mission," "Managing Your Time," "Managing Your Fears," and "Managing Your Relationships") offer easy and effective techniques to help activists both old and young, new on the scene and on the verge of burnout remain enthusiastic, passionate and joyful.

Another book with its roots in the tradition of non-violence, is Peace to All Beings by Judy Carman. The book explores the meaning of ahimsa today as it applies to stopping environmental destruction and the cruelties of factory farming. Drawing upon all the world's religions and contemporary spiritual teachers, Peace is a wonderful manual for spiritual seekers and activists looking to sustain their souls as they bring about difficult and hard-fought change.

Finally, Aftershock: Confronting Trauma in a Violent World, A Guide for Activists and Their Allies, pattrice jones illustrates how important it is for activists who have to face violence and trauma, protect themselves and each other. She provides the psychological and practical tools necessary to make it possible to pursue a long and sustained career in activism.

For more on Hillary Rettig's work, click here.

Related Titles

Muzzling a Movement The Effects of Anti-Terrorism Law, Money, and Politics on Animal Activism Dara Lovitz	Change of Heart What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change Nick Cooney	The Animal Activist's Handbook Maximizing Our Positive Impact in Today's World Matt Ball, Bruce Friedrich, Ingrid Newkirk
Strategic Action for Animals A Handbook on Strategic Movement Building, Organizing, and Activism for Animal Liberation Melanie Joy	Move the Message Your Guide to Making a Difference and Changing the World Josephine Bellaccomo	The Lifelong Activist How to Change the World without Losing Your Way Hillary Rettig
Peace to All Beings Veggie Soup for the Chicken's Soul Judy Carman	Aftershock Confronting Trauma in a Violent World: A Guide for Activists and Their Allies pattrice jones

Keeping Those New Year's Resolutions

kate [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Kate Lawrence) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:57:14 CST

A Practical Peacemaker Ponders . . .

As a new year begins, we hear much talk of resolutions, ways to improve one's life in the coming year. These might have to do with weight loss, increased fitness, decreased indulgence in sweets, alcohol or tobacco, controlling one's temper, and better budgeting of money. As a regular participant in fitness classes, I notice every January a sudden increase in attendance by new people I've heard called "resolutioners." These folks start out with the best of intentions, but unfortunately do not continue; within a month they are mostly gone.

The desire people have for personal improvement is something we as practical peacemakers want to encourage. Progress on any of the goals listed above leads to a more harmonious personal and family life, and thus a more peaceful society. However, the urge to make improvements that require discipline is fragile; it is no easy thing to change long-standing habits. In fact, it seems that the making of resolutions is considered a sort of joke: "yeah, sure, you're going to quit smoking--how long is that going to last?" "You say you're going to get up earlier in order to exercise--right."

How can we turn around this expectation of failure and make the keeping of resolutions more likely? I have three ideas.

The first is probably obvious: set goals modest enough to keep. Instead of expecting yourself to exercise five mornings a week, start out with two. Whatever amount of weight you want to lose, set the goal at half that. This way you can feel good when you complete your personal challenge.

The second is not to consider the project over the first time you fail. For example, you resolve to avoid cookies or chips and before long, in a weak moment, you eat some anyway. Instead of beating yourself up, just start over, and keep starting over as often as it takes.

The third way would be to pay as much attention at the end of the year about resolutions completed, as we do at the beginning about resolutions proposed. If people expected to be taking a hard look at year's end about how well they'd been able to keep their resolutions, they might set more realistic goals and keep on despite setbacks. The Jazzercise Center I attend keeps track of how many classes each person attends, and recognizes with prizes and a round of applause those who achieve certain goals. This is reinforcement that works.

For most of us, however, no one is going to recognize and applaud us for keeping our resolutions. Only you know how many pounds you've lost, or how many times you've chosen to save money instead of buying something frivolous. So we must keep track ourselves. I suggest writing on your calendar each time you've kept your resolutions. Then you'll have monthly totals, and at the end of the year you can review your resolutions and say, "I got up X number of days to exercise," or "There were Y times I could have gotten angry but didn't." The times you failed don't even register. This is how we're going to succeed at the resolution game.

Related Titles

The Practical Peacemaker
How Simple Living Makes Peace Possible
Kate Lawrence

Thomas Keating and Centering Prayer

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 06:00:00 CST

Thomas Keating

For thirty years, Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO, has been reclaiming the Christian meditative tradition that he calls Centering Prayer.

It takes its roots from a number of sources: the ancient prayer practices of the Christian contemplative heritage, notably the Fathers and Mothers of the Desert; Lectio Divina, (praying the scriptures); The Cloud of Unknowing; St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. With his fellow Trappist monks, Fr. William Meninger and Fr. Basil Pennington, and through his organization, Contemplative Outreach, Thomas Keating has shown that contemporary Christianity can be an enlivening, mystical experience, both free of dogma and deeply personal. Fr. Keating’s most recent work is Manifesting God, in which he explores the tradition of Christian meditation. No matter the external expression of beliefs and rituals, the contemplative dimension is the heart and soul of every religion. Contemplation initiates movement into higher states of consciousness. Manifesting God is a primer of the technique of contemplative prayer that allows the seeker from any faith to enter into the inner chamber of their heart. Here one basks in communion with the Divine presence, relieving one’s heart of its hurts and burdens.

The fundamental transformation of Centering Prayer occurs when you enter what Thomas Keating calls"the inner room,"a concept taken from Matthew 6:6 ("But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you"NIV.) When you enter the room, God, acting as a divine therapist, begins to peel away the layers of emotional programming that have kept you from intimacy with God and uncovers the authentic self that has been hidden or repressed. All of the resistances, pathologies, and prejudices you have about the divine and your own self are lovingly removed, leaving you able to enjoy what Paul the Apostle calls"the fruits and gifts of the Spirit."

This process quite literally changes who you are in your relationship with God and your self. In The Divine Indwelling, Fr. Thomas and other leading lights of the current Centering Prayer movement explore intention and discernment and Centering Prayer’s commonalities with transpersonal psychology. One of Fr. Thomas’s inspirations for reviving the Christian contemplative tradition was the French mystic Th�r�se of Lisieux. In St. Therese of Lisieux, he shows through an analysis of Jesus’ parables and in a reflection on Therese’s short life, dedicated to living the Gospel precept,"To love one another as I have loved You!"how Therese allowed the Kingdom of God to manifest itself in everyday life, and thereby brought an extraordinary gift to humanity.

His latest book is called And the Word Was Made Flesh, Keating draws from his life's devotion as a Trappist monk and abbot to provide a sacramental perspective on such feasts as The Annunciation, Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, The Paschal Vigil, and Pentecost.

For more on Thomas Keating and Contemplative Outreach, click here.

Related Titles

The Spiritual Life A Dialogue of Buddhist and Christian Monastics Prof. Donald W. Mitchell, Fr. James A. Wiseman	Into the Depths A Journey of Loss and Vocation Sr. Mary Margaret Funk	The God Who Is Here A Contemplative Guide to Transforming Your Relationship with God and the Church Peter Traben Haas
Divine Therapy and Addiction Centering Prayer and the Twelve Steps Thomas Keating	And the Word Was Made Flesh Thomas Keating	Manifesting God Thomas Keating
The Divine Indwelling Centering Prayer and Its Development Thomas Keating	St. Th�r�se of Lisieux A Transformation in Christ Thomas Keating

Weight Loss and You

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 06:00:00 CST

Norris is there to make weight loss a joy

Even though the Atkins fad has faded, people still believe they can starve their bodies into submission.

In Carbophobia, Michael Greger, MD, presents decades of research to decisively debunk the purported "science" behind low-carb fad diets and documents just how ineffective these plans have been in producing sustainable weight loss.

Much of what makes weight loss work is having the right attitude: a feeling of joy in one's life and not the dread of deprivation. A case in point is Norris Chumley, author of The Joy of Weight Loss. He had been on virtually every diet, and they'd all failed. He tipped the scales at the 400 pounds time and time again. He felt hopeless, and, in rare glimpses of honesty, secretly admitted that he was slowly committing suicide. His book tells the dramatic story of how he turned his life around, discovered joy, happiness, and permanent freedom from obesity and offers a straightforward way for you to manage your weight.

Likewise Victoria Moran. As she recounts in The Love-Powered Diet, she yo-yo'd in weight, until she realized that she had to love the body she had to get to the body she wanted.

Another great book that promotes all round health is Senior Fitness by Ruth Heidrich. Senior Fitness shows people over fifty how they can maintain a healthy lifestyle, eating properly and exercising regularly, that will not only make them feel great but will automatically have them losing pounds and toning their muscles.

For more on Norris Chumley, click here. For more on Victoria Moran, click here.

Related Titles

Sweeping the Dust Ruth Lauer-Manenti	An Offering of Leaves Ruth Lauer-Manenti, David Life	Carbophobia! The Scary Truth About America's Low-Carb Craze Michael Greger, MD
The Joy of Weight Loss A Spiritual Guide to Easy Fitness Norris Chumley	Senior Fitness The Diet and Exercise Program for Maximum Health and Longevity Ruth E. Heidrich, Ph.D.

God So Loved the World

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 06:00:00 CST

The Lamb of God

The radical premise of Christianity, too often forgotten in our anthropocentric age, is that it is the the world, and not simply human kind, that is redeemed through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This means that the eschatalogical hope expressed by Isaiah that the wolf will dwell with the lamb and that the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord is not an idle wish that we might be nice to animals and nature. It is that all creatures and the earth itself will be transformed by lovingkindness into lovingkindness. Such a radical promise should challenge Christians to question whether the Biblical mandate of humankind's dominion over the animals and the earth should continue to lead to cruelty, exploitation, and indifference.

Norm Phelps, in The Dominion of Love presents a clear-eyed analysis of how we need to read the Bible carefully and thoughtfully to extract a message that challenges us to reflect on our actions toward others, including non-human animals. He also has another book The Great Compassion.

The late Rev. J. R. Hyland, author of God's Covenant with Animals, believes that looking at the Bible as a book that documents the growth of spiritual consciousness of the Israelites and the Jewish Christians helps us understand Christianity as a living creed that can bring about change. In The Lost Religion of Jesus Keith Akers persuasively shows that the original Christians believed that Jesus' message demanded communal living, pacifism, and vegetarianism, a message that was diluted and perverted when Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire.

Finally, in Creatures of the Same God, the Rev. Andrew Linzey examines among other things how ecotheology can too easily look over our obligations to the individual animals in our care, and how we need to bring animals back into the theological discussion in general.

In all these books, the central message is that we need to reinvigorate the notion of care for the most vulnerable that lies at the heart of the Christian endeavor, something that extends also to animals and the natural world. After all, Jesus said it best of his care for Jerusalem: "How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings?"

For more on Christianity and vegetarianism, click here.

Related Titles

The Great Compassion Buddhism and Animal Rights Norm Phelps	The God Who Is Here A Contemplative Guide to Transforming Your Relationship with God and the Church Peter Traben Haas	Creatures of the Same God Explorations in Animal Theology Andrew Linzey
The Dominion of Love Animal Rights According to the Bible Norm Phelps	God's Covenant with Animals A Biblical Basis for the Humane Treatment of All Creatures J. R. Hyland	The Lost Religion of Jesus Simple Living and Nonviolence in Early Christianity Keith Akers

To Heal the World

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 06:00:00 CST

To Heal the World

One of the great spiritual mandates of Judaism is "tikkun olam," which means "to heal the world."

From God's first injunction, "Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for food," (Gen. 1:29) the Hebrew Bible offers countless examples of how God intends a compassionate and caring attitude toward animals, our health, and the well-being of the planet. In Judaism and Vegetarianism, professor emeritus in New York Richard Schwartz shows how respect for animals and the environment can revitalize one's Jewish faith, while in Judaism and Global Survival he argues that a rediscovery of basic Jewish teachings and mandates, such as to seek peace and justice, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to act as co-workers with God in protecting and preserving the earth, can build a better world.

For more on Judaism and vegetarianism, click here.

Related Titles

Judaism and Vegetarianism
New Revised Edition
Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D.

Judaism and Global Survival
Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D.

Male Violence

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 06:00:00 CST

Spoiling for a fight

Why are so many boys and men so violent? And why do we tolerate this culture of violence?

These, as well as how to raise boys in a world of masculinist violence and macho posturing, are the subjects of Boys Will Be Boys. Philosopher and social theorist Miriam Miedzian argues that war toys, endless competition, tacitly approved bullying, violent films and music, brutal sports and bigotry all systematically teach boys how to be aggressive. She offers strategies to break the mystique of aggression and restore young men's rightful inheritance to their true masculine dignity.

For many young people, contemporary society is alienating and full of pressures and unrealistic expectations. To be bullied, excluded or labeled as different can leave a child full of rage and fear, isolated and potentially suicidal. The results, as Brooks Brown and Rob Merritt explain in gripping and terrible detail in No Easy Answers, can be deadly. Brooks was friends with Dylan Klebold, one of the Columbine High School murderers, and an acquaintance of the other shooter, Eric Harris. Brown and journalist Rob Merritt describe the warning signs that were missed or ignored, what life was like at Columbine High School before the shootings, and the evidence that was kept hidden from the public after the murders. Shocking as well as inspirational, No Easy Answers is an authentic wake-up call for all psychologists, authorities, parents, and anyone wanting to learn the unvarnished facts about growing up as an alienated teenager in America today.

Related Titles

The Violent Person
Professional Risk Management Strategies for Safety and Care
Raymond B. Flannery, Jr., Ph.D., FAPM

Boys Will Be Boys
Breaking the Link Between Masculinity and Violence
Myriam Miedzian

No Easy Answers
The Truth Behind Death at Columbine High School
Brooks Brown, Rob Merritt

Becoming a Short-Story Author

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:52:12 CST

You gotta start somewhere.

Once a week or so, a friend contacts me and tells me that she or he has written a novel or a bunch of short stories and wonders if I have any advice for them on getting published. I've already written a blog about the novel, but thought I'd put down my thoughts on short stories here.

In a recent issue of Poets & Writers magazine, four editors of literary journals lamented the fact that very few of the many individuals who submit stories or poems to their periodicals were subscribers. What did it say, they wondered, that writers weren't apparently interested in reading what other writers produced and didn't support the very outlets in which they were so eager to be published? None of them had an answer to this discouraging phenomenon.

Centuries ago, literacy rates were so low that writers and readers were few and far between. If you could read and write, you were speaking from and to an elite, and you were likely to be noticed. The rise of the reading public in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries gave writers a much larger audience. Because there were few publishers, the relatively few writers reached quite substantial markets. These days, any fool can set up a publishing concern and write a book, and publish it on demand or electronically. However, the number of readers has not increased much in decades. The result is that lots of writers and outlets are chasing the same number of readers—which means that a book that might have sold 10,000 copies four decades ago now does well to reach 2,000 today.

Given these market realities, then, how should you approach publishing your short stories? In no particular order (and with a pinch of cynicism), here are some options:

Subscribe to literary journals that you want to be published in. Write to the editors; tell them how much you like the work and comment on it; go to the journal's fundraising parties and meet and greet the other authors and editors. Feign interest in others and they may feign interest in you—at least enough to publish you.
Get into an MFA program, where you will have published authors as your advisors. Wine and dine them and show them your work. Make them your mentors, and ask them to write an introductory letter to the journal(s) or their agent on your behalf. Then do as above.
Enter competitions. You will have to spend money. You will lose many, many, many times. But you may win once or twice, and you will be published. This will build your resume with book publishers.
Publish your short stories separately as downloadable e-books. An e-book can be any length. Turn each story into a self-contained unit. You can charge for the download or make it free. Either way, you bypass the publishing gatekeepers. If you "sell" lots of copies, you can then tell a publisher that you've a built-in market. Visit Smashwords for more.
Read your stories aloud. Visit your local bookstore, library, old age persons' home, shopping mall, high school, neighborhood cafe etc. and read your work aloud. Do poetry slams. Invite friends around for an evening. Build your audience. Who knows who might come along as a friend of a friend to take you to the next stage of getting published?
Start your own salon. Tired of not being heard? Create your own salon and invite other people in your same situation to read their work. You'll meet friends, like-minded souls, and maybe an agent or publisher will show up and lift up the light of their countenance upon you.
Record your work. Get a microphone and use your audio recording software on your computer and read your work. Sell or give it away on iTunes or CD Baby. You're building your audience and perhaps making some money on the side. More importantly, your stories are being heard.
Publish the stories yourself. Use xlibris, iUniverse, Lulu, or Author Solutions. You'll have to pay money for typesetting, a cover, and printing anywhere from one to one thousand copies. But you'll have books that you can sell. If you sell thousands, you can approach a "regular" book publisher to take on your costs and risk—and to keep most of the profit.
Take it on the road. If you can afford to take time off and you have the resources, then go on a road trip, reading your work wherever you can. If applicable, create an evening lecture or an all-day or weekend workshop out of it. Become an expert.

Remember: a writer is in the business of communication. It's no longer good enough (if it ever was) for you, like Emily Dickinson, to sit in your house waiting for posterity to shower you with honors. You need to be confident in public, a capable reader/performer, and possessed of a wide and engaged circle of friends/supporters. Somehow the reading public kept their spirits up in spite of the fact that they were unaware of your writing, and they'll probably keep their chins up even after you bring your work into the world. So you need to maximize the number of ways you reach out to (and create) your audience. Be flexible, creative, and committed.

It's finally worth pointing out that only in the rarest of circumstances does the amount of effort, time, and angst you put into a book equal the financial rewards, level of fame, or number of opportunities you'll receive in return. You must write because you feel compelled to: because an idea or character is knocking at the inside of your skull, demanding to be released. There are, to be sure, collateral benefits, but you should not rely on these. Write because you're a writer, and that's what you do.

Each in His Prison

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 06:00:00 CST

Jens Soering

In 1986, Jens Soering, a naive and arrogant undergraduate, made a terrible decision.

Under the spell of a disturbed young woman, he became implicated in the horrendous murders of her parents. Infatuated and poorly advised, Soering assumed that as a German citizen he could take the blame for the murders, be extradited, and serve a limited sentence in his home country. He was wrong. He was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder and placed in a maximum-security prison in Virginia. Twenty years later, and with little hope of parole or extradition, he continues to serve out a sentence for crimes he insists he did not commit.

Such a punishment might have destroyed him. However, a chance encounter with the work of Fr. Thomas Keating enabled Soering to leave the cycles of despair, anger, and emotional turmoil he was going through and discover the transformative power and practice of Centering Prayer. In The Way of the Prisoner, Soering explains just how he came to experience God's grace in the direst of circumstances and how that grace forced him to confront the past and recognize the beauty and redemptive hope possible in his current situation. A moving, true story that shocks and inspires, The Way of the Prisoner illustrates how we can all transform our crosses and our prisons (literal or metaphorical) into hard earned wisdom.

While Jens Soering manages to survive his incarceration, America's prisons continue to destroy the lives of hundreds of thousands of inmates, many of whom are either mentally ill, non-violent, or illiterate before being incarcerated, and utterly incapable of surviving in the world once they get out. In An Expensive Way to Make Bad People Worse, Soering avoids the usual bromides about prison reform to make an impassioned and fully resourced argument (one, uniquely, from a current inmate) that the current penal system is not only inefficient in controlling crime but inept at providing appropriate punishment for offenders.

Soering's latest book, The Church of the Second Chance, explains how victims, offenders, and society at large can heal through a restorative approach. Each chapter features a scriptural lawbreaker who was granted a second chance through divine mercy, then examines a crucial problem besetting our jails and penitentiaries and demonstrates how people are working today, in and out of prison, to apply God's word to our own lives and times.

For more on Jens Soering click here.

Related Titles

Finding Peace in Troubled Times Buddhist and Christian Monastics on Transforming Suffering Prof. Donald W. Mitchell, Fr. James A. Wiseman	The Blessing Next to the Wound A Story of Art, Activism, and Transformation Hector Aristizábal, Diane Lefer	The Way of the Prisoner Breaking the Chains of Self through Centering Prayer and Centering Practice Jens Soering
The Church of the Second Chance A Faith-Based Approach to Prison Reform Jens Soering	An Expensive Way to Make Bad People Worse An Essay on Prison Reform from an Insider�s Perspective Jens Soering

A Sabbatical

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:30:12 CST

Time to make an ass of myself.

A Sabbatical

After eleven years at the company I co-founded and five at Continuum; having worked on over 150 titles; and ghostwritten approximately ten books (including three in the last five years), I have decided that I need to concentrate on my own writing. If I don't do it now, I fear I may never get to undertake those projects that require concentration and dedicated time, and which I am not currently able to do while editing and acquiring books for Lantern. It is now, or it may be never.

Pending Lantern's finding of a suitable replacement, I'm therefore going to take a twelve-month sabbatical from February 1, 2012. Some of you has asked just what I'm going to be working on. So, here is a list of some of the projects that I'll be trying to develop.

The Polar Bear in the Zoo

I've been interested in the work of the wonderful Canadian photographer Jo-Anne McArthur for several years, particularly her We Animals series. I'm especially drawn to the photograph of a polar bear in the zoo, which Lantern used for the cover of a book called Teaching the Animal. I want to write about this photo, and how it captures the soteriological function of animals, the topsy-turvy world in which we interact with them, and a whole host of other prejudices, predilections, and permutations thereof. I will start with John Berger's chapter "Why We Look at Animals" from his book Ways of Seeing and move into continental philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and aesthetics, all through the lens and frame of this photograph. This will be my "animal book," and will in due course be published by Lantern—if it's any good.

Balaam

I've been reflecting on the story of Balaam and the donkey from the Book of Numbers for almost 20 years. I was taken with Balaam's mysterious biography: how did he become a prophet and what happens in the Israelite camp that turns Balaam from a heroic prophet of Israelite triumph to a villain who is the nonpareil of mendacity and double-dealing? I then wondered to myself what would happen if the donkey continued to keep talking after their experience before the angel of the Lord? What stories would she tell? I have drafted an outline of that story, and now I need to tell it—or perhaps let it tell me.

Open

I've been mulling over this story for a decade and a half. It's based on a number of true stories, but is fiction. The story is about what happens when a man who taught sign-language to a chimpanzee visits the ape in a primate lab facility. I have a draft that needs to be wholly rewritten. Open and Balaam form a diptych, each commenting on the other.

Gudrun

Whatever happened to King Lear's queen? Why is no mention of her made in Shakespeare's play? I've constructed a story that explains why Lear's daughters so readily plot his downfall, why the Fool remains so loyal, and why Cordelia seems so different from her sisters. Now I need to write it.

Vegan America

Vegans know what we don't want, but what is our vision for what we do? Imagining an America that's vegan in 2100, I want to construct a number of arguments and storylines that follow dystopian, utopian, and a mixture of both "histories" to examine resource use, social change, economic development, and a range of other subjects, using veganism as a heuristic. Claude Levi-Strauss noted that "animals are good to think with." Veganism should be the same.

These are a few of the projects I want to develop. Others I can't talk about as yet. I'm not so naive as to believe that I'll finish these in twelve months, but I hope to push them forward. Thank you for your supportive thoughts.