carryabigsticker.com

I posted my thoughts about the Coexist bumper sticker some time ago but did not explain the symbols. Based on what I’m hearing, many people want to know what those symbols actually mean. So, here goes…

• The “C” is the crescent moon and star – most commonly identified w/Islam. Other older meanings are out there, but that is the one most people “see.”
• The “o” has the peace symbol. 
• The “e” has the symbol for male (Mars) and female (Venus) attached.
• The “x” represents Judaism through the Star (or shield) of David. 
• The “i” is dotted by the pentagram (or pentacle) representing paganism.
• The “s” has been incorporated into the ying/yang symbol of Tao / Confucianism.
• The “t” is a representation of Christianity through the cross. 

I hope that answers the questions about what each thing represents. Of course, it doesn’t address the greater irony of how those symbols – which contradict each other in many ways – are supposed to instruct us to co-exist…

Yours in Christ,
Marty

Note: Weekly peace images are displayed (as a unit) under the “52 Weeks of Peace” tab above, where there is also a more detailed description of the series.

Note: Weekly peace images are displayed (as a unit) under the “52 Weeks of Peace” tab above, where there is also a more detailed description of the series.

Sunday I read the New York Times Magazine Article on the pending publication of Karl Jung’s Red Book and the controversy surrounding it. I was reminded of Jung’s belief in the universality of certain archetypal patterns used in symbols. Over a year ago, I did an exercise at an intercultural training workshops with a series of these symbolic archetypes, where we first drew a series of these symbols and then put them in order top to bottom.  The results, we learned afterwards, were to reveal something about your personal journey in life: Where you’ve been, where you are now, and where you’re heading. There’s a certain plausibility about this, but I find myself feeling agnostic. Or at least I would have to say that I don’t believe that any set of symbols, no matter how common they are, evoke the same type or degree of emotion across cultures largely because the experience of how they are displayed and used is so varied. I remember that a cross was one such symbol, and in the exercise it indicated a crossroad in the life journey: decisions to take and a path to choose. But having had a strongly Roman Catholic upbringing, there was no way I could do the exercise without attaching a cross symbol to all sorts of aspects of those 18 years of Catholic education, while I was freer to explore the triangle, the circle, the square and the spiral which have no particular or intense association for me.

Yet I do attach symbolic importance to many things. For example: This morning as I struggled to get my wedding band back on after taking it off for a nice soak in the hot tub at the hotel where I’m staying while I visit my mother, I pondered what to do with her wedding rings. She’s been taking them off and leaving them in different places in her room, and the staff at the nursing home, worried that these precious items would get lost eventually, put them in a safe until I arrived. For the past 20 years or so, my mother always wore her mother’s gold band on top of the narrow band and diamond engagement ring my father gave to her. My grandparents has a long marriage of 65 years and apparently he still wrote her love notes regularly. They had crossed the lines of the civil war, that man from Arkansas and that woman from Massachusetts, and lines of religion as well, though it was my Protestant grandfather who kept his vow to bring up the girls as Catholic, long after my Grandmother lost interest in her faith. Then there are the 58 years of my parents’ marriage, the last 40 or so that I remember very well. I especially remember them dancing to Bill Haley and Benny Goodman. Yesterday my mother and I listened to a musician play Haley’s Rock around the Clock. Mom didn’t seem to recognize it. To me it was a symbol of my parents’ marriage but my mother’s memory is about as bad as her vision these days. This legacy is symbolized in the wedding rings of both marriages — only the women had rings then — and these symbols do have a very strong meaning for me but not because they are circular and gold. For this they have very little intrinsic value, which is why I had believed it was perfectly fine to let mother wear them herself, since they had even more meaning for her. She still asks about her rings, but she seems satisfied to hear that I have them, safe at home.

The wedding band apparently can be traced from Egypt and Rome according to several sources, and it seems unlikely that those early rings carried a universal meaning that was anything like the experience of marriage that my grandparents and my parents had, or that I have had. In spite of the common belief among Western jewelers that wedding bands have been around as long as marriage, or that they are used in every culture, the best results from historical records suggest that this tradition evolved over time in a largely European or Western context. Japanese people in the last 50 years or so have taken an interest in Western wedding traditions, and the exchange of rings now happens there, but it seems clearly to be an import. Jewelry plays a large role in an Indian wedding, but bangles and toe rings are more symbolic of marriage than a ring on the finger. Even in the USA, for years the 7th Day Adventist religion discouraged the use of wedding rings as part of a ban on personal ornamentation, though this later raised substantial controversy in the church.

Jung apparently believed that symbols emerged from the subconscious, but perhaps he did not anticipate branding. Advertisers are among the first to create and promote symbols, and they have been quite successful at connecting emotions and values to commercial icons of various types. But even non-commercial symbols can be deliberate creations; the peace symbol that emerged in the 1960s was, according to Wikipedia, was created by a professional designer for a particular anti-nuclear war event in 1958, and later became the symbol for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and then quickly spread to the wide range of peace and protest movements during the 1960s.

Symbols are important in every culture, but it is not, in my view, the symbol itself that brings the importance but rather the experience and the people that placed the symbolic value on the object or on the sign or on the behavior. It is part of the language of communication and it is powerful among those who share that meaning. I’d love to hear more from people about their experience of symbols that are important to them, and the groups of people who share that common symbol.

The word “peace” has many diverse connotations.

• For some people it is the absence of conflict or war between people, nations and beliefs.
• For others it is the lack of discord or strife between individuals, the presence of harmony and tranquility.
• For some it is an internal state of calm and serenity regardless of what is going on around them.
• Still others associate peace with the anti-war movement relative to the U.S.-led military action in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan or other parts of the world where a projection of armed force is evident.
• Others hearken back to the peace movement of the 1960s and the visualization of the peace symbol that was prevalent at that time.

Jesus told his followers “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”  [John 14:27, NIV]  This peace is not the absence of war, conflict or unrest in the world; rather it is the assurance that in seeking after God one would experience an inner peace that would provide comfort in times of difficulty.  In fact we are told “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed.  Such things must happen,” [Matthew 24: 6].  We are warned that nations will rise up against nations and Kingdoms against other Kingdoms.

I concur however, with Peace.org that war is not inevitable and there is a stand we can take to ensure this in fact is not our fate:  “It is the obligation of thinking people on this planet to weigh the implications of a future without co-existence, to ponder the underlying causes of today’s conflicts, to encourage efforts aimed at addressing these complexities and to promote similar thoughtful consideration by others.”

It is not a matter of peace at what cost; it matters what it costs if peace is not achieved and sustained.  Today conflict rages on in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Thailand, Somalia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Darfur, Israel and Palestine to name but a few.   Here at home there is conflict, violence and loss of life on our streets every day.  The impact of lack of food, inadequate nutrition, educational, economic, social, racial, ethnic, gender and political injustice is incalculable.  

How do we find peace in the midst of all the turmoil and struggle around us?  We begin by acknowledging that the world is not at peace; people of the world are not in loving, caring and affirming relationships with each other.  Next we engage in the actions to which we are obligated as members of the world-wide community of humanity:

• Think diligently about the cost of doing nothing to improve the condition of others;
• Picture the world of the future if we do nothing to promote peaceful co-existence;
• Work with honesty and integrity to understand the individual and institutional causes of the present situation in any particular corner of the world;
• Encourage others to examine these things and engage in a dialogue with them; and
• Take direct action aimed at ameliorating the identified causes that contribute to unrest, death, conflict, hunger, thirst, genocide and outright war.
• Take a stand in opposition to the idea that we are powerless to bring about positive change in our world.

Each of these are important steps to be taken in their own right, but together they can keep alive the hope and belief that together we are capable of sustaining a just and equitable Kingdom as our Creator intended here on earth.  By coming together to explore our commonalities as well as our differences, by engaging in peace-promoting activities such as CA’s Peacemaking Through the Arts and by believing that we are indeed obligated to do something positive, we can promote peace in all of its meanings.  Just as the world and our nation came together in the immediate aftermath of the events of 9/11, we can do so today to fight a larger and more insidious danger to peace and harmony in our global community.  We can thereby, enhance the quality of life of every single person living today and well into the future.

Want to know more about what you can do, contact the Christian Association at the University of Pennsylvania , explore the activities of Peace Action , or talk to your neighbor, your roommate, your family, people with whom you come into contact on a daily basis and ask them what they do to promote peace around the corner or around the world?  The answers you receive will provide a springboard from which you can begin what perhaps may be the most important conversation of your life.

Consider the words of Jesus when he tells us “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” [Matthew 5:9]  We are all in the final analysis, children of God.  Let us work together to bring about peace on earth during our lifetime.

Note: Weekly peace images are displayed (as a unit) under the “52 Weeks of Peace” tab above, where there is also a more detailed description of the series.

September 1 .  2009

Today is my birthday and I’m making my wishes.  Lots of them!  But among them is a wish that I’m going to explore and illustrate all year long in the form of a personal project, which I’m calling “52 Weeks of Peace”.

Now when I use the word peace, I mean it in a broad, sweeping way .. from the kind of peace that permeates an individual’s soul with a sense of well-being, with love and with joy – to the kind that can move whole groups of humanity into harmony.

Peace is generally considered a quiet thing, like a particularly beautiful sunset – but it can also be loud, like a chorus that lets go and sings boldly to high heaven. Peace can be a meditative, sit-on-the-mountaintop feeling, or the heady, centering adrenaline rush that comes after good, hard athletics. Peace can be a sleeping cat, curled up in a sunny spot, the picture of complete contentment. Peace can be the joyful peels of a child’s laughter. Peace can be a bubbling creek, a cup of tea, the mending of a friendship – or the letting go. It can be found in a kind word, a job well done, a stranger’s smile. Peace graces a spring garden, and kicks up its heels in a snowstorm or a boisterous, pounding waterfall.

Peace doesn’t fight; it calms and exhilarates. Peace is freedom from pain, worry and doubt. Peace reaches over and takes your hand; it delights your heart. Peace feels right from our head to our toes.

And my wish is not just for me, but for you – and for all of us – to see more and experience more of whatever brings more peace, more often, into our lives. (This is one instance where less is not more!)

I’m also going to have a little fun with the designs I’ll be sharing over the next year, and I’ll hope some of that rubs off on whoever may be checking in.  And in the end there should be a wide range of feeling and unexpected expression represented.

Some of you may be familiar with my pencil point series. For those of you who aren’t, the pencil point is my logo, and over several years I’ve celebrated that wonderful, marvelous little tool by creating nearly 100 design variations. If you’ve not seen them, and if you’re interested, you can see some of them here: saxtonstudio.com.

I’ll be taking a similar approach with this venture – except there will be a lot more pieces in a much shorter time period.  And instead of a pencil point, I’ll be using the universal peace symbol. Each week I’ll post a new creation.

So, without further ado, here is the first – in honor of the first day of September and the first week of “52 Weeks of Peace”. (After this first one, I’ll post them under the “new work” tab above.)

Peace to all  – enjoy!

September 1 .  2009

Today is my birthday and I’m making my wishes.  Lots of them!  But among them is a wish that I’m going to explore and illustrate all year long in the form of a personal project, which I’m calling “52 Weeks of Peace”.

Now when I use the word peace, I mean it in a broad, sweeping way .. from the kind of peace that permeates an individual’s soul with a sense of well-being, with love and with joy – to the kind that can move whole groups of humanity into harmony.

Peace is generally considered a quiet thing, like a particularly beautiful sunset – but it can also be loud, like a chorus that lets go and sings boldly to high heaven. Peace can be a meditative, sit-on-the-mountaintop feeling, or the heady, centering adrenaline rush that comes after good, hard athletics. Peace can be a sleeping cat, curled up in a sunny spot, the picture of complete contentment. Peace can be the joyful peels of a child’s laughter. Peace can be a bubbling creek, a cup of tea, the mending of a friendship – or the letting go. It can be found in a kind word, a job well done, a stranger’s smile. Peace graces a spring garden, and kicks up its heels in a snowstorm or a boisterous, pounding waterfall.

Peace doesn’t fight; it calms and exhilarates. Peace is freedom from pain, worry and doubt. Peace reaches over and takes your hand; it delights your heart. Peace feels right from our head to our toes.

And my wish is not just for me, but for you – and for all of us – to see more and experience more of whatever brings more peace, more often, into our lives. (This is one instance where less is not more!)

I’m also going to have a little fun with the designs I’ll be sharing over the next year, and I’ll hope some of that rubs off on whoever may be checking in.  And in the end there should be a wide range of feeling and unexpected expression represented.

Some of you may be familiar with my pencil point series. For those of you who aren’t, the pencil point is my logo, and over several years I’ve celebrated that wonderful, marvelous little tool by creating nearly 100 design variations. If you’ve not seen them, and if you’re interested, you can see some of them here: saxtonstudio.com.

I’ll be taking a similar approach with this venture – except there will be a lot more pieces in a much shorter time period.  And instead of a pencil point, I’ll be using the universal peace symbol. Each week I’ll post a new creation.

So, without further ado, here is the first – in honor of the first day of September and the first week of “52 Weeks of Peace”. (After this first one, I’ll post them under the “peace” tab above.)

Peace to all  – enjoy!

All Shiny and new!!!!

Aren’t they completely awesome!?! And they are super comfy, like walking on a cloud! Only less wet and more solid

So to celebrate, more pics!

Peace Love and Hi Tops!

Macro peace, If only the rest of the world could get this close

Pure Awesome!

So if you are wondering, I bought them from Betts. And in case you haven’t read my “About Me” section, or you aren’t enough of a stalker to alread know, I’m a shoe size 8 (that’s an Aussie size, way different from US or Euro, just so you know). If you want to buy them, click here. My mum bought the Lo version, click here to see/buy them. The Sales Ladies were very helpful, they even remember my mum once I’d mentioned that she’d bought the Lo Tops.

I plan on wearing them with my Hot-Pants-Overalls, Mission Watoto shirt, and Wicked Witch of the West style socks to the next Mission Watoto Meeting.

Yesterday marked the 64th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, and Sunday will mark the Nagasaki bombing

These are to date the only attacks with nuclear weapons in the history of warfare. Is that any consolation? No.

The bombs killed as many as 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 80,000 in Nagasaki by the end of 1945, roughly half on the days of the bombings. Amongst these, 15–20% died from injuries or the combined effects of flash burns, trauma, and radiation burns, compounded by illness, malnutrition and radiation sickness. Since then, more have died from leukemia (231 observed) and solid cancers (334 observed) attributed to exposure to radiation released by the bombs. In both cities, most of the dead were civilians

I’m not going to drag on about this. You all know the details. And if you don’t, you should.

There’s an interesting piece here and then there’s the pictures of Hiroshima they didn’t want you to see here
I would certainly recommend the second link, but be warned, its very graphic

We will be remembering the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Saturday the 8th of August,2009 in Kilkenny,Ireland. This event will take place at the Peace Park situated by the river Nore and we will be making a human peace symbol similar to this but much smaller in size

We’ll also have singers, footage of the bombing and events for children

The last peace symbol,our first attempt at one, was a huge success

Volunteers are needed on the day and if interested, you can call Krisztina on 085-1261287

Spread the word

Peace T-Shirt - ab € 18,95

Dieses T-Shirt kaufen

Mehr Peace T-Shirts
www.shirtcity.com/politics

E’ stato ieri presentato il progetto del “Peace Bridge” di Derry che attraversando fiume Foyle, collegherà Guildhall con la sponda opposta nei pressi della ex base militare britannica di Ebrington nel Waterside.
Questi i numeri: progetto del valore di 13,3 milioni di sterline (14,5 milioni di euro), 235 mt. di lunghezza, 4 metri di larghezza.
I lavori per la costruzione del ponte ciclo-pedonale, a forma di “S”, avrà inizio nel mese di settembre, con una data di completamento prevista per il mese di ottobre del prossimo anno. Il contratto per la progettazione e la costruzione del ponte è stato assegnato alla nordirlandese Graham. I finanziamenti saranno forniti dal European Peace III Programme, con contributi da parte dei governi del Nord e del Sud.
Vice Primo Ministro nordirlandese Martin McGuinness, ha detto il Peace Bridge sarà un catalizzatore per il cambiamento in Derry, in grado di trasformare l’intera comunità oltre a divenire un’attrazione turistica.

‘Symbolic’ new Peace Bridge for Derry (Irish Times)
The winning design for what has been described as an iconic and symbolic foot and cycle bridge across the River Foyle in Derry was unveiled yesterday.
The £13.3 million (€14.5 million) 235m long and 4m wide S-shaped bridge will span the river between the Foyle embankment behind the Guildhall and the former British army base at Ebrington in the Waterside.
Work on the Peace Bridge will start in September with a completion date in October next year. The contract for the design and construction of the bridge has been awarded to Graham, one of Northern Ireland’s largest engineering contractors. The Co Down company has built some of Ireland’s best-known bridges including the Dargan Bridge in Dublin as well as the Foyle Bridge in Derry and the Belfast cross-harbour road and rail bridges.
Funding for the Peace Bridge has been provided by the European Peace III Programme with contributions from Governments North and South.
The North’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said the Peace Bridge would be a catalyst for change in Derry which would tranform the entire community.
“It will unite the city physically, symbolically and emotionally and will be a powerful and lasting symbol of the moment a divided people started to reach out to each other,” said Mr McGuinness.
Plans for a foot and cycle bridge were first submitted to the planning office 15 years ago. Yesterday Brenda Fraser, director of development with the urban regeneration company Ilex which is behind the project, said the bridge would be a world class development and herald “a new era for citizens and visitors alike and will act as a catalyst for transformation and future growth”.

Dateline: April First Two Thousand Nine

“Last night I had the strangest dream

I’d ever had before

I dreamed the world had all agreed

To put an end to war.”

IF ONLY

This is “Enuff on my plate,” created for the Mavericks Mandala challenge that we did after Nancy Green presented a workshop on mandalas and how to interpret them. It was one of the first pieces I exhibited, in 2007.

Although it’s 25″ square, it’s really a journal quilt because my whole family is in it. Perhaps the class I’m about to take at www.quiltuniversity.com will enable me to make works on a smaller scale.

Yesterday I was reading Katie Pasquini’s 1983 book Mandala for contemporary quilt designs and other mediums. What struck me was how she created beautiful vibrant pieces, yet individually many of those fabrics would be the ones left over after a quilt guild garage sale! Not “uglies” per se, just boring calicoes.

Today we have so many amazing fabrics in glorious colours that were unthought of even 25 years ago. Yet the curious thing is that many art quilters make very little use of commercial fabrics. Curious, isn’t it?

PROGRESS REPORT: Did 27 hours of work last week.

… wegen naher Osten und so.

“Peace” gibt es im Mitgliederbereich von Endangered Wear und zwar insgesamt nur 50 Stück. Die dafür zum Vorzugspreis von 17.99 $.  Und Dann ist auch dieses Shirt ausgestorben. Das Gekrakel außenrum formt die wohlbekannten Worte “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one”. Beim Verfassen des Blogs betrug der Countdown to Exctinction noch 46, also: Schnellentschlossene sind hier im Vorteil.

1958-2008

El símbolo de Paz cumple 50 años.
El activista Gerald Holtom lo diseño basado en el alfabeto con banderas internacional (the international semaphore alphabet). En este sistema de comunicación, una persona codifica las letras con dos banderas 

El simbolo de “paz” son las señales en bandera de las letras N y D sobreimpuestas que significan Nuclear Disarmament (desarme nuclear).

Paz, comunicación, responsabilidad. Buena falta que hacen.

información tomada de PeaceButtons

All rights reserved copyright 2008
“The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.”
Abraham Lincoln

Report from Tina Kopko, a novice blogger

Support Peace and Justice.

I’ll be guest blogging today on My Art Filled Life. I’ve never blogged before, in fact I tend to resist trends and technological fads. BUT, I just had to share my excitement about this morning’s KFOG broadcast live from Walnut Creek, CA. Their guest was Mary Alice O’Connor, Executive Director of the Mount Diablo Peace Center (www.mtdpc.org), an organization working to promote peace locally and globally through citizen involvement.

Hearing the hosts of my favorite morning radio show interview Mary Alice got me hooked back into the FACT that there are many people in my very community who are actively working toward peace. I contribute by maintaining peaceful relationships in my daily life: coworkers, friends, crazy drivers on the highway (float them a peace sign instead of the middle finger!), waitresses and other servicepeople. I proudly display my “WAGE PEACE” bumper sticker and got an extra 45 miles out of my tank of gas by driving 65 instead of 75.

You may think these little things don’t really make a difference, but they do. Every individual has an effect

Double Peace!!

on the people around them – whether they are conscious of it or not. If you were to assume that is true, how would you behave differently with the people in your life? Remember the famous speech that reminds us “our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” Fear causes us to retract, to shrink down, to believe people who want us to accept the status quo. I don’t accept war and I don’t accept conflict in my relationships. I believe that every day I have the opportunity to create peace in my world – that’s an exciting concept to me. Mary Alice and the KFOG crew live these concepts every day.

I’m so fortunate to live in a part of the country that takes an active stance in speaking out against war and supporting peaceful conflict resolution. Both

The World is One

Berkeley AND Oakland (don’t believe everything you hear about Oakland!) adopted resolutions to support a cabinet-level representative for the Department of Peace. Imagine what this country could do if we had politicians in influential positions brainstorming and campaigning for waging peace domestically and in other countries! Also happening this weekend at UC Berkeley is the 2008 California Department of Peace Conference. link: http://www.afdop.org/conference/

Kyle Design is a wonderful resource for gifts and home decor with custom designs – such as peace and justice, earth and nature, professions and hobbies.

Technorati: peace, peaceful, justice, democracy, peace symbol, double peace, wage peace, peace conference, K-fog, Berkeley, Oakland, Department of Peace, custom gifts, money clip, earth money clip, peace and Justice card case, double peace earrings

The forked symbol was designed for the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War (DAC) and was adopted as its badge by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in Britain, and originally was used by the British nuclear disarmament movement. It was subsequently adopted as an international emblem for the 1960s anti-war movement, and was also adopted by the counterculture of the time. It was designed and completed February 21, 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a professional designer and artist in Britain for the April 4 march planned by DAC from Trafalgar Square, London to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in England

More peace sign jewelry at UD Jewelry

This past April we reached a milestone in our quest for Peace. The Peace symbol turned 50!!

It’s hard to imagine how a simple circle with lines has become the symbol for what we all long for. The mere sight of it invokes a sense of pride amongst those of us whom yearn to see a world without conflict.

Let’s all celebrate in our own way and think about what this image means to you. Let’s all Give Peace a Cake!

YAMS Update:
I’ve finished the second draft of the written pattern and hopefully will get it out the the test knitter tomorrow. Since the gauge is very fine — 37 sts over 4″ [10cm], this test knit will probably take a little longer than the last one, so I’m thinking this pattern won’t be up in my Ravelry store for at least 3 weeks.

This picture shows one of the possible 8 motifs that will be available with the final pattern.

On My Needles:
I’ve started knitting the sample for my next design (secret for now).

Things I’m finding out about myself:
My current design process:

1. sketching my ideas
2. choosing the yarn
3. knitting the swatch and measuring the gauge
4. washing and drying the swatch and measuring the gauge — I always use this gauge to design the garment
5. knitting a new swatch because I forgot to measure the first swatch before I washed and dry it!
6. charting my design in 1 size on true grid graph paper — I use the Incompetech website to generate the graph paper for the required gauge
7. knitting the sample garment, modifying the pattern as I find things that don’t work the way I thought it would
8. translating the charted design into written instructions
9. find some test knitters
10. make gazoodles of changes to clarify, correct errors, and make the pattern better based on suggestions by these fabulous test knitters

I’ll reread this in about 6 months or a year and see if / how my process has changed