The Safety Pin Cafe : February 2015

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Welcome to The Year of the Green Goat/Sheep/Ram, Chinese New Year Celebration

Pete and I celebrated our community of South Whidbey Island and shared our version of Chinese New Year last Saturday, February 21st, 2015. A collage of photos and a few words are posted on my other blog, Makua O'o. (Our computer has a bug that does not allow me to load photos using this software ... so please forgive the indirect connection!)

To see the fun we had and read those few words about the celebration PLEASE LINK HERE.

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"we tell it slant"

We're not social realists, we're fantasists. We tell the truth, like poets, but we tell it slant -- we clothe it in symbol, archetype, and metaphor. But if we are to write or illustrate fantasy well we must do the work of understanding the classic tropes we use as best we can. Through reading. Through research. Through curiosity and sensitivity about lives and traditions far different than our own. Through building a relationship to the wild wherever we are. Know the place and the land on which you are rooted, and then move outward from there. - Terri Windling

THE SAFETY PIN CAFE'S MISSION

From the original medicine story The Safety Pin Cafe, its "Introduction" is the foundation upon which we offer what we know:

"We cross borders without regard, ignorant or arrogant of the protocol native to the transitional spaces that take us from this place to that place. Traditions remembered and practiced would maintain and pass along the right things to do, at the right time, and in the right frame of mind. Have we all become wanderers with passports un-stamped with the memory of teachings from the Ancestors and Nature? There are rituals to remember and common magic to induce respect and reverence for the beings and places that share this planet."

"When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically. In this context the proponent of an activity, rather than the public, should bear the burden of proof. The process of applying the precautionary principle must be open, informed and democratic and must include potentially affected parties. It must also involve an examination of the full range of alternatives, including no action." - Wingspread Statement on the Precautionary Principle, Jan. 1998

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Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Welcome to The Year of the Green Goat/Sheep/Ram, Chinese New Year Celebration