Chattering Mind

This click-through gallery on lessons learned from Harry Potter is very sweet. Among the tips: “Stay true to your nerdy friends,” “Don’t fear death,” “Speak your pain,” and “Beware of pompous people.” This is a good thing to share with the Potter-tracking children in your life.

This article describes an emerging trend to expand, rethink, and green up the ritual of keeping kosher. Many observant Jews have always been proponents of eating consciously, so it’s exciting to hear about old rituals being made new. “…for many people, the primary daily impact of rising environmental consciousness is on the food they eat.…

The hippie 1960’s dream of communal living has been deflated by its own bad press. Its old lefty tires were punctured by reports of power-hungry leadership, sickening free sex, and manipulative, “spiritual” screwed-upness. But communal living, known as “intentional community” today is by no means dead. The movement has come out of its own period…

If you or a loved one are on a cholesterol-lowering prescription drug, note that Dr. Andrew Weil recommends Co-enzyme Q10 as a dietary supplement. He discusses this in his newsstand magazine “Dr. Andrew Weil’s Self Healing Guide to Lowering Cholesterol” which I just purchased. He writes: Consider taking Co-enzyme Q10 if you are on a…

World Shoppers Unite! Go to Better World Shopper’s website and look left to find a menu of consumer goods ranked by how kind their production and trade is for the planet. For instance, in the category of shoes, Better World Shopper gives the Timberland company a higher grade than either Nike or Stride Rite. Office…

Fans of kirtan walla Krishna Das will enjoy Linda Johnsen’s extended conversation with him featured as part of Yoga + Joyful Living’s website (which has all kinds of nice features you can enjoy by landing here and clicking through ‘Yoga + Extras’). For uplifting summer day KD audio, look here, look right, and then click…

July 13 marks the beginning of the Japanese Obon Festival, a time when the dead are invited to come back to share time with us. Writes Waverly Fitzgerald at SchooloftheSeasons.com: “It is also called the Festival of the Lanterns, because the colorful paper lanterns, which decorate the festival ground, light the way for the ancestors…

I’m distressed by the news that two NYC police officers were shot Monday morning when they stopped to question the drivers of a stolen SUV. One officer was shot in the face and is fighting for life. His partner was shot in the arm and chest, but was saved by his bulletproof vest. Police are…

Oh good, David Brooks has been listening to top-40 radio hits with his kids too. He writes today about how perverse some hit songs are now and links Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” to Pink’s “U + Ur Hand,” and Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend,” all portraying sicko, unforgiving, hardened teens pursuing warped forms of girl power.…

Cintra Wilson writes glowingly of Al Gore’s Live Earth concert here for Salon. Al Gore’s barn-burning second act is an effort to raise consciousness about global warming but it is also an affirmation that there are more of us than there are of them — a demonstration that there is a better Western consciousness at…

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