I've posted a few times before. I am an American living in Cambodia. I am lucky to be here. (Never thought you'd hear anyone say That, I bet. ) We have had only 275 cases of Covid here. there is 1 active case and there have been no deaths. Everyone else has recovered. The government here stepped early and hard and we have been able to keep the pandemic out. The groups we support travel the across Cambodia and visit hospitals all over the country. Except for virulent form of dengue, there are no more people in hospital now than there were a year ago.
We run a food distribution program as well as support a number of schools we helped build and we fund a landmine clearance team and 3 mobile bomb squads. Most of our work right now is in supporting those who have been effected by the Covid Economy. We do 2 or 3 distributions a week giving out 50 to 350 bags of rice and food stuffs. Each bag of rice provides 100 servings. In 4.5 months we have distributed 70 metric tons of rice and about 50 metric tons of other food stuffs. We do it all from donations.
Whenever we do a distribution the police are there. Sometimes in fairly large numbers. They help us unload the rice and set it out in rows so that those in need can get to it. They help the elderly carry the rice home. No guns. No armor. No shields. No helmets. When we distribute the food there is no pushing and shoving. Everyone sits behind their bags. Monks bless the food. Local politicians speak (yep it's just like home) and I get to say a few words. People help each other.
This is not the Cambodia many in the West picture.
I read you daily Heather. But I have to tell you it is becoming more and more disheartening, difficult, to read it all at one sitting.
I also support some organizations that are working to get out the vote, and register new voters. All the memes in the world are not going to change the mind of those who have partaken of that orange kool aide. Il Duce's followers will not be dissuaded. We play into his hands every time we waste our time talking to one of his followers.
Do everything to get out the vote. Every election in my lifetime has been referred to as the 'most important in history'. This one is it.
Bill Morse, may I share your statement by posting it on my Facebook wall? I am very moved and inspired by it. What you describe is what I want to see here...people helping people in need. Police helping people in need. Kindness. Caring. Yes, the most important election in our history, perhaps in the world's history.
I would very much like to re-post this.. with attribution, of course.
I find myself longing to live in a culture where people are not pushing and shopping both literally and metaphorically. This is a lovely post. You give me hope that some human beings are not selfish idiots. I am a nurse ( 38 years working with addicted young mothers)..and I guess I always try to look at things from the viewpoint of the ones who are hurting and who approach others with openness and grace. . The gentle patience of people in Cambodia shows me that we are lacking in simply showing human dignity and awareness of others. Fear rules here, not love. Fear of being different, fear of retribution, fear of starvation, fear for your children, especially children of color...that they may never come home one night, fear because you’re and addict and there’s nowhere to go for help and no one really gives a shit..And even those were supposed to help you look on you as if you were a piece of shit, even the nurses.
This is what drives America right now.. fear for one basic needs of survival in many cases. If you look at Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs” you’ll see that if people are not sure they’re going to survive there is little room for civility or fair “love and belonging, esteem, and self actualization.”
There is too much sad truth in your comments. And, yet, there you are proving what is also true here, that a nurse has worked for 38 years with addicted young mothers, that health care workers have given, and continue to give their all to those who are suffering with Covid, that hundreds of thousands of people have stood up for Black Live Matters, and hundreds of thousands of activists are volunteering their time to phone bank and text, to write postcards and letters, and donating what they can in dollars, to get the outcome that we absolutely must get in this election. It's not the picture that Bill Morse describes but there are many pockets of that world here. So many are working to create that more broadly here. May that vision prevail in November so that we can get started down that path.
More Americans need to hear these accounts in order to enlighten us all. Yes, many of us are disgusted and we know that things have changed but things have rooted slowly over the years so that even the best of us don’t understand how deep this is. We truly are on the brink of losing our democracy and everything that goes with it. I was sitting with a friend yesterday having a glass of wine and I said to her, I don’t like it here anymore and she said I don’t either. Enough said!
This made me cry. I’m in the thick of the world’s worst air quality, just outside of Portland, OR. Feeling overwhelmed and in despair, and this lovely photo and all that I want it to represent - well, thank you so much, to you and Buddy both.
My sister recently moved to Portland to be near her children and new grandson. She is so sad with what is happening in your beautiful city! Take care of yourself and go vote!
God be with you. One of my very dearest friends is in Portland and he and his partner are having a hard time. LOTS of people, y'all included, to hope and pray for. *(((Cyber-hugs)))*
Inspiring and calming. Thank you as always. Today, we watched a Monarch butterfly emerge from its chrysalis outside our window (Nina keeps the chrysalis safely so the wasps do not kill it). We watched the Monarch pump blood into its wings, slowly position itself and "walk around", then flutter to a nearby flower, rest for a long time, while fanning its wings, and then flutter freely upward to a branch on a tall evergreen, rest there and then, alone, take flight for the nearby milkweed, to begin again the cycle of life. There is beauty if we stop in the chaos to look, to listen, and to marvel...... Peace and Courage for us all this night and all those yet to come.
You not only help us sort through the chaos of the daily news to help us better understand the issues, but you take time from your busy schedule to share the occasional photo to calm our overstimulated senses. Thank you. Bless you. Having worked for a university for 20 years, I know how difficult the start of the new year can be. I pray all goes well for you during this crazy time. Good luck with your teaching and your students!
As a (now retired) professional musician, I readily identify with the picture of the cellist. In times like these that are taxing us all I'm reminded of the wonderful quote by maestro Leonard Bernstein: "This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before." We need art now more than ever.
May I offer another musical balm, this gorgeous song written for these times. The visual metaphor is based on the Japanese art of kintsugi, which seeks to take broken pottery and repair it in a way that makes it stronger and more beautiful than the original. 17572 singers from 129 countries came together to make this piece. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InULYfJHKI0
Here is a better link. It is not the cellist of Sarajevo, Vedran Smailović, playing, but it is a solo performance of the piece he played for those 22 days in Sarajevo, Albinoni's Adagio in G minor, with serene video of a sunrise on the coast of southeastern Australia.
Thank you for putting the Cellist of Sarajevo on my radar. I was looking for the movie, but it does not seem that the author Steven Galloway was fair to the cellist,
Wikipedia: "When Smailović learned of the publication, he expressed feelings of indignation and dismay, objecting to the use of his story and his personal information without permission or compensation,[24] and pointing out differences between the story and his actual life...Galloway, who has been described as "honest and talented young man with no intentions to steal",[25] claimed that Smailović's act of playing the cello as a protest was a public act,[23] and that fiction writers were under no obligation to pay those who inspired them, and that it was unreasonable to expect that.[23] Galloway insisted that the cellist in his story, while inspired by the photos and story of Smailović, was imaginary.[26] Galloway sent the cellist a signed copy of the book."
To quote De Suess "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not." Thank you Heather for caring as you sift through this chaos and connecting all of us. And to all who read these letters, thank you for your insights and care. I know there are many and things are going to get better.
Well, lookey here, Professor Richardson, at what you have created! Even on days when you don't post a word filled newsletter and instead a beautiful picture, this community comes together to take the burden from you. We have love and inspiration, lots of sources and music, and support from everyone. This is indeed what a community does and you have created an awesome one! Thank you.
Thank you. I was feeling nervous and discouraged yesterday. This helps more than you can know. Actually, watching the Princess Bride reunion to benefit the Wisconsin Dems helped a lot too.
Same here - we enjoyed the reading and commentary and chipped in multiple times - wonder if we’ll hear the donation totals for tonight? Helped keep our minds off the grinding doom and the umpteenth day of smoky air.
My friends are having a private invitation only concert with local Musicians every other weekend. We bring chairs, picnic food and drink and $20 + donation and it is on a close by little hill. Only 20 invites. It is a win-win situation for all. Music heals.
Your message got me to check out the Salt Bay Chamberfest website and listen to some of their music. A lovely respite in this very unlovely time. Thank you, Heather, for your wisdom and perspective.
Bless you for your goodness and forthright wisdom. I feel renewed as I realize daily that we are living through a cataclysmic shift of our beliefs, values and the very fabric country’s soul. We /i recognize that this is orders of magnitude of danger. It feels like every dystopian novel ever written has landed on my head, heart, and spirit. Your letters help me to make sense of the world that has gone mad. It helps me to understand, pause and savor the good, the true, the substance of the "beloved community". The very clarity of the vision of the hard work ahead may seem daunting and yet I feel deep hope. "We can do this hard thing" Carrie Newcomer song title. And so we go onward, connected in a web of light to stand up for one more day. 💖🙏🌹
My wife and I are aficianados of classical music. My wife is on the Board of the Mid-Texas Symphony here in Central Texas and we are also patrons of the Symphony. While we have had to postpone our upcoming season the Symphony and its musicians are offering virtual performances, interviews, and musical happy hours free to our patrons this fall through Mid-Texas Symphony @Home. You can access these through the Symphony's website here - http://www.mtsymphony.org/Info/MTS@Home/MTS@Home.aspx.
I also invite you to visit the website of a good friend of ours and an incredible cellist, Jennifer Cornell (https://jenncello.com). Jenn Cornell is a performer, composer and educator bringing cello across boundaries with her visionary style of playing, creating songs that stretch what a cello can be, and inspiring young musicians with her mentor approach to teaching. If you review a number of her musical stylings and performances on her website you wil be amazed at the versatility she achieves with a cello. Her music is pure joy.
So many of us are feeling stress in these times. To be able to relieve the stress, kick back, and enjoy high-quality music performances is an opportunity to know joy in the midst of the chaos.
No, I live in New Braunfels, but do have relationships with a number of the University Technology and Healthcare/Biotech Incubators at a number of Universities bot here in Texas, around the US and even globally. Those include Texas A&M. I am a serial Fintech and healthcare entrepreneur and investor.
Oh... thank you for your reply. I thought it would be neat to connect with one of my brother's old friends. He passed a few years ago. It's kind of weird but there is a small part of me that feels envious of those who have already gone as they don't have to witness the current challenging times. Anyway, to you and yours, take care.
I have noticed. And I try to see that every day. As well, I try to do small things every day to help others. We need to remember to be one point of light!!
I've posted a few times before. I am an American living in Cambodia. I am lucky to be here. (Never thought you'd hear anyone say That, I bet. ) We have had only 275 cases of Covid here. there is 1 active case and there have been no deaths. Everyone else has recovered. The government here stepped early and hard and we have been able to keep the pandemic out. The groups we support travel the across Cambodia and visit hospitals all over the country. Except for virulent form of dengue, there are no more people in hospital now than there were a year ago.
We run a food distribution program as well as support a number of schools we helped build and we fund a landmine clearance team and 3 mobile bomb squads. Most of our work right now is in supporting those who have been effected by the Covid Economy. We do 2 or 3 distributions a week giving out 50 to 350 bags of rice and food stuffs. Each bag of rice provides 100 servings. In 4.5 months we have distributed 70 metric tons of rice and about 50 metric tons of other food stuffs. We do it all from donations.
Whenever we do a distribution the police are there. Sometimes in fairly large numbers. They help us unload the rice and set it out in rows so that those in need can get to it. They help the elderly carry the rice home. No guns. No armor. No shields. No helmets. When we distribute the food there is no pushing and shoving. Everyone sits behind their bags. Monks bless the food. Local politicians speak (yep it's just like home) and I get to say a few words. People help each other.
This is not the Cambodia many in the West picture.
I read you daily Heather. But I have to tell you it is becoming more and more disheartening, difficult, to read it all at one sitting.
I also support some organizations that are working to get out the vote, and register new voters. All the memes in the world are not going to change the mind of those who have partaken of that orange kool aide. Il Duce's followers will not be dissuaded. We play into his hands every time we waste our time talking to one of his followers.
Do everything to get out the vote. Every election in my lifetime has been referred to as the 'most important in history'. This one is it.
Bill Morse, may I share your statement by posting it on my Facebook wall? I am very moved and inspired by it. What you describe is what I want to see here...people helping people in need. Police helping people in need. Kindness. Caring. Yes, the most important election in our history, perhaps in the world's history.
I would very much like to re-post this.. with attribution, of course.
I find myself longing to live in a culture where people are not pushing and shopping both literally and metaphorically. This is a lovely post. You give me hope that some human beings are not selfish idiots. I am a nurse ( 38 years working with addicted young mothers)..and I guess I always try to look at things from the viewpoint of the ones who are hurting and who approach others with openness and grace. . The gentle patience of people in Cambodia shows me that we are lacking in simply showing human dignity and awareness of others. Fear rules here, not love. Fear of being different, fear of retribution, fear of starvation, fear for your children, especially children of color...that they may never come home one night, fear because you’re and addict and there’s nowhere to go for help and no one really gives a shit..And even those were supposed to help you look on you as if you were a piece of shit, even the nurses.
This is what drives America right now.. fear for one basic needs of survival in many cases. If you look at Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs” you’ll see that if people are not sure they’re going to survive there is little room for civility or fair “love and belonging, esteem, and self actualization.”
We are a degrading democracy.
There is too much sad truth in your comments. And, yet, there you are proving what is also true here, that a nurse has worked for 38 years with addicted young mothers, that health care workers have given, and continue to give their all to those who are suffering with Covid, that hundreds of thousands of people have stood up for Black Live Matters, and hundreds of thousands of activists are volunteering their time to phone bank and text, to write postcards and letters, and donating what they can in dollars, to get the outcome that we absolutely must get in this election. It's not the picture that Bill Morse describes but there are many pockets of that world here. So many are working to create that more broadly here. May that vision prevail in November so that we can get started down that path.
Fear is Trump’s MO, his go-to. Because he has nothing else to offer. He is barren of positivity and always has been.
Please repost
https://www.facebook.com/RSVPCambodia/
Please fell to repost. Our website is www.landmine-relief-fund.com
We also post to our FB: https://www.facebook.com/RSVPCambodia/
Should be feel free to repost. Never proof your own stuff....
I, too, wish to repost. Thanks in advance whatever you decide.
Please
https://www.facebook.com/RSVPCambodia/
More Americans need to hear these accounts in order to enlighten us all. Yes, many of us are disgusted and we know that things have changed but things have rooted slowly over the years so that even the best of us don’t understand how deep this is. We truly are on the brink of losing our democracy and everything that goes with it. I was sitting with a friend yesterday having a glass of wine and I said to her, I don’t like it here anymore and she said I don’t either. Enough said!
Bill, thank you for your post. I love to read comments from others who live outside the US and what they are experiencing... Be safe!
feel free to repost
This made me cry. I’m in the thick of the world’s worst air quality, just outside of Portland, OR. Feeling overwhelmed and in despair, and this lovely photo and all that I want it to represent - well, thank you so much, to you and Buddy both.
Please take care. Try not to despair. There are many people pulling for you. Sending good energy and fresh air and a rain from Vermont
Peace and calm. My son and step daughter are in Salem. We are putting our arms around you 💞
My sister recently moved to Portland to be near her children and new grandson. She is so sad with what is happening in your beautiful city! Take care of yourself and go vote!
Be careful of yourself. You are loved.
God be with you. One of my very dearest friends is in Portland and he and his partner are having a hard time. LOTS of people, y'all included, to hope and pray for. *(((Cyber-hugs)))*
me too, north of Portland in Kelso, Wa.. such a beautiful photo presence.
Sending so much light.
My heart goes out to you and all the folks on the west coast in harms way. Try not to despair. You are needed and loved.
I think of you all, all day long as the smoke drifts over my home in Phoenix. Take care of yourself!
Sending heartfelt hold on we’re working for your better days wishes. ❤️🤍💙🥰
Inspiring and calming. Thank you as always. Today, we watched a Monarch butterfly emerge from its chrysalis outside our window (Nina keeps the chrysalis safely so the wasps do not kill it). We watched the Monarch pump blood into its wings, slowly position itself and "walk around", then flutter to a nearby flower, rest for a long time, while fanning its wings, and then flutter freely upward to a branch on a tall evergreen, rest there and then, alone, take flight for the nearby milkweed, to begin again the cycle of life. There is beauty if we stop in the chaos to look, to listen, and to marvel...... Peace and Courage for us all this night and all those yet to come.
Thank you, that's beautiful... Monarchs are so precious.
You not only help us sort through the chaos of the daily news to help us better understand the issues, but you take time from your busy schedule to share the occasional photo to calm our overstimulated senses. Thank you. Bless you. Having worked for a university for 20 years, I know how difficult the start of the new year can be. I pray all goes well for you during this crazy time. Good luck with your teaching and your students!
“Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty there is room to act.”
As a (now retired) professional musician, I readily identify with the picture of the cellist. In times like these that are taxing us all I'm reminded of the wonderful quote by maestro Leonard Bernstein: "This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before." We need art now more than ever.
Love this
May I offer another musical balm, this gorgeous song written for these times. The visual metaphor is based on the Japanese art of kintsugi, which seeks to take broken pottery and repair it in a way that makes it stronger and more beautiful than the original. 17572 singers from 129 countries came together to make this piece. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InULYfJHKI0
What a message...beautiful, meditative and uplifting! Thank you!
It was a thrilling performance.
Wow! Thank you for sharing this link. Took my breath away.
Beautiful! Reminds me of the Cellist of Sarajevo. In all of the rubble there is still beauty and hope if we are true to ourselves and our community.
Here is a better link. It is not the cellist of Sarajevo, Vedran Smailović, playing, but it is a solo performance of the piece he played for those 22 days in Sarajevo, Albinoni's Adagio in G minor, with serene video of a sunrise on the coast of southeastern Australia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94QswSZV5wY
https://youtu.be/fj9BILgs3zo
Thank you Ellie! I was trying to copy and paste a link to that without success. It is so powerful. 💗
Thank you for putting the Cellist of Sarajevo on my radar. I was looking for the movie, but it does not seem that the author Steven Galloway was fair to the cellist,
Wikipedia: "When Smailović learned of the publication, he expressed feelings of indignation and dismay, objecting to the use of his story and his personal information without permission or compensation,[24] and pointing out differences between the story and his actual life...Galloway, who has been described as "honest and talented young man with no intentions to steal",[25] claimed that Smailović's act of playing the cello as a protest was a public act,[23] and that fiction writers were under no obligation to pay those who inspired them, and that it was unreasonable to expect that.[23] Galloway insisted that the cellist in his story, while inspired by the photos and story of Smailović, was imaginary.[26] Galloway sent the cellist a signed copy of the book."
To quote De Suess "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not." Thank you Heather for caring as you sift through this chaos and connecting all of us. And to all who read these letters, thank you for your insights and care. I know there are many and things are going to get better.
Dr Seuss, oh spell check ...
You misspelled the name, it's your thought here that counts. I feel just the same, and appreciate your post in big amounts.
Yes, I caught that after I got send. Thanks for caring.
Well, lookey here, Professor Richardson, at what you have created! Even on days when you don't post a word filled newsletter and instead a beautiful picture, this community comes together to take the burden from you. We have love and inspiration, lots of sources and music, and support from everyone. This is indeed what a community does and you have created an awesome one! Thank you.
Thank you. I was feeling nervous and discouraged yesterday. This helps more than you can know. Actually, watching the Princess Bride reunion to benefit the Wisconsin Dems helped a lot too.
Same here - we enjoyed the reading and commentary and chipped in multiple times - wonder if we’ll hear the donation totals for tonight? Helped keep our minds off the grinding doom and the umpteenth day of smoky air.
We watched that too! I’m not a huge Princess Bride fan but if it helps Biden win Wisconsin I will be their biggest fan!!!
My friends are having a private invitation only concert with local Musicians every other weekend. We bring chairs, picnic food and drink and $20 + donation and it is on a close by little hill. Only 20 invites. It is a win-win situation for all. Music heals.
Your message got me to check out the Salt Bay Chamberfest website and listen to some of their music. A lovely respite in this very unlovely time. Thank you, Heather, for your wisdom and perspective.
Maybe the cellist Wilhelmina Smith was playing “breathe” by Esa-Pekka Salonen:
https://youtu.be/Ezer37wZ6us
Bless you for your goodness and forthright wisdom. I feel renewed as I realize daily that we are living through a cataclysmic shift of our beliefs, values and the very fabric country’s soul. We /i recognize that this is orders of magnitude of danger. It feels like every dystopian novel ever written has landed on my head, heart, and spirit. Your letters help me to make sense of the world that has gone mad. It helps me to understand, pause and savor the good, the true, the substance of the "beloved community". The very clarity of the vision of the hard work ahead may seem daunting and yet I feel deep hope. "We can do this hard thing" Carrie Newcomer song title. And so we go onward, connected in a web of light to stand up for one more day. 💖🙏🌹
My wife and I are aficianados of classical music. My wife is on the Board of the Mid-Texas Symphony here in Central Texas and we are also patrons of the Symphony. While we have had to postpone our upcoming season the Symphony and its musicians are offering virtual performances, interviews, and musical happy hours free to our patrons this fall through Mid-Texas Symphony @Home. You can access these through the Symphony's website here - http://www.mtsymphony.org/Info/MTS@Home/MTS@Home.aspx.
I also invite you to visit the website of a good friend of ours and an incredible cellist, Jennifer Cornell (https://jenncello.com). Jenn Cornell is a performer, composer and educator bringing cello across boundaries with her visionary style of playing, creating songs that stretch what a cello can be, and inspiring young musicians with her mentor approach to teaching. If you review a number of her musical stylings and performances on her website you wil be amazed at the versatility she achieves with a cello. Her music is pure joy.
So many of us are feeling stress in these times. To be able to relieve the stress, kick back, and enjoy high-quality music performances is an opportunity to know joy in the midst of the chaos.
Bruce Carpenter...are you a professor at Texas A&M? I’m curious as my brother had a friend there by your name....he worked for Texas A&M. Thanks!
No, I live in New Braunfels, but do have relationships with a number of the University Technology and Healthcare/Biotech Incubators at a number of Universities bot here in Texas, around the US and even globally. Those include Texas A&M. I am a serial Fintech and healthcare entrepreneur and investor.
Oh... thank you for your reply. I thought it would be neat to connect with one of my brother's old friends. He passed a few years ago. It's kind of weird but there is a small part of me that feels envious of those who have already gone as they don't have to witness the current challenging times. Anyway, to you and yours, take care.
I have noticed. And I try to see that every day. As well, I try to do small things every day to help others. We need to remember to be one point of light!!