Greetings from Alison Wiley here in Portland, Oregon. I'm a writer/doer/thinker who lives happily by putting people, nature and God ahead of accumulating more stuff. Read more →
This is a brief, rare mid-week post. Some of you know this about me, but some of you don’t: I’ve never followed any news of the British royals. I wish them well, but my relentless focus is on how I can live a good story, myself. And I blog about that here at Diamond-Cut Life. [...]
Tags: British royals·Jeff Cogen
We all want to be happy. That’s the dream we all share, even though the details of our dreams vary. How do we live the dream? Diamond-Cut Life has been chasing the answers since late 2007 - with a different twist than most. I don’t advocate any political or religious ideology. My core message is more joy, not through having more [...]
Tags: culture war·ideology·living the dream·shared dream·Steve Tripoli·Third Ways
It’s Election Day! I urge you to vote, if you haven’t already, because democracy only works with participation. It’s not a spectator sport. (Note: I’m replacing my usual Thursday post with this Tuesday post, and resuming my usual Sunday/Thursday schedule this Sunday). It is so important to vote. My household voted by mail three weeks ago. I don’t even [...]
Tags: democracy·spectator sport
Visitors at Diamond-Cut Life tend to learn quickly that I’m an Oregonian, specifically a Portlander. My posts, though, are usually relevant no matter where you live, yourself (at least if you can read English, you could find them relevant). But today I’m breaking that rule. This post is pretty much just for other Portlanders, because I’m making a [...]
I seldom write about presidential candidates, but today I just have to. “It’s an excellent piece of work” is what leading Republican candidate Mitt Romney has said of a proposed national budget that gives substantial tax cuts to the rich as it slashes health care and food stamps for tens of millions of low income [...]
Tags: Backpack Project·Caitlin Morrison·Christian·God's Politics·Jesus·Jim Wallis·Lincoln Street Church·Mitt Romney·national budget·Rick Santorum·suffering
I’m embarrassed to say that when I first heard the news of the carnage in Oslo, Norway, my initial thought was: Muslim extemists. This, despite my
Tags: Bejay·extremist·Muslim·Oslo shootings
Happiness and quality of life are core themes in my blog, not just for me, but for everyone. Those are in short supply for Gary Dwayne Haugen, on death row here in Oregon. Unlike many of the hundreds of inmates on death row in the United States, he has dropped the appeals process and is [...]
Tags: death penalty·Gary Dwayne Haugen·psychologicla torture
I had started a light-hearted post on our surprise late-winter snow here in Portland. But protests across the Middle East by freedom-seekers are stirring my spirit — and definitely trump my local weather in importance. My vision of the diamond-cut life involves freedom and the chance of happiness for all people in all countries, not [...]
Tags: Bahrain·oil·oppression·revolution
What does President Mubarak’s regime in Egypt and the Catholic church have in common? Autocracy, oppression of women, the habit of abusing those under their care, and enormous resistance to change. What are the solutions to those problems? I’d say it’s the willingness of average citizens to disrupt their lives by working for change. The [...]
Tags:
Two things (at least) stirred my soul during the inaugurational ceremonies yesterday of Governor John Kitzhaber here in Oregon. One was a phrase used by poet Kim Robert Stafford in his inspirational poem. The phrase was “abundance moving toward need”. That’s a diamond-cut concept if I ever heard one, the idea that abundance — I [...]
Tags: abundance·Ducks·Governor John Kitzhaber·inauguration·Kim Robert Stafford·rich and poor·social justice·soul·spectator sports
Read via RSS reader of your choice (for example, Google Reader).
Subscribe