Jai Chandra


Today, when I was thinking about that for which I am most grateful and taking a lunchtime walk through the neighborhood, I decided that my persistent appreciation for beauty is worthy of the highest gratitude. The ability always to be entranced by beauty has gotten me through many a moment of potential suffering.
Though many of the trees have lost their leaves, the spectacular color show continues. Some of the trees are still sporting green leaves, so there is more to come. And then will come the time to enjoy the exquisite architecture and shape of the branches themselves against the winter sky–it’s own kind of beauty.
I received a half dozen emails over the past week from various sources inviting me to think about what Independence Day, and correlatively, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, mean to me? What does the Bill of Rights mean to a progressive, feminist, environmentalist (contrasted, for example, with someone whose life passion is to prove that true freedom is the right to carry a gun)?
When was the last time you thought about the Bill of Rights? What does it mean to you? Does it have a different meaning for you as an individual and you than as part of a collective?