That's Pittsburgh: David Conrad edition

Back in April, Pittsburgh native David Conrad, wrote a piece for the Local Dispatch section of the Post-Gazette, "It's hardly polite to be outside Pittsburgh." If you somehow managed to miss it, read it now. 

It struck a chord with me, and I took a moment to write him an email to tell him so:

Dear David:

Thank you for this commentary. I always enjoy reading your pieces about Pittsburgh, and it pleases me that you have chosen to not become an expat like so many who have tasted success and moved themselves to shwankier climes.

I have left and come back and left and come back and left and come back...but I'm never leaving again. I think that to fully appreciate Pittsburgh, one must leave. I ended up on a path that took me from place to place, back through Pittsburgh several times, and through new groups of friends about every 2 years for a good chunk of my life. In my mid-20s, I was exhausted and broken. I had been away for 8 years in California. I came out to visit my mom and we had cause to drive to Morgantown, through the rolling Appalachian foothills, over river valleys dressed in gossamer mist... Broad leaf deciduous forests. Water. Green...  Somewhere in those river valleys, my bones shifted. I inhaled, filling my lungs with humid air, becoming suddenly aware that I had been breathing like I was clenching my lungs in my fists. I knew with every atom in my being that I was home. 

A few months later, I took 2700 miles of therapy, alone in a 10ft U-haul, save for my cat and a little boom box stereo. I left here one more time, almost taken by the Blue Ridge Mountains, but it was not to be. 

My native land has reclaimed me, and I have fallen in love with this City in a way I can only hope to share with another person someday. When I think about it, it feels like a marriage--warts and all, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health--we're in this together. I love the rivers, the trees, the old architecture, the history, the crazy geography, my big, beautiful sanctuary of Frick Park, but there are plenty of cities with beautiful skylines, water features, and great architecture. What sets Pittsburgh apart is what you wrote about--the fundamental decency of our people. Even our pretentious hipster douchebags tend to be pretty well-behaved and polite out in public. People talk to each other. People actually stop when they say "How are you?" It is considered to be a mark of incivility if you treat those "beneath you" as though they are beneath you. We are egalitarian, proud, and kind. We believe in caring for our neighbors. We believe that those relationships matter more than what car you drive or how fancy your house is. I take great joy in being from a place where hard work, humility, and charity are still widely-held and cherished qualities. 

Thank you for allowing me to "slow down your day" a bit to tell you that I was very touched by your piece and how glad I am to have you among those who care about Pittsburgh and her future. And though your essay had "nothing to do with" the loss of your father or your brother's illness, I am saddened by both. 

Kind regards,

There certainly are kind people everywhere and plenty of jerks within our city limits, however, places have a certain esprit de corps, a sense of who they are and what they value. Pittsburgh may have plenty of rude and uncaring people, but their actions are not championed by the rest of us. When people talk about the Pittsburgh region, they do not remark on our rudeness or snobbiness. They comment on how welcoming and friendly we are. Our charity and generosity is fairly legendary. It is what we expect of each other. Hard work, charity, and humility are traits that are emphasized from birth onward. They are values that we publicly champion and aim to pass along to children and newcomers. This is who we are. This is what we do. This is what matters. 

As Conrad wrote:

It's the simple damn truth: You come from here, you learn to look people in the eye when you greet them. You learn to give them the benefit of the doubt till they screw up. You learn not to mouth off to people you don't know. You don't say crap about people's families. You hold doors open. You say "Hello" and "Thank you" to someone's face and "You're welcome" when it's needed.

Ron Cook wrote a piece on the Steelers' Brett Keisel in today's Post-Gazette lauding him for the community service and charity work he does that garnered him the team's nomination for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award (for the player who combines on-field excellence with outstanding community service). Fine and good you say--plenty of athletes do worthy charity, what makes Keisel special? 

"As heartbreaking as it was for us to lose the Super Bowl last season, it was heartwarming to come home and do something good with the beard," Keisel said. "We were able to throw an event together in about a week where I shaved it off and we raised $40,000 for Children's Hospital. It wasn't me that raised that money. It was the city of Pittsburgh. I was just glad to be a part of it. Children's Hospital is very dear to me because of [teammate] Aaron Smith's situation and the help they've given [his son] Elijah"

Elijah Smith was diagnosed with leukemia in 2008 when he was 4 and is cancer-free today. 
[...]

"I look at it this way. The city we're in and the position we're in, we have to give something back. The Pittsburgh Steelers mean so much to this city and people give us so much. How do we not give something back? That's what I try to tell the young guys. 'Plenty of people need our help. Find something close to you and get involved with it.'"

Keisel also has devoted efforts to the American Heart Association, the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society, Animal Friends of Pittsburgh, the Salvation Army's Project Bundle Up and the Read Across America program.

Keisel might be "a bearded guy from Wyoming," but he gets it: hard work, humility, and charity. It could be all about him, his ego, bling, babes, and being famous (surely he doesn't have to do more than glance around his own locker room, let alone the rest of the National Felons League, for a healthy dose of those attitudes), but instead he is humbled by the position he holds in this city. He uses that place, not to build himself up, but to give back to a place and a people who have given him much. As Ginny Montanez would say, "That's Church." Indeed. That's Pittsburgh. I claim Keisel as a naturalized yinzer.

The next day, I received a reply from Dave--brief, but kind and human. When I wrote to him, I did not expect to receive a reply, but when I did, I just smiled and said, "That's Pittsburgh." And it is.

----

Post script:  While digging around on the interwebs a bit for this piece, I came across a (much more timely) blog post by Carl Kurlander in response to Conrad's piece that shares some of my reaction.

My sisters

Today, I will walk in the 4th Annual AmizadeWater Walk for Women’s Rights. It is my second year participating in this powerful event created by Pittsburgh-based Amizade Global Service and Learning. I have many kind and generous friends and was able to raise $638 (final) from donations that ranged between $5 and $100. In the course of fundraising, people often say nice things about me and what I do, which is kind, however, it is not what motivates me. 

There is an eons-long debate about whether charity should be done publicly, or whether we should do all of our good deeds as anonymously as possible. While I understand and deeply respect the former position for its emphasis on humility and keeping the focus on the deed and not what you will get from it (most particularly, praise), I feel strongly that public acts of goodness are important, even as the praise sometimes makes me feel a bit awkward. I know where my true motivation lies, so I do not worry about it too much.

This broken and hurting world needs more love, more kindness, more compassion, and more generosity. It is my belief that seeing others engaged in such acts encourages people to do join in. I believe that seeing someone else do something sweet and kind, no matter how small—going out of your way for a second to help someone on crutches with a door—makes people happy. Certainly not everyone, some will be too myopic to notice, but most who see it will feel some amount of joy and, it is my hope, be motivated to act on their own altruistic feelings. If we choose to focus on it, there is much negativity in this world and it makes people feel small and powerless. I want to spread the joy of the hummingbird.

There is an African parable about a forest fire. The trees are ablaze and the animals flee the forest ahead of the raging flames. They gather on the edge, staring at the destructive force tearing through their home. Finally, the littlest hummingbird cannot take it anymore and she flies to the stream, gets a beak full of water and flies to the fire and spits it on the flames. She goes back to the stream, bringing drop by little drop to the fire. The other animals see this and say, “Hummingbird! What are you doing!? You cannot put out this raging fire with the little drops of water from your beak!” And the hummingbird replies that they are right, but that is what she can do, and she will keep doing what she can do, however small, to help put out the fire. [Click here to hear African women’s rights activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and founder of the Green Belt movement, Professor Wangari Maathai recount this parable in the movie Dirt!]

The little hummingbird, on one hand, seems pitiful and hopeless, but she is the hope of the story—she will be part of the solution, no matter what the odds. I want to be the hummingbird. I want to be part of the solution, no matter how intractable the problem may be because the one thing guaranteed not to work is despair. I cannot feed everyone, but I can feed one. To that one person, the difference of a meal or not is probably a pretty big deal. 

So what does this have to do with the Water Walk? The walk and the small amount of money that I am able to bring to it is but a tiny act in the face of the daunting amount of suffering in the world from profound poverty, oppression, slavery, rape, war, greed, environmental destruction… So much devastation and the flames keep raging. I sit here in a warm apartment in a city that is not under siege. I brushed my teeth with clean water and was able to use a toilet inside, safely and sanitarily washing away the waste with potable water. I will open my refrigerator and take out a variety of food to make myself healthy meals for the day. Like many others in North America, indubitably, some of that food will not be eaten before it goes bad and will end up in my compost pile. I am writing this on a computer, itself its own little miracle, powered by electricity and connected to a global network of knowledge and resources, accessible in seconds with the click of a finger. 

I am a woman who has never been raped. I am a woman who has never been forced to marry. I am a woman more educated than most of the world’s population. Though my income is modest by US standards, it is thousands of times that of most of the women of the world. My safety, my security, my independence, my basic, inherent sense of self-worth and dignity are luxuries for most of my global sisters. I do not feel sorry that I have these things. Not in the least, but I am privileged to have them. I am blessed with great leisure and fortune. I do not feel guilty for the karma that brought me to this birth, but I also do not feel uniquely entitled to its gifts. The issue is not to feel bad about the gifts you have, but to figure out how you will use them. Will you use your privilege, your leisure and fortune, to serve others? Or to serve your own selfishness? The latter is enticing, but it is ultimately unsatisfying. Fed greed only becomes greedier—the craving never stilled. Like the delicious meal on which you overindulge, at the end of the night you will feel bloated, miserable, and sick. Feed love and it grows, filling you and everyone around you. 

I want every girl born on this planet to never know the pain of rape. I want every girl to be raised so that she believes that being a woman is not an impediment to any dream. I want every girl to have enough leisure and fortune that she may be able to explore who she is other than the property of a man or a water mule. I want every girl to be able to be educated and financially independent so that she may choose to be a wife, a mother, a neurosurgeon, engineer, teacher, diplomat, scholar, a farmer...whatever her heart leads her to be.

I have oft said that the only good use of power is the protection of others. Strength has nobility only when it is used to empower others, not to continue their oppression. I have been given a gift. I find joy in sharing my gifts. I have this bizarre idea that when we are all better off, we are all better off--that more happiness = more happiness. There is no real way to insulate myself from the suffering of others. You may feel that your toe is far from your heart, but fail to treat infection in the toe, and one day it will stop the heart--we are all connected, inextricably. Who would want to cut off their leg or allow themselves to die rather than treat the infection with antibiotics? Those who see the toe as separate from the heart are suffering from terrible delusion that will cause them great harm.

There are over a billion people without access to clean water. Tomorrow, there will still be over a billion people without access to clean water. We can despair that and stay home today or keep our wallets closed because “we really can’t make a difference!” Or, like the hummingbird, we keep putting drop by drop on the fire... I know it works. If it was just me, I would not have $638 to help the people of Karagwe. I would have only my own small contribution. But because I told you, because I chose to do this act publicly and entreat others to help, WE have raised $638. A bucket of water made from many small drops. Still a small amount in the grand scheme of things, but I prefer to think of the people of Karagwe who now have clean water, improved sanitation, and more time to devote to improving their lives in other ways now that they do not need to lug jugs of water for miles a day. I prefer to think that one girl from that village will get to go to school who would not have before. Who knows what she may grow to become? She may be the acorn that sprouts the new forest in the ashes of the old. 

In the words of my favorite poet, “Be joyful, though you have considered all the facts.”

My heartfelt thanks to everyone who has made this possible. I am but the humble courier of your generosity, and I bow to you with hands in prayer. _/|\_ 

About Amizade’s Water Work:

Because of the generous support our grant partner, the AllPeopleBeHappy Foundation, and Water Walkers like you, last year alone we were able to achieve the following:

• Bring clean water to over 300 schoolchildren in the area of rural Karagwe,Tanzania;
• Install a massive 300,000 liter water-harvesting system, including gutters, underground piping, and a solar-powered pump for a new school in the small village of Chonyoyo, read more here;
• Complete full evaluations on the water-harvesting systems that Amizade already helped to install for 8 families that have survived gender-based human rights abuses;
• Install 5 other rain-water harvesting tanks for families in the region;
• Construct and connect a vital fruit-tree nursery to the Chonyoyo water tank that will provide local families with healthy food;
• Lead workshops on the benefits of Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS) – a method to produce suitable drinking water utilizing solar rays from the sun – to several groups of community members; 
• Hold two very successful “Water Walks”, which have had a combined total of over 600 participants, received local print and television press, and raised over $8,000 for clean-water initiatives; and
• Install ‘tip-tap’ hand washing devices (a mechanism designed to encourage hand-washing while conserving water) at recipients’ homes using simple, local materials, assembling the contraptions on-site by way of demonstrating a simple technology that families can share with their neighbors in order to increase awareness about the importance of hygiene and sanitation.

January 2011, looking back.

I’ve been feeling as though I need to write a post, but I’ve not been particularly inspired.  2010 slipped out of her prom dress, and 2011 snuck in the window with little fanfare.  Today feels no different than yesterday, and I’m not looking forward to the coming year with any  particular anticipation.  This post is an edited version of the letter that went out with my holiday cards last month.  I like to use the holiday season as an opportunity to reflect upon the year that has passed and share some of the milestones with my friends and family, because even those with whom I speak regularly don’t always get all the information, and it is a nice exercise for me to review all that has happened.  It is very easy to forget what one has done!  

It’s hard to believe that it has been a whole year since I wrote my last annual winter note, yet at the same time, it seems like a distant memory.  I have survived more than half of my graduate program, though I think my sanity probably has a few more dings in it.  While I remain hopeful that this will lead me to good things, it has certainly not been a picnic.  I have 3 more classes to take—two this spring:  Economics for Public Affairs and Nonprofit Management, and then a capstone course over summer.  In the meantime, there is some talk of a potential new opportunity in my current job. 

Though my day job and my classes take up most of my time and energy, I have managed to do a few things this year.  I continue to serve as the Secretary of my neighborhood association.  In December, we had our 4^th annual holiday party which was wonderful and delicious as always.  I truly love that seeing my neighbors (and discovering what delectables they have brought for my consumption) is one of the things I most look forward to in the holiday season.  A new holiday tradition for me is an annual party thrown by some neighbors to raise money for the local food bank.  The family lives just down the street from me and have renovated a turn-of-the-century farm house, restoring it to a single-family home and infusing it with their seemingly boundless creativity.  Among the many awesome things that they do, is this annual soup party, now in its 18^th year.  They provide several amazingly huge pots of amazing soup, friends bring sides and desserts along with their own bowls & spoons (for which awards are given in various categories), and in the middle of their table is a large bowl for monetary contributions to the local food bank.  This year, the party raised $2200!  These are the kind of people whom I am astoundingly grateful and proud to count as friends and neighbors. 

Any recap of 2010 would be incomplete without at least a passing mention of SNOWMAGEDDON!  As noted in my last tome, the University of Pittsburgh rarely closes—even a Secret Service perimeter cutting through campus and snipers on the rooftops only caused afternoon classes to be canceled for one day.  Normally, we’re expected to show up for work like we’re the Postal Service (classes may be canceled, but staff still must report for work or forfeit a vacation day).  This year, however, Mother Nature finally beat Mark Nordenberg.  The epic snowstorm of February effectively shut down the City of Pittsburgh for three days.  Minus shoveling 3+ feet of snow off my 75ft driveway, it was actually a lot of fun to have snow days!  

In March, I again worked with a friend from Regent Square and the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh on our third community workshop to help homeowners make well-informed decisions about renovations that will accomplish their goals while avoiding mistakes that will lower the value of their home in the long run.  2010’s workshop focused specifically on energy efficiency, and in 2011’s will be on improving curb appeal.

In April, after the snow melted, I participated in the Amizade Water Walk for Women’s Rights which raised money to help a community in Tanzania have access to fresh, clean water which will not only have an obvious impact on the community’s health, but will free the women and girls from the arduous daily walk to fill cisterns of water that they must carry back to their village.  We walked 1.1 miles carrying 1.1 gallons of water to represent the estimated 1.1 billion people in the world who do not have access to clean water.  Thanks to the great generosity and support of my friends and family, I raised over $400.  I called upon their kindness again in October, and they helped me raise $335 for Farm Sanctuary, a farm animal rescue and advocacy group, by sponsoring me in the 2010 Walk for Farm Animals. 

Also in Spring, I had the weighty honor to officiate the wedding of two dear friends on Memorial Day.  It was an amazing experience (I had never done such a thing), and I am truly humbled that they asked me to participate in such a special way in this important occasion.  Based on the feedback, I think the ceremony was a success, and I am hopeful that it marked the beginning of a wonderful lifetime of love for my friends (and now their new baby!).

Last year, I reported on the wonderful visit I had with my friend, D, who came to see me from Slovenia.  This summer brought another European visitor, M, this time from Sweden.  My Swedish friend came to see his Pittsburgh sweetheart (also my friend), and I was very happy to spend some time with them over dinner and exploring a bit of Oakland, including a tour of the Cathedral of Learning’s Nationality Rooms and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.  I’ve known M for about eight years through the web and letters, so it was a true delight to get to spend time with him in person, and I’m so very happy that my friends found one another.  

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan ended in late August/early September, as the nation was in an ignorant furor over the proposed Cordoba Community Center in midtown Manhattan.  I was happy and most grateful to accept the generosity and friendship of the Turkish Cultural Center and join them at their Iftar tent to celebrate community at the end of their daily fast.  Each night for the last week of Ramadan, members of the TCCP sponsor a meal and invite the public to come break bread with them, serving 100-200 people a day.  TCCP actively participates in interfaith and intercultural dialog in Pittsburgh, and I thank them for their tireless work to promote peace, friendship, and understanding, even as they often must face bigotry in their own home. 

The following week, I enjoyed my annual pilgrimage to the Scottish Highland Games in Ligonier, and later in the month, one of my cousins and her boyfriend moved in down the street.  It has been great to get to spend time with them and get to know my cousin better.  I’m hopeful that they’ll be staying in town for a few years so we’ll have some more time together before they most likely head back west.  

I was delighted to spend Thanksgiving with my mother, a good friend from India, and her mother who spends 6 months a year with her.  It was an honor to cook my friend’s mother’s first American Thanksgiving, and to share pullau and kheer with mashed potatoes, mushroom barley soup, and winter squash gratin.  In the America for which I am grateful, we are blessed to know friends from many places, break bread together, and get to know one another so that we can make sure that peace is always more important than chauvinism, and that love will ever cast out the seeds of war and ignorance.  

 My America also tastes a heck of a lot better.  ;-)

I hope that whatever celebrations you have this winter season are filled with light, food, friends, and family, and that they have called you to embody that greatest of all human aspirations—agapé love.  May the winter chill curl you inward to reflect, restore, and renew your soul so that you may greet 2011 with clear eyes, an open heart, and vigorous spirit.  

With much love and great gratitude for the amazingly beautiful, brilliant, kind, generous, creative, and compassionate people in my life—I wish you all health, wealth, and happiness in the coming year and always.

Gratitude.

I am blessed beyond sense in so many ways. Though I often trudge through my days, dragging my feet (and other body parts), there are moments in which the whole of my being is flooded with gratitude for the abundance of love and amazing people in my life.

"How will you use your leisure and fortune today?" This is written on a card that sits on my dining room table, again on my kitchen cabinet, and, in a slightly different formulation, on the mirror in my bedroom. I was asked the other day what it means, and was reminded that, what can seem so obvious to one is not clear at all to others.

If you are reading this, you are blessed by leisure and fortune. If you did not go to bed hungry for lack of food, you are blessed by leisure and fortune. If, indeed, you went to bed in a bed in a house, you are blessed by leisure and fortune. If you had a break from work today, you are blessed by leisure and fortune. If you own a TV, a radio, a phone, a car, more clothes than you need, have heat, indoor plumbing, and electricity, you are blessed with leisure and fortune.

So often, however, we take all this for granted. We don't think about the fact that the water that comes out of our faucet is a small miracle unavailable to a sixth of the world's population. We hate our jobs. We bemoan our bills. We complain about the cost of holiday presents. We complain about gas mileage, mortgage payments, and our schedules busy with engagements, meetings, errands, parties, and concerts. We pay money for the gym, and whine about having to go take our flaccid, overfed, underworked bodies to "work out."

Please understand that I'm not in anyway saying these things to stir up guilt. I don't feel guilty to have any of these things. That they are in my life is an act of grace and the result of karma. The question is not whether I should feel bad about my blessings (how ridiculous), but  how I will use them. Whether I will cherish them and employ them in the service of others, or if I will twist them into burdens to be grudgingly borne? Think about it--a billion people in the world would probably die of gratitude if they could walk from their heated, comfortable bedroom into a bathroom where they could relieve themselves in a sanitary toilet, wash their hands with soap and clean water, brush their teeth and swallow water that would not give them dysentery. Yet we drag ourselves from bed, complaining that the room isn't warm enough and that the gas bills are so high, thoughtlessly go through the motions of our morning rituals, complaining that it takes the water too long to get hot, thinking about all the rest of the crap we have to do today, dreading donning our multiple layers of clothes, shoveling our sidewalks, and getting ourselves to work.

I'm not saying that I like paying my bills or coming to work. I most certainly do not. I'm not saying that I don't have real problems and that addressing them isn't a struggle. But relative to many, many people, I am rich beyond belief. My modest American standard of living far surpasses that of billions of people. Billions. So what will I do with it? Is my life really so hard? Really?? Beyond the physical comforts I enjoy, I have had access to an education, to spiritual teachers, and to an abundance of undeserved love. I am a woman who can read, who can work, who has never backed down to a man, never been raped, never been hit, never been degraded for my sex, never been told that I could not ________ because "women can't do those things." To write those words breaks my heart because I know there are billions of women around the world for whom ignorance, domination, abuse, and humiliation are just the way of their lives. So how will I use my knowledge, my freedom, my voice?

Gratitude is the greatest antidote to feeling small, useless, angry, exhausted, put-out, deprived. Gratitude, when it floods the heart and soul, begets generosity, and it is generosity that gets us everything else. Abundance comes from a lack of attachment, so if you want to be full--give of yourself. Give it away. Unclench your fist--it can only hold but a tablespoon of water.  Hands open in praise receive the entire river in its passing. 

So how will you use your leisure and fortune today? How can you use your blessings to bless the world?

...all that has come to us

has come as the river comes,

given in passing away...

Of cruelty and kindness

Anyone who has opened a news website, magazine, or paper or who has listened to the daily news on the radio or TV has surely encountered some terrible acts of human cruelty. This is nothing new, nor is the fact that such acts capture our attention and imagination. What we often hear after learning of some depraved event is the lamenting of human nature or some blanket statement of our general horribleness.

While I find these terrible acts as horrifying as anyone else, I must disagree with the tendency to bemoan our species, though I have certainly indulged the habit plenty enough myself. In response to fearmongering about crime, I have often pointed out that, while one person was robbed, a hundred thousand came and went about their day totally harm-free, but you never see the headline: 328,345 People Were Not Mugged Today!.

Stories of animal abuse break my heart more than just about anything, and it is hard to not think unkindly toward the person who so badly burned the beagle mix who has become known as Hope to her caretakers at the Fayette Friends of Animals (please consider making a donation to help pay for her medical bills). It is true that burning an animal that badly is reprehensible, heartbreaking, horrifying, bewildering. It is easy to focus on the wrongdoer and become angry, indignant, and to wish revenge upon him or her. But while it took but one person to light the match (or whatever it was), hundreds (maybe thousands) of people are helping to heal this little dog. Tragedy churns up grief and we naturally focus on what has been lost and destroyed. We are outraged that what once was whole has been torn asunder. Certainly this is a wrong, but why do we choose to dwell so long and cling so hard to that misery?  Why do we remain blind to the outpouring of love and generosity that inevitably follows? You can remain mad that a wrong has been done, but you'll remain mad forever as the world offers no shortage of sadness and grief. On the other hand, if you are able to move past your grief to see the good that swirls in to fill the hole, heal the wounds, rebuild the broken, you may find yourself crying every day at the abundance of love around you.

Your mind is your world. You create what you see around you by what you do and what you choose to focus on.  If you want love, give it to someone you think does not deserve it.  If you want wealth, be generous.  If you want peace, be peacemaker. If you do not see the kindness, compassion, generosity, and love in others, perhaps you need to shift your attention from others to yourself.  To whom have you given care and solace?  With whom have you shared the bounty of your life?  If you do not feel bountiful, take some time to practice gratitude--if you are reading this, you are probably doing pretty well if you think about it.

So I invite you the next time you hear of a terrible event to consider to what and to whom you give your attention and energy. You can remake your world. Terrible things will continue to happen, but they do not need to create ugliness within you.  They can instead be doors to greater compassion and softness.  Suffering is terrible, but we can choose to respond to it in ways that help to alleviate it or increase it--for ourselves and others.

My heart goes out to that poor little burned dog, for the pain and fear that she must have experienced. My heart goes out to those who perpetrated the act--how broken and damaged they must be to do something so callous. My religion teaches that they have now reaped negative karma upon themselves that will increase their suffering.  Until they find a way to purify that, the cycle will continue and they will bring harm to themselves and to other beings.  How can I want anything but their healing and wholeness?  May they know the love and its causes. May they be free from suffering and its causes.  May they never be separated from sorrowless bliss.  May they abide in equanimity, free from bias, attachment and anger. My heart is filled with gratitude and joy for all those who have come to Hope's aid, and for the rescue shelter that does not kill.

May you have love and its causes. (Maitri)
May you be free from suffering and its causes. (Karuna)
May you never be separated from sorrowless bliss. (Mudita)
May you abide forever in equanimity, free from bias, attachment, anger, and fear.(Upeksha)

May your love be fierce and your anger cooled.
May all beings benefit from your goodness.

Namasté.

ARL Wildlife Rescue Center

Some people think that everything non-human is expendable. Most of us are sickened by tales of gross abuse and neglect, but many creatures get hurt by simple negligence or accidents--I am heartened that there are those who won't just leave the "least" among us to die because they happened to be in someone's way. It is completely awesome that you can rebuild a turtle shell, and even more awesome that there is someone who does it.

This story made me tear up, but I'm a sucker for turtles. OK, I'm a sucker for just about everything that isn't an earwig, silverfish, or a mosquito, but still!

As someone who has stopped traffic on many occasions to rescue some small creature, been late for work to return a dog that kept running into the street during morning rush hour to his home, and trekked out to Verona with a furball (SQUIRREL!!) in the back of the car on two occasions, I <3 the Wildlife Center.

Spread the word, and donate if you can.

_/|\_

Focus, not on the rudenesses of others, not on what they've done or left undone, but on what you have & haven't done yourself. ~ Dhammapada, 4

ARL Wildlife Rehabilitation Center

InterNest Explorer 
 August 2009

Look twice to save a life...                      YOU can help give turtles a second chance! Turtles are some of the most prehistoric looking animals we admit at the center. This summer, it seems as though we are admitting more turtles than ever. Although turtles have tough shells to protect them from most predators, when faced with a conflict such as an oncoming car or lawn mower, the turtle always comes out on the losing end.  Just last month, we admitted a painted turtle that was simply taking a morning stroll through a yard. Suddenly, a lawn mower ran over him, ripping off the top and side of his shell. He bled profusely as he ran toward the bushes to hide. Luckily, someone saw the accident, picked up the turtle and shell pieces and rushed him to the Wildlife Center. When he arrived, the turtle laid in his box, head down and facing a corner. Staff treated him immediately. We stopped the bleeding, disinfected the wounds and rebuilt the shattered shell pieces just like a puzzle. As we worked and gave him fluids, he perked up, even mustering the energy to attempt to bite us! Sadly, many turtles are not so lucky. There are things you can do to keep turtles and other animals safe in the wild. While mowing, watch for wildlife in your path. Many animals are injured this way because they are too young or too slow to get out of the way in time. If you see a turtle in the middle of the road, help him finish crossing by safely pulling your car off the road and carrying him to the other side. The painted turtle now faces a long stay with us while his shell heals. He will always have the scars from his run in with the lawn mower, but this turtle will eventually get a second chance at life. If you would like to help this turtle and others receive the care they so desperately need, please consider donating to your local wildlife center today!   You may also mail donations by check to: ARL Wildlife Rehabilitation Center c/o ARL 6620 Hamilton Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15206      Jill Argall, Director Wildlife Rehabilitation Center  6900 Verona Road Verona, PA 15147 jargall@animalrescue.org  Phone: 412-793-6900 Fax: 412-793-6283 Our Mission To rehabilitate and release injured and orphaned wildlife and to provide educational programs to regional residents in order to help foster an appreciation for conservation and a harmonious existence between humans and wildlife.