This year, the cherry blossoms are staying for unusually long time, at least around Tokyo, due to the spell of cold weather after they bloomed. The sense of permanence is only illusory. One of these days they will be blown away, and it would be early summer, with greens all over.
Very disappointed that Benjamin Netanyahu won re-election in Israel. The US should take a morally unequivocal stand for both the legitimate security needs of Israel AND the dignity, opportunity and human rights of the Palestinians.
If I want to change my life, to create new meaning and purpose, I must open my mind to transformative thoughts. I must be open and willing to make adjustments to what I think, say, and do as I move ever onward toward realizing my true self—the me I have come here to be.
Instead of being attached to the words I might say, I find myself praying with a spiritual awareness. This state of consciousness is where my thoughts, feelings, and aspirations are at their highest levels.
From this vantage point, everything changes. I see solutions where before I saw problems. I feel relaxation where there was tension, and I live within the realm of divine possibility.
And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.—Matthew 17:2
It doesn’t have to be popular, catchy, or even from this era, but we all have a favorite tune we love so much we’ll never skip it on the playlist. But you don’t have to wait for your song to waltz in your life; find it online and play it now. Sing aloud and enjoy every note. Psst… Here’s what your favorite music says about you!
Reflective and complex is a perfect description of both classical music and the people who listen to it. According to Dr. North’s research, classical lovers are creative, introverted, and show high self-esteem; they see listening as a theatrical experience and share a mutual “love of the grandiose” with metal fans, though they tend to be older and make more money. They also may be smarter, according to a 2009 comparison of students’ SAT scores with their most-liked bands on Facebook. The study found that students who like Beethoven had an average SAT score of 137; more than 100 points higher than fans of the second-place entry (indie instrumentalist Sufjan Stevens). As for the lowest-scoring students? They love Lil Wayne. But don’t let that color your opinion of hip-hop fans…
Energetic and rhythmic listeners, hip-hop fans enjoy the social aspects of music: dancing, singing along, and experiencing it with others instead of imprisoning it in a pair of headphones. Like rappers themselves, hip-hop fans rated as extroverted and had high self-esteem in North’s research. Another study shows that rap fans may share a quality with Kanye West known as “blirtatiousness”; that is, the tendency to blurt out thoughts as soon as they are formed.
Chart pop fans showed a lack of creativity compared to other categories, and tend to be worriers. They are, however, outgoing and sociable, and have high self-esteem. (In general, extroversion is linked with with a love of happy music). Listeners who incessantly replay chart-topping singles may be more likely to use music to regulate their mood, as the brain has been shown to release dopamine before the peak of one’s favorite song.
John Lennon認証済みアカウント @johnlennon https://twitter.com/johnlennon
Official John Lennon stories and updates from the Estate of John Lennon. Quotes in John's own words. "Imagine all the people living life in peace."
“The great thing about the band was that whoever had the best idea (it didn’t matter who), that would be the one we’d use. No one was standing on their ego, saying, ‘Well it’s mine,’ and getting possessive. (...) That’s why the standard of the songs remained high.” - Ringo
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Animal Farm
Sure, when you’re 13, reading about talking pigs taking over a farm seems weird and boring. And you probably tuned out your English teacher when he droned on about how the novel is an allegory for Soviet Union-era communism. But George Orwell’s 1945 classic, Animal Farm, takes on a much greater meaning when you reread it as an adult and discover that the book is about more than talking farm animals. It’s a multi-layered historical analysis of human behavior that examines the way power breeds corruption. Here are other classic books you can read in one day.
I believe that @MarWilliamson is a fresh, dynamic presence on the political stage and represents our deepest yearnings for a leader with authenticity, integrity, responsibility and the highest calling to serve. ❤️
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As a Spiritual Medium and Spiritual man @marwilliamson is someone I have found inspirational and I am very excited about the changes she will bring not only to the USA but the opportunity that can extend across the world. Fabulous!
The animosity between Japan and South Korea that has persisted for so many generations can sometimes show signs of easing. At least among younger people, there can be a great deal of warmth. Korean readers are among the biggest fans of Japanese author Haruki Murakami, while a best-selling South Korean novel—Kim Ji-young, Born in 1982, about the discrimination a woman faces in her country’s patriarchal society—became a recent hit in Japan. South Koreans vie with Chinese to make up the biggest proportion of foreign tourists visiting Japan, and the number of Japanese visiting South Korea soared by a third, to about 770,000, in the three months that ended on Jan. 31. South Korean K-pop bands such as BTS and Twice are popular among Japanese teens, and Japanese pop idols are winning recognition on a South Korean television show.
Yet the political status quo between the two U.S. allies—underlying distrust and wounds from old conflicts—continues in debilitating and potentially dangerous ways. Take what happened off Japan’s Noto Peninsula at 3 p.m. on Dec. 20, or more important, how both sides interpreted the incident. On that day, a Japanese naval P-1 aircraft conducting surveillance in the waters between the two countries encountered the South Korean destroyer Gwanggaeto the Great, named for a 4th century monarch. The Japanese say the South Korean vessel “locked on” to their aircraft with its weapons-control radar. The South Koreans say the Japanese pilot flew recklessly low while their ship was trying to rescue a floundering North Korean fishing boat. The Japanese say the plane was doing nothing more than taking photographs.
The two countries escalated their dispute in public, exchanging a volley of angry statements and releasing videos that inflamed popular emotions. The right-wing website Japan Forward weighed in, asking, “Does the Korean Navy not even know the distinction between enemies and allies? Or has it decided to regard Japan as an enemy?” South Korea’s left-wing daily Hankyoreh ran an op-ed calling on Japan to “immediately stop dangerous provocative actions.” The back-and-forth, translated into English and displayed on the websites of both defense ministries, is a microcosm of how relations between the neighbors have played out for decades.
Fed by willing politicians, Japan and South Korea’s low-level, simmering feud seems only to be getting worse. And the antipathy between the two mature and prosperous economies could further undermine U.S. efforts to defang North Korea. That’s especially true now that U.S. President Donald Trump’s negotiations with Kim Jong Un have collapsed. The North Korean leader has said he would meet his American counterpart for a third time, but only if Washington changes its terms. In August 2017 a North Korean ballistic missile flew over northern Japan. Tokyo, already feeling sidelined by Trump’s dealings with Kim, doesn’t feel any better about South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s attempts at detente with North Korea. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his conservative Liberal Democratic Party are taking a hard line on sanctions enforcement.