Category Archives: Nonviolence

Royal Song of the Day: Monday 7/18/2011

The Royal Song of the Day is “All the Weary Mothers” by Joan Baez. You can find this song in Rise Up Singing on page 114. The first verse beings, “All the weary mothers of the earth will finally rest…”. The last stanza is a dream about no more wars.

Duchess Susanna writes:

This song is dedicated to two people with whom I had interesting conversations today: One person was a mother, and the other person was a friend, helping a friend.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNXofOUmshM&feature=youtu.be]

More about why I chose this song: Continue reading Royal Song of the Day: Monday 7/18/2011

Book of the Week: Your Money or Your Life

we make a dying at work so we can live it up on the weekend

Duke Augustus writes: Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence: Revised and Updated for the 21st Century by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez sparked the modern simplicity movement. It remains one of the pre-eminent sources for how to create financial freedom by separating your needs from your wants. This is not a get rich quick scheme. It is the progeny of Thoreau’s On Walden Pond. The Harvard-educated Thoreau freed himself from the business world by by taking the extraordinary measure of changing his life from pencil manufacturer to squatter. Dominguez and Robin suggest a less drastic change by helping you re-direct your prosperity from consumer driven wants to enough wealth to stop working.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8lz13SWZ5w&feature=player_embedded]

The publisher describes the book as: Continue reading Book of the Week: Your Money or Your Life

Peace Song of the Day: Sunday 7/17/2011

Woody Guthrie NYWTSDuke Augustus: Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) by Woody Guthrie. This song was chosen from Duchess Susanna’s copy of  Rise Up Singing .  This poem was written by Guthrie in response to the 1948 plane crash.  Over 60 years later, we are still fighting the same battle.  Ten years latter, Martin Hoffman wrote the music.  Pete Seeger and Woody’s son, Arlo, have popularized the song. Unfortunately, the racist attitudes in this song are as common today as they were when they were written 60 years ago.

This is video is a little shaky, but worth it to hear Arlo explain about how his father wrote the song:  Continue reading Peace Song of the Day: Sunday 7/17/2011

Royal Song of the Day: Saturday 7/16/2011

Singing For Our Lives” is the Royal Song of the Day. This song, written by Holly Near, can be found on page 218 of Rise Up Singing.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbXq0oU5osg]

Reflections on “gentle anger” by Duchess Susanna: Continue reading Royal Song of the Day: Saturday 7/16/2011

“Mothers, Daughters, Wives”: Peace Song for 7/14/2011

Mothers, Daughters, Wives” by Judy Small is the Royal Song of the Day. The lyrics can be found at Rise Up Singing, page 162.

Below is a heart-wrenching version by “The Corries”

Excerpt:

The first time it was fathers, the last time it was sons
And in between your husbands, marched away with guns & drums
And you never thought to question, you just went on with your lives
‘Cause all they’d taught you who to be was mothers, daughters, wives

Susanna, Duchess of Peace, tells more about today’s choice: Continue reading “Mothers, Daughters, Wives”: Peace Song for 7/14/2011

Royal Peace Song of The Day: “Little Boxes” made of ticky tacky

Duchess Susanna writes: It amazes me the way that some people will go out and buy exactly the same dress, in exactly the same color, that Duchess Catherine (aka Kate Middleton) wore somewhere. For my own sense of independence and dignity, I would at least want to pick a different color. Though, the exact ones modeled by the princess are the exact ones that get sold out and crash websites.

The idea of all of these women strolling around Great Britain and the United States in the same dress reminded me of what my departed friend, Susan Blake, called “the monoculture”. And, it reminded me of the Malvina Reynolds song “Little Boxes”. The song “Little Boxes” is The Royal Peace Song of the Day. It is can be found on page 2 in Rise Up Singing. (Favorite campfire song book of The Duke and Duchess of Peace.) Continue reading Royal Peace Song of The Day: “Little Boxes” made of ticky tacky

What do peaceful people do for fun? (Intro to Royal Song of The Day at Peace Couple)

Well…Here is a list of entertainment for regular royals, and people who are bought into corporate culture: professional sports; Polo; royal watching; high fashion; expensive concert tickets of corporate entertainers; shopping for the mirage of freedom (aka the instructions of certain politicians after 9-11).

Now…Here is a list of entertainment options for people seeking peace and justice: local sports (or, even better yet, non competitive games); family watching; sustainable fashion; local music; making your own music; and shopping in a spirit of fair trade and sustainability.

Though, if you must do some “royal watching”, please watch The Duke and Duchess of Peace. Continue reading What do peaceful people do for fun? (Intro to Royal Song of The Day at Peace Couple)