love

A year ago there was an uprising in Iran against an unjust government and a woman named Neda was killed. The powers  that killed Neda in Iran are enemies of life but there are also similar powers in our part of the world who are just as opposed to life. They wish to gain popularity for the idea of a war against Iran. They will use the memory of Neda, as someone who has become a symbol of the struggle against the present government there, to do something that Neda herself could not possibly have wanted - to wage war on her people - something that would probably strengthen the present regime and maybe even keep it in power or put in place something just as bad. That is why I’ve written this poem.

We approach the anniversary of the death of Neda this week, and the Iranian regime is practising all kinds of oppressive measures to keep any sort of people’s uprising down. May this poem help the powers of love – in that country and with us – to be stronger than those of death. Read more »

Sexuality has always had a particular complexity to it; this has only further developed in the course of the 20th and 21st centuries as individuals have come to recognize, categorize and express themselves in terms of their gender and their sexual identity. What is, though, the relationship between our sexuality or our gender and the spiritual world? Is the increase in poly-gender identities and polyamory indicating a shift in both our relationship with and to sexuality and gender? Are the genders evolving? In terms of gender, Steiner indicates that we are, over time, evolving into a hermaphroditic gender. But on sexuality, he has much more to say, including the need for balance between lust and morality. In “Reincarnation in the Light of Ethics,” Friedrich Rittelmeyer explores the relationship between morality and sexuality. For Steiner, sexuality is not just a question of identity and pleasure, but of morality, ethics, and freedom, which he further discusses in “The Mission of the Earth: Wonder, Compassion and Conscience the Christ Impulse." Read more »

In the July-August 2004 issue of The Gay & Lesbian Review  (Vol. XI, Number 4), Lewis Gannet’s essay, "C.A. Tripp, Sexual Emancipator," provides an insight into the role of the gay identity in the emergence of individualized sexuality, or sexual revolution.  He suggests that Tripp’s book, The Homosexual Matrix, published in 1975, “was the first work to explain in cogent psychological terms why homosexuality is not a developmental failure to achieve heterosexuality,” that is, not a mental illness, as it was categorized at the time. Gannet explains that in Matrix Tripp rejected the division of men into normal or regular (heterosexual) and abnormal or impaired (homosexual). According to Gannet, Tripp argues that “gays and straight people develop their sexual orientation in exactly the same way. In other words, [homosexuals] express a rational and valid sexual development...[that] is an integral and natural component of human sexuality.” Read more »

In January 2010, WeStrive and Think OutWord teamed up to offer a unique opportunity for community network members to participate in an essay challenge. The following essay was selected as the winning essay, affording the winner a free flight and conference attendence to Think OutWord's conference on agreements.
 
“Thus you can see how in the human being the two great ideals, freedom and love, grow together.  Freedom and love are also that which man, standing in the world, can bring to realization in himself in such a way that, through him, the one unites with the other for the good of the world.” -Rudolf Steiner

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Sexuality has many meanings, ranging from across those connected with all of our personal thoughts, fantasies, memories or desires associated with “having sex” to the literal merging of male and female germ cells. Clearly, sexuality is a word that means a lot to us. Compared to the amount of time we dedicate every day to our jobs, to childcare or to recreation, the time that we actually spend having sex is relatively short. Still, few days pass in which we do not have thoughts, fantasies, feelings or wishes in which sex plays the central role. Sexuality pervades deep enough into our existence that looking closely at the question: “What does sexuality mean to me and what do I want to do with it?” is justified.
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