Around Town, Oct 27, 2006

Meetings & Lectures

Why we fight

In a talk titled “Why We Fight,” the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship presents Dr. Clifford DuRand on Sunday, October 29. He examines the idea that it is not the people who make wars, but states, specifically the political elites who control power. DuRand, a former philosophy professor and now research associate with the Center for Global Justice, holds a Ph.D. in Social Philosophy from Florida State University and has long been an anti-imperialist activist.

The UU Fellowship meets every Sunday at 10:30am at La Posada de la Aldea, Ancha de San Antonio 15. Visitors are invited to attend the service and then join the UUs in the hotel restaurant for brunch. For more information, visit www.portalsanmiguel.com/lifestyle/unitarians/unitarians.html 

Midday Rotary Club

On Tuesday, October 31, David Hodge, President of the Mill Valley Rotary Club, California, will speak at the Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende-Midday. He will tell about their international grant given to Casa Hogar Don Bosco, the teenage girls’ orphanage, and explain Mill Valley Rotary Club’s involvement in their local community and worldwide. This is the first international grant to be received by the Midday Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende. The Mill Valley Club will be represented by five members who will be here for a week to paint and help repair Casa Hogar as part of their grant. The grant, which has been implemented here by Mike Shiavo, has paid for repairs to the kitchen, school tuition, uniforms and new shoes for the deserving girls and Madres. 

The Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende-Midday meets every Tuesday at 12:30pm at the Villa Jacaranda Hotel, Aldama 53. Visiting Rotarians and others interested in Rotary are invited to attend this meeting. Lunch follows at 1:30pm in the hotel dining room. For more information see the website at www.rotarysma.org 

Classes & Workshops

Workshop on “The Work” of Byron Katie

On November 5 from 2 to 6pm and November 6 from 9:30am to 3:30pm, coach and facilitator Suzy Batiz leads a workshop at the LifePath Retreat Center called “The Work of Byron Katie.” Batiz describes it as a deeply transformative process of inquiry that is helping people around the world battle the war with reality—with four questions. The workship explores the profound effect of The Work of Byron Katie, including opportunities to practice The Work as well as engage in powerful exercises designed to bring you into the Now, into loving what is, resulting in freedom from stress and peace of mind.

Cost for the workshop is US$150. Individual sessions are available November 7, 8 and 9. Advance registration is required. Call LifePath at 154-8465. To explore more about the work of Byron Katie, go to www.thework.com 

Tours & Excursions

Saturday Adventurers

On October 28, the Adventurers learn about amber at the workshop of Thomas Le Noir—a good chance to shop early for Christmas! Then, we visit Casa Rinconada, at the entrance to Atascadero. The house was once a tannery, San Miguel’s biggest industry for many years. Now, it is a showplace with terraces, one with a pool, leading to many rooms. In the patio, a 300-year-old white zapote tree spreads. The tour leaves from inside the Jardín, across from the Parroquia, at 10:30am.

Botanical Garden Tour

Every Tuesday morning discover the marvels of cacti and other Mexican plants as well as the history of El Charco with Mario Mendoza, vice-director. An additional privilege of this visit is the opportunity to see the plants in the nursery that is not ordinarily open to the public. Many rare species and plants threatened with extinction are protected and propagated at El Charco.

Entrance fee is 30 pesos (waived for members) and the tour is 50 pesos. All proceeds benefit the garden. The tour is in English and starts at the main entrance at 9am and lasts about 2 hours. Bring a hat and water. Space is limited, so reserve by calling Mario at 044-415-101-0338 or email charco@unisono.net.mx 

Performances & Events

Biblioteca storyteller celebrates Day of the Dead

On Wednesday, November 1, at 5:30pm the Taller de Oración Oral at the Biblioteca Pública will present a celebration of the Day of the Dead. The storytelling will begin with the entrance of la Muerte Catrina, inspired by the drawings of Mexican artist José Guadalupe Posada, creator of the skeletal catrina figure. The significance of the elements that are placed on the traditional altar and the use of copal will be discussed, and the talk will be peppered with humor, poetry, popular Mexican dichos about death and information about pre-Hispanic cultures and their relationship to death. In Spanish; entrance is free.

US election night party

The San Miguel Chapter of Democrats Abroad hosts an election night party November 7 from 7:30 to10:30pm at Finnegan’s, Codo 7. Come watch the results as they are announced and dissected by the pundits. Celebrate the outcome with like-minded people and contribute to political change. Coverage will include US networks with multiple TVs. Admission is 150 pesos and includes botanas and one beer or wine. Cash bar thereafter. Tickets are limited but can be purchased in advance at Solutions, Border Crossings, and La Conexión mail centers. 

Lunch and altar construction

La Cava de la Princesa, Recreo 3, is offering their traditional “Día de Muerto” lunch on Sunday, October 28, at 1pm. Diners will learn how to make a traditional altar by helping them put up the one at the restaurant. Participants are welcome to bring pictures of their loved ones and offerings (tequila is always good!). More information at Recreo 3.

Talk and signing by author Page

Best-selling author Susan Page will give a talk and sign books on Friday, November 3, from 5 to 6:30pm at the LifePath Retreat Center, Recreo 80. Her new book, Why Talking Is Not Enough, presents a novel relationship strategy based on subtle, powerful changes in one’s own actions. Page’s pioneering eight-step program invites you to give up problem solving and move directly to a warmer, more loving and fun relationship, based on universal spiritual principles. Cost is 50 pesos. For more information see susanpage.com.

Canon White of Windsor Castle leads retreat

Canon John White, Canon Precentor of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, will lead a retreat titled “To Work and to Pray.” The theme focuses on being a Christian now from an Anglican viewpoint. While offered through St. Paul’s Church, all members of the San Miguel community are welcomed on November 16 and 17 at the Hotel Hacienda de las Flores in San Miguel.

Canon White describes the retreat in this fashion: “The Rule of Saint Benedict advocates for the monk a balanced life of work and prayer. The aphorism ‘To work and to pray’ might sum up the ideal pattern of a balanced life for all religious people and not least Christians. However, most of us find it extremely difficult, if not simply impossible, to achieve any kind of balance in life in our present-day Western-influenced society.

“Yet it is our calling from God to struggle for such a balance, living a ‘normal’ human life with all its joys and hardships whilst acknowledging the presence and influence of God in our day by day activities. Without some evidence that it is possible to do this we have little with which to persuade others of the value of religious belief and practice.”

“The Church of England, with its long historic formal connection with the State, has always been acutely challenged to get the balance right and has usually failed! But much of its most valuable inheritance has emerged from the pursuit of this struggle.”

The cost is US$50 or 550 pesos per person. To register, phone the parish office (Monday through Friday, 10am to 2pm) at 152-0387 or email rector@stpauls.org.mx 

Films & Videos

Final film in Meditation Center series

A showing of Prajna Earth: Journey into Sacred Nature (Bali, Cambodia, and Java) concludes the Meditation Center Nonduality Dharma film series on Thursday, November 2, at 5:30pm. 

This latest film in the exquisite Yatra trilogy, narrated by Sharon Stone, takes the viewer on a pilgrimage of the ancient temples of Angkor in Cambodia, sacred nature sites of Hindu Bali, trance dances in the Javanese jungles and, finally, the seven-level mandala of Buddhist Borobudur. 

A blend of travelogue and Dharma teaching, the 82-minute documentary expresses a profound understanding of sacred nature within all living beings.

The Meditation Center is at Callejón Blanco 4, near Quebrada. Please come early to ensure a seat, because the meditation hall is not large. A 20 peso donation is requested.


Road to Guantanamo closes film series

The Road to Guantanamo, winner of this year’s Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, closes the Center for Global Justice Film Series on Thursday, November 2, at 3pm in the Teatro Santa Ana, Insurgentes 25.

The film is the terrifying first-hand account of three British citizens who were held for two years without charges in the American military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Known as the “Tipton Three,” in reference to their hometown in Britain, the three were eventually released and returned to Britain, still having had no formal charges ever made against them at any time during their ordeal.

Part documentary and part dramatization, the film chronicles the sequences of events that led from the trio setting out from Tipton for a wedding in Pakistan, to their crossing the Afghanistan border just as the US began its invasion, to their eventual capture by the Northern Alliance and their imprisonment in Camp X-Ray and later at Camp Delta in Guantanamo.

The Road to Guantanamo has a running time of 75 minutes, with a discussion to follow. Cost is 50 pesos.

Volunteer Opportunities

Teachers and substitutes needed for Biblioteca’s English program

Teaching English not only opens your heart and mind to the people of this community, but it will serve to open doors for those who study with you. Speaking English increases job and career opportunities as well as confidence and self-esteem. 

And what does it give you? A way to give back to the community of San Miguel de Allende in a meaningful and rewarding way. A way to get to know Mexicans from all walks of life. Plus an opportunity to learn about yourself.

Our materials lead you through fail-safe daily lesson plans. And you do not need to speak Spanish or buy materials. Just bring your generous spirit and enthusiasm and we’ll furnish the rest. Classes meet twice a week and times may be arranged to fit your schedule.

To volunteer or to get more information, call Gerald Camp at 120-0951 or contact Judy Boston, volunteer coordinator, at 

volunteers@bibliotecasma.com 






The dead teach us about ourselves
By Jock Whitehouse

Workshop

Transformation Through Crisis:

Six Steps to Spiritual Wholeness

Saturday, November 4, 10am–5:30pm

Sunday, November 5, 10am–1 pm

LifePath Retreat Center, Recreo 80

US$150

Next week, Mexican families celebrate Day of the Dead, a joyous reunion with departed loved ones. The departed are be called to visit altars in homes, to descend upon their decorated gravesites and to sit and communicate with their families 

Most of us do not have such a vivid, palpable relationship with our deceased loved ones to help us transcend our loss. Simply to survive the environments from which many of us have come, we often had to step back from the edge of belief and isolate ourselves in the realm of the tangible. 

I found out about my own isolation the way many of us do: through the catalyst of crisis and my utter helplessness that it exposed. In fact, I went through a series of crises that took me from a land with no horizons to a view of the infinite. Along the way I came to three Truths and three Practices, which together led me to a new level of spiritual awareness. I present the details of this passage in the two-day workshop “Transformation Through Crisis: Six Steps to Spiritual Wholeness.” The most profound realization I had is one that underlies all the others, and I believe is at the heart of Day of the Dead: All is One. There is no separateness, there is no discontinuity between the living and the dead.

In this workshop at LifePath Retreat Center on November 4 and 5, participants learn the transforming power of crisis, and, along with meditations, are guided through six steps to spiritual wholeness. For further information or reservations, email jockwhitehouse@mindspring.com or call 152-8146. Cost is US$150. Enrollment is limited.


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