Dalai Lama & DUMBO

October 11, 2012

Dalai Lama & DUMBO

On the last Sunday in September Bren and I drove to Brooklyn for the Dumbo Arts Festival http://www.dumboartsfestival.com/.

Fortunately, Brendan initiated driver's prerogative and tuned to WfUV and Fordham's Sunday Mass. We were just in time to hear Fr. Mark Mossa S.J. give the homily. He spoke about a letter St. Ignatius wrote to St.Francis Borgia and how it inspired him at a time when he was experiencing some dismay about how others in the Jesuit community were responding to the events of September 11.
Fr. Mossa inspired me with his words: "be present to each other, despite our different backgrounds, different opinions, and different choices" and " we aren't all meant to come down on the same side of a question". Listen to Fr. Mossa @ http://play.wfuv.org/fuvplayer.php?MediaID=d7dd6ace-e248-4573-88c7-f7944373a0eb&CategoryGUID=4cbe1c96-58c3-4d86-879a-7754ae88c050 You will find his homily at about 16 mins.

Fast forward to yesterday October 10 and the Dalai Lama's address on compassion to a welcoming audience at The College of William and Mary and it is easy to discern the commonalities in the two messages. The Dalai Lama returned again and again to the importance of compassion and loving kindness. Watch his address here @ http://www.wm.edu/sites/dalailamavisit/video/index.php

Back in Dumbo the rain came and went but it did not prevent us from taking in the art, people watching, lunching at the Archway Cafe http://dumbo.is/places/archway-cafe, snacking on falafel and sipping hot chocolate at Punto Bianco on Jay St. In the shadows of two bridges, we watched a marching band, a hacky sack contest, grabbed a few photos of 1 WTC. Two of our favorite artisans were Richard Velloso @ http://olgaguanabara.tumblr.com/ and Mark Jupiter @http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2012/10/plymouth-street-collective-opens-in-dumbo/ Bren also liked the exhibit by The Portable Forest @ http://www.dumboartsfestival.com/exhibition/the-portable-forest-cross-country-voyage