Kesher \u1e24adash<\/a> program of the Davidson School. <\/p>\nMost of these activities were documented publicly semi-privately via my twitter, Facebook,\u200e and Google+ accounts, with all the caveats that proprietary social networks provide for archiving and redistributing creativity. Over the next few months, I hope to look back over the last few years and share publicly whatever output I’ve produced privately that might be worthwhile to share.<\/p>\n
Through this effort I hope to document and construct a somewhat coherent narrative of my work since I left post-hurricane Louisiana after working there as an urban\/environmental\/GIS planner 2006-2008. Privately, I tell variations of this story to friends without the benefit of illustrations, but with the benefit of long walks and digressions. I think it’s time I explain myself, in the manner of Italo Calvino’s Marco Polo in Invisible Cities<\/em> — with pantomime, gesticulation, unexplicated esotericism, and a translation that relies entirely on your patience and interest. Before my Kublai Khan, I have to present endless yarns spun from ever accumulating navel lint, an assemblage of obtuse details the connection of one to the other might otherwise seem ponderous, but I hope not pretentious. So bare with me, please. <\/p>\nI still hope to work and contribute as an urban\/environmental planner, public historian and educator. I still harbor sage-like aspirations. I’m still hopelessly entangled in a great vein of string spun by others to document their own progress through the vast labyrinth of psychedelic and gnostic insight. Freedom, compassion, creativity, and awareness remain the touchstones of my intention, the grounding for my empathy and the foundation of my commitment in my work. Twelve years ago I learned some wonderful things while bicycling along the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia and the consequence of this gnosis is that I now can’t help but see prisons and cages everywhere. Facilitating creative activities, constructing open spaces, helping to recover lost wisdom — these express my intentions. And I’m still searching for that loose alliance of friends who share these objectives in bringing more people into the next age.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2011 Gregorian. Such a quiet year for the Omphalos. <\/p>\n
Even before New Year’s a year past, this blog had begun a mostly uninterrupted slumber beginning in 2009, what with most of my activity focused on directing the Open Siddur Project (2009-present), studying at Yeshivat Hadar (2009-2010), teaching with the Teva Learning Alliance (2010-2011), studying . . . → Continue reading: What Happened\u203d So what\u203d Now what\u203d<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","odd"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Happened\u203d So what\u203d Now what\u203d • Aharon's Omphalos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2012\/01\/what-happened\u203d-so-what\u203d-now-what\u203d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Happened\u203d So what\u203d Now what\u203d • Aharon's Omphalos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"2011 Gregorian. Such a quiet year for the Omphalos. Even before New Year’s a year past, this blog had begun a mostly uninterrupted slumber beginning in 2009, what with most of my activity focused on directing the Open Siddur Project (2009-present), studying at Yeshivat Hadar (2009-2010), teaching with the Teva Learning Alliance (2010-2011), studying . . . → Continue reading: What Happened\u203d So what\u203d Now what\u203d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2012\/01\/what-happened\u203d-so-what\u203d-now-what\u203d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Aharon's Omphalos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/aharonium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/aharonium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-01-02T04:27:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-09-06T00:51:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/aharons-omphalos.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1257\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1487\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Aharon N. 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But alas, reading about the story of Yiftach in the haftorah reading this past shabbat, I couldn't help but think of the context of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mythology"","block_context":{"text":"Mythology","link":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/category\/yiddishkeit\/mythology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/vlcsnap-2021-08-31-14h34m19s996.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/vlcsnap-2021-08-31-14h34m19s996.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/vlcsnap-2021-08-31-14h34m19s996.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/vlcsnap-2021-08-31-14h34m19s996.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/vlcsnap-2021-08-31-14h34m19s996.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1498,"url":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2013\/05\/all-streams-one-source","url_meta":{"origin":1032,"position":3},"title":"All Streams, One Source: Shesha and the Mystery of the Four-headed Shin","author":"Aharon N. Varady","date":"May 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A Midrash of the Jews of Yemen dating from the 13th century provides the following explanation for the mystery of the four-branched shin. There is one \"head\" for each of the following facets: cogitation, imagination, memory, and estimation.[ref]paraphrasing Midrash haBeur, translated in Yemenite Midrash: Philosophical Commentaries on the Torah, edited\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/category\/art\/music"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/8245225690_15c0588051_b_905.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/8245225690_15c0588051_b_905.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/8245225690_15c0588051_b_905.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/8245225690_15c0588051_b_905.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1397,"url":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2013\/01\/on-the-sia%e1%b8%a5-of-the-orthography-of-tu-bishvat-romanizations-and-jewish-environmental-education","url_meta":{"origin":1032,"position":4},"title":"“Tu biShvat” vs. “Tu b’Shvat”: Orthography and Presumptions of Authority in Jewish Environmental Education","author":"Aharon N. Varady","date":"January 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Nigel Savage made public this week his reply to Ben Dreyfus[ref]For more on this, see here, here, and here[\/ref] and others concerning \u1e24azon's orthography of \u05d8\u05f4\u05d5\u05bc \u05d1\u05b4\u05bc\u05e9\u05b0\u05c1\u05d1\u05b7\u05d8 as Tu B'Shvat rather than Tu biShvat. Given the seriousness of the environmental and food justice issues that Tu biShvat gives voice to,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Judaica"","block_context":{"text":"Judaica","link":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/category\/yiddishkeit"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":953,"url":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2010\/07\/on-potters-and-potlings","url_meta":{"origin":1032,"position":5},"title":"On Potters and Potlings (or On turning forward with one’s head turned backwards)","author":"Aharon N. Varady","date":"July 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A few weeks ago I was asked on the (Star) Trek Jews list what the Jewish concept of t'shuva means... here is what I wrote for someone who might know very little about Jewish thought and philosophy. I think I would have liked it to have more quotes from sources,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mythology"","block_context":{"text":"Mythology","link":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/category\/yiddishkeit\/mythology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/2679598485_902cdc6caa.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1032"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3003,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1032\/revisions\/3003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}