Food for our Minds and Spirits: Civil war. Authoritarianism. Civic protest and death. Police state. Chaos.

Sometimes it is hard to tap into our spiritual selves or find time to nurture our intellectual curiosity. Here is a section that reflects on some nourishing materials from around the web and related media channels in order to get us thinking, get us feeling, and get us reflecting on the lives we are living in this big, beautiful world. **Some Adult/Mature Themes May Appear in Links and Other Attached Material**

Civil war. Authoritarianism. Civic protest and death. Police state. Chaos. 

Malaysia is an ongoing tragedy that is happening right under our noses. Like Uighers in Western China. Like Palestine. In yet another nation, oppression and death is served up amidst a global community in which peace and justice are still held up as ideals, even as they seem less and less part of the real world. 

In Malaysia, it is so bad that even protesting has become too dangerous to do in person. In fact, for a while, Malay youth were ceremonially bidding their parents goodbye since so many had been killed. Elsewhere, the image here is what has taken over: dolls standing in for protesters, called pyit-tine-htaung — a doll that rights itself every time it is tossed. The symbolism is clear, but the need for them is a stark reminder about atrocities in our world that are ongoing.