{"id":1594,"date":"2020-01-01T02:17:47","date_gmt":"2020-01-01T02:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gaiamedia.org\/english\/?p=1594"},"modified":"2020-01-27T02:18:37","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T02:18:37","slug":"january-2020-goodnews-editorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gaiamedia.org\/english\/2020\/01\/01\/january-2020-goodnews-editorial\/","title":{"rendered":"january 2020 \u2013 goodnews editorial"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last of the most famous trio in psychedelic history is no more: in 2019, we did not only lose Ralph Metzner but now also Ram Dass. The latter died in his home on Maui, on Sunday 22 December. We met in the early Eighties, at Timothy Leary\u2019s house on Wonderland Drive, in LA, when the famous guru happened to be considering if he would not rather be Richard Alpert again. On the way to a party at longevity specialist Roy Walford\u2019s in Venice, Tim and Richard, who was driving us, had a heated argument. \u201cLife is a vale of tears,\u201d intoned the author of\u00a0Be Here Now<\/em>, the hippie Hindu bible of 1971, with two million copies sold worldwide. \u201cWe must do everything in our power to alleviate the suffering of the world!\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s the most awful thing I\u2019ve ever heard you say, Dick!\u201d Tim shot back from the co-driver\u2019s seat, a half-full glass of Pimm\u2019s in his right hand. \u201cLife is a glorious adventure, a heady ride we should enjoy to the fullest!\u201d And to Barbara (his wife), Dieter (Hagenbach, his publisher) and me (Susanne), sharing the back seat: \u201cSo why are you so quiet back there?\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re listening and learning,\u201d I answered, somewhat ironically, when Barbara and Dieter didn\u2019t speak up. At the party, it was plain to see why it was not so easy for Richard to stop being Ram Dass \u2013 so many people adored him, wanted to be near him and sought his advice, and though he knew I wasn\u2019t necessarily one of them, he also enveloped me in one of his famous bear hugs upon leaving the next day. Thanks for the love, thanks for the light and thanks for your great compassion, Baba!
\nDear friends and readers \u2013 here we would like to offer our best wishes for a positive and benevolent 2020.<\/p>\n

From the heart,
\nSusanne G. Seiler\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Salt<\/h3>\n

as if God spilt salt
\non his midnight tablecloth<\/p>\n

as if Gibran\u2019s Ugly
\nhad flung Beauty\u2019s cloak
\nacross the waters –
\nits soft light muted
\nin repentance<\/p>\n

as if star by blue star
\nremembered the loss of each mother
\nand lit her face for a thousand years<\/p>\n

as if matariki*
\nleapt off calendar pages
\nturning in my veins
\ndown through my fingers
\nbending to pluck
\na purple orchid.<\/p>\n

Selina Tulsitala Marsh<\/em><\/p>\n

*Maori Harvest Festival<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last of the most famous trio in psychedelic history is no more: in 2019, we did not only lose Ralph Metzner but now also Ram Dass. The latter died in his home on Maui, on Sunday 22 December. We met in the early Eighties, at Timothy Leary\u2019s house on Wonderland Drive, in LA, whenContinue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaiamedia.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaiamedia.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaiamedia.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaiamedia.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaiamedia.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1594"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaiamedia.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1595,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaiamedia.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594\/revisions\/1595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaiamedia.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaiamedia.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaiamedia.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}