Download Fliers and Spread the Word

The fliers posted around Chicago are spreading the word nicely about the July 15 ceremony.

Please click the links below to download PDFs of the fliers and distribute them in your neighborhood or city:

PDF: Prostrations flier (with tear-off address strips)
PDF: Prostrations flier (color version)

Thanks!

Calendar for Prostrations for Peace

ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING
Thursday, July 12, 2007, 6:30 p.m., at North Shore Pier, then moving to Heartland Cafe (7000 N. Glenwood, corner of Lunt and Glenwood)


PEACE CEREMONY
Sunday, July 15, 2007, from 5:00 a.m. (sunrise) to Sunset

AFTER CEREMONY:
CELEBRATION FOR PROSTRATIONS AND EMERGENCY
Sunday, July 15, 2007, 8:00 p.m., at Heartland Cafe

The Birth of Prostrations For Peace

Next week I will reach that milestone of adulthood and turn fifty. How and why a day on a calendar has come to have such psychological and almost spiritual significance, I’m not sure. Most people in the world don’t even live to fifty nor have the time or money to consider making a to-do about it. I’m HIV +, and I remember that I didn’t even think I’d turn 40, but here it is.

When my sister turned 50 two years ago, my brother-in-law had a big party for her. It was a joyous and raucous evening, friends and family coming from afar, toasts by her children, gag gifts, funny then emotional speeches. I was happy for her, but inside I dreaded the whole idea that in a year it would be my turn.

As the months passed, the date loomed, and I had no plans, no money to travel, which is usually my way out of all birthdays and holidays as a single man.

Then, Memorial Day came. I was sitting on the pier off of North Shore Beach in Roger’s Park, which is where I spend almost every morning doing yoga or resting after taking a long swim. I was feeling energized and grateful for this beach and the lake and my neighbors I see out here everyday. Over the years no matter where I have lived in Chicago, the lakefront has always been a sort of refuge for me in difficult times. Often it’s not so much the wide span of blue that changes my mood but watching the effect it has on other people’s bodies, especially children and older people.


Later, that day I read through the headlines of the suicide bombs exploding and saw the photos of the shrieking Iraqi women with their hands to their mouths. On TV, there was more of the same as well as the now familiar scroll of American dead, most all under the age of twenty-five and from unknown towns across America. Then I saw the name of a town in Indiana not far from where I grew up, where old aunts and uncles still live. And a rage came over me and all at once I’m feeling the awkwardness of my birthday and my loneliness and all of my problems begin to feel like bombs exploding now inside of me.

Once again, the news from the war has sucked out the sunny day and the buoyancy in my body.

That night walking along the lake one more time with the families and the couples strolling along the beach, I had an idea—a crazy idea.

Why not use this day to have another kind of ceremony? Why not invite my friends and family, all my neighbors, and, in fact the whole city of Chicago to this beach where I seem best able to cope? Why not invite them to confront with me the suffering of this war? Why not ask them to come and create a kind of organic altar to peace? To pray, bow, offer flowers, or whatever they feel in their heart they need to express?

The audacity of this thought made me laugh. But the next day back at the beach I told a friend of mine, a man I met strangely enough one morning far out in the lake as I swam by him and his wife. To my surprise, his answer was swift and serious. “Great idea! Let’s do it!”


A week later several of my friends are sitting around me at the Heartland Café, planning a ceremony that had nothing to do with my neurotic fears about my 50th birthday.

My friends and I don’t have the answers to this endless war. But what we do know and feel is a need to express our frustration and sadness, our common sense of grief and outrage at the useless suffering this war has brought to the people of Iraq, to our soldiers and their families, to our nation, and to the people of the world.

What's Emergency all About?

Mission Statement

In today’s conflicts 90 percent of the victims are civilians. Every year war takes the lives of millions of people worldwide.

Emergency provides free of charge, high standard medical and surgical care in war-torn areas.

Emergency promotes a culture of peace, solidarity and respect of human rights.

Emergency is an independent, neutral and nonpolitical humanitarian organization established to provide care to civilian victims of war and of land mines. All Emergency facilities are designed, built and managed by specialized international staff committed to training local medical personnel.

The work of Emergency around the world is possible thanks to the help of the thousands of volunteers and supporters.

How Emergency Operates

Two basic factors are weighed before Emergency decides whether or not to undertake a project:

1) The effective need for specialized medical or surgical services

2) The absence of similar humanitarian projects in the given country

Because health care is a basic human right, Emergency:

- offers medical and surgical treatment completely free of charge
- guarantees treatment to anyone in need of assistance, without any racial, ideological, political discrimination

- provides high quality assistance, employing standardized therapeutic and work protocols which have been tried and tested in emergency situations

- trains local staff thoroughly, with the intent of handing over all operations of the medical center to them and to local authorities as soon as self-sustainability can be achieved

Emergency builds:

- hospitals specifically dedicated to war victims, surgical emergencies and specialist therapy in places where there are none
- physical and social rehabilitation centers

- first aid posts for emergency treatment

- heath care centers for primary medical assistance

All Emergency facilities are designed, built and run by specialized international personnel, who provide training for local staff.

How is Emergency different than other organizations?

Emergency has the capacity, skills and focus to provide specialized long-term care for civilian victims of war and land mines free of charge.

Emergency provides high standard surgical and specialized care. Hospitals and rehabilitation centers are established and operated in depth and for the long term, from trauma surgery and advanced life support for civilian victims of war to public health clinics and First Aid Posts.

Emergency offers training programs for local medical and nursing staff in each of its permanent facilities.

Emergency creates a permanent health-care capacity where it operates through education and training of local health-care personnel. Emergency’s long-term goal is to have a sustainable system in place to be turned over to the local health authorities, where neutrality of care provided free of charge can be guaranteed.

What humanitarian programs does Emergency offer?

Emergency provides surgical, medical, pediatric, maternity and rehabilitation care to the survivors of war and land mines. Public Health Clinics and First Aid Posts are connected to the major Surgical Centers.

Emergency also offers social reintegration programs for rehabilitated victims of land mines and to war widows in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Who funds Emergency and Emergency, USA?

More than 90 percent of fund-raising is based on the activity of volunteers and the contributions of small private donors. More than 93 percent of those funds are allocated to humanitarian programs.

How are Emergency’s hospitals’ locations selected?

Humanitarian projects and programs are identified on the basis of most urgent needs of the populations in war-torn countries and the interaction of such needs with available local resources, project feasibility and opportunities.

Does Emergency stay involved with a hospital after it has been turned over to the local health authorities?

Emergency stays involved by providing supervision, further training and monitoring of compliance with agreed upon principles and protocols of care.

Are reports about Emergency available?

An Activity Report for 1994-2005 is avalible. It summarizes Emergency activities around the world. To request a copy of this reports contact http://www.info@emergencyusa.org/, or 724.766.4518.

EMERGENCY'S contact person for the Prostrations for Peace event is Gerri Gorman. People are encouraged to stop by the table at the ceremony to learn more, or contact Gerri at (312) 413-9013. Click to view a number of local events hosted by Emergency.

The Significance of 108

The Significance Of The Mystical
Number 108

By Vaughn Paul Manley, M.A.
Copyright 2005. All Rights Reserved.


Have you ever wondered why a typical beaded necklace from the East, called a mala, is always strung with 108 beads? You'll find this to be the case not only in Hindu traditions but also Buddhist, Sikh, Jain and virtually any tradition that has it's roots in India. If you've ever been initiated into the use of a mantra you've probably been told to chant your mantra at least 108 times a day, not fifteen minutes a day. Why? In Japan the Zen temple bells ring 108 times to bring in the New Year. Obviously this number is significant. But why not a more rounded number like 100?

The early Vedic sages were renowned mathematicians and in fact invented our number system. 108 was definitely the number of choice for this simple reason: 108 represents the whole of existence. Here's some interesting reasons why:

1. The number 9 represents wholeness and 108 when added together equals 9. 1+0+8 = 9. Interestingly, if you multiply 9 times ANY number, the answer is always 9 when you add the numbers together. Try it! 1x9=9. 2x9=18. 1+8=9. 285x9=2565 2+5+6+5=18 1+8=9. 8543x9=76887 7+6+8+8+7=36 3+6=9 The logic behind this is that 9 represents wholeness or God and God times anything is always God since God is all there is!

2. The 9 planets travelling through the 12 signs constitutes the whole of existence. 9 x 12 = 108

3. The 27 nakshatras or lunar constellations each have 4 padas or parts. The 27 nakshatras are also spread over the 4 elements - fire, earth, air, water. This also constitutes the whole of existence. 27 x 4 = 108

4. Consider the powers of 1, 2, and 3 in math: 1 to 1st power = 1; 2 to 2nd power = 4 (2x2); 3 to 3rd power = 27 (3x3x3). 1x4x27 = 108. The logic behind this is that 1 represents 1 dimensional reality, 2 represents 2 dimensional reality, 3 represents 3 dimensional reality. When you mulitply their powers together then you encompass the whole of existence.

5. The universe is made up of 108 elements according to ancient texts. The current periodic table claims a few more than 108.

6. The diameter of the Sun is 108 times the diameter of the earth (give or take a few miles).

7. The average distance from the earth to the Sun is equivalent to 108 Sun's in a row (give or take a few miles).

8. The average distance from the earth to the Moon is equivalent to 108 Moon's in a row (give or take a few miles).

Organic Activism, Health and You

The goal of Prostrations for Peace is to bring people to one place—the shore of Lake Michigan in Rogers’ Park—and create a communal response to the suffering generated from war. On July 15 at sunrise a bell will ring for the first day of the Iraq War, thirty seconds later another bell will ring, and thereafter all day, a volunteer will ring a bell for every day of this war until sunset. We invite anyone to come and participate by expressing themselves via prayer, sun salutations, making flags, standing in silence, or contributing to an organic altar.

Throughout the day, if 5 people show up or 500 is not the point. The point is to break out of the numbness and bitterness that has alienated us from the reality of suffering that has darkened so many people’s lives both here and around the world. The point is to open the heart and feel that the suffering of others is our own—not metaphorically but physiologically. Ignoring pain and suffering brings illness and perpetuates more suffering.

Like many people, I have become numb to the endless death and destruction and the debates surrounding this so-called “War on Terror.” I went to rallies early on. I read news reports. I shook my head. I ranted and raged with friends. I wrote some op-ed pieces. But in the end, I thought, what can you do? I comforted myself with the idea that Bush will be out of power soon and that the democrats will do something. But the cost of inaction has taken its toll on my body and spirit, and I can no longer wait for the actions of others. My health and the health of America are too important to entrust to politicians.

Initially, the idea came to me while I was doing 108 sun salutations, which I did to try to break out of a general funk I’d been in all spring, a funk caused by my own sense of powerlessness over so many things I have been feeling: the awful violence at Virginia Tech, the emotional struggles of my own writing students, the violence that goes on everyday in my own neighborhood of Rogers Park (just last week a young man was shot on my street by the police), my aging parents and my own awareness of mortality, and of course the endless explosion we feel in our bodies every time we hear those two words—‘suicide bomb.’

Over the years practicing yoga, I have learned that like all forms of spiritual practice, yoga must be used in our every day lives to be understood and cultivated. We must make our own self-styled rituals and ceremonies of its many forms and techniques. In my experience, yoga has been most efficacious when I have felt most at odds with myself and the world, especially when overwhelmed by the emotion of despair.

I did my 108 sun salutations and felt relieved and lighter. The next day I went to the pier at North Shore beach where I often practice and I did more, and a few days later, more still. One day I did sun salutations for nearly 2 hours. The rhythm of doing the same 7 poses over and over felt liberating. The fatigue came and went. The air expanded and fed me as did everything around me, the water and the sand, the sun, the birds and the voices of people on the beach. I wanted to do more. I wanted to do them for some reason other than to just do them. Then the idea formed.

But an idea is only an idea. It doesn’t become an action until it is uttered aloud in the presence of another. Once out, it has it’s own life, and indeed, this is what happened with my idea. When I shyly told others that I had this idea of creating a kind of ceremony on the lakefront to respond the war, I heard the same frustration I was feeling: Yes. Good idea. Something should be done. A ceremony. I want to help! When? Where? The look on their faces and the sound of their voices had this vitalizing affect on me. I told more friends.

Ideas begat more ideas. Emails, phone calls, meetings, and then suddenly we have this blog and posters and a network of people working on organizing this ceremony. This is organic activism. This is what we invite you to experience and join.

When you practice yoga, particularly when you perform sun salutations, repeating 6 or 7 poses in a meditative cycle with the breath and the body in rhythmic motion, the body becomes like a cauldron. With the infusion of oxygen, we use our own heat to cleanse, revitalize, and reconnect ourselves to the world that sustains us.

Every day as organisms we create problems and suffering for ourselves and other living things. Every day we can act to heal, cleanse, inform, educate, and perform rituals to bring us together and to lessen the suffering we share.

Compassion is a physiological truth that perpetuates the health and wellbeing of all living things. Act and spread the word.

-Michael McColly

MAP and DIRECTIONS

HOW TO GET TO PROSTRATIONS FOR PEACE
North Shore Beach pier
1055 W North Shore Ave

We encourage you to carpool if you must drive, as there may be a limited number of parking spaces. See our map at GoogleMaps to search for directions:


If you are coming from the suburbs, you may use the Metra or Amtrak rail systems, hop on the Red line North toward Howard, and exit at the Loyola stop. You'll find Prostrations for Peace across Sheridan on the beach.

If you live in Chicago, we encourage you to use public transportation by going to the CTA's Trip Planner.

Prostrations For Peace is located off North Shore Avenue (1055 W North Shore Ave, Chicago IL 60626) on the small pier.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any additional questions. 773.362.9362 -or- 312.413.9013 michaelmccolly@hotmail.com

After the ceremony, there will be a party held at Heartland Cafe, 7000 N Glenwood Ave, just a few blocks from Prostrations for Peace.