chrisjordan.com

Gyre, 2009

8×11 feet, in three vertical panels

Depicts 2.4 million pieces of plastic, equal to the estimated number of pounds of plastic pollution that enter the world’s oceans every hour. All of the plastic in this image was collected from the Pacific Ocean.

 

(The gallant Michael is the first to let go, and is borne across the room.)       

 

i’m reading peter pan/(not looking for jobs)

Hi!!!!!!!!!! I don’t know who all will still read this or who is but I think I will keep it up for a bit anyways.   I’m back in Iowa and I’ve been back for a week and a half.  Before that I flew in to Chicago to see Lindsay, my sister, graduate from college!  Then I was in Chi for a few days and took a random trip to Philadelphia for 12 hours. That was fun, sitting there watching people run up the steps of the museum like Rocky and celebrating when they got to the top.  Back in Iowa I have just been kicking it. Reading.  Getting outside a bit.  Kicking the ball around.  Descansando un rato.  You may want to ask what my plans are now… well I’m going to go back to Grand Rapids and see what happens.  As for Invisible Children, what’s the next step?  Lobby days in DC!!!!!!!!!!!! June 22 and 23, 23 and 24, I can’t remember for sure.  But we’re going to bring all the letters that people wrote at the event and bring them to senators and do some other shi as well.  check it out and come! it’s called How It Ends.  howitends.tv.    Yeah, I don’t really know where life is headed.  We’ll see.  See you all soon/talktoyousoon/maybeIwon’tseeyousoonortalktoyousoonbuthello/peace!

Thursday April 23:  Interview with TV Azteca amd meeting with 3 Mexican senators. 3 hour nap woken up to news about the swine flu plague in Mexico City (where we were currently)

Friday April 24: Scare of influenza.  All schools in DF canceled.  Two radio interviews and one TV Azteca interview.  People discouraged from going to public places.  Secretary of Health cancels 45 events in Mexico City for Saturday including The Rescue.  Team Mexico leaves DF at 9:30PM and drives 9 1/2 hours north to Monterrey.

Saturday April 25:  Arrive to Monterrey at 7AM.  Sleep for a few hours.  Monterrey Rescue event begins at 5pm.  We are rescued during the night and we spend the rest of the time in the plaza in front of El Museo de la Historia.  Slept a few hours.

Sunday April 26:  Sleep and then Team Mexico heads for the US to escape any possible border closings.  Cross into Texas with no problems and head for Austin to help them get Rescued.  We show up around midnight to 50 people remaining and we sleep outside the capital building.

Monday April 27: Wake up and make signs to manifest at the capital.  The rain comes for hours as we wait to be rescued.  Chants, songs, silence and human made peace sign.  4Pm we are rescued by senators and representatives.  Showers. Drums. Food and then we drive through the night with more rescue riders to Wichita, Kansas to help them get rescued. 

Tuesday April 28:  Arrive at rescue site at 4am.  Reunite with other roadies and staff.  Wake up in the morning to basketball and food.  Senator Browsback of kansas rescues us and then we march through the city streets for a few hours.  Team Mexico leaves to go to St. Louis to sleep on their way to Chicago.  The rest leave for Chicago.

Wednesday April 29: Sleep at friend’s grandparent’s house in St. Louis.  Wake up and leave for Chicago.  Beautiful pit stop at Lincoln Memorial Gardens in S. illinois.  Arrive in Chicago to rally with hundreds of other rescue riders who are waiting to be saved.  400 of us stay in a church on the south side.

Thursday April 30:  400 people in a church gymn learn a song and dance to perform outside Oprah’s studio to get her to rescue us.  Marching around her studio we san a variate of U2’s song.  “in the name of love, Oprah come and rescue us.” (youtube it).  Not getting rescued we spent the night at a church in munster, indiana.  Some of us went to a blues bar in Chicago to celebrate Willie’s 24th birthday.  Others back at the church were told at 12:30 am that they would have to get up in 2 hours for the next part of the plan.  Everyone cheered!

Friday May 1:  2am we woke up and all 500 of us now went back to Oprah’s studio.  From 5am to 7:30am we lined her block all the way around in silence holding our 2 finger peace signs in the air.  Oprah saw us all and put us on her live 9am show.  She interviewd bobby and filmed us all (youtube it).  She brought the situation to millions of people and rescued us.  Hallelujah!  Team Mexico leaves for the trip back to San Diego.  Spends the night at my parent’s house in Iowa.

Saturday May 2:  Beck’s barn.  Look out point over the Mississippi and then to Minnesota to South Dakota where we stopped at a rest area at 4:30am to sleep. 

Sunday May 3: Badlands to Mt. Rushmore. Wyoming to Denver.

Monday May 4: Denver to Grand Junction to Vegas.

Tuesday May 5: San Diego at 2am.

that is why it has taken me so long.  kisses and now i must close my eyes.

check out the post Rescue plan for what happens if the moguls don’t come to rescue abducted people in the USA.  http://behindthescenes.invisiblechildren.com/

I didn’t know about the Freedom Riders during the civil rights movement but this is what this is being modeled after.  It sounds crazy but how far would I go to have these kids rescued in Africa?  How far will America go for something so urgent?   Will we stand up to violence with non violence? (mason jennings song)   We will see what happens. 

Also, we found out that San Jose, Costa Rica is having an event on the 25th too.  I told my Tico brother to go to it and I think he’s going to.  

One more thing.  My good friend Chad Morton sent me this blurb from his friend’s blog.  I really liked it.  Check it:

And a prayer of blessing for those who mean to love Him for who He was…

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain in to joy.

May you revel in the fellowship of His sufferings and share in the glory of His vindication.

May you have mercy for the dreams you dream and grace in every confrontation you face, particularly those found in a violent storm of hate. 

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

And may you love

…as He loved you.

it´s funny when you´re american and you´re with a group of french people and you are all speaking in spanish.   that is what we have been doing the past couple of days here in Queretaro.  When we were in the office in San Diego I met this awesome girl through Couch Surfing and she is french and lives in Queretaro.  She was gone in cuba for semana santa and she let us stay in her apartment while she was away.  We came and met her french roomate and other french people, spanish people, ecuadorian people, americans and mexicans.  Quite the experience and really fun.  Rum and mojitos.  We had a sweet French night the other day:  beer, dinner with wine, cigarrettes, coffee and chocolate and about 6 hours of hanging out and conversation.  These people were so nice to us.  Our presentations went really well too (UNAM and la universidad Contemporanea).  People are on the move and trying to make the 25th event happen here in Queretaro too.   It´s funny too, cause all of these french people love Cuba too!  We shared stories and pictures and it makes me really want to return there for more time.   We had a tour of the city (this city´s center is really lovely too.  colonial style)  10 days until The RESCUE!!!!!!!!!!! everyone at least watch the movie please at therescue.invisiblechildren.com.  And then if you want to take it a step further, tell your friends.  And if you want to go even further, come to the event nearest you on April 25th! and even more, bring people.   As for this summer (and life for that matter), I don´t really have any plans.  If any of you want me to work for you I´ll do it.  If you want me to travel the world more I´ll do it.  If you want me to work on a farm and plant peas and can vegetables and fruits I´ll do it.  If you want me to go back and study latin american history or writing in some latin american country I´ll do it.  haha. but seriously, i´ll do it.   My mom and dad are having the middle america invisible children roadie team stay at their house this week.  I´m excited for that.  I think it´s cool how my family and friends are a part of this same thing though we are across different borders and tongues and rivers such as the mighty mississippi and el rio bravo (the rio grand).  O yeah, i want to put this link in here too: http://mexico.quaker.org   We presented at this place last week in DF and it was a great experience.  These holistic, humble, intentional, gentle, pacificists and simple people made me want to become their style of quaker/go back and work on that farm in Costa Rica again.   I hope to write again soon.  I shall see you all soon enough (or some of you at least).  I will end with some lyrics from mewithoutYou:  ´stones cry out, bells shake the sky, all creation groans…….. shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…………… (long pause of silence)… (whispers) listen to it.´  Oh and a quote from Fast times at Ridgemont High when sean penn´s stoner character had just ordered a pizza in his history class and his teacher asks him what he is doing.  He reponds calmly, direct and in his hippie stoner tone: ´Eatin some pizza, learning about cuba.¨  boom.

a little inspiration for living this life: http://www.myspace.com/mewithoutyou

this life is a whirlwind

guadalajara by andrea

my heart is beeping....like this....like this...

dont ever drive in DF. it sucks and you will most likely get lost.  that is what happened to us today. From Guanajuato to DF to Acapulco.  That is where we just were.  We were in Acapulco for a few days.  It was much needed time to relax and hang out.  Acapulco is right on the Pacific and is the Semana Santa (spring break) hang out for half the city of DF.  We went because we did a conference with Campus Crusade for Christ and then we just hung out the rest of the time.  About 3 weeks ago we met a family here in DF at a church and they have a condo right by the beach in Acapulco that they let us stay in.  So rad.  Palm trees and the setting sun sinking into the ocean.  Bike ride and swimming pool and hot tub.  Damn, life was hard for the past two days….  But we met some cool people at the conference and we will actually be doing a screening at their university here in DF soon.  Time is winding down quick.  We go to Queretaro for a few days this next week and the come back to finish our time in DF until the event.  We are still trying to get the Zocalo for the event and it is looking hopeful.  As a plan B we almost have a well known park here set up.  Our assisant from San Diego Colleen flew down here about a week and a half ago and she and our mexican DF friend and host are doing awesome things here for the event.  People are getting siked.   We going to have a skype call soon with our boss back in San Diego and we will see if we learn some new things about the event.  Thank you to all who are praying and leaving me comments on here and emailing me.  Its great to hear from you.   hasta la bye bye

 

therescue.invisiblechildren.com

we have a screening in 30 minutes so i have to be fairly quick.  last time i wrote we were in guadalajara.  then we shot up to aguascalientes for a screening and some cool couch surfing.  then we left at 5am the next day for a cancelled screening in san luis potosi (cool town though) and then we headed on down to df again for a day an a half.  where we had a meeting with a well connect lady and went to a club to where we thought we were going to get some promotion but it just turned out to be a smoke filled late night we a guy holding up a microphone to a conga player on stage.  then we made the 10 hour trek from df to Tampico on the gulf of mexico. we drove through the green filled carribbean mountains on swervy insane roads and slow traffic (hence the 10 hours).  we listened to a lot of NPR (thisamericanlife.org).  Tampico was wonderful and the people were great.  we presented at a model United Nations conference, American School of Tampico, and a tec de monterrey tampico school.  one auditorium was so packed that not everyone could come in.  we ate seafood and put our feet in the ocean.  yesterday we drove 10 hours to Leon  and we were late for our presentation.  It still happened and went well.  We ate the famous ice cream of Leon and stayed in a guys studio where he creates his art.  Today we drove the 40 minutes to Guanajuato.  This city is so beautiful and we havent even seen much of it.  You should google pictures of it/come here.  We are at a high school (prepa in spanish) and we have given two presentations already and now were going to give another one.  This school is snuggled up in the mountains and i feel like im in Rivendell (lord of the rings).   We are the hobbits on our journey staying with the elves.  Ill get back with more info.  Saturday we are peacing out to leave for Acapulco for a conference with Campus crusade for Christ.  Spring Break! Booze, girls and drugs! sike. just kidding.   Hope all is well.  drop me a line on facebook or email if you like.  Adios

yo soy Benito Juarez

el Zocalo (where the DF event is happening)

hotel motel holiday inn