Building Common Ground: Engagement: Compassion & Peace Studies, and Adopt-a-Cat Friday

Friday, March 2nd, from 2-4pm, Lincoln County Humane Society will have cats available for adoption.  This event has a special adoption fee of only $10 to cover vaccinations, fixing, microchips, and other costs. 

Saturday, March 3rd, from 11 am to noon, Ruidoso Public Library begins our Building Common Ground, Civility, & Compassion program for all of March.  These programs, films, workshops, and guests are made possible through grants from the American Library Association, the Fetzer Institute, and support from Ruidoso's Friends of the Library.  Les Field, Professor of Anthropology at UNM and Director of the Peace Studies Program, will lead a discussion on social issues with a goal of identifying solutions.

Saturday, March 10th, from 11 am to noon, John Cianciosi, author of The Meditative Path, joins us from the National Headquarters of the Theosophical Society in America.  Explore mindfulness, breathing, and awareness cultivation through a guided meditation followed by discussion.

Coming up Saturday, March 17 at 11 am, join our director, Corey Bard, in a discussion of Karen Armstrong's book, Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life.

We have eleven copies available, so drop in to read one before the discussion.  If reading (or the time for 222 pages) is not your thing, you are still welcome to participate.  Karen Armstrong has a talk at TED.com about her book, a webpage about the Charter for Compassion, and NPR interviewed her (listen to the 30 minute recording here).  The publisher offers a discussion guide with some questions to ponder before, during, after, or instead of reading, too.

Here are the Twelve Steps:

1.    1. Learn about compassion

2.     2. Look at your own world

3.     3. Compassion for yourself

4.     4. Empathy

5.     5. Mindfulness

6.     6. Action

7.    7.  How little we know

8.     8. How we should speak to one another

9.     9. Concern for everybody

10.  10. Knowledge

11.   11. Recognition

12.   12. Love your Enemies

Ruidoso Public Library also offers seven other books by Karen Armstrong (if not on the shelf, request it at the front desk):

The Spiral Staircase  200.92 ARM

Holy War: The Crusades and Their Impact on Today’s World  909.07 ARM

A Short History of Myth 398.2 ARM

Islam: A Short History  297.09 ARM

A History of God: The 4000 year Quest of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam  291.211 ARM

The Case for God  211.22 ARM