Glow...

A Greek Orthodox church taking shape next to the World Trade Center memorial plaza will glow at night like a marble beacon when it opens sometime next year.

The St. Nicholas National Shrine, designed by renowned architect Santiago Calatrava, will replace a tiny church that was crushed by the trade center's south tower on Sept. 11, 2001. The new church will give Greek Orthodox believers a place to worship while also welcoming visitors of any faith who want to reflect on the lives lost in the terrorist attacks.

The church they are building hardly resembles other Calatrava projects such as the Oculus or the Milwaukee Art Museum with their distinctive ribbed wings.

Rather, the new St. Nicholas was inspired by two Byzantine shrines in Istanbul, the Hagia Sophia and the Church of the Holy Savior in Chora. Like those structures built in the fifth and sixth centuries, St. Nicholas will feature a central dome flanked by towers.

Tacos...

Two masked robbers entered a Taco restaurant and ordered three employees to lie on the floor. Police say three other employees pulled out handguns and opened fire, shooting one of the suspects six times. The other suspect ran off.

The Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH'-guh) County Medical Examiner's Office said the man killed was 24-year-old De'Carlo Jackson.  Investigators say Jackson was found with a loaded gun in his hand. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.

No one has been arrested. The employees who opened fire are said to be two 19-year-old men and a 23-year-old man. A Taco Bell spokeswoman told Cleveland.com the company is "shocked" by the shooting and is offering counseling to employees.

أين أذهب من روحك

With the difficult time surrounding the peple of Florida and other US States, I hope these few words would calm all of us. Continue to pray.

من خلف ومن قدام حاصرتني، وجعلت علي يدك

عجيبة هذه المعرفة، فوقي ارتفعت، لا أستطيعها

  أين أذهب من روحك ؟ ومن وجهك أين أهرب

  إن صعدت إلى السماوات فأنت هناك، وإن فرشت في الهاوية فها أنت

 

Crowds...

Terminated...*

Image is not related.

The Baltimore Ravens terminated Ray Rice's contract after a video emerged of the running back punching his then-fiancee in an Atlantic City hotel elevator.

The video shows Janay Palmer, now Rice's wife, being hit in the face in the elevator. Palmer then lunges at the running back before he delivers a blow that knocks her out. When the elevator doors open, Rice drags Palmer's body outside, leaving her face down on the floor, her legs still inside the elevator.

The NFL followed up by suspending Rice indefinitely, preventing another team from picking him up. Earlier in the day, the NFL said it had never seen the violent video before it suspended him for two games for domestic abuse.

Within hours of the video's appearance on TMZ.com, Rice's team, the Baltimore Ravens, tweeted, "The Baltimore Ravens terminated the contract of RB Ray Rice this afternoon."

Waiting for prosecution.                     Just a thought.

Irma's...

Irma's sustained winds to 130 mph as the storm skittered toward the United States, but it was expected to regain strength as it turned toward Florida later in the day, the National Hurricane Center said. Hurricane conditions were expected beginning Saturday night in the Florida Keys and across southern and central Florida.

The core is forecast right now to still go through the lower keys and then on up to Naples, on up to Cape Coral, with a Category 4 wind of 140 mph.

 

Florida authorities have gone door to door to warn residents about the dangerous storm, sending throngs onto jammed highways as they fled north. More than 5.6 million people have been ordered to evacuate, Gov. Rick Scott said, and many coastal residents already have moved inland.

This is a dangerous storm by all means, however the devastation will be felt for a generation.
Just a thought

Macron...

 


Wrapping up a visit to Greece, French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, departed from the official program to stroll down a crowded central Athens shopping street, delighting selfie-thirsty pedestrians but inconveniencing those unfortunate enough to get stuck in the ensuing traffic jams.

Accompanied by plainclothes security guards, the couple posed for pictures, shook hands and chatted to passers-by for more than half an hour on the Ermou pedestrian street, near central Syntagma Square and the Greek parliament. The president then met and spoke to a group of Greek Orthodox priests outside Athens Cathedral.

Greek police, apparently caught by surprise by the unscheduled walk, blocked major streets leading to the city center, leaving motorists and passengers in public transport stranded for about 45 minutes.

Book...

In a candid and angry new book, Hillary Clinton relives her stunning defeat to Donald Trump, admitting to personal mistakes and defending campaign strategy even as her return to the stage refocuses attention on a race Democrats still can't believe they lost.

Clinton is unsparing in her criticism of Trump and also lays out some of the factors she believes contributed to her loss:

Interference from Russian hackers, accusations leveled at her by former FBI Director, a divisive primary battle with Bernie Sanders, even her gender.

She also addresses common criticisms of her campaign, including the idea that she didn't have a compelling narrative for seeking the presidency and that she ignored Midwestern turf where Trump picked up enough white working-class voters to win several battleground states.

Don't think that's it.   Just a thought.

Snapping...

The New York City Subway, scoliotic backbone of the country’s most powerful urban economy, is snapping. On-time performance has dropped from 85 percent in 2011 to 63 percent today.

Gov. Cuomo declared the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was in a "state of emergency,"  The declaration comes after a  power issue left hundreds of LIRR commuters stranded outside Penn Station for two hours.

There was an average of 5.7 million daily riders last year - with 49 days that saw the number of daily passengers crack six million. Annual ridership, meanwhile reached 1.7 billion  another high point since 1948.

New Yorkers spend more time in the subway system going to work and home.
The politicians are nowhere to be found. Talk talk talk.

Insecurity...*

We are all more obsessed with our appearance than we like to admit. But this is not an indication of 'vanity'.  Concern about appearance is quite normal and understandable. 

The real problem with insecurities isn’t that you think you’re short / overweight / big ears / virgin. The reason your insecurities limit your life is because of what you think other people think of You.

German psychoanalyst Eric Fromm said, “The task we must set for ourselves is not to feel secure, but to be able to tolerate insecurity.” Every likable person has periods of sheer insecurity. 

Insecurity, vulnerability of spirit, is essentially humility, which is a divine quality. In fact, since pride is considered to be the origin of sin, humility would be the greatest spiritual virtue. With insecurity, we admit that it’s not all about us, and that philosophy of self centeredness is quite lovely. 

There are always two realities running parallel to each other at any given time: the one outside your mind and the one within. Sometimes taking a step back is all you need to see that whatever you're concocting in your mind has very little to do with reality. Instead, it's just your fears and anxieties taking hold of you. When you're feeling anxious, remember: is this reality or is this just my made-up reality?

People only let you see what they want you to see. Behind those drawn curtains is something much less enviable. No one is as they seem, and there's no reason to measure your lot up to anyone else's.        But what you do and how to react towards others based on your own insecurity is something else.                              Just a thought.