by Bob Bennett

October is disability awareness month and Nevada has events North, South, in Elko, and possibly elsewhere to remind us that disability or illness can strike anyone and to be considerate of those who are currently disabled.  Indeed, we should be considerate of everyone, everyday.  Some need a little more time to accomplish things; some have difficulty doing the things most of us take for granted.  Others are socially challenged, some need constant care.  Anyone of us could find ourselves in a similar situation. 

• Oct 3rd -- Las Vegas: Think Ability Fair at UNLV from 9 am to 4 pm; Las Vegas: CSN Health and Wellness Fair from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm

• Oct 5^th -- Reno:  Disability Awareness Day at TMCC, Dandini Campus 10 am to 2 pm

• Oct 10 -- Reno:  VSA Arts of NV at Lake Mansion from 11 am to 2 pm; Reno:  Disability Awareness Month, UNR, keynote address by Dr. I. King Jordan at 7 pm

• Oct 12 -- Reno:  Deaf Fun Day & Emergency Planning Workshop from 9 am to 1 pm at the Emergency Operations Center

• Oct 13 -- Las Vegas: National Alliance on Mental Health Walk at UNLV, check in at 7 am

• Oct 18 & 19 -- Las Vegas: Nevada's Traumatic Brain Injury Conference at Sierra Health Services

• Oct 20 -- Las Vegas: 16th Annual Disability Awareness Day at Lorenzi Park: 10 am to 2 pm

• Oct 23 -- Reno:  2^nd Annual UNR Accommodations Fair for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, 11 am to 2 pm

• Oct 24 -- Elko: Awareness Day and Open House NDALC, NNCIL & DHHARC 3 pm to 6 pm

• Oct 25 -- Reno:  Business Leadership Symon Awards at the Peppermill Hotel Casino.

* Oct 26 -- Nevada Day

An intricately carved lotus flower sculpture, the Guardian of Eden, by artist Kate Raudenbush, has been installed in Reno at the Wilbur D. May Sculpture Plaza of the Nevada Museum of Art.  Over nineteen feet in diameter with twelve petals, the ancient symbol of the flower of life, the Lotus flower, symbolizes purity and transcendence, owing to its perennial growth embedded in the depths of a swamp and rising through the muddy waters only to emerge hovering over the surface, completely unscathed and unsullied. 

This is said to represent material, intellectual and spiritual evolution.  The Guardian of Eden debuted at Burning Man this year during the Green Man celebration.   Intended to help develop a profound awareness of the consciousness of our natural world, that we nurture our desire to care for her spirit, and realize, in turn, that her survival is infinitely connected to our own.  Our global civilization is being given an opportunity to transcend our differences in a united quest for our collective survival.   It is an ethical and spiritual imperative which will shape each and every life from this moment forward: a choice so stark that it is distilled into two polarities: global consciousness and survival, or willful ignorance and destruction. It is within this dichotomy that humanity must realize WE are the Guardians of Eden.

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