In Deshnoke, a small city in the northwest province of
\nRajasthan, India, pilgrims cross miles of scorching desert on
\nfoot to pay homage to Karni Mata, the Rat Goddess. Thousands
\nof rats, believed to be the reincarnated souls of mystics,
\nroam fearlessly through Karni Mata’s temple, even in broad
\ndaylight. Human worshippers bring the sacred beasts enticing
\ngrains and fruits in silver bowls, occasionally offering an
\naffectionate pat on the head or scratch behind the ears as the
\nsatisfied rodents stretch lazily in the sun.<\/p>\n
The grateful rats select the tastiest morsels, of course, but
\ngenerously leave some tidbits for their devotees. Having
\ncompleted their sacred mission, the worshippers go home
\nfulfilled, and the rats remain, happy and well-fed. All in
\nall, the system seems to be working just fine.<\/p>\n
On this side of the globe, humans fail to see the divinity in
\ntheir rodent neighbors. Reincarnated mystic or not, rats are
\nunwelcome in most American cities. Surprisingly, in New York
\nCity, cultural center of the richest country on the planet,
\npeople are not only unwilling to worship or share their food
\nwith their rodent brothers, they actually consider a vigorous
\npopulation of several million rats a public nuisance!<\/p>\n
rats are becoming an obsession for me: for the rest of the story go here: http:\/\/members.bellatlantic.net\/~lilbun\/ts\/nyrats.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Deshnoke, a small city in the northwest province of Rajasthan, India, pilgrims cross miles of scorching desert on foot to pay homage to Karni Mata, the Rat Goddess. Thousands of rats, believed to be the reincarnated souls of mystics, roam fearlessly through Karni Mata’s temple, even in broad daylight. Human worshippers bring the sacred […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,13,2,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sean-slemon","category-simon-gush","category-south-african-art","category-theory"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s9blZT-rats","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5637,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/16\/attempts-at-a-unified-theory-sheila-held-at-green-gallery-milwaukee\/","url_meta":{"origin":932,"position":0},"title":"Review: Attempts at a Unified Theory, Sheila Held at Green Gallery, Milwaukee","author":"nathaniel","date":"16 October 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I first met Sheila Held at a panel presentation I gave in 2014, and she invited me to her studio \/ home in Wauwatosa for dinner shortly thereafter. I bring this up precisely because of how inviting she and her work - the latter entirely comprised of narrative-alluding and large-scale\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_9481-201x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":555,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2005\/02\/23\/sue-pam-grant-muti-gallery-44-stanley\/","url_meta":{"origin":932,"position":1},"title":"sue pam grant @ muti gallery, 44 stanley","author":"nathaniel","date":"23 February 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"I really am a text geek. I mean, I know I'm supposed to be a visual artist and all, but it makes such a huge difference to talk about art; to hear others talk about what it does for them; to hear artists say what they were trying to evoke\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":659,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2005\/07\/04\/holy-man\/","url_meta":{"origin":932,"position":2},"title":"holy man","author":"kaganof","date":"04 July 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear God Are you a Holy Man? The Holy Man asked me If you say that's what I am Then Holy I must be Are you bent on doing good? No I'm bent on getting straight And what is it you're addicted to? Me? I'm hooked on fate. The Holy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "kaganof"","block_context":{"text":"kaganof","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/old-categories\/kaganof\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2003\/04\/26\/all-polly-tykes-all-the-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":932,"position":3},"title":"all polly tykes all the time","author":"nathaniel","date":"26 April 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Referenced from The Note, check out The Bush Chronology (pdf document - need acrobat reader). Biased but not opinionated, and all too true, timeline of Dubyah's Doings. I'm feeling better today, thanks to Dr. Charmers (not a pun; that's really my doctor's - fitting - name!). Here's a well-versed, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news and politics"","block_context":{"text":"news and politics","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/news-and-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":235,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2003\/11\/01\/lab-all-stars\/","url_meta":{"origin":932,"position":4},"title":"lab all stars","author":"nathaniel","date":"01 November 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Another PhD in Digital Media - and this one looks\/sounds really cool (and so selective, that you actually have to apply just to get more information! hmmmmm.). Anyone wanna collaborate on this - Bush in 30 seconds project, judged by none other than Mr. Moore. What a star!","rel":"","context":"In "art and tech"","block_context":{"text":"art and tech","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art-and-tech\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1921,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/30\/nyfa-current-art-news-for-artists-and-all-those-who-support-them\/","url_meta":{"origin":932,"position":5},"title":"NYFA Current – Art News for artists and all those who support them","author":"nathaniel","date":"30 April 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Great article on new directions in the art world - written by Hrag Vartanian, as coverage of a\u00c2\u00a0 Jerry Saltz lecture - in NYFA. NYFA Current - Art News for artists and all those who support them Moneyquote: The new art world, he conjectured, will be something we won't recognize,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}