Category Archives: Community

The Road to Diamond, Day 148: Silken Affirmations

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, distraction issues, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving

April 25, 2025- The wind was a bit brisk this morning, as a group of us prepared a fund-raising pavilion, on behalf of Prescott’s school district. Zip ties and clips became the saving graces, keeping the necessary signage in place. A few road barriers blew down and were promptly put back up. Keeping vehicles out of the area is important, both for the many pavilions and for the safety of those whose annual event is the impetus for this fund-raiser. Hundreds of mountain bike riders have converged on Prescott, for the annual Whiskey Off-Road bicycle marathon.

I had several small tasks to do, before going to the pavilion site, to help set up the tables and secure the tents. I learned, a few years back, to just go and do errands, rather than overthink and end up making a mess of things. Self-confidence came hard in my life, but it’s here now, and is not going away. The reward to self was another delicious French omelet at Bear and Dragon.

I got confirmations on two service posts, this week: Again serving as Corresponding Secretary for the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Prescott. After a meeting this morning, I was also asked to serve as Sheltering Coordinator for the Northern Arizona Chapter of the Red Cross. Much of my hands on work, for both positions, will be done during the summer months. Many other aspects of the duties may be done remotely. The Red Cross Disaster Response Coordinator for the Chapter further said that there is no reason to cancel any travels, next month or later in the year. I will continue to be faithful in making an effort to connect with people here, via Zoom or Microsoft Teams, or by phone, when the need arises.

There have been little hiccups, the past few days, but taking things slowly and carefully correcting matters have kept the missteps from having much effect. Life this week has been full of silken affirmations.

The Road to Diamond, Day 147: What It Takes

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, Education, impediments, Inspiration, Personal goals, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

April 24, 2025- The girl was unequivocal about not liking the leg stretching exercise that is part of her daily routine. I told her it was better for her than just letting her muscles turn to mush. Somehow, she understood and stopped complaining. To me, her being able to stand is as important as a classmate’s learning the basics of the Periodic Table of the Elements-if not more so. Everyone’s goals matter, regardless of how simple they may seem.

Today was probably my last assignment of the academic year, with next week being full of Baha’i and Red Cross activities, and the following three weeks being Road Trip time. This week has also seen a few time-zone influenced snags-with messages about online meetings giving a start time in either Eastern or Central Daylight Time-in small print, of course. So, I missed a few meetings, that were thankfully not crucial to attend. Still, it is an annoyance and a wale-up call to slow down and pay closer attention to the fine print. It came to a head this evening, when I had to go back and forth several times, to make clear what the time was going to be here for a short, but critical online meeting tomorrow.

Much of my own work seems, on its face, to matter to me alone. It was therefore a pleasant surprise that my staff for the day expressed a wish that I would come back and cover for their boss, a couple of days in May. I told them that was not possible, for the reasons stated above. It was gratifying, nonetheless, that simply doing a job to the best of my ability is viewed as something extraordinary. I can only hope that more people will see fit to do whatever a job takes to be done properly,

The Road to Diamond, Day 146: Integrity

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, distraction issues, Education, impediments, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

April 23, 2025- When I was in Graduate School, I was ill during one of the classes that was having a chapter exam. The next class meeting,the professor gave me the exam to do at home. As my textbook was at the ready, I briefly considered making it an open-book test. I couldn’t follow through, as this was a Master’s Program, after all, and “masters” don’t cheat. While the professor initially was suspicious as I submitted the exam, at the next class meeting, my grade reflected my decision to take the exam properly, and the matter was considered moot.

I am presently reading a book entitled “Free Radicals: The Secret Anarchy of Science”, by Michael Brooks. Here, the author details the shenanigans of scientists both famed and obscure. There are numerous examples given, of titans such as Einstein and Newton, and lesser lights, like the hapless Robert Millikan (who claimed credit for discovering the electron’s charge), having fudged data, to make their findings jibe with reality.

In life, there is no hard and fast rule that each and every instance of one’s chosen work is going to go as one pleases. In my years as a counselor, I did a lot of good for many troubled young people, and a few adults. I also failed some people, usually those whose issues were more quotidian, and didn’t fit the “troubled” or “at risk” mode. Both types of people will remember what happened, and will have judged me differently. It makes no sense to inflate one set of work results and sweep the others under the carpet. Integrity requires that I own both. Besides, my work as a teacher and school administrator was more checkered. I have to own that, too.

Integrity, the state of how one acts when no one is looking, has a serious claim to be restored to public service, in fact to be restored to all walks of life. There ought to be confidence in those whose mantra is “The statistics say”, or “Data tells us”. Right now, that confidence is often unmerited.

The Road to Diamond, Day 145: Fifty-four Years Later

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Posted by on in animal and plant life, collaborating, Community, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

April 22, 2025- We are at a point where it is felt, by the government, that it is time to halt “coercion”, in matters of the environment and caring for Mother Earth. The case is being made for individuals and entities to tend to matters, without “government interference”.

The last time this was official policy, in the late 19th Century, there was a moral laxity afoot and the emphasis was on maximum profit, with the attitude that Nature would take care of itself. The legacy of that ethos led to such things as the fire that broke out on the Cuyahoga River and the Santa Barbara oil spill, in 1969, which in turn led President Richard Nixon to establish the Environmental Protection Agency, a year later. Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, was the national public response to the catastrophic events.

It has been celebrated every year since, with some Administrations supporting a measure of environmental safeguards and others leaning more on the judgment of business and industry. The current Administration seems to be taking the latter course.

To be fair, business and industry of today are not as blinkered, or myopic, as their forebears. “Green” technology is viewed, rightly, as profitable, when pursued in a cost-effective manner and incrementally. Sustainability is recognized as being good for business, in the long-term. There are ham-handed industrialists and financiers, as yet, but their likelihood of staying in the drivers’ seats of publicly-held corporations is not a given. Many business people with whom I have talked are quite concerned about leaving a viable enterprise and a livable world for their children and grandchildren.

So, the long-term prognosis for our planet is not as bleak as it may seem, in the wake of climate change and the increase in catastrophic natural events. We have part to play in mitigating the severity of these events, and that means working together on solutions, which will neither bankrupt our economies nor add to the suffering of those already in the crosshairs of the storms, fires and quakes that are striking us with seemingly unpredictable regularity.

Fifty-four years after the first Earth Day, it falls to the citizenry to show Mother Earth our love and concern.

The Road to Diamond, Day 144: Divine Will

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, impediments, Inner Struggles, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

April 21, 2025- The unequivocal patron, at our weekly Soup Kitchen meal, reminded me to not question what he saw as the Will of God, as we talked about last Friday’s freak snow squall. He’s right, whatever happens in the realm of nature has Divine cachet.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, known officially as Pope Francis I, left this world early this morning, having shepherded his flock through one last Easter, even while suffering the ravages of age and long toil. Pope Francis never came across as an egotistical man, nor did he flaunt the riches that surrounded him in the Vatican, a place of storied wealth. He kept at his work until the next-to-last day of his life, boots on the ground. It was the Will of God that His steward of the adherents to Roman Catholicism, a voice for peace and strength of character, should have left our midst at the end of the holiest week on the Christian calendar.

Everyone on Earth serves the Divine Will. Even those who style themselves as the purveyors of mayhem, as the unchallengeable lords and masters of the rest of us, have no power to do anything that is at variance with the Creator’s Master Plan. There is growth to be achieved by the very people who are in the sights of tyrants. There is growth to be achieved by the tyrants themselves-and all their minions. Each of us walks in His path, whether to point out where we are falling short, as a species, or to effect the changes that will bring about a more peaceful world.

In this year of confusion, each of us gets to make the choice of which path to growth is right for us.

The Road to Diamond, Day 143: Resilience

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Posted by on in Assistance, children, collaborating, Community, impediments, Inner Struggles, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal goals, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

April 20, 2025- Some 1,993 years ago, when His tormentors gave Him up for dead, those who rolled back the stone at the designated tomb of Jesus the Christ were astonished to find it empty. He had business to which to attend: His followers were in need of reassurance, encouragement. Only Christ could provide that impetus to resilience, and so He did.

Each of us, given what we are to do in this life, has a need for resilience, on many occasions. The first time most of us experience this is when learning how to walk. Falling doesn’t faze most infants. They instinctively know that falling is part of learning, and so they keep on, until able to take step after step, ideally to the cheers and hugs of loving family members.

As life goes on, either we accept failure as a means to learning, as we did when edging towards toddlerhood, or we take it as a sign of inadequacy. The former is a burnishing of a can-do mindset, a harbinger of future success. The latter may, if not corrected, become the spark of learned helplessness. I have experienced both, over the years. Guess which one felt better, and which one I embrace now.

Communities, and nations, can face the same choice. Debate can see a case made for either option. It is true that collective failure is less easily fixed than is that of individuals, but it is also true that an honest conversation and civil commitment, to what is actually best for the community as a whole, can lead to reconciliation and true social progress-of the kind that doesn’t play favourites or institutionalize scapegoats.

We are at a crossroads, as a nation. Can we be discerning enough to take the best ideas of social progress and the best ideas of social conservatism, and reconcile the differences between the two? National survival has always been dependent on finding a balance.

The Road to Diamond, Day 142: The Long of It

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Posted by on in children, collaborating, Community, Family, impediments, Inspiration, Personal Values, service, Social, Spiritual, Striving

April 19, 2025- Today was the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, which are seen by many as the beginning of the American War for Independence from Great Britain. It is also the twelfth anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing, by which two men and a woman tried to make the claim that the American Experience was ignoring the plight of Muslims in Western and Central Asia, and thus Americans deserved to suffer.

A conservative friend recently pointed out that the basic conflict in our society is between those who believe good actions should be the result of free choice and those who believe that good actions often have to be coerced. I believe that most people start out the socializing portion of their lives (around age 4) wanting to please the people who are most closely in their view (parents, siblings, grandparents and, if they are lucky, extended family like aunts, uncles and cousins). Friends begin to be made around that time, as well. If that love is not reciprocated, for whatever reason, the person will devise other means of obtaining goals. Thus, greed, aggression and devious behaviour (such as lying or fantasizing) take root.

So, until such time as the spiritualization of the entirety of the human race is realized, we need some governmental safeguards, to serve as prompts, in moments of feckless, antisocial or exclusionary activity. We needed government to put a stop to slavery, then to two-tiered education systems and institutionalized racism, then to the same discriminatory practices regarding the treatment of women-and by extension, homosexuals. We needed government to protect workers from the excessive greed of employers. To some extent, we still need these laws, to guard against backsliding.

Freedom is never going to be free, so if we as a species want to be able to function without coercion, there is only one long term answer, the development and maintenance of self-discipline. My life has only become freer since I made a disciplined lifestyle my reality. I am quite certain that the same is true of anyone else who truly feels personal freedom.

The Road to Diamond, Day 139: Continuity, and Shifting

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, impediments, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving

April 16, 2025- Unsurprisingly, but happily, I got a clean bill of dental health again today. There are a couple of things I can and will do to improve the situation-yet, all in all, it’s one less cause for concern. Red meat, which I have loved over the years, also has to be cut back. It’s just my own conclusion, and truth be known, I am naturally more given to eating healthier, over the past four years.

Honouring friends across the political spectrum entails pointing out simple facts, rather than editorializing. So I have come across a few “inconvenient truths” that challenge both orthodoxies and have gently approached a few of the adherents to those positions. I won’t dwell on those here, except to say that things are seldom exactly as they seem, in a world where deception is far easier than it used to be.

With respect to the next few weeks, I have had a request to go back down to Desert Rose next weekend. There are, however, things going on here, for which I am locked in. So, after some back and forth online, I will be staying put and fulfilling promises to this community. It all reminds me of the old Donovan song, “There is a Mountain”.

Those are just some ruminations, on this topsy-turvy, but ultimately reassuring day.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&channel=entpr&q=first+there+is+a+mountain+donovan#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:f5d2e100,vid:XcMM5-zBCEc,st:0

The Road to Diamond, Day 138: Biology and Belief

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, Hiking and Nature, impediments, Inner Struggles, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, service, Social, Spiritual, Striving

April 15, 2025- A strange dream, just before I woke this morning, presented me with an alternative version of my late twenties. I was tooling around a remote area of the Great Plains, and connected with a young lady, much more easily than I actually did, back then. When I awoke, it occurred to me that, while the dream was pleasant, I would not give up one minute of the life I actually ended up having, for even such a comforting revision. The idea of not having my Faith, Aram and my twenty-nine years with Penny is really beyond my comprehension.

This morning, I brought a friend to inquire about getting an appliance, at one of the area’s thrift stores. For one reason or another, though the appliances in question had arrived last Thursday, I was only able to help her today. All the appliances were sold. This, she quickly determined, was the result of inherent bad luck and the system being stacked against her. My take was, “first come, first served”, though I recognized how painful it must feel to her, to have drawn the short straw, again. We found ourselves hitting every red light, at the intersections going back to her house, another indication that there was a “conspiracy afoot”. Well, no-it is just a day when I paid the universe back for all the other days when I caught every green light, from here to Spring Valley.

I have seen self-loathing or a victim mentality draw the worst energy, from random mishaps to disease. The latter, of course, perpetuates the dark energy, to the point where the poor soul often ends up being socially isolated. Many of the emotionally down and out of my past have died prematurely. This is all the more reason why I have cast aside my own self-loathing, with a view towards living several more years, to the fullest, in good health and surrounded by family and friends.

So, after this morning’s errand of mercy, I joined Akuura on another exploration of the Williamson Valley trail system. This time, we found the previously elusive water tank, that is a landmark for the trail to petroglyphs that lie somewhere atop a hill. We will have to locate the ancient scripts on another adventure, but here are the things we did find this afternoon.

Williamson 1
Akuura and a boulder
WV 2
Rock Madonna
WV 3
Dino Head
WV 4
Bowling Ball, or dinosaur egg?
WV 5
The elusive water tank

The upshot of the hiking story, as regards biology, is that this hobby is one of the factors in my own relatively good outlook on life. Of course, good friends, a healthy diet and maintaining a realistic view of both good fortune and misfortune, have their places in the game plan of longevity.

The Road to Diamond, Day 137: Infamy at Passover

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Posted by on in Assistance, Community, impediments, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

April 14, 2025- On Saturday evening, as the Governor of Pennsylvania, his family and close friends were concluding their celebration of the onset of Passover with a festive seder (feast), a disgruntled individual made his way into the Governor’s Mansion, a house of the people of Pennsylvania and set the building afire.

The suspect had reportedly written several messages on social media, expressing anger at various politicians. Two days ago, he appears to have escalated his behaviour. Some feel that stochastic (indirect) terrorism is at work, with the suspect merely acting at the instigation of other actors. The official investigation, alone, will have to establish that. Speculation by lay people may only serve to add fuel to the figurative fire, and possibly spark even more mayhem. In the final analysis, the person or person who committed this crime are the ones responsible for their actions. Blame cannot be passed along to those of either greater or lesser stature.

We are in very unsettled times. Those entrusted with power are variously embarking on untried courses of action or are passing the baton of their own statutory power to the more intrepid ones, “to keep the peace”. The attempt on the life of a sitting elected official, regardless of party affiliation or of ideology, is reprehensible. It is a slap in the faces of the people who voted for that official, as well as an attack on the concept of the State. I felt this way at both of the attacks on then-candidate Donald Trump, and at this most recent incident.

I hold out hope that the full weight of the Federal justice system will be brought to bear on anyone who seeks to wreak havoc on any part of our Democratic process. This, in addition to the resources of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania-or any state, District or territory that may experience subsequent acts of terror.