Category Archives: Community

This Singing House

10
Posted by on in Community, Hiking and Nature, Personal Values, Spiritual

March 20, 2016, Prescott- I had the good fortune, this weekend, of being in two amazing places, locally. The first was Chapel Rock Conference Center, of which more in a coming post.

Today being Naw-Ruz, the first day of the Baha’i calendar, as well as an ancient Persian cultural festival (which used to last twelve days, I’m told, in the time of Zoroastrianism), I focus now on our community’s local celebration.

It was held, on this glorious afternoon, at the self-built home of two amazingly inventive and eclectic people, who I have been honoured to call friends, for over twenty years. Each time I visit here, there are new items either added to the house, inside or out, or in the works, in one studio or another.

When we sat for the devotional part of our celebration, the hostess was asked whether recorded music would be part of the program. She said “No”, and at that moment, the house itself began its music- in the form of three sets of wind chimes taking turns.

The chimes were not overly clangy, which would have not set a good mood, but gently interspersed our readings. Afterwards, we had a light meal, which sufficed this one’s appetite for the rest of the day. Some days are just meant for one meal, supported by snacks.

Here are some scenes of this lovely home, atop a bucolic hill.

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES
Yard art, Prescott
SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES
The Seven “S’es” of Naw-Ruz

(See my next post, for a detailed description of this elegant holiday arrangement.)

The Iron Ring of Frontier Crag
Frontier Crag

Here are a couple of the reasons my friends were drawn here, in the first place. Note the embedded iron ring, atop the crag.

So, another fine year has begun for us Baha’is. I wish all my friends north of the Equator a lovely Spring, and all to the south, a bountiful Fall.

The Collision of Two Fears

8
Posted by on in Community, Personal Values

March 19, 2016, Prescott- I see on the news that a large crowd amassed, in front of a Trump rally, in an attempt to make the would-be participants turn back. This was a bit like asking a leopard to shed his spots, rather than merely change them.

The whole incident shows what happens when one group of like-minded people become so fearful- of another fearful group- that all reason goes by the boards. Isn’t this how wars get going, full-on? The fact is, as I mentioned on a conservative friend’s page, elsewhere: There is a First Amendment, that allows people to gather, and give voice to their opinions, no matter how odious those might seem to others.

The key is to let them rant, while holding one and all to a civil code that draws the line at violence. Not letting people speak, because one is afraid of what they might say, is pretty much a guarantee that they will say it more often, and louder. I think the man who slugged another man, at a rally in N.C., was crossing the line. Yet, so too, was the mob that blocked traffic in a town west of Phoenix, this afternoon.

I have friends who support a variety of candidates for President. Each has the right to their opinion, and I, to mine, which I am keeping to myself. I would not deign to presume that a given person should vote differently than the way they feel. All I know is, giving in to one’s darkest fears is no way to solve a problem-ever.

Intercalary

6
Posted by on in Community, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Spiritual

February 26, 2016, Prescott- Today is the first of four Intercalary Days, celebrated by members of the Baha’i Faith, as days of charity, gift-giving and fellowship. The proper name for this short period is Ayyam-i-Ha, or “Days of Giving”. It is followed by a Fast, of nineteen days, on which I’ve written before, and will again. Our Fast has some similarities to Lent, Ramadan and the Jewish High Holy Days, as well as its own unique character.

Intercalary means “in-between calendar months”. Our Baha’i calendar, properly called the Badi Calendar, has nineteen months of nineteen days each. In the past, we would have four days of intercalary in 365- day years and five days, in a Leap Year. The calendar has now been synchronized, world-wide, so that our Holy Days will be based on the occurrence of the new moon, and thus will fall on different dates each year. The Intercalary Period, therefore, will be four days a year, regardless of a year’s actual length.

Personally, this month and next, are rather lean, so my charity and gift-giving come more in the form of time and energy, this year. I’d rather have it that way, actually, as we humans sometimes value each other more on what things people bring and how much money they give. I’ve lost a few friends, over the years, because I didn’t contribute, financially, to their efforts or causes. Then again, were they really friends, in the first place?

 

Today, I will shortly set out and see what is happening downtown, and visit one of my favourite journaling haunts- either the Courthouse lawn, or one of the coffee houses that so wonderfully grace our central area. This evening features two gatherings, and tomorrow- three. I have, on such occasions, developed the art of selective grazing- each of these affairs is centered around food- and refined my conversational skills, which, for much of my life, have been halting, at best.

It’ll be a fine weekend, at any rate, and will have its share of acts of service.

Fear Factors

15
Posted by on in Community, Personal Values, Spiritual

February 19, 2016, Prescott- This week has been a bit rough, although work resumed for two days and I did have a nice dinner with friends, last night. The difficult part has come from the number of attacks, two of them pointedly personal, that have come my way this week. Last night, I received a written death threat, which I take only mildly seriously. The person in question has neither the physical or financial wherewithal to put an end to my life. Today, someone on another medium said that, unless I supported building a wall on the Mexican border, I was not entitled to claim citizenship.

We have devolved into a “my way or no way” mentality. It’s not just in the United States, that this is happening. Europe is finding itself overwhelmed. India and Indonesia are experiencing the resurgence of religious fundamentalism, to say nothing of what is going on in Africa and western Asia. Mexico has been rigid, in not letting migrants come in from Central America, or from Cuba, for that matter. Even a small nation like Nicaragua puts those seeking a better life, in detention camps.

Otherwise good people are turning on others, mostly out of fear- that their livelihoods will be lost, that their families’ safety will be at risk and, more existentially, that all they cherish and believe will be upended.

I have three thoughts on this whole phenomenon.

  1. Remember the French Revolution. In a nutshell (no pun intended), the common people rid themselves of leaders who looked upon them as less than human. After that, there was no game plan, except to continue the carnage, until the Revolutionaries had decimated their own ranks- and Napoleon stepped in, restored a monarchy and only slight improvements had been made in the public weal.

2. “The Earth is but one country, and Mankind its citizens”- Baha’u’llah

We do best to see all other people and nations as our relatives, by extension. There need to be rules, sane and intelligent boundaries, and no one should enter another’s home, without leave of the owner. Each family, city or town, county, state/province, and nation is entitled to having its boundaries, and its laws, respected. Nonetheless, there cannot be the sort of racism or ethnocentrism that only perpetuates misery. There also cannot be the economic colonialism that demands people in one country suffer, so that people in other countries can indulge themselves with habit-forming drugs that foment death and destruction, both for the people around the producers and for the consumers.

3. Everyone is entitled to seek the truth of spiritual, intellectual and metaphysical matters for themselves.

Groups have arisen, from ISIS to the American Tea Party, that rely on fear and loathing to keep their agendas moving forward. Again, I refer you to the late, unlamented Jacobins. The Ku Klux Klan, Khmer Rouge, National Socialists, the “Know Nothings”, and various tribal armies-of-slaughter, throughout history, have followed the same path- sometimes with deadly violence, other times with the violence of the mind. In both cases that I mentioned at the beginning of this post, my response was immediate- I will think, and speak, for myself. I have served the United States of America, and will not give up my citizenship; nor will I ask that of my critic, who was born here, also. I will follow my own schedule, protocol and regimen, with regard to my daily life, and not give in to threats, of any kind.

The challenge, before us all, is to put fear in its place.

My Life Thus Far: The Fifties

17
Posted by on in Community, Family, Striving

January 26, 2016, Prescott-

I have decided to look at my 6 1/2 decades, in terms of each year’s high point, low point,places and people in the heart, and amazing things. Where there are no listed “People in the heart”, Mom and Dad were a given. Obviously, this has meant some very deep psychic chrononautics, memories and reflections, with regard to my first decade, the 1950’s; so, here goes.

1950- High Point: I bounced out, towards the end of the year, albeit almost feet first.

Low Point: Almost coming out feet first.

People in the heart-Mom and Dad,  my three living grandparents.

1951- High Point: Being the center of attention.

Low Point: Uncle Jim went to war.

Places in the heart: Gooch Street, Melrose (our first home) and the duplex on Central Street, Saugus (our second home).

1952- High Point: My sister, Cheryl, was born.

Low Point: Dad worked nights.

People in the heart:  Cheryl, Cousin Dale, Grandma.

1953- High Point: Playing with Pal, the collie mix.

Low Point: Russell, my best friend, got caught sneaking candy out of our house.

Places in the heart: Grandma’s house, Aunt Hazel’s and Uncle Ellie’s house.

1954- High Point: Walking up to Grandma’s by myself.

Low Point: Getting spanked for it.

People in the heart: My paternal aunts, Carol and Margie, who were my first teen babysitters; two little girls who were my friends, but whose names I forget, and Russ, the first boy to be my friend.

1955-High Point: David was born.

Low Points: Moving to Adams Avenue, to what at first struck me as a shack. (Dad and Mom made it into a real home, though); Grampy Boivin died.

People in the heart: My first peer friends- Eddie, Allan, Mario and Tommy.

Place in the heart: Conrad’s Farm (They had horses!)

1956- High Point: Learning to read.

Low Point: Realizing I was different from the other First graders.

People in the heart: Miss Lavin (my First Grade teacher); Father Lawrence McGrath (who gave me First Communion); Donna, Ellen and Nancy W., my girl classmates.

1957- High Point: Getting to go up Blueberry Hill by myself.

Low Point: Getting bullied in the neighbourhood.

People in the heart: Bobby Matthews, who stood up for me; Jimmy and Jack, my                  friends down the street.

Places in the heart:  Blueberry Hill, where I hiked and sledded; Pleasant Creek, where I went to meditate.

1958- High Points: Learning my multiplication facts; family visit to Cape Cod.

Low Point:  Getting pelted in the head with acorns.

People in the heart: New friends Charlie and Clyde; Miss Nugent (my Third Grade teacher.

Places in the heart: Johns Pond, Cape Cod; The Field, and Nannygoat Hill, Saugus.

1959-High Points: Visiting family in Stamford, CT; vacation in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Low Point:  My friend and classmate, Donna,moved.

People in the heart: Cousins Danny, Kathy and John.

Places in the heart: High Street, after dinner during Daylight Savings Time; Franconia Notch and North Conway, NH.

Amazing things in my 1950’s- The transformation of 48 Adams Avenue into a nice family home. All the times I walked into neighbours’ unlocked houses, when I was 5 &6, until Father McGrath mentioned, at Sunday School, that it was wrong. A teen party upon which I happened, at age 8. (They let me stay a while, long enough to realize just how beautiful girls are). Learning the joys of walking, which took me everywhere in Saugus.

This was the time of American Bandstand, Mighty Mouse, Tom and Jerry, and my first forays into nerdiness: Perry Mason, Feep’s Fantasmic Features and Hawaiian Eye. It was when I learned that not all grown-ups liked kids, even when they worked with us. There were those, like my First and Third Grade teachers, who did love us. They are the ones I remember most clearly.

As the Fifties closed, I was slowly branching out as a person.

 

 

 

 

Highway 16

12
Posted by on in Community, Family, Hiking and Nature, Personal goals, Personal Values, Service Activities, Striving, Travel

January 1, 2016, Prescott- Yes, I know it’s still 2015, here in the American West. It’s New Year’s Day in Rouen, France, one of my ancestral homes. It’s also 2016 in: Silesia, Poland; Bremen, Germany; and Tours, France- three of my other ancestral homes. In 5 1/2 hours, the New Year will come to Old Town, Maine, where my Native American relatives still live.  I am starting to beat a dead horse.

I will use the road motif for this year’s posts, much as the Road took me to age 65. Highways indicate assertiveness, clear vision and moving out with a purpose. So I intend 2016 to be.

I came back to Home Base, yesterday, to find I have a financial issue to settle, and will tend to it next week. In the meantime, bills and rent will get paid and I was, thankfully, able to fulfill a promise I made, last week, to help a sick friend. My nest egg isn’t growing right now, but neither is anyone else’s, in Wall Street’s mad rush to sell anything that’s not nailed down. My nest egg IS nailed , though, so the bears can just go back into hibernation.

Meanwhile, I am not hibernating. The next three days will see me on one trail or another, as we enjoy crisp, clear weather. The schools will be back in session next week, and I will be ready for whoever needs my services. The certification process will take a bit longer- ADE doesn’t save transcripts, so those need to be re-sent, and my long-ago teaching internship host will need to verify that I did complete “practice teaching”- in Fall, 1975. So, I see that process being successfully completed by the end of January.

My essential oils have benefited me, health-wise, and I will be at three conferences, this year, that focus on their promulgation. This month, and June will find me in Boulder and September features an International Convention in Salt Lake City.

Travel in the summer will depend on how well I do, work-wise, this winter and spring. A week or so in Reno/Tahoe, at the end of May, is a given. Anything beyond that, though, remains to be seen. In any case, the focus will be on time with friends, not on “Here’s Gary at yet another fabulous site!” I never want the latter to be how all this is viewed.

Reading is still huge for me, and with the Kindle, an excellent library system and three nearby book shops, I will never run short of material. I am currently engrossed in “The Witches: Salem, 1692”, Dick Van Dyke’s “Keep Moving”, “Terra in Cognita”, by a fellow Baha’i: William Barnes, “Extreme Ownership”, and “The Dinosaur Heresies”. My tack is to read at least ten pages of a book, then go to one of the others, and so on.

This year marks the Centenary of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s initial offerings of “Tablets of the Divine Plan”. I will have much more to say about this remarkable set of documents, during the course of the year. Suffice it so say that, without the guidance I have received as a Baha’i, the person some in my family remember from long ago, and still think they see, would still be stumbling around- and I would not be blogging, to say the least.

This year also marks the Centenary of the National Park Service. I will visit several National Park holdings in Arizona, and around the Southwest, in the course of this year. Most certainly, my boots will meet some trails of the Grand Canyon, and Canyon de Chelly, for the first time in 18 years.

Most importantly, though, is WHO I am going to be in these next twelve months. That will never be defined by anyone but yours truly. To say otherwise would be to invite chaos. Some, not far from here, want me to move nearer to them. That is not happening. Others would rather I stay as far away from them as possible. So be it. Any given decision could be resolved in at least seventy different ways. The factors, for me, are these: Service to those in need, especially children and youth; my own family’s well-being; my ability to fend for myself (I am not presently, nor will I be, a burden on anyone else); and, lastly, the overall circumstances of the world-at-large.

Happy 2016, one and all!

 

Adventine Hope

10
Posted by on in American Legion, Community, Service Activities, Social

December 12-13, Prescott- It seemed this weekend saw no end to meetings and gatherings. Saturday dawned with the placing of wreaths on most of the grave sites at Prescott National Cemetery. The event was part of Wreaths Across America, in which I have participated for the past four years, in honour of my late Uncle Carl, who was intensely active in Wreaths, when it first started, and remained so until his passing in 2010. Snow made it interesting, but we’ve had a white ground cover every year, except last year. The children who participate are a major reason for its success.

Yesterday afternoon, we Prescott Baha’is had our Spiritual Feast, a worship service held every nineteen calendar days, or so, which features devotions, consultation about the business of the community and a social gathering. We have a good rapport with each other and the home-based gatherings add to a family feeling.

In the evening, I joined the staff of Mingus Springs, for their Christmas party, also held in a spacious home, with a lovely view of the valley below. Exquisite food, raucous camaraderie and intelligent conversation on a variety of topics lit up the four hours we had together. The party games were both wholesome and spirited-one involving a question and answer competition between two teams, and the other an unravel-the-ball-of-tape, which involved rolling a pair of dice, and getting a chance to peel back on one of two taped balls, which had small treats inside. Rolling doubles was required, in order to have at the ball. It got quite energetic, when two people rolled doubles at the same time, and we were down to one taped ball. The evening ended with the usual White Elephant gifting. I came away with Ben Goode’s “857 Habits of Annoying People”. I’ve seen some his other books in various truck stop diners in the Southwest.

This morning, after such a frenetic day, saw me get up a bit more hesitantly than usual.  I got it together for a short meeting, first thing this morning, then went to a Legion gathering to honour one of our members who is going to California for a while. Of course, there was yet another full buffet. The cooks of Yavapai County do supreme justice to our community meals! Somehow, I am not packing on the weight, but it sure is fun being part of things.

Now I am just enjoying the quiet of my little place. Someone asked me, last night, if I found it lonesome since my wife passed on. There are such times, but in the presence of so many loving friends, I haven’t found them to be all that frequent. Besides, she is taking good care of me, from the place beyond the veil.

I called my replacement teacher, this evening, and will meet with her, at the end of December. In the meantime, the kids and I will finish up our quarterly business, and I will tie up loose ends, before heading off to Boston, at the end of the week.

Acker Night

7
Posted by on in Community, Education, Social

December 11, 2015, Prescott- What could be more American than jazz rock belly dance? That was one of the features of this annual education fund raiser, that graces Courthouse Square, and most of the businesses that surround it, every second Friday of December, from 5-9 P.M.

The fusion number, “Jingle Bells”, was done by the ladies of Flying Nest Dance Studio, and took place in the area once occupied by the Bird Cage Saloon, now occupied by a lovely outdoor theater. Bird Cage burned down, two years ago, and has since relocated a block or so to the south, on Prescott’s Whiskey Row.

I spent about ninety minutes soaking up the crisp air, crowded downtown and a variety of musical efforts, after enjoying a hot bowl of Murph’s albondigas soup,cheesecake and coffee, at Shannon’s Deli. Shadowbox String Quartet, four young ladies who are among my favourite local ensembles, performed several tunes, en classique, at the Old Sage Bookshop, in the boutique area of Hotel St. Michaels. I then crossed the street to Bashford Court, another venerable indoor mall building, to hear several selections from the Christian and folk group, Manzanita Road. After checking in at Clothes Hound, also on Whiskey Row, I found that Lady T and The Tramps, a country and classic-rock cover group, which features a friend from Chino Valley, had finished for the night. So, it was off to Lifeways Book Shop, for more Rain Forest coffee, and the delightful acoustic tunes of The Larsens. As a bonus, I picked up a book that is sure to delight my little darlings, next week: “The Man Made of Stars”, by M. H. Clark.

It’s been a tough week, but thanks to Acker Night, a couple of re-assuring horoscopes, more reassurance from friends, and an extended olive branch, the road ahead looks better. Now, if we could only do something about Wall Street. Oh, well, ya can’t fix stupid.

Pandering

4
Posted by on in Community, impediments, Inner Struggles, Social

December 9, 2015, Prescott- One of the things that harkened the collapse of the Roman Empire was the degree to which the elite maintained power by appealing to the baser instincts and cravings of the masses. I see a fair number of parallels between Rome, and both the United States and the Islamic State. Both current entities maintain their status quo by pandering to the xenophobia and self-absorption of those who have struggled to merely make ends meet. How odd, that the worst of politicians maintain control by villifying those who are just like them. I see little difference between the xenophobes here, and those in Iraq and Syria.

I am seeing this unfold, too, in local communities. Those who grasp at power will obfuscate, dissemble and spread rumours, to keep those they fear from getting involved too intimately with their public. This happens both in government and in business- especially in “non-profit” enterprises. I have been invited to join an effort, and have seen others be so invited, only to have the leadership who issued the invitations devolve into games of “gotcha”. They, too, pander to the fears of some whom they serve.

True public service puts the needs of those who are being served above all other considerations. When last I checked, such needs did not include having one’s baser instincts honed and exacerbated.

San Bernardino

10
Posted by on in Assistance, Community, Personal Values

December 2, 2015, Chino Valley- I was involved in overseeing a series of lessons, holiday song practice and the making of decorations for our classroom. Then, there was the pilfering of a math test master copy, which did the thief no good, as I simply switched to Format B, for tomorrow’s assessment.

Then came news of the latest horror, the killing of 14 people in San Bernardino. I have been through the Inland Empire many times, most recently visiting nearby Riverside, whose downtown I find quite enjoyable. I have only driven through the edges of San Bernardino, and my feelings for the place have been mainly vicarious compassion and concern. I was worried during the serial arsons of 1980-1, when it appeared someone was dedicated to taking out as much of the city as possible. During the Big Bear hostage-taking and murders, a few years back, I felt an ominous twinge, that the shooter might bust out of the resort town, and engage in further mayhem, down the mountain.

Today’s events, unfortunately, come as no surprise. “Berdoo”, as some have called it, has always presented itself to me as a city on edge. The shopkeepers and wait staff in area restaurants have seemed to be of shorter tempers than in other parts of the I.E., and certainly other parts of California. The city has its charms, and it would be a fine thing if those were accented.

Now, however, we see another dark day, shaking the calm that had started to set in, a few days after the carnage in Colorado Springs. I always feel we need, as a nation and as a species, to close ranks around the suffering, and most definitely in both of the most recent episodes. No city, no community, should have to hang its head in shame, and no place ought to feel abandoned by its neighbours, or by the rest of humanity.

As the answers come forward, regarding the reasons behind this latest attack, let us tell San Bernardino: “It’s going to be alright. America is with you, and the nation will not forget this day- anymore than we would forget the terrible anniversary coming up: Sandy Hook.”