The Road to 65, Mile 172: Scattered Forces Get Magnetized

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on May 20, 2015 in Personal goals, Social

May 19, 2015, Chino Valley- I had an uneventful drive to/ from Chino, today, in a rented Ford Focus. My Nissan, which will shortly be my vehicle on a Pacific Northwest sojourn, was repaired this afternoon, in short order. The electrical mechanic had no trouble putting in a new alternator pulley- which is crucial to proper charging of any motor vehicle. While he was working on it, he found a rather expensive hand tool, which belongs to my regular auto maintenance person. I, in turn, found a voided photo ID from Michigan, for a chauffeur, in the rental car.

A lot of little things thus came together. It’s amazing how unity of thought and purpose can resolve many, seemingly unconnected matters. The rental agency placed the photo ID in a file; the mechanic to whom the tool belonged was ecstatic at getting it back and the owner of the Nissan (me) feels affirmed in my placing trust in a total stranger, who is now a preferred vendor.

I am a bit concerned about three boys in one family, at the school where I worked today and will work tomorrow. All three were in and out of trouble today, which hasn’t happened all that often. Another friend has to chronically face her four sons getting ill, simultaneously and with great flourish. The energy needed to keep a family functioning together, is indeed a thing of wonder.

Scattered forces can come together, for both good and ill. As I learn more about quantum mechanics, I see how positive forces need to be brought in focus, to avoid harm and despair. A commenter on another site bemoaned the “lack of anguish” in today’s religious gatherings. I believe such hand-wringing shows a dearth of understanding. Christ told us not to despair, but to work hard at relieving the misery of the sick and the poor. Baha’u’llah wrote: “Wert thou to scan the pages of the Book of Life, thou wouldst, most certainly, discover that which would dissipate thy sorrows and dissolve thine anguish.” – “Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 133.

The Road to 65, Mile 171: Alternators

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on May 19, 2015 in Personal goals, Social

May 18, 2015, Prescott- My Nissan has a slight headache. It turns out that the issue is a defective pulley that helps drive the car’s alternator. The new pulley will arrive tomorrow noon, at our area’s only auto electric shop. Then I will have my car back, in time for a Pacific Northwest sojourn.

The devices that keep a car running smoothly, and help the battery maintain consistent current, are impressive and solid little boxes, full of brushes, wires and bearings. The devices that keep us on track are also solid, yet are not always box-like in nature. Brushes, wires and bearings, of a sort, are in our brains, and in our minds. The brushes are the cleansings we do each day, in the face of new information and insights. The wires are our connections, from one part of the brain to another, and from one part of our life to the next. The bearings are the abilities we have, which keep us flexible, and allow our adaptation to change to go smoothly. We must keep them lubricated, with an open mind and loving heart.

It is the view of some, that Mechanism will be the lord of the future world. Mankind, in the view of extreme roboticists, will simply have no purpose. I disagree. The semi-human beings seen in the Terminator and Avengers movie series each claim to be Pro-Life. That, to me, means maintaining, lubricating and refining our working parts. This, only the flexible intelligence that is human will be able to do, ever.

The Road to 65, Miles 168 & 169: Barriers

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on May 17, 2015 in Personal goals, Social

May 15 & 16, 2015, Prescott to Flagstaff, and back-

The past two days are combined into one post, as they featured three things in common: The weather, which is unusual for Arizona in May; my disabled client’s move to Flagstaff and my car getting serviced, yesterday and then doing worse on the last part of my return to Prescott, this evening.

Having grown up in New England, seen forty degree temps in Boston, the first week of June, 1970, and seen snow in Colorado, on July 31, 2013, I am actually okay with snow in the high country and torrential rain here. It did make for an interesting 1 1/2 days.

Client was not doing well in his last shelter- the manager was too much concerned with the business aspect of the operation, and put him out in the rain Friday night, until manager’s wife took him to a safe place, away from that house. Screaming at people that “THIS IS A BUSINESSSSS!!” is hardly the way to run such.

It took most of the day today (Saturday), but we got client’s belongings packed and into my car, then I drove him to Flagstaff. We checked out the men’s shelter (chaotic, and rather a long wait in the cold), then I was able to get him into one of my favourite motels, for the weekend. Monday will find him in the new mentor’s office, and he will move on.

My car was serviced on Friday. Regular maintenance and a cleaning of the upper manifold were meant to guarantee better performance. The Nissan worked well, until the return trip showed a couple of ancillary dashboard lights on and off (not the “check engine” light, though). The car stalled at several red lights, but I got home okay. it being the weekend, I will return to the shop on Monday, and will leave the car until it is fixed. Perhaps a rental car, or a bus ticket, will be needed for my journey north, next Thursday. Time will tell.

The common denominators for me, in all this, are detachment and perseverance. So far, I’m no worse for the wear.

The Road to 65, Mile 165: Seeds

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on May 13, 2015 in Personal goals, Slow Food Prescott, Social

May 12, 2015, Prescott- I planted seeds of confidence in a young girl’s mind, this morning, and she guided the lot of us to revisiting a small detail, which made all the difference in a key part of the lesson. This evening, the concept of seed banks and libraries was shared with thirty of us, who were gathered at a Slow Food chapter meeting.

I am into the sowing of seeds- of vegetables, fruit, grasses and ideas. Sowing friendship seeds is the best such activity, and I am getting better at that. The physical seeds will most likely wait until next Spring, but I will check the planting calendar, and see if an early July planting will work for this mountain climate. The seeds of amity can be planted anytime, and are well worth watering. The seeds of ideas must be planted, and watered daily.

A gentleman at tonight’s meeting offered the opinion that individual seed banks are critical to preventing a USDA/Monsanto joint takeover of our food supply. While the Feds are big on Genetically-Modified anything, I don’t see that ending well, for anyone. Any given individual has a hundred places to hide seeds, and after all, the “success rate” of the war on drugs is not exactly earthshaking. We who seek to grow our own food will be just fine.

This brings me to the bad seeds: Suspicion, closed-mindedness and power-craving. The first grows out of, and feeds, the second. Both are a natural reaction to the the third. The more those in authority overreach, even with the best of ill-informed intentions, the more those on the ground will push back, overreact and invite more overreach. See the tiger, the dog, the snake chasing their tails?

Monsanto is responding to a reasonable request from the State of Vermont, to label Genetically Modified Organisms in foods sold there, by dispatching an army of attorneys, to sue, appeal and obfuscate- thus wasting millions of dollars and months of man-hours, while complaining about the cost of such labeling. Then, there is the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade Trojan horse, by which the President, and at least two of his predecessors, hope to use to force the GMO-free nations of east Asia to buckle under and get with the Monsanto program. Go figure.

I am not against science. The research ought to go on, move beyond monocultures and poisoning of the soil and water, and get over the idea that revenue, the building of fortunes, alone, should be the be-all and end-all of the accumulated knowledge. We ought not eat what we can’t digest, no matter whose children are being put through college, with the generated profit.

I digress. The seeds of knowledge, as well as those of sustenance, belong to all mankind.

The Road to 65, Mile 164: Base Camps

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on May 12, 2015 in Personal goals, Travel

May 11, 2015, Prescott- I often get to thinking, especially this time of year, about the base camps I’ve known, in my all-too-peripatetic life. Saugus really didn’t count, as most of my wandering in the early days was around town, or over to Lynn, a long walk, or short bus ride, away. Fort Myer, VA- I took a bus, then walked from Georgetown or Capitol Hill, all over Washington, and into Prince George’s or Montgomery Counties. Bangor, ME was the first real such launchpad, and I hitched rides all over Maine, as well as into New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Quebec.

Then came Arizona, and not a weekend went by that I didn’t leave the Villa-Oasis School and head for any part of the state that could comfortably be visited in forty-eight hours. Bear in mind that I was without a car, from 1978-1982. So hitchhiking and bus rides were my ways of getting around. It was something of a different time, though hitchhiking was a risk then, also. I made my first visits to Canada and several Western states, back in 1972, on a two-week dash from Montreal to Edmonton and Calgary, then back, through Montana, Salt Lake City and Denver, to Baltimore and Boston. The West unfolded in greater detail, during my two summers with Toltec, then Flagstaff, as my bases. I made wide-eyed visits to Lake Tahoe and Portland, as well as southwest Colorado and southern California.

Penny and I were a bit more settled, especially while raising our son and later, in the years of her moving towards the Spirit Realm. Still, we were off and running every summer, and some winters, either around the Navajo Nation and Hopiland, or to places like Israel, Guyana, Taiwan and South Korea (Aram’s birthplace, where we lived and worked for 5 1/2 grand years.)

Prescott has been the place where I have lived the longest, on my own. It is an excellent base from which to head out and experience the combination of visits, service, and exploratory learning to which I have become accustomed. Once in a while, like today, I wonder whether I might be wearing out my welcome here, but I know some people’s snippy dispositions and standoffish manners have more to do with them, than with anything I may have done or said. I will hang on here, for at least two more years, coming and going, and coming back, to and from places like Reno, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Victoria and Juneau, this year; and other, more distant spots, in November, 2016.

Base camps are no less valuable to the wanderer than they are to the settled soul. All the preparation and heavy lifting of life go on at one’s chosen abode. Without home, there is no true journey. Without the journey, there is no true home.

The Road to 65, Mile 162: Illuminate

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on May 10, 2015 in Personal goals, Social

May 9, 2015, Granite Dells- Today was an unusually busy, productive day, for a Saturday. The large Prescott Farmer’s Market opened today, at Yavapai College. It’s several booths larger than last year. I spent about forty minutes there, with a couple of friends, buying one a half-dozen poppies that were poised to open, after she admired them.

The afternoon featured a two-hour organizational meeting for Hope Fest 2015, a faith-based effort to help the homeless, the victims of domestic violence, and those in recovery from addiction. We will have the event here on October 3. I won a T-shirt and sat for a five-minute videotaped interview, which I haven’t done before. My role on festival day will most likely be running errands (handling emergencies) and taking displays down, after it’s over.

I bought a new camera. My Samsung 5X gave up the ghost, after four years and over 3,000 photographs. My new camera is also a Samsung Digital, and is a 21X. I have enough time to learn its features, before heading northwest. Tomorrow may be a Sedona day, unless service calls.

The evening was spent again at Heaven On Earth, with new friends Happy and Johnny hosting a preview of the Illuminate Film Festival. The Festival features thought-provoking films and will be in Sedona, May 27-31. I’ll be in the Seattle area then, so tonight was a fine substitute for the actual event. There was a fairly large crowd, about forty people, and after we enjoyed vegan hors d’oeuvres, the organizers of the Festival presented eight movie trailers, each with a rather deep theme.

We are told, in several sacred texts, and oral traditions of indigenous peoples, that in the “last days, all that is dark shall be made light”. Illuminate does not just deal with the wretched acts of the rich and powerful, but those of the less well-to-do, also. It addresses matters of altered states of consciousness and of expanded spiritual and cognitive awareness The evening was time well-spent, among many inquiring minds. If anyone reading this is interested, check: www.illuminatefilmfestival.com.

The Road to 65, Mile 160: Soldiers

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on May 8, 2015 in Personal goals

May 7, 2015, Prescott- A year ago today, a painfully brief text message brought me out of my early-morning fog: “Dad’s gone”. The Dad in question was my father-in-law, ninety years of age, a former Prisoner-of-War ,who had been rescued from Juden Kamp Berga right after Hitler’s suicide. In his subsequent life, he had been a traveling shoe salesman, owned a boot and shoe shop, ridden horse and motorcycle, avidly, and been a licensed pilot. Norman David Fellman and his wife had raised three daughters from infancy and seen them become strong, successful professional women. They had been to various parts of the Caribbean and Asia. They were the bulwark of my little family’s life, for over twenty-five years, and their legacy was to lend me strength in so many hours of darkness. Norm was a true soldier.

The day before my father-in-law passed, unbeknownst to me until a bit later, a young man died of complications from a medical procedure. He was one of my son’s childhood friends. Though they were very different in personality and interests, and went on separate paths, they reconnected a few years ago, and maintained correspondence. The young man was a talented musician, with a deep well of consciousness, and its attendant well of pain. Brooke Bohner was a true soldier, in the spiritual sense.

We all carry on our battles, day to day. I, too, struggle: With anger at those who manipulate others, for the sake of amassing power and wealth- telling anyone who will listen to them that “This is the way of the world.”; with doubts about myself, for not following through on my promises to so many people, over the years; with the suspicion of so many people whom I encounter, almost daily; with injustice, in general.

I still stand, though, and keep on going, because for the sincere, for the dedicated, there is no other choice.

The Road to 65, Mile 159: Process

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on May 7, 2015 in Personal goals

May 6, 2015, Prescott- I took this morning to set up a delivery system for leftover hotel breakfast buffet items to go to a feeding station for the destitute, here in town. This had been giving me fits for a few days, but it’s all worked out now. Each end of school year sees projects come up, and get arranged, funds for the summer be put aside, and any advance arrangements that need to be made for a journey get accomplished.

The most critical thing about all this is that, in the past, I have formed grandiose ideas in my head, made long lists of things that will happen, in the course of a project- and then, very little has been accomplished. I am doing better at finishing what I start, though that would be cold comfort for all who have been disappointed in the duds of yesteryear.

Process is done one step at a time, and now that I am more clear about who I am, in the scheme of things, it’s all easier to follow through, to the end. Funny, but this may be the first school year, since 1997-98, that I feel a real sense of accomplishment, as the year draws to an end.