October 16, 2017, Prescott-
No joke, but Yahoo is holding my large Flickr account hostage.
The giant won’t recognize any of the passwords,
it keeps insisting I must change.
This means 2,200 photos are inaccessible.
If anyone out there has any answers,
please advise.
Yes, I have reached out to Flickr,
through back channels,
so we’ll see if anyone responds.
End of rant.
October 13, 2017, Prescott-
Car went through an ordeal, yesterday.
A wayward peace of cardboard,
in the road,
surrounded by loose gravel,
in the middle of a sharp curve,
sent car off into a small downgrade.
Car was pulled out,
by a gentle man,
in a powerful jeep.
Car is okay,
with a few screws
needing replacement.
Man woke up this morning,
noting that a long-standing
wound
on his face had faded.
Man is looking
more human.
Man and car went out,
and delivered flowers,
to people who are
being supportive
of a large community event,
tomorrow.
Man and car are fortunate.
Across California,
there are thousands
who face tribulation.
October 6, 2017, Prescott-
It’s Fall Break, from now until October 16- when we return to our labour of love and our lead teacher has a birthday. In between, there is a balance of rest and motion. I have a service jaunt to Flagstaff, bright and early tomorrow morning, to help install smoke detectors in several units of a large modular home development. Sunday will be a day of rest- until it isn’t. Monday, I head down to Superior, reconnect with the SunFlour people and maybe hike Picketpost Mountain. Beyond that is time in Globe, then across to Safford, Silver City and Gila Cliff Dwellings, before getting back here, sometime Wednesday evening. There will then be two days of relative rest, before Saturday the Fourteenth, when everything seems to be happening at once. More details will be in order about that, later.
Anyway, it’s good to change the channel and replenish, every so often.
October 5, 2017, Prescott-
It’s peaceful, in my neighbourhood,
once again.
The disquiet soul has found his quiet
inner voice.
He came to the grieving family’s matriarch
and apologized.
Being a woman of faith,
she accepted,
and they shared stories,
of pain and struggle.
So many times, the angry voice
is a wayward vehicle.
When we see the abyss ahead,
and right our course,
all is fine again,
at least for a time.
October 3, 2017, Prescott Valley-
I attended a small candlelight vigil, this evening, at a Lutheran Church on this town’s near north side. About a dozen people prayed and lit special candles for the victims of the October 1 mass murder in Las Vegas.
I will be processing this horrific event for some time. Along with smaller, but no less terrible, if personalized, events happening within my small circle, the Las Vegas massacre has given October an ominous start. October is a month traditionally devoted to harvest, in the Northern Hemisphere, and planting, in the South of the planet.
The killer, who may, or may not, have had help and encouragement from as far away as the Philippines, left no obvious motive for his mayhem. We are only left to speculate, which is ever a perilous thing, in and of itself.
The motives of a person, within my neighbourhood, who has taken in recent days to harassing the family of my departed next door neighbour, are much clearer. He sees them as something of a threat to the value of his property. This has led him to taunting them, in the midst of their grief. I am hoping, and praying, that this state of affairs will be resolved peacefully.
Yet, therein lies a key to the entirety of crimes against humanity, large and small. The enemy, as I said last night, is anonymity. Many believe, with Robert Frost, that “Good fences make good neighbours”. While a measure of privacy is good for each of us, in the course of a day, there is a fine line between that reasonable privacy and anonymity. No one seems to know much about the Las Vegas killer. No one knew much about others of his ilk, either, from John Wayne Gacy, through Ted Bundy and Gary Tison, to the ISIS-inspired killers in San Bernardino, Brussels and Manchester.
I am a relatively quiet man, who has lived alone for the past six years. This could very easily lead to people concluding that I am a threat to their safety, especially if I were to maintain a reclusive lifestyle. Indeed, there are a few restaurants in my town where I am not welcome, when dining alone. Thus, for the broader sake of becoming familiar to my neighbours, as well as for my own sense of well-being, I have chosen to be active in certain community groups. It also helps that I have no hidden agenda or any particular mental health issues, unless one regards my mild autism as such.
The latest national tragedy will only see the silver lining of reconciliation, if we as a nation begin to recognize that anonymity and excessive guardedness are what got us into this mess, in the first place.
October 2, 2017, Prescott-
We’ve lost another fifty or so, of humanity’s better angels.
People who just wanted to have a good time,
leave the rat race behind, for a day or three,
found the rats were relentlessly pursuing them.
I have no sympathy for anyone who thinks
that life should revolve around the Exalted Self,
even when that narcissism is cloaked in pain.
One whose life experience is one, in which he
has drawn pain to himself like a magnet,
does not get to decide, as a self-appointed demigod,
what others should do, when they may do it,
and whether they are allowed to live past it.
The weapon really doesn’t matter.
Last night, it was a plethora of loaded firearms.
In past bloodlettings, it was a bomb, or a number thereof.
Vehicles have been accessories of said explosives,
in Brute Fests, from Oklahoma City, through 9/11/01 (and 9/11/12),
to Paris, Nice, Berlin, Bali, Brussels, San Bernardino, Orlando and Manchester.
This time, the brute tried to rule, literally, from on high.
There needs to be an end to anonymity,
to the culture of fences, walls and locking people out.
The weapons are accessories.
It’s the mindset that slaughters.
September 26, 2017, Prescott-
All my life,
I have practiced honesty,
as my place on the spectrum,
has never let me
sweep anything under the carpet.
So, I have let things out
about what I’ve done,
and taken my lumps
or, as has been the case lately,
taken the lessons
behind the admonitions.
If we view correction
as savaging,
then debilitation results.
If it is seen as pushing
one upwards,
then strength happens.
So, today’s meeting,
with lovingly issued
advisement,
accompanied by solid
background information,
was a textbook example,
of how any issue
can be resolved.
It all comes down to will,
or the lack thereof.
September 24, 2017, Prescott-
I began today, with five things on my agenda.
Two of them ended up not happening.
The middle of the day brought honours
to a man who has unselfishly worked hard
on behalf of our community’s veterans,
over the past twenty years.
The evening brought a lovely dinner.
Then a group of us studied some spiritual guidance.
I was mildly upbraided, in the middle of this,
for my own teaching style.
Maybe, I’ve made progress,
on the often lonely road.
It was not difficult to see the critic’s point.
She will get a chance to flesh out
what she wants, instead,
at a gathering in her own town,
tomorrow night.
I look at my admin page, here,
and see that one of my critics
from last week
liked two of my posts,
today.
Goes to show,
sometimes I get
overwrought,
about nothing.
September 23, 2017,Prescott-
Several readers have, over the years, expressed a preference for my travel posts. While I greatly enjoy visiting places old and new, there has been an increase in responsibilities and commitments, hereabouts, since my return from the East Coast, at the end of July. Not the least of these is my work with autistic teens, a veritable payback to all who have guided me, over the past several decades. There are also two major public events here in town, in October: Hope Fest (October 14), a celebration of faith, which I will be assisting for the third consecutive year and, a week later, the Festival of Light and Unity- commemorating the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Baha’u’llah, on October 22. As the Baha’i calendar is a lunar construct, the Birth of His Herald, al-Bab (The Gate), is observed the day prior to that of Baha’u’llah. This year marks 198 years, since al-Bab was born and we will observe that event, as well, on October 21.
My friendships being wide-ranging these days, several events tend to converge on given days. So, today, largely devoted to Prescott Stand Down, an event dedicated to serving homeless veterans in our community, took up much of the day. I was later able to make further progress on clearing my backyard and 3-4 more hours of concerted effort ought to get the job completed, for this year. Tomorrow, two events at the American Legion, two Baha’i activities and an hour or two helping a good friend move, will keep me honest and productive. This coming week, there is a gathering, of one sort or another, every night. Looking ahead to October 14, that day will see me at two other events, in addition to Hope Fest. Life is never dull.
With regard to travel, Fall Break will be here, in two weeks. I am in between going to Joshua Tree and Lake Cachuma, California, or down to Superior, Globe and over to Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, for 4-5 days (in which case, the California trip gets done over an extended Presidents’ Day weekend). My spirit guides will advise me, on this matter, as with so many others.
Yes, I do get 7-8 hours of sleep a night, as well as a 30-minute power nap, most afternoons. Stay tuned.
September 18, 2017, Prescott-
A writer whom I recently began to follow has written, of late, about the concept of the Dream Pack- essentially, a way of life, place, group of close people which, collectively help each being realize the fullness of his/her particular dream.
The outpouring of love I have felt today, in person and online, brings me to reiterate what I have said on occasion, in the past. People have come, gone and, in a few instances, returned. I have found places, near and far, which bring me inspiration, for a time, and while some have lost their allure- others have drawn me close. My way of life remains pretty much the same, though the accent, of late, has been on service, rather than a trail-side regimen.
My Dreampack , then, is large and varied: My son, in Korea, is a phone call and an ocean away. My siblings are a mere continent apart from me. I have a nephew, in Los Angeles, who is a full schedule, or two, distant. Mother is East Coast-bound, but will get a letter a week from me, and will respond, when she can, with reassurance that she is just fine, and inspirational comments. My solid network of friends, in the Prescott area, and across Arizona, make it certain that, if I feel lonesome, it’s my own doing. The same is true, all over North America. I am never far, when in my car, from someone who at least has time for a cup of “joe”, or tea, or Jamba Juice.
There is a teen boy, who I am sponsoring, across the Pacific. Someday, I will visit him. My Dream Pack is large and varied, and includes kindred souls in the Philippines, South Korea, Australia, India, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Tanzania, Iran, Russia, Romania, Italy, Spain, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, Scotland and beloved France. Yes, that’s a lot of turf, for one who lives on a shoestring, but since when has that been an impediment?
My Dream Pack has been a series of Chinese boxes, opening up to yet another, and a series of amazements, (yes, I just made up a word), which will continue. The Universe is endless in its provision of many kinds of wealth.
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