Category Archives: Social

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

4
Posted by on 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

4
Posted by on 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, Mile 170: Power

0
Posted by on in Social

May 17, 2015, Prescott- I admit it, I get cheap thrills from watching tv shows where people who abuse their power get a good, hard comeuppance- usually after they try every trick known to man and beast to hold on to that ironclad control.  Two shows now current, “A.D.” and “American Odyssey”, focus on criminal geniuses who have amassed great wealth, through nefarious means and the grassroots, loosely tied groups who are working to bring them down.

My guilty pleasure aside, we know what happened with the dastardly Roman elite and its backers in the Jewish Sanhedrin; so, “A.D.”, dramatized as it is, only reinforces the conceptions people have on the persecution of early Christians.

The problem with merely fighting the powerful, without having a clear-cut, well-conceived plan about what comes next, is that we become the powerful, and fall back on the very systems and methods against which we were previously trying to upend.   Pete Townshend, in “Won’t Get Fooled Again”, offers a cautionary tale:  “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”.

So it goes, and we have the spiritual descendants of the early Christians, trying their level best to persecute critics of their school policies, in places like Waco, TX- where people trying to implement anti-bullying codes in Christian schools are being even more humiliated by the church establishment, which is working to cover up the incidents.  To be fair, there is plenty of blame to go around, among all faiths, in the misuse of power.  The depredations of Muslim and Buddhist reactionaries are too many to recount, and atheists, led by Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot, wrote several volumes on how not to meet the needs of common people.

Power corrupts, and absolute power….. Truth be told, power can only be absolute for a brief period of time.  The common folk always find ways to get around it, to erode its base, and, eventually, to show just how illusory the concept actually is.    The only true, lasting power is that of love.  “Love gives life to the lifeless; hope to the hopeless.  In the world of existence, there is no greater power than the power of love.”- ‘Abdu’l-Baha, speaking in London, 1911.

I don’t know how “American Odyssey” will end, but I do know that the end result of a lust for power is, sooner or later, a total loss of power.

The Road to 65, Miles 168 & 169: Barriers

5
Posted by on 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 167: Safe/Unsafe

5
Posted by on in Social

May 14, 2015, Chino Valley- I spent today supervising graduating high school seniors, who chose not to join their Class Trip to Orange County, but were in school to do- nothing.  Their tests finished, their year’s work accomplished, the kids sat and quietly either socialized or played cards, while I read more about building a natural diet, in a largely ersatz economy.  There was to be a semi-instructional video shown, but it was not at the school.  The saving grace was that their parents could rest assured that they were in a safe environment.

Anyone who has raised teenagers knows the feeling, that these people who look like adults and, in the best of circumstances, carry themselves as adults, are still our babies.  I was as likely to fret over our son when he was in high school, or for that matter, when he was in college, as I was when he was younger.

Imagine then, the horror felt by the mother of a 16-year-old boy, an honour student, a self-starter who took the initiative both around home and at his part-time job, when he was killed-at a bus stop- by a wayward pickup truck trailer.  The facts are still being gathered, but there was a collision between the truck that was hauling the trailer and another vehicle.  One was turning left and the other was going straight.  It’s still not known for certain, who had the right of way.

Some things ARE certain, though: The student had the right to feel safe at his bus stop.  His mother, who is visually-impaired, had the right to reasonably expect that her son would come home after school, and help her around the house, as he had done for several years.  His sister, and cousins, had the right to expect, all other things being equal, that he would continue to make them proud, with his consistent achievements.

We never know when the “bell will toll”.  Many of us have heard this, week in and week out- at our places of worship, at  school and at the neighbourhood gathering spot.  I’ve had my own brushes with death- and so far, so good.  Having seen my youngest brother, then my wife, go through gradual declines just underscored my understanding of this concept.

I am not sure I will ever really comprehend what almost seems a capricious taking of life, however.  The life of a child, or of a teen, seems almost sacrosanct- and yet…..

The Road to 65, Mile 166: Comfort Zones

4
Posted by on in Personal goals, Social

May 13, 2015, Prescott- I was wakened this morning by a job call for a middle school science classroom.  Normally, I turn down anything where I would be figuring the material out, as I went along.  Not knowing math and science cold has been a deterrent, in such posts.  This morning’s job description was mainly caretaking, while the students read and answered questions about the text, so I took the job, and will have four days, at least, this week, plus two days next week, to end the academic year.

I’ve thought alot about comfort zones, of late.  Something has removed anxieties that I used to feel about moving into territory from which I have shied away, in the past.  The academic scene is an example.  Yesterday, I worked a math class, albeit at fifth grade level.  I was at least as smart as the fifth graders.

On the trail, I used to not do handholds up rock faces.  On Sunday, I din’t give it a second thought, going up the cliff. I don’t think I will take on rock-climbing, mind you, but the moderately difficult hand over hand is no longer a barrier.

Facing myself, when I ponder what, exactly, I am doing that is of value, is a periodic challenge.  Today, I just looked in the mirror, after actually getting along with a person with whom I’ve had sharp differences in the past, and decided it’s worth every minute, of each day, to walk up to a challenge and face it.  There is nothing that says I am not at least as worthwhile, not at least as capable, of stretching the comfort zone.

The Road to 65, Mile 165: Seeds

6
Posted by on 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 163: Mom

6
Posted by on in Social

May 10, 2015, Prescott- She is the eighth of nine children, born to a German-American shoemaker/farmer and a proper English-American country wife.  She loved and married a gregarious, gentle man, of French, Irish and Penobscot descent, and together they raised five of us. My youngest brother and I, the eldest, had our mental health challenges, his being complicated by other health issues, which took his life, when he was just shy of 30.  Our third brother, following Mom’s example of dealing with adversity, has toughed his health issues out, as I have my mental health issues, in my latest years.  Our sister rose above a life-threatening injury and has raised an exemplary family.  Our second brother has worked tirelessly, all his life, and shown the way to success, on many levels, seeking no one’s approval more than that of our mother.

She has said, time and again, that the time to pay homage to a person is while they are still alive.  My late wife used to echo those words.  In honour of both, I pay as much to my mom.  Having overcome her own health issues, which came late in life, she still drives, socializes actively and gets her exercise.  While Mom shies away from any technology more complex than a flat-screen television, she keeps current in other ways.  Always a progressive, politically, she speaks favourably of marriage equality and hopes to see Hillary in the White House. That she raised three Republicans and a political gadfly (me) doesn’t faze her a bit.  She loves golf, preferring these days to watch it on TV, and no one is more loyal to the Red Sox and the Patriots.  Her flower gardens used to be the toast of the neighbourhood.  They’ve pretty much gone away, but the lawn is still kept up- with local kids taking up the slack.  Above all, Mother’s mind is still a steel trap, and her eyes are eagle-sharp, after Lasik about five years ago.

I was raised lovingly and well, as were my siblings.  Mom set the example, in her single-minded care of my youngest brother, even in her darkest hour, following Dad’s sudden death in 1986.  ONLY because of her, and for her, did Brian hang on as long as he did, another eight years.  When I had the responsibility of caring for my slowly-dying wife, from 2003 to 2011, all Mom had done on his behalf was mine to follow.  It couldn’t have been any other way.

So, with all that she has given us, to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, I  love and thank her, eternally.

The Road to 65, Mile 162: Illuminate

0
Posted by on 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 158: El Cinco

0
Posted by on in Social

May 5, 2015, Chino Valley-  A restaurant on the south end of town burned today.  I’m not about to speculate, as to the cause.  I just know that the few times I ate there, the meal was satisfying and the service folksy and prompt.  My work here was on the north side, and consisted of four hours with a group of fourth-graders, who had been left behind from a reading reward field trip.  They bought the story that their teacher was at a long meeting, rather than at the field trip that was attended by some of their classmates.

This is Teacher Appreciation Day, so community members supervised the kids in the lunchroom, and at recess.  We enjoyed a vegetarian Mexican lunch, provided by other community members, and cupcakes prepared by an office worker.  All was magnifico!

I checked on the status of my hapless acquaintance, who had been jailed on Friday, and was told he had been released today.  So far, he has not contacted me, and I will leave it at that.  The sheriff’s clerk said I am under no obligation to seek him out, in any event.

We did make headway, in a plan I am helping to establish, to connect a local hotel food service with a kitchen that serves meals to homeless people, four days a week.  Someone made the astute observation that the kitchen has a staff member who could pick up the food from the hotel.  I will work that detail out, tomorrow, either after, or in lieu of, going to my day job.  Another person has also stepped forward to help with this.

Cinco de Mayo commemorates the routing of French soldiers in Mexico, on May 5, 1862. It is a minor holiday in Mexico, but is widely celebrated in the Southwestern U.S.  I note that it is also an excuse for people to indulge in midweek partying.  Camaraderie, though, is a good thing.

These random notes on the day may be tied together with a neat word bow:  Love is a productive struggle.  This is a message written on the bulletin board of the teacher whose classroom I covered today.