Category Archives: Social

The Road to 65, Mile 165: Seeds

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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

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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

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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: http://www.illuminatefilmfestival.com.

The Road to 65, Mile 158: El Cinco

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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.

The Road to 65, Mile 157: Chasing Away the Night

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Posted by on in Personal goals, Social

May 4, 2015, Prescott- I made another visit to Miller Valley School today. Being with rambunctious six- and seven-year-olds, and actually getting them to accomplish a day’s learning, is among the finest of days spent.

Kids carry their inner selves so openly, and this is a superb thing. Those who love, can draw the pain out, and elevate their loved ones. It’s said that the child who needs love the most is the one who presents the most unlovable persona. This, I have taken as an article of faith since my own childhood.

By that, I don’t mean to imply that I was a difficult person, as a child. Rather, I found that the bullies, the disquiet ones, the recluses, all had a feature that made me want to work harder to understand them, just as I, an autistic, before such a label was in use, wanted to be understood.

We all want someone to chase away our night. The boys whom I had to list for the regular teacher to make parent contact are very bright and, in many ways, delightful people. They don’t fit easily with others in a class setting, and a sense of darkness is a good part of their life experience. They clamour for an externally imposed discipline, and mine is a rather gentle, firm approach, directly addressing the underlying.

I felt that, at the end of the day, no one felt demeaned or diminished, but knew the security of limits.

The Road to 65, Mile 156: Failure to Thrive

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Posted by on in Personal goals, Social

May 3, 2015, Prescott- So much debate has taken place these days, regarding various issues: Black youth, same-sex marriage, helping people in other countries vs. taking care of “our own”. I believe the majority of people, on all points along the spectrum of thought, want to see the best for humanity. Where the matter goes haywire comes when money, power, excessive fear and callous ignorance take the fore.

We are at a turning point in the affairs of mankind. Those who seem to be causing so much of the mayhem and devastation in the civic affairs of the world are often those on the margins of society. We have seen the violence in Baltimore, and last year in Ferguson, MO, stem largely from the PERCEPTION of those on the outskirts of the American Dream that there is no hope of any advancement on their part. The frequent stodginess and inflexibility of those in positions of power in many communities doesn’t help.

We in Prescott have seen a lengthy, and thankfully successful fight by lower middle class people whose heads of household were killed in the firestorm of June 30, 2013, as they battled a wildfire. The powers that be were largely against paying compensation to the survivor families, adhering to an outmoded frontier dictum that “One should know what one is getting into”, and deal independently with whatever life tosses at you. The families have received just compensation.

The major effort, as I see it, has to lie in encouraging and preserving one’s own dignity and sense of value to a community. I’ve worked with thousands of children, teenagers and adults, over the past five decades. To a one, the people causing the most disruption and heartache to those around them, from my first disquiet students, in my hometown, to the recently incarcerated homeless veteran who I was encouraging to re-enter society, have been the emotionally and spiritually dispossessed. Economics sometimes plays a secondary role, as well. With the first two bases covered, however, most economically disadvantaged people can overcome their living circumstances.

Failure to thrive comes from a chronic lack of love. This we have seen in numerous psychological studies of people and animals, and in our daily lives, as abused people of all ages present themselves to the rest of us, as both harbingers of crisis and opportunities for service.

The Road to 65, Mile 155: Oasis Within An Oasis

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Posted by on in Hiking and Nature, Personal goals, Social

May 2, 2015, Granite Dells- I spent the day immersing myself in better health practices. Around 10:30, I set out to this dazzling blend of rock, water and greenery, to pay a call on a natural healer and anthropologist, who calls herself Happy Oasis. She lives with her husband, John, in a delightful two or three acres of land, known as Heaven on Earth. Happy has been all over the planet, in the course of her twenty-five year career, yet she has chosen, and fought hard for, this sublime paradise.

Thanks to her efforts, there are trails aplenty where there could have been condos too many. So, Happy and her associate, Jack, took thirty of us on a walk of discovery- to meet the wild plants which can be foraged for sustenance, in the ecosystem of the Dells. It rained a bit, as if to bless our jaunt.

Here are some scenes of this unique experience.

The home of our hosts is a work in progress, after a fire took out its predecessor. They are nothing, if not multi-talented.

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Here is a slippery elm, with its full supply of salad greens.SAM_4879

I don’t remember what the next several plants are, but they are safe and taste very nice.

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Here is a mustard plant.SAM_4885

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THIS, however, is loco weed. It is highly hallucinogenic, if ingested.

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Happy, in front, showed us about a dozen plants that can sustain a person, in the wilds of Granite Dells.SAM_4896

This flowering plant is often called prairie rose. It tastes fine, flowers and all.SAM_4897

Here are some of my classmates, as we enjoyed the fruits of nature’s labours.

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It was one of the loveliest of days, so far this year. In late afternoon and evening, I visited with a friend and essential oils colleague, encouraging her in teaching a class on our oils. The day left me with the knowledge that there is more good in our future than not.

The Road to 65, Mile 153: The Flow

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Posted by on in Personal goals, Social

April 30, 2015, Prescott- We each reach the point,in our grief process, where the events of our present existence take the precedence they deserve, over constant thoughts of the departed loved one. That said, it only takes a small trigger to bring it all back- if only for a short time.

Some regard it their solemn duty to act as “reality checks”, forcibly keeping the bereft person “focused”. I had family members who did this, in 2011, mainly because they had either no direct experience with grieving a next of kin or because the experience they did have was so extreme in severity, that they had little choice but to carry the poor soul forward.

In my case, I went through confusion and lack of focus, in the first year of grief; a new appreciation of life, in the second year; misplaced attachments to others, in the third; and, at present, a more concrete concern with reality. Each stage has had its spiritual component, and each, its learning curve.

I have many well-wishers, a few, scattered, haters and a dedicated cadre of friends and family, on whom I can rely for just about anything. As others in my circle face their own first, second and third stages of grief, I find myself being ready to wrap my spiritual arms around them and feel the concourse of spirits guarding us all.

The Road to 65, Mile 152: Declaration

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Posted by on in Personal goals, Social

April 29,2015, Prescott- I took the day off from work again today, this time in honour of the day on which Baha’u’llah declared His Mission to His followers, at a garden just north of Baghdad. Of course, I did go to the VA Hospital and receive a check-up, which was all good news. The main thrust of the day, though, was in attending two gatherings of local Baha’is and a few close friends of our Faith. The widower of our friend, M, was there, and we discussed several matters other than his loss. Easing him back into a routine life seems appropriate right now. I was glad that no one hung the noose of sorrow around my neck, four years ago, and he was glad to engage in more neutral discourse today. The ebb and flow of mourning is something with which I am prepared to help him, though, as time goes on.

Baha’u’llah has outlined many steps by which mankind can attain lasting peace. His Declaration, on or about April 29, 1863, called for a few basic universalities, upon which He later expounded, prior to His Ascension, in 1892. These include a democratically-elected world parliament, a common universal currency and system of weights and measures, a universal auxiliary language and equality between men and women. Many of these have been proposed, in other forms, by people of influence. Some, like the oneness of mankind and male/female parity, are gingerly approached, then avoided, by those whose minds are in a state of flux.

Yet, we see the same crises and issues arise, in a continuous loop, in one part of the world or another. Nowhere is this more pronounced than in Israel/ Palestine, other parts of Southwest Asia and North Africa, and in American cities. The areas where outmoded ways of dealing with problems are most fastidiously gripped by their proponents, are bound to be the areas where the least progress seems to be achieved.

Baha’u’llah’s Revelation is very deep and takes very close, detailed study, as befits a System which will guide the whole of mankind, especially given our enduring free will. I’m glad I get the gist of it, and can move slowly past my own frailties.

The Road to 65, Mile 151: Smoke and Fire

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Posted by on in Social

April 28, 2015, Phoenix- I’ve been in Baltimore three times. The second, and longest, stay in the city was a week, in 1972. I got off a bus in East Baltimore, and walked about ten blocks, through an old and visibly proud African-American neighbourhood. There were hints of a place going to seed, but more common were the well-kept yards and people greeting one another in friendship, as I’ve found in lots of places. At no time did I feel unsafe.

Similarly,I have driven through south Chicago, south central Los Angeles,the Bronx and Harlem, and walked all over Washington, DC, and not felt at risk. The thing to remember is: “Black on Black” violence is far more frequent than “interacial” crime. I have never been struck, or held at gunpoint, by a person of African descent. There are many, I know, who have had very different experiences, and my sorrow for your losses.

The violence in Baltimore, yesterday and today, will end up hurting Black people more than any other group. This has been the experience of countless other people, in too many other cities, large and small, across the United States, in the United Kingdom, France and South Africa. The poor end up poorer.

There is a dynamic at work, at the opposite end of the social scale: Pursue the well-being of society, only to the extent that it doesn’t upend the current economic system. Thus, we have calls for “soul-searching”, each time a riot breaks out, or a high-profile person is killed. What is needed, and sorely, instead, is soul-action.

One can best effect change locally. I grew up in what many would call a “white-bread” town. There was still a lot of need there. Lower-class whites were somewhat “privileged”, but they were still regarded as lower-class. I tried my best to call attention, as a teenager, to issues like economic disparity and civil rights, seeing them as closely-tied. I was ridiculed for this, but I noticed that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X were saying the same things. The Irish kids who cheered their assassinations were biting the hands that were outstretched to them. The Italian and Polish kids who groused about Affirmative Action, seeing it as permanent, and a privilege system all its own, were way off the mark.

My conclusion was that, unless and until people saw how they were being manipulated to separate themselves from others, and did something to build a bond with people to whom they were more closely tied than they thought, there would be the same cycle of riot and rebellion, followed by oppression (by the same people who used divide and conquer), followed by a period of acquiescence, then more riot and rebellion.

Solutions? The disenfranchised must vote. Citizens attending, and speaking out at, public meetings is crucial. Parents actually bringing up their kids is not subject to substitution. The politician must be held to viewing the title public servant as more than a sobriquet.

Further: Women are the equal partners of men, and not just within the bounds of matrimony. There is neither a favoured class, nor a protected class. Political Correctness, the ultimate band-aid for society’s boils, deserves to be consigned to the refuse pile. Human decency could ably take its place. See someone who looks different from you walking in your direction? Stay on the same path, and offer an appropriate greeting. “How’re you doin?'” or “What’s happening?” are words I have heard from countless people, in cities all over the country.

These are simple thoughts, but the great innovators have brought change to society, not by quantum leaps, or fell swoops. The changes have been systematic, and through persistence. This has been true of everything from the automobile industry to the expansion of civil rights. So it must be for the reconstruction of neighbourhoods: Not through gentrification, not through creation of urban deserts, but “brick by brick, block by block” , designed by and for the benefit of those already living there, as well as artisans and entrepreneurs who are actually invited by the community, rather than by the real estate market.

Extinguish the fire and clear the smoke.