The Road to Diamond, Day 362: Another ’70s “Show”

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, Entertainment, Inner Struggles, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

November 24, 2025, Moriarty, NM- I left Home Base I , around 8 a.m,, bound for Texas, with a few stops along the way. The first was the Monday morning Coffee Klatsch, where we each gave a rundown of Thanksgiving plans. I then set out for Winslow, encountering almost no traffic between Camp Verde and the famous corner from the Eagles’ tune. After a nice lunch at Relic Road (aka Sipp Shoppe), I found I-40 also relatively tame, even through Albuquerque, to this old ranching town that has become a favourite stopover of mine, being close to the Duke City and therefore halfway across New Mexico.

I did not focus on taking photos, having taken lots of the I-4- corridor, over the years. It is noteworthy, though, that late November is foliage season-for the cottonwood trees and shrubs along High Desert river banks. So, golds, bright yellows and rust-colours are a frequent site, across north central Arizona and New Mexico.

My attention was more drawn to a Sirius XM channel of ’70s Rock. A few songs conjured memories of people who figured in my life in that decade of dissolute behaviour. “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”, by the Temptations concerns the sons of a reckless, irresponsible man trying to determine the truth about him. The lyrics say he died on the Third of September. I knew a man who did pass away on that day, in 1971. That gentleman was the antithesis of the subject of the psychedelic soul tune. He was a man who never took a dime he hadn’t earned and who worked almost to the day he died.

“Seasons in the Sun, by Terry Jacks, brought the memory of four young men from my hometown, who were killed during the Vietnam Era, two in the war itself and two others, due to accidents in nearby countries. The notion of people dying young is voiced by Jacks, saying goodbye to his best friend, his father and his beloved. It struck many of us, at the time, as sappy and unrealistic. Yet, there were our contemporaries dying around us-and not just the four guys in the military. Disease and automobile accidents took their toll on our generation. One of my best friends in high school dies in a crash, not long after his graduation.

I switched to a folk song channel, just east of Gallup, being guided by less evocative tunes until arriving at Lariat Motel, where I am for the night. Still, the songs that came up on the ’70s “show” helped me that much more, in confronting lingering baggage.

The Road to Diamond, Day 361: Tatiana

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Posted by on in Assistance, children, Personal Values, Social, Striving

November 23, 2025- The Kennedys of Hyannisport and, once upon a time, of the “American Camelot”, have long been an intriguing family of both legend and actual achievement. They have been far from perfect, but on balance, they have been engaged in responsible service to our country and to humanity.

Being of a similar age, I watched Caroline, John Jr. and many of their cousins grow up. Some died horribly tragic deaths, just as their fathers did before them. Others, like Caroline, have prospered and have served humanity admirably. I’ve watched from a distance, as she and her husband raised three children, in much the same way as Jacqueline Kennedy raised Caroline and John. The three Schlossberg children have each grown and built distinguished careers.

Tatiana, the middle child, was on track to write a definitive book on the health of our oceans. After the birth of her second child, however, she became violently ill and was tested for several postpartum reactions. She was, after a day or so of further tests, diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of leukemia, which she discusses openly in an essay in the most recent issue of The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/a-battle-with-my-blood?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Having lived through the painful decline and passing of my wife, not so many years ago, I wish two things: That Tatiana’s leukemia goes into remission and that she is able to enjoy her two children, at least for a fair amount of time AND that ongoing research into all forms of cancer continue to bring positive outcomes to the cases of so many who are just suffering so massively. Let no one be a mere Guinea pig.

The Road to Diamond, Day 360: Love and Mercy

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, distraction issues, impediments, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, service, Social, Spiritual, Striving

November 22, 2025- His voice cracking, and eyes starting to well, R stopped and recovered himself, then continued on with his account of the past five months, since I saw him last. R is one of the friends I will miss after leaving Prescott. He and his wife were among the first to welcome me, in 2011. Their restaurant is one of the mainstays of my life here, once a week, for breakfast or lunch. The shenanigans of the staff or of the locals that sit at the counter are always a hoot. I listened with rapt attention and reflective comments, as R filled me in on his so far successful fight for life. I want to see people win those kinds of battles.

Getting back to Home Base I, I arranged for the delivery of a piece of furniture that I have had re-upholstered. It had been in almost too sorry a condition to even invite people over. Now, it is in beautiful shape and I will be proud to hand it off to someone who needs a nice piece of furniture for their living room. As it happened, the delivery man’s schedule conflicted with my usual stint at Farmers Market, but as my cosmic advisor said of today-“It is a day to go with the flow, when life interrupts routine.” Delivery man and his helper were meticulous in bringing the piece in and getting it in place. They took their time folding their blankets and putting everything back in place.

I went to Farmers Market, anyway, and finding the crew dealing with a long line of vendors, I took care of cleaning and putting away the folding chairs and tables, then made headway in taking down at least some of the tents. It was then time for Baha’i Feast, so I left the nonetheless grateful crew, who by that time were finished with the vendors.

Feast was a cozy affair. We had our devotions and talked of community matters, then planned next month’s activities and enjoyed refreshments. This little community is also a group of people I will miss, having collaborated with them continuously for fourteen years, and having known many of them from our residence here in 1992 and 2000-01. The Baha’i Faith has only been an impetus for my positive growth as a human being.

Finally, I spent the evening at Raven Cafe, enjoying a light dinner and the music of a favourite local band, The Cheektones. Don and the boys have a knack for getting people up an dancing. I occupied an old wooden chair and had the company of a few friends of the band. After about 1 1/2 hours of bouncing in my seat, I got up and joined the dancing to the last two songs. Before I did so, the guys played a song that summed up today, and many days in my life: “Love and Mercy”, the Brian Wilson song from 1988. Here is an earlier performance by The Cheektones, from Prescott’s Summer Music on the Square series.

This is the last of my “two posts a day”, game of catch-up on this blog site. It has been sometimes a challenge, to find a theme for a given day, but from my readership, it seems there are plenty of you who identified with at least some of what has happened here, since my return from Europe.

Life is sweet.

The Road to Diamond, Day 359: An Ounce of Prevention

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, impediments, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

November 21, 2025- One of my least favourite phrases in the American lexicon is “It’s better than Crack!” The media’s, and our culture’s, seeming love affair with narcotics, itself an outgrowth of alcohol and tobacco dependency, has long disgusted me. The team with which I worked today had a point, though: “Most people are not addicted to drugs.”

The MATFORCE team was waiting, prepped and ready, for me and more importantly, for the four groups of students we would inform about the uses, caveats and dangers associated with prescription drugs and their illicit/illegal counterparts that are being sold on the streets or by unscrupulous members of the medical profession.

I was guided to take this half-day assignment, probably my last at Mile Hi Middle School, a place where I have had many successful turns as a substitute teacher, over the past fourteen years-and a fair number in earlier periods of residence here. The heading said “Life Skills”, so it seemed well within my purview. Upon arrival in the classroom, I was greeted by her co-teacher from the next classroom, and appraised of the format for the morning. Then I met the MATFORCE team. (The acronym means Mobilizing Action Together for Community Empowerment.) The organization works diligently, across Arizona, to bring factual awareness of the effects of substances on the human body, and on the families and communities that are comprised of those inside all these bodies.

Each person who sat and listened, participated or absorbed the information had a different take. Most took the folder with information home with them. Some didn’t, either because they had the same lessons last year (the 8th graders) or because they just didn’t want extra papers lying around their rooms or in their backpacks. A few may have been spooked by the talk of fake Fentenyl, barbituates and amphetamines. None, however, were unaffected by the lesson.

An ounce of prevention saves a pound of cure.

The Road to Diamond, Day 358: New Assignment

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, impediments, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal goals, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving

November 20, 2025- The farewells continued today-this time in Phoenix, with one last dental checkup by the people who have been caring for me and family since 2001. I had lunch with another friend, who I’ve known since 1992. The first gave me a new assignment: Up my dental care game, including making sure I change the head on the electric brush a bit more often. It goes without saying that I will also quickly find a provider once I move to Texas. The team in Phoenix has worked too hard on my behalf for any backsliding.

I have known LF, as a friend and mentor, so his message to always look past surface talk of friendship and support, weighing actions as well as words, will carry me into a new community. He may well be one of those who makes the journey out to visit us, and he will be ever welcome.

Back up to Prescott, after stopping at my late wife’s grave, there were two events left this evening. I stopped in at Post 6 and tended to an old favourite: The patty melt, basically a cheeseburger on toast, with special sauce (NOT Mc D’s). I enjoyed those years ago, at Friendly Ice Cream shops, a New England favourite in the ’60s and ’70s, that still has some franchises open. Of course, there was banter about current affairs, but we all respect one another’s views.

The last gathering of the night was Community Day of Thanks. This is the 13th such event, held since 2012, on the Thursday before Thanksgiving, at a different place of worship each year. The Coalition for Compassion and Justice is the host group for the event, which featured every major Faith Group in our area. Of course, Baha’i participants offered a reading, followed by a song. Here is Carl Brehmer, who led us in this song, offering homage to the angels that so many people find comforting.

It was truly a fine day, from start to finish. Now I have to keep working on the teeth and gums that God gave me.

The Road to Diamond, Day 357: Bright Farewells

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, Family, Inspiration, Personal goals, Personal Values, service, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

November 19, 2025- I had my last haircut at Prescott’s Fantastic Sam’s, this afternoon. The mane doesn’t need trimming more than every two months or so, making this the last time I stopped in and visited with Brittany, an effervescent ball of fire who makes every stop at FS a joyful experience. She did her usual magic and smilingly wished me well with the coming adventure in grandparenting. I will miss her, and many others, who have been my support system in this Home Base I, for fourteen years.

There will be more of these bright farewells, over the next month or so. Nobody here in Prescott, or in other parts of Arizona, is being grumpy about the move. People are genuinely happy with what I have done here, and at the same time glad that my little family is growing. I am grateful for that. My beloved K, writing from the Philippines, is also happy for me, and has some dreams of her own that I sincerely hope will see fruition. At this age, one can dearly love another person and not be tethered to a set of schedules and procedures that are more conducive to establishing a marriage and raising a family. K and I can meet the needs of our respective families and not worry about preconceived notions of others. I will make time for a visit over there, provided my little family’s needs are being met, in the meantime.

That leaves the proper distribution of furniture and other items, like books and tools, over the next four or five weeks. Those, too, will be bright farewells. My belongings have served me well, and I am grateful. It’s time to pass much of the materials along.

The Road to Diamond, Day 356: Improvising

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, impediments, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Striving

November 18, 2025- There were three activities on my schedule today. None of them happened as planned.

First, I went to Community Cupboard, a food pantry where volunteers were needed to fill Thanksgiving bags for people who are down and out. The event started at 8 a.m. I got there at 8:20. The bags were already filled. So, I was asked instead to organize shelves with canned goods, in a way that would allow for ease of access by the volunteers waiting on customers next week, during the pre- Thanksgiving rush. An hour later, there were dedicated shelves filled with corn, beans, tomatoes and mixed vegetables, plus one shelf for single cans of various items, like artichoke hearts, spinach and Lima beans. It should be fairly easy for the volunteer staff to meet customers’ needs.

After that, I headed over to a senior residential complex, where there was to be a Veterans Fair. I was planning to represent the Red Cross there, so off I went in RC attire. There was no Veterans Fair. No matter-as any visit to a senior residential complex finds people who are more than glad for the company. I enjoyed complementary lunch and spent time with a couple of friends who are residents there. We talked of my time in Europe and their upcoming surgeries. There was minimal repetition of stories, by any of us.

Finally, I was to meet some friends in the evening, for our usual Taco Tuesday. It was raining and dark, so no one showed except me. I can still see in the dark, but not everyone can. I just enjoyed a burrito at a comfortable table.

Some days are just meant for improvisation, to see just how sharp one’s cognitive functions still are.

The Road to Diamond, Day 355: Nonagenarian Beacon

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, Family, Personal goals, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving

November 17, 2025- All three ladies are using walkers, but all three are sharp upstairs and let no one forget it. This was made clear by the way none of them repeated the stories they told at the beginning of Coffee Klatsch, this morning, and for that matter, none has repeated stories they told two weeks, or two months, ago. One put it simply: “Who wants to hear the same old crap? Life goes on, and so do I.” That statement is like a beacon, in the night that, for many, is the process of aging.

The three ladies in question are 94,92 and 91, respectively. I can remember when someone close to me told my mother that her “old, decrepit son” (me) was there to visit. Mom’s reply: “Are you saying old is decrepit?” Her leg went out in a kick, as she always did when someone had irked her. Dignity and self-regard die hard in a person who has all, or most, of faculties into the “higher elevations”. Mom’s idol was Dick Van Dyke and she told me to look to him as a model for how to move gracefully towards century-hood. Indeed, he has a new book out, called “100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist’s Guide to a Happy Life”. This is a man who has not stopped moving-and that, he says, is his secret.

So, I went back and exercised at Planet Fitness and showed up at the Monday night Soup Kitchen, where I may stand and serve food for thirty minutes-but then go around and clean all the tables, so it is not a “passive volunteer” activity. With grandchild being my prime motive for moving to Texas, just before Christmas, I don’t think there will be any room for passivity there, either.

The Road to Diamond, Day 354: Interspecies

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Posted by on in animal and plant life, Assistance, collaborating, Community, Education, Inner Struggles, Personal Values, service, Social, Spiritual, Striving

November 16, 2025- The American bison has long been the stuff of both reverence and legend. It was also, following the late Pleistocene die-off of other Megafauna ( Cave bears, American camels, giant ground sloths, American rhinoceroses and giant beavers), the largest source of protein for First Nations people.

It is true that First Nations people offered thanks to each animal they killed for food and sustenance. It is true that many tribes, especially in the Plains region, used as many parts of the animal as they could salvage, for food or for tool-making. It is also true that many tribes employed the technique of the Bison Jump, forcing large numbers of a given herd off fairly shallow cliffs, to their deaths or to severe injury that incapacitated many animals, who then could be slaughtered. This was mainly a late autumn/early winter practice, done for the express purpose of ensuring a food supply in winter. The practice is explained here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDjUHPzLn5E.

I learned these facts from the film “Singing Back the Buffalo”, which was shown this afternoon, at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, in downtown Prescott. The film, by Tasha Hubbard and Jason Ryle, explores efforts by First Nations people, in Canada, Mexico and the United States, to restore healthy bison herds, primarily in plains and prairie regions. Ceremonies are held, often within hearing distance of bison herds. (The name “buffalo” is used by some First Nations groups, interchangeably with the more correct term, bison.) There is much singing and dancing at these ceremonies, which both thank the bison for their sacrifice and appeal to them to gather and procreate. It is said that, when a specific group of five juvenile male bison were the focus of a dance, and were too far away to hear the songs, another group of five juvenile male bison came to the site and presented themselves to the assembled Band. This is documented by the film-makers.

It is gratifying that these efforts to promulgate healthy bison herds are gaining traction. Sustainable hunting is also going on, in areas where the bison herds are large and healthy. There are, however, no more “buffalo jumps”. Discussion afterward extended to efforts at promulgating other species, “rewilding” in both North America and Europe. Indeed, I noticed that efforts at protecting and re-introducing the beaver and the lynx are well underway in Scotland. British wildcats are a focus of re-wilding efforts in England and Wales. The lynx is also a focus of re-introduction in Spain and Portugal.

As we learn how to co-exist with wild animals, there is hope for a mutually beneficial solution to the problems of conflict between species. (Of course, we also need to devote a great deal of energy to solving conflicts between humans!)

The Road to Diamond, Day 353: Culinary

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, Inspiration, Personal Values, Service Activities, Slow Food Prescott, Social, Striving

November 15, 2025- Bean gorditas, topped with Korean radish and cilantro, may not sound like much, in terms of preparation. Here, though, is what we had to do to keep up with a surprisingly heavy demand, over 1 1/2 hours: First, the dough had to be rolled into balls, then flattened into a thin cake, using my index and middle fingers. Then, the cakes were delivered, three or four at a time, to the grill cook. Second, I sliced radish pieces, thinly, using a slivering knife and cut the thin slices in small slivers, bringing to the sous chef as quickly as possible. The cilantro would have been sliced into slivers, as well, but we ran out, before time was up.

I am fair to middling, in terms of actual fine culinary skill. I can prepare well-liked lasagna or meatloaf, a fresh Caesar or fusion salad,tender steaks and so/so chili. My Thanksgiving dinners have gone over well, except for one near disaster, in 1998 ( a year that was full of disasters). This time, though, my hand was steady on the slivering knife’s top and I kept up with the demand. We ended with a bit left over, which went to the Farmers Market staff.

All in all, helping with food preparation, especially under the eye of an accomplished chef, is a fine way to gauge one’s mental and physical acuity. I kept up, and was able to monitor and adjust my work, according to chef’s critiquing. We have worked well together over twelve years, so today came as no surprise.