Escapism in a book. It is only Time-Delayed. Still Stuck in Comfortable Corners Offstage.

Yes, bertiebass, many readers look for pure escapism in reading a book. And yes, 'lowlife' in a book can be too real and uncomfortable as you say.

Yet, in Bukowski's first novel, Post Office, the main character, Harry Chinaski, offers me a different form of  'escape'... escape from the comfortable corners.  I, too, like Chinaski was stuck ten years in a grunt job. As I read his novel, Post Office, about how he began his escape from the Post Office I become uncomfortable. I realize that I may be still stuck in the comfortable corners and not really living life on the center stage.

Thanks for your comments, bertiebass, you turned on the stage lights. I need to be uncomfortable. Can I open the curtains and step onto the Center Stage?

Stage on Stage. Taken by User:Lekogm November 27th, 2004 from wikimedia commons)

Or maybe I am stuck in the books? Do I choose to live in books and avoid the center stage where I am vulnerable?

Modern Book Printing Sculpture from the Berliner Walk of Ideas from wikimedia commons 

Perhaps it is time for me to reread an earlier post:

 Life is So Good when you make it Center Stage.

Want to Write? Try a Frame, a Pet, a Gravestone or a Fly-Swatter. Advice from Charles Bukowski.

How do you write, create? Bukowski's answer was "You don't, I told them. You don't try. That's very important: not to try, either for Cadillacs, creation or immortality. You wait, and if nothing happens, you wait some more. It's like a bug high on the wall. You wait for it to come to you. When it gets close enough you reach out, slap out and kill it. Or if you like its looks you make a pet out of it."


 Hey. I put my fly-swatter away. Seriously, if you think of your writing as a pet, it opens writing in a totally new frame.. frame of mind... framework...

Link to Some Quotes of Charles Bukowski on wikiquote

Here's a relaxing frame of mind from the ruins at Blawearie

 

An example of a Writer's Gravestone
Note: Charles Bukowski had "Don't Try" on his gravestone.

Choosing a Book for Book Club? Try Post Office? Grunt and Too Real.

Image by lungstruck via Flickr

Book clubs thrive and age. So how to chose a book when it is your turn? Perhaps, a novel by a poet? When the poet, Charles Bukowski, wrote his first novel, Post Office, he was writing of Henry Chinaski, as drunk, throwing up, having sex, manually sorting mail at the Post Office... Hmm. Too real?

A struggling young university student told me Bukowski was among the great 'real life' poets. This student with his love of music, writes songs and posts them on facebook, has a life that at times, was and is 'too real'. His family had a life similar to Bukowski's character, Henry Chinaski. The student had his received Christmas presents and then the presents were gone--pawned or stolen the next day. Is Post Office a book for a book club of older women?

Is this a book for even a Post Office employee? I gave a copy of Post Office as a parting gift to my mailman. His route was being redrawn and he was re-assigned. I didn't receive a thank you note. Perhaps, the novel was too real for him. Yes, maybe, one doesn't want to be reminded of the years at the Post Office when all mail was manually sorted as Henry Chinaski did for over 10 years.

The Post Office is moving the opposite way -- eventually all mail will arrive at local post offices mechanically presorted. Not even a morning sit-down time to sort mail for the mailman's individual route. Mailmen will be walking all day. Hmm. Still manual work.

My nephew might call this type of work, grunt work. He said he was a grunt when he was in basic training running for hours for days with full combat gear with hair-line cracks in his ankles.

Is the novel, Post Office, of interest to a book club? Time magazine called Bukowski, the "laureate of American lowlife." We are all grunts in some way. We often run with full combat gear and consider ourselves still in basic training. Now I am wondering about my hair-line cracks--did they ever heal?

Help me decide my book club selection by selecting Agree or Disagree if I should select the novel, Post Office, in the area below these links. 


Link to the NY Library Friends Bookshelf to see comments about Post Office and other books that influenced people the most and where you can donate and add your book choice and how it influenced you

Link to wikipedia on Charles Bukowski.

Link to a little race track poetry by Charles Bukowski.

Buried in Negativity. Refocus on Bright Spots with Solutions. Try Positive Deviance.

62 percent of our thoughts are negative. Stuck in the muck? Negativity is a stimulating distraction. What can we do? We can find happiness in everything. The dragonfly is a model. It hovers and holds its position like as if time was stopped. Yes, we can stop reacting negatively and focus on the bright spots where communities have found solutions. Change occurs locally. Be a dragonfly with a stopwatch.

Examples of local solutions: 

• We can give to the Post Office's canned food drive to stamp out hunger. 
• We can sign a petition to reopen the Peace Road to the kindergarten in the village of Al Aqaba in Gaza.   Link to petition.   Link to Al Aqaba
• We can write our pension fund holder, TIAA-CREF to divest from Israel occupation products to encourage focus on the bright spots in the Middle East. Link  
• We can make a mock wall at our university to raise awareness about the walls in Palestine and on the U.S. border. Link
• We can learn what Nakba Day means to Palestinians and Israelis. Link

Solutions exist in the bright spots. We can see them if we are not buried in negativity. Try Positive Deviance. Link to Positive Deviance  The 62 percent negative focus needs a dragonfly stopwatch.

Edouard Manet sketch 1873

End Israeli Apartheid. Who to Boycott. Divestment Worked in S. Africa.

Campus BDS Heating Up This Spring! April 26th, 2011 *copied from endtheoccupation.org

This spring, the weather is not all that's heating up! April has brought a burst of U.S. campus boycott and divestment(BDS) initiatives following inspiring actions around the country on the BDS Day of Action, held on the annual Palestinian Land Day. Active campaigns in California, Arizona, Indiana and beyond are becoming a force to be reckoned with. We are thrilled to welcome and support many of these campus groups as new members of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation! Here are some of the exciting ongoing initiatives:  At the University of California at San Diego, the UCSD Associated Students are voting tomorrow night on a resolution to divest fromNorthrop-Grumman and General Electric because they profit from violent conflict, including in Israel/Palestine. Click here to read the resolution and send endorsements to rzuabi@gmail.com. Above: Students' wall on the UA campus. Click to enlarge.  No Mas Muertes at theUniversity of Arizona (UA) recently issued this call for campus boycott and divestment from national targets Caterpillar andMotorola, due to their involvement in racist policies against Latina/o migrant communities and indigenous peoples in Arizona, Palestine and around the world.  The statement coincided with the launch of a national "Mock Wall" Movement protesting U.S. support for Israeli occupation and discriminatory U.S. immigration policies, with students at six universitiesaround the country constructing walls on their campuses to raise awareness about the destruction wrought by the walls in Palestine and on the U.S. border.  At Earlham College in Indiana, students launched this BDS resolution to divest their campus from Caterpillar, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard, which profit from Israeli occupation and violations of Palestinian rights. The students put together this terrific video.  Northrop-Grumman, Caterpillar and Motorola are also three of the five companies targeted in a national campaign initiated by Jewish Voice for Peace (a member of the US Campaign) to compel financial giant TIAA-CREF to divest from Israeli occupation. Campuses are fertile ground for this growing campaign. Check out the comprehensive new campaign web site and resources here! Don’t forget to check our "BDS on Campus" resources here, including ahandbook by veteran activists to guide students through campus divestment campaigns. Whether your group is on a campus or not, we invite you to join our coalition too, by clicking here. We are more excited than ever to support diverse groups working around the country for corporate accountability and an end to U.S. supportfor Israeli occupation and apartheid. *Copied from http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=2966

What does the death of Osama Bin Laden mean? Osama was not born a terrorist.

Osama Bin Laden is dead. Sadness and death. Hatred lives. Our everyday choices contribute. Will hatred ever end? President Obama announces his death. Death is not the end. People who cling to extremes exist. What can an average person do to stop hatred? We can make new choices.

If a person's death is announced, what message is given? It is the end of one person's life. But a wish for peace throughout the world is sad at any one person's death. Quakers believe in the value of life. When life is shortened be it by a terrorist's attack or old age, life has meaning. Let us consider the value of each person's life. We choose.

Be it a diamond for a wedding ring, a coffee ground fresh, or a piece of perfect fruit that must be without blemish, we do contribute to the world's serious deadly economic, political and social issues. Let us be sad in the death of each person's dreams.

The child in the desert of Kenya or the laid-off worker in Detroit who has no money to pay for the house payment or especially for the Somali fisherman who no longer have fish to catch due to non-Somali overfishing in their waters and resorts to kidnapping, we should be sad.

We do contribute to hatred in our purchases. Economy driven without values sways the world toward hatred and death. We do contribute. Look inward toward how your everyday choices influences the lives around the world. Osama bin Laden was not born a terrorist. No baby is. 

Forgiveness is complex. Sri Bhagavan on Forgiveness. Silent Apologies.

Forgiveness is complex. It is a process. In the video Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba said that hurt or pain causes combustion with smoke that at the end produces energy. Forgiveness then occurs. To forgive is not just words. It has to be felt as a result of experiencing the pain and hurt. Words do not describe feeling processes very well. Gestures are better. Kneeling.

Kneeling helps heal genocide.

In 1970 West German Chancellor Willy Brandt knelt  before the Warsaw Ghetto monument.

  For more on Willy Brandt's Silent Apology click here

Forgiveness. When is it needed? Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba dies.

Forgiveness. To forgive means you have felt hurt and need to be released, to let go of that hurt. Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba died today in India. This god-man with millions of followers means there are beliefs of others the strength of which we do not understand. Some say he was divine. How does this relate to forgiveness? Ask the people of Rwanda, where one million people were murdered in 100 days. We cannot understand the beliefs, be they spiritual or political, of others. Beliefs have power. But the greater power resides in forgiveness.

Entrance to Puttaparthi is the birth place and abode of Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
Image by Williampfeifer released to wikipedia

Whatever power people give or recognize, the greatest power is the power to forgive. To let go of hate. To let go of anger. To let go of memories. Painful memories freeze you in a trap of self-thinking. When you forgive those who hurt you or you perceived that they hurt you in some way, you release your mind to consider thinking of something other than yourself. If we hold onto hate, perceived wrongs, we limit the energy within us - however, you may define that energy, the spark of the divine, the light that gives us life.

Happiness is: Duct Tape? A Hypothesis? A Memory? Your Choice.

Is happiness like duct tape? Easy to tear apart. Never perfectly smooth. Leaves a residue.

photo by Evan-Amos, 8-25-10, wikimedia commons

 Is happiness like a hypothesis, an assumption that must be continually tested?

CASE-IF-THEN-END flowchart from wikimedia commons

 Is happiness an action taken? A reconnecting with pleasant memories. 

Such as the thrill our first steps?

The First Steps by Greek painter, Georgios Jakobidea, from wikimedia commons

Your choice.

If you think happiness is more like duct tape, 

here's the you tube channel where you can make more duct tape happiness:  

http://www.youtube.com/user/Ducttapestuff?blend=3&ob=5

 

Three Cups of Tea. Be cautious where you take your cup of tea.

"The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family."

Greg Mortenson  wrote,Three Cups of Tea and his group, Central Asia Institute, has been working for decades to build schools especially for girls in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Initially, Greg promised to build one school to thank the local people who saved his life while he was mountain climbing in the remote region. He had the third cup of tea. His family is also now  many Pakistani and Afghan children. He continues to build schools.

His book and his group was investigated on 60 Minutes.
.
I did not hear the program but I heard a response which questioned future contributions. This response prompts me to caution against prejudging him and his group. Instead apply proverbs and history. Be cautious where you take your cup of tea.  Remember Henry Fonda's skepticism in the movie, Twelve Angry Men. This skepticism resulted in an innocent verdict, a total opposite of the initial jury vote.

Mr. Mortenson's strategy differs from the United States military strategy of top-down directives. For example, Mortenson consults with local councils about school needs and supports their goals. Perhaps there is a political motive from some dissatisfied individual or group that brought the magnifying glass.

Even President Obama in his firing of Shirley Sherrod, who was later vindicated, made mistakes due to limited information.

I urge you to stand by Mr. Mortenson and his group. Maybe this local bright spot has become a scapegoat for NGO groups.We should be skeptical of media reports just as the spokesman for the Pakistani government was quoted by the Christian Science Monitor:

The Pakistani government conferred the Star of Pakistan, the country's third highest civilian award, on Mortenson and invited him to take tea with President Asif Ali Zardari in 2009. President Zardari’s spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, told the Monitor the government was treating the allegations with caution. "One has to find out the detail because often a number of media reports turn out to be incorrect," he says. "Until one knows what the story really is, one can't move forward."
 http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2011/0418/Greg-Mortenson-s-Three-Cups-of-Tea-Will-CBS-report-harm-aid-work?cmpid=ema:nws:Daily%20Auto%2004182011&cmpid=ema:nws:NjkzNjA2MzE1NgS2

I heard Mr. Mortenson speak in person. I saw his eyes and heard the desire to do so much with working with local needs and values with so little resources. His enthusiasm and mission to effect change through building schools may move, Three Cups of Tea, from the non-fiction shelf to the autobiographical memoir genre of Maya Angelou.  

When humanitarians like him are so focused on the solutions they don't believe in explaining every detail to a 60 Minutes reporter. They trust people.

 I, too, will continue to trust in local bright spots like Greg Mortenson.  We need to support local bright spots because that is where change occurs. Locally. If 60 Minutes had focused on the bright spots like Greg's local council engagement two decades ago, how different would be today's 60 Minutes segment be - the contrast between top-down strategies versus community-generated strategies. Local bright spots are change agents. Remember Twelve Angry Men. One person in your face challenging your comfortable auto-response. I trust Greg Mortenson.

Desperate for Spring. Your Flower choices: Wearing, Drawing, Animating or Making?

1. Just go and get some fresh flowers and put them in your hair.

This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3b21174., orig by Burr McIntosh Studio, taken 1902. 

2. Draw flowers.

• click on this link and then click on  your mouse when you are on the black screen
• http://www.procreo.jp/labo/flower_garden.swf
• You can draw as many flowers as you want.

3. Watch animated flowers

Malene Thyssen, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Malene

4. Or you could make some plastic flowers.

by material boy, Flicker, 19 Feb 2006

What is your flower choice?

Planting red geranium seeds. When life is so sad, plant seeds.

While I plant red geranium seeds, should I be doing/planting something else?

Shouldn't I be writing letters to Congress? Getting informed about issues? Shouldn't I be thinking of how to help others? Natural gas fracturing.  Suicide in the Armed Forces. Monsanto and GM seeds? Birthday presents for young relatives? Brushing my pets? No.

No. I decided the world would not end if I planted red geranium seeds. I am taking a stand for red geraniums and purple dragon carrots. May the dead soldiers forgive my need to get my hands in the dirt. When life is so sad, I need to plant. I need to get back to something that grows and fills my mind with life not worries.

Like the book says all I ever needed to know I learned in kindergarten.  For example, take turns. It is my turn-to help something grow from seed and rose geranium oil repels mosquitoes.

Andrew Dunn, 31 July 2006http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GeraniumFlowerUnfurl2small.gif

Want peace for Palestine? Where you shop can pay for war. Boycott styles. Chicago, Quaker or Aussie?

Image via Wikipedia

In September 2011 there will be a UN vote on an independent state for Palestine. Will the United States vote no? How do individuals effect change? Just like the people of the world did in stopping apartheid in South Africa. You can join the Global Campaign through boycott.

Chicago style you tube video says, How your shopping pays for war
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4tXe2HKqqs&feature=player_embedded

Quaker style Israeli settlement products are barriers to peace. Boycott. http://www.quaker.org.uk/settlement-produce

Australian style  Download of the manual on Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions from Australians for Palestine  http://australiansforpalestine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/bds-manual.pdf

Global style? United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 (II) Future Government of Palestine of November 29, 1947 has yet to be determined. Your actions can put Palestine on this animation of states added to the United Nations since 1946.

Life is a thin thread. Listen for the fibers breaking, The Defense Dept. does.

Due to the sudden illness of a family member's pet, I remember when my son was young he got seriously ill very fast. We were fortunate he got emergency care in time.

We were not so fortunate when another loved one committed suicide. If caring parents can miss concrete physical signs of severe illness in a young child, how many more cases of deep psychological stress that result in suicide are missed? Especially adults. Especially males. Especially in the United States Military.The suicide rate is up in all branches of the United States Armed Forces including the Coast Guard.

The United States Dept of Defense Task Force  issued a 233 page report on Aug. 23, 2010, on the Prevention of Suicide comparing suicide-relating behaviors and the suicide act to only the tip of an iceberg. For their recommendations go to
http://www.health.mil/dhb/downloads/Suicide%20Prevention%20Task%20Force%20final%20report%208-23-10.pdf

Just one example of this iceberg is the suicide rate among Army recruiters which is 3 times the overall Army suicide rate.

photo from The Truth has Changed, 4-4-11, Why are Military Recruiters Killing Themselves
 http://thetruthhaschanged.com/2011/04/04/why-are-military-recruiters-killing-themselves/ 

The source article for the post about Army recruiters suicide rate by The Truth has Changed is http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1889152,00.html#ixzz1Ic1zZlge

An Odor or a Scent?

What do you call yourself?

An Odor or a Scent?

March 26 Rally for MILLIONS AGAINST MONSANTO who want Genetically Modified Foods to be Labeled

According to Thomson Reuters Healthcare Survey in October 2010, 93% of people surveyed want GM foods labeled.  Click here for survey results.

Facebook site for Millions Against Monsanto rally on 3-26-11
http://www.facebook.com/rallyfortherighttoknow2011

In a hurry and want to ck just for local events organized by this facebook campaign go to:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=150163591710461&topic=152

Click here for Genetically Modified Foods Fact Sheet for the rally.
http://gefreebc.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/rally-gmo-fact-sheet-700.jpg

"The rally demands are:

• 1. We have the right to know and want genetically modified foods labeled.
• 2. We want factory farmed animal and genetically modified animal products labeled.
• 3. We want independent, transparent, long-term studies done on the safety of GMO’s for animals, plants and humans.
• 4. We want the organic industry protected from cross-contamination and law suits to organic farmers.

The FDA currently considers GM foods “substantially equivalent” and therefore doesn’t require labeling. There is a growing body of evidence that show:

•  Health and environmental concerns.
• Corporate control of world food and seed supplies, and monopolization through patents, government lobbying and corporate interest over human interest in all levels of government.
• Monsanto is the leader in GM patents."  

Click here for press release of rally demands.

Some interesting links

A Lesson Plan on Modified Foods.   Click here:
Why aren't GMO Foods labeled? click here: click here:

NPR. PBS...170 Million. Humanity.... 7 Billion.

NPR and PBS have an audience of 170 million. The Earth has about 7 billion people. 

Information should reflect the big picture.  Think about where you get information about the Earth and science and 7 billion people.

Nature magazine, 9-24-09, had an article, "A Safe Operating Space for Humanity" in which scientists graphically presented their big picture where news is needed.

Image from: Nature 461, 472-475 (24 September 2009) | doi:10.1038/461472a; Published online 23 September 2009. Permission to use chart registered by blog author. For info on obtaining or accessing article text please go to:  http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v461/n7263/full/461472a.html.

Where do you get your big picture?

Does NPR / PBS have to be perfect? Confused by the news about NPR and Schiller?

I am confused by recent news about NPR. Then I thought about people in general. People have opinions. Some are based in fact. Some have a lesser basis in fact. So what is the problem? Does NPR have to be perfect?

I do agree that Mr. Schiller is right in one major point - that many newspapers do have a pro-Israel or Zionist viewpoint. Otherwise how does 8 million dollars of US tax dollars a day go to Israel and this is not pointed out in the media when entitlement programs for the poor are cut?

I might not agree with some other things he said. But the point is does NPR have to be perfect?

Cannot people have opinions? With our instantaneous media hyper-focus no media can be perfect. While NPR is not perfect, it does make the attempt. This I must respect. Ask yourself how  commercial media compares in this attempt to be unbiased? I am so angry with commercial media telling me their opinion that they say is news that I must take a stand.

NPR does attempt to be balanced. It may not be perfect. But at least they attempt and try to be balanced. They may side-step issues that have big business support. But don't our legislators do the same thing? NPR doesn't have to be perfect. At least it exists and aspires to a higher standard. When I watch or read commercial news I wonder what standard they have when Martin Sheen gets more coverage than Libyan or Palestinian protestors.

Note to the media: I said protestors. Not rebels. Where did I learn that the media changes what they call the people in Libya or Palestine that want democracy? It was on NPR!

Maintain perspective in an opinionated world

I swim in a sea of opinions. How can I understand complex issues? I  know how to swim in water. But how do I swim in a world that is filled with opinions that would submerge a genius?  What is right?  What is wrong?  Who is influencing whom?  Where is the truth?

Opinions can be like the tides - wearing me down. I could float on top of the water and listen  and be carried by the waves. But then the tide carries me in its direction. But I know how to swim - how to think... So what do I do?

In this ocean of opinions I can swim underwater and dive to see what is below  and ahead of me. I can come up for air and take a look around. I can set a course for land. That land provides me with sources of information and opinion that give voice to my basic values.

Values are the islands in the oceans of opinions. Core values in human dignity require me to swim though oceans of opinions. Somewhere in this ocean of opinions there are islands for me to rest on between swims.

I have to trust that these islands, these sources of information that value human dignity exist. Some may be windswept expressing opinions on just one topic. Some may be an archipelago.  Some may be near a continent.  But these lands exist for me to rest on as I swim in oceans of opinions.

photo by Mila Zinkova, Sunset from Sutro Bath at Land's End in San Francisco, 10-17-09

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sunset_at_Land%27s_end_in_San_Francisco.jpg 

Life is So Good when you make it Center Stage.

Life is so good when you let it. Amazing when pain or stress lessens how you feel grateful. But then the new level of pain or stress again takes center stage.

I have to keep re-focusing, not just contemplating that the pain or stress is less, but move these off-stage and refocus on the center stage where I know life is so good.

Photo by Amadscientist, [Sacramento] Music_Circus_Center_Stage.jpg,  2001 from wikipedia commons

What is center stage in your thoughts,

whatever you are anchoring onto

be aware you cast the players.

You write the script.

And most importantly you are the audience.

You can create a tragedy, Pain Defined, 

or an epic, Life is So Good.

Desperate for Spring -- Eating Flowers

Spring flowers haven't sprung.  Hungry for them.
If you are too, go to this link from Johnnys Seeds blog for a video on Edible flowers:
http://growingideas.johnnyseeds.com/2011/02/video-edible-flowers.html

For what's edible and what is not see this link from What's Cooking America:
http://whatscookingamerica.net/EdibleFlowers/EdibleFlowersMain.htm

And a scolding to those dear deer who will be eating what they shouldn't....before I get to them....

"Ah You Naughty Fawn You Have Been Eating the Flowers Again." 
by Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait, Brooklyn Museum

When there is no Sun, I sprout antennae to get Some.

 
image by Anderson Batista Evangelista Lima 

Christian Science Monitor Blog discusses NPR & PBS subsidies as unfair

What is your tipping point?

The State of Michigan stopped paying my disabled neighbor's monthly Medicare hospital insurance bill of $96.50.  Her only income is her monthly $700 social security disability. The entitlement program was cut.

Is the subsidy of NPR and PBS more important than than my neighbor's entitlement? The Christian Science Monitor Mises Economic Blog says no. Read the blog:

http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Mises-Economics-Blog/2011/0215/NPR-and-PBS-subsidies-are-unfair?cmpid=ema:nws:Daily%20Auto%2002152011&cmpid=ema:nws:NjkzNjA2MzE1NgS2

Tell me your logic if you support subsidies. I won't repeat them to my neighbor.

Social justice is my tipping point. What is your tipping point? Do NPR and PBS actively seek social justice when entitlement programs to the poor are cut? Can you advocate for social justice and accept subsidies? There are so many social areas that I am concerned about that NPR and PBS have been silent about.

Again, what is your tipping point?

Monsanto & BBC & Scientist's conflict of Interest

Well, continuing the theme of why public funding of NPR & PBS might not be in the public's best interest.

The Scientist, Jonathon Jones, did a BBC article who was pro GM seeds.
The article's link is http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8789279.stm

But he did not disclose his ties to Monsanto, Bayer and BP.

Here's an link on his conflict of interest http://techrights.org/2010/07/21/conflict-of-interests-jonathan-jones/

So not everything you find on a non-profit public funded source is free of the coroner, Monsanto.

Stop the public funding of NPR and PBS. Why not?

I know so many people that are pro NPR. Thinking why should I oppose the removal of public funding of NPR & PBS when I have alternative news / information sources that are not as big as NPR. Big media = too big to see in the corners where the truth is.

People naturally oppose change. But change is good - it offers new perspectives that have been forgotten. Priorities of NPR are anti-controversial. They won't rock big business, big politicos around the world.  I don't want to do the auto-pilot of saying 'Don't take public funding away.'

Has NPR  and PBS truly challenged big business or do they report on non-big business investigations like coroner practices in Post Mortem or the federal government's lapses in veteran care and deployment? Could they or would they challenge Monsanto? How has
GM seed been engineered  without Environmental Impact Statements.

Why are FDA staff warnings ignored and why did  the FDA chief approve GM alfalfa without rigorous science? Hint: he used to work for Monsanto. . Maybe big non-profits should not be funded? 

When is the the last time you heard Monsanto and GM seeds being mentioned on NPR and PBS?  Is cute fuzzy science the safe province of PBS and NPR? Monsanto is the silent coroner killing our environment.  They were were involved with the recumbent bovine growth hormone [rGBH] and with its removed labeling. Not reporting is as guilty as pulling a silent curtain over the wrong. 

Why hasn't the dangers of GM seeds been a prime investigation by PBS and NPR? Why not  the background links of the government officials to big business like the head of the FDA and Monsanto. Clarence Thomas and Elena Kagan worked for Monsanto. See their connections and others of the USDA and Congress to Monsanto and Dupont below.*

Hey, guess I am having my own protest of sorts. Must have caught it from the sit-in protesters of mountaintop removal mining in the Governor's office in Kentucky... 

Tunisia.   Egypt. 

Change. Fear. Money. Power. Big Business. Unwatched. Should I go stand in the corner?  Dust is what gathers in corners.  The truth is in the corners.  Or coroners.  Who is watching the coroner of the environment, Monsanto?

* http://blog.friendseat.com/gm-alfalfa-approval/

http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2011/02/08/usda-favors-monsanto-over-organic-industry-consumers/

* http://www.bloggernews.net/125991

Eyesight - Cataracts Give a Different View

Image by Andrzej Barabasz, 12 June 2010, wikimedia commons, Rainbow CircularAB.jpg

Poet, Lisel Mueller in "Monet Refuses the Operation." sic cataract surgery

Doctor, you say there are no haloes
around the streetlights in Paris
and what I see is an aberration
caused by old age, an affliction.
I tell you it has taken me all my life
to arrive at the vision of gas lamps as angels,
to soften and blur and finally banish
the edges you regret I don't see,
to learn that the line I called the horizon
does not exist and sky and water,
so long apart, are the same state of being . . .

Each day is like a drifting silent leaf

then vanishes. Then Silence is alone.


Attribution: I, Beyond silence [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Some days you feel out of sync. . .

Sick with the motion
too much commotion

like these gears. . . 
vertigo of the ears

just spinning round 
and counter~round
 
Lifesickness.
Definitely not idleness.

 

from Petteri Aimonen - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Cycloidal_drive_thumb.gif

If people were flowers, what moments in their life would they blossom?

 The Painter's Honeymoon by Frederic Leighton (1864)

Topless Skull. Why topless?

Have topless skull ... 

Have moonroof ???

Give me your reason to have a topless skull

                    ,;~'             '~;,
                  ,;                     ;,
                 ;                         ;
                ,'                         ',
               ,;                           ;,
               ; ;      .           .      ; ;
               | ;   ______       ______   ; |
               |  `/~"     ~" . "~     "~\'  |
               |  ~  ,-~~~^~, | ,~^~~~-,  ~  |
                |   |        }:{        |   |
                |   l       / | \       !   |
                .~  (__,.--" .^. "--.,__)  ~.
                |     ---;' / | \ `;---     |
                 \__.       \/^\/       .__/
                  V| \                 / |V
                   | |T~\___!___!___/~T| |
                   | |`IIII_I_I_I_IIII'| |
                   |  \,III I I I III,/  |
                    \   `~~~~~~~~~~'    /
                      \   .       .   / 
                        \.    ^    ./
                          ^~~~^~~~^ 

image from comment section of Diesel Sweeties through this link: 

http://www.notcot.com/archives/2010/12/holiday-giveaway-21-diesel-swe.php 

Holiday Style. Classic. Vogue has competition.

love this.
http://ny-image2.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.152303862.jpg

From Kelly Lynne's facebook collection

http://www.facebook.com/index.php?lh=e2d51b267d51105a3281c2deb5579e38&eu=FyScavjfgJyPzd68jYqc6g#!/album.php?profile=1&id=108738416103

Sleep renews the soul

Image via Wikipedia

When you think of basic functioning what do you need most? Treasure most?

Among the most needed is restful sleep. When your head gears are whirring they need time to cool down and let the grit settle.

Remember the peace you felt on having a morning to sleep in  and not have the brain have to hit  the accelerator as soon as your eyes opened. When the day gets bumpy and the gears are not meshing TAKE THE TIME JUST TO RECONNECT WITH THAT FEELING AND THE SENSATIONS THAT SURROUND IT.

Value yourself enough to find your music box throughout the day. Crawl into it when the daily head noise is too loud and unwind. Raw thoughts kink up the gears. Accelerators are meant to go on and OFF.

Group Resilience

You must read this blog:
http://positivepsychologynews.com/news/dave-shearon/200905172044

It describes a group resilience example from the book, Joker One, by Lt. Donovan Campbell. I don't want to summarize it. The article is too dramatic for me to limit the message.  All the more reason to form deep connections. We do need group resilience for survival. Got to get some buddies to cover my ____.

Campbell, D. (2009). Joker One: A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage, Leadership, and Brotherhood. New York: Random House.
Note: the book link has a video of Lt. Campbell.

What to do with Pain? When it is not just a 'Pain in the Ass.'

Image via Wikipedia

I am not a good physical therapy patient. When each step hurts so much more after physical therapy I wonder if physical therapy is worth it. I am asking if I am doing more damage versus building stronger support muscles like the therapist says. Even with taking increasing doses of  pain management drugs [gabapentin, a anticonvulsant] the pain is worsening... getting sharper like the joint is on fire. What do I need to do when it is not just a 'Pain in the Ass?"

Related articles

• Physical Therapy Exercises to Ease Arthritis Pain (brighthub.com)

Why do we ask " Why"? Happy people do NOT ask "WHY?" Or do they?

When things happen in my life I am always asking "Why?"

Why do we ask "Why?"? 

What benefit does it give us that we need to ask that question? That little three-letter word. The people I know from Alanon and AA say that the happiest people have zero expectations. These PEOPLE DO NOT ASK "Why?"

Do I have too many expectations?  Absolutely!    Do I have too many questions? Absolutely!

Ok. Guess my overthink is in overdrive. Or maybe I'm just a closet philosopher... When  I pose the question of 'Why?' I am asking eternal questions that have no answers. Why do we need answers?  Opps. Another Why. I cannot get away from asking Why.

Is this just another excuse to overthink? I named my dog, LetGo, hoping his name would remind me to let go of my thoughts. But why let go? Opps. Another Why. Why do we seek answers. Gosh. Am I stuck on Why!

I like answers. Guess that is why I keep asking questions. I have always presumed that the normal folks didn't ask Why. They already had the answers. Now why is that? Opps. Am I a broken record?

Well, part of my thinking process is that I actually 'HEAR' myself thinking. Yep. I am talking to myself. So if I am thinking aloud to myself I am actually talking to myself. And when people talk they ask a lot of questions. Asking questions, asking "Why?" is this the norm or not the norm?  Hmm...

When you are thinking are you talking to yourself? Do you hear your own voice speaking? Where is the cognitive psychologist when you need her or him? Do I talk too much to myself? Is this really my 'overthink'? Wish I knew how other people described their thinking process.

If there is anyone out there in blogland, give a comment on your WHYs... and if you talk to yourself. Seems like I am just an echo. Any echoes out there?

Until I hear any replies I am definitely needing to unwind in my music box tonight. Will the music ever stop? 

?

 ** Below has some interesting comments on mental clutter. Nice to hear how other people think. 
 * Interesting. This site says 'thinking over' vs my 'overthink.' But I do think this link has 'overthunk'.

Related articles

• 101 Important Questions To Ask Yourself in Life (celestinechua.com) *
• Question of the week - mental clutter (takechargesolutions.org)  **
 

Flowers are crying with frost tears. S.A.D. The jewelry box of flowers is closing. Heigh Ho.

Image via Wikipedia

With frost comes sadness. True tears are like the frost on the petals. What does this mean? Could it be flowers are alive and now they are dying. No. It for me is the loss of color and form. Flowers and leaves provide visual creative form that I thrive on.

But what is amazing is that roses burst forth in blossom before the final freeze. Summer builds to a crescendo into the fall flame of colors.

If you have Seasonal Affective Disorder the last blooms are a depressive trigger that the dark time is coming. You sleep later. You are more pensive. You treasure the last jewels of every flower and leaf color and form.

The jewelry box of flowers is closing. I guess that is why I have been looking at my music box as more inviting for the winter snuggle. There are less cat whiskers to climb into my music box with. Even the cats are huddling in and holding their whiskers tighter.

The music box's tune is Heigh Ho from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This sustains me when the loss of the flowers cries like a loon on the lifeless glass lake.

There would be less to unwind of my day's frustrations in the music box if I could have flowers everyday.

Click here for the song & animation of Heigh Ho.

 Related articles

• Seasonal affective disorder - All Information (umm.edu) with many links. great resource w/videos on health topics.
• Seasonal Affective Disorder: Real Solutions to a Real Problem (fyiliving.com)