What A (Good) Day

I'm having a super productive day, on only 3 hours' sleep last night.  WTF?  I only hope I don't crash when I'm out on my dinner date tonight.  That would not be good.

Take a look at these two.  From what I could tell, they are father and son.  I try not to judge, really I do, but mostly I can't help myself.  So I do it anyway and then tell myself I'm not being very nice.

Really.  Can you imagine passing on this butt ugly fashion trend to your own child?  I may have harmed my child in numerous ways, but at least she knows how to dress in public.  Most of the time.

So, the sleep thing.  I just wouldn't fall asleep.  I was awake until 3:30 a.m. and had an 8:00 a.m. appointment.  I treated myself afterwards to a soy latte at Temple Coffee, and stayed there to drink it.  The coffee table had some doodle books on them so I opened one up and was delighted by what I found.  All kinds of creativity and inspiration!  I wish people's comments on inter net news sites were as positive and productive.  People get so nasty and negative.  But this book, oh whoa, it was a joy to look at!  I left feeling fully caffeinated and uplifted by the drawings and writings of strangers.

I then gathered the cans, bottles, and glass together and headed out to the recycling center.  I've found one very close to our house, which is fabulous because normally I drive out to hell and back to get the job done.  So, with $14 more in my pocket I headed to Taylor's to get a very yummy veggie sandwich on wheat (aren't I being skillful today?) and drove on to the car wash.  I was sitting there eating my oh-so-healthy sandwich when I spotted these guys. 

Where are the fashion police when you need them?

Educational Models for the 21st Century

This is going to be a meaty post, if you're up for it.  It involves three 18 minute videos.  My class yesterday viewed three TED talks and discussed the ideas presented.  All three involved education of the masses (children) and suggest a very different learning paradigm than the one we all grew up with -- and technology actually really helps lead the way.  Really.  I was fascinated, truly.  And inspired.  Then again, I think it would take a bloody miracle for the educational system to catch up and make changes that would excite student learning.  What do you think?  Don't be put off by the time it takes to watch these, both gentlemen are extremely engaging and funny, despite the seriousness of the subject.  You'll be laughing your way through these.


-->

The Gifts of Imperfection

From Brene Brown's book, a very though-provoking bit of words that bolster my own thinking over the last several years since early retirement:

The same gremlins that tells us we're too busy to play and waste time fooling around are the ones that whisper:

• One more hour of work!  You can catch up on your sleep this weekend.
• Napping is for slackers
• Push through. You can handle it.

But the truth is, we can't handle it.  We are a nation of exhausted and overstressed adults raising over scheduled children.  We use our spare time to desperately search for joy and meaning in our lives.  We think accomplishments and acquisitions will bring joy and meaning, but that pursuit could be the very thing that's keeping us so tired and afraid to slow down.

Making the choice to rest and play is, at best, counterculture.  The decision to let go of exhaustion and productivity as badges of honor made total sense...to me....

What if we're normal and quiet and happy? Does that count?
I guess the answer to this is only yes if it counts to us.  If what matters to us is what we're concerned about, then play and rest is important.  If what matters to us is what other people think of say or value, then it's back to exhaustion and producing for self-worth.  Today, I choose play and rest.

I'm with you, Ms. Brown.  I like to envision a nation where more people adopted this style of living, where calm and stillness are practices to be inspired by.  Where how many cell phones, laptops, ipads and other devices are not indicative of how busy and important you are.  Working 7 days a week is insane and inhuman.  Yet many people to do this to "get ahead" in their organization.  But really, does your organzation need your talents if you are burned to a crisp from stress?

I know people who brag about going to work when they are very ill -- look how tough I am, look how valuable to the company I am.  I risk my health and well-being to serve these people in order to advance in the group.  This is some kind of craziness, if you ask me.

What a different place this country would be if we all put the breaks on, and public service announcements encouraged napping, spending time with friends and family, and showcased playtime as admirable attributes to a life well-lived.

American Hero

Last night we watched The Unseen Alister Cooke.  A beautifully constructed biography of a man who packed a lot of good living into his 95 years.  An endlessly curious man, a man called by one of his college teachers, "not a first rate man.  A clever careerist."  Whatever that means.  As a child, I watched Mr. Cooke as he appeared weekly introducing Masterpiece Theater episodes.  A witty man with heaps of knowledge that he eloquently shared.  But still.  An old codger.   (Youth, it is wasted on the young.) I knew nothing of his "Letters from America" or his early career.  I was reminded, though, of his brilliant series, "Allister Cooke's America" which was a big hit here and abroad in the 1970s.  I must have watched at least some of it, because the mention of it sparked a memory or two in my dusty old brain.

He was a man who followed his passions for jazz, the American West,  film making and broadcasting.  Revealing little of himself, he showed us the American life that he loved so well, and the national zeitgeist that motivated him to become a citizen.

I didn't know that he was with Bobby Kennedy the night he was shot.  He was, crowded into that hotel kitchen, watching the life flow out of his beloved Robert who he tirelessly campaigned for. 

He and his wife lived for 58 years in a Manhattan apartment that overlooked Central Park.  His family scattered his ashes there (a very amusing story, that) when he died 4 weeks after his last radio broadcast of "Letters from America." I was quite touched by the man and his life, and his children, who gave fond but unsentimental accounts of their father in the film. 

If you get a chance to see the biography, I highly recommend it.  

Christopher Hitchens

I've never read any of his writings.  Now I think I should.  I did watch him on many a show, debating and arguing and generally getting the jump on everyone in the room.  His intellect was astounding and I often got left behind in the dust as he went galloping off with the true thinkers and conversationalists.  I post this video, and the CNN story on his life, in hopes that you too might be inspired to pick up a Hitchens book. 



Here's another good clip from a Charlie Rose interview.

Obscenities

The AP reports that six banks have repurchased investments the government made under TARP, paying a total of $626 million including dividends. This was reported by the Treasury Department on Dec. 29, 2010.

With the latest payments, repayments by financial institutions under the Troubled Asset Relief Program now total $235 billion, with an additional $35 billion in income from dividends, interest, and the sale of other securities. The Treasury Department released a total $389 billion under TARP, created at the height of the financial crisis in October 2008.

And now I'm reading stories about big spending going on with the fat cats in the Wall St. banking and investment industry. Like nuttin' ever happened. Cars that cost $175,000. A house rental for one month at $200,000. WTF? It's not as if they've met their financial obligations to us, the taxpayer.

Banks and financial institutions still owe the Treasury about $155 billion in bailout money. So, when's that coming? Surely before any more bonuses, right guys? Guys? GUYS?!!

And that other obscenity devoted to excess, the Oprah show and it's holiday giveaways. Please. In light of all that is wrong, broken and dying in our country right now, her giveaways just want to make me cry. Instead of fancy diamond watches and designer footwear, how about feeding the hungry and lifting the unemployed out of joblessness? Ralph Lauren Long Sleeve Cashmere Sweater and Cashmere Cable Throws? Costing $1,1000? $1,000 to customize your closet? Really? For the full list of excess, see here.

I'm with the Good Rev. Billy: JUST STOP SHOPPING. In addition to buying a lot of crap you don't need, to impress people you don't like, all this junk will end up in a land-fill you don't want in your backyard. Where will all this excess go when we are bored with it or it has become last season's style? Hint: it goes somewhere here on our tiny earth. And someday, in a community near you, it will all come back and bite us in the ass.

Light

Oh, little tree, stripped bare of your lovely gifts, your Christmas task completed for one more year.  You have carried on the tradition started by an associate of Thomas Edison who created the first tiny colored lights that we use to adorn you.  He hung them on his tree, and the neighbors were amazed.

Time, technology and the desires of humankind now produces quite a different electric light show from those humble beginnings in 1882.

Every day folks have turned outdoor displays into year-long hobbies -- costing thousands of dollars in material and electrical expertise.

I'm partial to the luminaria - the simplicity of sand, paper bag, and candle.  The innocence of the flickering flame casting shadows and light from inside the bag.  It's a quiet light, a primitive light, a light that connects me to simpler, more elegant elements.

In either case, lights in the dark of winter have called to man since time began.  We seek it, we hunger for it, we celebrate the coming of the light with the light.

Fiat Lux.

Move Over Old Dog (Cause A New Dog's Moving In)

Photo by Donald Rossini, Permission by Mel Holloway

Rich Benjamin writes, "That "Muslim" and "socialist" are the country's two reigning scarlet slanders speaks volumes about the psyche behind this cultural war." John Avlon nails Beck on his hypocrisy.

To get the 'other side' I went to Fox News and have to say, I was so sickened by what I saw there I lost heart and had to click off - fast. I want to know why this organization gets to call itself a news organization. My disgust led me to News Hounds: We Watch Fox so You Don't Have To, and Alex's post. Great website and one I'll be returning to. Check out the comments after Alex's post: very thoughtful and intelligent. What a relief.

So, it is obvious we are, and have been, in the throes of a culture war in this country for the past 30 years (probably longer). The story is as old as the hills: the new immigrants to the U.S. are always the villains: Germans, Italians, Irish, Chinese, Mexican and Latin Americans. Those strange christians who believe that only descendants of England (one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel) are true Americans (never mind the rest of the Americas, apparently), are having their world turned upside down by all these inferior types. The dominant culture is changing, and someday soon it won't be overwhelmingly white. Their fear is driving them, with hate and bigotry being the natural outcome. As someone near and dear to me has said, "I am the dominant culture, dammit! And I expect to stay that way!" In all earnestness. And not a religious zealot, either.

Oh. My.

Turning Points

Isabelita celebrates her little sister's 55th birthday.

My daughter gets married.

My daughter gets born.

A friend passes from this world.

Another friend gets a serious diagnosis.

I realize that I really do like women, in that way, more than men.

I find out I have diabetes and that my pancreas is not producing insulin.

Our President is assainated.

Reagan is elected to the presidency and I think moving to Austrailia is the only answer.

Dementia has well and truly taken over a friend's mind, and will not get better.

I lie on the warm asphalt of a busy city street, my knee shattered.

I'm eating dinner with my mom and husband and realize I have a days-old human being sleeping in the other room, and I am completely responsible for her very survival.

I step off a curb in 1989 and watch the parking lot roll like a turbulent sea.

The Wife and I are married at City Hall in San Francisco, joining thousands of other same-sex couples in a defiant act of love.

The list goes on and on....

That Infamous Liberal Bias

The idiots out their are killin' me. The GOP becomes more lunatic fringe every day. The stuff they say and do.

I'm grateful for the reporting of Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, Ezra Klein (Washington Post), Chris Hayes (The Nation), and Eugene Robinson (Washington Post). They brilliantly expose the lies and agenda of the GOP, The Tea Party and FOX News (I use the term "news" lightly).

This video is a little tedious, but the guy does compare the educational level of 'liberal' journalists v. 'conservative.' Big surprise: the more education, the more liberal your world view. I know that sounds elitist. But it's also the facts. Deal with it.

Rest In Peace, Mary Daly

Laugh or Cry?

CBS Sunday Morning is a show I used to watch a lot: good stories, variety, little known factoids. I haven't seen it in awhile, but in browsing the CBS website (remember, I won that Flip camera?) I stumbled upon this. I am truly caught betwixt and between lauging and crying. In any case, quite a commentary on our culture.



Watch CBS Videos Online

Do I Have the Courage of my Convictions?

Go to Agitadiaries right now.  You'll be in for an eloquent but bumpy ride.  This post, on the heels of watching Jon Stewart's interview with Douglas Feith, is powerful.

Grateful Dead Historic Donation

Ya heard it here first, folks, the Grateful Dead are donating a huge archive to UC Santa Cruz. Watch the Dead's 11:00 a.m. (Pacific Time) PRESS CONFERENCE from the Fillmore.

How fitting. Where else but the land of tie-dye, 4/20 festivals and proud aging hippies? Cool.

Shameless Movie Plug

"For years, storyteller Garrison Keillor has ruled the public radio airwaves with his broadcasts from a fictional Minnesota town called Lake Wobegon. And woes do disappear for viewers thanks to this show, which documents a live performance of the series at the Fitzgerald Theater. With its mix of delightful vignettes, compelling tales, entertaining musical performances and Keillor's sonorous voice, A Prairie Home Companion never fails to charm."

Not to be confused with the 2006 Robert Altman film, which was also very enjoyable, this 2004 documentary is deeeeelightful! I don't think it was the martini that put an ear-to-ear grin on my face or got me up out of my chair to clap and sway - and sing along - on "The Lighthouse." N. ordered this disc from Netflix just for me (she's not a fan) it was the centerpiece to a satisfying evening: thick fog blowing in off the bay, fire blazing in the hearth, leftover lunch of chicken curry, a dry Sapphire martini (two olives), and dogs lounging and stretching in front of the crackling fire while working the marrow out of their butcher bones. I'm going to watch this movie again before returning it. I could even purchase a copy.

I haven't listened to the radio show in years (never around when its on) but now I want to again. Hmmm...is it still on the air? The show works on so many levels: entertainment, inspiration, human pathos, art & culture, nostalgia and a good dose of irony. It works for sentimental oldsters, cynical mid-life crisis victims, and innocent children alike. It's as American as apple pie and Lenny Bruce.

Let the light of this Lighthouse shine on you!