Our May staff meeting was held at the lovely home of our boss, Thomas J. Pope. He invited us over so that he could "cook breakfast" for us, however it quickly became apparent that, if we actually wanted to eat, we were going to have to do the cooking... but it was yummy and Thomas was an excellent host.
Click on Thomas' picture to link to page with photos from our meeting...
On the news recently was a very brief story about an "anarchists" convention, and at that convention people with drugs and guns were banned from entrance.
Anarchists stand for equality and elimination of hierarchy. How is there no hierarchy when someone(s) decide who can and cannot attend, or what items individuals are allowed to bring in? I am afraid their philosophy is far too complex for me to understand....
If you click on the red and black symbol it will take you to a site with multiple links to anarchist writings, such as: More generally, in the words of L. Susan Brown, the "unifying link" within anarchism "is a universal condemnation of hierarchy and domination and a willingness to fight for the freedom of the human individual." [The Politics of Individualism, p. 108] For anarchists, a person cannot be free if they are subject to state or capitalist authority.
On 5/31/02 several of us gathered on the deck of the Woodfire Grill
for Happy Hour, in celebration of ...
We all know the dangers of "coke", but a reminder is always good...
COKE:
1. In many of the states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the trunk to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.
2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of Coke and it will be gone in two days.
3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coke into the toilet bowl and let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.
4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca Cola.
5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coke over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.
6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Apply a cloth soaked in Coke to the rusted bolt for several minutes.
7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coke into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.
8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of Coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.
FOR YOUR INFO:
1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase to osteoporosis.
2. To carry Coca Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for highly corrosive materials.
3. The distributors of Coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years.
NOW THE QUESTIONS IS, WOULD YOU LIKE A GLASS OF WATER OR COKE?
Well, for me, COKE or PEPSI, yes, either one, diet, please.
Happiness comes through doors you didn't even know you left open.
On Memorial Day Weekend the Everett office got out of its cubicles, played softball and had a picnic. We invited DCFS but they were scared, didn't show up and forfeited the game...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAT KAPELA!!!
It is Pat's birthday this week, although she is very secretive about it and we are unsure of the exact date...
We love her and her company- Have a Good Year Girl!
Time marches on and, thus, the speeding clock at right... perhaps part of the reason Pat is not letting us in on her Birthday. The Rolling Stones said that "time, time , time is on our side, yes it is", but I think time is a mixed bag, in that it does really suck as we watch our bodies age and some of our options diminish, yet the alternative, of not experiencing the onward march of time, is not attractive either- perhaps we have little control of the basic parameters of this ride we are on... Take Care.
"Good sex is like Bridge- if you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand."- Mae West
Yes, The Abundantly Quotable Mae West... Click on her picture to go to a sight about her... which relates: "Mae West was born on August 17, 1893, in Brooklyn, New York. She was a promising child star in Vaudeville, gaining an incredible knowledge of comedic techniques. As she grew older, she began writing plays of her own, one of which is notable for the scandal surrounding it (she was arrested) as well as for the time in which it was made. After all, how often do you hear of a play called "SEX" running in 1926. But this was typical audacity for Mae West."
Currently there is a play about her showing in Seattle, Dirty Blonde, reviewed by Barbara Bizilia and found to be "thumbs up"...
This is an interesting world we live in, constantly providing us with challenges to understand ourselves through our contact with others. Last week the Massai of Kenya gave a gift to the United States of 14 cattle- a very dear, dear gift from them since their cattle are sacred. They had just learned two weeks ago of the 9/11 trajedy, because they are very isolated, and were so moved that they gave us this incredibly generous gift, an outpouring of complete caring for others.
The United States accepted the gift, then said they were not sure they could accept it because of the cost of transporting the cattle back to the U.S., but now have decided to indeed accept the gift, although they are not sure where the cattle will go.
Human's are indeed an interesting species, and there appears to be hope for us, afterall...
All pictures link to a Kodak site with photographs by Liz Gilbert.
For this segment I am combining two topics that at first glance appear to be unconnected, well, actually, maybe they are and seem related only to me...
I saw the currently running movie "About A Boy" recently and liked it a lot. It is a romantic comedy with some surprising depth in that the character played by Hugh Grant learns to connect to others and in the process becomes a more mature human being and learns to connect to himself. If you click on the picture to the left it will take you to a commmercial site about the movie.
The local PBS station here is again running the Bill Moyers series of interviews with Joseph Campbell from 15 years ago as part of their fund raising efforts. The series is always good to watch and listen to, each time revealing something that you did not catch before. Joe Campbell died shortyly after the interviews. His insight into human mythology is astounding and the breadth of his knowledge is no less than remarkable.
Joe speaks of mythology over the ages and the metaphors for life that they represent, lamenting that "people are dying for metaphors"- even more true today. He talks about the "mystery of the source of your own being" and of spirituality as "the bouquet of life". In one segment they talked about the mythology of love and the changes in the 12th century about the idea of love between two individuals that was brought/promoted by the trubadors. Before that time love was thought of as something for everyone, like love thy neighbor, and of course marriages were arranged and not the product of individual love, and eros was sexual but it was separate from love. That was all interesting, but what struck me was his interpretation that this was a spiritual evolution of mankind, that the ability to connect individually with another in a more profound way that was a joining of souls was a growth in the awareness of humanity, to connect deeply with the other. He spoke of the joy and pain of love and that it is the "suffering that evokes the compassion of the human heart".
"God is a thought... but his reference is to something that transcends thought."- Joseph Campbell
"And where we have thought to be alone,
we will be with all the world."- Joseph Campbell
I like old Joe Campbell a lot; click on the "Awaken" banner below to go to a Joseph Campbell Foundation site.
In these days of unusual tensions, what with the worry of balancing safeguarding our freedoms against safeguarding our country, some measures do seem a bit extreme... yes.
June 2002 Bishops' Meeting
Last week there was a big Catholic Bishop's Conference in Dallas, Texas. What an extremely difficult task they had before them- deciding how many times a priest can sexually molest a child before they can no longer be a priest- a much more difficult question than some of us lowly non-men-of-God would have imagined...
(Yes, I am being sarcastic...)
CLICK ON THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS LOGO/SIGN ABOVE-
IT WILL TAKE YOU TO THEIR SITE...
Sometimes it seems easier to hide our heads... denial is a potent escape mechanism, but ineffective in the long run.
One time I had a very depressed, elderly gentleman on my caseload. He had chronic back pain but that did not explain his melancholy, although it fairly quickly became apparent that he was also overwhelmed with grief at the death of his wife a few years earlier. He simply did not respond to antidepressant medications or group therapy.
One day I met with him and he told me the story of how his wife had gotten ill and had to go to a nursing home. He missed her so very, very much that he admitted himself there also. After a while his wife died and yet for the next several years, until now, he had chosen to remain at the nursing home even though he did not need that kind of care. He had been a diligent saver and despite having been only a blue collar worker he had amassed enough savings to privately pay for several years of nursing facility care.
This lovely man cried as he told me how he and his wife were very good friends with another couple- that he and his wife had talked often of how foolish that couple was, spending money on cruises, vacations and gifts for each other. And then the secret pain came out, as he said to me "there are so many things my wife and I could have done and enjoyed together, but now she is dead and all of our money has gone to pay for a nursing home the government would have paid for anyway...".
He did slowly begin to connect to others a little before leaving our care. The memory of that interaction with him serves as one of the reminders that life has given to me, to not catch myself simply looking through the window at life, waiting to experience the joys of love and friendship "later", when there is time or when there is money. I have too often seen that "later" never comes, that life often writes a different chapter in our book, different from the one that we had planned. Be with your friends, love like there is no tomorrow, have a racoon tea party... this is life today- c'est la vie.
Regret for things we did
can be tempered by time;
it is regret for the things we did not do
that is inconsolable.
- Syndney J. Harris
"Don't cry because it's over:smile because it happened."
"They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them." -(both from emails Carol has sent me)
Things have been very unsettled at work, many people are feeling like there is no justice to be had working in the public sector... but they have stood for what they believe is right, and that is good.
Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile
I caught hell for. - Earl Warren
Music: Click on Lips Page Created June 2002 |
