Shared Air

Years ago i wrote a piece called Shared Air, i wrote it like poetry in prose. So bear with me it was my first attempt.

i’m reproducing part of it here to establish a premise that i develop further on.  i hope this will resonate with some.

Shared Air

Look closely there are divers

One never knows when the perfect diver, one who is inexperienced, one who breaths heavily, will be found lurking amongst the coral.  Unaware of one swimming above, the diver stays focused on the underworld, inside the water-world, consumed by the liquid.  The diver exists in a vacuum never realizing someone above, someone floating above them on the surface of the water, has stopped.

Breathing is shared, but only the one above knows about the sharing.  The inexperienced one below breaths quickly, in nervous bursts, using up air, but needing more to calm the senses.  Above, the swimmer hovers, feeling excited, while she waits for the breath to reach her.  Will there be enough?

The swimmer watches and follows.  The diver looks and experiences and breaths.  With each breath the bubbles take shape and ascend to the surface to surround and massage the swimmers entire being.

The swimmer knows she is stealing a part of the life of the unknown diver but she doesn’t care.  She can participate with the diver’s life breath in a way the diver never can.  All around her is silence.  The breath encased in bubbles of all sizes burst upon contact with the swimmer.

The swimmer doesn’t need the air to survive, she needs it to sooth.  To envelope her for a moment in a world that knocks at all her senses, a private world shared but not known by those that participate.

The swimmer knows if she follows she can be completely encased in bursting bubbles.  No other world exists at this moment except the bubbles and the exhilarating feel of them on her body.  Severing the tie to the diver jolts her out of her reverie.  She doesn’t want to break away.

 How do we help establish an oasis for conditions that could create decent living for a greater majority of people around the world and here at home?

Can self interest prevailing over community be the answer?  We have just spent three decades trying this tact.

People who have forgotten how to share, who think only of themselves, will never provide a venue for the advancement of others or even themselves.  The world created from this model leaves a cold hard reality that many in America have yet to come to grips with, but will have to if we continue down this path.

Why is it that the EU, which has a larger population than the US, has a higher standard of living, longer life expectancies, provides universal health care and a safety gap for the unemployed, is so successful; why don’t they have homeless people crowding their cities and why is their economy doing better than ours?

What are we doing wrong? And why don’t we examine and emulate their methods?  They are investing in themselves to our detriment. Even Asia is investing in themselves.  All of them seem to be working with a vision of the future that they are striving to achieve, whereas we have no vision.

We see this today with the state of our economy.  Self interest has institutionalized a chaotic economic machine that no longer works for the majority of the nation.  If we continue spiraling along this path we will soon see more of every part of society on the streets and on the skids.  Elderly pushing their shopping carts filled with all their belongings, families sleeping in tents on sidewalks, single men and women scrambling for whatever low paying jobs they can find to keep them in their cars another day.  Where do we see this country going? What is our vision for the future?

An empty vision

The past thirty years have shown that the “free market” is not the answer.  We have sold or moved all our industries off shore, we have gambled away our industrial base. We have become dependent upon other nations for everything we need to survive, including making war.  All our basic necessities come from somewhere else, our food, our clothing, our energy, our bullets.  We don’t even control the quality of the products we consume and use anymore. We have become failures at providing for ourselves, and wasn’t that our mantra, “Providing for Ourselves?”

The Republicans offer only their standard prescription of tax cuts for the rich, a rollback of more regulations on predatory corporations, war and elimination of the social safety net which includes Social Security and Medicare.

This is a proven prescription for further job loss and devastation of the middle class.  Is this what our vision of the future is?

We are a service society; we know how to consume and not much else. We have stopped investing here at home.  We are letting the nation self destruct.  Our priorities have become skewed in favor of wars that kill and maim, corporations that use high profits as an excuse for offshoring jobs, and a failure to take care of our environment.  We would rather invest in the military than invest in our nation. We would rather give tax cuts than invest in our infrastructure, schools and public services. We have lost focus and are starting to crumble.

Ivan Illich once said, “True learning can only be the leisurely practice of free people.  In the consumer society we are either prisoners of addiction or prisoners of envy.  Only without addiction or envy, only without educational goals, in freedom can we enjoy true learning.”

Where is the wisdom and learning?  How do we teach comity and community and conscience to the unformed many?

i’m a citizen of St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands.  The core of my existence has been here.  So the values and personal interactions with others has more of a small town aspect rather than the anonymity of a big city.

All those we don't know

Unlike the cities, people here have the time and inclination to share their lives with others.  We have the tools to create an oasis for decent living.  Here people still share, people still work together to find ways to better the life experience for all, we haven't given up, we keep trying to make life better for those less well off.

We can participate in each other’s lives with out acknowledgment from anyone.  We can affect and be affected by those we don’t know in positive ways.  Shutting the doors to that possibility leaves all of us vulnerable to a chaotic world none of us will enjoy.  As we move towards a different world and develop a vision for the future let us think about all of us, not just ourselves.

2010 Gift Wrapped

A Great Egret came to visit

Geeze, i’ve just spent way too much time perusing the net looking for positive feedback on this year, 2010.  

Looking for good news was a struggle and much harder than i thought it would be; i know that good news doesn't sell but the pursuit left me feeling so thwarted that i’m going to make up my own past year of positives, interspersed with the few i could find.   

All the good news must be on the last pages at the end of thousands of bad news events in Google search.  See if you can determine which ones are true and which are false.







First off, scientists have discovered that the oil will never run out and there is no need to plan for a world without it.

The Chilean Miners were rescued…WhooHaaaaa

Coal is clean, never again will it darken your hands, or dirty your air.

Global warming, who made up that name?  Scientists have declared that all those unusual weather events happening all over the world are a figment of your imagination, more hurricanes, rain, snow, wind and mudslides are good for the environment and won’t damage the world as we know it.

Unemployment plummeted, jobs are a dime a dozen.

The San Francisco Giants won the World Series...Yee Haaaaa


Liberals and Conservatives have agreed to compromise.

We are safe.  Fighting the terrorists over there has made us completely safe and worry free.  Rejoice.

The BP oil spill has done wonders for the environment.  Fish populations are increasing, birds are thriving and oil in your diet will improve your health. 

Wetlands and beaches along the Gulf coast are enjoying the nutrients from the oil and dispersant's; making your time there that much better, tourism is booming.

A birding pond being taken over by an invasive plant

No hurricanes hit St. Croix

New Study Proves Fox News makes you stupid

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repealed

Health Care and Child Nutrition Bills Passed

BP plugs well in the Gulf.

Most people’s stock portfolio’s have recovered since 2007, of course if you sold, tough luck.

Spain won the World Cup

All those who don’t believe won’t get to heaven; they won’t get to hell either.

If we don’t stay in Afghanistan and Iraq we will loose the whole world.

Coral Vine

Lowering taxes on the rich will make them keep their corporations in the US and not offshore the jobs.

All those believing Muslims are terrorists are granfalloons and proud of it.  Its Us versus Them and don’t you forget it.

Reducing property taxes won’t, i repeat won’t affect schools, emergency services, or police response times.

We are proud to be turned into a third world country, we are doing the world a favor by off shoring jobs, ignoring climate change, reducing taxes, and failing to invest in ourselves.

Ignoring haters and fear mongers makes you healthy, wealthy and wise.

START treaty ratified.

Are you happy now that you have read the list of positives we enjoyed in 2010?
Sharing good news with others increases the perceived value of those events, especially when others respond enthusiastically, and that enthusiastic responses to shared good news promote the development of trust and a prosocial orientation toward the other. Studies have found consistent support for these effects across both interactions with strangers and in everyday close relationships.
Source: "Are you happy for me? How sharing positive events with others provides personal and interpersonal benefits." from J Pers Soc Psychol. 2010 Aug;99(2):311-29.

Even dumps are beautiful at sunrise

Happy Holidays to All, And to All a Good Day.

 

St. Croix Boat Parade

Gathering for Boat Parade

Tomorrow is a big day in Washington DC.  Veterans for Peace will be leading a silent march after listening to important speakers like Daniel Ellsberg(Pentagon Papers), Ray McGovern(retired-CIA) and Mike Prysner (Iraq vet and cofounder of March Forward!) among others; to make a stand for peace.  Basically they are asking Americans all across the nation to ask themselves an important question.

 That question is "how the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and the expanding war in Pakistan has affected the economy at home."

Their focus is to connect the dots between our faltering economy and the ongoing wars that are draining the treasury. 

The march is to be non-violent and led by Veterans.  It is being billed as the largest U.S. veteran-led civil resistance to war.

Santa arriving for Boat Parade

"During the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King called our government “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” Why is it so few Americans ever consider the kind of damage we inflict daily?

"There are children being orphaned, maimed or killed every day, in our name, with our tax dollars; there are soldiers and civilians dying or being maimed for life, in order to generate profits for the most odious imperialistic corporate war machine ever, again in our name. How long are we going to let this go on? Until it is too late, until this destructive machine destroys all of us and the planet to boot?" Welcome to Stop These Wars.

Hotel on the Cay looked so pretty while waiting for the parade

Margaret Flowers a pediatrician has a piece up today(http://www.stopthesewars.org/?p=363) that asks everyone at the end of her piece to take a stand and speak out. 

"However, in these times, it is more important than ever that we do speak out. To be silent is to be complicit. We must not be complicit. We must stand together strongly on the side of justice so that one day justice will prevail."

Boat Parade

Another writer asks why the wars are not being debated as part of the deficit reduction conversations. Dan Kovalik claims there is a deafening silence about the wars in the media and elsewhere when it comes to the deficit.  Reducing Medicare and looking into Social Security which affects all our seniors is given higher billing than the on-going wars.  Why is this he asks?

Fireworks after Parade

So today I'm speaking out.  It is time we talked more as a nation about our goals and aspirations.  How do you spread freedom?  How do you spread peace?  So far, after 9 years of war, neither Iraq nor Afghanistan exhibit either freedom or peace.  Maybe it is time to reconsider what we are doing in the world.  Maybe it is time to discuss the wars we are financing with our tax dollars?

Quotes i love

For a few weeks i’ve been cleaning and painting the inside of the house.  Must be that blog i wrote last week about cleaning up.  All around the computer i’ve had little bits and pieces of paper taped on to the book shelf that have quotes i love written on them.  Many times while contemplating some problem i read them for inspiration. i took them all down last week but couldn’t part with them.  My computer area looks clean but barren.

Some of us are drawn to sentences and passages that relate to our lives; quotes for me, bible passages for the religious, philosophical treatises, or just great writing that spoke to some part of our being that we couldn't express but the writer could. The language connects with what’s alive in all of us; it speaks to some core belief we have within us and can help motivate or bring peace during turbulent times.  It can be a language of freedom and joy that comes from a middle path.  These quotes that i like are not meant to take sides; they are just reflections that may guide any of us down the path to peace.

Stories and quotes matter, they are the glue that lead us to kindness and unity, that teach us that we are all part of a greater whole.

i have a magnet with my favorite quote that sits on the refrigerator, that one will never be put away and here it is at the top of the list.

The most wasted of all days is one without LAUGHTER.  e.e.cummings

A drop in the ocean partakes of the greatness of its parent, although it is unconscious of it. But it is dried up as soon as it enters upon an existence independent of the ocean.  We do not exaggerate when we say that life is a mere bubble.  Gandhi

The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?  Thoreau

Fr ail dire e il fare c’e di mezzo il mare.

The sea is between saying and doing something.

The one who gives up cultivating the moral force when no instant effect can be seen is like one who farms but would not tend to the weeds.  Mencius

I don’t know why I did it, I don’t know why I enjoyed it, and I don’t know why I’ll do it again.  Socrates.

He who is led by fear, and does good in order to escape evil, is not led by reason.

Spinoza

A free man thinks of death least of all things; and his wisdom is a meditation not of death but of life.  Spinoza

Happiness is the patient acceptance of the inevitable.  Spinoza

What would you do if you knew you could not FAIL?

Once words leave your mouth they fly around the world like birds and light where they please.  You can’t whistle them back.  Charley Reese

i think all of us find language that speaks to us in ways we like to remember, language that others have put on paper that we can reflect on;  i'm looking forward to starting a new list...If you have any quotes or sayings that you especially like please put them in the comments...see you next week.

Clean-up

Every week i have a clean slate that confronts my nimble fingers.  Some days i come here prepared to discourse on some aspect of humanity that we can all work at and other days i’m left wondering how i’ll tie together a vague notion i’ve been mulling over but haven’t quite formalized.

This week cleaning up has been front and center in my brain. Cleaning is something we all have to deal with, whether it’s our bodies, our environment, our mind or our lives.  We all clean something. We all notice immediately when cleaning up the muck in and around our home,our bodies and our minds makes a difference. Cleaning can do wonders for our psyche, our health, and our relationships. When you’ve finished cleaning and everything is sparkling it makes you feel good.

Lately i’ve been thinking about our environment and what filthy creatures we humans are.  All over the world every community has to deal in some way with our accumulated garbage, our sewage, and the pollutants that we spew into the air. 

If you are out and about take a minute to examine the town you live in; you will quickly discover and come in contact with our refuse.  It is unavoidable; whether it is the smoke coming out of the car in front of you, the litter in the gutters, the dumpsters on the sides of the road, the pollution in the air, the stinky smells or even just the clutter in your car...you will find our dirty behavior staring back at you.

Our mess is everywhere.  Companies spew clouds of gases into our air all day and all night.  Cars, trucks, trains, ships and planes spread contaminants, tractors spread pesticides, and we personally contribute with our technological must haves and our food packaging that must get discarded after use.

i do believe most of the world’s religions have some guidelines that tell us to be stewards of the earth, or put another way, responsible caretakers of this spinning planet.  When you look around it is easy to see that some of us are better than others at keeping their own private spaces clean, but when it comes to the entire world or even just your local town we all get a big fat F.

The conversation to date has restricted our failure to clean up after ourselves to a debate between two camps.  One camp believes humans and their effluent are having a negative impact upon the earth and its climate while the other camp believes what is being observed is normal and natural and the earth will take care of itself.  

The “debate,” if you can even call it that, has produced a mass of confusion for the ordinary human being going about their daily existence.  Alarming treatises on “rules that would undermine economies, destroy jobs, close down companies and entire industries, impoverish families and communities, roll back personal freedoms and civil rights – and enrich the lucky few whose lobbyists and connections may enable them to corner markets for renewable energy technologies, carbon offsets and emissions trading”(Paul Driessen) compete with alternate treatises on new rules governing emissions that would preserve economies and cities, create jobs, open up new companies and entire new alternative energy industries, enrich all families rich and poor and their communities through better health outcomes and cleaner air—without continuing to enrich the lucky few whose lobbyists and connections want to proceed with no change to business as usual.  Which side you’re on is irrelevant.

i don’t care which side you ascribe to, just consider this, it is an easy step to recognize that we are filthy, look out your door, look around your cities, towns and rural areas, we do leave a mess where ever we choose to live, our air is polluted, our cities and towns are filthy and our natural environment is suffering. 

If you spend any time out doors you will have recognized an alarming change in forests health, animal and bird life extinctions, coral bleaching and failing fish stocks.  Everyone, all over the world, that spends time outside is aware of our failure as caretakers.

i’m living in a tiny little place, but i spend a heck of a lot of time outdoors observing nature and we are definitely having a negative impact.  i see it when it rains and our run-off pollutes the ocean.  i read about it when sewer lines break all over the country and we pump raw sewage into the sea or woods.  The worst damage i’ve personally seen so far has been from the abnormally warm water that has so destroyed our coral beds and fish stocks.  Swimming through a white bone yard is the most disheartening thing an ocean lover can do.  They aren’t recovering. The forests aren't recovering, nor are the birds and animals.  So my question to you is what is wrong with wanting to clean things up? 

i'd like that simple question answered.  What exactly is wrong with wanting to clean up our environment?

If you subscribe to any of the religions that tell you to take care of the earth, and you are honest with yourself, then you have to admit we are failing our job as stewards of this earth.  i don’t care what the lobbyists and politicians say, scientific certainty is unnecessary for a clean up job, we need to clean house.  We need to clean up after ourselves; we need to care for the earth as well as we care for ourselves.  All of us can and will benefit from a healthy environment and that’s a good thing.

See ya next week.

Food connection

Tomorrow is a big food day all over the country so i decided to dedicate this week’s blog to food and some of its remarkable abilities to connect us all up and help with the big picture.

i’m going to skip foods development and history and go straight to how important it is to eat together.

Studies done on the outcomes of positive future human behavior seem to come up with one common thread. Daily meals, usually dinner, eaten together as a family appeared most frequently in the list of research subjects whose overall mental and physical health was located at the top of the charts.  Those test subjects found with more negative social behaviors tended not to have engaged in communal eating while developing.

My kids are grown now but one thing i remember about eating together every night was the long discussions.  Lots of great talk about how to solve problems, how someone was feeling whether it was negative or positive, current events and questions about something learned in school.  We ran the gamut, no subject was taboo, and everything was discussed and debated openly.

Lots of families today can’t find the time to meet up for dinner.  Work and after school activities play havoc with the limited time available in the evenings so that too many families eat on the run.  A hectic lifestyle makes eating together difficult but certainly not impossible.  Even if you and your children’s schedules are full, try and find one or two days a week when everyone can sit down and enjoy a meal together.  i guarantee the benefits will accrue for all of you and will become apparent in no time.

Eating together creates a sense of belonging, it gives parents the opportunity to teach social skills like how to listen, speak and think; and gathering together for a family meal has emotional, health, and educational benefits that last a lifetime.

My husband and i still eat dinner together every night.  We work together to make the dinner and clean up after, we even set place mats and turn TV’s and radios off.  It is our connect up time, where we really focus on each other without any other distractions.

But families eating together are not the end of the story.  Friends play a role in our overall emotional and physical health and eating with them is just as important.  The sharing of food with friends is an essential ingredient of our social and cultural well-being.

Here on St. Croix a group of us has been meeting up every Friday night for as long as i can remember to eat.  We change the location, eat at one of our homes if the weather is bad or someone is sick, but hardly ever cancel that time together.  We are definitely bonded.

Contrary to those that believe society is falling apart, friends eating together is alive and well.  All over the country people get together for pot-lucks, barbecues and intimate dinners either at home or on the town.  We eat with our friends because that is what humans have always done since our earliest ancestors from the Stone Age.  Those stone agers understood the importance of establishing and maintaining the reciprocal bonds and loyalties that were essential to survival and that hasn’t changed to this day.

Tomorrow, food banks all over the nation will be at full tilt boogey.

Church’s, non-profits that cater to the needy, schools that collect canned goods to donate have all been working non stop all through the year to tend to food instability; this is a regular thing for them.  Too many will not be able to provide a complete meal for their families tomorrow but hopefully they will find open doors where food will be available to them.

Everyone here knows i hate war…well there is a group called Food not Bombs that shares free meals with the hungry in over 1,000 cities around the world to protest war, poverty and the destruction of the environment.  With over a billion people going hungry each day they ask how we can spend another dollar on war.

If you’re looking for a place to donate this holiday season consider them.

Within us is a universe of trillions of cells that need nourishment.  Outside us billions of people also need nourishment so please think about that tomorrow while enjoying Thanksgiving dinner with your family and friends.  Serving food and communing with those you feed is way better than dropping bombs on them.

Hope you all have a fabulous Thanksgiving see ya next week.

PS..Blueberries---are the new hot food.  They are being touted for their ability to zap free radicals, those nasty baddies that can cause cancer, attack the collagen that keeps you from wrinkling, or affect your LDL.  Scientists at Tufts University are claiming that ½ cup of blueberries a day may slow down the cancer, wrinkles, dementia and even failing vision. 

discover normal

Well to start off this piece i have to state categorically that i don’t believe there is any set of criteria that any group of human beings can fit into which would describe them all as normal.

Normal implies something ordinary, something regular, average or typical, something that is the opposite of abnormal(whatever that is).  To be normal you have to fit into prescribed codes of behavior and follow common standards of doing things.  i don’t think any one of us follows a sharply defined life style that would categorize us as normal.

i have friends that do all sorts of things that are outside the bounds of normal(whatever that is), but are natural and normal to them.  One friend feels it is normal for him to watch  a particular football team no matter what else is going on around him.  Another thinks exercising to the point of physical pain is normal.  Another friend thinks it is normal to work a million hours a day even though they don’t have to.  A lot of us think it is normal to accumulate a whole houseful of goods that we then have to pay for to maintain and store. 

All of us living on St. Croix think it is normal to drive on the left, but our visitors don’t.

All of us living on St. Croix think it is normal to feel chilled in seventy degree weather but our visitors don’t.

Normal is collecting water off our roofs and using it for all our needs but that’s not normal in other parts of the world or even here on the island where some have potable water.

What is normal to us personally may be abnormal to our family, friends and visitors.   

So what is really normal? 

The use of the term normal is ambiguous; it can have positive and negative aspects and yet we all use it in our daily speech as if there is some underlying understanding that we all get.  We all think we are part of some "normal" group that are all going about their lives in a similar "normal" manner.  

Well, we all get it(normal), as long as we don’t think about it. We think we know what "normal" is but when we actually start comparing ourselves with others we realize quickly that we have no bloody idea what "normal" is, because none of us do anything the same way.

The common aspects all over the world are the need for food, shelter and nurturing, beyond that there is nothing common or "normal."

One friend of mine thinks normal has to do with looking backwards and not forwards.  He sees it as a major problem and a primary block to just living.   

Not a one of us is “normal.”  Got that?

We do things that we think make us normal, but none of us really understand that “normal” is not possible.  The way we live our lives is normal for us alone but not for anyone else, and it might not even be normal for our partners whose normal is different than ours.

Partnerships, friendships and family life is where this all plays out.  Expectations for certain behaviors create tension when those expectations go unmet.  It’s an unusual person that can recognize this and mold themselves to others requirements.  The easiest way to live in this world is to just accept everyone for who they are not any lofty expectation for how they should behave or live their lives.  If they don't get it in social circumstances well then they don't get it but it doesn't make them abnormal.

All of us follow our own set of patterns that have helped us navigate the world as we know it, only as we know it.  Steering our way through life doesn’t make us “normal” it makes us adaptable.   We adapt to the daily events that confront us, we mold ourselves to negotiate those tasks and daily interactions with as little stress as possible.

So where is all this going?  Its simple... pinch yourself the next time you are considering why some family member, friend or acquaintance hasn’t acted the way you had expected.  Remember, for all of us, that they are not normal and neither are you.

How to live longer

TED, which is a great compendium of speakers from around the world, has a speech up on line that discusses longevity and how it is achieved.

The speaker and researchers decided to investigate pockets of long life that were found in particular communities around the world.  Their question was why were more healthy elderly found in these areas and what circumstances, be it diet, lifestyle, climate, proximity to cities and pollution were common to all.

The researchers picked half a dozen localities ranging from Asia to California where more than one person was living to over 100 years.  Their idea was to find some kind of common thread that might explain why these places had more healthy elderly.

What they found was that it wasn’t location, it wasn’t a particular diet or exercise plan, and it wasn’t even proximity to pollution or stress full environments.  The overriding commonality was interpersonal relationships.

All members of the over 100 group were heavily involved with family first, friends, their church’s or some other aspect of their communities that had them interacting on a daily basis.

One thing i noticed that the study didn’t mention was that except for two places’ all were on islands, i wonder if that had any significance?

Anyway it appears from this study that seclusion tended to kill you off. 

All of these elderly had stayed in one place for a very long time.  They had developed social structures that included other women or men that they had aged with.  One group in particular was a group of Asian women in their late 90’s and early 100’s that had met regularly since their twenties.  They claimed to have met to discuss everything in their village and their personal lives.  They argued, fought, hated and got over it.  They loved and continued it.  They involved themselves in all aspects of the emotions and communal spirit and found ways to thrive and prosper from all the interaction.  They claimed that without this support and their families they wouldn’t be where they are today.

The group of men that aged well lived on an island and did the same thing.  Only they drank, fought, got involved in physical activities, some even smoked, and they spent a lot of time with their friends and family.  All of the elderly men and women lived with some family members, whether they were in the states or some other country.

And that’s where i’m going today.  In the US we have created a market that caters strictly to the elderly.  We have built retirement homes that warehouse our most treasured seniors, keeping them away from daily interactions with their children and grandchildren. We have separated them from society.  We can’t farm their wisdom the way we used to and our children aren’t learning from them because we don’t have ready access to them.

We have made it a goal to prove that each one of us can live independently and take care of ourselves, not be a “burden” and this may be killing us off sooner than necessary.

i just wanted to throw that out there today as food for thought.  Why don’t we keep more of our elderly close by, would it help them to live longer, and would it help us to live longer too?

It is pelting and lashing here, thundering and lightning and has been for weeks it seems.  Of course its still in the high 70’s and low 80’s, but we are getting waterlogged. The ocean has had beautiful swells which the surfers love but the rain has muddied up things. i didn’t get out to make new photos this week so i’m putting up some from this morning.

Paradise in the rain.

See ya next week.

Road maintenance

i’m not going to talk about the election.

This is the morning after and all across the nation people are waking up happy or sad.  Some may already be digging in for the next fight.

Locally, i’m happy about most of the outcome.  i hope all of you out there are also happy with your local outcomes.  Kudos to those that lost but never gave up trying and congrats to those that won.

Over the past few months the media has revolved so much around this election it is a relief to have the results and get back to the business of life.

Here on St. Croix roads and bush are bedeviling all of us.  Our roads are substandard to say the least.  They were created first by widening the donkey cart tracks, packing down the dirt, and allowing all manner of transport on them.

Historically, the donkey cart tracks were instrumental in moving the sugar cane from the fields to the ships and moving other goods from the ships to the estates.  Most of the tracks just went to the closest shore so boats could move the cane up and down the coast to the two towns. St. Croix had a small population and didn’t need many roads.

As the island became more developed and the need for roads, not just tracks increased, the donkey tracks found themselves being paved over.  Estate owners in the early 1800’s banded together and laid out dirt roads that we still use today.  Unfortunately, none of the new roads were ever meant to be used by cars and trucks and so our problems with them have just multiplied.

When it was decided to pave over the old dirt roads nothing was done to create a better substratum.  Four or five inches of asphalt were slapped on and hoo boy a lovely paved road that started showing wear and tear in the first year of life.  This has been the way roads have been built on the island ever since.  No concern for drainage, or slope, or longevity.

Today we have two lane roads that you can barely call two lane roads for much of the year.  Our annual rainfall is upwards of 45 inches and the plants love it.  They love it so much that you can see the bush grow inches in as little as a few hours after a rain.  These fast growing plants quickly eat into the roads making passable lanes smaller and smaller.  Those with newer cars not wanting to scratch their finish end up riding down the center line causing all kinds of havoc.

Not only does all this rain make the bush grow, it also comes down in such torrents that it deposits rocks and silt everywhere; it gouges out potholes on asphalt roads and creates mini grand canyons on dirt roads.  Runoff is a problem that our engineering department has never been able to solve.

This year, and the year isn’t over yet, we have had over 60 inches of rain and our roads are a mess;  we have car eating potholes, bush that has grown so far into the road that some are only one lane now. 

Back in the day when the planters had to tend and pay for the roads, there weren’t many of them.  Today, taxes have given us paved roads but seemingly not enough money to maintain them all.  i don't want to go back to donkey carts and dirt roads and the wealthy maintaining them or only the wealthy able to drive over them by paying tolls.  i think this is a problem all over the country that we need to address.

Anyway for us here in the islands the roads are a pressing concern.  i hope our new legislators are up to the task and can find the money to cut the bush and patch the holes.

So until next week keep this in mind, be quick to listen and slow to unhinge.

the shadow knows

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
- VOLTAIRE
i do believe this quote by Voltaire.  It was proved to me in glaring detail when our nation decided to invade Iraq, but this is not why i use this quote today.  Today it relates to the upcoming elections and a chat i had this morning, while walking at dawn.

As the sun was rising we discussed the failings and attributes of those running for our local Governor.  Local politics are interesting because they are exactly like National politics just on a smaller scale.

Here in the islands we have the sitting Governor running for re-election against a man who was a previous Lieutenant Governor and commissioner of the Public Finance Authority.  Both representative groups are out blaming the other for gross misuse of public funds. 

The sitting governor has a security fence around his private home, built by the taxpayers that is enough of an injustice to cause some voters to vote for the other guy.  The ex commissioner had a hotel reconstructed under his watch that went millions and millions over budget that will also cause some voters to vote for the other guy.  Which misuse was graver is not discussed nor are the circumstances that led to the alleged squandering of public money by both sides.

Unfortunately these two issues, not what they both did during their careers, not how they changed things or kept things the same in government will be the deciding topics for why people will vote the way they do.

Today no one has time to really examine the politicians they vote for.  All political parties know this and capitalize upon the negative.  President Obama has been slimmed since before he took office, no one looks at his actual record.

Melee is known as a confused struggle.  Our political arena's are nothing more than confused struggles between groups of people that lack important information.

A lot of what goes on in our political discourse today and leading up to the elections next week is based upon blame.  Blame, that more often than not is irrational.

"Blaming is a way of devaluing others. The end result is that the blamer feels superior. Others are seen as less worthwhile making the blamer  "perfect". Off-loading blame means putting the other person down by emphasizing his or her flaws." (Snatched from Wikipedia)

Today in politics the blame game is the only game in town.  If you can make your constituents believe that your opponent engaged in some heinous activity you have captured their vote. 

It is as simple as that.  Blame the other guy for all the nations ills and you get back in, after engaging in two wars, wrecking the economy, and bailing out your buddies with TARP money. 

Demonize them, demonize liberals, demonize minorities, demonize Muslims, demonize immigrants, demonize LBGT people, demonize non-christians, blame them for all the nations ills.  Just don't look too closely at those you might put back in, don't ask them important questions, like who is paying them to represent them, or how are they buying their seat.

No longer do politicians take questions that they have to answer for.  They don't want to debate today...you might catch them out.  No longer do they have to prove that they can do the job.  All they have to do is insinuate that their opponent took something from you.  Make you feel abused and they have your vote.

We are a nation of uninformed voters.  Too many people go to the polls knowing nothing about who they will vote for.  So here are a few myth busters before you go to vote next week.

1) President Obama tripled the deficit.
NOT TRUE: Bush's last budget had a $1.416 trillion deficit. Obama's first reduced that to $1.29 trillion.

2) President Obama raised taxes, which hurt the economy.
  NOT TRUE: Obama cut taxes. 40% of the "stimulus" was wasted on tax cuts which only create debt, which is why it was so much less effective than it could have been.

3) President Obama bailed out the banks.
  NOT TRUE: While many people conflate the "stimulus" with the bank bailouts, the bank bailouts were requested by President Bush and his Treasury Secretary, former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson. (Paulson also wanted the bailouts to be "non-reviewable by any court or any agency.") The bailouts passed and began before the 2008 election of President Obama.

4) The stimulus didn't work.
  NOT TRUE: The stimulus worked, but was not enough. In fact, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the stimulus raised employment by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million jobs.

5) Businesses will hire if they get tax cuts.
  NOT TRUE: A business hires the right number of employees to meet demand. Having extra cash does not cause a business to hire, but a business that has a demand for what it does will find the money to hire. Businesses want customers, not tax cuts.

6) Health care reform costs $1 trillion.
NOT TRUE: The health care reform reduces government deficits by $138 billion.

7) Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, is "going broke," people live longer, fewer workers per retiree, etc.
  NOT TRUE: Social Security has run a surplus since it began, has a trust fund in the trillions, is completely sound for at least 25 more years and cannot legally borrow so cannot contribute to the deficit (compare that to the military budget!) Life expectancy is only longer because fewer babies die; people who reach 65 live about the same number of years as they used to.

8) Government spending takes money out of the economy.
  NOT TRUE: Government is We, the People and the money it spends is on We, the People. Many people do not know that it is government that builds the roads, airports, ports, courts, schools and other things that are the soil in which business thrives. Many people think that all government spending is on "welfare" and "foreign aid" when that is only a small part of the government's budget.

The above is from the Campaign for American Future

As T.S. Elliot put it:
"Between the idea And the reality. Between the motion And the act. Falls the Shadow"

Investigate the shadow before you vote, become an informed voter and vote for your interests, not those who want to continue to offshore American jobs.

happiness is contentment

Contentment is seeing a pink flamingo on St. Croix when they haven't been seen in years and years.  i know this is a fuzzy picture but seeing this tall bird in our beautiful water is mind blowing to say the least.  Having never seen one outside of a zoo, the feeling of contentment was overpowering.  That bird was magnificent.

Throughout our lives there is the outside clamoring, ringing against our psyche, which asks the question “Are you happy?”

“Are you happy?”

This has been a philosophical dilemma for millennia. 

How do we define happiness and what constitutes being happy? 

i’ve always thought that loving yourself is the first step, loving all your faults and attributes, but hell, i don’t know the answer  to "Are you happy?" any more than any one else does.

And, i’m not going to write about happiness because it is an impossible subject, one where too many go to find unhappiness.

But i will talk about contentment.

The sea gives me a warm feeling of connectedness, makes me want to celebrate, enjoy myself, have fun out there, whoop it up and tell the world if they aren't in the water they are missing out.  The mountains do the same when i hike or ski or just enjoy.  Watching nature in any environment certainly fulfills my need to be contented and at peace with the world.  Having peaceful relations with family and friends is important too, and being honest with everyone is a good thing. 

So is being at peace happiness…or is it being contented, i don’t know?

The daily drama of our lives fluctuates so much between frustration and elation that i think any definition of happiness is lacking.  No one explanation suffices for all of us.  We all have our own definitions of happiness and what makes us happy.   

Here’s mine.

Happiness is so broadminded, so idealistic, that it defies definition.

Now being content is easier, it can mean living in the moment with your family, loving having lunch with a close friend, walking in the dark with your neighbors, enjoying a swim with all your buddies, connecting when you are in the grocery store line, doing the best you can at your job and accepting what you have.

A Jewish poet and philosopher born in Spain had this to say about contentment.

“Who seeks more than he needs, hinders himself from enjoying what he has. Seek what you need and give up what you need not. For in giving up what you don’t need, you’ll learn what you really do need.”  Solomon ibn Gabirol

different folks

i was in the grocery store this afternoon thinking about how we group everyone.  Today the Vitran buses had gone to pick up the elderly that don't have cars, so they could do their shopping.  When i entered the store and saw all the old people i thought to myself this would be a slow day at the check out stand.  This would be a slow day going down the aisles.  i had grouped all the elderly in the store and declared them slow in my head.

Many of us believe that we are open and accepting of others differences.    In fact, this is not the case at all.  All of us, no matter what our background automatically divide people into groups. Some do this in a more methodical manner, white, black, rich, poor, while others are more subtle in their approach, "yes there are haves and have nots."

All of us are drawn to associating with like minded people, putting ourselves in groups we think are beneficial to us.  If you have the same beliefs and life style, alternative points of view don't have to be explored; they can easily be discarded when traveling in those "tight circles" that reinforce a particular idea,way of life, or belief about a group of people.  We all have our "tight circles" no matter who we are.

When you go out of your comfort zone, out of that limited circle, to explore the possibilities, to explore the reality of a new way of doing things; thinking about life and relating to others can make your life much more satisfying.  If you take on a higher level of understanding and truth it will affect you, your family and your peers.

Today in the store i had to check myself,  i had work to do, personal work.  i had to tell myself that not all these elderly were slow, or without cars, or would make the check out wait longer. i had to tell myself that if i got rid of my initial annoyance the trip through the store would be more pleasurable.  i had to remind myself that many of these elderly had fascinating stories to tell.

Today in the news we are inundated with issues that divide us into groups.  Immigrants, welfare mothers, rich, poor, middle class, government workers, private workers, soldiers, republicans, democrats, i could go on and on but i think you get the picture.  Each and every one of these monikers conjures up an image that is used to divide us.

Each and every one of those above categories represent individual human beings that don't fit the negative  marquee.  They don't carry the negative baggage that each of those groups names may trigger for some when the label is attached.  Every one of those groups is made up of people who don't fit the narrative.

As a path, to break yourself of dividing us all into groups, instead of humans, you have to give up the fiction that you are always right, that what you think about these groups is accurate, even if you've studied the group.  None of us are 100% right, nor are we too old or too young to learn about something new that can help change the world.  Remember we all do it, each and every one of us groups humans, even if you say you don't, you do.

So today's message is that  grouping human beings hurts all of us when the categories conjure up negative connotations. 

You don't need the social support of your peers to break out, to doubt what you are being fed about groups of people, be they rich, poor,white, black, purple, welfare moms, republicans or democrats.  You don't need their support to stop grouping people.  You don't need anyone to approve of you relating to each and every person as a human being first.  You don't need anyone to approve of you practicing it every day as a path towards stopping yourself when you put anyone into a group that you view negatively.

So go on, take those first baby steps alone and place humans first, think about the human beings in that group first, before the group image takes over and ruins your brain.