Her documents

A friend called yesterday to tell us Wis. Public TV was showing a history of our town.  We watched it and enjoyed it, but it was quite similar to Lynn's "The Reasons for Stevens Point", a project in her master's degree program.  It, too, is about the founding and development of the town where we have lived since 1968.  She has a PhD from UW-Madison but I thought momentarily that that slide-tape/filmstrip was her only foray into history and the past.  No!  Definitely not!  She created a good sized paper called "Who we came from" about her complex background and family history.  Then, I remembered a second good sized paper about her childhood and growing up.  It turns out she is far more of a historian than I remembered.

Carl Zimmer books on science

Lynn heard a Wis. Public Radio science program that discussed "organoids" and mentioned "Life's Edge" by Carl Zimmer. We just finished "Patriot" last night.  So, we will start Zimmer this evening.  This Zimmer book is our 9th one.

& Juliet

I taught undergraduate and graduate courses to pre-teachers and experienced teachers at UWSP for 37 years.  It was a fun way to earn money and a way to spend my hours.  When I retired in 2005, I learned about the university's "learning in retirement " called the LIFE program.  LIFE stands for "Learning Is ForEver", which is a nice sentiment but it isn't true.  As I age, I find I forget more and more.  Still, the Life program has been a fun place for me to make presentations, to attend others' presentations and to take trips.

We recently signed up for a trip to Appleton to see the play "& Juliet".  Notes and web pages tell me that the play is an exploration of what might have happened had Juliet been inclined to live without Romeo, on her own.  Seems like a modern idea to me and I am interested in what the play shows.

I think it showed imagination and daring to name the play "& Juliet", to begin the title with an ampersand sign. 

I actually came into this life from the body of a woman, so I am told.  I am also told everyone else did, too. 

Nalvany

My wife is in a book club and I usually read the club's choice aloud to her.  This time it's "Patriot", the story of Alexei Nalvany, a political opponent of Putin.  We are about 75% thru the book.  I am surprised by the similarities between Russian politics and ours.  I hope we aren't using poisons and assassins but things are not so different here.

My father

When I was about ten years old, my mother said my father wasn't going to live with us anymore.  She didn't use the word "divorce" but I knew it was going to be different without him.  At first, he took my sister and I to dinner and a movie every Thursday.  She and I could pick any movie theater in the city and there were around 50 of them.  That might have been for a couple of years but over time, one or both of us had other things that called us.  Meanwhile, my father met another woman, they married and had a son.  Meanwhile, my mother advertised for boarders and one of them became my stepfather.

Now being much older, I realize I could have been better to both of my parents than I was.  I could have found out much more detail about my parents' lives before I was born, learned more about their ideas and leanings.

Goodwill stores from Numlock News

I thought this item from Numlock News was interesting.  In this household and others, getting too much stuff often gets focus and thought these days.

Goodwill

One retailer that is doing just fine despite some feeling pinched wallets is Goodwill Industries, the largest thrift store chain in the world. It beat $7 billion in revenue in 2024 across its 3,400 stores, a seven percent increase year over year. Part of the appeal is the lower prices one gets from a secondhand shop; the other is the treasure hunt style of shopping in a store that can literally contain anything, given the six billion pounds of goods Goodwill receives as intake every year. The entire secondhand business is doing swell overall: Savers Value Village, a competitor with 300 stores, saw net sales grow 16 percent in its most recent quarter, while ThredUp reported revenue was up 34 percent last quarter.

Kim Bhasin and Sophia June, The New York Times

Are you a doctor?

A person can be a doctor of many things.  Being a physician is only one of them.  The title "doctor" comes from old Christian monestaries and was conveyed when a scholar had seemed to reach exceptional levels of knowledge.

From the Wikipedia:

"Dr." redirects here. For other uses, see DR (disambiguation).

Doctor is an academic title that originates from the Latin word of the same spelling and meaning.[1] The word is originally an agentive noun of the Latin verb docēre [dɔˈkeːrɛ] 'to teach'. It has been used as an academic title in Europe since the 13th century, when the first doctorates were awarded at the University of Bologna and the University of Paris.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_(title)

Breath as a meditation focus point

You may know that the traditional advice in meditation is to "follow your breath."  This is usually meant as "concentrate on your breath".  The mind needs something to concentrate on and your breath is something that moves and changes but that is reliably present.  You can attend to your breath with your eyes open or closed so it is an available place to put your attention regardless of your state of energy or fatigue.  Advanced meditators tend to prefer to simply watch the passing contents of the mind but doing so is difficult because it is very easy to get hooked on a subject or an episode.  You see that you are thinking of the exchange between your sister and your mom and in no time, you are thinking yet again about how that girl has never had the discipline you faced and how unfair it all is.

The breath is the rare important body function that is convertible, available to both the conscious thinking system and the unconscious one.  You can take a deep breath when you want (conscious control) and you manage to breathe all night while sleeping (unconscious control).  Many traditional paths to meditation using breath as an attention focus recommend observing the breath.  I have found that difficult.  It has been much easier to breathe deliberately and concentrate on taking each breath.  I am getting a little more skilled at noting my breathing while altering it less.  Just putting my attention on my breath tends to modify it a little.  I don't have any strong reason to try to observe it without changing it, other than that sort of delicate looking without touching is what I want to be able to do with my thoughts, watch them from a little distance.

We humans are slow-burning fires, always mixing oxygen with our fuels chemically.  It is fun to realize that when waiting for the light to change, for the operator to get back to us, on a walk, on a swim, all the time, in and out, in and out, we keep ourselves going. As important as breathing is to us, you don't hear people emphasize that they remember a really good breath they took last week.  It is the same with steps they took or individual swallows of food or liquid: too many to remember individually but very important. 

Previous post from five years ago

t.ly/0qklQ

One third of winter

Let's say that winter began on Dec. 21.  Now, since it is past Jan. 21 and winter is three months long, one-third of winter is past.  It is true that right now, we are having some weather that is quite cold.  Our various apps never agree exactly but from three sources, I have current readings of -1, -6 and -4 and that is not counting wind and other factors.  I bet you don't need me to advise you to stay warm.  If you live in a place that is warm and nice, you may be smarter than I am.  Keep it up.