Avoiding extinction

When friends ask why I like the book "Incognito" by Eagleman, I explain the writing gives a good sense of how much goes on in me that I don't know about and can't directly sense.  The little book "7 and a Half Lessons About Your Brain" does similar things but not so emphatically.  When a person reviews life lived, it can be difficult to deeply understand attractions and sexual history.  I have read that humans were thought to be somewhat exempt from drives and instincts that many other animals use to mature and guide themselves through life.  But biologists know that bucks are powerfully drawn to sexually ready does and male bullfrogs are drawn to female bullfrogs in ways I am not.  Sometimes, biologists collapse life activities into just two: eat (and other sustaining activities like breathing and sleeping) and "procreation", making babies and raising them.

I actually know very little about how conception and birth work in humans but I am familiar with the basics. Even though I am way past optimal fatherhood age, I still respond automatically to human female form, skin, voice, movement and such.  

The human reproduction process and drives work pretty well, enough that the total human population is almost 8 billion and has produced individuals that currently live longer than ever.  Human reproduction has been going on for millennia.  I don't think anyone can fault Christianity for being too casual or superficial about sex and reproduction. Ever since childhood, I have been impressed by all the rules and references to "Don't"s and "Nevers" that pertain to sex. Of course, the subject, the activity, the social atmosphere involved are important and powerful and life changing.  

Just sex often creates strong bonds and parenting may create stronger ones.  From Google:

Are childless couples more likely to divorce?

In the first year, childless couples were more than three times as likely to get divorced as couples who had a baby. After that, the 'divorce risk' curve flattened out, and after 12 years the researchers could no longer see a significant difference between couples who had babies and those who did not.Feb 11, 2014

Childless couples have more divorces - ScienceNordic

It seems to me that all adults have an immediate reaction of tenderness to babies and little children.  New mothers typically have extra amounts.  

Today's local paper has the headline "Wausau West girls prep for WIAA state wrestling meet".  Especially in the nubile years of readiness to reproduce, clashes of bodies may mean sex but they may mean contest.  The local university has a team of women wrestlers who up to now wrestle only other women.  https://athletics.uwsp.edu/sports/womens-wrestling

You might want to look at Google results for Are there matches between women and men wrestlers?

I wonder if people are getting more aware of the power of sex and relationships.  I started to write that there seemed to be a casual attitude among young people but I found that Google presented results in the opposite direction: more serious, more abstention.  

Deep present

Yesterday, I found several indicators of stress in friends' lives.  I think covid, lockdown, taxes, aging, news of war and catastrophe, and medical problems can sneak up on a person and cause depression and despair.  There are various things a person can do to lessen the stress and one of them is to take refuge in the present.

The National Geographic Society had a project using DNA analysis to understand human change and movement around the earth over millennia.  A book about the project refers to "deep ancestry" and various sources use the term "deep history" to mean thinking about history over the time of life emerging on this planet up to the current time.

It can be surprising how deep the current moment, right this minute can be.  It definitely takes more than a moment to just mentally inventory the main aspects of my body, my thoughts, my activities just today, my plans and hope for tomorrow and the coming days.  I have gotten in the habit of trying to put myself firmly in the present by immediately thinking of my feet first.  Most of the time, I don't give much thought to where my feet are or the position they are in, what they are touching, how they feel.  Along a similar line, meditators and therapists sometimes use a "mental body scan", thinking and feeling, sensing and appreciating each part of the body in turn.  Part of the value of doing such a scan is the placing of attention on the body.  Attending to the whole body systematically, one area after another,t can lessen one's concentration of fearful or painful subjects.

Similarly, spending a minute or two just focusing on feeling and appreciating the breath can help in a similar way.  Applying Google's Chade-Meng Tan's approach of a single careful sensing of a deep breath can help give the mind a break from worry and fret.  

Too much!

Today's The Writer's Almanac (TWA) says that today is the birthday of Dr.Hans Selye, sometimes called the father of stress theory. Here's a link to the Almanac for today:

t.ly/1O2K

Selye was at McDill University in Montreal when he recognized a non-specific component to living bodies' initial reactions to assault by disease.  Before a specific set of symptoms emerged, there was a typical early generalized reaction.

As it happens, today the busy manager of several complex, highly active organizations stated that he had come to the end of his rope.  Too much to do, never really done.  He had newly discovered an important truth: "No one is ever happy!  Ever!"

He was not in the mood to debate the truth of his statements.  He was exhausted, downspirited, drowning in To-Do lists, reminders, customer issues, employee fatigue, employee absence.   

Have another?

I am not that artificially intelligent, let alone naturally intelligent.  But I still think and wonder from time to time.  One thing I wonder is why so frequently I get urged to read a book that is known to be similar to the book I just read.  If I like a certain type of car, I will indeed probably want the same type again.  But with books and movies, for me, it's different.  I like to go in a different direction after a book.  

After reading how he longed for her and she longed for him, I am not in the mood for more longing.  If the writing and my imagination felt the longing, the unfairness of separation, I am ready for new insights into the nature of disease or maybe the history of graft and corruption.  Some book groups practice alternating between fiction and non-fiction.  Our local learning-in-retirement group looks at ten or so categories and tries to have a presentation in each of them every semester.  When I look at the Amazon list of books I have purchased for my Kindle, I can examine it in chronological order, either oldest first or newest.  I can see the list in alphabetical order or reverse by author or by title.  But I'd like a random order and I'd like to see titles I have not gotten to at all.  

Google on variety in food:

As time's gone on, humans have evolved to depend on a wide range of nutrients and micronutrients to thrive. Research shows us that a more diverse diet helps us live longer and lowers our risk of disease. ... We risk developing overweight and obesity if we include lots of poor quality, processed foods in our varied diet.Sep 17, 2021

Why humans need a varied diet when some animals don't

https://www.healthyfood.com › ask-the-experts › why-hu.

Many biological and body processes refresh faster and better with variety and perceived variety.  I think it takes more computing power to notice what else follows in typical reading than to simply suggest similar books.  But for starters, I look every BUT where I have just been.

Heard this before?

We have watched more than 60 episodes of "Jane the Virgin" on Netflix.  At some of the earlier shows, I wondered if I would get tired of the super-excitement and plot twists.  I haven't.  Last night, I saw a plot twist that grabbed my imagination.

Jane has had many ups and downs, often quite a few within a single day.  She is working on becoming a writer, has taken writing instruction and just had her first book published.  As an ardent writer, she works at avoiding cliches and tired language.  Jane's father is a soap opera ("telenovela") star in Hispanic Miami.  

Some of his male co-stars are as super egotistical and emotional as he is.  One of them asked Jane, as a professional writer, to write a short history of his professional life.  She sweats over the writing but finally has what she thinks is a truly well-written document.  She reads it aloud to the male performer.  He is very disappointed in what she has written.  She is downcast but picks up a clue in a bit of his reaction.  She re-writes the piece, filling it with clichés.  Each one rings the actor's bell!  Each one is a hit.  As the two walk happily out of the scene, he says to her, "As you so beautifully put it, haste makes waste."

Well, sure!  Words and phrases get reused when they are useful, clever, memorable.  I looked up "cliché" and found that when French printers had to set the same phrase in their printing frame repeatedly, they cast the whole expression in a single block, which reportedly made a clicking sound when loaded into the printing frame.

The word cliché is borrowed from French, where it is a past passive participle of clicher, 'to click', used a noun; cliché is attested from 1825 and originated in the printing trades. ... Through this onomatopoeia, cliché came to mean a ready-made, oft-repeated phrase.

Cliché - Wikipedia

Some examples from a Google search:

• Let's touch base.

• The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

• Don't put all of your eggs in one basket.

• I'm like a kid in a candy store.

• I lost track of time.

• Roses are red, violets are blue…

• Time heals all wounds.

• We're not laughing at you, we're laughing with you.

CNN photos of the week

From CNN's "Five Things" today:

Check out more moving, fascinating and thought-provoking images from the week that was, curated by CNN Photos. 

(The underlined words produce a link when clicked on.)

Apps, quarantine, masks, vaccine records

Apps, quarantine, masks, vaccine records - Not known to Capt. James Cook and other explorers sailing in 1768.  We are reading "Sea People" by Christina Thompson.  The author was born in Switzerland and is a dual citizen of the US and Australia.  "Sea People" does an excellent job of comparing European views of the world and human life with Polynesian views as the two met and got to know a bit about each other.

I use a computer just about every hour but I rarely use the Motorola smartphone that Bullis turned me onto.  I did have a Motorola radio when I was a 4th grader and I happily used it to listen to Sky King, Sgt. Preston of the Yukon and the Lone Ranger.  A problem with my smartphone is that it is too big to fit in my pocket.  I did buy a heavy canvas belt sheath for it but it disrupts my shirt and clothes.  The computer works well but I am slowly being dragged into smartphoning.  I just read that maybe 10% of US adults don't access the internet and a larger % of US seniors, that is, old people, don't use the internet.  I understand that the internet can be scary, especially with buttons and links that you don't know what they do.  

My daughter encouraged us to get the airline app on our phones.  The app asked me who I was but it kept saying it couldn't find me and actually doubted that I existed.  I checked and my wife verified and confirmed and witnessed my existence.  I tried other numbers and identifiers and finally got recognized. 

Brrrrr!

Our coldest day in a while: down to 5-10°below zero F.  Right now, it is 15° above.  I usually feel that once it is cold, good and cold, it doesn't matter too much just exactly what the temperature is.  The Weather Channel reports that it feels like 0°.  I was just out to bring our trash bins in and it didn't feel too bad.  

I was in Miami once and heard a radio announcement that the coming night would see temperatures of 44°.  The announcer said that it would be best to avoid going outdoors but if it was necessary, to dress in layers.  Local college students have been known to sunbathe in bathing suits at 50° so many around here don't bother with jackets, gloves or scarves at 44°.

I have heard of Wim Hof, from the Netherlands, who promotes ice baths and exposure to cold.  I know he has experienced low temperatures, including setting Guinness book records.  When I see pictures of him, he looks to me as though exposure to cold has taken a toll on him.  I think I can focus my attention on actions or plans when I am in cold but I don't feel it does me good, although it may get blood flowing. I don't want to stop my heart with cold exposure.  I like being warm and I may do better with heat than is typical.  I don't know.  I did get quite hot and sweaty in wrestling practice without much discomfort or distraction.

Greens

Let's hear it for greens.  I am not talking lettuce, although that is a good plant, too.  I came across the line in "Death Comes for the Archbishop" by Willa Cather that some people had not seemed to have heard of that blessed plant, the lettuce.  When I had to lose weight for wrestling, I used lettuce to satisfy my appetite while not gaining pounds.  

The most popular green seems to be spinach.  Lynn told me she much prefers cooked fresh spinach to frozen cooked spinach.  I enjoy buying a plastic bag of fresh spinach, pouring all of it into a frying pan, covering it with a lid and cooking it with a low heat.  In our big, deep frying pan with steep sides, all those leaves barely fit when I empty the bag.  Within six minutes, the leaves have all cooked down, losing their moisture.  The whole bit fits in a cereal bowl and it all gets eaten by two older adults.

I am a fan of kale, preferably fresh kale.  It is a champion food with all sorts of nutrients.  I can't name them and I don't know one nutrient from another but I can feel energy, health and vigor when I eat some kale.  I have eaten kale since childhood and liked it very much.  It has a slightly sweet taste. Not long ago, Lynn put fresh kale in a bowl with parmesan and lemon juice and gave us another great dish.

We eat green beans, brussel sprouts (with yellow mustard but not too much) and broccoli.  We eat broccoli more often than any other green vegetable.

Trying to stay conscious of being a miracle

A friend asked me about what I will probably feel when I am in Hawaii.  I tried to explain that I generally practice being aware that having physical body balance, the ability to breath well, taking pleasure in food, drink and books and other aspects of my life add up to a miracle.  I mean that the chances, as I figure them, of all that being present in my life are slim.  I am unlikely but grateful.

Really small

I have been reading some books that have meant a lot to me.  I want to mention them in case they are of interest to others now or later.  

I wanted to know more about viruses.  I got a tour of our new campus chemistry-biology building and I saw an electron microscope and a drawing of a virus on the wall beside it. Of course, we have been hearing about coronaviruses for a couple of years now.  I don't remember ever hearing about viruses in any sort of course or teaching.  When I looked up books about them on Amazon's website, I found "A Planet of Viruses"(2011, 2015) by Carl Zimmer.  I also found that the extensive collection from Oxford University called "Very Short Introductions" includes a book by Dorothy H. Crawford about viruses.  This same author has several other books about viruses.

In some places, the fact that the existence of very tiny semi-live forms called "virus" is a rather new discovery.  I have read that viruses are 1,000 times smaller than bacteria so it is no wonder that they were unknown.  Zimmer's book focuses on Dutch farmers facing a disease with their crops of tobacco and asking for help from Adolph Mayer, in 1879.  Despite being unable to see viruses, Mayer used methods that convinced him and others that something in the sick plants caused the problem.  1879 is not so long in the past. Zimmner's book makes clear that viruses, their existence, the way they work, and their effects are still being worked out.  

It is clear that some viruses are helpful to humans, including ones that modify the actions of some bacteria.  

The immediate present

I learned to keep my eyes fixed on a corner of a painting or a cushion while meditating. Just keep looking at the same thing, looking carefully, looking steadily.  Sometimes, my eyes get tired.  I learned in grad school that the eyes get refreshed by blinking.  I have read that some computer work tends to keep the worker from blinking resulting in tired eyes.  Then, I read that many ancients learned to concentrate on their breathing instead of what they could see.  I found that I could concentrate on my breathing with my eyes closed, giving me eye rest instead of eye strain. 

I have been suspicious of numerical standards ever since I read the ideas and history of W.E. Deming.  Plus, my experience in Quaker meeting showed me that our eyes, our attention, much of our being, is predicated on renewal, new situations, arising dangers and unexpected opportunities.  While exploring breath and its uses, I came across "Breath by Breath" by Prof. Larry Rosenberg.  That's the book that includes the story of Americans in Korea finding they will be asked to go without sleep for one week.  Don't ask me why.  Some people, especially male people, need challenges and conquests and wins.  Rosenberg's group was advised to just pay attention to the very present, what they were up to, moment by moment, and nothing else.  

I have heard of the British expression "working to rule".   It is a labor tactic to fight employers and it consists of doing just exactly what is required by contract and nothing more. Paying strict attention to this moment, as is, as I am, quickly changes my world and my feelings.  Where are my feet?  What do I smell?  What do I hear? Gosh, I just took a breath!

CNN Photos of the week

I have read many times that physical exercise is good in many ways.  I wonder if getting an emotional workout is also good.  Many Sundays, we get CNN's "5 Things".  Their newsletter comes out five days a week but there is often a Sunday version, too.  In the Sunday version, there is a link to CNN Photos of the Week.  If I look at each picture carefully, I get elated, deflated, grateful, irritated, fearful, and a pretty wide spectrum of emotions.

I realize that expert news photographers know how to get a rousing picture, how to edit it, crop it so that what they are showing me is there to be seen, and select photos that are especially evocative.  

See what you think:

"Check out more moving, fascinating and thought-provoking images from the week that was, curated by CNN Photos."

World views and blown minds

We are reading "Sea People" by Christina Thompson, who is also the author of "Come On Shore and We Will Kill You and Eat You All", a story of the Maori people of New Zealand and of her marriage to a Maori man.  We are also viewing "How Jesus Became God", a Great Course by Prof. Bart Ehrman, a specialist in Biblical and early Christian history.  Both works have plenty of potential to picture and sympathize with mind-blowing ideas, facts and adventures. As if that isn't enough, we get The Week, a weekly magazine that we learned about from our friend, Ken.  He is a worldly and astute man who knows what is mind-expanding and he told us to try The Week. 

What is mind-blowing?  It is learning about something that is riveting, maybe impossible but is true or seems to be.  I suppose if a person gets a notification of winning an enormous amount of money, the news can be mind-blowing.  Maybe if one of those waves of flaming hot lava flows across your house and property, you would find that mind-blowing.  If you know your Bible well and then find people scattered all over the Pacific and everything you can think of throws your beliefs and understanding into a muddle of confusion, you would experience a topsy-turvy mind, world, confusion.  

If you have been living happy, minding your own business, something may happen either in the larger world, your neighborhood or just in your thinking, that stuns, that radiates, that grips your mind.  It may help to know that you are not the first person such a thing has happened to and that taking things somewhat slowly, you will probably come to terms with the new picture, the new view and be better for it.  Many people, professionals and others, have pictured having humans contact creatures from other places than our Earth.  That could be mind-blowing.  It might be mind-blowing if they are much like humans and will probably be mind-blowing if they aren't.  

I have a suspicion that the modern world and human development may create more mind-blowing experiences than we expect.  As thinking people communicate and learn, they can abruptly or slowly experience very surprising events, facts and notions.

How busy are we?

Yesterday, we did some unusual things. For instance, we went to the new Cultural Center in the nearby town of Wisconsin Rapids.  Later, Lynn commented that so many things were happening at once.  I immediately began to wonder how many things it was.   I am in the habit of wondering about unusual occurrences: what was the average number of things that happened?  When a busy day happens, what would be a high number of things happening?  What would be a low number?

All through that paragraph, I followed Lynn's language of "things" that happen.  We were both breathing all through the day but breathing, the need to breath, the pace of breathing - those didn't count as "things", topics, tasks of interest, actions we concentrated on.  So, "things" that happen are somewhat similar to items on a to-do list or topics to think and write about.  Thus, "things" are "things" if we recognize them as such.  It is not always just my recognition or yours.  If Martians land and inform us they have come to get sheeps' blood, the landing and our sheeps' blood supply are now a "thing" that matters, too.

I have mentioned that I have 4500 posts on a separate website for this blog at https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com

In the upper left corner of the page is a search window.  You can use that window to search for "Rosenberg", the author of "Breath by Breath".  That's the book that really helped me see how powerful and useful paying attention or not paying attention can be.  When I am cold or hungry, I can pay attention to my breath, counting out 10 breaths maybe and not pay attention to the cold or the hunger. 

For a recent examination of the idea of attending and attention direction, see Maura Thomas http://getpocket.com/explore/item/to-control-your-life-control-what-you-pay-attention-to

Britten and Stanley

I keep recommending "Incognito" by David Eagleman and "Seven and a Half Lessons about Your Brain" by Lisa Feldman Barrett.  Both have to do with the enormous complexity of our bodies and our brains.  We humans have a tendency to think that our minds are totally withit, that we are mostly the same as our minds.  Both of these books try to give a reader a chance to see how much our bodies and our lives operate outside our minds, our conscious minds, that is.  Neither book is long and neither one is hard to read or understand.  Professor Barrett's first chapter gets to the idea.  It is called "Your brain is not for thinking."  It is true that you can think with your mind but your brain is bigger than your mind and it is the control center of your body.  Balance, appetite, heart beat, blood pressure, digestion, breathing - all those essential operations get overseen by the brain.  "Incognito" is terrific at showing how the mind gets an idea, a topic, a worry, a thought after the body and the rest of the brain have been working on them for a while.

Prof. Willoughby Britten of Brown University and Dr. Elizabeth Stanley are two scientists who look into difficulties people have with their minds and their emotions.  Both women are names I keep in mind as sources of information about ways of seeking calm and acceptance of life and it's problems.  Britten was the first name I found to look into the downsides and limitations of meditation.  Later, I learned a bit about Dr. Stanley.  Today's message from "Sounds True", a firm that specializes with creating materials that help with living, was about Dr. Stanley.

As a US Army veteran with a PTSD diagnosis who thought it would be cool to pursue two graduate degrees simultaneously, she was a pro at it—or so she thought.

It took the onset of asthma, chronic lung infections, insomnia, migraines, clinical depression, a near-death experience, and temporary blindness for her to finally decide that there must be a better way.

For the next 15 years, she studied the neurobiology of stress, trauma, and resilience—initially as a way to save herself, and then to help others heal, too.

I think it helps to be aware that there are parts of us that operate outside our consciousness.  I think, in a sense, we humans are too complicated to think our way through life.  We can think, and dream and examine and plan and remember, but we are much more than we can know about deliberately.

Can't connect

I have been surprised lately to have my thinking about internet use and passwords changed.  I tend to think of my logon name/my account name as me, myself, this body and this head, the physical me. However, I have found several times lately that using my correct logon name and my correct password is not always enough.  When I use a different computer or other connected device, some software gets riled up.  Ok, actual software and actual wires and screen don't usually qualify as being able to rile up, get excited, etc.  Still, I get screenfuls of words like "unregistered device".  I didn't think I had ever registered my device.  

It seems that just about every website I visit quickly places a banner across whatever is there, a banner that asks me to "create an account".  Like many older people, I have tried all my life to do what works and what is fun.  So, I am surprised when I find I have been doing something all along that I didn't realize.  Reminds me of Monsieur Jourdain in a 1670 Moliere play.  He was amazed to find he had been speaking prose all his life.

I know there is a human tendency to personify, to feel that my car is alive, that my cellphone hates me, that my washing machine is 'tired'.  I am slowly grasping that I, me, myself can't "connect" to the internet.  Only my computer, or my tablet, or my phone or some other properly manufactured device can do that.  All along, I have been thinking that I have done this and connected to that when, NO!  It was this device or that device, using secret means that I can use and don't really understand. Ok, in truth, when I swallow or pick up an object or say "Hi", I am also using secret (internal) methods that I also don't really, really understand but let's not get into that.

Looking for something to write about

I am not sure if there is much difference between looking for something to talk about and looking for something to write about.  Just as it is polite and socially helpful to pick and choose conversational topics with some thought, it can also be helpful to choose writing topics with some restraint.  Not everything that comes to mind makes a good conversational topic or a good article subject.  Why are you so stingy?  Do you really think those shoes go with that top?  Who picked your car when it is such an atrocious color?  I have limited these examples to personality characteristics and appearance but I am confident you could think of many other topics and subjects and areas you would not bring up, especially with certain people.  

I guess it is a little different when writing an article or a book.  Naturally, one hopes to write brilliantly, probably hoping to write helpfully, maybe lovingly.  But in much writing, as in many arts and sports, the goal of attracting attention, of writing memorably, standing out from the crowd can be central. Trying to stand out may cause a person to get near the edge of polite behavior or maybe even purposely break typical boundaries.  Some have pointed to the emergence of photography, better cameras, lower prices for photographic equipment and the widespread smartphone ownership means that many Americans have an advanced camera in their pocket.  The evolution of photography is often credited with promoting attempts by visual artists to do different, less photographical work.

Demographics of Mobile Device Ownership and Adoption in ...

https://www.pewresearch.org › internet › fact-sheet › mobile

The vast majority of Americans - 97% - now own a cellphone of some kind. The share of Americans that own a smartphone is now 85%, up from just 35% in Pew Research Center's first survey of smartphone ownership conducted in 2011. Pew Research Center Who owns cellphones and smartphones

We know that feelings and plans are not photographable so writing is our best tool for communicating how I feel about Meryl Streep or oatmeal.  Covid and winter may have increased our amount of thinking so we may have more thoughts and feelings we want to communicate or express. 

Trying to detect exposure

My smartphone is too big to carry comfortably and safely.  I use my computer much more but the smartphone can be convenient sometimes.  It is actually a small computer, after all. I was surprised to find that a 

government agency offers me a chance to use that smartphone to join a network/database to try to know if I have been physically close to someone who has the covid virus.  I think the idea is that I should turn on my phone's Bluetooth capabilities and then software will note if my Bluetooth is in proximity to someone's phone who is known to have been exposed to Covid. 

Getting another app on my phone involved demands for numbers and information that amounted to a complicated series of steps.  There seemed to be enough time delay and confusions that I didn't want to get involved in such a network.  It could be helpful but it seems to me that it could also involve mistakes, screw-ups and errors, both human and mechanical.  

I can imagine some people seeing a quietly working network attempting to track exposures as George Orwell's "1984" at work.  I would indeed like to avoid getting sick or getting others sick. I am reading "A Planet of Viruses" by Carl Zimmer and it is surprising how the little bits get involved in so many aspects of life.  They are not all bad and they are not all good.

8, 9, or 10

When I led a group of college students to Europe, I found three of them curled up on the floor of a study room in our hostel.  When I found out what they were doing, I began learning about meditation and mindfulness.  I had learned from W. Deming to be cautious about numbers and the idea of meditating for a convenient period of time, such as an hour, made me suspicious.  I read "The Relaxation Response" by H. Benson, a Harvard medical school professor, and I thought I would benefit from meditating for five to 10 minutes.  Since then, I have found the timer on my iPad very convenient for giving myself a quick meditation session.  I often find that short, even micro sessions or doses, of nearly anything train me faster and with less trouble than long sessions.

There are various documents and articles about the elasticity of human time perception.  The best statement on duration of meditation sessions I read was by Chinese-American author and Google engineer, Chade-Meng Tan.  He wrote in his book "Joy on Demand" that one conscious breath was enough to be a helpful meditation session.  

A two or three minute meditation session, where I sit upright but not rigidly on a chair, and pay attention to a spot or a corner, does me some good.  If I am feeling extra ambitious, I might set my iPad timer (or set Google) for 8, 9 or 10 minutes.  I am not well-qualified for membership in a group of monks but I find these short, unhampered sessions very helpful.

Kindle highlights

I have written in this blog before about Kindle ereaders.  There are several other kinds, such as Kobo and Nook, but I think the Kindle has superior prices and selection.  I do think it is interesting that apps for other ereaders can be downloaded to tablets and phones.  Doing that would enable a person to try different readers.

Offering a book printed on paper means dealing with a physical object that can be stored, resold and handled.  Ebook files are electronic impulses that cause a book's words to appear but in a sense are not physical objects.  Ebooks can fit in tiny spaces, are more or less weightless, and do not need to be shelved or dusted.  Some of those same convenient properties would make them easy to steal or otherwise mishandle.  So, various sellers have DRM (digital rights management) parts in their book files to control who does what with the ebooks.  Programs such as Calibre can modify or remove the DRM bits but I don't get into any of that.  

The other day, my yoga teacher mentioned the book "Trusting the Gold" by Tara Brach.  I did not know she was going to mention it nor read a bit of it aloud.  But within 30 seconds, I had my own copy of that book.  That speedy obtaining a book, if it is available in Kindle format, is one of the main features I like.  

Another feature of Kindle reading that can be helpful is highlighting.  Normally, highlights are made with a marker.  But Kindle highlights can be made with a fingertip.  Just draw a fingertip along words you want to mark.  You can set the software to use different colors of highlighting but I don't have a need to do that.  To me, the best thing about Kindle highlighting is that a computer file, much like a typical email, can easily be sent to my email account.  The file comes as a PDF and as a spreadsheet and includes all the highlights I made from that book and the location in the book of each comment.  Such a file can be saved in my Google Drive or copied and pasted on a website page such as this one: https://sites.google.com/view/kirbyvariety1/bonk-mary-roach-highlights

I think that a list of the highlights I found worth marking is a usable condensation of my own reading of a particular book.  (Note: I compose these blog posts in Google Docs which I open in my Google Drive.  Doing that gives me a separate collection of my posts.  By the way, the Google spell-language checker that is part of Google Docs is an excellent tool and helps me keep typos to a minimum.)

Googling

I joined Dan Russell's Joy of Search group.  Russell is a computer scientist and works in Google's Search group.  His group gets a challenge from him every so often.  It is usually like a Jeopardy! challenge in that it is some far-out business that involves nerdy details, of little or no interest to me.  At least that is my reaction so far.  I do have Russell's book, "The Joy of Search" and I have read some of it.  

Some people are unhappy with the sale of their personal information.  I imagine that Google is one of the main sources of such business but I also think that the company is both trying to persuade users that it is doing more to safeguard information that is personal as well as engaging in information campaigns to persuade users of their services of their efforts.  Both my wife, a Phd in information technology, and I constantly turn to electronic searching all the time to satisfy curiosity, learn things, answer questions, etc.  In an attempt to be more independent and less in Google's power, I set my main browser (Firefox) to use Duckduckgo when searching.  I have had it set that way for several months and I do several searches each day.  I have come to the conclusion that Google searches satisfy me better than Duckduckgo does.  I haven't changed the browser settings yet since I am stubborn and I like to try different things.  But more and more, I find I do a search using Duckduckgo and then do one with the Google search and like the Google result better.  It may well be that I am biased from using Google for quite a while and knowing where to look for what.  I don't think so and I am more and more confident that I will be changing to using Google right away when I search.  Not just yet.  

Professor Sam Wineberg, Stanford University Graduate School of Education, has a book, "Why Learn History When It Is Already on Your Phone?"  That is a wonderful title but a bit limited.  It is not just history.  Virtually every subject is already on your phone.  True, the information is mixed in with propaganda, advertisement, marketing ploys and misinformation, but much of whatever the subject is, indeed, on your phone.  And your iPad and that other tablet and your computer.

Expiration dates

We have disagreements about expiration dates in our family.  Some people feel it is important to note dates printed on food wrappers and containers and avoid eating any food that is "past its date."  My body does not seem to have an "expiry" date and it is guesswork how long any of it will function, much less all of it.  With or without a written or printed date, everything ages.  The big three of Buddhism are aging, sickness and death.  

Other people are sensitive to the issues in discussions about expiration of food, food safety and wasted food.  I looked up

how much food is wasted because of dates printed on the container

In Duckduckgo and saw figures around 30% of food is tossed out unnecessarily early because of expiration dates.  Of course, I might be the poor person who ignores "best by", "use by", and "sell by" dates and gets some sort of sickness because I did.  There seems to be quite a bit of government regulation about the three separate phrases in red and there may be other words to mean something different.  

Lynn has a common older woman problem of weight gain.  It must be that the body mechanisms that help a mother eat enough to make another human inside her also contribute to her gaining weight, especially in later years.  Whatever causes it, she sometimes tries a bit of fasting.  I copy her sometimes and eat a small container of yogurt and a Kashi grain bar.  We believe that the date on my bar this morning is meant to be read as "May 18, 2022" rather than meaning that Kashi bar was manufactured in the year 1822.

Book titles

I see book titles every day.  The subject of titles is interesting.  Without a title, a book or an article has no name.  Names matter.  They are the nouns we use to refer to things, including a book or an article.  Today, I found a book whose title gave me some pause.  It's "My Husband Has Died But That is Not the Funny Part." It seems to be about grief and paying attention to daily life after loss and enjoying humor where there is some to be found.

I imagine that creating an arresting title is rather different from writing a helpful or popular book.  Still, some titles show real imagination and intelligence, the sort that poets show, I think. I have enjoyed the title "Aloe and Good-bye" and I admire the title of the book about being a librarian that is called "Our Bodies, Our Shelves". There was a popular book about womanhood and being a woman called "Our Bodies, Ourselves".

Getting set

We are working steadily to try arranging our hoped-for trip to Hawaii.  We are aware of Covid and many attempts by many different groups to try to conduct useful business and try at the same time to avoid getting sick or spreading sickness.  We would not be at all surprised if one thing or another prevents that trip, scheduled, as of now, to begin late January.  

We have been to Hawaii before and we had a very fine trip.  We learned much about those islands and the people who lived there and those who live there now.  For mainlanders like me, there are places and scenes there that are the apex of beauty.  I have found that the particulars of any trip, much like any person's personality, make that trip individual, unique.  When we visited Florence, Italy twice, we did so at different ages, with different companions, entering using different approaches, and housed in very different locations.  It takes some effort to realize that they were both to the "same" city.

I have practiced skipping any blogging while away and I will if we make this trip, too.  

Less so

I first learned that my body could produce my contribution to the chemicals needed to create a baby when I was in the 6th grade. I had been introduced to the concepts of baby production by my mother.  Ever since being in kindergarten, I had friends who were girls.  I knew I was drawn to girls but I had to get older before I learned about the abstract idea of attraction.

I am now in my 9th decade and I find that a basic internal spark has diminished quite a bit.  There is a moment in the movie "A Good Year"  when a beautiful and attractive young woman, maybe 25-ish, whips up her skirt to show Russell Crowe that nasty bruise she got when falling off her bike in avoiding his dangerous and erratic driving.  She reveals a buttock and makes the move so suddenly there is no time for a movie viewer to prepare.  That excellent piece of womanly anatomy abruptly blinded me, disoriented me.

I fully grasp that I am too old to do well now as a new husband or father.  It is polite and helpful of biology to, on the whole, lower my level of lust and give me a respite from years of fascination with females of my species.  They are still the best conversationalists, the best cooks and excellent company but I have fewer dreams of them, fewer preoccupations and distractions.  I seem to be experiencing some "femopause".

Greetings from us

For various reasons, we are just now sending out season's greetings.  In case, despite having several lists, we have missed anyone, I am sending this 2021 Christmas letter in this blog as well as some mailings today.  We hope you remember who we are.

We always have extended debates about how personal it is to send holiday greetings and news by email.  We haven't solved the question but we care about each person and their lives and their loved ones that we are sending this to.  Have a fine 2022 and take notes and pictures and not just of the good stuff.

Bill and Lynn

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Kirby News of 2021

THE YEAR OF JABS AND MASKS

(and lots of political stress and increasing climate change)

And after that, what is there to say? Well, some good things, too. 

1. During the holidays some of our family members had mild cases of COVID, but they're well again, and we are all in good health again.

2. Our great-grandchildren are doing well in school and having lots of new experiences collectively, such as art classes, school choir, computer club, writing movies, managing the school store, and band (percussion). One is spending most of her time developing excellent art ability. Two of them play soccer as often as weather permits and are outstanding players.

3. Our travels were all in Wisconsin, including a fun family trip to Door County to celebrate landmark anniversaries we had in 2020. (60 for us and 40 for Beth & Dave).

4. Continuing hobbies: Bill's daily blog (https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/). Lynn's pottery and the artists' cooperative (https://qartistscooperative.com/). We both keep up with exercise, although less vigorously than in our youth. 

We hope you had a happy and healthy holiday season, and we join everyone in hoping for 2022 to be a better year.