My head is spinning

I was told that the classroom I had been assigned for teaching was equipped to send a television signal.  The class was a graduate class of experienced teachers and some drove 90 one way to attend the class.  That was after teaching all day.  Ok, let's transmit the class and save the driving, maybe even an accident involving deer in the roadway. One thing led to another.  The chancellor of my university was a former professor of communication and he understood the power of media.  The communication department was already equipped with a good quality studio and savvy technicians to use it.  

I have a background in a subject that many experienced teachers don't like: research statistics.  They are the techniques that are often used to support an idea, such as the central idea in a master's degree thesis. Before long, our hot continuing education department was broadcasting my statistics lessons around the state.  Then, continuing ed and communications made a CD of my lessons.  It could be mailed to students anywhere.  Over time, better statistics software emerged and my lessons fell in popularity.  I was informed the other day that 10,000 CDs of my old lessons are now being used to make spinning toys for children.  One never knows where one will end up.

A few minutes each day

You don't need anything but you.  Sit comfortably but alone and still for, say, 5 minutes.  During that time, keep your attention on one thing.  A good choice and a traditional one is your breath.  Using your breath, you can close your eyes.  Sometimes, closed eyes create fewer distractions, reminders, worries, themes, etc.  

Why do that?  Doing so increases mindfulness, the awareness of what gets suggested to you by your unconscious mind.  While waiting for the timer to ding, dismiss such suggestions.  It is only five minutes.  If the five minutes is pure torture, try to take the torture as a sign of health and evidence of smart investment of your energy and effort.  

This kind of activity has been practiced by some people of India, China and other Asian nations for thousands of years.  It is good for you, very inexpensive and helpful.  As you develop greater awareness of your mind's activity, you develop a better ability to guide your thoughts and steer your feelings about yourself, others, and life in general.

"The New Woman"

"The New Woman" is a novel by Jon Hassler.  He died in 2008 and was an author and professor.  We have read most of his novels, often set in or near Staggerford, a small town in Minnesota. The new woman is Agatha McGee, a long-time elementary teacher at St. Isidore's elementary school.  Many of the local citizens were once in her class.  She can remember most of them.  Agatha is a polite, civilized woman but not one to stand for any nonsense.  She is the most recent addition to those living in Sunset Senior center but she isn't sure she wants to live there and may return to her own home.  She has lived alone all her life.

Hassler can sketch out the important features of a personality in just a few words.  This book is excellent.

Making the best choice

I wrote my dissertation about a possible application of mathematical decision theory.  The idea is an abstraction but it can be helpful in making actual decisions and thinking about them. It is handy to think in terms of a table or a software spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.  These tools are basically tables with smart and capable cells that can relate to each other.  Let's say you are being paid to decide on which of four novels is the "best".  I put best in quotes because there are many ways of deciding on the best, from asking your sister which is best, to comparing their prices, to more complex ways.  I searched "What makes a novel good?" and found a list of "strong opening, compelling characters, an absorbing story, sharp dialogue, unique style."  Let's use the first suggested variable, a strong opening, as a basis for the decision example.  

Novel	Strong open	Good middle	Fine finish
A	5	8	2
B	4	9	7
C	6	6	5
D	3	7	1

Summing the points

A 15

B 20

C 17

D 11

We could use a "weighted" formula to increase the importance of the Finish if we feel that the finish is more important.  We could double the score for the Finish or multiply it by 1.5.  A table like this may disguise or cover all sorts of choices and issues.  That article suggested "compelling characters", an "absorbing story" and two other variables, none of which were used.  

In more detailed approaches, each cell in the table can be calculated using two figures, one for the value of the outcome and one for the probability of getting that value, the utility and the probability.

Given this approach, novel B wins but personally, I never liked that book.

Signs of decline

We are getting older and we experience signs of decline.  Quite a list of good friends have died, nearly all of them men.  Nearly all of my friends my age experience memory problems where they know a name, know the person with that name but can't make the name come to mind. This sort of recall problem is often called a 'senior moment' and its peculiar nature is that the person knows the name "should" be recallable, knows that name has been known.  When we experience a senior moment, we have learned to try to be patient.  Within 2 or 3 minutes, the name comes to mind most of the time. 

We both experience less stamina and an earlier need to breathe faster.  My hearing isn't good.  I can usually detect sound but much less often know what was said.  I have been wearing hearing aids for several years.  

I feel that I understand quite a bit more clearly what aging is and does.  We are reading "The New Woman" by Jon Hassler.  Hassler has several novels set in Staggerford, a small Minnesota town.  They often feature Agatha McGee, who is now 87 years old and was a well-known elementary teacher who had many citizens in her class as children.  Agatha is 'the new woman' in Sunset Senior Center.  The book and my personal situation and that of many friends helps me grasp what my advancing age means to me and others.

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor

My friends did me a big favor when they voted to discuss "Being You" by Anil Seth.  The book is about how our minds come to be as they are.  Preparing to discuss that book, I reviewed that book and others that are related.  I mentioned some about this in the blog post from last Friday:

t.ly/sMnK [Firefox shortened link]

I read Dr. Bolte Taylor's book "My Stroke of Insight" quite a while back and was impressed.  Just being a neuroscientist and having a stroke is a somewhat lucky break since she gets to experience it and note what happens.  But I had never watched her TED talk about her stroke until today.  I found that she wrote a second book, "Whole Brain Living".  I really liked her first book and started in on the 2nd.  She devotes the first few pages to the effect of her giving a TED talk about her stroke.  It was one of those cases of very sudden, very extensive, very powerful fame.  I am a fan of TED talks and watched her talk today.  Truly excellent and spiritual as well as scientific.  It is 18 minutes and worth watching.

https://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_my_stroke_of_insight

A different collection

Books matter and libraries matter.  But other materials get invented and collected and also represent knowledge, thinking and experience.  Lynn wrote her dissertation about librarians dealing with new knowledge materials such as slide-tapes and computer files.

I have a collection of compact discs.  We have a separate shelf of music CD's.  Compact discs can be made in many computers and can store files of other information than music.

I still find the compact discs of music that we have worthwhile.  Many times, when I am preparing a meal, I like to play some music and I like to decide what music to listen to.  I did play some Linda Ronstadt yesterday but it was only to create a strong contrast with the Bach harpsichord I also played.  We have many discs of Mozart, some operatic singing, especially Pavarotti and Beverly Sills, some Strauss and Beethoven.  

Having a good tune in the air while cooking and serving food makes a surprising difference in the mood and pace of the house.  No matter what is being played, it can be irritating and it can get tiresome so I try to have a variety of composers and types of music.  This morning, I pulled out the Vienna Choir Boys singing music from around the world.  It was that disc that taught me about how I missed my darlin' Clementine until I kissed her little sister and forgot my Clementine.  It is also a fine disc for experiencing the syncopation and amazing pauses in South American music.  

It's hormones

I grasp Prof. Barrett's message: my brain is not for thinking. Much of its time and energy is engaged keeping my excellent, unique body working as it should.  I grasp Dr. Eagleman's message: I tend to start thinking about a nap or a meal or returning to that great book after my unconscious has tried to steer me and failed or is dealing with several issues and can't decide on just one.  

But this picture is powerfully and helpfully altered by Dr. Louann Brizendine, MD in her book The Female Brain.  I am reading that aloud to Lynn.  Dr. Brizendine steadily discusses hormones.  As several authors mention, most non-human male animals are not bewitched by an hour-glass figure or a woman's creamy skin.  How come men are?  Hormones, especially testosterone.  I have read that the ancient Hebrew thinkers tried to make sense of women's strong desire for pregnancy and motherhood.  Just giving birth resulted in death for many women. And even after surviving birthing, many women wanted it again, even with the pain and discomfort.  How come?  Hormones, especially estrogen and progesterone.  Women get testosterone, too, but it isn't as fundamental for them.

Once women start menstruating, their brains get hormones every month. These chemicals matter powerfully.  Brizendine writes:

The female brain is so deeply affected by hormones that their influence can be said to create a woman's reality.  They can shape a woman's values and desires and tell her, day by day, what's important.

Some academic disciplines and traditions of thought concentrate on what is often called rational or logical thought but it is very clear that all humans at all ages are influenced by other factors.  I thought it was interesting that when I mentioned another book on human hormones, the men I was with took the title to mean "sex".  It is "Aroused" by Randi Hutter Epstein, MD.

Our minds

A group of men discussed the book "Being You" by the neuroscientist Anil Seth.  The book is about ideas and research to try to understand how our minds come to be.  It is a slippery and mysterious subject.  It isn't totally clear just where in us our minds reside.  I was surprised at how many titles I have read that relate to the subject.  I think maybe the most helpful source has been the TED talk by Anil Seth that explains our mind as a helpful hallucination produced by the brain: (a Firefox shortened link)

t.ly/pNFn

Books and issues that came up include

1. The Three Pound Universe - Hooper and Teresi

2. Mind as Healer, Mind as Slayer - Pelletier

3. The Brain that Changes Itself - Doidge

4. My Stroke of Insight - Jill Bolte Taylor

5. Soft-wired - Merzenich

6. Cure - Marchant

7. The Cure Within - Harrington

8. She Has Her Mother's Laugh - Zimmer

1. Similarity and differences of siblings and twins

2. Cognitive growth and deterioration

3. Memory

4. Emotions

5. Attention

Getting the news

My friends complained they don't like the news they get.  I am not referring to news content as much as style and criteria as to what to include in reports.  

My wife and I get zero news from broadcast tv or radio.  Well, NPR might be an exception for Lynn and she has an online subscription to the New York Times.  We are both rather regular readers of the online CNN Five Things.  

I look at Five Things, Numlock News, Google News, Writer's Almanac. I highly recommend using the Firefox browser.  It isn't a product of any of the big tech companies and there is not a push to expand the use of other products.  I am a big fan of the GetPocket service.  It is part of the Firefox browser and it is free.  Whenever I go to New Page to open an additional tab in my browser, Firefox and Pocket present snippets of a wide array of articles that might be of interest. Firefox also has a button that can strip out ads, inserts, and other distractions from webpages.  It is referred to as "Reader view" and it can help. 

The language of a headline or title can set the tone of the item. "Worst disaster in a decade" vs. "Fire in lumberyard" can make a big difference.  I realize that writers are trying to get readers and reactions but I still go for a calm approach. 

Don't give me that

Quite a few friends have explained that they don't like to read ebooks.  The same people often say they like "real" books, by which they almost always mean traditional books, hard or soft cover, bound together pages made of paper. On Feb. 8, somebody at Amazon, maybe a bot (robot or software), sent me a group of book titles and quite a few rang enough of a bell that I bought them.  Naturally, I haven't looked at most of them yet but maybe I will.  One that sticks in my mind is Keith Houston's "The Book: A Cover to Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time."

I think "reading" means different things to different people. 

There is no Frigate like a Book (1286)

By Emily Dickinson

There is no Frigate like a Book

To take us Lands away

Nor any Coursers like a Page

Of prancing Poetry –

This Traverse may the poorest take

Without oppress of Toll –

How frugal is the Chariot

That bears the Human Soul –

If "reading" is a special time that is reserved for thrills and spy adventures and conquering heroes, a person may not be comfortable AT FIRST with a change in posture, weight, etc.  However, when people use their smartphone for all sorts of communication in text or email or visiting web sites or Facebook or Instagram or other social media, they are reading, by my definition.  

So, don't give me the "I need the scent of a paper book", "the exercise involved in walking about looking for where I left my current book" stuff.  Not when, in an age of high gasoline prices, high anti-biking winds, I can get wonderful books through the air with no wires in my Kindle reader that allows my elderly eyes to enlarge the print if I want.  I admit that the app "Libby" does let me borrow some ebooks without cost but many wonderful books came out before 2008 and for those, I do need a heavy paper "book".  

Still, I urge you to look at Amazon's World Book Day deal and accept any or all of its ten ebooks for free.  There are lots of advantages to using ebooks. For instance, they don't need dusting.

Our mysterious minds

Our book club is soon going to discuss "Being You" by Anil Seth, a British neuroscientist.  I sent them this email to try to situate the book and discussion.  Seth has YouTube videos and TED talks, too.  The basic subject is how our minds come to be.  

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My web site 1.0    t.ly/VODp

My web site 2.0    t.ly/dnmC

You might also want to search my blog https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/

Many pages on these web sites relate to "Being You".

The author, Anil Seth, has TED talks and YouTube videos.  Here is a Google Search page about him t.ly/iark

Two of the most helpful books for me have been "Incognito" by D. Eagleman and "Seven and a Half Lessons about Your Brain" by L. F. Barrett.  Both of these books explain the many ways our biology influences.

Related books are "Unique" by D. Linden and "Search Inside Yourself" by Chade-Meng Tan.  Since we started life using parts of our mothers and fathers, the book "She Has Her Mother's Laugh" by Carl Zimmer may be helpful.  We are much influenced by our unfolding development and our hormones so "The Female Brain" and "The Male Brain" by Louann Brezendine, MD are eye-opening.  As of today, Dr.Brizendine has released "The Upgrade", information about how women's brains improve after the age of 50.

Waves

I am surprised by how long Covid problems last.  I am surprised to see how long phenomena, especially those that relate to living things and even more so to people, last and re-ignite.  Conditions that supported rage or fear or enthusiasm can re-occur after seemingly departing from the scene.  

I must be naive or poorly aware of how life and how people's opinions arise.  I tend to think of decisions, facing decisions, making a choice of what to do and how to act and then acting on the decision.  I am becoming more aware that reasoning, imagination and physical situations can and do re-awaken ideas and guesses that came to mind previously.  I read in "The Geography of Thought" that Richard Nisbett found Eastern nations using a more or less circular model of history and humans while Western nations had more linear ideas of periods and fashions going off in a line, not curving back and repeating. 

Often models are just approximations and maybe don't fit the data tightly but I see the wisdom of expecting a first wave of ideas or actions or comments or expressions of opinion to be followed later by repeats, by 2nd or third generations of ideas or expressions that are along the same track.  I can see that events do not repeat themselves exactly but I do get a feeling of repetition sometimes when I hear or read about events or comments.

I was impressed by the ardor expressed against getting vaccinated.  I was maybe even more surprised to learn that vaccinations were doubted in the late 1700's.  I read that people today wanted to know what was in the vaccine while I just assumed that anyone who knew enough to answer would use words I didn't know.  I read that people shied away from getting jabbed because they judged current vaccines had been created too quickly to have been tested and evaluated properly.  I thought the process was all ironed out.  I realize there are always chances for errors, plots, and mishaps but I am still surprised how issues that I thought were settled re-emerge.

Happy Easter!

Some of my friends have occupational connections to religion such as being a pastor or a professor of religious studies.  Others are scientists committed to exploring the complexities of this world.  We realize that modern tools and attitudes allow us to debate, investigate and grasp new approaches that were not possible in previous times.  When tragedy visited people in the form of disease or damaging geological events, they did the best they could to handle the situation.  

Some of my friends are deeply aware of the power of stories, both throughout history and today.  Customs, rituals, community and prayers and invocations can all help in troublesome times.  Even in the current period, we can't know everything and we often don't want to face what we know.  In today's world, we have the additional burden of not always trusting what we read or hear.  Humans from ancient times have found consolation and motivation to persist, even in very trying times.  I hope Easter brings you peace and strength and hope.

Becoming parents

Today is the anniversary of my becoming a father.  We are reading "The Female Brain" by Louann Brezendine, MD.  I realize that motherhood is a very big deal.  Sometimes, life is summarized as two needs: survival and reproduction.  In our modern times, with a very large human population, people may decide that having children is not for them.  In addition, specialists are understanding more about a range of sexual manifestations from normal on.  We just watched an episode of "Call the Midwife" in which a young woman in her early 20's gets the courage to see a doctor since she has not begun menstruating.  She learns that her body is sexually ambiguous and not typically equipped.  Sad and frightening for her.  

Since a person who is a father is not able to be a mother, I am glad to be reading "The Female Brain".  I read about the little girl who had been provided with "unisex" toys to avoid her being imprinted with society's version of femininity but was found cuddling and comforting a toy truck:

This little girl didn't cuddle her "truckie" because her environment molded her unisex brain. There is no unisex  brain. She was born with a female brain, which came complete with its own impulses. Girls arrive already wired  as girls, and boys arrive already wired as boys. Their brains are different by the time they're born, and their  brains are what drive their impulses, values, and their very reality.

I learned about the female body's preparation for motherhood:

These physical cues from the infant forge new neurochemical pathways in the brain that create and reinforce maternal brain circuits aided by chemical imprinting and huge increases of oxytocin. These changes result in a motivated, highly attentive, and aggressively protective brain that forces the new mother to alter her responses and priorities in life. She is relating to this person in a way she has never related to anyone else in her life. The stakes are life and death.

I was happy to be part of a new family but I just learned about Couvade syndrome, where some expectant fathers even develop symptoms mimicking morning sickness.  

Could be good

I am thinking of starting a business.  It would be sales of superior spam messages.  I get spam frequently but it is low quality.  The in-thing seems to be decorating the subject line with icons such as little red hearts, lipsticked lips and seductive phrases such as "Want to F*ck?"

I am more or less attracted to intelligence and sensitivity, as I understand them.  I feel I can craft better messages, messages that get more responses and contacts from a better line of customers.  At first, I will just be interested in getting some cash.  I am not in desperate need of money but getting some will be an early sign of success and quality.  I am only reasonably capable in English so the other languages will be out of my reach.  I like to use Google Translate to try and decode foreign phrases but I doubt that my spam will be useful without the scrutiny of real experts in other tongues.  

Once I make, say, a billion and a half, I plan to drop the low quality stuff and try for other aims.  Not sex but reading, exercising, better diets, and more thoughtful things to say to one's loved ones and one's children.  I may dangle some prizes to lure more business, such as genuine emails from me, myself and maybe a photo or two.  I might try the reverse direction, too - you know, not sending pictures of poor weather or dead birds if you have subscribed to protection from such. 

One, more and our own heads

If you agree to meet a friend for lunch, you'll be there, right?  You won't see a single person waiting in the lunch place and think,"Heck, just one person showed.  Forget it" and leave.  After all, an audience is valuable and that friend agreed and now is ready to talk.  I hope you followed the new rule and made sure you have a pad and pen handy.  You can't keep all your ideas in your head without losing some so you'll jot down a word or two to keep topics and subjects handy to get back to. Besides, you never know.  The comments you make and the insights that friend shares may be the most valuable parts of the day.  Maybe the week.  

It is quite possible that the most valuable part of the conversation between you two is the part you contribute. Even if you forget the pad and pen or you see some freezing on your friend's face when you pick up the pen, it can easily happen that the friend's comments spark a memory, or better still a perspective on a memory that you don't recall until later in the day or even the next day.  But then, your discovery of a new perspective on a memory, on an experience, on a goal, maybe a new view of yourself energizes you enough.  You look up some stuff in Google.  You write a note of love or appreciation or you make an offer of a trip.  You dig out an old photograph or open that book you meant to finish.  

Unless we turn into our own secretaries, we are going to forget many experiences but a little chat can take us in exciting and valuable directions. 

We are getting close

In a day or two, the painting will be done.  I managed to brush against wet paint so I have a sweatshirt and sweatpants decorated in a light gray.  

I have learned that having a little painting done here and there can be surprisingly limiting and disruptive.  We have the microwave in the guest room and the coffee pot and the decaf pot in the office.  Some day, we will find the bratwurst and those two spoons.

Better heavens

We all dream and plan.  It is natural for smart animals with imaginations, like us.  I am just offering a little tip on better dreaming, better planning on better times. The tip comes from the similarity between solitary confinement and a refreshing uplifting walk alone in the woods. When we plan heavens, we tend to seek perfection.  We want to lie in the sun with someone who loves us, with a good book or a fine tv show with no rain or wind or bandits or elevated body temperatures.  

Here's a tip: We are alive!  We habituate.  We grow accustomed.  Think about it.  You used to think that guy was magnetic.  You couldn't get your eyes off him.  But now, the "magic" has thinned and he is so irritating.  Same with mushroom linguine.  It used to be sooooo good!  Now, you simply can't face another bowl of it.  I am not proposing divorce or chocolate instead of pasta.  But simply trying to remind myself and others that as Lisa Feldman Barrett says, my emotions come from me, from my animal wiring and my animal brain circuits.  If I can allow myself to see some irritants, some errors, some downfalls as required for animal joy, I can open up to the value they bring.  

I have often been impressed with Eckhart Tolle's advice for observing my own mind and emotions.  He says to stay alert for the next thought I have.  When I go on alert to see the next thought enter my mind, my brain freezes!  It is a great tool.  I can just be.  Not be a cowboy or a rock star, not be a bum or a brain.  Just be.

I know I am going to be disappointed if St. Peter says I can't come in because I have already been living heavenly but I never noticed.  I am going to stop specifying smooth harps, and start enjoying my interesting stream of unexpected gifts and troubles.

Two cultural markers

This past weekend, Stevens Point experienced its 52nd UWSP Trivia contest.  Over 300 teams participated from many locations.  The family team is "The Raging Tyrannosaurus of Despair" and they finished in 38th place.  You know that if you play trivia, you need to answer questions such as "What was the model of car the robbers used in the Detroit bank robbery of 1937?"  Just to add spice and challenge, the contest begins at 6 PM on Friday and runs totally continuously until midnight the following Sunday.  Therefore, over 52 years, Point residents like me have learned to expect groggy disoriented people here and there on Monday (today).  Since the local college handles the contest, often considered to be the biggest in the world, you may have groggy, disoriented players near you, wherever you are.  Give 'em a break. They will be their old selves in a day or so.

As if that weren't challenging enough, we have a simultaneous cultural hit in the Riverfront Arts Center on the Wisconsin river that runs through town.  At this time of year, we have the Peeps art show.  That is the show where a wide range of people, from middle schoolers to retirees, create a diorama "peopled" by the Easter marshmallow chicks we are all familiar with.  The dioramas have no other characters but chicks but often they have been dyed to other colors than the traditional bright yellow.  This year's show included a depiction of the Titanic disaster just moments before the ship started to sink.  A scene I liked some years back showed the College of Cardinals and the Pope, all chicks.  The show runs in the Riverfront Gallery for more days so you can still catch it and be inspired.

Chains

Reading "How We Got to Now" by Stephen Johnson, I read about glass.  Johnson traced the developments from the printing press to more reading to more people discovering they needed glasses to more and better glass to the invention of telescopes and microscopes greater understanding of bacteria and life we can't see to better longevity.  

Reading "Life is Your Best Medicine" by T. Low Dog, MD, she traced chains of causation in her own life:

"Over the years, I came to learn that most of the things I once considered failures were really blessings in disguise. If I hadn't dropped out of high school, I never would have met Thomas or felt the magic of the sweat lodge. But if I'd felt at home in the plains, I wouldn't have traveled to Richmond and met Frank, opened my leather shop, and found Juba. She taught me about being a woman, about birth, and mid-wifed me through a critical period of my life. If my leather shop had been successful, I never would have moved down to Grace Street and found the Kim School of Tae Kwon Do. I never would have learned martial arts or studied tai chi with Master Kang. And if I had never met Daniel, my beautiful son wouldn't be in the world and in my life. If the divorce hadn't happened, I'd never have gone on the vision quest, which taught me to let go of the past and embrace my faith again. The strength I found in the desert those three days allowed me to pursue my business, school, and clinical practice, which provided enough money for Mekoce and me to live comfortably. If the migrant worker hadn't come to my clinic and returned to tell me his little girl had died, I never would have thought of becoming a physician. All these links in the chain of my life gave me the tenacity to work my way through college and medical school."

— Life Is Your Best Medicine: A Woman's Guide to Health, Healing, and Wholeness at Every Age by Tieraona Low Dog Md

I recognize similar chains in my life.  If I hadn't chosen Latin in 8th grade, I wouldn't have gone to the high school I did.  If my homeroom teacher hadn't told me to go to college, I would have missed college and my wife.  I might not have become a 5th grade teacher.  If I had enjoyed my time student teaching, I wouldn't have chosen educational research and statistics as a grad school major.  Then, I wouldn't have qualified for a grad school scholarship and a doctorate.  Then, I wouldn't have been hired in a small Wisconsin town as a professor.

A different health prospective

A friend read my post called "Overuse of a single direction" 

https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/2022/04/overuse-of-single-direction.html

prompting a memory of a book that really helped.  That book is "Life is Your Best Medicine" by Dr. Tieranona Low Dog, MD.  It was a fine gift!  I immediately looked up the Kindle version.  It exists and sells at a price I can afford.  I downloaded it and have read 15% of it.

Dr. Low Dog is a practicing physician but she is also an advocate for alternative and integrative medicine.  Her book is another statement, like Dr. Lissa Rankin's book "Sacred Medicine", emphasizing aspects of our current ways of living that often get out of hand but not so much from infectious agents such as the covid virus, but more from stress, smoking, alcohol and physical inactivity.  

I have a Twitter account and I like highlighting parts of a Kindle book that impress me and posting the snippets on Twitter as "Bill Kirby" (@olderkirby).  The Dr. Low Dog quote that I like most so far is 

"We're no longer running from lions and bears—the things chasing us now are text messages, emails, and never-ending demands on our time."

Overuse of a single direction

I am paying attention to Lissa Rankin's "Sacred Medicine" book. In her video I mentioned in this post https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/2022/04/inside-ourselves.html

She explains that as a practicing ob/gyn physician, she kept seeing a patient she had seen before but this time, that same patient had developed a new problem, with somewhat new symptoms.  She got interested in the question of other ways to help people heal than the approach and methods she had learned in medical school.  The "Sacred Medicine" looks at methods and procedures that other groups use and have used to cure ills and might help us with some difficult to handle problems.  She is not above learning from medicine men and women and practicing rituals they use.

So far, I have highlighted these bits:

Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2262 

When I was ushered in, Aida, Emma, another friend, and I formed a circle around the healer. When it was my  turn, he sat me square in front of him, looked at me for a long time, then laughed his ass off! 

Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2330 

There is always something to evoke awe and open our hearts as long as we resist the tendency to take these  blessings for granted. 

Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2337 

We do not give to the nature spirits because we want something from them. It is not a sneaky manifestation  trick. We give because it is spiritual law. We give because we have received so much. Cures come as gifts, not  transactions.

Yesterday, Professor Dona Warren explained typically rational steps in considering an argument, a conversation or some individual thinking.  I totally admit that applying both logic and imagination to our lives and our situations is wise and has paid off.  However, I also learned from "Incognito" by Eagleman and "Seven and a Half Lessons About Your Brain" that the world and we ourselves are quite complex.  So, it seems to make sense to explore many avenues.

I have wondered if the human species goes back in time so far and yet modern medicine is so young, how humans survived without antibiotics and surgery and such.  Dr. Rankin's explorations certainly seem to point in other directions that might have potential.

Guest room, formerly black wall, blocked dining room, not in the kitchen

Seth and blogs

I subscribe to Seth Godin's blog.  He usually posts short passages.  I have read various snippets by him and he offers a daily blog.  Today he posted:

And maybe it's enough

To feel sufficient, to be satisfied with what we have: Chisoku in Japanese.

Of course, by some measures, there's never enough. We can always come up with a reason why more is better, or better is better, or new is better or different is better.

Enough becomes a choice, not a measure of science.

The essence of choice is that it belongs to each of us. And if you decide you have enough, then you do.

And with that choice comes a remarkable sort of freedom. The freedom to be still, to become aware and to stop hiding from the living that's yet to be done.

I have seen information about Godin that tells of his connections to online education.  I don't think society in general has caught up with the possibilities of learning that are everywhere around us.  So, people, websites and online or paper periodicals that offer information, encouragement and instruction are interesting.  Learning is only part of the story, though.  In many areas today, it can matter if I have the right credential, resume, references.  

But I write this blog firstly for me.  I started in 2008 and I have posted 88% of the time since then.  I make a general practice of not posting when I am away.  I have made a habit of noting down five themes that I can choose from for a day's post, which I usually write in the afternoon if I have time.  

Writing and speaking are subjects that are often on my mind.  It is very true that physical heat, air, water and food all matter to our lives but for humans, communication, listening, reading and writing develop and enhance us.  When I read Seth Godin's post, I knew I wanted to write about writing.  Before the telegraph, telephone, radio, tv and the computer/internet, people often used writing letters and journals to help keep their place in the unscrolling of life.  As I retired, I wanted to advocate daily short meditation as a helpful, inexpensive practice and I started blogging about that.  As the subject of meditation expanded and the number of books, magazines, blogs, clubs, offerings and apps about meditation increased, I felt far less need to write about it.  

In looking up a little more about Seth Godin, I found this passage by the  Argentinian-American computer specialist, Facundo Gauna, writing about his experience blogging and learning about blogs from Seth:

"I had a few rules during the experiment. Most of them came from Seth.

• Publish daily blog posts including weekends and holidays. Try to plan ahead during the holiday season if I'm going to be too busy.

• Do not try to make money on ads.

• Do not promote each blog post to try to get more viewership. It's ok to blog into the void.

• Offer my opinions and beliefs. Try to add value with my perspective. Do not try to re-document something already documented, it doesn't help people.

• Try to help someone with the post, even if it's one person.

https://dev.to/fgauna12/i-wrote-a-daily-blog-post-for-100-days-here-s-what-happened-3673

It seems that most blogs get posts rather rarely and most are money-seeking operations.  I think it is fine to simply post a reasonably coherent statement and try to put it where people who are interested can read it.  I learned when I put most of my course work online that an audience of one is big enough. And sure, it is a pleasure to have one's words out there.