Routine

At 80 I depend upon my Day Timers daily organizer, plus calendars and a weekly and daily sheet combination. Obviously these assist my memory, but more than that they allow me to get things done. This isn't new, but it is more necessary than in the past. In part I resent them as I would resent "crutches;" it would be better for me not to spend the precious time on them, but it pays off.

Many years ago on one particular ship I was on, I had the good occasion to have a mentor who had attended the University of Chicago (Philosophy) and prided himself in being organized. He encouraged me to take advantage of shipboard life to get studying done, physical fitness and diet, and to prepare myself for what I imagined might be my future. Part of this depended upon using the watch schedule to be called when you wanted to get things done (other than work, eg. the watch, as well as those).

While on this ship I read an article on the philosopher Santayana in which he extolled routine as a way to get things done. He took this to some extremes, eg. having the same thing for lunch each day so that he wouldn't have waste time on the decision making necessary to have variety there. When I speak with people today it seems that for many of them a lack of routine is essential for them to feel "free," to allow their self preoccupation a "long leash" so that their lives can be led with minimal introspection.

My hope is that people will find their balances with all of this, a "middle way" of sorts. Spontaneity has its' place, undoubtedly, "living in the present" much to offer. At 80 my time for this may return in another incarnation (?).

The Roberts and The Webbs

The Webbs and Roberts were as different to me as night and day. Both had their dark and light sides, but to visit them was to be in different countries, cultures. The Webbs were from Idaho, Mormon country, not only with an Old Testament quality to their belief system and life style, but a kind of stoic, common sense notion of what reality was. The Roberts were from Oklahoma and Louisiana, Grandmother Nellie May had Mary Baker Eddy by her bedside, along with the Bible, but the atmosphere was more open, not at all Biblical, more experimental and free wheeling in my memory.

Food and drink were more lavish in the Roberts realm, Grandfather made wine from the grapes he grew in the backyard. The Webbs were tea tottlers, my memory is of fresh baked bread and cookies, sometime cakes, bean soup ( lima bean soup with Ketsup), and saltine crackers. Both grandfathers were good vegetable growers and I have fond memories of working with both of them in our victory garden, and with Grandfather Roberts in his.

Because my parents were so young I had a lot of time with both sets, and because I was the firstborn grandchild, and a boy, my Grandfather Roberts lavished trips and outings on me

(a library trip is mentioned elsewhere in the BLOG). He sometimes unveiled portraits for clients in their homes and took me along for the ride. He wanted me to listen to Caruso sing arias and read to me from history books, for example H.G. Wells.

Looking back I think I was unfair to the Webbs because they were not as flashy, not so "interesting." But they were there for me all the way, and the uncles and aunts and their married partners were all good, interesting people. Uncle Jess was particularly important; having married Aunt Haroldeen and being childless, he/they became important to me because

I was available to them and they to me. I wish everyone could be as fortunate as I was with my grandparents and uncles and aunts, and that they could live near them and savor their influences. Perhaps that will be the case again in the future, I hope so.

Sovereignty

Sovereignty at the time of the original Tea Party meant a chief of state in a monarchy; a king or queen; monarch, and that is still the number one dictionary definition. But to a nation struggling to define itself and throw out a monarch which had chartered companies which then could impose taxes upon them and their tea, a new intellectual immigrant from England was to insist upon what is today the third or forth definition, complete independence and self government.

A landless, brillant thinker and writer, Thomas Paine was recruited as an immigrant by Benjamin Franklin, and would soon be upping the ante on the semantics of democracy in our forming nation. It is no wonder that he is not brandished by the present day Tea Party; he was, for one thing, a deist, knew how important it would be not to have the nation framed in by Christian, Biblical belief.

His belief was that "Sovereignty as a matter of right, appertains to the Nation only, and not to any individual; and a Nation has at all times an inherent indefeasible right to abolish any form of Government it finds inconvenient, and establish such as accords with its interest, disposition, and happiness." (from Paine's "Rights of Man"). Wouldn't he be surprised today when our corporations are considered individuals under the law, and that they seem to be today's sovereigns, represented by the 1% in the fashion of the companies chartered by the kings and queens of earlier times? It seems that today's Tea Party might pick up the writings of Thomas Paine with some benefit, albeit inconvenient and difficult for their beliefs.

Drivin' Wheel

I began working for people outside my family at six, in a minor way then, but significant because the so-called work process was to be important my whole life; and still is. How work functions is of critical importance to all societies and cultures, and yet much of what it is is largely assumed.

My feeling is that I was attractive as an employee because I was taught to work and liked it. It helped that I grew up in the great depression and I never had difficulty finding work to do. And I was able to observe workers in my neighborhood, talk to others about it, and generally be intrigued by the way people made a living and provided for their families.

In the last several decades I have been able to be a supervisor of other people's work, an employer, as I have continued to work along side of them; even after "retirement." Lately I have had the pleasure of working with young people who have kindly volunteered on our farm.

Because we have very little money we are dependent upon people to help us with our scaled down vegetable growing operation.

Drivin wheel came up recently because my son is working as a carpenter for a local builder and I heard him mentioned as a driving force on the crew. He sets a pace, as does, I'm sure, his twin brother, Alexander, as a chef in the kitchen. My drivin wheel days are over, of course: 80, arthritic and a little guarded. Who wants to spend his last years in rehab or worse? It took me 78 years to get my first hernia .... cuidado is now the motto.

Coal Train

One of my favorite sounds are train whistles, which we can hear from the Soo Line when the winds are right. Unfortunately the trains are hauling coal to power plants to the East, and these trains will soon be hauling fracking sand, if they are not already doing so. What price a sound that comes out of your childhood, associated with so many positive things, when it is now connected to energy systems which are no longer acceptable?

Fracking sand is now radically changing communities, especially one close by where we have friends and neighbors, some of whom will lose their homes, have to be displaced to who knows where (?). And this doesn't even mention what is happening to the communities themselves. This relatively new industry points to jobs, of course, and has even had a jobs fair in the community referred to above which as this is written is being destroyed as it is being radicalized by a technology which is largely suspect for environmental reasons.

Tragedy attends us in many ways, we have to , somehow, make our way through. I have not heard the acronym NIMBY* once within all the dialogs here, either by those who would not live and needn't live near where all the disruption and pollution will occur (corporate investors, etc.) nor by those who are potential employees within this (out of work people of all kinds, from all walks of life). Meanwhile, the XL pipeline from Canada is on hold and the Canadians are threatening to sell their "dirty oil" to China (and does that mean the pipeline will run to Vancouver? May be some trouble ahead there).

* Not In My Back Yard

Degenerating times?

Tibetan lamas and other teachers refer to "degenerating times" as a benchmark of especially Western behavior, culture and economies. Although people like the Dalai Lama seem to tone down such critic labels, they are "in the wings" none-the-less. Organizations which represent the Tibetan refugees and Tibetan people in the West wrestle with the stresses and strains of label karma which would understand and work to change things successfully. This peaked at the time of the Olympics in China, and has taken a back seat since then, seems to me.

How would our ethicists, philosophers and religious figures respond to a charge of degeneration coming from the East? Recently in a film on PBS shot in China to dramatize the plight of countless small town people who work in sweat shops far from home (people who sew in this case) trying to get home and back to work during the annual celebration of Chinese new year. This huge migration by train primarily is beset by terrible facilities, equipment, military and police traffic and confusion management, angst and heartbreak. There is what could be called degeneration here.

Change cries for labels to try for understanding. One of the Chinese critics of the film mentioned suggested that it was not "patriotic," that it sought understanding and yet made understanding impossible because it implied criticism. The filmmaker was, as I recall, was angered by this remark, and rightly so. What will change the plight of the workers who are caught in the desire to be at home and travel there? And how will American viewers take to heart the lesson to be learned about the need to deal with changing infrastructures as a part

of their futures?

Young People

"Back in the day," when I was preparing myself seriously to do library work (eg. a masters degree in Library Science) today's so-called "young people" were called "young adults." Perhaps this was wishful thinking (?), that we were just going to be working with the younger part of the adult spectrum if we worked in this specialization.

In the last decade or two it seems that the way behavior plays out and is encouraged has changed this a bit. People who reach the voting age, who are more or less expected to leave home, can drink legally, etc., are now (more or less) tolerated as a version of continuous teenagers, in dress, habits, employment & unemployment, residences, etc. There is no obligation to "grow up" necessarily, what's the point? What is it to be "grown up," and who cares?

Talking to local "teens" in the last few years, there are with few exceptions any people who have strong adult tendencies (what ever those are?). When asked what their expectations were to be post high school situation a couple mentioned working for Wal Mart, hopefully as fork lift operators. Others mentioned the local vo tech schools, possibly working with computers or something. And now I realize that I need to "revisit" the situation, try and understand it more.

Part of this is the possibility that I may be able to visit and exchange ideas with a writing class in a nearby high school. Another was the request by the one young fellow who has worked on our place with great distinction for a letter to support his case for a scholarship. This young man is so exceptional, so deserving of support, and I/we feel honored to be asked to write a letter. I only wish there were more of him, and my understanding could have more depth because of them.