THE WEEKENDER :) UNEXPECTED BEAUTY

EXPECTATIONS

"A light heart lives long."

Shakespeare

What is it about a moment, or a person, or a place that begins to 

work on a space inside, that creates a sense of good will, in an instant?

Do you think there are times, people or locations that convey an

extra something? Perhaps a charge of good will? 

Do you think there are moments, persons or places that open 

receptors in you, in your brain or heart?

Or do you think there are times you are simply wired, receptive or preordained 

to touch or feel a special luminosity?

Where ever you find it, however you get it, whoever brings it,

celebrate joy this weekend.

Even if for only a moment.

Lighten your heart.

Share it.

FINDING JOY IN EVEN THE WORLD OF THE SELL

JOY AS AN ANTHEM
A BOLD STATEMENT

AND WITHOUT PRETENSE

Enjoy.

See you down the trail.

ECLECTIC FRIDAY

OF PEOPLE, PICTURES AND THOUGHTS

Photo by NASA

      The first thing I wondered was how did they get the shot.  Talk about a point of view.

It was the Russian Soyuz craft that offered this unique view of the shuttle and the international space station.

     It's an appropriate image to trigger a series of random thoughts about the nature of relationships and points of view.  

WORDS ACROSS THE CULTURE

     As the Friday Lunch Flash Mob enjoyed the breaking of bread and the breaking out of the sun, a visiting couple dining near by remarked as to a statement made about Germany.  Turns out they are German.  That launched two our flash mob.  Both are fluent, having lived in Germany.  A wonderful conversation then ensued.

      I was struck by what a remarkable bit of "hospitality," unique though it might be.  As a rule Americans do not do well with a second language.  Our Flash Mob pals were an obvious exception and certainly must have added to the experience of the German visitors.  That would not have happened in many places, but then as people here say "Cambria is not the real world."

LESSONS LEARNED FROM A DAUGHTER

      A career as a journalist made me a good listener.  I listen to all points of view and reason that I can never have "too much" information.  I think I must be exasperating to friends who have passionate points of view, because I usually always counter a perspective with, if not a a counter point, at least an alternative view.  Sustainability, though, is a topic where I have put down a stake.  

       I think we must all learn to live in a sustainable way. It is not a political ideology.  In fact it cuts across all ideological views.  Sustainable, in my mind equals, survivable.  Humans are intelligent creatures and we must begin to apply intelligence to our choices of how we live.  

     I was chilled by the reality of a portion of a recent article by the New York Times writer Thomas Friedman.

                  This is not science fiction. This is what happens when our system of growth and the system of nature hit the wall at once. While in Yemen last year, I saw a tanker truck delivering water in the capital, Sana. Why? Because Sana could be the first big city in the world to run out of water, within a decade. That is what happens when one generation in one country lives at 150 percent of sustainable capacity.

    A city, a capitol city, without water?  As Friedman implies, it was once the province only of science fiction.  Now political, military and diplomatic "war gaming" must anticipate the reality.

     I appreciate a diversity of view and realize some do not agree with Friedman's  ideas.  But I urge an open mind.  

LINK HERE TO A FRIEDMAN COLUMN ABOUT A MAN WHO CONSIDERS HIMSELF AN ECO-OPTIMIST.

   I like people who approach reality with a sense of "can do."  Pragmatists of all ideological stripes have moved humans through previous difficult passages.  I think they will again.

SPEAKING OF COOPERATION

Photo by Tom Warren Daily Mail

IF YOU ENJOY THIS PHOTO, LINK HERE FOR AN INCREDIBLE DISPLAY OF AWARD WINNING WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE DAILY MAIL

See you down the trail.

THEY ARE NOT SO DEAR & A GOOD LAUGH

I've imposed a one day truce on myself
I will not speak, write, nor even think much about
the latest political/media gab fest and circus.
A principle I stressed in my news organizations was
"proportionality," a method to keep a story in 
perspective.  
Not all news executives practice that code.
It makes me long for the days of the pre 24/7 news channels.
So today, something more "primal."

THE SAVAGE DEER

OK, they are not "savage" in that sense, but they savage flowers and gardens.

People in the village are mixed in their reaction to the deer.  Tourists love them of course, "so charming" they say to see deer just roaming the open spaces, lots and on the road.

 Some actually feed them, which drives serious gardeners crazy, because there is nothing they wont eat.  Even with the "hand outs" and all of the grass and weeds, they seem to zero in on blooming flowers and roses.

So, there are some who grumble and talk about how nice it would be to organize a thinning of the heard.  A one day bow hunt is the favorite of some of the hard core deer haters. All of that is probably just talk.

In the meantime Cambrians build fences, look for secret ways to repel the deer (good luck with finding one that works) and drive with extra caution.  While the deer are bold about storming across a deck, climbing your hill and destroying your rose bush, they are also either stupid or fearless when it comes to cars.  They just don't seem to care.

Savage deer!
HERE IS A LAUGH FOR YOU
Part of my life was spent as a television news anchor.  I worked with one of the world's nicest guys-Bob Gregory a meteorologist.  Bob has a sunny disposition and loves to laugh-
well, sometimes it would be like this on the air.  Enjoy 

Full disclosure.  I was one of those off camera chortlers. 

See you down the trail.

SOLAR COMMENTARY

UPDATING SOLAR FLARE

This post provides more background and detail about the 

extraordinary solar event of June 7.

This post and the immediate previous post provide remarkable

images of a truly cosmic event.

See you down the trail.

NEW SOLAR FLARE

MAJOR SUN ACTIVITY
Scientists says this flare on June 7 is the second highest level of solar flare. It is expected to give the earth only a glancing blow.
We are entering a period of expected increased solar activity.
The images are amazing.

THE DAIQUIRI AND HEMINGWAY

THE DAIQUIRI- 
AND THEN,

THE PAPA DOBLE 
Popular history affixes the creation of the daiquiri to a group of American
mining engineers who were working near Santiago Cuba.
The Daiquiri beach is near Santiago.  A bartender at the Venus bar in
Santiago is credited with making the first of the rum drinks and giving it the name of the beach.
But then the Daiquiri moved to Havana
and the Floridita Bar.

It was here where the Daiquiri met Ernest Hemingway and
where the story gets interesting. And where the Daiquiri grows up.
But first a little back story.
The paintings below hang near my kitchen.
The top painting, if it looks familiar, is a study of a Monet painting in London, 
painted by my eldest daughter Kristin.
She is a superb artist and created the piece as a student.  We like it, hung it
and often explain it to people who think it looks "familiar."
The painting below is a watercolor that I purchased from a street artist
in Havana.

This is the Havana corner as it is

and this is the water color.

The Floridita was a Hemingway favorite.  It was here

the bartenders followed the writer's directions and created

what some call the Hemingway Daiquiri.

At the Floridita they call it the

Popa Dobble

2 1/2 jiggers of white rum

juice of 2 limes

juice of 1/2 grapefruit

6 drops of Maraschino cherry liquer

NO sugar

served frozen.

These descendants of Hemingway's bar tender friends can still build a 

great Popa Doble. According to legend, Popa or Poppa would pop
quite a few in one sitting.

The writer spent a lot of time at the Floridita.

His original bar stool, a the end of the bar, near a wall, has been

preserved and chained off.

Hanging above the stool is a bust and an Oswaldo Salas photograph of 

Hemingway and Fidel Castro the day Hemingway left Cuba for the last 

time.  One of my prized possessions is a copy of the photograph

signed by Oswaldo Salas.

Getting the photo and getting it out of Cuba is the story
for another post.
Cheers!
See you down the trail.

ERUPTIONS-SOCIAL MEDIA-TECH CURRENCY-NATURE

 BLASTS INCOMING

Photo by Daniel Basualto/EPA

       The photo capture of Chile's Puyehue Volcano at that precise moment expresses extraordinary power.  It evokes an ominous sense.

       My sense of life and the world changed profoundly as I stood on the lip of a volcano caldera.  The ground shook, a noise like a jet engine surrounded me and Donald Swanson of the USGS, and we were rapidly enshrouded in a thick, dark cloud of acrid sulfurous

gas, much like the cloud above.  I knew in that moment that Mother Earth was alive and still cooking.  Power and forces larger than human scale remain at work on and in this planet.

HUMAN ERUPTIONS

Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images
DO WE HAVE TO GO TO WEINER WORLD?

       After this you may wish to write me off as a Luddite or a "church lady" style moralist.

          Even the idea of cyber sex is stupid, sad and probably forgivable only for a teen suddenly ripped with hormones, strange new feelings and a computer or smart phone. For a public official it is idiotic!  

           First sexual intimacy should be intimate, as behavior of and for consenting people in the same room.  Anything involving a computer, phone, pad or transmitted by a camera or long distance can not be complete and seems to me it would be singularly unsatisfying.  Anything without human touch is not intimate, and seems to me without pleasure.

          I suppose kids, or congressmen, who do "sexting" consider me old fashioned. 

Well my dears if sexting is what does it for you, you don't know what you're missing.

          My attitudes aside, I am dumbfounded by why any one in a position of influence, and subject to the whims of voters, would play such stupid games.  Sex and politics is an old story and as a journalist I know it happens.  But as a journalist I often wonder why have we-the media and it's consuming audience-become so fixated on stories of sexual

dalliance.  I've spent enough time abroad to know that Europeans think Americans have a real hang up.  I understand that if a man or woman of power gets exposed in a sexual scandal there is some obligation to examine it.  But we have in recent time crossed from a 

powerful man bedding someone other than his mate, to goof balls sending pictures of themselves to fantasy lovers via cyber space.  Can't they at least have the common decency to do the real thing?  Or maybe even better, adhere to a code of behavior that we old fashioned sorts would call honor. You ought to know that an honorable person can still "get lucky" to coin another old fashioned phrase.

SPEAKING OF COINS

      Do you know about Bit Coins?  While in the previous section I may not be hip enough to understand cyber sex, here I am certainly not tech savvy enough to figure how to do the mining.  But the idea of a unregulated, non government, cyber currency is an intriguing topic.  Especially in light of the "Arab Spring" and the power of social networks to mobilize political action.  You may have to noodle on this for a while.

Of all of this post, I remain moved and fascinated by the Chilean Volcano and Daniel Basualto's remarkable photo.

See you down the trail.