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Books and Things

July 17, 2010 in Books, Brain, Memes, Mind, Personal by Mardé | No comments

I’ve had time to read a few books in the past several months in spite of all the effort I’ve been putting in trying to develop a new church website for our Norway UU church using Joomla. OK, while I’m at it, why not mention loose bowels? I seem to have not diarrhea exactly but a pronounced looseness bowelwise and also perpetual sleep problems, not unrelated perhaps. Good God! I didn’t intend to get off on this subject!

A few weeks back I finished “My Stroke of Insight” by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D., a neuroscientist. Her stroke deactivated a significant part of her left brain making it possible for her to function only through her right brain. The experience of this was what was amazing to her, and to the reader as well, I’m sure. The world, the universe, becomes something totally different. A feeling of oneness with the world and remarkable insight, a certain kind of spirituality where there exists no pressure to do anything, just to exist in the lap of the profoundest of feelings of wonder and, yes, joy. Of course, this was dangerous for her as the bleeding in her left brain was not stopping. With great effort she managed to save herself.

So, the mind has resources and perceptual abilities we never imagined.

Speaking of mind, I’m now working my way through “Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self” by Marilynne Robinson. She really takes on the Richard Dawkinses of the world! She’s saying that there is a place for subjectivity and indeed religion, although so far she hasn’t said much about the latter. Some of it is hard for me to follow, but other parts ring bells. She goes after memes in a big way and tries to show how memes theory contradicts gene theories. I haven’t read the rejoinders by the rationalists yet, but I’m sure they’re tearing into her unmercifully because she really goes after them in this book.

Incidentally, Jon Stewart even gave her a favorable interview recently.

This quote from her has been highlighted by several reviewers: “Our religious traditions give us as the name of God two deeply mysterious words, one deeply mysterious utterance: I AM.” In other words, why the Hell am I here, who am I, why is anything here, and what does it all mean?

OK, that’s it for now.

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Waugh Dies

May 20, 2010 in Personal by Mardé | 2 comments

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. It’ll even happen to me. I knew he was pretty sick with that serious lung disease. Here’s what happened on Sunday, May 16, described in a message to our classmate email group from his wife Janet:

At 12:45 am I had to call 911 for John. He spent the nite in the emergency room. When I returned this morning they were in the process of moving him to a patient room. As we were going into the room, John tried to make it from the bed to the chair (with help) & he went down in a heap. The 2 nurses and I tried to get him up with little effect. Then about ten people came running into the room and got him into bed and stabilized. He was then taken to ICU where he will spend a day or 2. He currently has a port in his neck for IV’s and will undergo an upper GI explore to determine a source of his problem (low blood count). I will go back at 4 pm for visiting hrs. and hopefully have some news from his tests. Till then – Love to all, Janet

Here’s the message we got this morning:

John passed away last evening at 11 PM. He was overcome with a cascade of adverse problems due to bleeding, breathing and medications which he could not withstand. He fought hard to the end, and never lost his wit. He loved you all. Janet

I exchanged some good messages with his son, Scott, today. They’ll be holding a “Scottish wake” for him in Massachusetts. Janet will bring the old guy up in a jar.

Here’s the condolence message I sent to Janet just now:

Hi Janet,
I’m sorry my message to you this morning was so terse and brief. But it is hard to believe that he’s no longer around. It must have been very difficult and tiring for you these last few days. Probably you can get rest now. I exchanged a couple messages with Scott today, sending my condolences. He told me about wanting to have a “Scottish wake” for John which would be a very nice thing, I think.
Love to you, from Cynthia and me,
Mardy

Here’s the obit:

John J Waugh of Southern Pines, NC died on May 19, 2010 at Moore Regional Hospital, Pinehurst, NC.

Mr Waugh was born in Springfield, MA on October 7, 1928, but spent his childhood in Westford, MA where he graduated from Westford Academy. During a three year enlistment in the US Air Force, he saw overseas service on the Island of Guam and in Tokyo, Japan. He was an alumnus of Amherst College, Class of 1954.

A 40-year business career in the public refrigerated warehouse industry included responsibilities as President of Tampa Cold Storage, President of New England’s Quincy Market Cold Storage and Chairman/CEO of Americold which at the time, was the largest cold storage company in the world. He was also a Director and ultimately Chairman of the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses whose membership then included companies from 31 nations.

Mr. Waugh is survived by his wife Janet, a stepson, Jeffrey Williamson of Wilmington, MA and a son Scott Waugh of Pepperell, MA as well as four grandchildren and one great-grandchild. He was preceded in death by brothers Robert and James.

No public services are planned. Memorial contributions may be made to: The Home for Little Wanderers, 271 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115.

Boles Funeral Home of Southern Pines, NC

Scott Waugh, John’s son, sent me this photo of the box John chose for his remains. Not sure if this is the very box John is in at the moment — it may be — but this is at least a copy:

The box gives the Royal Salute (how many fingers?) and celebrates Scotch Whiskey, perhaps suggesting we should all have a drink on him, or rather TO him!

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OK, I Planted the Lettuce

May 11, 2010 in Personal by Mardé | No comments

Finally got around to planting the 18 lettuce plants I bought almost two weeks ago. They are so-called “Buttercrunch” lettuce plants with large compact heads and crisp leaves, 64 to 75 days until “ripe”. I had already planted the three “Sunsugar” Cherry Tomato plants over a week ago.

Lettuce see how the lettuce does and also the tomatoes.

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What a Party!

May 10, 2010 in Personal by Mardé | 1 comment

Two parties actually, one on Friday evening and a bigger one Saturday evening. These were the combined Mother’s Day, Birthday celebrations for Cynthia — Mother’s Day on Sunday, her birthday on Monday, today, except that these days were pushed back by one to accommodate the weekend for our working progeny.

So, on Friday up came Nat and Eryn in one car and Clarissa and Nick in another car. Nat and Eryn arrived about 6:30pm, Clarissa and Nick about 15 minutes later. Eryn and Nat ordered pizza right away from JimBob’s, and when Clarissa (Cricket) and Nick came, Cricket threw together a nice salad.

I munched down one slice of pizza — I believe mushroom, cheese and something else — and had a little wine. Others did something similar. Kate and Don came over to join us and similarly imbibed. The next morning, Cricket drove Nat, Eryn, and Nick over to Norway to the Cafe Nomad for their delicious blueberry pancakes.

Saturday night was the big event with much hilarity and presents galore for Cynthia. Let’s see, not sure I can remember all the presents at the moment but the new coffee cup I got Cynthia was outstanding, I think! Also, the box of Burt’s Bees lotions from Kate and Don, the two books from Cricket and Nick, and the Red Sox memorabilia book from Nat and Eryn were much appreciated by Cynthia. I’m sure I’ve forgotten something. [Yes, I did: Nancy came over too. Forget her present but her card to Cynthia was sweet and memorable.]

The next morning being Sunday, Cynthia and I left at about 5 of 9am for Norway and choir practice at the church, saying fond goodbyes to the gang. I was pretty tired but began to revive as the morning went on into the church service. I lit a double candle for Cynthia’s birthday and Mother’s Day and the congregation sang the obligatory “Happy Birthday to You” led by Heather for Cynthia.

All in all, a whirlwind weekend, and now we’re going over to the Fryeburg Route 302 Pub for supper on this, Cynthia’s birthday. The Kellys called briefly from the Netherlands at 3pm to wish Cynthia a Happy Birthday.

That’s it for now.

What a great time we had at the Pub 302! It was “Date Night” so we ordered the “Date Night Special” consisting of chocolate covered strawberries for appetizer, a wonderful blueberry, red raisin, nut salad with delicious dressing, fillet Mignon for two with stuffed shrimp and baked potato, a sprite of champagne to start and a bottle of wine at half price, plus the final coup d’état of flaming fried ice cream covered with chocolate sauce! When the waitress brought out this dessert with sparklers flaming on the sides of it, the music was turned way up and everyone in the restaurant yelled Happy Birthday! Cynthia was really surprised and pleased by this. We had a ball!

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Another warm day

May 3, 2010 in Personal by Mardé | 1 comment

Two days in a row of summer like temperatures in the 70′s and 80′s. Pretty good. I’m tired today as usual. I slept OK the first part of the night, went to bed at a few mins before 10pm. But then I woke up around 1am, went to the bathroom to pee, came back, off to the bathroom again around 2am, and then seemed not to sleep at all, although I must have. Was about to get up at 6:10am but went to the bathroom and came back to bed rather than stay up. I actually got another hour of sleep in but I’m still tired.

I got all the church money ready for the bank this morning and then after lunch, which I make now for Cynthia, I finally went to the bank and deposited the money. Then I stopped at Hannaford and got some provisions, then I went to the bank and got some money out (forgot to when I had been just there), then I went to the Paris Farmers’ Union and bought some Buttercrunch Lettuce and some Sunsugar Cherry Tomato. Good! Now tomorrow I can plant them.

On Facebook I added some comments to a few people and got some return comments, became a friend of Helena Whitehead and David Farr, answered some church email about buttons for volunteers, sent an email to Dorothy Raymond, and believe it or not she’ll be in church this coming Sunday! I wrote YAY, DOROTHY, because we sure as hell need her help.

What else? Can’t think of anything right now. I better go.

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What a meeting!

May 2, 2010 in Personal by Mardé | 1 comment

Yes, the NNED/UUA meeting at the Red Jacket in North Conway was really inspiring, fun, and a blast. We expected a keynote talk on Friday evening but instead it was a Universalist history pageant, slide show, rollicking singing blast which literally had people dancing and jumping in the aisles, no exaggerating! The conference choir, which I wish we had signed up for, was electric and infectious, especially the “Rev” from Tamworth, NH, the Rev. Mary Eades. She kept repeating this old time Universalist circuit rider routine in which she would clap her hands, slap her leg and knees about five or six times and then throw her arms and hands up in the air to a rousing Hallelujah in which we would all join in! I found myself in good voice, and we ended the evening’s “history lesson” on a magical Kumbayah.

The next morning was the keynote by the Rev. Mark Stringer of Des Moinse, Iowa, and he was electric and infectious in a different way. A charismatic guy with a great practical theme, Reverend Mark showed how in his UU congregation the key to growth is nurturing relational curiosity, in other words begin with friendly small talk to get to know the newcomer rather than trying to indoctrinate the person on UU principles. Getting to know you! is the theme. His congregation grew from 250 to 500 people in a few years. The guy had a clear, friendly voice with good humor and plenty of jocular but sincere humility: everything has its problems, even the best laid plans, but keep your eye on the ball, that key to growth which is to nurture relational curiosity on a person to person level.

Much more to say, but now I gotta go.

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Lucky purchase!

April 29, 2010 in Personal by Mardé | No comments

I was worried half the night about how I’m going to help Richard put the stewardship packet together and go to his Circle Dinner this evening. Then on the way to Norway this morning I got the sensible idea of stopping at the Printery in Bridgton to get some peelable address labels. I bought a box of 1″X2and 5/8″ labels, 30 to a page, and sure enough these turned out to be just right.

Also, I found, as I expected, that I could create the labels from the MemInfo program. So, good! That problem solved, although I’m sure Lori has another way of printing the labels. Richard showed up and we added some more people to the list. We’ll probably end up having nearly 50 stewardship packets to pass out. Good!

About 12:30pm I decided to walk over to the Cafe Nomad for a sandwich rather than hit the underground cafeteria at the hospital. I had a nice organic, veggie and goat cheese type sandwich and coffee, and read the editorial in the Advertiser-Democrat which was highly critical of the far right far out wingnut, Rev. Celeste. Good.

Then I went back to the church and downloaded my excel file for the charts and my stewardship report, and I was able to print them out.

Is this all getting pretty boring?

Well, around 2pm the girl, Ailee Philips, showed up and Richard was also there, so after showing her a few of the things we’re doing on the computer, I bid my adieu. Good luck to them getting a newsletter out. Lori uses Microsoft Publisher and I don’t think the girl has used that but maybe she can do it.

What a lot of last minute stuff! Well, without an office manager — Lori had a bad falling accident and broke her leg and ankle — it’s hard to get things done at the church.

OK, now I take my 4pm pills and we take off for Richard’s around 5:15pm.

Over and out. Yes, I’m busy. It’s fun but tiring when one doesn’t sleep well.

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What’s Going On?

April 28, 2010 in Personal by Mardé | 2 comments

In my inner life? Or my outer life? Perhaps I better not delve too deeply into the inner, after all, this is the public sphere here. At our church Board meeting a week ago a church member appeared with a complaint: her name had been mentioned on the church website, a clear security violation. OK, but I can think of worse violations, like publishing her password.

Who cares? A name is a drop in the multi-terabyte bucket that is the Internet.

I’m all exercised about the politics in the U.S. Senate. This 60 vote requirement for cloture coupled with Scott Brown’s election has brought everything to a grinding halt. The GOP is determined to bring Obama down. This comes first before the doing of real work, like solving the nation’s problems, or at least trying to.

I’ve been working hard on church stuff. We need to get the Stewardship packet ready for passing out at the May 2nd service, Stewardship Sunday. Richard has our stuff now. He’s looking at it as I write this. Tomorrow he does the packet with the temporary office manager. I may have to go down there if something needs changing but maybe not.

Tomorrow Cynthia and I go to the Circle Dinner at Richard’s. There’ll be eight of us there including Richard and Joan. Should be good.

The next day, Friday, we go to North Conway to the fabulous Red Jacket Inn for the NNED/UUA annual meeting. We’re staying overnight at the Red Jacket. Should be good.

Life goes on. On the inner life front I’m constipated at the moment. Yesterday everything worked out OK on this front. Today I’m waiting.

I still play around a little on Facebook but am gradually weaning myself off.

Well, that’s it for now. Pretty boring, huh? LOL :-)

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Facebookitis

April 1, 2010 in Blogs, Debates, Food, Personal, Philosophy by Mardé | 8 comments

Yes, I’m spending too much time on facebook. Why? Well, it’ so easy. One waits for comments on your posts, posts on your comments, comments on your comments, and finds some posts, some comments, interesting even if you don’t comment back. It’s one gigantic blog where everyone is posting and commenting at the same time. The stream of information is sweeping by at an alarming rate. A hot topic one day disappears into the next. It’s information overload! But fun. Still, is it largely a waste of time? Not necessarily.

It can be a channel into interesting topics. Sam Harris has a FB page which I looked into and found an interesting two hour long debate between Harris and Shermer on one side and Chopra and Houston on the other. Juan Cole has a page. And Barney Frank. Then there’s Karen Armstrong with her Charter for Compassion. Countless others. Too much of course, and how does one pick and chose?

The net result is I ignore this blog. Not that I don’t have enough to do besides facebook. The Norway UU church keeps me busy. The stewardship campaign is beginning and there’s hardly anyone to run it. A flurry of emails amongst Chris Davis, Kathi Pewitt, Deborah Crump, Richard Beal, and me, plus a couple of phone calls from Chris to me, finally resolved a date for our kickoff meeting: April 16th from 5:30pm to 7pm. And then there’s all the church’s financial stuff with me as treasurer. Then there’s OUR financial stuff.

Enough for now. I’ve got to think about food and interact with Cynthia regarding the food, plus check our provisions.

Oh, but I’m reading an interesting philosophical book by James P. Carse, “Breakfast at the Victory: The mysticism of ordinary experience”. Fascinating but difficult. The need for silence. The heading for the sixth chapter is one of my favorites. It’s from the Rig Veda X:129:

Then even nothingness was not, nor existence.
There was no air then, nor the heavens beyond it.
What covered it? Where was it? In whose keeping?
Was there then cosmic water, in depths unfathomed?
Then there was neither death nor immortality,
nor was there then the touch of night and day.
The One breathed windlessly and self-sustaining.
There was that One then, and there was no other.
In the beginning desire descended upon it –
that was the primal seed, born of the mind.
The sages who have searched their hearts with wisdom
know that which is kin to that which is not.
But, after all, who knows, and who can say
whence it all came, and how creation happened?
The gods themselves are later than creation,
so who knows truely whence it has arisen?
Whence all creating had its origin,
he, whether he fashioned it or whether he did not,
he who surveys it all from highest heaven,
he knows — or maybe even he does not know.

Now I gotta go.

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Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory!

February 16, 2010 in Personal by Mardé | 3 comments

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the floaters coming right!
Coming right from my right eye in every day and night!
But why should I now panic with 20-25 good sight?
The light keeps shining bright!

Glory, glory, all my cataracts are gone!
Glory, glory, mine eyes still sing this song!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA

A week ago I had my eyes tested my the nice Christine Newell, OD, in Bridgton, Maine. While my left eye had 20-20 vision, my right eye had only 20-25 vision and saw floaters, not real bad floaters but floaters nonetheless. These and the 20-25 vision are caused by the macular pucker I described in a previous post. But I can live with this, and I was told that the brain (if I only had a brain!) can eventually accommodate itself to these floaters so that I’ll hardly notice them. Moreover, I’m told that macular pucker usually doesn’t get worse, and if it does, there are ways of correcting it. So, what me worry? I now have 20-20 vision using both eyes! Glory, glory Hallelujah!

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