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Showing posts from June, 2016

The Treatment

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This is one of those go figure stories.  It's another version of you can take someone out of their environment, but not take their environment out of them. We decided to take a little walk; or rather a little hike.  My wife and her two sisters had just returned from Central Oregon where they checked off a bucket list item by spending a few days in the delightful little town of Sisters.  Sisters, Oregon is in Deschutes county and a short drive from either the astonishingly beautiful Metolius River, or the Tam MacArhur Rim, and Three Creeks Lake, a beautiful little alpine lake set into a glacial bowl and gateway to all manner of hiking trails in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness.  But my wife and her sisters didn't do any hiking there, instead, they shopped.  The town of Sisters is home to many wonderful shops that feature everything from quilting to clothing to any and all imports you might find in a big city boutique. After two days back in Portland running around in more retail o

How To Commemorate 50 years

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I searched this morning                 in thick alpine water then placed my hands on a  wooden trowel, I'm weary of fear, so I traveled along the mountain's edge in the direction of contentment, I depend on osprey and eagles for friendship because I cannot write another sonnet; The depths reveal the image of garden tools well worn bearing palm prints like my parents' dreams,  Dreams that became their graves, side by side, forever sealed, the grind becomes the ground becomes the mountains, golden, and lonely

Ducktailed

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Let's play a little game of Harper's Index.  You know the feature in every Harper's magazine where statistics are offered in sentences that add up to astonishment.  Ok, here goes: Number of state dinners since Obama took office---12 Number of press conferences about mass shootings in the same time period...16 You see where this is going.  So many folks reeling from this particularly dark time that sees the intersection of a hugely polarized nation outraged from something as mundane as a Presidential campaign clashing with a rigid Congress, more calls for gun control that would ban people from owning assault weapons, and the encroaching fear of "radical Islamic terrorists."  Trouble is, it's vastly more complicated than this already convoluted mess would indicate. Perhaps we're dealing with lone wolves, perhaps we're dealing with radicalized jihadists,,maybe there's a bit of self-hatred or repressed sexual identity here too.  The Orlando night c

Wait...What?

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This video will help many; good advice and easily put into practice.  I hope by including it here  that it might be seen by some folks who might otherwise not get the memo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW0NguMGIbE

Coming To See Me

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Muhammad Ali- 1942-2016 I'm sitting in Pauly Pavilion...on the floor.  This is hallowed ground.  It's the home of the National Champion UCLA basketball team with superstar Kareem Abdul Jabbar.  But there is no game today.  The arena has been divided in half with seating in the east end only for the latest guest in the campus speakers series.  I'm sitting alone trying to go unnoticed. My back is up against a seat, but my body and book bag are resting on the floor. It's been a great series of speakers for this year, 1968.  But the last two were who I didn't want to miss.  First  Presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy, and now, today, the person I wanted to see most of all.  I'm here early because of my friend Al, who is on the committee that coordinates the speaker's program.  Al, the East Coast born white guy with the enormous natural.  Al, with whom I've been in countless demonstrations against the war, the draft, the CIA on campus, police brutality