Daily Blues & Views

People survive.  Though it may be a much more complex concept than we think, survival happens.  It happens in a myriad of nuanced ways. Needy people find food, clothing, and shelter in random ways.  Take a walk through an area you normally drive through and see what shows up.  If your survival depended upon it, the fear or stigma of bending down to pick up something discarded fades away.  We see the consequences of survival all around us.  Walk  foe a mile and then make a list.  Tell me what you see.  Put what you find on that list. I succinctly recall one of my college professors lectures on Social Darwinism.  His thesis was that the concept was bogus because with human beings the Darwinian notion of "survival of the fittest" doesn't apply.  It's not just the fittest who survive, some people who are far from the upper echelon of the fittest, will survive.  "They are not the fittest," he said.  "But nevertheless they surv...

I have a course on my college transcripts that always brings a smile.  The class was part of a summer program for teachers through the Education department at UC Berkeley.  The official name listed is "Eating your way through history."  In reality it was a food history class that could easily have been offered in any History department.  The professor was a food historian by the name of Bert Gordon. On the surface the picture that emerges is one of teachers in summertime loading up of units while eating in restaurants.  Sure there were visits to restaurants but in fact, this was one of the best classes (I'm a history major too) I've ever taken.  We researched the history of recipes, and looked at food iconography in art museums.  We met over a table with chefs from various backgrounds and cultures, we presented ideas, images, historical events, and of course tastes of everything under consideration. In the end, the topics under consideration ranged...

Research shows that memory is tied to emotion.  That makes sense.  Those life experiences that we will "never forget" are easily brought back to memory because they often are peak experiences tied to peak emotions.  Can you remember the most afraid you have ever been?  We don't usually forget that. I've often been told that I have a good memory.  My own feeling on the matter is that I have an adequate memory but most folks don't even have that.  Recently I was told by two close friends on two separate occasions that they have no memory of occurrences that for me would be and apparently are unforgettable. Probably the most fear I've ever encountered came one late night as a former roommate and I walked back to our car after attending a friend's music performance in a small bar/bistro.  We were surprised by a dark figure holding a shiny straight razor.  The would-be assailant barked out, "What you MFs want with me?"  We assured him nothing an...

Horses are in my blood.  That's the way it is with "horse people." Don't try to explain it; you either have it or you don't.  It really is that simple, I think. My love of horses began when I used to follow some of the great equine athletes of the 1960s mostly on a weekly telecast from Santa Anita.  That soon transferred to weekly horseback riding at a local stables.  A couple of neighborhood friends and I would go every Saturday morning for a few years.  I had a job working for a family across the street from me.  I'd clean their swimming pool with a special vacuum for pools and then monitor and add chlorine weekly.  For that I got $2.00 on Friday night.  By 11 o'clock Saturday morning it was gone.  I'd return home with dusty Levis and a desire to go again the following week. Later on, as a 22-year-old VISTA volunteer in Texas I owned a horse.  That fulfilled a childhood fantasy.  As a young teacher in the Bay Area I chanced to m...