Daily Blues & Views

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 ...

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

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...

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

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 ca...

In her elegantly written  and poignant new book, M Train, Multitalented Patti Smith shares many of the intimate details of her personality and consequently her life.  That Smith has all the artist's sensibility there is no doubt.  One thing however, that I find fascinating is her enjoyment of ing to regular small cafes to rad and write.  While there is nothing special about this practice, Smith gives us other dimensions of both these places and her need and appreciation of them. There is one particular cafe she frequents, Cafe Ino, where she feels most comfortable at a certain table.  It has become her table.  When she comes in she always has the same thing for breakfast. "Brown toast, olive oil, and back coffee. " Smith has come to depend on this table as being there for the taking, but on occasion, it isn't.  At these times she grudgingly takes another, but not without some internal grumbling about having to do so.  We never find out if the o...

"I got a few things to tell you."  Kenny called and began with the first thing.  He told me Janet was now in Hospice care. "Oh," I said. Janet is his former sister-in law.  She was my first girlfriend.  It's sobering to hear your first love is in Hospice care. I knew she'd been battling cancer for awhile.  So has my sister and a number of other friends.  But Janet's battle was apparently in the final phase. It must be 45 years since I spoke with her, but I still recall our first date.  I recall all the times Kenny and I went over to see Carol and Janet, the sisters we both took to our high school prom.  We even joined the Catholic Youth Organization to go to the dances with them.  A Jew and a Baptist would do anything to dance with the Borstner sisters. But our relationships went in different directions.  Kenny married Carol after she got pregnant, and I went on to college and Janet ended up with the football star and class presiden...