Delayed Post-dating

Ooops! I just looked and I am completely caught up with my post-dated entries! I try to have at least a week's worth of postings scheduled to go... so I'd better get cracking!

I've subscribed to the Prairie Messenger, a Catholic newspaper published in Muenster SK, by the monks of St. Peter's Abbey. It's quite a well-balanced publication, not quite as far out there as the BC Catholic or Western Catholic Reporter. Somehow it has a broader scope of stories as well, not just focussed on the Canadian or Prairie scene.

Anyhow, I have had this newspaper riding around in my book bag for the past week, waiting to be read. Every one in a while at Starbucks, I'll consider pulling it out, but then I don't. But today!! Today is the day, and I've skimmed through the articles to get a sense of what's in there. One article that struck me is by Donald Ward, and relates an experience he had 40 years ago. Someone told a lie about Donald, said that he was in the pscyh ward over the summer, for doing too much LSD. In truth, Donald was away all summer being a summer-camp leader. But when he came back home... all sorts of rumours and exaggerated stories were swirling around about him. Eventually they died down... but even today, 40 years later... it still raises its ugly head sometimes...

Which got me thinking about how gossip, particularly ignorant gossip, can stick worse than mud. It's not just that we are gossiping with the person across from us... For that gossip will go and spread and metamorphose and mutate into something else entirely. Yet, it seems to be one of our favourite pastimes! "Did you hear about so-and-so... oh my God... can you believe it... I heard that..." Yeah, so what. You heard something from someone who heard something, from someone who heard something... Big deal... And even when we think we have the facts straight from the horse's mouth... guess what... it still all gets filtered through our head, through our story, through our ideas and beliefs and judgements and opinions. And it gets editted and reworked until the horse's mouth wouldn't even recognize it as it's own!

The other thing we do is ascribe all sorts of judgements to things that people say... Or we put our own interpretation on what they said or what they did... or what they must be feeling. It's a great way for us to try and create meaning in the world... But, it's "our" meaning... it really has nothing to do with them... or what they're thinking... or what they are feeling... It's just what we think they feel, based on how we think we would feel if we were ever in that sitatuion. Guess what... even if you were in their situation, it's still you in the situation, not them. You, with all of your background, all of your history, all of your stuff. Not them...

It seems to me we could give each other a bit more room to just be... to allow others to just be, without trying to put words and feelings and thoughts on top of what they do or how they are... And if we don't do it to them... maybe they won't do it to us... But it starts with us...

CTE

I was reading something on the news the other day which really disturbed me... it's called CTE... That's Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy... or something like that. It is a repetitive brain trauma that leads to the creation of Tau protein deposits in brain tissue. It is caused by repeated hits to the head... I think this is most common, or most well-known in boxers. But apparently now, they're discovering it in the brains of deceased football players. They were sharing how football players can have 1000s of hits to the head in a year, and that sort of thing is cumulative. Even 18 year old football players have signs of this disease. It causes mood disorders, physical problems etc. The really disturbing thing for me was some clips they showed from youtube... of little 8 year old kids practicing head butting in football practice. Two little guys run at each other, heads down, like two Big Horn Sheep and crack heads. One starts crying and the other walks away rubbing his neck. Now... correct me if I'm wrong... but is there something "off" with this??? We're creating a whole generation of boys and men with brain damage... that is wholly preventable!!! They're talking about changing the rules of football, so that they can only do a 2-point stance at scrimmage... instead of a 3-point stance... so they get less leverage as they charge at each other... But still... And yet, something in me knows that this won't change... People really believe that it won't happen to "me"... and... so it continues....

Writing Music

I broke down a bought a Writer's Digest magazine the other day. It has all sorts of ideas on how to jump-start your writing muse. One of them is using music to inspire you! I already knew about that one... I use music all the time... It helps me to shift out of my thoughts and into something else, a more fluid stream of consciousness and thoughts. Mind you, not all music does this for me... There is some music that just gets me stuck! But there is definitely some music that carries the writer... at least me... to higher planes. And that is a good thing. Obviously, as well, not an uncommon thing. I actually felt kind of satisfied to know that I had discovered something on my own that others knew as well. It makes me think that some of my other crazy thoughts aren't quite so crazy! You know how with sculptors, they say that they can actually see the image before them, in this shapeless mass of rock. All they have to do is uncover it. There is inspiration at work there. Sometimes, it feels to me as if I all I have to do is put my fingers on the keyboard and the words will come of their own accord. I just have to uncover them and give them space to live and breathe. I've read somewhere, that the things that we write in that place of inspiration are coming from somewhere else, the universal consciousness, if you want to call it that. It's where everything actually comes from. That the books or articles are waiting out there, just waiting to be given life... millions and billions of them... and we just have to give them the conduit. It's interesting don't you think that more than one person discovered evolution around the same time... Charles Darwin, whom we've all heard of and...check out Alfred Russel Wallace, who got the bright idea in 1855 and started publishing papers... This is just one example of similar ideas/theories appearing around the same time... Lots in the world of physics surprisingly enough... So... whatever bright idea you have... get it out and about before somebody else does!

Writing Spots

Well, I bit the bullet the other day and went and got a library card. It costs $12 here in Calgary... I dont' remember having to pay in other places but?? Who knows. Anyhow, it's a good deal for a year's worth of access to books and dvds and wireless! Yup, they have free wireless access if you bring in your laptop... So I've decided that this could my next cheaper, leaner place to go and blog or write. At least in the winter-time. In the summertime I can always go outside and take my bike and laptop and go and find a nice little park bench or picnic table somewhere! The potentials are endless, but here in the wintertime, it needs to be somewhere indoors. With Starbucks, I also feel like I need to buy something when I come in here. I can't just waltz in and sit down at a table and start typing and using their wireless! Well, I could... but I'm not sure how long that would last. The other great thing is that I have my iPod and I can bring whatever background music I want with me... Right now, I'm listening to Hooked on Swing... Usually Starbucks has some of those older styled songs (Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra, etc)... but today, that's not on the menu, so... I bring my own... I just have to get creative in my writing opportunities! There are probably many more places I could go to type away... I was thinking it might be cool to take my laptop to the Glenbow museum and see what I could find to write about there! I'm trying to think of inside places that are free to access (don't have to buy anything)... Mind you, I would have to pay an admission fee to the Glenbow... Hmm... how about community centres??? Anybody have any ideas out there?? There is the Farmer's Market... if you can get a table to sit at... I'm pretty close to the Military Museums... but probably admission there as well... Let me know if any of you have any bright ideas!

Photos

Digital photography... a great invention!!! I think... It used to be this way. I would buy some film, take some photos, being careful to just take good ones... get the photos developed and printed... label them and then put them in a photo album, which would then sit on a shelf. I might take it off the shelf every once in a while to look at it or show to other people... Now, I know that some people just get the photos developed and put them in a shoebox... but the idea is similar...

Today though... we have a one-time cost of a memory stick... and then we take photos galore... because we can always delete the bad ones... download them to our computer... organize them and tag them (some people don't do this step)... and then they sit there... Maybe we make a photo book or a slide-show cd... or send a few to relatives... But for the most part... the photos sit in our computer... never being looked at again.

So, say, in the olden days... I went on a trip to San Francisco and burned up 5 rolls of film. I come home and get them developed and can then put them in a photo album... Think of the costs involved:
Film - $10/roll = $50
Developing - $15/roll = $75
Photo album - $20/album - $20
Total cost - give or take - $150 (or so)

Today... with digital...
Memory Stick - $20 (maybe... and it's reusable over and over gain... so really only $1 for this trip)
Photo Book - $50 (and that is generous!)
Total Cost - $51

Taking photos and displaying them today is way... WAY... cheaper than before... so why don't we do it anymore??? Too many photos to sift through??? I'm not sure... but if anybody has a different cost analysis... let me know! Because it seems like we should have photo books from Shutterfly or Kodak or Snapfish all over the place... And yet we don't... or at least... I don't!

What's in your backpack...

We went to see a movie the other week... Up in the Air... I think it was called, with George Clooney. He is a "firing-specialist" who flies all around the country going to companies that are downsizing and doing the firing for them. He's away from his one bedroom apartment for 320 days out of the year. Along the way, he does motivational talks called "What's in your backpack...", getting people to get a sense of what is weighing them down in life... family, friends, possessions, houses, etc. And then encouraging them to imagine what it would be like to have an empty backpack... like he does! He has very little contact with his extended family and he likes it that way. Nothing to tie him down...

And I thought about what was in my backpack... so to speak. All of the things that I have/own/need to take care of... People... Projects... Thoughts... Ideas... Dreams... There is a certain freedom in thinking of being foot-loose and fancy free... but also a certain loneliness... And while George's character had gone to one end of the spectrum, with virtually nothing in his backpack... the answer probably lies somewhere in the middle. Because, the truth is, we often do have way too much stuff and things in our lives... I have travelled to Europe with just a backpack (a small one) for 5 weeks... and there is a certain freedom in travelling so light. Only 3 changes of clothes and doing laundry when needed. But... Yeah... but... There are also many things that I have on the go... projects of mine... family tree stuff and photo books and other things. And then I begin to wonder... how many things am I holding onto that I say "I'll get around to that some day"... and deep down, I know that I probably never will... But I still cart this stuff around... thinking that someday I can give it away to somebody or make some money off it... But is that really the case?? Maybe I just need to get ruthless with all those little things that are hanging around and finally just let go of them... Not everything mind you... I do enjoy the family tree research immensely... it gives me energy! But, there are other things that don't give me energy! So... to take a look at see what's up... and what is not... and what can be let go...

Toilet Troubles

Our downstairs toilet got plugged a week or so ago... It was draining, but very slowly, and even after buying a plunger and trying that... it was still clogger. So, I called the plumber who came over and used a rod with a coiled clog-buster on the end of it, and rammed it down through the toilet guts... Nothing... Still clogger. So, then he pulled the toilet and got a longer cable/coil with a hand-drill to twist it and drive it through the pipes... After a while, he pulled it out along with several very old and very icky looking... tampons. Yep... feminine hygience products. He tells me that these are the most common things he pulls out of clogged pipes... tampson. But they're flushable I sqawk! Or at least, so the packages say! Nope, he says... one of the worst things to put down your toilet... along with dental floss... and kitty litter. Dental floss, I can see, would form a nice little web down the pipes if it were to get hooked on things, plus it does NOT decay. Kitty litter with clay would eventually clog things too... And tampons, well, they don't decompose either and they've got string and they get really big when they're all full of water/liquid. So... how is it that tampon companies say that they are flushable... and plumbing companies say they are not??? Who are we to believe! Well... who knows pipes best? Tampax or plumbers?? OB or plumbers? Kotex or plumbers? Yeah... plumbers win out every time... And as for those flushable panty-liners/pads... etc... don't!!! Maybe if you life in a huge office building with 7 inch pipes... but not in a house/condo with 3 or 4 inch pipes... Don't even think about it... Not unless you want a $300 plumbing bill every year or so... A high cost for a bit of convenience and lack of ickiness... But get this... how icky is it to see a male plumber pulling old tampons out of your pipes??? Your choice!