Ageless in Spirit: Discussions and interests for our times

 March 29, 2021 A lot of violence in the news with shootings in Virginia Beach, Boulder, and Atlanta. The George Floyd murdered trail has just begun. Today in the news a woman was killed while a passenger in a car when someone fired on her vehicle due to "road rage". Our government is now going to do another study on gun violence in the U.S.A. In Myanmar the military has killed 114 civilian bystanders including a child of five due to the strike against the military coup. Jamal Kashoggi was allegedly assassinated in the Saudi Embassy in Turkey ordered by the Saudi Government by crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman and Alexie Nalvalny an opponent of Putin was poisoned by the Russian government according to   Konstantin Kudryavtsev an agent involved in the poisoning. He was lucky to escape  to the west for medical treatment where the nerve agent was verified in his almost  demise. Our president Biden labeled Putin a killer. Amnesty international posted a blog claiming more than  700

 March 13, 2021 This a follow up to my post March 12. I had written an email which I never sent so here is a draft written September 2020. The conversation with my friend before I wrote that post was very troubling to me so I wrote about our history together and my frustrations in our conversations up to then. I decided to include my draft email since it describes part of the puzzle of our failed interactions of late.  The subject is empathy I just read the following article about the Trouble With Empathy https://www.nytimes.com/2020/ 09/04/opinion/sunday/empathy- school-college.html?action= click&module=Opinion&pgtype= Homepage Interesting since the author discusses the educational issues surrounding teaching and participating in learning and reading associated with the issues surrounding empathy.  To me it's not an article of trouble but with it's value and accuracy.  An example from my life follows. I have an old friend I met when our children were young and we have

 March 12, 2021 I have not been able to visit my sister Ruth for over one year. She lives in Temecula, California in assisted living condominium while I'm in Hawai'i. So we make do by talking on the telephone. Being siblings we do entertain ourselves sometimes believing our hubris smells sweeter than when we see the light of day after further discussion. For example, I can mention the vaccine roll out getting better and she can point out how she has heard from her friends in D.C. or New York that it's bad with groups getting access to the vaccine maybe unfairly. Or that the immigrant crisis at our border has gotten worse with Biden's presidency. She's heard that the mules are paid over $12,000 per person to get illegal people across the border. Since these people are poor someone else must be funding their entry. So tongue in cheek I suggested that she should now write a story with these elements and maybe a new conspiracy theory can be propagated. A great story lin

 March 4, 2021 March 5, 1973 a grand event at Kapiolani Women's Medical Center! Ann Jacobs was in labor. I was there with her since the morning. We spent time in her prelabor private room while she had contractions with the discomfort palpable. Finally my stomach said feed me loudly so she reluctantly agreed that I go to the cafeteria where I got change and bought four or five packs of peanut butter crackers which I wolfed down super fast and rushed up to run to the delivery room where she was hard in the birthing process. At her head I practiced with her as per my lamaze training both of us breathing and "push". We were in sync but as the delivery and episiotomy happened she gave birth as I struggled to contain the peanut butter substitute that wanted to come out of my stomach mimicking an oral birth. I was successful in preventing this from happening as was she and Sarah was born. SadlyAnn is not here with me to share in her memories of that day. As I have written resea