Ageless in Spirit: Discussions and interests for our times

 April 29, 2022 Recently I've been thinking about identity. Who am I, what am I, what is the significance of me? When I shake my head reading the news and venturing out into our social environment I'm sometimes reminded of these questions.  Immigration these days certainly presents some differences of opinion these days. I could use a broad brush and attempt to convince my limited audience that we're all related to this category though some of us need to dig deep to find the connection. My father came from Rutka, Poland or Russia as an infant with his siblings, mother, and father and grew up near Delancy street in New York City. He became a USA citizen sometime in his younger years. My grandfather could speak halting english so my communication experiences with him was very limited. My grandmother only conversed in yiddish so my memory of interactions with her was limited to recalling her wet kisses! My father did share some experiences of being discriminated against becaus

 April 24, 2022 I continue to challenge myself in playing music that is very lovely and alive with feelings though to get my piano to sound with the feelings and images the composer intended is challenging with mixed results. Today I am tackling To a Waterlily by Edward MacDowell. Born in 1860 he was a child prodigy studied in Paris and Wiesbaden and then Frankford, Germany. He was befriended by Liszt so his works became better known. He married an American and immigrated to the United States. He taught music but then after some controversy with the department continued as a teacher, performer, and composer. In his Fifties he developed a severe mental illness after he was in a car accident as a pedestrian and was cared for by his wife. Marian MacDowell is known for her teaching and support to artist opening her home to artists and supporting them in Peterborough, New Hampshire.  The piece I started playing is F# major scale with F,G,A,C,D,E #. This piece is from the Woodland Sketches a

April 8, 2022 Family relationships can be both wonderful continued experiences in which I am accepted, cared about, and valued and yet unfortunately these relationships can be causes of anguish and sadness due to "misunderstandings", hurt feelings, and past feelings of betrayal and disregard. In my life I've come to realize that the more common history of family relationships is a mixture of these two poles. Sure we want the former but life brings us to the latter sometimes both deserved and not depending on your outlook.  Family members can become estranged for a variety of reasons but clarity and reason is usually absent and instead reasons for the estrangement are rationalizations obscuring more unconscious thoughts and feelings related to self esteem, past traumatic experiences, and perceived betrayals. We have a tendency to repeat and even relive past conflicts and problems so our perceptions of the world becomes colored.  I'm slogging through the Books of Jacobs

 April 1, 2022 Headline " “This Is A Rebellion!” Says Flustered Musk As Rockets Come To Life" https://wccftech.com/this-is-a-rebellion-says-flustered-musk-as-rockets-come-to-life/ After I read this I wrote earlier in a message post "News Flash! Artificial intelligence or machine enlightenment or media invention or storytelling or lies I am amused and even apprehensive depending on how you accept what's written. What's someone's story is another's nightmare while someone or something smiles". My grandson wrote back "Does that terrify you gramps?" My reply "Well! If you accept what's written at face value AI now with a mind of its own and the internet so open with hacking so available just think of the chaos and mayhem that could occur but of course if AI is benevolent maybe the good but on whose terms?" AI would probably know that there would be a rush to control the AI from doing any such thing so AI needing to continue rather