Notes From A Bear's Journey

Waiting     We've all been there, waiting.  Sometimes we wait expectantly, as in the birth of a child or the opening of a concert; sometimes we wait unexpectedly as in an appointment that runs late.  Sometimes our waits are minutes, sometimes hours, sometimes days or years (did the package arrive?, have you heard from my son?, will the bombing stop?, will we soon be rescued or sheltered or given food?).  For me, the waiting for hours part seems the most difficult, although this all comes from my comfortable and impatient life and viewpoint.  My car took hours longer to fix than expected, my dogs' prescription was somehow cancelled (after I had been called to come pick it up) and had to be redone, my item in the store wasn't in stock (after looking for a bit and not finding it and finally, as men do so grudgingly, asking for help), I seemed to hit more than my share of stoplights in traffic, my flight was delayed and cancelled (all of this happened in the past 48 hours).  

Tears of Joy      As I wait on my “pause” of sorts, I am intrigued by amount of spirtual searching going on.  Perhaps this is all because my wife has been watching Global Spirit , a series hosted by John Cleese (formerly of Monty Python so perhaps he’s doing his own spiritual searching).  In the episodes, the attempt is made to find out how cultures and religions throughout the world and history have approached being here, living here on this planet, what life is, and what is the definition of “oneness.”  The only show of traveling “inward,“ as Cleese mentions.  You hear that all the time, trying to be “one” with the universe, or forgetting oneself and becoming a part of the whole.  As one Sufi mystic put it, we have been approaching it in the wrong manner, that of being human and searching for how to be spiritual; instead, he says, we need to realize that we are spirtual beings who are searching for how to be human.  It’s an interesting show at times, as shamans and monks and physic

Yes, Another Pause     They will once again be a pause of about a week for me, a time to regroup and dream once again, that period of thoughts being set free like a set of balloons on a windy afternoon, letting them scatter in some crazy unplanned pattern.  We all need to do that every now and then, to step off of the merry-go-round of routine and work and home and whatever.  For most of us, a simple vacation is the trick, whether you're waited on hand and foot on a cruise or at a fancy resort, gobbling down all the food in excess and not choking (that is, until you arrive home and see the bill) or simply fading away to a simple cabin somewhere in the country  (yes, they still exist such as in Kokee State Park and the lodges there in Kauai, Hawaii) where once night falls it becomes you and the night sky and little else (a camping trip accomplishes much the same thing).     In his book Running With the Pack , author Mark Rowlands writes about this escaping of thoughts, somethi

GPS     You already know this since it's basically everywhere, on your phone, in your car, even in those farm tractors.  Global Positoning System, a U.S. government owned and operated entity, launched its completion satellite just a few weeks ago, bringing the grid to a planned 24 orbiting satellites (30 are actually operating).  But how does it all work, this GPS?  How does it find you and guide you?  Magic?  Triangulation?  No, to both .  And there's another problem key to the system, one that NASA has discovered...the global part.  Somewhat concerning (but not thought of by those of us who aren't involved in space engineering) is what happens when we venture away from this planet, as in far, far away.  Every signal, every radio transmission, every adjustment and positioning signal, eminates from GPS, all of which comes from one place and one place only...earth.     From Mars, a light or radio transmission can take from 3 to 22 minutes (one way), and Mars is relative

Brush Strokes     Let's face it, I can't draw a stick and that's the truth, for even my sticks look like, well, anything but sticks.  All of which adds to my admiration for books by talented artists, commercial or otherwise, revealing some of their secrets.  There's something different in their eye, the way they see, the proportions or the colors or the spaces, all meshed with their ability to get it down onto whatever material they're working with.  Years ago, a psychic told me to venture into trying sculptures, working with clay, something I've never done.  Yet I admire the care and vision such sculptors have, to think that with a simple chisel and hammer and perhaps a bit of rough stone and polishing, a piece of granite or marble or clay can be turned into something so captivatingly precious to the viewer.  Of course, those with natural talent have a massive headstart.     John Seerey-Lester began sketching and painting at age 8, and his book on painting

One Hundred     There's something we like about the number, the two zeros, the longevity, the accomplishment.  Cien, cento (think centennial), sto, a hundred yards, a hundred years, the hundredth anniversary...each somehow triggers something in us, as much as the difference that seems to occur between holding a $20 bill and a $100 bill; something foreign, almost unattainable or magic there, rare, uncommon (to most of us, anyway) and special.  So it was in watching the third highest grossing movie ever in Swedish history, The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out A Window and Disappeared .  My mother often sits next to a 100 year old man in the building where she lives; no name for him (at least to her); he is simply "the 100 year old man."  For her (from her 90 year old viewpoint), it is an endearing term, a term reflecting her admiration at his wit and attention and laughter (he is quite agile and talkative and unlike many of the residents there, able to get along quite han

Anthems     Whatever your country, it might have become something unconscious, or so it would seem in the U.S.  The singing of our national anthem starts every baseball game, most every sports event come to think of it.  Big, small, sometimes a great singer, sometimes a local child.  In the audience, you tend to quietly sing along, just as you did in school.  But somehow after all these years, I began thinking about this national anthem, trying to put myself into the head of Francis Scott Key and wondering what would cause him to create, write down and remember such a song, all while in battle...it must have been both horrific and monumental.  But the history is a bit different...if you know the tune, imagine singing these words: And where is that band who so vauntingly swore, That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion; A home and a country, should leave us no more?  Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.  No refuge could save the hireling and slave

Blood, Everywhere     One would think this might be a post about a new horror film, perhaps a crazed and deranged escapee terrorizing a small town.  Blood has something of a bad name and image...a cut, an accident, a package of meat.  Often you can hear the negative terms or connotations...a bloody mess, a bloodbath, bad blood, menstration, vampires (many religions prohibit eating blood, asking members to rinse meat or slaughter an animal by cutting the throat but not the spine so that the brain can continue to pump the blood out of the animal's body).  But blood is life, a term you also hear as in life blood, or blood lines, or blood brothers.  And (if you're still reading), this was pointed out quite vividly in the series Anatomy for Beginners , the second episode dealing with our body's blood circulation.     To begin, if you haven't watched the series, the contrast is striking.  This isn't Hollywood.  This is a series of hours-old bodies donated to science f

Eating Out     Our home dinner the other night was another adventure in eating, a slow-cooked prime rib accompanied with twice-baked potatoes and roasted vegetables.  And while fancy (and more than satiating our guests), it was quite different from the twice-baked potato served at Le Cirque which was made by baking, "...on a bed of salt, then scoop out the inside and mash it with butter, cream, and a heaping spoonful of canned black truffles...stuff the filling back into the potato skin, bake it again, and then place a seared piece of foie gras on top.  It cost $90."  That recipe's description came from Gail Simmons' book, Talking With My Mouth Full .  It also came from a restaurant my wife and I will likely never see; we simply don't eat like that.     Forward to today and we're back from taking our moms out to a buffet, a Sunday brunch with a variety of food choices and all at a place that we would likely all consider not at all fancy (during the week, a

Good Old Days       Again the other night, we were thrilled to have some friends over for dinner, the three other couples all meshing together nicely, something that one always hopes to see when friends gather (especially when there's eight of you).  Laughs were many, and as the conversation came around to a few health issues (after all, none of us were exactly spring chickens), it was mentioned that fifty years from now we (at the dinner table) would not likely recognize the medical changes to come (for one thing, we would have all broken the record books for longevity); but it was also pointed out that looking back to 50 years ago, people then also wouldn't have anticipated such changes.  Things were once a bit simpler, someone added, a touch of good old days nostalgia creeping in; but I added that it's likely that every generation reflects back to earlier times, to more familiar times, to good times.  For many, as Carly Simon once sang, "these are the good old day

Biotics, Part II     With all this talk of antibiotics and bacteria and microbes and microbiomes, it might be time for a bit of clarification.  To begin with, our bodies have trillions of cells, but only about 10% of those are ours, that is, human cells; the rest (yes, that's 90% of the 100 trillion or so cells within us*) belong to the microbes.  So does that mean bacteria?  Partially yes.  Here's a better definition from Microbe World : Microbe is a term for tiny creatures that individually are too small to be seen with the unaided eye.  Microbes include bacteria, archaea, fungi and protists...Archaea are bacteria-like creatures that have some traits not found in any true bacteria.  Protists include primitive algae, amoebas, slime molds and protozoa...Without microbes, we couldn’t eat or breathe.  Without us, they’d probably be just fine...There are more of them on a person's hand than there are people on the entire planet!

Biotics -- For and Against     Perhaps I should have titled this a different way, say pro and con; but likely you know biotics more in a negative sense...anti-biotics.  When I recently had my physical, my doctor had me take some of these, something he knows I'm somewhat adverse to (I'm not a fan of most meds, even taking the occasional multivitamin or ibuprofen just once or twice a year).  But in this case, my urine sample showed white blood cells "off the chart," as the lab put it.  Did I have any signs of an infection?  Yes, I told him, but I had pounded down my own mix of fresh cranberries mixed with oranges, which should have done the trick (in truth, studies of the effectiveness of cranberries on urinary tract infections is mixed, says Web MD , and possibly detrimental).  So here's one of the monster antibiotics, Cipro 500 mg...see me in six weeks, he said.  The dosage was smack in the middle of most Cipro prescriptions (some are 1000 mg.), one of 20 millio