A wise message from a State’s rights small government President. Wonderful to find this quote on a Coronado beach. A similar corollary is from Walt Kelly through Pogo (below). We need to say this over and over again: The “enemy is us” if we cower and in any way support suppression of a free press.
Though leaves are many, the root is one;
Through all the lying days of my youth
I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun,
Now may I wither into the truth.
In a few days, I’ll turn 78. When friends say they don’t know what to give me for my birthday, I always respond with the same tired old joke they’ve heard from me before, which causes them to sigh, roll their eyes, and change the subject. (Here’s a perk that comes with age: repeat yourself so often that folks think you’re getting dotty, when in fact you’re fending off unwanted conversations.)
Q: What do you give a man who has everything?
A: Penicillin.
I don’t need gifts of a material nature. But I do need to remember a few things I’ve learned during my nearly eight decades on earth — well, mostly on earth. So here’s a collection of six lessons as a birthday gift to myself. If one or two of them turn out to be gifts for you, my birthday will be even happier.
—One—
The Yeats poem at the head of this column names something I don’t want to forget. Actively embracing aging gives me a chance to move beyond “the lying days of my youth” and “wither into the truth” — if I resist the temptation to Botox my withering.
My youthful “lies” weren’t intentional. I just didn’t know enough about myself, the world, and the relation of the two to tell the truth. So what I said on those subjects came from my ego, a notorious liar. Coming to terms with the soul-truth of who I am — of my complex and often confusing mix of darkness and light — has required my ego to shrivel up. Nothing shrivels a person better than age: that’s what all those wrinkles are about!
Whatever truthfulness I’ve achieved on this score comes not from a spiritual practice, but from having my ego so broken down and composted by life that eventually I had to yield and say, “OK, I get it. I’m way less than perfect.” I envy folks who come to personal truth via spiritual discipline: I call them “contemplatives by intention.” Me, I’m a contemplative by catastrophe.
—Two—
Poetry has redemptive power, or so it has for me. Poets like Rilke, Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry, and Naomi Shihab Nye, have provided life jackets to keep me from drowning, ballast to keep me from gaining altitude, and maps to keep me from getting lost in the woods. By following Emily Dickinson’s advice to “tell the truth but tell it slant,” good poets have snuck up on me to deliver messages I would have evaded if I’d seen them coming.
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“Those who are guided by kindness hardly even notice evil in another but pay attention instead to everything good and true in the person. When they do find anything bad or false they put a good interpretation on it.” – Emanuel Swedenborg
Submitted by Sylvia P.: Abuse in nursing homes received attention in a recent CNN story titled “Sick, dying and raped in America.” We are fortunate at Skyline to have strong leadership in preventing abuse but it is of national concern in poorly monitored facilities. The information is depressing and difficult to imagine – but very real unfortunately. The article has information on when to suspect abuse and how to report it.
Below is a new map which delineates the hard to navigate Seattle Hills. We’re appropriately marked “red” on Cherry and Columbia but “green” on 8th and 9th at Skyline. This is an attempt to help us navigate the sometimes difficult Seattle hills.
From Crosscut: “Seattle’s hills can be daunting for anyone, sometimes even for drivers. And then there are all those construction sites that may push walkers or those in wheelchairs into the street.
A mapping project based out of the UW Department of Computer Science and Engineering Taskar Center for Accessible Technology is hoping to help people with mobility issues get around the city better. AccessMap, which launched this month, is an online travel planner that helps users find accessible routes in Seattle. It lets them customize their routes to avoid obstacles like steep hills, sidewalks without curb cuts, and construction sites.
It’s already starting to make a difference.
Arianna Huffington: mother, sister, flat shoe advocate, sleep evangelist, HuffPost founder, and founder and CEO of Thrive Global: www.thriveglobal.com Thrive Global – Feb. 6, 2017
If we live in a perpetual state of outrage, Trump wins (sent in by MJF)
Ed Note: This article offers some very practical ways to deal with the constant often unsettling political social media tweets, responses, talking heads, fears – and yes depression and lack of sleep. I saw one resident wandering disheveled into the Bistro with political insomnia. This isn’t healthy or productive. The article below may be useful and is worth reading.
“Have you heard about the latest outrage? Can you believe what the administration just did? I’m not actually talking about anything specific, but between the time I’m writing this and the time you’re reading it, there will no doubt have been plenty of examples. Your inbox and notifications are likely full of them. Your friends are probably texting you about them. You may well be talking about them at dinner tonight, before settling in to watch outraged pundits rehash them. Then there’s one last check for late-breaking outrages before a night of restless, fitful sleep. In the morning, with a check on the accumulation of whatever new outrages rained down overnight, the cycle starts all over again.
Trump has brought many new things to our lives. And one of them is this state of perpetual outrage (Trumprage? Trumpdignation?) provoked in reaction to the state of perpetual chaos his administration seems to generate on a daily, even hourly basis.
This is no way to live. Literally. We’re only 17 days in, and people are already exhausted by it. Trump hasn’t invaded any countries (yet), but he’s certainly invaded our minds and hearts. As Kevin Baker wrote in Politico, “thanks to social media, and to the nature of our new president and his administration, politics is suddenly with us always, in every aspect of our lives, including wherever we may look for diversion.”
And that’s not healthy. There is — as our president might say — a tremendous mountain of science that shows that when we live in an ongoing state of outrage, anxiety, fear and stress, it wreaks an awful toll on our physical and mental health. It’s not sustainable. And there is another way.
From Crosscut by Thomas Shapely: “When September 11, 2001 occurred, some of us argued that a second date would now “live in infamy.”
The first, of course, was December 7, 1941, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt called the day the nation of Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor, killing 2,400 Americans, including 68 civilians. The 9/11 attacks in New York, Washington, D.C, and Pennsylvania left 2,996 people dead, most of them civilians.
Those of us who experienced the shock and grief of 9/11 knew, as I reflected while writing an editorial for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that day, that we had gotten a taste of how it must have felt in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack.
Pearl Harbor offered an immediate target for American’s fear and anger: the Japanese — all Japanese — including those who had been American citizens for years, even generations – including our neighbors.
“It’s time we have a little chat.”
From the First Hill Improvement Association: “The First Hill Improvement Association is devoted to highlighting the constellation of people, places, and businesses that make our community such a rich and vibrant place. We’re proud to premier First Hill: Second to None, a series of short film love letters to the neighborhood. These short films feature 5 First Hill residents from a variety of backgrounds describing the things about First Hill that make them swoon.”
From Aeon and the NYT: “With many Americans either too far away or too busy to care for their elderly relatives, the task is frequently shifted to professional caregivers – often female immigrants from cultures where caring for elders is seen as a moral imperative. The Caretaker is the story of Joesy, an undocumented Fijian immigrant, as she looks after Haru, an elderly Japanese woman in the final months of her life. While Joesy enjoys the connections to others that she forms through her job, the work is emotionally demanding, requiring around-the-clock care and always being prepared to bid farewell to people on the verge of death. The threat of deportation also hangs over every moment and with every passing police officer – an experience that has further bonded Joesy to Haru, who was interned during the Second World War. Delicately crafted and moving, The Caretaker is part of the Immigrant Nation short documentary series, which explores the lives of people who have moved to the United States.”
Message said to be a spot-ad on Saturday Night Live – from www.voteVets.org
Mrs. G was admitted from the ER to our ICU in shock. This quite healthy 80 year old woman had an infected toe about a month prior to admission. It responded to antibiotics and initially she did well. But when I first saw her she was on death’s door: blood pressure 70/20; pulse 130; no urine output; unconscious; and a very distended abdomen with no bowel sounds.
Her initial “antibiotic associated diarrhea” had seemed to taper off but not completely go away. Then it accelerated and there was delay in seeking medical attention and she was “crashing.” The CT scan showed hugely dilated loops of colon and a limited scoping of the colon showed angry looking “pseudomembranes” – all compatible with life threatening Clostridium Difficle colitis.
The C. Diff. toxin proved to be positive, but in the meantime attempts were made to get two drugs into her bowel lumen to fight the infection. But there wasn’t time to wait. At midnight, she was taken to the OR for a complete colon removal and colostomy. Within hours she rallied and was out of the hospital within a week – but with a drastic change in her daily life.
Note: Most C diff infections resolve on their own as the normal gut bacteria reestablishes and no treatment is necessary. Some believe that probiotics and/or yogurt help but that’s unproven. For symptomatic patients there are several anti-microbials which are useful (see CDC info). Hand washing (soap & water) for personnel and dilute bleach as a disinfectant are standard recommendations in prevention. Patients need to be aware that C diff can recur and that they need to follow closely with their physicians. Needless to say, often antibiotics are over-prescribed for “the flu” and other viral infections – so trying to avoid antibiotics unless truly necessary is wise. The “Difficle” name was attached to the organism because it was difficult to stain and grow. But as noted, it’s difficult in more ways than one.
Sent along by Dorothy Wendler. Have you ever wondered how Big Ben works?
Recent demonstrations bring to mind those of the Vietnam era when people went to the streets to protest government policy. I well remember student unrest in Madison, Wisconsin in the late 60’s, then again at the University of Washington when we arrived here in 1969. Are we approaching a replay – or more? Knute Berger in the Crosscut writes about this. Click here for the full article.
