Mythology Part Two

This is the second part of my writing project on spirituality and mythology...

In college, I discovered African myths, such as Anansi the Spider (a trickster archetype), Native American myths, and even 19th Century American myths, such as Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby. The Biblical stories from my Catholic upbringing also fit into this world of mythic themes and characters that I loved so much.

In fact, the figure of Jesus Christ fits the model for the hero archetype quite perfectly. The whole life of Christ follows the arc of an epic story. He was a king who was born under difficult conditions. His family goes into hiding. He has tests and helpers along the way, accomplishes great feats during middle age, and finally dies, alone, surrounded by enemies on a hilltop. It's the classic model of the heroic journey.

One of the reasons that Christ is considered one of the greatest heroes of all time is that he offers mankind something that no other hero could offer: Eternal Life. Sure, Beowulf could kill Grendel, and Robin Hood could redistribute wealth, but only Christ could bring Eternal Life to those who believe. Powerful stuff which had a profound impact on the collective human psyche (a power that more than one Roman emporor exploited in expanding the Roman Empire, which is, by the way, alive and well and living in the United States as I type this entry).

Compare Christ to King Arthur, who was born mysteriously and then went into hiding. Like Moses, Arthur was born of royal blood yet raised humbly. Eventually, he pulls the sword from the stone, which is symbolic of entering manhood. He accomplishes great things and restores order, establishing single rule and uniting the kingdom.

This pattern, identified by Campbell on page 245 of his 1949 book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, occurs again and again in stories, art, and music.

All these instances point to a time in a person’s life which are considered rights of passage and they fit Campbell’s notion of the heroic journey perfectly. Now, this is not to say that these characters and events did not exist. There is plenty of evidence to suggest the Jesus Christ did, in fact, exist, just as a hero such as Beowulf once walked the earth. There is even evidence to suggest that there once was a King Arthur (in fact, the scholars believe that there were probably many King Arthurs).

What am I suggesting? I’m suggesting that we need to allow these heroes to live symbolically as well as literally. Only then will we be able to access the spiritual truths that they fought so hard to represent.

In contrast, if we get too caught up in locking these characters into a historical context, we begin to lose the symbolic and spiritual aspects of the personage and we, ourselves, remain locked into a particular historical context. In other words, we need to learn how to interpret myths.

We need to learn that myths serve as markers that point to the spirit world. We need to understand that all cultures have creation myths, and that one is not more "correct" than the others. In fact, they all point to the same God...who is the "force that through the green fuse drives the flower," "the everlasting yay," and "the eternal Is." It all points to the same force, the force that keeps our hearts beating, the force that causes us to procreate, the force that keeps the Earth in its orbit.

But let's get back to our persistent emphasis on demonstrating the historical validity of our myths. Under this approach, let me ask, how many times have you heard arguments about particular words in the Bible? Individual words.

For example, let's say I'm trying to find some guidance from the Bible on homosexuality and I find myself in Samuel. Here are some translations from 1 Samuel 20:41

"After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with is face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together - but David wept the most." (NIV)

Other translations have a different ending to the verse:
"...and they kissed one another and wept with one another, until David exceeded." (KJV)
"...and they kissed one another and wept with one another until David got control of himself." (Amplified Bible)
"and they sadly shook hands, tears running down their cheeks until David could weep no more." (Living Bible)
"They kissed each other and wept together until David got control of himself." (Modern Language)
"They kissed each other and wept aloud together." (New American Bible)
"Then David and Jonathan kissed each other. They cried together, but David cried the most." (New Century Version)
"Then they kissed one another and shed tears together, until David's grief was even greater than Jonathan's." (Revised English Bible)
"...and they kissed one another and wept with one another until David recovered himself." (Revised Standard Version)

So, which is it? If I'm going to develop a clear spiritual position on homosexuality, I need to have the actual words of God. But it's not that easy, is it? Some people believe that David and Jonathan were lovers, but it's not quite clear, is it? Is it implied? I don't know. Nobody does, although there are arguments on both sides (which will never be resolved, by the way, so the debate actually takes us nowhere).

So, do you see how arguing over versions of the myth doesn’t make any sense (outside of academic circles where they argue about these sorts of things)? It is an empty excerise. Add to this the fact that, lest we forget, the Bible was originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic (and the New Testament was written in Greek). From there, it was translated into English and other languages. This only makes it more complicated.

Therefore, arguing about particular words-—unless you are a linguist or a theologian--is a waste of time from a spiritual standpoint. The spiritual lessons are not that specific. They are not hidden and they do not exist only for those special few who can know and interpret the Word of God. Instead, they exist and are readily available for all humanity. The guidance exists in works of art, theatrical performances, stories, rituals, and religions. In other words, the guidance is all around you and already in your heart. All you need to do is follow that guidance.

Christ said, for example, love God and love your Neighbor. But instead of following this simple spiritual instruction from The Man himself, we consult other areas of the Bible which enable us to promote our own worldy agenda—-even if that agenda leads us to actively hate people, such as pagans, gays, Mexicans, or Muslims.

Don’t you see? We become so caught up in arguing the tiny details that the larger spiritual message is lost. We come up with our conclusions and then seek evidence for those positions in the Bible. It's a silly game, in my opinion.

Why do we do this? Because it’s easier (and feels better) to hate with righteous indignation rather than examine our own feelings and try to live a life that is more Christ-like, or Buddha-like, or Mohammed-like, or Mother Theresa-like, as all of these great people have taught us to do.

This path leads people to do idiotic things like protest the recent funeral of a American serviceman, who dies in Iraq, who was supposedly gay. So let's see, I'm going to protest and dishonor the death of someone who has died as a direct result of his intention to defend his country from terrorism because I read something in the Bible that is going to enable me to hate someone else. Geez...I don't want to live in that world. Do you?

Okay. The other thing that bothers me about this subject is the notion that the Bible is the ONLY way to know God. I completely disagree. God is not dead. Not my God anyway. My God lives and inspires people—artists, musicians, authors, performers, and one who participates in a creative act—every day. I can feel the spirit of the creative force of the universe pulsing through my body each day.

I can also see God in art, music, rituals, and stories. God is everywhere. Therefore, to presume that the revelation of God is over and done with—that it occurred 2000 years ago and that’s all folks—seems to me to be incredibly short sighted. It’s like the forces of evil have won: They killed Christ for saying that He and the Father are One. They killed the yin yang of Christianity by eliminating the feminine from the divine, and then they said, “Okay, that’s it. The book is closed. Don’t bother coming around here with any contrary opinions.”

In effect, by taking this posture, they’ve killed God, or at least pushed him into outer space. And we wonder why so many people are depressed, addicted, unhappy. They’ve been kicked out of the Garden and have no way to re-enter.

Many (most?) of today’s priests have become officers of an institution, rather than mystics or shamans who have direct knowledge of the spirit world on their own terms. Therefore, they preach dogma. This is starting to change, with movements like Erie’s Cursillo movement, which encourages people to have their own experience of God, but it’s going to take a long time before this attitude fills the hearts of people across the U.S.

But is that what we want? Do we really want people to be in touch with their “inner God”? Do we want people to become “little Buddhas”? This, I submit, is a dangerous proposition, because it threatens those who would like to sustain the status quo. What happens when people no longer need alcohol? I shudder to think. What happens if people become so spiritually satisfied that they no longer feel the need to work 60 hours each week? This is not a desirable situation for Budweiser or Wall Street, is it?

So, what does it come down to? Why is the “God within” so may of us dead? Why does my friend tell me that “God is mad at me and I’m mad at him and I don’t ever see a way out”?

It’s because Christianity in the United States has too often been promoted and enforced as a means of social control...as a means of captivity rather than release. Be honest, when is the last time you had a unique and powerful spiritual experience? You were probably at some incredible outdoor spot, and that is, at least in part, no fair, because you were stealing spirit from the water or the trees or the rocks in order to achieve your spiritual peak.

When was the last time you had a unique and powerful spiritual experience in your own life? In your own church? I hope you can answer “all the time” However, I fear that it happens all to infrequently. That’s why so many people need televangelists to tell them who God is and what God wants.

So, can we at last begin to adopt the teaching of Christ and learn that the divine resides within each of us? That we are one with God? It seems to me that this ancient teaching—true to both Christianity and Buddhism—can lead American culture toward healing and happiness.

As for Wall Street, they will have to learn to worship new gods. And this is part of the problem. Even as Americans purport to worship Christ and the Christian God that lies beyond, we instead typically worship two more important gods: Money and Power.

God is left to Sunday mornings. Give God an hour on Sunday and you’re good to go for the rest of the week. And what happens during the rest of the week? We pursue Money and Power.

I don’t object to the pursuit of Money and Power. I’m just trying to clarify the debate. The way to worship is not an item on a “to do” list. Instead, it consists of how you live your life each day. If you build your life around the sacred, then the sacred will come into your life. Millions have found this to be true; many additional millions have not and they continue to pursue Money and Power with the hope that it will take them somewhere…that it will take them toward spirituality.

It might, I suppose, but once again we return to two great spiritual leaders: Christ and Buddha, and we learn that the way to heaven is not through wealth but through surrendering the material goods of the physical plane in order to prepare for life in the spirit realm.

And, make no mistake, preparation for life in the spirit realm begins in this world. You only need to open your heart and invite the spirit into your world.

Enough for now.

DDDD

Brothers Grimm

I watched the Brothers Grimm movie by Terry Gilliam last night. I'd give it a B-minus. It was great stylistically, but the plot was definitely muddy.

Eleanor Ringel Gillsepie hits the nail on the head with her review.

Now, I'm definitely a big Gilliam fan. Here are some of his titles (from imdb.com):

It's... the Monty Python Story (1999) (TV)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) (screenplay)
Parrot Sketch Not Included: Twenty Years of Monty Python (1989) (TV) (sketches)
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) (screenplay)
Brazil (1985) (screenplay)
The Crimson Permanent Assurance (1983) (written by)
The Meaning of Life (1983) (written by)
Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982) (written by)
Time Bandits (1981) (written by)
Life of Brian (1979) (written by)
Jabberwocky (1977) (screenplay)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail

He's directed some of my favorite movies, so I was a bit disappointed when my friend Carlos and I had to stop and piece together the plot three or four times during the movie.

In other words, I'm glad I didn't pay $8 to see it in the theater, because swallowing all of it whole (like the insane horse from the movie), would have definitely been painful.

Watching it on video, however, is a bit more manageable. I actually want to watch it again now that I can move from a "plot level" to an "aesthetic level" interpretation.

Happy Sunday!

DocTorDeeeeeee

Robert Yeager on Beowulf

Robert Yeager writes a nice piece on the history of Beowulf. Check it here.

According to Yeager, Beowulf is "a Scandinavian hero, of the tribe of Geats. Most of his story is said to take place in Denmark and Scandinavia."

Here are a few select quotes:

"Why the poem with a Scandinavian hero exists in Old English at all is a mystery. As a member of the tribe of Geats whose significant adventures took place in Denmark and Scandinavia, Beowulf seems an unpromising hero for an English folk epic, particularly in tenth century Saxon England.

"At the time the manuscript was being copied, Scandinavian raiders had been ravaging English shores for two centuries. This inauspicious timing has been used by some scholars to bolster their arguments that Beowulf was composed before the coming of the Northmen about A.D. 790. However, a poem featuring a Scandinavian hero may have been able to flourish at the court of King Cnut, who added England to his Danish empire in 1016."

Any thoughts, Ralph?

DocToRdeE

Beowulf and Grendel

Beowulf and Grendel, the movie, opens in six US cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Seattle and San Francisco, starting on June 16.

Can't wait...

Doc

The Challenge of Thor

The Challenge of Thor
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I AM the God Thor,
I am the War God,
I am the Thunderer!
Here in my Northland,
My fastness and fortress,
Reign I forever!

Here amid icebergs
Rule I the nations;
This is my hammer,
Miölner the mighty;
Giants and sorcerers
Cannot withstand it!

These are the gauntlets
Wherewith I wield it,
And hurl it afar off;
This is my girdle;
Whenever I brace it,
Strength is redoubled!

The light thou beholdest
Stream through the heavens,
In flashes of crimson,
Is but my red beard
Blown by the night-wind,
Affrighting the nations!
Jove is my brother;
Mine eyes are the lightning;
The wheels of my chariot
Roll in the thunder,
The blows of my hammer
Ring in the earthquake!

Force rules the world still,
Has ruled it, shall rule it;
Meekness is weakness,
Strength is triumphant,
Over the whole earth
Still is it Thor's-Day!

Thou art a God too,
O Galilean!
And thus singled-handed
Unto the combat,
Gauntlet or Gospel,
Here I defy thee!

Mythology Part One

The voice of Joseph Campbell has been echoing in my head since 1989. My friend and mentor, Dave Anderson of Butler County Community College, introduced Campbell to me when I first began teaching at the college level and I knew I had found someone important.

But it all began well before that. I began reading myths when I was very young. The Twelve Labors of Hercules, Theseus and the Minotaur, Jason and the Golden Fleece were some of my earliest ventures into myth. I loved the characters, the themes, and the lessons that resided in myth.

From there, I delved into Norse mythology: Thor with his mighty hammer, Mjolnir, tales of Odin, and, of course, Beowulf.

I realized, from early on, that these stories somehow embodied truths about the human spirit, and, as my other friend and mentor, Art Barlow from Clarion would say, “All myths are true.” He’s right, all myths point to spiritual truths that can be identified and felt by all humans.

Before I move any farther, allow me to offer a definition of myth. Myths are stories, rituals, and works of art that point to transcendent spiritual truths. Think of it this way: Humans live in the physical plane, but we also know that there is a spiritual plane “out there” somewhere. This is the realm of the non-physical. How do we know what occurs in the realm of the non-physical? How do we begin to understand how we are connected to the spiritual realm? Through our myths.

The problem, as far as I can tell. Is that we’ve kinda screwed up the interpretation of our myths. We either treat them as fairy tales that are not literally true and therefore mostly irrelevant, or we treat them as literal, historical facts, which make them equally irrelevant because when we interpret them as facts, we mistake the symbol for the referent and therefore remain focused on the symbol.

For example, once upon a time, a girl named Red Riding Hood didn’t really come across a wolf dressed in her grandmother’s clothing, did she? And even if she did, we don’t interpret the event in literal terms.

Instead, we take the spiritual/psychological truth from the story and move on. The story teaches us that it’s certainly important for a young woman to understand that there are big, bad wolves in the physical realm and that a young lady should be careful. So, even though the myth didn’t actually occur (or maybe because it has occurred symbolically so many times in human history) we can gain a spiritual truth from it.

In contrast, religious fundamentalism would take us in the opposite direction. Instead of allowing the symbols to remain symbols that transcend the physical realm, fundamentalists of all stripes attempt to codify the symbols and events into actual historical events. And while there may be one or more historical events connected to the emergence of the symbol, we need to allow the symbol to point to the spiritual truth without getting caught up in the need to demonstrate the scientific validity of each of the symbols.

Guess what? There are many flood stories in mythologies from around the world. They teach us that we live on the razor’s edge—that disaster can strike any time—and often does. In Noah’s case, it also teaches us to have clean hearts and to be prepared for difficulty on our journeys through life.

Therefore, to focus on the story of Noah’s Ark as an actual historical event and begin searching mountains in the Middle East or Africa for remnants of Noah’s Ark is to miss the point. The story of Noah is simply another flood story generated by human beings, in the physical plane, in order to comprehend a larger spiritual reality.

That’s what myth does. It points from the direction of the human heart toward universal truths within the spirit realm. It provides humanity with a roadmap to understand our place within our cultures and within the cosmos. It should be leading us always toward larger, shared spiritual truths and not toward arguments about whose god is mightier.

More later.

Doc

Today's news

Just wanted to point out that I loved two stories in today's Times News. The first has to do with the state asking Erie County and prioritize the projects it is asking for money for. A lot of the controversy seems to involve the $7 million budget over run on the convention center project. Now, I was never a big proponent of this convention center. However, as the weather is shaping up here - I can see why someone would want to have a convention in Erie. And, if we get that runway project completed, then maybe we're on to something - at least for the three months out of the year that it's beautiful. But, for this thing to be successful, I think we need the parking ramp. It comes back to the "bird in the hand being worth two in the bush" saying - and I think Convention Center Authority chief Roger Richards alludes to this. Let's take the money and do the Convention Center right before chasing after other projects. Granted, one of those projects is the airport runway, which, as I said is, inexorably connected to the Convention Center's success, so let's not put that by the wayside. But, this Gannon technology incubator. Wouldn't that be competing with the eBizITPA organization that we already have? Let's keep our focus here.

One other comment on the Convention Center over run: It does seem that prices for building materials are up all over, so I giving the Authority the benefit of the doubt on that one.

The second story I really enjoyed was the one where Joe Sinnott refuses to extend the loan period for this Herbert Fliss juice plant guy. From what I understand, this guy really screwed the former owners of the Midway driving range on East 12th and then deserted the spot as a site for his plant. He is also being sued by some other city I think. He's got some issues and God bless Joe for not putting up with his B.S. anymore. Hopefully, we get the money back. I also hope Fliss eventually builds his plant in Lake City, but we shall see.

Ralph

Roethsliberger Update

The following is an audio update on Big Ben's condition from a doctor at Mercy Hospital (source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).

Update

Doc

Return from Atlanta

I've returned from Atlanta safe and sound.

The dream of the movie of the trip that's playing in my head right now is incredible.

I was able to complete quite a bit of writing during my trip, at least five significant pieces (~1000-1800 words).

It's going to take a few days (weeks? months?) for me to improve overall coherence and prepare the writings for publication.

The writings will be posted to Ralph's Place as the summer unfolds.

This is gonna be fun....

DoCtorDeE

Father Baseball

I'd just like to take a moment to issue a shout out to my boy Chris "Beane" Benoit, the self-proclaimed "Father Baseball" of years gone by.

"...when the snow started to melt and spring invaded the air on the southern shores of Lake Erie, it was Father Baseball's job to discern if indeed, baseball season had officially begun. How would he do this? With his nose, of course. Father Baseball would sniff that air, take it in, almost like a wineconnoisseurr, toss the air around in his noggin and then declare if indeed it was too early, or if baseball had officially cometh."

Cheers.

Ralph

Summertime and the living is easy

Right. At least I'm hoping so. Stomach problems seem to be mostly behind me, which is good. Seawolves have a five game homestand stand coming up. Weather seems to be shaping up. Supposed to maybe hit 80 degrees this weekend. Lake Erie water temp is listed at 63.

I don't know how often I'll be visiting Ralph's Place over the summer. If last week was any indication, not much, but maybe more. We'll see I guess. This is still a pretty new venture, and I'm trying to figure some things out. I've started some sort of book/extended essay/modern novella type of work. Here's an excerpt:

"My son, who is 7 just asked me, 'How about home runs did Tino Martinez hit?' Tino Martinez was a great fielding, solid hitting first basemen that the Yankees picked up in the mid-1990s, before they made their run of four World Series titles in the Joe Torre/Derek Jeter era. My son remembers him from last year, when he returned to the Yankees after being let go a couple years earlier in favor of slugging Jason Giambi. Giambi contracted some sort of rare stomach parasitic disorder while in Japan, after having to stop taking the steroids he’d used for several years prior and appeared a shell of his former self early last season. So, Martinez was brought back to fill in. Martinez, because of age I assume, not steroids, was also a bit of a shell, although he did go on one torrid streak, hitting like seven home runs in seven games early in the season, that keyed some big wins. By the time my son picked up on him toward the playoffs, however, Giambi had miraculously returned, working with hitting coach and former batting champ Don Mattingly to reassemble his stroke and eventually wound up being the 2006 A.L. Comeback Player of the Year award. So, Martinez had been relegated to coming off the bench.

The cool thing about my son’s question is that I can now go online, to a wonderful Web site, www.baseball-reference.com and view Tino Martinez’s career stats. It used to be you had to buy this expensive big book called the Baseball Encylopedia to look up every player’s statistics in the history of baseball. I remember my friend Red had a copy, and I spent more than a couple of afternoons at his house thumbing through the thing. You could really get lost in it, looking up stuff like Smokey Joe Wood's 1921 pitching numbers.

baseball-reference.com is the same type of thing. And because it’s online and has all sort of hyperlinks embedded in it, you can very easily jump from one area to another. I called my son into my office to answer his question about Tino, which was 330-something, and we started jumping around to figure out things like exactly how many World Series did the Torre led Yankees win? It was four in five years, including three in a row from 1998-2001. Then we jumped to the career of his favorite hitter Gary Sheffield and went over his year-by-year home run stats and the awards he has won. Then, we jumped to Texas first baseman Mark Texiera. Baseball stats have a very soothing effect from some reason. They’re just numbers but they say so much about the game."

Well, that's it for now. Yes, aside from Presque Isle and the Seawovles, I'll leave you with two of my other favorite things to do in the summer. Both have to do with music:
1. The Mayville Bluegrass Festival is this weekend. This thing rocks. It is in a great location and really brings in some top notch nationally renowned bluegrass acts. It gets a bit pricey, but you have an ear from some good bluegrass, I'm sure it's a bargain.
2. Erie's own Eight Great Tuesdays is a wonderful series of concerts. It doesn't start until July 11, of course, sometimes the summer weather doesn't really kick in until that time around here either.

Both event I just mentioned are great family affairs, although, Eight Great Tuesdays is probably even better for the family because it's free.


Cheers.

Ralph

A Journey to Atlanta

Okay. Tomorrow I leave for Atlanta.

I'm going to a conference on myth and archetypes. It's part of the Mythic Imagination Institute and people like Deepak Chopra will be there. It's going to be very interesting.

Ralph supplied me with an old laptop, so I'm going to see if I can blog from the road. No guarantees, but I'll give it a shot.

If nothing else, I'll do some entries on the road and post them when I return.

So, I'll be signing off for now, but stay tuned. I'll see if I can come up with some good pics as well.

DoCtorDee

Looking to the East

I've always been a guy that looked to the West for inspiration - sunsets, expansive Western U.S. ideals, making my home on Erie's West side, but for some reason today I have been inspired to face east. I've been facing the sun as it makes its upward arc - and it is treating me right. I'm also now induldging in some of this killer green tee with rice in the mix that Dr. Dee dropped by last Friday. So maybe that's helping me get my Eastern motif on. I wonder if this is a new way of living.

Cheers.

Ralph

Henry Miller

So, I just got back from the doctor, where I finally went after my stomach has been bothering me for two weeks. He seemed to think, it's merely some sort of acid overdose (no, not that type) and gave me some pills to calm everything down. I immediately ate one upon getting home, ate a sandwich, got an upset stomach, and well, you can guess what follows. Anyways, I feel better now. Doc seems to think it will take a couple weeks to work itself out. As he said, "Well, you're looking like you lost some weight. I wish I could take off a few pounds myself." Trust me, it hasn't been worth it... or has it?

Anyhow, when I got back, I was browsing through Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, as I've promised myself to do this summer and came across this passage, "If we go to Borneo, I won't have hemorrhoids any more. Maybe I'll develop something else . . . something worse . . . fever perhaps . . . or cholera. Shit, it's better to die of a good disease like that than to piss your life away on a newspaper with grapes up your ass and buttons falling off your pants."

I think I can relate.

Memorial Day memories

What a weekend. We made it out alive and in one piece. Still have this stomach thing bothering me, although yesterday it seemed like it was all gone. Probably just the adrenaline kicking in, but at least gave me a glimpse of feeling better in the future. In other words, for the first time, there appears a way out.

I don't remember too much of what I did Saturday, aside from clean the garage, right when the heat starting ramping up. Then played some golf. Played again Sunday morning and then cut the grass. In other words, I nearly offed myself from heat exhaustion, all the while, not being able to eat or drink much without upsetting me tummy... . Monday was the big day though.

Have you ever held a picnic at Glenwood Park? According to the city ordinance, the pavilions are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Monday was my daughter's birthday, and we were expecting about 50 people for a Memorial Day/Birthday Picnic. The last couple years, we've held it in the backyard, but for some reason, I've got it into my head, I want to hold the thing once at Glenwood Park. Being it was Memorial Day, I expected it to be busy, but then I started hearing stories about people showing up at 5 or 6 in the morning to secure pavilions. On Saturday, we even went and scouted the place out and found some kid who had slept there!

I started to get worried. I didn't really want all those people at my house. So, I decided, I would sleep at the park. I was too tired to go over immediately when we got back Sunday night from a friend's backyard cookout, so I pulled out my sleeping bag, foam pad, and camping pillow, and set the alarm for 3 a.m. Sure enough, it went off and I found myself driving to the park with a car full of goodies, including a Dora pinata, to place on the tables. I also borrowed some yellow caution tape and wrapped it around the pavilion.

I was the first one there. The place was empty when I got there. I got all set up, laid down on a table and fell asleep. It was really a beautiful night. It was like 65 with a cool breeze, and I could hear the stream lapping in the background. It reminded me of nights I've spent camping in the Adirondacks. Of course, before going to sleep I did have a passing thought of some Jeffrey Dahmer-like character cutting me to pieces, or some crackhead mugging me for my cellphone, but this is Erie... and I wasn't delivering pizzas. Anyway, I comforted myself by remembering many of the dumber and more dangerous things I've done in my life that clearly had less of a payoff. And I fell quickly asleep. I woke up with the sun around 5:30 a.m. and found I was still the only person there. So, I guess maybe I didn't need to sleep there after all, but it sure was a nice night's sleep... People started showing up around six, with the last picnic grove taken around 7:15 a.m.

Our party went great. Lots of cold beer, water, and pop on a hot day and some charcoal-grilled yaps and burgers. Mariah and the kids had a great time running around the playground, heading to the zoo, and doing all the other fun things a kid can do at a park. Yes, that Glenwood Park is quite a place to have a holiday picnic.

Ralph

Katrina aftermath

You all should know that I'm not the biggest Bush fan in the world - but I very much agree with this conservative editorial that appeared in today's Erie Times. It pretty much discusses how the Bush administration has been given undue blame and how the media has exaggerated a lot of what went on with Hurricane Katrina. I'm also reading an article in the current issue of Vanity Fair that kind of vindicates Brownie for his performance and calls him a scapegoat. Here's the thing: How many times have you been warned of a storm that never developed as badly as predicted? Happens in the winter here all the time. What if you never left your house every time they said a "blizzard" was coming?

The Vanity Fair article even recounts how the famous N'awlens drink "The Hurricane" was invented by some revelers waiting out a hurricane. Obviously, they didn't evacuate and lived to pass their drink recipe on to millions... I would say that 90% of the time, the best thing you can do with storms is wait them out. And after all, this is the "Big Easy" we're talking about. I think that nickname means that people there don't get too worked up about things. Truthfully, I think I would have reacted the same way the mayor of New Orleans did, who has received criticism for not wanting to ruin the tourist trade by shouting "hurricane" too early.

Okay, having said all that, there was a fuck-up with the levies. But that had nothing to do with emergency management. That was something that should have been fixed well in advance, because it's always better to prevent a disaster than manage one well once it happens. If Bush was responsible for not fixing those levies, than fuck him. But, I think that problem may predate him.

Ralph

Baseball

The timelessness of baseball is a mysterious and wonderful thing. I'm looking out my window and I see my son and his friends playing a game of pick-up in the backyard. Something I would have done 30-some years ago. I've tried doing other things I did when I was a kid with my son, playing certain board games, but really, they all pale in comparison to today's video games and come off as dated. But baseball, well, it never really changes. It's still pitch and catch, and bat. I remember the catcher's gear and the mitt were favoriates of mine as a kid - we always used my neighbor's dad's old softball equipment. I picked my son up some old stuff at a sale and on eBay, and he's wearing it right now. Yup, I guess, some cliches are true.

Cheers.

Understanding Mother Earth (Part Two)

This entry is a reply to one of Ralph's comments posted to "Understanding the Earth" from May 24. Here is what Ralph said:

I personally am at a loss on how to fight pollution. While all your suggestions are good, do you think they'll be adopted by enough people to make a difference? Or is there a ying and yang factor at work here. As you remove pollutants, somebody else adds them back? My final thought on this is that despite all these pollutants and cancer causing agents, people are actually living longer now than they were a couple hundred years ago. It's evolution, baby, you just need to accept it or perish under its power.

Ralph,

Your argument actually proves my point: Humans, once they recognize a particular need, can change their behavior and address that need in order to find a solution...and quite often they do.

So, you say that humans are living longer. It's true. We are living longer because we realized--at a collective level--that we needed to take action to provide better healthcare for everyone. As a result, much attention has been devoted over the past 150 years to caring for people. We have thousands of hospitals and doctors offices across the country. Healing is big business.

It's a huge priority...and now people know what foods to eat/not eat and they know they shouldn't smoke cigarettes. These are corrective actions taken in light of information gained about a certain situation, namely, that we’ve been polluting our bodies for many years.

And once we realized that diseases like Polio and Smallpox needed to be eliminated, the right people came up with the right cures.

To toss your hands into the air and say, "Screw it. Pollute the environment. We'll grow specialized gills someday to deal with it" strikes me as blatantly irresponsible because it goes against the natural ability of humans to recognize a problem and take steps to correct the problem.

So we have to continue to follow this traditional model. We have to realize--at the collective level--that we need to take steps to correct a pollution problem that we have created. And Stan is absolutely correct: little things make a huge difference.

Do you return your blue plastic bags to Wegman’s for recycling or do you toss them in the trash? It’s a small change, but it can make a huge difference if more people participate. Many people participating in an effort leads to phenomenon, and phenomenon transcends pattern limitation.

Do you remember when America didn’t recycle? I do. All that glass, metal, and plastic went into the dump. Then we realized that not only did we NOT want those materials in our landfills, we also could reuse much of that same material. There are actually niche companies that sort and re-sell all kinds of recyclables.

Now, I realize that some glass, metal, and plastic still go into our landfills, but we’ve also made tremendous progress in the last 20 years—all due to public awareness.

Hell, I can remember when the median strips of this nation’s highways were used as garbage dumps. It was nothing, back in the 1970s, to see garbage on the side of the road. Today, you rarely see garbage on highways...only old tire treads and the ocassional McDonald's cup.

Public awareness.

Remember DDT? It was a nasty pesticide that they used in commercial farming. After studying its effects, biologists told farmers and the government that DDT was taking its toll up and down the food chain, so its use was curtailed. Now eagles and frogs and other animals have largely recovered for this environmental horror.

Public awareness.

Once upon a time, people didn’t know or care about “garbage dumps.” Today, however, pretty much everyone in Erie County knows that there is a mountain of garbage just south of I-90 at the State Street Exit. And the mountain is getting bigger every day (in his book on Erie, Matty Walker said it’s one of the highest points in Erie County).

So, as these problems build and people become aware of them, it is possible to take steps to correct—or at least diminish—the problem.

And remember my opening point: the reason we are living longer is directly related to the fact that humans have tackled the problem of health care at the collective level. This has been accomplished over time with education and increased public awareness. We didn't just say, "Oh, well. This Smallpox thing really sucks, but there's no point in tackling the problem because we're just going to die anyway."

So, Mr. Wolf, if you want to take a “who cares” approach because the patterns that dominate our lives are too big to change, that’s your option. But I think the rhythms of our lives—and I know quite a bit about rhythms—take various shapes and sizes. We can affect some of the rhythms that fall within our sphere of influence (even as I acknowledge that other patterns remain outside our personal purview).

However, occasionally, the larger, more difficult patterns can be tackled by groups that create energy which achieves its own intention, that intention creates an attraction of its own, and that’s how communal problems are solved.

Cheers,

DoCtoR

Bobbo's Blog

I went over to Bobbo's Blog today to see what he had posted recently and I found a video of the artist "Pink" singing a song called "Dear Mr. President".

The video is kinda sappy, but I like all kinds of music, so I thought it was pretty cool. It's definitely worth watching.

Now I'm wondering how to post video to Ralph's Place.

Have you made any progress down this path, Ralph?

DDDDDDDDDDD

Understanding the Earth

I've been reading a lot of Earth-centered literature these days, including Gary Snyder's The Practice of the Wild, and random articles on sustainable farming and arguments against dolphin and orca captivity.

It seems that humans are evolving to a point where we understand that other life forms have a right to exist on their own--they are not for us to capture and imprison at places like Sea World.

Gary Snyder can really get it going, too. On page 181 of Practice, he writes, "There can be no health for humans and cities that bypasses the rest of nature."

He also writes in very moving and convincing terms about the similarities between bears and humans. I thought Ralph might like that part, in light of his uncanny relationship to wolves.

One report said that the federally protected orcas, living off the coast of Washington state, are legally toxic due to the number of PCBs that course through their bodies...and is there still any question where cancer comes from? It comes in regular doses from the synthetic chemicals that we ingest and are otherwise exposed to in our lives.

One professor wrote that male frogs in Midwestern states are beginning to produce eggs and he said that this could be connected to breast cancer in women...something about similar chemistry.

So, what to do? Clean House/Clean Planet by Karen Logan is a book that offers solid direction. She claims, as you might guess from the title, that eliminating the toxic chemicals from your house will help. It will change your world view as it relates to the environment.

Personally, I believe that soaps are way overused in America. Humans have lived on this Earth for tens of thousands of years and suddenly we need to scour everything in site with antibacterial soap? I don't think so.

Now, before my chef friends object, please know that I understand that foodservice is an entirely different matter, because of the threat of cross-contamination. However, everyday people do not need to use the detergents and soaps that we think we do. Go to Wegman's and look at the soap aisle, you know, the one with all the jugs of Tide and such.

Then think about taking all of that soap and dumping it into Lake Erie. Yup. Think about it. And that's only one Wegman's. All over the US, people are dumping soap, and bleach, and Clorox, into the water system.

While the water system can absorb an amazing amount of pollution--and while water treatment plants do a fantastic job making water "safe" to drink-- these efforts cannot absorb all of the chemicals, so we ingest them in our drinking water. And we shower in them.

All this, and I haven't even started talking about lawn fertilizers and other poisons that are being applied at this moment to thousands of lawns across the US.

Then there's commercial farming...

I hate to say this, but we're in big trouble as far as our water system goes. In order to have any chance, we need to stop the insanity. We need to stop dumping chemicals down our drains and we need to support political candidates who will act on behalf of the environment, unless we want our children to have increasingly poisoned water.

Enough for today, I believe.

DoCtoR