A Few Strawberries

The photo below was taken in June 2007. It was just a small portion of the strawberries we harvested last year. We ate about a third of the crop, made jam with another third, and gave the rest away to our neighbors to enjoy. I can hardly wait for this year's crop.

Think About It

Some things are constuctive. Others are destructive. All are instructive.

Liberation is being free from things we don't like in order to be enslaved by the things we do like.

Ever notice that anyone driving slower than you is an idiot and anyone driving faster than you is a maniac?

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

Some days you're the bug. Other days you're the windshield.

One More

A man is at the bar is really drunk. Some nice guys decide to be good Samaritans and get him home. So they pick him up off the floor and drag him out the door. On the way to the car he falls down three times. When they finally get to his house they help him out of the car and he falls down a couple more times. They go up and ring the bell and say to the man's wife, "Here's your husband." She says, "Where the hell is his wheelchair?"

Creating Reality

Peter Russell, writing in Ode Magazine, composed an article entitled, The Real Secret. In it, Russell cites the Nobel Prize winner, Werner Heisenberg's stance on reality. "Nothing in the real world actually changes, the only thing that changes is one's uncertainty of knowledge."
There is a sense in which you do create your own reality. You create your own experience of reality. Take for example your ability to see. Light enters the eyes, triggering nerve impulses that travel to the brain. There, these impulses are analyzed and put together into an image. You think you see the world but what you are seeing is a reconstruction of the world. The same applies to all your senses. In this way, you're creating your own perception of reality.
(Check out a copy of Ode Magazine. It's one of the great, new, positive-slanting mags.)

Disproportionate Wealth

Although African Americans comprise 13% of the nation's population, their total net worth is a mere 1.2% of the total net worth of the country. Two white guys, Bill Gates and Larry Ellison have more wealth than the combined net worth of all 36 million black citizens.

Funny

Time for a joke.

Question - Why did the Amish couple get divorced?
Answer - He was driving her buggy.

2008 Garden Layout

Below is a sketch of my garden layout for 2008. It's pretty difficult to read because of my blog's space limitations.
In the top portion of my main garden I have the main compost area where everything gets recycled including vegetable scraps from the kitchen, lawn clippings, misc. prunings. Next to the compost pile I have three herbs: thyme, oregano, and parsley. Completing the top portion is where I plan to sow my taters. I going to attempt to try something different and throw the seed potatoes into straw that I'll strew about. I heard that spuds do really good growing in straw.
In the bottom portion, reading from left to right, I'll have a planting of zucchini. Below that, in the first row, I have a nice section for my leeks that I always use in my homemade chicken barley soup. Next to the leeks I'll put in four plants of Brussels sprouts. The last section is reserved for kohlrabi. I've never grown it but I'm going to put in several new crops this year.
In the second row is Swiss chard, cukes, parsnips, and garlic. Third row: winter cabbage, beets, summer squash, and Carmen green peppers. Fourth Row: green beans, jalapeno peppers, celery, and snow peas. Fifth row: some more garlic, cherry tomatoes, Aconcagua green peppers, green onions, and French muskmelons. Six row: Acorn Squash, turnips, Roma tomatoes, summer and winter carrots. That completes the main garden, which is directly behind our little house.
In the second sketch is what I call my annex. For the past three years I've had very successful strawberry crops. This year I've decided to shrink the size of the strawberry bed and I put in a 3X12 ft. "salad" garden, consisting of two cherry tomato plants, leaf lettuce, green onions, romaine lettuce, spinach, and kale. Next to the salad garden is the old (much smaller) strawberry bed that is also 3X12. Next to the berry bed I'm making another bed for more herbs. These herbs are: dill, basil, sage, tarragon, summer savory, and coriander (cilantro). All three are raised beds. The other section of my garden is a mixture of flowers, fruit, and veggies. Along the back fence I have two grape vines. Running along the fence, perpendicular to the grapes are a bunch of red raspberry bushes. Also in this section I have spots for the rhubarb, marsh mallow, rose, cone flower, and a dwarf lime tree. I harvested four limes off the tree last year. I had the tree in a pot but last year the thing got so huge that I couldn't possibly drag it in and out all year. So I planted the thing in the ground and crossed my fingers, hoping that it will survive our Michigan winters.

Main Garden

Garden Annex

Our travels

My wife and I just got back from traveling to visit family members. We spent Thanksgiving with our son and his wife in Denver and then went on to Austin to visit our two sons, their wives, and our six grandchildren. We all got along well and the visitation was memorable. We loved bonding with the grand kids. Nice!
Next year we plan on going out west. Our daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter live in San Diego. If one plans a wintertime visit some place, then San Diego is hard to beat. They call it paradise. It's a beautiful city. We've lived there for about six years of our lives so we know how lovely a place it is.
Anyway...We took off from Kalamazoo, Michigan on Nov. 15th and went via Amtrak to Denver. The ride was smooth and relatively uneventful. After a ten day stay in Colorado, my wife and I traveled via Greyhound to Austin. That was not unusual! Just before we got to Amarillo our bus driver pulled off to the side of the road. It was three o'clock in the morning and there was nothing around, except a police car. Two burly cops boarded our bus and walked past us. They stopped about three seats behind us and began to question a young man. We figured he had some sort of warrant out for him. It turned out that the guy had been walking up and down the aisle of the bus, naked from the waist down. The cops found a couple of prescription drugs on the fellow that didn't belong to him. While they were talking to him a woman across the aisle accused him of stealing her I-pod. Bottom line...they cuffed him and took him away. The rest of the trip into Austin was peaceful compared to that incident. After two months, we boarded a Southwest plane back to Chicago and then hopped aboard the Amtrak back to Kalamazoo. Planes, trains, buses, but no automobiles. Would we do it again? Sure! Why not? Gotta live a little.

A Short Story

THE GAME
Detective Mike O’Mara left his partner at the scene of a drive-by to mop up. Headquarters needed him at a certain location in the ritzy neighborhood of Marble Hill Estates. The gloomy, dilapidated dwellings along the Penn Central tracks gave way to the more upscale environs. Shots had been fired in a house along Winthrop Street, an exclusive tract of brick, Tudor-style mansions. He was instructed to check things out immediately.
Having been on the force for over twenty-five years O’Mara knew that homicide had no boundaries. Rich, poor, and everyone in between took turns being victims.
O’Mara parked his unmarked behind a sleek, white Cadillac and a patrol car and began walking up the winding, flower-lined pathway to the front door. He was greeted by a rookie cop named Dubinski. The two had met on several occasions at various crime scenes. Detective O’Mara considered Dubinski a competent officer.
“Good to see you again, sir,” said Dubinski.
O’Mara nodded a greeting and said, “What do we got here?”
“The mansion is owned by one Jenny Barbosa, a recent widow. The lady claims that she interrupted a burglary. Plugged the intruder in the dining room. Two shots. One to the abdomen, the other to the chest. The lab people haven’t arrived yet.”
“Doesn’t surprise me, Dubinski. Our town is in a murderous rage tonight.”
The cop pointed over his head. “Full moon. People go nuts when the moon is like that.”
O’Mara glanced at the white orb before entering the foyer. A couple of more steps took him into the front room where a shapely, blonde, middle-aged lady sat on an expensive-looking leather couch dabbing her eyes. She placed her handkerchief in her lap when she heard O’Mara approach.
“Ms. Barbosa?”
“That’s correct.”
“I’m Detective O’Mara. I understand you shot someone breaking into your house this evening.”
“Yes, quite unfortunate. I didn’t mean it.”
When the lady began tearing up again, O’Mara told her that he would be back in a few minutes. Besides allowing her time to compose herself, he wanted to check out the crime scene. He ducked under the yellow tape while putting on a pair of thin latex gloves. Dubinski’s partner stood off to the right, at the end of a rectangular oak table staring down at the victim. When he spotted O’Mara he straightened and nodded slightly. “Evening, sir.”
O’Mara knew his name as well. “Haven’t touched anything, have you Johnson?”
“I know better than that, sir. The man hasn’t moved an inch.”
Without reacting to officer Johnson’s attempt at humor, O’Mara went over and stood at the foot of the intruder, glancing first at the broken window directly behind the fallen man and then at the doorway he had just entered. Glass was scattered all around the dead man. Appearing satisfied, the detective knelt down beside the man laying on his back. He first noted the bullet hole in the man’s stomach and then flicked away a couple of small shards of glass partially covering the hole in the man’s chest and got a better look.
“Johnson cleared his throat before stating, “Gun is in this evidence bag, sir. The lady had placed it on the coffee table in front of the couch when we got here. It’s a .38 caliber. Shell casings are in here also.” He raised the bag slightly.
“Good job, Johnson. Stay right where you are until the crime scene investigators show up. Okay?”
Johnson nodded and O’Mara left him standing there while he returned to the front room. Ms. Barbosa was sitting quietly on the sofa. Tears no longer ran down her checks. O’Mara took a seat opposite her and started his interview. “Were you alone tonight?”
“Yes. I’m a widow. My husband passed away five years ago. Thank goodness he taught me how to protect myself. The gun was his.”
“I see. Why don’t you run through the events that led up to the shooting?”
“Not much to tell. I was in the kitchen making supper when I heard glass break. I immediately ran to the hall closet and grabbed the gun. I keep it loaded, just in case. The dining room light was off. It was dark when I peeked around the corner and there was the outline of this guy, just standing there. My husband taught me to shoot first and ask questions later and that’s exactly what I did. I think I should tell you that there is one area of concern.”
“Concern?”
“Yes. You see I know the intruder. Like me, he’s in the real estate business. He works for a firm on the other side of town. We’ve had a couple of disagreements over the years. Might as well tell you now. It‘ll all come out in the end.”
O’Mara studied her for a brief moment. Something about her demeanor made him think that she was testing his intelligence, almost like a little game she was playing. “After he broke the window and climbed in, you shot him twice, once in the abdomen and another in the chest.”
“That’s correct. The chest shot came first.”
“And how did he fall?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean did he twist as he went down? Did he fall over backwards? Or did he merely slump to the ground?”
“He first grabbed his belly and after the second shot he fell backwards and never moved. I came into the front room and called the authorities.”
O’Mara pulled out a set of handcuffs and asked Ms. Barbosa to turn around. She had no option except to comply. While looking shocked, she began stuttering an objection. O’Mara ignored her and began reading her her rights.
“What am I being charged with?” she asked after acknowledging she understood.
“Murder.”
Her head recoiled with surprise. “Murder? But…but…”
“You might have gotten away with murder except for one tiny detail.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The shards of glass. If the man broke the glass like you claimed and entered the dining room where he was shot and fell on his back, then how do you explain the shards of glass I flicked off his chest. The window had to have been shattered after the man was shot and not before.”
Ms. Barbosa’s head hung in disappointment as O’Mara led her away. She had lost her little game.

Something Special

Been in a bit of a funk lately. Maybe it's the realization that our government is so desperately screwed up that no matter how much Monopoly-type money they give away, nothing will help America's economic malaisse one little bit. Those dolts in Washington forget that all real wealth comes from Mother Earth. Once we use up all our natural resources we are broke. Dead broke! And what we take, our Mother will surely take back. So...here is what poured forth from somewhere deep in me. I can't keep it bottled up.



SOMETHING SPECIAL


When the last field has been plowed forever
And the last train has crossed the trestle
Whatever is left on this earth will wonder
Why man thought he was something special.

"You thought that life had owed you
A privileged type of existence
So you robbed, raped, and plundered the earth
With arrogant human insistence."

But then one day the piper came
A stupendous bill propounded
"You've rarely paid for what you've used
And now the debt's compounded."

"But I've nothing left," cried Everyman
No oil, crops, or trees
You'll have to come another day
When I've regained all these."

"There's nothing to regain, you fool
You're poor through arrant greed
The things you craved, that gnawed your soul
You really didn't need.

You forgot life's basic premise
That your gain is someone's loss
But, unlike the Ancient Mariner,
You forgot your albatross."

Now...the wind still blows melodic odes
The sun shines unimpeded
And the morning came that the piper exclaimed
Man...was just not needed.

Wondering

I've Been Wondering

Life is strange and I'm awed with wonder
How a flash of lightning can cause thunder
Dwelling on things often makes me dizzy
Such as why are wrong numbers never busy

Oh the strangeness of life never ceases to be
An ironic reflection that befuddles me
How can people with eyesight fail to see
That all great truths are simply oddities.

The Best New Year's Resolution

The population of human beings on the surface of the earth has reached 6.6 billion. Those 6.6 billion include you and I and we are destroying the earth's natural resources at an unsustainable rate. Forget about global warming because if Homo Sapiens continue to destroy the only nest we have, we will need two more earths to sustain the next generation. Alarming? Certainly.
I know I can't stop the rate of destruction by myself but together we can help stem the tide. For a New Year's resolution I promise to plant a tree in 2008.
Trees are disappearing around the globe at an alarming rate. Forests are a part of our planet's ecosystem. We must change our perspective about trees. They are not merely commodities. Instead we must look at them as breathing devices, assets that keep human beings alive. Without trees we all die. They take in carbon dioxide and emit oxygen. That oxygen is what we inhale to stay alive. How much sense would it be to destroy that critical resource? But that's exactly what we are doing. Beside the destruction of the Amazonian rain forest, half of Canada's forests have been cut down. In Asia, only ten percent of Russia's virgin timber remain, and the Chinese economy is using so much lumber that they now have to import wood from other countries, countries that have precious little for their own population.
Planting a tree makes sense. And why not make it a fruit tree when you do? Planting a fruit tree will not only provide a household with extra oxygen, but it will provide an excellent source of healthy vitamins and other nutrients for one's body. How can you lose? You can't.

Culinary Herbs

I haven't talked about herbs too much but besides the fruit and veggies I grow a variety of herbs in my backyard organic garden. They add flavor to every meal when used properly. The following herbs are almost everybody's favorites and once you harvest them from your garden you'll know why. All of them are easy to grow and almost impossible to kill.
Sage perks up chicken dishes. When I marinate chicken this herb goes into the mix.
Thyme draws bees. I toss some of this herb into my pasta dishes.
Oregano adds zip to all Italian meals.
Tarragon has a pleasant licorice aroma.
Chives propagate easily and when snipped into baked potatoes they wake up the spuds.
Basil is added to any dish using tomatoes. It's an annual so plant every spring.
Rosemary can't overwinter in Michigan so plants must be purchased every year.
Parsley gives my chicken barley soup an unbeatable aroma.
Coriander's leaves (cilantro) are famous in Mexican fare.
Summer savory has a light tangy flavor. I add a dash to my salads.
There you have my top ten herbs. Besides adding zing to food, most herbs help to keep your immune system functioning properly. Just a tad can make a huge difference.

Top Ten Crops (see prior post)

Garlic should be planted in the soil in the autumn of the year. By late summer of the following year they can be harvested and dried. Many gardeners braid them and hang the crop in a cool, dark place such as a basement. Garlic will keep for years and will ward off all the vampires in your life. Ask any garlic eater and they will swear they have never seen a vampire, which proves my point.
Blueberries can be easily added to the border of a garden. Some varieties can be grown in a large container. It almost a "must" fruit to grow because of its healthful benefits. One main problem with the crop is that birds also love the fruit so make sure that your place netting over the shrub.
In my Michigan garden I start my cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts in small pots and then transfer them out to my garden when the weather warms up. They are relatively easy to grow but watch for the little green worms called cabbage loopers that seems to appear magically on the crops. You can easily pick them off, which is better than spraying them with toxic chemicals. Don't forget to provide plenty of water for the plants. Harvest in the fall. The flavor of each improves with a frost.
Spinach is awesome in a salad. I place the seeds directly in my garden in early spring. The one drawback to spinach is that it bolts easily and goes to seed. One way to beat that is to harvest when the vegetable is young. During the growing season provide it with some shade and you will have more luck with it. I plant two succeeding crops each year.
Swiss chard is one of my favorite vegetables. Easy to grow, it's very hardy. I cut the tops and it keeps on coming until late autumn. The flavor is mild and chard it great in salads.
Beets are versatile. Not only can you eat the part beneath the ground, but the top of the plant is extremely healthy. Add the tops to a salad. For the bottom part, my wife peels the dark red crop, drops them into a pressure cooker, then pulls them out and adds balsamic vinaigrette, sugar, and onions for a real taste treat. Let the mixture set for an hour and then enjoy.
Romaine lettuce is much more nutritious then the iceberg variety. Easy to grow and rewarding to eat. Try planting some in next year's garden.
Raspberries, like all fruit, is necessary for healthy living. The benefits of eating fruit have been published endlessly so no need to elaborate. I have several mull berry trees in my backyard, which are juicy beyond belief. I planted grapes a couple of years ago and share the crop with all the birds in the neighborhood. So between the raspberries, grapes, mull berries, and strawberries we are all set. Veggies and fruit...there is no better way to eat. Try it and see what I mean. You won't be disappointed.

Action Blog Day

Today marks the initial Action Blog Day in which our environment becomes the prominent topic of discussion among bloggers. In my humble opinion the best way to help clean up our planet and help our environment is to plant an organic garden. Not only will a garden be a source of recycling, it will nourish your body and your mind by providing fresh, delicious, healthy food. I've had my hands in the soil for about forty years, raised a lot of the food our family of seven ate, and received the benefit of health in the process. I call my organic garden my personal health food store.
My backyard garden provides my wife and I (the kids have long ago flown the nest) with a tremendous variety of good eating. If you are contemplating putting in a garden to help both yourself and the earth, you might as well grow the most beneficial crops you possibly can. These are my picks for the top food items you can put into your body. They are not necessarily listed in any order.
GARLIC
BLUEBERRIES
CABBAGE
SWISS CHARD
BROCCOLI
SPINACH
BRUSSELS SPROUTS
BEETS
ROMAINE LETTUCE
RASPBERRIES
Garlic is on almost everybody's list for a healthy diet. No need to elaborate.
Blueberries are high in anti-oxidants. They do a good job of lowering cholesterol. High in vitamin C and potassium, they are tasty treats especially added to a bowl of oatmeal.
Cabbage is a known cancer fighting food.
Swiss Chard is one of my favorite veggies. It comes up early in spring and in my Kalamazoo garden I harvest it until late autumn. Chard promotes proper digestion and is loaded with anti-oxidants.
Brocccoli is a veggie that George Bush swears he never ate. Ah...so that's his problem.
Spinach is high in beta-catotene and benefits your heart. Popeye knew a good thing.
Brussels Sprouts likes a hard freeze so no need to coddle this gem. As good for your body as anything you can eat.
Beets provide a rich source of iron and strengthens the blood.
Romaine Lettuce is a must in a salad. Delicious and healthful. The darker the lettuce the more beneficial it is for your body. Try planting this beauty other dark greens as well.
Raspberries are not only delicious but are high in vitamin C. They also prevent strokes.
There you have it.
I've limited the list to ten items but there are many more veggies that provide much needed nutrients to the body such as beans, aspargus, onions, tomatoes, and kale. These are just my personal favorites. I guess the bottom line is this: Anything that you can grow in a garden is a million times better than processed food. The junk people buy in a supermarket comes from over 1,500 miles away. Now how can that be healthy for you? The fresher the food, the better. That makes sense, doesn't it?
If you are new to gardening, start with a small plot. Grow a few salad items like onions, leaf lettuce, and cherry tomatoes. They take up little space and are easy to grow. Each year expand the plot and experiment with some of my suggested crops. You'll live longer and enjoy life more. Try it.
Good luck and stay healthy.

A Couple of Positive Items

Two articles that I came across in the media this week caught my attention. Yesterday I read where California's largest utility, PG&E, is striving to save all its customers energy. On the surface that sounds rather oxymoronic. Utilities saving energy? Well, what happens is the Golden State will reward the utility with a large bonus if PG&E can cut the amount of energy their customers use. If they fail in their attempt they have to pay the state a huge penalty. What PG&E is doing is giving out free energy-saving lightbulbs in hopes that Californians will switch from their old incandescent ones to the fluorescent type. I hope they succeed. I'll be pulling for them.
The second item that caught my eye was that India's Tata Motors, the fifth largest automaker in the world, has unveiled a car that gets 50 miles to the gallon and costs only $2,500. It exceeds current and future European emission standards so it's enviromentally friendly. Right now the auto isn't available in the states. I wish it were because I would buy one. The vehicle doesn't have air conditioning or push button windows but who cares? As long as it goes from point A to point B safely. Other foreign automakers are following suite. Now if we can get Detroit to build something like this perhaps we can all inhale cleaner air. Hey, every little bit helps.

Looks Are Deceiving

Last August I took this photo of my backyard with my three Elberta peach trees off to the side of my main garden. There were so many blossoms in the spring that I had to prop up a few of the branches with clothes poles. I expected a bumper crop of delicious peaches. Didn't happen. There was one teeny tiny problem. In my neighborhood there are more squirrels than humans. I mean it. Every day in the summer at least four of these shaggy-tailed creatures hang around my backyard, waiting for me to fill up my bird feeders. Over the last few years they have destroyed countless feeders and to make matters worse, when my peaches are just about ready to be harvested, they pick and devour almost the entire crop. Last year one of them had the audacity to sit beneath one of my three fruit trees eating the last of a juicy peach, waving his tail at me as if letting me know that I was too late to enjoy most of my crop. The little critter left me only the two peaches you see in the photo. I've tried covering the tree with netting but they only laugh at my efforts. That's not the only trouble they get into. I spotted one of them walking along the top of the wooden fence that runs along the side of our house, holding a giant sunflower between his teeth. The little son-of-a-gun chewed it right off the stem. And wouldn't you know it, the sunflower was a volunteer and the only one I had in my garden. At this point I've all but given up. They are a lot smarter than I, that's for sure.

The Electrical Accusation

This is a true story. My wife and I are on vacation in Texas visiting family. After a long career in the weather business, we decided to take a two month vacation and reconnect with all six of our Austin-based grandchildren. Needless to say we've enjoyed the trip immensely. Before leaving Michigan we had all of our mail forwarded and yesterday we received a letter from Consumers Power Company of Michigan wanting to know why our electrical usage has decreased dramatically. I phoned the 800 number and after explaining the fact that we are on vacation I asked the representative do they also send out letters to customers who use TOO much power or do they only pick on the ones who are trying to conserve. The rep replied with a lame excuse about their concern that the meter might not be running properly. I politely accepted her explanation. After hanging up I realized that they might have been concerned that we were lying on the floor in our front room deader than door nails, so I was kind of glad I wasn't too hard on them.
Conservation has always been our motto. Waste not, want not. My wife and I knew that retirement was on the horizon so five years ago we bought a small (800 square foot house) with a large backyard and settled down. Each year we have replaced major appliances with Energy Star rated ones, installed a solar fan on the roof to lower our attic heat in summer, replaced all our light bulbs with energy savers, etc. It's a wise way to go. Our utility bills have dropped by about 30 % each year. We are looking forward to the next letter from Consumers Energy as to why we have completely dropped off the grid. Wouldn't that be nice if we can be rid of those people? Maybe one day.

Something to Think About

My favorite writer, Mark Twain, once stated: "When we finally realize that we are all crazy, things will begin to make a lot more sense."

Bamboo Bamboozled

Mizoram is a tiny state in the northeastern corner of India. The citizens of that state depend on bamboo for their livelihood. About every 48 years or so, the bamboo blossoms and produces fruit that attract rats. I don't mean a few rats, I mean jungle rats that devour everything in site, including all the surrounding crops that annually grow and nourish the people of Mizoram. The result is famine and death for many of those citizens. This year the bamboo is beginning to flower once again and the million or so inhabitants are in dire straits. This is an example of balance but at its extreme. Would you accept forty-eight years of relative abundance for one year of devistation? Not an equal trade and one that leave the people of that region helpless. They've tried traps and poisons but in the past nothing had helped. About their only recourse is to accept the inevitable...or move from their homeland. If you would life to read more, check out the December issue of Vanity Fair. The excellent article is written by Alex Shoumatoff.

The Last Empire

An article in the Jan/Feb issue of Mother Jones entitled The Last Empire was one of the most enlightening articles I've read recently. The writer is Jacques Leslie and his research centered upon the desertification of China. I knew that pollution was a huge problem in that part of the globe but I never dreamed the extent was so catastrophic. The overgrazing of animals, the cutting of forests and the sheer number of Chinese are turning the country into a large desert. Scientist predict that in as little as three to five years, Beijing could be buried in sand. I mean nothing in that city would be able to move. Can you imagine? Half the country's waterways contain human and animal waste. Four-hundred thousand of its citizens die prematurely from lung disease caused by air pollution. The ten percent increase in yearly GDP is offset by the ten percent rise in environmental damage. Their spectacular economic revitalization has, in effect, a zero sum. They are destroying themselves by copying the American economic system. But enough of China's citizens are waking up to the realities of Western-style capitalism that daily protests are a common site. Even the state run media is critical of its governmental officials. If the problems were contained to only China, the rest of the world could shrug and say, "So what?" But the polluting dust created by their attempt at industrializing their nation flows upward and is carried by the jet stream to all corners of the earth, adding a stifling dose of greenhouse gases. What to do? Is China past the tipping point? I think so, but I hope I'm wrong. As China goes, so goes the world. Let's hope that vast Asian nation turns around and realizes the folly of imitating America. Now if only America can wake up...

Truth

The philosopher Hegel said, "Truth is found neither in the thesis nor the antithesis, but in an emergent synthesis, which reconciles the two." A wise person will try to maintain a dynamic balance in life, neither pursuing too much nor too little pleasure. Of course too much or too little pain is also not advised. But sometimes you just can't help becoming squished between the proverbial rocks and hard places in life. John Denver sang it best: Some days are diamonds, some days are stones. When you're down, look up at the stars and your troubles will seem distant. When you are up, beware, and be wise enough to know that change is on the horizon. Change is inevitable. The only thing that doesn't change is change itself. So...take head. Plant a garden, love your spouse, smell the aroma of a beautiful flower, do whatever it takes to enjoy life and all its wonders. Life isn't full of miracles. Life IS the miracle!!