You are adored by those who know you and you help and serve even those who do not know you.  Your brief 40 years on this planet have been productive and powerful, I can’t wait to watch you continue your personal growth as one of the most whole and self-realized people I have the honor to know.

I am a believer in personal choices and paths, charting and pursuing a course, balanced within the realities we have, each of us, set upon us.  You have chosen a path of partner to the planet and to the people who inhabit it.  You could not make me more proud to know and love you.  Thank you for allowing space for me to participate in your life.

Happy Birthday, go in Peace!

AIDS Project New Haven

This is called ‘self fulfilling prophecy’. Aren’t we, all of us are now being manipulated by an extremist fringe view, just the kind of view we say we detest and remain in war over. And we shall live and raise our children in the increasingly unstable aftermath.

If you came and burned my religious books, I can guarantee that my first reaction would not be one of tranquil discourse on your deeply considered reasons why.

WWYD, if someone was burning the book that belongs to you?

Distinctive Pet Furnishings

I’m Mad As Hell and I’m Not Going to Take it Anymore, Peter Finch as Howard Beale – 1976, Network

Howard Beale: I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there’s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there’s no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV’s while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be. We know things are bad – worse than bad. They’re crazy. It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, ‘Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.’ Well, I’m not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot – I don’t want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you’ve got to get mad.
Howard Beale: [shouting] You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!’ So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell,
[shouting]
Howard Beale: ‘I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!’ I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell – ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Things have got to change. But first, you’ve gotta get mad!… You’ve got to say, ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Then we’ll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it:
Howard Beale: [screaming at the top of his lungs] “I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”

Courtesy:  The inimitably mind and perspective of Uncle Paddy and http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074958/quotes

Image Courtesy of:  http://drbristol.wordpress.com/2009/12/27/mad-prophets

This is a Huzzah! (Renaissance Faire Style) to Harold Chayefsky!

Harold continues to be an active member and guide for the Achilles International in New York City, where he acts as a guide for runners in need of these services.  When we were  younger, and he began running and participating in marathons, I knew he was insane.  But as my beloved brother – I kept that to myself.  Well, not really, what sister of any merit would?  Oops!

When he was in college and home for a visit, he’d bolt out the door to run – I guess it’s a good addiction – and he has great calves!  My calves, to the contrary,  don’t know that running addiction But it is a passion that has stayed with him all of his adult life.

As a guide, Harold has found such delight and pleasure – to run and to serve!  He has guided blind, handicapped and a host of running enthusiasts in between.  I am proud to be his sister, this is only one of the ways, I am proud of how he gives to his community and enriches himself.  He and my sister-in-law Kim, have raised my wonderful nieces and nephew to be creative and exciting young people.  Harold continues as President and owner of his business (Wintry Press), originally our father’s business.  It was named for both our father and mother (Winn and Terry Chayefsky – cute, right?)

While I am still not a runner, and I have come to accept that Harold got the deep end of the athletic gene pool (I am in the kiddies wading pool) in our family.  Harold has taken one of his many personal passions and converted it to service of his fellow man – his little part to improve the human condition.  For that, I forget the Orwellian version of ‘Big Brother’, because this one…  I not only love, but I admire!

(Pictures to follow)

Quote for the Day!

“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
- Will Rogers

An old friend, an artist in Tempe, who owns desert land near my desert land, and I almost never see anymore, popped by today – and this is one of the stories he shared.

http://www.jacquesadventures.com/9.html

(For your dog lover’s Cuddles Diary chronicles their dogs experiences with life on the road)

Paul’s brother is all grown up and was cooking up a plan in his mind…. Early retirement???  He wanted to ride his bike around the circumference of the US. According to Paul, his brother is a “bean counter, and he calculated the cost of the trip and saved for it,well before doing it.” Part of his plan included buying a camper (for his wife) and seeking out an amazing array of great campgrounds along his route.

The above link takes you to his photo essay of the trip. He started around Christmas 07 in Las Vegas and plans to end at the same time of year in 08, in the exact location his adventure began. He is currently traveling at a goal rate of about 80miles per day as he crosses the northern border of the US traveling from east to west, into head winds. He passed through AZ several months ago and local family and friends joined him for various legs of the AZ route.

The story goes that someone suggested he take the southern route traveling east so that the coastline would be on the same side of the road he was riding on; he thought that sounded great till he hit the west-east headwinds across out northern tier. He always had a dream of kayaking in the Erie Canal; you can find pictures of him fulfilling that dream on his website and he is currently peddling past the western great lakes.

Judging by the ‘Guest Book entries’, he and his wife have intrigued and inspired many along the way!

As I sit here on this warm Sunday afternoon, contemplating a nap because (darn, it’s sunny again, and after all it is in the 90’s), maybe I should dust off the old walking shoes, refresh the podcasts on my iPod, find the headphones that work and go for a walk. Gee, that sounds like a lot to do, maybe I will just open this URL and look at some more pictures!

Make time, we are never too old and there is always a way, if you plan and make ready and then shake off the dust from your bones and simply – GET MOVING!

Well, then again …. maybe tomorrow.

It started as a green site, but there are much better sites that are more concise, eloquent and informative.  And i just don’t have enough to say that is smart and new and worth saying.  Honestly, I’d rather read what others say or experinec on the topic, I do drivel on quite enough.

So the new focus, in deference to my varied interests, sometimes crossing paths, and sometimes independent spheres  of influence upon me, this is my journal for me.

Environment, politics, religion (maybe not), special needs, technology, climate, wellness (mind and body), family and whatever else crosses my path.  I no longer enjoy writing by hand (too slow, too awkward) so typing is queen for now, podcasting would be best but my  New York thang just doesn’t sound great in recorded format!

So tonight, I reflect, for no-one but me, on Robert Chester Fabia.  We have named 2 cats after him, well not on purpose, so perhaps more an indirect name-sake than a purposeful decision to equate the man with the cat.  Bobby was not catlike, not stealthy, not cruel and not fluffy, though he wanted to be.

None the less, 2 cats in the life of our family, were named Chester, on a big black and white Tom.  he was fabulous and I adored him.  He would come home battered and abscessed and I would heal him, he had scar tissued cheeks to bear testament to the battles he would engage in, I fancied that his opponent looked the worse for the wear, in hindsight, I wonder if my big fat cat was getting whooped all over Tolleson.

Bobby came to visit us in Tolleson and when I introduced him to our fat, war-torn tom cat, he said ‘my middle name is Chester!’, and while I have forgotten most middle names and  many, many first names, Bobby’s middle name will stick for eternity.

When we left Tolleson to live in the deep, barren desert, our Chester was loathe to go.  When we left Tolleson for  the desert he was not a happy camper,  he liked the fields and the horses and the deep grasses in our small meadows of tall bermuda grasses and alfalfa.  In hindsight, I did too!  He sat on Al’s roof next door for weeks and we would keep coming back and eventually lassoed him into a box (hiss, snarl, think here of the cartoon with rabid Alexandre the cat)!  He dies in the desert and old man who probabbly took on a few wild creatures of his own, he died under the mobile home  that was first our house in the Sonoran.  I buried him under a wild mesquite that grows on 20 acres I now own, across form the place where our solar powered, straw bale home stood – on the site originally home to the mobile home.

But that is merely a Chester reference, what I really wanted to reflect on was my ex-brother-in-law, Bobby.  Bobby was found dead of a fire that has been deemed suspicious, his untimely death at 50, listed as a homicide, an unexpected terrible outcome of an arson of a ‘private bar /club’ in Dayton, Ohio.  I lost touch with Bobby many years ago, and carry some convoluted memories of him,  But here’s what others had to say, in death sometimes, we get to see a person we may not have gotten to know, but I remember Bobby well:

Guest Book for Robert Fabia

Ironwood Tree Experience, Tucson, AZ

I hope they don’t mind me copying right off their website, but this is to whet the appetite of anyone looking for ways to improve the planet, one important step at a time. (all credit to the Dhruv’s and ITE)

And I quote (or copy/paste):

Intention

Ironwood Tree Experience (ITE) empowers young people through active, mindful and educational eco-programs that cultivate a holistic sense of community.

Vision

ITE envisions a future in which active, critically thinking, and compassionate young people view themselves as a vibrant part of their community and are empowered to forge a future that integrates values that are ecologically and socially just.

Audience

Ironwood Tree Experience serves adolescents, ages 12-18. Eco-programs are intended for adolescents of diverse socio-economic levels, cultural backgrounds, and spiritual beliefs.

Action

Towards this mission and vision, ITE provides young people with active, mindful, and educational eco-programs that integrate four learning and living strands: 1) Youth wellness, 2) Community Action, 3) Sustainable Practices, and 4) Youth Character Development.

Youth Wellness emerges from foundational lessons and practices in fitness, nutrition, and mindfulness.

Community Action is experienced through direct activities that encourage adolescents to voice their perspectives and solutions to contemporary environmental and social needs throughout the Tucson Community.

Sustainable Practices are fostered through personal choices that have long-term affect on the health and wellbeing of humanity, wildlife and ecosystems.

Youth Character Development is built up from personal and cooperative challenges and achievements and enhances leadership skills that will sustain through adolescence and continue into adulthood.

Shameless grab for content from someone else, eh?