Saturday, April 7, 2018
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
what early retirement feels like now that I am into it
I wrote this here in my blog rather than my journal because it is more about the meaning or trajectory of my life.
I began writing such things here in early 2010. The last entries were almost a year ago, the end of 2011. I never knew it would happen when I started the blog in Spring of 2010, but just a few months later, in the summer of 2010, at age 56, I began the process that I now call my early retirement. I had been planning such a thing since 2001, but I didn't realize until after it happened that 2010 would be the year.
2010 and 2011 turned out to be amazing and exciting and quite scary at times, as I recorded here and in my journal. But this summer of 2012 it gradually became obvious to me that I am done setting up this new life and now I am just living it.
I am paying close attention to what my days are like now, because this is such a different life from the one I lived for 32 years, from 1978 until early 2010. For all those years, I worked at least 40 hours per week, sometimes much more, sometimes combining work with college. Long commutes also added to the time committments to these "jobs" most of those years. The hours of the day when I had the most energy all went to working for others to get paid.
Until now, I did not realize that who I was for those 32 years was not neccessary "me" but an adapted me -adapted physically and mentally to functioning in the work schedule and the work place.
For example, in terms of diet and health, I simply experimented in the early years until I discovered methods that maximized my ability to function while I was at work, and then stuck with those diet and health habits all the way to 2010, never seriously questioning if they were really good for my body, because my ability to make and save money was so much more important to me. I now believe those adaptations were not good for my body in the long run.
I now also realize that the percentage of my mental energy evry week that I committed to problem solving at work was very high. This is obvious when I consider how much reading I am doing now. I am amazed at the number of books I have read this summer. It is probably almost ten times the number I read per summer during the 32 years I spent in the "labor force". Apparently I have always been a reading junkie, but I never knew it because the part of my brain that enjoys books was tired by the evenings and weekends when I had free time.
So, is that the story of 2012? -For the first time in my 58 years, I've become a serious health and diet nut, and also a book worm?
No, that's just some of what I am discovering.
I'm also experiencing for the first time since I was very young cravings for creative and mental challenge. All the reading I just described is related to this, but it is clear the craving requires more than just reading.
It seems to require me to be sketching designs and then analyzing them. What a shock! My college degree was Mechanical Design, and for the 32 years I worked, I was in either design or technical art. -Of course I still crave those things. I was wrong in thinking that I had become bored and burnt out by them. What I was really sick of was not the work, but the inability to dictate my own schedule and do my own dream projects.
In fact I think I am discovering that I have an urge to refine, patent, and manufacture some things that I've invented in the last few years.
But, as I said, I am still discovering what my true state of health is, rather than my state of health adapted to working long hours for a company.
I am coming to believe, based on some medical tests I did this summer and on other observations and reflections, that my strong tendency toward pollen allergies has been the cause for all the "secondary" health problems I've suffered from all of my life, including depression, episodes of fatigue, and the bladder discomfort (interstitial cystitis) that has become a serious problem lately.
The latter disorder gave me the major scare a year ago when I thought I had cancer, followed by the euphoria when I realized I didn't, coinciding with my bladder symptoms disappearing.
I have not written about it very much, but that nice situation did not last. By January of 2012 the bladder symptoms were returning and they've been bothering me almost every day since. Now I've learned that periods of remission are common for persons with interstitial cystitis but the symptoms rarely go away permanantly.
My belief is that the constant strain on my body caused by the pollen allergies year after year weakens the adrenal glands and that sets off the chain of events that cause my secondary disorders (bladder, depression, fatigue, etc.)
My urge to start patenting and making things I've invented comes right up against all of this:
-I don't want to start something like that unless I know my health is good enough to make it successful.
So that's where I am at this moment...maybe wanting to start a new chapter in my life, but not ready to until I spend as long as it takes to know whether I can be healthy enough. I am optimistic.
However this plays out, it feels good to be writing again. Every year I do very little of it in the summer but it is now late September and the urge to write is back as strong as ever.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Most Expansive View Yet of Corporatism
I view truth in terms of "holons", a word I learned from reading Ken Wilber's book, A Brief History of Everything. This just means that truths "transcend and include" other truths.
I try to have few favorite links here because I want to just link to those unique voices that I think are the most "over-arching", whose view of the truth is the most "transcendant and inclusive" of everything else that is true.
So I am now adding TUC Radio to my list of links.
Not only is Maria Gilardin, the woman responsible for TUC Radio, the creator of the Michael Parenti archive which I already have a link to, but her podcasts/broadcasts week after week show an over-arching understanding of the long history of what we now call Corporatism. This is very important, because I think understanding the truth about this transcends and includes understandings of all the manifestations and symptoms of Corporatism that finally got so egregious they spawned our new Occupy Movement.
And just as the movement was beginning over the last few months, Maria was compiling her latest podcasts, about Richard Grossman, who died right when the movement was gaining momentum.
I strongly recommend especially to anyone participating in the movement or interested in the predicaments that spawned it to listen to these Richard Grossman podcasts, her latest:
( Go to TUC Radio and scroll down to "Most Recent Programs". )
I realized when I heard them for the first time yesterday that this man's insight transcends and includes even the brilliance of Thom Hartmann and Michael Parenti on the topic of how deep and old the roots of our dillemma are. And so they show how radical we must be in our methods now that we are attacking that dilemma of corporatism. Maria is on to something big, and just in time!:
'Richard Grossman said: ".. corporations don’t have rights. Rights are for people. Corporations only have privileges, and only those that we the people bestow on them." In a nutshell that was the essence of his research and teaching for the last 20 years. Richard died of melanoma on November 22nd, 2011, at a hospital in New York City, where he was born sixty-eight years earlier.
Ralph Nader called him the “preeminent historian of corporations” and a new, inspiring reading of history was his special gift. Richard said that the American revolution was fought less against the crown but against the crown corporations. And he believed that it's time to remember that fight and assert sovereignty of the people over the corporate state and ask: Why should the many be governed by the few?"'
Apparently Maria Gilardin will be adding two more TUC Radio podcasts to what will be this Grossman series. I can't wait to see what I will learn from those.
I try to have few favorite links here because I want to just link to those unique voices that I think are the most "over-arching", whose view of the truth is the most "transcendant and inclusive" of everything else that is true.
So I am now adding TUC Radio to my list of links.
Not only is Maria Gilardin, the woman responsible for TUC Radio, the creator of the Michael Parenti archive which I already have a link to, but her podcasts/broadcasts week after week show an over-arching understanding of the long history of what we now call Corporatism. This is very important, because I think understanding the truth about this transcends and includes understandings of all the manifestations and symptoms of Corporatism that finally got so egregious they spawned our new Occupy Movement.
And just as the movement was beginning over the last few months, Maria was compiling her latest podcasts, about Richard Grossman, who died right when the movement was gaining momentum.
I strongly recommend especially to anyone participating in the movement or interested in the predicaments that spawned it to listen to these Richard Grossman podcasts, her latest:
( Go to TUC Radio and scroll down to "Most Recent Programs". )
I realized when I heard them for the first time yesterday that this man's insight transcends and includes even the brilliance of Thom Hartmann and Michael Parenti on the topic of how deep and old the roots of our dillemma are. And so they show how radical we must be in our methods now that we are attacking that dilemma of corporatism. Maria is on to something big, and just in time!:
'Richard Grossman said: ".. corporations don’t have rights. Rights are for people. Corporations only have privileges, and only those that we the people bestow on them." In a nutshell that was the essence of his research and teaching for the last 20 years. Richard died of melanoma on November 22nd, 2011, at a hospital in New York City, where he was born sixty-eight years earlier.
Ralph Nader called him the “preeminent historian of corporations” and a new, inspiring reading of history was his special gift. Richard said that the American revolution was fought less against the crown but against the crown corporations. And he believed that it's time to remember that fight and assert sovereignty of the people over the corporate state and ask: Why should the many be governed by the few?"'
Apparently Maria Gilardin will be adding two more TUC Radio podcasts to what will be this Grossman series. I can't wait to see what I will learn from those.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
What's Next -Now That Everything's Changed?
This blog began over a year and a half ago as what I now realize was an attempt to live through despair.
Then by April of this year I had made progress. -I had figured out that although sadness about environmental issues was what bothered me most, the political climate was more important in the short term, because if it remained hopeless then the chances for a compassionate response to the environmental crises I foresee are very bleak.
Of course the bizarre events of my rapidly-changing personal life then distracted me with a climax in September when I thought I had terminal bladder cancer and was preparing for the end of my life.
I still am amazed at how that situation suddenly vanished and was replaced by better health than I've had since I was sixteen! Maybe the lack of stress from having no money worries and also being newly retired just suddenly kicked in. Or maybe it was some kind of a miracle as some of my friends have hinted.
For this discussion the weird thing was the timing -I suddenly felt healthy and strong exactly when hope appeared for the problem I had just identified in April -the seeming inability or unwillingness of Americans and others to confront the corrupt political situation.
On September 17th in New York City the Occupy Wall Street movement began. I immediately recognized it as real and viable, because it had all the elements so lacking between 1996 and 2002 when I considered myself a local environmental and pro-urban activist.
Then in early October it had spread to Dayton, and I was immediately involved, and immediately impressed, as the last post, from October 6th makes clear.
Now it's been over two months since then, and although I'm in Florida and not involved in person again until Spring, I'm just as pleased about the Occupy Movement as when I first joined it.
We are at a point now where just about all of our Occupy cities have experienced at least one crisis, several for some cities, such as Dayton. We are evaluating these events collectively and as individual thinkers. We are also contemplating all the other lesser successes and failures we've seen, asking ourselves what they mean and what they teach.
As I do that personally, just like every other individual in Occupy Dayton, the question is "What next?" -for me, for the movement, and for me as part of the movement.
I choose to grapple with that question here -because writing is how I like to sort things out.
First, now that hope has returned, I want to ask myself what I would most love to see in the years just ahead. Then, what happens next makes more sense because it will ideally be toward that longer-term goal.
What I would most love would be to see the neighborhoods in Dayton deeply focused on self-reliance and social health and to be a designer and instructor of renewable energy implementations there, exchanging this for the food, health, management, and other talents of the rest of the people.
In 2002 though I abandoned activism toward such a vision because everything I did was undercut and negated by the political system and yet the public did not want to fix that system.
Now that a large portion of us finally do, I can revive that dream.
But getting back to NOW, how long will it take before the will to fix things finally leads to a system that will not undercut and negate individual work toward dreams such as mine? And, even though current Occupy work is not as fulfilling as my "dream job" of being a renewable energy designer and instructor, will I stay involved in that work anyway for as long as it takes because it will make my dream job possible if it succeeds?
I cannot know these answers now. I can only be optimistic.
But I DO have concrete ideas about what Occupy should begin focusing on next to be most effective and thus make the time we all must spend directly on politics instead of our dream roles in a better society as short as possible.
I first think we need to take over the hollow and ineffective Democratic party from the individual precinct level on up. I became convinced that this is a practical and possibly brilliant strategy by hearing Thom Hartmann argue for it on his radio show frequently in the past few years.
Secondly, I think we should focus a lot on efforts to undue Citizen's United, and to amend our constitution to clearly state that corporations are NOT people and that money is NOT speech.
I see the emphasis now by my fellow Occupy activists on keeping exposure of the widening wealth disparities and on the continued mishandling of foreclosures as healthy and worthwhile. These issues lead more and more people every day to ask WHY they came about. This outrage will make more and more people in the coming months want fundamental change. Then the two ideas I just gave for starting that change will be ready to move ahead. I think we are on the right track. Direct action still is the name of the game here in mid-December. All of our cities are watching each other for ideas now. This is good and I feel good about it!
Then by April of this year I had made progress. -I had figured out that although sadness about environmental issues was what bothered me most, the political climate was more important in the short term, because if it remained hopeless then the chances for a compassionate response to the environmental crises I foresee are very bleak.
Of course the bizarre events of my rapidly-changing personal life then distracted me with a climax in September when I thought I had terminal bladder cancer and was preparing for the end of my life.
I still am amazed at how that situation suddenly vanished and was replaced by better health than I've had since I was sixteen! Maybe the lack of stress from having no money worries and also being newly retired just suddenly kicked in. Or maybe it was some kind of a miracle as some of my friends have hinted.
For this discussion the weird thing was the timing -I suddenly felt healthy and strong exactly when hope appeared for the problem I had just identified in April -the seeming inability or unwillingness of Americans and others to confront the corrupt political situation.
On September 17th in New York City the Occupy Wall Street movement began. I immediately recognized it as real and viable, because it had all the elements so lacking between 1996 and 2002 when I considered myself a local environmental and pro-urban activist.
Then in early October it had spread to Dayton, and I was immediately involved, and immediately impressed, as the last post, from October 6th makes clear.
Now it's been over two months since then, and although I'm in Florida and not involved in person again until Spring, I'm just as pleased about the Occupy Movement as when I first joined it.
We are at a point now where just about all of our Occupy cities have experienced at least one crisis, several for some cities, such as Dayton. We are evaluating these events collectively and as individual thinkers. We are also contemplating all the other lesser successes and failures we've seen, asking ourselves what they mean and what they teach.
As I do that personally, just like every other individual in Occupy Dayton, the question is "What next?" -for me, for the movement, and for me as part of the movement.
I choose to grapple with that question here -because writing is how I like to sort things out.
First, now that hope has returned, I want to ask myself what I would most love to see in the years just ahead. Then, what happens next makes more sense because it will ideally be toward that longer-term goal.
What I would most love would be to see the neighborhoods in Dayton deeply focused on self-reliance and social health and to be a designer and instructor of renewable energy implementations there, exchanging this for the food, health, management, and other talents of the rest of the people.
In 2002 though I abandoned activism toward such a vision because everything I did was undercut and negated by the political system and yet the public did not want to fix that system.
Now that a large portion of us finally do, I can revive that dream.
But getting back to NOW, how long will it take before the will to fix things finally leads to a system that will not undercut and negate individual work toward dreams such as mine? And, even though current Occupy work is not as fulfilling as my "dream job" of being a renewable energy designer and instructor, will I stay involved in that work anyway for as long as it takes because it will make my dream job possible if it succeeds?
I cannot know these answers now. I can only be optimistic.
But I DO have concrete ideas about what Occupy should begin focusing on next to be most effective and thus make the time we all must spend directly on politics instead of our dream roles in a better society as short as possible.
I first think we need to take over the hollow and ineffective Democratic party from the individual precinct level on up. I became convinced that this is a practical and possibly brilliant strategy by hearing Thom Hartmann argue for it on his radio show frequently in the past few years.
Secondly, I think we should focus a lot on efforts to undue Citizen's United, and to amend our constitution to clearly state that corporations are NOT people and that money is NOT speech.
I see the emphasis now by my fellow Occupy activists on keeping exposure of the widening wealth disparities and on the continued mishandling of foreclosures as healthy and worthwhile. These issues lead more and more people every day to ask WHY they came about. This outrage will make more and more people in the coming months want fundamental change. Then the two ideas I just gave for starting that change will be ready to move ahead. I think we are on the right track. Direct action still is the name of the game here in mid-December. All of our cities are watching each other for ideas now. This is good and I feel good about it!
Thursday, October 6, 2011
I've joined in, hoping this is the revolt I've been waiting for
Yesterday, Tuesday October 5th, I joined about sixty-five other Daytonians in a demonstration downtown, Occupy Dayton. In just three days, Occupy Dayton grew from just four people. It appears also to be growing tremendously now as we plan our next gatherings Friday night and Saturday.
By the time I walked back home yesterday to get some rest, I knew this is exactly what I've been waiting for. I knew this is what should have happened exactly three years ago, when there were only FIVE OF US FROM THE WHOLE STATE OF OHIO to protest the bank bailout a few days before it happened.
I have changed since then. EVERYTHING has changed since then. -We were still hoping then that the 2008 elections might change things. Instead America and Ohio are even more corrupt. And then in 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court poured gasoline and lit a match to what was left of fairness in our political system with their Citizen's United ruling.
I'm hearing that the corporate-owned "news" media as usual is clueless about what has begun. Since I abandoned them many years ago I can only imagine the contempt they have for me and the others. -They helped create the mess that this country has become and the managers of those media outlets know it. They know we are criticizing them even if we don't single them out.
My life, as chaotic as it has already been in recent years, probably took yet another major turn yesterday. I will need to keep reminding myself that my family and friends are more important. But I've been waiting many years for the strangers all around me to get fed up and finally come together. When I actually saw them do that this week I thought it was just a fantastic dream that I would wake up from. But it is real and I am now a part of it.
By the time I walked back home yesterday to get some rest, I knew this is exactly what I've been waiting for. I knew this is what should have happened exactly three years ago, when there were only FIVE OF US FROM THE WHOLE STATE OF OHIO to protest the bank bailout a few days before it happened.
I have changed since then. EVERYTHING has changed since then. -We were still hoping then that the 2008 elections might change things. Instead America and Ohio are even more corrupt. And then in 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court poured gasoline and lit a match to what was left of fairness in our political system with their Citizen's United ruling.
I'm hearing that the corporate-owned "news" media as usual is clueless about what has begun. Since I abandoned them many years ago I can only imagine the contempt they have for me and the others. -They helped create the mess that this country has become and the managers of those media outlets know it. They know we are criticizing them even if we don't single them out.
My life, as chaotic as it has already been in recent years, probably took yet another major turn yesterday. I will need to keep reminding myself that my family and friends are more important. But I've been waiting many years for the strangers all around me to get fed up and finally come together. When I actually saw them do that this week I thought it was just a fantastic dream that I would wake up from. But it is real and I am now a part of it.
Friday, September 30, 2011
the good news, and the guest post below
The health situation that became a big deal and for which I made a separate page has resolved in a good way. If my luck continues all of this will just be an important memory a few months from now.
But I have learned so much that I never knew before. Just one major example is that I now know what it feels like to think I probably have cancer. That is why I was interested in David Haas' blog about coping with cancer after he contacted me. I was also happy to publish a guest post he wrote that is so relevant to others who are going through what I just experienced, especially those without the good news I just got a week ago.
David's post is directly below...
But I have learned so much that I never knew before. Just one major example is that I now know what it feels like to think I probably have cancer. That is why I was interested in David Haas' blog about coping with cancer after he contacted me. I was also happy to publish a guest post he wrote that is so relevant to others who are going through what I just experienced, especially those without the good news I just got a week ago.
David's post is directly below...
Support and Love After a Cancer Diagnosis
Guest post by David Haas
Receiving a cancer diagnosis from a doctor can be very scary, especially if you don't personally know anyone who has gone through treatment for cancer. Many hospitals with cancer centers have their own network of support groups for cancer patients and their families. Feel free to ask your doctor or nurse about support groups if they don't volunteer this information. If you cannot find a local group whose meetings fit into your schedule it is a good idea to find an online cancer support group so that you can ask questions and read posts written by people who have gone through the same types of treatments that you will be experiencing.
Local support groups are great for people with cancer and their families because they usually meet several times each month and allow for the opportunity to become closely connected to those going through the same struggle. They may also be helpful because you can ask specific questions about a local doctor from those who have dealt with the doctor or swap advice about the little things that keep you going. Many long-term friendships have been established by people who have gone through the same experience side by side.
Some people would rather not attend physical meetings and are more comfortable sharing their feelings behind a computer screen. Writing an anonymous blog is a good way to record your feelings and thoughts throughout your cancer treatment honestly, without feeling like you're being judged. One benefit of online cancer support groups is that you can often find a group that consists only of people who have been diagnosed with a certain type of cancer. Specific groups range from common cancers like breast cancer all the way to aggressive cancers such as mesothelioma. Targeted information about different tests, symptoms, and treatment options for cancer patients with a specific type of cancer is often more helpful than a group that was created to support people who have received any type of cancer diagnosis.
The National Cancer Institute recognizes that people who receive a cancer diagnosis may respond in a variety of ways and their feelings are likely to change by the hour or even by the minute. Stress, depression, fear, anxiety, anger, sadness, denial, guilt, and loneliness are emotions that are commonly experienced by patients shortly after diagnosis. Leaning on a group of people who have been through similar circumstances is important because they will help you understand that your feelings are normal and you can ask them questions that you don't feel comfortable asking your doctor.
Receiving a cancer diagnosis from a doctor can be very scary, especially if you don't personally know anyone who has gone through treatment for cancer. Many hospitals with cancer centers have their own network of support groups for cancer patients and their families. Feel free to ask your doctor or nurse about support groups if they don't volunteer this information. If you cannot find a local group whose meetings fit into your schedule it is a good idea to find an online cancer support group so that you can ask questions and read posts written by people who have gone through the same types of treatments that you will be experiencing.
Local support groups are great for people with cancer and their families because they usually meet several times each month and allow for the opportunity to become closely connected to those going through the same struggle. They may also be helpful because you can ask specific questions about a local doctor from those who have dealt with the doctor or swap advice about the little things that keep you going. Many long-term friendships have been established by people who have gone through the same experience side by side.
Some people would rather not attend physical meetings and are more comfortable sharing their feelings behind a computer screen. Writing an anonymous blog is a good way to record your feelings and thoughts throughout your cancer treatment honestly, without feeling like you're being judged. One benefit of online cancer support groups is that you can often find a group that consists only of people who have been diagnosed with a certain type of cancer. Specific groups range from common cancers like breast cancer all the way to aggressive cancers such as mesothelioma. Targeted information about different tests, symptoms, and treatment options for cancer patients with a specific type of cancer is often more helpful than a group that was created to support people who have received any type of cancer diagnosis.
The National Cancer Institute recognizes that people who receive a cancer diagnosis may respond in a variety of ways and their feelings are likely to change by the hour or even by the minute. Stress, depression, fear, anxiety, anger, sadness, denial, guilt, and loneliness are emotions that are commonly experienced by patients shortly after diagnosis. Leaning on a group of people who have been through similar circumstances is important because they will help you understand that your feelings are normal and you can ask them questions that you don't feel comfortable asking your doctor.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
a new page for latest on health
I just created a new page off to the side. I will update it whenever there is more news about the bladder problem that has become a big issue for me:
latest on bladder situation
latest on bladder situation
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Cancer
I need to vent somewhere or I will not sleep all night. If I were married I'd just talk and talk right now until I could sort this out better. Instead I will write rather than talk and I will do it here instead of on paper because others need to know what is happening and what I've learned today and figured out. It is relevant to more people than just me.
A spot was found inside my bladder today. I asked the doctor how big it was. He said about the size of a thumbnail. He showed it to me in one of the pictures taken during the brief "cystoscopy". The spot was just one shade of pink against the background that was also pink. But I was still very frightened almost to the point of being faint and I also knew he was doing other exams right after mine, so I froze up rather than ask other questions. He seemed to act like it was not the time for them yet anyway, and instead he emphasized that I should do a hospital inpatient procedure ASAP to get a sample of the spot for analysis. He said his nurse would call me about this.
This hasn't happened yet, which is fine actually, because it gives me time to learn a few more things and think about what I already found out.
The first shocks after I got home were learning these facts from bladder cancer websites, and from the August 2nd Diane Rehm bladder cancer show my sister told me about:
--90 percent of bladder lesions or tumors are cancerous. That means not only can they grow, but they can also spread to other parts of the body.
--The other 10 percent can sometimes grow just as easily as the cancerous ones, they just don't spread.
--The fact that the spot was not that ugly means nothing. Flat simple spots can sometimes be VERY serious.
--More than any other cancer, bladder cancer points to "environmental factors" as a possible cause (pollutants absorbed by the body years before).
--Cutting out a tumor is much less effective here than with other cancers because "recurrence" is high. This means people who fight bladder cancer have to keep spending money on the surgery year after year.
But here is the "good news" that I've come across:
If this spot turns out to be a less serious stage and grade, it is reasonably possible that just waiting and watching is all I need to do because bladder cancers tend to be relatively slow growing.
For many reasons, I have views that are common sense to me yet are opposite of the way that 99 percent of Americans think about "fighting" cancer. -I have NO interest in "fighting" cancer. I think it is a very natural way to die. Whether I die at 57 or 67 or 97 is totally irrelevant to me especially since the longer I live the more I add to the very environmental problems that probably contributed to this cancer. ( I only fear suffering, not death. )
But, ironically, I don't have to worry about being condemned for this "controversial" stance in the case of bladder cancer. -As I mentioned, it is silly to fight it anyway because it just recurs when it's eliminated.
My last opinion tonight concerns the 1970s toxic accident at the new O'Neil building in Miamisburg that many who work there believe makes the building still dangerous and carcinogenic...
Maybe this is less relevant than I thought, because one of the experts on the Diane Rehm broadcast said the average bladder cancer "latency" for environmental exposure is 20-25 years. However, I only worked in the Miamisburg building in the most recent ten years.
...That's all I have to say tonight at the end of one of the worst days of my life.
A spot was found inside my bladder today. I asked the doctor how big it was. He said about the size of a thumbnail. He showed it to me in one of the pictures taken during the brief "cystoscopy". The spot was just one shade of pink against the background that was also pink. But I was still very frightened almost to the point of being faint and I also knew he was doing other exams right after mine, so I froze up rather than ask other questions. He seemed to act like it was not the time for them yet anyway, and instead he emphasized that I should do a hospital inpatient procedure ASAP to get a sample of the spot for analysis. He said his nurse would call me about this.
This hasn't happened yet, which is fine actually, because it gives me time to learn a few more things and think about what I already found out.
The first shocks after I got home were learning these facts from bladder cancer websites, and from the August 2nd Diane Rehm bladder cancer show my sister told me about:
--90 percent of bladder lesions or tumors are cancerous. That means not only can they grow, but they can also spread to other parts of the body.
--The other 10 percent can sometimes grow just as easily as the cancerous ones, they just don't spread.
--The fact that the spot was not that ugly means nothing. Flat simple spots can sometimes be VERY serious.
--More than any other cancer, bladder cancer points to "environmental factors" as a possible cause (pollutants absorbed by the body years before).
--Cutting out a tumor is much less effective here than with other cancers because "recurrence" is high. This means people who fight bladder cancer have to keep spending money on the surgery year after year.
But here is the "good news" that I've come across:
If this spot turns out to be a less serious stage and grade, it is reasonably possible that just waiting and watching is all I need to do because bladder cancers tend to be relatively slow growing.
For many reasons, I have views that are common sense to me yet are opposite of the way that 99 percent of Americans think about "fighting" cancer. -I have NO interest in "fighting" cancer. I think it is a very natural way to die. Whether I die at 57 or 67 or 97 is totally irrelevant to me especially since the longer I live the more I add to the very environmental problems that probably contributed to this cancer. ( I only fear suffering, not death. )
But, ironically, I don't have to worry about being condemned for this "controversial" stance in the case of bladder cancer. -As I mentioned, it is silly to fight it anyway because it just recurs when it's eliminated.
My last opinion tonight concerns the 1970s toxic accident at the new O'Neil building in Miamisburg that many who work there believe makes the building still dangerous and carcinogenic...
Maybe this is less relevant than I thought, because one of the experts on the Diane Rehm broadcast said the average bladder cancer "latency" for environmental exposure is 20-25 years. However, I only worked in the Miamisburg building in the most recent ten years.
...That's all I have to say tonight at the end of one of the worst days of my life.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Another source of commentary I recommend
As I said, I've become shocked by the escalation of the take-over of American politics by corporations and the wealthy at a time I would have expected at least a pause.
That's why I recommended the lectures of Michael Parenti as background.
Now I am adding another new link to my list, an interview program:
Terrence McNally podcasts
Terrence seems to see things now as I do, especially in regards to our quickeng rush toward even more plutocracy, and this is reflected in his choices of who to interview.
This link will replace The Monthly Review, because I've decided after doing a lot of reading there that Monthly Review is too academic to be as useful as I had thought.
As for Terrence McNally, what makes him better than someone like Diane Rehm in my opinion?
Probably just the fact that he is not on NPR, which I suspect of being somewhat self-censored as I said. There are many good interviews on Diane Rehm. For example, just Tuesday her show interviewed another author outraged at the forces that led to the 2008 collapse. But if Diane Rehm decided to keep this issue on the front burner week after week she would probably be told to stop. Terrence McNally is not restrained in that way.
That's why I recommended the lectures of Michael Parenti as background.
Now I am adding another new link to my list, an interview program:
Terrence McNally podcasts
Terrence seems to see things now as I do, especially in regards to our quickeng rush toward even more plutocracy, and this is reflected in his choices of who to interview.
This link will replace The Monthly Review, because I've decided after doing a lot of reading there that Monthly Review is too academic to be as useful as I had thought.
As for Terrence McNally, what makes him better than someone like Diane Rehm in my opinion?
Probably just the fact that he is not on NPR, which I suspect of being somewhat self-censored as I said. There are many good interviews on Diane Rehm. For example, just Tuesday her show interviewed another author outraged at the forces that led to the 2008 collapse. But if Diane Rehm decided to keep this issue on the front burner week after week she would probably be told to stop. Terrence McNally is not restrained in that way.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Decontextualized News and Limited Discourse -That's It!
For well over a year I've been trying to identify something persistently caught in my subconscious. I've known it is what seems to disturb me most about America now, but I have been unable until yesterday to bring it clearly and fully into consciousness and put it into words.
Thanks to Michael Parenti, who I just mentioned for the first time in the last entry, I now understand:
The "decontextualization of news" and the "limits of discourse" are the names for what has been troubling me.
Mister Parenti has been talking about these and related manipulations of the public for years but it's all new to me because I only listened to his many lectures on such topics this month.
I want to recommend these lectures especially now to anyone reading this, particularly the last ten minutes of the 2008 lecture, "Contrary Notions", where he describes the decontextualization of news and the limitation of discourse and debate very well.
I don't want to try to summarize the story here of how these now define the media and public discussion in the United States, because listening to the lectures really is necessary for a full understanding.
I am anxious though to express some new thoughts I'm having now that I know someone has been describing what was haunting me.
First, the kind of resonance with me of Michael Parenti's analyses is something I haven't felt for fifteen years. -The last time I had this sense of relief when I learned that what was bugging me was being articulated was when I read James Kunstler's "Geography of Nowhere" in 1996.
Then it was a realization that America's landscape was driving me crazy; now it's the realization that public dialogue and media have been doing so.
Secondly, it's now clear to me why I dislike the news programs on NPR and public TV as much as those on commercial networks -because the decontextualization of reporting and limitations of debate are just as pervasive.
The only difference is that these are intentional in the case of the corporate media but are induced by fear in the case of NPR and PBS. We just witnessed this fear again since the House of Representatives was once more taken over by right wing members who immediately began threatening public broadcasting.
Thirdly, I want to emphasize, as Parenti does, that decontextualization of news and limitation of discourse are expressions of power, not accidents or coincidences.
Finally, America reminds me of an abusive family. We always hear stories of how silence is imposed as part of the abuse. For example, if a child reports molestation to her brother, she will be beaten. In the family that is America, if a reporter begins to give the full context of his stories, he will be fired, if a debater on a broadcast begins to overstep the boundaries set by the outlet, he will be cut off.
Thanks to Michael Parenti, who I just mentioned for the first time in the last entry, I now understand:
The "decontextualization of news" and the "limits of discourse" are the names for what has been troubling me.
Mister Parenti has been talking about these and related manipulations of the public for years but it's all new to me because I only listened to his many lectures on such topics this month.
I want to recommend these lectures especially now to anyone reading this, particularly the last ten minutes of the 2008 lecture, "Contrary Notions", where he describes the decontextualization of news and the limitation of discourse and debate very well.
I don't want to try to summarize the story here of how these now define the media and public discussion in the United States, because listening to the lectures really is necessary for a full understanding.
I am anxious though to express some new thoughts I'm having now that I know someone has been describing what was haunting me.
First, the kind of resonance with me of Michael Parenti's analyses is something I haven't felt for fifteen years. -The last time I had this sense of relief when I learned that what was bugging me was being articulated was when I read James Kunstler's "Geography of Nowhere" in 1996.
Then it was a realization that America's landscape was driving me crazy; now it's the realization that public dialogue and media have been doing so.
Secondly, it's now clear to me why I dislike the news programs on NPR and public TV as much as those on commercial networks -because the decontextualization of reporting and limitations of debate are just as pervasive.
The only difference is that these are intentional in the case of the corporate media but are induced by fear in the case of NPR and PBS. We just witnessed this fear again since the House of Representatives was once more taken over by right wing members who immediately began threatening public broadcasting.
Thirdly, I want to emphasize, as Parenti does, that decontextualization of news and limitation of discourse are expressions of power, not accidents or coincidences.
Finally, America reminds me of an abusive family. We always hear stories of how silence is imposed as part of the abuse. For example, if a child reports molestation to her brother, she will be beaten. In the family that is America, if a reporter begins to give the full context of his stories, he will be fired, if a debater on a broadcast begins to overstep the boundaries set by the outlet, he will be cut off.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
new view of the political crisis
I still see the future as an array of inter-related collapses which have all begun. Climate and environmental harm are the most important in terms of creatures affected over time. Then, for humans, peak oil is the next most serious issue.
Then I've tended to see economic and political collapse as the next most important.
The political is very important though because it is what those of us who want to help make the future better will be up against.
But, since almost a year ago, I've gradually realized I have never fully understood what has been happening to politics in the US.
I thought the biggest factor driving the cultural and political decline was simple mass ignorance, worsened by hyper-consumerism.
But events have not unfolded in the way I expected since 2008, the year the financial collapse I long anticipated happened.
The complete lack of reform of the injustices that caused the meltdown have shocked and horrified me.
So has the amazing spectacle of what Obama turned out to be -a corporatist and oligarch even worse than Bush!
And then came Citizens United last year!
...All of these, and many other signals are pointing to much more than just ignorance and distraction of the population. Instead they are exposing a much more aggressive agenda of those with lobbying and campaign power and wealth than I ever would have imagined before 2008.
I now realize the most cynical on the left have always beeen right for my whole lifetime and we have now begun to live their ultimate nightmare!
Ralph Nader, Naom Chomsky, Amy Goodman, and all the voices of the radical left since before the sixties foretold all this, but I never took them as seriously as I should have.
So, where am I going now?
Well, I am beginning to learn the names of more of these people, and to study what they have written over the many years. Since they foretold what is happening, I hope they can maybe predict or at least hint at what all the next stages are going to be.
I have just made two new links to my starting points for this new self-education:
First, here are many online lectures from Michael Parenti available courtesy of the excellent website TUC Radio: "Michael Parenti is among the nation's best informed progressive speakers. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Yale University in 1962 and has taught at colleges in the US and abroad. He lectures around the country and discusses the problems of American democracy, US foreign policy, and the invented reality of the media.":
Michael Parenti Archive
Then there are the hundreds of articles available online from "The Monthly Review -An Independent Socialist Magazine", which has been published since 1949:
The Monthly Review -archives
I've just begun to read and listen to articles on these sites but maybe in the future I can point out here ones I especially found informative.
Then I've tended to see economic and political collapse as the next most important.
The political is very important though because it is what those of us who want to help make the future better will be up against.
But, since almost a year ago, I've gradually realized I have never fully understood what has been happening to politics in the US.
I thought the biggest factor driving the cultural and political decline was simple mass ignorance, worsened by hyper-consumerism.
But events have not unfolded in the way I expected since 2008, the year the financial collapse I long anticipated happened.
The complete lack of reform of the injustices that caused the meltdown have shocked and horrified me.
So has the amazing spectacle of what Obama turned out to be -a corporatist and oligarch even worse than Bush!
And then came Citizens United last year!
...All of these, and many other signals are pointing to much more than just ignorance and distraction of the population. Instead they are exposing a much more aggressive agenda of those with lobbying and campaign power and wealth than I ever would have imagined before 2008.
I now realize the most cynical on the left have always beeen right for my whole lifetime and we have now begun to live their ultimate nightmare!
Ralph Nader, Naom Chomsky, Amy Goodman, and all the voices of the radical left since before the sixties foretold all this, but I never took them as seriously as I should have.
So, where am I going now?
Well, I am beginning to learn the names of more of these people, and to study what they have written over the many years. Since they foretold what is happening, I hope they can maybe predict or at least hint at what all the next stages are going to be.
I have just made two new links to my starting points for this new self-education:
First, here are many online lectures from Michael Parenti available courtesy of the excellent website TUC Radio: "Michael Parenti is among the nation's best informed progressive speakers. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Yale University in 1962 and has taught at colleges in the US and abroad. He lectures around the country and discusses the problems of American democracy, US foreign policy, and the invented reality of the media.":
Michael Parenti Archive
Then there are the hundreds of articles available online from "The Monthly Review -An Independent Socialist Magazine", which has been published since 1949:
The Monthly Review -archives
I've just begun to read and listen to articles on these sites but maybe in the future I can point out here ones I especially found informative.
This journal is now revived
...and not called a "blog" anymore by me, and with a new subtitle, "Thoughts and Ideas" rather than "Thoughts and Essays".
"Blog" and "essay" imply commentary by someone with insight. In the past year I have realized I only have well-developed insight regarding a few things. For many others, I am still probing for deeper understanding and am not at all confident I "have it figured out".
Otherwise, the goals and introductions from when I began in early 2010 are still correct and relevant.
I think I will now call this my "thought journal" and the other my "life journal".
"Blog" and "essay" imply commentary by someone with insight. In the past year I have realized I only have well-developed insight regarding a few things. For many others, I am still probing for deeper understanding and am not at all confident I "have it figured out".
Otherwise, the goals and introductions from when I began in early 2010 are still correct and relevant.
I think I will now call this my "thought journal" and the other my "life journal".
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
I survived and am doing well
I am thinking about posibly reviving this blog because I have been doing well again.
Whether I revive it or not, I need to refer to my journal now:
http://mikemonett.livejournal.com .
Unlike this blog, I've been updating my journal since I first got back on my feet, and will continue to add to it even if this blog remains dormant.
Hopefully it won't remain dormant. We will see.
Whether I revive it or not, I need to refer to my journal now:
http://mikemonett.livejournal.com .
Unlike this blog, I've been updating my journal since I first got back on my feet, and will continue to add to it even if this blog remains dormant.
Hopefully it won't remain dormant. We will see.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
my life as I have known it is over
This message will be posted on both the new blog that I tried to start in 2010 and on the journal I started in late 2006.
If things stabilize back to some kind of a norm again someday I may reactivate these.
--------------------------
I have been stricken by a black swan event or a rogue wave. It has cascaded into a meltdown of my life.
Here is what happened, starting from the beginning:
It had been becoming unbearable for me to live in my condo anyway since early 2009 because I have been unable to restore the financial health of the treasury, in spite of extreme stress and sacrifice of huge amounts of my spare time. There are fifteen units here, in a building that needs lots of care because of it's age. Too many owners have not been paying their condo fees and although I put a huge dent in that problem, it has not been enough.
Unless ALL the remaining delinquent owners pay ALL that they owe NOW, there will be NO heat in this building in the coming winter.
I am going to call all the owners together for an emergency meeting, make this fact clear, then resign from the treasury and announce that I can't continue to try to solve these problems because I can't live here anymore anyway and am ready to give my condo away for $1 and just write off the $17,000 I paid for it in 2007.
This is just the backdrop for the natural disaster that struck like a rogue wave...
I am referring to something I never heard of until last year known as "bed bugs".
These have exploded into a frightening epidemic and are making whole buildings permanantly uninhabitable in Dayton and other cities.
Not only did we need to mobilize several weeks ago to make sure we don't have these infecting our building, but I had to take extra precautions because my employer wants NO chance that even one of these bugs could infect our workplace via my clothing or cell phone or any other way.
This is an extremely tall order, so as of last week, at a cost of many thousands of dollars of my savings, my condo has been gutted to make sure none of these are in the walls or floors, and it has been treated heavily with strong chemicals. I have been told that my condo and my car must be inspected every two weeks for a year, and there is no guarantee that it won't be gutted further.
I do not know if I really still have a job after being there over 20 years, or if I do, when I will return to it.
I will never feel secure there again because if a bug is found in my condo during any of the inspections twice each month I will be quarantined away from my workplace indefinitely again.
The insurance company threatened to cancel the policy on the condo building if the 5-car garage roof was not replaced immediately. Just by luck, this was just finished yesterday (but I had to lend money to the condo treasury from my savings to pay the roofer). This means I have a place to hide without going 30 miles out to Camden where I own my own garage. A week ago the roof in this 5-car garage leaked like a sieve so the whole structure was permanantly soaking wet. Now, it is dry and I've scrubbed and swept a part of the building and have been sleeping here on a lawn chair and feeding the cat in here. If I need something I go up the balcony four stories and get it from my trashed condo.
This can't continue very long. The neighbors will be getting uneasy if I try to stay here for long. Some of them don't like me anyway since I have been harassing them for their condo fees for a year and a half.
----------------------
I am doing OK because it is Summer when I never have problems with depression.
However, I am having those PTSD-type episodes where I have "dread waves" that sweep over me, especially in the middle of the night. But luckily they subside quickly enough and then I just calmly try to plan my next step to get through all this and my moods stay calm. I am getting help, but this too is depleting the savings I worked so hard for.
I am only feeling sick from the chemicals when I get really hot from the July weather. But when I go to the bathroom, my liver or kidneys get activated and that stuff pours out of them and I feel nauseous and have a horrible taste in my mouth for about two hours.
---------------------
I don't think anybody but my Dad still read these journals, but I told him all of this on Sunday so I am not worried about shocking him. If anybody else is reading this, I love you very much, and wherever I have to go to try to re-build my life, I will start a journal up again if I can.
If things stabilize back to some kind of a norm again someday I may reactivate these.
--------------------------
I have been stricken by a black swan event or a rogue wave. It has cascaded into a meltdown of my life.
Here is what happened, starting from the beginning:
It had been becoming unbearable for me to live in my condo anyway since early 2009 because I have been unable to restore the financial health of the treasury, in spite of extreme stress and sacrifice of huge amounts of my spare time. There are fifteen units here, in a building that needs lots of care because of it's age. Too many owners have not been paying their condo fees and although I put a huge dent in that problem, it has not been enough.
Unless ALL the remaining delinquent owners pay ALL that they owe NOW, there will be NO heat in this building in the coming winter.
I am going to call all the owners together for an emergency meeting, make this fact clear, then resign from the treasury and announce that I can't continue to try to solve these problems because I can't live here anymore anyway and am ready to give my condo away for $1 and just write off the $17,000 I paid for it in 2007.
This is just the backdrop for the natural disaster that struck like a rogue wave...
I am referring to something I never heard of until last year known as "bed bugs".
These have exploded into a frightening epidemic and are making whole buildings permanantly uninhabitable in Dayton and other cities.
Not only did we need to mobilize several weeks ago to make sure we don't have these infecting our building, but I had to take extra precautions because my employer wants NO chance that even one of these bugs could infect our workplace via my clothing or cell phone or any other way.
This is an extremely tall order, so as of last week, at a cost of many thousands of dollars of my savings, my condo has been gutted to make sure none of these are in the walls or floors, and it has been treated heavily with strong chemicals. I have been told that my condo and my car must be inspected every two weeks for a year, and there is no guarantee that it won't be gutted further.
I do not know if I really still have a job after being there over 20 years, or if I do, when I will return to it.
I will never feel secure there again because if a bug is found in my condo during any of the inspections twice each month I will be quarantined away from my workplace indefinitely again.
The insurance company threatened to cancel the policy on the condo building if the 5-car garage roof was not replaced immediately. Just by luck, this was just finished yesterday (but I had to lend money to the condo treasury from my savings to pay the roofer). This means I have a place to hide without going 30 miles out to Camden where I own my own garage. A week ago the roof in this 5-car garage leaked like a sieve so the whole structure was permanantly soaking wet. Now, it is dry and I've scrubbed and swept a part of the building and have been sleeping here on a lawn chair and feeding the cat in here. If I need something I go up the balcony four stories and get it from my trashed condo.
This can't continue very long. The neighbors will be getting uneasy if I try to stay here for long. Some of them don't like me anyway since I have been harassing them for their condo fees for a year and a half.
----------------------
I am doing OK because it is Summer when I never have problems with depression.
However, I am having those PTSD-type episodes where I have "dread waves" that sweep over me, especially in the middle of the night. But luckily they subside quickly enough and then I just calmly try to plan my next step to get through all this and my moods stay calm. I am getting help, but this too is depleting the savings I worked so hard for.
I am only feeling sick from the chemicals when I get really hot from the July weather. But when I go to the bathroom, my liver or kidneys get activated and that stuff pours out of them and I feel nauseous and have a horrible taste in my mouth for about two hours.
---------------------
I don't think anybody but my Dad still read these journals, but I told him all of this on Sunday so I am not worried about shocking him. If anybody else is reading this, I love you very much, and wherever I have to go to try to re-build my life, I will start a journal up again if I can.
Friday, June 25, 2010
great book (so far) I'm reading
As I've said recently, I'm out and active too much lately to be in the mood for writing, but I have been reading, and here is the latest new book that I have started:
So far, I am very impressed with its ideas and arguments.
Here is more about the book:
The Empathic Civilization - Jeremy Rifkin
So far, I am very impressed with its ideas and arguments.
Here is more about the book:
The Empathic Civilization - Jeremy Rifkin
Friday, June 11, 2010
summer is just not my time for writing
Of course I become more and more emotional every day about the Deepwater Horizon disaster which will be ongoing all summer.
But I don't really have anything to say about it here yet beyond frustration.
Meanwhile, I have been outside constantly doing summer things, since it has been so nice since March 1st.
So my journal is where I've been posting, not here.
I still want to write an article about what bothers me about the style of news reporting now and recently.
But I am still organizing my thoughts about this, so even if I were in the mood to write here instead of be playing outside constantly, I'm not ready to anyway.
But I don't really have anything to say about it here yet beyond frustration.
Meanwhile, I have been outside constantly doing summer things, since it has been so nice since March 1st.
So my journal is where I've been posting, not here.
I still want to write an article about what bothers me about the style of news reporting now and recently.
But I am still organizing my thoughts about this, so even if I were in the mood to write here instead of be playing outside constantly, I'm not ready to anyway.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
checking in again during busy outdoor time
As I said, I will "check in" here when I am too wrapped up in outdoor pursuits to write about what's been on my mind.
Since the last post, Kathy McMahon added my bio to her blog and I thanked her for that.
Meanwhile, the big story for me and everyone else has been the continuing flow of oil from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, and now it's arrival onto the marshes and beaches below where I camp in the wintertime, and where I was planning to go every winter for the rest of my life.
Will everything be dead down there from now on, in terms of both nature and also people in boats and shoreline activities?
This thought keeps going through my mind.
Being out enjoying Spring in Ohio is helpful because it keeps me from obsessing about this now, when it is too early to know.
Since the last post, Kathy McMahon added my bio to her blog and I thanked her for that.
Meanwhile, the big story for me and everyone else has been the continuing flow of oil from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, and now it's arrival onto the marshes and beaches below where I camp in the wintertime, and where I was planning to go every winter for the rest of my life.
Will everything be dead down there from now on, in terms of both nature and also people in boats and shoreline activities?
This thought keeps going through my mind.
Being out enjoying Spring in Ohio is helpful because it keeps me from obsessing about this now, when it is too early to know.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
stopping the oil leaking -depressing news from yesterday
I don't have time to write much here this Sunday morning because I am going to get out and enjoy another nice May day.
I need to, because I found out the box that was tried yesterday to funnel the Gulf of Mexico oil leak up to a boat has not worked, and this is very depressing to learn.
----------------
I want to start writing an article about the news and how we receive it, because that has been on my mind a lot in the last few years, and because I have some ideas about this that I don't think anyone else has expressed.
Because I do so many other things, it may take me awhile to finish this.
But I will stay in touch here as I said before, to record some of my thoughts even if the main ideas I am working on aren't done yet.
I need to, because I found out the box that was tried yesterday to funnel the Gulf of Mexico oil leak up to a boat has not worked, and this is very depressing to learn.
----------------
I want to start writing an article about the news and how we receive it, because that has been on my mind a lot in the last few years, and because I have some ideas about this that I don't think anyone else has expressed.
Because I do so many other things, it may take me awhile to finish this.
But I will stay in touch here as I said before, to record some of my thoughts even if the main ideas I am working on aren't done yet.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
a black volcano in the sea floor, and, my bio now published
In my last post, on the Fortieth Earth Day, I said I had finished my bio for this website.
It is now published as a SPECIAL PAGE to the right, The Endangered Planet and Me -a short biography.
I have also sent it to Kathy McMahon at Peak Oil Blues, asking if she will kindly add it, edited as she sees fit, to her archive of letters and stories about psychologically dealing with collapse.
I have also added a new permanant link to Peak Oil Blues, starting with that story page.
Be sure to check out the full blog by clicking HOME in the upper left.
I finished my bio on April 19th.
The next day, the Deepwater Horizon platform exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, just southeast of New Orleans.
For several reasons, I did not realize how serious this was until last week.
Ironically, one of the reasons was because I was busy studying the feasibility of spending every winter once I reach sixty in a solar-powered boat exploring the Gulf Coast.
If you read my online journal, you will learn that since even before Katrina I have been interested in Louisiana, and have been camping there every winter since 2006.
Now, continuing the theme that caused me to start this blog, another major environmental event is weighing heavily on me in a personal way.
But this is as big or bigger than Katrina, and it will probably change history.
I now have figured out that so much of the irony that seems to permeate these events comes directly from the mainstream denial of the context surrounding them until they happen. (What seem like bizarre coincidences are not, but are instead warnings that were there all along but were not noticed and reported until the disaster.)
Just one example in this case is the amazing blog, Sky Truth by John Amos.
Last August through November, Sky Truth was reporting about a similar rig explosion off the coast of Australia, which now seems minor compared to the nightmare now happening in the Gulf of Mexico.
And it was also reporting about a minor spill in Louisiana in early April, and just a few days before the Deepwater Horizon fire, it was talking about the folly and danger of plans to expand offshore drilling to the rest of the Gulf and to the East Coast.
People like me who follow such blogs regularly know these are not coincidences.
Warnings only seem like coincidences to people who ignore them until they come true.
It is now published as a SPECIAL PAGE to the right, The Endangered Planet and Me -a short biography.
I have also sent it to Kathy McMahon at Peak Oil Blues, asking if she will kindly add it, edited as she sees fit, to her archive of letters and stories about psychologically dealing with collapse.
I have also added a new permanant link to Peak Oil Blues, starting with that story page.
Be sure to check out the full blog by clicking HOME in the upper left.
I finished my bio on April 19th.
The next day, the Deepwater Horizon platform exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, just southeast of New Orleans.
For several reasons, I did not realize how serious this was until last week.
Ironically, one of the reasons was because I was busy studying the feasibility of spending every winter once I reach sixty in a solar-powered boat exploring the Gulf Coast.
If you read my online journal, you will learn that since even before Katrina I have been interested in Louisiana, and have been camping there every winter since 2006.
Now, continuing the theme that caused me to start this blog, another major environmental event is weighing heavily on me in a personal way.
But this is as big or bigger than Katrina, and it will probably change history.
I now have figured out that so much of the irony that seems to permeate these events comes directly from the mainstream denial of the context surrounding them until they happen. (What seem like bizarre coincidences are not, but are instead warnings that were there all along but were not noticed and reported until the disaster.)
Just one example in this case is the amazing blog, Sky Truth by John Amos.
Last August through November, Sky Truth was reporting about a similar rig explosion off the coast of Australia, which now seems minor compared to the nightmare now happening in the Gulf of Mexico.
And it was also reporting about a minor spill in Louisiana in early April, and just a few days before the Deepwater Horizon fire, it was talking about the folly and danger of plans to expand offshore drilling to the rest of the Gulf and to the East Coast.
People like me who follow such blogs regularly know these are not coincidences.
Warnings only seem like coincidences to people who ignore them until they come true.
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