“Prayer for A Just War: Finding meaning in the climate fight” by Greg Jackson
Thanks to Friend Patricia who shared this Harper’s Magazine essay that calls us all to take part in saving our Earth.
“Al Gore, writing in The New York Times, put it starkly:
‘This [Climate Change] is our generation’s life-or-death challenge. It is Thermopylae, Agincourt, Trafalgar, Lexington and Concord, Dunkirk, Pearl Harbor, the Battle of the Bulge, Midway and Sept. 11.’. . .
Greg Jackson ends his powerful essay with a call to action for all of us. He writes,
“The technical capacity to solve our problems exists; the political will does not. Every month that we delay, the problem gets worse. The longer we drag our feet, the less we stand to gain and the more we impoverish our future selves. The climate crisis is a test we are not guaranteed to pass. Can we change? Can we speak, relate, and think differently? Can we put aside our differences and resist the seductions of cynicism and moralism? Ironically, the instinct behind the tribalism that is tearing our political culture apart is the drive to band together to protect the group. What has been a political liability could become an asset in a fight that requires solidarity–if only we can channel it toward common threats and away from exaggerated symbolic divisions.
A frequent dream of those who have experienced war is to somehow reap its positive benefits without enduring the crucible of so terrible, destructive, and dehumanizing an experience. Since we cannot avoid the climate fight, we should take advantage of the opportunity it presents to restitch the fabric of communal life and fate. Gray, the philosopher, describes the enlarging capacity of war as arising not from power or victory, but from the awareness of being part of something greater than yourself, subject to larger forces, and connected to people and things beyond you:
‘The pervasive sense of wonder satisfies us, because we are assured that we are part of this circling world, not divorced from it, or shut up within the walls of the self and delivered over to the insufficiency of the ego.’
The most profound costs of addressing climate change will not be financial or physical, but personal and social. If we can summon the courage to act, we will discover that these costs are also our most profound rewards. They mark an end to our isolation, alienation, and division. But they ask something of us, something that is difficult because it takes place in private, unrewarded instants: an inner giving, denominated in openness and restraint. We must learn not to covet our power, but mistrust it. Not to lord victory over others, but to show solicitude and modesty in triumph. We must see fortune and success as a responsibility, not a boundless permission to do whatever we please [my emphasis]. We must hold fast to conscience while repulsing moralism. We must extend tolerance beyond the narrow confines of advocacy and favor, and see humor–good humor–as the handmaiden of humility.
When the stakes of failing to collaborate are not tangibly before us, it is difficult to value working together. But now the floodwaters are rising, the fires are drawing near. Waiting is its own risk. Take the small leap of opening your mind, your ears, your heart. Do what is hard because what is hard creates the parts of you that are strong. Speak truth and listen. Listen for the storm approaching. Listen for what people do not say or do not know how to say, but which recalls your own longing, fear, graciousness, and hope. You do not have to believe anything to join this fight–just know that underneath the protective layers of personality every person is authentic. Every human being is real. Every body can be burned by fire, choked by ash, drowned by rising waters, as well as cherished, loved, and kept safe by the will to fight, protect, and survive” (Harpers Magazine, June 2021, p. 56-69).
We don’t have to look very far to see groups that are fighting to save our Earth and its beings.
Greenpeace, U.S.A., for instance, asks us to take a look at some of the amazing marine animals at risk of imminent extinction: http:/lil.ms/l0ig/2ymx0x
At the end of Hamilton, the musical, Eliza, Alexander Hamilton’s wife (who is the reason we know so much about the man — and she also sponsored 100 orphans during her life) asks, “When my time is up will I have done enough?”
We are each needed. What we do is important. What is happening in your own community? Join with others. You will have community, purpose, meaning and likely find hope in this fight to save our Earth and all its beings.
You can read Greg Jackson’s whole essay that includes photographs by Kevin Cooley at http://”Prayer For A Just War: Finding meaning in the climate fight”
Many blessings. Let’s all do what we can do, so together we do enough to save the Earth and its beings for children and grandchildren everywhere and for future generations. Aloha, Renée
Banner photograph: The Bobcat Fire burns in the San Gabriel Mountains above Los Angeles, September 17, 2020. All photographs by Kevin Cooley for Harper’s Magazine © The artist/Redux
Quotation: History
“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again”
- Maya Angelou – “On the Pulse of Morning”
This is true of our own lives. May we all have the courage to make good choices today. Aloha, Renée
Poetry: The Big Picture
I try to look at the big picture.
The sun, ardent tongue
licking us like a mother besotted
with her new cubs, will wear itself out.
Everything is transitory.
Think of the meteor
that annihilated the dinosaurs.
And before that, the volcanoes
of the Permian period–all those burnt ferns
and reptiles, sharks and bony fish —
that was extinction on a scale
that makes our losses look like a bad day at the slots.
And perhaps we’re slated to ascend
to some kind of intelligence
that doesn’t need bodies, or clean water, or even air.
But I can’t shake my longing
for the last six hundred
Iberian lynx with their tufted ears,
Brazilian guitarfish, the 4
percent of them still cruising
the seafloor, eyes staring straight up.
And all the newborn marsupials–
red kangaroos, joeys the size of honeybees —
steelhead trout, river dolphins,
so many species of frogs
breathing through their damp
permeable membranes.
Today on the bus, a woman
in a sweater the exact shade of cardinals,
and her cardinal-colored bra strap, exposed
on her pale shoulder, makes me ache
for those bright flashes in the snow.
And polar bears, the cream and amber
of their fur, the long, hollow
hairs through which sun slips,
swallowed into their dark skin. When I get home,
my son has a headache and, though he’s
almost grown, asks me to sing him a song.
We lie together on the lumpy couch
and I warble out the old show tunes, “Night and Day” . . .
“They Can’t Take That Away from Me.”. . . . A cheap
silver chain shimmers across his throat,
rising and falling with his pulse. There never was
anything else. Only these excruciatingly
insignificant creatures we love.
By Ellen Bass, (The Sun, Issue 566, February 2023, p. 42)
“There never was anything else. Only these excruciatingly insignificant creatures we love.”
Aloha, Renée
Book: “Chemistry” a novel by Welke Wang – Two Marriages
My friend San recommended “Chemistry” to me after I had suggested “Lessons in Chemistry” by Barbara Grams to her. Neither novel has too much to do with chemistry (or I wouldn’t have likely read either). However they both explore what is a good way to live. What matters?
Goodreads describes” the novel “Chemistry” – “At first glance, the quirky, overworked narrator of this novel seems to be on the cusp of a perfect life: she is studying for a prestigious PhD in chemistry that will make her Chinese parents proud (or at least satisfied), and her successful, supportive boyfriend has just proposed to her. But instead of feeling hopeful, she is wracked with ambivalence.”
Wang describes “Two marriages:
Clara and Fritz Harber: Clara finishes a doctorate in chemistry. She is the only woman at her school. She is brilliant but reserved. The first time Fritz proposes, she declines. The second time, she agrees. After they marry, he demands that Clara be a housewife and a mother, while he travels for work. When war breaks out in 1918, he proves his patriotism through the development of a new weapon, something invisible to the human eye and absolutely silent. After finding out about the chlorine gas, Clara shoots herself in the family garden.
Marie and Pierre Curie: Pierre makes several marriage proposals to Marie before she accepts. A commonality then between these women. On her wedding day, she wears a dark blue dress. More practical, she thinks, and afterward, in her dress, goes back to the laboratory with Pierre. The lab is the basement of their home. In three years, they discover polonium and radium. In eight, they are awarded a Nobel. At first the committee will not recognize her (no woman has won before) but Pierre demands it — she is the one who sifted through ten tons of mineral-rich ore to find that tenth of a gram.
It might be that all marriages lie between these to extremes” (210-211).
May your relationships be more like Marie and Pierre’s rather than Clara and Fritz’s.
Aloha, Renée
Book cover from Goodreads: <https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31684925-chemistry>
Poetry: “Photosynthesis”
Photosynthesis
by Ashley M. Jones
When I was young, my father taught us
how dirt made way for food,
how to turn over soil so it would hold a seed,
an infant bud, how the dark could nurse it
until it broke its green arms out to touch the sun.
In every backyard we’ve ever had, he made a little garden plot
with room for heirloom tomatoes, corn, carrots,
peppers: jalapeno, bell, and poblano—
okra, eggplant, lemons, collards, broccoli, pole beans,
watermelon, squash, trees filled with fruit and nuts,
brussels sprouts, herbs: basil, mint, parsley, rosemary—
onions, sweet potatoes, cucumber, cantaloupe, cabbage,
oranges, swiss chard and peaches,
sunflowers tall and straightbacked as soldiers,
lantana, amaryllis, echinacea,
pansies and roses and bushes bubbling with hydrangeas.
Every plant with its purpose,
flowers to bring worms and wasps. How their work matters here.
This is the work we have always known,
pulling food and flowers from a pile of earth.
The difference, now: my father is not a slave,
not a sharecropper. This land is his and so is this garden,
so is this work. The difference is that he owns this labor.
The work of his own hands for his own belly,
for his own children’s bellies. We eat because he works.
This is the legacy of his grandmother, my great-granny—
Ollie Mae Harris and her untouchable flower garden.
Just like her hats, her flowerbeds sprouted something special,
plants and colors the neighbors could only dream of.
He was young when he learned that this beauty is built on work—
the cows and the factories in their stomachs,
the fertilizer they spewed out—
the stink that brought such fragrance. What you call waste,
I call power. What you call work I make beautiful again.
In his garden, even problems become energy, beauty—
my father has ended many work days in the backyard,
worries of the firehouse dropping like grain, my father wrist-deep
in soil. I am convinced the earth speaks back to him
as he feeds it—it is a conversational labor, gardening.
The seeds tell him what they will be, the soil tells seeds how to grow,
my father speaks sun and water into the earth,
we hear him, each harvest, his heartbeat sweet, like fruit.
from REPARATIONS NOW! copyright © 2021 Ashley M. Jones. Used by permission of Hub City Press. From The SlowDown.
Mahalo, Pat, for sharing this poem.
Thought for the Day: Making Money
“Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue. . . .
Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say, Napoleonic times.”
– Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five in Sunbeams, The Sun, Nov. 2022, p. 48.
Too true.
I hear some people say, “People just don’t want to work nowadays.” However, what I see are young people (and some older people) working two jobs so they can pay for rent, food, car . . . And many have to work the two jobs because if their main job is even just under 30 hours a week, the employer doesn’t have to offer health insurance.
And some people want bargains in the form of people doing things for what they might have paid ten years ago – or for free!
They say, “Can Joe come weed wack my yard for me?”
I hear that request as, “He should be grateful. I’ll tip him something and he (and I) won’t have to pay taxes. I don’t want to hire the landscaping company that pays a livable wage and offers medical insurance.”
The United States should have Universal Health Care – and jobs that offer livable wages. Those who have money and power should share. Also let’s welcome immigrants; we need them.
Be well. Be fair. Aloha, Renée
Thought for the Day: Our Brains
How can a three-pound mass of jelly that you can hold in your palm imagine angels, contemplate the meaning of infinity, and even question its own place in the cosmos? Especially awe-inspiring is the fact that any single brain, including yours, is made up of atoms that were forged in the hearts of countless, far-flung stars billions of years ago . . . These atoms now form a conglomerate — your brain — that can not only ponder the very stars that gave it birth but can also think about its own ability to think and wonder about its own ability to wonder.” –V.S. Ramachandran
Hoping we are all making good use of our brains – and being thankful we have them. Aloha, Renée
From “Sunbeams” The Sun December 2022, p. 48
Banner photo: from Wikipedia
World Sprints 2022, Dorney Lake, England – Persistence
You never know where persistence will take you – especially if luck is involved. Keep showing up and you’ll be amazed where you might go or what you may become.
Because of persistence – and luck – friends and I got to compete in the 2022 International Va’a Federation Outrigger Canoe World Sprints! Usually about 35 countries and 2,000 people participate. This year about 300 racers from Hawaii qualified to compete in England,
One clueless guy said that because we came in second that we were losers – haha. But no, we are all at least 75 years old (the oldest paddler on our Super Bees is 80 – and she is the strongest) and we had jumped many hurdles to be able to compete. I’m proud of all of us. Getting to World Sprints is a great achievement that took much persistence – and luck.
So how did I get to World Sprints 2022? There have been hurdles.
I’m from the Midwest where there are no outrigger canoes; I don’t like to swim, and I was born way before Title IX made equality of access to sports for girls even an idea. I’ve never been an athlete. As often the youngest and scrawniest in my Decatur, IL elementary school classes, I was usually picked last to play “Red Rover, Red Rover” – a game long ago outlawed likely because of lawsuits from hurt kids. In a St. Louis area high school, we Missouri girls in the early 1960s P.E. classes were allowed to run only half the basketball court (because – we were girls – delicate, you know). Although I got to play my flute in the marching band, I was never a part of an athletic team. In college in SE Missouri, I joined the spelunking club and crawled around limestone caves on weekends and even had a few dates to go target practicing; I don’t know what possessed me to do either of those activities, but that was the limit of my physical activities outside P.E. classes. Then I graduated and moved to Chicago.
I ran along the Chicago lakefront and played tennis badly each summer; I rode my bicycle and had a wonderful adventure with that one summer. My DePaul classmate Marie and I even ran a 1/2 marathon – although we didn’t enter the race officially and felt like fraudulent Rosie Ruizes as we crossed the finish line looking relatively “fresh” since we had run “only” 13 miles and everyone else had done 26! So I’m not really an athlete although I used to love to hike and bike and even run a lot.
I’d been on Maui several years when my friend Denise invited me to come paddle with Kihei Canoe Club. I was 59. I again stood in line as paddlers 20 or 30 years or more younger were chosen first to fill the outrigger canoes. The first morning I was there, a local guy said, “What, another haole (white/non-islander)?” His haole girlfriend said, “Don’t pay any attention to him.” John Whitford was my first steersman; his wife, Victoria, is on our Super Bee’s crew now. That first paddle, I didn’t even feel tired after the hour workout. I discovered later that I hadn’t really been paddling, more dipping the paddle in the water. But it was beautiful out there on the ocean in the early mornings. During the winter when it was still dark at 5a.m., I could see the stars – even for a couple of months the Southern Cross near the horizon. By the time our morning paddle practices were over, the sun was up. I learned, although I couldn’t do it at first since I was still working and every moment was filled, an important part of the paddling is to go across the street to the ABC Store and buy a cup of their 99 cent coffee and sit and talk. I was hooked and kept coming back.
One big hurdle was actually to get on a team that was going to World Sprints.
Over the years, I’ve been in many regattas, the summer competitions among the Maui island clubs. Some years, I was even lucky enough to get to go to the Hawaii State Competitions in August. Mainly my ability to make a team had more to do with my persistence than my skill or power — and with the number of other women my age competing. We practiced three or four days a week; usually needed to be on the beach by 5 AM; and worked hard with the other Kihei Canoe Club members. In 2016, I qualified for the first time to compete in the World Sprints, held that year in Australia. We Kihei Canoe Club women’s 70-year-old division earned a silver medal there. See my report on that experience at Australia 2016 World Sprints. World Sprints are held every two years.
Although I kept coming out and paddling, I didn’t qualified for the 2018 World Sprints held that year in Tahiti. And when it didn’t look like I’d be asked for the 2020 competition, I went looking for a steersman. We found Kekoa and quickly filled our canoe with other willing paddlers. See my report on the more than exciting time trials in Hilo at the end of February 2020. In March, the state started to take the rising COVID-19 deaths seriously. The 2020 World Sprints were cancelled. 😦
But I kept paddling – with a great group of women; we called ourselves the Super Bees. We were the B team: mainly older, not as strong, and less experienced than the A team. But we showed up, worked hard, and didn’t give up. Paddling kept us sane during the pandemic. We could exercise and socialize in our own little bubble; we wore masks, of course, and got vaccines as soon as they were available. However, only six crews per state advance in each category to qualify for the World Sprints, this year held in England. Of course, we all wanted to go. Although for the first time, the World Sprints Federation added a 75 and an 80-year-old division, we’d been practicing to compete against the 70 year olds, and wanted to qualify for that.
At the end of February, we flew to Oahu for the time trials. Eight boats competed at Sand Island near the airport in Honolulu for the six slots available for Hawaii 70-women’s division to move on to compete in England. We showed up, paddled — and came in last of the eight boats :(. Our steersman couldn’t see our brown flag a quarter of a mile away; a plane took off over us at the start – so seats five and six lost two strokes! We were more than disappointed. We had been training for this one race for four years – and we lost the chance.
But the Kihei Master’s boat was disqualified as well; the steersman couldn’t see the flag and had gone in to another canoe’s lane. So we – Super Bees – moved up to 7th place, still not the within the top six that would qualify to go to England.
Bemoaning our loss, I flew home later that day – and was seated next to two women on the Hawaiian Airlines flight to Maui. One woman, Faith, I recognized as being from our arch-rival team, Hawaiian Canoe Club. Faith too had been in a younger crew that had not made it to World Sprints. We complained about our bad luck. But then, I realized that Faith had been in the boat when Pua had died of an aneurysm about 10 or so years ago. I had been in another boat out in the harbor that day. This was before cell phones, so by the time her boat was on shore and an ambulance arrived, it was too late. Pua was an always friendly woman who wore a colorful hibiscus flower in her hair; she was the wife of our KCC men’s coach, Kawika. Faith had been in Pua’s boat that day, and she went on to share that a couple of years ago her son Mathew at 28 had died of an aneurysm. Suddenly, my complaints about not making it into the World Sprints competition did not seem important at all.
The next morning, a Sunday about 9am, our coach Vanessa called me and said that the Waimanalo woman’s 70 team that had qualified to go to Sprints had dropped out because a few of the women on the team could not afford to go to England. Waimanalo is mainly Hawaiian and often they can get only low-paying jobs (even now). So we SuperBees (mainly haole) were at number six. Perhaps it wasn’t really fair, but what an unexpected blessing for us – we qualified for the 70s division! And now we could compete!! Vanessa said we needed the names of the six women who would be in the crew for Women 70s by noon. Our SuperBees would be competing in the Women’s 75 division anyway, but who would be in the 70 division? What about our Kihei Masters? Deanna on the As has family in England, and the As were actually better than we. We could, but should we, go compete in the 70s? We called a Zoom meeting and hashed out everything among the five of us who showed up, Our steerswoman had been so exhausted that she had turned off her phone and her computer, so she was unreachable. With Pua, Faith, and Matthew in mind, we decided that what was really important was teamwork and helping one another. So with a few conditions – like wanting to be in the double-hull with them and the A’s taking Dorothy from our boat since she was too young to qualify for the 75s (we aren’t completely magnanimous), we sent the names of the A Team to Vanessa for the 70s Women crew.
So we Super Bees and the Kihei As overcame the hurdle of being on a team. We were all going to World Sprints 2022!
Then there was another big hurdle for me – the personal medical issue.
In April, I had run up our very steep driveway after our little rascal dog Makena — and fainted.
I didn’t get hurt when I fell because the drive is steep and I’d put my head down when I felt dizzy. I didn’t tell anyone. But I did call my doctor and went to see her. She said she thought she heard a slight heart murmur and referred me to a cardiologist. He said he thought I just needed to hydrate more and have salt. Okay, I can handle that. But he also had me take a slue of tests. A few weeks before I was to leave for England, a Physician’s Assistant in a TeleHealth screen that was about two inches high shared the results of the tests. She told me that I had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the septum between the two chambers of the heart. It’s usually a hereditary condition, and it’s what young athletes who drop dead without warning often have. What!!! She said I could get medications, a defibrillator or if necessary, a heart transplant! What!! But no one in my family that I knew about had the condition. We paddlers had been practicing strenuously for four years – doing the same workout as those 30 and 40 years younger. Wouldn’t I have died already? But that diagnosis scared me; I didn’t particularly want to kill myself by competing in the World Sprints. However, the actual races are much, much shorter than our hour practices, so I wasn’t going to let that surprise diagnosis keep me from going to Sprints!
The final week before we were to leave on August 8th for London, luckily, perhaps, Barry got COVID. So I had a better excuse not to go to practice (than being afraid that I’d drop dead). Finally I got to see the cardiologist in person on August 5th. He told me that for my age my heart is in good condition! If I were 40, he said, he would be concerned, but I should just make an appointment in a year – no meds, no defibrillator, no heart transplant! He told me to go to World Sprints and send him pictures of any medals. I left his office and cried out of relief. I did go to Sprints and I sent a photo of my medal to my cardiologist. So that scary hurdle for me was cleared.
However, during the World Sprints there was an incident that shows how you never know what might happen – and a reminder that racing can be hard on a heart. The men 60s races were earlier in the morning of a day we 75 women had two races. We were watching. As the Hawaii Men 60s from Kauai came first across the finish line, we could see Kiope stand up in his red shorts and seem to be rubbing the shoulders of the man ahead of him. But then we could tell there was something wrong – really wrong. The man looked as though he was falling out off the side; Kiope was holding the man in the canoe. Luckily, the canoe was near the dock – and medical people were on site. Soon the man was on the pier, medical people ran to surround him – sheets were strung up to keep the rest of us from seeing what was happening.
About a thousand racers and attenders stood in silence. We all held our paddling blades pointing up – indicating a paddler in distress. Every minute seemed long. We may have waited about an hour like that in silence. Then someone started singing Amazing Grace; we all joined in. Then we sang the Hawaiian anthem: Hawai’i Pono’i. I think we were all sure the man was dead. I kept thinking, since I had had that terrible diagnosis from the PA, that could be me.
But then, I could hear laughter from out on the pier. What!! Laughter?
A woman came tearing through our crowd of amassed paddlers. She was screaming, “He’s alive! He’s alive!” Many of us cried.
And what was that laughter? We heard later, Vic, the man who had collapsed, had automated external defibrillator (AED) paddles used immediately and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was brought back to life. The medical personnel were able to restore his heart rhythm. Vic, who is sight impaired – said, when he woke up, “I still can’t see!” Everyone laughed in relief. It shows Vic’s excellent sense of humor too. Vic was taken to the hospital. His wife came back to the race site that afternoon to pick up Vic’s 1st place medal! He’s doing fine now. We were very impressed with the British medical response. Vic was extremely lucky to have immediate attention.
What happened to Vic can be an issue. When we race at these competitions, we often sit around for hours waiting for our turns to race. At the race line, we hold still, then burst forward at the starting signal, go full out, and then stop abruptly once we cross the finish line. That’s a lot of stress on our hearts. We are supposed to warm up before the races, but that doesn’t always happen. Haiku Bob on the Kihei Canoe Club men’s crew at World Sprints in Calgary, Canada several years ago, collapsed near the finish line. It took too long to get him help – and he died. His crew came in 3rd in that race in spite of Bob dying. Pua, Haiku Bob, Vic! It’s a sport not without its dangers. Hurrah for the excellent British medical response.
Other hurdles have arisen throughout my paddling history– as in life in general, but the friendships, the challenges, the beauty of being on the water have all been worth the effort and persistence.
Although we spent most of our days at Dorney Lake during the completion, we did get to explore Windsor where we stayed in the Holiday Express – with its wonderful breakfasts. We walked to the castle and ate delicious dinners: Mediterranean, Indian, Moroccan, even the British pub we tried had excellent food.
The Windsor streets and flats were lovely:
We saw evidence of British humor:
“I’m from a family of failed magicians. I have two half-sisters.”
We did get to go into London for a day:
Although hard on the British, the temperatures were Kīhei, Maui hot – in the 80s and 90s; we felt right at home.
I enjoyed our whole adventure – the races, the challenges, the travel, but mostly the friendships. Thanks to all the Super Bees: Kekoa for steering us – we really couldn’t have done it without her; Gloria, for being an excellent seat two encouraging me, the stroker, and watching where we were going; Joy for often being seat three and calling us over – also for her unflagging generosity, Victoria for her strength and determination, and Audrey, who I consider the “brains” of our boat, was the one who would call out, “Give it all you’ve got!” – and we would. We are thankful too for – Dorothy, who drove from Kanapali in the dark early mornings to practice with us, but at 71 was too young for our boat; she was accepted into the As 70 canoe. For all the As- Deb, Deanna, Wanda, Iris, Suzan, Christine, sometimes Jani – with her good attitude, and especially Diane, who challenged us all to be our best. Thanks to all for being good competitors and friends. Thanks to Coach Kawika and especially to Coach Vanessa. We have a wonderful community.
The 2024 World Sprints will be in Hilo, Hawaii and the 2026 races in Paris, France! I hope all of us Kīhei paddlers will be persistent, show up, work hard, and with a little luck, be at those races too. Thanks to the Va’a Federation for adding the 75 and the 80 divisions so we even have a chance to make a team.
I hope by then we will really have The Boys in the Boat spirit. They are the competitors who won against great odds the 1936 races in Germany. For a wonderful example of the human spirit read The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, a non-fiction by Daniel James Brown.
We Super Bees will not go work in a limestone quarry off season to build our strength as the boys in the boat did, but we are working on our camaraderie and care for each other as they did – and paddling, of course. It was their teamwork that really gave those boys the superpower they showed. Our friendships are the most important aspect of paddling for me.
Another book I recommend is the novel Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Gramus. Set in 1952, the main character Elizabeth Zott is a rower and an American chemist, two unusual pursuits for a 1952 woman. Rowers may be even more fanatical than paddlers. For a laugh-out-loud fast read that also makes you think, get the book. If you have a dog, Elizabeth’s dog Six-Thirty will make you pay more attention to dogs in your life too.
May we all become more like the boys in the boat with their determination and care for each other as they forged ahead and like Elizabeth Zott who too faced great obstacles and hurdles. I like to think we Super Bees do too.
I plan to make the World Sprints 2024 – and Paris 2026. I know I need persistence, a great crew, and some luck.
May you find companionship and purpose as you persist in jumping the hurdles in your life too.
Aloha, Renée
P.S. You (and I) may think this post is over, but I have to tell you the rest of the story.
Because I was coming straight back to Maui – and the other women were traveling on, I agreed to bring back our paddles. I did carry-on, and then used my checked baggage limit for the four-foot high hard-case golf bag, borrowed from Victoria, that would fit all our paddles; we affectionately called it “the casket.” No problem, I thought. The case has rollers, and I could check it in at Heathrow and pick it up when I landed on Maui. I didn’t realize that I had to go through U.S. Customs when we landed in San Francisco eleven hours later. With little lay-over time, I was to then change planes to fly on to Maui. Once in San Francisco, I waited and waited at baggage for the “casket.” Because it was oversized, it took forever to come through, and by the time I’d gone through Customs and rechecked the bag, I was too late to board the Maui flight. Yikes!
The airlines rebooked me on a early flight the next morning. I got a motel room close to the airport, ran through a creepy highway underpass to the closest place to eat – a Denny’s where I got a vegetarian omelet – that tasted like grease, ran back through the underpass, slept a few hours, and then went back to the airport. Almost no one wore a mask. The TSA lines had us packed in like sardines. We needed to pass – paired up two-by-two, shoulder-to-shoulder – with a sniffing dog and its handler passing in front and behind. I was paired with a 30-something scraggly bearded guy wearing a one-piece brown cotton jumpsuit with little yellow bees all over it. The outfit would have been cute if it were on a two-year old. I don’t like to be judgmental, but I did hope that no one thought I was associated with that guy in any way. I hoped too that he didn’t have a bomb or marijuana or whatever they were searching for. We made it through.
On the five-hour flight to Maui, I sat next to an interesting woman; we talked much of that time. Then I was home – where I was happy to be. The next morning, however, I didn’t feel well – and I took a COVID test – Positive! But I started Paxlovid right away, so my case was mild; I was home where Barry and John took good care of me, and I recovered quickly. I count getting COVID as another hurdle – but I didn’t get it before World Sprints or during the races- as some paddlers did, and I made it home, so I wasn’t stuck somewhere. Hurdles are everywhere. But with persistence – and some luck – we can make it through our challenges.
Many blessings – and some luck – to you as you persist. Aloha, Renée
Banner photo: from the left, Joy Nelson, Gloria Lee-Jones, me, Victoria Smith, Audrey Quinn, Kekoa Enomoto
Please Vote!
If you are a Hawaii voter who turned in your mail-in ballot, go to https://hawaii.ballottrax.net/ to see if it has been accepted. If there is a problem – forgotten signature or something, you have time to correct it TODAY.
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For Hawaii residents, here is information you can use – from Gary L. Hooser:
| If you’ve already voted, mahalo plenty. Please if you can, take that extra step to make a call or send a text and encourage friends, neighbors, and family to do the same.If you’ve waited until today to vote – Here is a pretty cool statewide interactive map showing the location of each “Ballot Drop Box – Places of Deposit” and “Voter Service Centers”.“Ballot Drop Box – Place of Deposit” Here you can drop off the sealed envelope containing your ballot that you got in the mail.“Voter Service Centers” – open between 7am and 7pm today – November 8th Here you can vote in person. If you’re not already registered to vote, you can also register here and vote at the same time. If you have lost your ballot or have other ballot issues, you can speak with people here who might be able to help you. More information is available here at the Office of Elections. Here are the Pono Hawaiʻi Initiative endorsement recommendations for Statewide legislative races and Council races for every County.Here is a short blog piece I wrote that you might find interesting: Who Controls Government In Hawaiʻi?View this provocative 2 minute video on the Maui political scene. Maui County is leading the way but big money development interests don’t like it one little bit – and are spending millions fighting back.For my friends on Kauaʻi: I wrote this last week and the good ole boys might find it a bit irreverent, I’m hoping by being direct I get the point across: KauaʻiCouncil – Let’s Not Just Rinse and RepeatThat’s all I’ve got for today. Tonight will be a long one, that is for sure.Sincerely,Gary L. Hooser*In case anyone was curious: No candidate, no person, and no entity whatsoever, has approved, authorized or paid for anything contained in this email. All costs of sending and maintaining this email list I pay for personally.And – for those who wonder why I do what I do…here is a hint.  |
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And if you have already voted and want to do more today, here is a good list from “Chop Wood, Carry Water” –
- Sign up for phone banking shifts with the Ohio Democrats through this Mobilize link, even if you haven’t made calls before. They’ll prepare you well to maximize your impact on Democratic turnout by having important voting plan conversations.
- I’ll be calling with the DNC for a good part of today. Their dialer is the best. We’ll be calling into whatever state needs it most—it looks like right now it’s PA, but it’ll change a few times—giving Democratic voters all the info they need to cast their ballots today or tomorrow. This calling is super fun and effective. Sign up for a shift here.
- Movement Labs still has millions of texts to send. Sign up here.
- I’ve signed up to make calls into Georgia with Fair Fight from 2-4PM PT. I’ll be a bit late as I’ll be coming off of another phonebank (see below) but I’ll be there! Join me! Use this link to sign up.
- Know anyone who has money left? Share this Tiktok I made to try to help raise money to close Down Home NC’s 11K budget gap. (I posted it on IG, too.) We’ve raised 6K already! The link to give is here.
- Make “ballot chase” calls into PA all day today. Sign up here.
- The Environmental Voter Project will continue to have phonebanks all day today. I will tell y’all: my thirteen year old made calls on this phonebank yesterday and loved it. The calls are non-partisan and you’ll simply be helping folks make a plan to vote. Great for new-to-calling folks. Sign up here.
- Sister District has phonebanks all day today into PA, NC and MI. They are doing a yeoman’s work making sure folks vote down ballot as well as up—which literally could save democracy. Sign up for a shift here. They need more callers badly.
- I’ll be running a phonebank into AZ today from 12:30-2:30 PT / 3:30-5:30 ET. We’ll continue to talk to low-propensity Dems and make sure they get out to vote! Please come!
- Thousands of Pennsylvania ballots could be thrown out because they lack signatures, dates, or secrecy envelopes.Voters can still fix these ballots! Volunteer to call and tell them how.
- There’s a “Women Are Voting” virtual textbank tomorrow. Sign up here.
- Activate America has GOTV phonebanking shifts all day today and tomorrow. Sign up here for today. Sign up here for tomorrow.
Finally, for a good take on where we are electorally right now, read today’s Status Kuo. Very helpful. Although I still think we can hold the House. (:
OK. I’m off to call. Sending love and strength. We can do this.
Jess
“Chop Wood, Carry Water” is a reader-supported publication.
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Wherever you are, Democracy needs attention. We can’t be complacent. Stay calm. Vote. And work to make our country fulfill its promises to all citizens – and be a good model for the world.
Aloha, Renée
Book: “Assessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve”
Do you suffer from common problems, such as –
Chronic physical tensions
- Tense/hard muscles
- Sore neck and shoulder muscles
- Migraines
- Back pain
- Arthritis
- Dizziness . . .
Emotional issues
- Irritability, anger
- Feeling ‘down’
- Feeling of hopelessness
- Lack of energy
- General anxiety
- Nightmares
- Excessive worries . . .
Heart and lung problems
- Chest pains
- Asthma
- Irregular heartbeat
- High blood pressure . . .
Visceral-organ dysfunctions
- Poor digestion
- Stomach problems
- Hyperacidity, ulcer, hearburn
- Loss of appetite . . .
Immune-system problems
- Frequent influenza
- Minor infections
- Allergies
Behavioral problems
- Frequent accidents or injuries
- Increase in drinking or smoking
- Excessive use of medicine with or without prescription
- Autism, ADHD, Asperger’s syndrome
Or other problems involving interpersonal relationships, mental issues or . . . (3-5).
All these issues, says Stanley Rosenberg, author of Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve: Self-Help Exercises for Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Autism, are related to cranial-nerve dysfunction. In this book, Rosenberg shares his forty-five years of training, research, and experience.
Rosenberg explains that the autonomic nervous system not only regulates the workings of our visceral organs (stomach, lungs heart, liver, etc) but is closely tied to our emotional state, which directly influences our behavior. Improving the cranial-nerve function encourages the autonomic nervous system to return naturally, on its own, from a state of stress – the “fight or flight” mode we often seem to be stuck in – to our feeling physically and emotionally safe, which helps our bodies heal. Rosenberg has been able to achieve positive results with health issues as far-ranging as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), migraine headaches, and autism (and those issues listed above).
His simple self-healing exercises seem too good to be true. However, our often being stuck in “fight or flight” restricts blood flow to our brains – and reduces the healing capabilities of our bodies. And even if you are basically okay in your daily life, a few minutes watching the daily news is sure to make you feel stress, and put your body in “fight or flight” mode.
How can you tell if you have a dysfunction of your pharyngeal branch of the neural vagus?
You can read Rosenberg’s explanations in his 250 page well-notated book, or you can jump to the end of the book and try his self-help exercises. His Basic Exercise is the one he introduces first to his patients. See if it helps whatever your condition is.
BASIC EXERCISE INSTRUCTIONS
“The first few times that you do the exercise, you should lie on your back. After you are familiar with the exercise, you can do it sitting on a chair, standing, or lying on your back.
- Lying comfortably on your back, weave the fingers of one hand together with the fingers of the other hand.
- Put your hands behind the back of your head, with the weight of your head resting comfortably on your interwoven fingers. You should feel the hardness of your cranium with your fingers, and you should feel the bones of your fingers on the back of your head. If you have a stiff shoulder and cannot bring both of your hands up behind the back of your head, it is sufficient to use one hand, with the fingers and palm contacting both sides of the back of your head.
- Keeping your head in place, look to the right, moving only your eyes, as far as you comfortably can. Do not turn your head; just move your eyes. Keep looking to the right.
- After a short period of time–up to thirty or even sixty seconds–you will swallow, yawn, or sigh. This is a sign of relaxation in your autonomic nervous system. (A normal inbreathe is followed by an outbreath, but a sigh is different–after you breathe in, a second inbreathe follows on top of the first inbreathe, before the outbreath.)
- Bring your eyes back to looking straight ahead.
- Leave your hands in place, and keep your head still. This time move your eyes to the left
- Hold your eyes there until you notice a sigh, a yawn, or a swallow” (186-190)
That’s it. It takes only a minute or two.
Try this Basic Exercise to bring your body into a state of safety that activates its innate capacity to heal.
Rosenberg says that most of his clients “have an upper cervical misalignment–i.e., a rotation of the vertebrae C1 (the atlas) and a tipping of C2 (the axis) away from their optimal positions. Using the Basic Exercise almost always brings my clients back into a better alignment of C1 and C2, and when I test them again I find that they have proper ventral vagal function”(191). . .
Rosenberg’s “‘Salamander Exercises’ progressively increase flexibility in the thoracic spine, freeing up movement in the joints between the individual ribs and the sternum. This will increase your breathing capacity, help reduce a forward head posture by bringing your head back into better alignment, and reduce a scoliosis (abnormal spine curvature).
Eighty percent of the fibers of the vagus nerve are afferent (sensory) fibers, which means that they bring information back from the body to the brain, while only 20 percent are efferent (motor) fibers that carry instructions from the brain to there body. . .
LEVEL 1: THE HALF-SALAMANDER EXERCISE
To do the first part of the Salamander Exercise to the right, sit or stand in a comfortable position.
- Without turning your head, let your eyes look to the right.
- Continuing to face straight forward, tilt your head to the right so that your right ear moves closer to your right shoulder, without lifting the shoulder to meet it.
- Hold your head in this position for thirty to sixty seconds.
- Then let your head come back up to neutral, and shift your eyes to look forward again.
- Now duo the same on the other side: let your eyes look to the left, and then simply bend your head to the left. After thirty to sixty seconds, return your head to an upright position, and your eyes to a forward direction” (201-202). . .
A variation to the Half-Salamander Exercise is to look left while you tilt your head to the right and look right when you tip your head to the left. . .
“Twist and Turn Exercise for the Trapezius
The Twist and Turn Exercise improves the tone of a flaccid trapezius muscle, and balances each of its three parts with the other two parts. It also helps to lengthen the spine, improve breathing, and correct forward head posture (FHP). This in turn often alleviates shoulder and back pain.
This exercise can benefit anyone, not just those with FHP. It takes less than one minute to do, and the feeling of positive change is immediate. It is a good idea to take a moment to do this exercise whenever you have been sitting for a while, and to repeat it regularly from time to time. I do it almost every time that I get up from sitting at my computer. Every time you do the exercise, you will experience an improvement in breathing and posture, and its positive effects are cumulative. . .
TWIST AND TURN EXERCISE INSTRUCTIONS
There are three parts to this exercise. The difference between the three parts is the position of your arms.
- Sit comfortably on a firm surface, such as the seat of a chair or a bench. Keep your face looking forward.
- Fold and cross your arms, with your hands resting lightly on your elbows. You with be rotating your shoulder girdle briskly, first to one side and then to the other, without stopping, and without shifting the hips.
- For the first part of the exercise, let your elbows drop and rest just in front of your body. Rotate your shoulders so that your elbows move, first to one side and then back to the other side. When you rotate your shoulders from side to side, your arms glide lightly over your stomach. This activates the fibers of your upper trapezius.
- Do this three times. Do not strain, and do not stop your movement. Move your shoulders without forcing them or holding them; your movements are easy and relaxed.
- The second part is just like the first; the only difference is that you lift your elbows and hold them in front of your chest, at the level of your hear. rotate your elbows first to one side and then to the other. Do this three times. This activates the muscle fibers of your middle trapezius.
- For the third part, raise your elbows as high as you comfortably can, and repeat the exercise above. Rotate your elbows from side to side, three times. This activates the muscle fibers of your lower trapezius” (208-212).
Get moving to help your body heal. Stanley Rosenberg offers other self-helps exercises for migraines, stiff necks and more.
Be well. Aloha, Renée
"Where in the world are Barry and Renee?" 