Monthly Archives: July 2015

Our Land and Home

Virtuous Cycle

Leave a comment

Summer                                                                    Recovery Moon

That most elusive of craftspersons here on the Front Range, the plumber, promises a rare sighting at our home this morning. Perhaps that generator will finally, finally get installed. Herb the plumber comes recommended by Ken the boiler guy. Ken is reliable and professional, so I expect the same will be true of Herb. The amount of home turnover and new construction up here has made it difficult to secure work on small projects like ours.

We have begun a virtuous cycle here with the loft moving forward, the boiler in, Herb coming this morning, Melanie cleaning. There’s still a ways to go, but we’ve only been here 7 months. Feels good to make progress.

The weather has contributed, too, with the daily drenching rains cutting back to the occasional, like last night, gentle rain. More sunshine boosts my mood.

 

 

Faith and Spirituality, Health, Third Phase
Leave a comment

Summer                                                                    Recovery Moon

As I walk into the loft now, I get a surge of energy. The bookshelves are nearing completion. The iron shelving for the bankers boxes will go up after that. Since December, walking in here has been half joy, half feeling a weight of work yet to be done. This surge of work has put that feeling behind me. Now I see completion ahead. As I said, my goal is before Labor Day.

The nights have been too warm the last few days, but the trend to cooler night time temps begins soon. The long slow change headed toward the Winter Solstice.

Medea and Aeson. Medea agrees to heal Jason’s (Golden Fleece, Argonaut’s Jason) father of old age. She takes to her spells and incantations, gathers ingredients from all over the peninsula and revivifies the old man. The unseen corrupter healed by unseen knives managed from afar fails to shorten a third phase. Magical. Alchemical. Marvelous. Awe-some. We live in the world of ancient greece though we pretend to sophistication, to advanced wisdom. The same troubles face us still and we turn, like Jason and Aeson, to those who control the magic of our time.

Colorado, Family, Great Work, Memories, Our Land and Home

Stained Fingers

Leave a comment

Summer                                                         Recovery Moon

Jon and I went to Paxton Lumber Company yesterday, checking out exotic and not-so-exotic woods for material to extend the surface of the shorter shelving units. A couple of the ones I really liked were $20 and $19 a board foot, padauk and wenge. At those prices one board, thick, was in the $300 range. After looking at ash, white pine, and douglas fir, all of which I liked but were too close to the birch veneer on the bookshelves, we settled on black walnut.

Not only will the black walnut contrast with the birch veneer, black walnut trees were common in my hometown of Alexandria, Indiana. I have fond memories of stepping on the green acrid smelling husks of walnuts as they fell from those trees. We teased out the walnuts tucked inside and took them home, fingers stained with a greenish-yellow paste that had a bitter lemony taste. A part of my childhood. Also, black walnut trees were part of the old forest which dominated the landscape of the midwest prior to westward expansion. So those boards of the midwest will rest on birch veneer, redolent of the boreal forest in Minnesota. But the bookcases they constitute reside here on Shadow Mountain among lodgepole and ponderosa pines.

We ate lunch at Park Burger in the Hilltop neighborhood of Denver, a wealthy area with tear-down lots filled now with house reminiscent of Kenwood in Minneapolis. I had a Scarpone burger with pancetta, provolone and giardiniera. It was delicious.

Jon’s skills as a woodworker were evident as we selected the particular walnut boards. We matched their color, thickness and rejected some with too deep fissures or splits. He knows the woods and their characteristics. He also knows the places where exacting cuts can be made, straight. One place has a table saw as large as a small room.

Once again the joy of returning home from Denver’s 94 degrees to Shadow Mountain’s 77 with 23% humidity. The nights have been warm of late, making sleeping more difficult and pushing those ceiling fan purchases higher up on our priority list.

Family, Our Land and Home

Focused

Leave a comment

Summer                                                                       Recovery Moon

The early morning sun through a high eastern window here in the loft falls on books stacked high on the new bookshelves. They’re awaiting space as more shelving opens up. My focus, until labor day, is getting the loft organized so I can get back to work. I’m pretty sure it will all come together by then.

Yesterday, a Sunday, was a slow day. Into Evergreen for our money meeting at a cafe overlooking Evergreen lake. The lake is a focal point and source of pride though it would be unremarkable in Minnesota. A jewelry store owner told me there are tiger muskies in it. It’s fed by Bear Creek, so the water would be cold and fresh. Could be.

No matter where you go around here there are bicyclists climbing steep mountain roads, families getting out of their cars to hike on mountain trails, and, as in Evergreen yesterday, lot of runners. This place moves. It’s very encouraging for exercise.

Looking forward to Paxton Lumber today and picking out tabletop and countertop woods. Jon and I are going out for lunch afterwards.

World History
Leave a comment

Summer                                                                    Recovery Moon

Obama is in Africa.

Africa. In college I took a considerable number of courses related to Africa: geography of Africa, history and pre-history of pre-European contact Africa, physical anthropology courses including human evolution, ethnography of African peoples. Almost enough for a minor, but I already had two majors.

At the time Jomo Kenyatta , Patrice Lumumba, Kwame N’Krumah were active, Kenyatta in founding the modern state of Kenya and N’Krumah the modern state of Ghana. N’Krumah was a pan-Africanist and man of clear vision. Kenyatta, both strongman and visionary, did have the broad view of N’Krumah, but he did seek strong African nations and strong African economies. Lumumba led the fight to break the Congo away from its notoriously regressive Belgian colonial government. All three of these men inspired me and gave me hope, back in the late 1960’s, that Africa would soon shake off its colonizers and take its place as the mother continent, the literal cradle of humanity.

We know that didn’t happen. Numerous factors explain the dream delayed: boundaries drawn by European colonizers, ancient tribalism, all too frequent corruption, the competing demands of global competitive economics and the often socialist aspirations of these first generation post-colonial leaders.

Obama has been speaking to the dream delayed during his Africa trip. I hope he succeeds in shaking up the difficult political climate of the continent. Africa, a place I have not yet been, in addition to the specific places where the human species arose from its common ancestor with the primates, has great natural resources, among them flora and fauna found nowhere else in the world. Why must this huge continent spend any more time in the waiting room of nations?

Faith and Spirituality, Feelings, Friends, Our Land and Home

Again, Gratitude

Leave a comment

Summer                                                                      Recovery Moon

It no longer feels like I’m walking into a stiff headwind, head down and seeing only my feet. Now the sky is sunny, a gentle breeze blows at my back. Again, gratitude to all who held my hand during the last three months. I needed that.

Wow. And to Jon, who put together four more bookshelf units, connected three to the others already installed. I’ve got some shelving to do. We also ordered the last three units, one with shelves and doors for tea and coffee making. On Monday Jon and I will go to Paxton Lumber and pick out some exotic wood for the top to my work table and to use for making the short bookshelves tops wider.

After the final bookshelves are put together and connected, Jon will assemble the wire shelving. That will eliminate the pony wall of bankers boxes currently separating my workout space from the rest of the loft. When that’s done, the only major tasks left will be utilizing the art crates as functional island dividers, buying a small refrigerator and reconfiguring the workout space with the pull-up bar over the rubber mats.

 

 

 

Feelings, Health, Our Land and Home

Tomorrow Wall Down

Leave a comment

Summer                                                                              Recovery Moon

The tomorrow wall has come down. As Kate observed yesterday, “I could tell you were feeling more positive. You wanted to move things around, get a new rug, hang art. Talk about color.” Yes. More color. More art. Get back to home making, not things medical.

We have a new boiler. I’m continent less than a week after the catheter came out and about two and three-quarters months ahead of expectations. We ordered a 9×12 braided rug for the reading area in front of the fireplace. I have a new plumber, recommended by Ken, the Boiler Medic. Things have begun to happen.

Jon’s coming out today to do more bookshelf and handyman work. Jon’s skills make a big difference for both Kate and me. We’re lucky to have him.

office350Yesterday morning I moved empty bookshelves that we’re no longer going to use, four of them. I horsed the horizontal file cabinet more toward the center of the loft. That leaves a new expanse of wall where more tall birch veneer bookshelves can go.

Functional islands is the organizing scheme. Books and other storage against the wall, including a cabinet and shelf space for the tea-making, tea, and tea-ware, a slot for a small refrigerator and my exercise TV.

At the south end of the loft, positioned with a view of Black Mountain, is the reading area which includes a large rug and a Swedish recliner. Next, moving north, and away from the reading area, almost to the middle of the room away from the west wall, is the computer, desk and dictionary stand which holds my O.L.D., Oxford Latin Dictionary. I imagine the horizontal file cabinet will be part of this island, too.

In the same location, but out from the east wall and extending to the middle of the room will be a large table with three cabinets beneath it. It will be on wheels. The drafting table goes in this area, too. Here I can spread out books when doing research or work on other projects. I hope to get into some art making using this space. Collage work for right now.

Out from the north wall, on the same (eastern) side as the large table, is the treadmill, rubber mats, weights and weight bench. On the eastern wall in front of the treadmill is the TV I use as an incentive to exercise. There will be, too, a pull-up bar mounted to the ceiling.

On the same (western) side as the computer/desk island, will be wire shelving for my many bankers boxes filled with novel manuscripts, research, files related to other projects like art, religion, politics.

We plan to use the large wooden crates built to move our two large Jeremiah Miller paintings (brother-in-law) as dividers among the islands, cutting the larger crate in half to create three dividers. Jon has an idea for using piano hinges that will allow the crates to be used as art storage. They will have feet so they can stand on their own.

Once the bookshelves are all assembled, the wire shelving up, the large table finished and the tea-making/refrigerator area is in place I can get down to the serious work of giving my library its final shape. That’s a task, an important and fun task, that cannot be done with electronic books, at least not yet.

I’m hoping that all this work, if not the organizing of books and files and bankers boxes, will be done by Labor Day with the whole loft area ready for fall and winter.

This loft is a love letter from Kate since she chose this house because of the loft area for me and the enclosed two-car garage area for her. Finishing up both of our spaces—we have to re-assemble Kate’s long arm quilter and she needs to get a better organizing scheme—and the kitchen, the living room and the garage, lies ahead, but not too far ahead. Feels good.

 

 

 

Beyond the Boundaries, Commentary on Religion, Faith and Spirituality, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant., Travel

The Lure of Yesterday

Leave a comment

Summer                                                                   Recovery Moon

NYT had a video and an article, 36 hours in Siem Reap. This type of article is a regular feature and one that gives a wonderful, quick entré to a particular locale. My visit in 2004 is now 11 years ago and the Siem Reap of this video has many upscale tourist options that didn’t exist when I was there. The Siem Reap of 2004 was a sleepy village though studded with many smaller hotels and one big one, the Hotel D’Angkor. Hostels were as evident as tourist hotels. But the building boom had already begun and the Siem Reap of 2015 had its roots in 2004.

As such articles do, it featured a wide array of things to do from shadow puppetry performed in front of a fire and screen to dining in upscale restaurants, tours on tuk-tuks and shops featuring Cambodian village crafts. I suppose the article does its job as a teaser, a what if I were there, even briefly fantasy, but it glossed over, very lightly, the primary reason Siem Reap has become an international destination. Quite a feat, really, in a country ravaged by years of the Khmer Rouge and corrupt politicians.

Angkor. Angkor is a site containing over 70 temples, each built by a different ruler of the Khmer, and extending over many square miles. It is much more than Angkor wat, the supposedly eponymous temple. In reality Angkor wat just means Angkor temple. That direct translation does not differentiate the best preserved and fascinating temple closest to Siem Reap from all the others. Ta Prohm. Bayon. Banteay Serai. And many, many others.

Angkor is a built space that has carried the Hindu culture of the  Khmer deva-rajas, god-kings, who ruled between 802 a.d. and 1351 a.d., into our time and will carry it far into the future. The intricate bas reliefs, the monumental four-faced sculptures with the classical Bayon smile, the elephants carved in stone, the florid decor of Banteay Serai require time and reading to appreciate. Ta Prohm, an often photographed temple, has been left as the forest has reclaimed it, with kapok trees growing through doorways and over roof tops.

Outside many of the temples small bands of Cambodian musicians play traditional music. My first reaction was oh how wonderful, authentic music played among the temples of this ancient culture. Then I began to look closely at the band. Most were missing a foot or an arm or a leg or carried other scars from the many landmines that continue to plague the Cambodian people.

 

One of my most memorable travel evenings was spent on the outer stone wall of Bayon, watching the living temple across the way as monks clad in saffron and maroon hit gongs, lit incense Bayon and prayed along with passers by who came to worship. The sun set and the shadows changed the expressions of the four-faced sculptures said to be the likeness of Jayavarman VII, the last deva-raja, who converted to Buddhism. The monkeys howled, insects chirped and the deep bass of the temple gong reverberated. Incense scented the air.

Politics, US History, World History

Obama as Ex-President

Leave a comment

Summer                                                               Recovery Moon

What will Obama be like as an ex-President? We have so many right now that various modes are very visible: the George’s Bush, Carter and Clinton. The Bushes seem to emphasize the retirement model with George I sky-diving and George II painting, cutting brush. Clinton has maintained a high-public profile with his speaking, foundation and, of course, Hillary’s career, too. Jimmy Carter is maybe the most interesting model since he has used his post-Presidential years to become a trusted international interlocutor, especially around the issues of free elections.

These are, of course, fragmentary observations, based on one man’s perception, so they are not in any way definitive. Rather, they speak to a filtered and publicly formed image. Still, they seem instructive to me.

My guess is that Obama will become even more important as an ex-President than any of the others living now, perhaps more important than any ex-President ever. Why? When he is no longer President of all the people, he can begin to illuminate racism and its structural intricacies. Who better to know them than a black man who has lived at the peak of institutionalized power?

Further, since he is young and since his Presidential term will end as the demographics of the United States continue to press toward a more and more heterogeneous citizenry, his influence can only grow. Too, the repetitive instances of police violence toward black folk, made more visible now by portable cameras in cellphones and the immediacy of internet distribution, seem to have created a teachable moment for the U.S. as a whole. Part of my guess about Obama as ex-President was spurred by his oratory at the funeral of Clementa Pickney in Charleston. You can feel him becoming less inhibited by his office.

My hope is that he and his advisers can shape a post-Presidential life for him that will finally put the question of racial privilege, white racism, on the docket of our nation and keep it there until healing on both parts can begin.

This is not just an American problem, racism is a subset of ethnocentrism, which is a primary driver in conflicts and wars around the world: Tutus and Hutsis in Rawanda, Israelis and Palestinians, Sunnis and Shiites, ISIS and Christians, anti-semitism in Russia, Germany, France, apartheid in South Africa, Tibet and the Uighurs in China, India and Pakistan, the response to refugees in Turkey, Italy, Nigeria. Yes, of course, economics matter and so do politics, but look at each of these situations and try to extract the ethnocentric component from the economic, the political. The three intertwine and co-determine.

Obama could have an important role to play in addressing this global and historic flaw in human relations. He can’t solve it, but he can raise its visibility and keep it on the global agenda for a long time to come. May it be so.

News of the Strange, Our Land and Home

A Likely Story

2 Comments

Summer                                                                         Recovery Moon

During the swirl of visits to various doctor’s offices before surgery I was not at my sharpest or most attentive. I lost my ART hat, the blue hat with the red ART. It was from a contemporary exhibit at the MIA and one of my favorites. Tracked it down at Eigner’s Littleton office. I visited him in Lonetree, Littleton and Englewood, so it wasn’t a snap to figure it out. Today I retrieved it.

After that I visited the shiny blue box of IKEA in Centennial. This was for yet another BILLY bookshelf in the birch veneer. While there I needed help and got it from a 57 year old guy who had an incredible story. Just how incredible I’m not sure since I’ve not been able to confirm it, but this is what he told me.

“I was a CEO, got cancer and lost my job. Ended up $1.2 million dollars in debt. Lost my house and lived out of my car for a year.”

“What company?”

“Pittney-Bowes. I’ve tried to get other jobs but the CEO jobs I’ve applied for turned me down because of my illness history and the middle management job interviews end at over-qualified. So now I work 100 hours a week, 40 here at IKEA and 60 at Broadway Pizza which is owned by a friend of mine.”

This guy was completely believable to me with the exception of his lack of bitterness. I mentioned that and he said, “What are you gonna do? You have to take life as it comes.”

When I got home and told Kate about this encounter, she asked why the CEO didn’t have good health coverage. Good question. The more I think about it I imagine this guy was like a few of the psychopaths I’ve met, able to tell a lie so convincingly that you become part of it.

I liked him, felt sorry for him and admired him. Strange event.