Art Spark!

At last week's ArtSpark Portland's own Hand2Mouth did a mini performance of their most current work, Uncanny Valley. One of the first lines of the performance was "We speak directly to you, the audience, for we are equals."

Inclusion is a powerful agent. I embrace Hand2Mouth for their use of audience interaction as well as their conscious effort at even power distribution. It enhanced the moment, and the Memory.

www.hand2mouththeatre.org

hazy gospel confessions

It is a hazy overcast damp spring afternoon. The trees are all in bloom. The sky is the color of a fine tailored wool suit. I have dog kisses and a fireplace to keep me warm. Alexander McCall Smith narrates the minutes with images of the african bush and simple moral conversations that would not be the same without an invitation and a cup of tea. The sweet aroma of hops lingers in from the kitchen. Adele parts the air with the undertone of gospel any decent Sunday afternoon deserves. This moment is one to snuggle into, confess a dark secret to, and take a nap curled in it's content and able arms.

Couscous- Stuffed Avocados

I found this great new recipe that combines all my favorite things; couscous, avocados, carrots, and mandarin oranges. It is a salad, not a couscous really. I made it with sauteed arugula - YUM!!

So here is my amended version of the-recipe:

juice of 1 large Orange
1 box of Pine Nut Couscous mix
1 med carrot shredded
1 avocado cut in half
1 medium mandarin orange peeled and diced.
4 table spoons of sunflower nuts

1.) Heat orange juice to boiling in saucepan. Add seasoning package. Add couscous. Turn off heat and cover for 5 minutes.

2.) Diced inside of avocado. Stir in carrot, avocado and mandarin oranges into couscous.

3.) toast sunflower seeds in hot skillet and add them to the couscous.

4.) Mix well and serve. I used the avocado shell as a presentation bowl.

It is such a crazy combinations of flavors it took my taste buds a moment to realize they were in LOVE!!!

did you kiss him?

Did you kiss him?
Yuck! NO!
That's Good!
Why do you care?
I don't. It's just! Well I always thought we would have all our firsts together.
That's funny!
Why is that funny?
It's just! Well I always thought we would have our lasts.
oh.

The decision to die

I understand that hospice care is given to patients that are out of medical choices for healing, or have decided that continued surgeries or prolonged life support are not options they wish to pursue. That it is in fact a decision to die. And I have a lot of respect for care givers working in hospice care. It has to be an emotional strain to even consider getting up to go to work. But there is a critical issue with the philosophy of hospice care.

In our recent experience I found that once entered into the hospice system ailments are no longer taken seriously and in a timely manner. And in our case it was life ending, and yet not in direct relation to the cancer that lead to hospice as an option. The process of dying is ugly. It shouldn't be complicated by additional factors not cared for because, well the patient IS dying.

Because a patient has opted for hospice care shouldn't mean that they are without life prolonging health options. It shouldn't mean that care givers concerns weigh less. It shouldn't mean that measure are no longer taken to maintain quality of life. When you are watching a loved one face their death, the days they have left are important to them. They should be given as much time as possible in as good health as possible.

I honestly believe that had blood tests been taken, had concerns been addressed in a timely manner, that my father would not have died so quickly, or so horribly. The advice the doctors give you is to be the patient's advocate. Yet even when you are shouting the loudest in the hospice system there is no answer, no rush to get you answers, no regard for your concern because your cause is dying. The point is to die, not to live.

So from complications due to incorrect feeding mixture I lost precious time with me father. And being in hospice doesn't mean you are bed ridden. In our case my father was still full of life. And his symptoms of dehydration were obvious. The response was just too slow.

The contradictions are costly. Costly to the soul. Yes you have decided to die, or the disease has decided for you. But you should still have the option to live when there is an option. And you should be your own advocate, but then you should be listened to as well. It seems currently the health care system simply uses the "be your own advocate" line as a way to shrug off responsibility.

So when you make that final decision to go home and live out what days you have left. Just know that in the eyes of the hospice system you have decided to die. There will be no quick action to help you fight a non-related illness. You have signed off on death.

San Francisco Winter

One thing about the drought last year - there were no ants. I am experiencing a typical San Francisco winter - ants. We really only have two seasons here - ants, fog, and then the rest of the year is pretty much the same, windy with sun.

As the rain comes and the reservoirs fill, so do the ants. Scouts run across every surface of my house. We are engaged in a perpetual contest to see if they can find a food source before I find them. Today they succeeded in swarming the butter dish. It was the first time this season that I saw them in a gang. And it was a vicious gang, one with no remorse. Two hours later the Taoist in me condemned to bad karma I had a sink full of carcasses and a house badly in need of airing out.

I was told that they do not like cinnamon. This is true, in that they do not eat cinnamon. However it does not seem to deter them accessing that which is more to their liking. And I have discovered that Orlando finds that cinnamon is quite nice. Refreshing change in breath but not in ant free zones. Tonight I try the next two non-toxic solutions baby powder and diatomaceous earth {also a great solution for fleas}. Diatomaceous Earth kills by physical action and not by chemical so there is supposedly no harm to pets or humans. The tiny hard and sharp diatoms scratch off the insects waxy coating, causing it to dehydrate. It sounds brutal, and my conscious has wavered considering the horrific exposure I have had recently to dehydration, but they are really everywhere.

Although always a fan of a thunderstorm I am very much looking forward to the cold harsh fog of summer.

Crissy Field San Francisco

It has rained for days now. Thunder-stormed even, and that is rare for San Francisco. A rumble of thunder and a show of lightening and the dog tucks himself under the covers and hibernates. With our skylight in the bedroom he has a heads up as to whether it is worth waking up early for the morning walk. Today was one of those days that he needed to be prodded and pushed to get out of bed and down the street.

Like most San Francisco days around 1 PM the sky began to break. The rain wasn't sure that it was going to let go but there was a sign that it may be a lovely evening. So like any good dog owner I loaded Orlando in the car. The window of opportunity for some good exercise can be quite small this time of year. When we arrived at Crissy Field it was obvious that this routine isn't just the norm at my house but all across San Francisco. As the sun peaked out it revealed a beach full of dogs, all ages all sizes.

Always a great place for an off-leash romp, Crissy Field was more popular this afternoon than I have ever witnesses. It was magical. If you are a dog lover and wish to see the best of canine parades Crissy Field, East Beach, between rain showers is the place for you. I am not sure that there was anyone there that did not own a frisky puppy. After days of internment paws were ready to be muddy. For muddy paws make a happy dog.

Hope for Haiti

After checking my television listings this evening hoping for something to distract myself with on a Friday night in with the dog I am left wondering why I don't remember the kind of response for New Orleans and the Katrina victims that I am seeing today for Haiti. It appears that in the aftermath of the disaster, this island has been able to muster up the phenomenal strength to get networks past their differences and unite on a fund-raising front. I don't have cable. Being bad at decisions and in the midst of the recession it seems a safer choice to "get by" with network television. So here I will sit in front of eight channels all in their telethon glory while I wonder if the people in New Orleans are back in their houses yet. I wonder if they have running water or electricity 24 hours a day. I wonder what happened to all those who had to walk away. Are they still living on someone's living room floor? Did they have to move to a shelter. I do have Hope for Haiti. And I am encouraged that this dynamic response to the earthquake there is because of all we learned during our own tragic events. But I marvel at how eager we are to help those in need that do not live domestically. I wonder why it takes a different language and an exotic background to reach in out pockets and reach out.

New Orleans Relief Organizations
www.commongroundrelief.org
Common Ground Relief is a state and federally registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization providing short term relief for victims of hurricane disasters in the gulf coast region, and long term support in rebuilding the communities affected in the New Orleans area

www.nomrf.org
The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund, a 501(c)3 grass roots charity founded by displaced New Orleans musicians over four years ago, provides donated instruments (left) and most recently, free concerts and band uniforms.

www.fromthelaketotheriver.org
The Coalition seeks to bring together resources from all parts of the legal community (law school faculty, students, and practicing lawyers), as well as non-lawyers, to facilitate the fair distribution of federal, state, and private disaster relief to New Orleanians (wherever they may be) in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Hope for Haiti
www.hopeforhaiti.com

Stow Lake

Orlando and I had a little jaunt around Stow Lake today. We always take the inside track around the island. There are more squirrels there, and a dirt trail rather than the sidewalk. It makes it feel a bit more like we are in nature. The trail takes you over the meditation stones at the base of the waterfall and through the pavillion, a gift from China to it's "sister" city. It is a lovely little walk. One of the best parts of the seasons changing was the bloom of the Calla Lilies. They had taken over an entire hillside on the south side of the island, and they were gorgeous. Standing about shoulder tall to me, the impressive army of lilies blanketed the island with a field of white. They must have really looked like an army to someone because several months ago now someone ripped all the plants right out of the ground. In their place was some rudimentary landscaping, a trail fork to lead you up the hill and some brush plants. I decided to give it all a chance, maybe it too would grow in to be impressive, maybe there was some larger picture that I didn't know enough about. But today the small plants have grown in are in full bloom and are depressingly scraggily and even as a team of new plant life leave you feeling blue and unimpressed.

I have no idea what caused the massacre of the beautiful calla lilies that once roamed free on Strawberry Hill. I miss them every time we decide to visit Stow Lake. The end result certainly does not justify the brutality or absence of the beautiful plants.

Prop 8

We feel very strongly that everyone wishing to commit to another through marriage be given the right to do so through the freedoms of our country. It is confusing why religion and state can not see their lines as clearly as we can. We can support the discrimination that the local government has obliged for so long now.

This is an issue that has deeply affected us over the last year in California. It has been a difficult decision whether or not to sign an official marriage license.

We have decided that once everyone in California is allowed to marry we will sign an official marriage license, until then we have donated our marriage license fees to www.gettoknowmefirst.org.

Also check out: http://equalityforall.articulatedman.com/home

bicycles only

As a car owner and operator in San Francisco I am making a plea to please designate bicycle only streets in the city. Even one main north south running and one main east west running street would make a HUGE difference. There they are manually transporting themselves without polluting my air or harming my earth and in return we run into them with large fast moving machinery.

The city makes bike lanes, but the transitions from one street to an avenue force the bicyclist to weave across busy intersections to stay on route. I am ready to sacrifice more parking spaces to accommodate those energetic enough to bike. And seriously, we all know that the bike population would instantly double if they weren't subjected to the constant threat of death by dumb car driver.

So as a car owner, who has not been on a bicycle in over five years, please give them their own lanes. Support clean air, lower insurance rates, and healthy knees.

Oklahoma blows into the future

On the way home from a particularly windy walk with the dog I was listening to KQED. The program I tuned in during was News Hour with Jim Lehrer, a segment about students in Oklahoma studying wind energy. How brilliant! A state driven by gas money, rich in farmland, and mostly overlooked until their football team rolls through the midwest each year. [Very difficult for a family with roots growing back to Cornhusker territory.] Oklahoma State University brought a fresh perspective to a their technology department and after twenty minutes I am even convinced I should be looking to join their program. Universities spend so much time and money recruiting from far and wide, here this university took a look at what would benefit the students in their own state and ended up developing a program that is going to benefit the whole country. I am so impressed.

Often it is the school system that moves too slowly. It usually takes major commercial industry to slowly shift the curriculum. However it should be the universities that lead the innovation to a new level. The classroom is the place to dream big, to experiment with the endless possibilities new ideas bring, and to branch out the learning experience from your specific field of study to overlap with industries only beginning to shape themselves.

Bravo Oklahoma for seeing a future in your land, for taking the chance within your university to further a new avenue of commerce within your state, and for giving people the tools to prosper without having to migrate to new fields of wealth. The new wind technology program gives accreditation back to wind energy, states with full confidence that we as a nation know that value in it's future, and secures that the students emerging from your program are going to be tomorrow's experts in the field.

And although I will still be yelling "Go Big Red!" on game day whenever I think of Oklahoma I will know that one day I will live in a healthier, safer, more economically secure country because the state took a chance, and they did so with full confidence.

For more information on the radio program that spurred today's bluview visit: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/social_issues/gn_toughchoices/