Beginning ~ with a diagnosis

Beginning

"Mia has leukemia."

What?

"It's important for her to start treatment immediately," the oncologist said.  "She'll need to be admitted to the hospital as soon as possible."

Human Kind: Changing the World One Small Act at a Time ~ by Brad Aronson, 2022, social action, 256 pages

When Brad Aronson's wife, Mia, was diagnosed with leukemia, they were overwhelmed by the outpouring of kindness from family, friends, and even complete strangers.  Inspired by the many demonstrations of "humankindness" that supported their family through Mia's recovery, Brad began writing about the people who rescued his family from that dark time, often with the smallest of gestures.  But he didn't stop there.  Knowing that simple acts of kindness transform lives across the globe every day, he sought out these inspirational stories and shares the most heartwarming ones here.

You'll meet a mentor who changed a child's life with a single lesson in shoe tying, the six-year-old who launched a global kindness movement, and the band of seamstress grandmothers who mend clothes and hearts for homeless people.  There are dozens of ways you can make a difference in the lives of others through simple words and deeds.  Be amazed at how far a little kindness goes.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Thoughts

Using the translator for the Chinese couple on my floor, I was able to make (and confirm) a lunch date with the Chinese neighbor who offered me muffins (story HERE).  I'm already in the Cafe early as I type this.  I guess she and I will buy lunch and then smile at each other while we eat.  I've already decided to get their avocado panini, which has avocado, munster cheese, onions, and tomato on freshly baked ciabatta bread.  Today is sunny (but barely above freezing) here in St. Louis, so I'm glad we are not going OUT to eat.  I took this photo yesterday, when every single table had somebody sitting there.

I brought my laptop today and have just read today's email.  Jodi Picoult, my favorite author, said in her regular mailing:  "Wishing you all health, happiness, and excellent books in the coming year!"  Wait!  We haven't even gotten through the Christmas stuff yet.

After lunch:  When my neighbor arrived, we both went to the counter to order.  She pointed to me to go first, so I ordered the avocado panini.  When asked, she indicated she'd have whatever I had ordered.  I paid, and she moved forward to pay for hers and was told I'd paid for both orders already.  We found a table and sat down to eat.  Not a lot of conversation.  We both ate about half of our meals and had rewrapped half to take home, so I take home.  We ended up getting desserts, indicating she would have the same muffin I'd chosen.  She insisted on paying for THAT, at least.  We did it!  I'm pretty sure she no longer has hurt feelings!

I'm sure I hurt her feelings

I was in the Café waiting for a friend to arrive.  I had invited her to meet me there so I could treat her to lunch for her birthday.  I live in a community of elderly folks who speak three different languages:  English, Chinese, and Russian.  That doesn't count a few who know more than just their own native language.

Before my friend arrived, a Chinese-speaking neighbor came to my table with two muffins and offered them to me, apparently wanting me to choose one.  I wasn't ready to eat dessert first and didn't take one, shaking my head "no" and hoping she'd understand.  She pointed to me and the dessert again and smiled.  My friend still hadn't arrived, so "no" was still the answer.

When the birthday person arrived, we went to the counter to order.  I let her decide where we would sit, which table and which part of the Café.  As we sat down, I noticed in my peripheral vision that the Chinese neighbor was looking our way.  She looked very disappointed, and now I don't know what to do.  I'm sure I hurt her feelings, but how do I tell her and apologize?

I did look up how to say "thank you" in Chinese and found it HERE.  It sounds like "shay-shay" to me.

Word of the Day

/pe·riph·er·al vi·sion / adjective + noun = something that is seen on the side when the eye when looking straight ahead.  Peripheral vision is seeing something the person is not looking directly at.

Two books that just arrived

A Clowder of Cats: A Joy Forest Mystery ~ by Blythe Ayne, 2022, cozy animal mystery, 208 pages

Dr. Joy Forest's Sri Lanka research is disrupted when a beautiful woman with violet eyes breaches the security of her home by paranormal means and insists Joy look for her missing cat.  Although Joy agrees to, she does so for the sake of the cat, more than for the strange woman.

As Joy searches for the missing Booji, she finds several other cats, unearthing the mysteries of the people they belong to along the way.  It's an intriguing journey of mystical places and unusual creatures, with a dash of romance.

The story takes place in the Cascade foothills of Washington state, in the near-future world of 2032, a world of eccentric small-town people and peculiar small town events.  You'll discover that although the times are somewhat different, people are ever the same — lovable or loathsome, truthful or deceitful, generous or selfish, courageous or timid, loyal or treacherous, but always a mystery!

Curl up in your favorite cozy nook and escape into a delightful world of enigma and riddle.  Especially if you love cats and if you love mysteries.  And it is NOT a murder mystery!

5-Minute Core Exercises for Seniors: Daily Routines to Build Balance and Boost Confidence ~ by Cindy Brehse and Tami Brehse Dzenitis, 2021, exercise and fitness, 158 pages

Having a strong core can improve mobility, reduce aches and pains, prevent falls, and build everyday confidence. 5-Minute Core Exercises    for Seniors makes it easy to incorporate daily exercise for seniors, with a collection of 40 individual movements and 25 quick routines for strengthening the major core muscles.

This guide to exercise for seniors helps you:

• Get to know your core―Learn the muscle groups that make up your core, the benefits of keeping them strong, the importance of breathing and stretching, and the latest science behind exercise for seniors.
• Enjoy a wide variety of exercises―Discover a range of seated, standing, on-the-mat, and weighted exercises that mimic everyday movement and don't require any special equipment.
• Follow step-by-step instructions―Find how-tos and illustrations for engaging the right muscles and preventing injury, as well as tips to increase or decrease the intensity of each movement to meet your needs.

Coincidences for us to muse about

Coincidences

If you've been reading this blog, you know I love coincidences.  HERE are ten coincidences that I thought were fascinating.  If you've noticed a coincidence, please share it with us in a comment below.

Added later:  The date that "just happens" to be 3.14 is both the date Einstein was born in 1879 and the date that Stephen Hawking died in 2018, well over a century later.  I'm not sure the words in the illustration make that clear.

A gratitude journal and exercising

Hmm, this is only the fourth time this year I've posted anything about Action for Happiness, which I used to do every month.  But I've been reading each day's suggestions on my iPhone.  They don't match up with what shows up for that day on the monthly calendar.  There are several notices each day, and people make comments on each of them almost immediately.  Recently, they sent us this:

It's easy to take the good things in life for granted, but research suggests that the more we stop to appreciate what we have, the happier and healthier we are.

Within a minute or two, the very first person to comment said "keeping a daily gratitude journal has improved my life!"  So I told myself I should start keeping track of the things in life that I'm grateful for.  Is it enough to note it mentally, or should I write it in a notebook?  Do any of you keep a gratitude journal?

5-Minute Core Exercises for Seniors: Daily Routines to Build Balance and Boost Confidence ~ by Cindy Brehse and Tami Brehse Dzenitis, 2021, exercise and fitness, 158 pages

This book will help by strengthening your core and boosting your confidence.  Having a strong core can improve mobility, reduce aches and pains, prevent falls, and build everyday confidence.  This book has a collection of 40 individual movements and 25 quick routines for strengthening the major core muscles.

This guide to exercise helps seniors:

• Learn the muscle groups that make up your core, the benefits of keeping them strong, the importance of breathing and stretching, and the latest science behind exercise for seniors.
• Discover a range of seated, standing, on-the-mat, and weighted exercises that mimic everyday movement and don't require any special equipment.
• Find how-tos and illustrations for engaging the right muscles and preventing injury, as well as tips to increase or decrease the intensity of each movement to meet your needs.
• Improve strength, balance, and confidence with this detailed introduction to core exercise for seniors.

This book just arrived on Friday, so I'm learning (and remembering from past classes I've taken) these movements for old folks like me.  The pictures help me see how to stand, sit, and move my arms and legs.  So far, so good.

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz

hosts The Sunday Salon.

Do we live in a simulation?

Question:  Do we live in a simulation?  According to THIS ARTICLE, we do.  Okay, some of you are wondering what I'm talking about, so here's a definition:

sim·u·la·tion /ˌsimyəˈlāSH(ə)n  / noun =  (1) imitation of a situation or process.  Example:  "simulation of blood flowing through arteries and veins."  (2)  the action of pretending; deception.  Example:  "clever simulation that's good enough to trick you."  (3)  "the production of a computer model of something, especially for the purpose of study.  Example:  "The method was tested by computer simulation."

The opinion article that says we do was published on April 1, 2021, with the title "Confirmed!  We Live in a Simulation."  It was written by Fouad Khan.  Here's part of the article, quoted:

Ever since the philosopher Nick Bostrom proposed in the Philosophical Quarterly that the universe and everything in it might be a simulation, there has been intense public speculation and debate about the nature of reality. ... Recent papers have built on the original hypothesis to further refine the statistical bounds of the hypothesis, arguing that the chance that we live in a simulation may be 50–50. ...

The claims have been afforded some credence by repetition by luminaries no less esteemed than Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director of Hayden Planetarium and America’s favorite science popularizer. Yet there have been skeptics. ... Why would a conscious, intelligent designer of realities waste so many resources into making our world more complex than it needs to be?

... To understand if we live in a simulation we need to start by looking at the fact that we already have computers running all kinds of simulations for lower level "intelligences" or algorithms. For easy visualization, we can imagie these intelligences as any nonperson characters in any video game that we play, but in essence any algorithm operating on any computing machine would qualify for our thought experiment. ...

Pretty much since the dawn of philosophy we have been asking the question:  Why do we need consciousness?  What purpose does it serve?  Well, the purpose is easy to extrapolate once we concede the simulation hypothesis.  Consciousness is an integrated (combining five senses) subjective interface between the self and the rest of the universe.  The only reasonable explanation for its existence is that it is there to be an "experience."

The simplest explanation for the existence of consciousness is that it is an experience being created, by our bodies, but not for us ... [It is] mostly likely for the benefit of someone experiencing our lives through us. ... All we can do is come to terms with the reality of the simulation and make of it what we can.  Here, on earth.  In this life.

 

Musing

My Monday was going along just fine yesterday, until I realized it was only Sunday.  So I decided to walk to the grocery store for four small items I needed.  I came home with four bags full of stuff.  As I walked, I thought (again) of how walking to the store always seems like I'm walking uphill in both directions.  Which I do, actually.  It's uphill part of the way and then downhill to the store, which means I then walk around the store and walk uphill partway home before going downhill the rest of the way.

Reading

As I was reading A Charm of Goldfinches (see HERE), I was surprised by a word on page 88:  "these phantasmic birds."  Oops, I thought, here's a typo.  I thought the author meant "phantastic" birds.  Then I realized that would be spelled "fantastic."  So I decided to look it up.  Well, I found out it actually IS a word.  So.........

Words of the Day

Phantasmic means something is unreal, illusory, or spectral.  For example, you might describe a creature from a nightmare as phantasmal.  Here are some synonyms for phantasmic:  illusive, apparent, chimeric, deceitful, delusive, dreamlike, fake, fallacious, and fanciful.  The word phantasm comes from the Greek verb phantazein, which means "to present to the mind."  Other words that come from the same root include fanciful and fantasy.

Fantasmic:  Notice the last couple of examples are "f" words:  fanciful and fantasy.  So I looked up "fantasmic" and discovered it has multiple definitions, including:

1. Adjective:  An archaic term that means fantastic or fanciful. 
2. Noun:  An obsolete term that means a fantasy or fancy. 
3. An unbelievably fortunate occurrence.  Example:  "I can't believe I didn't hit that car! That was fantasmic!"

How sociable do you feel these days?

The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement ~ by David Brooks, 2011, psychology, xviii + 427 pages

This is the story of how success happens, told through the lives of one American couple, Harold and Erica — how they grow, push forward, are pulled back, fail, and succeed.  It shows a new understanding of human nature.  The unconscious mind, it turns out, is most of the mind — not a dark, vestigial place but a creative and enchanted one, where most of the brain’s work gets done.  This is the realm of emotions, intuitions, biases, longings, genetic predispositions, personality traits, and social norms:  the realm where character is formed and where our most important life decisions are made.

Drawing on a wealth of research from numerous disciplines, Brooks takes Harold and Erica from infancy to school; from the years that have come to define young adulthood to the high walls of poverty; from the nature of attachment, love, and commitment, to the nature of effective leadership.  He reveals the deeply social aspect of our very minds and exposes the bias in modern culture that overemphasizes rationalism, individualism, and IQ.  Along the way, he demolishes conventional definitions of success while looking toward a culture based on trust and humility.

Word of the Day

so·cia·ble / ˈsōSHəb(ə)l / adjective = willing to talk and engage in activities with other people; friendly.  Example:  "Being a sociable person, I love going out to lunch with a friend or two."

Caturday on Sunday

Have you heard of cats sitting in circles?  Even better, have you actually seen a cat do this?  I was fascinated when I read about it, HERE.  What do you think?

I've found pictures of cat sleeping in a circles, which they do with or without the help of a container (like the cat on the left curled up in).  It shows us just how flexible cats actually are.  This is how Clawdia (and my other cats) would often sleep, though not all the time.

How would you reply to this question:

On Friday, I came up with a weird thought:  If I asked you to think of your childhood, what's the first thing that comes to your mind?  For me, it was my special tree.  I wrote about it in 2012, HERE.  I loved climbing the plum tree in our yard.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Beginning ~ with labels

Beginning

We do love to put labels on things, don't we?  Everything from the slightest variaties of tone in a color to the taste of a single flavor in a dish, right through to the tiniest variations in the beats of a song ― they all mark a difference and, no matter how small, every variation has a name.

A Charm of Goldfinches ~ by Matt Sewell, 2017, words, 144 pages

Whether you're an animal lover or a grammar geek, illustrator Matt Sewell has the perfect menagerie of beasts (and beast-related terms) for your reading pleasure.  Along with fifty-five color illustrations, Sewell presents the unexpected collective nouns used to describe groups of animals on land, in the air, and in the water.  Discover the secret behind a "sleuth of bears," keep your eyes open for a "watch of nightingales," and learn something new about a "school of whales."  Illustrated in inimitable watercolor, this book makes a great gift for nature and art lovers.

I will add to the description I found online that it is also a fun book for those of us who love words.  I like that the subtitle is "Quirky Collective Nouns of the Animal Kingdom."

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

A different look at Dr. Seuss books

The Gospel According to Dr. Seuss ~ by James W. Kemp, 2004, stories, 90 pages

The stories of one of the world's most beloved children's authors are both imaginative and entertaining, but a closer look at Dr. Seuss's stories reveals that many are inspirational as well as instructive.  James Kemp has identified as his favorite theologian not Barth or Pannenberg, but the inimitable Dr. Seuss.  Kemp finds parallels between the actions of cats in hats, Grinches, Snitches, Sneetches, and other Creachas and lessons found in Scripture.  As the author shares his enthusiasm for the creativity and wisdom of Dr. Seuss, the meaning and the relevance of many Bible passages come to life.

A word for the wise (or otherwise)

Would you like to see a catastrophe?  I posted one yesterday, HERE.  Okay, so I was playing with words again.  Aren't I always, though?

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Catastrophe

I haven't had a Caturday post in awhile, so here's something about cats to (maybe) make you laugh.  Have you ever experienced a CAT catastrophe, something catastrophic caused by a cat?  Please share it in a comment with the rest of us.

Beginning ~ in the future

Beginning

Here begins a happy day in 2381.  The morning sun is high enough          to touch the uppermost fifty stories of Urban Monad 116.  Soon the building's entire eastern face will glitter like the bosom of the sea at daybreak.  Charles Mattern's window, activated by the dawn's early photons, deopaques.

The World Inside ~ by Robert Silverberg, 1971, science fiction, 184 pages

2381.  Man had attained Utopia.  War, starvation, crime, and birth control had been eliminated.  Life was totally fulfilled and sustained within mammoth skyscrapers hundred of stories high.  It was blessed to have children.  Contemplation of controlling families was heretical.  And there were methods of treatment for heresy, the most radical being death.

I have just started this book, but so far it's been interesting.  Did you notice that word "deopaques"?  It isn't actually a word I can find in the dictionary, so let's figure out what it means:

o·paque / ōˈpāk / adjective = not able to be seen through; not transparent.  Example:  "The windows were opaque with steam."

So that means if the windows somehow "deopaques," we can now see through it.  In the future, apparently, sunlight "deopaques" windows.  I've only read a single chapter, so none of this is explained yet.  Maybe later in the book.  Or maybe it's going to be beyond my understanding.

Also interesting is the fact that "man" had attained Utopia, according to the blurb on the dust jacket.  That's before the women's movement, so I wonder if the women in the book consider it a utopia or not.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Thanksgiving

Mending, making, and sewing up rips

I read somewhere online:  "I can embroider, cross-stitch, use a sewing machine, and sew by hand to alter clothes.  If my clothes rip in a way I deem unsuitable, I can mend them.  Sewing is an art fewer people learn every year."

Once upon a time, I made my children's clothes and could do all the things that person listed.  One of my daughters wanted my sewing machine, so I haven't been doing much sewing lately.  Now I wonder how many people still know how to mend clothes.  Do you?  And do you make clothes for your children?  Or did you, when your children still lived with you?

Fiction by Margaret Atwood

Surfacing ~ by Margaret Atwood, 1972, literary fiction, 233 pages 

This novel grapples with notions of national and gendered identity, anticipated rising concerns about conservation and preservation and the emergence of Canadian nationalism.  It tells the story of a woman who returns to her home-town in Canada to find her missing father.  Accompanied by her lover, Joe, and a married couple, Anna and David, the unnamed protagonist meets her past in her childhood house, recalling events and feelings, while trying to find clues to her father's mysterious disappearance.  Little by little, the past overtakes her and drives her into the realm of wildness and madness.  What she really discovers is the truth about her past, her inner fears, and the strengths she never knew she had.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Beginning ~ at a bookstore event

Beginning

It would be a night of murder, they'd been told.  And there'd be lemon squares, too.  The group, mostly women, gathered in a half circle, some in the old leather chairs that book browsers coveted and others in the folding chairs the bookstore owner, Archie Brandley, had set up for the special event.  At the other end of the cozy loft, narrow aisles seperated wooden bookcases that rose nearly to the ceiling.  One section was crammed with mysteries, the spines straight and proud — a perfect background for the night of crime.

The Wedding Shawl: A Seaside Knitters Mystery ~ by Sally Goldenbaum, 2011, cozy mystery, 307 pages

Izzy Chambers is about to get married, but much remains to be done.  Then the wedding plans get complicated when the wedding party's hair stylist begins missing appointments.  When she's found dead, things really begin to unravel.  Rumors circulate about the stylist's past and her connection to an unsolved murder years ago.  All the Seaside Knitters really know is they must rally to find some answers, so Izzy can don the wedding shawl they're surprising her with — and replace the whispers about town with wedding bells.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Today is World Philosophy Day 2024

World Philosophy Day is an international day to be celebrated every 3rd Thursday of November.  It was first celebrated on November 21, 2002.  Celebrating World Philosophy Day each year underlines the enduring value of philosophy for the development of human thought, for each culture and for each individual.  Critical questioning enables us to give meaning to life and action.  Philosophy is a discipline that encourages critical and independent thought and is capable of working towards a better understanding of the world and promoting tolerance and peace.

Okay, so you probably aren't surprised that my double major for my bachelor's degree included philosophy, right?

Later in the day, I happened to read this quote from page 54 of The Wisdom of John and Abigail Adams edited by R. B. Bernstein (2002):  "What is philosophy but the study of the world and its cause?  Man is a riddle to himself.  The world is a riddle to him.  He puzzles to find a key, and this puzzle is called philosophy."

Beginning ~ at her mother's feet

Beginning

Little Thérèse sat on the floor at her mother's feet, watching the bright needle as it flew through the cloud of fine lace her mother was making.  It was a winter day in the year 1875.

Saint Thérèse and the Roses ~ by Helen Walker Homan, illustrated by George W. Thompson, 1955, young adult, 149 pages

This story from the Vision Books series for youth 9 -15 years old is a beautiful story about the most popular saint of modern times, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the "Little Flower."  Growing up in Lisieux, France was occasionally painful but usually delightful for Therese and her four sisters.  For practical Marie, studious Pauline, hot-tempered Leonie, mischievous Celine, and beautiful, lovable Thérèse, growing up meant growing closer to God.  The Little Flower found her pathway to holiness right in her own back yard.

With their disagreements, secrets, visits to the convent, school adventures, and romances, these five girls are an enjoyable handful for their kindly, widowed father.  But Thérèse, because she loves her family, discovers that one of her sisters might unwittingly prevent her dearest wish from coming true.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Still musing about Coke for a nickel

The coincidences continue (a week later, see HERE, where I wrote about Coca-Cola coincidences).  I was reading Out of Time by Caroline B. Cooney (1996), and the main character had time traveled to 1898 (p. 74). On the opposite page, I read this:

She didn't have to figure out how to buy a ticket; her driver and the porter accomplished this. She did buy a Coke, which cost a nickel. It made her happy to buy a Coke in a glass bottle and pay five cents for it.

What I'm re-reading next

Out of Time ~ by Caroline B. Cooney, 1996, YA fiction, 210 pages

Strat, the wealthy boy with whom Annie fell in love during her first time trip to the 1890s, needs her help when he reveals her real origin and finds himself confined in a mental asylum.  The back cover says:

Annie Lockwood exists; everyone admits it.  Everyone has seen her.  But only Strat insists that Miss Lockwood traveled a hundred years back in time to be with them in 1895.  Now Strat is paying an enormous price; his father has declared him insane and had him locked away in an asylum.  When Time calls Annie back to save Strat, she does not hesitate, even though her family is falling apart and desperately needs her.  Can Annie save the boy she loves, or will her choice keep her a trespasser out of time?

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.