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Category Archives: Current Activities

The Garden

Posted on April 23, 2015 by Bill 2 comments

I am married to an artist. She paints, she writes (lately, haiku), is doing lots of cooking with our new kitchen, and she gardens. It’s spring, so a lot of our effort is going into the garden. I willingly garden, but it is mostly the labor part. I dig, I built a cold frame and re-glazed it, I water and help plant. I do not, however decide what to plant or where. I am getting better at pruning with my left-handed Felco Pruner. I mow, compost, rake, clean up, water, and haul.

We are landscaping in back, so lots of things are changing. We have a nice new patio with a pergola. The iris are already in along the fence and in the alley just outside.

The project this week is raspberries. We had a 15 foot long cedar planter built just in front of the big blank slab of a garage wall that is YELLOW. I prepared the planter soil with compost made from last falls leaves and a lot of coffee grounds from the coffee shops. The raspberries will get fairly high and will break up that expanse of garage. We were planning to have the raspberries planted by the pros but Carol got a call from a woman she met at a class offering free raspberries.

Raspberries

We jumped in my pickup and went over to their garden in what used to be a run-down neighborhood between I-25 and Highlands. It is being transformed with new construction, but still retains some of the flavor of what it used to be. We dug up about fifteen plants, brought them home and planted them. They were bare root, so some of them are looking pretty droopy, but I think they will make it. My job is to set some eight foot cedar posts and run wires between them to support the raspberry canes. The bushes can get about six to eight feet tall. I can’t wait to have fresh raspberries in my muffins.

Our perennials are doing fine. We were a bit worried after that early hard freeze we had last fall. Even Carol’s attempt to clone the Pacific Northwest with a salal plant and some azaleas survived. There is a deciduous bush next to the front door that is supposed to be evergreen that lost all its leaves. It has lots of little buds and a few leaves, so I think it will be all right.

One of the things we are getting done in front is putting big rocks and some perennials on the slope from the lawn down to the sidewalk. I am not getting any stronger, and that slope is hard to mow. It also gets dry in summer, as it faces west.

Our Little Free Library is up and running. It is one of the features on the slope. It is so much fun going out to check the books. We get quite a bit of business, but no problem, because people keep bringing us books. It’s painful, but I am culling some of my books. It seems like some of my soul goes with them. I hope they will enrich the soul of their next owner. It is good, life as a householder.

Posted in Current Activities, Gardening, Haiku, Home Improvement, Little Free Library, My Story, Planting Raspberries, Stories

The Trouble With Politics

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Bill Leave a comment

Money

The biggest political problem we are facing is the influence of money. Politicians need lots of money to get elected and those with a lot of money can buy influence. The individuals and groups with a lot of money tend to have one foremost goal: more money.

The Money People tend to support politicians who can help them get more money. The State of the Union, the world, and the environment are secondary. The priorities are wrong. I don’t know the answer, because it is up to Congress to get big money out of politics and the politicians need money. Maybe it has to come from a constitutional convention initiated by the state legislatures. That is a problem because those legislators need money to get elected.

Big problem.

Posted in Current Activities, Money, Politics, Stories

Beware of Cats

Posted on March 16, 2015 by Bill Leave a comment

Cat Trapped in a Folk Music Environment

It started innocently enough. I like to get on Facebook, and some of the people I am friends with are into the animal rescue thing. Lots of cute pictures of cats and dogs. I didn’t pay much attention to them until this great cat picture appeared. I liked it, laughed, and shared it on my page.

It is important when using social media to avoid posting material one might regret later. I have ADD, and one characteristic of my condition is impulsivity. I get myself into trouble. I don’t do Twitter as a result. I also watch my behavior on Facebook and have seldom made a fool of myself. But, I posted a cat picture.

This time, however, it all went bad. I haven’t posted anything rash, but that one act, posting a cat picture, has led to my moral decline. I look at too many animal pictures, Like them, and even follow links. Even more dangerously, I find myself following ever more decadent Internet pages. Stories about Kardashians! Jenners! Brad and Angelina! Republicans! Media liars!

I have worthwhile things to do with my life, but my time is increasingly going to meaningless pursuits. I even found myself looking at The Enquirer in the checkout line yesterday. I fear that I may even start watching reality TV shows. Oh, the horror! Will I switch from The New York Times to the Daily Mail? Watch Good Morning America?

My worst nightmare is watching Fox News. I have managed to avoid that so far, but I feel myself weakening. I used to avoid most sports writing and programming, but I found myself talking to my wife about Lance Armstrong this morning. I also tend to follow attractive woman athletes. Mixing my weaknesses together.

Will I have to have ESPN now? Will I find myself at Nuggets and Avalanche games? Will I start following the sports betting lines from Las Vegas? Even worse, will I be at Caesars Palace instead of Carnegie Hall?

Remember, Dear Reader, that a cat caused this crisis.

Posted in Cats, Current Activities, Humor, Memoirs, Moral Decline, My Story, Stories, unjustified Fears

Little Free Library

Posted on March 1, 2015 by Bill Leave a comment

Little Free Library

Have you seen them? These cute and brightly painted little houses are to be found in front yards all over town. Bigger than a birdhouse, but much too small for a child’s playhouse, Little Free Libraries are popping up everywhere. In fact, pretty soon Bill and I are going to have one in our front yard too!

Can you tell that I am excited? I first ran across the Little Free Library concept on line sometime last fall. As soon as I read about them, I knew I had to have one. A career as a librarian always came up on the Strong Vocational Interest test when I was in school, and now I am finally going to be one.

Right now our Little Free Library is sitting on a table in our new garage waiting for the final coats of bright red paint and protective glaze. While the snow flies, it is too cold to paint. Instead, I turn to my advance review copy of The Little Free Library Book by Margaret Aldrich (Coffee House Press, 2015).

If I can’t paint, I can read about other LFL librarians around the world who are finding so many pleasures in establishing small colorful libraries and sharing a love of books and reading with friends, neighbors and passing strangers. I’ve learned that I wouldn’t have a chance to join this global community if not for Todd Bol of Hudson, Wisconsin who built the first library in 2009 as a memorial to his book loving mother. His library is No. 1. Ours, received in January, 2015, is No. 21,265.

My favorite thing about this book is the many photographs of LFLs set up along city streets, suburban lawns and country roads from Bellingham to Bogota and other unexpected places around the world. Many are elaborately decorated and embellished, but others are created out of found objects like discarded kitchen cabinets and even old microwaves.

Another exciting thing about the libraries is their power to build community. Some librarians (they are called “stewards”) comment that they meet more people in a week since their library went up than they have met since they moved in to their neighborhood. A big part of the fun is seeing who stops to poke through the books, which of the books are taken and what new books appear.

The Little Free Library Book contains suggestions for inviting others participation in library activities from a grand opening ceremony to organizing bike trips to visit other libraries nearby. One steward met a family who had organized their vacation to visit LFL’s in distant communities. What about making room for the distribution of original writing or setting up a small seed sharing project?

The Little Free Library Book offers many practical suggestions from how to install a counter to track visits to your library to how to deal with books that no one takes out or how to respond to problems that might come up with neighbors or city authorities. While problems have arisen in some places, mostly the reception is very positive. The Los Angeles Police Department has gone so far as to install LFL’s at their stations to encourage better community relations.

You might want to buy your LFL from the website or, if you want to build your own, there are detailed plans to be found in The Little Free Library Book. You can even find information on knitting your library a custom designed sweater!

By now you can tell that the LFL community is a zany and wildly creative bunch. The Little Free Library Book is an exciting report filled with beautiful photos, great stories and inspiring ideas. It’s worth a read even if you don’t want your own library. But beware. If you don’t want one now, you will after reading this book. Look for it in April, 2015. You can look for my library then too.

This is a guest post. My wife Carol wrote it. I am very much involved in the project, but Carol won’t let me paint.

Posted in Books, Current Activities, Home Improvement, Little Free Library, Stories, Winter

College Towns

Posted on February 10, 2015 by Bill One comment

I have lived in college towns for most of my life. They tend to be more liberal, have a vibrant cultural life, and steady infusions of young people having some of the best years of their lives. The energy inspires me.

Grand Junction, Boulder, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, even Greeley are all good college towns. Here in Denver we live near the University of Denver. I drink coffee and write in a coffee shop near the campus. I write mornings, and the shop has a rush every hour when classes change.

We go to concerts at the Newman Center on the DU campus. The student productions from the Lamont School of Music are always a lot of fun. The musicians are excellent, and the operas are good, but the student voices are not always top quality. I always want to hear Baroque music, and we go to concerts put on by Friends of Chamber Music.

The Newman Center also regularly presents professional artists from most everywhere. Most notable recently are Cameron Carpenter, a wildly flamboyant and talented organist. We just saw The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, a post-modern dance group from New York. I was entranced by the dancers and the music, performed by Lamont students.

I am a little sad because Carol now refuses to ever see The Nutcracker again, and this year she would not go to see Oklahoma! I just don’t know what is wrong with her. When we lived on Capitol Hill we went to some productions at The Denver Center of Performing Arts, but the events at DU are less expensive and the Newman Center is one of the best venues anywhere.

I am not much for sporting events, but DU’s Lacrosse team is good and I have seen several games. It’s a good game, fast, with more scoring than soccer, making it more fun to watch. The crowds are fun as well, with a lot of youth lacrosse players watching the college boys. There are always some fans of the other teams as well, because Denver draws people from all over the country. It is also good that DU dropped football in the1950’s. I used to watch Colorado College hockey when I lived in Colorado Springs, but haven’t been to a DU game yet.

Denver is a big city with several colleges. Some of the colleges have neighborhoods that are part of the big city but qualify as college towns. The area around DU is an example. The Auraria complex has CU Denver, Metro, and Community College of Denver, with many more students than DU, but the area is a downtown complex, with most of the students commuting. There is no college town feel there.

Washington Park

Capitol Hill has some of the feel, with a young population and a diverse, eclectic cluster of communities, but no college of any size. DU, however, has dorms, lots of apartments, rental houses, and fraternities and sororities. A real resident population, much like Boulder, Greeley, and Fort Collins. People walk, go to events, party, and hang out in bars,restaurants, and coffee houses. I didn’t know how much I missed all that until we moved into the neighborhood. Evans Avenue, University Boulevard, Old South Pearl, Washington Park, and Observatory Park are places that tie the community together, with a fine University at the center. I lived near Colorado College in Colorado Springs that had much the same feel, just on a smaller scale.

College towns, my favorite urban settings, I want to live in them always.

Posted in College Towns, Current Activities, Memoirs, My Story, Stories, University of Denver, Writing

The Meaning of Life

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Bill 2 comments

Sitting in the coffee shop I see that the meaning of life for the two year old running around the room is love, connection, and the joy of moving. That little boy, expressing sheer joy, has managed to communicate that feeling to everyone in the room. That is as it should be, and is probably as far as we really need to go.

As we get older, it gets more complicated. Pain, loss, death, and suffering come into our lives. Finding Meaning in the midst of suffering is difficult for many of us. Many people find their meaning in following. They follow gods, rulers, gurus, preachers, the girl next door, teachers, or their family and tribe.

Some of us, however, refuse to follow. One of my mottoes is “Don’t trust anyone who says he knows the will of God.” I prefer to think for myself. I search for answers and have for as long as I can remember. I am 72 years old and I am still searching. I have had a number of peak experiences. These experiences have come in several contexts, Christian, Buddhist, chemical, and in nature.

Every experience was life changing, giving me a new way of seeing and being. Sometimes they are brief, fleeting. Other times I have dwelled in the grasp of divine love for as long as a year. I have prayed without ceasing, done mindfulness meditation, spoken in tongues, laughed in ecstasy, cried with joy, and had years of no spiritual connection at all.

I know that a spiritual connection does not have to come in any specific religious context. I do not, however, know how to maintain that connection all the time. It is just not “After enlightenment, the laundry.” It is not being able to sustain a practice for a sustained period.

Do I lack discipline? No. I have maintained a discipline for an extended time and had an event that broke the connection. Am I a spiritual dilettante? It seems so. Most of the time,however, I am a spiritual nobody.

It’s a mystery. I know without any doubt that there is more to life and being than this round rock we ride through space. I have seen the eternal web of universal connection and oneness. I have been wrapped, enveloped in God’s love. I have received spiritual gifts. I have shared those gifts.

Now it seems that my task is to live in the world as a householder and writer. I do a ten minute meditation every morning and that’s it. Most of the time the meditation is clutter. Sometimes I get an experience of complete peace. That, for now, is enough.

I am not called to lead, to take action in the world. I learn, reflect, write a little, try my best to be a good husband and friend. I have family, which is saying a lot, as I come from a family with weak ties. Today the ties are strong and growing. Love.

Another task before me is to smooth out the bumps in my brain. I get angry, irritable. I obsess about meaningless things. I get depressed. I forget and procrastinate. I eat too much and don’t exercise. Lots to do. It is time to be in the world and find meaning here, not out there.

Posted in Current Activities, Memoirs, My Story, Stories

Winter Blues

Posted on January 17, 2015 by Bill One comment

Winter Blues

Here it is January. It was cloudy and snowy for days. The sun is shining today, but bleakly. Christmas and the rest of the holidays are over. They served as a temporary lift from the dark, depressing days of winter that every year remind us of the inevitable destiny we all share.

But, no, it isn’t all bad, just mostly. I don’t know why, but my regular seasonal depression is worse this year. I started feeling flat and unhappy sometime around Halloween, a holiday that was started to point out the return of darkness, the time when the spirits of the underworld again manifest here in our vale of tears. Recent news events have not helped.

For weeks I could not write, and painful memories and feelings arose. I read worthless trash, and was even drawn to watching mainstream television programs (I mostly resisted). I was crabby, restless, and had trouble sleeping. In times past when the melancholy struck, I would turn to drink, but I know it is only a temporary bit of oblivion that makes the everyday reality even more painful.

I got my meds changed, and the depression has lifted enough to allow me to write and get out of the house for a movie (Into the Woods). I feel a bit better, and the return of the sun is helping.

Abraham Lincoln said that the secret of happiness is happiness. That is true but he remained a melancholy. Maybe we have these times to remind us of the good times we so often take for granted. Maybe depressions force us to go inward, to leave daily life out there and look into those corners of our being we try to ignore.

Carl Jung wrote about the need to integrate the shadow, that part of the psyche that lurks behind the face we try to present to the world. If that part of the personality is ignored, it will surface as beliefs and acts that seem to be the opposite of who we want to be. The tragedies of twentieth century point out how the shadow operates in society as well as in the individual.

Depression brings the shadow out, especially at 3:00 AM. When it happens to me, I get to look at the events in my life I regret. I have to acknowledge that I have hurt people, been a bully, lied, shirked responsibility, had rage episodes, cheated, stolen, and overslept. If one tries to bury the dark side, it will surface in a more virulent form.

Learning to accept my shadow allows me to see when it wants to come out, and I am better able to deal with it. Carol, my wife, calls it the other Bill. Now my shadow mostly surfaces as irritability. I usually am able to recognize it and deal with it before I make a big ass out of myself. Depression makes me more irritable.

Today I am sitting in the doctors office while Carol has a procedure. With a few days of the medication change and some sunshine, the depression has eased somewhat, even with less sleep than normal. I think things are improving, even with the bad coffee here.

Posted in Current Activities, Depression, Memoirs, My Story, Stories, Winter, Writing

Terror

Posted on January 10, 2015 by Bill Leave a comment

Paris Terror

The events in Paris this week bring back memories of all the terrorist incidents we have lived through for many years. Why? Why kill innocent people for some cause they have nothing to do with, or they are only making fun of political situations?

Terrorism works. The goal of terror is to put a spotlight on a cause, to get people emotionally involved in an issue they would not usually care about. They become passionate and affiliate themselves with the side of the conflict they agree with. The middle ground, where truth usually resides, becomes obscured as fear and rage take over.

Most people are reasonable and just want to live and let live, whether Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Protestant, Catholic, black, brown, white, wealthy, middle, or working class. Terrorism divides people into opposite camps, where people view others as suspicious and dangerous. The others must be controlled, removed, or eliminated. There is no longer any room for dialog.

This depiction is somewhat extreme. We have seen decades of terror and hate end in Ireland as the two sides finally stopped the killing mostly out of sheer exhaustion and the work of excellent negotiators. An example of where terror achieved its end was in 1950s Algeria, when years of bombings, repression, and hate in Algeria and France ended with Algerian independence.

The Battle of Algiers, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Algiers a movie about that struggle, illustrates how terror works. It has become either a textbook of terrorism or a lesson for those who wish to end the process of fear and hate. Algeria was a French colony with a large population of relatively wealthy French amid a large population of mostly poor Muslim Arabs who resented French rule.

An Arab liberation movement began a campaign of terror, bombing public places where French people gathered. The French army responded with a policy of repression. People were arrested and tortured, curfews imposed, matters escalated and the bombings began in France, especially Paris. The polarization, radicalization, and repression escalated as well, finally ending when the French government under DeGaulle granted independence to Algeria.

The parallels with Israel and Palestine are obvious. The situation there is so divided that many view any peaceable resolution as unlikely, at least in the short run. In Europe, the parallel is with Muslims living in a secular culture that are marginalized and discriminated against, just as the Catholic minority was in Northern Ireland.

The reasons for terror are not only religion. Religion often becomes the justification for acts of terror, but race, class, ethnicity, and alienation are often the underlying reasons. What is needed is tolerance, dialog, and human connection.

Keep calm and carry on.

Posted in Current Activities, Fear, Polarization, Stories, Terrorism

Riding in Cars

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Bill Leave a comment

Bad Drivers

The holidays are always stressful, and we find ourselves going places with family members we don’t often ride with. I have to confess that I am a terrible passenger. They aren’t doing it right, going too fast, and not paying attention. I am, of course, without peer as a driver.

I have been in several accidents but there were always extenuating circumstances. The people I ride with have had less accidents, but they are lucky. I just do not understand why they won’t follow my lead and drive properly. My gentle, caring suggestions go unheeded and are often received with hostility.

Oh, the injustice, the way they treat me when I have the best of intentions. I only wish to share my vast experience and expertise. Unfortunately, I have to resort to cowering in my seat as they recklessly endanger me with their driving. They especially resent it when I stomp on my imaginary brake pedal when they aren’t stopping when they should.

This is bad for my mental health, forced to live with the fear and anxiety they create in my delicate psyche. The worst part is not being allowed to express my panic at being put in one life-threatening situation after another.

Christmas Eve we went to see Theory of Everything, one of the best movies I have seen in some time. On the way home, Steve drove us around the University Park area to look at all the wonderful Holiday light displays. It was difficult to enjoy the lights knowing my life was in danger with the reckless 10mph driving I was forced to endure.

I do prefer to drive, but my family members, usually loving and caring, are united in disliking my driving. I always resolve to be especially careful when I have passengers, not honking or giving the finger to other drivers, but no one seems to appreciate my selfless generosity.

Is there no justice? Am I doomed so suffer at the hands of my loved ones? I only want to do what is right and good. (That sentence seems familiar. Oh yes, George III.) I find myself driving alone, meaning I am always searching for ways to help other drivers improve their skills. They seem unwilling to learn.

Oh, well, I guess I will just have to take other’s driving as a test of my equanimity. It is strange that the tests come so often.

Posted in Current Activities, Family History, Holiday Lights, My Story, Stories

A Trip to Hell

Posted on December 27, 2014 by Bill Leave a comment

Hell Frozen Over

Tuesday I went to Hell. The other name for Hell in Denver is Park Meadows Mall. Nothing Dante imagined can compare to the real thing. Every year I resolve to do all my shopping early and every year I find myself among the throngs.

I had two goals, go to The Tattered Cover Bookstore in Highlands Ranch (Purgatory) and then on to Hell. I am experiencing something of a seasonal depression and my new meds haven’t kicked in yet. When I am depressed I am also irritable, which interferes with rational thinking and civilized driving. I am able to control one, but not both.

I concentrated on my driving behavior and got lost. It was snowing, and I couldn’t see the mountains. I have been to the bookstore down there several times, but not Tuesday. Consult the map or the GPS? Who, me?

So I wandered through the suburban desert to where I thought Park Meadows should be. Behold, I was on the wrong side of C-470. I was able to find Quebec Street and struggle through the traffic to Park Meadows. If you have never been there, the streets were laid out by Satan. There is no rational pattern to the traffic flow, especially when every car in the Metro Area was there. People were pretty nice to one another in their cars, so the Season’s spirit was operating to some degree.

I got lucky and found a good parking place which turned out to be on the opposite side of

Styx

my destination. I had the opportunity of traversing the entire place. Full of people, packed, glutted, overloaded, crammed, and crowded. Some shopping, many just getting out of the house. There were lots of young Marines just out of boot camp. There were probably G.I.’s as well, but with enough sense to be in civilian clothes.

The general mood was festive and happy. My experience of Cherry Creek Mall is more negative. People seem more hurried and unfriendly. I was able to do my shopping and make my way back to my car. I took secondary streets home to avoid the traffic. I was even able to calm down a bit. Still could not find the Tattered Cover. Look at the map or consult the GPS? No.

Next day I was able to finish my shopping on Colorado Boulevard, Denver’s busiest street, but less frantic than Hell. Will I be able to do my shopping earlier next Christmas? Probably not, but I will do my best to avoid Hell.

Posted in Current Activities, My Story, Stories

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