Posted inCurrent affairs Philosophy

Sweating and crying through the National Spelling Bee

There was quite a bit of sweating and crying going on during the National Spelling Bee finals today. Not so much among the contestants—they mostly were calm and composed. I was the one with jangling nerves and teary eyes during the competition. I’d never watched the National Spelling Bee before. I needed some mindless TV entertainment to pay bills by, so I channel-surfed my way to ESPN. It took me a long time to write the checks once I got hooked on the highly mindful spelling competition. I couldn’t take my eyes off of the children who strode one by…
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Posted inWriting/Weblogs

PostSecret, a confessional blog

A NYTimes.com article, “Bless Me Blog, for I’ve Sinned,” pointed me to the PostSecret weblog where anonymous 4x6 confessional postcards are displayed. They’re wonderfully creative and moving. You need to see the artwork pasted on most of the cards to get the full impact of the PostSecrets. But here’s a sampling of words: “My older sister has tried to kill herself three (3) times. Sometimes I wish she’d succeeded.” “I make up fantasy stories because my real life sucks. And now my fantasy life is starting to suck, too.” “Sometimes I think that other people are reading my thoughts so…
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Posted inFamily

My daughter redeems her hiking-self

After poking some fun at my daughter, Celeste, for letting Laurel and me leave her panting breathlessly in our dust during a hike in L.A.’s Runyon Canyon, I’m pleased to report that Celeste redeemed her hiking-self yesterday. She and husband Patrick flew up to spend what I had hoped would be a pleasant sunny Memorial Day weekend in Oregon. Pleasant it was; sunny it wasn’t. Nevertheless, we took them up to the Little North Santiam trail, guided by William Sullivan’s recently updated great book “100 Hikes in the Central Oregon Cascades.” Though Celeste and Patrick had looked wonderfully fit and…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Oregon House Republicans score a triple outrage

Before Laurel and I enter into our mellow yin Memorial Day weekend mood, it was balancing to experience some yang outrage this morning after reading a Statesman Journal story: “GOP sidesteps public on hunting bill.” I’ve got to hand it to the Oregon House Republicans. It isn’t easy to score a triple outrage, but they managed to do it through an amendment to a bill that would let counties overturn statewide voter-approved restrictions on cougar and bear hunting. A House committee approved the bill without advance notice, undoubtedly because if environmental and animal-rights activists had known about this move ahead…
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Posted inEntertainment

Carl’s Jr. Paris Hilton ad

Driving around in the car yesterday we heard a couple of talk show hosts, KEX’s Mark and Dave, tackle a pressing question: Is the new Carl’s Jr. “Spicy Burger” Paris Hilton ad soft-core pornography or savvy marketing? Though we hadn’t seen the ad, we figured that if the Parent’s Television Council disapproved of it, we’d like it. And then—praise God!—last night the ad appeared while I was watching a recording of the final two-hour “24” episode. After several watchings of a scantily-clad Paris Hilton washing a Bentley and chomping on a burger to the tune of “I love Paris in…
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Posted inRecreation

Getting the newspaper in Camp Sherman

I’ve taken over getting the morning newspaper when we’re at our cabin in Camp Sherman. This used to be Laurel’s responsibility. She'd drive to the store before going for a walk with Serena, our dog. But with my new Taoist sensibilities, I figure it’s more real for me to be riding my bike in the cool central Oregon air than sitting on my butt at the kitchen table, waiting for the newspaper to appear, drinking coffee and reading, in a Tao Te Ching book, about the benefits of living more naturally. It’s a whole two miles to the Camp Sherman…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Philosophy

God must be a Buddhist

Laurel and I are finding it difficult to practice Christian compassion. First problem: we’re not Christians. Second problem: it’s hard to be compassionate toward Christians when so many of them act like fools. Case in point, our nation’s Christian-in-Chief, President Bush. He is threatening to veto legislation that would loosen restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Bush calls himself pro-life, but he doesn’t want to promote research that promises cures for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other degenerative brain and nerve diseases. Bush’s own Christian compassion is constrained inside the tiny box of Christian fundamentalism, where crazy ideas are…
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Posted inMiscellany

Corporation Compliance Recorder scam

It looks like the Corporate Compliance Recorder scam described by the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau has made its way to Oregon. In the mail today I found this official-looking envelope addressed to the non-profit community association that I’m the secretary for. I believe this is the time our annual corporation fee is due, so at first I thought the mailing was for real. But the $95 fee was steep, and I’d never heard of a requirement to disclose annual minutes. Of course, there isn’t such a requirement. These scammers on Market Street are hoping that people don’t read the…
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Posted inPhilosophy Science

Me and the Milky Way

I’m trying to put my problems into perspective. New Scientist magazine is helping me out. The current issue has a great article on the Milky Way galaxy. This is where I live. You too. When I consider the big picture, really big, of what surrounds us, earthly aggravations look a lot less immense. In my saner moments, I’m able to juxtapose what gripes me with the galactic point of view. Then I see how miniscule are the mole hills that I’ve been regarding as mountains. [All quotes are from the New Scientist article.] I’m going to be fifty-seven this year.…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Salem is #1 in Wal-Marts!

Like my fellow Salem blogger Trey, I too was thrilled beyond words (until now, obviously) when I picked up today’s Statesman-Journal newspaper and saw the front page story: “3rd Wal-Mart fills racks: Salem will have more Wal-Marts than any other city in Oregon.” Recently Laurel and I had been talking about what new businesses we’d like to see in Salem so our quality of life could be improved. We mused, perhaps a Trader Joes? A Whole Foods Market? Or a Middle Eastern restaurant? We were thinking so inside the box. More precisely, inside such a small box. I realized that…
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Posted inHome life

I’m getting softer with age

The older I get, the softer I become. And I’m happy about it. Let me hasten to point out that I’m speaking about my martial arts training, not, um, something else. For nine years I labored in the field of a Shotokan karate dojo. Shotokan is one of the hardest of the hard-styles. I then transplanted myself to the Pacific Martial Arts Academy here in Salem, where, for about four years, I cultivated the mixed-style approach taught by Warren Allen—a blend of karate, jujitsu, aikido, weapons training, and other disciplines. Now I’ve thrown myself into nurturing the seed of Tai…
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Posted inWriting/Weblogs

Blogmobile

Here's a depiction of the Blogmobile concept car, courtesy of the April 4, 2005 The New Yorker. The driver kind of looks like me. Given how much time I spend on my weblogs, my wife probably would say "It is you!"
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

Oregon’s climatologist still a Pollyanna on global warming

While we were in Camp Sherman last week I picked up the Bend “Bulletin” and saw a front page story about a talk by Oregon’s climatologist, George Taylor. I’ve written before about how Taylor denies that manmade greenhouse gases are causing global warming, thus putting him at odds with the vast majority of scientists studying the earth’s climate. The story, “Expert says state drought just a blip,” shows that Taylor is still going around spreading disinformation about the reality of global warming. He was quoted as saying, “We don't really understand climate. (The data) doesn't say humans don't have an…
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Posted inWriting/Weblogs

Ultimate rejection letter

Last month I was excited to receive an ultimate rejection letter from Beacon Press. Like most writers I’m a connoisseur of rejection letters. Since I’ve received so many, I figure I might as well appreciate them. I’d sent a copy of my book, “Return to the One,” off to Beacon Press, The University of Chicago Press, and the State University of New York Press. I told them that on Amazon it was currently the #1 best selling title about the Greek mystic philosopher Plotinus. And this was with very minimal publicity/promotion. I candidly admitted that I’d probably been wrong to…
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Posted inFamily

One hour with my father

Here’s a contrarian Mother’s Day story about the one hour I spent with my father. Note: the one hour, period. This wasn’t the best or worst hour, nor the happiest or saddest hour. It was the only hour I spent face-to-face with him. Well, not counting a bunch of hours when I was a baby that I can’t remember. These are the only photos that I have of my father, John Hines. They always have been part of my Baby Book. I used to stare at them a lot when I was a kid, wondering what my father was like.…
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Posted inNeighborhood

Messing with mallard natural selection

Laurel, avid animal lover that she is, can’t resist messing around with natural selection. Today she put up this sign at our nearby Spring Lake, warning people that a wild duck, or mallard, has chosen to lay her eggs in a highly public spot (maybe she’s an exhibitionist). Before showing you the nest, I want to point out the professional quality of this sign. It’s good to know that, if all else fails, we can always open up a sign shop. Laurel contributed the printing, the UPS man brought us the cardboard, and I thought of the protective cling wrap.…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Amazing! I enjoy Fox News

Fox News usually is the news network that I love to hate. I watch it in lieu of aerobic exercise, because the unfair and unbalanced Fox News style does such a good job of getting my heart racing. But today I enjoyed how anchor Shepard Smith handled two stories: the Texas state House’s approval of a bill that bans suggestive cheerleading and a provision in Congress’ Real ID Act that allows the Homeland Security secretary to unilaterally suspend federal laws. It seems that long-awaited cracks are starting to appear in what used to be monolithic Republican support for conservative policies.…
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Posted inPhilosophy Recreation

Poor us

Yesterday Laurel and I felt sorry for ourselves. You probably won’t feel sorry for us. But then, you’re not us. If you were us, pretty obviously you’d feel like just us. And even though you’re you and we are ourselves, I bet you’ve engaged in some similar feeling-sorryness that appears ridiculous to anyone else but you. Here’s the deal: wanting knows no bounds. I realize this philosophically. The Buddha clearly explained how desire leads to suffering, and I’ve read my share of Buddhist books. But it isn’t until I’m face to face with a concrete example of how my wanting…
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Posted inRecreation

Metolius River traffic and weather report

Reporting from the shores of the Metolius River in Camp Sherman, Oregon, just a few hundred yards from the head of the Metolius, and just a few hours late (hey, I’m on Camp Sherman time): Nobody is on the trails. Except two people and a dog. One of whom (not the dog) says that walking traffic is flowing freely. Just like the rain. Cool 53 degrees rain. And that’s your Metolius River traffic and weather report. 5:30 pm, May 1, 2005.
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