“The World Without Us”

   I just finished reading a fascinating book: The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman (St. Martin’s Press, 2007).  Perhaps I should qualify by explaining I also find geology books fascinating, and books about how things work, and I loved that TV series Connections (hosted by James Burke).  Weisman was handed the premise, “What would happen if humans disappeared everywhere?”  It fascinated him, and he began a LOT of research in preparation for writing an answer: this book.  He writes about a primeval forest in Poland called Bialowieza Puszcza, and about Kingman Reef (part of a tiny Pacific archipelago), and submits them as indicators of what the world might be without us.  He describes how buildings, subways, bridges, roads, artwork, petroleum refineries — everything — will eventually decay, and what the consequences will be.   He writes about how we have changed ecologies with the importation of plants and animals and microbes, and which natural species might survive and which might not.  He suggests most pets will not survive (becoming food for the wild animals), but that cats will probably go feral and continue.  (They are mostly feral already.)  There are interesting bits about how Nature spreads and migrates, even with the world as it is now.  Do you know coyotes and a wild turkey have made it into Central Park in New York?  And that various wild animals have recolonized areas humans have destroyed, such as Rocky Flats (where they built detonators for atomic bombs), the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, and Chernobyl?  Or that there are underground cities in Cappadocia, Turkey, built thousands of years ago in lava tuft?

I think the chapter that has the most impact on me is “Polymers Are Forever,” about how plastics were created and how long they last.  Forever.  Even when we recycle, their manufacture creates waste that lasts forever.  And a very small percentage of all that plastic actually gets recycled.  Weisman wrote about gyres in the oceans (zones of no movement) where the water is covered with plastic that ends up in the ocean, often many feet thick.  And tiny pieces of plastic that get eaten, killing creatures up and down the food chain (even krill).  Believe me, after reading this chapter you will think twice about buying anything that is made of plastic, and Reduce/Reuse/Recycle will become your mantra.

For more information about The World Without Us I urge you to visit their website: www.worldwithouus.com .  The book has an extensive bibliography and an index.  :-)  Unless you are an environmental scientist, it is highly likely you will learn things you didn’t know (and perhaps even if you are).  This is a good book — one I occasionally had to put down (because it overwhelmed me), but I always picked it back up again.

Moon hunger

   I miss the Moon.  Thanks to a LOT of rain and overcast skies, and my stay in the hospital, I haven’t seen her since she was a thin, waxing crescent.  Sunday night on the West Coast of the U.S.  she will be a Waning Half Moon.

I’ve read a lot about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), and have a special sun lamp in my study, doubling as a desk lamp.  Even the DSM-IV-TR has a Seasonal Pattern Specifier for various mood disorders that include depression.  But all the research is on the effect of sunlight (or the lack) on mood.  No one writes about lack of moonlight. 

Not seeing the Moon affects my Soul.  I know she is up there; I imagine her shining on the tops of all these clouds.  But I want to SEE her.  The cool caress of the Moon’s gaze reminds me a power greater than humans is in charge of the Earth, the universe.  Yes, I’m well aware the Moon is a ball of matter similar to the minerals of the Earth.  But for me she also represents something beyond our rational minds, beyond even our unconscious minds (represented in the Moon card in tarot).   She feeds my Soul, reassures me.  I’m hungry for sight of the Moon.

Holiday correspondence

   One of the things I enjoy most about this time of year is that we often receive cards, letters, emails, or even phone calls from people we may rarely hear from.  We’ve also received photos, and in one case a DVD card featuring clips of a growing child.  I like all this communication, and anything that encourages it is okay with me.  I’ve always been a letter writer, and when I was younger imagined myself with friends around the world, with whom I shared letters and thoughts, and learned more about different ways of looking at everything.  Electronic communication has made it easier, though not always faster.  (You still have to write something before you can send it.)  I have a good friend in Japan, and more friends in Argentina, Greece, and the United Kingdom.  Thanks to a couple discussion lists, I have other aquaintances in other countries, and am not always aware of where they are.  Thanks to the internet, have found people from my past and caught up on what is happening with them.

The holiday letters people often write at this time of year are always interesting, as much because of what they have chosen to include versus the information itself.  Usually it has something in it about what they are doing and/or how the extended family is doing.  Some letters include health issues (sometimes ad nauseam), and some don’t.  Hobbies often get mentioned, or a new animal member of the family.  Trips taken are usually interesting.  Because several of the hoidays at this time of year are religious, religous themes may be hinted or even preached.  Must admit, I was tempted to get political with our letter this year, just inserting a small slogan photo as part of the letter, but my husband helped me remember the idea is to share family news, not get on the cases of various family members who helped put the current administration into office.  Sigh …

So if you sent a card, letter, or email to someone this season, or made that phone call you’ve been putting off, thank you!  We need each other, so we can learn and grow and work toward healing the world and each other.    Namaste.

The wrong side of a hospital room . . .

    Over the years I’ve spent some time in hospitals, but except for a very brief Emergency Room visit it has always been as a visitor.  (Okay, I was there for our son’s birth, and there was a one-day visit for some elective surgery, but the most recent was 27 years ago.)  The week before Christmas I had some abdominal pains that turned out to be a perforated ulcer (I didn’t even know I HAD one!), and there I was on the wrong side of a hospital room — lying IN the bed, rather than sitting or standing on the other side of the room.  It’s quite a different viewpoint.  For one thing, it was difficult to judge how tall people are.  Until I was being discharged and standing up, I didn’t realize I am a couple inches taller than the doctor who handled my case.  And I really let go of any remaining tendency to judge people by how they look.  What became more important was their attitude as they had to do something they realized was unpleasant, or their willingness to help the confused woman across the hall who needed help with everything. 

I wound up spending five days at Sutter Coast Hospital.  It’s a small facility (47-59 beds, depending on the source), with an Intensive Care Unit, obstetrics unit, full surgery unit, and the medical unit.  They can handle a lot of things, but for really specialized care people are often flown to Medford (Oregon) or San Francisco.  They have a well-deserved good reputation, though it was hard-won.  The old Seaside Hosopital was so bad everyone called it Suicide Hospital (which is why our son was born 70 miles north of here), and when Sutter took it over and then moved into this new facility, it took a long time for the local residents to allow that it might be a good hospital.  They have good doctors now, and nurses and technicians who know what they are doing and care about people.  The surgeon who was assigned to me while I was still in ER is Dr. Susan S. Schommer, and I credit her with getting me well without surgery.  She paid attention to the signals my body was sending, ruled out several possible diagnoses, and ordered actions (with my agreement) that allowed my body to heal itself more rapidly.  And she has a great sense of humor.  :-)  The nurses and CNAs (Certified Nursing Assistant, I think) were pleasant and competent: Deena, Kathrine, Marina, Ann, Megan, and Larry immediately come to mind, and others whose faces I can see but their names escape me.  There was one lovely woman who got all the things together for me to take a nice hot shower, and even found me some lotion that smelled heavenly.  :-)  [Hot showers rank high up there with the most pleasant things in life.]

It is amazing how much importance the little things take on when so much is stripped away from you.  [Not a new idea, I know, but one I haven't experienced much of in the last 15 years, thankfully.]  I couldn’t have anything by mouth for the first three days, and when they allowed me to have ice chips on the fourth day they tasted SO good!  And the shower I mentioned above.  At first I had so many wires and tubes hooked up (I felt like an astronaut) that I had to have help with the bathroom.  It felt good to be able to finally handle that on my own.  When they finally decided I could begin a liquid, bland diet that cup of chicken broth tasted like a gourmet feast. 

The first few days they gave me small doses of morphine; it reduced the pain and helped me sleep.  Gave me strange dreams, though.  At least three times I remember vivid dreams where someone else was in the room.  I managed to force myself awake and open my eyes, but there was no one there.  Later I realized I was probably sensing the angels or other entities who were there helping me heal.  I remember one of them standing at the foot of my bed, dressed in black.  Couldn’t see the face, but I don’t think they looked like Nicolas Cage.  

My husband was a sweetie, coming in to keep me company and letting me hold his hands with a couple proceedures that were  . . . unpleasant.  Friends and family visited, made phone calls, and sent cards, and one very special group of friends included me in a healing circle.  I know all that good energy helped. 

I got to come home on the 23rd, and have been behaving myself and staying on the diet they recommended.  The doctor also said no caffeine, spicy foods, or acidic foods for six months (no chocolate!  no green tea!).  :-(     They think the primary culprit for the ulcer is the arthritis pain medication I’ve occasionally taken, so now I’m only allowed to use regular-strength Tylenol.  Interesting thing is that my arthritis hasn’t really bothered me much since I came home.  Hmm . . .

Am glad to be out, and am so determined to remain on the right side of a hospital room that I’m sticking to my diet.  Am thankful for the insights I gained through this experience, but am hoping to find a more pleasant path to continued enlightenment. 

Accidental animal friends . . .

Our neighbors are very fond of animate, living things.  We live in a semi-rural version of suburbia, where it’s legal to have almost any sort of animal as long as you have enough room for them (and the neighbors don’t complain too much).  Our neighbor’s lot is very small, and I suspect that’s why we haven’t seen horses or cows over there.  We’ve seen (and/or heard) just about everything else: goats, sheep, chickens, pigeons, parrots, misc. birds smaller than parrots, snakes, dogs, and cats.  [Come to think of it, haven't seen/heard any pigs, either.]  For whatever reason, most of the animals have escaped at some point in time, but it makes it easy to figure out who to notify when you see a very large iguana crossing the road, or when a ferret shows up at the front door.  Kinda makes me wonder what other animals may be in the house.  There are also the people she takes in . . . she used to have foster children, but there was a problem with the grandson she raised and another child.  So now it is apt to be people who are down on their luck and need somewhere to be.  Most of them are okay people.  And the neighbor tries very hard to get along with everyone — she’s a nice lady.

Am not sure if it is because her animals tend to escape, or because we have a larger lot with green grass and less confusion, but at some point many of them visit here.  The chickens come and go; I don’t mind them, and even got an egg from one of them once.  Years ago two of her ducks came to visit, and decided to stay.  Even when we took them home, they returned, so finally we just let them stay.  Unfortunately we didn’t have a racoon-proof pen for them, so one night we lost one (managed to get the other one in our garage before it became dinner, too).  The ducks had been in our yard so long, we felt we could speak for their welfare, so we found another home for the remaining duck. 

  The problem is, at what point do we take responsibility for her animals that have decided to live in our yard?  Right now it is two cats, an orange and white fluffy cat we call OW Kitty, and a younger orange cat we call Punkin.  (Okay, so they are not terribly original names, but technically these are not our cats.)  We began feeding OW Kitty last Summer when she had kittens in our thicket of berry bushes, and looked like she was starving.  [Our neighbors aren't exactly well-off.]  She moved her kittens to the neighbor’s yard the day after I mowed the lawn (guess I got too close), and we have no idea what happened to them.  But she is in our backyard during most of the daylight hours, and at some point was joined by Punkin.  Now, I know Punkin belongs to the neighbors, because I saw the boys carrying it around.  And the boys talked about their kitty (OW Kitty) having kittens.  I realize once I began feeding these two cats, we were bonded with them.  I’d even let them in the house, if it didn’t upset our older, neutered male cat (who then starts marking everywhere — ugh!).   What I would like to do (when I have the money) is have these two cats neutered, so at least we won’t have to worry about kittens and fights (as much).  Guess I’ll have to go next door and ask our neighbor whether she still thinks of the cats as hers.  Have to admit, I’ve grown attached to these cats, especially Punkin.  We weren’t ready for more cats . . . but guess they were ready for us. 

Hogfather (the DVD)

   I’ve already written about being a fan of the English author, Terry Pratchett ( http://judithornot.wordpress.com/2007/10/02/making-money-by-terry-pratchett  ).  In 1996, Pratchett wrote a book, Hogfather, about “a midwinter festival bearing a remarkable similarity to your Christmas.”  But this is the ancient festival, the solar festival, about sacrifices to make the sun return, and how it morphs into the Father Christmas festival celebrated today. 

Back in 2006 they made a TV movie of “Hogfather,” but it was only released in England, Australia, and Canada.  This November it was shown for the first time on television in the United States, and now Borders bookstore has the DVD for sale (in-store only, listed as $19.99 but on sale for $16.99).  The closest Borders to us is 80 miles away, but it was worth driving for.  This is the first live-action of one of Pratchett’s movies, and he was very much involved in it’s production and filming.  He even plays a cameo as a toymaker.  The DVD includes an interview with Pratchett.  I once wrote an email to Pratchett and said I suspected he would be a very interesting person to have a conversation with.  He wrote back and said he is really rather dull.  Having seen the interview, am now quite sure he was being modest. 

After some prologue, the movie opens with Susan (that’s the woman with the sword on the cover of the DVD) reading Jack and the Beanstalk to the children for whom she is governess.  “… and then Jack chopped down what was the world’s last beanstalk, adding murder and ecological terrorism to the theft, enticement, and trespass charges already mentioned, and all the Giant’s children didn’t have a daddy anymore.  But he got away with it and lived happily ever after without so much as a guilty twinge about what he had done.  Which proves that you can be excused just about anything if you’re a hero, because no one asks any inconvenient questions.”  I like Susan (Michelle Dockery).  :-)  She is Death’s granddaughter, and is a regular in Pratchett’s Discworld novels, along with Death, Albert, the wizards of Unseen University, members of the city watch, the Auditors, the Raven, and the Death of Rats (who also appear in the movie).  The Auditors have decided they want the Hogfather eliminated, and hire an assassin to perform this service.  Mr. Teatime (pronounced Teh-ah-tim-eh, and played by Marc Warren) is creepy and sadistic — he nails someone’s dog to the ceiling to keep it from barking while he works.  Warren plays him very much like Johnny Depp played Charlie in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” and does a very good job of it.  When the Hogfather disappears, Death (who really does like humans) decides to take over his job for the night, to keep belief alive long enough for Susan to save the day (with the help of the wizards, Hex the thinking machine, and the Oh God of Hangovers).  There is a lot of intelligent humor, silly humor, and some rather deep thoughts about why it is important to learn belief as a child (so we can believe in the big things as adults, such as Truth and Justice). 

The DVD runs 189 minutes, but has an intermission in the middle.  It is unrated; I suspect if it were rated it would be PG (some mild language).  It has joined our list of must-watch movies for the season (along with “It’s A Wonderful Life,” “A Christmas Carol” (with George C. Scott), and “Scrooged”).  If you’ve read Pratchett’s books, you will recognize each character as they appear (they are that well done).  If you haven’t read his books, this will be a great introduction and a lot of fun.  I give this movie 5 stars.

A just-for-fun blog quiz

Your Inner European is Italian!

Passionate and colorful. You show the world what culture really is.

You can find this quiz at http://www.blogthings.com/whosyourinnereuropeanquiz  .

At least my husband will like the boots.  :-)