Mary Brophy Marcus has an excellent series of articles this week in USA Today on Alzheimer's disease.
If you have followed this theme in my blog, what's new and exciting to me is the recent reports relating memory loss to depression and diabetes.
Here are links to the articles. First is a report on the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Paris. I think the article is one of the best written I've seen on any topic.
http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/medical/alzheimers/story/2011/07/Early-lapses-in-memory-shed-light-on-Alzheimers/49506150/1
Second is an article that shows images of the kind associated with treatments described in the book, "Pictures of the Mind", by Miriam Boleyn-Fitzgerald.
http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/health/medical/alzheimers/2011-01-19-alzheimers19_ST_N.htm?csp=obinsite
Showing posts with label memoirs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label memoirs. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Writing the Sacred Journey
"Writing the Sacred Journey: the Art and Practice of Spiritual Memoir", by Elizabeth J. Andrew, was an anniversary gift from our daughter, Kari.
"Gate of the Heart: Understanding the Writings of the Bab", by Nader Saiedi, I bought at the 50th Green Lake Baha'i Conference the week before our anniversary.
Both are appropriate for the moment. I haven't posted much on Blogger about my religious beliefs. Dave's Travel Blog is in fact memoir writing. I've done more on the Baha'i Faith, and more memoir writing, in my WordPress blog. See the sidebar to this blog for links.
"Writing the Sacred Journey" brings me back to some of the basics of journal writing I learned more than twenty years ago. Write as if no one would ever read it. Don't think about the bias of the audience or critics. Don't worry about grammar; go back and edit later if you feel like it. One thing I haven't practiced is the self-discipline of daily writing. Blogs help in that regard, but now I have five blogs, and it can be months between updates. I'd rather write about the weather.
Those of you who do follow this blog will notice that I changed to a simpler template today. That's to get your attention, as well as to comfort your eyes. I noticed right away that this template does not offer an underscore to highlight the title of a book.
"Gate of the Heart" is tough reading. I'll buy anything Nader Saiedi writes on the Baha'i Faith. I hope to do several posts as I make my way through the book. "Logos and Civilization" is another of his works, on the mystical writings of Baha'u'llah.
The Writings of the Bab, and the Writings of Baha'u'llah, are the Word of God. Not only is that my statement of belief, but certainty comes from reading the Writings. In fact, that's all you've got to go on to prove the existence of God, or that the written Word is divine revelation. It is fundamentally important that you prepare to read the Writings by placing your trust in God, as you do with any prayer.
In brief, the "Bab" is a title that means "the Gate". He describes His Eternal Being with many such titles. Perhaps the most important concept to grasp from Saiedi's book is the title "Primal Point". Literally, the primal point is the first mark of a quill pen as it meets the paper. In the Primal Point all Creation begins with a mere indication of the Will of God. All of Creation, all created beings, and everything that we can know about God is in that Primal Point. Proceeding from the Primal Point is the Creative Word of God, the Logos. Read the first chapter of the Gospel According to John.
One of the most audacious things the Bab did was to stop midway between Mecca and Medina, and issue a Revelation that in that spot He is the Gate between the House of Divinity and the Shrine of the Prophet (or servitude). His mission on that pilgrimage was to announce to the secular and religious leaders of Islam that He is the Promised One.
Such statements have everything to do with the ongoing persecution of Baha'is in Iran. The Bab was shot by a firing squad for these challenges to fundamentalist leaders of Islam.
"Gate of the Heart: Understanding the Writings of the Bab", by Nader Saiedi, I bought at the 50th Green Lake Baha'i Conference the week before our anniversary.
Both are appropriate for the moment. I haven't posted much on Blogger about my religious beliefs. Dave's Travel Blog is in fact memoir writing. I've done more on the Baha'i Faith, and more memoir writing, in my WordPress blog. See the sidebar to this blog for links.
"Writing the Sacred Journey" brings me back to some of the basics of journal writing I learned more than twenty years ago. Write as if no one would ever read it. Don't think about the bias of the audience or critics. Don't worry about grammar; go back and edit later if you feel like it. One thing I haven't practiced is the self-discipline of daily writing. Blogs help in that regard, but now I have five blogs, and it can be months between updates. I'd rather write about the weather.
Those of you who do follow this blog will notice that I changed to a simpler template today. That's to get your attention, as well as to comfort your eyes. I noticed right away that this template does not offer an underscore to highlight the title of a book.
"Gate of the Heart" is tough reading. I'll buy anything Nader Saiedi writes on the Baha'i Faith. I hope to do several posts as I make my way through the book. "Logos and Civilization" is another of his works, on the mystical writings of Baha'u'llah.
The Writings of the Bab, and the Writings of Baha'u'llah, are the Word of God. Not only is that my statement of belief, but certainty comes from reading the Writings. In fact, that's all you've got to go on to prove the existence of God, or that the written Word is divine revelation. It is fundamentally important that you prepare to read the Writings by placing your trust in God, as you do with any prayer.
In brief, the "Bab" is a title that means "the Gate". He describes His Eternal Being with many such titles. Perhaps the most important concept to grasp from Saiedi's book is the title "Primal Point". Literally, the primal point is the first mark of a quill pen as it meets the paper. In the Primal Point all Creation begins with a mere indication of the Will of God. All of Creation, all created beings, and everything that we can know about God is in that Primal Point. Proceeding from the Primal Point is the Creative Word of God, the Logos. Read the first chapter of the Gospel According to John.
One of the most audacious things the Bab did was to stop midway between Mecca and Medina, and issue a Revelation that in that spot He is the Gate between the House of Divinity and the Shrine of the Prophet (or servitude). His mission on that pilgrimage was to announce to the secular and religious leaders of Islam that He is the Promised One.
Such statements have everything to do with the ongoing persecution of Baha'is in Iran. The Bab was shot by a firing squad for these challenges to fundamentalist leaders of Islam.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
We interrupt this program
How's this for a memoir scrapbook photo from the 60's? My sister on the left. Grandma Carlson with her 80-something birthday cake, and my cousin Beatrice on the right.
"63 That's easy to remember" is my Facebook status message for today. My birthday. If you were in the Twin Cities area in the 1950's and 60's you know this tagline from the KDWB AM Radio promos. "Channel 63, That's easy to remember.
KDWB and WDGY were the two rock stations. Neither has changed format in the direction that I have since that time.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
25 things about me
If you think too much has been posted on this theme, skip the instructions.
Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged.
1. Our move to Little Marais in April 2001 was the best move we ever made.
2. The first photo of me on the North Shore of Lake Superior was August 1946 in a fishing boat with my dad.
3. My second favorite home was in the village of Praia da Vitorria, Terceira, Azores, Portugal.
4. "I could live in France for a month without worrying about money" (what movie did that quote come from?), I would do that every fall. Tough choice between Cannes and Avignon.
5. One of the toughest choices on becoming a Baha'i in 1973 was complying with the law requiring total abstinence from alcohol, while living on an island in the Azores where some of the best wine in the world cost ten cents per liter, from a farmer who lived just up the block.
6. The next hardest thing to learn as a Baha'i is has been to comply with "avoid partisanship like the plague", and engage the process for effective political action.
7. I started smoking a pipe while in the Azores, because the grizzled old Portuguese weathermen working with me looked too cool. One of the men carved a pipe for me out of a whale tooth.
8. I started oil painting while in the Azores. My transformation to "serious" artist resulted from a "Visual Journaling" workshop at the Grand Portage, Minnesota Trail Center, led by Hazel Belvo.
9. I played cornet from fourth grade through high school. I hardly touched the instrument after that, and finally donated it to a New Orleans relief effort supporting fine arts for youth, after Hurricane Katrina. I couldn't get a buzz out of it anyway.
10. My appreciation for a wide variety of good music dates from those early years in school band. I listened to rock, classical, and jazz on the radio as a preteen. I began collecting LP's in the 50's, and continued collecting every format change since; reel-to-reel, 8 track, cassettes, CD's, and iTunes downloads.
11. My dad had a good Firestone multi-band radio, including shortwave. My earliest obsession was listening late at night to clear channel AM stations and international shortwave broadcasts. I logged hundreds of call letters. I've never been without a good radio.
12. When I visit a new place, I drive around the city, walk the downtown streets, and explore the natural surroundings. If public transportation is available, I ride the El, the Tube, or the buses to see where they go.
13. I prefer the wilderness, but I get along in the big cities too. I could live in Chicago, certain LA neighborhoods, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, but I would have to get out of town frequently.
14. As a weatherman, I quickly learn how to analyze and forecast the weather where I live. 90 percent accuracy was expected in Wichita Falls. 70 percent was the best we could do in the Azores, because satellite and digital forecasting was primitive in ,the middle of the Atlantic in the 70's. On the North Shore of Lake Superior it's a joke to say you can forecast, but I try.
15. Self-reliance always has been a priority. Today it means I wish I had solar power and some other alternative to the Cooperative power grid. Today, because we are faced with a serious two-day ice storm (Feb 9-10, 2009).
16. My dad was a master gardener. I have failed at every attempt at gardening in Little Marais, but practice Finnish sisu. ( I am Finnish only in my imagined common heritage).
17. I won't sing solo or duet, because my first experience was with my sister and I standing in front of Santa Claus, and making a ridiculous recording of Silent Night. I enjoyed singing in a choir.
18. Social networking is much more than a passing fad. I must be an active part of this rapid, massive, global change.
19. Social networking and blogging are the next phase in developing myself as a user of computer-related technology. The first phase started in 1965. The shock and awe phase was on a tour of 3M computer facilities in 1963, ten years before I knew I could work there.
20. My spiritual awakening as a child was while lying on bedrock crisscrossed with veins of quartzite, a star-filled night, feeling the music of the spheres, somewhere near where I live now.
21. I have experienced ongoing spiritual and personal transformations. Two were of the born-again kind. Common to all transformations was the sense that I must.
22. I wonder about the "I must". I view my self as a created natural and spiritual being. The only limitations imposed by "I must" are physical, or self-imposed.
23. Aurora borealis has been a symbolic blessing meant for me (with Denise sometimes). The appearance of a bald eagle along the shore does the same. A pure white snow goose swam by the morning after my father died.
24. I adopted one practice from the Celestine Prophecy. Watch for someone every day who has something for me, and I in turn have something for them. Watch for opportunities.
25. "Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age you live in", is a Baha'i practice I encourage everyone to follow.
Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged.
1. Our move to Little Marais in April 2001 was the best move we ever made.
2. The first photo of me on the North Shore of Lake Superior was August 1946 in a fishing boat with my dad.
3. My second favorite home was in the village of Praia da Vitorria, Terceira, Azores, Portugal.
4. "I could live in France for a month without worrying about money" (what movie did that quote come from?), I would do that every fall. Tough choice between Cannes and Avignon.
5. One of the toughest choices on becoming a Baha'i in 1973 was complying with the law requiring total abstinence from alcohol, while living on an island in the Azores where some of the best wine in the world cost ten cents per liter, from a farmer who lived just up the block.
6. The next hardest thing to learn as a Baha'i is has been to comply with "avoid partisanship like the plague", and engage the process for effective political action.
7. I started smoking a pipe while in the Azores, because the grizzled old Portuguese weathermen working with me looked too cool. One of the men carved a pipe for me out of a whale tooth.
8. I started oil painting while in the Azores. My transformation to "serious" artist resulted from a "Visual Journaling" workshop at the Grand Portage, Minnesota Trail Center, led by Hazel Belvo.
9. I played cornet from fourth grade through high school. I hardly touched the instrument after that, and finally donated it to a New Orleans relief effort supporting fine arts for youth, after Hurricane Katrina. I couldn't get a buzz out of it anyway.
10. My appreciation for a wide variety of good music dates from those early years in school band. I listened to rock, classical, and jazz on the radio as a preteen. I began collecting LP's in the 50's, and continued collecting every format change since; reel-to-reel, 8 track, cassettes, CD's, and iTunes downloads.
11. My dad had a good Firestone multi-band radio, including shortwave. My earliest obsession was listening late at night to clear channel AM stations and international shortwave broadcasts. I logged hundreds of call letters. I've never been without a good radio.
12. When I visit a new place, I drive around the city, walk the downtown streets, and explore the natural surroundings. If public transportation is available, I ride the El, the Tube, or the buses to see where they go.
13. I prefer the wilderness, but I get along in the big cities too. I could live in Chicago, certain LA neighborhoods, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, but I would have to get out of town frequently.
14. As a weatherman, I quickly learn how to analyze and forecast the weather where I live. 90 percent accuracy was expected in Wichita Falls. 70 percent was the best we could do in the Azores, because satellite and digital forecasting was primitive in ,the middle of the Atlantic in the 70's. On the North Shore of Lake Superior it's a joke to say you can forecast, but I try.
15. Self-reliance always has been a priority. Today it means I wish I had solar power and some other alternative to the Cooperative power grid. Today, because we are faced with a serious two-day ice storm (Feb 9-10, 2009).
16. My dad was a master gardener. I have failed at every attempt at gardening in Little Marais, but practice Finnish sisu. ( I am Finnish only in my imagined common heritage).
17. I won't sing solo or duet, because my first experience was with my sister and I standing in front of Santa Claus, and making a ridiculous recording of Silent Night. I enjoyed singing in a choir.
18. Social networking is much more than a passing fad. I must be an active part of this rapid, massive, global change.
19. Social networking and blogging are the next phase in developing myself as a user of computer-related technology. The first phase started in 1965. The shock and awe phase was on a tour of 3M computer facilities in 1963, ten years before I knew I could work there.
20. My spiritual awakening as a child was while lying on bedrock crisscrossed with veins of quartzite, a star-filled night, feeling the music of the spheres, somewhere near where I live now.
21. I have experienced ongoing spiritual and personal transformations. Two were of the born-again kind. Common to all transformations was the sense that I must.
22. I wonder about the "I must". I view my self as a created natural and spiritual being. The only limitations imposed by "I must" are physical, or self-imposed.
23. Aurora borealis has been a symbolic blessing meant for me (with Denise sometimes). The appearance of a bald eagle along the shore does the same. A pure white snow goose swam by the morning after my father died.
24. I adopted one practice from the Celestine Prophecy. Watch for someone every day who has something for me, and I in turn have something for them. Watch for opportunities.
25. "Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age you live in", is a Baha'i practice I encourage everyone to follow.
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