pain and suffering

The book I'm currently reading is What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, by Haruki Murakami. It is a book outside of my usual fare - which doesn't matter due to Murakami's skill. His writing is so clear and personal, it flows from the page. He doesn't preach that everyone should run (and even cautions against that); rather he writes that each person must find what they enjoy as far as physical activity and that we don't all need the same things.

I am about one-third of the way through the book and I recommend it. He weaves his life, his thoughts, his hopes and his stumbles throughout the book (so far, and I assume that will continue) in a way that is not self-deprecating nor ego-based. It is what he experienced and his thoughts along the way.

While running is not one of my aspirations, becoming more physically fit and more active is. I now stretch every day, and get a minimum of 30 minutes of cardio exercise four to five days a week and strength training (some with a trainer) two to three times a week. And my exercise partner and I have started doing some longer hikes. We started with the 5.6 miles Silver Falls park loop last week. This recent weekend we went to another park -- where we got lost due to poorly marked trails and being unable to distinguish some designtated trails and undesigneated trails. My guidebook had warned us. But my guidebook also had a couple of trails which we never saw and found one trail which is not in the book. We finally met up with a cyclist who was able to describe how to find a trail up to the meadow (which we'd passed twice) which would lead us back to the car.

So today I was reading this book - started it today, actually. And I ran across a quote he used from another runner (or maybe it was told to this other runner by another runner) ... it has been passed down, anyway! The quote relates really well to a conversation my workout partner and I were having about doing a big hike or the Mt Tabor stairs or something where we have to push ourselves to get through it -- and we do and it is sometimes hard and then, as our bodies say "look what we did!" and our breath returns to normal and muscles relax to normal we think: "that wasn't so bad."

And the quote sums it up beautifully: (advice from a top runner about running) "Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional."

This is what I am learning on a physical, visceral level. Intellectually I know. And I know that starting a new exercise regime, especially since I'm well past my 20s, will bring with it some aches and pains. The goal is to have shorter and shorter recovery times and less intensity to the pain. Pain is a part of life. But it's the attitude we can work on!

taking off the gloves

It is that time in America when our two party political system slings mud and throws darts and the person on the street gets to vote and think that it all matters. Sarcasm, yes. Often it feels like the truth. Sadly.

But this time it feels like it really does matter. I have made my choice, yet cynicism still exists. It feels like each presidential candidate picked his running mate (or it was picked for him) solely based on making himself look good in response to accusations from the other side. (Note: "other side" now seems to be a very narrow fence and the players are standing a handshake away from each other.) The running mates picked to balance what has already been said about him and what is anticipated to be said about him and to try to grab some voters from the presumed other camp.

I don't know if it is me or if this election is even more transparent. It almost seems like a joke. Qualifications out the window, folks - we just need to look good and show that we know how to play ball, too. I know it is far more complicated; really, I do.

So, while I am dreading the next couple months because of the splits and hatred and name-calling this arouses every time it comes around, I am also paying attention. I think there is a clear choice: and it scares me that some otherwise thinking and caring people I know are even considering the other one - although I haven't heard from them since the newest running mate was chosen; I hope that has finally made them see what is truly at stake.

Today I received the following blogs posts and an email which I want to share.

The first is from writer Ariel Gore :

" a heartbeat away

Weirdly enough, I dreamed that John McCain selected a gardener snake as his running mate, and he kept it in a little blue ceramic pot. The Republican machine and journalists on CNN were madly searching through the old rule books to find a statute that required the VP be human. By the time the baby woke me, they had found no such rule."


The second is from dramaturg Kim Crow, posted on Portland Dramaturgy Cabal :

"Two(?) Arts Platforms

With media outlets all abuzz with the major party conventions, I thought it might be an apt time to consider the two major presidential candidates' position on the Arts. Even if our minds are already made up, here is an overview of how each candidate might affect us as dramaturgs in the role of arts advocate.

The Obama camp provides a Fact Sheet on its official website and states, "The arts embody the American spirit of self-definition." The Fact Sheet briefly details Obama's platform which includes:

• Reinvesting in Arts Education
• Supporting Increased Funding for the NEA
• Promoting Cultural Diplomacy
• Attracting Foreign Talent
• Providing Health Care for Artists
• Ensuring Tax Fairness for Artists

I pored over the McCain campaign site, and I could not find any sort of description of his arts platform. Apparently, I am not the only one. Since I'm in a generous mood (and since I spent a lot of time on his website), here are some McCain policies that could loosely be applied to the arts.

Technology
Encourage investment in innovation
Reform intellectual property protection

Education
Provide the resources needed to succeed

Who was it that said "the worst review is no review?" "

From MoveOn.org, an email:

" Yesterday was John McCain's 72nd birthday. If elected, he'd be the oldest president ever inaugurated. And after months of slamming Barack Obama for "inexperience," here's who John McCain has chosen to be one heartbeat away from the presidency: a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience, who until recently was mayor of a town of 9,000 people.

Huh?

Who is Sarah Palin? Here's some basic background:

• She was elected Alaska's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.¹
  
• Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.²
  
• She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. ³
  
• Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.⁴
  
• She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.⁵
  
• She's solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.⁶
• How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.⁷

This is information the American people need to see. Please take a moment to forward this email to your friends and family.

We also asked Alaska MoveOn members what the rest of us should know about their governor. The response was striking. ... [Click the link above to read the excerpts.] ...

So Governor Palin is a staunch anti-choice religious conservative. She's a global warming denier who shares John McCain's commitment to Big Oil. And she's dramatically inexperienced.

In picking Sarah Palin, John McCain has made the religious right very happy. And he's made a very dangerous decision for our country.

In the next few days, many Americans will be wondering what McCain's vice-presidential choice means. Please pass this information along to your friends and family.

looking for inspiration

I'm doing okay in the inspiration department - now. I wasn't a couple of days ago, but think I've bounced back. I was so far out of the inspiration track that all I wanted to do was come home from my assignments and crawl into bed, pull the covers over my head, and sleep.
Anyone who knows me knows that is not at all my style.

I didn't see the point to life. I felt I had no goals. Everything felt overwhelming. I've just agreed to do some part-time employee type of interpreting work that I was feeling ambivalent about (there are pros and cons to doing this work; I'm pretty sure it will be fine once I get the training out of the way and actually start doing it). My work schedule is in a time of transition and unknown at the moment as I hang in the limbo between waiting for orientation and training for the new p-t job and college classes are ending and early September tends to be my slowest time of the year and and and....

Then, after an insightful comment from my partner, I realized that what was truly happening was that I had no creative activity in my life. Nothing going out; nothing coming in .... work and future planning and more work.


Last night as I recounted part of my PICA T:BA:08 schedule to my partner, which includes a few workshops and some "chats", I became animated and excited.



Today during down time at my lengthy job I read more of the "No Plot? No Problem!" book, which was written by the founder of NaNoWriMo, Chris Baty. See, I signed up to do NaNoWriMo in November. So I bought the book. It has been helpful and confidence boosting and entertaining. And I have renewed my excitement about undertaking this journey and in my ability to actually write 50,000 words in 30 days. Thereby having the completed rough draft of a novel in same said 30 days. No, I don't have an outline or a plot or a mile-long queue of characters waiting to begin. But I am building up writing stamina and I have my excitement back. The rest will come.

PHOTOGRAPHS/ARTWORK:
- Childhood Depression (c) Richard Wilkinson from Yamashita Riki's blog
- Deborah Hay's Room performed by Linda Austin and Tahni Holt: PICA TBA06
- cover of "No Plot? No Problem?" (see link in post)

random thoughts: questions

These were random ideas that popped into my head and won't go away. I typed up one of them previously into a longer post, edited it down, and then decided it could be mis-read and someone might get the wrong idea about some of my views. So I deleted it; the next day rewrote it; then deleted it again. But the thought remained, so I will include it with the new thoughts.

-question- What is the consequence or potential consequence of planning a baby on schedule? Are there any long-lasting or potential future issues because of a scheduled birth? This question came about - at first - because of overhearing a conversation about a woman who was two weeks past due, so the doctor was going to induce labor the following Monday if they baby was not yet born. Then I overheard another conversation where a woman was scheduling her delivery date like she was making a dental appointment; in the future; not overdue; months away. It made me wonder what the repercussions might be of a planned birth date. Are there physiological issues which might come up? Is there something of the natural birth process which is skipped and may crop up as something else later? (I'm thinking about premature babies who sometimes have problems later; or the children who learn to walk before crawling and then sometimes have to go back and learn to crawl again because they skipped that step...) I understand for medical reasons, overdue births ... What happens - if anything - when the natural process is interrupted or never begins?

-question- How do we know when we are on the right path? (I'm not talking the physical, walk in the woods, and over the hills kind of path.)

-question- How can you be sure you are good enough friends with someone for the "come to jesus" talk? Or do you just have to take the risk and accept that if the friend gets mad and cuts you off then you really weren't as close as you thought you were.

-question (from a friend)- D.O. asked for the name of "A politician or public figure who stayed faithful to his/her vision and, at long last, was vindicated. NOT WINSTON CHURCHILL. But who?? Neither Jimmy Carter nor Teddy Kennedy seems quite right...... The point is: be patient, know what you stand for, and just keep working whether in success or in defeat." *my question in response:* IS there such a person? At the national/international level? I'm curious to know, but not for the same reasons as David, who is nearing completion of his manuscript.

Like I said: random. Unrelated. Just thoughts. And like the comedian, Bill Engvall, I sometimes put a thought out there before it's thoroughly thought through when I should have said nogthing.

Errata: Comma Kameleon

Errata: Comma Kameleon

"Merrill Perlman* has a nice piece in the Columbia Journalism Review** about a supposed gaffe Joe Biden made earlier this year during the primaries, when he was quoted as saying "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man."

That quote may be missing a comma. Perlman doesn't delve in the politics of it, or try to plumb Biden's intentions, and I won't either. But she goes into some detail about restrictive vs. nonrestrictive clauses, and how something as small as a single comma can significantly change meaning, and have broad-reaching repercussions. If you care about the power of language and punctuation**, it's worth reading."

posted by John McGrath on THE WORDIE BLOG
(click on the above link to see more)

adventure

Silver Falls Park, near Silverton, Oregon.

We drove down to the park yesterday and did the medium-length hike: about 5.6 miles. It was gorgeous. Steep in a few places. Crowded around South Falls. Rocky. Slippery here and there -- partly due to accumulated water and sometimes, we discovered, due to our shoes. We each were wearing our walking shoes (technically, they are running shoes; but I use mine for walking - they offer the stability and support my feet need as I travel down this fitness journey). The shoes didn't have enough traction for a few places and it felt like I could use a little more stabilization and/or support on some rocky parts.

It was peaceful, even with the crowds and especially after the turn-off for the short hike (about 2.1 miles) where most of the families and large groups went to return to the south falls picnic and swimming areas.

The weather was perfect, the air clean and fresh (corny as that sounds, it's true and I can't come up with anything else at the moment), the creeks and falls rushing over rocks and fallen trees soothing.

By the time we returned to the parking lot, we knew we'd walked a good distance. And it felt good. We will do it again -- and have three or so books between us to help us choose. We also now have one excursion to use as a comparison guide when we make our plans. This hike was rated moderate and with an elevation change of somewhere around 980 feet. Right now, "moderate" is probably as much as we want to push it. Maybe next spring or summer we'll attempt one "difficult", depending on the reasons it carries the label (no whacking through brush or rock climbing ... not yet, anyway).

land that t/// my brain forgot

So much has been going on and my brain apparently went into overload. Or something. I thought I was keeping track of things and accomplishing tasks, getting back to people, handling changes and work and life pretty well.

Then this morning I realized two things that I had completely spaced out on: one for over a week now and the other for nearly three days. I don't mean just put off and didn't get back to working on them, I mean a full out, gone from thought, as if it didn't exist -- fvooop! Nada. Then tonight, another forgotten item surfaced when I received an email from someone I fully intended to respond to but - oops, it was gone.

I'm not sure what to say about it except, oops. I still have to call one person back (that was the first disappearing "to do" from over a week ago). The second one was responded to (email from a friend). The third one was also completed (checking in online for a training which just ended today; luckily I was near a library when I had a break, so I was able to check in and be there on the last day).

If this wasn't a life-long pattern (which I thought I'd erased from my behavior pattern; guess not), I might be concerned. Overall, this seems short-term and the first and third forgotten items had/have elements of whether it was/is a good idea, do I want to, and so on. With the friend's email, it was a simple matter of timing and it getting lost in the myriad of things which all came in at once.

Wow. I'm glad I'm working on arranging my life and schedule a little better. I hate blocking out something I committed to do. And maybe what I hate worse is committing to do something I maybe don't want to do or have doubts about.

"Forgetting" by Sarah Harper

event: PICA's T:BA:08

PICA's Time-Based Art Festival 2008 is coming soon. September 4-15, to be exact. It showcases theater and performances from here at home and around the world. There is a wide range of performance events: some will inspire, some will challenge, some will wake you up or raise some emotions. It's a time to try something new -- step out of the comfort zone of what you know and like and take a little risk. It's only for an hour or two ... unless it is a major event like last year's Gatz (a theatrical production which included a reading of the entire book, "The Great Gatsby"), which was six or seven hours, with a dinner break. And so worth it. That was one example where I thought I'd skip the show, but then decided, what the heck, give it a shot, and don't go back after dinner if I hate it.

I went back after dinner and was there when they closed the book after the final word.





There are passes to be bought if so inclined, or individual tickets. There are some free events so anyone can go. There is a late night events hub, The Works, which has music, spoken word, sometimes film, performance ... and is filled with energy. One of my favorite local performance events will be there, Ten Tiny Dances. And others I haven't heard of.

Every year I find at least one new music artist/group which becomes one of my favorites. This year I have already planned out the events I want to see and, with a couple of exceptions, am scheduling work around the event.

There are also some free artist talks. Some low cost workshops. And fun. And new work. And art. And on-site events. Neighborhood events. It's a big cultural party of the arts and it's only here once a year for ten days.

And did I say, it has energy?!?

There is one major on site event on September 14th which is free and will be a not-to-be-missed event. It's the "The City Dance of Lawrence and Anna Halprin " with Third Angle New Music Ensemble and choreographers Linda K. Johnson, Cydney Wilkes, Linda Austin, and Tere Mathern and writer Randy Gragg. This event combines music, architecture, water, dance, performance and creativity for two performances only. Did I mention it's free?!?

found: new Larry Lessig video

A new video from Larry Lessig as part of the Free the Airwaves/whitespaces project.