William Tell Overture

The Sound of Music

In case you missed the live NBC staged performance of "The Sound of Music," featuring Carrie Underwood as Maria, it was, well, watch this:

Forgive or Hate?

It has been a sad day today.  First, Nelson Mandela died.  However a bigger story on my local news is the sentencing of a 23 year old man to five to fifteen years in prison.  A year ago he was driving while intoxicated and crashed into another car carrying four teenagers.  Two of them died. 

What is very sad is that the family and news media are outraged that the 23 year old (I'll refrain from using his name) did not get more time.  They were quite angry and demanded that the Governor increase the prison penalty for those convicted of DWI and manslaughter. 

What saddens me is the degree of hate and revenge the family and friends had at the news conference following the sentencing.  One of them said that they hope that the hell this 23 year old will face in prison is a foretaste to the hell he will face in eternity.  The only thing this press conference was doing was making things worse, fueling anger and stressing one another even more making the old adage "misery loves company" all the more true. 

Nelson Mandela once said "Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies."   When someone can't let go, when they hold onto anger and dedicate their life to revenge, it changes everything;  It changes their relationships, their attitudes and everything they do in life.  There is much to lose when you hate.  You don't lose a thing when you forgive because it is not a sign of weakness to forgive someone who hurts you, it's a sign of strength, in fact, you'll have much to gain.   Now this does not mean you have to become best friends with the person who hurt you, it simply means that you will no longer be caught in a downward spiral of anger and hurt which you may take out on other people such as family and friends.

Anger, bitterness and hate is more than a negative outlook on life.  It is a destructive and self destructive power like a cancerous cell or dangerous mold that thrives in the darkness of the heart.   It can be physically and emotionally damaging.  As the great Buddha once said, "He who opts for revenge should dig two graves." 

I don't know the young man convicted nor his remorse, rehabilitation or guilt, but in refusing to lay aside hatred, the family and friends are continuing to let him exert his influence over them.  Meanwhile he will spend the next five or ten years oblivious to their pain, in his state imposed Ashram, exercising, making new friends, studying at the school for crime, and learning to hate society for hating him.  When he gets out he will most likely be worse than when he went in and a continued burden to tax payers.  Under house arrest, he and his family would bear the burden for the cost of incarceration.  In prison, the taxpayer will be forking over about $30,000 per year to punish him.  Nobody wins. 

Someone once said that life is ten percent what happens to you, and ninety percent what you do with it.  Imagine if all the hate and energy being put toward destruction and lobbying for more laws was put into restorative justice, education and awareness.  These are not the last two teens who are going to be killed by a drunk driver and all the hate in the world directed at the 23 year old isn't going to save them.  Education and awareness of the evils of alcohol may.  But it seems these people wish to take revenge - on themselves because that is what hatred does.  Forgiving someone who hurts is us hard but everything is hard until you do it, then it becomes easy.  Then we will be inspired to do something - something good.  Maybe that is the scary part, it is easy to be angry and get other people to do something.  Bad things will always happen, but a bad thing can be a blessing in disguise to those brave enough to forgive and do something.   

For those of you who are religious, millions of people will recite the Lord’s Prayer in church this weekend.   They will pray, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  I often wonder whether we really mean what we say when we repeat these words, and whether we sufficiently consider their meaning.   What do you think God thinks of us when we don't hold up our end of the bargain?  And we wonder why atheists think the church is full of hypocrites. 

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches us not only to love our enemies, but even to “bless” those who persecute us.   While on the cross, he prayed for those who prosecuted and sentenced him, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” So did Stephen who prayed the same thing as he was being stoned to death: “Father, do not hold this against them.”

Loving and forgiving those who hurt us is the key to the solution for the problems in our world.  Hate begets hate.  Darkness doesn't drive out darkness.  Only light can do that.  Love is the only force capable of turning an enemy into a friend.  Hate destroys and tears down but by its very nature, love creates and builds up. Love transforms.  The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook and to forgive.

I once came home to discover that my dog pooped on the floor.  I yelled at her and she cowered in the corner.  I then realized that I was the one who left her alone in the house for ten hours so in my baby voice I called her over to me.  She was hesitant but her tail was wagging.  When she reached me, I petted her and she danced around me and kissed me.  All was forgiving from both of us.  I cleaned up her mess as she watched with a sideways glance.  Then we went outside for a nice run.  Nelson also once said that action may not bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.

Holiday Shopping

Has your Thanksgiving transformed into Thanksgetting?  It is ironic that when Columbus got lost and landed in Hispaniola and, two hundred years later the Puritans landed in Plymouth, their true intentions were to rape, pillage and plunder the land and its aborigines - which they did with aplomb.  400 years later, we do much the same in department stores and malls across the country on Black Friday.  Pushing, shoving, knocking, yelling, trampling and pepper spraying seems to be de rigueuer for holiday shopping. 

Most of the "deal" items for which we fight over and wait in long lines for are electronic items built from inferior components which won't last long, but, a $98 32" TV is a $98 32" TV. 

There are also brand items listed at sale prices but those sale prices are usually the store's target price to begin with.  A store may pay $5 for an item.  They want to get $15 for it so they charge $30.  If you pay $30 for it at any time during the year, they win.  If they take 50% off on Black Friday, they still win.  They're actually getting what they wanted in the first place.  If they take 75% off, they're still making money.  They depend upon the ignorance of the consumer to overpay year round. 

JC Penny once tried charging their lower targeted price for their merchandise but people stopped shopping there.  People want sales because they think they are getting a bargain.  They would rather get a 50% discount and pay $15 for an item than pay full price for it at JC Penny and pay $15.  JC Penny quickly raised their prices and began offering discounts shortly thereafter.

The other holiday trap is the recommendation.  Reviewers, reporters and celebrities get free stuff all the time with the hope that they will plug the item to their legions of followers and fans in return for the gift.  I was watching the news and a reporter did a segment which proffered holiday shopping ideas and bargains.  First of all, why was this news?  Second, what qualifications did this 24 year old reporter have to offer advice on electronics and comparative shopping?

She said that a hot item this year is the tablet.  Without discussing anything else, she said the best tablet on the market is the iPad.   Of course she did.  She probably got one for free.  What if I only want to listen to audio books or read ebooks on my tablet?  Do I still need the most expensive tablet on the market or will the $89 tablet work for me? 

Even if you want to use a tablet for surfing the net, checking email, playing games, watching movies and reading books, do you still need the most expensive tablet on the market or would one of the less expensive brands suffice?  Do you get more because you pay more? 

Of course there are dozens of variables and options ranging from memory, speed, screen size, touch variations, free apps, OS, accessories, etcetera.  Each variable can add or subtract from the cost.  You need to know what you want to do and if that particular tablet can do it.  Do you want to pay more for features you won't use?   If you don't live near the Autobahn, do you need a Bugatti which can travel at speeds over 250 mph?  If you do live near the Autobahn, would you be happy with a Aixam Coupe or Tata Nano?  When it comes to buying and using computers (and cars), I would rather drive a slow car fast than pay a fortune to drive a fast car slow.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I have a Zenithink C97 and C93 tablet.  They have no limitations as a tablet for my needs, and for the crafty shopper, you can pick them up for as low as $100 and $150.  However, if Apple would like to send me a free iPad, I may change my mind.

Music From "The Price Is Right"

It is safe to say that if not for the music from the TV game show, "The Price is Right," I might not be a musician today.  There were many factors which planted and germinated my nascent desire to be a musician.  The first was my Roman Catholic church closing.  They had a folk group and a pretty bad one at that.  The music did nothing for my latent inspiration and church was boring.  When the church closed my parents took us to the next church down the road, the Wesleyan's.  There, for the first time, around the age of five, I heard and fell in love with the sound of a well played pipe organ.  It was loud and soft, dissonant and harmonically pleasing, capable of being played fast and rhythmic or sustained.  It shook the walls, the floor and the pews.  What power and versatility it possessed.

It wasn't until my freshman year of High School, about ten years later, that I actually began studying music and that was because my parents purchased a small organ.  Prior to that though, during my junior high years I fell in love with the pop/disco/jazz music from Bob Barker's game show, The Price Is Right.   We didn't have the internet in those days so three TV stations, a few radio stations and records were all we had for inspiration and entertainment. 

I lived three miles from my school and my house was the last stop on the bus route.  It took almost an hour to get home.  So instead of taking the bus and missing the first half hour of "The Price Is Right," I ran home in about half an hour and was able to catch the beginning.  Don't tell my mother, she'd kill me if she found out and lucky for me, she never learned those "If Sally was traveling at 30 mph by car . . . ." equations.  She didn't question how or why I got home half an hour early, although, I suspect she knew.  The act of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.  She  certainly possessed an uncanny wisdom.

I hated gym class because three days each week, it sapped my energy for what was really important to me:  Running to get home in time for the opening theme song.  And, we were also required to take showers which was stupid because I was about to run home and work up a real sweat. 

It is also safe to say that I also owe my early physical fitness to "The Price Is Right," too.  I am sorry President's Council on Physical Fitness, but gym class was a waste of time.  I also skied, hiked, biked and lived on a lake.   I barely worked up a sweat in gym class and most of my out of school time was spent doing real activities.  I really could have used that three hours spent in gym class doing something more productive.

Happy National Day of Mourning

How are you planning to celebrate the National Day of Mourning?  Food?  Feast?  Football? Family?  Pre-Black Friday shopping?   Will you spend time with your children cutting out hand traced turkeys and making Pilgrim hats?  Baking?  Skyping distant relatives?  Visiting with relatives?

Since the winners write the history books, children are taught in school that the National Day of Mourning was a day when "Indians," also known as Native Americans or, members of the Wampanoag tribe to be exact, sat down with "pilgrims" who were thankful for "discovering" the new land, making friends with the Wampanoag tribe, escaping religious persecution and sharing a meal of peace, love and joy.  Amen.

Some stories are just that, stories.  About the only thing true with that nice story is that the Wampanoag's were helpful to the European strangers who landed on their shore.  The truth is that the white settlers in Jamestown had to resort to cannibalism to survive and it was the Wampanoag tribe who helped them get through the bitter winter, mostly to prevent the white settlers from digging up Wampanoag graves.

Columbus didn't discover North America, or Plymouth.  He got lost and stumbled upon the island of Haiti where there was already an indigenous people there.  Christopher wrote in his log that he was thankful for the bounty of human cargo God gave him and then enslaved, raped and murdered most of the tribe.  They were the Arawak.  Furthermore, it was the Vikings, not Columbus, who first made contact with Native Americans in the area known today as Boston.  Leif Erikson was the first European and the first Christian to plant his feet on American soil 500 years earlier than Chris and, as such, he deserves more a place in the history of our country than Columbus does.

Back to the Pilgrim mythology, they did not come here to escape religious persecution (much like what they inflicted on the American Indians who already had their own religion) but they came here as part of a commercial venture.   It is also true that the pitiful settlers would not have survived here had it not been for the aid of the Wampanoag tribe.  What did the Wampanoag get in return?  Mass murder, forced relocation, theft of land, alcoholism, disease, starvation, genocide, jail and repression.   All that, for which we are apparently thankful, spread across the continent as the Europeans pushed westward and did much the same to all other tribes. 

The government gave settlers free land on the outskirts of their new cities and settlements.  Many poor farmers, their families and prospectors took advantage of the free land and began spreading west.  The Native Americans would protest and push back.  The settlers complained to the military who would then come out and confront the Native Americans.  This did not end well for the "Indians."  We would kill one of them and they would come back and kill one of our settlers.  We would go back and kill five of them.  They would come back and kill five of us in return.  We would go back and kill twenty five of them, and on it went.   As settlers encroached into Native American lands, the Native Americans attacked. Atrocities took place on both sides. When certain Native American villages refused to surrender the "savages" accused of murdering whites, Andrew Jackson ordered entire villages destroyed.  The free land given to families also created a buffer zone.  If the Native Americans attacked, they would attack the outskirts first, protecting the cities and towns and wealthier class.  After all, as it is today, the poor are expendable and very useful for political gain.  Hitler used the Jews, the Puritans used "witches."  Harry Anslinger used blacks and jazz musicians, and politicians today continue disenfranchising the underclass for their own political gain.

The first official "Day of Thanksgiving" was proclaimed in 1637 by Governor Winthrop. He did so to celebrate the safe return of men from Massachusetts who had gone to Mystic, Connecticut to participate in the massacre of over 700 Pequot women, children, and men. 

Thanksgiving is by far the greatest monument to racism.   There are many people who would say that these events happened over 300 years ago and it is not their fault.  This is true.  We can at least demand that our schools teach the truth and that we acknowledge the terrorism and genocide our ancestors committed - for religious freedom.  We don't need to give up our Thanksgiving customs, traditions, Black Friday sales and parades, but let us at least know that for the Native American culture that this day is for them, the National Day of Mourning and that they have little to be thankful for.

For Further reading - HISTORY IS A WEAPON
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinncol1.html

"The greatest single acts of terrorism to date were not perpetrated by Osama bin Laden, but by the US military when it dropped atomic bombs on the civilian people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
From a speech by Moonanum James on the 32nd National Day of Mourning, 2001.

Ever hear about Evacuation Day?
http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/fri-november-22-2013-

Heal Thyself; An Ounce of Prevention

ARRGH.  I recently went hiking with a couple of friends and one of the hikers is a high school gym teacher.  I hiked in silent horror as he offered endless advice to his teenage son, daughter and the rest of us  about technical issues and body mechanics.  This man has a Masters in PE and is professionally teaching kids - to harm their bodies. 

The first bit of bad advice he gave was regarding warm ups.  He led our group in unsolicited stretching exercises.   I stood by and watched.  He admonished me to participate saying that if I don't warm up, I will injure myself.  This is true.  However, after getting out of my toasty bed that morning, I sat in my sauna for forty five minutes, took a hot shower, ate a hot breakfast and drove to the mountain base with my car's heat on full blast.  My entire body was warm to the core and raring to go.  But I waited patiently. 

When you stretch muscles, you are tearing tissue so the body has two defensive actions.  The first is to rush blood to the area of damage to begin repair.   This sudden rush of blood gives a feeling of warmth.  You are not really "warming up" the existing tissue (nor the whole body).  You are actually destabilizing isolated parts with micro tears which CAN lead to injury.   It is better to warm the entire body with heat rather than isolating body parts and foolishly think you are warming up by tearing muscle tissue.  The second defensive action of the body is inflammation which leads to the next bit of bad advice.

While hiking, his son sprained his ankle - despite being "warmed up."  Dad, without looking at it immediately told him to "walk it off."  Provided there were no broken bones or torn tendons, walking it off does have some merit. 

If you overuse or injure a body part such as a tendon, the body's response is to do a quick fix by putting scar tissue there.  This however, could lock or freeze up parts which were designed to move.  In the old days doctors would put your body part in a cast, splint or brace.  When the immobilization device was finally removed, the body would be stiff and it would take weeks, months or even years to get full mobility back - if.  Many doctors today favor using simple tape on the injured limb so that the body can still move in its mid range of motion and not to the extreme range of motion where further damage can occur.  A stretch for instance is an extreme range of motion. 

Maintaining gentle mid range movement keeps tendon sheaths lubricated with synovium fluid, prevents scar tissue from forming and tethering a tendon to its sheath and, promotes circulation so that blood can carry away toxins and damaged tissue which are created by our injury or stretch.   Most people can recognize this simple fact after sitting in a car for a long time or resting in the middle of some physical activity.   When they get back up, their body is stiff.  Our circulatory systems are designed to circulate.  Why do you think a "deer longs for flowing streams?"  Flowing water is fresh.  Stagnant water is, well, stagnant.   So, walking it off is good provided there is no serious damage.

Both a friend of mine and myself fell around the same time and both of us injured our right wrists.  Both of us had swelling and bruising.  He wore a brace and I decided to take advantage of the wonderful pain to work on proper body mechanics.  Although my wrist hurt and was tender to the touch, I was still able to play the piano without pain and playing actually made my wrist feel better because I was able to use it and not aggravate it.  Here is a link to a video of me playing a recital just two weeks later.

Flight of the Bumblebee
http://youtu.be/A1FHmgkwi2U 

I admit there were a few problems in my performance but the reason I was still able to play was that I wasn't using my wrist but moving my fingers by using my long flexors and employing the rotation of my forearm.  I am pretty much pain free right now but I still can't dorsiflex but, why would I want to do that to my carpal tunnel?  My friend is still wearing a brace today and has limited mobility and great stiffness.   The difference between us is that I used my body mechanics to promote healing and he is using the stagnation/immobilization method to heal.  I offered some advice but some people won't listen.  He's gobbling down ibuprofen and wearing a brace. 

Back to the hike.  When we returned to the parking lot, our teenager took off his shoe and sock to reveal a purple and swollen ankle: a gorgeous example of nature's cast.   Dad told him that when they got home he could ice it and elevate it.  That's fair.  Treating symptoms can make you feel better but doesn't fix problems.  If your car's tires have uneven wear, getting new tires will treat the symptom but not the problem of the car's alignment.   The first thing this boy needed was an x-ray to ensure there was nothing broken or fractured.   I suggested that the boy put both his feet in a contrast bath and Dad, who has a Masters in PE asked, "What's that?"

If my kid's teacher or coach ever suggested stretching and warm ups in this manner, I'd find a new coach.  Sure I could try to educate them but some egos are too big to admit they are wrong or to change.  That is the beauty of making mistakes but only a few of us can learn from them.  Touch a hot stove and you may never do that again.  Get caught stealing and maybe the shame will make you never do it again.  Sprain your wrist and maybe you will analyze what hurts and what doesn't and you will discover your body's optimal alignment and be better at everything you do - or you can wear a brace and heal in time.

We've all heard the stories of a seeker who ascends a mountain to get an answer from a Zen Master at the top.  When the seeker arrives at the top, finds the Zen Master and asks his question, the Master doesn't answer.  That is because if you don't discover the answer on the journey, you won't understand the answer if it is given to you.  The answer is:  Don't seek the truth - just drop your opinions and the answer will come to you.  A friend of mine is a great songwriter but he is not a musician.  The reason he can come up with beautiful melodies is that his mind is not cluttered with theory, style, propriety or technique. 

Ultimately the newly minted resilience of youth is powerful.  Kids will heal and come back.  But when they turn fifty, and their joints begin to stiffen and become sore, they move and exercise less, they begin to put on weight which stresses the joints further, they develop arthritis and tendonitis, diabetes, clogged arteries and shortness of breath - know that it all started thirty years ago with a stretch and a warm up.  

"When the task is done beforehand, then everything else is easy."
-Zen master Yuan-tong.