It's been a long time...

Since I've last written, I have retired from the public service and moved to Calgary from Ottawa. Both those life events happened rather quickly in 2012. When opportunity knocked, I answered the call. And I'm happier for having done so.

The move to Calgary was more serendipitous since a friend's brother has a house for rent at just the right time and it seemed fortuitous that such availability would be open in my universe, just as I was readying for this life change. The house is tiny and perfect and its size forced me to shed a few pounds of books and other items before settling in. I also hired a professional organizer to assist with the unpacking and putting away of much of the bumpf of stuff that I alone could no longer deal with. She was terrific at finding places for things and reorganizing to make places for things.


I keep moving into smaller and smaller homes. Sooner or later, the small urn awaits. Then nothing will follow me and all the stuff that surrounds me will have to be distributed to friends, family or those who could do something better with it. And then I will be dust in the wind by the sea.


But for now, here I am settled in Calgary and with my books and music around me. Friends have been called and called back; I have dined with a few and even ventured out afield exploring the surrounding countryside, heading off to Brooks, the XL meat packing plant, the world heritage Badlands plus Head-Smashed-In and Lethbridge. I haven't made it to the mountains yet though. These days there's a dusting of snow on them.


This week I attended a choir rehearsal - to get back into singing. I may instead take individual lessons from someone; that choir was too chatty and do not respect the music enough to be quiet between rehearsed sets. Plus directors who split themselves between piano and directing are not doing right by either one. I did see a director I may want to work with and that is Jane Perry who has established a choral group for LGBT community in Calgary which would be fun to be part of. They meet Monday evenings at the Unitarian Church.


The challenge with retirement for me is to keep myself busy - my brain busy - without obsessing about something. So far I'm reading novels and non-fiction plus not watching the news much, though the radio does delivery the basics to me every day. I am trying to be vigilant about a diet of protein and fruit and not being too successful at it. Balance is what I need to strive for in my food choices, as long as the choices include chocolate - hehe. And further, I am sleeping consistently, which is great news if you are my couch, which formerly saw me dozing on it until the middle of the night. Now, I am in bed by midnight if not earlier and asleep by 1am. This means I am awake early in the morning and have a full day to explore the opportunities before me. Which are many.


This blog is about to become a whole different angle on what is going on with me and my world. In fact, I might form a new blog to comment on the impact of retirement on "young seniors" and what can be done to ensure we make the most of our days and talents.


God knows we could volunteer ourselves to death. But there is so much more to do, be and have - not in the material sense but in the community sense. Why not work together as young retired seniors to get what we want in term of community social enterprise?


It may be worth exploring and expressing in a blog of its own. This was an idea tested at ALIA last June
which found some traction among a variety of young seniors and the children of young seniors - and older seniors too.


Let's see where it takes us.

H

Cruise Missiles? Really?

and today Prozac pills look like...



Holy crap!

When a no-fly zone gets defined as a place to throw around missiles; when two competing interests are engaging in vicious actions against one another - to point of killing each other - as in Libya - I have to think that conversation is a democratic instrument seldom used anymore, even in democracies. I despise Gadhafi as much as the next. He has been coddled in Libya by western nations however, and they ought to know madness, insanity is just part of his playbook. Look at all the celebrities who have been courted by and won over by the MG in the past - yes MG - might as well make him sound like a rapper-dude because rap is what he is famous for - with a capital C.

It is not so hard to imagine in the coming years, with the sensibilities of politicians and their advisors, that Republicans and Democrats in the USA, or Tories and Grits in Canada, could just as easily justify bombing the hell outta anyone they seriously disagreed with: castigation, denigration, debate - is no longer enough. Everyone needs a show - the big bang over and over again with new participants - Rollerball anyone?

Let's ensure that the profits continually flow - it's economic hard times everywhere- a good battlefield could keep the war machine grinding along for another season, century or millennium with resentments, hatred and unheard-of massacres. Who are we becoming?

Harper jauntily tosses off "Do we believe in freedom or do we just say we believe in freedom?". Been to Canada recently Harper? What the hell is freedom anymore in this country - when money from my taxes goes to prisons, roads and tax reduction for businesses but not health care, poverty reduction, or the environment. It's industry before people. Thinking like a redneck, Harper can see all the way to believing industry will pay to keep people fed, clothed, sheltered, while keeping the environment we all depend on, clean, safe and accessible. What industry would do that? The ones interested in not making money, where shareholders are members of the working class - maybe. But not white or gold collar people, whose wealth comes from others work and not their own.

Cruise Missiles - no fly zones, and more attacking is just another way for NATO and war economics justifying missiles and more destruction is a new way to peace and freedom. Diplomacy is so low key I wonder was waiting for Arab nations to agree to this attack for freedom, sold in another form? Wouldn't it be great in 50 years or so (if we all live so long) to read all about how the shell game really occurred - who offered what to whom for what else? Cost-benefit - in a global economy is an essential consideration. Economics is the universal language.

So let's talk about Freedom: Whose freedom? at what cost? whose lives are lost? who defines success in this turmoil? When the freedom side is everyone's side - and everyone understands and accepts their piece of peace, the place in peace not in pieces, will freedom be nearly seen. When blind men smash around with toys of war, no one wins, and eventually the evil doers will find a place to root again amid destruction and rise up again. Who is paying for, an who is selling, the tools of war being fought in Libya - and who is supplying them?

Cut off channels, suppliers of all the tools of war? How could such a thing be done? Why not talk about that in the long term, short term and now? because too much is at stake - economically for all the people invested in, investing in and getting rich on war. Their freedom to be rich trumps everyone's. Industry before people.

And so for me - what do I advocate? Getting to the heart of the matter - not peace but pieces - uncover the root cause of each conflict, support non-violent conversation - and if that is not meant to be at this time; devote time and attention to isolate completely the combatants from any source of support of any kind. Rocks will have to be thrown at each other before missiles, words hurled. No knives, no guns, no food, no water, until the conflict settles down. Sounds like a time out, doesn't it?

Who would take the role of isolater - parent, whatever you want to call it? Canada used to be good at this - until Harper decided to play military games. I believe those roles are called Peacekeepers. And those who support peace-keeping need to rally to it now more than ever, in a terror filled world, peace is the only option.

Root cause - root for (in all the meanings of "root") the root cause, because missiles no matter who throws them will ultimately be coming back to haunt us again, again.

The cost of everything

Does more need to be said?

How is it that Libya determines gas prices? How is it as the price of oil declines, the price of gas continues at high levels?

Consumers are being ripped off by companies more interested in making money from fear than being reasonable economically. Greed is such a poor colour to wear on St. Patrick's Day or any day when people are without work, without food, without enough money to buy what they need to keep body and soul together.

Where are the Canadians who need to get into the streets and start hollering for justice and democracy again?
I wonder if anyone realizes how far this country has strayed from freedom.

Upheavals - where are the heroes?

Daylight savings time today - we all want the night to not fall too soon, for the darkness not to come at all; there is too much darkness encircling the world at this time. Libya and Gaddafi - vilified and laughed at in comic costumes for years; slamming the democracy rebels against the blooded walls as NATO, and stale democracies look on impotent, likely having supplied weapons to both sides.

Japanese ocean and earth tossed into jumbled chaos by nothing less than a force of a slipped fault after so many years of stress and pressure in the northern province of Sentai. Thousands will die or have already died. Tsunami, fire, rock, hypothermia, exposure, radiation from leaking nuclear plants, all of it will take the toll in terms of this tragedy. Volcanos in southern Japan are awake and erupting.

Less than a month ago, an earthquake threw Christchurch New Zealand into a panic; this was the second quake in less than one year. Pakistan had the horrible flood in September; a tremendous volcanic explosion in Java in October caused an evacuation of 350,000; Chile had an earthquake in March 2010 and of course the Haitian quake in January 2010.

Someone remarked yesterday they were beginning to believe in Nostradumas - the last days are approaching! O - I think not. Upheavals have always occurred; it's just that with social media and instant news services, we now know about each literal earth shattering event the moment it occurs. One hundred years ago, it took weeks for the news service to deliver disaster news to the other side of the world.

I don't say its better now than then. We are just hit globally continuously with all the news, all the time, 24/7/365. There is no time to reflect, summon compassion, take action in one direction effectively before another enormous disaster falls upon humanity. We feel like a boxer in the ring - events v humanity. The global events are definitely getting their low blows in, over and over again. Because events do not play by any rules - no Marquis of Queensbury rules of the ring for disasters. One sucker punch can be handled but a shower of unfair punches in a rapid succession is difficult to bounce back from.

And who is the referee in the ring? We cannot count on the global organizations - NATO, IMF, OPEC, United Nations, OAS, etc. No one has any clout anymore. They are all burned out, tapped out, leaderless, wimped out, politically incoherent, or just not interested. What is in it for them? is the popular question for any of those agencies... self interest will defeat the human response to disaster anytime.

And who will rise above the defeat question? Who will become humanity's champion? The people who have demonstrated such leadership come from odd origins: Sean Penn, Angelina Jolie, Stephen Lewis, Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandala, Karen Armstrong, Matt Damon and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for example. And we each can be heroes too. God is in each of us to not ask, "what is in for me?" but to give our best. To share the rest. To say prayers to whatever spirit for good you hold true and to pay attention, stay awake and keep the darkness at bay.

Red - Yellow - Green: what they seem mean to people

What do traffic lights mean to you?
Stop Yield Go
My turn, our turn, your turn
fast, faster, oops

It's impossible to guess
if the car coming on
will run or screech
will try to breech the light
or turn and burn and think nothing of it
while the one in the middle of the intersection
is stuck
on red
burning red angry
sitting clutched
eyeing the traffic left right coming on
and hoping SOMEONE will see
the red light
means stop
for me.

Endocrine connections

Hormones - we live and flow full of them from the time we are born because of hormones. The endocrine system floods our blood stream with magic and pulses pump faster or digestive organs suck up sugar; the brain operates at super-speed and eggs move into fallopian tubes. "Where the hormones there moan I," Oscar Wilde famously quipped and he was not mistaken. We are slaves to our hormones and they push pull and drag us around in many unseen and misunderstood, or little understood ways.

The endocrine system in a human being is hardly understood unless you have an endocrine disease like diabetes - then suddenly the diabetic becomes an expert at what insulin does, what the blood sugar level in their body is doing, what foods they should and should not eat, when to eat, what they should and should not do for exercise and when to exercise etc. Oy vey - it's a veritable overflow of information and technology about fast and slow acting insulin (if they take insulin) or pills (if they take pills) or what their doctor is advising them to do to reduce their waistline and stay off pills and insulin.


And if it's not diabetes, it could be birth control pills - another classic endocrine dilemma - or the birth control "patch" - or the women's "condition" - menopause - where hormone therapy is an option. Replacing the uterine hormones and the ovarian hormones to maintain the elasticity of skin and joyful nature of even tempered moods for an extended time period is so not worth it for anyone given the cancer risks. The hot flashes and rages of the pre-menstrual syndrome are so much better - they are so energizing, enervating and elevating. A woman could fly - it's no wonder women were considered witches in earlier centuries - we likely set our hair on fire men ran away so fast from the fury they thought women were flying after them.

But let's get down to it: endocrine disease is either hyper-function or hypo-function - primarily or secondarily affecting other functions in the body that cause discomfort - hypersensitivity for example; distress - defects like abnormal growth patterns; or illness - failure of organs, and consequently death. Endocrine system changes are detected by watching for changes in secretion rates, patterns and chemical analysis. Blood tests, lymph and fluid tests. And remember, some hormones function by NOT being present - so deficient secretion can be a good thing. Then feedback systems guiding the secretion patterns have to be checked.

For all hormones there are TWO characteristics they share: specificity - they are built to aim at very narrow targets; and amplification - the capacity to increase an initial signal in terms of subsequent hormonal events (once begun, can be pumped up quickly with just a little tiny bit more like a lock and key)

There are three kinds of endocrine hormones: Steroid types, Thyroid types and Catecholamine-Polypeptide-Protein Types. Each of these 3 types work in different ways with cells in a human body - that way, any one cell could be affected by three hormones like 3 locked doors but each type has 3 different keys.

Here are some of the hormones floating around in "anyone's" body:
PITUITARY GLAND SECRETIONS
Growth hormone
Prolactin or Lactogenic Hormone
Follicle Stimulating Hormone FSH
Luteinizing Hormone or interstitial cell-stimulating hormone LH or ICSH
Thyrotropin or Thyroid Stimulating Hormone TSH
Adrenocorticotropin or ACTH
Melanocyte-Stimulating Hormone or MSH
Lipotropins and Endorphins

REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEMS
Gonadotropin
Estrogen <>Estradiol
Testosterone
Androstenedione
Progesterone
Placental Hormone affecting chorionic gonadotropin, relaxin etc

SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM - ADRENAL GLANDS
Dopamine
Norepinephrine
Epinephrine

AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM
Prostaglandins
Histamine
Serotonin
Chromatophorotropic Hormone
Ketogenic Hormones - Lipolytic hormones
Inhibitory Hormones
Langerhansian Hormone - affecting both insulin and glucagon in the pancreas

PARATHYROID
Parathyroid peptide hormone
Calcitonin

Except for the female hormones and the pregnancy hormones a person is indeed literally at sea in the endocrine ocean. Avast me hearties - get educated to what your hormones are doing to your bodies - or you may fall victim to a shoal of trouble.

Centennial of International Women's Day

On March 8, 1911 Women marched for bread and roses in the streets of New York City and they called for a day of remembrance for those women who earlier that year had been killed in a garment factory that had gone up in a fire, with no working fire escapes and no safety for its workers, all of whom were women. These were not just suffragettes asking for equal rights or the vote. These were women who provided meagre wages to support their families, their children, some of whom worked right beside them. Their men may have been dock workers or steel workers or on the bread lines looking for work. They were embroiderers, stitchers, sewing machine operators, helping the fashion trade meet deadlines at the various shows, at the various celebrated "megastores" of the day in NYC. Fifth Avenue was even then a fashion mecca. And these women were part of the chain of workers who fed the hungry rich and idle who wanted the latest fashions from Paris, London or Rome, or whatever patterns could be copied for their next soiree.

Fire - death by fire is suffocation, fear and intense pain by burning to the third degree - down to the bone. What the women and children in the Shirtwaist garment district must have suffered is unimaginable.

Each year, during the International Women's Week and especially on March 8, women around the world remember their unnecessary death, their horrible sacrifice and stand side by side for justice for all women everywhere. Because as one noted politician - Rosemary Brown of British Columbia said, "until all of us have made it, none of us have made it."

We are all still standing in the fire, with our children.
Until women everywhere have an equal voice, an equal place and equal power - that fire burns around us and within us.

A Woman's Place is in the House --- and in the Senate! (Bumper Sticker from the 1970s)

Let's get to it!