Bobbing Around Volume 23 Number 10

We suggest that an Indigenous worldview, that of kinship with nature, should define sustainable practices… We are all Indigenous to this Earth. We are one family.
Charles Fletcher, William Ripple, et. al

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In our current interdependent world, our household is Earth and all its living beings.
David Korten

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For today’s 18-24 year olds — the first generation to be born into a world of smartphones and social media — the younger they were when they got their first smartphone, the worse their mental health outcomes were in adulthood.
Sezen Bakan

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If bioplastics fully replaced plastic in packaging, their development would require 61 million hectares (235,000 square miles) of arable land, roughly equivalent to the landmass of Texas.
Julia Cohen and Erica Cirino

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Bobbing Around

Volume Twenty-three, Number Ten,
April, 2024

Bob Rich’s rave

bobswriting.com    anxietyanddepression-help.com/    mudsmith.net/    previous issues

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I am responsible for anything I have written. However, where I reproduce contributions from other people, I do not necessarily endorse their opinions. I may or may not agree with them, but give them the courtesy of a forum.

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* From me to you
A Ward
And an interview
Health update

 

	New content	Posts during the past month
RESPONSES	Lauren Persons Roseanne Hartley Laurent Grenier
ENVIRONMENT	Antarctic anguish	“Everything’s gonna be plastic bye and bye” It’s now or never: action on extinction Two years to save a future
GOOD NEWS		Swiss women win for you and me
POLITICS	Yes to Yanis	Another reason against nuclear power
INSPIRATION	How to make peace	Suffering can be the spur to growth Slum program in India is changing lives
PSYCHOLOGY	Mental illness and violence	How to start healing from childhood trauma Shout over the thought
DEEPER ISSUES	Eco-nomics not Ego-nomics	Nonhuman people
HEALTH	Another reason for solar power Microplastics? Bon appetit
WRITING		Voices: the tool for presenting a story: April, 2024 round robin
ANNOUNCEMENTS	New Nature newsletter for your enjoyment and edification	You can cure PTSD
REVIEWS		From Depression to Contentment, reviewed by April Pulliam
FUN	Warning labels How to control a health complaint
POETRY	I Am One With Nature, by Dawn Colclasure	Morning walk

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From me to you

A Ward
And an interview
Health update

 

A Ward

A magical ward is a type of protection spell used to guard against negative energies, entities, and other forms of spiritual, emotional — or even physical — harm.

A ward is also someone in the protection of a state or agency.

But nothing — a blank space — makes such a difference! An award is a tangible pat on the head.

If you don’t enjoy word play, don’t read the previous three paragraphs.

This is to let you know that my most successful psychology book, From Depression to Contentment has won one of these, and a golden one at that.

When you submit a book for review to Literary Titan, it is automatically entered into their contest, and those deemed worthy get A Gold Award, and my book did.

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And an interview

In addition to dropping a Gold Award into my lap, Literary Titan also sent me a list of questions about From Depression to Contentment.

What’s more, I answered their questions, and hey, you can read the result here.

I’ve just read it and found it entertaining. Let me know if you have, too.

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Health update

I feel immensely touched and honoured by the amount of love pouring toward my family and me.

Thank you. Here is an update, which of course you may skip. But then, I have read David Morehouse’s Remote Viewing, and you can be sure I am checking up on you.

And I am a storyteller.

Let’s go in order of age.

My darling 14-year-old granddaughter in Sydney, Arianna, is a fully qualified surf lifesaver. She was on patrol, in the water, when a dumper caught her. In case you don’t know what that means, it’s a wave that rises to a monstrous height, then slams down. While she was on the seafloor, someone accidentally stepped on her head.

I was 16 when I survived my first opportunity to die. She has outdone me.

What’s even better, there have been no fractures, no spinal or ligament damage, “only” concussion and a couple of weeks of pain.

My daughter, Natalie, is doing as well as can be expected, and even somewhat better, with liver cancer. She is due for her next scan sometime in May, then we’ll know how things are. In the meantime, please send her your prayers.

My wife, Jolanda, is home at last, after 40 days in hospital. She is improving every day, and now has advanced to being a shadow of her former self. We had a phone consultation with the surgeon exactly 7 weeks after her open-heart surgery. Until then, I was slightly more than severely worried about her lack of appetite and low energy, but he reassured me these are normal. Go with the flow, Bob.

As for me? I count my pulse upon waking, and it is now always below 60/minute; as low as 53. Many of my exercises have reached pre-op levels. Others still have a long way to go, but the only way up is to climb. No, I’m not bragging, merely reassuring my friends that they no longer need to worry about me.

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Responses

 

Lauren Persons

Dear Bob,
I tried to write a comment on your blog and made quite a mess! Just wanted to wish you and your wife good health. What a difficult month for you. I found myself shaking my head in agreement with the contents of this month’s blog several times. First, the quote by Lipkin really touched me. Very recently, when a neighbor’s husband dropped dead unexpectedly, I found myself in a situation that I would have liked to turn away from but could not. How do you try to make sense out of the inexplicable? With the simple gesture of trying to comfort her, I found myself whisked back years ago, grieving my own loss. Hopefully, she at least knew she was not alone and while one doesn’t “get over” grief, there is healing.

While I read that part with a heavy heart, the next moment I laughed aloud as you wrote about losing your glasses. I thought I had solved that problem by buying a number of reading glasses so whatever room I am in, I will have access to a pair. Unfortunately, it still doesn’t matter. The other day, I searched high and low for a pair and then realized they were perched on top of my head! Yikes. All to say, I appreciate your blog that touches my heart and makes me laugh! Be well, Lauren Persons

Thank you, Lauren.

You do know that Pip Lipkin is the good version of me? Ascending Spiral is my fictionalised autobiography. This is a therapy trick. You create a character who is like you in every way, except (s)he makes the right choices when you don’t. That’s Pip. I actually sent that email to a teenage girl somewhere in America. I don’t even remember her real name, except it was Latina (but not Maria).

I don’t believe in anything, but go with the evidence. That shows that death is more like waking up than going to sleep. It is going from illusion to reality. It’s lovely that after years you still miss your husband, but you need have no sadness on his behalf. He may even be reading my email to you over your shoulder!

With metta,
Bob

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Roseanne Hartley

Bob, WordPress wouldn’t let me leave a comment on your post, so here it is.

I loved your breakfast chapter from Jolanda’s Kitchen Magic. Hurry up and write the book and I’ll buy a copy. Not so much for the recipes, I’ve got a cupboard-full of them, but because of your delightful sense of humour.

But tell me, what’s wrong with kippers? They are a perfectly respectable British breakfast. It is healthy to start the day with a healthy, high-protein meal. So there.

Keep up the Professional Grandparenting. Us oldies must stick together to make sure there are oldies of the future.

Your friend,

Roseanne

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Laurent Grenier
Good picture of you, and congratulations for your grandfather status. Finally, yes, generosity over greed, any day of the week. In other words, a sharp intelligence is a valuable asset, but nothing is more important than a kind spirit.

Your friend.

L

Laurent Grenier, author/auteur

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Environment

 

Antarctic anguish

I needed to switch on my Buddhist survival tricks when reading about the current state of our great southern continent.

Emperor penguin chicks need to get old enough to grow their waterproof feathers before the ice they are born on melts. Last year, many thousands drowned. Currently, there is a heatwave, with temperatures nearly 40 degrees C above the average for this time of year.

All sorts of positive feedback loops have started, like water once covered in ice now exposed to the sun, which melts more ice, on and on. And Antarctic marine plants are dying, so the krill that feed on them are dying, and krill poop sinking to the seafloor is one of the mechanisms for removing carbon dioxide from the water, making more plants die…

And of course, whales and similar people live on krill.

But there is an amusing side to disaster. Believe it or not, some people are concerned about global COOLING.

I wonder which planet they live on.

Oh, you might want the link to the article that triggered this rave.

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Politics

 

Yes to Yanis

Yanis Varoufakis is one of my heroes. He was the main person responsible for, basically, a bloodless revolution in Greece that rejected greed, and the transfer of wealth from poor to rich. That couldn’t be allowed, so the international establishment shot him down. Greece is back in the economic doldrums like everyone else.

However, he is still active, and still inspiring. You just have to read what he has said about the situation in Israel/Gaza/Palestine.

His eloquent words exactly state my attitude. If everyone thought like us, there would be no war, no hatred or discrimination.

But then, that’d be bad for profits, too, so cannot be allowed.

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Inspiration

 

How to make peace

Sadly, Julia’s family have to shelter in France to escape violence from both families of origin.

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Psychology

 

Mental illness and violence

There is a stigma against people with certain diagnosable mental illnesses, particularly schizophrenia and bipolar. Movies, reporting of violent events in the media, and even lawyers acting for their clients in criminal trials have led to the general belief that such sufferers are highly likely to be violent.

Very recently, a man in Sydney, Australia committed a horrific act: killed several people, mostly women and children, and wounded many others. And he has suffered from schizophrenia since his teenage years,

Please read this research-based, informative report that calmly analyses the situation, and reassures us: most people with mental illness are not violent. When certain illogical ways of thinking do lead to violence, the action is preventable — if society is willing to invest the resources.

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Deeper Issues

 

Eco-nomics not Ego-nomics

Here is a wonderful essay by David Korten in Common Dreams, which carries the exact message I have been shouting from the rooftops, but in different words.

He wants to replace ego-nomics, which is, simply, greed, with eco-nomics, which looks after all beings on earth, who are all family.

He says,

Key components of the new eco-nomics involve:
1. Replacing GDP with valid indicators of beneficial economic performance.

2. Confronting and dispelling the illusion that money is wealth and that growing money benefits us all.

3. Embracing biology and ecology as the disciplines most foundational to an eco-nomics for an Ecological Civilization.

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Health

 

Another reason for solar power

Energy saving requires us to avoid putting warm, or heaven help us, hot food in the fridge.

At the same time, the temperature range between hot and chilled is ideal breeding ground for all sorts of nasties in the food.

One example is fried rice, because rice very often has a gastro-triggering bacterium in it.

The advice is, to avoid getting sick, put leftovers immediately in the fridge.

But that uses HEAPS of power!

No worries if you have solar, and cook at times of decent input.

If you don’t, no need for despair: cool the food with ice, as rapidly as possible, then tuck it away.

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Microplastics? Bon appetit

You can’t get away from them. They get into you through food, the air you breathe and probably in a few other ways.

A new study shows that once within, they migrate to vital organs including the brain.

You can find a plain-language write-up here.

What to do about it?

Filter all water you drink or cook with.

Thoroughly wash any vegies and fruit before eating.

Minimise the amount of plastic in your home that will be subject to rubbing. You know, shiny faux-leather furniture and stuff?

Campaign in every way possible to unplastic our planet. One way is to join and support Greenpeace, the source of this pic:

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I approve of these announcements

 

New Nature newsletter for your enjoyment and edification

They wrote:

It’s here! Our new free weekly newsletter is all about the most abundant living entities on our planet — microorganisms — and the role they play in health, the environment and food systems. And we’d appreciate it if you’d share the sign-up link far and wide: nature.com/briefing/microbiology — thank you!

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Fun

 

Warning labels

I am no great fan of Readers Digest, but they keep sending me their circulars. Since there is an occasional item I enjoy, I haven’t bothered to unsubscribe.

And why does everything need to be numbered?

This list, though, will give you a laugh.

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How to control a health complaint

I was behind this man at the supermarket checkout. His trolley was full of dogfood, so I asked, “What breed of dogs do you have?”

“Oh, I don’t have any dogs, but you see, I have this rare disease. I can go into a fit, y’know, like with epilepsy, but nibbling on some dogfood staves it off.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Nah, see, I’ve got some in my pocket,” and he pulled out a handful. “There’s only one problem. Every time I pass a tree or a fire hydrant, I have this terrible urge to pee on it.”

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Poetry

 

I Am One With Nature, by Dawn Colclasure

Dawn has sent me a collection of environmental poems. I will publish them one per issue. She is a writer in Oregon. She is the author of several books. Her poems have appeared in PANIC! Poetry & Arts, Happy Insomniac, EOTU E-Zine of Fiction, Art and Poetry, The Front Porch Review and HNDL Mag, among others. Her websites are https://www.dmcwriter.com/ and https://dawnsbooks.com/. Her Twitter: @dawncolclasure

I walk along the beach,
watching the waves
clash onto the shore.
Looking up, I see seagulls
drifting along the wind.
I hold a seashell to my ear
to hear the ocean’s song
and I am one with nature.

I stroll through the grassy fields,
the cool breeze tickling my skin
as colorful flowers in red, blue and yellow
greet my vision with joyful bursts of life.
The sunshine above provides me with warmth and guidance
and it makes me feel one with nature.

I lie in the shade of a tree in the forest,
feeling the cool soft ground beneath me.
I close my eyes and listen
as the trees all around sway and rustle with life.
Trees surround me as I wander among them,
providing comfort and everlasting peace.
I place my hand on a tree and feel its life within
and I am one with nature.

Trekking through the arid dry desert,
feeling the hot sand beneath me as I sit down to rest.
The palm trees sway in the hot wind
and the towering rocks offer shelter from the heat.
I watch the soft sand slide between my fingers
and it makes me feel one with nature.

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