The Morris tapestry shows all sorts of connectivity.
THIS IS A DISCLAIMER, there will be nothing about this topic in this whole blogpost so you will have to go elsewhere for recipes and such. Sorry. We might be talking about bacon milkshakes for the mind and spirit perhaps. OK, we have that out of the way.
It is so fun to be working with the great Catalina on the archives of this blog. She is compiling a reasonably sized book from all the major blather of my years of blogging. But at some point I did have a post about the topic of bacon milkshakes and I attracted a whole bunch of visitors that particular day. I think those folks were probably highly disappointed about not getting a bright and shiny recipe or some such token. It was just the usual unusual Felipébabble.
So it is fun reading over Catalina’s shoulder as she goes through the days, months and years of it. Today we were talking about a phrase that I used “cloud of believers” That is related to communion of saints or the flow of pilgrims. Catalina has called it communitas. It speaks to the community of belief that we shared on the Camino and that we still share.
To me now I realize that this is the big payoff, the big takeaway for the walkers of the Camino that “get it” at some point, there or later at home. It is that connnectivity that is so missing in our normal world and that we didn’t know that we craved so.
I was out walking this morning and something occurred to me. Usually though I get the blogpost done before I walk but today I had a water emergency to contend with so that took up several hours. But things under control for the moment, knock on wood. Anyway, it occurred to me that this year of 2020 being such a different year with in which we are seeing all kinds of things that hadn’t occurred to us before. It is ironic that the phrase twenty-twenty or 20/20 means good normal eyesight. So in this year of 2020 we see what we haven’t seen before.
Now before us are flaws or shortcomings. There are things to do and things that we don’t know how to do. There are insights were last year there were normalities. We see pain and suffering and death. We see too much sometimes and become depressed, It is a different world and 20/20 is a good name for it.
Well, I don’t know if there is too much more on that. I am out of time today.
A beautiful sunny Sunday morn happening. It looks like something out of Spain happening out there. I got the corn fertilized and watered heavily yesterday so maybe with the help of St James things will happen out there height wise.
Henna our beautiful and charming daughter-in-law has a Dad who lives locally and his name is Jim. Henna uses “Jim” as a verb. “Yea, he came by and Jim-ed it”. In other words he was here and fixed it. But not only fixed it but did it with a minimum of swear words and in record time! Well, I drove my bucket of bolts old truck over to his place yesterday to see if he had the “special” tool for this one deal that I had been wresting with for a day and a half. Of course he Jim-ed it without the stinking “special” tool in fifteen minutes. You see, well worth two six packs but he makes me feel like such a rookie!
And comet, yes? That was a car once, wasn’t it, a Mercury Comet? Anyway, I think I saw the darn thing. I’m still pissed about Kohotek (sp?) Which was a comet or supposed comet back in the 70’s, the 1970’s, that we all stayed up all night to see it and it never happened or we don’t remember. Anyway, I think that I saw the one last night. There is this strange visual phenomenon that I remember from Sea Scout days. Well, I wasn’t really one but loved the manual. Anyway, sometimes on faint objects you have to look at the space next to it and then you see it. Weird!
And yesterday I never made it through the hurtles and wickets to get to the QandA on Zoom that I was supposed to be at. But I was able to watch and listen to the recording. It looked so fantastic with old and new friends there. We will try and do it again l hope. But I learned a new fact that beside Cris translating the documentary into Spanish a woman named Sue is working on a Korean version! This is so exciting!
Off I go, Catherine coming. We are going to St John Vianney’s to take Communion at 10, we have an appointment.
Our Cris, Caminoheads South America Bureau Chief. (photo unknown)
This is so exciting! I am sharing it with you first thing and say that I have no details but just the headline. But Cris our beloved Caminoheads South America Bureau Chief was asked by Annie O’Neil the Producer/Director of Phil’s Camino to do a translation of the film into Spanish. This would mean that the film could be distributed with Spanish subtitles for the Spanish speaking audience! Wow!
This has actually been talked about for years but the time must be right for this to happen. Saint James must be Afoot, that’s all I can think of. We all know what happens when he is on the loose, THINGS HAPPEN! Maybe I could have him come and take a look at my corn?
I can see Cris having so much fun with this. She is SO the right person to do this. I pray that she will have enough hours in her day to tackle this and have it be fun and not a burden. Won’t it be great to have this whole new audience out there. It just occurred to little old me that Spanish speaking audiences could be much more familiar with pilgrimage than English speaking audiences. Yea, maybe.
Speaking of Phil’s Camino documentary. It is being shown with a QandA afterward today and you can get it in your living room during lockdown. I’ll be there. Annie will be there. No masks required. You have to go to the FaceBook group Pilgrimage in Place and follow directions. You must register to get links. But the QandA starts at 3PM Pacific Time. So the film must start 2 or 2:30.
OK, it is a beautiful no cloud in the blue sky sunny day here. I must go and get with my projects and chores. Once again, thanks so much for being here.
“The Grandfather Clock, USS BONHEMME RICHARD, and Robert Redford.”
Saw a “Twilight Zone” last night. The 1950’s version. One about a man who was always told by his father and grandfather that the Grandfather Clock that he had, represented his life. The clock was handed down to him from generation to generation. He was told that he had to always keep it wound up. If he forgot to wind it, then the clock would wind down and his heart would stop right along with the clock. As long as he kept the clock wound, he would remain alive. The man had his clock taken away from him. The clock was sent to another home. The man was petrified that the clock would not be wound and that it would wind down and then he would die with the dying beat of the clock. So as he lay in bed, as the clock wound down, he knew he was going to die, because that is what was told to him this whole time. Only he did not. The clock wound down and he did not die. As it turned out, this whole time, they were all wrong. He realized at that very moment that his heart was beating to its own rhythm. Not dependent on anything else. I loved that “Twilight Zone” episode. I am thinking I had already wrote about another one in here, maybe….but I love the parables.
The man’s life was not dependent on anything or anyone else’s. What a thought I had as I watched that episode. I watched a documentary about Quincy Jones recently. He said, “We only got about 20,000 days here. We gotta make them all count”.
I say, more like 30,000++…
Also, I thought, how lucky we are to get older, at any age. What a gift. A boy I grew up with died at the ripe young age of 19…..Too damn young.
Someone told me, “Ryck, getting old is not for the weak”.
I am getting a Grandfather clock, but let me tell you, that damn thing will be electric and it will have backup batteries in it:)
The Ship. “Don’t give up the ship!” As we say in the Navy. The USS BONHEMME RICHARD, on fire. Blazing, uncontrolled. Sailors kept fighting the fire as the American Flag waved onboard, meanwhile, the belly of the ship was on fire. Sailors kept fighting the fire. Now the fire is out. “Don’t give up the ship!”
There is a movie named, “All is Lost” with Robert Redford. He has about one sentence in the entire movie. The movie is merely him and a sailboat. Man against nature. My favorite part of the movie is when there is bad damage to the hull of his boat and he is mending it back together, leaning over the side in his harness, slopping and mixing the glue together and lathering it in the fibers of the fiberglass hull. Forehead dripping with sweat. I don’t know what about that scene I love so much. Maybe it was because he was not willing to give up the ship yet.
I have no clue about this blog post I wrote…., what comes out, comes out….kind of like I am merely the conduit….
Love you guys!
Hot and balmy here in the D.C./Maryland/Virginia. (DMV) area of our country.
Cheers:))
Ryck.
Yea, I am off my clinical trial for three weeks. I was at the Institute yesterday and did not pass muster with my pancreas numbers. This is a side effect of the drug to raise a little trouble with the pancreas but it was the first time for me. I didn’t have any of the physical symptoms that are associated with it. So, three weeks off to see if those numbers cooperate. Nugget and David (my research nurse) are working extremely hard on this. They are reading all the small print and keeping us in the protocol.
But I did get to touch base with two of my favorite people, Patti Kwok and Debra Jarvis. They are both authors and chaplain/councilors. Patti came all the way out here to help me plant corn in May. Debra did the Veranda and the Camino last year. I never tire of those two.
Today here at the ranch it is overcast but warm. We had two sunny days in a row, Tuesday and Wednesday, so I guess that is it for the sun. Walking in a minute.
“Keep the hope machine going.” That is from a diary of Woody Guthrie on a few pages of daily reminders written in 1942. That could be a number one priority each and every day and especially these darn days. Yea, keep that sucker fueled and greased and change the oil on schedule and it will take care of you.
In the waiting room at the Institute. Got here an hour early; the traffic was a dream. Nugget (Dr Gold) called home to say to try and get here early so he could get out early today. He must have a giant honeydew project going or a big golf date. Well, it is a beautiful day, blissful even, bordering on best ever. Yea, let’s get out early
Doc!
OK, I can feel that corn just jumping out of the ground even though I am miles from it. It is so happy! Checking the date today I see it is only a month from expected harvest time, we had better kick in the afterburners. That means more food and water. It is running a little late but you know that as I have talked about it often enough. Come on my little babies!
Beautiful day today and hoping for more to come. I think it is supposed to be 80 something today and tomorrow. That’s scorching for around here. I need this to get my corn caught up to the knee high by the Fourth Of July pace.
I spent yesterday working on my truck and will be today too. My truck is like my body. For years I was so focused on my cancer that other small problems started to accumulate and got neglected. So now over the past year I have been seeing the dentist, the hand doc and the foot doc to catch up. And the truck is the same way, it went forward and stopped so that was good but accumulated a lot of small stuff annoying stuff which I am tackling.
Wow, almost time for my energy session with Janet. Sorry I will have to cut it short today. Walk this afternoon at 4.
Hey. So, yesterday we were blogging about Laurie and her flying away.
Only on Vashon would you have someone do their hospice and final party at a funeral home. But I almost forgot that one of Laurie’s sons, Tyler, got married the day before there on the premises. High times all around.
This so reminds me of the wedding that was at my chemo treatment center back a couple of years ago that I got to witness. Who’s would have a wedding at a cancer center or a funeral home? Well people that know how to bring joy into the world, that’s who! It is all so crazy fun and it is happening here and there like the flowers that bloom in the cracks in the pavement.
Well, that is about it for me today. Wednesday this week I am back in the big city at the Institute. I have some visitors coming to check in on me. Will make the best of it.
Laurie who drove the bus as the tomato among all the heart rock wrestlers on the team. (photo P Volker)
Yesterday we had a unique day on our family Camino. My Rebecca, Our Wiley and myself attended a ceremony for an end of life. We have a friend who was one of the Wrestling Mom’s when all our boys and some of our girls were on the team back ages ago. Wiley was with all those kids for thirteen years up through all the grades so we have all grown close.
Laurie had a constant cancer companion for years. Finally it became overwhelming and she chose to do the death with dignity. That was our first time to accompany a friend in one of these. She had about a hundred relations and friends there to be say final goodbyes and see you on the other sides. Then before the very end most of us walked off and her close family remained with her. She had already taken the substance and she supposedly only had fifteen minutes left when we made our exit.
It was all so lovely and peaceful and full of smiles and laughs and support for the family. Her whole passing seemed so like Sture’s death that you saw in the Phil’s Camino documentary. On that day too we were all partying and no muss no fuss Sture flew away.
Only on Vashon would this all occur at the local funeral home. The director of the place was also one of the Wrestling Mom’s and had turned the whole place over to the family. Not only for this one day but for the last three months of Laurie’s hospice. The whole extended family had been camped out there, a scene. Only on Vashon.
So it was good to see most of the old wrestlers and some of the coaches. They all were thirty or forty pounds heavier and had hair when they didn’t before or didn’t have hair when they had it before. You know. Anyway it was a reunion of a tight community within a larger tight community and pretty special.
Bon voyage Laurie! Love you! We will watch out for your family like always! It was a great day! You look so beautiful, like Gandhi! Yes! And see you on the other side!
If that were one of us we would all say, “Buen Camino!” Laurie said to me that she always thought that I would beat her to the finish line but here we were with her ahead. Funny how things work out.
