A Beginning, Middle And End

Story telling is as old as we are. Good stories are told with the three elements however styled, to have a beginning during which you find out who, what and where. The middle usually develops the how and why, and the end, ties it all up with a satisfying reason for the telling. It used to be, in "modern" times that when you tuned in, either on the radio, at a movie house or with The Box, you got your storytime time. Someone in the entertainment world, once found out that you could pull in more customers and keep them in their proverbial seats, if you drew out the tale for weeks on end. I think you know what I mean if you are one of the souls who sits in front of the television until one in the morning, to find out how the series ended. The serial approach is designed to entice you by dangling a carrot hint of what could be coming in the next episode. Often times the producers who don't know what the ending will be themselves, until it is born out of their creative staff resources, base their work on taking your viewers' pulse. The pulse is frequently the silly thumbs up or down or star system which  guides them in furthering the plot. This tactic is common knowledge. And while the story goes on and on amusing us like the seven veils, it can be frustrating because most of us, simply want to get to the conclusion without having to agonize for weeks on trivial end. When I browse to find a movie, one that does have a one-evening tale, I become annoyed. To find a piece that is not done in language subtitles or is that of a series, is becoming rare. My viewing system tells me what the film is about in general terms, unfortunately often misleading, but it always neglects to say whether it is in my language or some other. My only clue is the long list of film companies that rolls in endlessly before the main event. When I see that they are in a tongue other than my own, I try to quit the site. That used to be simple, but now you cannot just click left and be out of the situation, you often have to leave the site completely and re-enter to do the the process all over again. Just saying!  The point is, why not make it simple. In the film blurb, would they please state the nitty and gritty of format instead of a plot sentence about what I already picked up in the visuals and title? And I am not going to bend to the trite excuse of "generation gap" in feeling this way. The bottom line is for a production to be thoroughly pleasurable. To do so, it should tell a tale that is worth the time it takes to view it, not how long they took to make it.  Not a lot of us want car chases, sex scenes, blood and gore meant to stimulate our emotions. All we want is a story well told, one with a beginning, a middle and an end.

Silly Easy Health

Being healthy isn't hard to do. Eat fresh foods, don't over-do anything, move about lots and seek peace. Simple. It doesn't need rushing to stores or gyms that push products supposedly to make you healthier, lose weight miraculously and fix all of your complaints. It's a waste of time and money and yes, effort, to listen to such tripe. We have weekend markets with wonderful selections of fresh and delicious goods, thousands of lovely walking areas and relaxing places to do some meditating of the normal, natural kind. Shutting off the electronics and just listening to bird song, the wind in the trees and enjoying the greenery around you, are ways of getting your bones in order. When was the last time you took an avocado, diced sweet onion, tomatoes and peppers and mushed it all up with some salsa and mayo? Try it. Put a couple of slices of bread into the toaster and when they're done, quarter them to use as "chips".  No butter. Dip them into or spread on the mix and you will be having a treat and a treatment in goodness. There are so many ways to use fresh vegetables straight from the bins at the market. Adding fruit in season, as dessert, caps the whole experience that is easy on the digestive system and completely usable other than what's left for the composting. Meats that are inexpensive products such as ground pork, beef and poultry, used sparsely, puts the protein into your body that needs it to build muscle and there you have the magic formula. You have the perfectly balanced diet. And it is not costly. The kids can have fun making their own versions of the dips or spreads and using bread "chips" instead of oily or greasy crackers or crisps. You will be eating in the right direction. Where? Toward a more healthful and less wasteful world. The main ingredient to long life, is less stress. When you have the pressures of constantly having to use that cell phone or ear buds pounding music into your brain, there cannot be a method of relaxing. If you think so, you are not thinking. At least, try the other way for a while. Normal isn't doing what everyone else in the crowd is doing; normal and right, is doing what is the hidden inside of you. It's finding the real you without the barrage of requirements dictated by your group. Sure, your people or your group are part of your happiness but you are the main event in happiness. Are you truly happy? What makes you happy? Taking time out away from the stresses that are all around, is part of the journey in re-locating balance and being close again to that being who is you. A new lease in eating all that is really good and pure, a break from pleasing everyone but yourself, is finding a way back to the peace that is YOU.

Brain On A Hook

The first thing I got when my husband died was a tranquilizer. It was offered by a doctor who meant well. I didn't ask for it. I am not criticizing the doctor because that's the usual move, I hear from other widows. That I still have the bottle of little capsules, having taken perhaps a half of one in eight years, but for reasons other than the loss of my former husband, is moot. Are we expected to need tranquilizers when stressful situations, arise? It's an issue? Does society in general, simply segue into a fuzzy state of mind when things get tough? And do we end up in a mind fuzz which is supposed to fix it all? This attitude disturbs me. I had been indoctrinated by my originators to believe that meeting head-on, life's hard happenings, made character  the solving of them, or at least, the means to harden ourselves to accept matters we could not cure, to find a way to survive no matter what. If I thought that all I had to do to make trouble seem to go away, was to take a pill or drink a glass or smoke a bit of vegetation to make it all better, seems an artificial choice.  What I need to do is shake my head, make a plan, carry it out and take the blows while I do. I think of my pioneer family who came to Canada and tilled the soil by hand and built what they hoped was a better life than the one they left. All their lives, even to the end, they accomplished only a family, a big one, one they fed and nurtured and hoped for. It wasn't a huge success financially,  but they did it through hard work without fancy holidays and houses and other accouterments. Their offspring did not become heroes or named among the famous. They remain very ordinary people today, struggling with mortgages and jobs and kids that are not going to become stars. They are the Canadians that form the basis of the citizenship of where we live. They are the people of the land we say we love and belong to. They didn't smoke dope or take pills or go to hot yoga, not there is anything wrong with it. They just live their lives the best way they can, and make the mistakes that make them love their familes and know that they must carry on and be content with who and what they are. They try to fit in with all of our other peace loving Canadian immigrants and First Nations with whom they labor daily side by side. None of it needs dope of any kind. They face the tough times by hanging together, not hanging their brains on the hooks of  cannabis or alcohol or any other kind of hook but life itself.

Tick Tock Not

When you retire, you feel an aura of freedom all around. At last you can arise when it's natural, eat and go where and when you want to. Of course, there are some time elements to keep such as appointments and social obligations, but otherwise, why, you say, spoil your freedom? One morning as I listened to the alarm clock buzzing me up to meet a friend for our morning seaside walk, I gave my head a shake and asked myself, what are you doing? I said to myself, are you mad, you are retired and here you are making schedules like this one to get up at six so that you can go for a walk? At that point, I made a decision to stop scheduling most of the events in my life that really do not need to be timed. After reviewing all of the unnecessary dates such as the Friday Dinner and a Movie, the coffee shop ritual in the morning and others, I determined to simply get up in the morning when enough sleep was gained, do household chores as I pleased and un-time meetings with others. I promised myself, I would inform my friends and acquaintances that I would no longer be meeting specific time frames but would come and go, more or less, in a similar way, while calling them up to go for a walk or a coffee or a visit but not on-schedule. If they were uncomfortable with that arrangement, it was their choice. For me, minutes were going to become a thing of the past. I would more or less go for the stroll sometime in the morning but take my own car to the location and perhaps meet them later for coffee when I finished the walk. To test the new move, this morning I awoke without looking at the clock and went about preparing for my wharf walk. The feeling of not trying to beat the clock and working to get out to meet my friend at a specific minute, was liberating. If I wanted to take a bit more time donning my running shoes or fiddling with my hair, I jolly well did. When I got into the car to drive down the hill, I found that the road was closed, but no worry. I just ambled the car off to another way down and didn't need to care about having to meet someone at any appointed time. While on the walk, I had the leisure to enjoy gazing at the eagle perched on his look-out for as long as I pleased and I peered over the railing, looking down into the salt chuck at the crabs crawling among the sea grasses and the starfish clinging to their rocks. No clocks were ticking. I went home rather than going over to the coffee shop and made my own version of a latte. Ahhh. It was so very relaxing. I have to confess, however, that when I did peek at the clock, for scientific reasons only, surprisingly, the times  were almost exactly the same! Nevertheless, tomorrow again, no tick tock clock for me.

The Can't Opener

Knowing many older people because I am one of them, sometimes mystifies me. Many have both feet on solid "now" ground, while the majority does not. I realize that aging isn't easy and that it takes a great amount of courage even though it is perfectly natural, but I believe that one should make an attempt to keep up. We are old sure, but not stupid and the experience that we have gained in life whether it is appreciated adequately or not, always remains personally useful. We can use our own experience as once active persons, to enrich our own lives. It doesn't mean donning a yoga outfit and begging heart failure in risk-taking exercises and adventures. It means keeping  open minds. Recently, I heard someone of an age, say that she didn't read the news or pay attention to "what's going on now" because it is too depressing and she "can't do anything about it anyway". First of all, the past wasn't exactly joyful an existence with its poverty and wars, it's lack of social services and accommodation for the elderly. While things aren't perfect now, they're not impossible. We must be patient. Changes to assist the aging population can't happen overnight and tax bases have to be created to meet the costs. To sit about and grumble while we see all around us, development that makes homes for people, social services expanding in spite of criticism and our young people going out into the world with huge education loans to pay down along with the stresses of modern day work ethics is irresponsible. We can start doing "something" by using our one vote. That's all anyone has, and it is precious. When forty percent of the population deliberately refuses to use their franchise for flimsy reasons, they have no moral right to make a single valid complaint about The Government. The Government is what we elected or didn't bother to. It's all we have to manage our precious dollars and it can't be an easy job with rampant criticism and hectoring. Then there is the advent of electronics in a society where land lines are a joke and socializing includes eye flicking and thumb action on a tiny screen. Yakking about it, won't change things and you know what they say? If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Why not do just that? Learning to use a cell phone is the easiest thing on the planet. If you want your land line, ignore the tongue flappings and do what you wish, but try a cell phone. It's a best friend in an emergency. You have help, should you fall, right there. A computer is another wonderful friend that will take you wherever you wish and do your business and offer entertainment and education unlike any other item for the same price. All this and you don't have to leave home. The time some elders spend grouching about computers and their ilk, would be best spent in learning how to use them for their benefit. Teachers are out there hoping you will give it a try. Find someone who doesn't dump the whole lesson on you in one shot. It takes a while to find and make a good friend and it takes the same patience and time to learn how to use electronics. Once you have learned how to use a computer, all the rest follows easily. The only people I know who were not successful at it, were the ones who really didn't want to learn. It's up to you. Be in the world. Or not?

Collaring Science

To see a wild animal with a radio collar around its neck, is a tragic sight. Studying the beast world in the name of protecting nature is a misplaced misnomer. How can it be okay to band a hummingbird, collar an elk, put a leather strap around a bear or spread agricultural strychnine poison on farm land to kill ground hogs? "Studying" or "improving" in this way to hype up someone's Master's Degree or Doctorate is no excuse for interfering in wildlife in its natural state - if any is left. Air junk such as drones overhead and cameras in the bush or on tree tops, is not studying. It's interfering. Sure it's fine to go into the forests and oceans and deserts on foot and use your eyes and ears to become a part of the environment you love, but leave the electronics at home if "nature" is to remain natural. I listened this morning to a person describing his "study" of hummingbirds and how he caught these delicate creatures in a trap and then  bodily measured them "without harm" to put a metal band on their legs to "track" their movements. He described how cruel it was that these little beautiful birds were being sold as charms in another country. Huh? This kind of science needs collaring. All scientists should have collars around their necks to see how it feels to wear one every moment of their lives and to have someone track their every move, even the most private ones. They shouldn't be asked if they would like one or not. We don't ask animal life if it would care to go about with a "harmless" piece of electronic junk around its limbs. They hear it's for their own good. Like the animals of all kinds that they trap and manipulate to study, scientists should also have to donate portions of their anatomy so to help them survive. This small portion of their bodies could then be put under microscopes and delved into minutely. Why? Well, in the long run, it will help all human beings to be able to live longer and better. Furthermore, very intelligent individuals will be able to make predictions and ultimately allow fame opportunities to get on the media and talk about it. They will likely write books with photographs of close ups, as closely as they can get. Nothing will escape their studies: eating, mating and moving about will be covered. With lots of colourful illustrations, filmings and drawings, of course. The latter will be used to put on television screens all over the world. What's that? The net, popular media? Of course. Enhancements and a little photoshop? Naturally. All are sale-able and a percentage will, presumably, go to nature study to make even more such studies of the kind. Run animals run.

Be You

Fashion makes its demands. Its influence, as seen in the media, calls for being skinny, doing fierce exercise, wearing costly labels, having the latest hair-do and acting and speaking in what the big or small screen models deem as desirable and correct. When you pick up a magazine or newspaper or a site on line, you are being streamed. You want to be what you see. Very few of us can be what we see, even though we savor the life style. Very few of us can afford what we adore on the screen; it's beyond what we can manage. But we try, nevertheless. I see those who are in pain pounding the sidewalks in their stretch attire and ridiculous shoes. I hear about "hot" exercise sessions that must put a human body into jeopardy. I listen endlessly to women yapping about their diets and their weight. I go into stores that sell nothing but clothing made for over-gymmed, starving people whose genetics fit the clothes rather than fitting normal bodies. I watch movies with actors who have surgery and implants and ribs removed to serve the false fashion ideals they hold up to their adoring audiences. Young people are ostracized and often ridiculed if they can't "keep up" with their fashionista peers. It frequently leads to effects that  carry on for the rest of their lives. Just attend your high school reunions and listen in. In adulthood, we continue to struggle and strive for  what is often beyond us. We want the latest car, the best furnishings in the biggest house, seeing that our kids are braggable. It's human nature to try and reach beyond our grasp. Why? Psychologists probably have answers but answers don't eliminate the everlasting question. At some point in life, many souls decide that enough is enough and they  stop trying to change what nature gave them to begin with, what they feel doesn't come up to their false aspirations. We have many examples right in our own "backyards". There are films coming out that reflect this kind of feeling and show comedic examples of those who rebel, but still the madness goes on. Small groups of people, however, are bravely banding together to see change. They wear clothing that isn't designed to disguise, but rather to be comfortable while demanding a fashionable aura. They make their exercise something pleasant to do and not torturous. They eat and drink to moderation, what they like and they live with their extra pounds without shame. They don't talk endlessly about what not to do or eat or wear. They talk about things that matter such as safety, health and human welfare. They become happy people who live without guilt or labels. They design their own lives and do what they wish and not what's said to be fashionable. They have in their way, become happy people walking about free from plans that don't work for them. They are free and fulfilled persons. They smile, they thrive and they could be you and I.