Sad Days for America

I will be marching with others in Vancouver, Washington, on March 28, 2026, to protest the policies of the cruel, incompetent, and immoral  Trump Republicans. 

No Kings Day Protests.

Repost from 2024:

I strongly support the ideas and platform presented by Democratic candidates. I donate to Democratic candidates in every election.

We got through the COVID epidemic under Biden/Harris/Medical Team leadership. We stayed out of the Israel/Hamas killing spree.  Unemployment is lower. Needed  conservation measures began. We supported NATO allies against Russian attacks.  Water quality improvements were initiated. More was invested in electrical power options and uses.

I do not support the anti-federal governmental policies, anti-women's rights and anti-homosexual rights agenda, denial of climate change, States Rights renewals, and Christian Moral Majority opinions of current Republicans. Republicans complain too much, want lower taxes, and have no constructive solutions for the problems our future presents. Also, Donald Trump helped stage a violent attack on the Congress, refused to concede defeat by Joe Biden, lies often, and has numerous criminal convictions for misbehaviors. His off-hand remarks are often quite offensive to many people, even a former Republican and military veteran like me. 

Joe Biden looks trim and fit to me. Most of the time, his speeches are just fine.  Nevertheless, he has consulted with his doctor and has now decided to not run for President again. We thank him for his many decades of governmental service to our Country. This man exemplifies respect, honor, dignity, and loyalty to his basic political views and principles.

Now, the 2024 Presidential Election, has become very interesting.

Who will be the Democratic candidates?

I need to listen and learn.

Birthday for Michael P. Garofalo

Today is my 79th birthday.  

My parents were Bertha June (1921-1994) and Michael James Garofalo (1916-1997).  My two brothers were Paul and Phillip.  

My parents and I in 1947

I grew up in East Los Angeles and attended St. Alphonsus Catholic Grammar School, Cantwell Catholic High School (Honors Diploma), California State University at Los Angeles (B.A. Philosophy), and the University of Southern California (M.S. Library Science).  

I worked for the City of Commerce Public Library System from 1963-1969.  

Blanche Karen Eubanks and I were married in 1967.  We we celebrate our 54 wedding anniversary this week in 2021.  

Karen and I in 1970
Biloxi, Mississippi

Served in the United States Air Force, Air Training Command, from 1969-1973.  Honorably discharged as a Staff Sergeant.  

I worked for the County of Los Angeles Public Library System from 1974 to 1998.  I retired as a Library Administrator, and Regional Administrator for the East Region in the San Gabriel Valley.  I worked at offices in the Compton library, Bell Gardens library, East Los Angeles library, Norwalk library, Huntington Park library, and West Covina library.  

We lived in Bell Gardens and Hacienda Heights - both in the East Los Angeles  metropolitan area.  

Karen and I, and our families and community, raised two children, Alicia June and Michael Delmer.  We now have two grandchildren, Katelyn and Makenna. 

My daughter and I in 1977

Our family around 1990

I started creating websites in 1995, and a blog in 2005.       

Karen and I lived in Red Bluff, North Sacramento Valley, California, from 1998-2017, in a rural area on a five acre parcel.  We both worked part-time for school districts.  I was the Technology and Media Service Supervisor and District Librarian for the Corning Union Elementary School District; and Karen was a Special Education Instructional Aide.  

Yosemite, North Dome, 2005




Family, 2007

Karen in the fruit tree orchard in Red Bluff, 2015
We planted over 160 trees and shrubs on this property.  

Karen retired on June 14, 2014, after working part-time since 1998 as a Special Education Instructional Assistant for the Tehama County Department of Education in Red Bluff, California.  

Mike retired on July 1, 2016, after working part-time since 1998 as the Technology and Media Services Supervisor for the Corning Union Elementary School District in Corning, California.  

I taught yoga, taijiquan, qigong, pilates, and other fitness classes at the Tehama Family Fitness Center in Red Bluff from 2002-2016.

In 2017, we moved to Vancouver, Washington.  We are now both retired.  

Family in Oregon in 2013

Vancouver, Washington, 2017

I am very fortunate in having fairly good health, a positive attitude, and stamina for work and play for all of my long life.  I was fortunate in being able to be productively employed for 54 years, and earning good medical insurance for Karen and I.  

I am a philosopher by inclination and practice.  My biography.

I have been active with various sports, physical conditioning programs, weightlifting, walking, fitness, Taijiquan, Yoga, hiking, etc., during my entire healthy long life.  

I am hoping that 2021 brings an end to the pandemic, work for all, and peace.  

That about sums it up!   

Why Did the Bodhidharma Walk So Far Away?

The Fireplace Records, Chapter 3

The Young Bodhidharma Walks Back to India from China
He did not sit for seven years in a cave.
Where is his Backpack?
Why are his clothes not dirty?
Is he a Fang-shih?

Why Did the Bodhidharma Walk So Far Away? 

Two old friends were resting after morning chores on the farm.  They sat and watched the busy traffic on the dirt road from Wuhan to Huarong. 

Seigen asked Obaku: "What was Master Bodhidharma's intention in walking west from India to China?"

Obaku, a Taoist scholar, answered: "He likely preferred the warmer winters of  Wuhan to the blizzards in Tibet.  Or, he just enjoyed backpacking for great distances back and forth."

Seigen, a Chan man, said: "Really, Obaku, don't you believe he traveled to spread the Buddha Dharma to our Chinese people?"

Obaku replied: "Maybe, but why then did he choose to sit in silence facing a stone wall for seven years in China? How could he help others in so doing? He could have died from such extreme austerities.  And, he could have saved Dazu Huike's arm. He should have spent the time learning to speak, read, write, and teach in Chinese."

Seigen, a bit annoyed, said; "But, Obaku, was he not a great leader at the Shaolin Temple in Luoyang and the Sixth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism?"

Obaku retorted: "He could have been more gracious towards the generous and kind Emperor Wu. Was he not sort of a rough Tibetan hardened fellow, a Foreigner?  His alleged name, "Bodhidharma," seems suspicious to me."

Seigen would not give up, and said: "What? Did not the Bodhidharma bring vital bodily exercises and martial arts to those lazy Shaolin monks?"

Obaku replied: "The Chinese people were doing many longevity exercises and internal alchemy practices a thousand years before the Bodhidharma arrived.  Hua Tuo and He Gong were more influential in this respect for more people."

Seigen said: "The Bodhidharma lived for 150 years to show his great healing powers."

Obaku snorted: "50 years or 150 years ... In the end we all rot in our graves.  Only but a few are reborn as the fictions of legends."

Seigen responded: "Obaku, you are full of harsh judgments today.  I sense a bit much of the judgmental thinking of the Action and Karma brothers of your creed; also, your being rather chauvinistic about our beloved Chinese heritage."

Obaku replied: "You are correct, Seigen!  Too much judging distorts our greater awareness, and threatens wisdom.  Also, I should be more respectful of the Patriarchs and our shared new insights. I'm sorry old friend.  

Seigen said: "You are also correct, Obaku. I must curb my hero worship and simple love of legends.  Anyway, back to some quiet sitting, my brother."

Obaku's daughter brought them both a cup of hot tea.  They sipped in silence.  They listened to the oxen carts rattling by on the road, and watched the many walkers traveling west.  A smattering of being enlightened occurred for both of them.  

Considerations 

Too much sitting stiffens the body-mind.
Even the Bodhidharma made the monks work more.
Many Chan monks distained learning and reading,
and because they could not read.
Beware of overgrown imagination and legends.
Question the scriptures and tales.
Don't read with one eye blind.
Beliefs can disrupt sound judgments.
Without right judgments we cannot flourish.
Friendships close the door to petty arguments.  

Comments, Sources

Refer to Master Dogen's Shinji Shobogenzo, Case 10.

Refer to my Cloud Hands Blog Posts on the topic of Koans/Stories. 

The Daodejing by Laozi

Pulling Onions  Over 1,043 One-line Sayings by Mike Garofalo

Chinese Chan Buddhist and Taoist Stories and Koans

Refer Also to Fireplaces, Hearths, Campfires, Stoves

The painting shown at the top of this post is from the book: The Chinese Art Book, p. 182.  It was a famous oil on canvas painting made in 1967 by the artist Liu Chunua.  It is titled: Chairman Mao Goes to Anyuan.   

The Fireplace Records By Michael P. Garofalo

"A monk asked Joshu in all earnestness, "What is the meaning of the Patriarch's coming from the West?"  Joshu said, "The oak tree there in the garden."
- Gateless Barrier, Case 37

"A monk asked Xianglin, "Why did the Patriarch come from the West?" Xianglin said, "Sitting for a long time becomes tiresome."
- Blue Cliff Record, Case 17

A monk asked Master Ma, "Please, directly point out to me the meaning of the coming from the West?" Master Ma replied, "I'm tired today and can't explain it to you."
- Blue Cliff Record, Case 73

A monk asked Master Wei, "What is the meaning of the Patriarch's coming to the West?" Master Wei replied, "Please pass me the meditation cushion."
- Blue Cliff Record, Case 20

Now, I understand that the Bodhidharma traveled from India to China.  He would be coming from the East, and thus traveling and coming in or to a Westerly direction.  He traveled to the West from India by the Silk Road from India to China on foot or horseback; or, he traveled by sea. 

For all of these speakers, living in China, the Bodhidharma never came from the West.  He came from the East.

Maybe the Bodhidharma came from a place in China that was in Western China by the Pacific Ocean and then walked to a place in Eastern China in the mountains.  Then, he would be coming from the West.  No wonder Master Ma was tired of this koan.    

Many Patriarchs, over many centuries, many famous Taoist/Buddhist philosophers and spiritual seekers, traveled from East to West, from West to East, from North to South, and from South to North.  Why?  Pilgrimages by monks between Temples and famous scenery locales was a common practice. People like travel adventures. Monks wanted to study with different famous teachers. Civil and governmental strife and war caused the relocation of many monks. 

Personal Cultivation in the Past

"If we look beyond Platonic sources, we will be reminded that Socrates "took care to exercise his body and kept it in good condition" by regular dance training.  "The body," he declared, "is valuable for all human activities, and in all its uses it is very important that it should be as fit as possible.  Even in the act of thinking, which is supposed to require least assistance from the body, everyone knows that serious mistakes often happen through physical ill-health."  Socrates was not the only ancient philosopher to celebrate physical health and advocate somatic training and refinement.  Before him, Cleobulus, a sage "distinguished for strength and beauty, and acquainted with Egyptian philosophy, " "advised men to practice bodily exercise."  Aristippus (hedonistic pupil of Socrates and founder of the Cyrenaic school) claimed "that bodily training contributes to the acquisition of virtue," while Zeno, founder of the Stoics, likewise urged regular bodily exercise, claiming that "proper care of health and one's organs of sense" are "unconditional duties."  Though rating mental pleasures above bodily ones, Epicurus still affirmed "health of body and tranquility of mind" as the twin goals of philosophy's quest for "a blessed life.""
-  Richard Schusterman, Body Consciousness, 2008, p 17


“Recognition of somatic training as an essential means towards philosophical enlightenment and virtue lies at the heart of the Asian practices of hatha yoga, Zen meditation, and T’ai Chi Ch’uan.  As Japanese philosopher Yuasa Yasuo insists, the concept of “personal cultivation,” or shugyō (an obvious analogue of “care of the self’), is presupposed in Eastern thought as “the philosophical foundation” because “true knowledge” cannot be obtained simply by means of theoretical thinking, but only through ‘bodily recognition or realization’ (tainin or taitoku).  From its very beginnings, East-Asian philosophy has insisted on the bodily dimension of self-knowledge and self-cultivation.  When the Confucian Analects advocate daily examining one’s person in the quest for self-improvement, the word translated as “person” is actually the Chinese word for body (shen 身). Arguing that care of the body is the basic task and responsibility without which we cannot successfully perform all our other tasks and duties, Mencius claims, “The functions of the body are the endowment of Heaven.  But it is only a Sage who can properly manipulate them.”  The classic Daoist thinkers Laozi and Zhuangzi similarly urge the special importance of somatic care: “He who loves his body more than dominion over the empire can be given the custody of the empire [Laozi, C17].”  “You have only to take care and guard your own body .. and other things will of themselves grow sturdy;” the Sage is concerned with the means by which to keep the body whole and to care for life”; “being complete in body, he is complete in spirit; and to be complete in spirit is the Way of the Sage (Zhuangzi).”
-  Richard Schusterman, Body Consciousness, 2008, p.18 

Body Consciousness: A Philosophy of Mindfulness and Somaesthetics.  By Richard Shusterman.  New York, Cambridge University Press, 2008.  Index, bibliography, 239 pages.  ISBN: 9780521858908.  Theory.  VSCL.   
 

Positive Psychology and Secular Ethics: Good Reads

Lately, I have been reading for many hours each day as I recover and heal my knee from my fall last Sunday (10 Sep 2023).  Here are some of the better books I have read:

The Twelve Monotasks: Do One Thing at a Time, Do Everything Better.  By Thatcher Wine. Little Brown Spark, 2021, index, notes, 263 pages.  VSCL, Hardbound + FVRLibrary.

If you want good ideas, tips, techniques, exercises, and methods for enabling yourself to focus, concentrate, and fully engage yourself in specific tasks in your daily life then read: "The Twelve Monotasks: Do One Thing at a Time, Do Everything Better" by Thatcher Wine, 2021. He gives specific recommendations for "monotasking" in the areas of reading, walking, listening, sleeping, eating, travel, learning, teaching, playing, seeing, creating, and thinking. A fine book in positive psychology!

Secular Faith: How Culture Has Trumped Religion in American Politics.  By Mark A. Smith.  University of Chicago Press, 2015, index, notes, 287 pages. FVRLibrary.

A sociological and historical study about how the secular society in America has moved away from traditional religious anti-progressive and oppressive values regarding slavery, divorce, homosexuality, abortion, and women's rights.  A very good analysis and careful research into how the Christian religion supported slavery, rejected divorce, persecuted homosexuals, rejected birth control, and treated women unfairly and denied women rights; and how secular compromises changed our views and laws regarding these issues and practices in American society over the past three centuries. A respect for individual liberties, rights, and freedom are more popular in American secular culture in 2023. For example, despite the Moral Majority, Christian Coalition, and fundamentalist "family values" agendas in the ongoing Culture Wars; all States now have "no-fault" divorce options, and these religious groups these days place a low priority on trying to restrict or make divorce illegal or persecute divorcees, as they did in the past.

The Existentialist's Survival Guide;  How to Live Authentically in an Inauthentic Age. By Gordon Marino. Harper One, 2018, bibliography, notes, 260 pages. FVRLibrary.

A philosopher and librarian and boxer digs deeply into real life issues such as anxiety, depression, despair, death, authenticity, faith, morality, and love.  Strong on Kierkegaard and similar authors. Hope, courage, and honesty but little emphasis of facile happiness. Existentialism has a gloomy demeanor, and life can be very gloomy.

Being and Nothingness: An Essay in Phenomenological Ontology. By Jean-Paul Sartre.  Translated by Sarah Richmond.  Washington Square Press, 1943, 2018, bibliography, index, 853 pages.  VSCL, Paperback. 

This complicated, obtuse, lengthy, difficult, and noted book will take me four months to read and study.  I have read a number of essays and fictional books by Sartre, and studied him in college in 1964, but have never challenged myself to study his magnum opus until 2023.  I'm not sure if I am up to understanding his complex views in my old age, but I will try. 

The Human Body and Religion

I am always keenly interested in our understanding, appreciation, and uses of our human bodies.  Somatics and mind-body arts practices are one focus of my research and writing.  My own opinions about a philosophy of living one's life, and enjoying the use of our bodies are, generally, non-religious, Epicurean, skeptical, and philosophical.  

Religious views of the body-mind are a serious impediment to scientific and pragmatic progress. 


"Two thousand years of Christian discourse—anatomy, medicine, physiology, or course, but also philosophy, theology, and aesthetics—have fashioned the body we inhabit.  And along with that discourse we have inherited Platonic-Christian models that mediate our perception of the body, the symbolic value of the body's organs, and their hierarchically ordered functions.  We accept the nobility of heart and mind, the triviality of viscera and sex (the neurosurgeon versus the proctologist).  We accept the spiritualization and dematerialization of the soul, the interaction of sin-prone matter and of luminous mind, the ontological connotation of these two artificially opposed entities, the disturbing forces of a morally reprehensible libidinal humanity ... All have contributed to Christianity's sculpting of the flesh.

Our image of ourselves, the scrutiny of the doctor or the radiologist, the whole philosophy of sickness and health—none of this could exist in the absence of the above mentioned discourse.  Nor could our conception of suffering, the role we allot to pain and therefore our relationship with pharmacology, substances, and drugs.  Nor could our conception of suffering, the role we allot to pain and therefore our relationship with pharmacology, substances, and drugs.  Nor could the special language of practitioner to patient, the relationship of self to self, reconciliation of one's image of oneself with a ideal of the physiological, anatomical, and psychological self.  So that surgery and pharmacology, homeopathic medicine and palliative treatments, gynecology and thanatology, emergency medicine and oncology, psychiatry and clinical work all obey Judeo-Christian law without any particularly clear understanding of the symptoms of this ontological contamination.

The current hypersensivity on the subject of bioethics proceeds from this invisible influence.  Secular political decisions on this major issue more or less correspond to the positions formulated by the church.  This should be no surprise, for the ethos of bioethics remains fundamentally Judeo-Christian.  Apart from legislation on abortion and artificial contraception, apart fro these two forward steps toward a post-Christian body—what I have elsewhere called a Faustian body—Western medicine sticks very closely to the church's injunctions.

The Health Professionals' Charter elaborated by the Vatican condemns sex-change operations, experiments on the embryo, in vitro fertilization and transfer, surrogate motherhood, medical assistance with reproduction, but also therapeutic cloning, analgesic cocktails that suspend consciousness as life comes to an end, therapeutic use of cannabis, and euthanasia.  On the other hand, the charter praises palliative care and insists on the salutary role of pain.  These are all positions often echoed by ethical committees calling themselves secular and believing themselves independent of religious authority." 

-  Michel Onfray.  Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.  Translated from the French by Jeremy Leggatt.  New York Arcade Publishing, 2005, 2011.  ISBN: 10161145008X.  Annotated bibliography, 246 pages.  VSCL.  A lucid, strong, well reasoned, insightful, and stylish presentation.  Excellent explication of the French and European writing on atheism, anti-clericalism, irreligion, deconstruction of religions, and anti-fascism.  His detailed knowledge of religious customs and ideas is very impressive.  I agree with Professor Onfray's assessment about the negative influences of the three monotheistic religions surveyed; as I do with the dynamic and robust critiques of religion by Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins, and Sam Harris. The above quote is from p. 47 or Professor Onfray's book.  


When my mother, June, was dying of colorectal cancer, she spent her final days comfortably in a hospice.  When she died my superstitious Catholic father said many times that the hospice killed her, that the hospice practiced euthanasia, that the hospice was sinful and evil.  No matter how much I explained hospice care to him, he would not listen.  It is no wonder my mother did not want to see my father at the end.  I concluded that that he would rather have seen her suffer more, believing that suffering was good for the soul.  He was often a mean and rigid macho man, lacking loving-kindness and compassion. 

When I was 12 years of age, I was told by my priest confessor that masturbation was a mortal sin, evil, unnatural, and inspired by the devil; and, that I would go directly to hell for eternal horrific punishment if I continued to masturbate.  I knew that that masturbation was pleasant, harmless, disease free, legal, and entirely private.  I could not understand how if I should murder somebody I would go to hell, and if I masturbated I would go to hell.  These church rules and penalties regarding masturbation seemed to me arbitrary and absurd.

The longstanding mistreatment of women by religious authorities and religious rules is also completely unsatisfactory to me.  Dr. Ben Carson, for example, a recent secular Republican political candidate, believes our laws should be changed so that any woman who is impregnated by a rapist or through incest should not be allowed to have an abortion even if she chooses to do so.  Reflect also on how women are oppressed and mistreated under the domination by Islamic men.  

I was not surprised to read that the Catholic Church, Islam, and Mormons still all object to vasectomies.  Religions supported and encouraged slavery for centuries.  Religions significantly slowed the progress in anatomy for many centuries by refusing to allow post-mortem autopsies.  Large families are encouraged by religions (more paying believers in the long run I suppose) despite the grueling poverty of overpopulation.  Examples of the pernicious effect of religion on medicine, psychology and public health can, unfortunately, be multiplied with ease.  

The fact that people hold antiquated and false views about bodily functions is not so troublesome as the fact that their religious leaders want to force everybody to accept, obey and follow their nonsensical opinions.  These religions do not favor freedom of thought and action, scientific investigation, and freedom of expression.  Most sensible and modern 'social church goers' simply quietly ignore and disregard most of these outmoded ideas about bodily functions and behaviors pandered by their priests and preachers, if they can do so without being harmed by the local religious police enforcers.  


I have never gone to any church since I was 16, after I left Catholic high school.  What a wise move on my part to abandon the silly rules, anti-scientific opinions, fables, myths, superstitions, and authoritarianism of organized religions.  A good life is much easier to live and enjoy, without the burdens of religious twaddle.  


"The source of man's unhappiness is his ignorance of Nature. The pertinacity with which he clings to blind opinions imbibed in his infancy, which interweave themselves with his existence, the consequent prejudice that warps his mind, that prevents its expansion, that renders him the slave of fiction, appears to doom him to continual error."
-  Baron d'Holbach, The System of Nature

 
"The whole thing is so patently infantile, so foreign to reality, that to anyone with a friendly attitude to humanity it is painful to think that the great majority of mortals will never be able to rise above this view of life. It is still more humiliating to discover how a large number of people living today, who cannot but see that this religion is not tenable, nevertheless try to defend it piece by piece in a series of pitiful rearguard actions."
-  Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, 1930 

The Oldest Living Being

The Curse of the Methuselah Tree
The Oldest Tree on Earth, 4,800 Years Old
The Bristlecone Pines
White Mountains, 11,000 + Feet, California

The Roshi's Clapping Cell Phone

The Fireplace Records, Chapter 19

The Roshi's Clapping Cell Phone

"What is the sound of one hand clapping? asked Hakuin Ekaku in 1740.

Thousands of monks and householders have introspected this famous Zen Koan Case since 1740.  They pounded on tables with one hand, tapped their staff against the floor with one hand, and came up with many wordy replies to reveal the sound of one hand clapping.  

After years of study with Hakuin, after satisfactory revealing the spiritual and psychic impact of the koans, after achieving enlightenment, and after following the Dharma Path thereafter, Hakuin would award his close friend/student, his Dharma heir, with a painting of a whisk and dragon staff.

 

Of course, the mind does the clapping itself, patting ourselves on the back with one hand, cheering us on, applauding our daily efforts.
Bravo! With one hand or two hands clapping, no matter, show your respect and appreciation for all our good work.  

Haikuin painted with one hand, and applauded his student's efforts and achievements.   

My Roshi has a Apple cellphone.  His ring tone is the sound of clapping. Naturally, he holds the phone with one hand.  

I applaud his Dharma efforts!  He needs a pat on the back.  

A Student's Considerations:

Different centuries, different ideas and things at hand.
Applaud, clap for, cheer on the good efforts of everyone.  
Talking is the father of metaphors.
Practical realists would say that a single hand makes no clapping sound; but, poets and mystics favor playing with entangling expressions. And,
we all hear the sound and know the direct meaning of a pat on the back.
Occasionally, the wrong answer is revealing in new ways. 
Even if a pat on the back is not forthcoming, keeping working.      

Related Links, Resources, References

Koans:

Virtue Ethics

Gratitude

Time Movement Change Transformation Mortality

Process Philosophy

Refer to my Cloud Hands Blog Posts on the topic of Koans/Dialogues.

The Daodejing by Laozi    Best? 

Pulling Onions  Over 1,043 One-line Sayings by Mike Garofalo

Chinese Chan Buddhist and Taoist Stories and Koans

Taoism

Buddhism

Fireplaces, Stoves, Campfires, Kitchens, Pots, Firewood

Chinese Art

Tai Chi Chuan and Qigong

Meditation Methods

Zen Koan Books I Use

Koan Database Project

Brief Spiritual Lessons Database Project: Subject Indexes

Sparks: Brief Spiritual Lessons and Stories

Matches to Start a Kindling of Insight
May the Light from Your Inner Fireplace Help All Beings
Taoist, Chan Buddhist, Zen Buddhist, Philosophers
Catching Phrases, Inspiring Verses, Koans, Meditations
Indexing, Bibliography, Quotations, Notes, Resources
Research by Michael P. Garofalo

The Fireplace Records
By Michael P. Garofalo

Cresting Into One's Present

"This nondescript, never-to-be-defined daytime is
The secret of where it takes place
And we can no longer return to the various
Conflicting statements gathered, lapses of memory
Of the principal witnesses. All we know
Is that we are a little early, that
Today has that special, lapidary
Todayness that the sunlight reproduces
Faithfully in casting twig-shadows on blithe
Sidewalks. No previous day would have been like this.
I used to think they were all alike,
That the present always looked the same to everybody
But this confusion drains away as one
Is always cresting into one's present."
- John Ashbery, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror

Time and Becoming

Process Philosophy

"But all the clocks in the city
     Began to whirr and chime:
"O let not Time deceive you,
     You cannot conquer time.

"In the burrows of the Nightmare
     Where Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
     And coughs when you would kiss.

"In headaches and in worry
     Vaguely life leaks away,
And Time will have his fancy
     To-morrow or to-day.

"Into many a green valley
     Drifts the appalling snow;
Time breaks the threaded dances
     And the diver's brilliant bow.

"The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
     The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
     A lane to the land of the dead."
-  W. H. Auden, As I Walked Out One Evening, 1937 

Farewell to 2019

"So long, it's been good to know yuh;
So long, it's been good to know yuh;
So long, it's been good to know yuh.
This dusty old dust is a-gettin' my home,
And I got to be driftin' along."
-  Woody Guthrie, 1940

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne."
- Robert Burns

For me, 2019 was a taste of a cup of kindness.

Karen and I were in good health and live comfortably in Vancouver, Washington.

Some family and friends passed on in 2019.  We were priviledged to share part of our life's journey with them.  Others are battling against illness.  We wish them well.

Overall, our families are prosperous, living in peacetime, productive, and in good health.

California, Oregon, and Washington have many prosperous cities and towns. 

How about way back when I said Farewell to 2006?

Best Wishes to All!  Cheers!  Cheers!  Salud!  

Reading about Washington State

I use the Fort Vancouver Regional Library System (FVRL) [Three Creeks and Vancouver Mall libraries], and the Washington State University at Vancouver Library to borrow books about Washington State and the Northwest.  I also have purchased numerous books on these subjects since April of 2017 when we moved to Vancouver, Washington.  We have also traveled extensively in Washington  State.

Since childhood, I have always enjoyed reading books about travel, geography, science, technology, nature, and history.  Since 1998, I have done much more reading about Northern California, Oregon, and Washington. 

My next trip will be to explore the Klickitat River from Goldendale to White Salmon. 

Recently, I have read four books related to rivers or cities in Washington State.

Atomic Frontier Days: Hanford and the American West.  By John M. Findlay and Bruce W. Hevly.  Emil and Kathleen Sick Book Series in Western History and Biography.  University of Washington Press, 2011.  Index, bibliography, notes, 384 pages.  ISBN: 978-0295990972.  FVRL.  The story of the Hanford nuclear products production plants (1942-1990) and toxic nuclear waster storage (1950-) along the Columbia River; and the development of the nearby cities of Richmond, Kennewick, and Pasco, Washington. 

The Spokane River.  Edited by Paul Lindholdt.  University of Washington Press, 2018.  Index, biographies, reading list, 282 pages.  FVRL. 

Oregon River Maps and Fishing Guide.  Edited By Doug Rose.  Frank Amato Publications, 2014.  88 pages.  ISBN: 978-1571885142.  VSCL.  Many rivers flow north from the Oregon Cascades into the Columbia River: Willamette, Sandy, Hood, John Day, Deschutes.  Excellent resource for river trips and fishing. 


Washington River Maps and Fishing Guide.  Edited By Doug Rose.  Frank Amato Publications, 2013.  87 pages.  ISBN: 978-1571885135.  VSCL.  Excellent resource for river trips and fishing.  

Lewis and Clark History

We went to Powell's Bookstore on Monday of this week.  I purchased books on travel in the Columbia River Gorge, northwest coast, and Lewis and Clark.

When Federal employees are back to work, very soon I hope, we plan to visit Fort Clatsop, where the Lewis and Clark Expedition spent the winter of 1805-1806, near the current city of Astoria, Oregon.

Shame on Democrats, Republicans and the President in 2019 for "shutting down" our federal government services.  Compromise, give in, move on, stop arguing.

I am now reading two books about United States history during the period from 1800-1810.  Jefferson was President.  The Louisana Purchase was finalized in 1803.  Captain Lewis Meriwether and Captain William Clark led the Corps of Discovery expedition from Washington to the Pacific Ocean at the mouth of the Columbia River, and back, from 1803 to 1806.  They where the first American expedition to explore uncharted territory up the Missouri River from St. Louis and all the way to the Pacific Ocean.  

A few decades after 1805, people were moving into the area of the Willamette Valley and to take advantage of the Columbia River commerce opportunities.  The town of Astoria, Oregon, was founded in 1811; Portland, Oregon, emerged as a city from 1843 to 1851; and Vancouver, Washington, a suburb north of Portland, where I live now, grew from a fur trading post in 1825 to an incorporated city in 1857.  

In 1870, the population of Vancouver was 1,722; Portland, 8,293; and Astoria, 639.  In 1890, Vancouver had a population of 3,545, Portland, 45,385; and Astoria, 6,184.  In 2019, the population of Portland is about 647,000; Vancouver is 175,000; and Astoria, 9,862.  

The Portland (Vancouver and Hillsboro) Metropolitan StatisticalArea (MSA), the 23rd largest in the United States, has a population of 2,226,009 (2010 Census). Of them, 1,789,580 live in Oregon (46.7% of the state's population) while the remaining 436,429 live in Washington (6.7% of state's population).

California became a U.S. State in 1850; Oregon in 1859; Washington in 1889; and Idaho in 1890.    


Undaunted Courage:  Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West.  By Stephen E. Ambrose.  Simon and Schuster, Touchstone, 1996.  521 pages.  Paperbound book.


The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery.  The Abridgment of the Definitive Nebraska Edition.  Edited with an introduction by Gary E. Moulton.  Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 2003.  EBook.

I need to investigate using the Clark County Library System ebook options.

Travel in the Northwest
Bibliography, Notes, Links, Information, History, Nature
Washington, Oregon, Northern California, British Columbia
Prepared by Michael P. Garofalo

Powell's Bookstore Trip

Today, my daughter took me to Powell's Bookstore in downtown Portland.  She drove us in her Honda Pilot SUV.  We also enjoyed lunch together at Chiotle's in Vancouver on 78th and Highway 99W.  

We lived for 18 years in Red Bluff, California, at Kilkenny Lane and 99W.  Now, we live in the Orchards area of northeast Vancouver (98662).  We live about 5 miles east of Interstate 5 and Highway 99W.  Highway 99 goes from San Diego to Canada, through many cities, and was built way back in the 1920's.  In the 1950's and 1960's, Interstate 5 was constructed basically using the Highway 99 route through the mountain passes and hilly areas for north-south travel.  Highway 99 W (West) or Highway 99 E (East) are now two or four lane business routes between cities on either side of Interstate 5. Karen and I have travelled Interstate 5 and Highway 99 many times.  

We went in a group to Powell's Bookstore.  Alicia, Karen, Katelyn, Makenna, Casey, and I. 

Everyone purchased some book or other object at Powell's Bookstore.  They also have a cafe there.  

I purchased books on travel in the Gorge, and a Lewis and Clark history book. 

"Powell’s City of Books is the largest used and new bookstore in the world, occupying an entire city block and housing approximately one million books. Located in downtown Portland’s Pearl District, the City of Books has nine color-coded rooms and over 3,500 different sections, offering something for every interest, including an incredible selection of out-of-print and hard-to-find titles. Dozens of acclaimed writers, artists, and thinkers visit each month to read in the Basil Hallward Gallery (located upstairs in the Pearl Room), and a one-of-a-kind Rare Book Room draws bibliophiles from near and far to browse an impressive collection of autographed first editions and other collectible volumes."

Leaving Some Foot Prints

"The Edwardian Apostles [an advanced and select discussion group at Cambridge University in England in 1905] were ambitious men who wanted their work to endure in memory. They even had a code-word, 'footprints', for the guiding-marks which they hoped to leave for posterity. The best test of the value of work, they believed, is that it continues to please or impress future ages. Bertrand Russell once recounted to G. H. Hardy a distressing dream in which he stood among the book stacks of Cambridge University two centuries in the future. A librarian was winnowing the shelves, taking down books in turn, glancing at them, restoring them to their places or dumping them into an enormous bucket. Finally, he reached three volumes which Russell recognized as the last surviving copy of his Principia Mathematica. He took down one of the volumes, turned over a few pages, seemed puzzled by what he saw, shut the volume, balanced it in his hand and hesitated: Russell presumably awoke with a shuddering cry, for the devaluation of their work, or the absence of footprints, was the Apostles' nightmare."
- Richard Davenport-Hines, Universal Man: The Lives of John Maynard Keynes, 2015, p.52   
John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) is a famous and influential economist.