I read an interesting article by Michael Meade, D.H.L., entitled "Where have All the Wise Men Gone?" He stated that we live in a time of great forgetting, and compares "olders" to "elders". Growing older happens to everyone. Growing wiser and becoming an elder only happens to those who continue to grow as they age, to find meaning and purpose in life and death.
I especially liked this comment: "An old idea suggests that the only ones more idealistic than young people are the elders." It isn't that they have a naive belief in the attainability of humanity, peace and justice, healing and compassion, but knowing that without commitment to them, there is no hope to their attainment. My hope is that I continue to grow as I age, to develop the long term vision he speaks of, and to live a life of compassion.
The full article can be found at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-mead-dhl/older-vs-elders_b_954780.html
Yesterday we volunteered at "The Festival of the Bastardino and Doggie Plunge" which celebrates mixed heritage dogs and benefits Freedom Service Dogs. Hundreds of dogs came to the Pirate's Cove water park in Englewood, CO to swim and play. All came out looking wet, tired, and very, very happy.
I got to visit with Jonas and his new family as he was one of the doggie plungers. You may remember that we fostered Jonas for 6 weeks. He looked so happy and is doing great. He remembered me and got me good and wet.
Looking together in the same direction.
Sea otters hold hands while they sleep so they don't drift apart.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
Osteoporosis drugs
In a follow up to Wednesday's blog, the FDA today is convening a panel to discuss the problems linked to long-term use of bone building drugs. Read at:
http://health.msn.com/medications/osteoporosis-drugs-safety-subject-of-fda-panel
On another note, 38 chimps who had been imprisoned in laboratories in Austria for HIV research, were released to a sanctuary. For the first time in 30 years they were able to experience sunshine, grass, and the out-of-doors. They hugged each other and appeared to smile and wave. A little bit of happiness in the news for a close relative of ours. Side note: they had all been injected with HIV and were HIV positive, but none ever got full blown AIDS so the 30 years of research had absolutely no result or value.
http://health.msn.com/medications/osteoporosis-drugs-safety-subject-of-fda-panel
On another note, 38 chimps who had been imprisoned in laboratories in Austria for HIV research, were released to a sanctuary. For the first time in 30 years they were able to experience sunshine, grass, and the out-of-doors. They hugged each other and appeared to smile and wave. A little bit of happiness in the news for a close relative of ours. Side note: they had all been injected with HIV and were HIV positive, but none ever got full blown AIDS so the 30 years of research had absolutely no result or value.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Building strong bones.
There has been a lot of press lately about the side effects of osteoporosis drugs and their efficacy. There have also been several recent studies showing bone growth due to foods.
Green tea builds strong bones according to preliminary research done in Hong Kong. Chemical compounds in green tea can stimulate bone formation and also slow its breakdown.
Dried plums keep bones strong. Florida State University investigators doing a year-long study found that compounds in dried plums alter the way bones are remodeled and have been shown to reverse bone loss. To eat the same amount of dried plums equivalent to that given in the study, one would need to eat 10 per day.
Blueberries have a powerful effect on building strong bones in lab rats, which may also work in humans.
Calcium rich foods include leafy green vegetables, legumes (beans), and a variety of fruits and vegetables. To keep calcium in our bones we need exercise and vitamin D. Animal protein, excess salt and caffeine, and tobacco can cause calcium loss from our bones.
It all comes down, once again, to exercise, a little sunshine, and eating lots of fruits and veggies.
"Drinking a cup of tea a day will surely starve the apothecary." Ancient Chinese Proverb
"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me." C.S. Lewis
"I am Chinese. Tea is in my very bones." Kit Chow
Green tea builds strong bones according to preliminary research done in Hong Kong. Chemical compounds in green tea can stimulate bone formation and also slow its breakdown.
Dried plums keep bones strong. Florida State University investigators doing a year-long study found that compounds in dried plums alter the way bones are remodeled and have been shown to reverse bone loss. To eat the same amount of dried plums equivalent to that given in the study, one would need to eat 10 per day.
Blueberries have a powerful effect on building strong bones in lab rats, which may also work in humans.
Calcium rich foods include leafy green vegetables, legumes (beans), and a variety of fruits and vegetables. To keep calcium in our bones we need exercise and vitamin D. Animal protein, excess salt and caffeine, and tobacco can cause calcium loss from our bones.
It all comes down, once again, to exercise, a little sunshine, and eating lots of fruits and veggies.
"Drinking a cup of tea a day will surely starve the apothecary." Ancient Chinese Proverb
"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me." C.S. Lewis
"I am Chinese. Tea is in my very bones." Kit Chow
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Right here in Nebraska.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttPE_l2Y5LU
I hope you had a fun Labor Day weekend. We did. We drove home to Nebraska to visit with family. It felt like summer when we left, 3 days later it is autumn.
I have always enjoyed people-watching. It is a great pastime for long waits in airports. We've discovered that other good places to people-watch are at truck stops and rest areas. I talked to a woman with no neck at one large rest area. She is the janitor and cleans it 3 times a day, seven days a week, year-round; yet she was perky and friendly. We met her both coming and going on our 1200 mile round trip. She was cheerful and talkative both times. Truckers are also interesting...they come in all shapes and generally large sizes. The next time you are on a driving trip, pause at a truck stop or rest area and just watch the people as they come and go from their vehicles.....where they stop to eat, what they eat, what they are wearing (PJ's and pink fuzzy slippers more often than not), how they look compared to the people in your environs.
Have you ever shopped in a truck stop? There are all kinds of cool paraphernalia, gifts, and odds and ends...things you will never find collected anywhere else on earth and that you didn't even know you needed.
We passed a semi hauling stacks of empty wire cages with white feathers swirling in the wind. Dean said he had previously seen 2 semi loads carrying the same types of cages, but stuffed with live chickens. He hadn't pointed them out to me as he knew they would make me sad. Thousands of living, breathing birds had a few tortured fearsome last hours while we drove. It did make me sad. He knows me well.
We got to watch a great high school football game, interrupted at half-time by severe Nebraska weather causing the second half to be postponed until the next day. Because of lightning we missed out on seeing the marching band's half-time show and the performance by our nephew and niece. Another one of our nephews played on the line for the visiting football team. He is a starting center and noseguard. He played extremely well, but his team lost. It's early in the season, though, and can be made up.
We stayed with my brother's family the first night, game night. Then we went to my parent's farm the next day. Dad drove us around the surrounding sections and we saw how the landscape has changed. Entire farmsteads have been plowed under to make way for more corn. My Dad was born where there is now just a corn field. Many roads are now "minimum maintenance" and have eroded into soft dirt canyons. The remaining farmplaces have no connections to the farmland surrounding them. They are small rural dwellings, islands in the sea of corn.
Dean and I did get out for a longish walk/jog. It is so quiet everywhere, and peaceful. No traffic noises. Just the occasional "moo" from pastured cattle, their sounds traveling far in the quiet air. We saw lots of monarch butterflies flitting around a shelter-belt, as well, and fed my brother's massive Saint Bernard, a friendly mountain of a dog. We got to visit with 4 of my 5 brothers.
My Mom grows an excellent garden and fed us well with tons of fresh produce. She and Dad loaded up our car with more of the same. We are really enjoying it. I miss not being able to grow a garden where I now live. Mom has always had a fantastic garden, and fresh-picked is best.
We are Nebraskans at root. Going there is going home, although we've been away for decades.
I hope you had a fun Labor Day weekend. We did. We drove home to Nebraska to visit with family. It felt like summer when we left, 3 days later it is autumn.
I have always enjoyed people-watching. It is a great pastime for long waits in airports. We've discovered that other good places to people-watch are at truck stops and rest areas. I talked to a woman with no neck at one large rest area. She is the janitor and cleans it 3 times a day, seven days a week, year-round; yet she was perky and friendly. We met her both coming and going on our 1200 mile round trip. She was cheerful and talkative both times. Truckers are also interesting...they come in all shapes and generally large sizes. The next time you are on a driving trip, pause at a truck stop or rest area and just watch the people as they come and go from their vehicles.....where they stop to eat, what they eat, what they are wearing (PJ's and pink fuzzy slippers more often than not), how they look compared to the people in your environs.
Have you ever shopped in a truck stop? There are all kinds of cool paraphernalia, gifts, and odds and ends...things you will never find collected anywhere else on earth and that you didn't even know you needed.
We passed a semi hauling stacks of empty wire cages with white feathers swirling in the wind. Dean said he had previously seen 2 semi loads carrying the same types of cages, but stuffed with live chickens. He hadn't pointed them out to me as he knew they would make me sad. Thousands of living, breathing birds had a few tortured fearsome last hours while we drove. It did make me sad. He knows me well.
We got to watch a great high school football game, interrupted at half-time by severe Nebraska weather causing the second half to be postponed until the next day. Because of lightning we missed out on seeing the marching band's half-time show and the performance by our nephew and niece. Another one of our nephews played on the line for the visiting football team. He is a starting center and noseguard. He played extremely well, but his team lost. It's early in the season, though, and can be made up.
We stayed with my brother's family the first night, game night. Then we went to my parent's farm the next day. Dad drove us around the surrounding sections and we saw how the landscape has changed. Entire farmsteads have been plowed under to make way for more corn. My Dad was born where there is now just a corn field. Many roads are now "minimum maintenance" and have eroded into soft dirt canyons. The remaining farmplaces have no connections to the farmland surrounding them. They are small rural dwellings, islands in the sea of corn.
Dean and I did get out for a longish walk/jog. It is so quiet everywhere, and peaceful. No traffic noises. Just the occasional "moo" from pastured cattle, their sounds traveling far in the quiet air. We saw lots of monarch butterflies flitting around a shelter-belt, as well, and fed my brother's massive Saint Bernard, a friendly mountain of a dog. We got to visit with 4 of my 5 brothers.
My Mom grows an excellent garden and fed us well with tons of fresh produce. She and Dad loaded up our car with more of the same. We are really enjoying it. I miss not being able to grow a garden where I now live. Mom has always had a fantastic garden, and fresh-picked is best.
We are Nebraskans at root. Going there is going home, although we've been away for decades.
 |
| My Mom; My Nephew Sam, the football lineman: My Dad |
Friday, September 2, 2011
"The mountains are calling and I must go." John Muir
We had family visiting us last weekend and drove up the Mount Evans highway, the highest paved road in North America. We drove to near the top of Mount Evans and then hiked the short rocky path to the 14265 foot summit. It was glorious being up amidst the clouds and thin air, and to be higher than everything around us.
John Muir, a Scottish-born American naturalist (1838-1914) and an early advocate of the preservation of wilderness said to "Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."
He knew whereof he spoke.
This picture shows a krummholz formation (stunted trees near timberline on a mountain) of Rocky Mountain bristlecone pines (Pinus Aristata). Bristlecone pines live longer than any other living organism. The oldest bristlecone pine is 3000 years old and is in California. The oldest Rocky Mountain bristlecone pines are found on Mount Evans and are 1700 years old.
I love these trees. I had thought to come back in my next life as a big oak tree, treehugger that I am, but this would be better. I would like to be a bristlecone pine in a krummholz formation as we all "travel the milky way together, trees and men" as John Muir suggested. Can you imagine spending clear nights at timberline viewing the brilliant stars and the milky way? It could be a nice way to spend 1700+ years.
There were many of these unidentified plants lining the highway above timberline. I found them fascinating. They reminded me of the alien plant, Audrey II, from the 1986 movie "The Little Shop of Horrors." I will have to watch that movie again to see if my memory is correct.
"I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues." Dr. Seuss
"I believe a blade of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars." Walt Whitman
Wishing you all a fun and relaxing Labor Day Holiday weekend. Enjoy the last beautiful days of summer.
 |
| At the summit. |
He knew whereof he spoke.
I love these trees. I had thought to come back in my next life as a big oak tree, treehugger that I am, but this would be better. I would like to be a bristlecone pine in a krummholz formation as we all "travel the milky way together, trees and men" as John Muir suggested. Can you imagine spending clear nights at timberline viewing the brilliant stars and the milky way? It could be a nice way to spend 1700+ years.
There were many of these unidentified plants lining the highway above timberline. I found them fascinating. They reminded me of the alien plant, Audrey II, from the 1986 movie "The Little Shop of Horrors." I will have to watch that movie again to see if my memory is correct.
"I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues." Dr. Seuss
"I believe a blade of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars." Walt Whitman
Wishing you all a fun and relaxing Labor Day Holiday weekend. Enjoy the last beautiful days of summer.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Vegetables, the new meat.
Interesting articles brought to my attention:
On Aug. 30, 2011 on Food Navigator there was an interesting article with good news. Euromonitor International states that sales of meat have slowed considerably as the growing trend towards meat-free or meat-reduced diets impacts consumer markets. They go on to state that low-meat diets are fast becoming commonplace in Europe and North American markets. Euromonitor predicts a gradual increase in the population of vegetarians, semi-vegetarians, meat-reducers, and 'vegivores' set to consume more meat free foods than ever before. It called vegetables the new meat.
http://www.foodnavigator.com/Financial-Industry/Meat-free-drive-is-impacting-consumer-markets-Euromonitor
Also interesting was the August cover story in Newsweek Magazine which advises people to just say "NO" to excessive health-care testing and treatments. "More health care often means worse health." Dr Steven Nissen, a noted Cleveland Clinic cardiologist, says that we spend almost twice as much per capita on health care (as other developed countries) with no gain in health or longevity. In a paper in Archives magazine, a panel of physicians announced its first list of tests and treatments that should be dropped altogether for certain patients and ailments: antibiotics for sinus infections, imaging for low back pain, osteoporosis screening for women under age 65, EKGs and other cardiac screening for low risk patients. For more info see:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/08/14/some-medical-tests-procedures-do-more-harm-than-good.html
I viewed the movie: "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" in which an Australian got tired of years of treatment for an auto-immune disorder and went on a physician-monitored 60 day vegetable/fruit juice fast followed by a permanent life-change to a plant-based healthy diet. He lost weight and got off all of his meds, as did another man who joined him on this journey to health. Their stories were fascinating. He said, "When I scraped my knee as a kid I didn't have to do anything, as long as I got out the way. It just got better." I loved that comment. Maybe we all need to just get out of our bodies' way.
On Aug. 30, 2011 on Food Navigator there was an interesting article with good news. Euromonitor International states that sales of meat have slowed considerably as the growing trend towards meat-free or meat-reduced diets impacts consumer markets. They go on to state that low-meat diets are fast becoming commonplace in Europe and North American markets. Euromonitor predicts a gradual increase in the population of vegetarians, semi-vegetarians, meat-reducers, and 'vegivores' set to consume more meat free foods than ever before. It called vegetables the new meat.
http://www.foodnavigator.com/Financial-Industry/Meat-free-drive-is-impacting-consumer-markets-Euromonitor
Also interesting was the August cover story in Newsweek Magazine which advises people to just say "NO" to excessive health-care testing and treatments. "More health care often means worse health." Dr Steven Nissen, a noted Cleveland Clinic cardiologist, says that we spend almost twice as much per capita on health care (as other developed countries) with no gain in health or longevity. In a paper in Archives magazine, a panel of physicians announced its first list of tests and treatments that should be dropped altogether for certain patients and ailments: antibiotics for sinus infections, imaging for low back pain, osteoporosis screening for women under age 65, EKGs and other cardiac screening for low risk patients. For more info see:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/08/14/some-medical-tests-procedures-do-more-harm-than-good.html
I viewed the movie: "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" in which an Australian got tired of years of treatment for an auto-immune disorder and went on a physician-monitored 60 day vegetable/fruit juice fast followed by a permanent life-change to a plant-based healthy diet. He lost weight and got off all of his meds, as did another man who joined him on this journey to health. Their stories were fascinating. He said, "When I scraped my knee as a kid I didn't have to do anything, as long as I got out the way. It just got better." I loved that comment. Maybe we all need to just get out of our bodies' way.
If you have family, you're rich.
Do you remember the TV show M*A*S*H? On that show the character, Colonel Potter, said: "I don't care how poor a man is, if he has family, he's rich." Colonel Potter was a wise man, and we are very, very rich.
The week before last we flew to Wisconsin to spend 3 days in a Door County cabin with our children and grandchildren. It was absolutely wonderful. My husband taught the grandchildren how not to catch fish, but they had fun casting. They especially liked being on the water, learning to row a rowboat, and playing games of horseshoes. A state park and Lake Michigan were nearby for hiking, swimming, and burying people in the sand on the beach. A campfire and marshmallow-roast at night were fun, as well as standing at the end of the dock to view the night-time sky. What more can anyone ask of a vacation? That plus being thankful for Dean's regaining his health.
We will have to do this again soon. It is so rare that all eight of us can be together at once since we live in different parts of the country. We are everlastingly grateful to our kids for setting it all up.
"Like branches on a tree, our lives may grow in different directions yet our roots remain as one."
author unknown
"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one."
Jane Howard
The week before last we flew to Wisconsin to spend 3 days in a Door County cabin with our children and grandchildren. It was absolutely wonderful. My husband taught the grandchildren how not to catch fish, but they had fun casting. They especially liked being on the water, learning to row a rowboat, and playing games of horseshoes. A state park and Lake Michigan were nearby for hiking, swimming, and burying people in the sand on the beach. A campfire and marshmallow-roast at night were fun, as well as standing at the end of the dock to view the night-time sky. What more can anyone ask of a vacation? That plus being thankful for Dean's regaining his health.
We will have to do this again soon. It is so rare that all eight of us can be together at once since we live in different parts of the country. We are everlastingly grateful to our kids for setting it all up.
 |
| Our beautiful family. |
 |
| Dean and I. |
 |
| Celebrating my birthday with cake and a game of Apples to Apples. |
 |
| Stars and a tree in the Wisconsin night. |
"Like branches on a tree, our lives may grow in different directions yet our roots remain as one."
author unknown
"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one."
Jane Howard
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