Blog Archives

Thanksgiving

11/25/2015

The Week Before… Advice for Family Gatherings from Joseph

The turkeys seems skittish today.    Relationships
Do you think they know
That Thanksgiving Day   If interaction is to be positive,
Is but a week away?                                                     Don't overwhelm, persuade,
Talk less and listen more,
Empathize, don't antagonize,
Thanksgiving Day...    Whisper, don't shout,
Help rather than harm,
There was once a big Tom turkey Be neither arrogant nor servile,
Who lived in a city quite quirky.                                     And tranquil rather than agitated.
On Thanksgiving Day,                                                   You will then be heeded and valued!
He was heard to say:                                                    And who wants more?
I'm so thankful to live here in Berkeley!

                                                                                        What? How? When?
Turkeys in my yard
Blissfully unaware of                                                        What best to think?
Thanksgiving Morning.                                                     What best to say and when?
What best to do, how and when?
Gray Thanksgiving Day                                                    How best to interact?
Large flock of turkeys pecking                                          How best to help and when?
Thankful to be here. How best to stand aside, why and when?
When best to love?
-MW When best to empathize and why?
When best to believe, what and why?
If we could but know beforehand!

                                                                                           It Follows as the Night the Day

                                                                                          Love and you will be loved,
                                                                                          Despise and you will be despised;
                                                                                          Denigrate and you will be denigrated,
                                                                                          Appreciate and you will be appreciated;
                                                                                          Befriend and you will be befriended,
                                                                                          Alienate and you will be alienated;
                                                                                          Abuse and you will be abused,
                                                                                          Respect and you will be respected;
                                                                                          Honor and you will be honored,
                                                                                          Deceive and you will be deceived.

                                                                                          The equation is rarely flawed,
                                                                                          The choice is yours to make!

Thanksgiving, a day of thanks

Thanksgiving is the last non-commercialized holiday in the United States. No sooner is Halloween done than the Christmas sweets and trinkets appear in the stores. There may be a small, token display of Thanksgiving decorations and the stores are suddenly flooded with turkeys in the meat section, but that is all. Presumably, this is because people don’t spend much money on this holiday, except on food. It is a day to spend with family, to eat a meal together, to reminisce. There are no gifts, no costumes to don; the only yard decorations are scarecrows and pumpkins. It is also a secular holiday, professing no particular faith. It is an American holiday. One may argue over eating meat, one may argue about the historical origin of the holiday, but in essence it remains a day when families and friends gather together to share food and fellowship. Just as was, and is still, done in rural areas around the world to celebrate the harvest.
So too, do the animals gather in groups. The turkey flock has grown larger, up to twenty hens and one or two Toms this year. The deer are traveling in pairs or trios. Even the buck was seen with two does. The three baby squirrels peacefully hunt for acorns together. The other day, I saw a red-tailed hawk sitting on the wire with three crows. Stomachs full, mating season over, the animals co-exist peacefully. And in their own way, give thanks for the harvest.
So, let us on this Thanksgiving join with our families or share with friends. Let us forget quarrels and instead share conversation, memories, fun anecdotes, enjoy watching the funny antics of our young children or pets, and of course, enjoy our delicious home-cooked Thanksgiving meal.

-MW

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Seasons

11/18/2015

Autumn leaves in the East

Autumn

Brilliant yellow leaves
Crisp dry breeze, darkening blue sky
Sets windows with light

Winter

Tree branches bare now
Cold air, gusty winds, rain comes
Brings the holidays

-MW

Seasons

Every year, there is a day in late August, or sometimes not until September, when Autumn arrives. I know that Autumn officially begins on the Autumn equinox, but that is just a calendar date. Here in the Bay Area, the seasons have their own timetable. There are many who say there are no seasons here in California. These people are usually transplants from the East Coast, where the seasons blatantly announce their arrival. Our seasons are more subtle; they ease up on us, with a slight shift in temper-ature, drier air, a change in the wind. One must be attuned in order to notice this shift.
So back to Autumn. On that day, which is different every year, I feel a change. To be sure, the temperature is the same as yesterday, the sky is just as blue, but there is a shift nonetheless. First of all, the dampness of the morning fog gives way to a drier air, the fog does not come in that afternoon to obscure the cloudless blue sky, and there is a dry, cool breeze. In the garden, the tomato plants are beginning to show signs of wear, the bulbs have dried up and returned to the soil, and the ground is covered with leaf litter. Now tomorrow may be a summer day again, with damp fog, and the tomato plants will produce long into November or December, but the shift has been felt nonetheless and Autumn will soon be fully upon us.

Thus too, does Winter start. This year, it started right on schedule, with a welcomed day of rain on the first week-end in November. Gray skies, rain, cooler temperatures…I put on a long sleeved shirt and a jacket and took a long walk in the lightly falling rain.That morning I had to turn on the furnace. Sunny days followed but today there is rain again. And the temperatures have remained cool. The garden is but a shadow of its summer self; all the produce is preserved and put away. We search for the few remaining tomatoes that are not blemished by the rain, perhaps a wayward potato, and resign ourselves to the perennial winter vegetables: chard and kale. Winter is upon us. May it be a wet one!
-MW

On Education and Diversity

We teach our students about the seasons. We read books to them. Autumn is leaves that turn colors and fall. It is cooler weather. Winter is snow and ice. Spring is rain and new life, both fauna and flora. And summer is hot beach weather. The stores here reinforce those lessons with holiday displays in December that feature snowmen and sleigh rides. So too, do the ubiquitous holiday movies for children.
I taught perhaps 600 students during my career. And only a handful came from a state or country where such seasons occurred. Many were from tropical areas; the others were born and raised in the Bay Area. So the lessons on seasons remained an academic exercise, perpetuated not only at school but also commercially, such as in the holiday displays in December and ads on television. Many of my students had never seen snow. But the images remain imprinted on us. I love these images, I still think of Thanksgiving as a sleigh ride over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house, even as I have long since learned that even in the Midwest and on the East coast, it is not usually snowing at Thanksgiving.
There is nothing wrong with ritualizing or idealizing our view of the world, as long as we are aware of the reality as well and teach our students about the equatorial areas as well as the North pole, as long as we acknowledge customs and traditions that have emerged in those areas to celebrate seasons and holidays. Tradition and broadening horizons both have their place.

-MW

Asilomar Beach in Winter

A Passing Storm

Low-floating, moist-laden billowing clouds
Above a landscape thirsting for moisture,
All is hope and expectation.
People and plants stare and wait.

Thunder follows flashes of lightning,
A sudden wind begins to blow,
A downpour follows in its wake,
A sigh of relief wells and spreads.

Flashes and rumble quickly subside,
The rush of wind becomes a whisper,
The darkened sky now gradually lightens
And the rain sings its pitter-patter.

Hours of soothing steady raindrops
Leave the landscape quenched and fresh,
Leave human beings relieved and thankful,
Assured that all's well with the world.

-JM

An Epigram a Day:

See life for what it is and not for what you would have it be.

Ultimately, all is neither meaningful nor meaningless.It just is!

The past and the future are wedded in memory and hope.

Change need not disrupt and disruption need not change.

Most humans are blades of grass blowing in the wind.

-JM

In Memoriam

11/11/2015

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The passing was gradual, natural,
Just as the brochure said.
Slow, raspy breath, unaware?
But I spoke to you, told you
You had been a good Dad.
And, as if you heard, you stirred.

Then I saw you hours later,
And you were gone.
Loking no different than before,
Lying stiffly on your back, half-clothed,
Eyes open, mouth agape, cold hand.
But no more breath.

Later, I thought we should have closed your eyes,
Your mouth, dressed you nicely. But we left that
To the experts, not the nurses,
Whose job was done, but to the two men in black,
Who entered silently, respectfully,
Covered you and left without a word.

Later, I wished for a leave-taking,
Comfort and understanding in ritual,
But no one else seemed to care.
So I hung your favorite cap
Upon my living room chair
And went on with my busy life.

A few days later, standing outside,
I saw a cloud, pink, wing-shaped,
Recede into the Western sky
And felt, not heard,"We are taking him now."
And I knew your soul had flown.
But who was there to tell?

-MW

Do not rest in peace, but wander, be the cloud,
Pink, wing-shaped before the rising sun,
Visit places fondly remembered,
People loved, never lost,
Drift, at rest with the self
At last.

-MW

A Dying Mother

An ashen craggy face devoid of its intimate familiarity,
Pale thin skin deeply etched by toil and time,
Cheek and chin bones, nose and ears strangely prominent,
Mouth and thin lips expressionlessly distorted,
Eyes cloudy then clear, confused then full of fear,
A face become a mask.

A once lean being, and now a shrunken twisted body,
Arms,hands and fingers once so strong and skilled,
now only limp and lame,
Legs and feet, once tirelessly active,
now only know a restless rest,
A mouth that once could smile and talk,
can now but moan and grimace,
A mind once self-aware and proud,
now lingering on in helpless anguish,
A being become a body.

The person, my dear mother, has almost left,
Her spirit is almost gone,
Dying is hell and death a welcome release!

-JM

An epigram a day:

Death takes what life gives.

Having done one's best, one deserves one's rest.

The tooth of time gnaws relentlessly.

Old age is haunted by fading shadows and dying echoes.

We die in death but linger on in memory.

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West and East/Sunrise and Sunset

11/5/2015

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Morning sun sets Autumn trees aglow in Ontario, Canada

Sunset over San Francisco Bay.

An epigram a day:
Reflection lends direction.
Dawn means struggle and twilight promises rest.
We are but pulsating specks in the vast pond of life.
Each trails a world of fading shadows and dying echoes.
Silence is the pause that refreshes. -JM

Autumn is the season
Falling leaves, dead to the ground,
Trees prepare for Winter.
But remember you who mourn:
West is no Eastern snow.
Here November rains,
Greening grass springs up,
Covers dead brown leaves,
Brings hope of
Spring to come.

-MW

In the East, one watches the sun rise in the morning. Pinks and blues. The sun fresh white, greets the dawning day.
In the West, we watch the sun set over the Bay. Fiery red and orange, growing larger and redder, the sun bids adieu to the day, giving over to the night.
Does this difference affect our beings, our social interactions, our Weltanschauung?

-MW

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