Terry just said there would be a big spring party to mark the beginning of spring next year - and Mike and I (wonder where/how he is) have decided to go together.

We have one every year, about 80 or so folks show up. This year should be even bigger.

Yeah, looks like you can plan on around 82. :-)

You coming, Autumn???? That would be great! I wish ALL of us would come - we'd have a ball!

That would be very fine, indeed. I visited with Jonathon tonight, who I build and maintain the Childrenstory and tvpc websites for, and he, Mary and son William are headed off to England for a couple of weeks. Lucky him!

Not with the weather we (and they've) been having! Still envy him, though.

So what is the whether like out there in the Spring?

oh so hot and humid!!!!!

It's cooling down to the nineties these days. We had a month of hundreds!

The satanist is back!!! Where have you been, muffin?

dazed and confused? (actually closer to stressed and confused)

Under a lot of pressure at work? Why confused?

yes auto-head games

how do those go?

usually, downhill...

Not good. Anything you can do about it?

lobotomy?

No. But you could talk to us if you felt like it. I don't make much of a shrink, but I do care - and many of the others DO make good shrinks. ANd the best thing: you don't have to pay them for listening!

I shall MAKE him pay... (oops! wrong conference, get up off of your hands and knees WER, here lemme dust you off!)

How did you want to make him pay? You wanted to beat him to death with a lock of hair? He should be so lucky!

into submission...

Doubt if it will take even that!

I wonder what he'd think if the two of us started whacking him with locks of hair!??!

If Americ would only join in on it with a few of his own locks, well, I say turn it into a musical. I'm already lookin' at from the couch, in a theater....enthralled.... the applause from all around me is practically deafening. How did I get so lucky to even obtain a ticket to this Broadway show....?

...there's no business like show business... and show business is no business at all!...

Just picked up at tape of Alan Watts' old 60's radio shows, called "Zen and the Beat Way". Really cool stuff. Might want to check out http://www.alanwatts.com

Cool stuff, Americ!

It really is cool. Life is better when we are aware of who we really are.

Got that right. Took me a while, though. We have pretenses for others and we hope they suffice. I like being me much better. I am far better at it anyway!

To be ourselves, to know that we are, exit this moment now. Is the greatest gift. I honor you here now as you are. It does seem to take constand rememberance.

Yes, constant remembrance is most necessary, lest we lapse back into who we wish others to think we are. I honor you for the insightful honest man you are. At all times, as far as I can tell. Your philosophy has much to recommend it!

To know that we ARE lapsing back into not being ourselves but being a mirror of who we think others want us to be, we must first KNOW ourselves. This is a perennial quest perhaps, and one that we never complete, because we ourselves are constantly evolving and growing. Who am I?? A fundemantal human question, and one that certain personality types can become almost obssesed with. The challenge is to balance the quest for knowing ourselves with actually living ... 'having a life' as my kids say. Self-awareness can be scarey. As soon as we STOP and look internally, we often don't like what we see. Much of our perception of 'self' is fed by the reflected perceptions that others give us. These perceptions can be distorted, as in a a fairground 'funny' mirror, but have great influence in our lives when they come from significant people. Sorry, lots of thoughts sparked off - I'll stop before I bore everyone.

Not at all Maggie! When we first look inside we see mostly memories, fears of the future and past, and impressions of what others want us to be due to their memories and fears. What we really are may be none of that. All these memories, etc. a are contained in the larger framework of pure light of awareness itself. Awareness/existence itself...a sense of just being.... if pure. There is a freedom and openness from this perspective that is quite charming.

Your charming perspective comes with age and accomplishment and hard-won self confidence...at least, in my case. It is a serene feeling where few of the fears we dealt with in younger years are put aside. I rather like it.

Reading through this entire topic has given me pangs of loss (William. Jim and Ree) and more insight into the man whose topic this is. Whatever happened to your teaching, Americ? Publishing? I do know you are working on a book. Is it your first (or do I need to read back through this again?!)

I have not published a "real" book. But, I have at several points in my life written newspaper columns for small papers and magazines. None of that is happening at this time. I have been locked up in the world of computer technology most of this time. Having become an expert in the field of e-learning (or online education & training, to be exact). But, suddenly, I have this urge to teach philosophy and wisdom -- I cannot explain why. Just seems to want to happen. I did publish on the web a few of my writings at: The Eye of the Paradox. Much of it actually written about 8 years ago. So I now feel like I have gone beyond some of it. You must be a writer yourself. ???? Certainly, you are very present in this medium with me.

Most of Geo was written by me in one way or another. I graduated from college with a double degree in Journalism and earth sciences so I could pursue a technical writing career. I married and did research for my then husband who was a college professor. So, I am a researcher, tech writer and I do some editing when called upon. Thanks for the hot link to your past writings. I will take their age into account. I am delighed someone who converses is back amongst us. it is a lonely business posting monologues day after day - or worse, cuting and pasting boring stuff.

Let me know where you are teaching and I will sit at your feet and learn. I am delighted to find you are so willing to share your thoughts with us again. Where do I sign up?!

I wish your father had brought you to Hawaii. A large percentage of our population is of Portuguese descent - mostly from Madeira. They hired on as sugar cane workers and other labor, but you would not have felt as odd here. There are still local festivals honoring those immigrants and their descendants, and we eat a lot of food created by these warm and friendly people. I understand about your oddness. I can see it here in new Southeast Asians entering the United States through the State of Hawaii. Aloha!

I developed the architecture for Golden Gate University's CyberCampus. These days, I continue to teach a course on "Internet Marketing Through Virtual Communities" in that online program. Meanwhile, I am teaching this summer a course (at Dominican University of California) face-to-face on "Eastern Philosophy and Religion" which I really enjoy so much now. In the Fall, I will teach (also at Dominican) a course on "Introduction to the e-World". So which island are you on?

The Big Island of Hawaii where Kilauea Volcano is erupting gently and steadily. I perused your CV last night and came away very impressed with your accomplishments. Some day I will ask you how/why you learned Sanskrit... Nothing like teaching to a live audience. I've done both and feedback is what it is all about! Next week I will be close to you visiting my son but with little time to check out much besides Geology. He is a geologist and knows his Mom's preference to head away from human creation and head for God's.

God's creation; human's creation. These days they are starting to seem the same. We are God's creation; and our power to create is also God's creation. It does take a lot of love to appreciate the difficult learning path we are on as creators, however. I have four children by blood; one by step-hood; three grandchildren; and a godson. They are all a blessing. So much to learn from them all.

Children are the little wise beings into whose life we intrude. The bring us love and life boundlessly; curiousity and elan in equal measure. From their presence we learn humility, pride in its purest form, joy, pleasure of simple things, and so many other excellent qualities. With wisdom and patience we learn not to make them conform to our strictures, but to loosen ours to allow us to learn once again what it is to be truly free. I have one son. He is the best thing I ever did in my life and he has been a source of greatness in me if there is any.

In Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind I hear that we must go from: Enlightenment to Practice to Thinking in that order. That way our thinking will be in alignment with our practice and our practice with our enlightenment. But, if you the other way, staring with thinking, you will never get to enlightenment.

Mmm, maybe that's where I am going wrong with my thesis - too much thinking and too little enlightenment. *grin* (sorry it's late, and I'm feeling kinda kooky)

Tomorrow we head for the High Sierra and the Giant Sequoia. There I shall find enlightenment. Aloha, Americ!

So....are you back now!

I am...and am remiss for not posting the pictures (or some thereof) yet. I am trying to justify my preference for the company of magestic stands of trees to humans. There must be a genetic anomoly in my ancestry. Trees, alas, do not return the hugs!

How was your trip to the High Sierra and Giant Sequoia last July, Marci?