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Had a fantastic time in AZ (my first). Was amazed by the saguaro. Lots of hiking, camping, tea and even a stay at the historic AZ Inn.

Sadly had to retire my Therm-A-Rest pad that I have had with me since 1988 when it was given to my by a friend who had trekked it all over Africa.

Time to begin replenishing my camping gear!

"What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well."-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Heading west, I am taking a left. Plan to end up in Tucson, AZ, for some hiking, camping and communing with nature until the 29th.

Remembering

I lived at the Piano Factory in Boston. The building, a former...you guessed it..piano factory, covered an entire city block. The four lefthand windows on the fourth floor in the picture of the building were mine.


We had a private courtyard enclosed by the building. Well, if by private you understand I mean 177 lofts, some with multiple rooms and families living in them. It was great to be able to live in a very loud and concrete/asphalt city, yet still be able to walk out of my loft into quiet and nature.




My loft was like this one:


I also ran the community art gallery while there.




The hallways still had the industrial look,


but a lot of us painted our doors to add a personal touch.



I was recently found through Facebook by Neathery, who, along with her husband, were part of the group I hung out with at the Piano Factory. I expressed that I was surprised that she still remembered me. She replied:

"Peanut butter makes me think of you all the time. I was telling you once how harsh it was that pregnant woman were only supposed to increase intake by only 300 calories. You're response to that was an supportively incredulous, '300? That's only 3 tbs. of peanut butter!'

"I also think of our commute conversations on the T a lot - I'm still taking the T and don't really run into anyone I like chatting with - I reminisce of running into you.

"I also think of you when the subject of candles comes up. Remember the great candles you would make with the Church leftovers?

"And the time you ordered a veggie sandwich at Subway and the guy made you a huge italian and you ate it without complaining because you felt sorry for the guy!?! I actually think of that all the time - you amazed me with that one."

And Neathery mentioned Susan and Howard who were also part of our little group. Neither of us has heard from them during the last three years.

Then, after reading Neathery's remembrance, about 8 email messages later, there was an email message from Susan tracking me down!

Funny how things cycle.

Naturalization

I attended the naturalization proceedings for my friend Juan last Friday. I loved the diversity! The 317 people gaining United States citzenship were from Canada, South Africa, Palestine, Iraq, Mexico, Britain, France, Kazakhstan and 48 other countries.

For some, like my friend Juan, they were gaining dual citizenship. For others, it was officialy leaving their homeland.

I was impressed with how hard these people had worked for that moment, while I so often and so easily focus on all that is negative with our country.

Armijo Springs

I went camping with friends over the weekend. Lots of wind, cold, hiking and fun. Learned how to make banana boats, a very clever campfire dessert which I'll show you how to make sometime if you take me camping.

One night around the fire, I was interested to learn that everyone in the group is either moving, or hoping to move, out of Albuquerque in 2-5 years. I find it sad to never keep local friends for much more than that amount of time.

When asked if I was planning to stay, I had to honestly respond that there is nothing in ABQ to keep me here, but that there is nothing elsewhere for me to be there either.

Where Do Thoughts Come From?

Before you answer that, try to see if you can feel where in your brain the idea is forming, where your answer or other question or unrelated idea is originating and coming from.

Is it just me, or when people become "a couple" do they all start to tend to hang out with other couples? Are single people cumbersome to naturally paired groupings?

I know that when I'm dating, I typically think of other couples to invite to do things. It just seems weird to be on a date with one other person in the mix, and inviting someone who's single after I have invited another couple seems like adding an awkward wheel.

I choose to fight against that tendency, but wondered if others have had similar experiences and what are your thoughts?

Politics as Usual?

Arundhati Roy is the female Indian author of “God of Small Things,” among many other best-selling books. I watched her conversation with Howard Zinn (author of “A People’s History of the United States”) last night. It was recorded after she delivered herself of a speech titled “Come September.”

Arundhati spoke of having been reared by a mother in a Syrian Christian village. Her mother had divorced, an act highly unacceptable to the social norms for a woman of her time and place.

Arundhati reflected that when one is born outside of the protections and rights afforded by a group to its members (in her case, her falling outside of the acceptable norm of Syrian Christians in her village), one cannot help but be political, that it is in one’s blood out of necessity.

That got me to thinking about our own society and the rights of life given by it to persons whom it deems fit for membership.

For us in America, at this time, the demographics for acceptance into membership are being middle class, heterosexual, male and white. If you fit that category, politics may or may not matter to you. Regardless, you are bestowed with all of the protections and benefits given at this time to the majority in power; you are born into being part of the establishment. If, however, you happen to fall into any other category, none of that is taken for granted. It is likely that you will be highly energized and interested in the politics of the day. It is a matter of survival.

Being myself one of those persons who was not blessed to be born into mainstream society (I’m white, middle class and male, but not heterosexual), I often fantasize about what it must be like to not be concerned one way or the other about current political events, what it must be like to feel that none of it really concerns me, that it doesn’t matter.

Perhaps that is what people mean by the phrase ‘politics as usual.’

Life Goes On

It fascinates me how much can happen and change in one's life. The image that I have of my friends is that their lives remain static until I see them again. Then we check in and it seems as though they have lived a couple of lifetimes since we last met. At least that major events have taken place, either externally or internally, and that they have already absorbed them and moved on without my even knowing about the events.

As they say, "A rolling stone gathers no moss."

Here's a happy news story about one of our former shelter residents.

We're All In This Together

Please consider doing an online search a day using GoodSearch (link in column to the right). The homeless shelter that I run receives a penny for every search. We've already received a check from GoodSearch.

If you make purchases online (air tickets, flowers, music, clothes, etc.), we also get a percentage of your purchase when you search on behalf of the Albuquerque Opportunity Center.

Thanks much!