COVID CHAOS A few days ago, I drove to CLARK'S PET EMPORIUM to get much needed food supplies for my dog. As an essential business, they are allo

A few days ago, I drove to CLARK'S PET EMPORIUM to get much needed food supplies for my dog. As an essential business, they are allowed to be open, but I was horrified when two employees came out at different intervals to stand right next to my car and speak down on me, less than a foot away, and neither one of them were wearing masks.

Afraid to extend the conversation with them by remarking on the masks, and also afraid that one of them might be angered by being questioned about it and then even MORE droplets would be coming my way because of a more intense conversation, I decided to get out of there as quickly as possible and then call the owners later.

I looked up the telephone number of the owners on their website. (505-292-6288) It was a phony number that dumped me into their store telephone system. So I asked to speak to one of the owners (Michael or Thomas Steeples) or the store managers.

The young guy that came to the phone sounded very young and not terribly decisive. He said to me, "Yeah, we're not really wearing masks in the store. None of us are wearing masks." He also said that he understood it was serious, but his tone of voice did not convey that he actually comprehended that this issue IS serious.

He said he would "notify them." I quizzed him as to who "them" is - the owners? No. He said he was going to notify the store manager, which is the person to whom I was purportedly speaking. When I questioned him about this he said that the store manager was out to lunch and that he is the guy that answers the phone when the manager is gone! He tried to get me off the phone.

"Don't you want my phone number?" I asked him. He didn't sound like he was thrilled to be taking a message but he dutifully went to get a piece of paper and a pencil. He took my name and number, but I was not left with the impression that I should expect to get a return phone call. It isn't like he was rude. That's not it. He was disinterested and obviously disempowered.

woman wearing home-made cloth mask

I decided to call 311, which is the city general information number. I have, in the past, had great success with the 311 operators. They don't make you wait three years before they'll pick up the phone, and that number has never dumped me into a voice mail hell. They often have answers to questions like this.

The gal that picked up the phone WAS very accommodating. She referred to the information that she had at her disposal, but unfortunately could not tell me whether or not businesses that are staying open are required to wear masks or not. If they ARE required to wear a mask, I wanted to do what I could to nudge them into compliance. and if they are NOT required to wear a mask, I intended to find a different business that was doing this voluntarily.

The 311 operator gave me the number for the New Mexico Covid-19 non-emergency information line, which turned out to be the 9th level of computer hell that is much more concerned about the information they are NOT prepared to give you than any beneficial information. (1-833-551-0518)

If you are calling about platypus eggs, press 1.

If you are calling about the price of tea in China, press 2.

If you would like to know what temperature to bake bread, press 3.

If you want to learn how to swim, press 4

If you are calling about the circumference of a typical cowboy's hat, press 5.

A few of the "go away, don't bother me" phone numbers I found online

OK. I'm kidding about the topics - but they were no more helpful than the few examples, above. There WERE 9 levels of hell, plus several website addresses that the voice rattled off WAY too fast. NONE of it addressed this really simple request for information and no human being picked up the phone.

I hung up and called back, this time deciding to just pick a number at random, since none of them pertained to what I needed. It dumped me into YET ANOTHER computer voice mail that asked me to leave a message.

So I did. I left them a spicy message telling them that their stupid phone number is a PRETENSE - pretending to "be there" for citizens with questions, but answering nothing.

I called the 311 city government number again, and yet another very nice human being gave me a different number, this time the local number for the New Mexico Department of Health. (505-827-2613.)

The math behind social distancing

ONCE AGAIN, no human would answer the phone. It was another voice mail request for me to leave my name and number.

More and more these days, people in business and government are expecting computers to actually do their work for them. It is pure laziness to do so because computers cannot duplicate a thinking, living, breathing human being. Mentally lazy I.T. people concoct these excruciatingly long voice mail messages that do not anticipate all the possible reasons that a person may be calling that telephone number and do not give you any option to speak to a human about those other topics that the I.T. people are incapable of imagining.

It is more than obvious that the whole intention behind these 10-minute voice mail announcements is to avoid communicating with me or you. It is clear that their entire rationale is to avoid contact with us.

The 311 operators are a marvelous exception to what has become, more and more, the rule in our society.

Please don't get me wrong. I spend almost all day long connected up to the internet and I really do not know what I would do without it. I LOVE the internet. It helps me research. It helps me write. I learn how to make crafts. I learn how to play musical instruments. Even my prayer life and spiritual reading and participation is greatly enhanced by the internet. It is a wonderful tool, in the right context...but our telephones should remain telephones. We should not be greeted with a 10-minute invitation to get lost every time we call a company or a government office.

Apparently, the only way to quash this modus operandi is to make this way of doing business much more inconvenient for THEM than it is for us. You decide how you might do that. I, for one, will be making a very polite pest of myself, since I am already being treated like one.

Meanwhile, neither the manager nor the owners of Clark's Pet Emporium have returned my call. I have called the governor's office to encourage her to make social distancing mandatory for businesses that have been deemed "essential," since some of them, like CLARK'S PET EMPORIUM are not even doing the minimum.

God save us all.

Silver Rose

GLASS IN MY FOOD - updated

In early March, a neighbor suggested that I call the Department of Senior Affairs for our city. They had been bringing food for her pantry and she had found it helpful. She gave me the phone number - [505-674-6400] and I did call them and left a message. 

A couple weeks later, a man returned my call, took all kinds of information from me, told me "someone" would call me back about the food, and then I waited. I never heard from anyone, so on April 3rd, I called them and again had to leave my telephone number. 

About a week later, a different man called me back this time and asked me what I wanted, as if he hadn't a clue, despite my having left a detailed message, so I told him. He had absolutely nothing to tell me but only said that "they" had not given him any information about my request, "they" being another department that was in charge of the food distribution. He was cold, distant, unfriendly.

Talking to him was like pulling teeth. No matter what question I asked him, he repeated the same answer - like a machine: "They haven't given us any information."

It was upsetting to be talked at, like a machine. I asked him if his department was in communication with THAT department and whether or not he could communicate a request to them, and he just repeated the same phrase. "They haven't given us any information."

I explained to HIM that I understood him the first few times he repeated that phrase, but that he was not answering any of the questions I had asked him. His response? Yep. He said, "They haven't given us any information."

It was infuriating to be talked at like this. It felt belittling, this condescending script with the oddly passive language that doesn't answer any question.

"Could you PLEASE speak to me like a human being and answer the question I am asking you?" I asked him. "If you don't know the answer, that's fine. You can tell me that you don't know - but please just stop saying that same weird sentence with the passive language. It isn't helpful."

His answer? "This is what they told us to say."

I never heard back from anyone after that conversation, so I called the Department of Senior Affairs again today.

First, they said they had no record of me, that they never spoke to me, that they do not distribute food, that there are no men in their office that would be returning phone calls and they hadn't a clue what I was talking about.

I told the woman that their number is in my cell phone record for each time I spoke with them. I was looking right at it on my Consumer Cellular telephone record on the computer.  She connected me to another woman who was supposedly in charge (but she isn't really. She is a middle management supercilious type, I later realized.)

So, the second woman claimed I had not talked to them but that I had talked to a different department. She read some notes back to me that confirmed what I had said all along. I had called them in early March, then again on April 3rd. Evidently, they're connected in some way. She made no effort to enlighten me. Then she said that they HAD been distributing food but that they had run out.

It was all very weird. First they don't know me and never heard of me, then they DID know me and had heard of me but word salad, word salad, word salad.

One wonders why on earth some people decide to go into one of the "helping professions", except perhaps to lord it over the less fortunate and thereby make themselves feel superior. I really don't know.

Completely depleted from the effort of dealing with these double-talking people, I decided to just give up and pray that the "stimulus" payment comes to me soon. The working people - those who aren't disabled, are not poor and are in much better condition than I am - these are the people who get the stimulus checks first. The poor get them during a later 'run.' Everything has been delayed a little bit because of Trump's sudden insistence that he wants his name on everything.

I hadn't eaten since breakfast, so I put together a meal of the last of my rice, stir fried beet greens from some beets I had cooked last week, and tofu with mango chutney on top. It took a long time to pull it all together, and I was exhausted and famished when it was finally ready at 10 pm. I sat down and tucked into it and immediately came up with a mouth full of pieces of ground glass. I had inadvertently swallowed some of it and spit out the rest.

I had no way of knowing which food item had been adulterated so I had to throw out my entire dinner, as well as a new bottle of mango chutney. I can only pray that the little bits of ground glass that I had originally interpreted as some grit from poor rinsing of the greens doesn't cut my insides.

Typically, I have some sort of positive message or teaching in my blog posts - at least I TRY to do that - but I have nothing to offer about this slice of life except that experiencing the way people treat the poor is a heck of a lot different than reading about it in a Dickens novel.

Of course, there is always the underlying reason for most of my blog posts, which is to present my experiences as an example of how vulnerable populations live in modern America, in an effort to help others feel compassion and empathy toward vulnerable populations as a whole.

------------

UPDATE:

Four days ago, after I posted this item, I received a telephone call from yet another person involved in getting food out to the seniors. I explained to her the mind-bending runaround I had gotten, which really surprises me because there is a neighbor on the property who has been getting little boxes of food from these people, and she behaved as if the process was really easy. She called once and asked for help, and they came right out.

Anyway, the lady said she would look into it and get back to me. She didn't.

But, this afternoon, a sweet girl named Valerie, from the Aging and Long Term Services Department, called me saying that someone had called them and given them my number, but she doesn't know who. She wanted to know what I want! Incredible. I told her my story and she looked me up in their records. She said that if a food box had been arranged for me, the notes would have said "action taken" but it remained blank. She was concerned, since I had been calling since early March...and she said she would notify her boss, whose name is "Joe." This is the same thing the gal told me last week.

Evidently, they have a lot of volunteers who have dropped out. She talked about "spread sheets" and distributing "spread sheets" to "the different locations." I was humorously snarky and said something to the effect that instead of distributing spread sheets, perhaps they should distribute food instead. It was a joke. I asked her if they were all trying to drive me crazy. That wasn't a joke.

After exerting so much effort and being treated, at times, like dirt, I am beginning to wonder whether or not other poor, disabled and isolated seniors have just given up.

The dog-and-pony show to which I have been subjected, complete with haughty middle-management bureaucrats talking down their nose to me, has made me feel that I need to be a lot hungrier before I ask any government agency for help again.

This whole thing has been a tremendous learning experience for me. I had no idea that poor people were treated like characters out of a nightmarish Victorian novel. The price one has to pay in humiliation is close to being too expensive.

I could stand to lose some more weight anyway.

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Second update:
April 23, 2020

I originally wrote this blog a week ago. It has been several days since the last person called me and I wrote the last update. No one has come from that department.

Fortunately, as is usually the case, I was rescued. A lovely friend, whose family I adopted some time ago, brought me some gorgeous fruit, a bag of really fresh potatoes (which is rare in the markets of New Mexico) and some dog food that my little Charlemagne needed. I feel terribly grateful.

My overriding concern is for other seniors who find themselves isolated and needing help but who do not have my luck. THIS is exactly why I write my personal experiences. With every little "slice of life" anecdote that I recount, I hope to fuel enthusiasm for reaching out and helping the millions of American seniors who are not getting many of their basic needs met. Seniors who have worked and supported themselves their whole lives typically receive, on average, $1,100 per month in social Security - but you have to make LESS than $1,000 a month to qualify for most of the helping programs. The programs, on the other hand, are minimal.

Consequently, there are millions of seniors, caught between a rock and a hard place, with income that is too low to attend to their basic needs but too high to qualify for help. Only the bottom third of poor people get assistance and the dog-and-pony show that the bureaucrats demand is exhausting. All the while, the "helpers" are looking down their noses at those that need help and muttering about means testing.

I am praying every day for all God's people, especially the poor that Jesus loved so much. Please join me.

May God bless you all.

Silver Rose

Sannyasini Kaliprana

ABANDON THE HANDSHAKE FOREVER

When I was moving among the Hindus, the common symbol of greeting and leavetaking was the anjali mudra, performed in the standing pranamasana position. Sometimes, the word "namaste" or "namaskar" is said at the same time as this palm-to-palm gesture is made.

When greeting a person more senior than oneself, it would be common for the junior person making this sign to incline their head in a very slight bow, which generally communicates humility in the presence of one's elders and/or betters.

This prayerful position is extremely respectful and points to the spiritual life of each person - the one giving the salute, and the one being saluted. I have always found it meaningful, charming and graceful.

The word "namaste" - loosely translated - means, "the spirit within me salutes the spirit within you." One could hardly go wrong with that!

Considering what we are going through at the moment, I would certainly recommend trading our typical handshake with this gracious gesture instead. There is nothing like a pandemic to make one more aware of the constant presence of germs, viruses and other forms of natural biological warfare that nature inflicts upon us.

In addition to consciousness of viruses, there are many people who are not comfortable having someone's hands on them, whether with a handshake or a hug. I could write a much longer blog about the many reasons why this is true for some individuals. I would just suggest that, if you DO intend to resume the handshake or the hug, that you ask permission before assuming, one way or the other.

I will be reverting, from now on, to the namaskar and the anjali mudra of respect and graceful deference, and I recommend it to you, if you have been considering the possibility of giving up the handshake.

God bless us all

and may we all be well

Silver Rose

"Sannyasini Kaliprana"

HOLY WEEK IN THE YEAR OF THE CORONA VIRUS

All of human civilization is sitting on the edge of its seat, as it were, holding its breath for a moment, waiting for the plague to pass us by, knowing that many will be left dead in its wake and wondering which of us will be taken.

In America, we are told that many of the Corona virus patients are dying "alone," which is just a type of shorthand for a complex situation. They're not really alone. Hospitals are packed with people: doctors and nurses are milling around, intently seeing to the medical needs of too many patients, and so, a lot of people are there, but we can't risk allowing contact between patients and their loved ones, because of the wildly contagious nature of this grim virus.

The labored transition between this world and the next is traversed solo, in a sorry little boat of failing flesh.

During his final week on earth Jesus first endured humiliating lies and taunts,  physical torments and the betrayals of those who supposedly loved him. Enveloped by a keening crowd that howled for his undeserved torture and death, He too was not permitted the comforting presence of loved ones focused on easing his pains. They were made to watch from a distance, as our relatives and friends are made to do.

A hospital is understandably chaotic during a pandemic, but the pandemonium of the events we remember as "holy week" were more terrible - more ghastly - because all of the activity around Jesus was geared toward accomplishing his death, not trying to save it - and the crowd in which he was enveloped were mostly jeering at Him.

Still, we can use the frightening specter of the possibility of our own impending demise to gain greater understanding of what Jesus endured than we might have otherwise had, if this year was not the year of the corona virus under the reign of a modern despot who cares more about his popularity among his minions than in doing what is right for mankind.

The Angel of Death

by

Evelyn de Morgan

Like the ruler who freed the criminal Barrabas, rather than the God man Jesus, Trump entertained and advertised false conspiracy theories about the virus, and hid January's internal reports that Covid-19 could be devastating to the people of our country. Instead, he alleged that the deadly nature of the virus was inflated by the Democrats to make him look bad. Then he claimed to have it entirely under his control. He lied about the number of cases in our country, the availability of testing, the expected duration, and every other fact that would contribute to our understanding of what we were facing and how to avoid being one of the casualties. Anyone who questions his "inconsistencies" is publicly excoriated and slandered to within an inch of their lives, in language that comes from the playgrounds of our youth. We all recognize it as the rhetoric of the schoolyard bully.

Now we find ourselves in this situation where we are finally up to speed on crucial information about the deadly reality of our situation, but way behind the curve when it comes to actions necessary to put the brakes on it. It has dawned slowly on our collective consciousness exactly what we are facing here.

There are still some Americans who believe that it is all a "Democrat hoax" and that it is "just like the flu," as the president has previously claimed. They're refusing to comply with social distancing recommendations and are currently making a big fuss about the churches cancelling Holy Week gatherings. Some of the same people keep telling us senior citizens that we should be willing to die so that the economy can thrive. The mere fact of being an older American means, to them, that we are worthless because most of us are not producing income, so we might as well die. Like their orange god, money is the most important thing to these folks, even though most of them claim to be Christian. But try to ignore them. The Lord will deal with them, in His own time.

Meanwhile, in addition to exercising caution with regard to our physical well being, we need to get our mental, emotional, and spiritual lives in order. For those who are not accustomed to living like hermits, this has hit them hard, but with typical human ingenuity, we have found many ways to come together on the internet and elsewhere, so that we are made to feel that we are not alone in this.

Skyping and Zooming and Facebook watch parties are springing up like electronic flowers on the interwebz landscape. Newscasters and late night news hosts are broadcasting from their attics and home offices. Neighbors are serenading us from their balconies. We are not going to take this lying down, so to speak, and it makes me smile just thinking about how really spunky we are. As someone who has become somewhat of an expert of making lemonade from lemons, I just love this trait of ours.


Even though we are not able to attend religious functions during the holiest month of the year (for several religious traditions), we can still apply this ingenuity to the spiritual realm. After all, it really IS an inside job, no matter what time of year it is or whether or not there is a plague stalking the land, ready to consume us all.

Granted, our current life situation is a lot more captivating than the normal mental noise we have to deal with, but I keep reminding myself (and I recommend this to you) that it is always the case that death surely awaits us in each of our futures. We do not know when it is our appointed time, and we are not often reminded so poignantly of that fact - but it IS a fact. Death awaits us all the time - not just in the time of a pandemic. This is why some Buddhist traditions recommend meditating upon death. It seems macabre to the uninitiated, but the Buddhists do have a point.

Last week, another neighbor of mine died. Mike, a strapping, tall, healthy looking man of about my age - mid-sixties to early seventies, was helping another neighbor get to the hospital the last time I saw him. The next thing I knew, someone was telling me that he has just died. One of his friends couldn't rouse him on the telephone. Another knocked at his door and there was no answer. His adult child tried to reach him, and left messages, with no response. In the middle of the night, he had died, alone in his apartment - not from the Covid-19 virus, but some disease he already had.

Whether we die in isolation in the hospital, or in our apartment in our sleep in the middle of the night, The Lord is the only one who can really accompany us on our final journey. It's a good idea to get to know him beforehand, otherwise it could be an uncomfortable ride, in the end.

Personally, I cannot claim to be ready to die. I am not sanguine about the prospect. Not at all. I am really enjoying life and, if I had my way, I would live ANOTHER 60 years, if I could. Life is really a wonderful gift, even if full of trauma and drama - even if it gives you PTSD and nightmares and poverty. The spark of life is such a gift. Consciousness itself is the gift.

Having lived as a hermit for the last 18 years or so, I am not at all disturbed by the social isolation with which most people have been saddled because of this virus. Consequently, I feel I have something to offer in this regard, and if any of my readers are having a hard time coping with the isolation, or this situation in general I extend to you the invitation to contact me and I may be able to help encourage you through it. I have a Facebook page that is easy to find, and you can always leave a comment on this blog.

If you are having a hard time coping with the pandemic news, the first thing I would tell you is to curate your news consumption very carefully. Decide the maximum amount of time you can watch or read it before you get anxious, then make sure that you limit yourself to HALF of that amount of time or pages.

The next thing I would recommend is to avoid watching Donald Trump's so-called "press conferences." He routinely pushes advice contrary to what the medical professionals are recommending, so nothing good can come of watching him. And who needs to listen to his inappropriate and constant name-calling of the journalists who are asking him legitimate questions on your behalf? It will just upset you and confuse the issues.

Listen to the medical professionals like Dr. Anthony Fauci and other doctors with experience in epidemics and pandemics, stay socially isolated, wash your hands frequently and efficiently, and do whatever else the experts say to do. Don't listen to ancillary non-experts who are just trying to get time on camera, and don't get distracted by Trump's smoke and mirrors. He could have done something to ameliorate this pandemic early on, but he chose to hide crucial information and then lied about it later. So just ignore him. He will get his comeuppance later. [UPDATE, OCTOBER 5, 2020: A few days ago, he and Melania tested positive for Covid. Many of his close staffers ALSO have it. More are expected to come down with it because none of them have been following the guidelines.]

In the meantime, I am praying for all of you, in general, and for specific people who have asked me to include their name in my prayers. To the extent I am able to include you in my meditative journey, I do that, as well.

May God bless you all and keep you safe, and I hope to continue to "see" all of you through this emergency.

Yours in the Lord,

Silver Rose
"Kaliprana"

TELL ME WHO YOU ARE

The Annunciation

by Merode

Every day, lately, individuals are standing up and announcing who they are and who they serve. These are fractious times, with tumult, political infighting and disputes in government, on the one hand, and a dangerous, never before seen pandemic virus on the other.

Leading us is an insane, unstable despot, which is no "leadership" at all. What we choose now comes entirely from our natural stores of energy, spiritual wisdom and discretion. We do not have a shining example, or a light on The Hill.

Some people chose the way of selfishness by running to the store and sweeping all the shelves clean of essential products necessary to basic survival. Water. Toilet Paper. Frozen food. Hand sanitizer. They took more than they needed so that the rest of us would have none, thus exacerbating an already frightening situation.

About a week ago, I went on the hunt for canned food and frozen vegetables. First, I went to my neighborhood Walgreens, and discovered that the food shelves were completely empty. It was as if giant locusts had swept through the place. I was able to buy some over-the-counter medicines I needed, some cleaning supplies and a tin of cookies, but when I checked out, I discovered that Walgreens had attached very tall pipes to each shopping cart so that I was not able to get my purchases to my car. I asked the checkout clerk how I was supposed to get all the bags to the car.

She just looked at me and said, "You can't take the carts out of the store
any more," as if that response answered my question.

"Everywhere I go, no one cares about the disabled old people," I announced. Two clerks looked at me, slack-jawed and unresponsive.

Despairing of getting some help, Juggling my purse, my cane, my hat, my sunglasses, and 2 bags of miscellaneous non-food items, I hobbled to the car. I still needed canned foods and frozen vegetables. I was already exhausted, and the throbbing pain in my legs and hips was making its opinion known.

Less than a mile from that Walgreens is a Lowes neighborhood grocery. It is a small store, much easier to navigate than the large supermarkets that proliferate in this town, but you pay for it with very high prices and ancient expiration dates.

I asked the clerk working in the canned food aisle to notify the manager of the grime that was caked on top of the cans of corned beef hash. I was hoping they may have had some cans that didn't look like they were leftover from WWII. She mumbled a word salad of completely unrelated concepts and did nothing. Even when I nudged her about getting the manager for me, she burbled another word salad and made no move to get him.

Completely grossed out by the disgusting sediment on top of the cans, but realizing I could wash them and that I should not be so delicate, I gingerly put a supply of canned beans in my cart and prayed that the dirt wasn't some sort of contagion. The prices were shockingly high.

Standing in front of the cashier, I pointed to my cane and asked her if she would please pack the bags lightly because of my bad back and knees.

Incredibly, the woman said to me, "I am going to bag them to the top. If you want something different, you can do it yourself." Then she pushed the cans toward me and started barking orders at me, making clear her wish that I should hurry up, shut up and bag my own damn groceries. I was a bit stunned. This is not the typical response one gets in grocery stores.

When I am surprised by some sort of mistreatment, I tend to go quiet - which is not my usual personality, which is rather more bubbly and animated. But if I am shocked or upset, I don't want to emote anger into the scene. I slow down and consider the situation and my options.

The checker realized I was not obeying her commands and said, "you understand what I am saying, right?"

Quickly, I calculated the angle I would have to bend over the round carousel that used to hold a series of plastic bags. I would have to bend over it, and lift cans into a bag on the other side and then lift that bag from the counter, over the carousel, and down into the shopping cart. I realized that I physically could not do it.

Rather than try to make this woman understand the situation when she was obviously not in the mood to be the slightest bit sympathetic, I quietly answered her question by saying, "Yes, I understand exactly what you mean," whereupon I turned and walked out of the store, leaving all those dirty cans on the counter. I got into my car and headed toward another store, my pain level rising. I hoped it would subside during the ride in the car.

The next store was Sprouts, a medium-size health food store on Lomas Blvd. I noticed that there were none of the sales that they typically have and, while there was a supply of fresh vegetables, they had NO frozen veg, except one forlorn bag of corn that was suspiciously mushy. I wondered if it had been defrosted and refrozen, but decided to buy it anyway. There was a pile of 4 bags of okra. Unless you fry the heck out of it so that the texture is no longer gelatinous, okra makes me gag, so I left the okra in the freezer for the next brave soul.

Several Sprouts employees were unpacking food into the refrigerated sections. I asked three of them if they had any frozen vegetables. They each refused to help me in any way. There were frozen vegetables on the pallet, but the clerks weren't going to search for them. I took my pathetic little overpriced 2-cup bag of corn, a few cans of plain beans, and some fresh broccoli and checked out, somewhat depressed and in a huge amount of pain.

I had gone shopping for frozen vegetables and canned goods and, because of the hoarders, was not able to find these simple items at any of the stores! I had already surpassed my pain limit and was suffering too much to continue searching.

The next day, one of my neighbors flew down from the second floor to speak to me. He'd seen me with my dog near the mailboxes. He wanted to make sure and exchange telephone numbers, in case I needed anything during the social isolation period of the pandemic. Another neighbor also offered assistance. A friend from a church I used to attend has arranged to get me some frozen vegetables and will get them to me on Friday - probably about the same time I run out of the fresh ones I purchased at the health food store. A couple people from Facebook have responded to my Amazon wish list and are sending me emergency food items.

Other neighbors make a different choice. Yesterday afternoon, I happened to see a neighbor on the second floor step out onto her patio and, open mouthed with no effort to cover it, make a huge sneeze that she directed down onto all our mailboxes. This morning, the sidewalk beneath that patio is heavily littered with sunflower seed hulls that have been chewed and spat out.

It seems to me that everyone is announcing who they are every day, in their actions and their words, and it is in this atmosphere of emergency and dangerous contagion that these actions and words are highlighted, more significant, and of greater consequence than is customary.

Today is the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. The Angel Gabriel comes to Mary and tells her that she will bear the Christ Child, and she says yes to God's call.  She will sacrifice herself for the sake of mankind, by bearing Him into the world. Her selflessness and surrender to the will of The Divine for the sake of mankind, earning profound gratitude through the ages, is an example for those whose typical reaction to the misery of the world is selfishness and self-dealing.

When we emerge on the other side of this epidemic, I believe we will have been changed by the experience, and we will know one another in a more compelling manner than we did before the Covid virus entered the scene in the middle of the Traumatic Trump times.

Until then, we all have to try and survive, as best we can. Even Amazon is being cleaned out of food supplies and every time I add something to my emergency wish list, it is a matter of days or even mere hours before their stock is depleted and there is a message next to it that Amazon does not know when or if they will get more. Even so, I will, once again, post the link to that wish list and hope that some of the basic items will eventually make their way to me in enough quantity that I can share with the other isolated, single disabled ladies who live in this apartment complex.

Thank you for helping us get through this dangerous situation.

Find my Amazon wish list HERE

I encourage you to take care of yourself and one another as best you can and to use this unexpected retreat from social life as an opportunity, of sorts,to grow closer to the Lord. He is the only one who can't give you the virus or catch it Himself, so spend some time with Him!

God save us.

Silver Rose

CORONA VIRUS HITS MY TOWN, AND ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE

Picture of the Corona Virus

Yesterday, one of my neighbors came home after an exhaustive search for groceries to stock the pantry in preparation for a self-imposed casual quarantine. She described the mayhem she encountered; the long lines, empty shelves and packed parking lot.

All my senior neighbors are assailed with various forms of auto-immune disorders, and they cannot afford to contract a dangerous virus on top of it. Even the "common" cold can devolve into uncommon, serious illness and possibly death.

Many of the folks that are on the low-income program in this apartment complex are single, disabled seniors living on whatever social security they've managed to accumulate after many years of working. Because we have spent a lifetime working and paying bills, we have paid "too much" into social security and now, although our income is very low ($1100 a month, on average) we fall between the cracks, when it comes to government help. We don't get any. No food stamps. No discounts on our utility bills. We get a small discount on our rent, through a city program, and that is IT.

I have tried to explain the reality of this situation to people who sincerely believe that all disabled people are sucking at the teat of the state. I had one wealthy woman tell me she believed that "the government" had to pay all my expenses, including the moving truck to get me from one apartment to another. Many people on social media have expressed the firm conviction that the disability rolls are besieged with massive fraud. They have no idea how terribly difficult it is to be accepted onto the disability program, but they don't let facts keep them from blabbing their theory widely. Their toxic ignorance is widespread.

We all know that we are supposed to be kind to the old and the sick, but if the extreme right wingers can claim we are not actually sick but are "faking it", then they will have an excuse for putting barriers up to anything that might help us. They applaud Trump's efforts to cut the food stamp rolls, which are already inadequate to meet the need.

The fact is that the U.S. does a very poor job of taking care of its disabled and elderly citizens and no one should be surprised that many of us have had to resort to begging by starting Go Fund Me campaigns and Amazon "wish lists" to make up the shortfall.

Widely available statistics, if anyone should decide to simply Google the facts, demonstrate that the U.S. pays far less to its seniors than other countries. We are number 25 on the chart, far below Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, The Slovak Republic (!), Greece, Latvia, Czech Republic, and KOREA. Check out this chart and the
 ARTICLE ON THE CENTER ON BUDGET AND POLICY PRIORITIES WEB PAGE

Ironically, because of our illnesses and allergies, our diets need to be a nutrient dense as possible. In addition, speaking for myself, I am terribly allergic to preservatives and pesticides. They cause me to have dangerous asthma attacks.

This may not sound like a big deal, but I was recently given some old yarn and, when I started crocheting with it, I suddenly could not breathe. This is why I don't typically accept yarn that has been opened and sitting in someone's house for a year or two or three. I rather like breathing.

Because of the asthma, the corona virus could be deadly for me.

When this Covid virus emergency settled in, and I started hearing about people deciding to "self-quarantine," I realized that I have NO "emergency" supplies at all. I already have trouble keeping food in my house for my monthly needs. This month, I had to buy eyeglasses, and the money had to come out of my food budget because I do not have discretionary income.

Now, here I am, very low on funds, unable to stand in the long lines at the grocery store, and needing to get some emergency supplies into the house. The other disabled ladies in my apartment complex are likewise situated.

Clearly, it is time to launch another Amazon food list.

My aim is to try to get enough supplies in the house to share among the other disabled senior ladies who live here. Amazon has my address and will ship to me direct. They always let me know when a parcel is coming, and I am typically home all the time anyway.

If you are able to help, we would all appreciate it.

AMAZON WISH LIST FOR FOOD

If you have any questions about this list or any preferences we might have, just leave a comment on this blog post OR send me a message on my Facebook messenger space.

TO GET TO MY FACEBOOK PAGE, CLICK HERE.

Thank you, in advance, for your help, and God bless. I will report on donations received in another post.

God bless us all - stay safe out there, people! And if you can stay home - do it!

Silver Rose
Sannyasini Kaliprana

Saint Amunia - Hermitess

"Hermitess"

by

Silver S. Parnell

Copyright (c) 1996

~ All rights reserved. ~

One of the many saints for whom we celebrate the feast day today is another hermitess about whom we know little. Amunia had been a married woman, but when her husband died, she joined her daughter, Saint Aurea, in her hermitage.

"The Christian of the future will be a mystic or

will not exist at all."

~ Karl Rahner, theologian, priest ~

I have lived as a type of modern hermit for the last 18 years, and I am always keen to hear from other female hermits, as well as read about hermitesses who have gone before us.

Dedicating one's entire life to God in a singular and solitary manner is the original monastic expression. Sometimes, hermits would gather together in a loosely organized group, withdrawn from society to greater and lesser degrees.

This monastic life is common in Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism. Other religions may also incorporate solitary religious people, but I am not aware of those, in particular.

Caves of Cappadocia, Turkey

"I will lead her into the desert, and there

I will speak to her heart."

~ Hosea 2:16 ~

30 years ago, I started keeping the above quote, on a small scrap of paper, in my wallet, eventually losing it when it floated out one day, unnoticed until much later. That was alright, however, as I had memorized it long ago and carried it also in my heart.

Jesus himself was many times said to retreat to a solitary place to pray to his Father "in secret." Many early Christians retreated to the caves, some of which still exist today.

Cave painting, in cave church

What is the purpose of the hermit life? To be alone, in a reverent atmosphere of silence and contemplation upon the Divine is an expression of longing for the experience of union with God and an attempt to sweep aside and leave behind everything that is not Him. Some theologians say that we are already in union with Him but that we have inserted the things of the world into the relationship and thereby ruined the experience of the joy that one feels in communion.

To come to an understanding of our oneness with the Lord, to feel it, recognize it and float on its wings, has been the urgent goal of saints through the ages, and I love to read about each of their individual journeys. At times, while meditating, I paint them, such as my work, at the top of this blog post.

One day, I had hoped to form an alliance with other independent hermits throughout the world, but perhaps it is best that this never materialized. We are meant to be alone, after all. Still, it would be lovely to provide support to other female hermits. It is still a recognized and respected vocation, but because it is mostly women who aspire to it, it is often given short shrift. Even many of our churches have lost track of that mystical thread that originated with Jesus and wended its way through the lives of many saints through the ages.

83 year-old Buddhist hermitess

Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and others share in this holy impulse to be with God, together alone. There are more of us than you might imagine. I encourage everyone to read up on our holy mothers in religion, both those who are still living and those who have passed on to their heavenly reward.

Russian hermitess Agafya Lykova

who lives in Siberia, alone

I remember reading about the "desert mothers" and the "desert fathers" when I was a nun in the Vedanta Convent. My readings of the books we carried in our catalog were my introduction to the Christian monastic and contemplative traditions. It sparked something within me which stayed with me ever since!

It is amazing to me, thinking about how long it has been - 18 years - since I first committed to the solitary life, and how I have continued this life with no earthly support from any religious institution, but with the considerable kindness and resourcefulness of well-wishers, both from my teacher in the Vedanta community and the loving attentions of my circle of Catholic friends who understand the contemplative life of the independent monastic. They are also sympathetic to the limitations of an older woman with multiple disabilities, thanks be to God!

Most of all, though, I feel the continuous blessing and encouragement of our holy mystics who have gone before us. I pray to Saint Amunia and all the other angels and saints, and ask them to intercede on my behalf to the Lord.

I also keep their memory fresh in my mind and heart by reading books by and about them. I would like to share with you some of these volumes.

I have attached a list at the bottom of this blog. It is a very short list because there is much much more. I have only included books I was able to find on Amazon, but if you would like further recommendations of books and websites about the lives of other mystics, please don't hesitate to contact me, and I will be happy to steer you in the right direction.

May the Lord bless us all.

Silver "Rose"

INDEX OF BOOKS ON THIS TOPIC AND RELATED TOPICS:

I recommend these to you and intend to read them again myself, probably on kindle, so I can magnify the text:

Books of Bede Griffiths, Benedictine monk and lifelong friend of C.S. Lewis:

•  Bede Griffiths: An introduction to his spiritual thought
• The Golden String: An Autobiography

Books about the desert fathers and mothers:

• Desert Fathers and Mothers: Early Christian Wisdom Sayings―Annotated & Explained (SkyLight Illuminations)
• The Wisdom of the Desert (New Directions) by Thomas merton
• The Forgotten Desert Mothers: Sayings, Lives, and Stories of Early Christian Women by Laura Swan
• The Desert Mothers: Spiritual Practices from the Women of the Wilderness by Mary C. Earle
• In the Heart of the Desert: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers (Treasures of the World's Religions)
• Praying with the Desert Mothers by Mary Foreman OSB

Books by and about saintly women mystics:

• Revelations of Divine Love (Short Text and Long Text) - Julian of Norwich
• The Autobiography of St. Teresa Of Avila: By St. Teresa Of Avila
• The Prophecies and Revelations of Saint Bridget of Sweden
• Joan of Arc: A Life Inspired by Wyatt North
• Hildegard of Bingen: Scivias (Classics of Western Spirituality
• Hildegard von Bingen: A Journey into the Images
• Hildegard of Bingen's Spiritual Remedies
• Hildegard of Bingen: Scientist, Composer, Healer, and Saint
• A purple flower amidst the mountains: The extraordinary life of Maria Domenica Lazzeri (1815-1848) by Giovanni Brunelli
• Edith Stein: Essential Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters Series) - by Edith Stein and John sullivan
• Edith Stein: The Life and Legacy of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross by Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda
• Catherine of Siena by Sigrid Undset
• Catherine of Siena : The Dialogue (Classics of Western Spirituality) by Catherine of Sienna, Suzanne Noffke, Guiliana Cavallini
• Hadewijch: The Complete Works (Classics of Western Spirituality) by Hadewijh (author) & Mother Columba Hart (translator)
• Madame Guyon: Her Autobiography (condensed & modernized)
• The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary: From the Visions of Ven. Anne Catherine Emmerich
• The Complete Visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich (Illustrated): The Lowly Life and Bitter Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Mother
• The Life and Revelations of Anne Catherine Emmerich (2-Volume Set)
• The Book of Margery Kempe
• The Life of Christina of Markyate (Oxford World's Classics)
• Life of Christina of Markyate
• Mechthild of Magdeburg: The Flowing Light of the Godhead (Classics of Western Spirituality (Paperback))
• Meister Eckhart and the Beguine Mystics: Hadewijch of Brabant, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Marguerite Porete
• The Life & Revelations of Saint Gertrude the Great
• Gertrud the Great of Helfta: The Spiritual Exercises

Statue of St. Teresa of Avila - in rapture

BRAZEN LIARS

"The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in

people who are trustworthy."

Proverbs 12:22

America has become a nation of feckless, unrepentant liars who use deceit to manipulate other people into giving the liar something he or she wants. Usually, it is money or power or some derivation thereof.

No, this isn't a blog about Donald Trump, though it easily could be, because he is the most obvious and most prolific example of what I am talking about. (Currently, he is lying about the number of Americans stricken with the new "novel" corona virus, disputing the number reported by the scientists at the Center for Disease Control.)

No. I am making an observation about our culture, in general, and how low our moral personality, as a whole, has sunk. I will give you an example.

Tonight I received an email from Amazon, the title of which read:

 "Silver Parnell, here's a $5 credit toward your wish list title." 

In the body of the email, Amazon names the book which is supposedly on my wish list, and I do not recognize it. I have quite a few wish lists, so I look through all of them, on the off chance that I have accidentally put this particular book on one of them. I have a habit of falling asleep at the computer, and I posited that it might be possible that I inadvertently added it somehow, while dozing off, but no. There is no such book anywhere on any of my lists.

"For, whoever would love life and see good days

must keep their tongue from evil and their lips

from deceitful speech. They must turn from evil

and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it."

1 Peter 3:10-11

So, I call Amazon and ask them what the heck is going on and why have they sent me this weird email. I am concerned that they may have confused me with someone ELSE and have mixed up my account with someone else's account, which would be disastrous, since we all have our banking information saved with Amazon.

The first rep keeps trying to guess at what might have happened. I keep telling him to stop guessing and let me speak to somebody who knows. He keeps putting me on hold. 16 minutes later, I insist that he let me speak to someone else. He says he will, but he keeps talking and he keeps guessing. I am getting more and more concerned because his English isn't good and he is wandering all over the topic. I keep asking him to let me just talk to someone who knows rather than him, because he is just speculating. I can speculate also, but that isn't what I want!

"You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to

carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from

the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no

truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language,

for he is a liar and the father of lies."

John 8:44

Finally, he says, "who do you want to talk to? You have to give me the name of a person, otherwise I can't transfer you." Apparently, I am supposed to have such magnificent psychic abilities that I can simply pull a name out of my transcendent clairvoyant brain. Of course, I recognize this for what it is - a delaying tactic of someone who does not want me talking to his supervisor. I suggest he just connect me to whoever can answer this question for me, so he tells me I need to tell HIM the name of the person or the department!

Really aggravated at this point, I point out to him, again, that I am not psychic. He is supposed to tell ME the department or the person who can answer this question. After all, the email came from Amazon, not from me - but he just mumbles and bumbles around and will not. Finally, I am fed up and demand to speak to his supervisor. I've been on the phone for 26 minutes and counting.

The supervisor speaks English really well and comprehends my concern immediately. She admits that this email is really weird, but she seems to know who to talk to about it, so she puts me on a brief hold, then connects me with someone named "John" who will explain it to me.

35 minutes on the phone, and counting.

After a short conversation with John, he informs me that the email I received is a "legitimate offer." Apparently, someone at Amazon decided they would be clever and send me an email in which they try to make it look like they were giving me something I supposedly wanted, by lying and saying that this book they are flogging is something on MY wish list. Except that it isn't. It is all just a big fecking lie. THEY want to sell this book and they don't mind lying to manipulate me and whoever else to whom they've sent these fake emails.

When I object to this underhanded, unscrupulous and really reprehensible fabrication, John behaves as if I am being unreasonable. He sighs and explains, again, in the tone that one uses with someone less intelligent than oneself, that it IS a "legitimate" offer. They really ARE giving me a five dollar credit toward the purchase of this book - so it isn't "fake." It is a real offer.

I object, again, to the lie that the book is supposedly on my wish list and, like Mick Mulvaney trying to defend Donald Trump's insidious mendacity, "John" repeats that it is "a legitimate offer," as if the lie is completely irrelevant and I am being really stupid for objecting to it.

39 minutes and I am done.

"In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in

Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and

impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and

being deceived."

2 Tim 3:12-13

Yesterday I was supposed to receive a Sunday parcel from Amazon of an order I had placed a few days previously. Amazon sent me confirming emails that the U.S. Postal Service would be delivering it on Sunday. The Postal Service itself gave me a running commentary, via email, about the whereabouts of the package, in each leg of its journey from Amazon to me, but what happened is what always happens when the Amazon packages are supposed to be delivered on a Sunday. The postal carrier lies and says they can't get into the building. What has actually happened is that they are too lazy to be bothered to find the apartment. So they lie.

I could write a blog post every day and call it "the lie of the day" and have no trouble writing a story about the latest lie.

There was a time, not so long ago, that no one wanted to be caught telling a lie. There was a time when it would embarrass just about everyone who was caught in a lie. Fervent excuses (and perhaps more lies) would be piled onto the original lie in which they had been caught. No one wanted to be known as a liar.

"Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but

afterward his mouth will be full of gravel."

Proverbs 20:17

Nowadays, however, many Americans brazenly lie and then gaslight anyone who objects. Americans now stand by their lies and defend them with bizarre, twisted logic, like Kellyanne Conway and her "alternative facts."

It makes me really sad and sometimes mad, to be lied to on a consistent basis, by friends, family, neighbors, merchants, and that freakish carnival barker and his outlandish companions who somehow found their way onto The Hill and who behave as if a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth, as if by magic.

"Whoever hates disguises himself with his lips and

harbors deceit in his heart; when he speaks graciously,

believe him not, for there are seven abominations in

his heart; though his hatred be covered with deception,

his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly."

Proverbs 26:24-26

Many of these people who are lying to me and to you and to the rest of the American people are claiming to be Christian. Christians love Jesus, and Jesus tell us that those who love him follow his commandments. You just can't deliberately lie and mislead people and con people over and over again and, at the same time, pretend to be shining the reflected glory of the light of Christ. You just can't.

And, as a merchant, you can't continually express the mawkish sentimentality of pretending to care for the welfare of your "Amazon Prime" members while trying to dupe them at the same time. You just can't.

"See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy

and empty deceit, according to human tradition,

according to the elemental spirits of the world, and

not according to Christ."

Colossians 2:8

While it is fairly clear that I find it upsetting to be lied to so frequently (and in such a adolescent and transparent manner), what I find most sad is that none of these liars will experience the bliss of being in union with the Lord if they keep up this deliberately deceptive lifestyle. And it IS a lifestyle when lies are routinely employed by a person as a method of getting what they want from others.

Living in harmony with the Lord means you are living a heaven on earth. The Kingdom of God is among you - if your soul is submerged in the love that is God.

Tonight I am praying for all the liars of the world. I pray they stop the lies, the schemes and the cons. I don't need to name them. They know who they are. But I DO pray for them, by name, here in my little hermitage, not only because I find it annoying to be lied to but because I want the entire world to be able to experience the transcendent, gorgeous love of God, and they can't until they stop lying.


God save us all.

Silver "Rose"
Sannyasini Kaliprana

EMBRACE THE HAT

My 20th cousin, 5 times removed

She wears hats very well.

(Queen Elizabeth II of England)

I have a wonderful neighbor with a very loving disposition, who is a follower of a philosophy I call "cosmic poo poo." Whenever I let slip the words, "when I lose my vision entirely" or something to that effect, she jumps right on me. She believes (and many do) that people create the world with their minds. While I agree that the attitude with which you respond to events can have a bearing on how it turns out, I don't believe in the simplistic causal relationship between my mind and everything that swirls around me. I LOVE life, I have many artistic and creative projects in the hopper, and I fully intend never to die, for instance, but I have a feeling that, no matter how consistently I affirm that idea, I will die one day.

In my personal approach to life, I recognize that the world does not revolve around me. There are other people and groups of people and systems of operation, and corporations that also have intentions that produce effects upon us all. Humans rub up against one another and act upon one another and cause things to happen to and around one another that may not be what the recipient imagined for themselves.

Designer Carolina Herrera's hat 

Fall season, 2010

My version of "having a positive attitude" requires me to be plastic, flexible and a bit bouncy in my response to stressors. My aim is to greet them with as much of a happy attitude as possible because, no matter how many times I might click my enchanted shoes together and repeat some voo doo formula, my problems do not magically disappear - which is not to say that I do not believe in miracles. I most certainly DO believe in miracles, but I know that miracles are caused by the will of God and not my own mind.

Obviously, I am not speaking from the vantage point of the higher reaches of unitive thought in which I am one with my God, but I would just remind you that one only reaches such oneness by abandoning the individuality that would keep one apart from deity to begin with - so it is STILL the Lord who wills the miracle into being, and not ourselves. To claim that "I" can will the world to obey me is obviously a false claim - which is why I call this idea "the cosmic poo-poo."

Just click your heels together and say:

"There's no place like home - There's no place like home..."

I have noticed that many people who are convinced that the cosmic poo-poo philosophy has worked for them are usually those people who have egos that refuse to acknowledge the help they've received from outside themselves. Often, they have hidden or ignored resources in the form of other people, such as devoted family members, or they have been in the right place at the right time to be the recipient of the world's largesse. Donald Trump's father gave him $400 MILLION dollars to start himself out in life, and, because Trump knows he did not earn his wealthy status, he has spent his entire life in a pathetic string of self-promotions, even going so far as to create phony magazine covers that he blew up and installed on the walls of his business property. He never credits his father for his wealth.

The fact is that while most people work very hard in their lives, not everyone "pulls themselves up by their bootstraps" to become a millionaire or a best-selling widget maker or a musician or...whatever. It simply is not possible for everyone to get there, through hard work or "positive thinking" (cosmic poo-poo.) My position is that you probably can't succeed without confidence and hard work but very few people in possession of those attributes actually find that it works for them in the ultimate sense, absent other factors. People who work very hard, whose jobs involve physical labor, like cleaning houses, for instance, can work 60 hours a week and never take a day off and will never, ever become millionaires. I was a legal secretary for many years, and a very good one - but the only person who got rich was my boss, who had a house in Beverly Hills, while I could barely afford a run-down apartment in Hollywood.

Given all this, when the doctors told me a few years ago, that I have macular degeneration that will gradually destroy my vision, and that it is important to eat the Mediterranean diet, take the scientifically tested vitamins, and protect my eyes from the sun by wearing hats and sunglasses every day whenever I go outside, I followed all of these prescriptions. I didn't sit down and start reciting spellbinding formulas like, "my vision is perfect" or whatever the cosmic poo-poo people say I should do in order to manipulate the world.

I can't say that my prayer life changed at all either because my attention is typically with God all the time, as a matter of course. The thing that is most important to me is to be immersed in God consciousness and to trust That. But I am not an automaton. I have human fears and apprehensions because I am still rather attached to this wonderful world, but I am working on releasing undue attachment, rather than expending useless energy trying to will the world to accommodate me.

One the other hand, we would not be here, in this world, if it had no value. The Lord has put us here for some reason and, I am sorry but no one really knows what the reason is, so we have to trust that "something good is going on," as the swami once said, and proceed accordingly.

Instead of greeting the necessity of wearing hats as a sad reminder of a frightening prognosis or a descent into unfashionable "old lady" territory, I embrace it and turn it into something fun. I have several hats in different colors that I regularly decorate with beaded bands that I make, or inexpensive sparkly little pins. I admit it isn't "nunnish" but I have no uniform to which I must conform, and no superior to whom I will answer for my silly hats. If my prescription eyewear wasn't so darn expensive, I might resort to some outlandish style with those as well. Perhaps, in that case, it is best that I am too poor for it.

I don't think many people in my town wear hats - so wearing any hat at all makes me an object of attention, which I typically do not want. As I write this, I am trying to remember seeing anyone wearing a hat in the last 20 years, and I can only think of one person who wears an actual hat with a  proper brim, and that was one of my neighbors who works in the entertainment industry. I can't even recall seeing anyone wearing a baseball cap, though I am sure there must be a segment of the population who wears them to sporting events. Oddly enough, there IS a man's hat shop here in town, so there must be some call for it. Perhaps the gentlemen are saving their hats for when they ride into Santa Fe. Who knows?

Here, we see that we can mix two interests in one:

fashionable hats and gardening.

Obviously, I am going rather far afield to make an elementary point. The world does not revolve around each one of us. It simply can't, and it isn't meant to. Our much vaunted "American individuality" gives the mistaken idea to many of us that we are in charge of more than what is within our bailiwick. We are not in charge of what others do to us. We are only in charge of what we actively do and how we greet what happens to us. I recommend that we not only "accept" our bad fortune, but find a way to also embrace it and celebrate some part of it, if we can.

Now, I must close because I have a cane waiting for me to decorate.

God bless us all

Silver Rose
Sannyasini Kaliprana