Making a World of Sense

In More Stars than Grains of Sand, Al Forsyth shares the fact that in each strand in each of our 37 trillion cells of DNA is over three feet long, making it incredible small, and thin.

Al Forsyth also notes that there are about 25 trillion red blood cells in the human body, and if a red blood cell were expanded to the size of an apple, an apple would be twice the height of the Empire State Building.

Imagine reclaiming climate justice. The Climate Change Revival states, “We can collapse. Can we imagine renewal?”

Adrenaline-based responses to all the bad news regarding climate disruption are not adequate for dealing with existential threats; yet, climate crisis disruption consistently activates that part of our brain. The impact is that it is so much easier to shut down and turn away. Evolutionarily, we are not prepared to take in so many images of destruction and be moved by compassion. We are overwhelmed, and we are out of time for avoidance.

The harder and more complex work is to imagine renewal. We need to imagine this world becoming one we can imagine holding onto for the next generation. We must keep trying to build that better future. Unitarian Universalists are known as “the ones that show”--374 congregations have pledged to work toward a climate of renewal.

Imagine what the climate can look like, taste like, and smell like. Imagine what a renewed climate can be and meditate on that image. Rest can be a form of resistance. Imagine a journey to renewal from rest and hope, rather that rush and despair. Focusing on fear does not help. We need to bind ourselves to a better story to move from a state of despair to a state of hope.

Despair needs to be suspended so that creativity, hope, and renewal can take us where we need to be. We may not be perfect, but yet still we must tap into our imperfectness, combining our vision to make our way to a better world. We must do this together. And to do this, we need to root ourselves in hope. Hope, historically, has been the means of which marginalized communities have survived oppression and continue to survive suppression.

When you think about a healthy climate, think about what brings you joy. What gifts do you have that you can bring to the table to effectuate a return to a better climate? The climate crisis cannot be solved overnight, but we can always take the next step forward, by adding our imaginings, our love of place, and our talents to the jar of hope.

An amazing thing happens when we share one another’s visions and see where they align. No single community has been able to save a failing lake, but maybe by working locally in concert with a shared vision we can save the Great Salt Lake. West side residents suffer from degraded air and housing. Justice for the earth is justice for every human body and for all the bodies on the planet.

The earth needs us and we need each other to keep imagining what renewal looks like.

In Jewish theological studies, midrash is the process of extrapolating and creating new stories out of existing stories. It’s a process of extracting meaning and distilling wisdom. From a handful of creation myths many more have been created.

The story of Adam and Even is one of two separate creation stories in the Torah, and it is certainly not the oldest. The tale of Adam and Eve is a “Master” story. It promotes a monotheism for a world that was mostly polytheistic. It places God at the top of a hierarchical order, followed by Man, followed by the rest of creation. It takes on a binary viewpoint, is patriarchal, and a-biologically denies the necessity of the feminine. No biological species exists only with males. This story has resulted in many people leaving faith communities of their origin, because it encourages extraction, exploitation, and violence to people lower on the hierarchical ladder.

Instead of tying ourself to a single creation myth that denies reason and sensibility, we need to be open to what other creation myths can teach us as well. The Hatanashoni tale of the Sky Woman teaches about democratic processes, working together, sacrifice, and gratefulness. The Birthday of the World, told by Rachel Naomi Reman, pictures a world in which we look for the universal light in one another.

A friend and I took a trip down to the Jordan River to check it out for kayaking, and had a wonderful conversation with a paddler who was already there, who gave us some helpful advice. River kayaking is the next phase of my planned progression.

Several of us watched the movie Reagan together. Knowing what I have learned about Reagan over the years, the movie wasn’t the top of my list, but my friend wanted to go. So we went. Watching all the evangelical movie trailers, I started getting a good idea of where the movie was going. And sure enough—it had a heavy evangelical bent, feeling like an advertisement for Donald Trump, and overlooked a lot of harm that was created by Reagan over the years. It certainly wasn’t a documentary, more like a historical fiction, perpetrating the global expansionist propaganda, and painted the Soviet Union as the Evil Empire. With an analyst who supposedly watched Reagan for over 40 years, I am definitely painting this movie with the likelihood that there is a lot of fiction added just to make Reagan look better than he actually was.

In The Phoenix Keeper, by Sarah A. MacLean, the peacock griffin is the star of the show. Ranbir owns the audience the instance he soars into the amphitheater. He is well-trained, but not quite the replacement for his predecessor.

After Aila presents her phoenixes, Luciana leads their exit, and thanks the patrons for supporting the San Tamculo Zoo. The night shrouded pathways soothe Aila’s brewing headache.

Aila discovers she has to save her phoenixes. She finds herself betrayed by the renovated security measures, and feels like she is out of options.

I attended the Environmental Caucus and the West Side Panel to try to win support from members of the central committee in my run for Second Vice Chair. It was good to see so many friends, the candidates and their competition. I also learned about the medallions that land surveyors use to establish land boundaries, and then watched a few of the Democratic candidates debate, and hold their own against their challengers.

For the Vice Presidential Debate, the Democratic party hosted a watch party at the Green Pig Pub and Brewery. It looked to be a perfect opportunity to be among central committee members while I continue to try to gain their support.

Wednesday afternoon I felt a sharp sting as some wandering insect bit me once or twice as I was outside reading. The power was out for a couple of hours, and the weather was nice, so I naturally took advantage of it. So did the bug.

I thought that I would be safe with neighborhood power outages because I have solar panels. I found out that I was wrong. Because I generate energy back to the grid, it was shut down. All providing systems are shut down until power is restored for the safety of electrical workers. It would have made better sense if instead the relay disconnected my house from the grid, than the solar panels from my home.

I started having an allergic reaction to the bug bite on my thigh, as a mildly swelling rash was developing on my leg. It wasn’t bad enough to require my epipen, but Thursday morning found me at the drug store buying antihistamines. I was surprised that I had to enter my age to get the antihistamines. Meanwhile, the swelling has gone almost completely down, and I was still on the antihistamines for another day.

My mother is in the hospital. She’s been there about a week. She had to go in because she was malnourished and jaundiced with a pain in her gut. Her urine was dark. The doctors found she had a high bilirubin count, which usually occurs when the pancreas is not functioning correctly. She’s improving because of a stint they had to surgically implant. They also found a mass on her pancreas, and are in the process of doing tests to verify how serious it is, and to determine the best forms of action. My mother is tough. She’s 80 years old, and is a multiple survivor of a number of things that could have proven deadly. I admire her spirit to hang in there, monitor her body, and make sure she gets the rest she needs before exposing herself to a strenuous procedure.

My friend invited me out for ice cream Friday night. It was nice to have the company. Then she invited me over to watch Will and Harper at her place for a couple of hours. I was so tired I didn’t realize that it would be 2 am before I got home. If I had known, I would have postponed the visit.

I planned to make calls Saturday, but between trying to finish the book I was on, and taking a few naps, I didn’t quite make it. Will and Harper is a great movie to introduce your friends to trans issues, and I highly recommend sharing it. After hearing Harper share her struggles with long time friend Will Farrell, who is unconditionally supportive, I was sickened by the plethora of hate that was shared on the cesspool X has become directed toward both her and Will. When an individual first comes out publicly, it is a hard current to fight when there are so many people being so verbally aggressive and demeaning. Trans people have been told to toughen up, but the only thing you can do is find support, and try to desensitize yourself to the tsunami of bullying. Telling someone to toughen up is a form of gaslighting. It blames the victim and pardons the abuser.

Sunday, I went kayaking on the Jordan River. It was my first river run, only about a mile as the crow flies, but quite the adventure. With only two of us, it was challenging how to work the shuttle system. I also installed the new kayak brackets on my car, started learning how to use the kayak dolly (which fell apart a few times), and assembled half the home storage kayak rack while waiting for one of my friends. The current, switch backs, twists and turns, debris, and shallow water points added to the challenge. I was anxious that we would overshoot our pull out point, but we succeeded in not doing that. My friend’s inflatable had an issue deflating, and we wound up loading the partially inflated kayak into her car after we retrieved it. My new rigid kayak performed pretty well, and even though the combing was too thin for me to put my thighs under, it still seemed to be responsive to my thigh movement as I had to do a quick partial roll to keep from capsizing at the pull-out dock. I’m looking forward to our next adventure.

Yesterday, I shot off over a thousand emails campaigning for the Second Vice Chair position. I got a couple back saying that I had their vote. I also finally solved an issue with how to serialize Drools 8. The problem has been bugging me for months, and after giving up on it the Friday night, I reviewed my analysis with a little debugging to find the perfect solution.

Today, I bought tickets for the opening night performance of Jekyll and Hide, the Musical, at the West Valley Performing Arts Center, and ordered the book by Robert Louis Stevensen. I can’t emphasize enough the need to support our local community theaters.

In A Closed and Common Circuit, by Becky Chambers, segmented transit cars don’t mesh well with what Sidra has read about the port’s famed egalitarianism. Blue points out seats that wouldn’t be able accommodate Aandirisk’s tails or Harmagian carts. Nearby, a small child licks the back of her seat.

Twenty years prior, Jane 23 looks forward to finishing her bin. A loud deafening tearing sound one second later makes her forget how days normally work.

Back in the present, as Pepper, Blue, and Sidra walk down a coolly lit ramp, Sidra asks why redreed is not allowed in common areas, while she sees a dozen different recreational substances consumed in line. Pepper tells her it’s because it makes Aeluon’s eyes itch.

In A Natural History of the Senses, Diane Ackerman describes how our senses connect us to the past. Even though two million years may span the time of observers, the process of making sense of the outline of a mountain is identical for both. Our senses feed shards of information to the brain like microscopic shards of a jigsaw puzzle.

In addition to our normal five senses, we also have other subtle senses to one degree or another: electromagnetic, phototropic, pain, gravity, and spatial senses. The world as we see it is a construct based on the information our senses give it. Our view of a complex world is very simplistic, since our bodies evolved on the need for survival over the need for truth or accuracy.

We should be grateful for our senses, our world, and the amazing variety of denizens we share it with. While we may great at survival, we certainly don’t have a monopoly on truth. Truth can only be simulated by what we know and what we share. It’s by bringing our senses, our experiences of the world with everyone and everything in it, and even then we will still only have a glimpse of the intricate marvel that is our universe.