Aging as a Mountian Expedition

Even if you have never followed a trail into a mountain range, join me in this way of picturing ageing as an adventure. Think of every birthday as a new height of land. Each year involves climbing over and around obstacles. 

 Join with me at Glacier National Park in Montana, USA. The mountain trail going up and over Siyeh Pass begins on the Going to the Sun Road at Sunrift Gorge.

We begin the hike with Sun Mountain to our left. The trail climbs sharply through a grove of trees and then continues through open rocky flats to a water fall.  Up we go around the falls and then take some switch backs gaining altitude rapidly. Much of the climbing season we are in snow fields.

If the sun is hot there are occasional small streams coming down over the trail and cooling us. The air is getting thin and hikers notice stress of legs, feet and lungs.

One last surge of energy and we can see into the next valley and the trail down. Looking back, it is obvious how high we have climbed and what obstacles have been surmounted. 

 That moment of seeing the next horizon is much like a birthday. 

Each birthday a person is at a higher point in the mountain range of a lifetime.

 Delton    2-12-17

The Nietzsche Revival

There is no meaning in anything!  That is what Frederich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was all about. It was in 1947 that I was first exposed to the ideas of this European philosopher. At first it seemed just strange but then other people and organizations took up the ideas.

 Now America is again being exposed to people running the country involving at least one person with the same ideas. 

I did not agree 70 years ago, and do not agree now. This wolf comes in a sheep’s disguise of solutions to all the problems of society if people will only stop thinking and do more following of the leader.

In my world, all who claim to have certain answers to difficult challenges but are not willing to hear and answer questions are off my list. Be it in business, religion, politics or personal life.

 

We are humans capable of learning from experience. I am trying.

Connectivity is Destiny

         

The phrase “Connectivity is Destiny” is borrowed from Parag Khanna.  He means that the ways we are in touch with one another is key to what is and will be happening in our world.  This writing is a personal example of how it works.

This post helps me understand firsthand how the ever-increasing methods of being in touch with each other shape our future.  

 

My process of sharing happens in turning to Facebook. This is done with some anxiety because of having little control over where these ideas go. We share ideas, memories and hopes. Some conversations may develop. 

 

This blog forces me to improve my skills in communicating. You may welcome the chance to exchange ideas with my kind of person. Racial and cultural heritage are in the background. Gender identity shows through. County of origin is part of the mix.  

If interested, you can learn about me from earlier posts on this blog.

The Immigrant Experience

Our people arrived in America from Germany in the 1850s.  Sounds like a long time ago.  The signs of being isolated as immigrants continues in my family. The wounds heal but there is scar tissue of the soul. The Elders remember best.

 I was born in the Mid West in Great Depression Era.  Germans were among those seen as The Problem. I recall the way we were treated and how we were made to feel unworthy. We made it through and now try to welcome others who want the American Way.

It has taken a long time to feel a part of the main stream American way. That is the story of the American way.  

I want America to be patient with all of us. The wider world needs us as a patient people.  America needs the wider world as a company of humans on the way toward a better community.  

Del

Managing personal thoughts in a communications era

Dignity and Grace are, for me, the signs of a healthy environment for individuals and society at large.

There are times when I need to say to myself, "No! I am not going to think or speak in terms that deny Dignity and Grace.."  Only then do I take charge of my sacred gift of human existence.  

Self generated Dignity sets you and I apart from other creatures. Grace is the value given to our way of dealing with fellow humans and is well to be extended to other creatures as well. 

 Join me in the task of being persons of dignity and grace. 

Are we as individulals more intelligent than a hunter/gatherer?

I read people like Yuval Harari who express the viewpoint that we are probably no smarter than hunter/gatherers. As a matter fact, the person having to hunt for a living has to be really smart and physically able or he/she will shortly be dead.

Our human technology has advanced greatly making us even more dependent on machines of one kind or another. Some feel that machines may take the place of humans and then rule the world for the good of machines. 

My present viewpoint is that we as humans have the opportunity to get our act together. Learning history is my way of knowing what my tribe is up to. That is my task as long as I live. 

Simply writing this piece and putting it on line is one way to fulfill a life of dignity and grace. Telling stories helps strangers to cooperate.  We invent fictions to provide ways to deal with things we cannot escape.  Now that is one challenging concept.  This has been written as flow of consciousness.  

DK

 

 

Sinclair Lewis and Tom Friedman

Book Ends for early 2017          by Delton

My writing shelf for 2017 begins with writings by Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) and is closed in by the writings of Tom Friedman (1953-).

Sinclair Lewis started his life in Sauk Center which is about half way between St. Cloud and Alexandria on Freeway 94. Tom Friedman began his life in St. Louis Park which is just across town from us.

Lewis wrote about the emblems of American progress – business and city growth. His main characters are business people. He explores the relativity of business morals as well as private rules of conduct. His business men consider it God’s will that man should work, increase income and enjoy modern improvements. Competition was to be the basic moral foundation. His books show what goes wrong along the way to success. Family break up. Overspending on homes. Alchoholism. Murder of spouses. Loneliness. Confusion of everything in society.  He was the first American writer to win the Pulitzer Prize

Tom Friedman writes about foreign affairs, the middle east and American politics. His writings are filled with real characters from all over the world. In his work as a columnist for the New York Times he has been in villages, home, cities and in the halls of government. Globalization is a central theme. So is terrorism and its roots. Wars and environment have also been matters of interest. China is another focus of interest. 

Both Lewis and Friedman have had wide influence and support matched by pointed criticism from well-known people.   Considering their subject matters how could they avoid having enemies. 

 

My reading includes books by both Lewis and Friedman.  Right now I am reading Dodsworth by Lewis – just as boring as the business world he describes.  A book by Friedman entitled Thank you for being late: An Optimists Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations – fascinating in its future focus. 

Lewis was a prophet of what would take place in America right up to present moment. Friedman is a prophet of what the future may look like in the light of present events and developments.  To best understand both of them I see them as bookends to start 2017.

Lewis wrote It Can’t Happen Here in 1935. The novel describes the rise of Berzilius Windrip who gets elected president by fomenting fear and promising drastic economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and traditional values. After election Windrip takes complete control of the government with the help of a paramilitary force.  A journalist Doremus Jessup raises up opposition to the new regime. 

Friedman in Thank You for Being Late presents the urgency of recognizing Mother Nature as Political Mentor. Mother Nature is always trying new experiments as well as doing away with whatever does not work out. Ecological balance is maintained by allowing bankrupt species to disappear and new forms of life to appear. Mother Nature is slow and patient. Change is constant. 

We are blessed to have such creative minds in American and World culture.

Del