Saturday, May 28

          In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagvat Geeta, since whose composition years of the gods have elapsed, and in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial; and I doubt if that philosophy is not to be referred to a previous state of existence, so remote is its sublimity of our conceptions.

                                                                        -Henry David Thoreau

                                                                        Walden

Sunday, May 29

            The Memorial Day weekend brings out the American songbook.  I take my daughter to hear a concert of patriotic music.  We enjoy:

God Bless America, Irving Berlin;

America the Beautiful;

Battle Hymn of the Republic, which contains the lines – “Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on;”

Stars and Stripes Forever, John Philip Sousa;

My Country ‘Tis of Thee;

O Beautiful for Spacious Skies;

Star Spangled Banner; and

Armed Forces Salute, which contains the anthems of the Coast Guard, Air Force, Navy, Army and Marines and such memorable lines as  - “anchors away,” “off we go into the wild blue yonder,” “from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli” and “over hill over dale as we hit the dusty trail”.

Monday, May 30

            My daughter puts out our flags.  We grill, swim and enjoy the 100^th Indy 500 on the radio to heighten the sound the cars make zooming around the track.  It is now the unofficial start of summer.

Tuesday, May 31

            It was a nice Memorial Day weekend.  It included a backyard cookout at our neighbors.  My wife and I walked the two houses over to theirs bringing the new Blue Bell ice cream flavor Coconut Fudge.  We appreciate the sacrifices made by those that died, are wounded or still serving so that we could safely enjoy this simple pleasure of fellowship in our community.

                                                                                         

Friday, May 27

          If one advances confidently in the direction of their dreams, and endeavors to live the life which they have imagined, they will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

                                                                      -Henry David Thoreau

Thursday, May 26

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.  Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured, or far away.

                                                                      -Henry David Thoreau

Wednesday, May 25

          Run in place or jog for 30 minutes, plus push-ups, sit-ups and squat thrusts is my normal Wednesday exercise routine.  This completes the sharing of my weekly exercise cycle which I follow throughout the year.  Each new year I then change it up a bit.

Today is a mild, sunny day so I run a little longer plus take my Schwinn 10-speed for a spin.  (Dad bought me this bike when I was about 12, just before he passed.  We went into the Schwinn shop and he surprised me by saying, “pick out the one you want”.  My first bike was a cool, blue Schwinn Stingray with banana seat and high handle bars, but I was ready to graduate up like my friends.  I told Dad that the 10-speeds cost $100 or more.  He did not waiver.  I knew Dad was working three jobs at the time, including Saturdays.  It still has the original City of Dearborn Heights bicycle license.  The only thing I have had to do to it over the years is get new tires and grease it.  When I take it into shops for this, it gets quite a few “ooze and ahs” and the young repair guys get a kick out of lifting it.  “Boy, this is a tank,” has been my favorite comment.  Riding it always reminds me of younger days…and Dad).

It’s getting close to summer so I will add more tennis, swimming and trips to the batting cage for my exercise.  I think one always feels a little younger in the summer as the brain sub-consciously harks back to those summers off from school and just hanging out with friends.

Tuesday, May 24

          Stretches, yoga (basic moves) and calisthenics (jump rope, jumping jacks and touching toes).

Sunday, May 22

Rest.  No exercises.

Monday, May 23

          Thirty minutes of jogging or running in place, sit-ups, push-ups and squat thrusts.

Saturday, May 21

          Yard work and patio and garage activities take the place of structured exercise.

Friday, May 20

          Friday’s I jog or run in place for 30 minutes, do my push-ups, sit-ups and squat thrusts.

Thursday, May 19

          My current Thursday exercise regiment is some yoga moves I have pasted on a cardboard so as to remember them, they are especially hard for me; some weight work with barbells; and some stretching exercises with stretch ropes.  Today it took me 18 minutes.

Wednesday, May 18

          Sometimes you do find a diamond in the rough.  At the library while looking for a book my wife wanted, my eye glanced to the side at an attractive blue cover in their bargain bin.  Low and behold waiting to be purchased by me for $1 was a gem entitled, The American Transcendentalists, Their Prose and Poetry, edited by Perry Miller by Johns Hopkins University Press, 1957.  I was first hooked by Transcendentalism when I learned about it in my high school English class.  That is when I first read Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.   The book back describes that Perry Miller was an American literature professor at Harvard and also author of the intriguing titled book, Consciousness in Concord. Concord, Massachusetts is where Thoreau and Emerson and other Transcendental writers lived in the early to mid-eighteen hundreds.  My wife and I visited there a few years ago and made pilgrimage to Walden Pond.

Tuesday, May 17

          Some are conscious of knowing what they don’t know.

                                                -Socrates, in Plato’s Lysis, 4th century BC

          The unexamined life is not a life worth living for a human being.

                                                  -Socrates, in Plato’s Apology

Monday, May 16

          I am enjoying listening to my Mandarin Chinese CDs while driving around town.  Mandarin, one of approximately eight major languages in China (there are also approximately 200 dialects) is the official language, as it is in Taiwan as well.  China has a universal writing system based on pictographic characters.

Sunday, May 15

          My second novel, entitled Beyond the Visible, the sequel to Stream of Consciousness is now also available on Amazon Books.  It continues the story of author and presidential candidate Jack Madden, culminating in his second race for president in 2012.

Saturday, May 14

          I volunteer for a city councilman candidate and hold up his sign and greet voters as they enter Haggard Middle school to vote on three council places and two school board places.  It is a clear cool morning with enough wind to take my sign away if I am not careful.  All greeters of the various candidates must stay behind the yellow marker placed by the election officials.  If we need to enter the school we must remove our candidate t-shirts and buttons.  Sixty-one people voted during my three hour shift.  I met a few candidates as they came by to check on things like if parked cars bearing their signs were visible.  Everyone was friendly and polite to each other.  Democracy in action.  Good solid local civics.

Friday, May 13

               After reading The Republic of Letters, The Correspondence between Jefferson and Madison, 1776-1826, edited by James Morton Smith which is beautifully presented in a three volume W.W. Norton & Company edition, they exchanged nearly 1250 letters, I thought this was surely the most pleasurable reading on my two favorite presidents.  But behold Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg’s Madison and Jefferson, a wonderfully dense (heavy) but delightful single volume that adds even further depth to the exploration of the lives and friendship of the Father of the Constitution and Father of the Declaration. 

            Though Washington (properly launched the new nation) and Lincoln (saved the nation) were our most important presidents, in my opinion, I most enjoy learning about the period of nation building Madison and Jefferson participated in during their friendship, plus comparing their varied personalities.  I cannot think of another relationship between impactful historical figures that is as well documented by the actors themselves.  One gets insights into a critical time in world history with the added bonus of human psychology.

           

Thursday, May 12

          The simple pleasure of replacing a door handle.  The screws and screwdriver.  Checking that it locks and can be opened with the key. Done.  Something that works and has a useful purpose.

Wednesday, May 11

          Can one think without words?  Words, whether oral or written are symbols.  We don’t have to act out or draw a picture of a table, we can just say or write table.  So words make communicating with others easier.  What about communicating with ourselves, our internal dialogue or inner speech, reflection?  Do you talk to yourself whether verbally or silently?  So words are a part of thinking.  Some scientists think that words actually help connect ideas in different parts of our brain, now that they understand the parts of our brain responsible for specific functions.  On a practical note, I think we have all experienced getting either very depressed or energized depending on the particular brain chatter we start the day with.

Tuesday, May 10

          Today I came across the scientific concept called cosmic habituation which refers to the theory that an observable effect can decline with its continued observation.  This has implications in physics in that it poses the question, does reality change over time?  Based on this should I have said “observable affect?”  In other words, what would be influencing what?

Monday, May 9

          The journals of Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author of Walden, run from 1837 to 1861.  A nice two-volume hard back set is available from Dover.  That’s 24 years of journaling.  I have been journaling each day since 1995.

Saturday, May 7

          The 137^th running of the Kentucky Derby always brings out my mint julep silver cups that were an anniversary gift.  I make my mint juleps with Maker’s Mark, in my opinion the best of the Kentucky bourbons, along with fresh mint from my herb garden, sugar and branch water to taste.

                                         Sunday, May 8

          The 17^th century London diaries of Samuel Pepys written from January 1, 1660 to May 31, 1669 began going on line one entry at a time on January 1, 2003 and will presumably conclude on May 31, 2012.  Pepys took his degree from Cambridge and went on to be a secretary, clerk and Teller of the Receipt at the Exchequer.  His mundane but often candid entries provide an insight into the upper class life in commercial London.

Friday 8 May 1668

Up, and to the office, where busy all the morning. Towards noon I to Westminster and there understand that the Lords’ House did sit till eleven o’clock last night, about the business in difference between them and the Commons, in the matter of the East India Company. Here took a turn or two, and up to my Lord Crew’s, and there dined; where Mr. Case, the minister, a dull fellow in his talk, and all in the Presbyterian manner; a great deal of noise and a kind of religious tone, but very dull. After dinner my Lord and I together. He tells me he hears that there are great disputes like to be at Court, between the factions of the two women, my Lady Castlemayne and Mrs. Stewart, who is now well again, and the King hath made several public visits to her, and like to come to Court: the other is to go to Barkeshire-house, which is taken for her, and they say a Privy-Seal is passed for 5000l. for it. He believes all will come to ruin. Thence I to White Hall, where the Duke of York gone to the Lords’ House, where there is to be a conference on the Lords’ side to the Commons this afternoon, giving in their Reasons, which I would have been at, but could not; for, going by direction to the Prince’s chamber, there Brouncker, W. Pen, and Mr. Wren, and I, met, and did our business with the Duke of York. But, Lord! to see how this play of Sir Positive At-all, —[“The Impertinents.”]— in abuse of Sir Robert Howard, do take, all the Duke’s and every body’s talk being of that, and telling more stories of him, of the like nature, that it is now the town and country talk, and, they say, is most exactly true. The Duke of York himself said that of his playing at trap-ball is true, and told several other stories of him. This being done, Brouncker, Pen, and I to Brouncker’s house, and there sat and talked, I asking many questions in mathematics to my Lord, which he do me the pleasure to satisfy me in, and here we drank and so spent an hour, and so W. Pen and I home, and after being with W. Pen at his house an hour, I home and to bed.

Friday, May 6

          Imagination…inspiration…novel approaches….

Thursday, May 5

          San Diego type weather these last three days, mid-seventies, clear and bright.  Many believe this is the perfect weather, not too warm, not too cold.  Do those living in San Diego who enjoy this climate year round ever take it for granted?  Would you ever hear someone say around the office coffee pot, “I wish we could get a cold snap to break up this monotony.”  Would the local weather person say anything like, “we’ve got a hot spell coming to relieve us of this mildness.”  Are high winds, rain, snow welcomed?

Wednesday, May 4

          My second novel, Beyond the Visible is the sequel to the 2009 released Stream of Consciousness, both are available on Amazon.  It is the second in the Jack Madden series.  The third in the series Knowing the Unproven will be available 2013.

Monday, May 2

          I am trying to improve at not reveling in the misfortune or misery of adversaries and competitors, but rather take my joy in the pride that comes from my own accomplishments.

Tuesday, May 3

          It’s hard, but I think worth the continued discipline and practice to try and divorce as much as possible one’s internal happiness from the external.

Saturday, April 30

          I reflect on yesterday’s attendance at an alumni function at SMU School of Law in which we were given a tour of the modest renovations to the four buildings that make up the law quad, including a visit to the rare book room in the law library.  Then it was onto a reception with good food and refreshments.  I saw former classmates and professors and remembered the past, compared it to the present and considered how it will all lead to the future.

                                        Sunday, May 1

          Watched highlights of the Beatification of former Pope John Paul II from Rome.  It reminded me of Friday’s Royal Wedding, another European city celebrating its ancient rituals and beliefs with elaborate ceremony and reverence.  Later in the evening President Obama announced the killing and capture of the body of Osama bin Laden by United States military forces after a nearly ten year search.