Writing on Writing

Writing on Writing

I use writing as a diversion from stress and worry. It helps me clear my mind. Sometimes I try to describe places and people or incidents. Much of what I write is not intended for others to read. Of course I can pick and choose what I want to share. I like to introduce others to the pleasures and benefits that writing provides and encourage them to give it a whirl.

Writing is a chore for me; it doesn’t flow easily; I have to work at it; I am not prolific. One of my stumbling blocks is trying to edit before I write. It is much better if I just start writing random thoughts without any particular order, grammar or spelling. Once I get the thoughts down I can always go back and edit, organize, rearrange, add and delete.

If I can’t think of lines of poetry, I simply write a short story, and then sometimes, later on, a poem will develop from the short story. Other times, a couple of lines will just enter my head and if I have the presence of mind to write them down before they are lost, other lines will follow, usually not in the proper order.

I try to write as though I were talking to someone, which is usually myself.  Abby would often bark at me, I suppose to bring me back to reality.

When I start a story, I seldom know where it is going to lead. If it has a few characters carrying on a conversation, I may add more characters, as the story progresses. And it is much the same with a poem.    

I like to write short little vignettes about family members because as I get older I tend to forget incidents that are interesting to me. And also, I like to just record my memories of aunts and uncles and cousins so that children and grandchildren will have  something more than just an old photograph of Aunt Katy or Uncle John.

a Cure for the Drought

February 2, 2014

The ultimate weapon; with this weapon we can destroy all of our enemies (provided we stop bombing the hell out of them). Far greater than all of the war planes and ships and missiles, because instead of delivering warheads, it will deliver fresh water anywhere in the world. It can turn every desert into farmland, and every enemy into a friend by ending world hunger.

The drought is upon us. Our Creator has supplied us with amazing gifts; the sun, gravity, this earth we live upon, a huge reservoir of sea water, and to each of us a brain to think with. We need only use these gifts to solve our problems.

Build a structure in the shape of an inverted black funnel one mile in diameter.  In the center put a tower 2000 feet high. Above it install a white superdome. Below the geodesic dome build a structure to funnel the condensed water into the tank. Water tower might best be located outside the dome.

During the day, the sun will evaporate the sea water which will rise into the G. Dome, and during the night the cool air will condense the water. The structure will also collect rain water.  By locating the tank and the dome at a high enough elevation, gravity will distribute the water to every city, town and farm west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, requiring NO ELECTRICAL POWER AND NO GAS HEAT.    It will not only desalinate sea water but it can be used elevate fresh lake water without the use of pumps.

Build a prototype in a sheltered bay such as Tomales Bay or San Francisco Bay or the Sea of Cortez. Determine how many of these structures we will need to supply our usage, and BUILD THEM. If the prototype can produce 20 acre feet of water a day and California uses 20,000 af per day then build a thousand structures. Build them around the world.

If it doesn’t work then change the design to make it work.

The Red Sea could supply fresh water to Saudi Arabia.

The Mediterranean Sea could supply fresh water to North Africa.

The Gulf of California  could supply the desert land of Mexico.

Every desert in the world could be turned into farm land.

A few fact and figures:

California uses 118,000 acre-feet of water per day.

One dome might produce 24, acre-feet of water per day, which would require 4,100 domes to supply the entire state of California, which might be a bit too ambitious. But a thousand domes would help a lot.

Birth and Rebirth

Birth and Rebirth

     By Harold Gower

Many years ago, I had an occasion to chat with an old astronomer who was suffering from many ailments that are common with aging. However he seemed to be taking them in stride, and so I asked him, “Do you believe in God? And do you believe in life after death?”

His response was rather surprising.

He said, “The miracle of life! Microscopic at conception! The fetus grows

And grows,

And grows,

Until another miracle happens,

The fetus divides, and then divides again,

Into triplets, Henri, Helen, and Leslie. The gender of Leslie is unclear, but one thing is certain Mother loves them all equally.

“At first they enjoy each other’s company, but by about the seventh month, they become aware that their space is becoming cramped. As one moves an arm or a leg one of the others gets poked. Henri dislikes his brother Leslie and Helen resents her sister Leslie, and Leslie only knows that Henri and Helen are being very mean.

“By the eighth month, the zero dimensional womb is becoming unbearable. Something must be done about Leslie! Something must be done about Henri and Helen! They have no idea; no perception of the realm of three dimensions that awaits them.

“Mama sings to them, and reads to them, and soothes them with her loving hands. Three more weeks! ’Oh please Lord! Give me strength!’

“Finally! One of the three gets a glimpse of light! The cervix is beginning to open. One of the three is moving under great stress! The head is out and then the shoulders.

‘She is gone’, cried Helen. ‘Where did she go?’

‘Gone forever!’ cried Henri, ‘we will never see him again’.

Before Henri could collect his thoughts, Helen was also gone.

 ‘Oh no!’, he thinks, ‘I am all alone; is this the end? Is this all there is to life?’

“Before Henri could gather his thoughts, he feels himself moving headlong down that same channel and through the cervix into the light. What a strange experience! Frightening! Even with his eyes closed he could sense the light. Then he feels the slap on his buttocks, and he wails uncontrollably, and for the first time he feels air in his lungs. He isn’t dead so where are his sister and brother? It will take him several lifetimes to realize the magnificence of this new realm of three dimensions. Each time he learns something new, he is sure that now he has learned all there is to know. How could there possibly be more? When his eyes finally open, he is amazed at what he sees. His sense of wonder is overwhelming. Every direction he turns, his mind is filled with questions.  

“Where do babies come from, Momma? Where do people go when they die? Why do people kill each other? Why do those people hate us? Why do we hate them?

“Years later he is still filled with wonder, still questioning, but now he also has a sense of his mortality, and once again he wonders “Is this all there is to life?” Those eighty-seven years passed so quickly.

“As he contemplates his mortality, he experiences a warm feeling in his chest. His first thought is that he is having the flu, so he lies down hoping it will go away, but instead the pain becomes more intense. His wife calls for an ambulance. On his way to the hospital the pain increases intensely, until he feels himself moving up and away. He turns around and to his shock and amazement; he sees his body lying there in the ambulance with the paramedic giving him increasing amounts of morphine. He thinks, “Oh no I am not ready to die!” at that moment he feels himself move back to his body, turnaround and re-enter it. And at that moment he feels all the pain he had been feeling previously and he realizes that the pain is only in his physical body, because he felt no pain while he was out of body. He also realizes that his spirit, his soul can exist outside his body, and he no longer has a fear of death!

“String theory in quantum mechanics tells us that strings vibrate in higher dimensions of space; ten in all where time is the eleventh dimension. We who are three dimensional, have no perception of those higher dimensions, just as the unborn child in the zero dimensional womb has no perception of our three dimensions into which it is about to be born.

“ It is now clear to me that what we perceive as ‘death’ is a re-birth into those higher dimensions where we shed this three dimensional body, and where all of the wealth and power that are so important to us in this realm are of absolutely no importance in the higher realm. And the purpose of this life is to teach the qualities that are truly important which are love and compassion, forgiveness and generosity, patience and kindness, forbearance and self-control.”

At that moment my good friend the old astronomer, Henri, slipped away into the next realm,

 and Helen and I will soon follow.

Les.