SWCAMBORNE

I just finished reading “The Souls of Black Folk” by W.E.B. Du Bois.  It was written in 1904 and was remarkably prescient.   Du Bois was the first the first black to receive a PhD from Harvard.  His writing is florid in the Victorian style but the images he paints with words are hauntingly vivid.

He wrote at the beginning of the second chapter “The Problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.”  He was right about that and his understanding of the complexity of the problem and its intractable nature are also absolutely correct.  It would be very interesting to learn his sense of where we are today and what we should be doing to keep moving forward.   In the same way that “Common Sense” was a precipitating document of the American Revolution, “The Souls of Black Folk” was a precipitating document of the civil right movement.  Definitely worth a read.

I’m working on a project to display a portion of my collection of historic maps of the border between Mexico and the United States.  The exhibit which hopefully be in conjunction with the Trans Border Institute at University of San Diego will show the evolution of the border.  It could be controversial.  Both the anti-immigrant activists and the pro-Chicano  activists will find lots of fodder for anger in this exhibit.

This is an example of what the exhibit will look like:

Each original map will be hung with a detail photo showing an interesting detail:

Here is a close up of the detail map:

Click here to see photos of all the maps I am proposing for the exhibit.

I sold it.

Easy to park.  Drives like a golf cart.

The beauty of having a car that was easy to park was not enough to make up for the uncomfortable ride and the lack of power.  Now I’m driving Rebecca’s Mini-Cooper while she is in the UK then we shall see.

Read about the happy day I bought the Smart Car.

All Smart Car stories

“People are more appreciative of what they do for you than what you do for them.”

Cesar Chavez

Our neighbors who lost their home in the fire this week are doing better than expected.  I think that this is because they had all three of the elements necessary to survive a tragedy.

They have social capital.  Meaning friends and associates that care about them as people. I had written about how important social capital is to getting old graciously but this fire has taught me how important it is to the normal tragedies of every day life.  Jose and Janice had friends, family and neighbors who came to their aid immediately.

They are responsible people so that they have insurance and reserves in place.

And they have a attitude about life that is well illustrated by what Janice told me yesterday she said to her children “Why does this kind of thing happen to us?  Because we can take it.”   An attitude that includes at least a little bit of what I call the key to happiness: low expectations is essential to surviving the worst things that happen in life.

Life is good.

Every day is a gift.

Yesterday I posted a story about the tragedy of our neighbors house burning.  This morning in the street there are a half dozen “public adjusters.”  They are here trying to get the right to represent our neighbors against their insurance company. It appears to me that “public adjuster” is a polite way of saying “ambulance chaser.”

Also at least three groups of firemen have been in the house to review what went on.

I was one of the early witnesses to this fire:

Fortunately no one was hurt.

The firemen were amazing

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Do the rituals define the religion?

Is it possible to have one without the other?

College football has rituals as do secular courts and schools.  So it is possible to have a ritual without a religion.

But what about a religion without rituals?

I attempted to change our Temple’s rules on ritual observance to make it possible to have Temple events at my house without improvising (pretending) kosher,  I lost the first attempt but expect to win in the end.  Stay tuned.

“I don’t like to be alone, but I do cherish the moments that I am alone with a good book.”

Vin Scully

Dodger Broadcaster

While President Obama is making the very difficult decision about whether to continue the fight in Afghanistan he might find some good advise in the highlighted bumper stickers below:

“Except For Ending Slavery, Fascism, Nazism, and Communism, WAR has Never Solved Anything.”

” U.S. Marines — Certified Counselors to the 72 Virgins Dating Club”

” Water-boarding is out so kill them all!”

“Interrogators can’t water board dead guys”

” U.S. Marines — Travel Agents To Allah”

“Stop Global Whining”

“When In Doubt, Empty The Magazine” Naval Corollary; Dead men don’t testify. Read the rest of this entry »