Changes

[Above photo: Little Moose Island, Schoodic Point, the catamaran ferry to Yarmouth, NS, and Cadillac Mountain, near to far.]

13 June 2023

I was up at 3:15AM to shower, shave, and eat a bite. Then I drove to the Portland Transportation Hub, parked, and jumped on a bus for Logan Airport. From there, it was Southwest to Denver and a transfer to another plane for Oakland. I got a ride to the rental car depot and collected my car from Fox. Why Fox, you say? $100 cheaper than Budget, Alamo, etc. Why, I wonder? The car has lots of dings, 72,000miles +, and smells of cigarette smoke, that’s why. I drove to Marie’s house; she’s in LA with her grandkids so I have it to myself.

Then it was a whirl to quickly arrange a schedule and see many friends in 6 days, as well as to attend John Sprinson’s retirement party at Seneca, which is the reason I am here in the first place.

The traffic is as bad as ever. The air is clear and sparkling today.  The temperature is 64 right now, low for California. I am caught by surprise at all the changes. Teslas are everywhere. Jeremey’s, the high-end seconds/second-hand store at College and Ashby is now a Sotheby real estate agency. Across the street the venerable Café Roma, with its stable cadre of Hispanic baristas and servers, is no more. “Caffeinated”, a coffee shop chain, is in its place. An old family ice cream parlor on Solano that we used to frequent is now a Starbucks. And my favorite lunch-time restaurant, Norikonoko, has been demolished and a 6 story apartment building stands in its place.  “Progress” in these instances all seem to be degradation and homogenization in the service of the almighty American dollar. The bloom is quickly fading from the rose. Can we keep this from happening in Portland, I wonder?

Marie returned and we took a long and arduous hike up Claremont Canyon today: a 3+ hour walk with a lot of rapid elevation gain and loss. The ravages of the massive Spring rainstorms were visible: many trees uprooted and lying down, all steep paths creviced and scoured. Wildflowers were in abundance, especially the striking yet simple California poppy.

Marie is getting in shape for a trip with her friend Ellen to hike the Dingle Way on the west coast of Ireland in July. Then she heads to the boot of Italy for a high school class reunion. She’s going Zydeco dancing tonight; she does it frequently and has had fun, met a lot of friends, and kept in shape doing this over the years.  Her guy, Murray, dances with her sometimes; on other occasions she goes alone.  Next year she’ll hike into and out of the Grand Canyon in January, staying at Phantom Ranch with 5 friends. In September 2024 she’ll raft down the Canyon with another group of friends. She’ll then be 75yo.  A pretty indomitable spirit is Marie.  We agree that plunking down in front of a TV is giving up.

As sad as I am to miss seeing 6 of my friends who are out of town this week, it makes a short trip a bit easier, since I don’t have to make as many choices.

John, the retiring Clinical Director of Seneca Family of Agencies, has done a wonderful job and endeared himself and his teachings to generations of Seneca staff. He wrote and published (Oxford U Press) two splendid books about all of our work there. The first lays out the theory, vision, and practice of our clinical work with children and families, the Seneca Model.  The second talks about the challenging ecology and environments in which the children grow up and to which they often return and the effects on them and their families.

His two grown and married daughters attended the fete, as well as his toddler grandson, one of his sisters, and his wife, Laura. There were moving tributes to him. They have sold their home and are relocating to Eugene, OR to be near their older daughter and their [first] grandchild. He and his wife have rapier wits and are great fun at a dinner party, as well as being extraordinary people.

Speaking of extraordinary people, albeit with a negative valence, the Donald is beginning to attempt to twist and wriggle out of one more trap he has set and bumbled into.  The ultimate of narcissism is the psychotic, who feels that his/her thoughts and desires are reality, the external world ignored. DT is not psychotic, I think, but he certainly acts as if he believes that his thoughts and wishes are reality. He imagines that he can pardon himself, that he is justified in stiffing contractors and attorneys, that women want him to grope them, and that—poof—he can declassify documents because he wants to.  I doubt he thinks he is lying when he is; it is simply his expedient way of seeing things and, thus, his Truth or Reality.

This trial can go awry in so many ways. Just one juror can gum up the works. So can the judge, who has already demonstrated how biased and easily corrupted she is. Still, it’s the best we have. And there are other charges in the wings—-falsifying business records in the service of a crime, interfering with a free and fair election and its results. We’ll see. Our legal system, especially for a former President, has never been so challenged and may be inadequate for the job.

I cleaned old grout out of the rim of Marie’s bathtub/shower, dried the cleft with a hair dryer, and re-caulked it with silicon. It was heading south quickly. It should be good for 10 years, if the advertisement on the caulk is to be believed.

I had $180 in unused credit from selling books years ago to Moe’s so I began to browse.  I’ve picked up a number and am again trying to read Hemmingway to see what all the fuss was about. He was a pretty unhappy, insecure guy and it shows so much in his writing that it is almost painful to read. I don’t really like it much but I’m going to finish Over the River and Into the Woods and read A Moveable Feast just to be certain.  I now have about 10 books to take back to Maine. I hope I have room. Then I must build a new bookcase. It is nice to have books in the house. And in the mind.

One of my Myanmar psychology students spent time in Sittwe, Rakhine after the typhoon came ashore. Although it was less violent than expected (130 vs 170mph winds), many, many houses were deprived of their roofs, food and drinking water supplies were seriously compromised, and many poor people are entering the monsoon season without food, water, or shelter. While a number of INGO’s and Western governments have offered aid, apparently the military junta is demanding it all go through them. In common parlance this means that they want to skim it. How desperate the parents must feel to be unable to feed, shelter, and protect their young children.  Leaders can be so disgusting.