Earthfamilyalpha Contents V

 

Over the weekend, I managed to compile all of the stories in Earthfamilyalpha from the last 17 years. The posts are organized from the present back to that wonderful time in November 2008 that Obama was elected.  This is the Fifth Compilation.

More than 30,000 readers read Earthfamilyalpha this month. That beats last months record.

Readers come from all over the earth: South America, Asia, Europe,  and North America. (in that order this month)

Thank you all.

 

Earthfamilyalpha Contents V

Science

Climate Change 

We are not Afraid/   Hot Hot Hot/ The Bay of the Wise/ Grow a Pair/ The Right Fright/ Climate Change Impact on Nuclear/ Potus's Trifecta/ A Death We Can Survive/ The Future We Want/Make America Sane Again/ Utilities Knew Too/ Climate Changes, Truth does Not/ The Hottest Month Ever/ Leap Year/ Paris Climate Talks/ God Bless the Pope/ Merchants of Doubt/ The Second Act / Think About It / Moving On / Hiatus Shmiatus / North by Northwest / The Day the Rain Stopped / Climate Nuts / The Joint Session /
 

Resource Depletion

Why Electric Transportation Matters/ Cheap Oil is Expensive/ Red Neck Red Tide/ Peak Shale / One Way or Another / Let's Stop Talking About Saving the Planet / Gasland / The Escape / Gulf Spill Cam / The Seed Cleaner /


Technology

Voyagers on Earth/ The Wonder of this World/ The Clueless Award/ AI Thinks therefore AI am/ Fusion Confusion/ Our Next Horizon/Bend the Light/ Lease the Wind/The Kruger Effect/ Driving Electric/ The Emergent Future/ The Solar 600/ The Road Ahead/ A Unified Energy System/ Doing it Right/ The Long Dawn/ Predictable Renewable Energy/ Vehicle to Grid / The Affordable Energy Resolution / America's Clean Energy Maverick / The Future is not What is used to be / Big Data / Your Choice / Store it / Doing It / The Good, the Bad, the Ugly / Rocket Man / Buggy Whip Trolls / Thick and Thin /

Philosophy

Personal

Superpower/  Good things from Bad things/ The Hero's Journey/ All Saints Day/ The Light We Cannot See/ To Spite Your Face/ Eight is Enough/ Our 130th Birthday/ The Quorum Card/ Condition Red/ The Contents of our Consciousness/ I want Roosevelt Again/ Rear View Mirror/ Stromer Spondylosis/ The Dymaxion World / The Thinker and the Thought / Getting Somewhere / A New Time / To Be One /

 
Political 

One Bad Ugly Bill/ The Performance Artist/  The Putsch Push/  Roevember/ The October Surprise/ De-Evolution/ New Rules/ To be Governed or to be Ruled/ Minority Rule/The Fire Devil/ A Leap / Midnight in Washington/ The Trouble/ The Blue Tide/ Why Didn't I know That?/ What About You?/ Summer of Hope/ March Mania/ Everything is Everything / Willful Deception / Babies Know / Children Know Too / Abe Was Smiling / The Preemptive Pardon / All the Kings Men /

Environmental

A House on Fire/ Texas Electric Transportation Alliance/Transportation Transformation/ Electric Drive is Happening/ The Fukushima Legacy / The Real Red Sea / 3 Mile Air Island / The History of the Future / Turn the Engine Off / The One We Use / The Game Changer / Sedona Pictogliphs / Catorce Inundacion / Big Problem / Spill O Meter / Deepwater Horizon / Save our Trees / Tree Friendly Paradygm / I Wish It Would Rain / To the Children / A Good First Step /

Economic

Mayday Mayday Mayday/ Howard's History / Capitalism or Survival / The End of Work / Change the Frame / Your Money or Your Life / A Harry Situation / NYC Ground Zero / Obama Knows / The Love of Green / Our Place in Space / Totally Stupid / A Path to Light / What Matters / Work with Me / True Work /Nine Earths / IEA Awakes /

Respectism

Respectism and kinder Community/ Respectism/ The Eco-Nuclear Brink/The Big Picture on Saving our Home/ Using the Respecticon to Build / The Respecticon: Seeing the Brand of Respect / Respectism and the Endeavor for a Mutually Respectful Society / Respectism and Human Survival / Respectism and AK 47 /

Poetry

Four in the Morning/The Way We Were/ Susan Bright Work / Adopt a Tree / Jubilation / The Day was the Poem /The Inaugural Mall / Freedom Highway / Train of Better Days / Poet Pramila Venkateswaran / Near Dawn Light / Wild /

Fiction

Monsters Fall/ Patient Zero/ My 80th Birthday/The Ordained/ Furniture Man /Furniture Man II / Tea Bagging / Voom and Pop / Brunch with Mr B /

Culture

Potluck Vibeway/  Den 2/ The Felon/ The Bible Salesman/Breaking the Law/Truth will Out/ The War on Woke/ Children of the Wind/ We Dissent/ Woe is US/ Four in the Morning/ Decoration Day/Dark Enough/ The Measure of Success/The Mendacity of Madness/ Prosperity and Power/ The Happy Side/ The American Eclipse/ The Tao of Catorce/Kelly Ann Con Job/ Our World Tower/ Salgado's Salt/ The Entire Kooky Family / Eleven Eleven Eleven / Play in the Light /Camino Quemado / Sacred Hunt / Ceremony and Celebration / Travels with Charlie and Lex / The Millionaire and Reader / Milk /Dia de Gracias / Pie for Obama / President Elect /

The World

 The Man Wave/The Krasnov Files/  The Safer Path/ Respectism/ Crimean War/ World War Z/ Frankenstein's Monster/ The Wicked Witch/ We Will Survive/The Real Bad Guy/The Americans/Santa Las Vegas/ A Bad Dream / The City of Light / Digital Tunnel Democracy / The Unified Energy System / The Empathic World / The Red Pill / Illusion is Reality / Pale Blue Dot / The Other Side / Fourteen Days / The Sixty Year War / Survive the Fall / Forty Four Minutes /Obama Mundo / The World's Victory /

Earthfamily 

We are Alpha/ Respectism/ Mary Elaine McMaster/ The Valley of the Sun/ Mourning Mary/ Solomon Haws Osborne/ Jack H Osborne/Frank Alan Osborne/ Micael Priest/ What it Is/ Humberto Fernandez/Earth Heart/ Earthfamilyzeta/ John Collins Andrews / Susan Bright / Joan Chambers Novak / William Albert Narum / Edward Fales Alexander / But Let Us Begin / Four Year Contents /

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All Saints' Day

Edward and Katherine Martinez

 

Here in Austin, we celebrate Halloween or "All Hallows Eve" unlike a lot of communities. Here, many homeowners dress their homes as if it's Christmas.  Down on Sixth street, where many of the bars are, tens of thousands dress up and walk up and down the closed street festooned in some really great costumes.  Oddly, few are actually scary, but many are definitely creative.  My favorite this year came from our neighbors up the street whose eldest young boy came to our door as a bright orange safety cone.

But the day after Halloween is pretty much ignored most places.  Yet, it has always been my favorite of the two. It's called All Saints' Day.

According to Wikipedia,

The Christian celebration of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day stems from a belief that there is a powerful spiritual bond between those in heaven (the "Church triumphant"), the living (the "Church militant"), and the "Church penitent" which includes the faithful departed. In Catholic theology, the day commemorates all those who have attained the beatific vision in Heaven. 

In Methodist theology, All Saints Day revolves around "giving God solemn thanks for the lives and deaths of his saints", including those who are "famous or obscure".^[22] As such, individuals throughout the Church Universal are honoured, such as Paul the Apostle, Augustine of Hippo and other saints, varying according to the hagiographic traditions of the Church in question. 

In some traditions, the day is also used to celebrate individuals who have personally led one to faith in Jesus, such as one's grandmother or friend.

Protestants generally commemorate all Christians, living and deceased, on All Saints' Day; if they observe All Saints Day at all, they use it to remember all Christians both past and present. In the United Methodist Church, All Saints' Day is celebrated on the first Sunday in November. It is held not only to remember Saints but also members of the local church congregation who have died. In some congregations, a candle is lit by the Acolyte as each person's name is called out by the clergy. Prayers and responsive readings may accompany the event. Often, the names of those who have died in the past year are affixed to a memorial plaque.

My Aunt Phoebe was born on All Saints' Day.  She is my father's younger sister.  Born in 1933, she turns 90 on this All Saints' Day. That means she was a young girl when Jack H Osborne went off to World War II to become an aviator for the Navy in the Pacific in 1942. When he came back alive and victorious with two Navy decorations, young Phoebe was understandably proud of her older brother who had seen so much carnage.  And she always loved my Dad with a wonderful spirit, helping him manage the rest of his life in health and finances.  ( My parents divorced in the early sixties and he never remarried).

Phoebe is a talented pianist.  Often when I was young, she would play Clair de Lune (by Debussy) for her father.  "Moonlight" was his favorite. It is the third movement of Suite bergamasque.  The popularity of "Clair de lune" has made it one of Claude Debussy's most famous works for piano, as well as one of the most famous musical pieces of all time.  I agree with Polk, my grandfather. 

In the last 20 years, Phoebe managed to cobble together the Osborne Farm in Gray County, close to Pampa, from her 2 older brothers and her older sister.  It was here that my grandfather had a huge double circus tent sale  on March 13th, 1936 and another one in September of 1938. His Hereford Bull, Jr. Prince Domino , was a sire of Prince Domino and Jr. won first place in the Denver Stock Show.

Phoebe has a son John, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Katherine. And Phoebe has lots of grandchildren and great grand children. She is the last remaining aunt or uncle I have.

And just last week, Katherine lost her husband Edward.  

This is from Katherine's obit.

Edward Carlton Martinez was born September 25, 1954, to the late Blas and Charlotte Martinez in Geneva, NY.  Being from a military family, he traveled extensively.

He grew up diving off cliffs of Palma de Mallorca as a young boy, ice fishing with his father in Minnesota and hunting in the woods of western New York as a teenager. He was a lifelong hunter and angler and enjoyed opening dove season in the Texas Panhandle, deer season in the Texas Hill Country and salmon fishing in Alaska. His love of the outdoors and respect for animals ran deep. 

Professionally,  Lt Colonel Martinez was a microbiologist with over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical, biologic and life science industries where he developed regulatory strategies for therapeutics and medical devices working closely with domestic and foreign regulatory agencies. 

In addition, Edward  served his country proudly working as a Medical Observer Controller / Trainer with responsibilities to train military chemical and medical units throughout the continental United States to respond to Weapons of Mass Destruction, terrorist attacks, and to prepare the United States Army response to natural disasters inside the continental United States.  

Edward was a Gentleman’s Gentleman with a streak of Roughrider. He was an avid listener and man of few words but whose words were powerful. Everyone who knew Edward witnessed his thoughtfulness, generosity, respectful nature, and well-timed sense of humor. He always had a kind word for everyone he met. 

We lovingly say so-long to our gentle giant."

Katherine also has her PhD  in Microbiology, so I guess they understood each other. 

The service is Monday, Nov 6th at Saint Marks in San Antonio. 

And I expect to see Aunt Phoebe and some of my cousins.

We all came from the Texas Panhandle 

and now we live all over the earth, 

in Seattle, LA, DC, Phoenix, Singapore, Round Mountain, and Helotes.

And I shouldn't forget our home in Real de Catorce, MX.

The Texas Panhandle is a good place to grow up,

and, as the most conservative district in the US Congress,

an even better place to be from.

Rest in Peace All.

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Mourning Mary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary Bess Faris  

1933-2023

 

 

I didn't meet Mary Bess Faris until about 17 years ago.  She was the partner of the father of my partner's best pal from medical school.  And it was then that we started having Sunday Brunch with at  least the five of us... Dan, his son Steve, my partner Dana, and Dan's partner Mary.

I knew Mary as a potter.  She would show her beautiful works at the Food Coop every year when they would have that wonderful arts and crafts show in their parking lot.  Her work was delicate and lovely, much like she was.

Actually Mary met Dan through Dan's two sons, Steve and Ross.  But make no mistake about it, Dan and Mary were the kind of late-in-life couple that you loved to be around.  They would go out with us to all kinds of events. We would take them to concerts, even outdoor events with dancers swinging from on high with all kinds of gear and tackle.  They even showed up with a gift for a Quiñceanera party for Dana's dog Misha. They were game.

We traveled a little with them.  One trip to  upper New York State was particularly enjoyable as we enjoyed the upper Hudson River Valley where the Vanderbilts and the Roosevelts had their summer places.  We spent a good amount of time at FDR's home and presidential library.  It was not only the first, it was a working library and office for the four term president.

On occasion, we went to their quaint cabin on the Guadalupe River just north of San Antonio.  There, Dan and Mary lived for parts of many years in that cacophony of buildings that Dan had created.  And it was right down on the river, or as close as you would want to be given the nature of Texas rivers.  They could bathe and shower outside and watch the time roll by. It was funky but nice.

Up until the pandemic, Mary and Dan were about as active as two octogenarians can be.  They would hike in Big Bend, sometimes at their land out there. Mary was good with plants and trees and she knew them well with the aid of her luminous mind and quiet but powerful intellect.

And along with Dan and Dana,  it was Mary and I that responded to the infamous tree report that called for the removal of almost every one of your favorite trees at Barton Springs Pool.  I will always remember Mary and I walking the grounds marking each tree scheduled for removal with a small but official looking sign and iridescent surveyor's tape.  She carried a clipboard with a list of the tag numbers of the endangered trees. I  would read the tag number, Mary would check it off on the clipboard, and then we would wrap the tree with our signage.

Midway through the process, the manager of the Pool came over and asked what we were doing and that we were freaking people out.  I said I was with the City  (the utility) and that these trees were scheduled to be removed and part of good government is communicating these plans to the public in a timely, effective way.  The manager said, "OK good."

But the bulk of our time together was in our weekly brunches.  Almost every Sunday we met at noon at  various Mexican Food restaurants.  We started out on north Burnet Road at Elsie's, but over the years, we met south at El Meson, and later in central Austin at Santa Rita.  Occasionally, we would even go to the venerable classic Green Pastures.

Mary would almost always eat a bean chalupa or enchilada-like something, but she wasn't too proud to not eat some chips and queso.  We would talk for hours, almost always about the condition of our politics, be it local or national.  Every subject was on the table, and Mary would almost always listen except for when she did speak. And it was always worth the wait.

Mary's partner, Dan, was and is quite a thinker.  He retired young from his career in law, and became a Siddhartha for the last third of his life.  I would always joke that Dan spent the last 30 years looking for God, when he was partnered with the actual Oracle from the Matrix.

Mary was so special.

And we all knew it.

Normally I would post the official obituary at this point, but Dan sent me some hand written notes instead.

Mary Bess Faris was born in Houston on October 22, 1933.  After graduating from High School, she went to Baylor for a couple of years.  There she  married Douglass Hanson who she met in High School. She then went out to San Diego State and managed to have two daughters, Linda and Jan who were born in 1954 and 1956. When she returned to Houston, she had a son, David, on October 2, 1960 in wedlock with Bob Turner in 1959.

She graduated from the University of Houston and then got her Masters Degree at UTMB Galveston while living in  La Marque. Over the next 15 years, she worked in labs and other institutions like MD Anderson. And she also studied microbiology at the Med school in Galveston in the late 60's.

90 years is a good long run and how fortunate Dan and Mary were to find each other as the millennium turned.

And how fortunate those of us who had brunch with her almost every Sunday were to know her serene, quiet, yet knowing presence.

Mary had been getting weaker and weaker over the last few years.  She had to keep her oxygen handy, but she didn't make a peep about it.

We saw her less and less as the Time of Covid wore on.  The last time I saw her, we walked her out to the swimming pool so we could celebrate Dan's 90th in September and her 90th to come as the Sun moved from Libra into Scorpio.

As the Spring peaked its head out, we heard that she had gone into the hospital.  A few days later on March 14th, one of her favorite doctors stopped by to check on her.  He found her growing even weaker, so he called Dan.  

And there with Dan on the phone, the Oracle passed.

"Mary passed this morning at 9:33 am while I was on the phone with Dr. Wolf at her bedside. 

No rehab, no hospice , no more palliative care , as Steven put it,  

Mary retired undefeated."   Dan Crow

 

 

 

 

 

Mary's service will be this Wednesday, April 19th at 10:00 AM  at Oakwood Cemetery just east of I 35 and 16th street.

 

 

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Four in the Morning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With all of the news about War and Sickness, I have been up quite a lot at four in the morning.  So far I have about 100 pages of these Four Word Haikus.  So this is just a small sample.  The full work will be released in the not so distant future as Four in the Morning.

 

Right livelihood is fundamental

 

Honesty builds the soul

 

Courage lets us explore

 

Kindness heals us all

 

Humility makes us human

 

Thinking gives us time

 

Time comes from thought

 

Philosophy is a Playground

 

Religion is not easy

 

Progress is an Illusion

 

Illusion is what isn’t

 

Make time for Noting

 

Take Walks every day

 

Make Doors in Divisions

 

Always look out Windows

 

Let the light in

 

Learn to read well

 

Learn to listen quietly

 

Don’t tempt the Gods

 

Hold your love gently

 

Break your habits daily

 

Speak often with Neighbors

 

Cast your spells carefully

 

Sing when you can

 

Dance to the Beat

 

Travel as a Traveler

 

Stand tall with allies

 

Be busy while Alone

 

Find fault if wise

 

Look out for corners

 

Make roads that last

 

Fight Fire with Water

 

Move Mountains with Belief

 

Have Mercy on yourself

 

Be kind when angry

 

Look the other Way

 

Reach out to Strangers

 

Don’t ever stop Believing

 

Watch the grass grow

 

Wait your turn patiently

 

Continue with your madness

 

Remember who you are

 

Find strength in Holiness

 

Some Rivers are deep

 

Always marvel at rain

 

We come from Dirt

 

Four Words  Book Two

 

Find your good side

 

Let the other wither

 

Pride rarely works well

 

If the road forks

 

Take it with courage

 

Learn to moon walk

 

Become a good magician

 

Wander aimlessly on occasion

 

If you can’t sleep

 

Do something that matters

 

Work on people skills

 

Squeaky wheels get grease

 

Sometimes they get replaced

 

Be a good loser

 

Be a better winner

 

Set your goals daily

 

Don’t eat too much

 

Remember to remember names

 

Don’t burn many bridges

 

If you hurt someone

 

Try to fix it

 

Stay fit when old

 

Take adventures when young

 

Don’t ever be afraid

 

Make fear an ally

 

Always see the stars

 

Keep your friends close

 

And your enemies closer

 

Learn that jealousy corrodes

 

Be strong when weakened

 

Be gentle when strong

 

Art that is best

 

Is often said least

 

Men have hard hearts

 

But they bleed easily

 

Children must be nurtured

 

Especially when they’re old

 

Good parents are impermanent

 

Learn to hear yourself

 

Particularly when you’re talking

 

Learn to visualize outcomes

 

Give Peace a Chance

 

Violence is very effective

 

But the shadow lingers

 

 

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